Church & State

We believe that the Bible teaches a Two Kingdoms view of the relationship between church and state. God has established spheres of sovereignty for different institutions in the civil kingdom of this world - institutions such as the family, the church, the State, etc. Accordingly, when one of these spheres encroaches upon the authority and work of another, both spheres are negatively affected. And there is no greater abuse done, then to the spheres of church and state, most especially when we confuse their purpose and missions in this world. Jesus Christ has established two distinct kingdoms and rules them according to their particular distinctives and purposes.

The Biblical mission statement and purpose for the visible church (Christ’s Kingdom) is given to us in the Great Commission (Matt 28:19-20).  It is to bring God’s elect out of the kingdom of the evil one (1 John 5:19, Matthew 13:38, 2 Corinthians 4:4, Colossians 1:13), and into the kingdom of Christ through the preaching of the gospel and holy use of the sacraments (signified by their being baptized in the name of the Triune God), and teaching them to obey all that Christ has commanded us in his Word.  Christ’s Kingdom is made manifest on earth in the visible church, and is ruled by Christ in and through his Word and Spirit, in the administration of the Covenant of Grace (the Gospel).

It is in these endeavors that God blesses His means, and “will be with us even until the end of the Age.” The Great Commission never says anything about the church being “culture makers”, either directly or by necessary inference.

To the visible church is given the Keys of the Kingdom (Matthew 16:19), the preaching of the gospel and the administration of church discipline, to open the kingdom of heaven to believers, and close it to unbelievers and the ungodly. Christ’s Kingdom, the visible church, is manifest on earth through the ordinary means of grace and through those biblically commanded activities of the church (evangelism, discipleship, and diaconal ministries). The focus of the church is upon our heavenly citizenship (Philippians 3:20), which is realized in our membership in Christ’s visible church as the assembly of Christian believers. Entrance into Christ’s Kingdom is granted only by virtue of regeneration, which only God grants. And as citizens of Christ’s kingdom, we live under the authority of Christ as he commands us in Holy Scripture (special revelation).

The American evangelical church has intentionally syncretized and confused the Great Commission with the Cultural Mandate.  We completely agree with Michael Horton when he states in his Systematic Theology, “…the Great Commission is not the Cultural Mandate, and the kingdom of Christ cannot be identified with any of the kingdoms of this age, for nowhere in the New Testament is the Great Commission fused with the Cultural Mandate.”  The original Cultural Mandate given to Adam in the garden was eschatological and part of the Covenant of Works. And because of Adam’s failure and humanity’s resultant Original Sin curse, the Covenant of Works is no longer attainable by the efforts of fallen man.

It is by Christ in the Covenant of Grace, through the active and passive obedience of Christ, that the Covenant of Works (and the eschatological Cultural Mandate which is part of it), is fulfilled now. “Subduing” the earth in a holy way is no longer possible for fallen man. That task has been transferred to Christ as the second Adam. Christ has principally subdued the earth by his death and resurrection…that’s the “already.” And he will finally subdue it and bring about the consummation of the eschatological Cultural Mandate when he comes again as the conquering King to bring all things into subjection under his feet, and usher in the New Heavens and New Earth…that’s the “not yet.” It is through the preaching of the gospel and the building of Christ’s kingdom here on earth (manifested primarily in the visible church: Word and Sacrament ministry) that Christ is building the culture of the age to come.

Furthermore, the Biblical mission statement and purpose for the State is given to us in the Cultural Mandate (Genesis 1:28), and further worked out and expounded in the Noahic Covenant of Common Grace (Genesis 9:1 – 17, Romans 13:1 – 7, 1 Peter 2:13 – 17). The primary institutions of common grace are the law written on human hearts, culture, personality, and the State (purveyor of justice).

Human government (the State) is established by God and ruled according to his providential care of the earth and its creatures according to God’s divine purpose for humanity (his eternal decree). The primary purpose of government is to wield the sword of justice (Romans 13:4) in order to punish lawbreakers and protect the innocent (1 Peter 2:14). Human government, and its laws, is grounded in the light of nature by which the moral law is written upon the hearts of all men (Romans 2:14 – 15).  The moral law is common to all human beings, believers and unbelievers alike, and is the basis and ground for all human societies, and the laws which they institute. 

These human societies we refer to as the Civil Kingdom, and is manifest in all human cultural endeavors and governing institutions. In the Civil Kingdom, Christian citizens seek to be salt and light as they fulfill their callings and vocations along with non-Christians.  Christians are to cooperate with non-Christians in the Civil Kingdom in promoting the common good, and preserving a just and peaceful society.  The biblical mission statement for a Christian citizen in the Civil Kingdom is given to us in Matthew 22:39, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” This command is not in of itself the gospel, but the law. Our obedience to it, although imperfect, flows out of the gospel and the regenerating effect it has on a Christian’s heart and actions.

A Christian is simultaneously a citizen of both kingdoms - Christ’s Kingdom and The Civil Kingdom. Our duties as Christian citizens in the Civil Kingdom are to live as salt and light in our daily lives.  We are to seek natural law policies that appeal to all mankind’s light of nature - policies of government that most effectively restrain evil, protect the innocent, and maximize justice in order to seek a fair and peaceful society.  Politically, we seek natural law points of contact with our unbelieving neighbors by which we can provide for the best environment in which humanity can flourish, by living in harmony with the natural order of how God has designed the world (i.e., sexuality, marriage, family, work ethic, limited government, etc.).

Vocationally, we seek to be the best employee/employer in our vocations in order to glorify God, adorn the gospel, not “blaspheme God among the Gentiles,” and serve to open a door for the gospel to be preached.  But until that door to the gospel clearly opens, we need to be careful to distinguish these “two kingdoms” and not get them confused. To do so destroys both kingdoms.

The Civil Kingdom and the Kingdom of Christ are distinct, having different purposes and missions, seeing and understanding the world in completely different ways, and at the end of the age, having very different ends. We are always to keep this in mind as Christian citizens working with unbelievers in the political realm. We, as Christian citizens, are to “love our neighbor as ourselves” by seeking common grace policies and methods that provide for a peaceful and stable society and the greatest flourishing of humanity. But this work is not salvific. In and of itself, this is not the gospel.  It is being salt and light in a fallen world while God grows his church in the expectation of Christ’s second coming where the dead will be raised, the world will be judged, and the consummation of the New Heavens and New Earth for God’s elect will be fulfilled.

It is when we confuse these two kingdoms that great mischief and damage is done to both kingdoms. When these two kingdoms are confused or conflated, we see the rise of the “social gospel” of Protestant liberalism, American civil religion of the Christian right and the liberal left, as well as the rise of Constantinianism- the unholy marriage between church and state. The church must never take up the sword to propagate Christ’s gospel, and the State must never enter the pulpit to propagate its antichrist gospel. These kingdoms must remain distinct if they are both to survive peaceably.