Wright and McKnight (5)

The Holy Spirit is the kingdom builder. Of course, that answer raises another difficult question. If the Holy Spirit has all the power of God and none of the restrictions of being human, why has he been so unsuccessful in his ministry?

In my book Times and Seasons, I bring these questions and answers together to explain how the cross and the Spirit work together to bring the Kingdom of God come to fulfilment. I am a big picture guy who could not cope with the life of footnotes, so I switched from theology to economics, where the concerns and questions seemed to be much bigger (wrongly). My style is more polemic than McKnight and Wright and is intended for a lay audience, but I attempt to put all these things together.

The Holy Spirit is the Kingdom Builder, but his power has been constrained because Israel is missing from the body of Christ. The church has not achieved its full potential, because of the ream is missing. The truncated church has been unable to give the Holy Spirit the authority that he needs to operate freely in the world. The result has been a limited kingdom.

The next step in God’s plan is to graft Israel back into the vine. When that happens, the Church will have a new completeness. When the team is complete, the Holy Spirit will have much greater authority to work in the world. He will be free for the first time to do what needs to be done to bring Kingdom of God to a much greater fullness. Jesus will not just be a King of heaven, but will receive widespread recognition as Lord of Lords on earth.

The Old Testament promises highlighted by McKnight and Wright will come to fruition. The Kingdom of God will achieve the much greater fullness that Israel was promised by the prophets. Wright acknowledged that too much prophecy about the Kingdom has been pushed out to after the parousia. That is right. Times and Seasons explains how they can be brought back into the present and how they become a reality on earth (and not just into theological ideal.

Messrs Wright and McKnight say that the coming of Jesus was the climax of the story of Israel. I do not understand how they can make that statement and not go on to discuss the future of Israel, particularly in books about the Kingdom of God. Jesus said some fairly stanch words to the people of Israel in Matt 23 and 24, but in the midst of that he promised hope for the future (Matt 23:29). This suggests that the story of Israel goes on beyond Jesus ministry on earth. If the story of Israel is important, and I agree that it is important for understanding, the Kingdom of God, then some discussion about the future of Israel seems to be essential. This lack is a serious gap in their books.

There is another important implication. The grafting back of Israel (whether spiritual or physical) brings blessing to the world. I presume that that blessing means greater fulfilment of the Kingdom of God. This means that the Kingdom of God is constrained during the times of the Gentiles. When the team is complete, the Holy Spirit will have much greater authority to work in the world. He will be free for the first time to do what needs to be done to bring Kingdom of God to a much greater fullness. He will do that without reverting back to the ugly Kingdom that Jews of Jesus time dreamed about. This must be part of the good news of the Kingdom.