The Church is not the Kingdom

Gary responds to recent comments that people have made claiming that Jesus is not currently reigning.

The Church, and therefore the world (the nations) as a whole, for centuries now, have suffered quite badly from what is surely an “under-realized” eschatology! The many explicit eschatological (preterist) time markers all through the NT either have been ignored or just flat-out denied by the incredulous Church, resulting in an exegetically unwarranted end of time/end of the world futurism or else some form of postponement or delay in the eschatological fulfillment. Therefore, it is denied that the Kingdom of God has yet come in consummate covenantal form. It is denied, contrary to the New Testament, that Daniel 7:13-14, 18, 22, 27 have been fulfilled in Christ and His Church (“the saints of the Highest One”). Therefore, it is denied that the saints have been enthroned with Christ to reign in and with Him now in time and on earth (Rev. 2:25-27; 3:21; 5:10) and so the saints, by their own unbelief, have robbed themselves of their “dominion” in this world in space-time history in and with Christ.

We were informed by Christ that the Church is to be “the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world” (Matt. 5:13-14). But with this sort of practical unbelief (under-realized eschatology), the Church has seen herself as doing little more than suffering (and losing!) in history on earth under the cross and, thereby, as being little more than the “doormat of the world” to be despised and rejected by it. But Christ also went on in His Sermon on the Mount to specify what the consequence of this denial of Biblical eschatology would mean:

You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how will it be made salty again? It is good for nothing anymore, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men (Matt. 5:13).

Because of her many faulty eschatologies of unbelief, the Church has reaped what she has sown, resulting in her present sorry (powerless) condition in the world—with the saints seeing themselves as mere pauper sojourners in exile, as it were, instead of as the kings and queens that they should be in and with Christ as Himself the “King of kings and the Lord of lords” (Rev. 19:16)! The NT knows nothing of (that is, it does not endorse) a “doormat Christianity” (“trampled under foot by men”), peopled with pessimistic and defeatist saints! With the consummation of the New Covenant order in the events of AD 70, the Kingdom of God has come! Christ is King and Lord of all (Psalm 2), and the saints reign in and with Him in history on earth!

The Hope of Israel and the Nations

The reader and student of the Bible must first understand the content of the New Testament writings in terms of how those in the first century would have understood it. The New Testament is written against the background of the Old Testament. The shadows of the Old were fulfilled in the reality of the New. All the rituals and ceremonies were fulfilled in Jesus. The same is true of the temple, land, blood sacrifices, the nature of redemption, the resurrection of the dead, the breaking down of the dividing wall dividing Jews and Gentiles, and so much more. The New Testament’s emphasis is on the finished work of Jesus and its application, not only to that Apostolic generation but to the world today.

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Gary responds to recent comments that people have made that Jesus is not currently reigning. After the Ascension, Jesus sat down at the Father’s right hand, and is currently governing His Kingdom. Just because the Kingdom doesn’t look like we expect it should, doesn’t mean that we don’t have a King.

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American Vision’s mission is to Restore America to its Biblical Foundation—from Genesis to Revelation. American Vision (AV) has been at the heart of worldview study since 1978, providing resources to exhort Christian families and individuals to live by a Biblically based worldview. Visit www.AmericanVision.org for more information, content and resources