Andrew Meredith’s Reviews > Paradise Restored: A Biblical Theology of Dominion > Status Update

Later, Daniel actually forsees Christ's enthronement (Dan 7:13-14). Though often assumed today to be about the Second Coming ("the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven"), one must first ask, in the context of Daniel, where is He coming to? "He came UP to the Ancient of Days." This text is about Jesus's Ascension to the Father's right hand (recorded at the end of Luke and beginning of Acts), not His bodily coming again in glory to judge the living and the dead!

This original context must be kept in mind in the places where Jesus takes the title "Son of Man" upon Himself and even says He will be "coming with the clouds" (Matt 24:30; Mark 13:26). Jesus is not there referencing His Second Coming, but His permanent enthronement as King of the cosmos at the end of His First Coming (Ps 110; 1 Cor 15:25). More on that later in the book.

During His first advent, Jesus, the King, was busy bringing in His Kingdom. "The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe the euangelion!" (Mark 1:15; "euangelion" = the official governmental proclamation in the Greco-Roman world of a regime change). Jesus told His followers, "Truly I say unto you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His Kingdom" (Mat 16:28). Was He right or wrong?

When Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the foal of a donkey, Matthew specifically says that He fulfilled OT prophecy, but just look at that very prophecy (Zech 9:9-10; cf. Is 9)! "He will speak peace to the nations; and His dominion will be from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth." Jesus enthronement over all the earth began at His ascension. Crucially, this is how the Bible explains the event (Acts 2:30-36; Eph 1:20-21; Col 1:13).

But what about Satan? Isn't he the prince of the power of the air (Eph 2:2)? Doesn’t he rule the world, like the Bible says (Lk 4:6; 1 Jn 5:19)? Well, he is still certainly present and powerful, and he still has strongholds (which we assault, by the way 2 Cor 10:4), but he has been defanged, thrown down, and cast out by the cross (Heb 2:14; Col 2:15; Jn 12:31-32). Where once he, the "strong man" had an iron grip on the nations, holding them in darkness, he is now "bound" and his "house" is being "plundered" (Matt 12:28-29). With his ability to "deceive the nations" stymied (Rev 20:2-3), the triumphant King is leading a "host of captives," out of the kingdom of darkness and into His marvelous Kingdom of Light (Eph 4:8; 1 Pt 2:9).

Today, the Church, Christ's Body, carries on His Kingdom's unstoppable offensive campaign, just as Christ said they would do. "On this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it" (Matt 16:18). Notwithstanding the defensive posture our minds have been somehow trained to understand this verse, it should have been obvious, gates don't attack! Rather, they are attacked, either withstanding the assault, or they are taken. God the Son here promises His saints what He has always promised them, the gates of their enemies (Gen 22:17; cf. Jud 16:3).

Here we must remember the definitive->progressive->consummated pattern from earlier. Jesus definitively defeated Satan and his seed at the cross, but until the Last Judgment, the Devil will continue to fight. So, rejoice in the victory of your enthroned King (Eph 1:20-22; 2:6), and then strap on your armor (6:10-17), but do so in confidence (hope). We are the ones storming the gates of Hell, after all, and our victory is sure. Even (and especially) if they kill us, we triumph through their spilling our blood, just as our Savior did by spilling His Own (Rev 12:11). In so doing, we, His Body, "fill up what is lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions" (Col 1:24).

Though we should by all means be triumphant (as that last paragraph certainly was), believing that the Gospel will succeed and the Kingdom will eventually leaven the whole lump and grow into the tallest tree (Matt 13:31-33), we must avoid a simplistic Triumphalism that sees nothing but an unbroken string of victories and pure upward progress. There were setbacks (we are currently living in the rubble of Christendom 1.0), and there will be more, but our God is in this for the long haul ("to a thousand generations," Deut 7:9) and that needs to be our mindset as well. After all, with at least 36,000 years still yet to go (a "generation" always being 40 years in the Biblical narrative), we are still very much in what will be known as "The Early Church."

Now, if you are anything like me when I first heard this, you probably have a few different contrary verses pop into your head by about now:

"Narrow is the gate that leads to life, and there are few that find it."

"When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?"

"My Kingdom is not of this world."

Chilton may do this later, but let's tackle them one at a time now.

The first (Matthew 7:14) is easy enough. Jesus, speaking in the present tense to the Jews of His day, was speaking about the salvation of the Jews of His day. Only a few of them would find the Way and be saved. This becomes especially apparent in the parallel passages (Lk 13:22-30; Matt 8:5-13) where, when asked "if few will be saved," He specifies that only a few "sons of the kingdom" (i.e., Jews) would be saved, but that "many would come from the east and the west, the north and the south" (i.e., Gentiles) "and recline at table in the Kingdom of God." Revelation 7:9 bears this out: The redeemed are "a great multitude that no one can count from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues." Doesn't sound here like the saved of all mankind are few.

The second (Lk 18:8) just shows the bias of the translation more than anything else. When translated correctly (in my opinion), you can see that it makes a very similar point to the first. (It turns out Jesus was remarkably consistent in His message of the coming judgment upon Israel.) "God will shortly execute the avenging of His elect. Nevertheless, the Son of Man, having come, will He find faith(fulness) on the Land (of Israel)?"

Even if you are skeptical of my rendering here, there is one more important point to consider. As in English, rhetorical questions in Greek have the answer inside of them, don't they? Examples: "Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all miracleworkers?" (1 Cor 12:29). Each of these rhetorical questions have the Greek word μὴ in them which signals a negative answer: "No." However, "Am I an Apostle? Am I free? Have I seen our Lord Jesus?" (1 Cor 9:1) each have oὐκ in them which signals a positive answer: "Yes." (So translators are right to fill in the gaps accordingly.) Jesus's question in Luke 18:8 lacks either μὴ or oὐκ, and thus is not rhetorical at all. It is truly a searching question.

The last verse (Jn 18:36a) simply means that Jesus's authority did not come from this world and that His Kingdom will not advance by the same violent methods the kingdoms of this world advance (Jn 18:36b). People who construe it to mean that Jesus is not the current King of kings and Lord of lords (Rev 19:16), Ruler of the kings of this earth (Rev 1:5; cf. Is 9:6-7), whom all kings and nations must pay homage to, lest He be angry and they perish in the way (Ps 2), who will reign until all His enemies are made a footstool for His feet (Ps 110, the single most quoted chapter in the NT) simply do not know their Bibles.