John Frame & Escondido Theology!
- 8 January 2014
A good friend of mine introduced me to John Frame’s writings several years ago. I got way-laid reading through the early chapters of his book, ‘The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God’. Somehow it just didn’t quite connect with me at the time. When later I had read through this book (Greg Bahnsen’s ‘The Van Til Apologetic’) I found myself siding strongly with Bahnsen’s critique of Frame’s critique of Van Til’s teaching. Moreover, I’d read a published article (here) by Frame critiquing the Theonomy & Christian Reconstruction movement and found myself disappointed that Frame hadn’t endorsed more strongly the general paradigm of Christian Reconstruction.
His present allegiance is still perhaps ambivalent but the publication of this book provides copious evidence for the conclusion to be drawn that the single most obvious counter to theonomy – namely Two Kingdom Theology – is utterly without biblical foundation.
Two Kingdom Theologians seeks to persuade the thinking Christian that the Christian’s concern ought to be limited to the ‘spiritual’ domains of Church & Family. The notion that we ought to be seeking to redeem the culture is anathema to them. Such thinking, if not explicitly proclaimed, is implicitly suggested in many contemporary evangelical churches. Pietism is the result having produced a largely impotent movement with a ‘biblical message’ irrelevant to 99% of all that we do in the everyday course of our lives.
How refreshing it is to discover that the Bible is in fact a manual for ALL of life. Everything we do ought to be undertaken to the glory of God & EVERY thought brought captive to Christ. What’s so complicated about that?? The Great commission & the Lord’s Prayer are the two most pertinent NT passages warranting the application of Biblical truth to the whole of life – each in turn underscoring the original cultural mandate of Gen 1:28, Gen 9 & Ps 8.
Bravo Dr Frame for providing us with such a clear exposition of the actual authentic reformed heritage of our puritan & reformed forbears. Why not read Frame or else at least listen to him being interviewed by Jeff Durbin here. Can anyone get more excited than me by this happy providence? Jeff Durbin is truly a man after my own heart. I share his evident jubilation and deep soul delight. The stream of God’s kingdom flowing out across the world (see last 10 chapters of Ezekiel) is flowing yet deeper & its influence spreading even as God Himself has sovereignly ordained.
