Some have mistakenly embraced the notion that God hates this dirty little planet and has promised to rescue His people out of it before He trashes it. But Scripture teaches no such thing. Indeed, Scripture repeatedly warns that “the world” is evil.5 But the Greek words translated “world” in these passages do not refer to the earth, but to the world system (kosmos) or the present age (aion) that is marked by the corruptions of sin.
The Bible makes clear that this present age is evil,6 that the world system is headed up by satan,7 and that God will judge the world system in the end.8 But it teaches with equal force that the earth itself is precious to God, who has wonderful plans for it.
Because the world presently stands under the defilement of sin, God’s people are strangers and pilgrims to it.9 We are told that our citizenship is in the heavens,10 and we are not to be attached to that which is earthly.11 This present age and the world system are temporal and will pass away.12
At the same time, the new creation has arrived with the resurrection of Jesus. While we are not from this world,13 we are certainly for the world—just as Jesus was not from this world but for it.14
The kingdom of God is certainly for the world, as Jesus prayed: “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”15
Although we do not belong to this present world, God’s people will dwell on the renewed earth in the age to come. The New Jerusalem (God’s eternal habitation in the glorified church) will descend from heaven to earth.16
Scripture portrays a God who is very much in love with His creation.17 The earth was created primarily for Jesus Christ.18 Therefore, God does not despise the earth. He loves it and has created humans to be trustees of this estate that He loves.19 In fact, God has sworn by Himself that He will redeem the earth, deliver it from its corruption, and fill it with His glory:
The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.20
But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD.21
For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.22
The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.23
He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.24
THE CENTRAL ISSUE OF THE UNIVERSE
The ultimate issue in the universe is over who will be worshipped. The eternal purpose of God is to make Christ preeminent over all things.25 From the very beginning, satan has sought to dethrone the Lord Jesus Christ from His rightful place. This is the essence of the battle that has raged through the ages. The controversy over the universe is over who will have the authority. Therefore, in an attempt to seize the authority of Christ, satan has influenced the nations to oppose His lordship.
Psalm 2:1–2 says, “Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed [Christ].”26 Similarly, because Christ is united with His church, and because Christ’s sovereignty will be realized through the church, satan’s attack is not only against the Lord Jesus (the Anointed One), but against His people (the anointed ones).
Thankfully, however, this battle has already been won. Jesus Christ has triumphed through the cross, and His church has entered into His victory. As a result, we are more than conquerors through Him who loves us.27 Jesus Christ shall indeed reign over the universe, satan will be cast out, and God’s eternal purpose will be realized. However, in the interim, the battle over the earth continues to rage.
THE PRESENT YET FUTURE OF THE KINGDOM
As we have seen, one of Jesus’ core messages was the kingdom of God. The Bible never defines the kingdom; it only describes it. The kingdom is the manifestation of God’s ruling presence. As we established in our book Jesus Manifesto, the kingdom is embodied in Jesus Himself.
Consequently, wherever a group of people recognize the sovereignty of Christ and submit to His lordship, the kingdom of God is present in that place. In addition, wherever the kingdom of God is being expressed, satan has no ground or power in that place. His occupancy is destroyed. At the same time, wherever Christ’s authority is not recognized, the kingdom of God is not present and satan is in control—for Christ and satan cannot dwell together.28 So wherever the King is present and practically enthroned, His kingdom is also present.29
In the 1994 Disney animation The Lion King, the king named Mufasa shows the vast expanse of the Pride Lands to his son, Simba. He then says that their kingdom is wherever the light hits. Exactly. Wherever the Light of the World falls, there is the kingdom. To live in the kingdom is to live in Jesus’ light.
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The first generation of Christians was fired by hopes for the kingdom. The second wave of Christianity built the church as an interim device while waiting for the kingdom. Later generations identified the two. Today the task is to reactivate the Christian hope by pointing to the Kingdom of God whose biblical images have been blurred in the history of Christianity.
—NORWEGIAN THEOLOGIAN CARL BRAATEN 32
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Scripture reveals that there are two aspects of the kingdom of God that are closely related. The first aspect of the kingdom is what we may call the spiritual reality of the kingdom. In this aspect, the kingdom of God does not come with visible observation. It is not physical, but is here in mystery. You can’t see it or touch it. Rather, it is perceived spiritually.30
Since Christ is reigning on His throne right now (since His ascension), those who submit to His headship are in the kingdom and partake of its blessings. This includes the authority of the kingdom.31 Therefore, in this present evil age, one can experience the righteousness, peace, and joy that are part of God’s kingdom by submitting to Jesus Christ as the world’s rightful Lord.
The second aspect of the kingdom is what we might call the physical reality of the kingdom. The physical reality of the kingdom will become manifest when the King physically appears. At that time, Jesus the King will return to planet Earth in visible form, and all things will be submitted to His rulership.
The first time Jesus appeared, He came as the Lamb. The second time He appears, He shall come as the Lion from the tribe of Judah. That is, He will come to judge the world.33 This means that He will set all things right. He will straighten the crooked. The world is severely out of joint, but Jesus will rejoin the disjointed. Jesus, as Judge and King, will exercise His complete rule over all things.34 Jesus of Nazareth is ruling from the heavens now until He makes His enemies a footstool for His feet.35
While the spiritual reality and the physical reality are two distinct aspects of the kingdom, they are not separate. The physical reality is the “outward manifestation” of the spiritual reality. There is only one kingdom, and it possesses both an inward r
eality and an outward manifestation. In this age, we partake of the kingdom spiritually, while in the age to come we will partake of it physically.
This explains why the Bible says that we now taste “the powers of the age to come.”36 As believers we may taste (partially or minimally partake) of the power of the coming kingdom age. This is a reference to the spiritual reality of the kingdom that is now available to all who submit to Jesus.37 It explains why some are healed and delivered (the kingdom is here). But it also explains why some get sick and are never healed (the kingdom is not yet).
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Heaven will be recognized as a country we have already entered, and in whose light and warmth we have already lived.
—BRITISH MONK HARRY WILLIAMS 38
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To put it in a sentence, those who follow Jesus live in the presence of the future. Instead of thinking of God as “up above,” why not think of God as “up ahead,” drawing the world upward toward Christ? While God draws the world toward unity from “up ahead” and the full manifestation of God’s kingdom is yet future (awaiting Christ’s return), today the church can live in the beauty and power of that kingdom and infect the earth with God’s healing salvation.39 With Jesus, heaven begins now. In fact, heaven begins now or never.
What we do in this age has an effect on the age to come. Those who are last in this life will be first in the coming age. Those who suffer today will reign tomorrow.40 Jesus gained His victory through suffering. His followers will gain it by sharing His sufferings.41 Paul closed his long thesis of the resurrection of the believer by urging God’s people to always abound in the work of the Lord because it “is not in vain.”42 There is a connection between our lives in the present and our future destiny.
THE SABATH AND THE LAND
Aside from the temple (which we’ve explored in previous chapters), the land and the Sabbath are two images that take up a lot of ink in the First Testament. Temple, land, and Sabbath were closely tied with the unique identity of God’s people, Israel.
We’ve already seen how the temple was a shadow of Jesus Christ (chapter 2). The same is true with the land and the Sabbath. In fact, both the Sabbath and the land teach us a great deal about the already-but-not-yet nature of the kingdom of God.
God’s plan for Israel was to rescue them from Egypt (a symbol of the world system),43 bring them through the wilderness of testing, and bring them into Canaan—the land that “flows with milk and honey.”44
Some Bible students regard the land of Canaan as representing the afterlife in heaven. We do not agree. The land was full of God’s enemies, seven Canaanite nations in all. And God’s word to Israel was to defeat them. So there was a great deal of war in the land. And Israel had to “press in” to occupy it.
We believe the Second Testament parallel to the land is the kingdom of God. In Hebrews, we are told to “labor” or “make every effort” to enter into the land:
Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said, “So I declared on oath in my anger, ’They shall never enter my rest.’” And yet his work has been finished since the creation of the world. For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: “And on the seventh day God rested from all his work.” And again in the passage above he says, “They shall never enter my rest.” It still remains that some will enter that rest, and those who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not go in, because of their disobedience. Therefore God again set a certain day, calling it Today, when a long time later he spoke through David, as was said before: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort [labor] to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.45
In this text, the writer of Hebrews coupled the land of Canaan with the rest of God, the Sabbath. God’s plan was that Israel defeat the enemies who occupied the land and “possess” it for herself. By doing so, she would enjoy rest.
Paul told us that Jesus Christ is the rest of God, our true Sabbath.46 Only in Him do we find rest. Jesus is also the reality of the promised land. He is the kingdom embodied: the manifestation of God’s ruling presence. But there’s something else, something more.
The First Testament repeats over and over again how “rich” the land was. In this regard, the land corresponds not only to the kingdom of God, where there is “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit,”47 but also to what Paul called “the unsearchable riches of Christ”48 and “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Chirst.”49
Consider what was in the land and how it reminds us of the inexhaustible riches that are in Christ Jesus: It was spacious.50 It was good.51 It contained water.52 It had valleys and hills.53 It contained wheat,54 barley,55 vines,56 figs,57 olive oil,58 milk,59 bread,60 mountains,61 and so on.62
When Paul penned Ephesians and Colossians, it seems that he had the land in mind when he spoke about the unsearchable riches of Christ. He talked about the “breadth, and length, and depth, and height” of Christ’s love.63 He spoke about being “grounded” in Christ, “rooted” in Christ, “built up” in Christ, and to “so walk” in Christ.64 All of this language conjures up images found in the book of Joshua when describing the land. It also contains echoes of the temple, which was to be built and grounded on the land.
The spiritual blessings that are in Christ are located in “heavenly realms.”65 The heavenly realms do not speak of heaven after we die. For the heavenly realms are also the location of our spiritual warfare.66 So just as the Israelites had to labor to possess the land, believers must labor, possess, press into the spiritual blessings and riches of Christ that are ours by standing against principalities and powers who would seek to rob them from us. The seven Canaanite nations—which foreshadow the “principalities,” “powers,” and “spiritual wickedness in high places”67—sought to rob God’s people of the land that God gave them as their inheritance. So they had to possess it by faith.
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The coming of Christ will also be an apokalypsis, an “unveiling” or “disclosure.” The power and glory that are now his by virtue of his exaltation and heavenly session must be disclosed to the world.
—GEORGE E. LADD 68
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Jesus is the new Joshua who leads His people into His kingdom to possess the riches that are theirs in Him.69 Yet we enter that kingdom through “many tribulations.”70 So in one way the land is ours now. We can enter into the rest of Christ today. We can enjoy the riches and blessings that are in Him now. This is the “already” of the kingdom.
Yet in another way our rest will not be complete until all of God’s enemies are defeated and there is no more war. This is the “not yet” of the kingdom. Jesus is the reality of temple, Sabbath, and land. He is also the reality of the new creation. And all of these elements have already-but-not-yet dimensions.
THE APPEARANCE OF JESUS
Some scholars believe that Jesus never talked about His second coming. For them texts like Mark 13, Matthew 24, Luke 17, and Luke 21 all speak about Jesus’ vindication in AD 70 when the temple of Jerusalem was destroyed.71 Other scholars believe these texts have a dual meaning.72 One layer of prophecy speaks of what happened in AD 70, while another layer speaks of what will happen in the future when Jesus returns to earth.73
We are not going to weigh in on this debate. It is both technical and complicated, and if properly treated, it would demand an entire book of its own. Instead, we will list some of what the First and Second Testaments have to say about the Lord’s return with great consistency—when the personal presence of Jes
us Christ within God’s new creation will occur:
• God will remake heaven and earth completely, affirming the goodness of the original creation and ending its corruption and finality.74
• Jesus will reappear and usher in the age to come.75
• When Jesus appears, those Christians who are still alive will be changed, transformed, so that their mortal bodies will become incorruptible, like Christ’s glorified, resurrected body.76
• When Jesus appears, the resurrection will occur. All who have died in Christ will rise again from the dead and take on a body of immortality, just like Jesus’ glorified, resurrected body.77
• The day the resurrection occurs is also called “the last day” (or “the latter day)78 and “the day of the Lord,”79 and it will come unexpectedly.80
• The coming of Christ in glory, which will usher forth the resurrected, glorified bodies of the redeemed, is the Christian’s hope.81
• The resurrection will occur on the “day of redemption” when our bodies will be redeemed, as well as the earth itself.82
• Both the “just” and the “unjust” will rise again. And Jesus will judge both.83
• The Lord will be revealed from heaven and return with thousands of His holy ones to judge the earth and show Himself to be King over all.84
• In texts such as 1 Thessalonians 4, Paul used imagery from the story of Moses coming down from Mount Sinai with the Law. The trumpet sounds and a loud voice is heard. Paul also drew on the imagery of Daniel 7, in which God’s people were vindicated over their pagan enemies by being raised up to sit with God in glory.
• Jesus Christ is the omega point of creation. Upon His return, Jesus will defeat the last enemy, death. He will transform the world as the Judge. He will sum up and subdue all things to Himself. Finally, He will hand the kingdom back over to His Father, and God will become all and all.85
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