Re: The Kingdom Of God [comments in response are welcome – LW]
According to the Old Testament prophets, the Kingdom of God is the people, place, and time-frame wherein God Himself rolls back sin and evil among mankind and within Nature, and rules directly — through His Messiah, as resident, supernatural, and historical-personal-covenantal King — in perfect justice, peace and righteousness from Jerusalem over all of the nations. During that time, God’s Spirit “covers” all of the earth, and brings salvation-history to its promised Sabbath-rest.
Matthew and Paul depict the working of the Spirit, between the Incarnation and our Lord’s return to establish that Kingdom, as being a time of “earnest”, “foretaste”, or “first-fruits” of the Kingdom, where Jesus’ name is honored in faith and hope and love. This “walking in the Spirit” heralds and somewhat demonstrates the Kingdom “ahead of time”, and therefore to some extent participates in it. But the life of God’s people during this interim time is NOT the actual “Kingdom” itself: rather, its “embryonic” presence here and now beckons to people to freely choose to become citizens of that Kingdom, so that when it DOES come (at the King’s own return) in promised power and glory, they will be a resurrected and sanctified part of it!
In addition, Paul and John describe life as it exists AFTER the earthly Kingdom: there will be a Final Judgment of humans and angels, with the wicked being cast into Hell and the children of God being welcomed into an eternal and perfect New Heavens and New Earth that is part of a transfigured cosmos, where death is no more. This New Heavens and New Earth does not negate or take the place of the (earlier) covenantally-promised Kingdom of God upon the earth, but rather represents a NEW BEGINNING that takes place AFTER the “consummation” of the Kingdom. In a sense, BOTH can rightly be called “The Kingdom of God”; but in I Cor. 15, Paul calls the first (the 1000 years Kingdom on earth) “the kingdom of {God] the Son” and the post-Judgment New Heaven and New Earth “the Kingdom of [God] the Father”, in which the Spirit Himself will not just “cover” but also FILL “all things” eternally.
It is therefore a gross error either (1) to neglect the Rev. 20 Millennial Kingdom, during which time Jesus the Messiah rules the earth, per Psalm 2, Zechariah 14, etc., from a believing and resurrected Israel (also represented among the nations by a remnant resurrected Church during that time), on the one hand; or (2) to over-inflate the Church’s importance by claiming that (in some form) she IS “the Kingdom” here and now, ruled not directly by Jesus Himself but rather by alleged “apostles and prophets” as His “delegated” earthly authority, on the other hand. The Church’s role rather is to herald the Gospel and to demonstrate something of the coming LIFE of the Kingdom, through the Spirit in Jesus’ name, but NOT to pretend to a power or authority or “perfection” that is not yet fully allotted to her (or even possible yet for her) in her present not-fully-sanctified state. (Apostles and prophets have their place, but they do not take the place of the King Himself!)< /div>
Thus, when Paul refers to “Christ in you — the hope of glory!” (in Colossians), he is NOT saying that the Church itself is mankind’s “hope” — of course, only Jesus Himself is! — but what he IS saying, is that, because believers have indeed put their trust in Christ and experience the life of His Spirit within them, therefore they can be assured that God WILL “finish what He has started” in them: He does not merely cause them to become “born again” and thus to be adopted as “children of God”, but also — when our Lord returns — WE SHALL BE LIKE HIM, such that our inward natures and character are so “re-made” as to be fit vehicles for carrying His glory in the Age and World to Come! The focus, then, is still not on US but rather always on JESUS! We never “replace” Him here on earth, we only reflect His presence to those with the heart and the eyes to see.
— Lance Wonders
I recently found out about ACTS Bible College and would like to speak to someone about choosing course work and admission requirements. Thank you.