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175px-wotm_seal.jpgRecently, I downloaded a current (November 27, 2007) Way of the Master radio program on my mp3 player. Todd Friel, the host, made some comments about the Emerging Church and then warned his listeners that those Emerging Church guys are going to always bring up “the Kingdom.”

Apparently, talking too much about “the Kingdom” is enough to get you labeled as Emerging now.

I’ve just about had it with the knee-jerk reactions of some of corners of evangelicalism against anything that even smacks of “Emerging.” Including talk about “the kingdom.” I guess this would make Jesus “Emerging”?

The Emerging Church deserves to be critiqued from other sections of evangelicalism. I’ll be the first to admit that.

But come on! We don’t have to choose between a theology of “the kingdom” and a biblical view of the atonement. It’s not just Emergent that talks about God’s Kingdom coming on earth as in heaven… it’s all over the New Testament. It’s in the Lord’s Prayer!

Yes, it’s true that we are not the ones who bring God’s kingdom to earth. We do not build God’s kingdom. We are the Church – the people commissioned by God to spread the gospel of the King and the arrival of his kingdom. We are the representation of the Kingdom on earth today, which means that our lives should provide a glimpse of what life is like and will be like when God is ruling.

I am not willing to give away the biblical understanding of God’s Kingdom to the Emerging Church and let that segment of evangelicalism have a monopoly on speaking and talking about the “kingdom.” Mainly because I do think the Emerging Church often gets it wrong, emphasizing the kingdom more than the King!

I am not going to stop teaching and preaching about God’s Kingdom.

It also bothers me that Todd Friel, in the same broadcast, criticized an Emerging church for speaking of the gospel as having a horizontal aspect – reconciling humans to each other. Todd’s view of the gospel is almost exclusively vertical – God and humans, and that’s it.

Of course, the vertical aspect is primary. Humans can’t be truly reconciled to one another unless they are reconciled to God first.

But the Emerging church he mentioned is right to say that the gospel does include reconciliation between humans. How else do you explain Ephesians 2? The first part of Ephesians 2 is about how the gospel reconciles us to God. The second part of Ephesians 2 is about how the gospel reconciles people with people, bringing Jew and Gentile together and destroying the wall of hostility between people.

The Way of the Master method of evangelism (presenting the Law in the form of the Ten Commandments and then the gospel) also reveals the horizontal aspect of the gospel, even if Todd, Ray, and Kirk never mention it. Six out of the ten commandments are about the relationships between human beings. It would figure that if God is forgiving us for sinning against him by sinning against others, then reconciliation from God would flow to us and then through us to other people.

Instead of immediately condemning all the Emerging lingo, Way of the Master could do some thoughtful reflection and ask certain questions:

Why is this teaching about “the Kingdom” so attractive to younger evangelicals?

Are any of the Emerging Church’s concerns about evangelicalism valid?

Have we so emphasized the personal, vertical aspects of salvation that we have neglected the biblical teaching that the gospel also reconciles us to one another?

Have we as evangelicals ignored or neglected the teaching about God’s Kingdom?

Where is the Emerging Church wrong on “the kingdom” and where is it right? Where is evangelicalism wrong on “the kingdom” and where is it right?

Answering these questions might not make for as entertaining a radio show. But it would actually provide some food for thought instead of knee-jerk reactions to unfortunate trends in evangelicalism today.

written by Trevin Wax. © 2007 Kingdom People Blog

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