In R2K theology there is a severing between the work of Christ as the one who fulfilled the failed work of the 1st Adam and the work of God’s people who walk in terms of the 2nd Adam’s victory. For R2K theology, Christ filled Adam’s cultural mandate and therefore the mandate to have dominion and to be fruitful and multiply no longer applies to God’s people and it is positively error (sin) for God’s people to act as if the cultural mandate is still in force. R2K spiritualizes the cultural mandate and insists it is filled in Christ who took dominion in His Redemptive work and who is fruitful and multiplying as the Church grows through the ages. For R2K being fruitful and multiplying in relation to the Cultural Mandate happens only when people are converted by the Gospel Message.
Now, we can quite agree that there is truth in the idea that when people are converted the cultural mandate is being fulfilled. However, all because there is a Spiritual component to fulfillment doesn’t mean that there does not remain a corporeal fulfillment of the cultural mandate. To suggest that believers need not be concerned with taking Dominion since Christ has taken Dominion is to create a vacuum in the temporal realm that becomes filled by other Christ hating religions who will take Dominion in the names of their respective gods. To refuse to enter into the cultural mandate work of Dominion as faithful stewards unto Christ is to spiritualize the Crown Rights of King Jesus to the point that He is King in absentia, King in name only, and a King who rules in name only.
All of this is, as I said earlier, to sever the work of Christ from the work of God’s people. It is because Christ fulfilled the cultural mandate that we seek to walk in terms of that fulfillment. Christ’s Kingdom is an inaugurated Kingdom where His inaugurated corporeal Dominion is exercised concretely via the obedience of His people as given by the poured out Holy Spirit. To suggest that God’s people need not take dominion in the public square, as faithful stewards unto Christ, is to so Spiritualize Biblical Christianity as to make it effete and as a salt that has lost its savor.
Also, such a theology guarantees defeat in space and time history. Such a defeat is necessary to R2K militant amillennial theology. Amillennial theology insists that at the end of History the Church has been defeated by God’s foes. R2K theology guarantees that will happen as they argue for a theology of withdrawal, retreat, and defeat in the public square. The only problem here is that Christ isn’t going to return upon the space and time diminution of the Church as created by R2K disobedience. As such it is conceivable that R2K could successfully deliberately create the climate for the Church’s decline as it surrenders the public square to the enemies of God who take dominion in the names of their Gods. Yet, even if R2K is successful in this surrender maneuver they will be sorely disappointed when their expected eschatology doesn’t find Jesus sweeping in on the clouds to rescue them from the disaster they have created by their retreat-ism.
2 comments
1) Considering these verses
{7 “I will declare the decree:
The Lord has said to Me,
‘You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You.
8 Ask of Me, and I will give You
The nations for Your inheritance,
And the ends of the earth for Your possession.
9 You shall break[a] them with a rod of iron;
You shall dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel.’”
10 Now therefore, be wise, O kings;
Be instructed, you judges of the earth.
11 Serve the Lord with fear,
And rejoice with trembling.
12 Kiss the Son,[b] lest [c] He be angry,
And you perish in the way,
When His wrath is kindled but a little.
Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.}
Why would the Reformed church desire that kings and judges not kiss the Son now? Is the king not to be light & salt? Or, is that just somehow only an eschatological thing?
2) If the church is so arrogant to declare that kings don’t have to kiss the Son, maybe the west won’t be so blessed anymore, as it has been by the Reformation and now the remnants of the Reformation. There are excellent reports of the Gospel progressing well in other areas of the world, including the Far East.
Good words Jerry.
The above verses are obviously from Ps 2
Bret,
I think the ultimate battle in the culture wars inside of Reformed theology is whether the Son is kissed (Post-mil) or not (A-mil).
A-mil decided that long ago (Scripturally/Chronologically/Noah)that He is not worthy of being kissed temporally. This doesn’t comport with a face reading of Psalm 2 (just as R2K’s theology of education has nothing to do with Dt 6 and Ps 78). Also, I think, agreeing with a previous post of yours, is there a major R2Ker, who after reading Gen 1, who is not an old earther?
Pastor McAtee,
Thanks for the post. Good one.
Jerry, That was a good quote from Ps 2.
These and other psalms talk about the reign of the Lord (Christ). I was “preaching” about Ps 96 during our family worship last night, and I expounded upon Ps. 96:10.
“Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns.” The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity.”
If this were a true exhortation from David before Christ’s gospel was in full flower, now that the gospel is in full flower, by what basis can we say that this command to tell the nations that the Lord reigns (salvifically, AND ethically), is somehow reduced or even done away with?
The Lord ***reigns*** only in private life, but in public life, we need to appeal to the knowledge of natural man???????????
That is not the natural meaning and flow of the text… That clearly does not square with the intent of the word “reign.”
In fact, the burden from this command would be increased, not decreased due to the full flower of the gospel now revealed after Christ.
If NL2K were consistent, the command from Ps 96:10 would be in direct conflict with NL2K.
Christopher … that is a FANTASTIC point. Thank you.
Of course, I think that R2K would respond by insisting that the reign is “Spiritual” in nature.
Isn’t R2K theology actually Post Mill for satan. In other words Jesus curses his church in history and makes his church of no historical effect and blesses the wicked. I don’t see any other way to look at R2K or amill viewpoints.