In Chapter 2, Van Drunen expounds the biblical teaching that God is a righteous king and that human beings, made in God’s image, reflect God’s righteousness. Neither Grabill nor Van Drunen indicates how the doctrine has been caricatured, or how it should be properly understood. I don’t doubt that the phrase can be used in other ways and may indicate a more general sense of accountability to God. But at the time, “all human beings” consisted of one family, a believing family, who had embraced God’s promise of deliverance through the ark. This is not a book, technically it is a monograph. Certainly that complicates the role of natural law in providing moral knowledge to human beings. I think that is a misuse of a perfectly good word. Porém, pelo fato de se tratar de um assunto bastante debatido, cuja abrangência se extende até áreas como filosofia, exegese, apologética, etc., o leitor logo perceberá que o livro é bastante limitado (embora um ponto a favor seja o fato de que se trata de uma monografia, não de um livro no sentido específico). In my own view, there is both suffering and blessing for believers in the present world (though no “paradise on earth”). But the development of societies in opposition to God is, according to Scripture, profoundly illegitimate. Indeed, God’s covenant with Noah is religious through and through, even on the narrowest definitions of “religion.” In the New Testament, the flood is a type of God’s final judgment on sin (Matt. As a treatment of natural law itself, apart from the two-kingdoms construction, Van Drunen’s book ignores the most important issues: (a) The unbeliever’s suppression of the truth of natural law, which Van Drunen mentions on p. 17 and then ignores through the rest of the book. Are any of these grounds or motivations available to unbelievers? 6:10-20. The distinction between these is evident: in brief, the church does not bear the sword, and the state does not administer the sacraments. People often say that it is difficult to argue ethical issues from Scripture in a society that does not honor Scripture’s authority. (b) The difficulty of arguing ethical issues from natural law. 1:20). 1 natural law3 is known by people who do not have access to supernatural revelation. The “area of common grace” exists because part of the human race, after the Fall, refused God’s offer of redemptive grace in Gen. 3:15. Heaven is his throne, the earth his footstool (Isa. Save for later . It does imply that a Christian artist should not be mistaken for a secular nihilist, or Muslim, or new-age Monist. Van Drunen never considers this sort of argument, and this omission greatly weakens his case for the two kingdoms view. I have tried to show this is an erroneous way of understanding that covenant. Converted file can differ from the original. Nice introduction to those interested in understanding the two kingdom approach to Christianity and culture. There are no discussion topics on this book yet. In “Biblical Ethics and the Natural World,” Van Drunen mentions analogies between nature and morality, particularly in the wisdom literature. And certainly Adam understood his own status as the image of God and the dignity connected with it. And natural law itself is profoundly religious. But I don’t quite understand what that has to do with the two kingdom theory, or the nature of the civil kingdom, or natural law, or the ground of ethical obligation. This short booklet by Dr. David VanDrunen, Westminster Seminary in California professor, discusses the Biblical basis for the Natural Law theory. 7:1-5). But we should follow his argument further. Dr. VanDrunen relies heavily on this distinction between a civil covenant after the flood, and the redemptive covenant wit. Good reading and helpful to see one's stewardship of God's gifts and talents in daily life from a Biblical perspective. 1, continue to bear God’s image and that they continue to know the natural law, which removes all excuses for sin (17). Refreshingly, they ground natural law in solid metaphysical treatments of God’s relation to the natural law and in the metaphysics of the creation within which natural law makes sense. And (2) as with the Noachic covenant, the Abrahamic brings blessings on unbelievers in the time before the final judgment. The two signs seem to me to be equally religious. And Van Drunen stresses that the Abrahamic covenant is particularistic: not dealing with all people, but separating one family from the others. But to the contrary see Timothy P. Palmer, “The Two-Kingdom Doctrine: A Comparative Study of Martin Luther and Abraham Kuyper,” Pro Rege 27.3 (Mar., 2009), 13-25. This is odd, since Grabill begins by citing negatively the common argument that “sola scriptura and the Roman Catholic teaching on natural law are fundamentally opposed” (i). The third principle that Van Drunen ascribes to natural law in the civil kingdom is “a common humanity” (49-54). VanDrunen starts by looking at what it means to be made in the image of God, and how a part of that is having natural law implanted within us. Prov. 8:19-23, Col. 1:15-20) in which God deals, not only with sin, with Satan, with the evil angels, and with the curse on creation brought about by sin. He seems to think these religious duties are only for Christians. In fact, I find it amusing and edifying. But everything that happens in nature and history is part of the story of salvation. I’m not sure I understand his point. All men know that God exists, and they suppress that truth in unrighteousness. Since membership in the civil kingdom is not limited to believers, the imperatives of Scripture do not bind members of that kingdom. Some readers will be surprised to learn that I accept Van Drunen’s argument for the existence of natural law. Welcome back. That includes living according to biblical morality. That doesn’t imply that there are distinctively Christian and non-Christian brush strokes. To understand the unbeliever’s moral conscience, we must understand not only his exposure to natural law, but also the paradox of his recognizing it while rebelling against it. That idolatry leads in turn to sexual (26-27) and every other kind of sin (28-31). (30-31). I grant that there are many cultural forces telling us not to refer to Scripture in the public square. Similarly, when God commanded Adam to abstain from the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, Adam presumably understood what tree God was talking about, the difference between fruit and leaves, and what actions constituted “eating.” Adam knew, in other words, how to apply God’s commands to his own specific decisions. These affairs are a common enterprise. Unbelievers have no right, as unbelievers, to appeal to God’s redemptive acts and presence; but they ought to become believers, so that they can make this appeal. VanDrunen starts by looking at what it means to be made in the image of God, and how a part of that is having natural law implanted within us. Strangely, however, I couldn’t find any discussion in the book of the important question of the sufficiency of Scripture. Vandrunen makes the case for not only Natural Law, but a comprehensive one at that. It is a very basic yet helpful look at this classic doctrine. Van Drunen entirely ignores the dialogue between God’s speech and man’s response that serves as the essential framework of the biblical story. 16 The phrase “some special relation” indicates my unclarity as to just how Van Drunen understands their relation to a “civil kingdom” in these passages. Language: english. Recall that on p. 39 he argued that in Scripture the ground of morality is the indicatives of God’s saving acts. VanDrunen exegetes the biblical passages well; however, I'm uneasy about the limitations of natural law toward higher things. Often such arguments are naturalistic fallacies, arguments from “is” to “ought:’ e.g., unborn children are genetically unique organisms, therefore we ought not to kill them. (29-30). After distinguishing the spiritual from the civil kingdoms, Van Drunen proceeds to argue the role of natural law in each of these spheres. The most important indicative that grounds the imperatives in Scripture is that the recipients of Scripture are the covenant people, that is, members of the community of the covenant of grace. It is thus not a covenant about making space for a common kingdom. In this booklet, Dr. VanDrunen endorses a two-kingdom view wherein he states, “The sign of the covenant, the rainbow, is not a symbol of salvation from sin but of God’s preserving the world from future devastating floods (9:12-16). 5 I disagree with his view that Gen. 9:6 is concerned with “a system of civil justice” (16). Unfortunately he chose instead to ignore the whole issue and to treat natural law as a straightforward, practical revelation about all things secular. In Chapter 8:20-22 Noah offers a sacrifice to God, and God’s promise to preserve the earth is a response to the sweet aroma. In the following narratives, there is a regular pattern of divine words and human responses (in obedience or disobedience).
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