The Kingdom Alternative

“The Kingdom of God is God’s dynamic rule, breaking into human history through Jesus, confronting, combating and overcoming evil, spreading the wholeness of personal and communal wellbeing, taking possession of his people in total blessing and total demand. The church is meant to be the Kingdom community, a model of what human community looks like when it comes under the rule of God, and a challenging alternative to secular society.”

- John Stott, New Issues Facing Christians Today (London, UK; Marshall Pickering, 1999), 28.

The Lordship of Christ & the Kingdoms of this World

“Jesus Christ is Lord. That is the first and final assertion Christians make about all of reality, including politics. Believers now assert by faith what one day will be manifest to the sight of all: every earthly sovereignty is subordinate to the sovereignty of Jesus Christ. The Church is the bearer of that claim. Because the Church is pledged to the Kingdom proclaimed by Jesus, it must maintain a critical distance from all the kingdoms of the world, whether actual or proposed. Christians betray their Lord if, in theory or practice, they equate the Kingdom of God with any political, social or economic order of this passing time. At best, such orders permit the proclamation of the gospel of the Kingdom and approximate, in small part, the freedom, peace, and justice for which we hope.”

~ Richard John Neuhaus, quoted by D. A. Carson in Christ & Culture Revisited (Grand Rapids, Mi.: Eerdmans, 2008), 203.

Which Kind of Love Builds What Kind of City?

“We see then that the two cities were created by two kinds of love: the earthly city was created by self-love reaching the point of contempt for God, the Heavenly City by the love of God carried as far as contempt of self. In fact, the earthly city glories in itself, the Heavenly City glories in the Lord. The former looks for glory from men, the latter finds its highest glory in God. . . . In the former, the lust for domination lords it over princes as over the nations it subjugates; in the other both those put in authority and those subject to them serve one another in love, the rulers by their counsel, the subjects by obedience. The one city loves its own strength shown in its powerful leaders; the other says to it God: ‘I will love you, my Lord, my strength.’

Consequently, in the earthly city its wise men who live by men’s standards have pursued the goods of the body or of their own mind, or of both. . . . In the Heavenly City . . . man’s only wisdom is the devotion which rightly worships the true God. . . .”

~ Augustine, The City of God, quoted by David Naugle in Reordered Love, Reordered Lives (Grand Rapids, Mi.: Eerdmans, 2008), 52-53.

The Gospel as “Public” Truth

“Christians can never seek refuge in a ghetto where their faith is not proclaimed as public truth for all.”

~ Lesslie Newbigin, Foolishness to the Greeks: The Gospel and Western Culture (Grand Rapids, Mi.: Eerdmans, 1986), 114.

The Church & The Kingdom

“The Kingdom of God necessarily involves the church. The church is the people of the Kingdom, those who have accepted the redemptive rule of God. The rule of a King must have a people, and the church consists of those who have received the Kingdom of God (Mark 10:15), i.e., who have bowed before God’s rule in Christ, and have been brought thereby into that sphere of life over which Christ reigns. They have been delivered from the powers of darkness and transferred into the Kingdom of Christ (Col. 1:13). They know the blessings of God’s rule with are righteousness and peace and joy (Rom. 14:17). In addition, they are those destined to enter in its eschatological consummation.”

~ George E. Ladd, quoted by Russell D. Moore in The Kingdom of Christ (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2004), 137.

The Scope of Christian Interest and Concern

“If the glory of God is reflected in all of creation, if the effects of sin reach to all of creation, and if the goal of redemption is to restore all of creation, then what should you and I care about? EVERYTHING!”

~ Paul David Tripp, Quest for More: Living for Something Bigger Than Yourself (Greensboro, NC: New Growth Press, 2007), 45.

The Bible & the Universal Reign of God

“The Bible is unique among sacred books of the world’s religions in that it is in structure a history of the cosmos. It claims to show us the shape, the structure, the origin, and the goal not merely of human history, but of cosmic history. It does not accept a view of nature as simply the arena upon which the drama of human history is played out. Much less does it seek the secret of the individual’s true being within the self — a self for which the public history of the world can have no ultimate significance. Rather it sees the history of the nations and the history of nature within the larger framework of God’s history — the carrying forward to its completion of the gracious purpose that has its source in the love of the Father for the Son in the unity of the Spirit. The first announcement of the good news that the reign of God is at hand can be understood only in the context of this biblical sketch of a universal history. The reign of God is his reign over all things.”

~ Lesslie Newbigin, The Open Secret, Rev. Ed. (Grand Rapids, Mi.: Eerdmans, 1978, 1995), 30-31.

The Task of God’s People

“The task of God’s people is to make known the good news of God’s renewed reign over the entirety of creation. Christ’s kingly authority extends over the entirety of creation. God’s mission is equally comprehensive: to embody the good news that Jesus again rules over marriage and family, business and politics, art and athletics, leisure and scholarship, sex and technology. Since the gospel is a gospel of the kingdom, that mission is as wide as creation.”

~ Michael W. Goheen & Albert M Wolters, Creation Regained 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, Mi.: Eerdmans, 2005), 130.

Nothing is ‘Neutral’

“The opposition between light and dark, life and death, wisdom and folly, health and sickness, obedience and disobedience manifests itself everywhere. Nothing is ‘neutral’ in the sense that sin fails to affect it or that redemption fails to hold out the promise of deliverance.”

~ Albert M. Wolters, Creation Regained 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, Mi.: Eerdmans, 2005), 82.

Jesus & the Claims of the Kingdom

The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel (Mark 1:15).

“In Jesus Christ we witness the long-awaited vindication and effective demonstration of God’s kingship in the world. The coming of Christ is the climax of the whole history of redemption as recorded in the Scriptures. The rightful king has established a beachhead in his territory and calls on his subjects to press his claims ever farther in creation.”

~ Albert M. Wolters, Creation Regained 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, Mi.: Eerdmans, 2005), 74.