Two Kingdoms Theology

General Christian Theology
Neto
Posts: 4579
Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2016 5:43 pm
Location: Holmes County, Ohio
Affiliation: Gospel Haven

Re: Two Kingdoms Theology

Post by Neto »

Bootstrap wrote: Luther ... wanted to tell the government to stay out of theology. Christians should be subservient in outward matters - including military service - and leave questions of the soul up to the church:
God has ordained the two governments: the spiritual, which by the Holy Spirit under Christ makes Christians and pious people; and the secular, which restrains the unchristian and wicked so that they are obliged to keep the peace outwardly… The laws of worldly government extend no farther than to life and property and what is external upon earth. For over the soul God can and will let no one rule but himself. Therefore, where temporal power presumes to prescribe laws for the soul, it encroaches upon God's government and only misleads and destroys souls. We desire to make this so clear that every one shall grasp it, and that the princes and bishops may see what fools they are when they seek to coerce the people with their laws and commandments into believing one thing or another.
!!! SNIP !!!
We are to be subject to governmental power and do what it bids, as long as it does not bind our conscience but legislates only concerning outward matters… But if it invades the spiritual domain and constrains the conscience, over which God only must preside and rule, we should not obey it at all but rather lose our necks. Temporal authority and government extend no further than to matters which are external and corporeal.
But how did his beliefs change when his own "city of God" came to secular power, and ruled over matters of theology?
0 x
Congregation: Gospel Haven Mennonite Fellowship, Benton, Ohio (Holmes Co.) a split from Beachy-Amish Mennonite.
Personal heritage & general theological viewpoint: conservative Mennonite Brethren.
User avatar
Bootstrap
Posts: 14445
Joined: Thu Oct 20, 2016 9:59 am
Affiliation: Mennonite

Re: Two Kingdoms Theology

Post by Bootstrap »

Neto wrote:But how did his beliefs change when his own "city of God" came to secular power, and ruled over matters of theology?
His beliefs did change, but I'm not sure whether this quote comes before or after he came to secular power. And Luther agreed with Augustine, taking his teachings further. Looking at history, this quote from the Wikipedia summary is haunting:
In this war, God moves (by divine intervention/ Providence) those governments, political /ideological movements and military forces aligned (or aligned the most) with the Catholic Church (the City of God) in order to oppose by all means—including military—those governments, political/ideological movements and military forces aligned (or aligned the most) with the Devil (the City of Devil).
With the Reformation, it was no longer just the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church (which each had their political alliances), the Lutherans, Calvinists, and Zwinglians each had their own political alliances, and each believed - with religious zeal - that they were in the right.

And the result was predictable. They disagreed on many things, but Catholics, Lutherans, Calvinists, and Zwinglians all agreed that they should persecute Mennonites. And once each faith was allied with a military power, war was inevitable.
THIRTY YEARS' WAR (1618–1648), the general name of a series of wars in Germany which began formally with the claim of Frederick the elector palatine to the throne of Bohemia and ended with the treaty of Westphalia. It was primarily a Nature of the struggle. religious war and was waged with the bitterness characteristic of such wars, but at the same time political and feudal quarrels were interwoven with the religious question, with the consequence that the armies, considering themselves as their masters' retainers rather than champions of a cause, plundered and burned everywhere, military violence being in no way restrained by expediency. In a war based on the principle cujus regio ejus religio it was vain to expect either the professional or the national type of army to display its virtues.
In that excerpt, cuius regio, eius religio means "whose realm, his religion" - the religion of the ruler was to dictate the religion of those ruled. And several faith traditions each sought a ruler to be its champion. The Mennonites went a different way.
0 x
Is it biblical? Is it Christlike? Is it loving? Is it true? How can I find out?
Post Reply