Restoring the Kingdom
A Look Back at Martin Bucer's "De Regno Christi"
During an election year many Christians are seeking answers to the problems of our current cultural climate. Disillusionment sets in when we think the answers to the challenges in our nation will come from a particular political party or candidate right or left. Recently while doing my morning reading of a section from Martin Bucer's, De Regno Christi, 1550 (The Kingdom of Christ) caught my attention. The section of Bucer's treatise to King Edward VI of England contained wise and valuable counsel. The subtitle of the section I was reading is, What the Kingdom of Christ Is and What is Necessary For Its Restoration, Bucer set out to both define what the kingdom of God is and provide clear instruction that would help reform the whole of Edward's realm thereby bringing restoration to the land. In Bucer's strategy restoring and renewing the church was first. Restoring the church for Bucer is what he meant by restoring the kingdom of Christ, not the political sphere. England as a nation would reap the benefits of a restored church. The church would function in its God ordained mission thereby bringing the rule of Christ to the nation without confusing the church and the civil spheres.
What Bucer gives us might challenge Christians in America who are committed to finding answers for today's problems in the political arena thinking that if we can find such solutions there will certainly come a recovery of some mythical Christian past. Before you react to this current statement I do believe that America's founding although not Christian, was influenced greatly by a Christian worldview. This is saying something different than America is a Christian nation. Time does not permit a treatment of this at this moment. Further we need to be wiser in our pronouncements of what constitutes something as being Christian, especially a form of government. However, Bucer's counsel was not for England to recover its Christian past, although it certainly had one, and it would be proper to appeal to any moment in a nations history that was affected by the gospel. His counsel was to set out a fuller strategy of restoration that included the proper role that the church and the gospel would contribute to England. This was indeed the very reason he was summoned to Edward's realm from the city of Strassburg arriving in April of 1549 in order to lecture at Cambridge University, while Peter Martyr Vermigli, the great Italian Reformer, went to do the same at Oxford. Both men had been called by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer to assist England in the Reformation.
Before providing Bucer's biblical strategy allow me to assert that the call to restore the church is not a call to political neutrality. Instead it is a call to properly focus the efforts of Christians as they rightly involve themselves in the political sphere. This will help those outside the redemptive kingdom of Christ that we are not calling for the church to replace the civil government. But, neither are we calling for a passive and neutral stance when it comes to Christians putting their voice in the public arena. Christians must contribute their voice and convictions, they must run for political office when called upon, and in America they must vote for candidates that reflect Christian convictions.
Bucer commends five biblical properties that constitute the restoring of the kingdom of Christ to England. There are five of them and they appear on pages 226-232 of the edition by Wilhelm Pauck in the Library of Christian Classics, volume 19. I now list them slightly paraphrased.
1. Everything done in the Church must be done for the "gaining" of salvation of peoples souls. People need to be "cleansed from sin and reconciled to God". Anything that is not focused on this should be "abolished and rejected."
2. The called of God (elect) "must be gathered from the nations of the world" through the preaching of God's word. The Reformation was a recovery of biblical preaching. It was a preaching movement according to a recent article in Christianity Today by Timothy George. Bucer reminds us in his treatise here that it is Christ who gave the church apostles, prophets, evangelist, pastors, and teachers (Ephesians 4:11-12). Bucer was not shy about preaching the biblical doctrine of predestination. He believed the church is greatly weakened as result of the neglect of this doctrine in preaching, not merely believing it! I might add the feminization of the American church is due in part to the neglect of such preaching.
3. The kingdom of Christ is "governed and ruled" by Christ alone. Political authorities must not attempt to govern this redemptive kingdom and church leaders must submit to proper political authorities.
4. Membership into the kingdom of Christ must be allowed only as those seeking to enter agree to be "sufficiently instructed in the gospel."
5. All true citizens of the kingdom of Christ must offer themselves to "be ruled and governed" by Christ as they submit to the training in righteousness by the sacred ministry of the church. Here true believers learn to repent of sins, grow in grace, and conform their lives to holiness.
This strategy might not be what some modern American Christians are looking for. We would it seems to prefer concerts over preaching, mass rallies to church membership, and our leaders to be popular speakers at the expense of doctrine. Bucer might even seem a bit too strong for us in the current culture. However, Reformers like him and the gospel of justification by faith that he preached both shocked and reformed the world. They lived in a world that was being transformed by the gospel, while we live in a world that is becoming anything but at the moment.
Vindiciae Gratiae (The Vindication of Grace),
Gary Finkbeiner
A Look Back at Martin Bucer's "De Regno Christi"
During an election year many Christians are seeking answers to the problems of our current cultural climate. Disillusionment sets in when we think the answers to the challenges in our nation will come from a particular political party or candidate right or left. Recently while doing my morning reading of a section from Martin Bucer's, De Regno Christi, 1550 (The Kingdom of Christ) caught my attention. The section of Bucer's treatise to King Edward VI of England contained wise and valuable counsel. The subtitle of the section I was reading is, What the Kingdom of Christ Is and What is Necessary For Its Restoration, Bucer set out to both define what the kingdom of God is and provide clear instruction that would help reform the whole of Edward's realm thereby bringing restoration to the land. In Bucer's strategy restoring and renewing the church was first. Restoring the church for Bucer is what he meant by restoring the kingdom of Christ, not the political sphere. England as a nation would reap the benefits of a restored church. The church would function in its God ordained mission thereby bringing the rule of Christ to the nation without confusing the church and the civil spheres.
What Bucer gives us might challenge Christians in America who are committed to finding answers for today's problems in the political arena thinking that if we can find such solutions there will certainly come a recovery of some mythical Christian past. Before you react to this current statement I do believe that America's founding although not Christian, was influenced greatly by a Christian worldview. This is saying something different than America is a Christian nation. Time does not permit a treatment of this at this moment. Further we need to be wiser in our pronouncements of what constitutes something as being Christian, especially a form of government. However, Bucer's counsel was not for England to recover its Christian past, although it certainly had one, and it would be proper to appeal to any moment in a nations history that was affected by the gospel. His counsel was to set out a fuller strategy of restoration that included the proper role that the church and the gospel would contribute to England. This was indeed the very reason he was summoned to Edward's realm from the city of Strassburg arriving in April of 1549 in order to lecture at Cambridge University, while Peter Martyr Vermigli, the great Italian Reformer, went to do the same at Oxford. Both men had been called by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer to assist England in the Reformation.
Before providing Bucer's biblical strategy allow me to assert that the call to restore the church is not a call to political neutrality. Instead it is a call to properly focus the efforts of Christians as they rightly involve themselves in the political sphere. This will help those outside the redemptive kingdom of Christ that we are not calling for the church to replace the civil government. But, neither are we calling for a passive and neutral stance when it comes to Christians putting their voice in the public arena. Christians must contribute their voice and convictions, they must run for political office when called upon, and in America they must vote for candidates that reflect Christian convictions.
Bucer commends five biblical properties that constitute the restoring of the kingdom of Christ to England. There are five of them and they appear on pages 226-232 of the edition by Wilhelm Pauck in the Library of Christian Classics, volume 19. I now list them slightly paraphrased.
1. Everything done in the Church must be done for the "gaining" of salvation of peoples souls. People need to be "cleansed from sin and reconciled to God". Anything that is not focused on this should be "abolished and rejected."
2. The called of God (elect) "must be gathered from the nations of the world" through the preaching of God's word. The Reformation was a recovery of biblical preaching. It was a preaching movement according to a recent article in Christianity Today by Timothy George. Bucer reminds us in his treatise here that it is Christ who gave the church apostles, prophets, evangelist, pastors, and teachers (Ephesians 4:11-12). Bucer was not shy about preaching the biblical doctrine of predestination. He believed the church is greatly weakened as result of the neglect of this doctrine in preaching, not merely believing it! I might add the feminization of the American church is due in part to the neglect of such preaching.
3. The kingdom of Christ is "governed and ruled" by Christ alone. Political authorities must not attempt to govern this redemptive kingdom and church leaders must submit to proper political authorities.
4. Membership into the kingdom of Christ must be allowed only as those seeking to enter agree to be "sufficiently instructed in the gospel."
5. All true citizens of the kingdom of Christ must offer themselves to "be ruled and governed" by Christ as they submit to the training in righteousness by the sacred ministry of the church. Here true believers learn to repent of sins, grow in grace, and conform their lives to holiness.
This strategy might not be what some modern American Christians are looking for. We would it seems to prefer concerts over preaching, mass rallies to church membership, and our leaders to be popular speakers at the expense of doctrine. Bucer might even seem a bit too strong for us in the current culture. However, Reformers like him and the gospel of justification by faith that he preached both shocked and reformed the world. They lived in a world that was being transformed by the gospel, while we live in a world that is becoming anything but at the moment.
Vindiciae Gratiae (The Vindication of Grace),
Gary Finkbeiner
6 comments:
"Restoring the Kingdom" essay (didn't percieve it to be an article) for the cultural crisis and elections in the West was a good read. I believe Bucer's strategy has in many ways materialized in the West because of the Gospel of Christ. Although society is evolving, the Church needs to present itself an unblemished bride to Christ. I think that's the challenge we face at large which is being worked out through the Holy Spirit. Unfortunately, some church leaders have acclamated themselves to become Uncle Sam Preachers and Prophets for and against political parties contrary to Bucer's 3rd strategy. As a result, they have undermined the sanctity of covenant members of their own congregations by labeling them liberals, conservatives, black, white, "you can't function in "my colonial flock" because your Latino so you belong over there mentality", etc. So, Bucer's De Regno Christi, 1550 is applicable more than ever in the current culture.
Thanks Frank for you comments. In the sixteenth-century Luther wrote a treatise entitled "The Pagan Captivity of the Church" in response to Romes drift away from true gospel centered doctrine. Today many believe we are in a "Cultural Captivity of the Church," which makes Bucer's "De Regno Christi extremely relevant." Thanks for reading and responding.
Your welcome and thank you for the invite my brother. I believe that the many essays you've written are a call to the Church in the current culture to internalize the true gospel centered doctrine that many have compromised. Also, I hope that TCBS pupils are challenged to do the same as they have provoked me to critically think and "genuinely" appreciate the importance of doctrine. Thanks again Gary.
Scholars have called Bucer an apostle of unity since he labored diligently to unite the various Protestant streams during the Reformation. The impact of the Reformers established a lasting legacy because they stressed doctrine. Also because they inherited the highest chairs of the universities they were able to influence the culture. This came at great cost however since they experienced such suffering.
This is a great article, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it! Blessings!
Thanks Pastor Peng. I appreciate your reading and comments. I have great respect for your input.
Gary
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