The Divine Conspiracy Continued: Fulfilling God’s Kingdom on Earth. Dallas Willard

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      GOD’S DIVINE CONSPIRACY

      Even though this book is coauthored, we see this present work as progressing naturally from and building upon Dallas’s previous volumes. The Divine Conspiracy came as the third book in the series. The first installment, In Search of Guidance (later retitled Hearing God), describes how life in God’s kingdom promises an intimate, conversational relationship with God. The king of this kingdom of goodness wants to be in conversation with us about our lives. The book explains how we can experience this reality.

      The second, The Spirit of the Disciplines, seeks to explain another aspect of this intimate relationship with God. As we develop a conversational relationship with God through the Holy Spirit, we become apprenticed to Jesus—novices learning from the guidance of a master craftsman. And what this craftsman is teaching us is how to have a character like his and so embody God’s goodness. The book explains many of the practices and tools that facilitate spiritual transformation.

      The Divine Conspiracy then shows how this intimate relationship of being apprenticed to Jesus has a direction and goal, using the Sermon of the Mount as a means of articulating a vision of the good news as the good life available in the kingdom of God—that is, available now. Next, how God works through the nitty-gritty details of our lives, work, relationships, bodies, thoughts, feelings, and desires to teach us how to live our life as Jesus would live it if he were in our specific context is covered in Renovation of the Heart. The Great Omission, a collection of essays, discusses the great opportunity that lies before our churches today as they attempt the task of creating disciples, of bringing people into the life-giving reality of Jesus and his kingdom ways—and the great tragedy that occurs when this opportunity is not fulfilled.

      These previous works provided a vision for personal transformation, the how and why for what we are to be working on in the Christian life. This work hopes to expand our vision so that we begin to glimpse God’s kingdom goals over and above the work he is doing in our own lives and better see his overarching objectives for the world. In God’s kingdom we are not solely concerned with our personal transformation (which by itself would be spiritual narcissism), but also with how we are part of a larger work of transformation: the reconciliation of all things. We are concerned with how God wants to accomplish this work both in and through us.

      In the New Covenant Jesus has purchased, we are introduced to the true reality of all things. Through the Spirit of Christ we can draw from this reality so that we may know, in all of the areas that touch our lives—in our work, ministry, family, society, culture, government, institutions, art, play, research, religion—the goodness and provision of an all-sufficing, want-erasing, fear-eradicating, peace-loving Shepherd. Such a precious gift is not for sale, nor is it a chip with which to bargain in our society.

      No doubt many will vehemently disagree with the notion that God is calling all leaders to extend the kingdom of God to whatever areas they are involved with. Some will insist that the church, or Christians in general, lack the expertise, competency, and responsibility for such a task. Many who hold this position argue from history’s numerous examples of the ill effects that resulted when individuals, groups, or societies claimed Christian sovereignty over all areas. Horrific examples of cult practices, fundamentalist separatism, religious elitism, and doctrinal exclusivism are available for all to see. The so-called New Atheists have made a small fortune elaborating the ghastly tragedies that tarnish the history of the Christian religion. On the other side are those who argue that political power games that readily employ arm-twisting influence, backroom deals, and billion-dollar political action committees are the weapons and tactics that must be used by Christians on the battlefields of modern cultural warfare.

      With regard to both these viewpoints, we simply note that making the claim that some activity or ideology is Christlike or is being engaged from a Christian perspective may not in fact be the case; it may be altogether unchristian and non-Christlike. What is advertised is often very different from what is delivered. Certainly issues of interpretation are involved, but interpretation is not the end of the matter. Many activities and motives ascribed to Jesus or the Christian worldview are verifiable misrepresentations of Christlikeness, despite claims to the contrary. Part of the means of discerning this difference is given by Jesus himself. When asked by John the Baptist if in fact he was who he said he was, Jesus gave a specific answer in reply: “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them” (Matt. 11:5). Here again, contrary to popular “prosperity” gospel, Jesus is suggesting that the kind and type of life he offers is better in essence and quality, both spiritually and physically, than the alternatives. This is a question we, like John the Baptist, do well to consider during periods of great difficulty.

      But the base question underneath John’s inquiry remains crucial for us today: Is the vision of life Jesus offers a better one, or should we pursue another? If, during the first century, one were to ask a Roman soldier, a Jewish religious leader, and perhaps a dishonest money changer if becoming a Christian would better their lives, such persons might honestly reply, “Absolutely not!” Likewise, today there is vehement opposition to Jesus’s understanding and revelation of what is good for us and how to discern it in our individual and social circumstances. Still, no other ethical philosophy has yet been found or created that either matches or exceeds the moral knowledge representative of Christ’s life and teaching. Jesus’s teachings remain the solitary beacon of hope for eliminating the elusive, cyclical crises of human existence and thus represents the crucial first step that will lead humanity toward achieving the life without fear and want that fulfills our desperate search for human flourishing.

      CITIES OF OUR GOD

      Lest anyone consider this work advocacy for a new form of the “social gospel,” a fuller articulation of the “prosperity gospel,” or even an argument on which to base a new, better, or reformed platform for virtue ethics that seeks the “general welfare” or “holistic prosperity,” let us put these claims to rest. We are simply recalling, reminding people of, and pursuing what both the Hebrew scriptures and New Testament seek, articulate, and instruct in the very old and elusive reality called shalom. It is the enduring and encompassing experience and expectation of restful, secure, holistic well-being, which every individual and culture has struggled to find or create and maintain throughout human history. Shalom is what Yahweh promised Abraham would be his, a blessing of God that would flow through him to all the other nations (Gen. 12:2; 15:15).

      Likewise it is crucial that God’s sufficiency and plentitude be manifested and experienced in the lives of those called by his name. Christians must eat their own cooking, follow their own teaching, and understand their own ideas. Judgment must begin with the house of God (1 Pet. 4:17). This encompasses the final hope of this work: to bless, equip, inspire, and encourage those leaders dedicated to working with Jesus in furthering the cause of the kingdom of God within the key institutions and structures of our society. It is crucial that a gospel powerful enough to save is also powerful enough to deliver us from evil. The local church must be moved from simply advocating understanding of or professing belief in the availability of life in the kingdom to demonstrating and manifesting a broader expression of what the gospel can accomplish when brought directly to bear on the weighty matters of our social realities. These matters are crucial and eternal, for they deal with the eternal souls of those individuals within our families, our neighbors, our society, and finally the world at large.

      A very small percentage of those in the church stand behind a pulpit or sport certain kinds of identifiable clothing. The actual leadership roster of the church includes disciples ministering in every arena of life, in business, law, medicine, education, the arts, sciences, government, and religion. The objective of Jesus’s church-growth strategy was not to build a single, behemoth social institution with a limited set of ordained authorities. СКАЧАТЬ