Kingdom Not Now

If you remember Harold Camping, the radio evangelist who spearheaded a massive campaign promoting May 21, 2011 as the day of the Rapture and the beginning of God's apocalyptic judgments upon the earth, then you also remember that it was an epic fail. After an uneventful 21st of May came and went, the world howled with laughter and mercilessly mocked a contrite Camping and his befuddled followers, and one of the monikers that came to be attached to the whole fiasco recalled the 1979 movie Apocalypse Now:

Apocalypse Not Now.

Although Mr. Camping's humiliating debacle brought great reproach on the name of Christ and made the Church an object of derision, luckily his delusions private interpretations of Scripture only directly impacted a relatively small number of people—at most a few tens of thousands of individuals who were gullible enough to listen to him and take him seriously—and cash in their kids' college funds to finance the marketing blitz that preceded the "Apocalapse."

There is another doctrinal deception prevalent within the Church, however, and it has been around far longer, is far better established, has deceived a far greater number of people, and is far more dangerous and damaging to the Church than anything one single deluded individual like Harold Camping could ever do.

After all, the only thing date-setting the Rapture does is make the Church look like a bunch of dipsticks. The deception I am speaking of, however, is far more insidious, and is being deployed by Satan to accomplish what I like to think of as the five D's:

1. Diverting the Church from its primary purpose.
2. Draining the Church of its power and blessing.
3. Drawing the Church into partnerships with the world.
4. Dumbing down the Church in regard to end-time prophecy.
5. Duping the Church into preparing for the reign of the Antichrist.

And by comparison it makes Harold Camping's Apocalypse Not Now non-event look like fodder for stand-up comics. Oh wait, it is fodder for stand-up comics. Never mind.

What I want to discuss in this article has to do with Christ's kingdom, and the fact that the bulk of the Christ-professing world today believes that the Church itself is that kingdom and that enterprising Christians are supposed to be building the kingdom so that the Lord can return. Thus, instead of looking for Christ to physically return to establish His kingdom in the sweet by and by, we're already experiencing it in the scruffy here and now.

After discussing the five D's, I also want to lay out for you some clear, biblical reasons why the Church is absolutely not the kingdom, nor are we currently experiencing or building the kingdom in any conceivable way. In the process, I hope to get across to you why the widespread acceptance of this kind of unscriptural but well-established teaching is nothing less than the Church's worst nightmare.

And why it's Satan's dream come true.

Thy kingdom come

In Matthew 5–7, Jesus delivers one of His most widely quoted discourses, commonly referred to as the Sermon on the Mount. In this sermon, the Lord covers a wide range of topics, and at one point gives His listeners some instruction on how to pray. The result became known as the Lord's Prayer:

Thy kingdom come. In other words, "Let your kingdom come." Countless millions of Christians over the last two thousand years have recited this model prayer countless millions of times in countless different languages. A large percentage of English-speaking believers (this writer included) have known the King James Version of this prayer by heart since they were children (which is what motivated me to quote it from the KJV).

In spite of the fact that the phrase "thy kingdom come" has been recited by virtually every Christian who ever lived and in virtually every language ever spoken, a large and ever growing percentage of the Church today doesn't seem to correctly understand what Jesus meant when He said these words.

For some people who read the Bible, the meaning of "thy kingdom come" seems pretty straightforward. That's because it is pretty straightforward:

Father, let your kingdom come. May Christ come to establish the kingdom at some point in the future, just as promised in your Word.

And that's exactly what Jesus meant. That's not too complicated, is it?

Or is it?

During the First Advent, Jesus came to offer Israel the kingdom that God had promised Abraham's descendants—a promise made to Abraham in Genesis 17 and fine-tuned in a couple of other places in the Old Testament. The problem, of course, was that the establishment of the kingdom when Christ came two millennia ago was contingent upon Israel as a nation embracing Jesus as their prophesied Messiah.

That's where the deal went south.

Instead of crowning Him as the King of kings, they crucified Him as a common criminal—and the kingdom was put on hold and Israel was partially hardened until the full number of Gentiles were brought in (Rom. 11:25). That's us, the Church. But God's promises to His people Israel are eternal and inviolable, and so are very much still on the table and in effect. The Bible makes it abundantly clear that Jesus Himself will return to establish His kingdom on earth at some point in the future, when the believing Jewish remnant implores Him to return to save them from their enemies at the climax of the Tribulation (Hos. 5:15).

He's got a couple of things to take care of first, however:

• Rapture His Church before the purging and ultimate national redemption of Israel during the Tribulation can begin.

• Judge and destroy the nations attempting to wipe out Israel, along with the nations that have rejected Him.

Yes, Jesus will return to establish His kingdom. This is important, because a large percentage of Christianity today has bought into the unscriptural idea that we, the Church, are somehow responsible for building Christ's kingdom for Him. Large portions of the Church (both the true body of Christ and the apostate corporate body that erroneously refers to itself as the Church) hold to the position that our job is to go out and win the world for Christ and bring it up to snuff so He can return to rule a place that's more to His liking.

In other words, a lot of people think the Church is supposed to pull itself up by the bootstraps and give this sin-infested world that is under the control of Satan a Christian makeover, and only when the Church accomplishes its mission to a satisfactory degree can Jesus return to rule this shiny new kingdom on earth. This is the official, documented position of roughly two-thirds of the nominal Christian world, including the Roman Catholic Church and many mainline Protestant denominations, so it's not just some minor doctrinal disagreement—it's a major division.

This idea lies nestled cozily within a wide variety of diverse theologies and doctrinal systems, including Kingdom Now theology, Dominion theology, reconstructionism, amillennialism, postmillennialism, etc., and although I am not going to take the time to sort these all out in detail here (that would be a topic for another day), understand that although these all differ on many doctrinal details, they all share this one basic principle:

Rather than waiting for Christ to come to establish His kingdom through His own power, the Church itself is the kingdom on earth, and is supposed to build up or construct the kingdom until it transforms the world into a form suitable for Him to return to rule.

To get a sense of how damaging this idea is to the Church, let's take a closer look at each of the five D's, one D at a time.

First things first

Before we go any further, however, we need to establish something of fundamental importance:

What is the purpose of the Church?

After all, if we are going to get into a discussion of what the purpose of Church isn't, we'd better make sure we know what it is, which I believe can be reasonably well summarized in three essential points. First:

One fundamental reason the Church exists is to glorify God and allow God to display the riches of His grace that He expressed to us through Christ.

Second:

Another basic purpose of the Church is to edify believers. The Church is to be a spiritual family that cares for and strengthens its own and promotes their spiritual growth and prepares them for spiritual warfare.

Third:

Another purpose of the Church is to fulfill the Great Commission: to preach the gospel and make disciples. That is, to "reach and teach."

One other key point about the Church has less to do with its purpose and more to do with its nature. As born-again believers in the gospel of Jesus Christ who make up the Church, we are in the world, but not of the world (John 17:16). This world is not our home—our citizenship is in heaven (Phil. 3:20). We are essentially pilgrims passing through what for us is enemy territory (1 John 5:19).

There are other things I could mention here, such as the fact that the Church is to be salt and light to temporarily restrain the onslaught of evil in the world and shine the light of God's love (Matt. 5:11–13), or that God said He would use the Church to provoke Israel to jealousy through its personal relationship with their Jewish Messiah—the one they rejected and crucified (Deut. 32:21; Rom. 10:19). But the above three points cover the basics.

So, we are basically here to glorify God, build each other up in our faith, and reach the world with the message of the gospel. But notice what is missing from the above. No mention is made of the Church taking over the world. There isn't a single verse in the entire New Testament that tells the Church that its job is to reform or revamp society—to cure its ills or Christianize its institutions. And the reason is as simple as it is profound:

The reason the Church is never told to fix the world's problems is because the world's problem is sin—and Jesus fixed that on the cross. Our job is simply to tell people before Jesus returns to wrap things up.

And that leads us to our first D:

D1: Diverting the Church from its primary purpose.

When the Church begins to see itself as Christ's kingdom on earth in some way, it invariably begins to try to grab the reins of power. After all, kingdoms rule—that's their nature. So the Church starts trying to gain control over the world, over its institutions and various spheres of activity.

This can be seen in many ways throughout history, most spectacularly in the form of the Roman Catholic Church. By the sixteenth century, the Church in Rome in many ways ruled the civilized world in Europe and had become its seat of power, with the pope becoming a virtual world dictator. This is light years from what the Church was called to do, which is to preach the gospel in fulfillment of the Great Commission.

Another manifestation of this is seen in what is often referred to as the Social Gospel, a movement that started in the late nineteenth century primarily out of a desire to combat social ills such as poverty, hunger, injustice, etc. The collective "salvation" of societies and their institutions became the goal rather than the salvation of individuals.

Although this movement began to fade after World War I, it made a comeback in the latter part of the twentieth century, and has been gaining strength ever since. One of its leading proponents today is Rick Warren, founder and senior pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California. Rick Warren is well known for his bestselling books The Purpose Driven Church, and its follow up The Purpose Driven Life.

Rick Warren has earned a reputation among many Bible teachers I respect for promoting a model of the Church that amounts to the following:

"Take down the crosses, toss out the talk about sin and hell, and trash the scary, end-time pyrotechnics because all that stuff just makes people feel bad. Instead, give 'em some high-octane entertainment, a comfy, seeker-friendly environment, and some trendy, socially relevant programs to sign up for because that's the kind of stuff that makes 'em feel good. Then sit back and watch your church grow like gangbusters."

It grieves me to say it, but this model has become wildly popular throughout the Church today, especially in America. Not only that, but in the last few years, Rick Warren has been working with all manner of secular leaders to promote his program to attack what he calls the five "global giants": spiritual emptiness, self-centered leadership, poverty, pandemic disease, and illiteracy. It's known as the P.E.A.C.E. Plan, with the name being an acronym for the following noble initiatives being carried out in the name of the Church:

Promote reconciliation
Equip servant leaders
Assist the poor
Care for the sick
Educate the next generation

Pop quiz: Notice anything missing?

P.E.A.C.E.? Whatever happened to the P.R.I.N.C.E. of P.E.A.C.E.? There's not so much as a passing reference to Jesus Christ or the gospel He commanded us to preach. The Great Commission is becoming the Great Omission. And it's not just Rick Warren—this is rapidly becoming the norm today in many national and international ministries that fall under the umbrella of Christianity. This is the prevailing trend in large parts of the Christian world in the twenty-first century, and the problem is painfully obvious:

We've become ashamed of the gospel.

And the reason is just as obvious. We are immersed in a politically correct society today that howls about being inclusive and tolerant—but the gospel of Jesus Christ is neither.

Well, actually it's both or neither, depending on how you respond to it:

• The gospel is inclusive and tolerant of all those who repent of sin and believe in faith that it is Christ's death alone that provides them forgiveness and His resurrection alone that promises them eternal life.

• It is exclusive and intolerant of all those who don't.

There it is. Take it or leave it.

Rick Warren and many others like him need to be slapped in the face and reminded what the Church is actually about—and it's not about slaying global giants and solving the world's problems. It's about one thing:

It's about telling the world that Christ died to save sinners.

Now, I can hear some people out there coming back with an argument that goes something like this:

"Hey, at least people like Rick Warren and others are out there doing something to help people...and all people like you do is sit around and criticize them. Where's the Christian spirit in that, huh? So, I suppose you think Jesus would disapprove of feeding the hungry, caring for the sick, helping the poor, and so on, right? Hmph, some Christian you are."

There are multitudes of people around the world—both Christians and those of other religions—who will throw variations of this argument in the faces of born-again believers, and then stand there as if they were waiting for an apology. They assume they have just nailed us to the wall with airtight logic that we are nothing but a pack of spineless, big-mouthed hypocrites who do nothing but argue about the Bible and spout religious platitudes, and then sit back and do nothing to really help anyone.

Here is my response to those people:

No, of course Jesus wouldn't disapprove of feeding the hungry or helping the poor. He commanded us to love others as we love ourselves, and I would sure want someone to give me some food, clothing, or medicine if I were poor and desperate. There is absolutely nothing wrong with providing humanitarian aid whenever and wherever it is needed, to whomever needs it, and by whatever means possible. This issue is not about the aid itself. It's not about what is being given—it's about what is not being given in many cases.

As born-again believers, we are called by God to have a biblical, eternal world view. God has given us a mission that far transcends hunger or poverty, which are mere symptoms of the deadly disease that infects the world: sin. The Church is tasked with spreading the gospel of His salvation from that disease of sin, and that is to be our number one focus. Whatever good works we do, whoever we help in whatever way, the message of the gospel must always be at the forefront. It must be our focus. If it isn't, then our priorities are messed up and we may as well be a Buddhist charity (some of which embarrass the Church in terms of good works).

Such humanitarian efforts are praiseworthy and highly worthwhile in and of themselves. But we are commanded to use such efforts as a means to spread the message of the gospel, and as a vehicle to demonstrate the love of Christ that made that message a reality. Speaking of messed up priorities...what good does it do to give a man some bread and satisfy his hunger for a day, but fail to give him the bread of life and satisfy his hunger for eternity?

But since the Church is described throughout the New Testament as a pilgrim temporarily passing through enemy territory, it begs the question:

Q. How does this "in the world but not of the world" pilgrim nature of the Church square with it trying to grab secular power and as a result becoming ever more integrated into the world system?

A. It doesn't. Period.

D2: Draining the Church of its power and blessing.

This is intimately connected to D1, because God's blessing upon and empowerment of the Church is dependent on it staying within His will and obeying His Word. As the Church drifts off course and begins to see itself as something different from what God intended and ordained for it to be, it becomes increasingly worldly in its methods and attitudes and cuts itself off from its true source of power and blessing.

As Satan deceives the Church by puffing it up with worldly pride and making it believe it is something it is not, he goads it into trying to do things it is not designed, equipped, empowered, or ordained by God to do. One of Satan's goals is to sucker the Church into trying to accomplish things that only Christ Himself can do, and that He will do when He returns to establish His kingdom.

To the extent the Church fails to realize that God's power and blessing are invariably linked to obedience, to that extent it is wasting its time on earth in these critical last days.

D3: Drawing the Church into partnerships with the world.

Well, if the Church is going to build a global kingdom for Christ and Christianize the world's institutions and spheres of activity, it's going to need some help. Lots of it, actually. This kingdom thing isn't going to happen without a broad and diverse coalition of various governments, parliaments, federations, congresses, institutions, and organizations of every stripe and species working in cooperation with the Church.

Paul warned the Corinthians of the danger of just such types of activity:

As the Church seeks to partner with such groups, i.e., to be "unequally yoked with unbelievers," who by and large know and care nothing about the God of the Bible or the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Church becomes increasingly worthless and helpless, instead of the redeeming force—the salt and light—it was meant to be.

Thanks in large part to the Rick Warrens of the world, we now have Christian groups joining forces with Catholics, Muslims, Buddhists, and virtually any group under the sun who is ready and willing, all under the politically correct banners of "brotherhood" and "unity of the faith." And no prizes for guessing who is doing 99.9 percent of all the requisite compromising of their fundamental religious convictions.

Assuming they still have any, that is. My question for these people is this:

"What part of 'unequally yoked' is confusing to you?"

D4: Dumbing down the Church in regard to end-time prophecy.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that if the Church sees itself as Christ's kingdom on earth and thinks it's supposed to be working to build up that kingdom to prepare it for Christ to return to rule, then all this talk about the Rapture, a seven-year Tribulation period, etc. presents a gnarly little conundrum. Nothing fits—nothing works. A lot of biblically based teaching about the end times doesn't really make much sense anymore when viewed through the lens of the Church being the kingdom. As a result, the end-time scenario outlined in Scripture needs to be completely overhauled.

Or, better yet, scrapped interpreted allegorically, rather than literally.

For example, as far as the pre-tribulation Rapture is concerned:

Q. How much sense does it make for the Church to be looking forward to leaving this world, but at the same time working to take over this world?

A. None whatsoever.

And I think you can see where this is going. That means that solid, biblically sound dispensational teaching of the pre-tribulation rapture of the Church followed by the seven-year Tribulation, followed by the physical return of Jesus Christ to the earth to establish the Millennial Kingdom must be downplayed, dismissed, denigrated, disparaged, and to the greatest extent possible, destroyed. There are burgeoning groups of people—especially on the Internet—who are devoted to doing just that, and they are oblivious to the fact that they are unwittingly allowing themselves to be manipulated by Satan to do his will (2 Tim. 2:20–26).

And those who viciously mock and attack the pre-trib Rapture and spew angry, post-trib bluster are leading the charge, or perhaps I should say bringing up the rear. Either way, presumably out of ignorance, they are dutifully playing their small role in Satan's grand plan.

It's like I keep saying: Satan may be evil, but he's not stupid and he's not a slacker. He's a man with a plan. That plan will ultimately fail, but at least he's got one—and he is busily recruiting legions of professing Christians to foolishly and naively lend him a hand.

If you're ever in the mood to see for yourself what I'm talking about, just go to YouTube and search on the key words "pre-trib rapture lie" and look over some of the videos that come up. Browse through the comment sections on a few of these videos, if you dare. Discussions of Bible prophecy? Try playground fistfights. Satan has mounted an all-out attack on the pre-trib Rapture in the last few years that is so venomous and vitriolic (not to mention utterly divorced from Scripture) that it dwarfs anything I've ever witnessed.

And now you know one more reason why Satan is using certain people to do that. Although it is clear to anyone who is paying attention to enemy troop movements, so to speak, that Satan is actively preparing for the Rapture to be pre-trib, having the Church believe the Rapture is pre-trib creates a problem for him. Satan wants very much to get the Church to take its eyes off Jesus and focus instead on the world and how to fix it, and to the greatest extent possible, actually assist with the staging of the Antichrist's kingdom. And if the proliferation of blustering, post-trib Rambos who bash all things pre-trib on the Internet is anything to go by, I'd say the plan is moving ahead quite nicely.

The true Church is like that one last stubborn guy who's holding out and refuses to sell his house to make way for a big new highway that's coming through. Influencing legions of people to trash the pre-trib Rapture is one small piece of the puzzle—the puzzle of how to get the bulk of the Church to swallow the lie that it is Christ's kingdom on earth, and as such it is the Church's job to remain here so it can make the world a better place.

And that leads us to our final D:

D5: Duping the Church into preparing for the reign of the Antichrist.

Understand that the highway I'm speaking of is coming through, and it's coming through because God's Word says so.

That highway is the short-lived kingdom of the Antichrist—and that lone holdout is the Church. The body of Christ. All born-again believers of the gospel, along with the Holy Spirit that indwells them, constitute a restraining influence on Satan and his evil plans.

The "one who restrains" can be absolutely no one but the Holy Spirit who indwells believers during the current Church Age, and the "taken out of the way" part can be absolutely nothing but the Rapture. Every argument to the contrary I've ever heard (and trust me, I've heard 'em all) comes up pitifully short when examined in the unbiased light of Scripture.

Satan is smart enough to realize that he can't get rid of us, so he's doing the next best thing: He is doing his utmost to render the Church silent, impotent, and in many cases, cooperative. And that's why Satan is breaking out the bulldozers to push the true Church out of the way. God always has a faithful remnant, and they will never go along with the program because they rightly divide the Word and see Satan's schemes for exactly what they are: Scripture-twisting lies.

As usual, however, God is going to beat Satan to the punch. Satan knows he can't get rid of the Church, but it doesn't matter because God is going to do it for him. This is all part of God's sovereign plan—a plan that includes the Rapture, the redemption of the believing Jewish remnant after the purging of the Great Tribulation, Christ's physical return to earth to judge the nations who have persecuted Israel and rejected His mercy and grace, and finally the establishment of His Millennial Kingdom.

Now, think for a moment. We currently have many big Christian ministries (of which Rick Warren's is but one example) that are actively forging partnerships and working in full cooperation with governments and all manner of secular agencies and organizations around the world to establish the needed infrastructure to provide humanitarian aid to tackle what are seen as the world's biggest problems: hunger, poverty, ignorance, injustice, corruption, and so on and so forth. The list goes on and on.

But don't lose sight of one fact: The Antichrist's kingdom will be a one-world government, and it will be both political and religious in nature. And let's clear up one other thing while we're at it: The Antichrist is not going to suddenly show up as some terrifying man of evil, with horns and a tail who will announce to the world:

"Hello, uhm...excuse me, but I'm the biblical Antichrist. You know, Satan's man on earth—that's me. So anyway, I'm here to take over the world and carry out my dastardly plan for world domination. So, have a nice day, and don't forget to take my mark! Mua ha ha ha ha!"

Man of evil? He'll be the man of the hour. He will appear on the scene as nothing less than a charismatic global peacemaker who will be hailed as someone who can save mankind and the planet we live on. Most of the world will love him, and for the most part will get behind his efforts to bring the nations of the world together for the sake of peace and security. At least for a time, he will be seen as the world's savior.

But the Antichrist won't merely take the reins of a global government. With the help of a world religious leader referred to as the False Prophet in Scripture, he will also have a global religious system at his disposal, and will no doubt speak in glowing terms of the same God all religions worship, peace, unity, and the brotherhood of man.

If you build it, he will come: When it comes to administrating the one-world religion that will be part of the Antichrist's kingdom, all that swell humanitarian infrastructure and all the associated organizational and logistical networks that have been established by the Church in its sincere but misguided effort to "build the kingdom" (and that will be left behind after the Rapture) will come in really handy, thank you very much.

Kingdom why not?

I don't want to leave this topic without giving you some clear, Scripture-based reasons why we are not experiencing Christ's kingdom right now in any way, shape, or form. One could easily devote a lengthy treatise to this one topic, but I will limit my remarks here to six points.

1. In Daniel 2, the prophet Daniel interprets King Nebuchadnezzar's dream and then in chapter 7, Daniel himself has a dream. Although differing in details, both of these prophetic visions share a common theme: a series of kingdoms that would rule the world, culminating in Christ's kingdom. Both dreams reveal that it is not until the final kingdom of man, the revived Roman Empire led by the Antichrist, is crushed by Christ Himself at the Second Coming that Christ's kingdom will be established on earth.

In other words, Daniel makes it doubly clear that the next kingdom on the horizon is the Antichrist's kingdom, not Christ's kingdom! And it's not here yet. As a result, those who labor to establish the "kingdom" today are laboring for the wrong kingdom.

2. When you look at how Scripture describes the spiritual realities of the Millennial Kingdom and compare them with the present realities of the current Church Age, there is a major disconnect.

During the Millennial Kingdom, Christ will rule with a "rod of iron" (Ps. 2:9; Rev. 12:5) and will administer swift judgment against sin and disobedience (Zech. 14:16–18). Now, be honest. Does that sound like what the Church is experiencing now? Uh, not so much. In a number of places in the New Testament, groups of believers within the Church are seen as being carnal, and exhibit a low level of spirituality—and those believers are appropriately rebuked for it.

For example, in Revelation 2–3, in His seven letters to the seven Churches, Jesus rebukes all the Churches except Smyrna and Philadelphia in some way for their lack of spirituality. In 1 Corinthians 3:1–3 and Hebrews 5:12, Paul admonishes bodies of believers for being carnal.

Of course, failing to live lives characterized by holiness and purity will cause believers to lose out on blessings in this life and rewards in the next, but it sure doesn't appear as if Jesus has broken out that "rod of iron" just yet.

3. The Church is referred to as being heirs of a coming kingdom, not possessors of a current kingdom (James 2:5). If the Church comprises heirs of the kingdom, that means we will receive it in the future (after the Church Age). So how could we be currently living and reigning in a kingdom that we are set to inherit in the future? It makes no sense.

4. The Millennial Kingdom is described as a time when the world will be free of the influence of Satan, who will be bound for its duration (Rev. 20:1–3). Well, is Satan currently bound? Mmm, not so you'd notice. Someone once quipped that if Satan is currently bound, his chain is too long.

Contrast this, however, with what the New Testament has to say about Satan's influence and attacks on the Church (1 Thess. 2:18; 1 Cor. 7:5; Eph. 4:26–27; 6:12; Rev 2:10). Again, it just doesn't add up.

Remember, one of the purposes of the final dispensation known as the Millennial Kingdom is to prove that even without the influence of Satan, the natural men who populate the kingdom will still be unable to live in a manner pleasing to God because of the presence of sin. The kingdom will include believing, natural-bodied Tribulation survivors who will have natural-bodied children, and those natural-bodied children will grow up to be natural-bodied men and women with sin natures who will still require the atonement for sin that was provided by Christ on the cross. But just as now, some will choose to repent and believe, and some will not. That's why Satan will be able to muster support for one final rebellion against God at the close of the Millennial Kingdom, a rebellion that God will crush once and for all (Rev. 20:7–10).

5. After the Resurrection, Jesus waited 40 days to give the Jews one last opportunity to receive Him as their Messiah. After that 40-day period of testing, Israel's rejection of the Messiah was complete and He was prepared to ascend back to the Father. The disciples were assembled with Him, but were unsure of what was about to happen. So, they asked Jesus a question:

Are you now restoring the kingdom. You, not us. Notice what they didn't say. The disciples didn't ask:

"Hey, Jesus, so...you want us to go out and restore the kingdom for you while you're gone, or what?"

Nor did Jesus tell them to do any such thing. It's like I always say: Every word in Scripture is there for a reason, and not there for a reason.

6. One of the simplest arguments I know against the Church currently being the kingdom has to do with something I wrote about in another article some months back. At the time I was writing on the topic of the 24 elders in the book of Revelation, but I never connected the dots with this Kingdom Now business of thinking the Church is currently experiencing the kingdom or is supposed to go out and build it. The point is simply this:

You can't have a kingdom without a King.

I know that's incredibly profound, but there's more to it than the obvious fact that the King simply isn't here yet. Jesus doesn't officially begin His reign as King until Revelation 11:15–17, when the seventh trumpet is sounded during the Tribulation (precisely when during the Tribulation is open for discussion, but that's irrelevant because it hasn't even started). The point is that Jesus hasn't even assumed His kingly duties yet. Why? Because He's still in heaven performing His priestly duties for us, and He will continue doing so as long as the Church is still on earth, stuck with a sin nature and so unable to completely stop sinning.

So, how could anyone legitimately claim the Church is currently Christ's kingdom on earth when our King not only hasn't arrived yet, but hasn't even officially taken the throne yet?

Game, set, match.

There are scores of other verses of Scripture I could quote that undergird this fundamental truth: The Church is absolutely in no way currently experiencing, building, or establishing the kingdom of Christ. Period. He's going to do that Himself, and when He does we will be part of it.

One last base I want to touch before I finish has to do with a common defense of this Kingdom Now concept, and that is the belief that we are currently experiencing Christ's kingdom as He "rules in our hearts."

Well, isn't that special? This sounds all warm and fuzzy and might even seem somewhat reasonable—until you read the Bible, that is.

This idea flies in the face of a ton of crystal-clear Scripture that describes a literal, physical kingdom that Christ will rule from Jerusalem with a rod of iron after His literal, physical return at the Second Coming. There is precious little that is in any way figurative or allegorical about the Bible's descriptions of the kingdom, and so the only way to get comfortable with the idea that the "kingdom" is merely Christ "reigning in our hearts" is to bend, twist, ignore, or allegorize away that ton of crystal-clear Scripture.

Let's get creative: And while you're at it, you can make Captain Kangaroo the Antichrist and Mr. Green Jeans the False Prophet.

Kingdom not now

After the laughter died down following Harold Camping's Apocalypse Not Now fiasco, the whole sorry mess slowly faded from public consciousness. After all, nothing happened. I wish I could say the same thing for this Kingdom Now business that we have been discussing in this article; however, this is going to be an entirely different basket of dim sum.

If you know anything at all about the conditions and events that the Bible says will characterize the general time frame preceding the return of Christ (and you haven't been living on one of the moons of Saturn for the last few decades), you know the prophetic scenario is coming together at a breathtaking clip. We can already see key components of events that will play out during the seven-year Tribulation being moved into position, so the Tribulation and the kingdom of the Antichrist that it will usher in can't be too far off.

But unlike Apocalypse Not Now, this time something will happen. And it will happen suddenly, plunging the world into a maelstrom that will spin out of control until the planet is engulfed in the worst period of terror, chaos, disaster, and destruction mankind will ever know:

And please don't make the mistake of assuming the elect mentioned in Matthew 24:22 above is the Church—this is the Jewish remnant who will be saved during the Great Tribulation. As I've said before, this entire discourse in Matthew 24–25 is about Israel during the Tribulation, not the Church.

The bottom line is that you cannot read the Bible in a competent manner and fail to see that Christ will return to establish His literal, physical kingdom on earth at a point in time that is yet future. And any attempt to make Christ's kingdom something purely spiritual, something we are currently experiencing, or something that Christians are obligated to go out and build is the result of allegorizing away a lot of very clear Scripture.

The Millennial Kingdom is indeed "Kingdom Not Now," and mistakenly believing it is now gets the bride of Christ so tangled up, twisted around, and turned inside out that she doesn't know who she is, where she's going, or what she's supposed to do.

But even though the kingdom is not now, one thing I want to emphasize is that the events that will ultimately lead to the kingdom are boiling and bubbling in the cauldron of geopolitics right now, and the heat is getting turned up on a daily basis.

Although Christ's kingdom is clearly not yet upon us, invitations to be part of it when Jesus returns to establish it have been going out for two thousand years. And it's RSVP—Répondez, s'il vous plaît.

And sooner or later, in one way or another, everyone does.

They must. And they will.

So...how have you répondu?

Greg Lauer — DEC '15

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