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Do the Gospels give you the impression that the kingdom of God is about to arrive? My guest today is Troy Salinger who wrote an interesting article called, “The Postponement of the Kingdom – A Response to Preterists and Anti-Missionary Rabbis.” His idea is that the kingdom of God is a political restoration of the kingdom of Israel to one of David’s descendants–and that this kingdom could have come during the time of Christ. However, because the Jewish people, especially the leaders, rejected Jesus as their Messiah, God postponed the coming of the kingdom until a later time. Salinger lays out four points:
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- John and Jesus said the kingdom was about to be established
- The establishment of the kingdom was contingent.
- The Jewish leaders and most of the people rejected Jesus as their king
- After the ascension, Christians are still waiting for the kingdom to come
—— Links ——
- See Troy Salinger’s blog here and read his article, “The Postponement Of The Kingdom – A Response To Preterists And Anti-Missionary Rabbis“
- Read Salinger’s three-part series of articles on the kingdom of God
- Check out my class on the kingdom of God here
- Get the transcript of this episode
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Great dialogue! This conversation obviously finds its way into the whole predestination / free will debate. We know Israel was given the choice to obey God throughout the centuries, but Israel’s rebellion was also FOREKNOW by God. The Hebrew Scriptures also contain prophecies of BOTH a near & far (2nd Coming) arrival of Jesus. They could not have been rewritten to accommodate an establishment of the Kingdom during the apostolic age. Nor was the New Testament even written yet which includes the book of Revelation which ties in directly to the book of Daniel & the common prophecies contained within each. Of course the other prophetic books are just as significant & unalterable. I believe it’s important to remind ourselves that the Bible tells a completed STORY from the first verse of Genesis to the last verse of Revelation with the “spiritual war” beginning with the very first prophecy we read in Genesis 3:15 & culminating with the Great Tribulation. Then when we consider the fact that the “counterfeit” Abrahamic Faith religion of Islam was still several centuries in the future at the time, we should rest in the knowledge & confidence that our One True God has the entire End Times operation firmly under control. We just need to follow God’s lead.
Hello to Sean and Troy,
Thanks for the podcast. I liked this a lot better than just reading Troy’s post. He’s done a great amount of work and I was glad to hear him flesh out his ideas in this form. There’s no doubt he may be onto something when it comes to the Kingdom of God, however I’m going to take up a bit of the preterist mantle for a short response.
There’s a point where Troy admits that the apostles/disciples thought Jesus was returning in their time with the Kingdom, yet he says they were wrong. The implicit admission in this is that when it comes to reading any of the writers of the NT we must now take any time textual statements with a grain of salt. I understand what he’s saying, but yikes that seems a bit problematic. See I think they thought that Jesus was returning with the Kingdom in their time, cause he said it multiple times in some form. References can be gathered, but simply Jesus said “…some standing here will not taste death til they see the son of man coming in his Kingdom.” from Matthew 16:28. I’m aware people try to say this is the transfiguration, but I’ve got my doubts cause these statements are fairly numerous actually the more I studied it, so it causes a problem cause then I’ve got to question Jesus more. So was Jesus predicting here what *should* happen if the religious leaders accepted him as King as Troy says could have happened? Or is this referring to something else? Would like to hear Troy’s take on this.
Oh and I think I’ve read that same book by Ehrman you mentioned Sean. I took a lot of the urgency statements of the coming Kingdom and fundamentalist “hell” very seriously for years so I went out and openly preached the gospel and warned people about God’s judgement. It was actually the re-reading of texts from a person’s viewpoint from roughly 2000 years ago that made me slow my roll and question my understanding. I may not agree with all preterists, or all of preterism… but they aren’t foolish. We’re all “spiritualizing” something.
In the end–I think the idea of questioning all the writers of the NT when it comes to any timing beliefs becomes very shaky ground. Not saying Troy’s necessarily wrong with his theory–it just seems off to do that to the NT writers. I actually really like his theory–it’s just been 2000 years. I’m not sure any contingency delays like this happened in the history of the Jewish people in the OT. But I’m open to being proven wrong.
I enjoyed this podcast, and all the great references in it, as well as seeing things from a different perspective than my own. Nevertheless, The Kingdom of God could not have begun, had Jesus been accepted as the Messiah and King because then they would not have crucified him; there would be no resurrection from the dead; man’s salvation would not be secured; and the new testament would never be written. We also have Rom. 11:25 which enables the gentiles to be saved,, which is prophesied many times in the OT as God’s original plan’
Hi Valerie,
Sorry I did not respond to this sooner, but I only just now discovered your comment. I understand your concern, but I do think it would have been possible for the Yeshua to have been accepted by the Jews as their Messiah and King and yet Yeshua still would have been put to death. Let’s imagine that the Jewish leaders had acknowledged Yeshua and led the people to do the same, and that they then anointed him as King. Yehsua would then have set out to fulfill the prophecies about him delivering Israel from their enemies, at which point Rome would have sought to arrest him and try him for treason. Yeshua would have submitted to this by the will of God and would have been put to death by the Romans. Three days later he would have been raised from the dead and then all of the prophecies would have been quickly fulfilled and the kingdom would have been established and the message would have gone out to all the world. This is one possible scenario.