The Kingdom
A few weeks back my friend Andrew Matthews posted a critique on his Unpopular Opinions blog of what he perceived to be my view of the church and the kingdom of God. That can be found here. Immediately I was taken aback by some of the conclusions he has drawn from my own statements, but I have not had the time to compose a thorough reply.
For now I can provide a generalized response. First, I detected a false dilemma in his opening statements, for I would characterize my position much stronger than defining the church as believers merely “awaiting the establishment” of the kingdom, unless by that we simply mean that believers await the final visible consummate coming of the kingdom of God.
Which leads me to my primary issue with his piece. When Andrew speaks of the "present church" and "future church", "kingdom of God" etc. I wonder if he is making equivocations with these terms. Throughout his post, it seems at some points he refers to the kingdom as the new heavens and the new earth, and at other points as the elect people of God now in the present creation (in fact he seems to begin this way but then switches its meaning at certain subsequent places).
The most puzzling section was where Andrew concludes that I adhere in principle to a dispensationalist idea of the kingdom.
To be clear, the problem with dispensationalism is not only splitting everyone up into "two peoples" of God with two plans for one salvation, but they do a great disservice to the glory of Christ's work and his fulfillment of the kingdom promises and blessings. While dispensationalists might adhere to the idea that Christ exemplified and demonstrated kingdom promises for the church by way of allegory or metaphor (and not actual fulfillment), traditional covenant theology observes that Christ really and actually fulfilled the promises and secured the blessings given in the Law and the prophets, and he did so on behalf of the elect Bride (all who are called and lay hold of the blessings offered in the covenant of grace, a covenant which continues throughout the Old and New covenants). Unfortunately, dispensationalists will misrepresent this view as “spiritualizing away” all the OT promises, as if we only see this as invisible pie in the sky fulfillment with no bearing on earthly matters. But the bodily resurrection and the new heavens and new earth are far from "spiritualizing away" all the OT promises. It is the culmination of the Law and the Prophets: the coming of Christ and his kingdom.
Andrew is obviously referring to dispensationalism's concept of the Jews as the "earthly" people of God and Gentile church as the "spiritual/heavenly" people of God. That he sees a similar principle at work in my writings shows that he misunderstands me. Covenant theology has always allowed for distinction between the visible church and invisible church (the latter being only the elect and the former including non-elect) as this has always been featured in its more robust "kingdom" theology in contrast to dispensationalism. The single kingdom of God (eschatological, heavenly) comes in various administrations (visible).
A few weeks back my friend Andrew Matthews posted a critique on his Unpopular Opinions blog of what he perceived to be my view of the church and the kingdom of God. That can be found here. Immediately I was taken aback by some of the conclusions he has drawn from my own statements, but I have not had the time to compose a thorough reply.
For now I can provide a generalized response. First, I detected a false dilemma in his opening statements, for I would characterize my position much stronger than defining the church as believers merely “awaiting the establishment” of the kingdom, unless by that we simply mean that believers await the final visible consummate coming of the kingdom of God.
Which leads me to my primary issue with his piece. When Andrew speaks of the "present church" and "future church", "kingdom of God" etc. I wonder if he is making equivocations with these terms. Throughout his post, it seems at some points he refers to the kingdom as the new heavens and the new earth, and at other points as the elect people of God now in the present creation (in fact he seems to begin this way but then switches its meaning at certain subsequent places).
The most puzzling section was where Andrew concludes that I adhere in principle to a dispensationalist idea of the kingdom.
To be clear, the problem with dispensationalism is not only splitting everyone up into "two peoples" of God with two plans for one salvation, but they do a great disservice to the glory of Christ's work and his fulfillment of the kingdom promises and blessings. While dispensationalists might adhere to the idea that Christ exemplified and demonstrated kingdom promises for the church by way of allegory or metaphor (and not actual fulfillment), traditional covenant theology observes that Christ really and actually fulfilled the promises and secured the blessings given in the Law and the prophets, and he did so on behalf of the elect Bride (all who are called and lay hold of the blessings offered in the covenant of grace, a covenant which continues throughout the Old and New covenants). Unfortunately, dispensationalists will misrepresent this view as “spiritualizing away” all the OT promises, as if we only see this as invisible pie in the sky fulfillment with no bearing on earthly matters. But the bodily resurrection and the new heavens and new earth are far from "spiritualizing away" all the OT promises. It is the culmination of the Law and the Prophets: the coming of Christ and his kingdom.
Andrew is obviously referring to dispensationalism's concept of the Jews as the "earthly" people of God and Gentile church as the "spiritual/heavenly" people of God. That he sees a similar principle at work in my writings shows that he misunderstands me. Covenant theology has always allowed for distinction between the visible church and invisible church (the latter being only the elect and the former including non-elect) as this has always been featured in its more robust "kingdom" theology in contrast to dispensationalism. The single kingdom of God (eschatological, heavenly) comes in various administrations (visible).
posted by Joe Branca | 10:52 AM
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