I am currently reading "The Reformers and Their Stepchildren". What a masterpiece of a book! I completed the first chapter of the book tonight. In this first chapter, Verduin goes into how the Reformers called the "heretics" - those who thought the Church should not use the State to enforce its will - neo-donatist. The donatist was a group in the 4th century that Augustine condemned. They believed the church consisted of believers and not those of a locality who did not necessarily have belief.
Nevertheless, Verduin brings out that the true conflict with the donatist and the "heretics" was the fact that they did not support a sacralist society. In other words, Jesus said render to Ceasar that which is Ceasar and to God that which is God. The anabaptist were often called those who wanted to cause civil unrest, but they merely wanted the church to be separate from the State.
We here in America live in such a glorious composite society. Whereas, the Reformers lived in a monistic society. Such a chapter, lays much doubt upon the writings of the modern theonomists. If such power could not be trusted in the hands of Calvin - their theological father (i.e. the death of Severtus), then how can we trust that same spirit now?
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