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What does the Kingdom of God have to do with the church?

Is the Kingdom of God a future reality, a present reality, or both?

How should the Kingdom of God influence our understanding of salvation?

How does the evangelical understanding of God’s Kingdom affect our political involvement?

Only a well-read, well-thought author could navigate safely through the minefield of questions listed above and still provide readers with a tantalizing view of what the Kingdom of God is and what it looks like in our world today.

Russell Moore’s The Kingdom of Christ: The New Evangelical Perspective is, for conservative evangelicalism, a watershed book that some have compared to Carl Henry’s 1947 book The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism. While Henry and Moore share the same subject matter (and it remains to be seen if Moore’s book will influence the next generation as much as Henry’s book influenced post-war evangelicals), both authors come to the question of the Kingdom in different ways, as well they should. Moore approaches the Kingdom of God after more than fifty years of evangelical reflection, theological pondering, and political activism.

The Kingdom of Christ is divided into three main sections. First, Moore lays out the eschatology of the Kingdom. He lets the reader listen in on the sometimes heated discussions between Dispensationalist and Covenant Reformed theologians regarding the Kingdom of God. Dispensationalists fought for a future, physical understanding of the Kingdom. The Reformed tended to see the Kingdom as spiritual and already present. By drawing on the work of George Eldon Ladd and others, Moore shows how a unique consensus has been reached throughout evangelicalism – that God’s Kingdom is both now and not yet.

The chapter on eschatology was particularly illuminating for me. I am a student who has taken for granted the “already/not yet” nature of the Kingdom. Until I read Moore’s book, I did not realize how divided evangelicals were on this question just a few decades ago. This consensus is even more astounding once I consider the teaching I received at an evangelical institution in Eastern Europe, which also commended the “already/not yet” view with vigor. (I’d love to see a book on how this consensus has shaped evangelicalism worldwide.)

Next, Moore turns to Kingdom soteriology (the doctrine of salvation). Moore believes that the doctrine of salvation must be Christocentric, cosmic, and holistic. He again points to the discussions of Dispensationalists and Covenant theologians and their eventual agreement on these three aspects of salvation. I am thankful for Dr. Moore’s holistic theory of salvation that includes, but is not limited to personal decision and individual faith. Throughout this chapter, Moore demonstrates that the Kingdom of Christ should lead to a comprehensive Christian worldview.

Finally, Moore turns to the question of ecclesiology. How do the Kingdom of God and the Church relate to each other? What should the church look like? Moore addresses a deficiency of evangelicalism that has too often relied on parachurch organizations and not the local church. He directs us back to ecclesiological foundations built on the biblical understanding of God’s Kingdom being most manifested in the local church.

I end this brief review with a few thoughts. First, a review like this doesn’t do justice to the scope of Moore’s book. The Kingdom of Christ deserves to be read thoughtfully by pastors and scholars alike. Almost half the book is made up of endnotes, which makes it difficult for those readers who like to flip back and forth to see the deeper discussion. Many of the endnotes are paragraphs themselves. (Rarely do you find endnotes to be as rich as the main text.) Perhaps a reprint of this book would put the endnotes as footnotes and help those of us whose hands get worn out from flipping.

A tip to my readers: do not expect to read and digest The Kingdom of Christ in a day or two. Moore says so much in so little space that you might find yourself reading and re-reading certain sections as you seek to understand the growing consensus. A follow-up book for laypeople (in which Moore lays out the consequences of the evangelical view, rather than how evangelicals arrived at consensus) would be most helpful.

Moore’s proposal left me with the desire to read and reflect more on the idea of the Kingdom. In the chapter on ecclesiology, he condemns a wishy-washy generic evangelicalism and advocates the rise of robust theologians from specific denominations. What would this mean for evangelicalism in general? What should be the nature of the relationship between churches of evangelical faith that hold to differing denominational distinctives? On the one hand, Moore’s book is a celebration of consensus that has bridged denominational lines. On the other hand, he believes distinctives are necessary and should be upheld.

Just when you think the new evangelical consensus provides hope for a coming generation of evangelicals, Moore reminds us that evangelicalism is now splintering apart in other areas. Issues of serious theological concern at stake, including open theism, inclusivism, and feminism. Moore has done a noble job of recounting evangelicalism’s new unity on the nature of the Kingdom. Now the question begs to be asked: will evangelicalism last long enough to sustain the new consensus?

written by Trevin Wax  © 2008 Kingdom People blog

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