How NOT To Misread the Bible (Part 9): The Toughest Passage in the Bible on Slavery

God’s morality is objective and absolute except slavery–that depends on the century you happen to be living in.
atheist meme

In the previous blog and video, the case was made that there is NOT the promotion or even regulation of slavery for foreigners in the Old Testament (OT). Rather, the OT Law provided foreigners sanctuary and asylum for foreigners escaping from oppression. Those who came to Israel impoverished (as the majority would) became bond-servants who would hire themselves to an Israelite family until they could gain their economic freedom.

In making this case, some will raise serious objections to this picture of mercy and asylum from Leviticus 25:44-46.

How can you say it is not slavery when…

⁴⁴“‘Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves. ⁴⁵You may also buy some of the temporary residents living among you and members of their clans born in your country, and they will become your property. ⁴⁶You can bequeath them to your children as inherited property and can make them slaves for life, but you must not rule over your fellow Israelites ruthlessly.
Leviticus 25:44-46

Leviticus 25:44, 46 uses the word, “slave?”
Leviticus 25:44 says you can buy them?
Leviticus 25:45 says they will become your property?
Leviticus 25:46 says they can be your property for life and they can be given to your children?
Leviticus 25:46 implies you cannot treat an Israelite ruthlessly, but you can a foreigner?

Before we answer each of these questions, we need to keep in mind that God gave Israel an entire law code. Every law is connected to every other law. None of the laws or regulations are given in isolation, but are to be understood together. In the OT, there are around twenty-five verses giving clear instructions on providing rights, privileges and protections to the foreigner residing in Israel. Therefore, to properly evaluate the three verses of Leviticus 25:44-46, we have to connect them with the other regulations.

Slavery vs Debt-Service

Israelites clearly did NOT go into slavery but debt-service. I have seen no debate on this issue. Jews were never to be sold as slaves when they became indebted; they entered into a voluntary debt-service which offered a pathway to economic freedom. Here were essential conditions of this debt-service:

It would be voluntary and never forced.
It would only be for a person’s labor, not the person.
It would have a six year limit.
It was given resources and provisions at the end of the service.
It was given rights and protections.

Foreigners were offered the same type of debt-service as an Israelite, except there was not a fixed six year limit. Everything else was the same. Because of this their service could be called a debt-service, as well. Look at the provision and rights which were provided to them:

Foreigners as debt-servants were given equal rights of protection:

“When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.”
Leviticus 19:33–34

“Do not deprive the foreigner or the fatherless of justice, or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there. That is why I command you to do this.”
Deuteronomy 24:17-18

Foreigners could not become debt-servants by force, only voluntarily:

“Anyone who kidnaps someone is to be put to death, whether the victim has been sold or is still in the kidnapper’s possession.”
Exodus 21:16

“If a slave has taken refuge with you, do not hand them over to their master. Let them live among you wherever they like and in whatever town they choose. Do not oppress them.”
Deuteronomy 23:15-16

A foreign debt-servant was to be released from service if they were injured:

“An owner who hits a male or female slave [servant] in the eye and destroys it must let the slave go free to compensate for the eye. And an owner who knocks out the tooth of a male or female slave [servant] must let the slave go free to compensate for the tooth.”
Exodus 21:26-27

Even when there was accidental injury, the servant had to go free as compensation for his injury.

Why does Leviticus 25:44 & 46 use the word, “slave?”

The Hebrews did not have a term for slave because slavery did not exist as a practice in their culture. OT scholar, J.A Moyter writes, “Hebrew has no vocabulary of slavery, only of servanthood.” The Hebrew term translated “slave” in modern translations is ebed. This could mean slave, but it usually meant “servant,” “worker” or “employee” (using today’s terminology). The OT uses the word ebed because they had no term which meant slave. John Goldingay, a professor of OT at Fuller Seminary, states that “there is nothing inherently lowly or undignified about being an ‘ebed.’” In fact, earlier translations of the OT do not translate ebed as slave. The Latin Vulgate, which is the 4th century Latin translation of the Bible, most commonly translates ebed as “servus” (Latin for servant). At times the Vulgate uses “famulus.” (Latin for family.) This is quite distinct from the Latin term, “mancipum,” which means a “slave as property.” The King James Version (1611) regularly translates ebed as “servant,” while occasionally using the word, “bondman.” It never translates ebed as “slave,” and neither do the nineteenth-century revisions of the King James Version. The translation of ebed as slave did not become common until the Revised Standard Version (1952) onwards.

Why does Leviticus 25:44 & 45 say you can buy them?

from them you may buy slaves

The verb “buy” is qanah. The use of the word does not necessarily involve selling or purchasing, especially of people. In Hebrew, this word can mean to “buy,” or “acquire,” or even “create.” In modern lingo it has the idea of to “hire” or “employ.”

“I have also acquired [qanah] Ruth the Moabite, Mahlon’s widow, as my wife…”
Ruth 4:10

Obviously, this was not a financial transaction by Boaz. She was not inferior but a full partner in marriage. Exodus 21:16, as seen above, forbids owning and selling people. So who is receiving the money in Leviticus 25:44? There’s only one possibility: the worker themselves. In view of the other passages regarding the treatment of foreigners, it describes a hiring process where someone from a nation is being paid to work. Remember from what we said above regarding these foreign debt-servants:

They would have the same rights as native-born Israelites.
They could leave anytime they wanted.
They could not be forced to stay in this position.

The best interpretation from understanding all of the relevant passages of the Law of Moses is that this was a hired servant.

Why does Leviticus 25:45 say they will become your property?

“they will become your property”

So what is this describing? It seems the answer is fairly simple. The word “property” simply means they are working for you, instead of for someone else. In English, calling someone your “property” is awful, and understandably so. But, Leviticus wasn’t written in English to 21st century readers, and that’s not what the word means. Biblical scholar, Paul Copan writes:

“Even when the terms buy, sell, or acquire are used of servants/employees, they don’t mean the person in question is ‘just property.’ Think of a sports player today who gets ‘traded’ to another team, to which he ‘belongs.’ Yes, teams have ‘owners,’ but we’re hardly talking about slavery here! Rather, these are formal contractual agreements, which is what we find in Old Testament servanthood/employee arrangements.

Today, a boss can speak of “his employees,” and we never assume he means that they are slaves or his property. They’re free at any time to leave and find work elsewhere.

Why does Leviticus 25:46 say they can be your property for life and given to your children?

“You can bequeath them to your children…and can make them slaves for life”

So, why is this arrangement for life? There is a provision for those Israelites who were in debt-service that they could become life-long servants to their employer if the arrangement they had with him was better than being on their own.

“But if the servant declares, ‘I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free, then his master must take him before the judges. He shall take him to the door or the doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life.”
Exodus 21:5-6

A similar provision was obviously given to these resident foreigners who had no land or homes they could go to, and most likely no family with whom they could stay. Because they were landless and homeless and without family, this arrangement could be extended into the next generation. This is really a provision of love and mercy.

Let’s bear in mind, also, that this setup wasn’t to be permanent, unless the debt-servant chose to stay with the owner. The owner cannot force the servant to stay. This was by mutual choice.

The text of Leviticus 25 makes clear that the alien/stranger could potentially work himself out of debt and become a person of means in Israel:

If a foreigner residing among you becomes rich and any of your fellow Israelites become poor and sell themselves to the foreigner or to a member of the foreigner’s clan…
Leviticus 25:47

This is another indication that he wasn’t stuck in lifelong servitude without a choice. These “acquired” servants could potentially better themselves to the point of hiring servants themselves. Keep in mind that:

They would have the same rights as native-born Israelites.
They could leave anytime they wanted.
They could not be forced to stay in this position.

Ruling ruthlessly

“but you must not rule over your fellow Israelites ruthlessly”

What on earth does this mean? Does it imply that you can’t rule ruthlessly over an Israelite brother, but you could over a foreigner. Thankfully, the passage never says they can.

Kyle Davison Blair explains:

“…the passage highlights the difference between Israelites and foreigners. A foreigner whom you hire may work for you for a time but then return to their own land. But an Israelite brother will be with you in the land forever. Therefore, you treat them well. While an Israelite brother might serve you for a time as your worker, he may one day be a land-owner like you. Treat brothers as equals, even if they currently are in a low situation. Or to say it simply: treat a brother like a brother.”

Conclusion

Leviticus 25:44–46 only seems to support slavery if you rip it out of its context in the rest of the Law. But when you let the entire Law inform the situation, any hint of slavery disappears rather you end up with a perfectly moral code of employment for foreigners. Here is how the passage reads with some translational adjustments from the NIV:

⁴⁴“‘Your male and female [workers] are to come from the nations around you; from them you may [acquire] [workers]. ⁴⁵You may also [acquire] some of the temporary residents living among you and members of their clans born in your country, and they will become your [employees]. ⁴⁶You can bequeath them to your children as inherited [employees] and can make them [employees] for life, but you must not rule over your fellow Israelites ruthlessly.
Leviticus 25:44-46

It is so important to understand that these laws were NOT permanent. They were temporary. They do not apply to us today. They were for the nation of Israel until Christ would come.

For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. But God found fault with the people and said,
“The days are coming, declares the Lord,
    when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
    and with the people of Judah.
It will not be like the covenant
    I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
    to lead them out of Egypt…
By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear.
Hebrews 8:7-9, 13

Like a booster rocket that takes a space craft into space and then is discarded, this is what these laws of Israel did. At the time and in the conditions of the ancient world, these are a vast upgrade of mercy and love to Jews and foreigners. But once they served their purpose and there was no longer even debt-servitude in Israel by the time of the first century with the coming of Jesus Christ, these laws, like the booster rocket were discarded. When evaluated at the time and for the purpose they were given, they show God to be wise and gracious to restore a broken world.

How NOT to Misread the Bible (Part 6): The End of Slavery

How NOT to Misread the Bible (Part 5): Dignity from Slavery

How NOT To Misread the Bible (Part 8): Slavery for Foreigners or Refugee Protection?

After posting a recent blog and video on Slavery and the Old Testament, several questions were raised, as well as criticisms, regarding God’s apparent condoning of chattel slavery. Now, it was agreed by those in the discussion that what is called “slavery” in the Old Testament (OT) among fellow Jews was debt-service which was humane and for the purpose of keeping people from descending into poverty and creating an economic underclass. Yet, there are passages, some seem to think, which indicate that the slavery of foreigners (non-Israelites) was an endorsement and even promoter of what we know as chattel slavery.

“The Bible is a radically pro-slavery document. Slave owners waved Bibles over their heads in the Civil War and justified it.”
Dan Savage

In this blog post, I will respond to some of the interaction I received and make the case that the Bible never endorses or even regulates chattel slavery for non-Israelites. In the following post I will deal with the most difficult passage by answering questions surrounding Leviticus 25. But I will make the case here that foreigners who came to live in Israel came in not as slaves but debt-servants, under refugee safeguards, who were given equal rights of protection and covenant participation along with the Jews.

In this series, we have made the case that the Bible is the story of restoration of all that is broken by self-centered sinfulness. In the OT Law God is not even endorsing or regulating slavery, but rather providing a sanctuary and asylum of humane and responsible treatment for oppressed people, especially foreigners. The OT is moving away from the destructive and oppressive system of slavery and providing the first ever legal asylum. Emma Lazarus, a Jewish writer deeply schooled in the OT, wrote these words, now emblazoned in bronze on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty:

“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
The New Colussus

The very first sneak preview of this spirit of protection and asylum to the oppressed is in the OT. We have said that the story of restoration in the Bible occurs in several acts. Act 1: The World’s Beginnings God created humanity in a world with flourishing beauty and life-giving abundance without anything to spoil it. Slavery, as with any exploitation of one human or group of people by another, was NEVER part of God’s original plan. Act 2: Humanity’s Rebellion People rebelled from this original divine artistry and purpose. They traded life-giving abundance for a world governed by self-centered brokenness. As the world descended into a moral fall, severe economic scarcity and the exploitation of the powerful over the weak became widespread and common. Act 3: Israel’s Quest God stepped in to save his story and set in motion a plan to restore the world from this place of brokenness by taking one nation (from the descendants of Abraham) and setting them apart to be a light and guide to other nations. This was the dawn of this restoration from brokenness. Though an enslaved people for 430 years, they are redeemed and brought into freedom. As they become established in the the new nation of Israel, the goal was for there to be no poverty or economic oppression or slavery, period:

“However, there need be no poor people among you, for in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you…”
Deuteronomy 15:4

As will be seen, this was to include the non-Israelite. So, for the Jew, what God does is take this broken system and opens up a pathway of restoring freedom to people who fall into economic bondage. The God of Israel will change slavery to a voluntary debt-service. It would be different from slavery in at least five ways:

It would be voluntary and never forced.
It would only own a person’s labor, not the person himself.
It would have a six year limit.
It would give provisions to the debt-servant so he would be able to rebuild his life after the service.
It would give rights and protections during the term of service.

By the time of the New Testament, there was no permanent economic underclass like that of the nations around them because of these laws. From there, the elimination of slavery would move forward in a gradual and steady process with Act 4: The Arrival of the King (Jesus) and Act 5: The Kingdom Coming (Expansion of the Church). Yet, going back to Act 3: Israel’s Quest, how did this apply to the non-Israelites?

Were Non-Israelites Sold Into Chattel Slavery?

Peter Garnsey, a classical scholar at Cambridge University, stated that chattel slavery had three characteristics:

A slave was property.
The slave owner’s rights over the slave’s person and work were total and absolute.
The slave was stripped of his identity—racial, familial, social, marital. The legal power of the master amounts to an absolute despotism over body and soul.

Harriet Beecher Stowe in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, wrote that Southern masters had absolute control over every facet of their slaves’ lives. Did the OT condone or even regulate this type of slavery over foreigners? The answer is a clear, NO. In fact, had the regulations of the OT been in place during the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade (16th to the 19th centuries), the buying and selling of human beings for economic use would not have existed.

Doesn’t the Bible Use the Term “Slavery?”

Not exactly. The Hebrews did not have a term for slavery because it did not exist in their culture. But don’t passages in the Law of Moses say they were “slaves?” OT scholar, J. A. Moyter writes, “Hebrew has no vocabulary of slavery, only of servanthood.” The Hebrew term translated “slave” in modern translations is ebed” This is the term used for the debt-servants of Israel. This could mean slave, but it usually meant “servant,” “worker” or, to use modern lingo) “employee.” John Goldingay, a professor of OT at Fuller Seminary, states that “there is nothing inherently lowly or undignified about being an ‘ebed.’” Interestingly, the earlier translations of the OT does not translate ebed as slave. For example, the Latin Vulgate, which is the 4th century Latin translation of the Bible, usually translates ebed as “servus” (Latin for servant). At times the Vulgate uses “famulus” (Latin for family.) This is quite distinct from the Latin term, “mancipum,” which means a slave as property. The King James Version (1611) regularly translates ebed as “servant,” while occasionally using the word, “bondman.” It never renders ebed as “slave,” and neither do the nineteenth-century revisions of the King James Version. The translation of ebed as slave did not become common in translations until the Revised Standard Version (1952) onwards. Whatever the reason for this change, it is misleading, as John Goldingay explains:

“Hardly ever does that definition apply to an ebed. The position of an ebed was more like that of a servant, not least the English bond-servants who came to the Americas without paying for their passage, on the basis of serving a master there for a set number of years after their arrival. The Hebrew Bible does not describe the legal position or the experience of an ebed as generally very like that of a slave, specifically not like the African slaves who came to the Americas on a different basis from the European bondservants…”

So the meaning of “ebed” has to be determined by its use and context in the passage. For the sake of this writing, when ebed is used of a non-Israelite, I will use the word “debt-servant,” meaning a person who is bound to service without wages. (This does not mean they did not receive fair compensation in other forms.)

Three Reasons the OT Does Not Have Slavery

Reason # 1: Foreigners Were Given Equal Rights of Protection The heart of God toward foreigners living in the land of Israel was that they were to be accepted and loved as native born Israelites:

“When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.”
Leviticus 19:33–34

YOU SHALL NOT DO HIM WRONG
SHALL BE TO YOU AS THE NATIVE AMONG YOU
YOU SHALL LOVE HIM AS YOURSELF

The Jews were told to give the foreigner (none excluded) all of the rights and privileges of the other Jews because the Israelites “were slaves in Egypt.”

“Do not deprive the foreigner or the fatherless of justice, or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there. That is why I command you to do this.”
Deuteronomy 24:17-18

God defends the foreigner:

“He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.”
Deuteronomy 10:18-19

Reason # 2: A foreigner could not become a debt-servant by force, only voluntarily

“Anyone who kidnaps someone is to be put to death, whether the victim has been sold or is still in the kidnapper’s possession.”
Exodus 21:16

The context of this prohibition in regard to kidnapping is for profit which involves slave trading. This is why it refers to the the victim as being “sold.” This was a key practice of chattel slavery. It was commonly practiced in the Middle East at the time but could not be in Israel. It was a capital crime. Further, these debt-servants were refugees from others countries who were to be given protection:

“If a slave has taken refuge with you, do not hand them over to their master. Let them live among you wherever they like and in whatever town they choose. Do not oppress them.”
Deuteronomy 23:15-16

TAKEN REFUGE
DO NOT HAND THEM OVER
LET THEM LIVE AMONG YOU WHEREVER THEY LIKE
DO NOT OPPRESS THEM

The Code of Hammurabi (the laws of ancient Babylon) demanded the death penalty for those helping runaway slaves. In a society built on chattel slavery, protection of runaway slaves could in no way be permitted. Otherwise, they are no longer viewed as only property for an economic ends.

Reason # 3: A debt-servant was to be released from service if they were injured

“An owner who hits a male or female slave [debt-servant] in the eye and destroys it must let the slave go free to compensate for the eye. And an owner who knocks out the tooth of a male or female slave [debt-servant] must let the slave go free to compensate for the tooth.”
Exodus 21:26-27

Paul Copan explains, “When an employer [owner] accidentally gouged out the eye or knocked out the tooth of his bond-servant, he or she was to go free. No bodily abuse of servants was permitted.” By contrast, the Code of Hammurabi permitted the master to cut off a slave’s ear as a form of punishment. Jewish scholar Nahum Sarna observes about this passage, “This law—the protection of slaves from maltreatment by their masters—is found nowhere else in the entire existing corpus of ancient Near Eastern legislation.” Yet, if they were chattel slaves, these protections would not have been given.

The Verdict?

Equal rights of protection as native born
Voluntary refugee status
Compensation for bodily injury

This is not chattel slavery. The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade could not have existed with these guarantees and protections. More importantly, no slavery could exist with these in place. Why? This is not slavery. This was debt-service as a protection to the oppressed in other nations. In the spirit of Emma Lazarus’ writing, this was a beautiful call for asylum.

Bigger Picture

The goal, centuries before the establishment of Israel as a nation, was for Israel to bring restoration of brokenness to all the nations of the world. At the founding call of Abraham, God promised:

“I will make you into a great nation,
    and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
    and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
    and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
    will be blessed through you.”
Genesis 12:2-3

Who will be blessed? All people’s of the earth.

Through these refugee laws, foreigners (gentiles) were already able to participate in the covenant blessings and rights given by God to the Israelite people. This would sow seeds for God’s restoration of brokenness for the world. God’s goal was never to enslave the gentiles but to bring increased peace and blessing. As Paul wrote of God’s purpose for the Jews and Gentiles all along:

“His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace…”
Ephesians 2:15

This model in the OT presents the very spirit and example of how we should extend mercy and love to the needy and the vulnerable.

Our next topic in this series is How NOT To Misread the Bible (Part 9): Difficult Questions Regarding Slavery and the Bible

How NOT to Misread the Bible (Part 7): Why Make the World Better When the Future Is Doom and Gloom?

Since the Bible is doom and gloom about the end-times, how can there be hope to make the world a better place? The best we can do, some reason, is to be raptured away before the world collapses in on itself. Because people are often anticipating the worst, there is often seen what might be called the church of the Chicken Little who is always running around and proclaiming, “The sky is falling! The sky is falling!”

China is taking over
Globalism is swallowing democracies
Families are falling apart
Elections are not legitimate
Plagues are spreading
Climates are changing

So, if God’s Story is one of restoration from brokenness, why does it end with such devastation with the book of Revelation? How can there be a mission to work for a better future when the message appears to be that the sky is falling? The answer is that the Bible is not doom and gloom, nor is it simply rainbows, butterflies and rose gardens. It is realistic about hope for the future, but also the dark and sin hardened realities that have to be overcome. As the Reverend Martin Luther King proclaimed:

We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.
Rev. Martin Luther King

The arc of history is moving toward the restoration of all that is broken. Jesus Christ set in motion a plan to see it repaired and will return physically to earth to make sure the restoration is completely done: perfect justice, complete healing, established peace. God is restoring all that is broken but not all at once. God’s kingdom is advancing against foolish and self-centered destructiveness. Those familiar with the biblical story should not be shocked by the hardened opposition to be overcome. Realizing this gives the best road map toward understanding how to act for a better future while protecting ourselves from becoming jaded due to unrealistic expectations. There are three key truths about change and the future:

We can engage in hopeful action. Justice and peace are the arc of history because God is restoring what is broken. We are called to work with him in the restoring process.
We can be realistic by first seeking to change hearts and minds. Life is deeply problematic and overwhelmingly complex which makes wide scale change, in the short term, a fools errand. We have to celebrate small changes taking place while they occur.
We can be faithful as change is pursued, but slow in coming. The story of the world is ultimately being written by God whose plan moves forward with steady precision.

With these three truths in mind, the church keeps its steady and sane voice rather than copying the world’s noise, antics, and paranoia. God is restoring all that is broken. So, how do we see the biblical story as one that is hopeful for change and not a Chicken Little hysteria?

From Brokenness to Freedom

Previously, we have seen that the story of the Bible can be understood in six acts.

Act 1: The World’s Beginnings God created humanity in a world with flourishing beauty and life-giving abundance without anything to spoil it.

Act 2: Humanity’s Rebellion People rebelled from this original divine artistry and purpose. They traded life-giving abundance for a world governed by self-centered brokenness. The world descended into a moral fall in which it was impossible for humanity to recover alone.

Act 3: Israel’s Quest God stepped in to save his story and set in motion a plan to restore the world from this place of brokenness by taking one nation (from the descendants of Abraham) and setting them apart to be a light and guide to other nations. This was the dawn of this restoration from brokenness.

“God’s future Kingdom, where healing and justice and love will reign supreme for eternity, was being brought into the present through the ministry of Jesus. In Jesus, humanity was experiencing the presence of God’s future.”
George Ladd

Act 4: The King’s Arrival At the height of this story, God sent Jesus to the earth: truly God and truly man who lived a perfect life, died a sacrificial death on the cross, and rose to vanquish sin and the darkness of evil. He was the very standard of understanding how God viewed humanity and how we should treat one another, what true justice looks like. Through Jesus’ life and ministry, God’s restoration was breaking into our human experience.

Act 5: The Kingdom Coming After Jesus had completed his work of demonstrating the power of love over all the brokenness caused by the world’s rebellion and evil, his followers are launched on a mission to expand this life-giving freedom and dignity to every corner of humanity, one conversation, one act of love, one wrong turned right at a time.

Act 6: Homecoming The final act tells us Jesus returns and restores what was not fixed and overthrows that which resists love and wholeness. This is the monumental ending to the story as well as the beginning of a new one which never ends. This is the restoration of a reality like the Garden of Eden, but much better because the potential for evil will be removed. And the declaration will be made:

“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever.”
Revelation 11:15

Chad Bird

Right now we are in Act 5: The Kingdom Coming moving toward Act 6: Homecoming. When I became engaged to my wife (Brenda), it was like we were already married but not yet. There were six months from engagement until the wedding ceremony. There is a sense in which God’s kingdom is advancing, but it will not be fully here until Jesus returns to bring full restoration and all wrongs will be made right. We are “living between the times.” Biblical teachers often call this “between the times” the Already/Not Yet. This means the kingdom is already here but not yet completely here. We live in between the Already/Not Yet.

Below are some biblical expressions of this reality. With each passage I will add parenthetically where the kingdom is already and not yet.

“In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them. (already) Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them.” (not yet)
Hebrews 2:8

^“Jesus replied, ‘The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed…because the kingdom of God is in your midst.’ (already) Then he said to his disciples, ‘The time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it. People will tell you, ‘There he is!’ or ‘Here he is!’ Do not go running off after them. For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other.'” (not yet)
Luke 17:20-24

“Dear friends, now we are children of God, (already) and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” (not yet)
1 John 3:2

What this means?

Because of this tension with the already/not yet, we do not need to have a Chicken Little mentality. We should not run around declaring that “the sky is falling” with every adverse event. Chad Bird writes:

There is no panic in heaven. Over the chaos of this world reigns the King of kings, Jesus the Resurrected, before whom every knee will eventually bow, whether they like it or not. Every governmental authority now — presidents, kings, prime ministers, you name it — are in lame-duck administrations. Their time is ending. Put not your trust in politicians or parties or ballot boxes. Christ and his kingdom are everlasting. And into that kingdom he calls us all to find forgiveness, life, and peace.

Against the oppressive and destructive powers, the followers of Jesus have advanced life-giving realities which are sneak previews of a perfect and restored world to come. First and foremost this is done through sharing the reality of forgiveness and a transformed life guided by love and purpose. From the ripple effects of this in the lives of individuals emerges new social realities:

“You and Your plan of redemption
It is arching against
The fall of the earth
And no one but You
Can pick up these pieces
And no one but You
Can put them together”
Ghost Ship (Band)

Widespread democracy over tyranny (dignity of individuals)
Widespread literacy over ignorance (education to read the Bible)
Widespread technology over superstition (earth is created for our stewardship and not divine)
Widespread medical access over disease (medical missions and hospitals)
Widespread economic liberty over poverty (Protestant work ethic)
Widespread compassion over neglect (charity among the poor and suffering unique to Christianity)

These are just to name a very few. Yet, all of these have advanced not toward a utopia or a heaven on earth but rather a civilization where the veneer between the rule of law and anarchy can be very thin. Where the gospel has spread there has been the reduction of poverty, oppression and evil, though not its elimination. This elimination will not happen until the end when Christ returns and overthrows the tyranny of evil that refuses to surrender to God’s advancing kingdom of love. This means that the days are numbered for the kingdoms of this world that set themselves up against God.

The PBS series Civilizations near the end of episode 1, viewers are taken to an ancient Mayan city in Mexico. Entombed beneath a canopy of trees are the remains of more than 6,500 buildings. The tallest is a massive ornately decorated temple whose steps climb to 180 feet (the height of a 15-story building). Standing at the foot of a massive stepped temple, which is now abandoned, an archeologist explains the cultural rationale for such ornate, expansive building:

Ultimately, all civilizations want exactly what they can’t have; the conquest of time. So they build bigger, and higher, and grander, as if they could build their way out of mortality. It never works. There always comes a moment when the most populous of cities with their markets and temples and palaces and funeral tombs are simply abandoned. And that most indefatigable leveler of all, mother nature, closes in, covering the place with desert sand or strangling it with vegetation. And then civilization dies the death of deaths, invisibility.

All nations come to an end. But there is a government which will stand the test of time which is emerging now: the reign of Christ’s kingdom:

Of the greatness of his government and peace
    there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
    and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
    with justice and righteousness
    from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty
    will accomplish this.
Isaiah 9:7

In the meantime, we can be hopeful, realistic and faithful.