Not What You See

Logical arguments are the backbone of a strong debate. And debate we must as we face the arguments "Kingdom haters" raise against the One Hope. They'll say that we should not seek our own glory. They'll say that the Kingdom is already “within you.” They'll say that we should be more concerned about politics, and solving the socio-economic problems like war and poverty. They'll tell us that we've lost our focus on the "here and now."

Say what they may, we'll stick to the original Christian apostolic argument. And it's simple: the Hope is future. As Jesus famously said to Pontius Pilate: 'My Kingdom is not of this World' (John 18:36).

Paul’s brutally logical rebuttal to the "the Kingdom is here now" argument is: A hope you see is not hope at all. Paul noted that the definition of hope is always future-focused. Any true hope must be something a person has not yet obtained.

If you call something you see or which you already have your "hope” then you’ve contradicted yourself. You've committed a logical fallacy. And if you dare say that the Christian Hope is something you possess currently, or if you preach that it's something you see now, you've committed heresy. You've contradicted one of the Seven Basic Truths of Christianity--the One Hope.

A Cheap Substitute

If you say that the Christian Hope is here now, you’ve replaced the Hope Christ purchased for us (with his blood) for something else. You’ve settled for a cheap substitute. That's bad and it's offensive to God.

You must consider the argument of Paul. The Hope is future. This simple argument proves that your thoughts are illogical.

Today there are very few Christian pastors who give the Hope of the Kingdom the place it deserves. Starting with this: Only a handful of pastors define the Kingdom as the Bible defines it. They make it to be something present—not future. Besides that, most pastors outright contradict the Hope and they make it out to be something it’s not--like health, wealth, and prosperity.

Our only recourse is to debate them like Paul did.

What It’s Not

We need to tell the false teachers this: The Hope is not overcoming the despair of a financial crisis. The Christian Hope is not overcoming drug addiction, divorce, or separation. The Christian Hope is not your prayer that your city, state, or country would overcome social, economic, or health crises. It's not about overcoming your nation's battle with poverty, disease, discrimination, war, or pollution.

Those are political battles we also would love to see your country win. Sure, these might be victories God ordains for you. Amen. We'll be glad for you if you get them. They’re good things, but so often (as the saying goes) “the good is the enemy of the best.”

As wonderful as these blessings might be, they are only "added things." They are not the goal. They will be 'added to you' if you aim at the goal.

The goal is the Kingdom. The goal is the One Hope. Seek first the Kingdom, and these will be added to you. They are not the Hope. They are distant thirds, fourths, fifths, and sixths.

Your Church is Not the Hope

And lying pastors must hear this: As beautiful as a strong congregation is, the Hope is not to build a great church. We put our love in the Church, but we won’t put our hope in the Church. Those who put their hope in the Church will be disappointed when the Church stops loving.

Jesus warned us of a coming apostasy in the Church with these words: ‘The love of many will grow cold’ (Matthew 24:12). And Paul warned us by saying: ‘… in Later Times some will fall away from the Faith’ (1 Timothy 4:1). The Church is simply not the Hope the Lord Jesus gave us!

The Church is not as firm as the Kingdom. For example, the Church will experience something called Apostasy before Jesus returns. Apostasy is not good. It's very bad. The Bible says ‘… that day [the Rapture] will not come unless the Apostasy comes first’ (2 Thessalonians 2:3).

The Church is God's mechanism for the present time. The Kingdom is God's mechanism for the future. The Kingdom will endure forever in the World to Come. We're not sure which churches will enter it. The parable of the Ten Virgins indicates that maybe half will enter.

The Christian Hope is not to build a successful marriage—as wonderful as successful marriages are. Nor is the Hope when you land a high-paying job or purchase a beautiful house. The Hope is the Return of Christ in glory to reign on the Earth. And Jesus will return—but in the future! That’s why he taught us to pray ‘May your Kingdom come’ and why we must look into the future towards the Rapture!

Hope as a Verb

The way to deal with the gainsayers and their contradictions against the One Hope of the Kingdom of God is to present a solid argument. Logic is the level ground we share with all people of every background. It’s the playing field upon which we can debate and discuss the Truth.

Paul presents his argument for the Hope in Romans 8 in a coherent and bulletproof way. Listen to his reasoning:

But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently (Romans 8:24-25).

So, what do we read here? We read that God's definition of hope is waiting for the things we don’t have yet. Hope then becomes a source of the fruit of patience. Paul explains that if we hope, we wait patiently. So, to hope means to wait patiently for something that you don’t yet have.

That’s the verb form of hope.

In Romans 8, Paul is using hope as a verb when he asks ‘Who hopes for what they already have?’ And he uses it as a verb again when he states: ‘… if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.’

Hope as a Noun

But what about the noun form of hope? Paul also uses the noun form. He starts the passage by using hope as a noun: ‘… hope that is seen is no hope at all.’ In other words, a hope you see is a contradiction of the definition of the term hope. And if that’s what you have—a visible hope—then it’s not the True Hope. It's not the Hope Jesus left us. It’s not the One Hope.

To identify the One Hope and to see whether we have it or not, we have to ask “In what hope does a Christian hope?” The answer is: “A Christian hopes in the Hope that has a capital H, not in the hope with a lowercase h.”

Paul makes it easy for us to identify the True Hope by defining it in the verses preceding Romans 8:24-25. Those are verses we already looked at in One Hope, Lesson #7 where we noted Paul’s words:

… [we] hope that the Creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God (Romans 8:20-21).

So the Hope is that Creation will be set free from its current state of decline and death. Do you have that Hope? Do you hope for a New Creation—or, as the author of Hebrews calls it, do you hope in the World to Come (Hebrews 2:5)?

Even if you don’t long for it, Creation does!

Creation’s Hope

By Creation, Paul means plant life, insect life, mammals, fish, birds, and even the elements themselves: soil, rocks, water, air, and fire. The creatures, substances, and elements of this Earth will be purified, restored, and renewed. That’s what Paul means when he says that ‘the Creation itself will be… brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.’

All animals will abandon violence and become herbivores again. Soil will be purged of the slightest strain of pollution. Rivers will be purified and made perfectly potable. It’s all going to be beautiful, pure, and pristine. Rain will fall, but there will be no flooding. Waves will roll onto the beaches, but no tsunamis will batter them. The planet will experience seasons, but will no longer experience volcanoes, or tornadoes.

Scientists have discovered that the planet is much more resilient than we think—it heals itself and has something scientists are now calling “multi-stability” among its ecosystems. That self-healing power will be on full display when Jesus returns to restore all things.

Deserts will cease to be sterile because miraculously well-timed springs will gush out fresh water to convert deserts into arable land. Islands and mountaintops will be free from earthquakes and tsunamis, so will be made secure again. Plagues of bothersome and destructive insects like locusts, flies, and gnats will cease. Snakes will no longer have venom. Scorpions will no longer sting.

Human Beings

And what of the humans who will be in the Kingdom? What is this ‘…freedom and glory of the children of God’ (Romans 8:21)? The humans who will be resurrected and who will experience the freedom and glory Paul speaks of are those who have been born again. Have you been born again? Have you been baptized in the Spirit?

The logic is this: If you’ve been born of the Spirit of God, you have become a child of God. If you’re a child of God, then you’re also an heir of God. If you're an heir, then your inheritance is the Earth. The Earth will be renewed, so once that renewal is complete, you will rule over a New World.

To be made completely capable of ruling, you will need a new nature. So God will resurrect you and me and give us immortal bodies! You will get the divine nature in the Resurrection—and you will get it the same way Jesus got it—as a reward for your obedience to God. After you have passed through your humbling process, you will be exalted.

Clarity

If we’re not clear enough on what the Hope is, then Paul defines the Hope more clearly in the verses that follow (they’re from the same passage):

… we ourselves also, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves while we await eagerly our adoption, the redemption of our body. For in the Hope we were saved (Romans 8:23-24).

Yes, you read it right. In the (direct article) Hope we were saved. Again, we're not talking about a hope. We're talking about the Promise of God of a Kingdom.

We’ve already examined this passage (Romans 8) in One Hope, Lesson #7, so we won’t repeat ourselves, but we have to revisit the verses to refocus. So, what’s the focus this time around? It's Paul’s forceful argument. This study highlights the powerful simplicity of the apostolic argument for a future Hope.

Can you appreciate it? The Hope is future.

Will you implement it into your own argumentation? Only if you're brave and bold!

Bulletproof Argument

This passage contains a powerful argument for the Hope. To see that, we need to remember that the passage actually starts in v. 17 when Paul reminds the Romans that children of God—that is, people born of the Spirit of God—are also heirs of God.

Paul goes on to remind them that being an heir means we will inherit the Kingdom. Heirs get an inheritance. Our inheritance is the Earth—but more specifically the Kingdom of God which will extend over all the Earth in the future. It’s not here yet. If it were, we wouldn’t speak of a Hope.

Read the full passage and you’ll see that Paul is leading to one topic: the Kingdom and the need to have patience as we wait for it to come. Here’s the passage:

… we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

For the Creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the Creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in a Hope that the Creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

We know that the whole Creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in the Hope we were saved.

But a hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently (Romans 8:17-25; NASB).

Follow the Argument

Do you understand the structure of Paul’s argument? He makes five main points:

1. If you suffer with Christ now, you inherit the Earth with him tomorrow.

2. Our current suffering is minor compared to the rewards we’ll get later.

3. All nature (plants, animals, land, sky, and sea) yearn for the restoration of the planet.

4. We also yearn for the Kingdom, and the Resurrection will be our doorway to it. In fact, the Hope of Eternal Life is what got us saved.

5. A hope is something we don’t have yet, but for which we are patiently waiting. The Kingdom, which is the Christian Hope, has not come yet, so we keep waiting.

Paul’s final argument is that if we already have what we’re hoping for, then it ceases to be a hope. His argument needs to be heard by the so-called “Christians” who think that we can get all we want now—the “blab it and grab it” crowd. Paul is addressing the “Christianity Lite” churches which say that God only wants to give us prosperity and healing.

The people who have their Gospel of Greed, the “Prosperity Gospel” are wrong! They’ve denied the Hope of the Kingdom and exchanged it for a new definition of the word hope. We do not have unity with such people (whether they call themselves “Christians” or not).

What’s the main difference between us? We do not share the One and the same Hope. We're heading in different directions.