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Will the Theologians Please Sit Down  /  Chapter 16: How the Theologians Entrenched Themselves  /  Discussion Questions
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Question 10
Bercot contrasts “defenseless, gentle Christians of the first three centuries” (turning the other cheek, refusing courts, refusing killing) with Calvinist nations warring—even killing other Calvinists; if the early Christians “clearly saw” church-state combination as impossible, what specific habits, loyalties, or assumptions would have to change in your life for the kingdom ethic to become as “obvious” to you as Bercot says it was to them?
Another way to ask: If early Christians thought church and government power couldn’t mix, what would you have to change in your habits, loyalties, or assumptions to make Jesus’ kingdom way of life feel just as obvious to you?

Direct Answer Based on Bercot’s teaching, the shift would involve loosening loyalty to earthly nation-power and re-centering on Jesus’ kingdom commands as plainly binding—especially nonviolence, nonretaliation, and separation from coercive state methods. The transcript doesn’t list personal “habits” to adopt, but it clearly contrasts two sets of assumptions: kingdom obedience versus church-state power.

Support from Transcript:

  • He describes early Christians as “defenseless, gentle… turn the other cheek,” who “won’t even take others to court.”
  • He says they “clearly saw” Christ made “a church-state combination impossible.”
  • They saw Christians “couldn’t possibly kill non-Christians… let alone kill their fellow citizens of the kingdom.”
  • He contrasts this with Calvin’s outcomes: followers “didn’t hesitate to war against the Catholics” and “didn’t hesitate to kill each other,” even Calvinist vs Calvinist.
  • He argues this happened because Calvin’s teachings “had completely hidden the kingdom of God from them.”
  • He anchors the kingdom stance in Jesus’ words: “My kingdom is not of this world… my servants would fight” (John 18:36).
Discussion Follow-ups What parts of your identity (national, political, cultural) make coercion or violence feel “necessary”? What would change if you treated Jesus’ kingdom teachings as the clearest, highest authority for daily life?

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