Restitutio

Now that we’ve looked at many of the kingdom texts from the Old Testament, today we’ll get into the New Testament and see what Jesus and the apostles taught about the kingdom.  We’ll examine the titles of Jesus, a couple of his parables, some texts from Paul and James, and conclude in Revelation.  In this lecture, we’ll restrict our focus to just those verses that speak of the kingdom as future.  We’ll come back to the other kingdom scriptures in the New Testament in subsequent lectures.

This is lecture 5 of the Kingdom of God class, originally taught at the Atlanta Bible College.  To take this class for credit, please contact ABC so you can do the work necessary for a grade.

Notes:

My goal is to cruise through the New Testament and look at texts pertaining to the coming kingdom (Matthew to Revelation)

defining Messiah/Christ: the one God anoints to rule over the kingdom

defining Son of Man: the one Daniel saw in a vision to whom God gave the kingdom

defining Son of David: the promised descendant to rule on the throne of David forever

defining Son of God: same as God’s messiah (2 Sam 7.14) and God’s creation (Luke 1)

Jesus clearly believed in a coming (future) kingdom

Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

They [the meek] show by every word and gesture that they do not belong to this earth.  Leave heaven to them, says the world in its pity, that is where they belong.  But Jesus says: “They shall inherit the earth.”  To these, the powerless and the disenfranchised, the very earth belongs.  Those who now possess it by violence and injustice shall lose it, and those who here have utterly renounced it, who

Simply put, restorationism is the approach to Christianity that seeks to compare accepted doctrines and practices against the bible to see if they are valid.  Our intention is to recover authentic New Testament Christianity and live it out today.  We hold God’s inspired scriptures above traditions, creeds, and clergy.  The time is ripe for us to reach over denominational lines and dialogue with each other about our differences in a respectful and constructive manner.  We are restorationists and this is our manifesto. Read the Restorationist Manifesto.

Here’s the full-length YouTube presentation:

Notes and Links:

Last time we looked at the kingdom prophecies in Isaiah.  Today we’ll examine Amos, Micah, Zephaniah, Zechariah, Ezekiel, and Daniel to continue developing a biblical picture of the age to come.

This is lecture 4 of the Kingdom of God class, originally taught at the Atlanta Bible College.  To take this class for credit, please contact ABC so you can do the work necessary for a grade.

Notes:

We’ve already looked at God’s promises to Abraham and David as well as the richest kingdom book of the bible—Isaiah.  Now we will examine several other key prophecies and psalms.

Amos 9.11-15

Micah 4.6-8

Zephaniah 3.8-20

Let’s face it; it’s difficult to talk about pornography, especially among Christians.  We get overwhelmed with feelings of shame and embarrassment while fearing how others will regard us with disgust or disdain.  However, this issue is a huge struggle for a ton of Christians (and non-Christians) in the world today.  Drawing on some of what he shared last week about spiritual disciplines, Blake Cortright joins us once again to tackle this sensitive topic.  He explains why porn is so hard to quit as well as reasons why it’s worth it to gain freedom from this taskmaster.  In a remarkable display of courage and honesty, Cortright also shares his own 10+ year struggle with pornography and what measures he took that finally liberated him.

Warning, if children are around, although we do not discuss any graphic content, the general topic is probably inappropriate, depending on the ages.

Notes and Links:

The prophet Isaiah spoke more about the kingdom than any other prophet in the Hebrew bible. Consequently, his book is a phenomenal place to begin developing our understanding of what the kingdom will be like.  Stitching together his various snapshots, we encounter a magnificent collage detailing a new world full of peace, justice, and healing.

This is lecture 3 of the Kingdom of God class, originally taught at the Atlanta Bible College.  To take this class for credit, please contact ABC so you can do the work necessary for a grade.

Notes:

God will make everything wrong with the world right.

Isaiah 2.1-4

Isaiah 9.2-7

Isaiah 11.1-10

Isaiah 25.6-9

Isaiah 35.1-10

Isaiah 51.3-8

Isaiah 60.1-22

Isaiah 61.1-7

Isaiah 65.17-25

What spiritual disciplines do you practice?  We’re all familiar with reading our bibles and prayer, but there’s so much more available.  In this interview, Blake Cortright guides us through his own journey into discovering ancient Christian disciplines that can help us today, including prayer, fasting, meditation, bible study, simplicity, solitude, submission, service, confession, worship, guidance, and celebration.  Pulling on the work of Richard Foster, Henri Nouwen, Dallas Willard, and John Eldredge, Cortright shares how these spiritual disciplines can help center us and sanctify us so we can live for God better today.

Notes and Links:

It’s impossible to understand the kingdom of God or Jesus without having a grasp of the history-changing promises God made with Abraham and David.  To Abraham God covenanted the land and to David, a descendant to rule.  Ultimately these two covenants find their fulfillment in Jesus of Nazareth–the Messiah.

This is lecture 2 of the Kingdom of God class, originally taught at the Atlanta Bible College.  To take this class for credit, please contact ABC so you can do the work necessary for a grade.

Notes:

defining a covenant

Abraham (Land Promise)

Gen 12.1-4: the pre-covenant

Gen 12.5-7

Gen 17.1-12, 23-27: the blood covenant

What role does doubt play in your life?  Do you think of it as something to push aside and ignore or do you pursue your doubts to get answers?  In this episode we examine the role of doubt for Christians, avoiding both extremes of refusing to engage with doubt as well as obsessing on it.  Our goal is to face doubt honestly and ask God for help as we do the hard work of getting good answers.

Links:

Today we begin a new class on Restitutio on the Kingdom of God. Jesus said the kingdom was like a treasure hidden in a field—it’s so valuable it’s worth selling everything to purchase. He said to seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness above what we eat or wear. In this class we’ll spend a great deal of time exploring what the bible teaches about the kingdom, including hope, gospel, and way. We will also work through the main reasons why Christianity lost the kingdom before looking at how some Christians recovered it. This class will not only provide a panoramic and nuanced view of the kingdom, but it will also offer a cohesive proleptic ethic to aid navigating our complex world while remaining true to Jesus, the king of the coming kingdom.

In this first lecture we look at the bookends of the bible: Genesis and Revelation. By developing a robust creation theology we’ll have a better grasp on what the end will be like. In addition to looking at Genesis, we’ll consider some of the marvels of God’s creation, including relativity, quantum theory, the hydrologic cycle, and bees. In the end my goal is to convince you that God did a good job making our world so it makes sense that he would want to restore it in the end.

This is lecture 1 of the Kingdom of God class, originally taught at the Atlanta Bible College.  To take this class for credit, please contact ABC so you can do the work necessary for a grade.

Notes:

eschatology = study of the end

two key restoration texts

creation theology

Christians protecting Muslims while they prayed in Tahrir Square, Egypt in 2011

On January 27, 2017, President Trump issued Executive Order 13769, called “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States,” in which he banned immigration from seven countries, including Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen.  This unpopular order caused much controversy throughout the US and led to significant litigation, delaying it’s implementation.  Much of the president’s motivation for this order (and subsequent revisions) is to protect Americans from terrorists posing as refugees.  In this episode we look at few significant biblical passages on sojourners (immigrants) and attempt to stake out a Christian position on this subject.  Whether you are for or against immigration, this episode should help you think through your position from a distinctly Christian perspective.

Links: