(This posting is an adaptation of the author’s thesis submitted to the faculty of the Nairobi International School of Theology towards the fulfillment of a degree in Master’s in Divinity)

Presentation and Biblical Critique of the N.C.C. Teaching on the Kingdom of God

Presentation of the Teaching

The following are the pertinent citations coupled with observations:

1. Dan 2:24-45. The Kingdom would be set up during the Roman empire.

2. Isaiah 2:1-6. This will take place in the last days. All nations would flow to it. It will begin from Jerusalem. There will be conversion.

3. Joel 2:28-32. This will come to pass in the last days: the Holy Spirit will be poured on all flesh in Jerusalem and there will be deliverance.

4. Mt. 3:1;4:17. Jesus said the kingdom is near.

5. Mk:9:1. The kingdom would come during the disciple’s life time. At least one of them would be dead. The kingdom would come with power and it will come on earth.

6. Lk. 17:20-21. The kingdom is spiritual not physical.

7. Lk 23:46-25. At this point Jesus is dead and the kingdom hasn’t yet come as is evidenced by the fact that Joseph of Arimathea was still waiting.

8. Mt. 16:13-19. Peter will have the keys of the kingdom. Jesus talks of the church and the kingdom interchangeably.

9. Jn. 3:1-6. You enter the kingdom of God by being born again of water baptism and Spirit.

10. Lk 24:45-49. Repentance and forgiveness of sin is to be preached in Jesus’ name to all nations. The Holy Spirit is to be sent with power. This will take place in Jerusalem.

11. Act 1:1-9. Jesus talks of the promised things: the Holy Spirit and the kingdom.

12. Points one, five, six and eight were fulfilled in Acts 2 during the Day of Pentecost.

13. The kingdom of God is the Church. The true church is one that adheres to Christ’s teaching. All other churches do not adhere to the teaching of the Bible save the N.C.C. So the Nairobi Christian Church is the only true church. If you are attending any other “church”, then you need to start coming to the true “church”.

Biblical Critique of this Teaching

An analysis of the above points reveal that the coming of the kingdom of God is fulfilled wholly with the birth of the church. In other words, in the church, the kingdom of God finds its culmination. But is this true? A critical passage to analyze for the express purpose of ascertaining the point at which the kingdom of God will be established is Dan. 2:44 “And in the days of those kings the God of Heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people: it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever (Dan. 2:44; N.A.S.V.) According to this verse the kingdom of God will be established in its most powerful and dominant form during the “days of the kings”. A close study of this phrase will furnish us with some of the data we need. As Wood in his commentary on Daniel rightly observes the text does not supply a clear antecedent for “these kings”, that is, no kings as such are mentioned in the prior context (Wood, Commentary on Daniel, p. 71). However, if indeed the version in Dan. 7 be a repetition of the Dan. 2 dream in a different form, then it should not be difficult to equate the ten toes of Dan. 2 to the ten horns of the beast in Dan 7 which according to Dan. 8:24 were interpreted as some ten kings. And if this were to be the case, then it is most probably that the phrase “these kings” refers back to the ten toes. In accordance with Daniel’s interpretation of Nebuchadnezzer’s dream coupled with some extra-biblical historical data, we know that the toes are to represent a kingdom other than the Rome of Jesus’ days – maybe a revived Roman Empire. The Rome of Jesus was represented by the iron legs of the statue in Dan. 2, the connotation of which was strength and power (cf. Dan. 2:40). In fact, at Pentecost, Rome was at its highest peak in terms of power and dominance. But, it had been prophesied that Rome’s dominance and strength would not. It would be weakened and divided (Dan. 2:42-43). Moreover, the mentioning of the ten kings who will arise and rule at the same time for one hour in Rev. 17:12, if taken as an allusion to the ten toes in Dan. 2, would suggest that the last kingdom in Nebuchadnezzer’s statue dream is still of the future. In short, we are saying that, since the days of these kings are still to come and that will be the time during which the kingdom of God is established in its culminated form, it is therefore wrong to assume that the kingdom of God portrayed in Dan. 2 was established earlier like the N.C.C. would propose. Moreover, as Wood comments, The text represents the rise of this new kingdom as being sudden and with a decisive blow, in which the immediately preceding fourth kingdom is obliterated; but nothing like this happened with the beginning of Christ’s spiritual kingdom. To the contrary, not only was Rome not destroyed at the time, but it came to its greatest strength well after Christ died; and, though Christianity did affect the Roman power extensively later on, still the impact was never sudden or crushing in force so as bring total destruction, as pictured by the stone crushing the image. This will be true, however, when Christ comes in power to the Mount of Olives (Zech. 14:6) to establish the millenial rule (Ibid. p. 72). As such, it is faulty observation to conclude from the Dan. 2:24-45 passage that the time of the establishment of God’s kingdom was at Pentecost. For Daniel, the establishment of the eschatological kingdom of God was to be in the future, probably at the millennium. The violent nature and the intensive force with which this kingdom is established definitely refers to the future eschatological kingdom of God which will come with a “cataclysmic divine intervention”. (Buzzard, “The Kingdom of God in Twentieth Century Discussion and the Life of Scripture”, p. 109). This will issue in a worldwide extension of the kingdom under messiah’s rule as all the prophets including Daniel prophesied (Ibid.). This is not to deny the inauguration of this kingdom at some earlier point. The above argument negates this first point of the N.C.C. teaching on the kingdom of God (which is that the kingdom would be set up during the reign of the Roman empire). Daniel has in mind, not the inauguration of this spiritual kingdoms, but the establishment of the eschatological kingdom of God which is the culmination of the spiritual kingdom.

But when was this spiritual kingdom actually inaugurated? Can we be dogmatic enough to contend that it was at Pentecost like the N.C.C. would like us to believe? It is difficult to determine and analyze the temporal orientation of the kingdom in our Lord’s teaching. There are passages that would imply that the kingdom is still future. But at the same time Scripture does seem to suggest that the kingdom of God is yet of the future. In order to support the assertion that the spiritual kingdom was established precisely at Pentecost, the N.C.C. have majored on passages like Matthew 3:1:4:17 and Mark 9:1 which suggest that the spiritual kingdom would not have been inaugurated during the life-time of Christ. However, in accordance with Willis’ observation of the kingdom theology, in the book of Luke alone, it does seem like the kingdom was somehow present during Christ’s lifetime. Jesus’ expelling of demons in Lk. 11:20 proves that the kingdom of God had come upon his audience (Willis, The Kingdom of God in 20th Century Interpretation, p. 154). Moreover the two growth parables of the mustard seed and of the leaven in Lk. 13:18-21 picture the kingdom of God as present in reality. Therefore, Willis concludes that there is no doubt that Luke and the gospel writers viewed this kingdom of God as in part, a reality (Ibid. p. 155).

It is observable that attempts have been made by the N.C.C. to equate the kingdom of God with the Church. But as Ladd himself dissents: the kingdom is primarily the dynamic reign or kingly rule of God, and derivatively, the sphere in which the rule is experienced. In biblical idiom, the kingdom is not identified with its subjects. They are the people of God’s rule who enter it, live under it, and are governed by it. The church is the community of the kingdom but never the kingdom itself…The kingdom is the rule of God; the Church is a society of men (Ladd, Jesus and His Kingdom, p. 258). Rather than equate the kingdom with the church, Ladd asserts that it is the kingdom that creates the church. The dynamic rule of God present in the mission of Jesus challenged men to response, thus creating the church (Ibid., p. 261).

Conclusion

At the core of the N.C.C. teaching on the kingdom of God is the assertion that since the kingdom of God is the church and the N.C.C. is the only true church, then the tripartite syllogism goes that they, i.e., the N.C.C.,solely constitute the kingdom of God. The reason for this self exaltation as was mentioned at the beginning of this paper, results from their claim that they are the only ones who teach biblical truth. But do they? We have seen that their teaching on baptism is overemphasized. Salvation is by faith in Jesus Christ and the place of baptism in the context of the whole process of salvation is that it is a public testimony of an inward change. Baptism has never been efficacious for the forgiveness of sins. We have also observed that their mode of discipleship falls short of the biblical mode. Biblically, a disciple is a believer who is then led to a point of maturity. But for the N.C.C., a disciple is a non-believer who is then led to a point of conversion. It is not true that Spirit baptism ceased with the Acts 2 and Acts 10 events. This assertion does great injustice to the I Cor. 12:13 passage which teaches that all believers are indeed ushered into the body by Spirit baptism. Lastly, we have pinpointed certain wrong observations that characterize the kingdom study as presented by the N.C.C. In light of these findings, it is unsound for the N.C.C. to maintain that they are the only true church on the basis that they are the only ones who teach biblical truth. They have errors and this paper has thus proved the above self-elevation as null and void–absolutely baseless.

Application

In the beginning of this paper we mentioned that it is our duty to shield other Christians from the devastating effects of false teachings. It is our responsibility to rescue our people from imbibition by manipulating groups. One of the ways to do this would be to expose the errors imbedded in these false teachings. This is one difficult task, the reason being that false teachers have the ability to blend truth with error very well. Of course the most sure way to shield our people from such teaching would be to ground them in God’s word. This we should do through discipleship. But at the same time we should not hesitate to expose and reveal various contemporary false teachings. It is with this in mind that we will seek a forum in which to share the findings of this paper. The most vulnerable groups are the youth groups who, for one, are just getting grounded in the word, but who are also the target group for the N.C.C. We will purpose to share with them the highlights of this paper which will go a long way to help them pinpoint the errors of the N.C.C. They can then be in a position to help other young Christians who would fall victim to the subtilities of the N.C.C.’s teachings.

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