Deuteronomy 8 verses 2, 11, 14, 18, 19 have an antiphonal chorus that works between the seriousness of the command to remember and the devastation wrought by the tragedy of forgetting. Should his temporal blessings make them flatter themselves with a sense of independence, they are warned not to “forget the Lord your God” (11) and ignore his commandments. “Remember” challenges the mind to grasp the covenantal mercy of God with such conscientious commitment that nothing can drive a wedge of temporal delusion between the moral and spiritual mind of a person and the infinite power and mercy of divine provision. When Jesus established the symbol of the final, ultimate, perfect redemptive act, he commanded his followers, “Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19).

The theme of the 2024 Founders Conference surrounds Paul’s admonition, “Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, out of the seed of David, according to my gospel.” God willing, and according to his enlightenment and strength, I want to discuss this sobering theme in a series of posts focusing on the biblical developments of “remember.” The word points to events that are both pivotal and central. Not only do they give a swift alteration of direction for humanity, but they rise to a culmination and a subsequent response in thought and deed.  The flow of the entire biblical text presses forward to this command, “Remember Jesus Christ.” It summarizes every other call to remember. I intend also to describe historical manifestations of the loss (forgetting) and recovery (remembering) of this culminating event in the history of redemption.
“Remember” calls to mind central admonitions in the history of God’s revelation of redemptive power to his people. The command is not for a mere mental recall of an event or a casual reminder of a person’s name or status. It is a critical summons to put an event or person or commitment so at the center of your concern that the weight of its importance transforms your thinking. When the thief said to Jesus, “Remember me when you come into your kingdom,” (Luke 23:42) he wanted to be taken personally by Jesus into that status of perfect, sinless, beneficent rulership. Jesus responded with an answer commensurate with the purpose of the request, “Truly I say to you, this day with me you will be in paradise” (Luke 23:44). “As surely as my work of atonement will bring me into the glory of heaven in the presence of the Father, so it will do for you.” The request of the crucified thief was for Jesus’ personal investment in the eternal well-being of his mind, body, and soul—”Remember.”
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8), involves more than simple mental recall, but an investment of life in the rhythm of divine labor. As God worked for six days in creation, so should these redeemed people labor for six days at life-sustaining tasks that deserved their energy. As God had finished creation and then rested, so were the people rescued from relentless labor in Egypt to embrace a sabbath as instituted and practiced by God on the seventh day. All the animals, each member of the family, all the nation would so esteem the glory of the Creator/Redeemer/Covenant God that their lives individually and corporately would be defined by it. “Remember Jesus Christ” has that same claim on the lives of his redeemed ones but with an even greater intensity in light of an even more powerful delivery.
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Written by S. M. Baugh |
Wednesday, May 3, 2023
A robust, biblical understanding of the kingdom of God is deeply beneficial for our perseverance in faith and for our spiritual life. As a work of new creation, Christ is already transforming our inner person into his own image through the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18; 4:16; Eph. 3:16; Col. 3:10). But this transformation now has a great and glorious goal at his arrival when our bodies will bear his image in heavenly, resurrection glory (1 Cor. 15:49; 1 John 3:2). This is the focus of Christ’s kingship over the kingdom of God, the new creation, of which we are now a part. 

It was my custom in my seminary class on the Gospels to ask the students at the opening of the kingdom of God section the simple question: “What is the kingdom of God?”  Their faces grew serious as they invariably discovered that they did not know the answer exactly or that their thinking was unsatisfyingly vague. Yet the definition of the kingdom of God is easy to give: it is the new creation, the new heavens and the new earth. In the words of the Westminster Shorter Catechism, it is “the kingdom of glory” (Q/A 102). According to that catechism answer, we are asking our Father to hasten this new creation kingdom when we pray for his kingdom to come in the Lord’s Prayer.
I don’t think people expect the definition of the kingdom to be so simple, but it is, and the Scriptures are clear on this. The kingdom of God is an eternal inheritance for all those who have been redeemed by Christ (Westminster Confession of Faith 8.5). And a promised inheritance necessarily lies in the future. Jesus confirms this when he speaks of our coming into the inheritance of the kingdom of God (Matt. 19:23–24) at the “rebirth” of creation when “the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne” (v. 28). At that time, all believers “will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matt. 13:43) and “inherit eternal life” (Matt. 19:29).
This is why Paul, in a very important chapter in 1 Corinthians, insists that believers must be raised bodily and concludes, “I declare this, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the corruptible inherit incorruptibility” (1 Cor. 15:50).
Thus, to enter into eternal life is to enter into the kingdom of God in resurrection glory. This shows that the kingdom of God is the new creation, when this heaven and earth will be comprehensively shaken (Heb. 12:26; cf. Rev. 6:12–14) and destroyed by fire (2 Pet. 3:7–13; cf. 2 Thess. 1:7–8). Then God will make all things new (Rev. 21:5) to be an “eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,” into which we who persevere in faith will enter by God’s rich provision (2 Pet. 1:11). “Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken” (Heb. 12:28).
Is That It?
Yet is that it? Is the kingdom of God solely a future, divine, cosmic renovation of this creation when the Lord Jesus returns? Strictly speaking, yes, it is. The kingdom of God is the new heavens and new earth by definition, strictly speaking. It is true that we can possess this kingdom now as a covenantally guaranteed inheritance (especially Matt. 5:3, 10; Luke 22:29; 1 Pet. 1:3–5), but it is a future inheritance for which this whole creation groans in anticipation (Rom. 8:19–22).
But what about the New Testament proclamation that the kingdom of God has decisively drawn near in Christ (e.g., Matt. 3:2; 4:17; 10:7; 12:28)? Did he postpone the kingdom to some distant future when he ascended to heaven in resurrection glory as the old form of dispensationalism teaches? No! On this the New Testament is very clear: “the powers of the age to come” (Heb. 6:5), marking the kingdom of God, have already arrived with the Son of God “in these last days” (Heb. 1:2; cf. 1 Cor. 10:11; Heb. 9:26; 1 John 2:18). Yet this requires some careful distinctions to understand properly.
Inauguration and Consummation
Scholars and preachers speak of the kingdom being “already” and “not yet” to deal with the fact that the Lord Jesus has indeed established it at his first coming. The distinction itself has the particular advantage of being biblical. For example, in Revelation 12, John sees a vision of the birth and ascension of Christ immediately followed by a battle between the devil and his angels who are cast out of heaven. We are then told what this means:
And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down.” (Rev. 12:10; emphasis added)
Thus, the kingdom of God is “already” when Christ Jesus “was caught up to God and to his throne” (Rev. 12:5) at his ascension.
In another vision in Revelation, though, John sees a portrayal of judgment day when the wrath of God comes, and he exerts his almighty power to take up his reign (Rev. 11:17). Then loud voices in heaven shout:
The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever. (Rev. 11:15)
Obviously, what had transpired earlier in history at the ascent of Christ (Rev. 12:5 above) was a real inauguration of the kingdom of God but not its consummation; it was “not yet” in the final, consummate sense. But how do we sort out this “already/not yet” dynamic without merely stating an unhelpful enigma?
Five Vantage Points
To address this potential problem of “already/not yet” sounding like an obscure riddle, I find it helpful to discuss the kingdom of God from five vantage points: 1) the king; 2) his authority to rule (“dominion” or “kingship”); 3) his realm (“dominion”); 4) his subjects or citizens; and 5) the divine covenant, which in biblical kingdoms acts as charter and constitution. Let’s sketch out four of these very briefly.
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Written by David L. Bahnsen |
Wednesday, October 5, 2022
It is easy to watch a series like this and suspect the modern anarchy movement guilty of a flawed or miscalculated sociology. But I am sad to say, sadder after watching this series, that it is not a particular sociology that is at the root of this tragedy. That could conceivably be re-engineered. Rather, it is a moral pathology that hated a loving Lawgiver who alone holds the key to our escape from bondage.

I have a reasonably high tolerance for uncomfortable television and movies, maybe a higher tolerance than I should, but the first thing I would say about the HBO Max series The Anarchists is that it is not for the faint of heart. In this case, though, the tough stomach required is not due to excessive violence, cringey sexual content, or other common factors in objectionable material. The series is tough to watch because it directly touches on elements of human depravity that are unpleasant to engage. It shines a light on a certain darkness that can creep over the human soul that is more than I bargained for when deciding to watch the documentary. And yet, out of the very depressing reality that the series covers, a lesson is to be discovered of profound importance for the intellectually curious and morally rooted.
The Anarchists is a look behind the scenes at a group of American-born anarchists who took refuge together in Acapulco, Mexico, leaving behind their careers and domestic roots for a life committed to autonomy. Eventually, select members of these anarchistic refugees start an annual conference called Anarchapulco. The documentary covers the rise and fall of the conference, dovetailed with the rise and fall of this community. The gripping drama that is both tangential to and at the root of this group’s implosion is the murder of a drug-dealing fugitive member of their community, and the eventual suicide of the PTSD-suffering veteran widely believed to have been complicit in the murder.
The tensions are heightened by the sensational real-life drama that defined this community—murder, drugs, inordinate alcohol consumption, scandal, fraud, corruption, violence, lawbreaking, and all the rest. Yet the filmmakers include some modest level of the philosophy of anarchism to seep through as well, allowing the leaders of the movement to state their case for a society disconnected from rules, norms, and institutions.
The filming of this sect could ideally have led to a provocative documentary on an iconoclastic group of intellectually eccentric adults. Perhaps the filmmakers (and the subjects of the documentary themselves) could have crafted a series that evaluated the pros and cons of anarcho-capitalistic thinking, countercultural philosophy, and the capacity for human autonomy unhindered by the laws of nature and the laws of men. But alas, like the philosophy of anarchism itself, such a documentary was doomed from the beginning, assured only of ending in the chaos and despair this series had to highlight. Missing from the Acapulco anarchy movement was a framework for liberty rooted in morality and ordered love. Ultimately, what was palpably present in the Acapulco anarchy movement was the fate of all human autonomy untethered from the law of God and awareness of the basic human condition.
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