(NOTE: This post is part of a series showing the errors of so-called Two-Kingdom Theology. We refer to it as "so-called" Two-Kingdom Theology because what the church historically has meant by "Two-Kingdoms" bears little resemblance to what Escondido Theology men mean when they write it today. Thus sometimes we write "Two-Kingdom Theology," but more often we write "Radical Two Kingdom," "Rigid Two Kingdom," or "R2K.")
So with many other exhortations he preached the gospel to the people. But when Herod the tetrarch was reprimanded by him because of Herodias, his brother’s wife, and because of all the wicked things which Herod had done, Herod also added this to them all: he locked John up in prison. - Luke 3:18-20
Where are the men of God preaching the Gospel today by reprimanding our civil magistrates for their incest and sodomy and adultery—as well as "all the other wicked things they have done?"
Among the brave and Reformed, we read this account of Godly John and learned our lesson, so we invented R2K to justify the betrayal of our calling. Right now it doesn't seem so very bad since it's just gayness being condoned and gayness has become mainstream, but what other sins will we find ourselves supporting out in the naked public square a few years from now?
Far afield from Scripture and historical Reformed theology, the R2K (Radical Two-Kingdom) movement is a modern novelty perfectly suited to our decadent age. This is the reason R2K men are currently arguing for the repeal of sodomy laws and the passage of sodomite marriage rites instead of arguing for the repeal of laws against incest and bestiality. The mainstreaming of the sodomite perversion is all around us right now whereas the mainstreaming of bestiality and incest are still down the road a piece. Take any R2K argument for the legality of sodomy and sodomite marriage, replacing the sin of sodomy with the sin of "bestiality" or "incest," and clarity of thought will return.
Thus R2K men arguing for sodomy rights and rites are demonstrating now where they'll be in twenty years. Whatever form of wickedness liberals are working to normalize right now is the wickedness R2K men will argue for right now. They just go with the flow. Having argued that Christian conscience and charity should be entirely private with respect to sodomy, they'll port their arguments to the normalization of whatever sexual perversion...
is up next. Europe's decadence is a good indication of where we're headed. Soon R2K men will be moving on to arguing in favor of laws lowering the age of consent. Then they'll move on to lend their support to the repeal of laws against incest, laws against bestiality, and so on.
Of course, they'll nuance their rebellion against God's Perfections and Law so the simple Christians in their pews aren't scared off. This requires the Teddy Kennedy/R2K Shuffle:
While I am personally opposed to same-sex intimacy, we live in a democracy in which we have adopted the foundational principle of separation of church and state. Thus no woman or man has the right to impose her or his morality on others. While I myself choose not to engage in same-sex relations, that's strictly my own personal choice and I have no right to choose for anyone else, nor do I have any right to benefit from laws privileging my choice over the choice of others. Thus I support legislation extending the same rights to gays and lesbians that heterosexuals have long enjoyed.
And so on—we all know the footwork very well from decades watching all the Roman Catholic politicians arguing for and voting to protect that child-slaughter they called "abortion."
Now move the language down the road a few years to the approaching battle to legitimize incest and watch how well the Teddy Kennedy/R2K Shuffle works for that abomination, also:
While I am personally opposed to fathers having sex with their little daughters, we live in a democracy in which we have adopted the foundational principle of separation of church and state. Thus no woman or man has the right to impose her or his morality on others. While I myself choose not to have sex with my little daughters, that's strictly my own personal choice and I have no right to choose for anyone else, nor do I have any right to benefit from laws privileging my choice of my wife over the choice of others for their little daughters. Thus I support legislation extending the same rights to men who enjoy having sex with their little daughters that the man who prefers to limit his sexual relations to his wife has long enjoyed.
Note not only that the crime being normalized in the paragraph immediately above still has the ability to cause us to blush and seeth with anger, but we can't help but think, "No way. R2K men would never seek to normalize the abomination of child rape the way they have worked to normalize sodomy!"
But stop for a second and put yourself in your parents and grandparents' thoughts. Would they ever have been able to conceive of the day when their pastors and elders would argue in favor of civil rights and marital rites for sodomites because their Westminster and Calvin and Covenant Seminary professors told them God's Law had no place in these United States of America? That the foundation of our civic compact is separation of church and state and the only way the Christian church can hope to get along is to go along? They would have been horrified. That their own pastors and elders would seek the repeal of sodomy laws would have shaken them to their roots. Why, even the language of the battle today would have shocked them: what happened to cause us to replace the language of shame and Biblical warning that centuries past used to refer to this crime with soft and effeminate terms devoid of shame and moral condemnation like "gay," "lesbian," "queer," "same-sex attraction;" or better yet, simply "SSA," and "SSM?"
The simple truth is that the logic and arguments R2K men have used for repeal of sodomy laws and defense of marriage legislation will next be used for the repeal of incest and pedophilia and bestiality laws. If laws enforcing God's Creation Order revealed through the creation of Eve—not Steve—for Adam are now to be understood as private revelations binding on Christians alone, then laws enforcing God's Creation Order revealed through the creation of woman—not wombat—for man are also now to be understood as private revelations binding on Christians alone.
And what a mess it will be! Or I should say, what a mess it is!
It would have been inconceivable to every single generation of Protestant or Roman Catholic Christians across two millenia that there would come a day when followers of Jesus Christ would claim that the sexual order God created in the Garden of Eden—that is in the state of perfection prior to the Fall—was not universal, but rather a private revelation to Christians alone, and that it is, therefore, not binding on men and nations. It would have been inconceivable to every last generation of Christians across two-thousand years that the day would come when legislation enforcing God's Creation Order and prohibiting the abuse of man's body parts would be opposed by Christians as sinful and wicked, and that they would support their condemnation of God's Creation Order enforced in the public square because their nation had adopted that law defending the pantheon of gods called "separation of church and state."
There is no place to run, no place to hide from the hatred for the Father Almighty all around us today. The problem isn't us. The problem isn't that we haven't nuanced the Gospel effectively enough. The problem isn't that we fail to understand our nation and our laws. The problem isn't that we went to Bob Jones University rather than Hillsdale College. The problem isn't that we are confusing the Kingdom of God with the kingdoms of this world. The problem isn't that we have allowed our political aspirations to displace our Gospel witness. The problem isn't that we aren't smart or degreed or educated enough in the finer points of logic and ethics and political philosophy.
The problem is the holiness of God and the wicked rebellion of man. Thus as long as Christians call men to repent of the sins of their day and flee to the Cross of Jesus Christ, they will be hated and persecuted. Efforts to avoid this hatred and persecution are as easily understood today as they were in the Early Church and Calvin's Geneva. Nothing complicated about them at all. As old as the hills and three times as dusty.
Our choice is clear and Jesus explained it long ago:
The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil. - John 7:7
R2K men tell us not to testify to the world that its deeds are evil. R2K men say that civil law should not testify to the world that its deeds are evil. R2K men tell the world they believe in separation of God and state. R2K men tell the Church to sit down and shut up or there will be a riot. R2K men are predictable once we understand that they sit at the very point of rebellion chosen by their day and age crying peace, peace where there is no peace.
Anyone who takes up his cross and follows Jesus in testifying to worldlings that their deeds are evil will be hated now as He was hated then. We're left then with the question whether we will run from persecution by embracing the Teddy Kennedy/R2K Shuffle?
If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, "A slave is not greater than his master." If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. - John 15:18-20
This is the second in a (so far) eleven-part series opposing the liberal theology called "Two Kingdom," "Radical Two-Kingdom," "Rigid Two Kingdom," or "Revisionist Two Kingdom," and abbreviated here simply as "R2K." Here's the first in this series, the second, the third, the fourth, the fifth, the sixth, the seventh, the eighth, the ninth, the tenth, and the eleventh. And here's a post subjecting R2K to an historical critique.
A change to the title has reset the social networking stats at zero.
Tim serves Clearnote Church, Bloomington, Indiana. He and Mary Lee have five children and big lots of grandchildren.
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