The Kingdom of God
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The Kingdom of God
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Overview
The kingdom of God is a very large biblical category indeed. Accordingly, a comprehensive understanding of the kingdom would illuminate many aspects of theology. With this in mind, Bruce Waltke, Robert Yarbrough, Gerald Bray, Clinton Arnold, Gregg Allison, Stephen Nichols, and Anthony Bradley have collaborated to articulate a full view of the kingdom of God across multiple disciplines. One of the most important books on the kingdom since G. E. Ladd, this volume offers a robust theology and is corroborated by the very series in which it stands. Fourth in the noted Theology in Community series, The Kingdom of God establishes the significance of the kingdom from the perspectives of biblical theology, systematic theology, history, pastoral application, missiology, and cultural analysis.
Part of the Theology in Community series.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781433523588 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Crossway |
| Publication date: | 11/30/2012 |
| Series: | Theology in Community , #4 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 272 |
| File size: | 2 MB |
About the Author
Christopher W. Morgan (PhD, Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary) is a professor of theology and the dean of the School of Christian Ministries at California Baptist University. He is the author or editor of over twenty books, including several volumes in the Theology in Community series.
Robert A. Peterson (PhD, Drew University) is a writer and theologian. He taught for many years at various theological seminaries and has written or edited over thirty books.
Bruce K. Waltke (ThD, Dallas Theological Seminary; PhD, Harvard University) is Professor Emeritus of Old Testament Studies at Regent College and Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Old Testament at Knox Theological Seminary. He is the author of An Old Testament Theology and commentaries on Genesis, Micah, and Proverbs. Bruce is a member at Advent Anglican Church in Woodinville, Washington.
Gerald Bray (DLitt, University of Paris-Sorbonne) is research professor at Beeson Divinity School and director of research for the Latimer Trust. He is a prolific writer and has authored or edited numerous books, including The Doctrine of God; Biblical Interpretation; God Is Love; and God Has Spoken.
Bob Yarbrough (PhD, University of Aberdeen, Scotland) is professor of New Testament at Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri. He was previously professor of New Testament and department chair at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He is the author or coauthor of several books and is active in pastoral training in Africa.
Gregg R. Allison (PhD, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) is professor of Christian theology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is secretary of the Evangelical Theological Society, a book review editor for the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, an elder at Sojourn Community Church, and a theological strategist for Harbor Network. Allison has taught at several colleges and seminaries, including Western Seminary in Portland, Oregon, and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois, and is the author of numerous books, including Historical Theology; Sojourners and Strangers; and Roman Catholic Theology and Practice.
Anthony B. Bradley (PhD, Westminster Theological Seminary) is associate professor of religious studies at the King's College in New York City, where he serves as the director of the Center for the Study of Human Flourishing and chair of the Religious and Theological Studies program. He also serves as a research fellow for the Acton Institute. He has also published cultural commentary in a variety of periodicals and lives in New York City.
Stephen J. Nichols (PhD, Westminster Theological Seminary) serves as the president of Reformation Bible College and chief academic officer of Ligonier Ministries. He has written over twenty books and is an editor of the Theologians on the Christian Life series. He also hosts the weekly podcast 5 Minutes in Church History.
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
The Kingdoms of God
The Kingdom in Historical and Contemporary Perspectives
STEPHEN J . N ICHOLS
And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. — Matthew 24:14
For what other end do we propose to ourselves than to attain the kingdom of which there is no end? — Augustine, The City of God
Leo Tolstoy, author of such classic novels as War and Peace and Anna Karenina, also tried his hand at nonfiction. In 1894 he penned one such piece, entitled The Kingdom of God Is Within You. The novelist went looking for a solution to the socio-political challenges his native Russia faced as the new century loomed. In most parts of the globe, optimism reigned as the new millennium approached. Such optimism especially ran high throughout most of Europe and in North America. But Tolstoy saw the roadblocks and hurdles in the path when it came to his homeland. He saw the hindrances that lay between his fellow countrymen and the safe and sound arrival of what many were hailing as "The Christian Century." Tolstoy went looking for a way into the utopian "Christian Century." He found what he believed to be the answer in Christ's words from Luke 17:21 (kjv), the words that he used to title his book. Tolstoy found the kingdom of God. Or, more accurately, he found what he thought was the kingdom of God.
The phrase, "the kingdom of God," not only captivated this Russian novelist; it has also captivated theologians, biblical scholars, churchmen, and laity through the centuries. Some have claimed the kingdom to be the central message of Jesus' teachings. In fact many have. And there are about as many interpretations of the kingdom as there are theologians addressing it. This essay lays out the history, the long and curious history, of interpreting the phrase the "kingdom of God," and its variants such as the "kingdom of heaven," throughout the Christian tradition. Looking deeply at this phrase reveals a number of things, chiefly the differences within the Christian tradition regarding understanding the kingdom and, more importantly, the far-reaching implications of understanding the kingdom for the rest of one's theology. Like the tentacles of an octopus, how one understands the kingdom of God reaches and stretches out to all other areas of doctrine.
The church can little afford to neglect theological consideration of the kingdom of God. As perplexing as it might be, and as much of a source of disagreement the kingdom and eschatology might be, the church must grapple with it. Such an understanding of the kingdom is first and foremost informed by the pages of Scripture. But we will also be aided by the work of those who have gone on before. In the pages of church history we will see wisdom, perhaps also a share of folly. Even such folly, however, can be good for us for it can alert us to our own folly — or at the very least our own limitation — in interpretation. To set the stage for this journey into the Christian tradition, consider the decades around the turn of the twentieth century, from the 1880s through the 1920s, the time period in which Tolstoy wrote his book, a time period in which the kingdom received a great deal of attention.
The Coming of the Twentieth Century and the Coming of the Kingdom of God: Setting the Stage for a History of the Kingdom
Returning to Tolstoy, what the Russian novelist found in this deceptively simple little phrase — "The kingdom of God is within you" — set him off articulating a strange, but not so foreign, concept in the modern age, that of pitting the Jesus of history against the Jesus of faith or the Jesus of Christianity. The Jesus of some parts of the four Gospels, the "historical Jesus," was a far cry, Tolstoy and a long train of others argued, from the Jesus of Christianity, the Jesus of the creeds. In his book, Tolstoy seems to have particularly the Nicene Creed in his sights. And, to Tolstoy, understanding what Jesus meant by the seven words of this Luke 17:21 phrase held the key to opening the door to understanding Jesus properly. In Tolstoy's hands, capable writer that he was, the phrase "The kingdom of God is within you" meant that Jesus was all about human life, human flourishing, in the here and now. He was not some God-man who died on the cross as a substitute, rose again bodily from the grave, and will come again visibly to bring swift justice and sweep all of humanity and creation into the long-awaited eschaton — all the dogma of the creeds. No, Tolstoy thunders on in his prose. Such theological platitudes had precious little to do with improving the plight of the peasant. The kingdom that Jesus spoke of, as Tolstoy understood it, is here and now:
The Sermon on the Mount, or the Creed. One cannot believe in both. And Churchmen have chosen the latter. ... People who believe in a wicked and senseless God — who has cursed the human race and devoted his own Son to sacrifice, and a part of mankind to eternal torment — cannot believe in the God of love. The man who believes in a God, in a Christ coming again in glory to judge and to punish the quick and the dead, cannot believe in the Christ who bade us turn the left cheek, judge not, forgive these that wrong us, and love our enemies. ... The man who believes in the Church's doctrine of the compatibility of warfare and capital punishment with Christianity cannot believe in the brotherhood of all men.
And what is most important of all — the man who believes in salvation through faith in the redemption or the sacraments, cannot devote all his powers to realizing Christ's moral teaching in his life.
Tolstoy ironically becomes like one of the false prophets Jesus warned about. Jesus told his disciples that there would be those to come who would point and say, "There's the kingdom." Jesus told his disciples not to believe in such a message and not to follow such a messenger. When Tolstoy says, in effect, "Look here, at this ethical system, this is the kingdom of God," he could not be more off target.
At about the same time Tolstoy was writing in Russia, theologians and biblical scholars in Germany were striking similar keys on their typewriters, promulgating what has come to be called "realized eschatology." Tolstoy was not alone. In 1892 Johannes Weiss published Jesus' Proclamation of the Kingdom of God. This book marks a watershed in the so-called "quest for the historical Jesus" movement that occupied so much of German theologizing in the nineteenth century (and would continue into the twentieth century as well). As Benedict Viviano explains, "[Weiss's] book was so offensive because liberal theology had a bad conscience about its suppression of Jesus' eschatology. It was not ignorant of it. It simply hoped to keep it a dirty little secret. Thanks to Weiss, the liberal emperor was seen to have no clothes." Weiss put eschatology and Jesus' message of the kingdom at the center of the quest. The twentieth century would be the century of the kingdom, as far as theological discussions were concerned.
Though Weiss himself held to a future realization of Jesus' kingdom message and eschatology, other theologians followed the trajectory he set out and left the future behind. In the hands of such English theologians in the Anglican tradition as Charles Dodd, J. A. T. Robertson, and G. B. Caird, the kingdom of God was understood to be entirely for the present and not for the future. There would be no physical, visible second coming. There would be no apocalyptic kingdom. Eschatology consequently became not a matter of the sweet by and by, but entirely a matter of the gritty here and now. Just as some of Jesus' early disciples missed the point, thinking he was speaking of a kingdom to come, so also centuries' worth of theologians had done the same as they speculated and theorized about some cataclysmic future event that would set in motion the end times. When Jesus spoke of the kingdom of God as being in the midst of his contemporary audiences, Dodd and his fellow adherents of realized eschatology argued, Jesus meant it.
In this teaching of "realized eschatology," the kingdom is entirely here and now. Eschatology — and all that this subject of theology concerns, including the meaning of the kingdom, the second coming, the events of the end times, the future judgments, even heaven and hell — is fully realized now. All that is bound up in eschatology is made real and experienced in this life, in this world.
And concurrent with Tolstoy and Weiss and the Germans, American theologians were also getting in on the act. Among the more liberal strands of American theology, realized eschatology appeared to win the day. In the hands of Baptist German-American Walter Rauschenbusch, realized eschatology would result in the Social Gospel movement. The gospel, Rauschenbusch argued in the early years of the 1900s, has nothing to do with sinners in need of salvation, but instead has everything to do with the socially oppressed and marginalized realizing justice. Realized eschatology became the central driving force in his theology. For Rauschenbusch, the idea that the kingdom is now means that salvation is now, that judgment is now, that heaven and hell are now. Of course, for such things to be now requires that one take the New Testament teaching on these subjects as mere poetry, myth, and metaphor. And, from its proponents Tolstoy, Weiss, and Dodd, this realized eschatology also requires an uneasiness — if not flat-out rejection — of the Jesus of the creeds. There is an unbroken, almost necessary, linkage between how one defines the kingdom message of Jesus, how one understands the overall thrust of the ministry and message of Jesus, and what one believes about his person. If the definition of the kingdom is off, so is the rest. Once that false move is made, all the central and defining tenets of Christianity fall like dominoes.
But the social gospel liberals were not the only American theologians transfixed with deciphering the meaning of the kingdom of God. The dispensationalists, also getting started in this same time frame of the 1880s to the early 1900s, stand at the opposite end from the realized eschatology movement. This movement began with the writings of the churchman John Nelson Darby. Born in London, Darby went on to study at Trinity College, Dublin. Upon completing his degree, he became ordained in the Anglican Church of Ireland. Darby soon found his own thinking at odds with Anglicanism, from which he departed and began, along with others, the Plymouth Brethren movement. Through his writings, and his focus on biblical prophecy, Darby gave expression to dispensationalism, a view that holds a deep and wide distinction between Israel and the church and emphasizes a literal interpretation of biblical prophecy. Dispensationalism was nurtured in North American soil at prophecy conferences in such places as Niagara Falls; Winona Lake, Indiana; and Philadelphia. And it was brought to fruition with the 1917 publication o The Scofield Reference Bible (named after C. I. Scofield).
Dispensationalism stresses the future and apocalyptic piece to eschatology. Christ will come again. Actually, his second coming will have two parts. The first part will be the rapture, a secret coming in which Christ takes the church to heaven to be with him. Christ will then come again physically at the conclusion of the literal, seven-year tribulation. This will be followed by the thousand-year reign of Christ on the earth (the millennium), which will be followed by the final judgment, the damned to an eternity in hell, and the righteous to an eternity in the new heavens and the new earth. In the meantime, the kingdom of God has been put on hold. Instead of seeing the kingdom (or even seeing any part of the kingdom) as present, these early dispensationalists saw the church as a "parenthesis" in God's program, interrupting God's direct dealing with Israel. Someday in the future, God would return to deal with Israel, and the kingdom in all of its literal manifestation would come. For now, however, God is working through and in the church, and the kingdom is postponed. Contrary to the "realized eschatology" of the liberal theologians, dispensationalists proclaimed a wholly future eschatology.
And so from Russian novelists to German theologians to American prophecy conference speakers, the kingdom of God received a boatload of attention. Four things can be gleaned from this brief foray into the eschatological conversation of the 1880s through the 1920s. First, consider the overwhelming emphasis on eschatology in the theologizing of this time period. The sheer volume of books published on the subject nearly outweighs books on eschatology from all previous centuries of the church's life combined. Further, this was not just an emphasis among academic theologians. Such masses of conference goers flocked to Winona Lake in the summertime that the Chicago Railroad built a designated line running from the city to the middle of the farm plains of Indiana. Prophecy and the kingdom of God were topics that had captivated the hearts and minds of the public as well.
The rest of the twentieth century evidences similar fascination. Hal Lindsey's Late Great Planet Earth dominated the New York Times bestseller lists in the 1970s. And its sales but shadow the Left Behind novels from the pens of Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins. In 1996, while at the Christian Booksellers' Convention in Anaheim, California, I could not even make my way through the lines to get into the auditorium for that evening's main event, a prophecy conference. In the end I gave my prized ticket to a most grateful student of prophecy — the telltale sign being the particular study Bible firmly clutched in his hands — waiting with all the fervor of eschatological hope in the standby line. The meaning of the kingdom was crucial in this 1880s–1920s time period, and it remains crucial, if not central, to many to the present day.
The second thing to be learned from this eschatological discussion concerns how eschatology touches other areas of theology. One's view of eschatology has implications for how one views the person of Christ, the gospel, and the nature and mission of the church. One's view of eschatology informs and is also informed by — this is a theological version of the chicken and the egg conundrum — one's hermeneutics, one's understanding of the Old Testament, the Gospels, prophetic books, apocalyptic literature, and the relationship between the Testaments. Simply consider understanding the Gospel of Matthew. How you define the kingdom will govern how you read and interpret the first Gospel. In other words, how we view the kingdom of God is not an isolated piece of theology. The same is true of the rest of the biblical teaching on the kingdom. Our view of the kingdom of God stretches out to nearly every part of our hermeneutic, biblical understanding, and theology.
Third, we learn from this eschatological discussion of the 1880s–1920s of the broad and vast differences within the Christian tradition. This period reveals what will become the wide terrain of the Christian tradition on eschatology. There are myriad interpretations of the kingdom of God. Tony Campolo, in his inimitable way, once even defined the kingdom of God as, yes, a party. It is far more accurate to speak of kingdoms (plural) of God. To put the matter another way: of the making of eschatologies there seems to be no end. What are we to make of all of these differences? This is a significant piece of the discussion, to which we will return in the conclusion of this essay.
Fourth and finally, this eschatological conversation of the 1880s–1920s reveals a center point to the discussion. Eschatology is vast, touching on all matters of biblical interpretation and views of the end times. When facing such broad horizons a center point can help bring focus, which in turn can promote understanding. To switch metaphors, we need a handle on the far-reaching subject of eschatology. And we find that handle in the center point of the discussion — the phrase "the kingdom of God."
In the pages to follow of this essay, we will explore the route this phrase has taken through the history of the Christian tradition in order to shed some light on what the phrase and its implications mean for the church today. We will look at the historical perspectives on this phrase in these successive eras: the early church, the medieval age, the Reformation and Puritan eras, and the modern age. To get a handle on the contemporary perspectives on this phrase we will look at both the twentieth century and the early years of the twenty-first. As with all surveys, what follows is more a summary of the high points than a comprehensive treatment. Nevertheless, we stand to be informed significantly by the distant and immediate past as we seek our own understanding of the kingdom of God.
(Continues…)
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Table of Contents
List of Abbreviations 11
Series Preface 13
Acknowledgments 15
Contributors 17
Introduction 19
1 The Kingdoms of God: The Kingdom in Historical and Contemporary Perspectives Stephen J. Nichols 25
2 The Kingdom of God in the Old Testament: Definitions and Story Bruce K. Waltke 49
3 The Kingdom of God in the Old Testament: The Covenants Bruce K. Waltke 73
4 The Kingdom of God in the New Testament: Matthew and Revelation Robert W. Yarbrough 95
5 The Kingdom of God in the New Testament: Mark through the Epistles Robert W. Yarbrough 125
6 The Kingdom, Miracles, Satan, and Demons Clinton E. Arnold 153
7 The Kingdom and the Church Gregg R. Allison 179
8 The Kingdom and Eschatology Gerald Bray 207
9 The Kingdom Today Anthony B. Bradley 229
Selected Bibliography 256
Author Index 259
Subject Index 261
Scripture Index 263
What People are Saying About This
“Jesus taught plainly and often about the kingdom—but explaining the full meaning of his words has occupied theologians for centuries. This volume captures the biblical perspective—not just Jesus’ words but the full scope of Scriptural insight—in a comprehensive, readable, and thorough fashion. God will use it to reveal insight about his kingdom and change your perspective on kingdom living.”—Jeff Iorg, President, Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary
“Morgan and Peterson have put together a collection that brings clarity and precision to an often blurry discussion. Like the other volumes in the Theology in Community series, it is biblically informed, theologically incisive, and pastorally sensitive. Those looking for a guide to understanding the significance of the kingdom—past, present, and future—will do well to consult The Kingdom of God.”—Stephen T. Um
“A timely and refreshing look at an oft neglected, misunderstood, but central doctrine of the Bible—The Kingdom of God will inspire, inform, and edify pastors, students, laymen, and scholars alike. This work charts a course between the Scylla of an over-spiritualized conception of the kingdom and the Charybdis of an over-realized understanding of the kingdom of God. It does so by following the contours of the Bible in its arrival at a relevant biblical understanding of the kingdom consistent with the best of the evangelical tradition. A must-have in the library of every serious student of the Bible!”—John D. Massey, Associate Professor of Missions, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
“The essays within provide a fresh and helpful assessment of the multifaceted meaning of the kingdom of God—from the Old Testament and the ancient covenants, to the New Testament and today’s Christians, and on to the consummation. For those in my generation captured by George Ladd’s ‘already/not yet’ understanding of God’s kingdom, this work is a noteworthy twenty-first-century expansion of how complex and important the kingdom theme is both for orthodoxy and for orthopraxy.”—Kendell Easley, Professor of Biblical Studies, Union University; author, The Illustrated Guide to Biblical History
“In this elegant volume, seven distinguished theologians wrestle with the big questions surrounding the biblical notion of kingdom—ultimately forging a path for the church where there is no inherent conflict between kingdom preaching and kingdom living, between orthodoxy and orthopraxy. As ambassadors of the king, God’s people proclaim the kingdom and embody God’s rule in every dimension of society and culture, and across the fabric of human life.”—Bruce Riley Ashford, Professor of Theology and Culture, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary; coauthor, The Gospel of Our King
“At a time when scholars continue to wrangle over various interpretations of the kingdom and pastors seek to find clear, concrete ways to express kingdom living to their congregations, we have in this volume a foundational work that will assist scholars and pastors alike for years to come. It’s all here—the history of the debate, biblical theology, systematic theology, and very practical application. As I finished reading this book, I knew that my understanding of the kingdom was forever enlarged; perhaps more significantly, I knew that my heart would never again be satisfied with anything less than kingdom life.”—Michael Honeycutt, Associate Professor of Historical and Practical Theology, Covenant Seminary
“Chris Morgan and Robert Peterson have done a masterful job of searching out a comprehensive construct of the concept of the kingdom of God. Through world-class scholars, they have presented, as promised, “the historical, biblical, theological, and ethical” precepts of the kingdom. What a gift of understanding they have given to the body of Christ.”—Jim Parker, Associate Professor of Biblical Interpretation, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary