“It’s normal for the kingdom of the world to consider the boys in body-bags on our side more important than the boys in body-bags on their side. But from a kingdom of God perspective, we would consider all body-bags to be equally tragic.
The kingdom of the world is always involved in conflict, because it’s a power-over kingdom, and if you’re getting in the way of my power-over we’ll have to go to war over this. And usually in the kingdom of the world you demonize your enemies to rally up power against them.
But in the kingdom of God, we are not allowed to have any enemies. We’re forbidden to have enemies of flesh and blood. The ones who think that they are our enemies, we are commanded to love them, to serve them, to lay down our life for them.
While the kingdom of the world is about conflict, the kingdom of God is about reconciliation.”
– Gregory Boyd
Pastor of Woodland Hills church in Minneapolis
Author: “The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the Quest for Political Power Is Destroying the Church”
Transcribed by Jeff Fenske from:
4/25/2004 – The Difference Between the Two Kingdoms, Greg Boyd – sermon length 43:43
The kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world are two very separate things. One uses the sword (power over) to influence people; the other uses love (power under). To understand this distinction is much easier than letting it affect the way we live. Greg continued to discuss the differences between these kingdoms and how we are to live within the distinction.
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[Video] Greg Boyd on ‘Charlie Rose’: How the Quest for Political Power Is Destroying the Church
Victoria Bingham
I highly recommend Gregg Boyd’s “God at War’. I’m not sure why it’s not listed here. It’s a serious read of prodigious Christian scholarship on a very difficult subject; reconciling evil with God’s permission. You may not agree with everything Boyd says, but he’ll really get you thinking.
Jeff Fenske
Victoria,
It sounds like it might be worth looking at, and would be especially interesting to discuss with fellow students and professors at seminary, if I would ever complete my studies. Most of the professors at Trinity probably still are Calvinists, a doctrine that never made Biblical sense to me, or attracted me even in the least.
I’ve never had a problem with God sovereignly deciding to give us all free will, so then we are responsible for how we live and for what we do to others.
Regarding Greg Boyd’s concept of all body bags being equally tragic, what surprises me is how this isn’t taught by almost all Christian pastors, because this is so basic to Jesus’ second greatest commandment, the Sermon on the Mount, and Jesus’ Good Samaritan parable.
“All body bags are equally tragic” is just basic “love your neighbor as yourself” Christianity. And hardly any American pastors teach it. Most are apparently more led by FOX News than by the HOLY Spirit. As a result, American Christianity is now largely reverse-Christian.
Once-saved-always-saved seems to bring about a seriously twisted version of Christianity, which affected its founders too. But these truths about Luther and Calvin isn’t taught at seminaries or in churches or on radio and TV today:
The Protestant Reformers Were Frauds: By their Fruits You Will Know Them — Martin Luther was a false teacher, a racist, a persecutor and a murderer! John Calvin was a false teacher, a deranged tyrant, a persecutor and a murderer!
John Calvin Had Servetus Burned at the Stake — His Ashes Cry Out!
My Ph.D.-genius-friend, John Calvin expert: “In all my reading of Calvin, I don’t recall him ever apologizing for a mistake or admitting an error.” | According to Paul, can John Calvin be in heaven?
John Calvin was a Persecutor
Felix Manz (1498-1527) – Drowned by Zwingly for Rebaptizing — Manz wanted to bring together those who were willing to accept Christ, OBEY the Word, and FOLLOW in Jesus’ footsteps, to UNITE with these by baptism
Martin Luther: Sin Boldly — “No sin can separate us from Him, even if we were to kill or commit adultery thousands of times each day”
Luther: Let us BANISH the epistle of James, for it is ‘WORTHLESS’ — written by a non-Christian and can’t be reconciled with Paul
What the Lord’s Prayer really says about FORGIVING. Jesus made it clear right after “Amen”: “IF YOU DON’T forgive…” vs. Luther’s Catechism: “God forgives WITHOUT CONDITION,” even “REVENGE!!!”
Martin Luther Cursed from His Heart Catholic Leaders, ‘Every Day’
Hating, unforgiving, James-3 cursing, Biblically disqualified MARTIN LUTHER: “When I die, I want to be a ghost…So I can continue to pester the bishops, priests and godless monks until that they have more trouble with a dead Luther than they could have had before with a thousand living ones.”
Jeff