{"id":16625,"date":"2011-05-12T13:10:41","date_gmt":"2011-05-12T18:10:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/?p=16625"},"modified":"2011-05-09T07:15:54","modified_gmt":"2011-05-09T12:15:54","slug":"michael-horton-on-earthly-powers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/05\/12\/michael-horton-on-earthly-powers\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Horton on Earthly Powers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

From CT, by Michael Horton<\/strong><\/a> \u2014 a tempered two-powers approach to militarism:<\/p>\n

In spite of its own contradictions in practice, the magisterial Reformation sought to distinguish between the kingdom of Christ, which conquers by Word and Spirit, and the kingdoms of this age that are given the divine authority to defend temporal justice. Drawing on the New Testament and church fathers, especially Augustine, the reformers realized that there was no theocracy in the new covenant; all nation-states were \u201csecular\u201d in the sense of being common rather than holy. With no holy land, there can be no holy war. Only just wars, based on natural law\u2026.<\/p>\n

Cultures are the most dangerous when they invoke holy texts for their defense of holy land through holy war. However, Christians have no biblical basis for doing this in the first place. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus clearly abrogated the ceremonial and civil law that God had given uniquely to the nation of Israel. Now is the era of common grace and common land, obeying rulers\u2014even pagan ones\u2014and living under constitutions other than the one that God gave through Moses. As Paul reminds us in Romans 13, secular rulers are given the power of the temporal sword\u2014finite justice\u2014while the gospel conquers in the power of the Spirit through that Word \u201cabove all earthly pow\u2019rs.\u201d\u2026<\/p>\n

So as we take satisfaction in the honorable service of U.S. forces in bringing a terrorist to justice in the court of the temporal city, let us never dare to confuse this with \u201cthe city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God\u201d (Heb. 11:10). In our response, let us use this opportunity to display to our non-Christian neighbors the radical contrasts between the biblical view of God, humanity, redemption, and the last judgment, and the religious and secularist distortions\u2014even those that profess to be Christian.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From CT, by Michael Horton \u2014 a tempered two-powers approach to militarism: In spite of its own contradictions in practice, the magisterial Reformation sought to distinguish between the kingdom of Christ, which conquers by Word and Spirit, and the kingdoms of this age that are given the divine authority to defend temporal justice. Drawing on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nMichael Horton on Earthly Powers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"From CT, by Michael Horton -- a tempered two-powers approach to militarism: In spite of its own contradictions in practice, the magisterial Reformation\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/05\/12\/michael-horton-on-earthly-powers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Michael Horton on Earthly Powers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"From CT, by Michael Horton -- a tempered two-powers approach to militarism: In spite of its own contradictions in practice, the magisterial Reformation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/05\/12\/michael-horton-on-earthly-powers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-05-12T18:10:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-05-09T12:15:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/05\/12\/michael-horton-on-earthly-powers\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/05\/12\/michael-horton-on-earthly-powers\/\",\"name\":\"Michael Horton on Earthly Powers\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-05-12T18:10:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-05-09T12:15:54+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\"},\"description\":\"From CT, by Michael Horton -- a tempered two-powers approach to militarism: In spite of its own contradictions in practice, the magisterial Reformation\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/05\/12\/michael-horton-on-earthly-powers\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/05\/12\/michael-horton-on-earthly-powers\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/05\/12\/michael-horton-on-earthly-powers\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Michael Horton on Earthly Powers\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus Creed\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\",\"name\":\"Scot McKnight\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. 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