I received this question via email through facebook and thought that everyone would benefit from it. I took out the member’s name but have included both the question and my response.
Question—
Hi Pastor Brent,
Hey I know you listen to Brian Zahnd a lot, and I was just listening to his latest sermon- which is good if you haven’t listened to it yet- But I have a question for you. Brian said that The Kingdom of God is salvation. I don’t really understand that.
It makes sense a little bit, but I don’t know if i’ve ever heard it that way. So what exactly do you think he means?
Haha sorry, its a weird, random question.
Be blessed!
Answer—
I cannot speak to the exact intent of Brian’s meaning, but I do think that I can add some clarity. What Zahnd is trying to communicate is that salvation is more than just a notion of “say a prayer and you’re square” – as I like to call it – but rather salvation is God restoring creation onto Himself. We talked about this last night with the message about God being a creator. God’s goal is not to “save” mankind from this horrible world, but to restore creation back to it’s original glory – as He created it to be. Brian uses the word salvage in place of salvation a lot which is very fitting because it brings light to what Jesus said about God’s Kingdom is here and yet God’s Kingdom is coming. God is salvaging the world… restoring creation. This is why Jesus told us to pray, “Your Kingdom Come… Your Will Be Done.” Those who try to say that creation is bad, that the body is bad, and that God’s desire is to get us out of here is more influenced by Platonic writings than scripture. Hope this helps.
Shalom!
Brent
Brent,
I wanted to comment (a little belatedly I admit) on the series you did a while back on the Torah/Rabbi/Mishnah, etc. because this week in my bible school classes we got into the intertestamental period and a lot of the terms you explained were used. I felt quite proud of myself that I already knew what they meant and didn’t need them explained like the rest of my class. Thanks so much for breaking down a lot of the old bible history terms and meanings – a lot is making way more sense because of it! I feel like I’m a step ahead already…so thank you!
~Anna
Now you’ll have to get yourself a copy of the Apocrypha and read some very interesting 2nd Temple Jewish writings. We are actually going to be talking about the Apocrypha tonight at Access, and why we do not use it in our bibles.
Shalom!