The Kingdom
What is the mission? the standard answer in the evangelical church is to save souls, but the message that Jesus taught most is not, “Say this prayer and you get to live in heaven when you die.” In fact, if you read the Gospels, you keep hearing Him talk about this Kingdom thing. What is that? I believe that it is the most important message for us to understand in order to know how we are to live this life and what the next will be like. Let me start at the beginning.
“God created the Heavens and the Earth.” You can take “heaven” to mean the air and outer space only or also the dwelling place of God (the spiritual sphere) with its creatures. After all, is it really the beginning if you have this entire spiritual system preexisting? I am not going to die on this hill, but I believe it points to the fact that the spiritual and physical were made as one in the beginning and the lack of distinction in the rest of the Bible between spiritual heavens and physical heavens bears this out.
As we continue to read Genesis we see other unearthly things like God walking in the garden, a talking snake, the tree of eternal life (which we see later in heaven) and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and then we see angels guarding the garden after the fall. I believe all these point to the conclusion that there was no distinction between the spiritual and physical in Eden. In the fall, with the introduction of the knowledge of good and evil, the two spheres were separated.
Through history, God has been working to bring them back together. When he appeared to the patriarchs He showed them the hope of Heaven in promises and foreshadowed His redemption through the exodus and finally in setting aside a people and instructing them to build the Tabernacle He once more brought heaven and earth together as His glory rested in the Holy of Holies. Even this was a shadow of what would come and only on one day a year were the two united on the day of atonement.
Finally with Christ, Man and God were united as Emanuel, God With Us. Once again in Christ the spiritual and physical were reconciled. At His death the veil was torn, not that the Holy of Holies was done away with but that the dwelling of God’s glory was extended to all those who are united with Christ. The Kingdom of God was established on earth. Wherever believers are there is the Kingdom and as we grow in numbers and work in wisdom to bring about the will of God on earth as it is in heaven, we widen the overlap and, in some way, restore Eden and begin living in eternity even before that transformation and renewal of our bodies.
What does this mean for the future? My post millennial brothers will say that the Kingdom will continue to grow until all is redeemed and I can see some Scripture that would tend to imply that, though many brothers who hold a premillennial view would say that the Bible is clearly teaching things will get worse and worse until Jesus steps in to sort it all out. My take is that it is both. The good will get better and the bad will get worse and the hidden things will be plain and all will know exactly who they serve and then comes the end. But I am willing to admit that I haven’t put much time into the study, because I don’t believe it can be definitively proven until it happens and then the matter will be clear. Until then, we take God at His word and trust He will do good.
The reason this Kingdom view is important for the church is that it gives meaning to our lives and gatherings and teachings. The vast majority of my church experience has been along the lines of, “Just hang on till Jesus comes” and mimics the Gnostics in their hatred of the physical. This view torments people by telling them that this world is a torture chamber and the best we can hope for is to die and escape to heaven, hopefully leading some people to heaven as well. It is a pretty dark place to live to feel that you are never doing enough evangelism and that anything else you do is pointless. It also contradicts Scripture which teaches that some are evangelists, but others have different gifts.
Hardly ever is it taught that God put Adam and Eve on earth with the potential to live eternally here, not as something less than heaven, but as the true paradise built for them and that they were built for. Or that we do not die and go sit on a cloud playing a harp for all eternity, but that we will dwell in the renewed Heaven and Earth in real renewed and glorified bodies. If we better understood this, then it might bring into perspective Christ’s teachings on the Kingdom and why He taught so much about how to conduct our lives here, not just preparing for the next life. And so we would finally understand that there is real meaning to our lives beyond just saying a prayer of salvation at some point and trying to avoid sin. There is a goal we are advancing toward and the Gates of Hell will not prevail against this Church’s advance.
