This is especially true of “kingdom.” Clearly the kingdom is central to the story of the gospels (basileia occurs 162 times in the New Testament). But what does the word mean? Let me suggest three complementary ways to look at the kingdom. I realize this is not an exegetical study. But perhaps the theological overview will be helpful.

What is the Kingdom ?
1. The kingdom is God’s reign and rule. At its simplest, the kingdom is where the King is. Where God is acknowledged, where his subjects are saved, where his enemies are vanquished, where his ways are obeyed, there we see the coming of the kingdom.

2. The kingdom of God is the long-awaited Messianic rule. Jesus’ prefaced his preaching of the gospel of the kingdom by announcing, “The time is fulfilled…” God’s Messianic rule was explicitly predicted in the Old Testament (e.g., Psalm 2). It was also prefigured in different ways. The Garden of Eden, with its peace, prosperity, absence of sin and suffering, and perfect relationship between God and man, was a picture of the kingdom of God. So was the nation of Israel in the promised land. The covenant blessings were blessings of the kingdom: safety, security, health, prosperity, God’s presence. These blessings reached their zenith under King David. He was a type of the Messianic King to come.

3. The kingdom of God is the age to come breaking in to the present age. Think of what we see in the visions from John and Isaiah of the new heaven and new earth. We see a new kind of Eden: no more tears, no evil, no impurity, perfect security, abundance, and holiness, a place where God is all in all, where the Lamb is worshiped, adored, and obeyed. This is the heavenly age that has broken in to our world with the coming of Christ. In Jesus’ ministry we see the signs of the kingdom. The sick are healed. The hungry are fed. Demons are defeated. Sinners repent and come to God in faith.

With Jesus, the kingdom has arrived, but it hasn’t fully set up shop. The kingdom of this world has not yet become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ (Rev. 11). We have the kingdom now as an appetizer. We can taste it. It is real food, but it’s not the main dish.

A Few Cautions
Whenever we try to define something as big, broad, and potentially confusing as the kingdom, it’s important we state our definition in positives and negatives. So in addition to the three statements above, let me suggest five cautions.

1. Don’t be afraid to talk about the kingdom. Some conservatives avoid preaching the gospel of the kingdom, believing that kingdom talk is for liberals. But Jesus and the apostles showed no such hesitation. The message about God’s reign and rule was hugely significant to their theology and should be to ours as well.

2. Don’t have a truncated view of the kingdom. For many people the kingdom of God equals social services. But the kingdom is not just the alleviation of suffering, it means conquering God’s enemies, ridding the world of impurity, and acknowledging the splendor of the King. So before we get all excited about “doing kingdom work” we should remember that the coming kingdom will not just be devoid of hunger, it will also be devoid of the wicked and unbelieving.

3. Don’t drive a wedge between the church and the kingdom. The church does not equal the kingdom, but in this age the kingdom is largely manifested in the church. That’s where we find the people of the King. That’s where we are supposed to see reconciliation, the alleviation of poverty, the mitigation of suffering, the conquering of evil powers, and the worship of King Jesus. A vision for the kingdom is a vision for the growth, reformation, and revival of the church.

4. Don’t think we build the kingdom. The kingdom is something brought by the King, not something we build. The verbs related to the kingdom in the New Testament aren’t verbs like “build” or “expand,” but verbs like “receive,” “inherit,” and “enter.” The kingdom is a gift that God gives to us, not a project that God expects us to accomplish.

5. Don’t forget to talk about how we enter the kingdom. As Greg Gilbert has pointed out before, we haven’t proclaimed the gospel of the kingdom unless we have told how people they can enter into this kingdom. The good news of the kingdom is not simply that God is in the world establishing his rule, conquering his enemies, righting wrongs, forming a holy people for himself, and reversing the effects of sin and suffering. The good news must also include the message that through Christ’s wrath-bearing death and his glorious resurrection we can be a part of this kingdom. The gospel of the kingdom is no good news unless we tell people how unrighteous, unholy, undeserving sinners can receive this kingdom through repentance for our sins and faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

If I had one area of pushback it would be to talk a little bit more about whether the church is ever justified in directly engaging a political issue and/or calling for a specific area of “positive change” in the community. I benefited from Hart’s book Secular Faith (more than I thought I might) and quoted from it in Why We’re Not Emergent. I agree that except in rare cases, the church as church should refrain from making pronouncements on political issues, but I think there are some cases (i.e. slavery in the South, Hitler in Germany, apartheid in South Africa, abortion in the West) where silence from the pulpit is cowardice. It’s very possible Stellman and Hart agree with me on this; I’m not sure.

To give one example, I have said clearly from the pulpit that abortion is sinful (as the arises from the text) and have prayed in pastoral prayers for its legality to be overturned. But I have never said from the pulpit who people should vote for or who I vote for. Nor do I exhort everyone to “do something about abortion.” We don’t all have the same vocation, as Hart points out. But I would certainly encourage people to consider what God might be calling them to do about this injustice: pray, adopt, volunteer, advocate for change, etc.

Further, if a church started an adoption ministry I would say that this is probably a good thing. A chuch doesn’t have to start such a ministry to prove they care about abortion. There are a hundred other ways to care about this issue by means of other programs or no programs at all. But if some people from our church wanted to start an adoption program we would not be opposed in principle to making this an official minisntry of the church (though, we don’t automatically turn everyone’s good idea into a ministry either; there are a number of factors to consider). Some two-kingdom people I talk to (and really I am more 2K than not) seem opposed to any program in the church besides the weekly worship service and pastoral care. This strikes me as a good instinct taken too far.

Do read the two pieces from WHI. They are very helpful

Jason Stellman here.
Daryl Hart here.

In broad strokes, the two kingdom folks believe in a kingdom of this world and a kingdom of Christ. We have a dual citizenship as Christians. Further, the realm of nature should not be expected to function and look like the realm of grace. Living in the tension of two kingdoms we should stop trying to transform the culture of this world into the kingdom of our Lord and instead focus on the church being the church, led by it duly ordained officers and ministering through the ordinary means of grace.

On the other hand, neo-Kupyerianism (intellectual descendants of the Dutch theologian and politician Abraham Kuyper) argue that every square inch of this world belongs to Christ. Therefore, his Lordship should be felt and manifested in politics, in the arts, in education, in short, everywhere. Because the work of Christ was not just to save sinners but also to renew the whole cosmos, we should be at work to change the world and transform the culture.

I don’t like the “third rail” folks who are always positioning themselves as the sane alternative between two extremes, but I have to admit that there are elements of both approaches–two kingdom theology and neo-Kuyperianism–that seem biblical and elements that seem dangerous.

On the plus side for the two-kingdom approach:
• Emphasis on the church and the ordinary means (e.g., preaching, sacraments)
• Realistic appraisal of our fallen world and the dangers of utopian idealism
• Acknowledges that while Christians can do and should do many worthwhile things in the world, the church as church has a more limited mandate
• Avoids endless, and often silly, pronouncements on all sorts of cultural and political matters
• Takes seriously the already and not-yet of the kingdom
• Understands that every nice thing that happens in the world is not “kingdom work”
• A bulwark against theonomy and reconstructionism

But I also see some dangers in a radical two-kingdom approach:
• An exaggerated distinction between laity and church officers (e.g., evangelism is the responsibility of elders and pastors not of the regular church members)
• An unwillingness to boldly call Christians to work for positive change in their communities and believe that some change is possible
• The doctrine of the “spirituality of the church” allowed the southern church to “punt” (or worse) on the issue of slavery during the 19th century

The neo-Kuyperians have some positives too:
• A desire to make their faith public
• Zeal to confront injustice and help the hurting
• Appreciation for the goodness of the created world
• Takes seriously that Christianity is about more than sinners getting their ticket punched for heaven

But, alas, there are also number of shortcomings with the neo-Kuyperian view:
• Blurs the distinction between common grace and special grace
• Blurs the distinction between general and special revelation
• Can minimize personal redemption at the expense of cosmic renewal
• Explicit biblical support for commanding all Christians to change the world or transform the culture is very thin
• Devolves quickly into an indistinct moralism

So where does this leave us? I’m not quite sure. The two kingdom theology has better biblical support in my opinion. It seems to me we are more like the Israelites in exile in Babylon than we are the Israelites in the promised land. The earnest calls for world transformation assume that because Christ will renew the whole cosmos therefore our main job as Christians is to do the same. But this is basing a whole lot of theology on a pretty tenuous implication. Two kingdom theology feels more realistic to me and fits better with the “un-preoccupied-with-transforming-society” vibe I get from the New Testament.

And yet, I am loathe to be an apologist for the status quo, or to throw cold water on young people who want to see abortion eradicated or dream of kids in Africa having clean water. I don’t think it’s wrong for a church to have an adoption ministry or an addiction recovery program. I think changing structures, institutions, and ideas not only helps people but can pave the way for gospel reception.

Perhaps there is a–I can’t believe I’m going to say it–a middle ground. I say, let’s not lose the heart of the gospel, divine self-satisfaction through self-substitution. And let’s not apologize for challenging Christians to show this same kind of dying love to others. Let’s not be embarrassed by the doctrine of hell and the necessity of repentance and regeneration. And let’s not be afraid to do good to all people, especially to the household of faith. Let’s work against the injustices and suffering in our day, and let’s be realistic that the poor, as Jesus said, will always be among us. Bottom line: let’s work for change where God calls us and gifts us, but let’s not forget that the Great Commission is go into the world and make disciples, not go into the world and build the kingdom.

*****
NOTE: I won’t be able to engage in a lot of discussion on this issue, but I do welcome your thoughts. I know I have painted with very broad strokes, so all you two-kingdom folks and neo-Kuyperians feel free to make a better case for your position than I have laid out here.

Revelation 11:15 The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever.” 16 And the twenty-four elders, who were seated on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, 17 saying: “We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign. 18 The nations were angry; and your wrath has come. The time has come for judging the dead, and for rewarding your servants the prophets and your saints and those who reverence your name, both small and great– and for destroying those who destroy the earth.” 19 Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and within his temple was seen the ark of his covenant. And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake and a great hailstorm.

Instead of silence in heaven, like we saw with the breaking of the seventh seal, we have, with the seventh trumpet, loud voices in heaven–probably the voices of the great multitude of God’s people. It doesn’t say that the voices are singing, but it is a poem or verse or refrain that they utter. And more than likely, this means it was a song. “The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever.”

I love Handel’s Messiah. I love all of it. Unlike almost any other music, I can put the Messiah CD in my car and worship. It is wonderful. And probably the most famous section of the Messiah is the Hallelujah Chorus. It’s so grand and triumphant and majestic. It’s actually not the end of the Messiah. Worthy is the Lamb is the last section. But the Hallelujah Chorus is probably the best known section. And my favorite part of the Chorus is when they sing this line from verse 15. The voices get real soft and legato: “The kingdom of this world.” Then you hear the strings. And the voices sing still softly “is become.” And then the voices and the instruments jump back in full throttle and punch it: “is become…the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and of his Christ. And he shall reign for ever and ever.” The music captures so well the theology of the text. The kingdom of the world is small and fading and lilting compared to the majestic kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ who burst on the scene in triumph and power and royalty and reign for ever and ever. Hallelujah! It’s gospel text put to gospel music.

Thy Kingdom Come

But what does it mean that the kingdom of the world will become the kingdom of God and of Christ? Let’s go back even further. What is the kingdom of the world? It’s the way the world works. The kingdom of the world is whatever rules and has power in this world. 1 John 2:16 defines the world as the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does. That’s what shapes and defines and reigns in this world. Because the world is in rebellion against God. It’s not how God created things, but it’s how things are in a fallen world. This is not the way it’s supposed to be.

But the good news of verse 15 is that one day the ways things are will be the way things are supposed to be, which is another way of saying “the kingdom of the world will become the kingdom of God and of his Christ.”

Let’s spend a few minutes talking about the kingdom of God. Most everyone nowadays is agreed that the kingdom of God is a central theme in the New Testament and the main theme in the gospels. But people can’t agree on what the kingdom means. There are three main views of the kingdom. Together they give a good definition of the kingdom. Separate they present a skewed picture of the kingdom.

The first view of the kingdom is the ethical view. According to this view, the kingdom is about living rightly. It’s about ethics. It’s the Sermon on the Mount. Love your enemies. Forgive those who sin against you. Don’t be judgmental. Give to the poor. Don’t commit adultery. Welcome the outcast. This is the view of the old theological liberals and of many of the new emergent church leaders. The kingdom of God means living out God’s shalom on earth. And that’s not an incorrect view of the kingdom. It’s just incomplete. The kingdom of God does mean living a certain way and enjoying a peace and harmony and justice that only Christ can bring. But that’s not all that the kingdom brings. If the kingdom is only a message about ethics, there’s no good news, because the utopia isn’t coming in this age and we can’t keep the Sermon on the Mount perfectly. So the kingdom is ethics, but it’s more than ethics.

The second view of the kingdom is the experiential view. According to this view, the kindgom is about what it’s your hearts. To receive the kingdom of God you must be like a little child (Mark 10:15). This is the pietistic view fo the kingdom. Be humble. Rely on God. Have an inner experience. Get in touch with your spiritual side. And this is not incorrect. The kingdom of God is about changed hearts and humility and experiencing the love of Jesus. But that’s not all. If the kingdom is only about an experience, there’s no Jesus. The kingdom is not just an experience, or even an experience of Jesus. It’s also a message about who he is, what he’s done, and what he demands.

Which brings us to the third view, the eschatological view. Eschatological simply means last things. According to this view, the kingdom of God ushers in the reign of God and brings us out of this present evil age and into the age to come. The kingdom means the king has come to finally vanquish his foes and save his people. The goats will be separated from the sheep. Those who believe in Jesus will be saved. Those who reject him stand condemned. This is the conservative evangelical view. And it’s right. As much as liberals and emergent folks don’t like it, the kingdom is about who’s in and who’s out. Who submits to the king and his rule and who doesn’t. But that’s not all the kingdom is about. It’s also about heart transformation and living out righteousness and justice.

So the short way of describing the kingdom is to call it the reign and rule of God. The long way to say it is the kingdom is about God having sway over our society, our hearts, and our allegiance. So here’s how one author summarizes Revelation 11:15: “Dominion over the world, without challenge or rival, has come into the possession of our Lord and his anointed King.” When the kingdom of the world becomes the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ there will be no more lawlessness, no more rebellion, no more brokenness, no more injustice, and no more unrighteousness. They way God wants things to be will be the way things are.

Has the Kingdom Come?

But this raises another question. Is the kingdom present or future? Is it here or are we waiting for it to arrive? And the answer is “Yes.” The kingdom of God is present and future; it is here and it has not yet arrived. Until you understand this–what scholars call the already and not yet of the kingdom–you won’t understand the gospels or Revelation or much of the New Testament.

Let me read two verses which illustrate this tension. Matthew 4:17 “From that time on Jesus began to preach, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” Or, as most of the other translations have it, “the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” It’s like in Luke 17 when the Pharisees ask Jesus when the kingdom will come. And he replies, “The kingdom of God is among you.” Some translations have “within” but among is a better translation. With the coming of Jesus Christ, especially in his death and resurrection, the kingdom has come. That’s why Jesus could say the kingdom is at hand.

But here’s the second verse. It’s very familiar to you. Matthew 6:10, the Lord’s Prayer, “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” The kingdom has not yet arrived. So we pray for it to come and break in and fully hit the scene.

I want you to picture a couple of diagrams in your head. I know, it would better if you could see, but just imagine. This was the Jewish mindset. You have two ages: this age and the age to come. This age is present and evil; the age to come is the age in the future where the Messiah reigns and his enemies are destroyed and there is peace and righteousness. They saw this age going in a straight line, then the Messiah, then off into the age to come. But that’s not how Jesus explained things which is part of the reason why they didn’t like him as their Messiah. For the Jesus, and the rest of the New Testament, the two ages work like this. You have this age, then overlapping it is the age to come. When Messiah came he announced the in-breaking of the age to come which was realized in principle. This in-breaking is called the kingdom of God. With the coming of Christ and especially his death and resurrection, the present evil age has become in principle the age to come. But it’s not a clean break from one to the other. They overlap such that this age is growing into what it is in principle. And when the ideal announced by Christ which broke in during his life becomes the reality, then the kingdom of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ.

Here’s an analogy. It’s not a perfect analogy. So don’t press it too far. But it’s kind of like election day and inauguration day. In this country the president is elected on the first Tuesday in November, but his presidency doesn’t officially begin until January 20. He’s won. His opponent has been defeated. It’s all in the papers and on the internet. The whole country preparing for the transition. The winner starts forming his cabinet and putting together his administration. The new era has begun, but on the other hand it hasn’t. See, in one sense, we live in the time between the election and inauguration. Christ has defeated sin and Satan and death. It is appropriate to talk about Christ as the King. The news is all over the place. And we are supposed to make sure everyone hears about this news. But opposition to King is still strong, and in some ways, growing stronger all time. He is the already, but not yet King. And it will be this way until his enemies are thoroughly defeated and his reign fully in place.

This already and not yet is really important. It’s how the kingdom works and how your salvation works. What’s true on a macro level is true on a micro level too. Your life is not a straight line with a clean break between old man and new man, or non-Christian and Christian. It doesn’t work like that–unconverted, selfish, prideful, boom, in Christ, now I’m completely holy. What happens is that you have your life outside of Christ then you are converted, regenerated, justified, adopted, all of that and now you are positionally in Christ. But who you in actuality is not yet that Christlike. Which is why New Testament ethics are based on who you are in Christ. Be who you are. Work out your salvation. Make your calling and election sure. In other words, grow into in reality who Christ has made you to be positionally.

So as a Christian you are already holy and not yet holy and becoming holy. And the kingdom of God is already here, not yet here, and getting here. Until we understand those sequences, we won’t understand how the gospel works and how the gospel of the kingdom works.

O Happy Day

Let’s go back to Revelation now. The kingdom of God is here. He already has defeated the devil and paid for our sins. Christ already sits at the Father’s right hand and is the King of this world. But he must also become the King, because his reign is disputed and his subjects are in unchecked rebellion. But, when the seventh trumpet sounds, there will be no more delay. The reign and rule of the Lord and his Anointed One will finally be complete, unquestioned, and unopposed. And all of God’s people will rejoice at the return of the king.

This is where I want to spend our last few minutes. What will be so good about that day? Or to put it another way, why will we sing and give thanks and fall on our faces and worship God on that day when the kingdom of this world becomes the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ? Here’s the answer: because on that day the Lord will take his power, the nations will no longer rage, the saints will be rewarded, the wicked destroyed, and God himself will be with us. That’s all in verses 17-19. We’ll see the same sequence of events unfolded in more detail in chapters 19-22. But in a sentence this is what the kingdom is and what it will mean when it fully comes: the Lord will take his power, the nations will no longer rage, the saints will be rewarded, the wicked destroyed, and God himself will be with us.

We will sing and give thanks and worship on that day because the Lord will take his power. Since the 1960s, American society has been very suspicious of power. Authority has been seen as a bad thing, maybe even an un-Christian thing. But the Bible is not against power and authority. It is against corrupt power and abusive authority, but not against the things themselves. I trust that we all desperately want the Lord God Almighty to take his great power and begin to reign.

In Revelation 1:4, 1:8, and 4:8 God is described as him who is and who was and who is to come. But here in verse 16 we simply have “the One who is and who was.” The last part of the triad is missing. There is no “who is to come.” Because in chapter 11:16, he has come. He has begun to reign. The future has become the present. On that day, the Lord will have taken his great power.

And the nations will no longer rage. Psalm 2 prophesied “Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One. ‘Let us break their chains,’ they say, ‘and throw off their fetters.’” Psalm 2 goes on to say that the One enthroned in heaven laughs and scoffs at them. Well, this is the Lord getting the last laugh. “The nations were angry; and your wrath has come.”

It’s hard for us to think get too excited about the judgment of the nations because we live in the top dog nation. Most of us don’t know what it’s like to under an oppressive regime, or a government violently hostile to Christianity, or a hopelessly corrupt leader, or a brutal dictator. But one or more of those are the reality for millions of people in the world. Philip Jenkins writes “Societies that know the threat of persecution, that have experienced anti-Christian violence in living memory, feel a strong affinity to the sections of the Bible that regard the secular state coldly, that present suffering as the likely lot of the Christian in this life. In such communities, apocalyptic literature–especially the book of Revelation–has a near-documentary relevance.”

On that day, the saints will be rewarded. Take the best, purest, happiest day of your life, multiply it by a hundred and have that same day for eternity. That’s still not as good as our reward. Watch kids at Christmas. It’s a mythical time for them. Presents, candy, cousins, mom and dad home for work, snowmen, sledding, no school. It’s magical. You may say, “they’re greedy kids, wanting all those presents and candy canes.” Perhaps. But we could stand to be a little more greedy for God’s gifts coming to us in the age to come. It wouldn’t hurt God’s feelings if we were to live each day in anticipation of heaven like kids live every day in December in anticipation for Christmas.

The saints will be rewarded and the destroyers will be destroyed. Eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth is still the law for those who do no know Christ. God is still a God of justice. He still demands an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. It’s just that he poked Christ in the eye and knocked his teeth instead of ours. But don’t forget that this last trumpet is the third woe. As much as the saints rejoice, the final trumpet blast is the sound of death for the wicked. Jeremiah 51:25 “‘I am against you, O destroying mountain, you who destroy the whole earth,’ declares the Lord.”

I’m sure that Revelation 11 is meant to make us think of the Battle of Jericho: For six days the seven priests carrying seven trumpets marched around Jericho blowing their trumpets with the ark of the Lord behind them. And the people did not raise their voices. But on the seventh day, after marching and blowing the trumpets seven times, the people shout, the walls come a tumblin down, and the enemy is routed. In Revelation 11, the seventh trumpet sounds, the people shout in loud voices, and God’s enemies are destroyed.

We will sing and give thanks and fall on our faces and worship God on that day when the kingdom of this world becomes the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, because on that day the Lord will take his power, the nations will no longer rage, the saints will be rewarded, the wicked destroyed, and God himself will be with us. Chapter 11 brings to a close the long vision that began in chapter 4. At the beginning of chapter 4 John saw a door standing open in heaven and a voice like a trumpet speaking to him. And he saw God on the throne with lightning, rumblings, and peals of thunder. And the Lamb who was slain. And then the Lamb took the scroll and opened its seals one by one. And as the last seal was broken John saw seven angels with seven trumpets. And they were sounded one by one. And with the sounding of the last trumpet, John again sees a door open and inside there are flashes of lightning, rumblings, and peals of thunder. This long vision has come to an end and will lead into a different set of images in chapter 12.

I’ve said before the lightning, rumbling, and thunder are signs of theophany. They symbolize the presence of God, which is why they surround him who sits on the throne. And that’s why the seven seals ended with lightning, rumbling, and thunder and why the seven trumpets do as well. This series, which grows each time adding an earthquake and now hail, signify that this is the end. God has come to earth. The world has been judged. The righteous rewarded. And God dwells with us.

But, you say, there’s no vision of God here. Yes there is. There’s the ark of the covenant. The ark was in the holy of holies in the temple because it symbolized the presence of God. That’s why losing the ark was a big deal and touching the ark meant death. It was a physical manifestation of God’s holiness. And John sees the temple doors wide open so he can look right at the ark. So, here’s the best news of the good news, when the kingdom of this world becomes the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, God himself will be with us–Immanuel.

So rejoice the Lord is King! Your Lord and King adore. Rejoice, give thanks and sing and triumph evermore. Lift up your heart, lift up your voice. Rejoice, again, I say, rejoice!