Kingdom Ready Blog

Today Galatians 4 was in the sermon:

³ So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world. ⁴ But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, ⁵ so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. ⁶ Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” ⁷ Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God. ⁸ However at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods. ⁹ But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again? ¹⁰ You observe days and months and seasons and years.

I saw this at “aliveandyoung”

When we look at the second and third centuries we see great diversity between groups claiming the name of Christ.  We see Ebionites, Gnostics, Desert monk ascetics, charismatic mob leaders, philosophers and learned men, as well as your more normal peasants and common folk.  Each of these groups, as time went on, became more and more divergent from one another in their beliefs, even their fundamental beliefs.  Looking back, we don’t seem to associate “normative belief” (what is, or should be, commonly believed by everyone) with any of these groups.  The Catholic, Anglican, and Orthodox churches find a “normative” belief with only a sub-group of the learned men.

The distinction between the present age and the age to come, usually reckoning the present age as evil and the age to come as good.New Testament and the People of God, NT Wright, pg 253

This falls squarely in line with the previous duality mentioned (Moral duality).  If, in the first century, the Jewish people believe; that one can act good or evil, and they are still in exile, because they have acted evily (sin), and they have not experienced the promises of the prophets (the age to come), it is a logical outcome to conclude that there is a massive division between the world as it stands, and the world as it should be:

The positing of a firm distinction between good and evil, e.g. in the realm of human behavior.  Most religions maintain some such distinction, but some forms of pantheism have tried to remove it, not least by labeling it ‘dualism’ and associating it with other dualisms that are deemed to be unwelcome. NT Wright, New Testament and the People of God, pg 253

Theological/cosmological duality. If pantheism is a classic for of monism, the differentiation between the creator god and the created order is often seen as itself a sort of ‘dualism’. NT Wright, The New Testament and the People of God, pg. 253

There are several categories of duality: (1)Theological/ontological, (2)Thelogical/cosmological, (3)Moral, (4)Eschatalogical, (5)Theological/moral, (6)Cosmological, (7)Anthropological, (8)Epistemological, (9)Sectarian, and (10)Psychological. When we say dualities, we mean two opposite sides. And these categories are fairly atomistic, but vary greatly in the areas they cover. I hope to go over each of these in the context of Judaism, and therefore, Christianity in an effort to show what dualities fit with Jesus. We will start with Theological/ontological.

Theological/ontological duality. The postulation of heavenly beings other than the one god, even if these being exist at his behest and to do his will. The New Testament and the People of God, NT Wright, pg. 253

Heb 10:32 But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions;

Heb 10:33 Partly, whilst ye were made a gazingstock both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, whilst ye became companions of them that were so used.

Heb 10:34 For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance.

As I’ve given a more historical and social focus towards understanding the New Testament and Jesus things start to fall together much much neater. We all recognize that the Jewish people were longing for God to save their nation and restore them to their former glory. Ultimately, through Israel the world would be brought to order. This whole future hope is given the name “Kingdom of God” during this time period. And the Jewish zeal for this to happen was so very strong. It caused so many popular leaders, prophets, and messiah-claimants to cause violent uprisings over this two hundred year period.

Yesterday, I came across this excerpt from Dr. Wilson’s book on Christian origins. In it he describes several definitions for the kingdom of God. The first (chronologically) is our position–that the kingdom will be a literal, political government to be established by the Messiah at his return. Dr. Wilson says some people maintained this idea into later centuries, but others found it difficult to hold out hope because of the delay of the return of Jesus and reinterpreted the kingdom idea in two different directions. One group said that the kingdom was spiritual reality in one’s heart. The others relocated the kingdom to heaven where they said the righteous would go at death. Though I would probably disagree with Dr. Wilson on a great number of things, I found what he said in these paragraphs insightful and remarkably congruent with what we have been saying here on KingdomReady. Please note that Dr. Wilson is a liberal scholar who believes that Jesus and Paul established two different religions (which is why I certainly do not endorse everything he says). However, sometimes not having faith can be a benefit because typical biases can be avoided. Here are his comments.