Spirit, CITY AND
KINGDOM
Viv Grigg
excerpted from Transformative
Revival
The
Kingdom of
God is the highest good. The idea of God is the highest and most
comprehensive conception in philosophy; the idea of the
Kingdom
of God is the highest and broadest idea
in sociology and ethics. Rauschenbusch[1]
Methodology
This
chapter utilises the theme of the
Kingdom of
God, defining theological frameworks
for the goals of transformation of the
city if the Spirit is to fully in her.
It begins with exploration of the pneumatological nature of the Kingdom,
then relates holistic Kingdom themes to nine issues of postmodernism in the
previous chapter.
The City of
God and the Kingdom
In the
process of seeking a biblical theme that will move evangelicals to see the
Cosmic Christ, and despite attempts to use the ‘City of God’ as a replacement
for the ‘Kingdom of God’ to mobilise the churches into social transformation, I
have eventually been forced back to the Kingdom as the central integrating
theme that subsumes the city of God.[2]
The
ultimate reign of God is integrally connected with the coming of the city of
God in the final chapters of
Revelations.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first
heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.
I saw the
Holy
City, the new Jerusalem coming down
out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, beautifully dressed for her
husband.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now
the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will
be with them and be their God” (Rev 21:1-3).
The new world
order, ‘a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had passed
away,’ precedes then includes the centrality of the holy city. As in Genesis, so in the revelation of the
eternal Kingdom, environmental structure precedes life-forms.
Kingdom of Shekinah Glory
This
quotation above by John, from Isa 65:17, is not of a creation ex nihilo, but a transformation.
It is renewal, for he goes on, in verse 5, ‘Behold I make all things
new.’ The Kingdom involves a renewal of
creation, a transformation of world and universal orders. In reference, perhaps, to the waters of
primeval chaos of Genesis 1, he states, ‘there was no longer any sea,’ and the
transformation of chaos is complete.[3]
Then is
voiced a grand climax, for the crowning of the creator, his taking up his
reign, his Kingship, has to do with his presence with the created social
creature, ‘The dwelling of God, (or the tabernacle, or tent Gk: skene) is with humanity.’
This is an allusion to the Hebrew shekinah, God’s
immanence both in the world and among people.
The shekinah of the Jews is more or less the same as the Holy Spirit in
Christian circles (Quispel, 1979:111).
It is an
echo[4]
of the promise of Ezek 37:27, ‘My dwelling place shall be with them; and I will
be their God, and they shall be my people’ (see Ezek 34:30; 36:28; Zech 2:11a;
Lev 26:11-12).
Paul links this dwelling of God among
people to believers being the temple of the living God, the temple of the
Spirit of God.
[5]
The linkage of people to city is perhaps a
reflection on Ps 46:4, where the phrase ‘city of God’ is parallel to ‘dwelling
place of the most high’ (Aune, 1998:1122).
The
Kingdom of God has consistently recurred
throughout history as an integrating theme. It is this theme of the
Kingdom of God which most recently has enabled
breakthroughs for evangelicals in their involvement in transformation.[7]
The theme
is a global biblical theme, evident in the Genesis accounts,[8]
but the terminology begins during the monarchy of
David (Ps 45:6; 103:19; 145:11). It was the central theme in
Jesus’ teaching. Paul is last heard of in Rome, ‘preaching the
Kingdom of God’ (Acts 28:31). The end of the book is about the return of
the King to bring his reign. Perhaps
indicating its power, is its history as the theme underlying much of
Calvin’s work and as discussed earlier,
much of the liberal social gospel movement earlier this century. It recurs uncannily in almost every
generation of theologians and apostles.
This theme,
is developed in the belief that the scriptures are a unity.[9] While there is differentiation as to God’s
activity at different phases of redemption history or expressed in different
narratives, this does not mean that God changes in personality, style or
fundamentals. God’s interventions at
every phase of redemption history are consistent. The discontinuities at the incarnation, the
cross, and the parousia, are subject
to the continuities of his nature.
But a
further step is needed beyond the culturally limited,[10]
Kingdom of God evangelical theologies such as
Bright (1953) Ladd (1974) or Yoder’s more socially aware (but still very
American) Anabaptist perspective (1972). Their understanding of the Kingdom is very
spiritual. Moving to a more
comprehensive biblical understanding of the nature of the
Kingdom of God as involving the socio-economic,
spiritual and political is needed.
Charles Van
Engen, reflecting on Glasser’s Kingdom and Mission (1993) (which in turn
draws on Ladd (1959; 1974), Oscar Cullman and others), indicates four things
the theme of the Kingdom of God has done for missiology:
The
Kingdom
of God concept broadens
missiological reflection beyond a predominantly individualised and vertical
understanding of salvation to a holistic view of the interaction of the church
and world.
Glasser’s Kingdom missiology breaks
the impasse between evangelism and social action that has plagued evangelicals.
Kingdom-of-God missiology creates
the possibility of new conversation among evangelicals, representatives of the
conciliar movement, Roman Catholics, Orthodox, Pentecostals and charismatic.
Glasser’s own personal pilgrimage
made him deeply aware of the social, and political implications of the Kingdom
of God that challenges all governments, all forms of racism, and all social
structures that would seek to deify themselves.
Glasser,
veteran missionary theologian, in his habit of browsing through the social
issues of the Old Testament and reflecting on them in the light of the
Kingdom of God, extended the themes to the social and
economic and political issues of the world.
Independently Dyrness (1991(83)), working in Manila, and Bellingham in Bangladesh and India (1987), have grappled with relating
the Kingdom to the social realities of poverty and oppression. The most lucid evangelical statements I have
read are in Howard Snyder’s A Kingdom Manifesto (1997).
Two decades of theological conferencing by Chris Sugden and Vinay Samuel
and the Transformation network produced Mission
as Transformation (Samuel, 1999), with several chapters on the
Kingdom.
This chapter extends some broad brush
strokes an expanded Kingdom theology into the post-modern urban context. Nevertheless, the evangelical understandings
lack the comprehensiveness of social gospel conceptualisations of the Kingdom
by earler evangelists linked to the World Council of Churches and liberal
social gospel theology, such as Rauschenbusch of US soup kitchens (1907/1968);
Kagawa of Japan(1929; 1934); E. Stanley Jones in India (1972); Niebuhr of the
US (1937/1988) or Ragaz of Switzerland (Bock, 1984) or of various Catholic
reflections on social issues (Scherer 1992;
O’Brian 1992; Fabros, 1983).
Diagram
:
The
Kingdom of
God as Integrating Biblical Theme
Diagram 22 indicates eternal consistencies of
the Kingdom (and covenants), and its social, spiritual and economic principles. These are contrasted with the phase
differences in the relationship of the
Kingdom of
God to
humanity in the Old Testament, the New Testament and after
the parousia. In the Old Testament he
intervenes but does not dwell. The New Covenant is of an indwelling God. After the judgment he will rule the earth.
Continuity and
Discontinuity of Kingdom and Spirit
A broad
overview of the Kingdom is needed as it is expanded into its
socio-economic-political dimensions under the Old Covenant, New Covenant and
into the future.
In the Old
Testament, the reign of God was acknowledged and frequently he intervened in
situations, applying the social, economic and political principles of his
Kingdom (first part of above diagram).
Yet the presence of God was not with humankind, his Spirit did not dwell
with men and women. Thus in the times of
Samson and the judges, he exercised his
rule as the Spirit came upon chosen individuals for the duration of each
crisis. Then Isaiah, in the servant
psalms, prophesies of the Servant of the Lord who would exercise his ministry
through the eternal anointing of the Spirit (Isa 42:1-14; 61:1-3).
This is what
differentiates the New Testament from the Old - the small baby in a little
manger in an insignificant town, surrounded by a host of angels, shepherds and
wise men. The King has come! The
Kingdom of God has invaded the Kingdom of the
ruler of this world. The Kingdom is now
in the midst of us! First in the
Christ, and then in Christ’s body, the Spirit now dwells among
humanity!
In the Old
Testament, the King intervened in the life of Israel.
Now he has invaded!
Emmanuel, God with us! His strategy?
Throughout the whole world he has set up small bands of men and women (churches)
who are at warfare against Satan,
the current ruler of this age. In these
guerrilla units the values of the Kingdom are demonstrated (2nd part of above
diagram).
Stronstad
(1984) indicates the centrality of the anointing of the Spirit on
Christ expanded into the outpouring of the
Spirit on the charismatic first church, as the integrating centre of the
Kingdom used by Luke in the 2 volume Luke-Acts story.
The Holy Spirit as First
Fruits of a Future
Kingdom
Yet the
teaching of the scriptures is that the Kingdom is also still to come. Half of the parables of the Kingdom are of a
present Kingdom and half of a future Kingdom.[11]
Jesus came the first time, humbly, quietly as
foretold in the four servant psalms of Isaiah not as judge but as servant. He brought his Kingdom into the world. One day he will return again, to break the
Kingdoms of this world and establish the rule of his Kingdom forever (Dan
2:31-35, third part of above diagram).
So we enjoy
a taste of its blessings here. We ‘have
tasted of the powers of the age to come’ (Heb 6:5), through the Holy Spirit who
lives within us. That is a power and
conflict-related experience:
‘But if I cast out spirits by the finger of God, then
the Kingdom of God is come to you’ (Luke 11:20).
Through the
Spirit’s power we experience a foretaste of future blessings. At times, the Spirit restores our bodies
through healings, though usually we have to wait for his coming when we will
receive new bodies (1 Cor 15:50).
He gives us power over the evil one by his Spirit, but ‘Satan is not yet cast into the place
prepared for him.’ At times we see
clearly, as the Spirit of Truth guides us, but mostly we ‘see in a mirror,
darkly.’ ‘On that day we will see him as he is.’ This imperfection means that much of what we
do is incomplete, a sign of the
fullness of the future Kingdom.[12]
Diagram
:
Spiritual-Economic-Socio-Political
Kingdom
Discipleship, Response to the Kingdom
Discipleship,
our human response to the Kingdom, is a significant theme among evangelicals,
an extension of evangelistic motifs, and needs reinterpreting from truncated
perspectives to its fullness if we are to understand the fullness of the
Kingdom. The diagram above, in a new way, expands discipleship from classic
evangelical holiness motifs to its fuller meaning spiritually, economically and
socio-politically. Foundational aspects
of each of these three arenas and their relationship to the work of the Spirit,
are examined next.
First
though, an examination of what is commonly known as discipleship, the human
‘spiritual’ response to acknowledge the King, to acknowledge the Lordship of
Christ. Jesus left behind him the indwelling Holy
Spirit in the believer, the incarnate presence of God as against his being
wholly other. Indeed we cannot enter the
Kingdom unless we are born again of the Spirit (John 3:1-16). Jesus did not leave us comfortless, but promised the
Holy Spirit. The book of the Acts of the
Holy Spirit, clearly demonstrates the centrality of the work of the Holy Spirit
as the Spirit advances the Kingdom.
Paul speaks of it as ‘this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory’ (Col 1:28).
But that hope is defined in Isaiah much more broadly than the simple indwelling
of the Spirit as companion and comforter.
The hope is defined as ‘justice for the nations,’ established through
the anointing of the Spirit (Isa 42:1-4).[13]
Jesus tells us to seek his Kingdom and his justice
above all else, as the first principle of discipleship.
Kingdom people
are also expansively proclamative.
Because the word was God, the communication of his being in person, we
become communicating people as we enter into his being - with both word and
deed being part of that communication.
Similarly, whenever the Holy Spirit falls on people, there is
communication.
Jesus came preaching, ‘The Kingdom of
Heaven is at hand, repent and believe the gospel’.
He came
living it, ruling over creation, both working as a carpenter for 30 years and
as God, for as he went about preaching he ‘went about doing good and healing
all who were oppressed by the devil’.
This he did in the ‘power of the Spirit’.
Mark 3:14 tells us quite simply that the twelve
were ‘to be with him and to be sent out to preach the
Kingdom of God’.
That preaching is essentially pneumatological. It would be accompanied by the empowering
presence of the Holy Spirit with signs following. At Pentecost, it was a multiplication of languages,
so that all heard in their own language.
More than
speech is the communication of character.
The fruit of the Spirit is such to make men and women agents of
transformation by their very being. They
have presence because of the presence of the Spirit.
The Navigators, beginning as a highly influential university
movement, grew rapidly in New Zealand
as a significant renewal movement that has magnificently sustained the faith of
thousands in fundamentalist and evangelical churches, while largely operating
outside of church structure. They
developed from the American evangelical centre represented by
Billy
Graham.
Their theology builds off proof texts to develop discipleship themes in
individualistic terminology.[14] As
pietist descendants of Wesley they have defined
discipleship as the centrality of Christ, disciplines of quiet
time, prayer, Bible Study, obedience and proclamation.
As one
indebted to this movement for the sustaining of these disciplines over 37
years, I would affirm these are a powerful basis for sustained
spirituality. But they involve limitations.
Holistic Discipleship
The first
steps to move from the rigidity of such disciplines to the fullness of discipleship
is an understanding that Jesus defines the disciplines of the Christian life
as the character qualities in his manifesto in the sermon in the mount
(meekness, poverty of Spirit, purity of heart and so on). Paul, the apostle, devotes the majority of his
teaching, not to religious methods, but to character issues. The second, is an understanding that these
are the work of the Spirit. Thirdly, in
Luke 14:26-33, Jesus himself defines discipleship in economic and social terms (Grigg 1981;
1990(84)). For discipleship, the
response to the Kingdom, is not simply a spiritual relationship with God (part
1 of the diagram).
At a
missiological level, the most powerful way I have found to move people to this
understanding has been via Kingdom incarnation.
Jesus’ first step of discipleship, his
incarnation, is a historically central socio-economic-political subversive act,
not simply a spiritual act. Luke 2,
reflects the Jewish understanding of the prophets in their denunciation of
social sins. The magnificat tells us how
the incarnation places the locus of economic theory at the point of uplift of
the poor. The incarnation was a profound
social act, placing the issue of identification or solidarity with the poor
central to social action, and defining the locus of Christian mission as to the
poor. The incarnation was a profound
political act, defining the nature of godly politics as politics that serves
the least important of society (Grigg, 1992a).
Any person
filled with the Holy Spirit, will tend to emulate these preferences in
theologies of justice and transformation.
This supernaturally happens.
Jonathon Edwards, the revivalist in his post-Great
Awakening Religious Affections
(1742), answers the question, where does one look for true signs of
revival? His answer - in those who seek
to relieve the poor. As indicated in the
diachronic survey, historically this has subverted existent economic, social
and power structures towards good.
Kingdom
incarnation confronts the powers. The
mission of the preached word becomes central to any expansion of discipleship
into its socio-economic political dimensions.
He not only preached the presence of the Kingdom, he demonstrated that
Satan’s works were destroyed (Matt 12:28).
When the disciples came back enthusiastic because even the demons were
subject to them he tells them ‘I saw Satan fall like lighting from Heaven’ (Luke 10:18).
Finally he ‘triumphed over Satan in death.’
Satan was rendered inoperative (1 Cor 15:26; Heb 2:14).
Thus spiritual warfare themes are integrally related to our
understanding of the nature of the Kingdom and the clash of this Kingdom with
the Kingdoms of this world, their economics, societal issues, and political issues.
Transformational
theology is thus an expansion of discipleship, Kingdom oriented, incarnational,
justice and character focused, proclamative in its central thrust and involves
ongoing power confrontation with the Kingdoms of this world (Samuel, 1999:
xvi).
Discipleship as Communal
Discipleship
is also communal, not simply individualistic.
Jesus’ commission was ‘to disciple the nations’. Not the individuals, but to bring the nations
(ta ethne = peoples) under his authority. Since the 1980’s, Youth With a
Mission (YWAM), a Pentecostal short term
youth training mission, has become the biggest mission in New Zealand.
It popularised Kuyper’s theology (1998a, 1998b) as the ‘7 mind moulders’, looking at issues
of how to affect the mindset of a nation or city. Kuyper, a Christian theologian who became the
prime minister of Holland early this century, did extensive thinking on the
‘spheres’ of Christian influence, building off Calvin’s work. He, in turn, built from an Augustinian
framework. An underlying concept is that
‘discipling the nations’ involves bringing not just individuals but nations
under the reign of the Kingdom of God.
The
New Kingdom Order and the
New World Order
The
Kingdom of God is here, yet not fully
realised. Until it is fully realised
there will exist two different Kingdoms.
The one, is
a Kingdom of this world, symbolised through the scriptures and in their great
climax, as Babylon, a great religious-political-economic
conglomerate (Rev 17-19), that has grown out of the rebellion of humanity - its
nature is that of oppression, exploitation and unrighteousness. It is, at heart, a massive world-wide market
place, eventually dominated by a single lawless authority (2 Thes 2:3-12),[23]
in the midst of an increasingly lawless world.
The other
is a Kingdom of the Spirit…
For the
Kingdom
of God is not a matter of eating
and drinking but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom 14:17).
…yet a
Kingdom that profoundly transforms economics, social relationships, and
political issues.
Our role and call - we are to disciple
the nations, which involves a discipling of the structures relating them to the
demands of the King. We should work with
all our energy to see, ‘Thy kingdom come!
Thy will be done on earth as in heaven!’ as much as is presently possible. This should not only be in individual lives
but in the social order of our nation and globe. This is the content of preparation for the
second coming, for this gospel of the Kingdom must be preached to every people,
not just as simple ‘Four Spiritual Laws’,[25] and
a sinner’s prayer, but as the gospel of the King who fills all in all and is
all in all.
References
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