The following blog is about perspectives on the kingdom of God based on writings by Marcus Borg, Tom Skinner, John Bright, Andrew Kirk, Howard Snyder and Graham Cray.
According to Marcus Borg (Christian Century, "Jesus and the Kingdom of God," April 22, 1987), who surveyed the scholarly literature written on the kingdom of God during the twentieth century, most of the writings had a strong future orientation, an eschatological dimension. Toward the end of the 20th century, a present dimension began to dominate the literature. Borg's conclusion: the church still does not have a "clear and compelling" vision of the kingdom of God. My informal survey of hundreds of laypersons revealed lack of clarity and an uncertainty on the nature of the kingdom of God.
John Perkins sat in on a CCD workshop with a group of pastors. I asked each pastor to write down a one sentence definition of the kingdom of God. Then each pastor read their definition out loud; the definitions were shallow. John commented later that it seemed that it was the first time they had given serious thought to the issue.
Tom Skinner, an Afro American, now deceased, is one of a few evangelicals who for many years has strongly emphasized a present and social dimension to the kingdom of God; he constantly tied the kingdom to the oppressed poor.
John Bright (1953) wrote a classic book on The Kingdom of God; he states:
* The total message of the Bible is encompassed under the concept of the kingdom of God.
* There is a continuity in emphasis on the kingdom in both Testaments.
* Jesus never defined the kingdom of God; he assumed his hearers understood the concept.
* "It involves the whole notion of the rule of God over his people, and particularly the vindication of that rule and people in glory at the end of history. That was the Kingdom which Jews awaited."
* "Before the hope of a messianic kingdom, there had to be the kingdom of Israel."
* Under King David, "The people of Yahweh had become the Kingdom of Israel, the citizens of the Davidic state. The state had produced Israel's Golden Age. It would become impossible for a man of Judah to think of the coming Messiah save as a new David." Hence the importance of Isaiah's Messianic passages: 9:7; 11:1-4; 16:5; 28:16-17; 42:1-4; 61:1-4.
* "The people were all too prone to identify God's Kingdom with themselves [ethnocentrically] [a mistake the Puritans also made], and to imagine that the foreign nations [Gentiles] . . . existed for the purposes of judgment only. . . . God intends to rule over the whole earth, and foreigners are invited to accept that rule (45:22-3; 49:6)."
* The gospel of the Kingdom is for all nations. "It lies at the very heart of the gospel message."
Noble's summary evaluation: Bright is very strong on the overall importance of the kingdom and the continuity between the OT and the NT. But Bright is weak on the relationship of the kingdom of God and the Holy Spirit. He is also weak on the crucial role of justice in the kingdom; and he says little about the oppressed poor as central to kingdom ministry.
Andrew Kirk has written a book on the kingdom of God titled The Good News of the Coming Kingdom: The Marriage of Evangelism and Social Responsibility, 1983
* Evangelicals who only believe in evangelism but not social justice are blind to the fact that they have no theology of society to guide them; therefore they have been easily seduced by secular Western Enlightenment values such "free enterprise, pragmatism, success and organizational efficiency." Noble: I would rephrase this secular seduction as the American trinity of hyperindividualism, hypermaterialism and hyperethnocentrism.
* Therefore, we need to rediscover the biblical teaching on the kingdom God. Not an easy task because so many are loosely attaching almost any and every idea to the kingdom concept.
* "God's reign has to do with the specific way a society should operate. . . . to uphold justice and equity, to judge in favor of the oppressed, to give food to the hungry, to set prisoners free, to protect strangers and to help widows and orphans."
* "the establishing of a new kind of community based on open and generous sharing in line with such legislation as that for the sabbatical and jubilee years." Lev. 25; Deut. 15
* In the NT "Jesus' ministry took place against a background of intense nationalism [ethnocentrism]. He was aware of the danger that the God of the universe could converted into nothing more than a local tribal deity." The Jew's own private God; see Luke 4:25-30.
* Kirk engages in a comprehensive analysis of economics in terms of wealth and poverty both biblically and currently. He calls the church to deal with root causes of social evil and not be content with only charity responses.
Howard Snyder (A Kingdom Manifesto, 1985) is one of two scholars that I know of who has tied the power and wisdom of the Holy Spirit, the kingdom of God, and justice together in one holistic package. Earlier, he wrote two fine books on the church: The Problem of Wineskins and The Community of the King. Snyder states: "Many people who have been converted to Jesus seemingly have never been converted to the kingdom he proclaimed."
Snyder, in a paraphrase of Acts 1:6-8 closely tied the Spirit and the kingdom together: "His disciples ask, 'Are you finally going to set up your kingdom?' Jesus replies, 'The time for the full flowering of the new order still remains a mystery to you; it's in God's hands. But . . . the Holy Spirit will give you power to live the kingdom NOW. So you are to be witnesses of the kingdom and its power from here to the very ends of the earth." Unfortunately this important theme is not fully developed in the rest of his otherwise fine book.
Snyder: "The Bible is full of teaching on the kingdom of God, and the church has largely missed it."
Snyder devotes seven chapters to seven themes or concepts which he believes illuminate the essence of the kingdom of God: "peace [shalom], land, house, city, justice, Sabbath and Jubilee."
Snyder: "Jesus does not seem to have been inaugurating a Jubilee year. Rather he was announcing the Jubilee age---the very kingdom of God."
Snyder: Even though God can and does do some of the work of the kingdom "outside and beyond the church; the church is the primary point of entry of the new order of the kingdom into present history."
Noble: We are called to be the church and do the kingdom.
Pope Francis to priests and people: "Leave the security of the sanctuary and enter into the suffering of the streets."
Graham Cray, author of "A Theology of the Kingdom," Transformation, Oct/Dec., 1988, is an English pastor. Cray states that most evangelicals understand the kingdom of God primarily in a personal, spiritual sense---"the present inner rule of God in the heart," or in a futuristic sense. For Cray "the agenda of the kingdom is justice, and the dynamic of the kingdom is the Holy Spirit."
Noble's paraphrase of Acts 1:6-8 in the light of Isaiah 9:7; mLuke 4:18-19; Roman 14:17 and Acts 8:12 and 28:23, 31:
"The disciples ask the One who had been incessantly talking about the kingdom of God, "Is this the time that you are going to establish the Jewish kingdom modeled after David's kingdom? Is NOW the time?" Jesus replied, "A good question, but there are some things only God knows. Here is what you really need to know. I have been talking to you about both the kingdom of God and the Holy Spirit. Now is the time for you to be filled with the person and power of the Holy Spirit so that you can proclaim me both as the resurrected Savior and Messianic king of the kingdom of God. You begin by witnessing to your fellow Jews, but my gospel is for all peoples, all nations, even Samaritans and Gentiles.
Remember then, that your ministry is two-pronged: preach me as Savior and prove this by appealing to the law of Moses and the prophets. Also preach and practice my kingdom which is justice, shalom and joy in the Holy Spirit. The poor and oppressed will rejoice when they hear both biblical messages."
For the kingdom to come, you will have to repent. Change your allegiance from the cosmos Jewish social order, the cosmos Greek social order, the cosmos Roman social order, the American cosmos social order. The NT contrasts the cosmos and the kingdom.
In its good sense, the cosmos is the world, the universe, created by God. But sin invaded the cosmos; therefore,in the NT the cosmos is often used in a negative sense---as fallen or evil social order, as Satan's kingdom here on earth (Luke 4:5-6). The cosmos includes negative social values such as ethnocentrism and oppressive social institutions.
Marriage and family are ordained by God; in all societies, marriage and family are the norm even though often battered by spouse abuse, adultery, divorce, abortion and homosexuality.
According to Stephen Mott, cosmos "refers to the order of society and indicates that evil has a social and political character beyond isolated actions of individuals."
Cosmos which fundamentally means order, was commonly used by Greeks to refer to the social order; for example, the city-state or the universe. They prized this sense of order and saw it as necessary to avoid anarchy or chaos.
While there is much truth in the Greek perspective, the NT present a different perspective:
"Whereas for classical Greece, cosmos protected values and life, now in the New Testament, cosmos represents twisted values which threatened genuine human life. . . . Now the cosmos order is the intruder bearing immorality."
In other words, the cosmos is fallen. In the NT, the cosmos "is a system of values which are in opposition to God." The claim of "Christian nation"can be proven in terms of words, of ideology, but it is strongly contradicted by actions of ethnocentrism and oppression against Native Americans and Afro Americans. As Americans we have a fateful choice: repent and enter the kingdom of God or continue our syncretistic mixture of pseudo Christianity/civil religion/ American trinity.
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