A COMMENTARY ON DAVID ORTON’S WHAT ON EARTH IS GOD DOING
by Oliver Cafe
Image via WikipediaThis article reminds me of what my former teacher taught us about the kingdom of God. He taught us that the kingdom of God is at hand as what the Bible says. He said the kingdom is already here but not yet. It’s within our reach and we are tasked to build it so it will fully be realized or fulfilled.
As believers of Christ, we are entrusted with the keys of the kingdom. It means that we have the responsibility to do something in order to establish such kingdom here on earth. David’s thoughts on the kingdom of God are rationally and theologically sound.
The introduction gives a picturesque of the negative occurrences on earth, the social, economic, political, environmental, and spiritual activities and events inside it. It presents the reality of our human existence. It affirms the presence of God who is powerfully at work in the earth. However, the contrast between the negative events against God’s presence makes most people ask a question similar to the questions of David Orton: a) where is God? b) what on earth is he doing? c) Does not God have a plan? These questions come naturally as we perceive the world only with our human eye.
David believes that there is more going on than meets the eyes. Our human perception (no matter how sharp it is) is still dull enough to perceive our being heirs of salvation as sons and daughters of God. Our sense of history or memory is not so sharp and that disables us perceive God’s plan. Therefore, it requires God’s spirit of wisdom and revelation so that we will be able to see the whole plan of God so that we would not be lost as the church would progress and as new teachings or theology arise. David tells us that the teachings on personal salvation, holiness, baptism, and ministry of the Holy Spirit have become the focus in the modern churches’ teachings. The modern church has lost its perception of the whole plan of God which originally caused the fast spread of God’s word in the entire region of Asia minor.
What then is this whole plan of God that David mentions in his article? David did not explicitly explain what the whole plan of God is. He instead used the three feasts to illustrate it meaningfully. I understand that the whole plan of God is packed in these three feasts: The Passover, The Pentecost, and the Tabernacle. These illustrations made by David made me say WOW really because it gives me the bigger picture of what I am believing in, a bigger reason why I celebrate the Holy Eucharist, a bigger reason why I needed to do something before He comes again and not just wait for it like “Waiting for Godot” or waiting for nothing or waiting passively for something. Since the whole plan is packed in these three feasts it therefore cannot be completed or contained in just one feast. The gap in between or time involved in between these feasts is not just short but historically long. As a matter of fact, some of those people who were physically and historically involved were losing hope upon seeing with their human eye that God’s promise never seem to have been fulfilled due to the length of time of their suffering experience. If one were to experience it back what the Israelites did using not just human perspective but with God’s revelation, they one would be able to see clearly and experience meaningfully as the whole plan of God is wonderfully and gradually being fulfilled. With these illustrations by David, I could now personally see God’s plan mysteriously operating in my life as part of the whole plan of God. David’s illustration makes me see that the Old Testament experience of these three feasts as a rich symbolic picture of God’s whole plan. Why? Because these same feasts are what we celebrate in the new testament in the life of Jesus. Jesus being our Passover Sacrifice, the descent of the Holy Spirit upon His disciples after His resurrection being our Pentecost and now in the Holy Eucharist or Communion we joyfully celebrate the Feast of the Tabernacle as we await in joyful hope the time when he returns and His kingdom is established fully. With this clear symbolic picture in mind I no longer look at the long experience of upheaval in history as something useless or without purpose and direction. I can no longer afford to look at my own difficult circumstances and life events as negative and unreasonable. I should not be stuck in seeing the length of time of my negative experiences but rather transcend as I patiently wait and see until the whole plan or the whole picture of my existence is fully painted or the puzzle of God’s plan fully placed together. Patience, obedience, wisdom, and faithfulness to God are some of the keys to make us see the whole plan fully realized. It is not the new (or may be false) teachings that will lead us to the fulfillment of God’s whole plan because they may make us lose our faith or lose our track or make our eyes and hearts dull to see the traces of the whole plan. To realize the whole plan we have tasks to fulfill as God has given us the keys of the kingdom.
David’s article has given me a sense of maturity in my Christian faith. As Christians are divided in their faith due to their over emphasis or over focus on certain aspects of the Christian faith, I view it as immature faith. Immature because, they seem to be too young to grow from teaching and learning the baby stuff, too young to see the bigger picture as they are well focused on one or two angles only. They are not mature enough to learn the high level of faith, to teach and learn the Christian adult stuff, to perceive the whole picture rather than focus on just one aspect or two. In this context, I remember a teacher who powerfully explains personal salvation by faith, mercy and grace, but would seem to ignore any bible verse that says about doing good deeds, building the kingdom of God and any others related to doing good. I am so eager to share David’s thoughts to him hoping he would someday mature.
David mentioned that we have lost or forgotten the gospel of the kingdom of God as proclaimed by Christ and his disciples. David is like saying that we have lost the most essential part in the whole plan of God that Paul proclaimed to the Ephesians. It is supposed to be a very important gospel. It is true that we already understood the gospel of personal salvation, valued the message of the Holy Spirit’s ministry but not the gospel of the kingdom. What then is the kingdom of God? That is what we need to know and be busy learning about because it is basically our task as redeemed individuals to build his kingdom. Some preachers are still stuck in their salvation hangover. They can hardly move on and mature. For them Paul’s teachings are all about salvation. David is right that Paul himself proclaimed the kingdom of God in his ministry. However, some preachers failed to see or mature to that level in their preaching ministry. David cited the book of Acts as a testament that documents the fact that the apostles indeed understood, proclaimed, and started building the kingdom of God. Going back to what my former teacher said about the kingdom of God: it is already here but not yet. David said it better or expounded as he mentioned that the gospel of the kingdom of God (meaning, a new creation) has begun in the person of God’s Son who came to restore man in God’s image. Let us recall that God created us in their image and likeness. However, we are basically sinful that we have tainted our own image. But God restored that image as He sent His own Son to redeem us from our sinfulness. Such redemption would restore our image and our values so that we become worthy to proclaim God’s kingdom - justice, peace, new order, and righteousness.
I agree with David that as builders of the Kingdom of God, we are not to look forward to the second coming (nor to a future kingdom age) since God has already fulfilled it in his first coming. In fact, Jesus has announced at the inauguration of his public ministry that the Kingdom of God is at hand:
Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,
And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel. (Mk. 1:14-15)
He explicitly stated that the kingdom of God is at hand. However, in the gospel of Luke we also see the inauguration of Christ’s public ministry, where after he read the passage from the book of the prophet Isaiah he said the “today this scripture passage is fulfilled upon your hearing.”
And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.
Matthew Henry says that it is most probable that Christ went on, and showed particularly how this scripture was fulfilled in the doctrine he preached concerning the kingdom of heaven at hand; that it was preaching liberty, and sight, and healing, and all the blessings of the acceptable year of the Lord. The people in the synagogue must have been very much intrigued by Jesus’ claim because these people have long been waiting for the anointed one who will proclaim that the kingdom of God at hand. However, Jesus proved his claim as he performed his ministry, as he died, and most especially when he rose again. David said that God’s Kingdom definitively came when he rose from the grave. The story did not end there. He ascended and seated at the right hand of the Father, but never left us alone because He gave us the Holy Spirit to be with us as we continue doing or building the kingdom of God, defeat all enemies – false theologies, false ideologies, idols, evil human systems, etc. When all enemies are defeated we (the whole Christian church) then become worthy bride to receive the groom (Jesus Christ). David is saying that it will happen after God shakes the heavens and earth where the unshakable and everlasting Kingdom of God remains. Death will eventually be overcome as we all finally resurrect and God will then invades time and history as fully experience the Kingdom of God.
With David’s teaching there are certain beliefs and teachings that will eventually be rejected or questioned or may be viewed as lie. These are:
a) End-time scenario which removes the body of Christ out of its authority to exemplify and continue Christ’s victory in the world,
I believe that it refers to end-time teachings which promote passivity in their faith, unreasonable fear of God, and a view of the recent environmental calamities as God’s act and not as consequence of human abuse against nature.
b) Any interpretation that regard the gospel to a lower degree being a personal faith only and likewise depriving its power to transform creation
David must be talking about some immature Christian teachings which limit their preaching on faith of Jesus as personal savior and no further actions or no amount of doing are required in order to attain eternal life. Why? This very limited and repeated day-in and day-out teaching of the gospel will like produce immature and passive Christians. Indeed, it’s crippling, castrating or depriving the great potentiality and power of the Gospel to change the world. I believe that the gospel is more than just our personal salvation by faith.
David said that the coming of Christ as human being has also transfigured every sphere of human endeavor and creativity, including nature itself. And when he returns, his suffering is not only rewarded with a pure bride, but also a planet leavened and liberated by the kingdom. He dynamically described the kingdom as having definitively come through God in Christ, continuously coming through the obedience of faith, and will consumatively come at the second coming.
Our Christology,xxv therefore, must inform our eschatology.xxvi Our revelation of Christ, as the incarnate Son of God (i.e. God in a human body in this world), and as the Son of Man (i.e. Man perfected in this world) determines our understanding of end-things. As the God-Man, he is the full stop, the climax of history, and the fullness of the Father in a time-space world.xxvii This is the promised kingdom age. The old heavens and earth, the old covenant age has passed and the new has come - the new Jerusalem has arrived in the person of the Son.xxviii This will 'fuss' with many eschatological sacred cows - with escapist rapture theories, millennial schemes, and not to mention the role of Israel, the church, and the kingdom. Any deferment of the kingdom to another age, or abrogation of it to an old covenant ethnic identity is dismantled.xxix Christ and his body, the new Israel, in which there is neither Jew nor Greek,xxx is the climax of history - the fulfilment of the Edenic promise that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent's head,xxxi and thus also, of all the covenants and promises through the fathers.xxxii
This is a very powerful capsulated summary of our Christology, our salvation history or Christian journey. It gives us a connection between the old and new covenants. It also pushes us to ask about the purpose of God for sending His own son. To make us understand the purpose of God, David leads bus by identifying where God’s purpose begins. He believes that it all begins in himself, the center and circumference is found in him, in relationship. It cannot be that the purpose begins in the fall of man because it leads us not to a relationship with God but recovery of the sinful man. David believes it is a half-baked theology. This theology produces a God who is a psychotherapist called Dr. Feelgood. David rather promotes the idea that God’s purpose for sending his own son is relationship. In a relationship, recovery is still happens because God is a Father of compassion and God of all comfort (2 Cor. 1:3-4). It’s a father and son relationship revealed and clearly manifested by Jesus. So, God is our Father and we are his sons and daughters. Given that relationship, there is an expectation from Him, a father to provide our needs during infancy; likewise there is an expectation from us, sons and daughters, to become mature in the eyes of a loving father whose desire is for His sons and daughters to mature. In any relationship maturation or maturing is always expected. We always come from romantic relationship and then we desire to shift into a fruitful relationship as we mature. As a loving Father expecting for our maturity, he then gives us a responsibility and that is by giving us the keys of the kingdom of God. God’s purpose is therefore a relationship where he is the father or the ruler of the universe by having matured sons and daughters.
David says that as sons of God we therefore inherit the Father’s DNA. Having the father’s DNA we then are brothers of Jesus being the firstborn son. After Jesus has given the keys of the kingdom of God, the redeemed humanity will exercise dominion over the earth. At the end of our human history therefore, we will not only hold the keys but we all inherit the kingdom of God. It is very true of a loving Father to bequeath his business to his matured children.
You can download David's Article by clicking this link:
