What is Kingdom Now teaching?

Response

Kingdom Now theology is a theological belief within the Charismatic movement of Protestant Christianity, primarily in the United States. Advocates of Kingdom Now believe that God lost control over the world to Satan when Adam and Eve sinned. According to this theology, God has been endeavoring to regain control over the world by identifying a special group of believers—referred to as “covenant people,” “overcomers,” or “Joel’s army”—through whom social institutions (including governments and laws) would come under God’s authority. The belief is that, as believers are indwelt by the same Holy Spirit that indwelt Jesus, they possess all authority in heaven and on earth; they have the power to believe for and speak into existence things that do not exist, thereby ushering in the Kingdom Age.

One of the most contentious aspects of this theology is the notion that secular or non-Christian society will never prosper. Consequently, Kingdom Now rejects the idea of a separation between church and state. Other beliefs include the concept that, as the Body of Christ, believers embody Christ. In essence, they share His divine nature. Proponents of Kingdom Now teaching also reject the concept of the rapture, interpreting it as a sense of rapture or excitement when the Lord comes back to receive the kingdom from believers. In essence, everyone will experience an emotional “catching up” upon His return. Another unscriptural belief is that all prophecies concerning future Israel—both in the Old and New Testaments—actually pertain to the church.

Kingdom Now theology envisions the second coming of Jesus unfolding in two stages: first through the flesh of believers (particularly the flesh of present-day apostles and prophets), and then in person to assume control of the kingdom entrusted to Him by the victorious individuals (the “overcomers”). Before the second coming, overcomers must eliminate all malevolent influences from the earth. Kingdom Now

Claims that Jesus cannot return until all His enemies have been put under the feet of the church (including death, presumably).

Although there are people who only partially hold to Kingdom Now teachings, they still share the beliefs outlined above. These beliefs are outside mainstream Christianity and all deny Scripture. First, the idea that God has “lost control” of anything is ludicrous, especially when coupled with the notion that He needs human beings to help Him regain that control. He is the sovereign Lord of the universe, complete and holy, perfect in all His attributes. He has complete control over all things—past, present, and future—and nothing happens outside His command. Everything is proceeding according to His divine plan and purpose, and not one molecule is moving on its own accord. “For the LORD Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?” «For the LORD of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back? », (Isaiah 14:27). As for men having “the power to believe for and speak into existence things that are not,” that power belongs to God alone, who doesn’t take kindly to those who would attempt to usurp it from Him. “Remember this, and be a man; return it on your heart, O sinners. Remember former things from forever; for I am God, and no other is God, even none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from the past things which were not done, saying, ‘My purpose shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure’; calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my purpose from a far country. Yes, I have spoken, I will also cause it to come; I have formed; yes, I will do it” (Isaiah 46:8-11).

Kingdom Now’s denial of the rapture of the church is also unbiblical. The explanation that the ra

Rapture is nothing more than the people of God being caught up in rapturous feelings ignores the fact that such an application of the term “caught up” is strictly an idiomatic expression peculiar to English, not Greek. “I was all ‘caught up’ in the movie (or other excitement)” is not the equivalent of harpazo, used to describe the catching up bodily into heaven in 1 Thessalonians 4:17; 2 Corinthians 12:2-4; and Revelation 12:5. The word is also used in Acts 8:39, where Philip is bodily “caught away” by the Spirit to another location.

As for our being in Christ and having divine nature, we are not Christ, although we do partake of His divine nature at salvation with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit «whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. », (2 Peter 1:4). But Christ is the second Person of the Godhead, and no one becomes God. This is a lie from the father of lies, Satan, who first told it in the Garden of Eden when he tempted Eve with “you shall be as God” «for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. », (Genesis 3:5).

The idea that the church has replaced Israel and that the fulfillment of the prophecies to Israel pertain to the church is known as Replacement theology, and it is unbiblical. The promises to Israel will be fulfilled in Israel, not in the church. God’s blessings to Israel are eternal, and they are without recall.

Finally, the second coming of Christ will be when He, not men, defeats His enemies and puts all things under His feet. The description of the second coming in Revelation 19 is the description of a mighty warrior who comes to put all things to right, not of one who

When it comes to an earth that has already been cleansed and prepared for Him to govern, verse 15 is explicit: “And out of His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He will strike the nations. And He will shepherd them with a rod of iron. And He will tread the winepress of the wine of the anger and wrath of Almighty God.” If the earth has been “purged of all evil influences,” as the proponents of Kingdom Now believe, why does Christ need a sharp sword to strike the nations, and why does the anger and wrath of God still exist against them?

Kingdom Now theology is yet another false, unbiblical, and misleading philosophy among many, where the vain imaginations of men seek to humanize God and elevate man to a divine status. It is something to be avoided.