The Life of John Knox, the Christian Long Game, and the Peril of Pessimistic Eschatology

The Life of John Knox, the Christian Long Game, and the Peril of Pessimistic Eschatology

Aug 21, 2023 | Eschatology

I’m currently reading a biography of John Knox, the influential 16th century Scottish Reformer. I knew very little about his life other than that. He was born in 1514 and died in 1572 as the Reformation was beginning to make headway in Catholic Europe. What is especially fascinating about his life and time is now looking at it with my newly fitted postmillennial spectacles (that means glasses for you youngsters), I have a much different perspective than what I might have had before, thus “the Christian long game.” It’s hard to convey and for most of us to grasp just how much we’ve been influenced by dispensational premillennialism to see everything in the short term. Our eschatology, how we see “end times,” has consequences on our perspective and how we live. In other words, our eschatology determines how we see things, how we interpret them, and almost the entire Evangelical church has become pessimistic. Why is that? Why would our theological understanding of how things end make us pessimists? Keep in mind I struggled with this for the first 44(!) years of my Christian life. I say struggle because I didn’t like being a pessimist, but my theological framework left me no other option.

In one way this is understandable and secularism doesn’t help. We’re programmed by the culture to always focus on the immediate, the here, the now. For the non-Christian if this is it, eat, drink, and be merry . . . . Who cares what happens in a hundred or five hundred years. The Christian response to secularism is too often to focus on the next life, reasonably enough. The problem is that Christians have focused salvation almost solely on “going to heaven” when we die, which seems to have become the primary reason we are saved. We’re committed to personal holiness as best we can, our personal relationship to Jesus, and the church is the primary venue for our faith; I’ve heard it called churchianity. This personalization of our faith has little to do with secularism, however. The primary drivers are dispensationalism and pietism, the latter influence coming from 17th century German Lutheranism which made its way broadly into American Evangelicalism in the Second Great Awakening.

Not only do we have an overly personalized faith that has no impact on the culture, but we are also convinced as bad as things are Jesus could be coming back any day. Our dispensational eschatology even tells us the worse it gets the sooner Jesus returns! In a perverse way we are almost inclined to see failure as a sign of progress. As I heard someone put it, tribulation is our hope and societal decay is our encouragement. Evangelism becomes an invitation to join the losing team! At least on this earth, in space and time. All Christians agree our ultimate victory only comes at Jesus’ return. Yet nobody likes this losing, and we complain about it all the time, but again, our theological framework leaves us unable to conclude otherwise. Our myopic eschatology forces us to believe we are passengers on a sinking ship, and who wants to waste time rearranging the deck chairs if it’s going down. We may as well get as many into the life rafts as possible before she goes down. But is that really the biblical testimony of our life in Christ on this earth? It is not! Are we to believe the fall of Adam is more powerful than the resurrection of Christ? It is not!

Needless to say John Knox and the Reformers did not think this way. They lived before the so-called Enlightenment, secularism, and scientific advancement, plus life was harsh and very often short, so there were no illusions about living forever in this life. Yet they saw salvation as far more than going to heaven when you die. They saw Christianity not only as personal spiritual formation, but as societal transformation as well. They were committed to Christianizing their societies and cultures knowing it would never be easy or without Risk. During Bloody Mary’s short reign of five years over 300 Protestants were burned at the stake! Knox and many Protestants who refused to embrace Mary’s Catholicism left Britain and became exiles on the continent, many finding their way to Calvin’s Geneva, which became a model for them of the ideal Christian society. After Mary’s death they made their way back to Britain with the express goal of Christianizing all of England in a Protestant mold. Knox himself was instrumental in transforming Scottland from a primarily Catholic nation and culture to a Protestant and Presbyterian one, all of which in the next two hundred years had a powerful influence on the founding of America.

Because of their eschatology they were what all Christians should be, multigenerational Christians. They knew what they were doing would be a blessing to many generations yet unborn. As I argued in a recent post, the reason Jesus teaches us to pray, “Thy Kingdom come . . . .” is because He expects this coming now, on this earth, in this fallen world, and He expects us to expect it too! Most Christians prior to the rise of dispensationalism in the 19th century did as well. And they never thought the kingdom was just about “spiritual” stuff, or only applied to just Christians and the church. They believed the gospel had implications for all culture and society. And they believed Jesus was serious when he compared the kingdom to a mustard seed and leaven, a slow but relentless growing that in due course would bring the kingdom of heaven to earth (Matt. 13:31-33). They, as are all postmillennialists, were gritty realists who understand we are in a cosmic war against evil, not against flesh and blood. There will be times of suffering and setback, as is apparent from looking at history. The kingdom coming isn’t a straight line to ever increasing success, but a mountain we climb with many valleys and hills, and we only arrive at the ultimate Mt. Everest peak when Jesus returns to destroy the ultimate enemy, death.

One way I’ve come to conceptualize all this can be found in Genesis 3 when the Lord told us the seed of the woman would crush the serpent’s head and the serpent would strike his heel. I see this now as a microcosm of all redemptive history, not just what happens at Christ’s return. In this little encounter who wins? My money is on the one who crushes. The other who strikes the heel can do some damage, but according to God he has no chance—he gets crushed! Why in the world, literally, do we act as if it’s the other way round? As if the heel striker can crush? I would argue the answer is primarily dispensational eschatology. Few Christians realize how deep and widespread its influence is on our seemingly congenital pessimism about the nature of this world and the spiritual battle in which we are engaged. Christ, we think, is only the victor in eternity, in the sweet by and by, in “heaven” beyond this veil of tears. Of course He is, but He is also the victor here, now, in this life, in this fallen world. He sits at the right hand of God Almighty reigning “until he has put all his enemies under his feet” (I Cor. 15:25). In other words, here, now, in this life, he is crushing it!

Having said that, in one of my favorite sayings, God is never in a hurry. Think about it. When He promised Abram he would bless his offspring, or seed, and make them like the sand on the seashore and the stars in the sky, it took 2,000(!) years before the seed would be born Jesus of Nazareth. Another 2,000 years has passed, and as far as I can tell we can still count the number of Christians on earth. I think we have a ways to go. And all the nations per Jesus’ command in Matthew 18, the Great Commission, have yet to be made disciples, so we have a lot of work to do. As we go about the business of the Great Commission in our daily lives, all of it, we can have absolute confidence our God in Christ is crushing the serpent’s head before us as we love and serve others and proclaim the gospel. How exciting are our lives! We serve a victorious king; pessimism is not allowed.

 

What Does “work out your salvation with fear and trembling” Mean?

What Does “work out your salvation with fear and trembling” Mean?

Aug 17, 2023 | The Gospel

I’ve wondered all my Christian life why God tells us in His word that we are to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling.” I thought we were saved by God’s grace, His unmerited favor, that we’ve been saved from God’s wrath through Christ who “paid it all,” and as He says through Isaiah, “the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” I thought “there was now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” and that “since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Not only all this, but we know that “perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” And lastly, although I could add a lot more, Christ Jesus is “our righteousness and sanctification and redemption.” All of this is my understanding of the gospel, and doesn’t seem to jive with what Paull tells us in Philippians 2:

12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling . . . .

Even though Paul continues this with, “for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose,” he is still connecting that with “fear and trembling.”

My framework for understanding the gospel, the good news, starts with Genesis 3 after the fall when the Lord comes walking in the garden “in the cool of the day,” and because Adam and Eve have disobeyed Him they hide. They now knew they were naked and were ashamed, so they hid from their Creator. That alienation, the desire to hide or run away from God has been dealt with once for all on the cross, and everything I said about the gospel is true, yet Paul still says our redeemed and reconciled relationship to God through Christ should be characterized by “fear and trembling,” and that we need to “work out our salvation” with this attitude. Until not too long ago this confused me, but it shouldn’t have. I’ll just chalk that up to my ignorance and dullness of heart and mind. I never thought God should now be my best buddy since I’m “saved,” but I couldn’t quite imagine why Paul would use these words.

There are probably many reasons “fear and trembling” is appropriate in our relationship to our God and Savior, but most simply it comes down to He is God and we are not. I know that’s anti-climactic, but it’s true. Read through the Old Testament and see how God teaches His people how they are to relate to Him. Moses says in Deuteronomy 4:24 and 9:3 that Yahweh, Israel’s God, is a “consuming fire.” Moses experienced this directly because when he asked God to show him His glory, the Lord said, “no one may see me and live.” The tabernacle the Israelites were instructed to build included the Holy of Holies where God symbolically dwelled, and it was protected by a great curtain. Only one man ceremonially cleansed, and that only once a year, could enter without being instantly killed. We might say for sinners, holiness kills. That’s kind of a good reason for “fear and trembling,” don’t you think? Or maybe we take this relationship for granted? I’ll give you the answer: Yes we do. We’re sinners, and we’re always fumbling and stumbling around trying to get this thing right. We often don’t. That’s why Jesus being our righteous and sanctification is such incredibly, insanely, wonderfully good news!

Another reason for “fear and trembling” is that we are born-again into a spiritual cosmic drama with consequences beyond our imagining. This is extremely serious business. As Paul says, “our struggle 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.” This evil exists in the hearts and minds of every human being, including our own, thus we seek first He who is “far above all rule and authority, power and dominion” and alone is able to “deliver us from evil.”

As good Protestants we know none of our striving means we earn our salvation by what we do, but taking our relationship with our holy Creator God through Christ for granted is a grave error, one we too often make. It is important to understand our salvation from sin into this reconciled relationship is just the beginning. That’s the reason Jesus commands us to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” Not second, third, or twenty-eighth, but first. If His kingdom and His righteousness, His Word, living according to His law, is not first in our lives in terms of priority, something’s wrong. What does that mean, though? Clearly it doesn’t mean giving it the most time because for most of us we have to earn a living and raise our families, not to mention enjoy the life and people God has given us. But I suggest it’s giving it the most thought, the most focus, the highest priority in all our seeing and perceiving of life as we live it. We live in a God-drenched reality, and every square inch of it, every millisecond of time, is His. So we see God in all things! As C.S. Lewis said, he believed in Christianity as he believed the sun had risen, not because he sees it but by it he sees everything else.

Paul’s exhortation that we “work out” our salvation in this way convicts most of us as lazy Christians. The Greek word Paul uses for that phrase means, strangely enough, to work! To “effect by labor,” to “achieve.” The Christian life takes effort! In several letters Paul compares it to being an Olympic athlete, and that we are to run the race with the kind of effort it takes to win the prize. It’s unfortunate most Christians know more about their careers, occupations, and hobbies than their Christian faith. That makes some sense given we spend eight or more hours a day at it, but those are not the most important things in our lives. God in Christ is! And Jesus said God’s word should be every bit as important to us as food, “For man shall not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” All of us should be theologians, which simply means the study of God. We should also be apologists, meaning we know not only what we believe but why we believe it, and then competently be able to defend it. That all takes effort! I’ll end this with the Apostle Peter’s words explaining “working out” our salvation (2 Peter 1):

3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

 

5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.

 

10 Therefore, brothers, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, 11 and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

 

 

 

 

 

Uganda Homosexuality Law Part 2

Uganda Homosexuality Law Part 2

Aug 15, 2023 | Culture, Politics & Government

In my previous post, using Uganda’s new anti-homosexuality law, I argued that Scripture is a legitimate source of authority for nations, that God’s law and rule (theonomy and theocracy) are something Christians should argue for in the public square, specifically regarding a nation’s laws. Everyone is religious; there is no such thing as an unbeliever, and the basis of any nation’s laws come from its fundamental religious (i.e., faith) commitments. As I argued, secular neutrality is a myth. All law comes from somewhere. Ignorant and unthinking people will say, “You can’t legislate morality,” when law is exactly that, legislated morality! So for Christians to say we can’t as Christians use Scripture as a basis for the laws of America is not only un-Scriptural, but self-defeating. It’s like going to fight a war but giving your most powerful and effective weapons to the enemy. Good luck! But it is critically important we realize in the culture wars in which we are engaged, that we are not in any way limited to Scripture in these battles. We have a powerful arsenal that complements Scripture. First is God’s created reality that corresponds to Scripture, and we have the One who made both, our Savior and God who sits at the right hand of the Almighty “far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked” (Eph. 1).

I critiqued an article by someone who wrote a piece at American Reformer about the Ugandan law, and I was critical because he stated it wasn’t established “from Scripture, let alone for theonomic or theocratic reasons.” He further contended the law was “an imminently reasonable position compatible with Christian doctrine and ethics, but knowable apart from divine revelation.” The implied assumption is that divine revelation isn’t necessary for such a law to be passed. How else would people know homosexuality is wrong, immoral, and destructive of a flourishing society? The author claims it is “reason, nature, and tradition.” The problem with such an argument is that it is only because of Scripture, verbal revelation of God’s being and will, that “reason, nature, and tradition” tell us homosexuality is immoral and destructive. The ancient Greeks, of whom we Westerners are quite fond, had “reason, nature, and tradition” as well, but not Scripture, and they thought homosexuality was just fine, not immoral in the least. For example, according to Wikipedia:

Pederasty in ancient Greece was a socially acknowledged romantic relationship between an older male (the erastes) and a younger male (the eromenos) usually in his teens.

Kinda blows the whole “reason, nature, and tradition” argument out the door doesn’t it. Why didn’t the ancient Greeks treat homosexuality like the Ancient Hebrews? Scripture! God’s divine verbal revelation. God used words to communicate how his creatures, who also use words, should live so they can experience maximal blessing and flourishing in life. Homosexual activity mitigates against that. God would not have put warnings against homosexuality in his law if it were otherwise.

Contrary to popular opinion, and our natural sinful hearts, God is not a cosmic killjoy. That was Satan’s lie to Eve, and she bought it. All the horror in life goes back to that fundamental lie that we cannot trust God’s character. God didn’t warn us against homosexuality because he didn’t want people attracted to others of the same sex not to have fun or experience romance. He did it because that lifestyle doesn’t lead to true human happiness and flourishing, but misery and unhappiness. Are there happy homosexuals? Of course, but exceptions never disprove rules. And on a societal level the acceptance of homosexuality contributes to the deterioration of the family, as is readily apparent in America. If a homosexual drenched America is such a happy place, why did almost 50,000 people die by their own hands last year? Because America has thrown God’s law under the bus. Rampant sex outside of marriage leads to the dissolution of the family. Dysfunctional families then lead to dysfunctional societies and eventually widespread despair. Human happiness and flourishing is the reason God says sex is only moral and good and blessed inside a marriage between a man and a woman.

As I said above, though, as Christians we are not limited to Scripture when we come to the public square. We must bring Scripture to the debate and never shy away from it, but we also have things compatible with Scripture confirming it: “reason, nature, and tradition.” Christians are not to be Biblicists, meaning we think Scripture is our only source of authority. It is our ultimate and final source, but God hasn’t limited his revelation to just the Bible, but to creation as well. As the Apostle Paul says (Rom. 1:20),

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so they are without excuse.

The “they” Paul is referring to is all of us, every single human being. And note Paul’s assertion, that this revelation of God’s invisible qualities, who He is, is “clearly seen.” It cannot be mistaken for anything else than what it is, a manifestation of God’s “eternal power and divine nature” no matter how much people deny that. Prior to this Paul says people suppress the truth because of their wickedness, meaning they love their sin so much they’ll gladly delude and lie to themselves and believe their lies as if they were true. Thus we passed homosexuality a while ago now, and the lie de jure is that biological sex is not hardwired and can be changed any old time we feel like it. So to the “enlightened” among us, boys can become girls and girls can become boys, and men and women are not fundamentally different. The thing about truth, though, is that it can only be suppressed for so long then the lies start being exposed for what they are, lies.

We are in a wonderful time in history filled with opportunities because the lies are becoming so obvious even people who are not religious or political (“normies”) now realize it. What they don’t realize, however, is that the normalization of homosexuality over the last 40 years has led us to the point where the newest Supreme Court justice doesn’t know what a woman is. Think about that! Reason and nature (creation) tell us exactly what the Bible does about human sexuality. It’s obvious to anyone not previously indoctrinated that each part of the human body has a telos, a purpose, an end for which it was designed. Specific parts are clearly meant for sexual pleasure and procreation, and other parts are not. I won’t belabor the obvious, but when we live according to God’s design in creation, blessings follow, but when we flout them trouble and misery inevitably will. Reason also tells us when we look at all the sociological data over the last 50 years (ignorance is no longer excusable), intact families, husband, wife, kids, are by far the best environment for raising children into emotionally and psychologically healthy functioning adults. Today, sadly, most children grow up without a married mother and father, and we wonder why things are so screwed up. 

We must always remember, everything God commands is for His creatures to flourish as His creatures in His world, contrary to 300 plus years of Enlightenment lies carried into secular lies that morphed into liberal, Marxist, progressive, and leftist lies. This false narrative is well ensconced in the average person’s mind and they believe it. Sadly many Christians buy into it and hurl theocracy around as an epithet. For all of them, if Christians have too much say, too much political power, the country will turn into a version of The Handmaid’s Tale, a book about a Christian fundamentalist theocratic America which was sadly turned into hit show on Hulu. It’s those kind of lies and false narratives that we fight.

Is Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Law Christian? Is Theonomy?

Is Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Law Christian? Is Theonomy?

Aug 12, 2023 | Culture

According to Christianity Today and Russel Moore it most certainly is not! Moore used to be the President of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the SBC and left there to become Christianity Today’s Editor in Chief last year. He also writes for left-wing publications like the Washington Post, The New York Times, Atlantic Magazine, and can be seen as a commentator on left wing cable outlets like MSNBC and CNN. So I wasn’t surprised he wasn’t a fan of a country banning homosexual activity via law. Many Christians, unfortunately, find such a thing positively abhorrent. It’s not easy to find commentary defending it, but I found one at LifeSite News, and there are others if you look. I don’t want to debate that here. Overall from a Christian perspective of course it’s a good thing, even if I might not agree with everything in the law. Christians, along with every other person in the Western world has been so indoctrinated in the pro-homosexuality agenda that even to question whether it should be legally allowed in society is beyond the pale. Positively un-Christian! And Uganda is now persona non grata among the “enlightened” nations of the world.

What I want to address here is God’s law and the secular myth of neutrality. I saw another piece about this at American Reformer with the title, “Why Russell Moore is Wrong About Uganda.” Knowing Moore has become a welcome guest in polite (leftist) society as the house “conservative Christian” drew me to that piece like a fly to light. The problem with the author’s disagreement with Moore is that it assumes as Moore does this secular myth:

Nowhere does the Ugandan Act argue against homosexuality from Scripture, let alone for theonomic or theocratic reasons. Moore has imposed this framework upon the issue because he determined beforehand it was wrong and had to find a pious and “biblical” reason for his Philippic. Instead, the Anti-Homosexuality Act argues from reason, nature, and tradition: it seeks to protect the Ugandan family from “internal and external threats”; it wants to preserve the “cherished culture” and the “legal, religious, and traditional family values” of the Ugandan people; and it wants to combat the “values of sexual promiscuity” being imposed upon them in order to protect “children and youth” who are “vulnerable to sexual abuse through homosexuality and related acts.” This is an imminently reasonable position compatible with Christian doctrine and ethics, but knowable apart from divine revelation. Any adult human who has not yet been indoctrinated into the Gay Cult should be able to understand these things.

The author, who goes by a pseudonym, argues for, or implies that basing a nation’s laws on Scripture is illegitimate. To him, something that is “theonomic or theocratic” is even more off limits than Scripture. What exactly do those two words mean? God’s law and God’s rule. Seems strange for a Christian to argue that Scripture and God’s law, His rule, is not a legitimate source for creating the legal code of a society. What is? According to the author, “Reason, nature, and tradition.” So, as Christians we’re supposed to set aside Scripture and God’s law and rule when we debate and legislate laws in society? Talk about fighting with one arm behind your back!

Most Christians in America today buy into the secular myth of neutrality, a metaphorically naked public square. The idea is that religion doesn’t have a legitimate, forbid an authoritative, role to play in public life, specifically government and law. Neutral comes from the Latin “neuter” meaning “neither one nor the other,” so it’s come to mean unbiased which it most certainly is not. In this illusory “neutral” place, secularism is the unbiased referee calling balls and strikes without that pesky Christianity getting involved and inevitably leading to theocracy and intolerance, and thus violence. Specifically verboten is citing Scripture as an authoritative source. If a Christian dares do such a thing, or God forbid, pun intended, a country like Uganda, cries of “theocracy,” Spanish Inquisitions, and Salem witch trials are soon to follow.

Christians must realize a religiously or morally neutral nation cannot exist, yet people like Russel Moore and the author at American Reformer believe it does. For the latter neutral sounding ideas like “Reason, nature, and tradition” are legitimate appeals in the public square or regarding the laws of a nation, but not Scripture or God’s law or rule. As he says, what is a legitimate appeal is whatever is “knowable apart from divine revelation.” Think about it. Here is a Christian telling us “divine revelation” is off limits when we’re arguing for what the laws of a nation should be. To me this is positively shocking. Yet most Christians who write and think about these things, including Evangelical “leaders” and most pastors, agree with him. The secular myth of neutrality has neutered them. Think about that as well. The word neutered comes from the same root as neutrality and can mean castrated. That’s what the church has done to itself in the modern age. The Christian church is a eunuch in Western culture! Powerless to make any real, substantive impact. No wonder everything is a disaster and a secular mess. When you take the salt and light out of a culture what do you get? Out of its government and its laws? We’re living in it.

Vishal Mangalwadi in his wonderful book, The Book That Made Your World: How the Bible Created the Soul of Western Civilization states an obvious truth too many Christians miss:

Every civilization is tied together by a final source of authority that gives meaning and ultimate intellectual, moral, and social justification to its culture.

Secular neutrality isn’t neutral because it can only have man as the “final source of authority,” and if it is man then it is not God. It’s one or the other. Francis Schaeffer wrote a book in 1981 that should be required reading for all Christians in the 21st century, A Christian Manifesto. In the first chapter he says our worldview determines what this “final source of authority” is, and in the West there are only two options. As he says, “these two worldviews are two total concepts of reality standing in antithesis to each other.” These two “total concepts” are diametrically opposed to one another and they inevitably produce different results. This was obvious in 1981, but it is indisputable now. We are living with the deadly fruit of secularism, and Christians are contributing to it.

The secular, although he doesn’t use that word, is “the idea that the final reality is impersonal matter or energy shaped into its present form by impersonal chance.” Those who embrace this view tell us we can’t bring our “religion” to bear upon issues of public policy. The Bible as a source or authority is not allowed, and Russel Moore and many Christian leaders agree. It’s no wonder the church in America is powerless when it comes to influencing the culture—it has mostly accepted the secular culture’s assumptions. That’s not good. As Christians we look around and bemoan how bad things are, but at the same time refuse to shamelessly declare God’s Word as the ultimate source of authority for all things, including our government and it’s laws.

Thank God for Uganda and it’s leaders who are willing to stand fast in the face of the criticism of the secularist woke globalist mob. They refuse to be intimated because divine revelation in Scripture is their north star, their final source of authority for the flourishing of their nation. It is supremely ironic that Africa which was not too long ago completely pagan and God-less is leading the way to advance God’s kingdom in the face of opposition from what was once the Christian West.

 

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 . . .”