The Kingdom of God<\/span><\/p>\n[ Thanks to Scott Stone for eliciting this post with his study and comments ]<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve done a lot of reading over the past few years on the Kingdom of God. It is one of the most important biblical themes to study in my opinion, because it is the central teaching of Jesus Christ as we know from the 4 gospels. I have this theory, I know I\u2019m not the first to come up with it. I think much of what is happening in the American evangelical church today is sort of a \u201cnew reformation.\u201d Or perhaps it could be termed a \u201cprotestant counter-reformation,\u201d which deals precisely with the Kingdom of God theme in Jesus\u2019 teachings. We are, in a sense, rediscovering the Gospel. Let me explain what I mean.<\/p>\n
When Luther was battling with the Catholic Church over theology and the politics of the Roman Catholic Church, his personal\/theological quest was to rediscover the Gospel<\/em>. In rediscovering the gospel, he found out that many of the beliefs people held were in error, especially their views of penance which had to do, ultimately, with justification. He sought to free the German church from the erroneous views and to accent what he believed to be imperative: sola gratia<\/em> & sola scriptura<\/em>. Today, there is widespread study of the Kingdom of God theme in evangelical Christianity. Many theologians and pastors are waking up to the reality that we also have held a view of the gospel which has so been reduced and refined over time so as to actually diminish some of the central teachings of Jesus.<\/p>\nMany of those women and men who are writing about this theme in our time have noted that the past 150 years or so have been dominated by a reduced form of the gospel, i.e., a gospel of \u201csin management\u201d as Dallas Willard puts it. This basically means the true gospel as preached by Jesus has been inadvertently (which is an important point for me) subverted by the church and it has morphed into a very individualistic way to deal with our sin through Christ so that we can go to heaven when we die. The theme of Christ\u2019s teachings \u2013 the kerygma<\/em>, which means his main message, was not how to go to heaven when you die. His main message was \u201cThe time if fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.\u201d (Mark 1:14) This Greek word metanoia<\/em>, which is translated \u201crepent\u201d in most of our modern versions is the source of a lot of misunderstanding. To fully appreciate the work being done with the kingdom of God theology today, one must understand how this word has been treated.<\/p>\nThree understandings of Metanoia<\/em>:<\/p>\nJEROME: do penance
<\/span><\/strong>Jerome\u2019s translation and revision of the Vulgate seems to have been completed around 400 AD. It grew in popularity and became the official version for the Roman Catholic Church for about 1000 years. Whether he translated the Gospels from the Septuagint or simply revised a Latin version isn\u2019t really the point here. But however he constructed the Vulgate, Jerome translated metanoia \u201cdo penance.\u201d Around this understanding\/translation the whole confession\/penance system grew up in the Catholic church including indulgences, which fueled the reformation.<\/p>\nLUTHER: change your mind
<\/span><\/strong>When Luther translated the bible into German he noted that Jerome was wrong in his translation of metanoia,<\/em> (virtually every scholar acknowledges this as true now \u2013 even the Roman Catholic Church). The word is now rightfully translated as \u201crepent.\u201d Luther took this to mean \u201ca change of mind.\u201d He related it to trust or faith in a more wholistic way, but over time this understanding was reduced. Soon there was this idea that the gospel was all about what you believe. Change your mind and believe in Jesus and then you are set. The church in the enlightenment, modern era ran with this idea and over time the gospel really came to mean something like \u201cgive mental assent to these truth claims about Jesus, say a prayer reflecting this and you will go to heaven when you die.\u201d This has been the understanding of the Gospel in evangelical circles starting in the reformation and has been more refined and in some sense reduced since then. This view still holds sway in much of evangelicalism.<\/p>\nPOST-MODERNITY: change your whole direction\/pursuit<\/strong>
<\/span>Next came some serious theologians and writers working around the beginning of the 20th century and then in earnest after WWII (although there has always been this stream of thought \u2013 ironically much of it in the Roman Catholic church after the Catholic Counter-reformation as well as the Eastern Orthodox Church), which acknowledged a more complete understanding of metanoia<\/em>. The word is still translated as \u201crepent\u201d but in the Greek, metanoia<\/em> carries much more meaning than does this word \u201crepent\u201d in English. A common American English understanding of \u201crepent\u201d means to express regret. Some understand it as a turning, but this is often symbolic not actual. For the most part the change which is understood to happen in repentance is a rational one. But the original understanding of metanoia<\/em> denotes more than changing our mind. It was understood as changing of one\u2019s whole way of life and agenda for living<\/em>.<\/p>\nMany believe, and I am persuaded by them, that this is a better understanding of what Jesus was saying in Mark 1:14. Jesus meant for us to change our whole way of life and agenda and to follow after him. This seems like a better exegesis of Mark 1 than simply changing one\u2019s mind \u2013 it certainly invovles the mind but connotes much more than that.<\/p>\n
A good example of how to understand the phrase \u201crepent and believe\u201d can be found in the writing\u2019s of Josephus<\/strong>, a well known Jewish political figure and writer who lived in the time of Jesus. He fought against the Romans as a General in the Jewish revolt which saw the Temple destroyed in AD 70. From that war we have a letter written by General Josephus to one of his rival Generals who was fighting in his own battle in another part of the Empire. He was urging this rival General to come join him and come under his command and fight the battle differently. To express this and convince the rival to leave his current pursuit, Josephus wrote \u201crepent and believe in me,\u201d the same exact words in the Greek which Jesus used in Mark 1:14! What Josephus wanted this rival to do was leave his current way of bringing about the rule of God and come join Josephus and pursue his <\/em>way of bringing about the rule of God. This is a good way of understanding what Jesus was asking us to do.<\/p>\nTo simply understand Mark 1:14 to mean \u201cyou must give mental assent to truth claims about Jesus\u201d really does not seem to fully express what Jesus taught. All of the kerygma<\/em> expresses that to follow Jesus means to leave one\u2019s current agenda of what they think it means to follow after God, or live in god\u2019s rule and reign , and instead pursue the kingdom of God in the way which Jesus espoused<\/strong><\/em>. Thus Jesus\u2019 teaching in the Sermon on the Mount becomes paramount for us to discover what it means to pursue the Kingdom of God in the way Jesus recommends to us.<\/p>\nNow as with every sort of reform movement there are possibilities of over-correction. It seems pertinent to acknowledge that here and realize that any understanding of metanoia<\/em> or \u201crepent\u201d must include<\/strong> the changing of one\u2019s mind. We cannot throw out the baby with the bath water. There is also a sense in which Christ\u2019s kingdom call will require penance, not as a way of earning our justification as the Roman Catholic church espoused before the reformation, but as the only appropriate response to the grace of God. Should we choose to jettison the previous understandings of what it means to \u201crepent,\u201d we should fall prey to new insidious distortions of the Gospel. We should hold these all in proper view as we interpret Mark 1:14.<\/p>\nThe Good news of Jesus is accurately described as a turning from our own agenda to the agenda of Christ \u2013 which entails many things.<\/strong> His agenda involves the whole person, mind, body, soul and spirit. It means to believe in Jesus, to love him, to devote our bodies to him as we follow his teachings and to do all we can to see that he rules and reigns on earth as in heaven. I am pursuing this kingdom with all of my heart, mind, soul and strength and hope that this will be the direction of the church universal over the next 100 years and forever.<\/p>\n
Here are a few great books that help to explore the Kingdom of God theme. If you have already read N.T. Wright\u2019s The Challenge of Jesus<\/strong><\/em>, then this is the right order to read them. If not, I\u2019d insert Wright\u2019s book before McLaren\u2019s. I know some people bristle at McLaren but his work is important and though you may not agree with all of what he says in this book, it is a very good description of Kingdom of God theology and will broaden our thinking with insight which seems important to me.<\/span><\/p>\nThe Divine Conspiracy<\/em> by Dallas Willard
The Upside Down Kingdom<\/em> by Donald Kraybill
The Secret Message of Jesus<\/em> by Brian McLaren<\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Kingdom of God [ Thanks to Scott Stone for eliciting this post with his study and comments ] I\u2019ve done a lot of reading over the past few years on the Kingdom of God. It is one of the most important biblical themes to study in my opinion, because it is the central teaching […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1118,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a> The Kingdom of God<\/span><\/p>\n