Sacred Roots Workshop

128 Sacred Roots Workshop: Retr ieving the Great Tradi t ion in the Contemporary Church

this initial defeat of Satan. Yes, the Kingdom of God has come near, it is already present.

This does not mean that we now enjoy the fulness of God's blessings, or that all that is meant by the Kingdom of God has come to us. . . . [T]he Second Coming of Christ is absolutely essential for the fulfil- ment and consummation of God's redemptive work. Yet God has already accomplished the first great stage in His work of redemption. Satan is the god of This Age, yet the power of Satan has been broken that men may know the rule of God in their lives. The evil Age goes on, yet the powers of the Age to Come have been made available to men. To the human eye, the world appears little changed; the king- dom of Satan is unshaken. Yet the Kingdom of God has come among men [sic]; and those who receive it will be prepared to enter the Kingdom of Glory when Christ comes to finish the good work He has already begun. This is the Gospel of the Kingdom.

~ George Eldon Ladd. The Gospel of the Kingdom . Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1959. pp. 50-51.

A. Concerning the Church , we are the primary extension of Jesus in the world, God’s new creation, and the people of the victory of the risen Christ, the very embodiment of Jesus in the world.

B. Concerning Theology and Doctrine , we are custodians of the canonical Word of Christ’s saving victory, the Scriptures, with Christus Victor as our understanding of the narrative of the world.

C. Concerning our Shared Spirituality , the Holy Spirit’s presence and power are in our midst as his people, and so as we walk in shared spiritual pilgrimage together, we live the life of the risen Christ in the midst of our ordinary lives.

D. Concerning our Worship , as people of the Resurrection, we acknowledge, remember, and reenact God’s saving acts in Christus Victor in the midst of our gathered assembly, as we enter God’s presence through the Word and the Table.