Translating the Kingdom of God
Here is a link to the full article click here.
Here are a few quotes:
The first step in understanding a culture is learning the language. The language is more than just words: it conveys the richness of meanings and symbols, values and worldview.
I had started using the unwieldy phrase “moment-by-moment surrender to God’s leading” as my current translation based on my own recent experiences. My friend Michael Cook sometimes uses the phrase, “the eternal purpose” (Eph. 3:11) to describe God’s master plan for the universe. Another possibility was suggested to me recently in a conversation with Bob Mumford: “The Agape government of God”. Even better might be the “Agape Conspiracy” or Bob’s own phrase, the “
posted by Rex Miller at 7:29 PM
3 Comments:
hey Rex,
Thanks for the reference. I sent the article I wrote out to about 20 friends and it generated a lively discussion about numerous facets of the kingdom of God. The responses have been rolling in for at least two weeks. There are a lot of people wrestling with these issues right now.
I highly recommend McLaren's book, The Secret Message of Jesus, for those who want to take a fresh look at all aspects of the kingdom of God as a key element in Jesus' teaching, and how to communicate the kingdom to our current culture.
I love the phrase "moment-by-moment surrender to God's leading."
Actually, all of the phrases are rich and beautiful. Makes me wonder why we ever reduced it all to "getting saved."
I've found it helpful to keep Mark Driscoll's words in mind when I consider speaking rightly about Jesus Christ and the Gospel:
"In mainline liberal churches, I heard about the halo-diapered Christ. He was presented as little more than a marginalized Galilean peasant who took a beating as an example for the little guys of the world who get pushed around by bullies and cry a lot. In the more mainstream evangelical churches, Jesus was presented as a sort of buddy Christ, who was a motivational life coach who could help you lose weight and make more money with his pithy acronyms and cheerleader enthusiasm. Postmodern churches…focus] almost exclusively on vegetable-munching hippie Christ’s humble incarnation in culture to hang out with sinful lost people, particularly the poor and marginalized.
What is lacking, however, is the understanding that when we next see Jesus, he will not appear as a humble marginalized Galilean peasant, Rather we will see the exalted, tattooed King of kings coming with fire blazing in his eyes and sword launching from his mouth, with which to make war upon the unrepentant. Until the day of Jesus’ second coming, we are not merely to relate to people but also to command them to repent of sin and bent their knee to the King before they are grapes crushed under his foot in the winepress of his fury."
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