This is part 5 of the Kingdom Seminar, based on the book Kingdom Journey.
This episode begins by delving into the history of how the theologians of the third and fourth centuries rejected the kingdom since they thought it was too crude, too hedonic, and too Jewish. Next I briefly cover three rediscovery movements, including the Anabaptists of the 16th century, the Adventists of the 19th century, and the New Testament scholars of the 20th century. Still, the majority of Christendom lies in the shadow of heaven-at-death mythology, hidden from the light of God’s grand vision for our world. You and I have work to do. The kingdom of God is not a side doctrine–a footnote in eschatology. It’s extremely important. We are kingdom ambassadors. And we have a winning message to tell the world.
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- Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.
- Who is Sean Finnegan? Read Sean’s bio here
Hi Sean,
First of all, I love your work and listen to every podcast episode.
The kingdom is something I’ve been trying to figure out for a long time and have arrived at the same conclusion as you, but can’t help wondering whether God actually expects us to partake in establishing His kingdom on earth. In fact, I can’t see how we can do anything but that. We speak truth and behave righteously and encourage others to do the same. Isn’t this exactly how we change the world to the way it was intended to be?
It seems to me like most Christians expect the world to get much worse before Jesus comes back. Therefore, they do nothing but play the victim and complain about corruption and wickedness in the world. They wait for Jesus to fix it all. They might preach the gospel of forgiveness of sins but don’t lift a finger to do anything to fight the evil that exists. Doesn’t the parable of the talents address this very issue?
Shouldn’t we be doing much, much more?
Hi Sean,
I’ve been listening to you since July of 2024, I’m from the Philippines. So I’m Asian. But I’m interested in your movement because it reminds me of my religion which I was affiliated with before called Jehovah’s Witnesses.
You guys share the same beliefs about the kingdom of God: https://www.jw.org/en/bible-teachings/questions/what-is-gods-kingdom/
I was not disfellowshiped by the JWs, I’m just an inactive member of them because I became Agnostic. I’m trying to revive my faith nowadays and I’m just glad that there are groups like yours that share the same faith about the kingdom of God.
I think the difference between you guys with Jehovah’s Witnesses is your Christological understanding. They believe in the pre-existence of Christ while you guys do not. But you all believe in one God the Father Yahweh or Jehovah and that’s the important thing.
knowing that other groups believe in the kingdom of God strengthen my faith of the coming kingdom of God on Earth. I was skeptical of this before, and I didn’t take JWs teachings about the kingdom of God seriously then but the way you explain it, I have a voice in my head right now saying: “this is real”. I now appreciate these teachings.
I think the kingdom of God is the answer to theodicy often raised by atheists and agnostics like me. Richard Dawkins and Christoper Hitchens often talk about the suffering of the world as evidence that there’s no God. I understand the problem of evil can be fixed by the Kingdom of God. The atheists and agnostics offer no solution to the problem of evil, but the Bible has. I think I’m gonna reconsider the Bible.
I appreciate your groups for this, I can’t guarantee that I can follow your group because I have a firm belief in the preexistence of Christ. I think this difference between me and your group can be solved in the kingdom of God.
Hi Sean, With your question to Mike. Do JWs are comfortable saying that all are damned if you don’t believe in the Watchtower organization or you don’t belong to this?
Based on my personal experience with them, I think they don’t think that all people are damned if they don’t belong to the Watchtower. They believe that there are other people too who even Trinitarians will be saved, I think JWs in the 1940s or 1980s tend to think that they are the group that will be saved, although the Governing Body does not imply that maybe the cause of that is over-zealousness. But they change teachings over time right now they even made some adjustments to their soteriology.
They now believe that other groups of people are not in the organization who will be saved and will be included in the 1000-year reign of Christ to be given a chance to know the good news of the kingdom. In my experience, I think JWs believe that they have the right understanding of the scriptures than the rest but they never claim to be the only path to salvation, and joining with them will not guarantee salvation but only an accurate understanding of God and the kingdom of God and the coming paradise Earth.
They believe that they are the true Church but they don’t think that everyone are damned and hopeless specially with their recent understanding. I remember the person who studied me when I was yet a Catholic. He believes that their understanding of the Scriptures is not yet perfect but only clearer. He quoted what Paul said in the corinthians about the mirror and he explained to me that if everything of our teachings is perfect there will be no things to learn and rectify during the 1000 years reign of Christ. He said to me that even though he has some doubts, he believes that all of those are going to be settled in the coming of the Kingdom of God on earth.
I think those who have bad experiences with JWs are ex-JWS who left the organization during the 1970s or 1980s because those were the years that JWs were extreme in their view about salvation and teachings. Good for them they really want changes and adjustments. Something that I don’t see in my Church which is Catholic.
So far I haven’t had any negative experiences with them, but I am still open to rejoining them.