This spirit pushes me to declare that God’s kingdom cannot be neatly divided into spiritual and physical, heavenly and earthly, but that all spheres must conform to Jesus' rule.
Thank you Uri this was excellent. Curious if you have a citation for the Dever quote to his politician parishioner? I'd like to add that one to the dossier
This is one of the best articles for me personally. Our family has seen this R2K emphasis in a local PCA church. I couldn't quite connect the pieces, but this brings home the presuppositions that have been at play. Wow. Very helpful. And, I might say, R2K is very deceptive and plays right into the ruination of our culture.
1) The old Southern Presbyterian Church (PCUS) struggled with this same two kingdom model that (mistakenly) disengaged with society as they pursued what was called the 'Spirituality of the Church.' Following the 1983 merger with the UPCUSA to form the largely liberal PCUSA, however, this became mostly a forgotten issue with the exception of some PCA circles today.
2) It's telling that both Horton's Escondido R2K view, Rousas Ruschdoony's Reconstructionist work as part of Valecito-based Chalcedon Foundation, and Greg Bahnsen's Theonomic series of books and apologetics, all came from California!
There was a time when science and Christianity went hand in hand. Over time, because of the fall, the two have become separated in most people’s eyes. We have been duped into believing that any “Laws” and principles of science are applicable to science only. However, if you consider with a more open mind, one begins to see those same laws and principles influencing and being revealed in the everyday. Our Triune God is a God of Order, can we seriously believe that he would allow for laws and principles of science to be uninvolved in all else since there is no true separation?
Consider the science of Chaos. Many think of it with a small c, chaos, as in totally disorganized with all actions and effects being random. However, my understanding of Chaos is an amazing and almost unfathomable degree of order. Consider aspects of it: the Fibonacci sequence which is displayed in sunflower heads, pine cones, nautilus shells, romanesco broccoli and galaxies. Or consider what has become known as Mandelbrot sets, named for the man who very early in computer history used a computer and printed graphic representations of chaotic equations. These are typically paisley looking pictures that look the same no matter how much you zoom in, self similarity. However consider instead that if you could start at the smallest point and zoom out. What if that self similarity was used to explain behaviors of people based upon early choices/behavior, where each repeat of a choice reinforces that behavior until no human energy can change it.
Patterns of behavior exist from the individual up through cultures. The scale may differ but the patterns exist whether looking at cultures like the Israelites, the Greeks, Romans, Great Britain, the USA or any other. It is the human element that is always a part of it. The actions of humans affect the course of cultures, their rise, the plateau and then the decline. Only an input of energy keeps them growing and without it the decline begins. Nothing in the universe, except God, can put enough energy into these systems to keep them from deterioration and make them grow and He does that through people. God is not a puppeteer, if people are not living their faith in all aspects how can we assume, contrary to past evidence, that God will intervene and change (without their desire) and thus the governments they are enmeshed in? He can, but does he?
The second law of thermodynamics simplified is entropy. Entropy is a measure of the disorder or randomness in a system. The second law of thermodynamics tells us that the entropy of a closed system will always increase over time. The natural tendency of any system is to become more disordered and random. In other words, entropy tells us that heat will always flow from hotter objects to colder ones, and that this process is irreversible.
Does this not pertain to our faith and application of it? The R2K theology assumes that these are two separate and unmixed states. That is a false and ignorant belief. Every individual Christian is part of both groups. We are all influenced by and/or are influenced by others. If the energy we apply to our faith practices is less than the energy applied in the worldly realm, their energy will seep into our beliefs. Decline and destruction begin.
Thank you Uri this was excellent. Curious if you have a citation for the Dever quote to his politician parishioner? I'd like to add that one to the dossier
It was an interview he did with Jonathan Leeman and I can't seem to locate it.
No problem. I believe it
This is one of the best articles for me personally. Our family has seen this R2K emphasis in a local PCA church. I couldn't quite connect the pieces, but this brings home the presuppositions that have been at play. Wow. Very helpful. And, I might say, R2K is very deceptive and plays right into the ruination of our culture.
Thanks, brother. Grateful for your labors!
Two comments----
1) The old Southern Presbyterian Church (PCUS) struggled with this same two kingdom model that (mistakenly) disengaged with society as they pursued what was called the 'Spirituality of the Church.' Following the 1983 merger with the UPCUSA to form the largely liberal PCUSA, however, this became mostly a forgotten issue with the exception of some PCA circles today.
2) It's telling that both Horton's Escondido R2K view, Rousas Ruschdoony's Reconstructionist work as part of Valecito-based Chalcedon Foundation, and Greg Bahnsen's Theonomic series of books and apologetics, all came from California!
Erik Stoer
I am sorry if this is a bit long.
There was a time when science and Christianity went hand in hand. Over time, because of the fall, the two have become separated in most people’s eyes. We have been duped into believing that any “Laws” and principles of science are applicable to science only. However, if you consider with a more open mind, one begins to see those same laws and principles influencing and being revealed in the everyday. Our Triune God is a God of Order, can we seriously believe that he would allow for laws and principles of science to be uninvolved in all else since there is no true separation?
Consider the science of Chaos. Many think of it with a small c, chaos, as in totally disorganized with all actions and effects being random. However, my understanding of Chaos is an amazing and almost unfathomable degree of order. Consider aspects of it: the Fibonacci sequence which is displayed in sunflower heads, pine cones, nautilus shells, romanesco broccoli and galaxies. Or consider what has become known as Mandelbrot sets, named for the man who very early in computer history used a computer and printed graphic representations of chaotic equations. These are typically paisley looking pictures that look the same no matter how much you zoom in, self similarity. However consider instead that if you could start at the smallest point and zoom out. What if that self similarity was used to explain behaviors of people based upon early choices/behavior, where each repeat of a choice reinforces that behavior until no human energy can change it.
Patterns of behavior exist from the individual up through cultures. The scale may differ but the patterns exist whether looking at cultures like the Israelites, the Greeks, Romans, Great Britain, the USA or any other. It is the human element that is always a part of it. The actions of humans affect the course of cultures, their rise, the plateau and then the decline. Only an input of energy keeps them growing and without it the decline begins. Nothing in the universe, except God, can put enough energy into these systems to keep them from deterioration and make them grow and He does that through people. God is not a puppeteer, if people are not living their faith in all aspects how can we assume, contrary to past evidence, that God will intervene and change (without their desire) and thus the governments they are enmeshed in? He can, but does he?
The second law of thermodynamics simplified is entropy. Entropy is a measure of the disorder or randomness in a system. The second law of thermodynamics tells us that the entropy of a closed system will always increase over time. The natural tendency of any system is to become more disordered and random. In other words, entropy tells us that heat will always flow from hotter objects to colder ones, and that this process is irreversible.
Does this not pertain to our faith and application of it? The R2K theology assumes that these are two separate and unmixed states. That is a false and ignorant belief. Every individual Christian is part of both groups. We are all influenced by and/or are influenced by others. If the energy we apply to our faith practices is less than the energy applied in the worldly realm, their energy will seep into our beliefs. Decline and destruction begin.