Dr. Darryl Hart opines,

So the state, as you have it, ministers justice and grace and does so only on the basis of God’s word. That sounds like a lot of ministry of the word going on. Maybe you mistyped. Been known to happen.

Obviously, as you no doubt already know, it was indeed a typo. My you are full of sarcasm aren’t you?

This is really simple Darryl. Follow closely.

The ministry of justice according to God’s word is common grace to those to whom it is ministered. The ministry of word and sacrament is special grace to God’s people. See, that was easy. We managed to keep a distinction while at the same time seeing that God is directly sovereign over both.

Please don’t try this at home. This is only safe with the experts.

Dr. Darryl Hart,

Also, if I understand you correctly, there is a defacto state church now, and defacto state administering justice according to God’s word. Or is it the case that something really is different between Geneva in 1560 and Lansing, Mich. in 2008. I know I am dangerously stupid, but your lessons sure are hard to follow. Maybe that’s because neither the state nor the church administer logic.

Yes there is a defacto state Church now. It is the State Church of humanism as promulgated in the State Schools. The defacto justice that the state is administering is the justice of the God Demos according to Demos’ positivist law.

See, not hard to follow Darryl. Why, it’s so simple that even you can play along.

I’ll pass on teaching logic to you. Some things are to difficult … even for the mighty.

Zrim,

So let me get this straight: The brand of compulsory education has a direct effect on the spiritual condition of people.

So, let me get this straight. Sending your children to schools that teach from a Humanist, or Muslim, or Satanist belief system doesn’t have a direct effect on the spiritual condition of people?

Zrim,

So what accounts for all the conflicts in Presbyterian and Reformed circles these days? CVT was a staunch proponent of parochial education and his broader Dutch Reformed tradition agreed with him. Whither his CRC? CSI trucks on with vigor as the CRC devolves with equal steam. Something tells me there is one mammoth disconnect here.

A large accounting of the conflicts in P & R circles is the fact that people like you are pushing a “Christian” agenda that owes more to Aristotelian humanist categories then it does the Bible.

Whither the CRC can be answered by pointing to how the CRC bought into humanist assumptions.

No, mammoth disconnections at all. It all makes quite a bit of sense.

Zrim,

I realize it will be guffawed, but it seems clear to me that what those who lend such a high ordination to the institution of education actually do is betray a low view of the family instead of a high one.

I am to busy guffawing to even begin to answer this.

The family (insofar as it is tucked nicely into the institution of church, of course) is what has the ordained power to nurture or destroy true faith, in mutual conjunction with the church. 8 hours in any sort of school pales in comparison to 1 with mom and dad, especially when that hour is in the pew. Education has its place, importance and dignity. But it isn’t the family. Something tells me that those who over-realize education might be the same ones who over-realize the function of statecraft to do more than it was ordained for as well.

When families turn their covenant seed over to the State schools, they have in essence, substituted the child’s family for the new family found in the State schools. The state schools, through peer pressure, shape the child’s passion. The state schools, through the brainwashing regimen, shape the child’s thought. The child grows up wanting to be like his family, the school, as opposed to the family God intended him to have.

Click to access natural_law_two_kingdoms_bavinck.pdf

This is a piece done by Dr. Nelson Kloosterman of Mid America Seminary. It was a response to Dr. David Van Drunnen’s attempt to suggest that Bavinck had the R2Kt virus. Kloosterman absolutely disembowels VanDrunnen’s argument.

Kudos to Dr. Kloosterman for his work here.