What the 2-Kingdoms doctrine teaches

Second, I wrote this book out of a growing conviction that contemporary conversations about Christianity and culture are on the wrong track and that the perspective presented in these pages, largely overlooked today, offers a biblical corrective that can help to get discussion back on the right track. ...

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Unfortunately, other themes popular in the contemporary conversations are problematic. For example, many contemporary voices assert that God is redeeming all legitimate cultural activities and institutions and that Christians are therefore called to transform them accordingly and to build the kingdom of God through this work. ... This redemptive transformation of present human culture begins a process that will culminate in the new creation - the new heaven and the new earth. According to this vision of Christian cultural engagement, our cultural products will adorn the eternal city. ...

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This two-kingdoms doctrine strongly affirms that God has made all things, that sin corrupts all aspects of life, that Christians should be active in human culture, that all lawful cultural vocations are honorable, that all people are accountable to God in every activity, and that Christians should seek to live out the implications of their faith in their daily vocations. A Christian, however, does not have to adopt a redemptive vision of culture in order to affirm these important truths. A biblical two-kingdoms doctrine provides another compelling way to do so. According to this doctrine, God is not redeeming the cultural activities and institutions of this world, but is preserving them through the covenant he made with all living creatures through Noah in Genesis 8:20-9:17. God himself rules this "common kingdom," and thus it is not, as some writers describe it, the "kingdom of man." This kingdom is in no sense a realm of moral neutrality or autonomy. ...

[David VanDrunen, Living in God's Two Kingdoms: A Biblical Vision for Christianity and Culture (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2010), 12-15]

We note here that the Two Kingdoms doctrine teaches that:

1. Neo-Kuyperianism is in error
2. All people, including unbelievers, are accountable to God for their actions
3. Christians are to live out the implications of their faith in their daily vocation; they are neither to be pietists or quietists
4. The common kingdom is NOT a neutral "kingdom of man"; it is not autonomous from God's rule and God's moral law.