Meditation on the Text of the Week

Thy Kingdom Come . . .

There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace,
On the throne of David and over his kingdom,
To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness
From then on and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.
Isaiah 9: 7

The conflict and gulf between Jerusalem and Athens is deep: it is impossible to bridge. Ever since the Lord of glory declared that He would put enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, the chasm between these two cities has been irrevocable. All human history illustrates this conditioning reality.

On every “structural” issue, Jerusalem and Athens disagree and take opposite poles. But Jerusalem is the rock upon which the waves of Athens incessantly crash: it is the waves which are broken and dissipated. The rock stands firm and inviolate. Take the issue of the meaning of history. Where is humanity heading? What is the direction and purpose of human history?

To this question successive generations in Athens have offered varying and contradictory answers. At times it was fashionable within the streets of that city that human history had no telos or end: it was a constantly repetitive cycle. It represented an endless repeating pattern, with no purpose, plan or direction. The goal of each individual soul was to get off the treadmill of existence.

In later eras, Athens changed its opinion. History was presented as the case book of how Man was to triumph over Nature. Through reason, Man would learn the secrets of Nature's god, and increasingly come to master Nature. The more he mastered Nature, the more divine man would become; Nature's god was to become increasingly irrelevant. Now Athens believed that history had both direction and purpose. It had a future and a hope. All human history was moving towards the “last” perfect, completed, and self-realised Man. This captivated Athens for two hundred years following the Enlightenment—the time when such ideas were first seriously propounded.

Then Athens changed its opinion again. It became unfashionable in certain quarters to believe that the world of Nature operated according to laws, within a certain and defined structure. It no longer became an issue of Man discovering and mastering the laws of Nature on his way to higher and higher pinnacles. Man did not master pre-existing structures and laws: Man himself was the lawmaker and the lawgiver. Reality was what man said it was. History had no pattern, no inexorable laws, no purpose, no plan, no direction. Human history was what it was: the role of man in it was to let history speak for itself, with its myriad of voices, views, concepts, ideas.

In this perspective, history was replete with contradictions, conflicting views, discontinuities, and conflicting perspectives. Which is to say that mankind is replete with contradictions, conflicting views, discontinuities, etc. Thus there is feminist history, black history, working class history, Islamic history, homosexual history—they can never be reconciled, nor ought they be. They are all real, all valid. There is no “meta-narrative” linking all these together into some coherent plan or reality.

Against these increasingly disparate and diffused waves stands Jerusalem and her certain knowledge of human history. Her view of history stands radically opposed to Athenian fashions and discombobulations. Human history has a direction and plan. It is purposed from the beginning. It has a certain culmination and end. It is utterly subject to a meta-narrative—which is the Word and plan of the Living God.

Jerusalemite history acknowledges radical discontinuities. The first was the fall of our first parents into sin. This changed everything. Things continued after the Fall, but in a radically different mode. This was the first great discontinuity. The second was the crucifixion of Messiah, the Christ. This set human history on another path, radically different from the direction brought by the Fall into sin. Through the Cross and the consequent resurrection of our Lord human history took a radically different turn—back to the future.

The hold of sin was broken; the ruler of this world (Satan) was cast out; the risen, ascended Christ was invested as the Lord of the heavens and the earth, and all authority was granted to Him to rule over human history. The direction of human history was now the reconstitution of all things under Him and around Him. To this end, the universe and the world and mankind is inexorably moving. The potential residing in the Garden of Eden is now being actualised in the Kingdom of Messiah.

All tribes, all nations now have their destiny and meaning, purpose and plan in Him. They will either kiss His feet in glad and humble submission, or they will be shattered, to make way for His people and His kingdom. All His enemies are being placed under His feet.

This is what Isaiah foretold and declared seven hundred years before His entrance into the human race. There would be no end to the increase of His government and His peace. Nothing would stop it; nothing would stay His hand. The zeal of the Lord of hosts would ensure that it was done.

Jerusalem marks this great discontinuity of human history by its dating conventions. All human history before His incarnation, was dated as being BC—before Christ. All human history subsequent to His ascension was recorded as being AD—anno domini (in the year of our Lord). The years belong to Him and human history is now His history and pre-ordained destiny. [In recent years, Athenian scholars and historians have sought to gloss this reality, with BC being adapted to BCE (before the current era) and AD being changed to CE (current or common era). This “wave” also shall dash and break up upon the rocks of Jerusalem.]

Now, in the year of our Lord 2008, we stand a mere two thousand years from His death and resurrection. His Gospel has penetrated into every land. Thousands upon thousands of people are now working as preachers of that Gospel in every continent and every land. Despite some of the most extreme and comprehensive oppression in the past century, hundreds of thousands of people are naming the Name of Christ for the first time, as they turn from darkness to light. Despite the “best” and most energetic attempts of Athens, the conversion of multitudes cannot and will not be stopped.

We are not prophets, but given the promises of God, declared through Isaiah, we expect that the next thousand years will see a wonderful expansion and consolidation of His global kingdom. We expect a recovery of classic biblical understanding and truth as the legions of converts in the Southern Hemisphere learn more and more of the Scriptures.

As we celebrate Advent this year, we need not only to thank Him for the course of His Kingdom in the earth thus far, but look forward with great hope and anticipation for the years to come.