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Historical Kingdom Christian Movements  /  The Lollards  /  Discussion Questions
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Question 3
In Bercot’s contrast, an Augustinian movement treats civil government as part of God’s kingdom and applies “Bible” morality to the secular realm (often functionally Old Testament ethics rather than the Sermon on the Mount); where do you see your own instincts lining up with Wycliffe’s assumption that “the Bible should govern the secular realm,” and what would actually change if you fully accepted the two?kingdoms doctrine Bercot describes?
Another way to ask: Where do you agree with the idea that the Bible should run the government and society? If you fully accepted Bercot’s “two kingdoms,” what would change in how you think about politics and law?

Direct Answer Bercot presents Wycliffe’s instinct—“the Bible should govern the secular realm”—as a classic Augustinian impulse to merge church and state. Fully accepting the two?kingdoms doctrine would mean refusing to treat any civil government as God’s kingdom or as the tool for reforming the church.

Support from Transcript:

  • Kingdom gospel: “you cannot join the kingdom of God with any kingdom of this world…You either give [ultimate allegiance]…to the kingdom of God.”
  • He draws the practical conclusion: “obviously there's no state church nor any idea…that my country is God's country.”
  • Augustinian mark #1: “the kingdom of God…should be combined with earthly civil government,” often producing “a state church.”
  • Wycliffe: “the state was the twin part of the church…so the Bible should govern the secular realm as much as the religious.”
  • Bercot says this later shows up in Calvin’s Geneva and Puritan England where “the state should be reforming the church,” often by Old Testament standards because they “never embraced the true teachings in the Sermon on the Mount.”
Discussion Follow-ups Bercot doesn’t tell you exactly how to apply this today, but his categories press a self-test: do you expect the state to enforce Christian morality or protect and reform the church?

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