Our Council has been working through Rev. John Sittema's book With a Shepherd's Heart. It has been a blessing to see anew our calling as shepherds in the local church. Today, as I was preparing for our meeting tonight, I came across this quote from Sittema in his chapter dealing with Secularism as one of the Wolf's Teeth. Read carefully:
Second, a secular culture is dualistic. By that I mean that it observes a rigid dichotomy between the realms of the sacred and the secular, between the natural and the supernatural, between the here-and-now and the eternal. We all make such distinctions easily; but a secular culture erects and impenetrable wall between them. Different gods rule in each; different laws operate in each; different ethics function in each. [emphasis mine sas] ...The Lord Christ is not allowed to be Lord of all of life; if He is given any position at all, it is only in the "sacred" part. (page 51)
Sittema continues along the same vein, and though he didn't have NL2 Kingdoms in mind, it is breath-taking how those words are so true today applied to that theological system. The implications are so far-reaching, that I think it is even a greater danger than secularism to the church, because it masquerades in "biblical" language.
http://www.opc.org/os.html?article_id=78
ReplyDeleteI would recommend this article to you - it seems that you are making a lot of mistakes about the basic elements of a natural law and two kingdoms ethic. It would behoove you to see if the caricature Van Drunen addresses at the outset is the same caricature that you continue to flail at on this blog.
T.H.,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment. In subsequent books/interviews, Dr. Van Drunen has "clarified" his position and that of NL2K, and Dr. Kloosterman has responded by putting forth a "third way."
I have been hoping that I have been missing the "basic elements" of NL2K. However, when I read the works of Van Drunen, it sounds more like Thomas Aquinas than classically Reformed. I have been trying to make my judgements based more upon what Van Drunen has written than what some of his followers have said, but I am left scratching my head. The issues that still perplex me involve original sin, total depravity, cultural engagement, politics and a Christian's role in society, education, etc. and their relation to NL2Kt.
Also, as pertains to my post above from Sittema, how is this misguided and/or a caricature?