Kingdom Come

Ready to rumble? Got on your thinking cap? Want to be stretched beyond your comfort zone? Actually read verses that are referenced for a change? Use your brain and do some real Bible study?

The kingdom, like our salvation, has three tenses. In salvation, on the cross we have been justified, by the Spirit we are being sanctified, and one day we will be glorified. The kingdom is also 3-D.

1. The kingdom had a past territorial dimension, because it is based on the Davidic covenant.

2. The kingdom has a present abstract spiritual dimension, because Christ has inaugurated "new covenant" salvation. (There is a sense in which we are translated into the kingdom of Christ right now because the Spirit has already come, Col 1:13).

3. The kingdom has a future concrete and material dimension, because Christ brings it in at his Second Coming and judgment. (There is a sense in which the kingdom has not yet come, and will not arrive until Jesus' return, Matt 26:29).

John the Baptist had the same concept of the kingdom as the OT prophets (that it includes salvation plus judgment), and naturally fused together the second and third dimension, because he did not see the church age in between. Hence his "at hand" kingdom included a strong spiritual element (Matt 3:6,11).

"Preaching the good news (or the gospel) of the kingdom" (cf. Matt 4:23; 9:35, both summary statements of what Jesus was preaching in Matt 1-12, which the disciples also preached, Matt 10:7) meant announcing the good news that the return of the Davidic kingdom was finally at hand. In each case just listed, the proof that follows are the miraculous signs of healing and casting out demons.

As the King is rejected and events unfold in the course of biblical progressive revelation, Jesus begins to make clear that the salvation aspect of the kingdom would be accomplished during his first coming, and the judgment aspect would be suspended until his second advent. The mystery that lay hidden in between was the opening-up of the spiritual aspect of kingdom blessings to the Gentiles by faith in Jesus Christ, even (and only) without the works of the law. It was the revelation that the inclusion of Gentiles was not a last-minute adjustment to God's plan, but actually something he predestinated before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4-5,11).

• At hand meant the kingdom was being offered in the person of the King, but could be rejected (Matt 13).
• At hand meant the kingdom existed wherever Jesus himself went, because all things were subject unto him (Matt 12:28).
• At hand means the hour of decision, to submit and join it has already arrived.

Today it means that the kingdom is present temporally to all who submit, and is approaching spatially when Christ returns. The foreshadowing of his coming (Matt 16:27-28) was his transfiguration (Matt 17:1-3).
At hand means it is inevitable (Matt 26:46-47).

We do not fight to bring in the kingdom (in the absolute, concrete sense; only Christ does that at his return). Instead, we fish and bring men and women into the kingdom. The kingdom is coming; until then, we are to get men and women coming into the kingdom (Acts 14:22).

The King craves subjects. Are you one of them? The goal of discipleship is to make kingdom subjects. Are you ready for the King's dominion to come?


George Ladd, A Theology of the New Testament, revised, Donald Hagner, ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1993, reprinted 1997).
Craig A. Blaising and Darrrell L. Bock, Progressive Dispensationalism (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1993).
Blaising & Bock, ed., Dispensationalism, Israel, and the Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1992).
Charles Ryrie, Dispensationalism (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1995).
G.E. Ladd, "Kingdom of Christ, God, Heaven" in Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, ed. Walter A. Elwell (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1984).
Alva McClain, "The Greatness of the Kingdom - Part I" Bibliotheca Sacra 112, no. 145 (1955).
Paul Enns, Moody Handbook of Theology (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1989).
Herman A. Hoyt, "Dispensational Premillennialism" in The Meaning of the Millennium: Four Views, ed. Robert G. Clouse (Downer's Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1977).
Robert L. Saucy, The Case for Progressive Dispensationalism (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1993).
Robert Saucy, "The Presence of the Kingdom and the Life in the Church," Bibliotheca Sacra, vol. 145, issue 577 (1988).
Craig A. Blaising, "Development of Dispensationalism by Contemporary Dispensationalists," Bibliotheca Sacra, vol. 145, issue 579 (1988).

Easter Monday

The whole fracas with Imus has focused us once again on perceptions of race in America. Race in the Bible is a simple topic. There are two: the human race in the first Adam (Acts 17:26) and the sons of God in the last Adam, Jesus Christ. Prejudice (pride of "race," face and place) is also a simple topic, but I digress.

Remember the Mercator map? Didn't it shock you when someone pointed out that the map of the world you were used to seeing (a Mercator projection) inaccurately inflated the northern hemisphere (North America and Europe), making them look like Aladdin's Genie, and then gave the southern hemisphere "itsy-bitty living space"? I mean, even National Geographic got it so wrong for so long.

Many times, so do we.

We’ve all seen the apostle John in Leonardo Da Vinci’s painted portrayal of the Last Supper. Some say it looks like a woman (meaning Mary); I agree with Erwin McManus: he looks like Peter Frampton.
"Show Me the Way" (Frampton Comes Alive, 1976)

But here’s what gets me. Dan Brown did the whole V-thing for Mary, and found all the hidden symbols related to female deities, but he did not notice the real conspiracy. The real conspiracy is that John/Mary/Peter Frampton is a white European!

You do understand, that is cultural but it’s not correct. It’s art, but it’s not accurate. To begin with, they didn’t sit on chairs with their legs under a table. They sat on pillows, reclining and leaning on one side.

Second, Leonardo used all his cousins as models, so he got the color scheme incorrect. All Da Vinci’s disciples are white. That doesn't bother white people, but he's not just their Jesus—and yet even he is white. What's wrong with this picture? It's that Christianity was not "the white man's religion." This is the real controversy because the color scheme is incorrect and the layout is wrong.

"Do You Feel Like We Do?" (Frampton Comes Alive, 1976)

Twelve Jewish men, sitting there looking like twelve relatives of Jan Stenerud. "Aren’t you from Galilee?" "Ya." So this isn’t Jesus at all, it’s Tony Soprano and his gang.

Never allow what has been accepted and acculturated to blind you to what is Biblical and accurate. Don’t allow unscriptural images to blind you to what is real and what is right.

"Baby, I Love Your Way." (Frampton Comes Alive, 1976)

How to argue with a philosopher

I have been usually unable to convince the confirmed skeptic (like professor Muhrer at Penn Valley and his Eupraxophy Center in KC, or the atheist author Gordon Stein whom I debated at KU). There is a simple reason for that: I can't help someone be more skeptical. I mean, as a believer, the whole goal of God using my life is to create faith in others. That means he is not very interested in me "seeing it their way." But one thing I can do is click my purple pen and get the skeptic to think.

First, do they really want to argue about the Christian God, the God of the Bible? Okay then, but "ye know not what ye ask." Because your first objection is going to be "why did God . . ." or, "why didn't he . . ." or, "how come it's not okay for . . .".

Wait, hold it. You said you wanted to talk about the God of the Bible, the Christian God (not "America's Idol"). And the God of the Bible is eternal, omniscient, omnipresent, and unchanging. Let me break it down for you. God is good . . . all the time; all the time . . . God is good.

See, the God of the Bible, because he is all-knowing and all-seeing, and so infinite that he is personal, is never unloving or unkind. How’d you miss that, all these years? Because that means he has never done anything that is. That means nothing that has ever happened to you was (which is called providence—sort of like divine serendipity).

Don't run away just because you don't know really what serendipity is. The bottom line is that if you want to talk about the biblical God (the one real Christianity proclaims), then you are talking about a God that knows some things you don't. So when you ask, "Why did he kill the whole population of this planet (minus eight persons) with a flood?" you don't recognize he did that because it was the most merciful thing that could have been done. You missed that so let me repeat it. If God had not done that very thing at that precise time with those particular people, you and I would not be here today having this conversation (Ps 14:2-4). Oh, and by the way, don't criticize the God of the Bible if you don't want to accept his explanations for what he does (Gen 6:5). Either it was as bad as all that (Ps 53:2-4), or else you don't know how bad it was and have to guess that it wasn't. As for God's part, he does not rely on second-hand evidence, but examines the situation personally before he acts (Gen 18:20-21; 11:5). (P.S. That's the good thing about immutability: you can count on God's consistency.)

"Antedeluvia" was God being totally hands-off with the human race. You cannot say they were ignorant of what he wanted (after all, they had a "Billy Graham," 2 Pet 2:5). Neither can you say that God did not place a witness among them all the way up to (and including) Methuselah (consistent with his actions later, Isa 66:4; Jer 4:14). Sending the flood was a merciful act of God to preserve his creation so that he could start all over with a more "hands-on" approach that begins with Noah, isolates Abraham, and eventuates in Jesus. And of course, you know what the Bible says HE did.

But, if your goal is to stay confirmed in your skepticism, I can't help you with that. No good at it. Instead, I would recommend an antidote for your hopeless despair. (Ouch! Sorry, but sometimes you have to give people the answer. Kind of like asking, "How's that working for you?")

In the book How Do You Know You're Not Wrong? Paul Copan (Ph.D. Marquette and a Chair of Philosophy and Ethics in FL) takes all the typical slogans of skeptics (most things that stump Christians are really just slogans), and shines his spotlight on them to make you think. The book was published a couple of years ago by Baker (ISBN: 0801064996). Complaints about Christianity can be answered by simple appeals to truth. Some of the difficulties he handles with discretion are:

"Naturalism is a simpler explanation than theism." Yeah, right!
"You can't prove that scientifically." Let's try.
"Animals have rights just like you do." Well, okay, allow him at least one throwaway chapter.
"How could God command Abraham to sacrifice Isaac?" Good question. Do you know?
"Why is the Old Testament so harsh and oppressive?" Better get the book. I don't want to give away the storyline.
"It's unfair that humans are punished for Adam's sin." Really? I thought we were just suffering the consequence of his choice as our representative head. Besides, I'm not sure you're punished for anybody's sin but your own. But if you do want to look at it that way, maybe you should consider that the sin God sends you to hell for is really just your rejection of the remedy he provides. If you die because you will not swallow the medicine the pharmacist dispenses, do you blame the doctor? I trow not. But then, maybe some of us are not so much different than the gents in Gen 6 after all.

His other book, That's Just Your Interpretation is also food for thought. Don’t read it unless you want to be (de)convinced.

"Behind a Frowning Providence"

1. Providence revolves, Phil 4:11-13

Inside a wheel, one part never revolves. The axle sets on the axis and it is static. Our experiences are never static; they always change. But the axle of God's purpose and plan is his providence, and that stays centered and never moves. Paul was able to be content because he learned to identify God's providence, and rest right in the center with it. The exterior wheel of your circumstance is constantly changing, but the center is fixed forever if you can find it. Begin to look at the spokes of your life and see them in connection to the hub. Put all the spokes together and you'll see the symmetry of how God is balancing all things in your life to produce the image of Christ.

God is wise. God is just. God is all-knowing. God is kind. Why don’t you let him be that way in your life? Why constantly look at things, then accuse God either of not being good, not being kind, not knowing, or not being fair? The only reason we do that is because we do not believe in providence. Either you will respond with belief or unbelief. Either you will count God good and kind and worthy, or foolishly charge him with unfairness.

2. Providence is all-encompassing, Ezek 1:15

The creatures carrying the throne each had four faces, one for each direction, because it is impossible to sneak-up on providence and surprise it with anything. That is how providence is different from fate, because

3. Providence has eyes

Fate is blind. Catholicism and Islam say a certain thing will happen as a matter of decree, and nothing can ever change it. But biblically, providence operates in partnership with God's decrees. Yet providence is a living thing, because providence takes into account your reactions, and factors them into the decree. Today we would say that providence is interactive.

That's why we pray. You say, why should I pray if God has decreed everything? I say, the reason I do pray is because God has decreed everything. You missed that, so let me restate it. God wants to give me revival. God puts in my heart a desire for revival. So I begin to pray for revival so God can answer that prayer and give me the thing he intended to give me all along. My God is so great, that providence takes your free will into account, and enfolds it into his plan. That's how sovereign my God is.

You don't believe me, so let me prove it from a text. God's plan was that Jesus should die as our substitute. Providence used the free will of the Jewish leaders in rejecting Christ to bring about that plan. Looking back on the wheels revolving, Peter said,

Acts 2:23 Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God [providence], ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain [free will]:

So providence has eyes in all directions because providence is a living thing.

4. Providence is the thing that factors your free response into God's divine purpose

Develop the desire in your heart that according to God's providence and by God's grace, you are going to arrive at the highest level you can—providence does not intend anything lower for you. But providence, because it has eyes and is living, will respond to your will in relation to God's will.

5A. Not only is providence universal, but it is uniform; there is only one providence, Ezek 1:16

There were four wheels and four faces, but only one likeness. God was going to make Joseph Egypt's governor. But the first step was to get Joseph's brothers to hate him. That was a "rough providence." It looked like a step backward. Then they put Joseph in a pit. Another step backward? Just wait. They sell him as a slave. But hold on one second, because providence has only one likeness. That means,

5B. Since providence is one, you can never look at its rough parts as separate and evil

I think I just said something; you better cut and paste that someplace.

How do I know Joseph had a clear understanding of the process of God's providence? Because there is not one word of complaint. Instead, wherever he is, Jo becomes the best one there. That is the difference between Joseph and Israel in their wanderings, and the difference between Joseph and you. Become God's child and you can know that all things are being controlled by God to produce the image of Christ in your life. That is the ultimate goal of providence. We always want to see through providence and know "why?" but providence is the color of beryl or topaz (Ezek 1:16). You don't have eyes good enough to see through beryl, Superman. So you can't always see the good that suffering does to you; you have to simply believe it.

There is no half-stepping between this and atheism. Either you respond to every circumstance of life by faith because you understand God's providence, or you respond like a lost man or woman and an unbeliever.

GOD moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea and rides upon the storm.
Deep in unfathomable mines of never failing skill
He treasures up His bright designs and works His sovereign will.

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take; the clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy and shall break in blessings on your head.
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust Him for His grace;
Behind a frowning providence He hides a smiling face.

His purposes will ripen fast, unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste, but sweet will be the flower.
Blind unbelief is sure to err and scan His work in vain;
God is His own interpreter, and He will make it plain.

—William Cowper, 1774