Another approach is an under-realized eschatology wherein all “change” in this age is not worth pursuing. There is no hope for good to prevail until Jesus establishes his Kingdom on earth. If we oppose violence we are trying to “establish” the Kingdom of God. If we oppose greed we are trying to “establish” the Kingdom of God. Often this comes from people who are quite comfortable with the current dynamics of this world. This allows them to ignore Jesus’ Kingdom activities which challenged the systems of the world and that he expected his disciples to continually reenact.
This is certainly an important insight, that those who object strongly to Christian activity in the political world have an “under-realised eschatology”, that is, they don’t understand the extent to which the work of Jesus in saving the world has already been accomplished. These people complain about so-called “dominionism”, which they see as Christians trying to take control of the world, because they fail to see that Jesus has already defeated the powers of evil and set up his kingdom.
Ironically only yesterday I reacted in a comment to the opposite error. Phil Whittall, in his review of When Heaven Invades Earth by Bill Johnson, questioned “why God has to invade His own earth and infiltrate governments that He presides over”, suggesting an over-realised eschatology in which God is already in complete control of the world and so Christian activity to take this control is unnecessary. I pointed out how this contradicts 1 John 5:19; it also goes against what we see in our nations today.
In contrast to both of these positions, I would take a middle line, that God’s kingdom has been inaugurated on earth and is already breaking into the world system controlled by the evil one. On this basis the Christian responsibility is to seek to extend this kingdom, not so that the church can take control of the world but so that God can, so that Jesus can truly reign as King.
Of course this raises all kinds of questions about how the kingdom should be extended in practice. Certainly some of the ways that have been suggested, such as the Reconstructionist agenda of imposing Old Testament law on modern society, are sub-Christian and quite wrong. But we must resist the under-realised eschatology which leads to passive acceptance of the wrongs of this world – especially when this is used as an excuse by comfortable and prosperous Christians to refuse to do anything about the evil and the suffering which they see around the world and very often even in their own neighbourhoods.
Peter
“God’s kingdom has been inaugurated on earth and is already breaking into the world system controlled by the evil one.”
Yes I see an important point here. And it ties in with the call from such as Adrian Warnock and Tom Wright to recognise and live in the resurrection. Not to mention your recent string of posts. And I will not understate the challenge of finding your middle way. But this is an area I feel a growing burden about.
I will be interested if you decide to take this one further when time permits
Thank you, Colin. I would like to take it further, but life is busy at the moment.
Getting the ‘now’ and the ‘not yet’ properly balanced is rarely easy, is it?
Indeed, Tim.
We are safely home too.
I’d be interested to see your comments on Phil W’s review please – his site isn’t opening up its comments. Can you help please? Phil’s observations are odd, but on checking his profile I espied the theological backdrop that explains his stance – it’s one I regarded as incomplete and thus moved out of some years ago.
Richard, I’m surprised you can’t see comments on Phil W’s site, as I can. Here is my first comment on his post:
And here is what I wrote in response to Phil’s reply: