Since
the Fall (of humanity), God has been slowly and patiently working to get
humanity “back to the Garden” so to speak and to the point of holiness before Original
Sin through Adam. Part of this idea of getting things back to the way they were
is to (at some point) bring the Kingdom of God to earth in full. This will be
when Jesus Christ returns to reign (Kuzmic 63).
Therefore,
the Kingdom of God should be defined as anywhere that God’s will reigns fully
in a believer(s) life. Kingdom is where the King is. If a believer is truly aligned with the will of God and
God’s will controls or dictates a believers motives and action, this person
will in all probability also be saved or have salvation as outlined in the
Bible. This would’ve at least been the general mindset of the first century
which would’ve heavily affected their writings in the Bible. Jews or newly
converted Jews from Judaism to Christianity would’ve viewed the Kingdom of God
as a future or coming period of salvation (Ridderbos 18).
Consequently,
for a Christian, the Kingdom came in force with the arrival of God incarnate:
Jesus Christ in a form of inaugurated
eschatology (Kuzmic 63, Moore et al 70). Subsequently, anyone that believes
in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and are true Christians then become the
manifestation of the Kingdom now as we are indwelt by the Spirit of God and
have the Spirit of Christ in us (Moore et al 76). If we’re truly indwelt by the
Holy Spirit we will also have the heart of God so there should be a
manifestation of the Kingdom through
us just as there was through Jesus when He walked this earth. As we will see
later after Christ’s Ascension the disciples do the same as Jesus since they
too are indwelt by the Spirit of God (therefore they also had His heart for the
poor).
We
are indeed called by Jesus in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20) to go out
and evangelize and teach all the things Jesus taught the disciples. A big part
of Jesus' teachings were in His actions in helping the marginalized of society.
Jesus presence on this earth and his teachings were the Kingdom breaking
through into earth when he was here. So any disciple that does the same with
the heart of Christ or indwelt by the Holy Spirit, are therefore allowing the
presence of the Kingdom to manifest in
this world/realm through their actions previous to Jesus coming back to reign
in power and glory at his second-coming (or Realized Eschatology).
Signposts to Kingdom, Not Liberation
Theology
The
idea of the Kingdom arriving in part through humanity because of the work of Christ and the Holy Spirit must
not be confused with the liberal/socialist ideas of Liberation Theology and
philosophies of people like Gustavo Gutierrez and Jurgen Moltmann’s “Theology
of Hope” (Enns 634). These are theories and philosophies that generally state
that it is solely man-centered efforts to help the oppressed that speeds the
arrival of the Kingdom and brings it into fruition so when Jesus arrives he can
just take His rightful place on His throne (Enns 631-623). These types of
errant philosophies assert that man can achieve some semblance of Kingdom
without God’s direct full-on intervention through what amounts to unbiblical
methods when they are scrutinized with a Biblical hermeneutic. They believe that
social and political justice for the poor and downtrodden are God’s ultimate
concern and this is where humanity should focus all its efforts. This philosophy
is partially true in that the poor are indeed the heart of God but they also
say that Jesus came not to bring spiritual liberation but rather to liberate
the physically oppressed, therefore the historic significance of the
resurrection as a release from sin is therefore ignored. The adherents of the
“Theology of Hope” generally (but not always) disregard the need of a spiritual
Savior to atone for sin (Enns 634). It is at this point where Liberation
theology goes completely on a tangent outside Scripture. Some theologians of
this persuasion actually advocate liberating believers or the downtrodden
including the poor by overthrowing world powers and authorities because to them
the greatest sin against God is social injustice (Enns 634-635). This runs in
direct violation of Romans 13:1-6 and Mark 12:13-17 and it is not the example
Jesus gave us to instigate change in society. Although Jesus’ message and
ministry eventually overcame the Roman Empire that He was born into, the overcoming
of the empire was not done through insurrection or open social rebellion. The
change was effected slowly through the dissemination of the Gospel one person
at a time until it transformed the moral undercurrent of society as a whole.
Therefore transforming society and turning it towards the Kingdom of God (Batey
21).
This
path for rectification of social issues like the poor and poverty through
social unrest is therefore not biblical in its premise and should be avoided. Because
Liberation Theology does not focus on Jesus Christ’s atoning sacrifice on the
Cross (the Gospel) and dwells too much on what man can do to shape the future
and usher in the Kingdom it stands opposite Scripture. What Liberation Theology
fails to grasp is that the doctrine of the church begins not with the Church
itself but with the Kingdom of God (Kuzmic 63-64). The Church owes its
existence to the Kingdom of God and not the other way around (Moore et al 71).
Both conceptions belong tightly together but it is the fact that the Kingdom of
God is predominately manifested (or should be manifested) through the Church as
a community of the Spirit. In this way this new community of the Spirit is a
witnessing, missionary oriented movement or effect of the Kingdom itself (Christian
185; Kuzmic 63). The Church is the side-effect of the Kingdom “breaking
through” or the initial manifestation of the Kingdom (Moore et al 71). The
Church in reality is a fruit of the Kingdom so to speak, it is not the cause of
the social change. Liberation Theology believes the Church is the agent or the
cause of change. This is untenable from a biblical perspective. Contrary to
what Liberation Theology believes, the Church is not the Kingdom per se but rather the Church is the direct result
of the coming of the King Himself in some shape or form (therefore the Kingdom)
(Kuzmic 63). Jesus is the very basis on which the Church is founded and aligned
to. He is thus the very foundation of the Kingdom. If we miss this point, we
miss the entire point of not only social compassion, but we also miss the entire
message of the Gospel/Bible that centers on humility and selflessness. I
believe this is exactly why we see a reversal of the effect of the Fall and sin
wherever Jesus or His followers are as His “agents of change” are found. It is
not we as Christians in isolation helping the poor in the strictest sense, it
is still Jesus (God) helping the poor and the marginalized of society through us.
Overall
Liberation Theology is misleading and disingenuous at its core. It assumes that
affluence and improved social status will make people respond to the Gospel and
the message of God in a more positive manner and this is a false assumption
(Enns 634). If anything I believe the Bible speaks abundantly to the fact that
just the opposite may be true when it comes to affluence and money (David,
Solomon, Nebuchadnezzar, Judas, etc.). The change in a person’s social status
does not guarantee improvement of the condition one’s life or position with God
(salvation)…it just makes a rich sinner. Jesus most certainly came to give us
spiritual liberation from sin and inevitably His return will cause a social
inversion or reversal but that is in the future (eschatological), not now (Batey
18). The things that oppress humanity in society are the direct result of sin
either moral or natural. Man is definitely at fault for many of the injustices
in society, especially to the poor. This can never be viewed without seeing
these actions as a warping or twisting of God’s original intent. These failures
in the world or in humanity find their origin in the Fall of Genesis 3 or in
imputed sin and/or original sin. This is sin that only Christ can overcome, not
humanity. Humanity can only depend on Jesus to remove and halt the effects of
this sin. The power to overcome sin and bring the Kingdom in full comes from
God alone. It is in the Gospel of the Kingdom and the Word of the Cross (λόγος
γὰρ ὁ τοῦ σταυροῦ~1 Cor. 1:18) that salvation is found, not in humanity’s
misguided man-centered works (Kuzmic 60, Nestle et al 441-442).
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