Tag: Kingdom Progress

The Most Valuable Book In The World

The Bible is certainly the most valuable book in the kingdom of God.  It’s the law book of the kingdom, the King’s revelation of Himself and a guidebook for living.  And if we were to do a poll of the citizens of the kingdom of God, I suspect we would have near unanimity on this point.  But even non-Christians have to admit the Bible is the most valuable book in the world.  Not just any Bible but the Gutenberg Bible.

Johannes Gutenberg was born in the German city of Mainz in 1398.  He later moved to Strasbourg.  At the time, books were only owned by the wealthy because they were very expensive.  Books had to be copied by hand, and it would take a monk, for example, a year to copy one Bible.  You can imagine then the relative cost of purchasing it or any other book.  Gutenberg’s dream was to produce a machine that would enable him to produce books much faster and cheaper so common people could afford to buy and read books.

Gutenberg experimented with different ideas, ultimately settling upon the idea of using moveable metal letters that could be set up in a page format, inked, pressed to paper or vellum to mass produce a page, and then rearranged to print a different page.  This was a big leap from hand-copying or using a single carved wooden block to create a page of type.

In 1455, Gutenberg printed a full Latin Bible, about 180 copies, some in paper and some in vellum.  The world would never be then same.  The printing press made the Protestant Reformation possible because it made the word of God accessible to the common man, not just the wealthy and the clergy.  The printing press is the reason you can read your Bible in the privacy of your home before going to work rather than waiting to have a priest or pastor read it to you on Sunday morning. The printing press aided the expansion of the kingdom of God like no other invention in history.

Now here’s the rest of the story.  Gutenberg had borrowed money from a wealthy attorney named Fust to finance his printing press business.  When Fust suspected Gutenberg was using the money for something other than his business, he sued, won and received as part of the judgment Gutenberg’s Bible printing workshop and half of all the printed Bibles, leaving Gutenberg essentially bankrupt.  Sounds like Fust was a pretty good lawyer.

Today, there are 21 complete Gutenberg Bibles still in existence.  The estimated value of a Gutenberg Bible on the open market is $25-$35 million, making it the most valuable book in the world.  What’s ironic is that Gutenberg set out to create a Bible affordable to the common man, and in so doing he created the most expensive book in the history of mankind.  GS

The First Christian Empire

It began on Monday May 11, 330, when it was officially founded by Constantine the Great, and it ended on Tuesday May 29, 1453, when Sultan Mehmed II breached its walls and conquered its capital.  Its one thousand one hundred twenty three years are a study in Christian government and empire.  I am referring to the Byzantine Empire.

Constantine’s conversion to Christianity in 312 A.D. marks the victory of Christianity over Roman paganism.  Constantine then faced a question unique in history up to that point, “What does it mean to be a Christian ruler and a Christian empire?” The eighty-seven Byzantine rulers who would occupy the Byzantine throne after him over the next millennium would grapple with the same question.  If we were to judge them solely by the longevity of the empire they stewarded, we would have to conclude they did well.  But there is more to commend the Byzantines than mere longevity.

John Julius Norwich writes, “The Byzantines were…a deeply religious society in which illiteracy–at least among the middle and upper classes–was virtually unknown, and in which one Emperor after another was renowned for his scholarship; a society which alone preserved much of the heritage of the Greek and Latin antiquity, during these dark centuries in the West when the lights of learning were almost extinguished; a society, finally, which produced the astonishing phenomenon of Byzantine art.”

Notwithstanding the glories of the Byzantine Empire, ultimately the kingdom of God is not defined or delimited by earthly empire, and, therefore, Constantinople’s sacking in 1453, while a historical tragedy did not impede the advance of the kingdom of God.  In fact, as I have suggested in another post, Kingdom History: 1453-1455, the fall of Constantinople may have been necessary in God’s larger plan for the advance of the kingdom of God.  GS

A Simple Question

Which is more powerful, the effect of the Fall of Man or the resurrection of Jesus Christ?

It’s an important question.  Many Christians talk like they believe the former is more powerful.  They say a Christian can never really live in victory over sin this side of heaven.

They say the world will get worse over time as sinful man prevails even over the leavening work of the Gospel.  They say the Gospel will not succeed on the earth until Jesus physically returns to impose His rule on mankind.  Although they would never say it like this, they believe God is a loser in history.

I don’t see how that can be.  If you are a Christian, the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you.  (Romans 8:11) The same Spirit that defeated death can defeat sin.  The same Spirit that changed you can change the world.

So, which is more powerful?  It’s a simple question. GS

A Kingdom Philosophy of History

How do you view history?  I mean big picture, how do you view it?  In other words, do you have a philosophy of history? A philosophy of history is a paradigm for interpreting the purpose and direction of history.  It not only seeks to interpret the events of the past but also attempts to place the present in the proper context and give insight into the future.  There are a few different major philosophies of history. 

One philosophy of history holds that history is cyclical.  The belief that history repeats itself and that there is not any real progress over time is an example of a cyclical philosophy of history.  A cyclical view of history sees such cycles as inevitable because it operates from a presumption that man never really changes.  Man is destined to repeat the mistakes of history because man is a prisoner of his nature and never really progresses.

Another view holds that history is linear.  An example is Marxism, which teaches that history is on an inevitable progression to the goal of a pure communist society.  Marxism attempts to explain the past, place the present in proper context and predict the direction of the future through its philosophy of history. In the Marxist view, it is just a matter of time before the whole world embraces the ideals of the Marxist state.

Many Christians have adopted a pessimistic linear philosophy of history.  They see history as on an inevitable regression into sin and rebellion against God.  They believe the world is beyond hope, the gospel is destined to fail and evil is destined to prevail on the earth. 

It seems to me that the proper Christian philosophy of history holds history is both cyclical and linear.  While it recognizes history moves in a cyclical manner, those cycles progress in a linear fashion toward an ultimate positive conclusion.  Imagine a bicycle wheel rolling up a ramp to reach a high platform.  The same point on the wheel will sometimes be rotating downward, backward, upward or forward around the axle, but the wheel itself is always moving up the ramp to a higher point. 

 When viewed in the context of this Christian philosophy of history, the last fifty years of American cultural and moral decline are easily explained without compromising the linear view of progression and advancement for the kingdom of God.  The last fifty years in the United States of America merely represents a down cycle, whose peak will reach higher in the next cycle as the kingdom progresses towards its ultimate victorious consummation.  History, driven by the leavening force of the kingdom of God is like a wave traveling up a beach.  There are high points and low points, but it is moving up toward a high consummation. 

This view provides the context for understanding history without compromising Jesus’ promise that the Kingdom will successfully leaven the whole earth.  Anyway, it makes sense to me.  What do you think?  GS

How The Destruction of Jerusalem Advanced the Kingdom of God

The opposition from the first century Jewish community was the biggest hindrance to the spread of the Gospel in Judea.  They constantly opposed and persecuted Jesus, and after Jesus’ death and resurrection, His followers as well.   The Jews stoned Stephen, beheaded James the brother of John and killed James, the head of the Church in Jerusalem and the advance of the kingdom of God. 

 Jesus had previously warned His disciples that judgment was coming on Israel.  Jesus told his disciples that the axe had already been laid the root of the tree (Matt. 3:10) and that within a generation the temple would be destroyed. (Matt. 24).  As a warning to the judgment to come, Jesus also told His disciples that when they saw Jerusalem surrounded, they were to leave the city immediately. (Luke 21:20-21). 

Within a generation, just over thirty years later, the Roman army surrounded Jerusalem and began a 3½ year struggle against the city that would culminate in the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple.  In the year AD 70 the Roman general Titus had a siege wall built around Jerusalem cutting off all supplies to Jerusalem and then destroyed the city.  Jesus had predicted this would happen as a judgment on Israel for rejecting Him. (Luke 19:41-44). 

After the Christians saw Jerusalem surrounded, they left the city (just as Jesus had commanded) and avoided the massacre that followed.  Prior to the sacking of Jerusalem, the Jews had been the biggest hindrance to the spread of the gospel in Judea.  After God executed His judgment, Christianity began to take hold and spread as many of the Christians who left settled in other areas or returned to Jerusalem where they found the Jewish opposition to the gospel had largely been eradicated.  

Philip Schaff describes the effect of the destruction of Jerusalem as follows: “The destruction of Jerusalem, therefore, marks that momentous crisis at which the Christian church as a whole burst forth forever from the chrysalis of Judaism, awoke to a sense of its maturity, and in government and worship at once took its independent stand before the world.” (Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Volume 1, Chapter VI, Section 39). 

Judgment is a tool to be wielded exclusively by the hand of God, but it’s wise for Christians to be aware of when it’s occurring because it often provides an opportunity for the advancement of the kingdom of God.  GS