Joseph Mattera - Kingdom Revolution: Bringing Change to Your Life and Beyond

A s the conclusion of this book, my prayer is that those who read this treatise will have a practical and ideological handbook useful for engaging the culture as Salt and Light as instructed in Matthew 5:13-16. My primary theological goal is to shift the starting point of biblical interpretation back to the Cultural Commission of Genesis 1:28 so that unnecessary chatter questioning the validity of the Christians call to be involved outside the realm of the church can be squelched. My practical goal is to give useful illustrations to pastors, leaders, and future movers and shakers so that they have a model to look to for future cultural engagement. I have attempted to present a balanced approach in this book so that it has an overview of some of the salient theological themes needed to promote and expand Gods Kingdom rule in each community of the earth.

Consequently, I have included in these chapters material dealing with the image of God, prayer, Kingdom economics, the power of God, the laws of God, the covenants of God, and an apologetical approach that neatly fits the biblical worldview approach. I am convinced that the expansion and influence of Christianity is the only hope for the future of planet earth before the return of our Lord!

Originally, I had much more material that I was going to include in this book, but my editors suggested that I break up the content into two separate books. My next book will be even more practical and will deal more with leaders partnering together in the Kingdom for the fulfillment of the Cultural Commission as given to us in Genesis 1:28.

On a different note, in the Appendix I have included many examples of how Christianity throughout history has had a significant impact on many different realms of society. Read, be inspired, and be challenged to fulfill your cultural commission to impact this nation for the glory of God.

Before I finish, I want to state that I am well aware of the previous works of others dealing with the subject of the Gospel and societal transformation. One such author, Walter Rauschenbusch (1861-1918), who some consider the premier theologian of the Kingdom of God, expounded a worldview more akin to Marxism. He embraces an economics of equality rather than biblical economics as presented in this book. His series of books include Christianity and the Social Crisis (1907), Christianizing the Social Order (1912), and A Theology for the Social Gospel (1917). He wrote that social redemption would be marked by the triumph of cooperation over competition, fraternity over coercion and public good over private gain.

Ronald Sider, a contemporary proponent of the utilization of a big central government to aid the poor as shown in his book Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, has already been roundly answered by David Chilton in his book Prosperous Christians in an Age of Guilt Manipulators. Jim Wallis, who represents the liberal left wing of evangelical Christianity, wrote a book entitled Gods Politics that I will briefly critique in my next book on the Kingdom of God.

As we conclude this book, please carefully consider all that has been presented and what the Holy Spirit has stirred up in your spirit concerning Christianitys influence on our world and what God has specifically called you to do.

If you are in a leadership position and would like additional information on how to partner with other Christian leaders to advance Gods Kingdom on the earth, read the forthcoming sequel to this book, which will deal with:

• God Ideas, Not Just Good Ideas
• Partnering in the Kingdom
• Partnering and Ethnicity
• Partnering for Corporate Destiny
• Partnering Within the Apostolic Reformation
• Partnering for the Progress of the Kingdom
• Partnering Under the Law of the Kingdom
• The Five Models of the Kingdom
• The Power of Synergism See the contact information at the end of this book for details on how to keep abreast regarding the purchase of Part 2 of this work when it comes out in the near future.

Walter Rauschenbusch, quoted in Adrian Hastings, ed., A World History of Christianity (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2000), 443.

The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein (Psalm 111:2).

While it is popular today to speak about keeping religion out of science, most do not know that it was Christianity that paved the way for science. Some of sciences greatest contributors claimed to be followers of Christ. Famous and influential scientists like William of Occam (1285-1347), Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), Galileo (1564-1642), Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), Roger Bacon (1214-1294), Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543), Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), Isaac Newton (1642-1727), Louis Pasteur (1822-1895), George Washington Carver (1864-1943), and other major scientists not included in this list made major discoveries regarding scientific methodology, experimentation, empirical observation, astronomy, mathematics, the laws of gravity, health care, medical treatment, agriculture, and more. The names and their contributions are too numerous to mention here.

Until the 19th century, science was known as a natural philosophy and was considered a branch of divinity, the queen of the sciences. Christian theism provided the impetus for such study. The rationale was that if there was a personal God who designed everything that exists with rational natural laws, then it would be possible to discover those laws through careful study.

Those with a naturalistic worldview have no real impetus for such study given their impersonal and random starting point and their views of the evolutionary process of the cosmos. After all, if life is merely matter in motion plus time and chance, how could we discover any unifying principles useful for empirical laboratory experimentation?

Natural science has to presuppose Christian theism because, for example, the naturalistic worldview on its own cannot assume the ability to predict the future based on observing the past. An impersonal random process doesnt allow for predictability. Since Christianity presupposes a designer who had a purpose in creation, it is easy to believe in set patterns and/or laws in nature that ensure predictability. Without a creator for the universe, we are left only with randomnesswhich then abrogates the natural law trajectory that science presently uses to calculate future results.

Because the universe has a creator, we can safely say that there is design and set laws. These set laws, for example, enable a scientist who wants to create water to use the formula of combining the properties of hydrogen and oxygen. With the proper mix (H2O) and the correct environment, a scientist can always expect to produce water. If, on the other hand, the universe has no design and came about by a chance interaction of matter and motion, there would be no rational foundation to believe that we can deliberately discover any set laws in the universe that would enable us to create water or any other properties.

Another simple illustration is the Law of Gravity. We understand by studying the gravitational pull on the earth that objects have weight based on their mass. Because of this, when a person jumps up (while on earth), they can expect to come back down at a speed determined by a combination of several measurable factors (e.g., their weight and inches off the ground). If, on the other hand, there was no cosmological designer, then gravity would be as unpredictable as a piece of dust blowing in the wind. The way a person comes back down to the ground after jumping would always be a unique event in which sometimes they may go up and not come down or sometimes they may go sideways. Only Christianity has the necessary