From the Mailbag; Comparing & Contrasting R2K, Classical 2K, & High Kuyperianism

 Dear Pastor;

– Can you give  a few examples of what standard classical 2K is?

Hello Jason

Thank you for writing with that question.

First, to be clear here, there is not only one classical 2K understanding. Nuances have existed through history. Luther’s 2K is different than Bucer’s 2K which is different than Calvin’s 2K, etc. This needs to be understood.

Speaking generally standard classical 2K like R2k teaches that there is a “Duplex Regnum Christi” (Christ’s Twofold Kingdom). Classical 2K unlike R2K attempts to orient the earthly life to the heavenly life without conflating or confounding them.  This means that for classical 2K there is going to be far less of a dualistic feel to what they advance and champion.

Because the above is so, classical 2K is going to allow for the fact, for example, that the magistrate is responsible not only for the second table of God’s Law (Ten Commandments) but also is responsible for the first table of God’s Law as well. R2K, will typically insist that the Magistrate should not be concerned with enforcing the first table of God’s Law. On this score Dr. R. Scott Clark (he of R2K villainy) has stated;

“It is not the magistrate’s duty to police every sort of violation of natural law and sin. For example, no one but theocrats want the state enforcing obedience to the first table of the law. The magistrate’s natural sphere of concern and authority is in the second table.”

http://heidelblog.net/2008/10/natural-law-the-two-kingdoms-and-homosexual-marriage/.

R2K maven Dr. D. G. Hart agrees;

“To expect the Bible to address the affairs of state is to apply the wrong standards.  We have general revelation to muck through the political realm.  We have the Bible to plod along in the church.”

http://greenbaggins.wordpress.com/2008/11/01/election-cycle-2008-and-the-christian/#comment-56987.

Calvin, however, himself being classical 2K did not agree with Dr. Clark and Dr. Hart’s theological novelty. Instead Calvin writes (as he writes likewise in sundry places) in his Institutes 21.5:
 

“Those who are desirous to introduce anarchy object that, though anciently kings and judges presided over a rude people, yet that, in the present day, that servile mode of governing does not at all accord with the perfection which Christ brought with his gospel. Herein they betray not only their ignorance, but their devilish pride, arrogating to themselves a perfection of which not even a hundredth part is seen in them. But be they what they may, the refutation is easy. For when David says, “Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth;” “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry” (Psalm 2:10, 12), he does not order them to lay aside their authority and return to private life, but to make the power with which they are invested subject to Christ, that he may rule over all. In like manner, when Isaiah predicts of the Church, “Kings shall be thy nursing-fathers, and their queens thy nursing-mothers” (Isaiah 49:23), he does not bid them abdicate their authority; he rather gives them the honourable appellation of patrons of the pious worshippers of God; for the prophecy refers to the advent of Christ. I intentionally omit very many passages which occur throughout Scripture, and especially in the Psalms, in which the due authority of all rulers is asserted. The most celebrated passage of all is that in which Paul, admonishing Timothy, that prayers are to be offered up in the public assembly for kings, subjoins the reason, “that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty” (1 Tim. 2:2). In these words, he recommends the condition of the Church to their protection and guardianship.”

In the end classical 2K ends up being far less dualistic than Radical 2K. Radical 2K compartmentalizes the common realm from the church (grace) realm and compartmentalizes General Revelation (Natural Law) as being for the common realm whereas Special Revelation is for the grace realm. Classical 2K though as said earlier seeks to orient the earthly life to the heavenly life without conflating or confounding them all the while admitting that while there are indeed two sources of revelation the two sources cannot be isolated from one another in airtight compartments. I still have significant problems with classical 2K but those problems become Godzilla like when Escondido gets ahold of 2K.

In contrast to this what is labeled Kuyperian thinking sees all of life under the direction of Jesus Christ as the Mediatorial King of Kings. Kuyperian thought is far less inclined to talk about two Kingdoms opting instead for one Kingdom with various jurisdictions ruled over by the Lord Christ’s appointed stewards for the building of their respective jurisdictions. The Kuyperian will note that Fathers are to be God’s stewards of the family realm (jurisdiction), that Elders are to be God’s stewards of the church realm, and the Magistrates are to be stewards of God’s civil realm. However, though there is a distinction of jurisdictions there is to be a harmony on interest between the jurisdictions because Christ is Lord over all the stewards in their respective jurisdictions. Because their one Kingdom (not two Kingdoms) with one Lord there need not be and should not be conflicts between these various jurisdictional realms though there remain definite boundaries for each jurisdiction. In the Kuyperian model (though Kuyper himself disagreed with this example) the Magistrate should indeed follow the original Belgic Confession 36 (Kuyper led the charge in watering this down in revision, quite contrary to his own principles);

Article 36: The Magistrates

We believe that our gracious God, because of the depravity of mankind, hath appointed kings, princes, and magistrates,1 willing that the world should be governed by certain laws and policies; to the end that the dissoluteness of men might be restrained, and all things carried on among them with good order and decency. For this purpose He hath invested the magistracy with the sword, for the punishment of evil doers, and for the praise of them that do well. And their office is not only to have regard unto and watch for the welfare of the civil state, but also that they protect the sacred ministry, and thus may remove and prevent all idolatry and false worship;2 that the kingdom of antichrist may be thus destroyed and the kingdom of Christ promoted. They must, therefore, countenance the preaching of the word of the gospel everywhere, that God may be honored and worshipped by every one, as He commands in His Word.

Moreover, it is the bounden duty of every one, of what state, quality, or condition soever he may be, to subject himself to the magistrates;3 to pay tribute,4 to show due honor and respect to them, and to obey them in all things which are not repugnant to the Word of God;5 to supplicate for them in their prayers, that God may rule and guide them in all their ways, and that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.6

Wherefore we detest the error of the Anabaptists and other seditious people, and in general all those who reject the higher powers and magistrates, and would subvert justice,7 introduce a community of goods, and confound that decency and good order which God hath established among men.8

1 Ex. 18:20, etc.; Rom. 13:1; Prov. 8:15; Jer. 21:12; 22:2–3; Ps. 82:1, 6; 101:2; Deut. 1:15–16; 16:18; 17:15; Dan. 2:21, 37; 5:18
2 Isa. 49:23, 25; 1 Kings 15:12; 2 Kings 23:2–4
3 Titus 3:1; Rom. 13:1
4 Mark 12:17; Matt. 17:24
5 Acts 4:17–19; 5:29; Hosea 5:11
6 Jer. 29:7; 1 Tim. 2:1–2
7 2 Peter 2:10
8 Jude 8, 10

So, what this might look like in the political realm when the three are compared and contrasted.

Michael Horton’s quote on sodomy would be a good example for how R2K would handle sodomite marriage in a society. Horton wrote;

“Although a contractual relationship denies God’s will for human dignity, I could affirm domestic partnerships as a way of protecting people’s legal and economic security.”

“The challenge there is that two Christians who hold the same beliefs about marriage as Christians may appeal to neighbor-love to support or to oppose legalization of same-sex marriage.”

Dr. Mike Horton

Classical Two Kingdom attempting to orient the earthly life to the heavenly life without conflating or confounding them and esteeming both tables of God’s law would pursue laws forbidding all legal recognition of same sex marriage. Classical Two Kingdom may well site Calvin in the Institutes;

“civil government has as its appointed end . . .to cherish and protect the outward worship of God, to defend sound doctrine of piety and the position of the church, to adjust our life to the society of men, to form our social behavior to civil righteousness, to reconcile us with one another, and to promote general peace and tranquility.” (4.20.2)

A Biblical response that sees all of God’s Word for all of life would criminalize, even up to the point of capital punishment all those who would engage in sodomy when and where the requisite two or three witnesses are present.

Author: jetbrane

I am a Pastor of a small Church in Mid-Michigan who delights in my family, my congregation and my calling. I am postmillennial in my eschatology. Paedo-Calvinist Covenantal in my Christianity Reformed in my Soteriology Presuppositional in my apologetics Familialist in my family theology Agrarian in my regional community social order belief Christianity creates culture and so Christendom in my national social order belief Mythic-Poetic / Grammatical Historical in my Hermeneutic Pre-modern, Medieval, & Feudal before Enlightenment, modernity, & postmodern Reconstructionist / Theonomic in my Worldview One part paleo-conservative / one part micro Libertarian in my politics Systematic and Biblical theology need one another but Systematics has pride of place Some of my favorite authors, Augustine, Turretin, Calvin, Tolkien, Chesterton, Nock, Tozer, Dabney, Bavinck, Wodehouse, Rushdoony, Bahnsen, Schaeffer, C. Van Til, H. Van Til, G. H. Clark, C. Dawson, H. Berman, R. Nash, C. G. Singer, R. Kipling, G. North, J. Edwards, S. Foote, F. Hayek, O. Guiness, J. Witte, M. Rothbard, Clyde Wilson, Mencken, Lasch, Postman, Gatto, T. Boston, Thomas Brooks, Terry Brooks, C. Hodge, J. Calhoun, Llyod-Jones, T. Sowell, A. McClaren, M. Muggeridge, C. F. H. Henry, F. Swarz, M. Henry, G. Marten, P. Schaff, T. S. Elliott, K. Van Hoozer, K. Gentry, etc. My passion is to write in such a way that the Lord Christ might be pleased. It is my hope that people will be challenged to reconsider what are considered the givens of the current culture. Your biggest help to me dear reader will be to often remind me that God is Sovereign and that all that is, is because it pleases him.

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