The people of God living in the days of Jesus were longing for God to return as King. Kings of the earth and all peoples, princes and all rulers of the earth! Young men and maidens together, old men and children! Let them praise the name of the LORD, for his name alone is exalted his majesty is above earth and heaven. Yet God my King is from of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth.įor the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods. May all kings fall down before him, all nations serve him. ![]() ![]() ![]() The LORD is king forever and ever the nations perish from his land.įor God is the King of all the earth sing praises with a psalm. This theme is repeated throughout the Psalms. The Hebrews believed not only in one God, but that this one God was King, not only of Israel, but King of all nations, peoples, tribes, and tongues. Each people group, each tribe had their gods. In the ancient world, polytheism ruled the day. Today when people in a North American context use the word “God,” the word is normally understood as the one God of creation, but this understanding is a modern one. Imagine the audacity of one small, seemingly insignificant people in the Mediterranean world making such an outlandish claim. Nevertheless, their God, whom they believed to be the one true living God, the creator God, was in fact the King of all nations. Israel went through a season of earthly kings, which spilled over into a divided kingdom before Israel’s eventual exile in Babylon. But understanding their language requires a brief look into the Jewish world in which they wrote. The clearest sign is in the kingdom-language used by the gospel writers. So if Jesus did, in fact, inaugurate and launch the kingdom of God on earth, how do we know? The kingdom of God is the rule of God in Christ on the earth through the Church. As McKnight and others have described, the kingdom of God is not a place as much as it is God’s power or authority through God’s people. But for them the already/not yet experience of the kingdom is in “redemptive moments, moments when God’s redemptive reign breaks in to save, to restore, to reconcile, to heal.” These redemptive moments are a part of the kingdom of God-but this view misses the bigger picture. The “pleated pants” crowd reduces the kingdom as well. In contrast, the “skinny jeans” folks are those who equate the kingdom of God with acts of social justice, which is not altogether off base, but it shrinks the kingdom of God down to human activity in God’s good world. These are the “pleated pants” Christians Scot McKnight describes in his book Kingdom Conspiracy. If these heavenly-minded Christians do allow the light of the kingdom into their understanding of the Christian life, the kingdom of God tends to get reduced to a subjective experience. Click To Tweet Pleated Pants and Skinny Jeans A vision of the kingdom of God struggles to find room in the minds of those focused on heaven as the ultimate goal of Christian experience.Ī vision of the kingdom of God struggles to find room in the minds of those focused on heaven as the ultimate goal of Christian experience. For these Christians, everything else in the Christian life is somehow secondary to this primary goal of going to heaven upon death. For some, Jesus came to die for our sins so that we could be forgiven and go to heaven when we die. I understand for some evangelical Christians, the message of the kingdom of God has been buried under cultural layers and a misplaced understanding of the gospel. My initial response is, “Well of course he did!”īut I do not want to come across as too dismissive. With a shrunken gospel of going to heaven upon death, some people are left asking, “Did Jesus really usher in the kingdom of God?” While his gospel-shaped announcement mentions the coming of the kingdom, some people ask whether or not the kingdom did in fact come through the death and resurrection of Jesus. ![]() The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand repent and believe in the gospel. Jesus began his ministry with a bold proclamation:
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