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Global Mission and the Kingdom


                       Note the following about the table:


                       •  Both verses speak of the primary task of the church—proclaiming
                           the message of Christ to the lost.
                       •  Both speak of the global scope of the task—reaching “all nations”
                           with the gospel.
                       •  Both speak of the duration of the task—we are to continue until
                           “the end of the age.”

                    The Gospel of the Kingdom Defined
                       Jesus spoke of the “gospel of the Kingdom.” What does this phrase
                    mean? There are two evangelical views concerning its meaning. The first
                    is the dispensationalist view held by C. I. Scofield, editor of the Scofield
                    Study Bible. Scofield taught that the gospel of the Kingdom is the good
                    news that God is going to set up the Davidic kingdom on the earth, and
                    that Christ will rule over this kingdom for 1000 years. This gospel was
                    first preached by John, Jesus, and the apostles, but was rejected by the
                    Jews, and will not be preached again until the Great Tribulation period.
                    The gospel of the Kingdom is, therefore, somehow different from the
                    gospel we preach today, which, according to the dispensationalist view,
                    is “the gospel of the grace of God” (Scofield, 1343).


                       Another definition of the gospel of the Kingdom is given by George
                    Eldon Ladd. This is the view held by most evangelical scholars today. Ladd
                    writes, “The Gospel of the Kingdom is the Gospel which was proclaimed
                    by the apostles in the early Church” (Ladd, 1959, 125). According to
                    Ladd, the gospel of the Kingdom is the announcement of what God has
                    done and will do. It is His victory over His enemies. It is the good news
                    that Christ is coming again to destroy forever His enemies. It is a gospel
                    of hope. It is also the good news of what God has already done. He has
                    already broken the power of death, defeated Satan, and overthrown the
                    rule of sin. The gospel is one of promise but also of experience, and the
                    promise is grounded in experience. What Christ has done guarantees
                    what He will do. This is the gospel which we must take to the world (130).


                       Tom Marshall, a Pentecostal, expresses the dynamic character of the
                    Kingdom in his definition. He writes, “The Gospel of the Kingdom is the
                    Gospel of salvation with the addition of the powers of the age to come.



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