Category: R2K Virus (Radical Two Kingdom Theology)

I’ve come to call them “The Godless Coalition.” I’ll not insist that every piece they publish is abhorrent or that some can’t be helpful. I will say however that just as one doubtless can find good food in the garbage dumpsters behind 5-star restaurants but still might decide better food sources are available so one may be able to occasionally find salutary articles in “The Godless Coalition’s” archives but why would one bother to search when there are so many other better sources available?

This piece was brought to my attention by an Iron Ink reader and friend.

Expect Less (and More) of Your Pastor in Addressing Current Events

And it’s just about what you’d expect from Kalergi Clergy who graduated from R2K Westminster Seminary California.

You can read it if you like. I’m just going to give a few observations on a few of the points that the article hits in order to eviscerate this anti-Christ thinking and that in order to provide some help to people who smell the foulness of this reasoning but who may have a hard time getting their arms around how to point out the source of the foul oder.

1.) The article argues that your Preacher is doing you a favor when he doesn’t preach on social issues like abortion, sodomy, trannie-ism, birth control, governmental deceptions of the highest order, the impact of a policy that will end in a disappearance of borders, or Magistrates who command wicked behavior. The reason your Preacher is doing you a favor for not preaching on those things is that he has more important things to preach on and your preacher has limited authority as to what he can speak to, besides… God really has no “thus saith the Lord” to speak on these types of issues.

The problem here is that

a.) This presupposes that Christ is not an all-consuming sovereign King.  The mind of Christ made known in Scripture from Genesis to Revelation doesn’t legislate on the kind of issues mentioned above. Per this R2K thinking Jesus came to save your soul, grant to you an individual if abstracted personal piety that has zero impact on public square issues. This is called “sanctification.” This denuded Jesus is the Jesus that your Preacher needs to be bringing to you every week.

b.) This presupposes that Preachers are not set apart to aid God’s people in taking every thought captive to make those thoughts obedient to Christ. The congregation instead, by way of silence in the pulpit, is allowed to conclude that God doesn’t have a word to speak on let’s say Marxism, Critical Race Theory, Existentialism, Romanticism, Intersectionality or that Uncle Frank is now Aunt Francis. All that is irrelevant as long as people can articulate the doctrines of Justification, Imputation, Regeneration, and give solid reasons why the third use of the law is no longer applicable.

Please understand, I am in no way saying that Justification, Imputation, Regeneration, Election, or the Ordo Salutis are unimportant doctrines or even less important than some of the other issues mentioned. What I am saying is that your Preacher needs to be speaking to both.

As an example … As a Preacher I can say; “Because we are Justified by the work of Christ so that our guilt is now taken away, we no longer should be a people who are laden by the false guilt that the race pimps seek to laden us with in order to manipulate our behavior by promising to rid us of guilt if we will only vote a certain way. Because we are Justified and have had our sin and guilt imputed to Christ we are not a people who accept notions of false guilt that are always being pushed on us as a means of our destruction.”

See… I just delivered a word on Justification with an appropriate application as it fits a contemporary issue. Other examples can be easily multiplied. If your  Preacher can’t do that then find another Preacher.

2.) Your Preacher has a limited message that must point you to Jesus.

The problem here is

a.) This presupposes that Salvation is only personal and individual and not corporate. While it is certainly true that any Preacher worth his salt will remind God’s people that Jesus is the only relief and cure for sin and sinners. People must be reminded constantly that Jesus Christ is their righteousness before the Father and that we rely solely on His mediatorial work to have Peace with God. However, all of that does not negate that pointing people to Jesus also includes helping people to answer the question, “How Now Shall We Live to Please God,” as a community. To preach the answer to that question from the pulpit is pointing people to Christ.

b.) The presupposes that theology is NOT the Queen of the Sciences. Everything we encounter in our lives comes to us informed by a theology that corresponds to the Christ or corresponds to some false Christ. When Preacher refuses to speak to the kinds of issues that the TGC eschews then the Preacher by his neglect is allowing his people to be pointed to some alien Christ who is not Christ. Every issue comes to us as an expression of some theology. If the minister is not preaching the mind of God on these issues he is a false shepherd.

3.) Your Preacher isn’t responsible to make sure his congregation has a shared world and life view because that is too much to expect. Your Pastor isn’t called to referee every dispute among Christians.

The problem here is;

a.) If you Preacher doesn’t give a “thus sayeth the Lord” on (as for example) “how feminism is an attack on Christ,” or “how cultural Marxism in the Church creates a different Jesus,” or ” the danger of the Great Reset as the next attempt at Babel,” etc. then what your Preacher is communicating is that God doesn’t have a “thus sayeth the Lord” for movements and theologies that have as their intent to cast His Messiah off His throne.

b.) It is true that your Pastor isn’t called to referee every dispute among Christians. It is also true that your Pastor is called to tell you that God, long ago, has solved disputes that Christians may be arguing about today.

I agree that the Minister should speak to local issues when warranted. I agree that a minister only has so many hours in a week but I would remind people that the Preacher’s primary work is prayer and ministry of the Word (Acts 6:4) and that others must take up other perceived clergy responsibilities so that your minister may excel in what he was set apart to do. Preachers are supposed to understand Christianity as communicated in God’s Word and then are to understand the times and know what must be done in light of that understanding and then are to Preach like their hair is on fire so that some may be saved though singed by fire.

It is my prayer that people would flee from the kind of Preachers who take seriously the counsel offered in this “Godless Coalition” piece. I’m sure the author has good intentions. I’m also sure good intentions pave the road to hell.

Thank you Colin for the question. I think I can do that. In examining R2K (Radical Two Kingdom “theology”) we must understand that what drives it first and foremost. The answer to that is its eschatology.

1.) R2K is a eschatology (doctrine of the end expected) of defeat. Their eschatological model teaches that Christianity can not to be triumphant in this world beyond the Church (grace) realm. Indeed, defeat is hard baked into their eschatological model inasmuch as their eschatology doesn’t even allow Christianity to contend in the common realm against the various other gods and religions. If Christianity can’t even contend anyplace but the Church then obviously defeat is the eschatological consequence.

2.) When we consider the ecclesiology (doctrine of the Church) of R2K it is absolutely essential to keep in mind that for R2K “the Church,” and “the Kingdom of God” are exactly synonymous. The Church and the Church alone is where one finds the Kingdom of God. Now one could fix this as the Roman Catholics do by bringing in everything from the common realm into the Church in order to make it ‘Holy’ but R2K doesn’t make that move. Instead R2K does just the opposite of Rome and keeps everything else outside the Church restricting the Kingdom to being the Church and the Church alone. Everything outside the Church (Kingdom) is called “common.” So, this means

1.) family
2.) civilization
3.) culture
4.) education
5.) law
6.) arts
7.) science
8.) civil-social (Government)

each and all are not in any way related to the Kingdom of God but are to be considered “common.”

Now, R2K makes a smooth seldom noticed move here. What I have just described is almost the position of the Anabaptist. The difference is that the Anabaptist insisted that all these were “worldly” except as they existed inside the Anabaptist community of faith. So, the only difference between the Anabaptist and R2K here is that while the Anabaptist called these Institutions “worldly,” R2K calls them “common.” One wonders if there is some linguistic legerdemain going on here? Is the R2K word “common” just a fig leaf covering their Anabaptist “worldly?”

3.) Also touching ecclesiology R2K is adamant about the “Spirituality of the Church.” Now when this doctrine was used by Reformed types like the covenanters the purpose was to keep the snout of the Magistrate out of controlling the Church. R2K has flipped that so that the purpose of the Spirituality of the Church is to keep the Church’s snout out of influencing the Magistrate.

The spirituality of the Church teaches that given the unique calling and teleos of the Church under the mediatorial Kingship of Christ the church is limited in its authority to handling the keys of the Kingdom and is tasked differently than the State. The Church is tasked with the ministry of grace while the State is tasked with the ministry of justice. This is interpreted by R2K as a cone of silence upon the Church as Institution when it comes to speaking to Caesar. There is truth in this but the way R2K handles the “Spirituality of the Church” does not allow for the nuancing necessary when the State begins to speak authoritatively via legislation in a manner contrary to God’s speaking in Inscripturated Revelation. In my estimation we need to return to a doctrine of the “Spirituality of the Church” that is a tool to keep the State from seeking to usurp the unique authority of the Church.

The impact of this doctrine of the spirituality of the Church the way that R2K handles it means that you will seldom if ever hear a R2K minister speak to social issues like Marxism, Abortion, Just War, Sodomy, redistribution of wealth plans, etc. For R2K society could be burning down around us and the pulpit would be silent about the Lordship of Jesus Christ on these issues.

4.) R2K calls it “the hyphenated life.” A less diplomatic way to put it would be R2K is characterized by a Gnostic type dualism. Because R2K divides all of life between the church realm (upper story) and common realm (lower story) the consequence is that there are dualisms everywhere in R2K.

For example, in R2K there are two authorities. There is the authority of God’s Word for the Church realm and then there is the authority of Natural Law for the common realm. God rules explicitly by His Word in the realm of grace but does not rule explicitly in the common realm but rather rules by Natural law. As such the Clergy should keep only to the Church realm issues not preaching or teaching on issues taking place in the common realm.

For example, while the Church might forbid homosexuality in the Church, outside the Church, Church members could freely state that they could affirm domestic partnerships as a way of protecting people’s legal and economic security.

For example, in the Church Christ is Lord but outside the Church in the common realm Caesar is Lord. Here is a quote from a R2K devotee that demonstrates this dualism,

“Nero did not violate God’s law if he executed Christians who obeyed God rather than man. If Paul continued to preach after the emperor said he may not, then Nero was doing what God ordained government to do.” ~ D.G. Hart

The Gnostic part of the dualism is seen in the denial by R2K that anything in this life (family, culture, civilization, etc.) follows us into the Kingdom of God. Also, inasmuch as nothing but the Church (grace) realm can be Christian there seems to be a despising of the corporeal by R2K theology. The Creational realm is not renewed but is destroyed. This is Gnostic.

5.) The soteriology (doctrine of salvation) of R2K is hyper individual to the point of being atomistic. We might say that for all practical purposes it is Baptistic. Individuals get saved but the whole idea of covenantal categories that include children in salvation is negated by R2K’s insistence that the family can not be Christian. Also R2K’s denial that family follows into the New Jerusalem is a denial of covenantal categories. Next, in terms of soteriology, while Reformed theology has typically taught that God’s salvation is cosmic so that as salvation comes to peoples and nations so it comes to their Institutions, cultures, and civilizations. R2K denies all of this insisting that salvation is only personal, individual, and private.

There is more that could be said Colin but if you look for these five categories when you listen to or read Reformed ministers you can begin to get a sense when you are cheek by jowl with a heterodox R2K “theologian” or “minister.”

In the end R2K is a “theology” that is contrary to the Three Forms of Unity and if the R2K lads had integrity they would step forward and ask for exceptions to the Heidelberg catechism on this score. The Heidelberg Catehcism explicitly teaches that Christ is,

“our eternal King,7
who governs us by his Word and Spirit,
and who defends and preserves us
in the redemption obtained for us.”

But R2K teaches that Christ does not govern us by His Word and Spirit in the common realm but rather in the common realm we are governed by Natural Law.

Those who are R2K are outside their confessional vows and should step forward to take exceptions.

This below linked rebuttal of Dr. Van Drunnen by Dr. Godfrey is uneven and isn’t everything I might want it to be but it is enough to unravel the whole R2K project.

In this conversation / interview with Robert Godfrey, David Van Drunnen’s R2K ideas were exposed, not merely as weak, but as fatuous. Godfrey really bored in on Van Drunnen’s claim that there is no such thing as a Christian family and exposed Van Drunnen’s weakness in this claim.

Listen to Godfrey here,

“Is the family a common institution in every way? It seems to me that the Bible say’s “no, it is not a common institution in every way.” If it were a common institution in every way how could the Apostle Paul talk about the children of belivers as ‘holy?'” Children, it seems to me, must be seen on a Two Kingdoms approach, as Dr. VanDrunnen expresses it as a cultural product of a common grace institution, and cultural products of common grace institution are never taken over into the new heavens and the new earth.”

Now, keep in mind that if Van Drunnen’s R2K fails at any point along the line of everything the man says is common (in this case family) Van Drunnen’s whole project fails and Godfrey has completely, by a withering enfilade of probing unanswerable questions, revealed the failure of the R2K project by leveraging the issue of family.

The reason that the whole project fails is if anything outside the Church is considered distinctly Christian then there is then no stopping point. If families can be considered Christian families then there is no reason to say that, “well, one way a Christian family is distinctly Christian is by offering Christian Education.” If there is such a thing as Christian family then one reason why must be christian Education and if Christian families are made, in part, by Christian education, then R2K fails again since the whole premise of R2K is that Family, Education, Law, Politics, Arts, Civil-Social, etc. can never be distinctly Christian but are neutral and so common.

Van Drunenn sought to prove too much with his R2K project and with Godfrey’s exposure of the emptiness of VanDrunnen’s position on Christian family in relation to R2K Godfrey (perhaps without intent) destroyed the whole R2K project for those with eyes to see.

It seems upon reflection that Van Drunnen and the R2K boys have made the mirror opposite error of old Rome. Old Rome said that if anything was to be Holy it had to come inside the Church. Van Drunnen and the R2K punch drinkers are saying that nothing is Holy except the Church therefore everything is outside the Kingdom of God.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agwVVqiAr9A&fbclid=IwAR3CnpiO9tG0bkv-mZo48J4dHV31N84hEU0dpDqRO73kSm_upEJHJZEa6CA