“Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, Give to God what is God’s.” –Jesus, Mark 12:17

Blog Author: LCDR Kristian Carlson is a Navy Chaplain. He has served alongside Marines, Sailors, Soldiers, & Special Forces, and has completed three deployments. In 2020, the Navy sent him to Duke University’s Divinity School to earn a specialized Master’s Degree, ThM, in Pastoral Care, where he focused his studies on challenges facing Active Duty personnel, Veterans and their families. His specific areas of interest include care for persons with Complex Trauma, strategies for healing from PTSD, Moral Injury, & mild TBI. A key personal mission of his is to leverage the strengths of faith-based Veteran Service Organizations as strategic partners to chaplains, the VA, and the DoD in their ongoing resiliency & suicide prevention initiatives. He is married to his Chilean sweetheart, Damaris. They have two young children, who are the delight of their hearts.

The following article introduces David VanDrunen’s compelling thought on the Christian’s responsibility toward Christ’s Kingdom and the Kingdoms of Men—namely the political state & civic arena. VanDrunen’s insights provide crucial distinctions for military Chaplains who work daily at the dynamic intersection of war, faith, religious expression, peace and the establishment of rule of law. Sometimes this intersection presents challenges to the allegiances we have sworn to the Lord & our respective governments.

Text:  Living in God’s Two Kingdoms. Wheaton, IL, Crossway. 2010. Author: VanDrunen, David.  (JD Northwestern University, PhD, Loyala University) is Westminster Seminary’s (California) Professor of Systematic Theology and Christian Ethics. He is ordained in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

Dr. VanDrunen’s text, “Two Kingdoms,” delves into a question which is as crucial to believers’ understanding today as it was to the Early Church living under the Caesars of the young Roman Empire. While we know we are to render unto ‘Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God’s what is God’s’—the question remains—how do we do that? What is our responsibility toward our neighbors, who are fellow citizens of the body politic, and what is our responsibility toward the State? VanDrunen’s text delivers some of what one might expect from a reformed theologian: a succinct, systematic theological approach; But readers from many backgrounds will also find his firm conviction, clarity of expression and Biblically-based arguments to be engaging, refreshing and challenging.

His main argument stems from the Christ and Culture question, engaged by H. Richard Niebuhr and others, “What is a Christian’s place and responsibility within culture?”  For VanDrunen (VD), the answer is found in the “two kingdom’s doctrine.” He believes that Scripture shows that there is a Common Kingdom, founded in the Noahic covenant[1], and a Redemptive Kingdom begun in the Abrahamic covenant.  The Christian, he believes, is not called to “redemptive work” on this earth of either transformation or restoration– for Christ, the Second Adam, has already achieved this perfectly, (and this world is passing away). Rather the Christian is called to “re-creation gained”[2], given through the sufficient work of Christ, and his focus is to be on the missionary task.

Academically, VanDrunen does not seem to aim to foster conversation with fellow scholars on the topic, rather he functions in his role as a minister and professor, reaching out to build up Laity and to strengthen Reformed ministers in their service.

I enjoyed the book, and ended up reading the majority of the text, even though initially planned to read the introduction and then to skim. I found VanDrunen’s reminder of Christians’ brief journey on earth as a pilgrimage in this strange, passing world, to be a good, orienting, theological reminder. His ecclesiology, with an emphasis on the primary role that the Church should play in the life of a believer was invigorating.  VD sees the Church as the redeemed kingdom of God on earth, the Bride that awaits the Bridegroom, the location where the Kingdom of God that Jesus preached is to be practiced.  On the other hand, the world that Christians share in common with nonbelievers is one that reflects the blessings of Creation, and the goodness in it. 

I did have points of disagreement and caution.  A number of classes at Duke Divinity have strongly emphasized God’s call to the Church to address systemic and social sin in the world. We do this not, as VD critiques, as an effort to fulfill the first Adam’s failure, nor to redeem this earth and build a Kingdom here for Christ, but rather as an outflow of God’s redemptive, transformational work in our hearts[3] and because it is a witness to Christ’s Lordship and coming/inaugurated kingdom. Something felt brittle in VD’s theological viewpoint, with a lack of ambiguity, and lack of referencing other thinkers (besides N.T. Wright and Brian McLaren in the introduction).  Something seemed to be missing in the beauty and wonder and mystery of our call to engage the world, even as Jesus did in such moving ways. As a Pentecostal minister, I found VD’s silence on Powers to be of concern due to its relevance to the Christ and Culture conversation.  The best formulation I have heard, that seems to modify VD’s two Kingdom approach is from Bonhoeffer who said, “I live every day as if it were my last, and every day as if there were a glorious future.”

Discussion Question: How are Evangelical Military Chaplains to engage the secular institutions to which they are called?  What is the role of justice-making, transformative redemption? What place is there for witness of a world system that is passing, and under judgment?

Quotations Expressing VanDrunen’s Two Kingdom Doctrine:

“We desire to make the common kingdom better when we can, but we should not try to “transform” it into something other than the common kingdom.  We rejoice when our cultural activity contributes to making the common kingdom more just and prosperous, but we are not called to “redeem” it, as if God is saving the common kingdom rather than simply preserving it temporarily.” p. 170

“The New Testament teaches that the natural order as it now exists will come to a radical end and that the products of human culture will perish along with the natural order.” p. 64, alludes to Hebrews 13,  “Here we have not a lasting city.”

“There will be a basic Spiritual Antithesis between believers and unbelievers[4] (Gen 3:14-19)  but also a great deal of ‘Cultural Commonality.’ “

“The Church is the only institution or community in the present world that can be identified with the kingdom proclaimed by Christ…It is precisely in the Church that the covenant and the kingdom are experienced until Christ returns.” Cross reference with: pgs. 133-134

“We have been justified in Christ…so that we may love and serve our neighbor, for this is the fulfillment of the Law.” pg. 125-126

“The New Testatment calls us to critical engagement with human culture—even while we seek to treat people with charity and generosity, we must remain vigilant and perceptive about the many ways that sin has corrupted human culture in this fallen world.” pg. 126

“God therefore leaves much to the wisdom and discretion of Christians as they make their way in the common kingdom and interact with unbelieving colleagues. Every Christian has the obligation to make morally responsible decisions about his cultural endeavors. But Christians must also be on guard against condemning other Christians’ decisions about matters for which Scripture does not bind the conscience.” p. 162

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[1]   God told Noah (and humanity) to be fruitful and multiply and promised to not destroy the earth again by flood.

[2]   The promise of the new heaven and the new earth. C.F. Page 27.

[3]  Dr. Smith describes this in Christian Ethics as our “becoming what we are (have been redeemed to be) in Christ.”

[4]  “Because they believe different things, serve different masters, and are headed for different destinies.”