“Two Kingdoms” from another Lutheran at Patheos

“Two Kingdoms” from another Lutheran at Patheos November 14, 2014

Another Lutheran joins me here at Patheos, Rebecca Florence Miller.   She has made a splash already with her post Why Christians Should Stand Up for Atheists,  which makes the case that religious liberty is for everyone, including those who reject religion.   (Atheists are reportedly astounded that a conservative Christians is standing up for them, but that should happen more than it usually does on an issue like this.)  But I leave you, after the jump, with a post that explains very well the Lutheran doctrine of culture and social engagement:  The Two Kingdoms.

From Rebecca Florence Miller, How Luther’s Two Kingdoms Challenges Fundamentalism’s “Christian Nation”:

There is perhaps no misunderstanding of theology that has more greatly damaged Christian witness in the United States than the conflation of Christ and nation. A generation of in-crowd religious conservatives have sold this self-pleasing agenda in our churches and public squares, and broad swaths of young people (and others) turned off by the confusion of spiritual and temporal power have stumbled and lost their faith. Into this contrived mess, Martin Luther’s 500-year-old teaching on the Two Kingdoms brings a message of wisdom and balance that we evangelicals desperately need if we hope to reclaim our cultural credibility.

Martin Luther’s 16th century Germany was a world dominated by the confusion of spiritual and temporal power. Popes held authority over governmental princes and attempted to wield earthly power by means of the sword. Meanwhile, governmental authorities attempted to rule over the hearts and minds of their subjects and impose “proper” beliefs. Luther confronted both false uses of power and in “Temporal Authority: To What Extent It Should Be Obeyed,” he issued careful clarifying guidelines for the recognition of God’s left and right hand work on earth. This was not only a theological treatise, but a pastoral word written to John the Steadfast, the Duke of Saxony, by all accounts a Christian who wanted to know how to exercise his government role as a Christian.

God’s Right and Left Hand

The teaching of the Two Kingdoms, in short, is this: God has both a left and a right hand by which He works in our world. With the left hand, He uses temporal authority–authority which He establishes for the sake of restraining evil in society. This temporal authority is given the tool of the sword (enforcement power) so that it might be taken seriously and have real, not theoretical, power. This authority is exercised in rulers, public servants, judges, law enforcement, and the military. God’s left hand is used for the punishment of wrongdoers; it is not for the restraint of true Christians because true Christians are set free by the Gospel and do not need external law.

God also has a right hand by which He works in our world. This right hand operates through the power of the Gospel, which the Kingdom of God on earth–the Church–delivers. This is a kingdom of peace, love, and self-sacrifice. Because Christians are free from the burden of the Law and from its punishments, and because everything is theirs in Christ, they no longer need worry about the frantic pursuit of self-interest. Although they do not need the Law to restrain them anymore, they willingly submit to it out of love for their neighbor. [I would add the caveat from other portions of Luther’s writings that Christians are simultaneously saint and sinner, and therefore do need the restraint of God’s left hand kingdom as regards their always-present sinful nature.]

So, how will a Christian simultaneously operates in the midst of these two kingdoms? She will not demand her own rights in society, but will turn the other cheek as the Sermon on the Mount suggests. At the same time, if her neighbor is wronged, she will engage in her neighbor’s fiercest protection and defense.

[Keep reading. . .]

 

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