Book Review — Kingdom Come

April 24, 2008

Kingdom Come, by Allen Mitsuo Wakabayashi

In our discussion of music last week, Joe warned us about the danger of throwing out the gold along with the dross.  In thinking about the Kingdom of God, I think many lovers of Christ have done just that.  We live in a day in which the ‘Emergent Church’ is growing in popularity by preaching a form of the gospel which is not truly the gospel.  It is not really new, but it is a continuation of the social gospel that has been prominent for decades.  In essence, they focus their attention on making the world a better place, caring for the environment, and fighting for issues of social justice.  When these things are happening, we are bringing about the Kingdom of God.  Human depravity, substitutionary atonement, hell, these are things that the emergents can do without, impediments to doing the real work of the Kingdom.

This is plain heresy.  But it is heresy not because of what they care about (creation, social justice, etc.), but because of what they ignore.  Yet it seems to me that many Christians have thrown out the gold with the dross.  When someone speaks about the importance of fighting for the rights of the poor and marginalized, when they emphasize God’s commitment to His whole creation, not just human souls, many Christians cringe and cry out, ‘Emergent!’

Because of this tendency, I think some people who read Kingdom Come will feel uncomfortable that parts of it sound emergent.  But in my opinion, this book wisely, simply and accurately brings out a much needed emphasis for Christians to consider as we ponder the Gospel and the Kingdom of God.  To be as clear as I can be, this book is not emergent.  I think this quote from the back of the book summarizes well Wakabayashi’s thesis:

God is up to something!  And his plans are far greater than we might imagine.  Christianity is not merely about isolated individuals going to heaven.  It’s about God transforming the entire world and making things right.  Sicknesses will be healed, sins will be forgiven, injustice will be eradicated, and all creation will be redeemed.   But this is not merely a distant future.  It’s happening now through what Jesus came to establish — the Kingdom of God.  

I can’t capture the content of this book better than that summary.  I thought this was an excellent introduction to this often neglected theme of God’s Kingdom.  For too long I have considered God’s work in the world as limited to bringing humans the forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ.  In reality God’s work is much more than this.  For the Church to be the Church, we must do more than just tell people about how Jesus died for their sins.  To be sure, we must do that!  But being a Christian, and seeking first the Kingdom of God, means more than just this.  I think our tendency to minimize the scope of Christ’s redemption to human souls is a symptom of our inherent man-centeredness.  Wakabayashi helped me to recover a truly God-centered picture of redemption and the Kingdom of God.

As I read this book (and others with a similar theme, as future book reviews will communicate), I have found myself more in awe of the cosmic scope of what Jesus accomplished by His death on the Cross. For that, I am very grateful.  And if you are interested in reading more about this topic, I think this book is a great place to start, because of its length (170 pages) and readability.

Can this book be construed as emergent?  Yes, it can.  But that is not because of the content of the book, but only because of the worldview that a potential reader might bring to the book.  For those who bring a thoroughly biblical view of Christian doctrine, you will not find this to be an ‘emergent’ book.   And to ignore its message because of the possibility that it might sound emergent would be to throw out the gold along with the dross.

Many thanks to Gino for sending this book my way!

Larry

Posted by Larry | Filed Under Book Reviews, Seeking Him 

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