Jesus Cropped from the Picture

Chapter 4: The Kingdom of God

I N THE PREVIOUS chapter, Individualism was described as the change in orientation: • from “Jesus and his Kingdom” to “me and my personal relationship” • from “the Kingdoms in conflict” to “Jesus being there for me” Individualism was the decision to crop Jesus and his Kingdom from the picture, making Jesus the OBJECT (the hands holding the basketball). In this fully cropped picture, the adversary is absent. But the Kingdom of God makes sense only when there is an adversarial kingdom. DeYoung and Hurty claimed, “All the world is a stage, it has been said. In no sense is this more true than in the great drama being played out which we might call the ‘Conflict of the Ages.’ The plot in Scripture and history reveals a cosmic war between two kingdoms in which we are all playing a part according to God’s plan. It is against this backdrop of God’s Kingdom purpose in history that biblical writers have both written and interpreted Scripture.” 17 In fact, the entire biblical account is a Story of conflict between good and evil . 18 The Kingdom of God is the single, continuous action of God to restore all that was destroyed by the Fall. At the incarnation of Jesus, the King landed in enemy territory. Through his temptation and miracles, Jesus of Nazareth delivered a series of defeats to the devil. By his blood, Christ rescued a people to be his own, and his

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