On the first day of my orientation to become a Peace Corps Volunteer, I was told that the mission of the Peace Corps was to send out 'Ambassadors of good will' to each nation that we had been invited to.
The idea was that when a skilled need was identified in each country - something that a local resident could not do without expensive training- that a volunteer from the United States could be sent to provide training to that individual or a team of that country.
As 'ambassadors', we were instructed that we were representatives of the U.S. in other peoples land. As such, we were guests and not residents. We were not to get involved with the local politics or offer unsolicited opinions regarding local officials. It was a serious charge, and if we were found to be violating that role, we would be immediately sent back home.
The United States does not need an embassy in its own territory such as Washington D.C. Instead, it has embassies in lands who are not under the physical rule of the U.S. government.
Even so, the charge to be ambassadors of our King recognizes that our politics is in heaven. "For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:" - Philippians 3:20 KJV. Our current residence on earth is under occupation of a different sovereign power.
In 2 Corinthians 5:18-21, The apostle Paul gives the church a serious charge that we as believers in Jesus Christ are acting as ambassadors for Christ.
"Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech [you] by us: we pray [you] in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God."
2 Corinthians 5:20 KJV
The title of ambassador makes little sense if God's kingdom on earth is a present reality. As ambassadors of a foreign kingdom are we called to represent the coming King while living in another king's land.
We are not called to overthrow the authority of the current monarch, that is something that only the King of kings and Lord of lords can do. However, we are called to describe our current citizenship in heaven and then invite others through the gospel of Jesus Christ to become heirs of His coming Kingdom on earth.
In this role, we are not advocating armed rebellion against the current Satanic rule of this present world system. (This assertion excludes the role of human government to take up arms as a check against evil - Romans 13:1-4) However, we are preaching the tragic outcome of remaining loyal to it.
Unfortunately, much of Christendom that call themselves the church of the living God have lost sight of this role and have instead asserted themselves as the conquering heroes of the Kingdom of God on earth.
With this mindset, gospel preaching moves from calling sinners to come out of the world and be separate, to calling the church to go back into the world in order to change it. Yet we are reminded by the Lord Himself in Matthew 19:28 that the time for reigning is yet future. Christ has not yet taken His place on David’s throne as described in Revelation 3:21.
There are many in the church who argue that Christ occupies David’s throne now.(Some call themselves 'progressive dispensationalists') However, showing that current conditions are consistent with the conditions that the prophets describe for the promised Kingdom is a difficult assertion to maintain.
Moreover, the history of nations has shown the inherent dangers in adopting this mindset. Alva J. McClain writes:
“The distances traveled down this road by various religious movements, and the forms of control which were developed, have been widely different. The difference is very great between the Roman Catholic system and modern Protestant efforts to control the state; also between the ecclesiastical rule of Calvin in Geneva and the fanaticism of Münster and the English ‘fifth-monarchy.’ But the basic assumption is always the same: The church in some sense is the kingdom, and therefore has a divine right to rule; or it is the business of the church to ‘establish’ fully the Kingdom of God among men…”
Alva J. McClain, The Greatness of the Kingdom: An Inductive Study of the Kingdom of God as Set Forth in the Scriptures (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1959), 438-39.
This quote highlights a result of kingdom confusion is that the church begins to assert itself as a political body and inevitably leads to control of the state by the church. He goes on to point out what we have seen throughout church history. Namely, that as where the church assumes that it is the kingdom of God, it assumes that it has a divine right to rule.
This is contrary to its pilgrim character.
“…Thus the church loses its pilgrim character and the sharp edge of its divinely commissioned ‘witness’ is blunted. It becomes an ekklēssia which is not only in the world, but also of the world. It forgets that just as in the regeneration of the soul only God can effect the miracle, even so the ‘regeneration’ of the world can only be wrought by the intrusion of regal power from on high (Matt. 19:28).”
Alva J. McClain, The Greatness of the Kingdom: An Inductive Study of the Kingdom of God as Set Forth in the Scriptures (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1959), 438-39.
As the apostle to the circumcision, Peter's ministry was primarily to Jewish believers. He points to them that there is a future day of visitation. The Kingdom will come when the King returns but until then the status of believers is that of pilgrims and strangers:
"Dearly beloved, I beseech [you] as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by [your] good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation."
1 Peter 2:11-12 KJV
McClain concludes that when the church loses sight of its calling and status as pilgrims, it comes to believe that the church is responsible to make the world ready to receive the King by conforming to the truth of scripture. She forgets that the Kingdom can only come when the nation of Israel recognizes Jesus Christ as their Messiah and rightful heir to David's throne.
"Behold, your house is left unto you desolate: and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, until [the time] come when ye shall say, Blessed [is] he that cometh in the name of the Lord."
Luke 13:35 KJV
The preaching of Jesus Christ to “Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand” (Matthew 4:17) is unique to His offer of the Kingdom to the Jewish nation at His first coming to the earth.
However, the church's mandate to preach, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31) calls all men everywhere to switch their allegiance from the present world system and place their faith in the coming King and His Kingdom. (Acts 17:30,31)
A Recurrent Theme
The Apostle Paul had a similar problem with the Corinthian believers of his day. So he wrote to them in several letters. In his first letter to them, he observes that they had taken the position of reigning as kings without the apostles. (1 Corinthians 4:8)
He shows that the tribulations of living for Christ in this world proves that the present world is marked by opposition to Christ. This is very different than submission to Him as King in His kingdom. The problems of Corinth were very much related to their faulty view of the Kingdom of God.
- An already, not yet view of the kingdom naturally leads one to emphasize the sign gifts that accompanied Christ’s offer of the Kingdom during His ministry on the earth. The sign gifts were then used to authenticate the apostle’s doctrine that the church was to follow.
- The emergent church appears to take a step back into mysticism and monasticism in its efforts to teach that Christians are to be change agents on society. Their goal is to transform society by bringing the Kingdom into the present.
This has gained a great deal of influence in the church at large. The following quote illustrates this type of thinking:
“The gospel that we have been given – the whole gospel – is God’s vision for a new way of living…Christ’s vision was of a redeemed world order populated by redeemed people – now. To accomplish this, we are to be salt and light in a dark and fallen world, the “yeast” that leavens the whole loaf of bread (the whole of society). We are the ones God has called to be His Church. It’s up to us. We are to be the change. But a changed world requires change agents, and change agents are people who have first been changed themselves.”
Richard Stearns, Hole in the Gospel, 276, 243-44.
This is what the writer was taught as a Roman Catholic. (The idea that we are to act as leaven permeating society, ignores the scriptural evidence that leaven always is used to speak of the pervasive quality of evil.) Elements of this sound good in that we are to become change agents but this contains many deviations from the church's pilgrim character and it's calling to act as ambassadors.
This work of the Holy Spirit through the church indeed acts as a restraint upon evil. As individuals and their families are saved, there is a preservative effect against societal rot as they adopt the values of the coming Kingdom.
However, this is very different than acting as change agents to replace Satan's dominion. We may occupy pockets of resistance in a fallen world, but only Christ Himself as the last Adam on His earthly throne can replace Satan's dominion. This awaits a future day when Israel at last responds favorably toward Messiah.
According to Dr. Andy Woods of Chafer Theological seminary, Kingdom now theology impacts the church’s testimony in at least 9 ways.
- Loss of “pilgrim” status
- Social Gospel
- Ecumenical & interfaith alliances
- Rejection or marginalization of Bible prophecy
- Building the wrong kingdom
- Charismatic theology
- Prosperity Gospel
- Anti-Israelism
- Lordship Salvation
This theology fails to interpret the New Testament in a way that is consistent and harmonizes with the prior revelation of the OT.
- Their goal is rather than influencing society as salt and light, the church is called to transform society by bringing the Kingdom into the present.
- The next kingdom coming on the earth is not God’s Kingdom but the antichrist’s kingdom. We must take care that we do not inadvertently promote it instead of God’s kingdom by insisting that we are mandated by God to bring in His Kingdom.
- To use the illustration in the last post, we ‘go against the fur’ by trying to bring the kingdom in through our own efforts.
This post covers some important observations regarding how to approach a study of the Kingdom. What the scriptures actually reveal about the theocratic kingdom is very different from what we can expect as ambassadors and pilgrims.
Scripture reveals that even though God is over all Sovereign in His universal Kingdom, we must recognize that His Theocratic Kingdom is not now and not yet.
smc
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