A church that agrees its nation's gross vices are merely "social issues" has surrendered the field, and is now told, by Dr. Joel Biermann and Dr. Jordan Cooper, that wanting it back is unreasonable.
“Christian Nationalism” in any dress is not the solution. It is simply the opposite error to Christian quietism and isolationism. Christian Nationalism belongs with the theology of Zwingli, Calvin, and the radical reformation.
We need to recover the Reformation’s understanding of the three estates of the temporal kingdom. This is not a “two kingdoms” issue, as many mistakenly frame it. It is how the three estates - the ordines politicus, domesticus (or oeconomicus, take your pick), and ecclesiasticus - interact. And note that in the Lutheran understanding of the three estates, the home comes first as the source of the other two.
A good start would be a careful reading of the three 1520 treatises of Luther that form the core of the Reformation - The Babylonian Captivity of the Church, To the Christian Nobility, and The Liberty of the Christian. These address the three estates specifically and meaningfully, and in my opinion, provide a template for the modern application of the three estates doctrine as we live out our temporal lives in the temporal kingdom even as we a fully citizens of the eternal one.
BTW, Dr. Biermann is correct in saying there is no “right to self-defense” in the Scriptures. But not for the reason he gives. There is no notion of “rights” at all in the Scriptures. The Declaration of Independence is not divinely inspired Scripture. “Rights” are a political construct and belong to the ordo politicus. The child in his or home does not claim “rights” and indeed has none. Nor does the congregation member in his church. We speak of duties, responsibilities, and gifts of grace. Not rights. The political “right” to self-defense is founded on the Scriptural concept of the sanctity of human life, which is at the heart of the 5th commandment. Similarly, the “right” to bear arms in the home is implicit in the right of the government to bear the sword. If the home cannot have a sword, neither can the government, since governing authority is derived from parental authority (see the 4th commandment).
Our problem is not that we have acquiesced to the age but that we have grown theologically sloppy in our thinking and have abandoned our Reformation roots for Calvinism and generic Protestantism. Before we can critique society, we need to get our own heads on straight about what life in the temporal kingdom looks like.
“Christian Nationalism” in any dress is not the solution. It is simply the opposite error to Christian quietism and isolationism. Christian Nationalism belongs with the theology of Zwingli, Calvin, and the radical reformation.
We need to recover the Reformation’s understanding of the three estates of the temporal kingdom. This is not a “two kingdoms” issue, as many mistakenly frame it. It is how the three estates - the ordines politicus, domesticus (or oeconomicus, take your pick), and ecclesiasticus - interact. And note that in the Lutheran understanding of the three estates, the home comes first as the source of the other two.
A good start would be a careful reading of the three 1520 treatises of Luther that form the core of the Reformation - The Babylonian Captivity of the Church, To the Christian Nobility, and The Liberty of the Christian. These address the three estates specifically and meaningfully, and in my opinion, provide a template for the modern application of the three estates doctrine as we live out our temporal lives in the temporal kingdom even as we a fully citizens of the eternal one.
BTW, Dr. Biermann is correct in saying there is no “right to self-defense” in the Scriptures. But not for the reason he gives. There is no notion of “rights” at all in the Scriptures. The Declaration of Independence is not divinely inspired Scripture. “Rights” are a political construct and belong to the ordo politicus. The child in his or home does not claim “rights” and indeed has none. Nor does the congregation member in his church. We speak of duties, responsibilities, and gifts of grace. Not rights. The political “right” to self-defense is founded on the Scriptural concept of the sanctity of human life, which is at the heart of the 5th commandment. Similarly, the “right” to bear arms in the home is implicit in the right of the government to bear the sword. If the home cannot have a sword, neither can the government, since governing authority is derived from parental authority (see the 4th commandment).
Our problem is not that we have acquiesced to the age but that we have grown theologically sloppy in our thinking and have abandoned our Reformation roots for Calvinism and generic Protestantism. Before we can critique society, we need to get our own heads on straight about what life in the temporal kingdom looks like.