Thursday, February 09, 2006

The Kingdom Of Christ: The New Evangelical Perspective by Russell Moore


To be honest, when I purchased this book I wasn't expecting to learn much from it, but as I began to read through it I started to learn many new things.

First, Dr. Moore does a wonderful job of historical analysis on the 2 major evangelical camps ((dispensational and covenant theology) views of "The Kingdom of God" and how it relates to salvation (chapter 3) and the church (chapter 4), and how the two groups have gradually come up with a consensus that the kingdom is "the already, but not yet", that is the church is the inaugration of God's kingdom and Christ reigns now as king (the already), but God's kingdom has not been consummated (that is the full reign)until Christ's come back to establish the new heavens and new earth.

Dr. Moore also address how this new evangelical kingdom theology of the "the already, but not yet", will combat the "fundamentalist" camp withdrawal in the social and political arena, and the "social gospel" camp of pursuing social/political change without key Christian and biblical fundamentals (I.e. deny of individual redemption).

My only reservation of this book, is that the person choosing to read this book should have some knowledge of what dispensational and covenant theology are, otherwise one could be easily lost in Dr. Moore's detailed analysis (over 300-plus footnotes for each of the first 4 chapters). But I do recommend this book for all church leaders and teachers, I think this book will help lead the way of understanding that "The Kingdom of Christ" is broader and more glorious and the challenges of the church are deeper and more complex than once expected.


For more resources in engaging the social and political arena:

1. See Henry Institure

http://www.henryinstitute.org/


2. See Al Mohler

http://www.albertmohler.com/blog.php

3. For a quick understanding of "the already, but not yet" Kingdom Theology read, Dr (Edmund) Clowney's article, "The Politics of the Kingdome"

http://www.marshillaudio.org/resources/pdf/Clowney_Politics.pdf

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