Jesus came preaching the centrality of the kingdom, and not the centrality of worship, not the centrality of the sacraments, not the centrality of prayer, and not even the centrality of justification by faith alone.  All these are critical parts but they must never become a substitute for the kingdom itself.

I have three adult Christian children (who each have their own children) and I love them all equally.  I make no distinction in the amount of time and fondness in my commitment to them. Each of them is extremely important to me.  I love them because they are my family.  If one child became more important to me than another, then that would be a threat to the unity and the strength of my family.  We would become dysfunctional.
In I Corinthians 12, Paul tells us how each of us in the church are part of the same body, and thus we each have great value as we perform our functions.  The faithfulness of each part produces a whole that honors God.  If one part seeks to become more important than another, then the whole body becomes hampered. Any one part elevated above its place can become a threat to the health of the body as a whole.
My point here is that Christ came into the world to bring the Kingdom of God on earth, and therefore the Kingdom of God is like my family above or is like the physical body in the example of the church.  All the parts of the kingdom are critical, but God forbid that any part seek to supplant the whole.
In the Bible the fulfillment of kingdom of God is the goal of all things.  Christ ascended to the right hand of God the Father and is now ruler over all.  When he ascended into heaven, he sat down at the right hand of God the Father and will remain there until his Father makes “your enemies a footstool for your feet (Acts 2:35).”  We live in those days.  Jesus Christ is “the ruler of the kings of the earth” (Rev. 1:5). It is all about his kingdom!  All the other parts under his kingship are tributaries that feed that kingdom.
The other parts include elements like worship, the sacraments, prayer, and even justification by faith alone.  They are critical to the prosperity of the kingdom. They are streams that feed the whole. However, if any part of the whole, or any tributary becomes the focus above the whole, then we have a wounded kingdom and a misplaced priority.  When the hen identifies as the rooster, there is trouble in the henhouse.
Jesus came preaching the centrality of the kingdom, and not the centrality of worship, not the centrality of the sacraments, not the centrality of prayer, and not even the centrality of justification by faith alone.  All these are critical parts but they must never become a substitute for the kingdom itself.
I think most of us need to reread our Bibles with a new paradigm, one that sees the kingdom of God as the focal point.  It is a tough shift, but one that is needed, especially in our day. The word and concept of kingdom that Jesus preached has fallen into disuse.
“The time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe in the gospel (Mark 1:15).” “Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the kingdom of God, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness (Mt. 9:35).”
Jesus taught us to pray “Thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven (Mt. 6:9-10).” When we see God’s will being done on all the earth in every area of life, then we will see the kingdom present here on earth. The last words about the Apostle Paul in the Book of Acts are given to us by Luke, “And he stayed two full years in his own rented quarters and was welcoming all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all openness, unhindered (Acts 28: 30-31).”
The Bible is the story of the kingdom of God.  The kingdom is the house that contains all the parts.  The parts give sustenance to the body, but they are not the body, no more than the digestive tract in the body, as important as it is, defines the physical body.  When the parts of the body like worship, sacraments, prayer, and even the doctrine of justification by faith alone supplant the kingdom, we have a problem. And today, in modern America, the church has a big problem.
Worship is critical to a healthy church.  The sabbath day focuses on the glory of God as God’s people gather as one people, and it should be a joy for every Christian.  Without worship, we wither on the vine!  Yet, the purpose of worship is not a mere existential experience that ends with the benediction.  The purpose of worship is to prepare us to fight the battle for extending the kingdom of God over all the earth.
The sacraments have been given to us by God as a means of grace.  According to the Westminster Confession, grace is conveyed through the sacraments. The sacraments are signs and seals of the covenant of grace given to bless us with assurance in the promises of God.  However, the sacraments are not an end in themselves.  As we feed upon Christ, they give us confidence and remove doubt about our salvation so that we can go out into the world and fight with confidence for the extension of the Kingdom. Men in doubt make poor warriors.
Prayer is part of the amour of God.  Kingdoms rise and fall because of the prayers of godly men.  Prayer can change the world.  God loves to hear us pray and he loves to answer our prayers. There is no prayer too big or too small for God.  Yet how does Christ tell us to pray?  What is the ultimate purpose of prayer?   Pray that the kingdom of a holy God will come down from heaven and become the kingdom of God on earth.
The doctrine of justification by faith alone is a matter of life and death.  Without the imputed righteousness of Christ which comes by faith alone, we have no hope.  Trust in both the active and passive obedience of Christ is salvation itself.  However, the doctrine of justification by faith alone is not an end in itself.  It is a means to an end.  It is like the doorway to the house.  It is not the house.  It is the entryway.  Justification by faith alone puts us in a right position with God through the work of Christ alone, and this frees us to move forward in the expansion of kingdom work.  When justification by faith alone becomes more important than the kingdom itself, then we have a dysfunctional body.
The church in America (and in the world) has lost its savor.  We have become introverted and irrelevant to the world in which we live.  We have become navel-gazers, looking at the parts of the kingdom without seeing the wonder of the kingdom itself.  We cannot see the forest for the trees.  Somewhere we lost the vision of Christ siting on his throne where he is putting all things under his feet. The instruments of grace have become the central focus of the Christian Faith in many churches, and we leave church each Sunday not to fight for the advancement of the kingdom of God over all the earth, but to simply wait and repeat in another week.
So, we have lost the reality that Christ sits on his throne today and that we have a mandate to capture all the nations and teach them how to love and serve him. Our goal is to bring the nations (defined by borders, language, and a common religion) into the kingdom of God. Christ has guaranteed our success because he sits on his throne (Mt. 28: 19-20).
The kingdom of God is not of this world.  In other words, the power of the kingdom is not worldly.  Its power finds its source in the elements of the kingdom like worship, sacraments, prayer, and justification by faith alone. We are not to depend on worldly weapons to advance the Kingdom of God.  It is a “spiritual kingdom,” but not in the mystical, neo-platonic sense of negating the physical body, but in the sense that its success depends on the power of the third person of the Trinity—the Holy Spirit.
We lost this vision in the modern evangelical church, partly because we have substituted these and other important parts for the whole, i.e., for the kingdom of God. “And the seventh angel sounded, and there were great voices in heaven saying, ‘The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever’” (Rev. 11:15).
Larry E. Ball is a retired minister in the Presbyterian Church in America and is now a CPA. He lives in Kingsport, Tenn.
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We use different terms to describe the Christian minister: pastor, teacher, ambassador, evangelist, preacher, steward of the mysteries of God. In fulfillment of these various but related roles, ministers confidently hold forth the truth of Christ, assured that God is effectually calling and irresistibly drawing His wayward sheep into His fold. 

Front office and back office, cast and crew, sales and operations, business development and customer care: what do each of these pairs have in common? Typically, members of the first group in each couplet will have very little—if anything—to do with working in the second group. Such separation may be necessary for large businesses or entertainment productions, but what about for the church? Are evangelism and pastoral care two mutually exclusive functions in which pastors may, or must, choose to specialize? The doctrine of God’s irresistible grace—or, effectual calling—clarifies the answer as we continue our study through shepherding and the doctrines of grace.
The Westminster Shorter Catechism defines effectual calling as “the work of God’s Spirit, whereby, convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and renewing our wills, He doth persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ, freely offered to us in the gospel.” It is the Holy Spirit’s work of giving us a new spiritual vitality such that we recognize the horror of our sin and respond in faith to Christ’s call to “repent and believe” on Him alone for salvation. What does this have to do with relating evangelism and pastoral care to one another?
In the tenth chapter of John’s Gospel, Christ Jesus identifies Himself as the “Good Shepherd” (vv. 11, 14). In connection with this self-designation, Christ asserts that He lays down His life for His sheep (v. 11), and that He knows His sheep who in turn know Him (v. 14). These are indispensable features of faithful pastoral care in the church. However, Christ continues in verse 16, “I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice.” For His immediate hearers, Christ expanded the definition of His flock to include those outside the nation of Israel. What’s more, He has expanded the nature of His shepherding to include bringing foreign sheep into His fold, and He does so by means of calling out with His voice.
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UN Resolution 181 (1947) divided Palestine into a Jewish State (Israel) and an Arab state (Jordan). Then began a series of wars: Israel’s War for Independence (1948–49), the Suez Crisis (1956), the Six-Day War (1967), the Yom Kippur War of 1973 (the Hamas attack on Israel was carried out 50 years plus one day of the anniversary of the Yom Kippur War), the First Lebanon War of1982, and then the Second Lebanon War of 2006. This is but a partial list of Arab-Israeli conflicts. Why the focus upon history? The Hamas terrorist attack upon Israel reflects a one hundred year history of Arab animosity to the West and sets the context for the seemingly endless conflict over Israeli/Palestinian territory. How quickly we forget.

A number of friends, church folk, and Riddleblog readers have asked about my take on Israel’s 911 (10/7). So, here you go.
It won’t surprise you that my take on the Hamas’s vicious attack on Southern Israel is much different than Greg Laurie’s (“Fasten Your Seat Belts”). A legion of prophecy pundits and “end-times” YouTubers have popped up, many offering wild and bizarre speculation about the tragedy and its role in the end-times. This is what they do. Admittedly, I have not watched or read much of this recent prophecy speculation, but what I have seen (most of which folks have sent to me) is largely a re-hash of prophetic scenarios long-since discredited (by the embarrassing fact that they got it wrong when previously proposed) now re-packed and presented as new material, with the hope that people will forget how wrong the pundits were the last time they made such predictions.
My points for consideration:
1). As for any biblical significance to the horrors inflicted upon Israeli citizens by Hamas terrorists, this clearly falls under the category of signs given us by Jesus regarding wars and rumors of wars (Matthew 24:6-8). Jesus did not predict specific conflicts (such as this one), only what he describes as “birth pains” of the end. What happened in Southern Israel falls into the category of “wars and rumor of wars,” with no specific fulfillment of any biblical prophecy regarding Israel. What Hamas did was very much like what Vladimir Putin did in his barbaric invasion of Ukraine. He ignored all conventional rules of war and inflicted savagery upon innocents—the elderly, women and children, and unarmed civilians. Hamas has done the same in Israel. In this we see the depths of human depravity as divine image-bearers are slaughtered merely to satisfy someone’s rage, anger, and territorial ambitions. Jesus told us to expect as much until he returns.
2). It is important that we keep some historical perspective on what happened on 10/7. This is why I chose the picture of British General Allenby entering Jerusalem in 1917. When a Christian British general entered Jerusalem (a holy city for Jews, Christians, and Muslims) it meant the end of the Ottoman empire’s centuries-long rule over Palestine as well as the end of the Islamic Caliphate’s control of the region. But the heavy-handed British occupation helped to set in motion the series of events which sowed the seeds of the Jewish-Palestinian conflict one hundred years ago and which is still with us today.
The Balfour Declaration of 1917 called for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, the rallying cause of early Zionism. With the end of the Great War came the ill-conceived Treaty of Versailles (1919), in which the victorious entente powers divvied up the Middle East into new states which had never previously existed (e.g., Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Palestine, Kuwait) and which had no real cultural or ethnic unity (see my review of Andelman’s A Shattered Peace).
Then came the Holocaust, which created the impetus for the United Nations to establish a Jewish state in Palestine to which the displaced Jews of the world could emigrate. UN Resolution 181 (1947) divided Palestine into a Jewish State (Israel) and an Arab state (Jordan). Then began a series of wars: Israel’s War for Independence (1948–49), the Suez Crisis (1956), the Six-Day War (1967), the Yom Kippur War of 1973 (the Hamas attack on Israel was carried out 50 years plus one day of the anniversary of the Yom Kippur War), the First Lebanon War of1982, and then the Second Lebanon War of 2006. This is but a partial list of Arab-Israeli conflicts.
Why the focus upon history? The Hamas terrorist attack upon Israel reflects a one hundred year history of Arab animosity to the West and sets the context for the seemingly endless conflict over Israeli/Palestinian territory. How quickly we forget.
3). If you are interested in the details of how Hamas was able to pull this attack off, and why the IDF was caught so unaware, here’s a highly recommended discussion of how and why it happened, and where we go from here: School of War — Episodes 93: Michael Doran on the War in Israel and Ghosts of 1973.
4). Many readers of the Riddleblog, long-time White Horse Inn listeners, church friends, and recent converts to Reformed theology may have given up their dispensationalism.
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