jv 34 Kingdom Hope Fades Jesus’ disciples were well aware that they had to keep on the watch for Jesus’ promised “presence” and the coming of his Kingdom. In time, it was appreciated that this Kingdom will rule over the earth for a thousand years and transform it into a paradise. (Matt. 24:3; 2 Tim. 4:18; Rev. 20:4, 6) The Christian Bible writers exhorted first-century witnesses to keep spiritually awake and to keep separate from the world. (Jas. 1:27; 4:4; 5:7, 8; 1 Pet. 4:7) But once the apostles died, Christian expectation of Christ’s presence and the coming of his Kingdom faded. Why? One factor was the spiritual contamination caused by the Greek doctrine of the immortality of the soul. As it took hold among Christians, the millennial hope was gradually abandoned. Why? The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology explains: “The doctrine of the immortality of the soul came in to take the place of NT [New Testament] eschatology [the teaching on the “Last Things”] with its hope of the resurrection of the dead and the new creation (Rev. 21 f.), so that the soul receives judgment after death and attains to paradise now thought of as other-worldly.” In other words, apostate Christians thought that the soul survived the body at death and that the blessings of Christ’s Millennial Reign must therefore relate to the spirit realm. They thus transferred Paradise from earth to heaven, which, they believed, the saved soul attains at death. There was, then, no need to watch for Christ’s presence and the coming of his Kingdom, since at death they all hoped to join Christ in heaven. Another factor, though, actually made it seem to be pointless to watch for the coming of Christ’s Kingdom. The New Encyclopædia Britannica explains: “The [apparent] delay of the Parousia resulted in a weakening of the imminent expectation in the early church. In this process of ‘de-eschatologizing’ [weakening of the teaching on the “Last Things”], the institutional church increasingly replaced the expected Kingdom of God. The formation of the Catholic Church as a hierarchical institution is directly connected with the declining of the imminent expectation.” (Italics ours.) So not only were millennial blessings transferred from earth to heaven but the Kingdom was shifted from heaven to earth. This “relocation” was completed by Augustine of Hippo (354-430 C.E.). In his famous work The City of God, he stated: “The Church even now is the kingdom of Christ, and the kingdom of heaven.” Meanwhile, in about 313 C.E., during the rule of Roman Emperor Constantine, legal recognition was given to Christianity, much of which by this time had become apostate in its thinking. Religious leaders were willing to be put into the service of the State, and at first the State controlled religious affairs. (Before long, religion would control State affairs.) Thus began Christendom, part of which (the Catholic religion) in time became the official State religion of Rome. Now, the “kingdom” not only was in the world but was part of the world. What a far cry from the Kingdom that Christ preached!—John 18:36.
Posted on: Sun, 22 Sep 2013 04:41:01 +0000
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