Presented at the 5th Annual KOG Missions Conference
Synopsis: An explanation of popular texts that are used to teach
the Kingdom as something other than a future event, i.e., when God through
Christ will restore the Kingdom of Israel to the Church and establish His rule
over a renewed earth.
Talking Points
1.
The
Kingdom Now;
2.
The
Kingdom according to Jesus;
3.
The
Kingdom according to John;
4.
The
Kingdom according to Paul.
1.
The
Kingdom Now
Many teach a so-called tension
between present and future statements about the kingdom of God. For example, The Dictionary
of Jesus and the Gospels rightly notes "that during Jesus’ ministry
the Kingdom of God is spoken of always as a future event. It is expected,
prayed for and hoped for. [They add that the Kingdom] is never said explicitly
to have arrived, not even at the Last Supper. But because the agent of the
Kingdom is present and active through his teaching and mighty works, the
Kingdom of God may also be said to be potentially present.”[1]
This type of teaching has led to
what some call Realized Eschatology
or the Already....Not Yet. In other
words, the Kingdom is described as already here but not yet consummated or fully realized. They
claim that for Jesus the Kingdom is at hand or near, meaning it's present but
not yet fully realized.
The noted German scholar Hans
Kung sums up the history of this view well.
With Irenaeus, who placed the kingdom of God
in the context of salvation-history, and Clement of Alexandria, with his
markedly spiritualistic and ethical conception of the kingdom of God, as his
forerunners, Origen took the kingdom of God as meaning above all the
"kingdom of God within us", as referring to the autobasileia[2]
of Christ in the soul of each individual,
and saw the Church platonically as the earthly image of a heavenly kingdom of
God. Not until the historical turning-point in the reign of Constantine did the
"Christian" religio-political idea of an empire emerge, as developed
by the Byzantine court theologians (Eusebius of Caesarea) under the slogan:
"one God, one Logos, one Emperor, one Empire". In this view the
Christian imperium is the fulfillment of the messianic time of salvation. As a
result the Church became a State Church, subordinate to the imperium.[3]
2.
The
Kingdom According to Jesus
According to my BibleWorks 10 software, the word Kingdom appears around 113 times
throughout the Gospels:
·
c. 50 times in Matthew;
·
c. 40 times in Luke;
·
c. 20 times in Mark;
·
3 times in John[4].
When one reads the verses and
relevant passages you will find that the overwhelming emphasis is on a future
Kingdom that will one day be established on earth. There are only a few
possible exceptions where Jesus describes the Kingdom as in some sense already
here or present during his life and ministry:
·
Mat 12:28,
If I cast out demons by the Spirit of
God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. Cp. Luke 11.20;
·
Luke
17:21, the Kingdom of God is in your midst, within you.
But first, we need to note that
according to the biblical prophecies the future establishment of the kingdom
will be a worldwide geo-political, visible and instantaneous event. The Kingdom
is never described as some experiential, invisible and slow, gradual process
"breaking into" the life of the believer. For example, the coming of
the Kingdom will be:
·
Like a fast falling rock, crushing all other
wicked kingdoms, Dan. 2:35, 44;
·
Like a fast moving fire that will consume and
bring to a sudden end all evil on earth, Zeph.
1.18;
·
Like the fast flash of lightning across the sky,
Luke 17:23–24;
·
Like the rush of the flood waters of Noah’s day,
Luke 17:20–28;
·
Like the sudden fire and brimstone of Sodom and
Gomorrah, Luke 17:29–33;
As a result, unbelievers will be
caught off guard and the wicked speedily judged (1Thess 5:3).
These are the biblical glasses we
need to wear in order to understand Jesus saying to his enemies, the Pharisees,
the kingdom of God has come upon you
(Mat 12:28). Here, Jesus is using
kingdom language as a foreshadow and forewarning of the coming judgment. Paul
uses similar language in 1 Thess. 2:16;
1Cor 10.11 when he says the wrath of God, I.e., the fulfillment of the ages has come upon
the enemies of the gospel. Some refer to this type of biblical language as
prophetic present tense.
The scriptures often speak of
future events using a verb in the present tense in order to indicate their
ultimate certainty in the plans of God. For example, in Matt. 26:2 Jesus said after
two days the Passover comes, and the Son of Man is delivered up to be crucified;
in the parables the preaching of the kingdom is represented as a growing,
spreading mustard seed (Mat 13.31-32);
Jesus describes his followers as the people of the kingdom (Mat 13.38); these kingdom people are
being collected by a net that is being cast (Mat 13.47); and Jesus describes the Kingdom as a hidden treasure
that is found by would be kingdom people (Matt.
13:44-45); the saying the Kingdom is
here or there is explained by the following verses describing the future
arrival of the Son of Man.
·
v 22
“The time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of
Man, but you will not see it."
·
v 23
People will tell you, ‘There he is!’ or ‘Here he is!’ Do not go running off
after them.
·
v 24
For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning, which flashes and
lights up the sky from one end to the other.
·
v 26
“Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son
of Man."
·
v 30
“It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed."
In other words, what Jesus is
saying is that when the Kingdom finally comes, it will be all over, worldwide
and not just some localized event. As a result, you don't have to look here or look there because the kingdom
will be all over, i.e., in your midst
as some translate the Greek here. That explains Jesus saying in Luke 13.29: People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take
their places at the feast in the kingdom of God.
Another reason the translation
“within you” (KJV) cannot be correct is that scripture describes people
entering or inheriting the kingdom (Matt.
5:20; 23:13; John 3:5). This again points to the terrestrial, geo-political
nature of the future kingdom. Joseph of Arimathea was waiting expectantly for
the kingdom, Mar 15:43; Jesus
promised his Apostles at the renewal of
all things, when he sits on the throne of his glory on earth, you who have followed me will also sit on
twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel, Mat 19:28; Jesus also promised until
that day he will drink the communion cup with them in my Father’s kingdom, Mat
26:29; The thief on the cross asks Jesus to remember him when you come into [i.e., enters] your kingdom, Luke 23:42; and the Apostles ask the resurrected Jesus if he will
finally restore the kingdom to Israel,
Acts 1:6, etc., When you see these things, then you know the Kingdom is near, (Luke 21:31).
3.
The
Kingdom According to John
Unlike the Synoptics, the
writings of John refer to the kingdom as eternal
life, lit. life of the age to come.
And John sometimes describes the born
again person as already having crossed
over or gained that eternal
[kingdom] life of the age to come
even now (John 5.24)!
The Canadian Baptist minister and
theologian George Ladd noted: "It is noteworthy that in John eternal life
is first mentioned after the only references in the Gospel to the KOG (3.15).”[5]
Like Luke 17:21 John is using biblical ways of speaking for having
something future promised as already with you. For example, in John 17 Jesus prays to the Father to
once again glorify him with the glory I
had with you before the world existed. Yet, later in the same chapter Jesus
says I have given them the glory you have
given me. Also note that when Jesus says I have given them the glory he not only meant his Apostles but all
Christians across all the ages, i.e., past, present and future!
We find that elsewhere in the
Synoptics the word glory is another
term for Kingdom. In Mark 10:37 some of his Apostles
petition Jesus: “Appoint us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your
left, in your glory.” In Matthew's telling of the same story it is the mother of
the Apostles who asks Jesus: “Declare that these two sons of mine will sit, one
at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.” Matt 20.21
The point is that the things
based on what God the Father purposed and promised, even before the foundation
of the world, are as good as done (fait
accompli). Paul says to Timothy that God has already saved us, i.e.,
brought us into His kingdom, because that was His plan before the ages of time (2Tim
1.9). And elsewhere Paul describes the salvation of the elect and the
gospel message itself as predestined, preordained events (Romans 8.30; Ephesians 1.4-5, 11; 1 Corinthians 2.7).
Similarly, according to John, if you believe that gospel of
Jesus you already have the promise of eternal, immortal life of the age to come
now, the kingdom.
4.
The
Kingdom According to Paul
In Col 1.13 Paul says God has
rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of
his beloved Son. Like the Gospels, the point here is that Christians have
been removed from this present evil age by choosing the kingdom lifestyle now. Paul
alludes to this fact throughout this chapter:
·
9 For this reason we also,
since the day we heard about it, have not
ceased praying for you and asking that you may be
filled with the knowledge of His will in
all spiritual wisdom and understanding,
·
10a so that you will
walk in a manner worthy of the Lord.
·
21 And although you were
previously alienated and hostile in
attitude, engaged in evil deeds,
·
22a yet He has now reconciled you
in His body of flesh through death.
And once again note the emphasis
on the future:
·
4b We heard of your faith in
Christ Jesus and the love which you have for
all the saints; 5b because of the
hope reserved for you in heaven.
·
23 if indeed you
continue in the faith firmly established and
steadfast, and not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you
have heard.
The same is true for Romans 14:17
where the context is about putting up with the weaker brethren among us in church.
This requires from the strong Christian Kingdom principles based on the fruits
of the spirit, i.e., "righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy
Spirit."
LAST WORDS
The Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels is right to say:
The Kingdom is not present in any sense not reconcilable with the fact
that it is also and mainly future. Jesus did not dissociate Himself from the
traditional view that the end would come in the form of a catastrophic
transformation, culminating in the Advent of Messiah Himself, who would come
from heaven. [This final] destruction
and reconstruction...would be the perfect establishment of the Kingdom of God
on earth.
So it's highly misleading to read
a few Kingdom texts in support of a so-called potential or actual presence of
the Kingdom. It's also equally wrong to suggest that the church is the kingdom
therefore, Christians are in the process of building that kingdom of God!
As Hans Kung warned:
There can be no question of identity (Church = Kingdom of God), for the
reign of God according to the new testament is the universal, final and
definite basilea. There can be no
question of continuity (the Kingdom of God emerges from the Church), for the
reign of God is not the product of an organic development, of a process of
maturation or interpenetration, but of a wholly new and unprepared action of
God....So far from stressing identity, we should be concerned to stress the
basic difference between the Church and the reign (i.e. Kingdom) of God.[6]
[1] Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels,
IVP, 1992, “Kingdom of God,” p. 425.
[2]
That is, the “self-Kingdom,” e.g., you
are the Kingdom.
[3] The Church, 1968.
[4] John 3.3, 5 you must be born again to enter the Kingdom; John 18.36, my kingdom not of
this world.
[5] A Theology of the New Testament. Cp.
John 3.3,36.
[6] Kung,
The Church, p. 92.
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