{"id":5518,"date":"2015-05-17T17:13:46","date_gmt":"2015-05-17T22:13:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/?p=5518"},"modified":"2015-05-17T17:13:46","modified_gmt":"2015-05-17T22:13:46","slug":"coming-of-god-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/2015\/05\/coming-of-god-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Coming of God – part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Last <\/a>month, we looked at what Jesus had to say about the timing of his own\u00a0parousia, <\/i>or \u201ccoming.\u201d<\/p>\n

So where else<\/i> does the \u2018coming of God\u2019 show up in Holy Writ? Was a \u2018coming of God\u2019 like the world-devourer Galactus<\/a>\u2018 herald Silver Surfer<\/a>, gliding in from the sky all bright and shiny? Or was it a demonstration of God\u2019s power in spiritual, physical and the visible realms? Let\u2019s delve into the internal language of Scripture to discover what this concept means to its original speakers.<\/p>\n

In the Hebrew Scriptures, a \u2018Coming of God\u2019 had many forms; a voice in the Garden, a burning bush, and a pillar of fire. A \u2018coming of God\u2019 in judgment was usually when God used the means of an enemy army to discipline a city and its inhabitants. God\u2019s presence was recognized in that hostile army because God sent a prophet to warn of the event beforehand. In the biblical narrative, the pattern looks like this:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. A Prophet uses apocalyptic language to Tell people that \u2018God is coming\u2018 to change the \u2018heaven and earth\u2019 of their society -><\/li>\n
  2. The Prophet tells people to repent and turn to God-><\/li>\n
  3. The People don\u2019t turn to God -><\/li>\n
  4. An Enemy army comes. and people \u201csee\u201d God \u2013 meaning, they recognize that God visited them in judgment -><\/li>\n
  5. God reorients the \u2018heaven and earth\u2019 of the political and religious order of their society.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Like Father, like Son: <\/b><\/p>\n

    \u201cFor the Son of Man is going to come in his Father\u2019s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.\u201d (Matthew 16:27)<\/p>\n

    We sometimes forget the poetic stirrings in the ancient Hebrew writers, setting their evocative words in concrete, beyond all original recognition. Max King\u2019s depiction of prophecy, though, brings me back to a primary understanding of how prophetic language functioned for its earliest hearers: \u201cProphecy is figurative language describing the spiritual significance of temporal events.\u201d<\/p>\n

    This is how God came in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), and this is how Jesus was prophesied to come \u201cin the glory of the Father\u201d in the New Testament. Many Christians do not know this, but in 70AD, that is exactly what happened. The presence of God, in the paradoxical form of Roman armies, trampled the city of Jerusalem for 42 months, or 3 1\/2 years \u2013 just as prophesied, \u201c\u2026it is given to the nations, and they will trample the Holy City for 42 months\u201d (Revelation 11:2). Afterwards, even the Jewish historian, Josephus, recognized that this was a Divine intervention \u2013 a Coming of God \u2013 breaking into and changing history forever.<\/p>\n

    But Different? <\/b><\/p>\n

    The main difference between God\u2019s comings in the Hebrew Bible and Jesus\u2019 coming was that Jesus\u2019 coming would be the climax of comings of God in history. His coming would consummate the New Covenant age of God\u2019s Kingdom of people on earth.<\/p>\n

    \u201cNow<\/i> once at the consummation of the ages he has been manifested to put away sin.\u201d (Hebrews 9:26)<\/p>\n

    Jesus\u2019 coming would simultaneously cause the heaven and earth of the Old Covenant to become obsolete, disappearing from the relationship between God and humanity. And it would give way to the dawning of the New Covenant age, the heaven and earth of the New Covenant Kingdom of people.<\/p>\n

    \u201cWhen God speaks of a \u201cnew\u201d covenant, it means he has made the first one obsolete. It is now out of date and will soon disappear.\u201d (Hebrews 8:13)<\/p>\n

    Jesus\u2019 glorious arrival would be into<\/i> his New Kingdom \u2013 and that New Kingdom is us<\/i>! Jesus arrived to give life to his own body on earth \u2013 the body of Christ.<\/p>\n

    Through Us, Not To Us<\/b><\/p>\n

    It\u2019s time to adjust our lens. The purpose of God\u2019s coming wasn\u2019t to physically renew the earth into a utopian state in an instant. It was to consummate the marriage relationship begun, the New Covenant relationship, with the New \u2018Israel of God\u2019 in Christ. Historically, marriage has had the purpose of producing legally recognized descendants who could be designated as heirs to a father\u2019s land or Kingdom. Such is the case with God, his bride and his children. God came and consummated a New Covenant world, making a new relationship with his bride, the New Humanity, so that they could begin producing spiritual children, heirs with rights to all the promises and benefits as God\u2019s all-pervasive Kingdom.<\/p>\n

    This consummation has nothing to do with the end of the material world, or the beginning of a utopian earth. It is about belonging to a spiritual reality that we can live in now<\/i>, amidst our material world. It is a Kingdom that is coming into the physical world through us. You can opt into it and recognize your belonging to it at any time.<\/p>\n

    It is not that God isn\u2019t changing and powerfully transforming this world toward God\u2019s own victorious influence of \u00a0justice, mercy, hope and glory. No, its that these changes are breaking into the world through<\/i> us, as we live out our lives seeking to be a benefit and blessing to all the world, opening ourselves to the very real and powerful presence of an all-in-all God. God is coming into this world through<\/i> us, right now, not coming in one earth-ending future installation \u201cto\u201d us.<\/p>\n

    To End a Covenant World<\/b><\/p>\n

    So let\u2019s look at the pattern in the text again.<\/p>\n

    There were many \u201cComing of God\u201d events prophesied in the Hebrew Bible, complete with earth-ending and cloud-coming apocalyptic language, signifying great change. But was this language describing the end of the physical planet? Or was it the end of a society\u2019s religious and political order \u2013 the end of their<\/i> world as they knew it?<\/p>\n

    The Bible and history both confirm that this apocalyptic language was consistently describing the end of political and religious worlds \u00a0\u2013 or societies \u2013 like Greece, Edom, Babylon, Egypt and Israel, as you can see from Scriptures we\u2019ll explore below.<\/p>\n

    A Coming of God, in biblical literature, was never literally a physical deity dropping out of the \u2018sky,\u2019 although this cloud-coming language occurs to many modern ears that way. But an ancient person at all familiar with the Hebrew Scriptures would have recognized that Jesus was quoting the Hebrew descriptions of past comings of God from Isaiah and Ezekiel. Thus, they would have reason to hear Jesus\u2019 words in the same way \u2013 as a poetic and apocalyptic way of describing God\u2019s end of Israel\u2019s Old Covenantal world through the use of an enemy army. Jesus was not<\/i> describing the end of the material world \u2013 not in his future, nor in ours.<\/p>\n

    Jesus, a prophet in the line of Hebrew prophets, predicted a \u2018cloud-coming\u2019 judgment on Jerusalem in his generation. Jesus was not predicting the end of the world, time or history! Jesus simply quotes his Hebrew Bible and follows the same Hebrew biblical pattern set by many before him, in a way his<\/i> first century Jewish audience would understand. Jesus was predicting great covenantal change, as signified by his paradoxical presence in Jerusalem being given over to its violent strategies via Rome in AD 70, having ignored Jesus\u2019 Way of Peace (Luke 13:34-35).<\/p>\n

    Stay tuned \u2013 we\u2019ll be exploring more about the coming of God next month!<\/p>\n

    Or, if you want to read ahead, see this article in whole at my site: LivingtheQuestion.org<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Last month, we looked at what Jesus had to say about the timing of his own\u00a0parousia, or \u201ccoming.\u201d So where else does the \u2018coming of God\u2019 show up in Holy Writ? Was a \u2018coming of God\u2019 like the world-devourer Galactus\u2018 herald Silver Surfer, gliding in from the sky all bright and shiny? Or was it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54,860],"tags":[805,301,950,1097],"class_list":["post-5518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-eschatology","category-movement-building","tag-covenant-eschatology","tag-fulfilled-eschatology","tag-preterim","tag-theology"],"yoast_head":"\nComing of God - part 2<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Last month, we looked at what Jesus had to say about the timing of his own\u00a0parousia, or \u201ccoming.\u201d So where else does the \u2018coming of God\u2019 show up in Holy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/2015\/05\/coming-of-god-part-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Coming of God - part 2\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last month, we looked at what Jesus had to say about the timing of his own\u00a0parousia, or \u201ccoming.\u201d So where else does the \u2018coming of God\u2019 show up in Holy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/2015\/05\/coming-of-god-part-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Emergent Village\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-05-17T22:13:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"rileyobrienpowell\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"rileyobrienpowell\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/2015\/05\/coming-of-god-part-2\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/2015\/05\/coming-of-god-part-2\/\",\"name\":\"Coming of God - part 2\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-05-17T22:13:46+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-05-17T22:13:46+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/#\/schema\/person\/747e8c68be781f3603520f6df6949246\"},\"description\":\"Last month, we looked at what Jesus had to say about the timing of his own\u00a0parousia, or \u201ccoming.\u201d So where else does the \u2018coming of God\u2019 show up in Holy\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/2015\/05\/coming-of-god-part-2\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/2015\/05\/coming-of-god-part-2\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/2015\/05\/coming-of-god-part-2\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Coming of God – part 2\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/\",\"name\":\"Emergent Village\",\"description\":\"Voices of the Emergent Village Community\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/#\/schema\/person\/747e8c68be781f3603520f6df6949246\",\"name\":\"rileyobrienpowell\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9e39d2b86bdb05dac645eb69a4d99e8c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9e39d2b86bdb05dac645eb69a4d99e8c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"rileyobrienpowell\"},\"description\":\"As it pertains to blogging here, I enjoy writing about the Bible and theology, contemplative spirituality and personal spirituality. 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