Kingdom Here
by Jonathan Daughtery, aka Mr Silly, a friend

For my wife and me the Study Center itself was the object of our study during our recent visit. As a newly ordained ruling elder in our church, I am very interested in obedient Kingdom work. I want to lead and lead well. And I want to lead because I want my flock to be led. My real family is part of a realy local church which is part of the real Kingdom of God on earth. Really. So, we wanted to see, hear, and taste the Highlands Study Center in all its real-ness and maybe take some of it home with us.

Those who are interested in the ways the church influences culture and how the culture, in return, influences the church, find it important to be aware that our world views, philosophies, doctrines, actions, and yes, even ideas are precede by some sort of assumptions. It hardly needs to be said that not all of these assumptions are equal.

As we studied the Study Center, I was glad to see that at least a few of these dangerous pre-rational assumptions, for which I was learning to be careful, are fervently resisted. One of these is a form of Gnosticism.

Gnosticism may be described simply as that false doctrine in which the earthly, material and physical is believed to be evil and that which is spiritual to be good. The Gnostic believes that something is evil because it is earthly and it is fallen because it is created. He prefers the invisible to the visible and believes that salvation is a deliverance from earth, matter, and time, to heaven, spirit, and eternity. Among various other heresies, it was this Gnosticism against which the Apostles' Creed has historically been used to defend.

Gnosticism is manifested in many different forms. It sometimes comes as the assumption which precedes an amillenial understanding of God's Kingdom (My family knows how I am fond of calling Amillennialism "What-it-isn't-ism"). But this understanding flies in the face of explicit commandments to take dominion, to be fruitful and multiply, subdue the earth, to raise Godly children, and to teach all nations, baptizing them. These Gnostic tendencies tend to chip away at the earthliness of the Kingdom and over-spiritualize the truth of its immanence as though time and place, home, and neighborhood and local church are things which are to be "overcome." A church which denies or ignores the immanence of the Kingdom should not be surprised by the reign of the para-church ministries.

The Kingdom is not just on earth in theory. A King must have his kingdom. I believe Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. The Great Redeemer King reigns over His redeemed domain. This Mightiest of Rulers has the mightiest of kingdoms. His Kingdom is now and it is on earth until His Second Advent and it is forever.

One of the blessings of working in the Kingdom is raising and training more workers. Laurence and R.C. are daily at work "pulling down strongholds and casting down arguments," recognizing their roles and responsibilities and blessings in real Kingdom work. They are training up workers to live deliberate, obedient lives on the only solid Foundation.

Taking obedient Kingdom work down to its finer details involves raising children to be godly men and women, fathers and mothers, noble warriors and humble servants, and especially worshippers of Almighty God. This, of course, means we must use our earthly minds and hands to teach them, not just our checkbook. The government schools train pagans for tearing down God's Kingdom and the private schools are too busy trying to compete with the government schools on their own terms. They don't have to teach whole pagan world-views and philosophies; they only have to embed some of their own fundamental assumptions.

Too often, it is heard from Christian parents that they think it is important that their children attend the local government school so they will learn what the world is like. They might go on to say something about their young kids being "salt' and "light" to the first grade teacher and the playground bully. It is one thing to give food to the pagans, but it is quite another to feed to the wolves your own children. We will be raising our family as part of the Kingdom, to raise up their own generations as God's people (I can hardly wait for someone to ask me, now as a father, if I am not concerned that homeschoolirig our children might cause them to have social problems so that I can gaze at my shoes and hide behind my wife, who was also homeschooled). By His grace we will teach them to be parents, homeschoolers, and agrarians just as we were. We will teach them His commandments, His grace, and His Kingdom just as we were taught.

May we not fall into the trap which is common even in doctrinally sound churches which is to deny foundational doctrines when we apply them to daily Kingdom construction. We need to have the same sound convictions and doctrines in our hands as we have in our minds. We can easily have it copied down correctly in our doctrinal notebooks and work from yet other assumptions in our daily lives. May we be granted strong hands as well as sharp minds.

While at the Study Center, we ate good food and drank good beer. We had good conversation about leadership, world views, and kingdom building (and good food and good beer). Thankfully we were able to return home with some wisdom and practical ideas for our roles as Kingdom builders for our own ones (and perpetuate the myth that the best reason for a stay at the HSC is for the home brew). If you would like to learn a bit from those who are up to their elbows in real Kingdom work, it is your turn for a stay at the Highlands Study Center.