The Seven Basic Principles of the Kingdom Vision
But Jesus told His disciples “I have yet many things to say unto you but you cannot bear them now. Howbeit when the Spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all truth …he will show you things to come…” (John 16: 12-13)
Each generation must take Kingdom agenda forward for their times. Each must hear what the Spirit is saying for the work of their time and then pass that forward to the next generation.
Unfortunately the eschatology of the Pentecostal/evangelical movements of the 20th century are just not a reflection of the world of the 21st century. 40-70 years later we are already deep into the 21st century and lets be honest…none of the predictions of the 1970’s popular prophecy books have come to pass. I know…I was there preaching and teaching them.
So I have taken stock of all that our previous generations of the Church have forwarded on to us and come up with 7 basic premises that I am going to stand on as my foundation for interpreting our times and the agenda of the Kingdom of God going forward into the 21st century.
Just a warning….I have deeply studied all the popular eschatology frameworks like Dispensationalism (including pre-trib, mid-trib, post trib rapture etc), Post-Millennialism, A-Millennialism and frankly none of them answer the issues of the 21st century that we as a church will face over the next 100 years…or for that fact the next 30-40 years.
So here is a short synopsis of my 7 guiding principles for an eschatology of the 21st century:
1) The Dominion Mandate of Genesis 1:26-28
Who is man and what does it mean to subdue the earth and be productive? Man’s dominion is over all God’s creation…does that include 1-3 trillion galaxies? What is God’s demands and expectations of mankind? Why the limitations on man and why this difficult earth with so many problems and challenges? We need a theology of work that subdues the earth and provides productive wealth for the Kingdom agenda.
2) Eden and God’s Plan for the Restoration of All Things
An examination of God’s plan of the ages to restore to us all that we have lost in Eden. The arc of God’s restoration plan from Genesis 1&2 to Revelation 21&22. The plan of restoration of the glory of God, the presence of God and the power of God to His people. The building of a habitation for His presence on earth and the return of His presence on earth. The plan for the healing of the nations and the restoration of the Melchizedek priesthood. Understanding the nature and principles of God’s government in heaven and on earth.
3) The Kingdom Has Come – And Jesus is Now Lord
A close examination of the prophecies of scripture about the coming of the Kingdom of God showing that the Kingdom has come, not some future time in the Millennium. We examine:
- The prophecies of Daniel of the time for the appearance of His Kingdom and Daniel’s 70 Weeks prophecy of the time for the coming of the Messiah.
- The prophecies of Ezekiel about the return of Israel to the land and Israel restored as an independent nation in 141 BC. The prophecies of Ezekiel of the invasion of Israel by Gog/Magog in 37 BC
- The prophecies of Matthew of the End Times and the Great Tribulation of Israel in 66-70 AD with the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple as Jesus prophesied.
But the coming of the Kingdom to fill the earth also means the fall of the world Babylon system to make room for the endless growth of the Kingdom.
4) The Church is the Israel of God – Growing New Sheep Nations
I present a new vision and structure for the Church developing into the Ekklesia of God…the army of the Lord to establish His Kingdom on earth. I also give a detailed expose of the danger and heresy of Dual Covenantalism and why the evangelical movement is wrong about Israel and Zionism.
We need also a strategy for the Church to develop a second Reformation for the 21st century to heal the nations and rebuild the waste places. We need to get our churches and our people out of the world system that is failing not by the rapture but by new communities using the new technologies that are now being provided for us by the Lord through the current tech revolution.
5) The War of the Saints
Everything you have read about the Antichrist is wrong. It is time for the Church to come to grips with the spiritual warfare we face in our age and all the facets of that warfare and actually develop a strategy and theology of victory over Satan and his demonic forces. We need to develop both an understanding of the war of infiltration of the church with false doctrines, false Christ’s, diversions, dead-ends as well as an offensive theology of victory.
6) The Coming of the Lord
Paul declared “Behold I show you a mystery”. I don’t believe the teachings and theories developed by the evangelical movement about the coming of the Lord are correct. We need to look deeper into symbolism and the Old Testament to get a true understanding about the Lord coming in the clouds, the Lord coming in the air, the Lord coming in His saints, the Lord coming to Zion. We also need to have a new perspective on the nature of the “changed in the twinkling of an eye” and the time of the end and the time and manner of the resurrection.
7) Alpha and Omega: The New Heavens and the New Earth
Only now with modern cosmology can we answer the disciples question, “When shall be the end” and give answer to Jesus statement that…”heaven and earth shall pass away”. Only now with the breakthrough of Relativity Theory can we begin to answer critical issues about when is the resurrection. I also give my vision of a strategy for the endless exponential growth of the Kingdom of God and why that will require new heavens and new earths. And that means that space colonization is on the Kingdom agenda….creating new earths under new heavens. And this will give us an idea of the “power of the age to come”. World without end….
This means that we as a Church need to start thinking and planning on very long term time lines. Our Kingdom timeline already runs for thousands of years….and here is my radical concept I will introduce to you…we have thousands of generations ahead. Meaning that we need to care for the earth, we need to concentrate on family growth, we need to develop new economic systems with Kingdom values.