Reading 2. There’s a War Going On! The Kingdom in the New Testament

by on December 24, 2016
➡ Average Reading Time: 7 minutes

Read Me First | Read Me Second | Read Me Third

Kingdom Introduction
Observing the Text!

The Kingdom Of God in The New Testament
When you open the pages of the Second Testament you may be struck by the apparent war in which Jesus is immediately engaged. John the Baptist proclaimed that there was one coming in which the age of the Spirit would come. The words of Jesus in Mark clearly denote that the kingdom had arrived with Jesus in a new form, kinda like a version upgrade to a program on your computer. The words and works of Jesus form a unity in which the kingdom of God is spoken about and demonstrated. In Jesus, we have the presence of the future. Jesus has brought the rule of God from the future into the present. We now live in the presence of the future. This expression was often used by the late Dr. George Eldon Ladd to express the kingdom reality. He often said that the church lives between the times; she lives between the inauguration and the consummation of the kingdom.

This “now-but-not-yet” concept is seen throughout the New Testament. Matthew illustrates it at 12.28 when he writes, “Since I am casting out demons by the Spirit of God, the kingdom of God has come upon you.” Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15.24, “Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and every power.” John writes in 1 John 3.2, “Beloved, we are God’s children now, it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him.” What Jesus did was as important as what he said. Twentieth-and twenty-first-century Christians are often more preoccupied with what he said, too often forgetting that what he did carries the same message and weight. He taught as much by doing as by saying.Jesus taught as much by doing as by saying. Click To Tweet

Interpreting the Text!

What Did Jesus Do in His Ministry?
It is fair to ask the question: What did Jesus do in his ministry? Mark’s Gospel makes it clear that the mission of Jesus was to destroy the activity of Satan in the world. He gave his hearers an optical illustration of the kingdom in his ministry of healing the sick and casting out demons. Jesus and Satan were in a cosmic conflict that was being played out in the battle for ownership and rule in the lives of men and women. In like manner, other battles were afoot: hunger (John 6), natural catastrophes (Mark 4.35-41), sickness (Luke 7.21), and death (Luke 7.11-17).

Matthew’s Gospel (Matt. 12.22-31) clearly demonstrates that the war between Jesus and Satan is not a civil war within a kingdom. Rather, it is a battle between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan. The strong man, Satan, is bound (deo: to bind—a metaphorical term indicating the curbing of power) so the strong man’s house (Satan’s kingdom) may be plundered. The power is curbed, but not rendered completely powerless, Matt. 16.23; Mark 8.33. (Ladd. A Theology of the New Testament. 1974. 66).

How Others Explain the Kingdom
In his book The Real Satan, Dr. James Kallas says, “A war is going on! Cosmic war! Jesus is the divine invader sent by God to shatter the strengths of Satan. In that light, the whole ministry of Jesus unrolls. Jesus has one purpose-to defeat Satan. He takes seriously the strength of the enemy” (Kallas. 1975, 60). Jesus won the war, but there are battles still left to be fought. Jesus gave his disciples the mission of continuing to bring the rule of God into the world in their lives and proclamation (Luke 10.8-9). In their preaching and miracles, Jesus saw Satan’s defeat (Luke 10.18). The last words of Jesus to his disciples when he left this sphere (Acts 1.1-8) demonstrate that he would empower his disciples to continue in the cleanup of the war.

An illustration from Oscar Cullmann’s book Christ and Time will help us understand this concept of cleanup. He shares a story from World War II’s D-day and V-day. D-day was June 6, 1944, a day that the result of the war was decided. However, the war did not officially conclude until May 7-8, 1945, on V-day (Cullmann. 1964. 84). Between these two dates, almost a year, there were still battles being fought and allied lives being lost. In fact, more lives were lost during this period than in any other period during the war. Even though the battles went on, the war had been decided. So it was with Jesus. The earth was his. In his birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension, God had overthrown Satan. God planted his flag in the form of a cross and Jesus said, “It is finished.” The war is over, but the aftermath still continues and will continue until the return of Jesus.

To understand the kingdom of God, its present and future aspects, is to understand the theme from which the ministry of Jesus and the writings of the New Testament flow. We live in the presence of the future, the “now-but-not-yet.” When we view any passage of Scripture in the New Testament, we must put on our kingdom of God glasses and ask questions of that passage with that set of presuppositions. The kingdom of God was in the Old Testament. It can be clearly demonstrated that the kingdom is seen in events like the Exodus and Israel’s captivity in Babylon. God acted in kingly power to deliver and judge his children. The kingdom came into history once-and-for-all in the person of Jesus, demonstrated by his words and works.

Two Ways to View the Kingdom in The New Testament
There are at least two ways in which the material of the New Testament concerning the kingdom can be viewed: the Satanward view and the Godward view.

Satanward View: The Satanward view takes seriously the idea that Jesus came into the world to wage war against Satan. The tendency of the Western Christian is to accept the supernatural events which happened in Scripture in one of three ways:

  • The events happened then, but they do not happen today.
  • The events happened then and they still happen today.
  • The events never happened as they are reported, therefore, they cannot happen today.

When the New Testament material is observed from the perspective that the ministry of Jesus was indeed aimed at Satan in a cosmic war fought on earth, it is called the Satanward view. This term was coined by Dr. James Kallas and is meant to demonstrate that Christians should take Satan seriously as God’s enemy.

Godward View: The second manner in which the material of the New Testament can be seen is called by Dr. Kallas as the Godward view. In this view the mission of Jesus was to bring us salvation and return us to fellowship with God.

Which View should we believe? Both the Godward and Satanward views are legitimate. According to Dr. Kallas, the following approximate percentages are found:

  • The contents of the Synoptics and Paul is eighty percent Satanward and twenty percent Godward.
  • The contents of John, Hebrews, Revelation are eighty percent Godward and twenty percent Satanward.

Both interpretations are true. It is a fact that Biblical truth can never be discerned by choosing one truth over another. Both truths must be held in tension. “When the two are separated,” states Dr. Kallas, “it is not that one has half a truth, but that one has no truth, but distortion.”

To accurately understand the kingdom of God, we must be committed to the Satanward view of Scripture as well as the Godward view. Within the Satanward view, the church is seen as the army of God which continues the cleanup mission until the return of the King. In the Godward view, the church is seen as the functioning body of the King left on earth to minister redemption to those outside and care to those inside the body....Biblical truth can never be discerned by choosing one truth over another. Click To Tweet

Living into the Text!

It is always important to apply what you have learned. Pause at this point and ask for the help of the Holy Spirit to meditate on and put into practice some or all of the following.

  • In what two areas of your community of faith life and your personal life, does the “now-but-not-yet” concept help you sort out how life as a community and an individual believer works?
  • What pattern of warfare does the enemy use in your community of faith and in you?
  • On a scale of one to ten: how does the Satanward view strike you? Why?
  • How does the Godward view strike you differently or the same? Why?
BibleInfoResources!

The articles below come from various Bible Dictionaries and other sources. The posting of these brief articles are to introduce some readers to the vast amount of information that is provided to enhance your reading of the text of the Bible with a hope that it will lead to a better understanding of the text and will lead the reader to an improved praxis in his or her community of faith and personal life. You might read the articles offline in a number of different Bible Dictionaries. If you do not own a Bible Dictionary, I would recommend New Bible Dictionary 3rd Edition. If you like lots of color pictures, try Revell Bible Dictionary. Revell Bible Dictionary is no longer in print but is available from Amazon. One of these should suit your personal needs.

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Read Me First

 

Throughout these sessions, I have used the word ecclesia (singular) for the usual word church and ecclesiae (plural) to indicate a church in a particular geographic place, i.e., the ecclesiae at Corinth, meaning the whole of the many smaller ecclesia that met in homes in Corinth. This is to distinguish between the Institutional Church model (IC) and ecclesia that meet in cities and towns around the world. The ecclesiae written about by the authors of the Second Testament were not the same as what the “church” has become over the years of its existence. Usually, but not always, folks think of a church as a place where they go to a building and set in rows of pews and listen to music and sometimes sing and listen to sermons by a pastor or senior pastor. The ecclesiae of the Second Testament time did not invoke this model.

 

I have discovered over the years that if you want to try and change minds about something special, you have to venture out and reword it in order to grasp a foothold for a new refreshed understanding of the idea presented by the word. Such is the case between "church" and "ecclesia."

 

Happy Reading!

Read Me Second

 

Referenced verses in the text of this study are not used to prove some point of view. They are merely markers where the subject matter is referenced by other books and authors. To gain a larger view of each quote, a serious student of the Holy Writ would take the time to view the reference and see what the background is. The background provides tracks on which the meaning of a text rides. So knowing the context of a referenced passage would help the reader to gain a more thorough understanding of an author than just the words quoted and marked by a verse number that was not a part of the original author's text, which as you might remember was performed on the text in a random fashion many years later.

 

Happy Reading!

Read Me Third

 

The verses that are referenced in these sessions are not meant to prove a point. They are simply pointers to where the idea being written about may have a correlation. In order to see if they accomplish the thesis presented by the original author, a student should read, at a minimum, the chapter in which the verse is found as well as trying to ascertain what the original author may have meant to say to the original audience.

 

Of course, this is a lot of work but it is beneficial work. If one does not understand what the author meant when it was written and the audience could not have understood by what was written, then the words on the page can mean anything that a present reader may assign as a meaning, thus distorting what God was inspiring for the original writer to write to the original audience to hear.

A great and recent book by N.T. Wright and Michael F. Bird entitled The New Testament in Its World would be a wonderful addition to your reading helps.

 

Happy Reading!

 

 

Guide Yourself into a Kingdom of God Mindset in 13 Readings, which covers a matrix through which you can view the writings of the New Testament about the subject matter of the kingdom of God. You can enjoy this material completely in just 13 readings. Of course, you can take all the time you want, say 13 Days or 13 Weeks. It's up to you. To get the most from your reading, it is important that you read the biblical text along with it. The New International Version (NIV: Electronic Version 2011) is the text on which the studies are built.

The first section of each reading is called Observing the Text, which is an introduction to the section that is being read. Next, you will encounter Interpreting the Text, which suggests an interpretation of the section your are reading. Then, there is Living into the Text, which suggests questions, which may help you live into the text. This final section BibleInfoResources!, provides you with some articles that may interest you. After all, the text of Scripture was originally written for a community of Yahweh or Jesus followers to help them in their pursuit of God. The text was never meant to be for the accumulation of personal knowledge. Of course, the Holy Spirit is the final word for living your life and for the life of a community of Jesus followers. Listen to what he may be saying to your community of faith and personally about what you are reading. But, on a personal level, don’t get a personal application for you mixed up with the meaning of the text in Scripture. Remember this easy rule of thumb: one meaning, many applications. NOTE: Throughout the text, you will see words that have a thin dashed underline. When you place your cursor over the word(s) a small tooltip box will appear with more information about the word(s).

Each reading may include some of the following icons and sections:

Observing the Text! What does the text say? Provides you with a quick overview of the passage.
Interpreting the Text! What does the text mean? Helps you gain an understanding of the meaning of the text as those who first heard or read it may have understood it.
Living into the Text! What does the text mean to my community of faith and to me? Some reflections to help assist your community of faith and you to live into the Story of God.
WordTreasures: Defining the Text! Definitions of key words and phrases.
Behind the Scenes: Historical Background of the Text! A look at the historical background of the text
BibleInfoResources! Helpful resources for further readings. The Resource Information appears at the end of each of the studies. Reading this material in the noted reference popup will enrich your comprehension of the material under consideration.

 

 

John the Baptist

John the Baptist was the “forerunner of our Lord.” We have but fragmentary and imperfect accounts of him in the Gospels. He was of priestly descent. His father, Zacharias, was a priest of the course of Abia (1 Chr. 24:10), and his mother, Elisabeth, was of the daughters of Aaron (Luke 1:5). The mission of John was the subject of prophecy (Matt. 3:3; Isa. 40:3; Mal. 3:1). His birth, which took place six months before that of Jesus, was foretold by an angel. Zacharias, deprived of the power of speech as a token of God’s truth and a reproof of his own incredulity with reference to the birth of his son, had the power of speech restored to him on the occasion of his circumcision (Luke 1:64). After this no more is recorded of him for thirty years than what is mentioned in Luke 1:80. John was a Nazarite from his birth (Luke 1:15; Num. 6:1–12). He spent his early years in the mountainous tract of Judah lying between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea (Matt. 3:1–12).

At length he came forth into public life, and great multitudes from “every quarter” were attracted to him. The sum of his preaching was the necessity of repentance. He denounced the Sadducees and Pharisees as a “generation of vipers,” and warned them of the folly of trusting to external privileges (Luke 3:8). “As a preacher, John was eminently practical and discriminating. Self-love and covetousness were the prevalent sins of the people at large. On them, therefore, he enjoined charity and consideration for others. The publicans he cautioned against extortion, the soldiers against crime and plunder.” His doctrine and manner of life roused the entire south of Palestine, and the people from all parts flocked to the place where he was, on the banks of the Jordan. There he baptized thousands unto repentance.

The fame of John reached the ears of Jesus in Nazareth (Matt. 3:5), and he came from Galilee to Jordan to be baptized of John, on the special ground that it became him to “fulfil all righteousness” (3:15). John’s special office ceased with the baptism of Jesus, who must now “increase” as the King come to his kingdom. He continued, however, for a while to bear testimony to the Messiahship of Jesus. He pointed him out to his disciples, saying, “Behold the Lamb of God.” His public ministry was suddenly (after about six months probably) brought to a close by his being cast into prison by Herod, whom he had reproved for the sin of having taken to himself the wife of his brother Philip (Luke 3:19). He was shut up in the castle of Machaerus (q.v.), a fortress on the southern extremity of Peraea, 9 miles east of the Dead Sea, and here he was beheaded. His disciples, having consigned the headless body to the grave, went and told Jesus all that had occurred (Matt. 14:3–12). John’s death occurred apparently just before the third Passover of our Lord’s ministry. Our Lord himself testified regarding him that he was a “burning and a shining light” (John 5:35).

Easton Bible Dictionary: John the Baptist

 

 

 

Satan

Satan, also called the adversary and accuser. When used as a proper name, the Hebrew word so rendered has the article “the adversary” (Job 1:6–12; 2:1–7). In the New Testament it is used as interchangeable with diabolos, or the devil, and is so used more than thirty times. He is also called “the dragon,” “the old serpent” (Rev. 12:9; 20:2); “the prince of this world” (John 12:31; 14:30); “the prince of the power of the air” (Eph. 2:2); “the god of this world” (2 Cor. 4:4); “the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2). The distinct personality of Satan and his activity among men are thus obviously recognized. He tempted our Lord in the wilderness (Matt. 4:1–11). He is “Beelzebub, the prince of the devils” (12:24). He is “the constant enemy of God, of Christ, of the divine kingdom, of the followers of Christ, and of all truth; full of falsehood and all malice, and exciting and seducing to evil in every possible way.” His power is very great in the world. He is a “roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Pet. 5:8). Men are said to be “taken captive by him” (2 Tim. 2:26). Christians are warned against his “devices” (2 Cor. 2:11), and called on to “resist” him (James 4:7). Christ redeems his people from “him that had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Heb. 2:14). Satan has the “power of death,” not as lord, but simply as executioner.

Devil (Gr. diabolos), a slanderer, the arch-enemy of man’s spiritual interest (Job 1:6; Rev. 2:10; Zech. 3:1). He is called also “the accuser of the brethen” (Rev. 12:10). In Lev. 17:7 the word “devil” is the translation of the Hebrew sair, meaning a “goat” or “satyr” (Isa. 13:21; 34:14), alluding to the wood-daemons, the objects of idolatrous worship among the heathen. In Deut. 32:17 and Ps. 106:37 it is the translation of Hebrew shed, meaning lord, and idol, regarded by the Jews as a “demon,” as the word is rendered in the Revised Version. In the narratives of the Gospels regarding the “casting out of devils” a different Greek word (daimon) is used. In the time of our Lord there were frequent cases of demoniacal possession (Matt. 12:25–30; Mark 5:1–20; Luke 4:35; 10:18, etc.).

Easton Bible Dictionary: Satan

 

Jesus Followers

 

There are many synonyms to use for the word believer, which is the most common word for a person who has "converted" to follow Jesus. I have chosen "Jesus follower(s) or follower(s) of Jesus instead of the word believer in these presentations to allow the reader an opportunity to move away from the idea of believer which conjures up the possible thought of "ascent" to a set of doctrines that have been assembled by different groups over the centuries and show up in this day and age as a set of statements posted on web sites and other written material. These sets of beliefs are suggested by many as the ones that one should ascent to so that upon death the one who assents can go to heaven, i.e., just believe and you are good to go. Jesus followers/followers of Jesus suggest an action that one should take. Remember, Jesus told his disciples to follow him. Yes, belief is important, but one must move beyond belief to action.

 

(See "Discipleship" Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels. 182-188.)