Well, I hope I got all this punctuation correct. You know how I hate grammar errors.
Hugs & Kisses
XXXOOXO
P. P. S. – I’m super worried about getting caught but it’s OK cause I’m going to turn myself in.
Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne, Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown, Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.
Well, I hope I got all this punctuation correct. You know how I hate grammar errors.
Hugs & Kisses
XXXOOXO
P. P. S. – I’m super worried about getting caught but it’s OK cause I’m going to turn myself in.
Some chap named “Jackson Stead” showed up in the comments section to dispute my take on R2K. I’m always in for a good polemical go.
Jackson Stead wrote,
This critique (against R2K) misrepresents both the metaphysical and theological framework of Reformed Two Kingdom (R2K) doctrine.
1. Christ’s Kingship is Not Denied
R2K affirms Christus Rex. Christ rules all things, including the civil and ecclesial spheres. The distinction is not between realms of truth but of office: church and state are both under His providential kingship, but exercise different delegated authorities. The state bears the sword for justice; the church administers Word and sacrament for salvation. These are real, divinely ordained institutions with distinct final causes.
Bret responds;
1.) R2K DOES deny Christ’s Kingship by muting it for the common realm and placing it under a different sceptre. Christ does not rule explicitly in the common realm per R2K but only implicitly via Natural Law. This whole R2K conception of Natural Law has been disputed not only by us Presuppositionalists/Theonomists but also by the non-R2K natural law guys like Stephen Wolfe. So, both you chaps and the Wolfe chaps appeal to this obvious Natural Law but you cannot agree on the reading of this putatively obvious “Natural Law.” It seems Natural Law is not as obvious on this matter as you would like it to be and Christ’s ruling “by His left hand” in the common realm by Natural Law is quite up for dispute.
Of course the preferred understanding is that there is one Kingdom with different jurisdictions wherein we find Christ’s appointment as stewards over those differing respective jurisdictions. In such a way these realms are both independent and yet interdependent. Independent because they each have been assigned different roles and responsibilities (Church = grace [Keys]/ Civil Social = justice [sword] / Family = discipline [Rod]).
You’re reading and all Natural Law readings creates a Gnostic dualism. It ends up giving us a Gnostic Jesus ruling over a Gnostic Kingdom.
Jackson Stead wrote,
2. Preaching and the Limits of Office
The pulpit is the instrument of the Church’s office. It declares the gospel and moral law as illuminated by Scripture and natural reason. That includes denouncing injustice—but within its mode and end. The Church does not legislate, prosecute, or campaign. It witnesses. Confusing the offices—making the pulpit a political stump—usurps the state’s vocation and undermines the Church’s own.
Bret responds,
2.) The Keys are the instrument of the Church’s office. Via the Keys the Kingdom of God is opened and closed. Via the Keys Word and Sacrament are given to the end of building up the body of Christ. The whole idea of natural reason is a piece with Natural law. Natural reason is fallen and so only redeemed reason as considering the Word and the good and necessary consequences from the Word instructs and guides God’s people. The Church clearly has a role in speaking to the State as seen throughout Scripture. (John the Baptist denounced Herod for His crimes, Jesus called Herod “that Fox,” The proclamation that “there is no other name under heaven by which you must be saved” was a challenge to the Worldly authorities as the usual proclamation of Caesar was “there is no other name under heaven by which you must be saved” referring to Caesar.) Then there was the accusation against Jason and the Christians,
Acts 17:6 But when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some other brothers before the city officials, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have now come here, 7and Jason has welcomed them into his home. They are all defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, named Jesus!”
You may not think that the Church should speak to Caesar but these chaps in Ephesus sure thought that was what was happening.
The Church does indeed not prosecute, except on those rare occasions when it has to practice interposition, but it does campaign for righteousness. This is something we read about during the run up to the War of American Independence with all those Reformed Pastors prosecuting in the Pulpits the injustice of the Crown against God’s Word. Of course, part of the Reformed clergy’s complaint at the time was the intent of the Crown to place a Anglican Bishop over the Colonies.
Your understanding empties the office of the Minister of his needed prophetic voice under sovereign Christ. You accuse me of confusing the offices. I accuse you of neutering the office.
Jackson Stead wrote,
3. Historic Examples Misapplied
Ambrose confronted Theodosius as bishop on moral grounds, not as a rival magistrate. Likewise, the Black Robed Regiment often overstepped. Charles Hodge, cited, explicitly distinguished the Church’s spiritual voice from civil action. His warning was about silencing moral witness, not collapsing jurisdictions.
Bret Responds,
3.) Historical examples were properly applied. You just don’t like the implications. The idea that Ambrose didn’t confront Theodosius as a rival magistrate is just ludicrous. Do you think anyone would have listened to Ambrose if he had not been wearing that Bishop vestment? In terms of Hodge maybe we should go w/ A. A. Hodge since you have misinterpreted Charles;
“Christianity should be recognized publicly by this country. Christ should be recognized in the law of our land as the Supreme Ruler of our nation. I am a member of a society striving for this end; the principle is right, whatever our success may be. We should insist that if the State has a right to educate she must not educate in infidel history and philosophy, but, in assuming the educator’s function, must obey the Scripture injunction regarding that function — to train the young in the ‘nurture and admonition of the Lord.’”
A. A. Hodge (1823 – 1886)
19th Century American Reformed Theologian
Jackson Stead writes,
4. The Charge of Cowardice Is Baseless
The claim that R2K exists to “build large churches” is speculative and malicious. R2K theology arises from coherent metaphysics: natural ends, secondary causes, and the ordered distinction of powers. It is not pragmatism but principled realism grounded in classical Christian metaphysics and federal theology.
Bret responds,
4.) R2K is a completely novel way of reading Scripture not discovered and developed till Meredith Kline and his chief Romanist – Jesuit trained popularizer David Van Drunen. Van Drunen himself has admitted that it is a novel way of reading Scripture. Just go away. I’ve gone round and round with you poor souls so often that I can age myself in terms of the years I have been over this. If you guys aren’t cowards, you do a fine job of acting like cowards. R2K is coherent the way that Open Theism is coherent. R2K is coherent the way that men being born in women’s bodies is coherent. R2K is coherent the way that Vatican II Papists are coherent.
Finally, your metaphysics are not Christian in the least but are Gnostic and Dualistic. That explains why D. G. Hart (R2K aficionado par excellent) is always talking about living the “hyphenated-life.”
R2K is pure heresy.
Jackson Stead writes,
5. The Real Issue Is Providence and Ends
Civil authority is a temporal good, real and bounded. The Church’s end is eternal. R2K insists that while truth is one, offices are distinct. Denying this confuses grace with nature, eschatology with politics, and risks clerical overreach.
Bret Responds,
5.) No one denies offices are distinct. However, R2K does not make for distinctions but rather makes for divorce with it Gnostic Dualism. R2K is so worried about clerical over-reach that it touts clerical under-reach which is to say that R2K advocates for cowardice. It takes no courage at all to watch the broader culture burn all the while saying, “I am going to stay in my lane.” It takes no courage at all to tell yourself that you won’t preach on the anti-Christ ideologies of the age because you want to remain holy and above it all. All the while those anti-Christ ideologies are swamping your people so that they reinterpret all of Scripture and all of life through those anti-Christ ideologies that you’re too pure to get involved with. You and your kind are destroying the Church in the West.
And don’t even get me started on your precious militant amillennial eschatology.
Jackson Stead writes,
Summary:
R2K is not cowardice, relativism, or heresy. It is a metaphysically coherent and confessionally grounded doctrine affirming that Christ rules all, but through distinct means. It guards the integrity of both church and state by preserving their God-ordained vocations.
Bret responds,
Dude … I wrote and had published a book on this subject. This is not my first rodeo. You guys are coherent the way that Open Theistis are coherent. You guys are coherent the way that II Vatican Papists are coherent. You guys are coherent the way that a guy who says he was born in a woman’s body are coherent. You are dualistic and Gnostic. Your dualism is seen in the R2K aficionado Dr. D. G. Hart’s love of the phrase, “living the hyphenated-life.” That just a pleasant way of saying that y’all are living the Dualist-life.
Confessionally grounded? LOL … you certainly can’t be serious. I suppose if you chaps are allowed to twist the confessions.
R2K is cowardice, relativism, and heresy. It is a dualistic gnostic soup that is metaphysically incoherent denying the explicit ruling of Jesus Christ over all as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
You chaps are so cowardly the only time you demonstrate any courage is when you are fighting for the position that the Church should be irrelevant. Should your false system ever win out it will be the destruction of both church and state.
My slimy Nutgrebe,
With Wormwood’s recent failures that has found both him and his idiot Uncle Screwtape serving as commodes for the eminent one we now turn to you to advance our cause in working with the cursed image bearers.
Be sure that the patients remain completely convinced that the enemy does not have a word for every area of life including politics. Keeping the patient’s thinking that the enemy does not have a specific will regarding their lives in the public square will keep them from thinking on the enemy except in the most shallow and pietistic of ways. Keep whispering in the wind that the foul faith we strike out against is a faith that is unconcerned about “worldly things” like politics or culture.
Make sure and keep the patients in a constant state of heedlessness regarding the despicable Crown Rights of our enemy in these different arenas of life. If you would do your work well, you will have your patient insisting that love requires them not to be judgmental on things like WOKE-ism or Cultural Marxism, or CRT in the public square. Feed them the line that those things are best left to the professional clergy and then convince the professional clergy that those things really are not what they’ve been tasked to think or speak about. In such a way these ideas of ours will gain traction without any opposition from any of those that we are assigned to contain. One more thing on this matter Nutgrebe, do your best to ensure your patient continues to believe that it is not possible to make any progress on these various cultural issues. Remind them that the world has always been troubled and that “this is world is not our home, we’re just a-passing through.” In such a way, your patient will continue to retreat because they will become convinced that our enemy delights in retreat. In such a way their culture will go from bad to worse and this with the benefit of them thinking that is the way our enemy above wants it.
Oh, and before I sign off Nutgrebe, allow me to insist that you not let up for an instant on how low we have managed to bring their clergy. Our attack on this front has been successful beyond our wildest dreams and it will be hell for you if you let your clergy assignments regain their footing. Continue to swell the ranks of Van Drunen, Hart, Chrissy Gordon, R. Scott Clark, and all our other clergy foot soldiers. Continue to make the clergy so insecure about their pocketbook that they continue to refuse to take strong stands on cultural issue. Keep reminding of the necessity to play it safe. Keep whispering about how they will lose members and financing if they apply the enemy’s word to the culture. We have made great gains by this method and it will be your doom to join Wormwood and Screwtape in serving as the eminent one’s commode if you fail here.
We have just begun to work as a team, you and I. Keep before you that I can make your task bearable if you follow my instructions and I can make your task so onerous you will find yourself wishing you were serving in the Soviet Gulag in Kolyma, if you refuse to follow my instructions. You have free will in the matter.
Your Affectionate Aunt
Boss-Girl
Even more heart rending was to read a closely related extended family member join in this ghoulish celebration.
Below, find interaction with this family member who thinks she is wise but really is wicked. She has me blocked on social media but another family member actually took the time to send it to me. I take the time to do this because I am concerned that I have other family members I love who are going to be dragged into the wickedness orbit we see this family member spouting.
MN writes,
First you say that it is dangerous to rejoice in violence and then you turn around and try to justify the rejoicing in violence that is ubiquitous. You write that “feeling sad because he had a wife and children isn’t good enough.” In other words, one has to have more reasons than a widowed wife and orphaned children in order to be justified in being saddened concerning someone’s death.
Second, you make it clear that your sadness is not about Kirk’s death but rather your sadness is the fact that an evil man like Kirk, per your subjective standards, has placed distractions and divides in American society. So, if we are to take your words seriously what you have told us is that it is not the death of Kirk that makes you sad, but rather it was the life of Kirk that made you sad, because, in your subjective opinion, Kirk placed distractions and divides in American society.
MN writes,
So, let us join you in pondering this, understanding that you think this quote proves the Kirk is a wicked man;
MN disapprovingly quotes Kirk,
Charlie Kirk
MN disapprovingly quotes Kirk
Charlie Kirk
Keep in mind here that Kirk is addressing the issue of civilization. Western Civilization cannot continue unless our birth rate matches or exceeds our death rate. Currently in the West, our birth rate at 1.55 is way below the needed replacement rate of 2.1. In light of this Kirk is absolutely on point.
MN disapprovingly quotes Kirk
Charlie Kirk on women voting differently than their husbands
MN disapprovingly quotes Kirk,
Charlie Kirk on rape
MN disapprovingly quotes Kirk
Charlie Kirk
MN disapprovingly quotes Kirk
~Charlie Kirk on black women in political roles
The only sin Kirk commits here is the sin of noticing.
MN disapprovingly quotes Kirk
~Charlie Kirk
MN disapprovingly quotes Kirk
~Charlie Kirk on birth control
“They attack the entire purpose of Christian ministry. Do what the Spirit does in convicting the world of sin, righteousness and judgment. Don’t drag America’s political cesspool in Christ’s pulpit. This approach is earthly, sensual, and demonic.”
Bret responds,