{"id":19256,"date":"2019-10-09T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-09T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/the-coming-kingdom-076\/"},"modified":"2022-03-22T09:08:39","modified_gmt":"2022-03-22T14:08:39","slug":"the-coming-kingdom-076","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/the-coming-kingdom-076\/","title":{"rendered":"The Coming Kingdom 076"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[93],"series_event":[470],"sermon_service_type":[474],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-19256","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-galatians","series_event-the-coming-kingdom","sermon_service_type-wednesday-evenings","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"The Coming Kingdom 076","sermon_date":"20191009","sermon_month":"10","sermon_year":"2019","sermon_notes":7139,"sermon_slides":7140,"sermon_mp3":7141,"sermon_id":"109192147467388","series_or_event":470,"service_type":[474],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":93,"chapter_and_verse":"1:4","sermon_transcript":"

The Coming Kingdom 76<\/p>\r\n

Galatians 1:4<\/p>\r\n

Dr. Andy Woods<\/p>\r\nOpen your Bible to Galatians 1:4 and let's recap what we have been talking about on the series on the Kingdom.\u00a0 This is Lesson 76, and we have been dealing with the revival of an ancient heresy. If you look at the map (per slide and map<\/strong>) and look north to the nation of Israel, and there is a place called Antioch that is circled.\u00a0 From Antioch came the chiliasts<\/em><\/strong>, \u2018chilia\u2019 <\/em><\/strong>is the Greek word for \u2018thousand<\/em><\/strong>,\u2019, are those who believed in a future Kingdom, chiliasts<\/em><\/strong>, and they came from Antioch.\u00a0 Today, we would call them pre-millennialists; they didn\u2019t believe that they were in the Kingdom but did believe that Jesus would come back one day to set up the Kingdom.\u00a0 That sentiment reigned in the church for two centuries.\r\n\r\nThen down south (on the map<\/strong>) circled \u2014 Alexandria, Egypt; is where a rival system developed.\u00a0 These from Alexandria, Egypt, North Africa, really, began to argue about another center of thought, which were among the two major centers of thought in early Christianity following the death of the apostles.\u00a0 Down in Alexandria, they began to argue that we are in the Kingdom now, and they adopted a very allegorical method of interpretation, whereas the chiliasts in Antioch were very literal in their interpretation.\u00a0 Sadly, what happened beginning with Augustine, and he sealed the deal.\u00a0 I used to call him St. Augustine, but no longer because I believe that he did a lot of damage.\u00a0 Augustine, coming from and influenced by Alexandria, who by the way, knew Greek, but he didn\u2019t really know Hebrew.\r\n\r\nAround the fourth century, Augustine wrote a book, The City of God<\/u><\/strong>, and he became, at that point, the most influential theologian in church history, and he remains, by far, the most influential theologian in church history. I am not talking about the influence for good but for bad because he took Kingdom Now Theology and codified it into a book called The City of God, <\/u><\/strong>written in the fourth century, convincing the entire church that the kingdom had started.\r\n\r\nThere are a lot of factors that went into that belief system, one of which was the rise of a Roman Emperor named Constantine.\u00a0 Constantine basically took the Church which had been persecuted by Rome, and he suddenly switched the policy.\u00a0 In the fourth century, he made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire.\u00a0 So, understand that Christians went from being heavily persecuted for 300 years by Rome to sudden elevation in Rome.\u00a0 If that happened, wouldn\u2019t you think that the kingdom had come?\u00a0 Augustine writes his book around that general time period convincing the Church that they were in the kingdom.\u00a0 We would call his book, The City of God,<\/u><\/strong> the first formal exposition of amillennialism or Kingdom Now Theology or Replacement Theology in church history.\u00a0 The moment that book became available is the moment that the Church went under the spell of Alexandria Egypt.\u00a0 The folks at Antioch became a minority opinion.\r\n\r\nThus, the story of church history is how Alexandria eclipsed Antioch for 1,000 years.\u00a0 We really did not start crawling out from under that amillennial spell until after the Protestant Reformation.\u00a0 The Protestant reformers gave us the literal method of interpretation to rescue the Church in certain areas, the five solas.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t until after the Protestant Reformation that the Church took the literal method of interpretation given by the reformers and started to apply it to Bible Prophecy.\u00a0 As they applied the literal method of interpretation, amillennialism became less of an attractive view than did pre-millennialism, and the Antioch mindset returned after being eclipsed by Alexandria for that long period of time.\r\n\r\nThat is a kind of overview of church history and where we are, so Augustine wrote this book, The City of God<\/u><\/strong>, Kingdom Now Theology, in the fourth century, and it became the dominant opinion of the Church through the Middle Ages.\u00a0 This opinion was absorbed the Protestant Reformers, and it wasn\u2019t until latter generations after the Protestant Reformers came and went that the problem began to be corrected.\u00a0 One of the things that gave Augustine\u2019s book so much influence in church history other than the elevation of Constantine is that the Jews were no longer in the land (see map<\/strong>).\u00a0 The Jews were thrown out of the land in AD 70, and there were still some stragglers in the land of Israel as late as AD 135.\u00a0 As long as the Jews were in the land with a functioning Temple, it is hard to believe that all of Israel\u2019s promises had been cancelled.\u00a0 So, the Jews were thrown out of the land in AD 70, Hadrian came to power and named the land of Israel, Palestine, with the purpose of mocking the Jewish people.\u00a0 It was essentially named after the ancient enemies of Israel, the Philistines.\u00a0 Hamian was trying to de-Judaize the land, pretending that the Jews were never there.\r\n\r\nPutting all those factors together \u2014 the Temple gone, the nation of Israel kicked out, it seemed unrealistic to take the Old Testament prophecies of Israel\u2019s restoration literally because the only thing over there was a non-Jewish territory.\u00a0 These all played a role into the ascendency of Augustine\u2019s book, The City of God<\/u><\/strong>.\u00a0 No more Jews in the land, so those prophecies can't be taken literally as those in Antioch had done, and beyond that, Constantine is now on the throne and with that, Rome is no longer persecuting Christianity but promoting it, thus it looked like the kingdom had come.\u00a0 All of this played into his book and its influential effect on the Church called The City of God<\/u><\/strong>.\u00a0 In his book, Augustine, wrote, \u201c\u2026the saints reign with Christ during the same thousand years, understood in the same way, that is, of the time of His first coming\u201d and \u201cTherefore the Church even now is the kingdom of Christ, and the kingdom of heaven<\/u><\/strong>.\u00a0 Accordingly, even now His saints reign with Him.\u201d<\/em>\r\n\r\nWe have gone from being persecuted to being promoted in the Roman Empire; the kingdom must have come; we must be reigning now.\u00a0 He began to allegorize as those down in Alexandria typically did with Bible prophecy.\u00a0 The folks in Antioch never allegorized like those in Alexandria did.\u00a0 Augustine developed this idea of amillennialism, Replacement Theology, Kingdom Now Theology.\u00a0 There are a lot of historical factors that gave rise to that belief system.\u00a0 Thus, this became the dominant view in the Church all the way through the Middle Ages for over 1,000 years, and it probably wasn\u2019t even challenged by anyone in a real sense for about 1,200 -1400 years.\u00a0 Fortunately, the Protestant reformers in the 16th<\/sup> century gave us a literal method of interpretation.\u00a0 Some after the Protestant Reformation began taking the method of literal interpretation and applying it to Bible prophecy, and chiliasm or premillennialism made a comeback.\r\n\r\nWhat is happening in our time is an ancient heresy is being brought back to life, Kingdom Now Theology.\u00a0 The church, even in our time, is now flirting with the idea of what Augustine originally espoused, and they're arguing that we are currently in the Kingdom.\r\n\r\nSome of the quotes that I gave you in Lesson 1 (76 lessons ago) help to explain and remind you why we are doing this study and why I wrote the 400-page book, The Coming Kingdom<\/u><\/strong>; it is to counter the church\u2019s apparent movement back to Augustine.\r\n\r\nDoug Pagitt, a modern writer says, \u201cThe Kingdom<\/u><\/strong> of God is a central<\/u><\/strong> conversation in emerging communities\u2026And let me tell you \u2018Kingdom of God\u2019 language is really big<\/u><\/strong><\/em> in the emerging church (italics added).\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>\u00a0He is recycling, channeling Augustine.\r\n\r\nBrian McLaren, in A Generous Orthodoxy<\/u><\/strong>, talks about how the purpose of Christ\u2019s ministry in His First Coming was to establish a spiritual form of the kingdom on earth, which is what Augustine taught coming out of Alexandria, Egypt.\u00a0 Brian McLaren says of Jesus, \u201cHe selected 12 and trained them in a new way of life.\u00a0 He sent them to teach everyone this new way of life\u2026Even if only a few would practice this new way, many would benefit.\u00a0 Oppressed people would be free.\u00a0 Poor people would be liberated from poverty.\u00a0 Minorities would be treated with respect. Sinners would be loved, not resented.\u00a0 Industrialists\u2026 [<\/em>Notice the leftist slant, which is why Kingdom Now Theology is popular today, as it is an amorphous concept that people can read their own political ideology into, right or left.\u00a0 There are those on the right who say we are in the kingdom and those on the left saying the same, because everyone is trying to use the Bible to promote their own political view, social justice mindset on the left or dominionism and things of that nature on the right].\u00a0 \u2026Industrialists <\/em>[McLaren thinks that capitalists are the enemies] \u2026would realize that God cares for sparrows and wildflowers-so their industries should respect, not rape, the environment.\u00a0 The homeless would be invited in for a hot meal.\u00a0 [<\/em>His punchline is\u2026] The Kingdom of God would come\u2026 <\/u><\/em><\/strong>[<\/em>this is what he thinks Jesus did in the first century; He ushered in the spiritual kingdom] \u2014 \u2026 not everywhere at once, not suddenly but gradually like a seed growing in a field, like yeast spreading in a lump of bread dough\u2026 [<\/em>the author is likely not interpreting the yeast in Matt 13 as we interpret it with the yeast as something negative, the growth of apostasy in the church age; he thinks the yeast is positive] ,\u2026 like light spreading across the sky at dawn.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0<\/em>\r\n\r\nThis is basically the view of Kingdom Now Theology that Jesus came into the world to give us this spiritual kingdom in His First Coming, and as that kingdom grows, society will be altered or changed.\u00a0 Anything negative about society will disappear. If I believed this, at some point, I would be very discouraged, because it certainly doesn\u2019t look like the world is getting better and better.\u00a0 Amen?\u00a0 Things are deteriorating, but Kingdom Now Theology is exactly the opposite.\r\n\r\nElsewhere, McLaren says \u201cIf Revelation were a blueprint of the distant future, it would have been unintelligible to its original readers<\/em> [so don't teach the book of Revelation like they do at Sugarland Bible Church; it isn't a futuristic prophecy; it is something that was fulfilled primarily in the first century.\u00a0 Obviously to believe that, one must radically rewrite the Book to make it fit] \u2026In light of this, Revelation becomes a powerful book about the kingdom of God here and now<\/u><\/strong>, available to all.\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>That is a recycling of the ancient heresy taught by Augustine in his book, The City of God.<\/u><\/strong>\r\n\r\nRussell Moore, very leftist and influential President of the Ethics and Religious Liberties Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, and I love the southern Baptists, but we must understand that the southern Baptists, in their convention, are taking a major left-wing turn.\u00a0 They're venturing into a social justice mindset, obviously a big part of that is their promotion amongst some of their leaders that the kingdom is now.\u00a0 The Southern Baptist Convention is very different than the old days when Adrian Rogers and Charles Stanley and others like them, were in positions of leadership.\u00a0 Page Patterson, there is now a younger set of leaders who are essentially going in a very leftist direction.\u00a0 One of the things this younger generation of leaders is using to promote this leftist turn is Kingdom Now Theology.\r\n\r\nRussell Moore, one of the leaders of that movement, says, \u201cThe locus of the kingdom of God in this age is within the church, where Jesus rules as king<\/u><\/strong>.\u00a0 As we live our lives together, we see the transforming power of the gospel and the in breaking of the future kingdom.<\/u><\/strong><\/em>\u201d \u00a0Very common language used today.\r\n\r\nRick Warren makes the following statement, saying, \u201cI stand before you confidently right now and say to you \u2026 [<\/em>speaking to an audience] \u2026 that God is going to use you to change the world\u2026I'm looking at a stadium full of people right now who are telling God that they will do whatever it takes to establish God's <\/u><\/strong><\/em>Kingdom \u201con earth <\/u><\/strong>as it is in heaven.\u201d\u00a0 What will happen if the followers of Jesus say to Him, \u201cWe are yours?\u201d\u00a0 What kind of spiritual awakening will occur?\u201d<\/em>\r\n\r\nThe kingdom, according to Rick Warren, is not something that God brings.\u00a0 We have taught in depth in this class that the kingdom in Daniel 2 and other passages, is something that God Himself brings to the earth at the end of the Tribulation period.\u00a0 What Rick Warren and others are doing is to shift that responsibility of bringing in the kingdom onto the shoulders of the Church.\r\n\r\nWith all of that being said, we are now moving into the final part of our study of my book, The Coming Kingdom<\/u><\/strong>, chapters 22-26.\u00a0 We are now at a transitional point in our study.\u00a0 By way of review, we started off in Part 1 with what the Bible <\/u><\/strong>teaches about the Kingdom?\u00a0 We have taught that from Genesis to Revelation, and we have clearly seen that the Kingdom is not cancelled but is in a state of postponement.\r\n\r\nIn number 2, we looked at what the main problems are with Kingdom Now Theology \u00a0interpretations.\u00a0 The basic problem is that they changed what the Old Testament says, so to argue that we are in the kingdom now requires adaptation of a method of interpretation that the New Testament somehow changes the Old Testament. \u00a0That is a problem because that would make God a liar.\r\n\r\nThen, we moved into number 3, why do some people believe and teach that we are currently in the Kingdom?\u00a0 They must have passages that they use, and there are a lot of them.\u00a0 We started in the first book of the New Testament, Matthew, going all the way through the book of Revelation, looking at every single passage that Kingdom Now theologians use, and we have shown that none of the passages that they rely on teach what it is that they think they teach. All those passages can be understood in light of a futuristic kingdom.\r\n\r\nNow, we are at a transitional part of the study because we are no longer looking specifically at the biblical text.\u00a0 We are now at number 4, Why does it matter?\u00a0 Who cares<\/u><\/strong>?\u00a0 \u00a0If a church believes that they're in, building or ushering in the Kingdom, or if you go to a conference called Kingdom Builders, what is the harm in that?\u00a0 So, we bring Augustine\u2019s belief from the fourth century back into the life of the Church.\u00a0 So, what if we put Kingdom in our vision and mission statements.\u00a0 Why is that a problem?\u00a0\u00a0 I would like to communicate as we enter this final part of the study, chapters 22-26 of my book, The Coming Kingdom<\/u><\/strong>, is that theology is a lot like dominoes in a row.\u00a0 If you knock over one domino, the rest of them will crumble, and this is what people don't think about when they come up with different theological interpretations.\u00a0 They don't understand that what you do in one area, affects another area.\u00a0 So, what you do in eschatology [the study of the end] is going to have an effect on ecclesiology [the doctrine of the church] and what you do in ecclesiology will have an impact on soteriology [the doctrine of salvation].\u00a0 Thus, when you start tampering with eschatology, then ecclesiology suffers as does soteriology; this is basically what I am going to try to demonstrate in this final section of this course of the coming Kingdom.\u00a0 That is why in the book I wrote, The Coming Kingdom<\/u><\/strong>, is the title, but the subtitle is What is the Kingdom and How is Kingdom Theology Changing the Focus of the Church<\/em>?\u00a0 <\/strong>\r\n\r\nI didn\u2019t just write a book on eschatology just because no one had ever dealt with this before.\u00a0 I wanted to show that this recycling of Augustine has profound<\/em><\/strong>, and I mean profound<\/em><\/strong> ecclesiological ramifications.\u00a0\u00a0 As we have studied, the church has basically three purposes:\r\n

    \r\n \t
  1. To glorify God (Eph 3:21)<\/li>\r\n \t
  2. To edify the saints (Eph 4:11-16)<\/li>\r\n \t
  3. To fulfill the Great Commission (Matt 28:18-20)<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\nThat is why the church exists, and you can't really succeed in God until you understand why you exist.\u00a0 If your business is struggling, and you hire a business consultant to help you, the very first question a consultant will ask, if they're worth their salt, is why does this business exist?\u00a0 What is the specific purpose of this business?\u00a0 What need, want or desire is filled with your product or service that you can't really get anywhere else.\u00a0 If you can't answer that, then you have no business being in business, and there is probably a reason why you are going out of business.\r\n\r\nToday, if you ask your typical Christian what the purpose of the Church is, none can give you a straight answer.\u00a0 Ask your typical pastor, elder, deacon, or Sunday school teacher the same question and none of them can give you a straight answer. So, if you can't give them a straight answer, then how do you do church, which activities to get involved or not get involved in?\r\n\r\nWhat is happening with the Southern Baptist Convention and a group called the Gospel Coalition is that they're getting involved in a lot of social justice issues, white privilege, structural racism.\u00a0 The ministry that was very helpful for me, Campus Crusade for Christ, now called Cru, want to get Crusade out of the title, thus they changed the title since Crusade is politically incorrect.\r\n\r\nIf you go to Trevor Lowden\u2019s Facebook page, he has all these recordings of their latest national or regional meetings.\u00a0 The speakers are all talking about white privilege and institutional racism and structural bias, etc, but you aren\u2019t hearing the things I used to hear when I was in Campus Crusade.\u00a0 At my college campus in the mid to late 1980s, the emphasis was on evangelism; about sharing the gospel with the unsaved but based on some of the recordings of their latest meetings, it is almost more like a social justice rally.\u00a0 So, why are these ministries moving into these areas?\u00a0 They have gotten away from their purpose.\u00a0 If you think that we are currently in the kingdom, then you get away from this very simple purpose; you get distracted by all kinds of diversions.\r\n\r\nWouldn\u2019t that be something that satan would do in the last days?\u00a0 Would he distract us from our reason for existing and get us involved in all types of other things that we are not called upon to focus on?\u00a0 We spend our waning moments on earth on the eve of the rapture wasting our time trying to do something around social justice that only Jesus Himself can do when He sets up His kingdom.\u00a0 This study is, I hope you understand, one of the most relevant studies that you could ever give yourself to; it is very practical.\u00a0 We have dealt with a lot of exegetical issues, etc, but I hope you don't lose the practical nature of what I've been trying to communicate.\r\n\r\nAlva J McClain wrote a book called The Greatness of the Kingdom<\/u><\/strong> in 1959, and I think it is one of the greatest books that has ever been written on the kingdom.\u00a0 Towards the end of the book he said, \u201cTheological confusion, especially in matters which have to do with the church, will inevitably produce consequences<\/u><\/strong> which are of grave practical<\/u><\/strong> concern.\u00a0 The identification of the Kingdom with the church has led to historically to ecclesiastical policies and programs which, even when not positively evil, have been far removed from the original simplicity of the New Testament ekkl\u0113sia\u2026\u201d [<\/em>see how easy our job description is there?\u00a0 But if you think we are the kingdom, that simplicity becomes obscured very quickly.\u00a0 Remember what Paul said concerning the serpent in 2 Cor 11, that the serpent was trying to beguile the Corinthians and move them away from the simplicity of Christ.\u00a0 Christianity is not all that complicated; our doctrine of salvation, of the church, is not complicated, but satan always wants to take what is simple and \u2018over-convolute\u2019 it for the purpose of distraction and corruption].\r\n\r\n\u201c\u2026It is easy to claim that in the \u2018present kingdom of grace\u2019 that the rule of the saints is wholly \u2018spiritual,\u2019 exerted only through moral principles and influence.\u00a0 But practically once the church becomes the Kingdom in any realistic theological sense, it is impossible to draw any clear line between principles and their implementation through political and social devices.\u00a0 For the logical implications of a present ecclesiastical kingdom [<\/em>in other words, the practical ramifications of seeing the church as the Kingdom] are unmistakable, and historically have always led in one direction, i.e., political control of the state by the church.\u201d\u00a0 [<\/em>This is why so many today are promoting this Kingdom Now Theology because they want to grasp the reins of political power].\r\n\r\n\u201cThe distances traveled down this road by various religious movements, and the forms of control which were developed, have been widely different.\u00a0 The difference is very great between the Roman Catholic system and modern Protestant efforts to control the state; also between the ecclesiastical rule of Calvin in Geneva and the fanaticism of M\u00fcnster and the English \u2018fifth-monarchy.\u2019\u00a0 But the basic assumption is always the same:\u00a0 The church in some sense is the kingdom, and therefore has a divine right to rule; or it is the business of the church to \u2018establish\u2019 fully the Kingdom of God among men.\u00a0 Thus the church loses its pilgrim character<\/u><\/strong> <\/em>[what is the church?\u00a0 It is a peculiar people that is passing through satan\u2019s current domain; we are passing through as pilgrims, meaning that our home is not here on earth, amen?\u00a0 Does not Paul say in Phil 3:20 that our citizenship is in heaven, and that we are waiting for us the Lord Jesus to come and rescue us from this present evil age.\u00a0 The business of establishing the Kingdom is something that He is going to, but if you start to view the present age as the Kingdom of God, then the church loses its pilgrim character] \u2026 and the sharp edge of its divinely commissioned \u2018witness\u2019 is blunted.\u00a0 It becomes an ekkl\u0113sia which is not only in the world, but also of the world.\u00a0 It forgets that just as in the regeneration of the soul only God can effect the miracle, even so the \u2018regeneration\u2019 of the world can only be wrought by the intrusion of regal power form on high (Matt 19:28).\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>Notice that he uses the word, \u2018regeneration<\/em><\/strong>.\u2019\u00a0 The Greek word is \u2018palingenesia<\/em><\/strong>,\u2019 <\/em>which literally means Paling<\/em><\/strong>, compound word, \u2018genesia<\/em><\/strong>,\u2019 book of Genesis, where we get the word, \u2018beginning<\/em><\/strong>.\u2019\u00a0 Regeneration means beginning again.\u00a0 Regeneration, to both my mind and knowledge is used only twice in the New Testament, once in relation to personal salvation in Titus 3:5 and once in relationship to the regeneration of the earth in the Millennial Kingdom.\u00a0 What do both instances have in common?\u00a0 They both involve the intervention of Jesus first and then comes the regeneration.\u00a0 In salvation, Jesus comes first, then the human soul changes, not the other way around.\u00a0 God never says to the human soul, \u2018Get your act together so that Jesus can come into your life and change you.\u2019\u00a0 That is basic soteriology, and since the same word is used of the Kingdom in Matt 19:28, it is saying that the regeneration of the world, of society, will not take place until Jesus comes back to the earth.\u00a0 Just as Jesus must come into a person\u2019s life before they are changed, such is true of the Kingdom.\u00a0 Jesus returns first at the end of the Tribulation period, then He establishes His kingdom, and then social justice and a fix of institutional racism and white privilege, economic inequities, etc; none of that will get fixed until Jesus returns.\r\n\r\nTo tell the church that they must fix society before He comes back is like saying to the lost sinner, \u2018Get your act together first, and then come to Jesus.\u2019\u00a0 In both instances, you are telling people to morally reform when they don't have the power to do it.\u00a0 That is McLain\u2019s point.\u00a0 Due to confusion on this basic issue, what has happened is that, historically, the church has become very confused and has gotten into projects that they should never have become involved with at all.\u00a0 One of these projects is Calvin\u2019s Geneva; McLain mentions this.\u00a0 Today we are upset about Sharia Law coming to the United States; Calvin\u2019s Geneva was a Christian form of Sharia Law where you were not allowed to criticize pastors or you would be thrown into jail.\u00a0 If you disagreed with Calvin, you were put on trial and killed; sometimes tortured.\u00a0 Michael Servetus is one such individual.\u00a0 Your life was illegalized; church attendance was mandatory in Calvin\u2019s Geneva, a sort of Christian form of Sharia Law, \u2014 why did he go this direction?\u00a0 Although he may have done some good things in other areas, he never distinguished between the church and the Kingdom.\u00a0 To him, they were one and the same.\u00a0 Thus, he was taking passages that relate to the future<\/em><\/strong> Kingdom and applying them to his government in Geneva.\r\n\r\nWhat I am trying to say is that virtually every false doctrine that I can think of that has come into the church that we are currently wrestling with now in the 21st<\/sup> century has come into the church because of Kingdom Now Theology.\u00a0 So often we are shooting at the symptom without understanding the foundation.\u00a0 If you want to get rid of these false doctrines in Christianity, you must deal with the foundation.\u00a0 The foundation is Kingdom Now Theology.\r\n\r\nWhat I have for us in this final section of our study are nine false doctrines (See slide on 9 Ways Kingdom Now Theology Impacts the Church) <\/strong>that are directly attributable to Kingdom Now Theology.\r\n
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    1. Loss of the church\u2019s \u2018pilgrim\u2019<\/em> status \u2014 hopefully talk about that tonight.<\/li>\r\n \t
    2. Social Gospel<\/li>\r\n \t
    3. Ecumenical & interfaith alliances, where the church gets in bed, in terms of ecumenical interfaith alliances, with other spiritual groups that don't share our biblical convictions \u2014 ecumenical interfaith alliances, interfaith dialogue, etc. these are directly attributable, as I will try to demonstrate tot Kingdom Now Theology.<\/li>\r\n \t
    4. Rejection or marginalization of Bible prophecy \u2014 why do we keep getting emails from so many via our website, Facebook, YouTube channel, etc, where they say that they're so relieved that we are teaching Bible Prophecy because they can't find a church that teaches it. \u00a0Their pastor never mentions it.\u00a0 That is attributable to Kingdom Now Theology as I will show you.<\/li>\r\n \t
    5. Building the wrong kingdom by the church \u2014 that is how sneaky satan is. The next kingdom on the horizon is not the Kingdom of God but the Antichrist\u2019s kingdom.\u00a0 Thus, if the church gets involved in Kingdom Now Theology and kingdom building, then they're building the devil\u2019s world without realizing it.<\/li>\r\n \t
    6. Charismatic theology \u2014 there is a big debate in Christianity; seven disputed sign gifts: apostles, prophets, performers of miracles, etc.\u00a0 and too many people are into these.\u00a0 That also is attributable to Kingdom Now Theology.<\/li>\r\n \t
    7. Prosperity Gospel \u2014 if you flip on so-called Christian television, you will see this taught all over the place, for example, Kenneth Copeland, Kenneth Hagen, Benny Hinn, Creflo Dollar, Jesse Duplantis, et al. All these are saying that God wants you to be rich, you need only send in a check to their ministry; notice that they never say to send it into the orphanage down the street but send it into my ministry and God is obligated to make you rich and to take away all your diseases.\u00a0 How do you explain that in light of one dear saint here at the church who passed away; some dealing with cancer?\u00a0 Obviously that theology is not a reality, but it is attributable to Kingdom Now Theology, and I will demonstrate it. If you don't have Kingdom Now Theology, there is no prosperity gospel.<\/li>\r\n \t
    8. Anti-Israelism<\/strong> \u2014 there is a huge movement within Christendom against the nation of Israel, anti-Israelism, where there are now, and it is stunning to watch, major mainline denominations involved in official boycotts against Israel. As you probably know, they tech this in schools, BDS movement \u2014 the Boycott and Divestment Sanctions, the view that Israel is somehow an apartheid state and just as we boycotted South Africa to get rid of apartheid, they're trying to make the same argument against Israel that they are an oppressor.\u00a0 They are now getting Christians, not only the secular campuses, but Christians involved in the movement, and if you already believe that the church has replaced Israel and that there is no future for Israel, then who cares about Israel in the Middle East?\u00a0 Go ahead and sign up for a Christian form of BDS, also attributable to Kingdom Now Theology.<\/li>\r\n \t
    9. Lordship salvation<\/strong> \u2014 as you know, is a corrupt gospel that mixes faith and works to be justified before God. That doctrine itself is also a result of Kingdom Now Theology.\u00a0 In other words, Kingdom Now Theology provides the soil or the fertile ground from which all these other false doctrines above grow.\u00a0 This explains why satan, going all the way back to Augustine, was busy trying to convince the church that it is the Kingdom!\u00a0 If you convince the church that they are the Kingdom, then everything else comes into existence and the church remains impotent, powerless, embroiled, and encaptured in false doctrine.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\nSo, what we will do in the final part of the series, though not all of it tonight as this is an introduction to the final section, is to walk through these nine issues.\u00a0 I have about 15 mins left, so let's try to tackle number 1:\u00a0 Loss of \u201cpilgrim\u201d status<\/u><\/strong>.\u00a0 What is the first theological problem with Kingdom Now Theology?\u00a0 The church, and this was hinted at, in the Alva J McLain quote from earlier \u2014 loses its \u201cpilgrim\u201d status.\u00a0 Lewis Sperry Chafer says this correctly, \u201cSo, the church was fully warned from the beginning about the nature of this age, and taught concerning her pilgrim character<\/u><\/strong> while here and her holy calling and separateness from the \u2018evil age.<\/u><\/strong>\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>That is who we are.\u00a0 We aren\u2019t here to bring in the Kingdom; we are waiting for Jesus to set up His Kingdom; in the present, we are living as ambassadors in satan\u2019s world.\u00a0 If I am america\u2019s ambassador to China, Iran, etc, I am representing American values on foreign soil.\u00a0 That is why Paul calls us ambassadors in 2 Cor 5:20; we are salt and light in the devil\u2019s world.\u00a0 Consequently, we are a peculiar people who really don't fit in with this world, and we won't fit in and reign here until Jesus returns and sets everything up properly.\u00a0 In the process of passing through this present evil age, the Bible gives us specific instructions on how to live during this evil age we are presently in.\u00a0 Do you agree with me that this is an evil age?\r\n\r\nNotice Gal 1:4, Paul is very clear that we are living in an evil age, \u201c\u2026who gave Himself for our sins [Jesus] so that He might rescue us from this present evil age<\/u><\/strong>, according to the will of our God and Father.\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>So here I am, and here you are living in the devil\u2019s world and consequently, we are called per James 1:1, \u201cJames, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad (diaspora):<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0 Greetings<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 Who we are is the diaspora; we are dispersed abroad living in the devil\u2019s world.\r\n\r\nNotice 1 Peter 1:1 and 2:11, 1:1<\/sup>\u201cTo those who reside as aliens <\/em><\/strong>(paraepid\u0113mois<\/u><\/strong>), scattered throughout (diaspora<\/u><\/strong>) are chosen\u2026 2:11<\/sup>Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers (paraepid\u0113mois) to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul<\/em>.\u201d\r\n\r\nYou can follow along with your own Bible if you want or relax and look at the screen, I prefer that you follow in your Bible, because if you don't follow along in your own Bible, you never learn the books of the Bible.\u00a0 \u00a0Amen.\u00a0 That is one way that technology has handicapped us; we are so used to it, and I am as guilty as anyone because I have all this stuff flashing around, but I am concerned that we aren\u2019t opening our bibles ourselves.\u00a0 In the old days the Pastor would say for us to turn to \u2018X\u2019 and you could hear the entire congregation ruffling their pages.\u00a0 I thought that was a beautiful sound; today we are staring at screens and looking at bulletins; not really looking at the Bible.\u00a0 So, try not to let technology usurp basic sword drill because unless you are opening your Bibles and turning to the right part of it, you won't learn where different passages are.\u00a0 End of rant.\r\n\r\nIn 1 Peter 1:1, Peter says, 1<\/sup>To those who reside as aliens, [look at that, in fact, the Greek word for aliens<\/em> (paraepid\u0113mois<\/u><\/em><\/strong>) \u2014 that is three words made into one word.\u00a0 \u2018Para\u2019<\/em> means away<\/em> in Greek; \u2018epi\u2019<\/em> means one<\/em>, and in the last part of the Greek word that begins with the letter \u2018d\u2019 in English, transliterated there as d\u0113mois<\/em><\/strong>, see the English equivalent of \u2018domestic<\/em><\/strong>;\u2019 \u2018democracy\u2019<\/em><\/strong>?\u00a0 The third part of that word basically means \u2018home<\/em><\/strong>;\u2019 so that word \u2018aliens<\/em><\/strong>,\u2019 paraepid\u0113mois, <\/u><\/em><\/strong>literally means \u2018away from home<\/em><\/strong>.\u2019\u00a0 That is our identity; we are away from home because our citizenship is in heaven.\u00a0 That is what is meant by \u2018aliens<\/em><\/strong>.\u2019\u00a0 \u201c1<\/sup>To those who reside as aliens (paraepid\u0113mois<\/u><\/strong><\/em> scattered throughout [diaspora<\/u><\/strong><\/em>, dispersed] \u2026 Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen\u20262:<\/sup><\/em>11 <\/sup>[Peter says the exact same thing]:\u00a0 Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers (paraepid\u0113mois<\/u><\/strong>) to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.\u201d <\/em>\r\n\r\n\u00a0<\/em>So, this is our identity \u2014 scattered; dispersed; pilgrims; aliens; away from home.\u00a0 If you call someone an alien today, you are saying that you are from Mars; you don't belong here; or there is the legal vs illegal immigration debate, ie, if someone has the status of an alien, it means they're actual residency or citizenship is not here in this country, but somewhere else.\u00a0 That is basically our spiritual designation.\u00a0 Absolutely nothing here about us bringing in the Kingdom. If we were in the Kingdom, folks, we wouldn\u2019t be away from home, so we are mere pilgrims passing through a barren wasteland on the way to a promised land.\r\n\r\nHebrews 11:13 gives us the same designation; it is the Hall of Faith, 13<\/sup>All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles (paraepid\u0113mois)<\/u><\/em><\/strong> on the earth.\u201d\u00a0 So, we are strangers and exiles on the earth; that is why in the Chafer quote, he says, \u201cSo, the church was fully warned from the beginning about the nature of this age\u2026\u201d [<\/em>Now where was the church warned about this?\u00a0 In the upper room discourse in John 13-17, Jesus was very clear that He was sending us out into a hostile, evil world controlled by satan\u2026] \u2026 and taught concerning her pilgrim character <\/u><\/strong>while here and her holy calling and separateness from the evil age<\/u><\/strong>.\u201d <\/em>\u00a0So, what should we do living in satan\u2019s world?\u00a0 We are to maintain practical purity.\u00a0 How?\u00a0 Two ways:\u00a0 orthodoxy, correct belief and orthopraxy, correct practice.\u00a0 The word ortho<\/em><\/strong> \u2014 have you gone to the orthodontist and had your mouth corrected?\u00a0 Ortho<\/em><\/strong> = correct.\u00a0 Orthodoxy is correct belief; orthopraxy is correct practice.<\/strong>\u00a0 The challenge of the Christian living in the devil\u2019s world is to maintain both.\u00a0 Much like a woman spoken for while her fianc\u00e9e is away \u2014 after all, He is the groom, and we are the Bride, so what is that woman spoken for supposed to do?\u00a0 She is already set aside for Him, so she is obviously not to be on all the dating websites, etc; she is a woman spoken for.\u00a0 That is how the church is supposed to be acting, like a woman spoken for by maintaining orthodoxy and orthopraxy.\u00a0 When we stand before the Lord at the Bema Seat Judgment following the rapture and either given or not given rewards, it largely has to do with whether we maintained orthodoxy and orthopraxy while living in satan\u2019s world.\r\n\r\nThe Bema Seat Judgment is not a judgment of salvation; that issue was determined the moment we trusted Christ; it is a judgment of rewards, and when the woman walks down the aisle, there is a reason she is in white:\u00a0 it is an outward symbol of her purity; that is our job, why we are given all these instructions in the epistles on how to live.\u00a0 We are to maintain orthodoxy and orthopraxy.\r\n\r\nWe are doing this because we are currently separated from Christ; He is coming back for us at an unknown time; thus, we are pilgrims passing through. If you think that the church is the Kingdom or that it is establishing the Kingdom, then the pilgrim mindset is lost.\u00a0 There is no way that I could see myself as a pilgrim in this world if I believed we were in the Kingdom; I wouldn\u2019t see myself as away<\/em><\/strong> from home but at<\/em><\/strong> home in the world.\u00a0 Look at the church today, at all of her buildings and budgets and satellite campuses \u2014 there is a big church in the Dallas area and we actually used their facilities when I graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary.\u00a0 The building, to me, looks like a stadium that a professional team would play in \u2014 there is a McDonald\u2019s inside, fitness classes, Starbucks, a bowling alley.\u00a0 Looking around at this monstrosity, you might think that these really don't look like pilgrims who are thinking about leaving.\u00a0 To me, these look like people who look like they are at home in the world and who will be here for a long time.\r\n\r\nWhat I am trying to explain is a manifestation of Kingdom Now Theology.\u00a0 That is a manifestation of the Church in its leadership not being clear on the distinction between the Kingdom and the church.\u00a0 Enough said about this.\r\n\r\nOne other quick thing, the second false doctrine that comes into the church is the social gospel<\/u><\/strong>.\r\n\r\nThe social gospel<\/u><\/strong> is this idea that we will bring in Kingdom-now realities:\u00a0 social and economic justice, fixing the alleged hole in the ozone layer and climate change, universal healthcare, whatever it is that people want to do\u2014we will bring in all of these Kingdom realities now when the fact is that only<\/em><\/strong> Jesus will fix these things.\u00a0 I am not against the church having a say on the various issues; I think we should vote in every election cycle, but please understand that the central calling of the church is not to fix the structures of the society; it is not a job that God gave to the church.\r\n\r\nWhat happens is that the Great Commission, the job that He actually gave to the church, becomes the \u2018Great Omission.\u2019\u00a0 So, we hear more and more sermons about social, economic, racial justice \u2014 whatever the cause of the day is, and less and less teaching about salvation of souls and individual discipleship which is the job that Christ actually gave to the Church in the devil\u2019s world.\r\n\r\nSocial gospel<\/u><\/strong> is like handing out water bottles to people as they're on their way to hell.\u00a0 It is humanitarian work.\u00a0 Is it wrong to get involved in humanitarian work as a church; no, it isn't necessarily wrong in and of itself, but all of that should be used as a platform to preach the Gospel!\u00a0 What good does it do to feed someone\u2019s stomach for 24 hours if they're never given the Gospel and their soul goes into an eternal hell?\r\n\r\nI just returned from a Bible conference and in the particular church where I was, there is a big rift between that church and its young people.\u00a0 Its young people all want to move into the social justice direction which is typical of young people; I was once young; we want to change the world, right?\u00a0 So, we want to drag Christianity into all these various social causes not investigating the Scripture, what our identity is, and what causes God has and has not given us so we will stay away from things that God has not caused us to do.\u00a0 We can't have much effect on them anyway so there is a lot of talk today about changing the structures of society \u2014 structural or institutional cures, the fancy name for this is holistic gospel<\/u><\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 I recommend memorizing this term because if you aren\u2019t facing this head on, the young people are getting hit with this all the time.\u00a0 <\/em>The holistic gospel <\/em><\/strong>is the idea that you are changing the collective salvation of nations rather than the individual salvation of souls.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0 That is social gospel<\/u><\/strong>.\r\n\r\nRobert Schuler was one of the first to articulate this about how God has a great plan to redeem society.\u00a0 He is talking about the collective salvation of nations, not about the individual salvation of souls.\u00a0 That is how the sheep and the goat judgment in Matt 25:31-46 is being mistaught everywhere \u2014 under the name of social justice.\u00a0 The goal of the church is to collectively change the salvation of nations, and the spotlight is being taken off the individual salvation of souls. That is what is meant by social gospel.\r\n\r\nWe will stop here in the middle of social gospel where we will pick up next time.\r\n\r\n ","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t