The process started off in the month of May with each senior pastor nominating someone (besides themselves) that they thought would be a good National Director. The top 13 candidates (men and women) were then asked if they felt God calling them to the position. Of those 13, four of them felt compelled to walk forward – leading to a three month application and review process with the National Board, who would then choose a final candidate.The last phase of the nomination process is a movement wide confirmation of the nominated National Director by each of the local churches.

It is too this last phase of the process that I would like to draw your attention as the National Board has proposed Phil Strout as the next Vineyard USA National Director.

As he awaits the final confirmation for the local churches within the movement, Phil has posted a video introducing himself and sharing his heart for the Vineyard. I would highly recommend everyone (inside or outside the Vineyard) to watch this video as I believe it caries a message for the church in general.

Namely, Phil outlines his three main focuses:

• Presence of God – We are a people of the presence of God. It is not about sound doctrine, gifts of the Spirit or good works (even though those are good and necessary things); it is about being in His presence and walking with Jesus daily.

“Dont seek power. Seek His presence. The power is found in His presence…”-John Wimber

• Proclamation – We are to join with God in His mission by proclaiming the words of Jesus while doing the works of Jesus. The two go hand-in-hand – if you do one without the other, you become imbalanced and reduce the Gospel message of Jesus Christ.

• Practical – It takes everyone following Jesus and working together to live out this life. Or, to borrow the words of Alexander Venter, to “do church.”

oh…and as a side note, it was pretty cool to hear Phil reference both George Ladd and Derek Morphew, two of my top favorite theologians.

Today though, I would like to introduce you to Allen Wakabayashi. Allen is the Associate Pastor at Twin City Bible Church and the Teaching Specialist for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at the University of Illinois – Champaign/Urbana. More importantly for our purposes, he is the author of “Kingdom Come: How Jesus Wants to Change the World.”

This is a book that seeks to “bridge the gap from the scholarly literature about the kingdom to the normal Christian who is not familiar with the academic material.”

Hands down, Allen pulls it off.

“Kingdom Come” is a great introduction book to Kingdom Theology – i.e. the theology of that Jesus is King of everything (created and uncreated; spiritual and physical) and He is in activity involved in the world today, bring the future Age into our world today.

Interesting enough, Allen credit George Ladd as an influence – which is pretty cool seeing the influence Ladd has made on me. 

Going back to the book, it is separated into six sections along with an intro and a conclusion:

• Introduction (ch 1) – Everyone reads the Bible through a lens or a worldview. The sad part is that we tend to read our culture and definitions into the Bible; as such, we need to stop and try to understand what the Bible – or the Gospels in particular – meant to the people of first century.
• The Gospel of the Kingdom (ch 2-4) - Allen does a great job explaining the meaning of Jesus’ phrase “kingdom of God” and how that changes the definition of the ‘gospel’.
• Living in the Tension of the Kingdom (ch 5-7) – A beautiful look at the struggle of the Christian life. We are victorious saints and sinful sinners, both at the same time.
• The Mission of the Kingdom (ch 8-9) – The mission of Jesus is bigger then salvation alone. It is about “seeing his reign fleshed out wherever we set foot in our world.”
• The Kingdom and Evangelism (ch 10-11) – In today’s world, evangelism is usually reduced to one’s personal sin and Christ’s forgiveness. While this is good and true, it is only part of the picture as Jesus came to destroy evil/sin in all its forms and restore all of creation to Himself. ** This big picture evangelism is not only biblical; it also resonates better with the postmodern culture. **
• The Community of the Kingdom (ch 12-13) - Christians are called to be the people of God, meaning that we are called to be in community and not lone-ranger believers trying to live the ‘good life’ by ourselves.
• The Way of the Kingdom (ch 14-15) – The path of the Kingdom means taking up our cross and following Jesus; it means victory in the midst of suffering; live in death.
• Conclusion – A short one page summary of the Allen’s heart and hope for this book. It is here that I found one of the best quotes of the book:

“I am convinced that Jesus is the hope of the world and the lover of humanity. I am convinced that Jesus came to call us back home and that one day he will come to make all things new. I am convinced that even now Jesus is at work, through the Holy Spirit, changing the world and letting people in on the wonderful reality of the kingdom of God.”

One last item before I end this review – while “Kingdom Come” is a great introduction book into the central teaching of Jesus (i.e. the kingdom of God), I think Allen stops short of the fullness of the “here and not yet.”

In other words, Allen does not deal with the spiritual warfare that rages around us nor the spiritual gifts presented to us by our loving Father. Allen seems content to stay within the parameters of conservative evangelism and focus on prayer, Bible study and living a life devoted to Jesus. (Granted, Allen’s view of “living a life devoted to Jesus” is way BIGGER then most evangelicals.)

This may be a petty critique, but I can not get away from the reality of this warfare we are living. The inaugurated eschatology of Kingdom Theology opens the door for a better understand of this warfare, if one is willing to go there…

But, make no mistake; Allen’s book “Kingdom Come” is a valuable introduction into the Kingdom Theology and what it means to join God in His Mission to redeem all of creation to Himself. If you are confused about why I’m so adamant about the Kingdom of God, please pick up this book as it explains a lot (hmm…I’m sure there will be a lot of witty remarks associate with that last line…).

Blessings.

In addition, Isaiah 43 declares that when “the LORD, your Holy One, Israel’s Creator, your King” comes He will “remember your sins no more” (Is 43:15, 25 New International Version). The Gospel texts show that Jesus of Nazareth, unlike any of the previous prophets of Israel, publically forgave the sins of the people without referring to the Temple sacrifices (Mt 9:5-6; Mk 2:5-10; Lk 5:20-24; 7:48; Jn 8:11). In effect, Jesus was simultaneously declaring Himself God while demonstrating the fact that the Day of the Lord or the Kingdom of God had come among men forever.

If the above is true, then it leaves the modern reader in a conundrum for it would seem that Jesus taught two contradictory ideas: one, that the active rule and reign of God, known as the Day of the Lord, has come among men as foretold by the prophets; and two, that the looked for Day had not yet come, but was coming. Did Jesus really teach both of these ideas? Or did we misinterpret the meaning of the phrase “kingdom of God”?

Luckily the disciples had the same conundrum because they asked Jesus to explain himself and his parables about the Kingdom of God in Matthew 13:10-12 (also Mk 4:10-12 and Lk 8:9-11):

And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” Jesus answered them, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.”  (New American Standard)

While this passage may seem to skirt around the question at hand, in reality it does give us a clue to what Jesus is talking about in his parables. The term “mystery” in the Bible does not simply refer to something unknown or mysterious, but to “something which has been kept secret through times eternal but is now disclosed” [Ladd, The Gospel of the Kingdom, 52].  In other words, Jesus was telling his disciples that the Kingdom of God was coming into the world in a way unforeseen by the prophets of old.

Instead of only being a one-time earth-shattering event, the Kingdom of God is like a newly planted field of wheat among which the enemy scatters weeds among the good seed. When the farmer learned about the weeds, he told his servants to leave the field alone – allowing the wheat and weeds to grow together until the time of harvest when they shall be separated. As Jesus himself explained, the field is this world into which the Kingdom of God has come. However, instead of destroying the rule of evil in one major event, the Lord Almighty chose to allow evil (the weeds) to grow along side His chosen people (the wheat) until the Second Coming of Christ (Mt 13:24-30, 36-43) [George Eldon Ladd, The Presence of the Future, 231-232].

This is the mystery of the Gospel: that Jesus came to destroy evil, sin and death, while proclaiming that the rule and reign of God (i.e. the Kingdom of God) has come, is coming; is near, and yet is delayed [Morphew, Breakthrough, 57-68].  Once understood, this simple, but profound, understanding of the Kingdom of God will change the way in which the Gospel, nay the entire Bible, is read. Jesus Christ’s central message was one of end-time proportions, forcing His followers to live in the tension of the here and not yet.

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Bibliography

Atlantic Baptist University, “Psalms of Solomon 17,” Atlantic Baptist University, http://www.abu.nb.ca/courses/NewTestament/Hebrews/PrimReadPsSol.htm (accessed December 11, 2009).

König, Adrio. The Eclipse of Christ in Eschatology: Towards a Christ-Centered Approach. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1989.

Ladd, George Eldon. The Gospel of the Kingdom: Scriptural Studies in the Kingdom of God. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1959.

———-. The Presence of the Future. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1974.

———-. A Theology of the New Testament. rev. ed. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1993.

Love, Rick. Muslims, Magic, and the Kingdom of God: Church Planting Among Folk Muslims. Pasadena, Calf: William Carey Library, 2000.

Morphew, Derek. Breakthrough: Discovering the Kingdom. 1991. Reprint, Cape Town, South Africa: Vineyard International Publishing, 2006.

Schweitzer, Albert. The Kingdom of God and Primitive Christianity, Trans. L.A. Garrard, Ed. Ulrich Neuenschwander. New York: The Seabury Press, 1968.

Williams, Don. Start Here: Kingdom Essentials for Christians. 2006. Ventura, California: Regal.

Wright, Nicholas Thomas (N.T.). Surprised by Hope. New York: HarperCollins, 2008.

However, there are others teachings of Jesus that do not seem to fit with the concept of the kingdom being the active rule and reign of God. In these teachings, Jesus talked about the coming of the “kingdom of God” as if it was something that was coming soon, or something that had already come. In order to understand how these passages fit within the above definition of the kingdom of God, we will need to turn to the Old Testament writings.

Within the Old Testament there is a duality where God is described both as currently being the king of world and as some day in the future being king over the world. Psalm 103:19 states that the “The LORD has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all” (New International Version). Yet, Obadiah 1 talks about the “day of the Lord” when God will become King of Israel and punish all those who do not follow Him.

This duality continues throughout Jewish intertestamental literature as seen in the first few verses of Psalms of Solomon 17:

O Lord, you are our king for ever and ever, For in you, O God, does our soul glory. How long are the days of man’s life upon the earth? As are his days, so is the hope (set) upon him. But we hope in God, our deliverer; for the might of our God is for ever with mercy, and the kingdom of our God is for ever over the nations in judgment.

In this passage, the writer starts off confirming that God is king at that moment in history before shifting gears and talking about the coming kingdom of God, which would bring salvation to Israel and judgment to all the nations of the earth.

In Daniel 2, God gives King Nebuchadnezzar a dream that is interpreted by the prophet Daniel foretelling of a divine “kingdom” that will destroy all earthly kingdoms and “endure forever.” Similarly in Daniel 7, the prophet himself is given a dream where “one like a son of man” establishes an “everlasting kingdom.” In other words, there would come a day in which God would redeem His people, punish all the evil nations of the world, and establish His kingdom or rule over all the earth.

Jesus’ proclamation that the “kingdom of God is near” (Mt 4:17; 10:7; Lk 10:9; 10:11) was a warning to all of Israel to get ready because the “day of the Lord” was at hand. It echoed Amos 5 where the prophet tells Israel to repent of their evil ways and turn back to God before the judgment of the Lord came upon the earth. John the Baptist declared the same message in Mark 1:15 (also Mt 3:2): “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” (New International Version)

However, Jesus did not stop there – he went on to declare that the “kingdom of God has come” (Mt 12:28; Lk 11:20). That is to say that the future kingdom of God prophesied by Daniel and the prophets of old has come among men. To that extent, it is no accident that Jesus’ favorite name for himself was the “Son of Man”, which would have brought back memories of Daniel’s prophecy concerning the “kingdom” of God [Ladd, A Theology of the New Testament, 58.]

Note that while I am going to save the full bibliography until the end, I will try to include references throughout the journey so that you (and all the copyright lawyers out there) will know where I gathered my information.

Blessings

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The Gospel texts declare that the central message of Jesus Christ was the “kingdom of God” (Mt 4:17; 9:35; Mk 1:14-15; Lk 4:43). Unfortunately, the phrase is not defined in the Gospel texts as the Biblical writers most likely assumed their readers would already know the meaning of the phrase. This leaves the modern reader in the predicament of having to define the phrase based upon the Old Testament writings, Jewish intertestamental literature, and the particular contexts in which Jesus used the phrase. Accordingly, this paper will seek to briefly define the phrase the “kingdom of God” and look at its impact on the teachings of Jesus.

The most logical place to start when defining a phrase is with the definitions of the words used in the phase. The writers of Luke and Mark used the Koine Greek words “βασιλειαν του θεου,” or, if using Latin characters, “Basileia tou Theou.” The last word of the phrase, “Theou,” is fairly simple and straight forward, meaning “God.” The writer of Matthew, on the other hand, substitutes the word “ουρανων” or “heaven” for “God” as they were writing to a primarily Jewish audience which does not like to directly refer to or mention God’s name [George Eldon Ladd, A Theology of the New Testament, 61.].  The use of the phrase “kingdom of heaven” in Matthew is exactly the same as the way Mark and Luke use the words “kingdom of God.” As such, we can assume that if we discover the meaning of one phrase, the other will follow.

Having defined the last word of the phrase “Basileia tou Theou,” let us turn our attention to the first word of the phrase. The Greek word “basileia” can be used to describe the geographical realm over which a king rules [George Eldon Ladd, The Gospel of the Kingdom, 18-19.].  This can be seen in the words of Jesus when he talks about entering into the “kingdom of heaven” as if it was a physical realm into which people can enter (Mt 7:21; 8:12; Mk 9:47; 10:23; Lk 18:24). Or, in Mark 13:8 where Jesus says, that “nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom” (New International Version).

“Basileia” can also be used to refer to the authority or rule of a king over his people. Jesus’ parable of the ten minas in Luke 19:12-15 is a good example of this use of “basileia.” In this parable, “basileia” has been translated as “kingly power” (Revised Standard Version) or “appointed king” (New International Version) [George Eldon Ladd, The Gospel of the Kingdom, 21].  Both translations carry with it the view that a “kingdom” is less of a physical realm and more of the rule or reign of a king.

In the Old Testament, this view of the rule and reign of God can be found through the Hebrew word “malkuth” as the idiom “kingdom of God” is not used [George Eldon Ladd, The Gospel of the Kingdom, 19-20].  For example, Ezra 8:1 talks about the return of Israel from Babylon “in the kingdom” or “rule” of Artazerxes. II Chronicles 12:1 uses the word to describe the rule of Rehoboam over the nation of Israel. In both cases the word “malkuth” is translated as “basileia” in the Greek Septuagint, giving greater weight to the concept of “basileia tou Theou” being the active rule and reign of God versus simply being a physical or spiritual realm into which one enters.

At the heart of Biblical redemptive truth is the Blessed hope of the personal, glorious second advent of Jesus Christ. Salvation has to do both with the redemption of men as individuals and as a society. Salvation of individual believers includes the “redemption of the body” (Rom. 8:23). We must not only be saved from the guilt of sin, and delivered from the power of sin. Redemption is not completed until we are delivered from the very effects of sin in our moral bodies. The Biblical doctrine of the resurrection is a redemptive truth: it means the salvation of the body. This salvation will be realized only by the personal second coming of Christ.

So begins the introduction of George Ladd’s book The Blessed Hope: A Biblical Study of the Second Advent and the Rapture.

The Blessed Hope by George Ladd

A fairly easy read, this book tackles a very important issue into today’s church: the substitution of the rapture in place of the Second Coming of Christ.

Think for a minute – if you were to stop your average every-day Christian on the street and ask them what they are looking forward to when Christ comes back, what would they say? I guess that most of them would tell you that they are looking forward to the rapture when they will be taken out of this world.

Yet, Biblical the rapture is not our hope.

Our hope, our Blessed Hope – as Ladd would say – is with the return of the King of Kings. That we may dwell with Him on a renewed earth. That is what we need to be looking forward too – not a pre-tribulation rapture that takes us out of the world like a cosmic escape hatch.

To help remind people of this hope, Ladd starts by looking at the beginning of pre-tribulation rapture theology in history before going on to look at the Biblical evidence about the rapture.

The historical overview was very impacting to me as it turns out that no one in the church ever thought about a pre-tribulation rapture until 1827. Before then, the church held to the view that the church would join Jesus in the sky and then continue down to earth for eternity after the tribulation.

Well kinda… in the 1600 to 1700’s the Protestant church started to believe in post-millennialism as they thought all the world’s problems could be solved through scientific means. In reaction to this, a group of Plymouth Brethren believers in Dublin, Ireland, came up with the idea of a “secret rapture.” S. P. Tregelles gives this eye-witness account of the meeting:

It was from that suppose revelation that the modern doctrine and the modern phraseology respecting it arose. It came not from Holy Scripture, but from that which falsely pretended to be the Spirit of God.

This is not to say that God can not speak through the Spirit. Instead this quote serves to highlight the fact that the concept of a pre-tribulation rapture did not come from a study of the Bible. In fact, most of those folks who originally bought into the concept later changed their mind AFTER studying the Scriptures.

I don’t know about you – but I find it extremely interesting that it took 1800 years for the concept to come to light – even more interesting is the fact that the early church discussed this issue in depth during the 1^st though 4^th century and did not walk away from the Bible with a pre-tribulation rapture…

In other words, George Ladd’s book The Blessed Hope is awesome read for those wanting to understand both the historical and Biblical view of the rapture.