Why Do We Pray, “Thy Kingdom Come . . . .”?

Why Do We Pray, “Thy Kingdom Come . . . .”?

Aug 9, 2023 | Eschatology

Good question. Maybe a more important question is why Jesus would command us to pray it. I’ve been reassessing such questions over the last year as my road of learning took a very unexpected eschatological turn. I realized previously I wasn’t really sure why I was praying it or why Jesus commanded us to pray it. In my previous eschatological framework the prayer seemed more about the future, about God’s eternal kingdom which he’ll establish at the end of time. The implicit prayer, it seems, was, “Lord, hurry up and establish your kingdom!” It’s crazy, but I really had no framework for His Kingdom being established, coming, and His will being done on this earth in this fallen world, here, now. According to how I saw “end times” and the end of history, God putting all things right, it happened at the very end in one, big, ginormous cataclysmic event, what we know as Christ’s Second Coming or Second Advent. That’s not what the Bible teaches, though. There is some very symbolic language in Revelation and OT eschatological passages, but I must go back to my question. Why does Jesus command us to pray this?

First, I want to point out that the purpose of the theological discipline of eschatology, which is basically how everything ends, is not primarily about how things end. Well, it is and it isn’t. Prior to this detour, I thought eschatology was primarily about trying to figure out how the end goes down, what exactly happens at that point in history. As such I tended to view it as primarily a speculative enterprise. In a way I was agnostic about it, not really believing we could know anything with certainty, thus the necessity of speculation. And so many people disagree anyway, often very strongly, so I figured why bother spending too much time worrying about it. Then postmillennialism fell out of the sky, I think literally, a year ago this month. I was shocked because as far as I was concerned it was a completely and totally discredited position nobody should take seriously. Boy, was I wrong!

David Bahnsen captures what is truly critically important about eschatology:

The cause of an optimistic eschatology has never been one of enlightening one’s view of the future as much as informing their activity in the present.

It isn’t just postmillennialism, what he’s referring to, that informs our “activity in the present,” but whatever eschatology we hold. When I say, “activity in the present,” I’m sure your mind went where mine would have, to our personal holiness and morality, and how we love and serve others. That’s of course true, and part of the kingdom of God, but the question is much bigger and the consequences more far reaching.  

Let’s start with the definition of Kingdom. What’s the first thing a kingdom has to have? A king, of course. And what is the king’s role? Also of course, to rule or reign. So when Jesus prays the Lord’s Prayer, He is praying that His reign or rule be extended “on earth as it is in heaven.” And Paul tells us explicitly what that means in Ephesians 1. Remember, after Christ died and rose from the dead he gave his disciples what we call the Great Commission in Matthew 28 where He informed them “all authority in heaven, and on earth had been given” to Him therefore they were to go and make disciples of all nations. Not individuals, but nations. I’m just reporting what Jesus said. Then he ascended into heaven in front of their eyes to be seated at the right hand of God, the place of ultimate authority in the universe. Speaking of the resurrection power for us, His people, Paul says:

That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 

Did you get that part, that his authority to reign or rule over all these powers is for “the present age” and not just “the one to come”? I found it fascinating when I put these new, optimistic, eschatological glasses on that Paul was inclined to put the present age first and then added the “but also,” the eternal age, the one where there will be no sin, misery, suffering, and death. Why would that be? Let me suggest the Lord’s Prayer is the answer, and his command that we pray, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” He’s bringing his eternal, spiritual kingdom reign that he exercises in heaven to earth . . . . through us! Now in this life, in this fallen world to affect all of it, every square inch.

My prayer now is that God would extend Christ’s reign, advance his kingdom, and build His church. The latter is the reason for everything according to Paul:

22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

God brings his kingdom to earth through us, His people. Our sanctification and growth in the Lord is not just personal, but societal. We are light, the world is darkness. What happens when a light is turned on? Darkness flees? We belong to He who is Truth, we live in a world of lies. What happens to lies when Truth comes? They are exposed as lies. We live in a world of self-centeredness and hate, and we bring service, love, and peace. Everyone wants what we have, they just don’t know it!

Think about it. If you lived in the first century, and told your Roman neighbors Christianity is going one day topple the Roman empire through love they would have laughed at you, thought you delusional, but that’s exactly what happened. If you had said this Christian faith will one day dominate the Western world, and eventually bring peace and prosperity to the entire world they would have had you committed, but that is exactly what happened. Today we’re 2,000 years into this, and we’ve only seen a limited amount of this “kingdom come” and God’s will being done “on earth as it is in heaven.” The mustard seed has only grown into a little bush at this point, and the leaven has barely raised the dough. And we get to be part of God continuing His advance!

And yet what do most Christians do? Moan and whine about how bad things are, and say Jesus must be coming back soon because it’s so bad, and he’ll save the day. What we should be doing is get about building the kingdom, and have confidence that God is going to give us success because we’re told Jesus will reign and crush his enemies until they are a footstool for his feet. But do Christians believe and live this? No. It’s the defeatist attitude that bothers me most, as if the truth is as John MacArthur put it, “Down here we lose, up there we win.” No we don’t! Did Jesus command us to pray this because His expectation was that we would lose “down here”? Seriously? Christians believe this? Well, I used to! For most of my Christian life, like over 44 years! That makes me sad.

Just remember next time you get a little depressed at the news that at least Christian families at your church aren’t being thrown to lions by Roman emperors, or being burned alive for spectacle. And we think we have it tough? We wonder what God is doing. We don’t need to wonder because like Christians in the first century we know He is extending Christ’s reign, advancing His kingdom, and building His church. Why else would he tell us to pray, “Thy kingdom come . . .”

 

 

 

Dr. Robert Malone’s Red Pill Experience Interview

Dr. Robert Malone’s Red Pill Experience Interview

Aug 5, 2023 | Truth

In my next international best-selling book (no laughing!) I’m currently finishing, my first chapter is titled, “Red Pills and the Next Great Awakening.” The book is basically my red pill journey that started when Donald Trump came down that golden escalator at Trump Tower on June 16, 2015, unbeknownst to me. In fact, I completely ignored “the news” because Donald Trump had about as much chance of becoming President of the United States as Bozo the Clown. I remember confidently telling my wife in October of that year, “Donald Trump will never be president.” God had different plans. One of the arguments I make in the book is that God is the providential sovereign ruler of history. Nothing, absolutely nothing, not one single thing, happens at any level that he doesn’t ordain, either causing directly or allowing to happen. We have no idea how he controls all things, but Scripture clearly teaches us he does.

I also say that while the book and why I wrote it has everything to do with Trump, in a way it has nothing to do with him. In other words it isn’t about him, but God using him to trigger a Great Awakening, the one we are currently living through, and in my mind is only just beginning. I couldn’t help thinking of my argument and the case I attempt to make in the book when I heard this interview with Dr. Robert Malone on the Optimal Bio Podcast. Dr. Greg Brannon is my cousin, born three weeks after me, and we grew up together. He was an OBGYN for 30 years and founded Optimal Bio ten years ago give or take. As the Covid debacle got under way, he was instrumental in educating me about modern medicine and health in general. My rethinking all of that was part of my Red Pill experience, none of which would have happened without Donald Trump shocking the world and becoming President of the United States.

If you’re not familiar with Dr. Malone, he is the inventor of the mRNA technology that was a huge player in the Covid drama. Everything about him was center-left conventional thinking prior to Covid. What the medical, government, and media establishments did to him is shocking, but predictable, and woke him up to truths he was reluctant to see. He wrote a book recounting his very uncomfortable experience called Lies My Government Told Me. I encourage you to watch the interview for a window into our fascinating times.

The Uninvented Audio Book is Now Available!

The Uninvented Audio Book is Now Available!

Aug 4, 2023 | Uninvented

I’m not saying the learning curve in producing an audio book was like climbing Mount Everest, but by golly it sure seemed like it at times. It was often one step forward, five steps back, but persistence eventually paid off, and it will be a whole lot easier next time, God willing there is one. It is now available on Audible, Amazon, and iTunes for your listening pleasure. My hope is that Uninvented will get more exposure to those who don’t have time to read and fit their “reading” in with audio books.

Zechariah 3 – Joshua, Sin, and Rich Garments for Rich Living

Zechariah 3 – Joshua, Sin, and Rich Garments for Rich Living

Aug 2, 2023 | The Gospel

This short chapter is one of the most powerful and revelatory in all of Scripture. Zechariah prophesied during the time of Judah’s restoration after the exiles had returned from their seventy years in Babylon and were rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem, around 520 to 470 BC. I’ve always been impressed by the presentation of the unique and unmistakable portrayal of the gospel in this chapter, and in how few words it’s done. It unmistakably magnifies God’s grace and mercy, but something else stood out to me in this specific period of learning in my life, something flowing out of God’s mercy and grace: our obedience and the blessings flowing from it. In other words, we are saved unto good works. The forgiveness of our sins and restoration of our relationship to our Creator God should manifest itself in the life we live, and transformed lives will transform the world.

In the past I always focused on the gospel side of the implications represented, we might say the Protestant side. Our understanding is that Jesus’ death on the cross was a substitutionary atonement for our sin: because he paid the price, death, for our sin, and by faith (i.e., trust) we are legally granted his righteousness before God. This was always a challenge for Christianity because sinful human beings will often jump to the non sequitur; since we’re saved by grace it doesn’t matter if we sin. The Apostle Paul had to deal with this because it’s an ever present temptation as we read in Romans 6:

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We who died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?

“By no means” can be translated as may it never happen, never be born, never come to be. It should be literally unimaginable to us. Alas, we are still sinners so sin will happen, but that is why Christ is our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption (I Cor. 1:30), yet there is never any excuse for sin. This struggle highlights another focus of this chapter, the spiritual war we are part of, but more on that in a minute. First, the gospel presentation here is just too good not to review.

It is no coincidence the story is about Joshua or Yeshua (Jesus’ name), the High Priest who was the first man chosen to be the High Priest for the reconstruction of the Temple. He is in the process of being accused and condemned by Satan and is portrayed wearing “filthy clothes.” There is an historical reason for that given the exiles had recently returned from Babylon and Temple worship was just getting started again. The important thing is that the Lord commands these be taken off, and he’s told: “See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put rich garments on you.” The Lord does this pointing forward with three Messianic references. The first is by sending “the Branch,” a common Messianic reference in the prophetic writings. There is also a stone with “seven eyes” (all seeing, all knowing), and then the final reference, the Lord Almighty will “remove the sin of this land in a single day.” Which is also clearly a Messianic reference, one the Jews could never conceive happening in the way it actually did. It is only exactly the way it did happen that gives us hope that our sin has been removed, and we have been clothed with “rich garments” of righteousness.

What I love about how God presents the gospel in this chapter is the direct connection between being granted His righteousness, His call to obedience, and the implied blessings that results if we “walk in His ways.” Once the clean garment is put on Joshua, the angel of the Lord gives him this charge:

This is what the Lord Almighty says: “If you will walk in obedience to me and keep my requirements, then you will govern my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you a place among these standing here.”

In the prophets there is often more than one meaning in a text, which is clearly the case here. While this is spoken to the High Priest Joshua in that historical moment, it is also spoken to our High Priest Jesus of Nazareth who obeyed the law perfectly for us, and now governs all of God’s house, all of creation from God’s right hand.

Then after the sin of the land is removed in “a single day” we’re told:

10 “‘In that day each of you will invite your neighbor to sit under your vine and fig tree,’ declares the Lord Almighty.”

God forgives our sin so we can be reconciled to Him, our Creator. Out of that reconciliation flows a changed heart that slowly (sanctification) orients our lives from self to God and others, thus the greatest commandment encompassing all the law and the prophets, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. God changes our affections to desire the right things, as Augustine said, He gives us right ordered loves.

God want to bless us, but He will not bless sin. This is why Paul in Ephesians 5 talks about the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control—because exhibiting these traits to others, and ourselves, will bless us, make us happy, fulfilled, make life truly enjoyable and compelling. Compare it to the “acts of the flesh,” and there is no comparison. If you want to be miserable, do those things. This is all fleshed out, so to speak, in the context of an unimaginable, to us, cosmic spiritual war.

The Lord of Hosts

Notice the one who is making all this happen is The Lord Almighty, translated in other versions as the Lord of Hosts or the Lord of Armies. Yahweh, our God is the God of war! In fact, this adjective is the most common associated with Yahweh in the Old Testament, used upwards of 280 times. But God doesn’t wage war as the world does because the war, as Paul tells us in Ephesians 6:12 is “not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” We also see Christ conquering evil in Revelation with a “sharp, double-edged sword” coming out of his mouth. And the writer to the Hebrews tells us, “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

We get a glimpse of our Lord or Hosts in the first two verses of this chapter with Satan accusing and the Lord defending this man, Joshua the High Priest, who is “a burning stick snatched from the fire.” No matter how pathetic we are, He goes to war for us. But that requires, as Jesus says, seeking first his kingdom and His righteousness through daily prayer and time in His Word (for man shall not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God), daily repentance and thanksgiving, and obedience to his law. As the Lord says to Joshua, “walk in obedience to me and keep my requirements,” and He will bless our efforts as pathetic as they may be. He wants us to live as richly as the garment of righteousness he’s placed on us.

Habakkuk 3: Will We Trust the Lord When Everything Looks Like We Shouldn’t?

Habakkuk 3: Will We Trust the Lord When Everything Looks Like We Shouldn’t?

Jul 28, 2023 | Epistemology - Trust

If we’re honest, we don’t tend to live by faith (i.e., trust) in God, but by circumstances. If our circumstances are hunky dory, to our liking, we’re happy, if not we moan and complain. I like to think we naturally stop doing this in the process of growing in maturity, of growing up, of overcoming this penchant to act like children, but growing up isn’t easy. It is, however, necessary. For Christians this process is called sanctification, or being made holy by God. As I was going through my own sanctification process in life at some point I realized how hard it was. By nature I found I’m a moaner and whiner, and I tended to see myself as a victim easily seduced by self-pity. I came up with a phrase not too long ago some four decades into this process: the pain of sanctification.

Being molded and shaped by Almighty God into the image of his Son is not fun, nor for the faint of heart, but the fruit is sweet. If we really want God to have his way with us, it will get ugly. Our feelings will be hurt, and as Tim Keller always said, He will crush us. It is often an emotional struggle. The reason is that, as Jesus said (John 16:8), when the Holy Spirit comes, “he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.” The Greek for convict, elegchó- ἐλέγχω is a tough one: reprove, rebuke, discipline, expose, show to be guilty. That word expose is especially scary. Who wants to be exposed? Not me! In fact when I was younger in the Lord I was afraid of asking God to have his way with me, to expose my sin. Now I plead with him to do it because of one very important word, in fact I’ve learned the most important word in the Christian faith: trust. Yes, it’s right up there with love, but trust has to come first because loving God, ourselves, and our neighbors is the fruit of trust.

As I finished the book of Habakkuk and read these final verses that word trust came to mind, and how difficult it can be to exercise it if we live by circumstances:

17 Though the fig tree does not bud
    and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
    and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
    and no cattle in the stalls,
18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
    I will be joyful in God my Savior.

19 The Sovereign Lord is my strength;
    he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
    he enables me to tread on the heights.

In the ancient world when almost everyone lived on farms and grew their own food nothing could be worse than this. It’s not just some empty store shelves like we experienced in the last few years that for us is a slight inconvenience, but imagine walking into every store in your city and they are all empty! Might we just panic? When everything that sustains life is gone what do we do? Freak out! Yet here is Habakkuk saying it doesn’t matter because he will choose a different response which will not be determined by the circumstances: trust.

I’ve found as I’ve grown older in the faith and in life that my greatest sin is not one of my most obvious sins, but my lack of trust in God. And because of that I’ve found that one of my favorite verses in the Bible is the most convicting, Isaiah 26:3:

You will keep him in perfect peace
   him whose mind is steadfast,
   because he trusts in you.

 If I don’t have perfect peace, I don’t trust in God. It’s as binary as you can get. I can say that sometimes in life I think I might have such peace, but I’ve found over the years I’m not really good at the whole perfection thing. So I’ve come to my default position in my daily prayers: I repent of this lack of trust every day. It’s reflected in things like fear, worry, anxiety, doubt, impatience, anger, and being easily annoyed. Oh, how easily annoyed I can be! After four plus decades as a Christians and God’s sanctifying work in my life, I think I’m a little better in putting my tendency to annoyance in abeyance, but its never easy. I have to constantly be aware that I just threw perfection out the window.

Where do all these attitudes and emotions not honoring to God come from? Living by circumstances and not by faith. The Greek word translated as faith or belief in the New Testament is pistis- πίστις: “Properly, persuasion (be persuaded, come to trust).” I really like the way Strong’s Concordance puts that because God never, ever requires “blind” faith, or faith without reason. This is very important to understand for a couple reasons. 

  1. The first is atheists pushing the lie that Christians (i.e., “religious people”) need faith because there is no evidence for what they believe. Or at best the evidence is so weak they have to take a “leap” of faith. In the words of Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain, faith is believin’ what you know ain’t so. Thus people who are “not religious” supposedly don’t need “faith.” This is of course garbage because there is in fact an ocean’s worth of evidence pointing to Christianity’s veracity and that it’s worthy of our trust.
  2. The other reason is more important. The kind of faith that seeks the blessing of perfect peace in Him is, to coin a phrase, persuasive faith. In other words, God persuades us throughout our lives in relationship with Him (meaning we daily seek Him in his word, prayer, and in fellowship with His people, see 7:7) that we can trust Him, that He is trust-worthy, worthy of trust. He will never leave us out to dry even when “the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food. 

I will end this with a brief story. My sister-in-law was over for a visit recently, and we were talking God and things, and having recently read Habakkuk these verses were on my mind. So I pulled out my Bible at our dining room table and read the passage. Or should I say I tried to read the passage. When I got to, “yet I will rejoice in the Lord,” I could not get the words out, the tears wouldn’t let me. I’m not exactly sure why passages like this do that to me sometimes. Is it because I can approximate such trust at times, or that I’m so bad at it? I think it’s the latter because no matter how bad I continue to be at it, God in Christ loves me anyway, and continues to love and sanctify me so that I can approximate it a little more every day, and experience its blessings. Who doesn’t want peace of mind and heart rather than anxiety, fear, worry, and doubt? It’s a rhetorical question. 

When we realize just how unworthy we are, yet God loves us anyway because of Christ, tears are the appropriate response, but the emotions are not something we can manufacture because we think it’s the right thing to do. Relationships don’t work that way. They are dynamic, alive, unpredictable, coming when we least expect them, and hard to control. God in us, in Christ, in the person of the Holy Spirit is real, and the truth of who He is and what He’s done for us is stunning to contemplate. The more you do, the more real it becomes, and you won’t be able to help the emotions either.