Wholism 302

If Earth is “God’s creation—now displaced,” and Satan is “lord of the planet,” then we might see our sole purpose on Earth as telling others how they can go to Heaven when they die. Yes, evangelism is essential! But when we see the whole of God’s Kingdom "in the light of His glory and grace," the things of Earth will not grow “strangely dim.” Quite the opposite.

If we view Earth as “God’s broken creation He wants to restore,” then the Gospel is more than the Gospel of Personal Salvation. It is the Gospel of The Kingdom, and that is the fuller biblical description.

Yes, it's Good News that my soul is saved from Hell. But that’s not all there is to the Good News. The Good News of The Kingdom is that Christ came to restore things as well as souls. What kind of “things?” Earth things.  

I’m not suggesting all things will be fully restored before the second coming of Christ. But it is clear from Scripture that the “ministry of reconcilation” Christ gave us in this present life (II Cor. 5:17-20) is not limited to souls. His Kingdom isn’t just about “religious life” and “spiritual things.”  His Kingdom is all-encompassing and as broad as creation is wide. The scope of Christ’s work of reconciliation goes far beyond the human soul.

Colossians 1:16-20 sums it up well: “For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.  And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.  And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell,  and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.”

To reconcile all things? Things on Earth? Does that include business things? Legal things? Artistic things? Civil things? Yes, "...that in all things He may have the preeminence...."

This is what The Kingdom is about, and that’s wholism 302.

See also 7-15-11 and 1-1-10.