Kingdom Transformation Opportunities

Here is one of the big ideas of scripture. The kingdom grows by taking over and transforming the kingdom of the world. The kingdom of this world has become . . . the Lord’s and his Christ’s. That is a description of the end of it all. That is Christianity’s ultimate vision statement. And in the statements that follow we find a blow-by-blow description of the process by which this vision was realised.

Then the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.” And the twenty-four elders, who sit on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, “We give You thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty, who are and who were, because You have taken Your great power and have begun to reign. And the nations were enraged, and Your wrath came, and the time came for the dead to be judged, and the time to reward Your bond-servants the prophets and the saints and those who fear Your name, the small and the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth.” And the temple of God which is in heaven was opened; and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple, and there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder and an earthquake and a great hailstorm.

Revelation 11:15-19

The world stands as a crushing and uncompromising system that presses its members to conform or perish. We are called to not conform to it. Instead we are to be transformed. That is the encouragement we find in the opening verses of Romans 8. In this way, individuals are transformed from one kingdom to the other. I believe that this is true of communities as well, subsets of the world as a whole. The Lord wants to redeem each one. Individuals, communities, and eventually the whole system of the world . . . It will all be his!

An old rendering of Daniel pictures the kingdoms of this world being consumed by the Lord’s kingdom:

And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.

Daniel 2:44

We are used to thinking about the two kingdoms being in opposition, but it seems a new way of thinking to see kingdom potential every time we see an incarnation of the world before us. Where do we see the world at work? In nations, provinces with a ruling authority, clubs and societies, organisations, schools, mosques, churches and companies. In any organised group of people, more than likely we will see a system of conformity set up to control the group. Does that mean that any group that is structured is evil somehow? The answer is that we are not looking to condemn and find fault. We are not advocating anarchy or disorganisation. Instead, when we see harsh treatment and the restriction of freedom and self-expression, we can see a target for kingdom transformation. When the world, whatever it looks like, enslaves a group of people, it may be that we can partner with the Lord to see their release.