{"id":881,"date":"2010-06-10T13:59:23","date_gmt":"2010-06-10T20:59:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=881"},"modified":"2010-06-27T14:03:36","modified_gmt":"2010-06-27T21:03:36","slug":"forde-got-out-of-biblicism-you-can-too-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=881","title":{"rendered":"Forde got out of Biblicism; you can, too (3)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201c[The two kingdoms doctrine\u2019s] great contribution to the problem of social ethics is exactly to strip men of their mythologies<\/strong>. For the very fact that it insists that whatever other Kingdom there is, the eschatological one comes solely and absolutely by God\u2019s power alone<\/strong> means that the only real task for men is to repent, to turn around and take care of this world as best they know how \u2013 without myth, but with reason, love and justice; to be pragmatic<\/strong>: to solve problems concretely.<\/p>\n

The eschatological vision makes it clear that the secular is our sacred task<\/strong>. It tears the mask from our pretensions and bids us become human beings. That, I think, is the real significance of Luther\u2019s resistance to the Peasant\u2019s Revolt, whatever we may think of his final action. He saw quite clearly that if one is to apply this principle, then there could be absolutely no exceptions.<\/strong> Not even those who undertake revolutions for the sake of so-called \u2018Christian principles\u2019 can be excepted. Nobody, Prince, Peasant, Preacher, President or what have you, carries out a revolution or a political program in the name of Christ. That is so first of all because Luther categorically refused to allow Christ to become a club with which to beat anyone (a \u2018New Law\u2019 as he called it<\/strong>), and secondly because revolutions and political programs can be carried through only in the name of humanity without appeal to either myth or religion. Luther means that quite radically. You don\u2019t need Christ, or even the Bible, necessarily, to tell you what to do in social matters. You have reason, use it!<\/strong>\u201d[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

\u201cTake Christ out of the Scriptures and what will you find left in them?<\/em>\u201d (LW <\/em>33:26).<\/p>\n

\u201cIn our deliberations, the wisdom of Scripture and the tradition cannot be cited as \u2018God\u2019s answer\u2019 to the matter, but neither ought that wisdom be summarily dismissed as irrelevant or outdated.\u201d[2]<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n


[1]<\/a> Forde, \u201cThe Revolt and the Wedding: An Essay on Social Ethics in the Perspective of Luther\u2019s Theology,\u201d in The Reformation and the Revolution<\/em>. Sioux Falls, S. Dak.: Augustana College Press, 1970, pp. 79-88.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a>Don Juel, \u201cHomosexuality and Church Tradition,\u201d Word & World<\/em> 10:2 (Spring 1990) 168-69.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201c[The two kingdoms doctrine\u2019s] great contribution to the problem of social ethics is exactly to strip men of their mythologies. For the very fact that it insists that whatever other Kingdom there is, the eschatological one comes solely and absolutely by God\u2019s power alone means that the only real task for men is to repent, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=881"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":936,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881\/revisions\/936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}