Restoring the Kingdom

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Restoring the Kingdom

Introduction

This paper is an effort to look at a question, is their such a concept as the restoration of the Kingdom of God?

I have taken a fairly logical approach to the question, in that to understand the question one needs to confirm what is meant by the terms, Kingdom of God and Restoration. This then leads on to what therefore is this concept in action and my subsequent conclusions. Here is the running order:

How is the Kingdom of God described
Restoration
Restoring the Kingdom – What does it mean?

a. The kingdom of God and the Church, how do they equate?

The history of the Church.
The restoring of the Church.
The building of the Church.
The escalation of all things.

4. Conclusions.

To start off, here our some dictionary meanings to help us:

Restoration- The act of returning something to its original or former condition. Or the giving back of something lost or stolen to its owner

Kingdom- the eternal sovereignty of God, a community ruled or reigned over by a King.

Let us now look at the first subject:

1. How is the Kingdom of God described?

George Ladd in his book "Jesus and the Kingdom" describes it has:-

"If the Kingdom is the reign of God, not merely in the human heart but dynamically active in the person of Jesus and in human history, then it becomes possible to understand how the Kingdom of God can be present and future, inward and outward, spiritual and apocalyptic. For the redemptive royal activity of God could act decisively more than once and manifest itself powerfully in more than one way in accomplishing the divine end."

In looking at the divine end, George Ladd says this: -

"The Kingdom of God is…. Primarily a soteriological (the application of the blessings of salvation to the sinner) concept. It is God acting in power and exercising his sovereignty for the defeat of Satan and the restoration of human society to its rightful place of willing subservience to the will of God. It is not the sovereignty of God as such; God is always and everywhere the sovereign God…It is the action of the sovereign God of heaven by which his reign is restored in power to those areas of his creation which he permitted in rebellion to move outside the actual acknowledgements of his rule…. The history of the Kingdom of God is therefore the history of redemption."

ii. David F Well in "God in the wasteland" has this idea: -

"The church knows that God’s reign or kingdom was inaugurated in the ministry and death of Christ; it now awaits the consummation of this reign at his return. The church lives in the time between the two comings of Christ, the first in grace and the second in glory, one in lowliness and one in majesty, one that ended in shame on a cross and the other that will be bright with glory on the clouds of heaven… For all purposes have as their intent the establishment of his kingdom and the ultimate glorification of his son. His government is not bureaucratic but moral and spiritual .It has sharp edges. It does not so much control evil as destroy it. God refuses to patch up the best that human life can offer; instead, he creates in human beings, by the Word and by the Spirit, more than they could find within themselves with even the most effective psychological and sociological techniques. God allows the worldly kingdoms to strut for a while before running themselves out. Instead, he chooses the weak and foolish, the low and despised, and those who have no standing as a judgement on the worldly who do."

iii. Martyn Lloyd-Jones gives this view in "From fear to faith": -

"The key to the history of the world is the kingdom of God. The story of the other nations mentioned in the Old Testament is relevant only as it bears upon the destiny of Israel. And ultimately history today is relevant only as it bears upon the history of the Christian church. What really matters in the world is God’s kingdom. From the beginning, since the fall of man, God has been at work establishing a New Kingdom in the world. It is his own kingdom, and He is calling people out of the world into that kingdom; and everything that happens in the world has relevance to it. It is still only in the process of formation, but finally it will reach its perfect consummation. Other events are of importance as they have a bearing upon that event. What God is permitting in the Church and in the world today is related to His great purpose for His own Church and kingdom."

iv. Stephen Brown in his book "Heirs with the Prince" has these interesting observations: -

"The biblical doctrine of the kingdom of God is fraught with theological controversy. Let it be sufficient to say in passing that the kingdom of God has 2 realities, one in the present and another in the future. When Jesus came, we had the opportunity to see Him as either a wandering Nazarene carpenter or the King. If Jesus was the king, then your knee should be bowing before Him every moment. At any rate consider the following facts;

The kingdom’s beginning was very small – One of the great mistakes people make is of despising small beginnings.
The kingdom’s operation is often secret – Most of the kingdom’s important operations don’t take place on television programmes or in great crusades. They take place in people’s hearts.
The kingdom’s growth is slow – When you watch the kingdom, however, you have to be patient. The kingdom grows, but it grows slowly. Sometimes it even seems to retreat; sometimes it seems to lie fallow’ sometimes you hardly even notice it’s growing. But don’t be fooled. Slow growth is still growth.

Finally, perhaps the most important fact is also true: the kingdom’s completion is inevitable. The kingdom has a king, and some day every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is the King.

And finally, J B Phillips in "Your God is too small" has these views:-

"The goal which was set before the disciple’s, for which they were to work and pray-and if need be, suffer and die – was the building of a new kingdom of inner supreme loyalty, the kingdom of God. This was to transcend every barrier of race and frontier and – and this is important – of time and space as well. The "Church", which has the name of the spearhead, has been, and is; open to a good deal of criticism, but it has made a great deal of hard won progress. It is any rate trying to carry out the divine plan, and in so far as it is working along the lines of real Truth and real Love it cannot, of course, fail – any more than God can cease to exist. The follower of the new way is therefore called to do all he can to spread the good news of the kingdom. But to realise at all times that the success or failure of the kingdom can never be judged by simple reference to statistics of Christians at any particular time."

So there we have five different angles at looking at the kingdom of God. Some overlap some in rare case conflict but each have their own ideas and together perhaps there is a consistent message. So lets look at the information we can glean from them, their may be more but here goes:

All history relates only in reality to the Kingdom of God. It is easy to get sucked onto the trap that God is not in control, and things are fundamentally out of control. But God has his purposes and even at times of what may seem to be low spiritual activity, God is still working out his purposes.
The Kingdom of God has two realities, the now and the future. God is building his kingdom now, but there is a sense that its final completion will only be when all things are "wrapped up", and therefore the Church lives in that tension. Its heart desire is to live for Christ, but the fullness of time has not arrived to make it happen.
The Kingdom is where the blessings of salvation are made available to the believer. To grow one must accept Christ’s rule in their life and treat Him as king i.e. be regenerated.
There are two Kingdoms at present in creation, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the world. Both have a king; one is Christ the other is oneself. Denominations and individual Church’s are in fact only relevant to the individual, God does still work his purposes out through them, but I hazard a guess that there will be NO denominations in heaven, only the Kingdom of God.
The Kingdom of God is something worth suffering for and living one’s life for. In fact it’s the only thing of worth to live for. For in it are forgiveness, acceptance, freedom, security and life.
The kingdom of God is the sovereign rule of God in the hearts of believers. It is not all show and pomp but humility and grace. It’s progress is slow, but that is because it’s foundations are unshakeable.

So there you are, just some of the conclusions of God’s Kingdom, but what about restoration.

2. Restoration

I have found to my surprise that restoration, is not something that has been extensively written about, so I will extract just a few short quotes. It seems to me on reading that there are two major or significant applications of restoration in the bible these are:

The returning of Israel from captivity and the rebuilding of the temple.
The cross where Jesus died to restore man to his rightful standing before God, prior to the fall.

Although the cross would seem to be the best candidate for this view, it occurs to me that the Restoration of Israel and the rebuilding of the temple are in fact a better basis to look at restoring the kingdom!

Firstly, Gustav Oehler in the "Theology of the Old Testament", makes these observations: -

The restoration of Israel is not founded upon any claim that can be advanced by this people, but solely upon the nature of their God as a holy and faithful one. When Israel incurred the divine judgement, the divine purpose of redemption seemed to be frustrated… Therefore, Jehovah, to sanctify his great name, that the heathen may know Him to be the true God, put a stop to judgement, and cancelled the rejection of Israel. As Jehovah, He is the faithful one, whose words of promise, given to the fathers of the nation who found favour in His sight, shall stand for ever, while all that is earthly shall perish. His faithfulness cannot be made void by the unfaithfulness of man. He has not given a writing of divorcement to the adulterous wife.

How does it come to pass that Israel, though judged, is still delivered? That God’s calling, which is to remain unchangeable, attains its end in this very nations, which has shown itself incapable of fulfilling its vocation? The answer is;- 1. God so arranges that a restoration of this nation is possible; and 2. He so restores the nation as to make it a fit instrument for the accomplishment of his purposes of redemption."

Note: This is out side the scope of this paper, but I will digress because it is important to clarify the following. All the above may sound good, but the question you may be asking as I have, is how does God keep his promise of election to Israel (and to us for that matter) and still remain faithful to the covenant he has made, if Israel sins. Surely by the nature of the covenant, if man breaks it, all Gods purposes are in the balance! Therefore are God’s purposes totally dependant upon mans obedience? And therefore can God’s purposes be thwarted by mans will?

Gustav Oehler tackles it this way – The final restoration of the people is an act of God; but its is effected by ethical means, through the conversion of the people, for the order of God's kingdom excludes all magical means. The end of this conversion is attained when, by the operation of divine grace, that renovation of heart is accomplished in virtue of which the law is no longer to the people an external command, but, through the power of God, the cheerful expression of their own will and purpose. (Page 198, see also John Piper – The pleasures of God – God’s pleasure in election). Therefore God so changes the heart of people, through his grace, that the people want to serve and follow God and therefore God fulfils his covenant with man and also fulfils his purposes. God’s purposes are dependent upon man’s obedience, but God gives man the grace to obey God cheerfully as an act of will, which God instigates. So ultimately God’s plans will never be stopped by mans will because he will by his grace intervene in the heart of man to give him free expression to follow Gods will.

Secondly, Charles R Swindoll in his book " Maybe it’s time to LAUGH AGAIN" comes out with this little gem, when talking about how to settle differences between Christians.

"Should you be a comrade needed to assist in the reconciliation, remember the threefold objective:

The ultimate Goal : Restoration (not discipline)
The overall attitude : Grace (not force)
The common ground: Christ (not logic or Church tradition or your will).

Somehow in this little statement Charles R Swindoll has caught the essence of restoring the kingdom.

Thirdly, The prophet Zechariah, who in 520 BC under God’s influence prophesised this to the children of Israel in encouraging them to build the temple.

This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel;

Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit.

Says the Lord of hosts.

Who are you, O great mountain?

Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain!

And he shall bring forth the capstone

With shouts of "Grace, grace to it"

Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

The hands of Zerubbabel

Have laid the foundations of this temple;

His hands shall also finish it.

Then you will know

That the Lord of hosts has sent Me to you.

For who has despised the day of small things ?

For these seven rejoice to see

The plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel.

They are the eyes of the Lord,

Which scan to and fro throughout the whole earth.

So what can we glean then from these three sources on restoration?

God arranges everything to make restoration possible. He puts his will into action; He changes the heart of his people to come in line with his plans and alters all things to bring it about.
Grace is the overall attitude of restoration and it is founded on the work of Christ.
Man is involved, but not ultimately by his work and actions but by the motivation of the Spirit.
It is a fundamental principle of God that he wants his people restored into the fullness of all he has for them.

So now we have looked at both the kingdoms of God and restoration, we can see that God’s plan is to bring about the fullness of the Kingdom in time and restore his people into it with all the subsequent blessings. This has always been God’s heart, and his Spirit works on the hearts of man to achieve this. Why? Because God wants to glorify himself through man and reflect His glory back to himself. Thereby God will be fully satisfied in his glory and we will be fully satisfied in him.

Restoring the Kingdom – What does it mean?

The kingdom of God and the Church, how do they equate?

I have been talking about the Kingdom of God, but where does the Church fit into this? J.b. Phillips above describes it has God’s spearhead into the world. There are many characteristics which overlap:

Both are made up of all believers, those called by God and purchased by his death.
Both have God in the midst of them.

But, they are not both the same, The kingdom of God is the rule and reign of God and the Church is part of the Kingdom, but not the whole. It is the community or fellowship of believers and ultimately the bride of Christ. There are certain unique differences, as identified by Wayne Grudem in his "Systematic Theology": -

The Kingdom creates the church (for as people enter into God’s kingdom they become joined to the human fellowship of the church).
The church witnesses to the kingdom
The church is the instrument of the kingdom (for the Holy Spirit, manifesting the power of the Kingdom, works through the disciples to heal)
The church is the custodian of the kingdom( for the church has been given the keys of the kingdom of heaven)

So there is a close connection between the kingdom and the church. As the church proclaims the good news of the kingdom, people will come into the church and begin to experience the blessings of God’s rule in their life. The kingdom manifests itself through the church, and thereby the future reign of God breaks into the present. Therefore those who believe in Christ will begin to experience something of what God’s final kingdom reign will be like. When Christ returns his kingdom will cover over all creation and the church will be taken as Christ bride to rule and reign will Him in that kingdom.

So, therefore the church is God’s spearhead, His manifestation of his glory to Himself and to the world. It is God’s instrument to show forth kingdom life, and before God can start to restore the kingdom, he has to restore his instrument the church. So how is God taking the first steps and restoring the church.

History of the Church.

We now look at the way God has been working through history since Pentecost and his plans for the church. For this we will go to Andrew Walker’s book "Restoring the Kingdom". (In this next section this book will be quoted regularly, so I will use AW-RTK as a reference after I have quoted a section).

The plumb line for the level of normal church life is – the word of God.

This was first achieved and sustained by the spirit of God in the early church in the New Testament. But towards the end of New Testament cannon signs of decline were showing, God’s warnings to the churches in revelation were a sign of slipping away from the plumb line.

This decline slipped and slipped until the church ended up in gross error in 600AD. There then followed a period of "dark age" which the church continued in this "gross error" until 1500AD, when the light of the true gospel fell on Martin Luther and John Calvin.

The reformation is seen as the first sign of recovery towards the plumb line. Subsequent revivals and stirrings were the work of the Holy Spirit shedding light from God’s word and equipping God’s people to respond. These included (in chronological order) ; Baptist, Quaker, Congregationalist, Methodist, Morovan, Brethren, Salvation Army, Pentecostal, Charismatic and finally House Church (restorationist).

The plumb line has not been achieved yet, but it is hoped by following a. The New Testament model.

b. The Holy Spirit’s movement c. The word of God. That the plumb line will be achieved and surpassed and will ultimately bring in the Kingdom of God and The Second Coming of Christ.

Therefore, Church History has 3 phases:

Decline – from Pentecost to AD600 were the church moved into gross error
Recovery – from the reformation to date
Fullness – from the acting out of the New Testament church until the fullness of the Kingdom is established ushering in the return of Christ.

My observations on the above, are as follows;

I believe the concept of restoration is something that is seen throughout the Old Testament ( Noah, Abraham, Joseph and the return from captivity) and is part of the plans and purposes as well as the heart of God. But, I feel the traditional view as stated above, that of recognising the decline and recovery of the Church, is taking a very subjective view of history and not giving God the praise for his sovereignty in history. I would view the Church since Pentecost as going on a journey lead by the Holy Spirit. During this journey it has had times of difficulty and times of trial, but it has had times of refreshing and direction. Take a subjective view of your own life for a minute, sometimes through not fault of our own, God has to take us through times of great distress and tribulation to refine us and sanctify us. It can be that it is only when we go through such times that God can reveal to us greater measures of his grace and move us on into knowledge and trust which would have been impossible without the times of distress. To view Church history in terms of decline and recovery is I think bringing God’s providence into question and also can start to give today’s church a twisted view of its standing. There are two ideas that I have come across within some Christians, which I think this view of restoration feeds and is therefore quite alarming, and have produced two modern problems:

Pride - I have heard it said that today God is giving greater revelation to the church, than in the past. Therefore the knowledge within the church is at a greater level than it has ever been and the church is at a better place than it has ever been. This has caused pride to rise up within the church and certain members to view their church as better than others have in the present and all others in the past. I believe that God in the past raised up men to give light and direction to the church and their contribution is still relevant today, in fact it is more than relevant it is essential. Instead of minimising the likes of Calvin, Edwards, Spurgeon and Lloyd-Jones we should be hearing their voice and acting upon it. Today their clear, radical voices need to be heard not ignored.

Judgement – Their has also been a tendency to look back at the likes of Calvin and Luther and judge them on their action, and say that we would never have made the decisions they did and therefore we are in a better place than them. Yes, they were flawed, but God raised them up for a specific time to speak into the church for all time. Let us praise God for his work in the past, least He judges us for our lack of grace.

Therefore, I do advocate that God is restoring into the church today his fullness, not because we have declined since Pentecost, but because we are sinful because of the fall. God’s hand is in history and the church is on a journey to reflect God’s glory. Stephen Brown earlier said "When you watch the kingdom, however, you have to be patient. The kingdom grows, but it grows slowly. Sometimes it even seems to retreat; sometimes it seems to lie fallow’ sometimes you hardly even notice it’s growing. But don’t be fooled. Slow growth is still growth

C. The restoring of the Church

So what therefore are the truths that God is restoring into the church at this time Andrew Walker gives these 8:

The baptism of the Holy Spirit
The return of the gifts of the Spirit for both corporate and individual life
A belief in a world wide end-time revival
The restoration of apostolic and prophetic ministries as a major means of bringing about the unity of the Church (Ephesians 4 )
The establishment of apostolic teams to supplement and complement the work of the apostles.
The growth of discipline practices, under godly leaders in the Church
A recognition that denominations are not in God’s plan, and are ultimately unrenewable
New freedom in worship and praise.

Whilst I would agree with most, I would amend the list to this:

1. The awareness of the infilling of the power of the Holy Spirit as a continual experience, Baptism of the Holy Spirit is at salvation, but God does sovereignty pour his power upon people as and when he chooses and at His good pleasure.

2. The return of the gifts of the Spirit for both corporate and individual life, but within an emphasis and balance of the word of God.

3. A belief in a world wide end-time revival

4. God raising up men today to oversee and help churches with direction, in the context of relationship. The Apostolic Ministry was ended when the last Apostle died . The prophetic Gifting being used in a congreational sense , but this must be sub-ordinate to the Bible, the word of God, and where their is no Biblical principle to compare with, the prophetic word MUST be discarded. The Bible is the ultimate authority.

5. Gods plan at certain times has been to use denominations to bring forth truth, but ultimately the fullness of God is to be found without denominations but in real unity that is founded in spirit and in truth.

6. New freedom in worship and praise.

7. To establish a return to prayer in the Church that is both effective and faithful.

I would omit 5. as i think that it is already covered in the new 4. and I would disagree with 6. As I believe that although discipline is needed the foundation of it, in mans hand could cause more harm than good.

d. The building of the church

Jesus Christ is Head of the Church and He is the one responsible for it’s building. Man may have his ideas but ultimately these have to come in line with Christ. To me the building of the Church will be one of a loving and caring community where Christ is the centre; it will have about it:

Committed Christians who see their Christianity as 24 hour 7 days a week commitment to Christ and to the Church.
A place of passionate and enthusiastic Cells (Home groups) modelled on the Church, Where worship, teaching, prayer and witness are evident.
A building that is drenched in the grace of God, where people know of real forgiveness, love and mercy.
A place of security where people can grow into mature adults, overcoming regrets, fear, oppression and low image and instead take on Christ image.
A place of outreach where the Church as a community can reach the lost.
A place of release, where the elders and leaders can nurture and encourage members to achieve all God has planned and purposed for them and release them into it.
A place where "God is in the midst" of His people.

One of our leaders in Manchester, Andy Davies on a talk on life in a Cell Church listed some characteristic hat I think would be useful

In a real Church or cell you should find the following:

Love and acceptance
Safety and trust
Empathy and comfort
Hope and encouragement
Authority and accountability
Openness and honesty
Freedom of expression
Information on how to minister

e. The escalation of all things.

Lastly, restoring the kingdom is eschatological. The goal of it all, is the building of a kingdomWhere God’s glory will shine forth, and a Church that will be Christ’s Bride. Whatever ones millennial view, restoration has a strong conviction that the church will not be whisked away by some secret rapture but will be God’s kingdom on earth as a "city of refuge" against the oncoming tribulation. John Hossier in his book "The Last Things" says this " I am convinced that what we believe about the end times will affect the way we build the local church." Later on " If we are not expecting an any-moment rapture of the church, there really is still time to build demonstrating churches. Now is the time to build such churches." Perhaps the best way to look at it I have found is described by Wayne Gruden in Systematic Theology " I thank God that I have driven thirty years without a major auto accident, and I pray and expect that I will not have one, but I still buckle my seatbelt every time I get into a car. I prepare for an event that I think unlikely, but nonetheless possible. Similarly, I think that many of the signs will have yet greater fulfilment, and that it is unlikely that Jesus will return within the next few days or weeks (years!!) …Nonetheless, I frequently examine my heart and my life to see if there is anything of which I would be ashamed when Jesus returns, because I want to be ready for Him to return at any moment, even one I do not expect." So therefore we should put our hands to the plough and build a kingdom for God’s glory, but be ready and not be ashamed. This will keep our focus on God and not on ourselves. Which brings us to the last consideration.

We should not lose sight that there will always be two Kingdoms, one of the world and one of God. See Martyn Lloyd-Jones on the Kingdom above. God call us out the world and into his Kingdom, we should therefore concentrate on building with God not trying to reform the world. God has the entire world under his control and nothing happens without his will. For example, too often in the past Christians have entered the political area, and stood up for Christian values and in reforming the world have taken a "moral high ground". This stance has given sinful people a view of judgement and condemnation without grace and mercy. Jesus, when he walked the earth, did not attack the Roman Empire, he did not judge their laws, and he even said render unto Caesar’s that which is Caesar’s.

The early New Testament church apostles gave their life for the kingdom of God; they did not get involved in reforming the world. To be true to to the Kingdom we must concentrate on rescuing the lost not reforming them, because only salvation can achieve this through grace and mercy.

4. Conclusion

The question is their such a concept as the restoration of the Kingdom of God? The answer I believe is Yes!

The Kingdom of God, is the rule and reign of God over people who are living according to God’s plan and purposes. This means that they may not yet be perfect but they have a hope that God is going to accomplish His hearts desire, that is His desire to see His Glory reflected back to himself, through a Kingdom of people committed to that purpose. We may not yet recognise this but we are all on a journey to see His Kingdom fully restored.

This means in practical terms turning our attention to the principles of the New Testament church as the "spearhead" of the kingdom and living them. E.g. Baptism and gifts of the Holy Spirit, Ephesians 4 ministries, Freedom in worship and the encouragement and release of those God is calling forth etc. Building a church where all are welcome, but God’s grace and holiness are shown and encouraged.

We are not trying to change society and government by reforming the Kingdom of the World. But we are touching society by the way we show grace to the sinner and mercy to the homeless, oppressed and those discarded by society.

In the end God is building the kingdom and His hand has control over the entire world. He has chosen to use us, let us be encouraged that in some small way God can use our contribution for his glory and purposes. He will have his way and sometimes it seems that things are going slowly, but do not be fooled it is still growing.