The Kingdom of God
Fri, 06/03/2009 - 9:43pm — Editor
The
Dear Friends,
Under the heading “The Kingdom of God” you may read the following in our statement of belief:
We recognise the
On discovering this last week, a believer from
This brings us right to the heart of the “Gospel” (the “good news” of the
We firmly believe that we have no right to talk with others about any issue (about sin and righteousness, about the church, about life in community, about returning good for evil, about evangelism, holiness, godly families, nonconformity to the world, or anything else under the sun) before we have come to a common understanding on the Kingdom of God. Only where we agree with others on who runs the Kingdom and how, what the Kingdom actually is, and how we should live within it, may we proceed on our way together.
The Kingdom of God
For much too long well-meaning but misguided believers have presented the
Some time ago when another seeking individual, a woman I will name “Sally,” asked me what I saw as the difference between the two, I wrote:
The Kingdom is all-inclusive. Everything and everyone that has not rebelled against God still functions within his Kingdom (under his wise and permanent rule). So the
The
For too many people I am afraid the "Kingdom" is little more than the Mennonite church. (At best it might include a few Baptists and Brethren. . . .) But that is not how the first Anabaptists or the early Christians understood it.
Although the first Anabaptists had astounding perceptions of the Kingdom in their day, I never saw a better exposition of it than in
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In reply to this a brother I will call “John” wrote:
I see the
There is a great deal of mystery about the Kingdom.
In prophetic literature (especially Isaiah) we read about the Messiah and his coming to establish his rule, and we read of the characteristics of that rule. Jesus pronounced the good news that the Kingdom was being established; he taught more than anything else about the kingdom.
The
Unfortunately it seldom manifests itself fully in this world, but it can.
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To this I responded:
Good track. What you speak about are kingdom communities -- little islands or outposts of human society already operating along kingdom lines. The true kingdom community is a microcosm, a little picture of the
Plain and simple, the
Most of human society is not under God's rule today, hence outside the kingdom.
In the future all non-kingdom elements shall be destroyed (annihilated) except Satan himself and some others that seem doomed to suffer eternal punishment. Then "the kingdom will have come" and we shall reign on the earth with him. Forever. "New heavens, new earth, where righteousness dwells. . . . all things restored (as in
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John:
In Romans 8 I read: "The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time."
I am not sure that all of creation is under God's rule and order. I really don't know all of what is under God's order, because many of the things you described are subject to death and decay and will be made new some time in the future.
I also cannot think so broadly of the kingdom, as "kingdom" denotes a social and political order. What you describe as the kingdom is bigger, it is the creation which waits to be liberated, that waits to be remade into a new heaven and a new earth. But the kingdom is already established.
So if the kingdom is a social order then the members of the society are the followers of Jesus who form organized units (villages?) and interact, under the rule of God, with one another and with other realms. This gives individuals a much greater responsibility to come together and create a tangible manifestation of the Kingdom -- a "church". So much of what Jesus taught is irrelevant if there is no gathered group of followers of Jesus interacting with each other socially. But the church as a manifestation of the kingdom is very different than a Sunday morning social club, or religious organization we call "church".
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Peter:
Right, the Kingdom is "already established." It has been established as long as God has been king (in other words, forever).
But certain parts of his kingdom, because of rebellion, have been subject to a curse. Natural creation is under a curse and "groans for deliverance." So do Christians unto whom the kingdom has already come, in part. So does everyone else.
All well-meaning evangelicals to the contrary, Christians are still in sin, under sin, and sinful. "Sin" you remember is just our English way of saying "hamartia," the Greek word for imperfection or "falling short." Our bodies are full of sin, as Paul vividly describes in Romans 7. It is sinful for our hair to fall out, our teeth to decay or for us to develop allergies, arthritis, or migraine headaches. The common flu is a sin. Diabetes, cancer or the rabies are much bigger sins. Our weather patterns as we now know them are violent and sinful, in direct opposition to God's Kingdom way. Our animals sin by turning on one another, by getting sick, by going (like the rabbits of
Every time you cough or sneeze without wanting to you are sinning and "live under Romans 7." To get old is nothing but one long sinful Romans 7 procedure. But it can't be helped and God does not hold us responsible for it (not all sin being "sin unto death"). The only sins we get judged for are the imperfections we choose ("voluntary" sins 1 John 3:6) or deliberately impose on God's kingdom. We will be judged, for example, for deliberately mistreating our bodies or using them for something other than what God created them for. We will be judged for wilfully destroying God's creation, whether created men, animals, plants, whatever. . . . Everything anti-Kingdom is anti-God. Everything anti-God is sin. Sin is the cause of death and death is the end of sin.
Only God did not leave us in this mess, "sold as slaves to sin."
He came over on our side and in Jesus was made SIN (imperfection) like us. God let sinful men make Jesus' body sinful (imperfect) through nailing it to a cross and killing it, even though in his spirit he never sinned. Then God, in a great victory over Satan, raised Jesus back to life, SINLESS and ready to live forever.
That was Satan's defeat. That is our proof. That is our sign. Jesus took his actual human body -- still carrying the scars of sin, but now made perfect like in the Garden of Eden -- back with him into the actual heavens (the heavens you can see by looking out your window at night).
Now we know that if we believe in Jesus and follow him, God will do that for us as well. And only then, only at the END will we be saved. "Rescued from this body of death," like Paul says. Only then will we be restored with all creation when the kingdom comes.
I do not see two kingdoms of God, one for the body and one for the soul, or one "spiritual" and one "natural" one.
I am sick, in fact, of every concept of "church" or "religion" or "heaven" or "correct doctrine" that is not completely tied into what actually exists all around us. My God is the one in whom I live and move and have my being, and whatever god may exist outside of this reality (this creation) is certainly not one to catch any interest or loyalty of mine.
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Then “George,” another believer wrote:
Peter says, “Every time you cough or sneeze without wanting to you are sinning and live under Romans 7. To get old is nothing but one long sinful Romans 7 procedure.” Do you really think Jesus "sinned" in those ways?
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Peter:
Good question George (and "loaded"). One that has come up every so often during these last two thousand years. But I am not worried about it anymore. I have long decided to just let the Scriptures say what they do and let happen what happens.
No more theological dancing around "problem verses" for me. No more insisting that Paul was writing in past tense in Romans 7 (when he most definitely wasn't), or that he was writing for someone else, or using figures of speech or any of that rhetoric. A straight-forward reading of Romans 7 leaves not a shadow of doubt that Paul was still living UNDER and IN sin, and that it was no fun at all.
Does that bring us lead into a theological problem? We who have long known how John said Christians do not sin anymore, and who have been taught to "live above sin"?
Well, if Romans 7 gives us a problem, I must conclude the problem lies in our theology, not in the scriptures or in the facts. The Wesleys' (and consequently the entire "Holiness Movement's") claim to sinlessness is so much holy nonsense. Take one look at what happened (and keeps happening) with it. So many people trying to convince themselves that black is white, down is up, and nothing is really what it appears to be. (The sick to them being whole, and their prayers "all getting answered" when God makes it a point to not answer them at all.)
Oh for the honest child in the story of the Emperor's new clothes! Oh for the freedom of truth!
So, did Jesus sin? I will let the Scriptures answer that. Jesus was "made sin" for us. His body was subject to sin (imperfection) just like ours, even suffering the curse of hanging on a tree. But he committed no sins of choice -- "sins unto death" like John calls them. And he rose, SINLESS (perfect in body and soul), from the grave -- like we also shall if we follow him to the end. That is about as deep into theology as I have ever found it necessary to go.
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George:
Thanks Peter for taking the time to reply. It does help...
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John:
Hamartia of course means literally falling short. Hebrew has a much richer selection of words (translated hamartia in the Septuagint) to describe this. In Greek it is used in reference to people, and has a moral sense to it. It denotes character flaw. It implies the human will, not a passive defect as you are describing.
It is odd that this falling short, this flaw in human character has done so much damage, as to make the creation not full of sin, but damaged, incomplete (imperfect). Our hair falls out not because it falls short, but because we have fallen short and wrecked the material universe.
It's tragic to consider too how hostile this creation has become in its imperfection. It does not get better when one decides to commit to the Kingdom and participate in its redemption. The present social order and the material world are all the more hostile to God's people. A world that should feed us and keep our bodies healthy and comfortable starves the poor and kills the naked.
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Peter:
You are right. Human will was involved and it drew the curse of sin on all of us and our surroundings. Now, with humans choosing the way of Christ again, we may look forward to the cataclysmic destruction of the flawed, before the absolute restoration of what God had in mind -- creation itself getting saved with the saved!
That, brother, is the glory of the Kingdom! For that I live, and particularly, for that I live in a community whose day-to-day workings point to the coming
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John:
How can individuals live day-to-day in a way that participates in and points to the Kingdom? Clearly there are some that would point to community, but how is that to happen? Where is the ekklesia that is sending out messengers to proclaim the good news of the kingdom and oversee the establishment of new assemblies?
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Peter:
Living the Kingdom?
Although it may well bug or bother you to keep hearing about it, I must speak from the context of what I believe and who I am -- a member of a group of people actually trying to live out the "kingdom community" ideal.
For us, the line is crossed between "religion" and the Kingdom when what we believe crosses from the spiritual into the natural. When the Kingdom materialises on earth.
And with what shall it materialise? With matter, of course.
The mediaeval church did a stupendous job of building "spiritual communities." Hating their own flesh, hating all things material to such a degree (setting their affections on things above, not on things of the earth) that they lived completely "otherworldly" lives, denying themselves of sleep and decent food as far as possible, rejecting normal human relationships, often rejecting speech, rejecting human sexuality altogether, they lived as celibates in self-imposed misery hoping to earn the pity of a wrathful God.
Out of this wretchedness many thousands of South German and Austrian Anabaptists, inspired at first by the ideals of Michael Gaismaier and others like him, broke like a flood. Even though some of their chief figures (like Leonhard Schiemer) had been Austrian religious, they turned their backs and fled from a wicked "spiritual" religion (the old Gnostic heresy in a new suit) and plunged straight back into creation to find their Creator God.
Besides teaching in the high school here at Elmendorf I work in our 2,500 sow Isowean farrowing unit with Sammy Wipf, Leonard and Travis Waldner, Glen Decker, Timothy and Shane Stahl, Dennis and Stanley Wurtz as regulars, and many more on Mondays and Thursdays when we load the thousand-plus pigs we sell weekly. Quite particularly I work on the artificial insemination crew. It is not uncommon for me to help breed from 45 to 50 sows on Lord's Day mornings before I stand up in our meeting room to preach. . . .
Does that disgust you, or make you wish you hadn't invited me to join your group? Imagine all those ethnic Anabaptists out there in
Hang on.
Of course we get judged, bombarded with accusations, and accused by self-righteous "church analysts" filled with revulsion and dismay. Our young people get mocked by born again evangelicals for "spending all your life in the turkey barn while we are OVER IN
Those that have left our way of life are constantly called upon to renounce it as of the evil one and make public declarations of its horrors.
Unfortunately some just never "got it."
We do not live to convert others. That is God's job. We live to "let the light shine," to be a community of peace in a world falling apart. A community of flesh and blood, of man and nature, of married and single and young and old, of new converts and charter members, of different races and language groups living together in the miraculous grace and peace of God. A transformed society, not just the "Sunday morning club" of born-again individuals Wayne described. And all this, we believe, is the phase of the Kingdom our Lord Jesus calls us into now.
So, we make a lot of money? Think again.
We manage to feed and clothe the people on our Hof, many of whom arrived here as penniless "refugees" from main-line colonies, on the income we make (although our per capita income is probably less than half of yours) besides helping others set up communities in America, in Europe, in Africa, and Australia right now. And "hidden out here among the corn fields" as our critics say, who on earth could find us if they tried?
Think again. We (along with most other serious intentional communities at this time) are simply flooded with interest. We do not know which way to turn. At one of our last brothers' meetings we decided to start sending out brothers two by two to visit the contacts here in
No, we haven't nearly become what we should be. I would have hesitations about inviting any of you to come and join us because we are still too imperfect. Too many things to work on. You might not be able to handle it.
But I will point you to a much better example -- exactly, I believe, what John had in mind, and what would answer his question nicely. That is the example of the renewed Moravians before they "went Protestant" in the 1800s. If you read chapters eleven to nineteen of the book "Behold the Lamb" (online at www.allgodsword.com ) you would know what I mean.
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Then David, another serious minded believer wrote:
I am enjoying this Kingdom discussion. It is indeed a revealing experience to read through the gospels concentrating on the Kingdom theme(s).
We live in tension precisely because the Kingdom has "already" come but has "not yet" been consummated. We are caught up in the tension between this age and the age to come. As Anthony Hoekema puts it. "We are in the Kingdom, and yet we look forward to its full manifestation, we share its blessings, and yet await its total victory; we thank God for having brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, and yet we continue to pray, 'Thy Kingdom come.'"
I would concur with much of what Peter wrote in terms of the Kingdom implying redemption of cosmic proportions. It is not limited to the salvation of certain individuals or even a chosen group of people, though it is that. It is nothing less than a complete renewal of the entire cosmos.
Eph 1:7-10
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.
Col 1:19-20
For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
As citizens of the Kingdom, we should see all of life and reality in terms of the goal of the redemption of the entire cosmos. As Abraham Kuyper said, "There is not a square inch in the universe about which Christ does not say, "It is mine." This has important implications in all spheres of life. In this sense, there is no such thing as sacred and secular. All is sacred.
Luke 13:20-21
Again he asked, "What shall I compare the
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George:
Peter wrote, “Most of human society is not under God's rule today, hence outside the kingdom.”
I understand him to be speaking here in terms of the
What is missing is the fact that judgment has yet to come. The Kingdom came with salvation and judgment. Salvation for those that humbly bow the knee to King Jesus and judgment for those who reject Him. Of course, this judgment is primarily part of the eschatological or "not yet" consummation of the Kingdom. The Gospel is Good News for those that humbly submit to the King, and not good news for those that rebel.
Peter also wrote, “In the future all non-kingdom elements shall be destroyed (annihilated) except Satan himself and some others that seem doomed to suffer eternal punishment. Then the kingdom will have come and we shall reign on the earth with him. Forever. "New heavens, new earth, where righteousness dwells. . . . all things restored (as in
Actually, it will be better than
Then Peter wrote, “I do not see two kingdoms of God, one for the body and one for the soul, or one "spiritual" and one "natural" one.”
This is a very important point. The church has succumbed to Platonic Gnostic Dualism in its elevation of the "spiritual" over the "mere physical". God made the physical and called it good. We are whole beings now (though corrupted by the sin principle still in us) and will be whole beings (uncorrupted) at our resurrection. The new heavens and the new earth will be whole entities. We have this whole platonic "upper story" (spiritual) and "lower story" (physical) view in which heaven has become this ether in which our spirits will float around in the light.
Peter also wrote, “That is the glory of the Kingdom! For that I live, and particularly, for that I live in a community whose day-to-day workings point to the coming
Yes, the gnostic view has resulted in a kind of "lifeboat theology" wherein we view our current existence as one of mere survival until Christ's return. The inauguration of the Kingdom brought with it substantial healing and transformation. Yes, sin still corrupts, but as Peter has so well said, we are to be showing the world a view of what the consummated Kingdom will look like. This is also wrapped up with how we present the Gospel. It has lead to an offering of fire insurance and a ticket for a future destination. What about right now?
"Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."
"The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because he has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
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Peter:
George, are you a "kindred spirit" or what? To tell you the truth I have gotten to where I dread speaking about the Kingdom of Heaven with other Christians, simply because they so readily misinterpret what I say and carry it off in all directions it was not meant to go.
The Kingdom? "Yes, yes!" Nearly all Christians will jump in to share their insights and versions of what the kingdom is to them. But it is all about as abstract, unreal and "out of it" as their concept of heaven being a golden city floating around somewhere beyond the edge of reality.
Thank you for sharing your comprehension.
We got the facing and soffit put up on both ends of the new turkey barn today, Hank, Zane and I working with one fork-lift and Orin, Herb, Brandon, Dennis and others on different parts of the building. David and Moses dug a trench for the hydro lines with the back-hoe and a bunch of school boys watching. Nathan, Michael, my son Chris, and others hauled manure, tearing by on big trucks they filled with a pay loader at the manure pile, while Willie with his son William and others did the combining and Betty called on the PA for all available youngsters to help her bring several truck-loads of pumpkins in from the garden. Our evening meal was a joyful one with the dining hall newly decorated with leaves, wreaths of corn, scriptures and poetry celebrating the blessing of harvest home.
Anyone out there missing the kingdom? Don't sit and wait. Do something. You may not want to join a Hutterite colony like we did. But by all means, if you have the vision, do more than sit and dream. You will never be sorry. . . .
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David:
Peter, you sure do know how to make someone homesick!
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John:
Your writing brings back for me such fond memories of my best days at the Bruderhof Communities, and there is nothing wrong with that.
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Sally:
Your description sounds wonderful. I once spent a weekend researching American intentional communities through a website by the same name. Christian ones were few in number and most of the communities identified seemed to be promoting openness towards the gay population.
I really haven’t read much about the Hutterite colonies lately, aren’t most in NW
Is it difficult for a true believer to be assimilated into the colony? Not sure…but it seems like I read that outsiders are not welcome, that most of the growth of any colony is linked to the birth rate.
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Thomas:
My impression has been that in most cases outsiders aren't so much unwelcome as unfamiliar. The communities don't know what to do with outsiders, and there are some massive cultural barriers (such as the fact that most Hutterites speak German in the home) that stand in the
way.
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Sally:
That is a very good point Thomas, also true with the more 'plain' communities of the Anabaptists. There is a very real fear that associating with and among the 'Englisch' will bring problems. Had not land gotten so expensive I seriously doubt they would be working in factories and such. It seemed to be with great reluctance that Amish bishops conceded to allowing the men to work away from the family home.
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Peter:
I know the intentional communities site you mention, Sally, and although we are in the directory I share your feeling of dismay.
About becoming assimilated in a Hutterite community -- may I keep my comments applicable only to the one of which I am part? All visitors, seekers, newcomers, whatever are welcome to visit here, without prior arrangement up to a week. Everyone is well accepted, "oodles" of people come, and almost without fail our visitors, from this continent and others, seem to enjoy themselves.
If people decide to stay longer than a week we ask for the approval of the whole brotherhood at the "Saturday meeting" (meeting of all baptised men at
Does this mean we encourage any and all to come? Does it mean it is easy for everyone to learn how to fit in here?
Actually what we encourage is for any and all to do, anywhere, what we are trying to do. Already we are "crammed to the gills" and if visitors have any second thoughts about us they usually have to do with feeling intimidated by the size of our operation as is.
Get the picture?
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Sally:
Ok, then we as Christians should be about "Kingdom living" Right? Under Gods rule.
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John:
That sounds like the matter in a nutshell to me.
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Yours,
Peter
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