Book Review: Living in God’s Two Kingdoms by David VanDrunen

Likewise, the objective standards of excellence for each vocation are ordinarily not distinctively Christian. When a landscaper converts to Christianity, the standard for a well-maintained garden does not suddenly change. Airline passengers desire the same safe and smooth landing from believing and unbelieving pilots. Christians should have a very different perspective on attaining excellence in their work than non-Christians do, but the objective standards of excellence are common to both.

This book might not sound like a particularly helpful book to the HearthKeeper, but it is profoundly helpful because it draws clear lines. Muddled thinking and muddled theology are dangerous. They put burdens on believers that aren’t from God, while often hiding the hard work God has called us to. They make us feel guilty about things that we have freedom in, and they turn into ways that we harshly judge one another. Having an incorrect or undeveloped view of the doctrine of the Two Kingdoms creates legalism. It encourages the church to reach far beyond her boundaries and engage where she isn’t supposed to engage, while laying on the believer the weight of saving the world. Ultimately, what VanDrunen points out, is that a One Kingdom, we’re redeeming-the-world perspective teaches that Christ hasn’t finished his work and that we must fulfill some part of salvation. This drives the believer to engage with his culture not from a position of justification and sanctification, meaning faith then works, but from a position of I’m completing my salvation and everyone else's, which is much too big a burden for such finite creatures.

Clear lines are good for all of us and they are good for us as we manage our homes. When we correctly see our homemaking not as redemptive but as our vocation and calling in this life, we can go at it with calm hearts. (Joyful, detached, and modest is how VanDrunen describes it.) When we see that our housekeeping is tied to the Noahic covenant and not the covenant of grace, we can more clearly see where it fits in in our lives as believers. We can also glean with confidence from those who aren’t Christians. If you ever wondered why I feel free to read pagans and Roman Catholics, it’s because homemaking is part of the common kingdom, not the redemptive kingdom, and so I can learn from anyone who has excelled beyond me.

There are many things I loved about this book as a whole. I loved the work he put in up front to show how Christ has finished Adam’s work, so we don’t need to try to finish anything. I love how he emphasized not burdening one another in our common kingdom differences. This hit me hard because I had been listening to the Bright Hearth podcast (One Kingdom, post-millennial) and they state so many things as law that aren’t. While I appreciate their high view of excellence, no one needs to feel shamed for decorating their house via Hobby Lobby and Target. Men aren’t less manly because they’re not homesteaders. We aren’t fighting the devil when we overcome our hesitation to learn to skin a rabbit. In that podcast, they sweetly and kindly tie burdens on men and women that God never gave us. Please don’t feel like I only have an issue with Bright Hearth. You can glean from this podcast as long as you’re being careful. Their episode on the Home Apothecary was excellent. This unbiblical burdening is a common error I’ve encountered in almost all ‘Christian’ homemaking literature. This book will free you from the bondage of the social gospel and the chains of One Kingdom theology.

I loved how VanDrunen honored the excellence of the unbeliever. If you’ve ever felt a little shamed at how much you struggle, while an unbelieving neighbor seems to be so much more talented and skilled, Two Kingdom theology will set you free from that shame. God, in the Noahic covenant, gives skills and gifts to all of us, believers and unbelievers alike. Thus, in the common kingdom, we can be outdone regularly, and that is okay. We should enjoy the gifts God gave everyone.

I loved how clearly VanDrunen rooted common kingdom things in the Noahic Covenant, while reminding the believer of his profound responsibility to make the church central to our lives. I also love how he makes it clear what pastors are supposed to be doing from the pulpit. Again, clear lines make for clear thinking. Lots of elements of living in the common kingdom make life gray. We are called to show a lot of grace to one another because we can’t see and know and understand everything. That should not be an excuse for being lazy in our understanding of what is good and right. Clear lines help us judge our priorities as citizens in both kingdoms. And if we understand Two Kingdom theology correctly as believers, the church and her work in the means of grace become our priority. He makes astoundingly clear the difference between the work of the church and the vocations of Christians in our everyday lives, while reminding us of our responsibility to the church.

The last chapter is the practical one, but don’t just skip to the end. We can’t understand the practical without the rich theology VanDrunen walks us through for most of the book. The last chapter covers vocation (where homemaking fits), education, and politics. It explains that when we hold to Two Kingdom theology, we aren’t just sitting at home waiting for the Lord to return. We’re engaged with our culture, we’re just not trying to save it. We’re not trying to Christianize it. But we are still part of this kingdom. This distinction allows us to engage without being burdened, and it allows all of us to engage as we are gifted and according to our abilities.

It is so easy for us women to think that all that theology stuff doesn’t really touch us as we do the laundry and feed our people, that it is what those old guys do. It is also easy, since we are the relational ones, to get sucked up into aspects of social gospel and buy into the idea of redeeming the world. We women are very prone to this because we want to nurture everything. We must educate ourselves, listen to our pastors, listen to our husbands, and make sure we’re doing our work from the correct starting point, not just flailing around all over the place. How we think about what we do is vital, and we need to be engaged in understanding the good-yet-temporary work we do in our homes and for our people.

We would do well, I believe, to discard familiar mantras about “transformation” and especially “redemption.” Nowhere does Scripture call us to such grandiose tasks. They are human dreams rather than God-given obligations.

Holding tightly to a correct understanding of Two Kingdom Theology will breathe calm into our lives and help us fight against chronic franticness. When we grow an eternal perspective, we stop striving to have and do it all here, and we stop striving to save this world. When we hold to Two Kingdom theology we can join in our common kingdom vocations, responsibilities, and delights with humility and an understanding of their temporariness that will quiet us down. Ladies, if we want to correctly manage our homes, a firm grasp of the Two Kingdom theology will greatly benefit us.