Kingdom Progress – Page 2 – Gregory Scott Blog

Power vs. Politics

After Jesus was resurrected and had gathered His disciples together, the disciples asked, “Lord is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?”

Jesus said in response, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” Acts 1:6-8.

Jesus’ disciples were young. They were excited about Jesus’ resurrection, which for them confirmed he was indeed the King of kings. They were ready for Jesus to take over. They wanted to talk politics, but Jesus wanted to talk power.

The conversation is instructive. I am old enough to have lived through two evangelical experiments with American politics. The first was one of disengagement. This was the default in the late 1960s and through the 1970s.

That all changed with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. Francis Schaeffer, Jerry Falwell, and other evangelical leaders encouraged evangelicals to get involved in politics. The catalyst policy was a pro life agenda, but it grew from that and evangelicals eventually found a home with the conservative Right. That started the second experiment that has continued until this day.

The Good News of Christmas

I was reading the Christmas story in Luke last night in the New American Standard Bible translation, and came across verse 14, one of the most quoted verses at Christmas. But when I read, “And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased,” it seemed wrong theologically.

I was reading it as saying God was pleased with men on earth, which was obviously incorrect. If God was pleased with man on earth, there would be no need for the Christmas story at all. Jesus’ birth was a foreshadowing of His death, which was necessary because man was enslaved to sin and in active rebellion against God.

So, I immediately went to the commentaries and different translations, and I discovered that while the New American Standard Bible was the more literal translation, what the angels were actually saying is there will be peace amongst those on whom His favor rests. Now, this does not sound as good on Christmas cards, but Truth isn’t determined by its marketability.

Think about it though, angels appear to shepherds to announce the birth of Jesus, and the angels are excited because they know the plan, they can see down the road where all this headed, and in their excited utterance of praise, they say two things. First, they praise God for what He is doing through the incarnation, and rightly so. And second, when they turn to man, they don’t mention salvation, and they don’t mention eternal life; they mention peace. They were excited because there could now be peace on earth among those who were favored by God to be redeemed through Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Part of the role of an angel is to comfort and protect those on earth. See Luke 22:43; Psalm 91:11; Daniel 6:22. So many people suffer from anxiety, fear, depression, and despair. Also, so much of the harm that comes to people on earth is the result of interpersonal conflict. I can only imagine what the work of angels was like in a world where none were redeemed or even partially sanctified.

But with the incarnation, once people were born-again, they would enjoy an inner peace and comfort of the Holy Spirit and set out on the path of sanctification, taking on God’s character. The more they became like Jesus, the more peace they would enjoy internally and in their relationships, which meant the less angels would have to do to comforting and protecting man.

What God did at Christmas then, not only benefited man, it benefited the angels as well, and it was reason not only for us, but for them to say as well, “Glory to God in the highest!”

Merry Christmas. GS

A Kingdom Perspective on the Pandemic–Part 2

Pain is an unwelcome friend.

Nobody likes it when it shows up, but it is often the alarm that tells us something else is wrong.

Without pain we may not got to the doctor before it is too late, and we wouldn’t know to pull our hand out of the fire, or to stop running on a bad knee.

Pandemics are a sharp, undeniable pain we cannot ignore.

They are an alarm for a problem we have learned to live with in ordinary times.

Between 250,000 and 500,000 people around the world die each year from the flu, but somehow we have decided that is acceptable. The sad reality is that the pain hasn’t been bad enough yet to focus the full attention of humanity on solving the problem of this part of nature’s rebellion against God and man. Continue reading “A Kingdom Perspective on the Pandemic–Part 2”

A Kingdom Perspective on the Pandemic–Part I

Christians have responded in different ways to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some have made their response an issue of faith, as if Christians full of faith have never died from an illness.

Others have simply adopted the current political opinion of their preferred political part, contending on one side the pandemic is a crises overblown by the media to attack President Trump, or on the other that it is a disaster brought on by President Trump’s incompetence.

None of these response are helpful, and none are particularly Christian. Continue reading “A Kingdom Perspective on the Pandemic–Part I”

Six Kingdom Questions: Part 4

When is the kingdom of God?

The answer is found in Old Testament prophecy, confirmed by Jesus, and reconfirmed by the Apostle Paul.

In around 600 BC, Daniel interpreted a dream of Babylonian ruler, Nebuchednezzar.

Daniel said the dream concerned four kingdoms.

The first was the Babylonian Empire, which Daniel said would be followed by a second (the Medo-Persian Empire) and a third kingdom (the Greek Empire).

It was in the days of the fourth kingdom though (the Roman Empire), that Daniel said, “In the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom and that kingdom will never be destroyed.” Daniel 2:44. That means that God established the kingdom of God on earth sometime between 27 B.C. (the beginning of the Roman Empire) and 476 A.D. (its end). Continue reading “Six Kingdom Questions: Part 4”