Answering objections to "Two Kingdoms theology"

Here's a pdf from the White Horse Inn blog, in which Mike Horton answers a lot of questions/objections that are commonly presented to proponents of 2 Kingdoms theology. The American blogosphere was erupting a few months ago on this topic.

Jason Stellman recently wrote a book (called "Dual Citizens") on the topic and was interviewed on Covenant Radio about it. Here's the mp3

David Strain also interviewed Darryl Hart. He presented it in four blog-posts. The fourth is linked here. In it, you will find links to the previous three.

Federal Theology, chocolate, and a stampede...

Today, I had the opportunity to speak at a school assembly in Manchester. When I've given talks before, they've always been to either churches or university-level Christian Unions.
I've realized that eleven to eighteen year-olds are different in a few ways. Going into it, I expected a shorter attention span (not that uni students have a long one) and that I would need to simplify with one or two points. What I didn't expect was the affect that the sight of chocolate has upon young boys...
I divided the boys into three groups and asked for two boys to 'represent' their team in a competition. The competition was about 'representatives' (catching the theme?). I held up pics of various, famous people and the contestants needed to name the people group or institution that the famous person represented. Things went smoothly until I instructed the winning team to "divide the spoils" with their team. Boys were tackling boys and others were falling off benches. One young boy even left the gymnasium with tears in his eyes b/c there wasn't enough chocolate for him (he was on the winning team).
The rest of the meeting went pretty well. With all the drama, it seemed like they actually were paying attention. Now, I'm praying that the students will remember that Christ is able to represent us before His Father.

The NPP, an opportunity to rediscover Reformed covenant theology

It is commonly recognized that theological error provides the Church with an opportunity to reflect upon and refine its beliefs. It is at these times that the Church actually wakes up to take a passionate stand upon truth that has been collecting dust for far too long. The present-day controversies concerning the Federal Vision and the New Perspectives on Paul are two such examples. Due to their various errors, these movements have brought Law & Gospel, justification, the covenant of works, and the sacraments to the forefront of discussion. Although it is lamentable that error is within the Church, it is also a time for God's people to vigorously confess the truth.

Lee Irons has recently posted two excellent pieces, called "The story that frames the atonement", which demonstrate one of the fundamental errors of NT Wright. It's different than most critiques b/c he is approaching it from Genesis 1-3. Irons points out that, in Wright's theology, "the story that frames the atonement" is merely Israel and exile. Wright removes Israel from its context, though! The narrative of Israel and exile is itself framed by the narrative of Adam and the curse of death. The latter is ultimate while the former is a (typological) reenactment. Here's a taste:

So there are actually two narrative frameworks (Adam and Israel) with the Israel narrative nesting within the broader Adam narrative (creation, fall, redemption, consummation). The mission and work of Jesus must be seen through the mutually interpreting lens of both narratives. In the order of understanding, we start with the Israel narrative since that forms the most immediate historical context for the life and ministry of Jesus the Messiah. But since the Israel narrative is itself a reproduction in type and shadow of the broader Adam narrative, the interpretive framework provided by the Israel narrative was intended by God to point beyond its own particularity to the universalism of the Adam narrative. In Israel's covenant breaking and exile, we see the covenant breaking and expulsion of Adam from the garden. And since we are all in Adam, we see ourselves in Israel's story too. Yet, just as Jesus takes Israel's story to the cross and beyond to the resurrection, so he completes Adam's story at the same time, so that through his accursed death we have passed through judgment and have emerged on the other side having won, by his merit, the right to eat of the tree of life and live forever with him in the heavenly inheritance.

read part 1 here
part 2

Map of NAPARC Churches in Ohio

View Ohio NAPARC Churches in a larger map


A map of the California NAPARC Churches was just posted on the net (view it here) I thought that creating it was a great idea, so I made one for my home state, Ohio. I think the Californians need to come help us out!

Abraham and Sinai Contrasted, T. David Gordon

In a previous post, I recommended a book called "The Law is not of Faith". I also spoke of a few of the chapters I found to be especially good. One of those can be found here for free (pdf). It's T. David Gordon's "Abraham and Sinai Contrasted, Gal. 3:6-14". He effectively counters the viewpoint that Paul was engaging with a Jewish distortion of the Mosaic law, i.e., the Mosaic Law was not really a covenant of law/works - the Jews wrongly treated it as such.

Trueman & Horton on the White Horse Inn

Carl Trueman, church historian at Westminster Philadelphia, was just interviewed on the White Horse Inn. He discusses topics such as John Owen, church tradition, American Evangelicalism, British Evangelicalism, the New Calvinism, and the Emergent Church. It's a great interview in just 35 minutes.

Click here to go to the download page.

Trueman on celebrity & the YRR movement

Carl Trueman, commenting on the Young, Restless, (and not really) Reformed movement and the celebrity culture within:

"...Finally, I worry that a movement built on megachurches, megaconferences, and megaleaders, does the church a disservice in one very important way that is often missed amid all the pizzazz and excitement: it creates the idea that church life is always going to be big, loud, and exhilarating and thus gives church members and ministerial candidates unrealistic expectations of the normal Christian life. In the real world, many, perhaps most, of us worship and work in churches of 100 people or less; life is not loud and exciting; big things do not happen every Sunday; budgets are incredibly tight and barely provide enough for a pastor's modest salary; each Lord's Day we go through the same routines of worship services, of hearing the gospel proclaimed, of taking the Lord's Supper, of teaching Sunday School; perhaps several times a year we do leaflet drops in the neighbourhood with very few results; at Christmas time we carol sing in the high street and hand out invitations to church and maybe two or three people actually come along as a result; but no matter -- we keep going, giving, and praying as we can; we try to be faithful in the little entrusted to us. It's boring, it's routine, and it's the same, year in, year out. Therefore, in a world where excitement, celebrity, and cultural power are the ideal, it is tempting amidst the circumstances of ordinary church life to forget that this, the routine of the ordinary, the boring, the plodding, is actually the norm for church life and has been so throughout most places for most of the history of the church; that mega-whatevers are the exception, not the rule; and that the church has survived throughout the ages not just - or even primarily - because of the high profile firework displays of the great and the good, but because of the day to day faithfulness of the mundane, anonymous, non-descript people who constitute most of the church, and who do the grunt work and the tedious jobs that need to be done. History does not generally record their names; but the likelihood is that you worship in a church which owes everything, humanly speaking, to such people..."

Find the rest of his post over at Ref21 (here)