“The Doctrine of the 'Two Kingdoms' and 'Natural Law': Evaluating A
MAJT 25 (2014): 7-33 CHRIST’S KINGSHIP IN ALL OF LIFE: BUTCHERS, BAKERS, AND CANDLESTICK-MAKERS IN THE SERVICE OF CHRIST by Cornelis P. Venema 1. Introduction SOME YEARS AGO I received a questionnaire from the Christian acade- my I attended while a teenager in northern California. Like many schools, my alma mater was interested in maintaining contact with its alumni and ascertaining what they were doing in life, especially whether their alumni were putting their Christian education to good use. As I read through the questionnaire, my eyes fixed on one of the first questions: “Are you presently engaged in full-time or part-time Christian service?” (emphasis mine). Upon reading this question, I couldn’t resist the temptation to write in the margin, “I am engaged, or attempting to be engaged, in ‘full-time Christian service,’ but I re- ject the assumption of this question. All believers are, or ought to be, engaged in some form of full-time Christian service.” No doubt the question was well-intentioned, but it assumed a common notion that, unless you are a minister or a missionary, or engaged in some form of direct or indirect service within the institu- tional church of Jesus Christ, your work or calling is not part of your Christian service as a member of Christ. In the case of the Christian academy I attended, which was a ministry of the local General Asso- ciation of Regular Baptist congregation in Walnut Creek, California, this assumption was not surprising. At this school, the only Bible worth reading was the Scofield Reference Bible, preferably in its first edition, and the view of God’s administration of his purposes throughout history was thoroughly dispensational.
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