Thy Kingdom Come?
What Jesus taught about the kingdom of God sums up his teaching. And he
most emphatically enjoined us to pray "Thy kingdom come." A review of
his teaching about the kingdom of God shows that one should not pray
for its coming with facile confidence. God's kingdom, let alone its
final arrival, means an irrevocable separation of those who have proved
themselves worthy of the kingdom from those who failed to do so.
The history of the Church shows a difference between praying for God's
kingdom and praying for such form of it which is a compromise of God's
purpose with man. The latter is man's eternal salvation and not
necessarily his well-being on this earth, which all too often means a
departure from he standards of God's kingdom.
What about the future? What are those features of the Church of the
future for which one would pray in vain the words "thy kingdom come,"
and what are those features that will surely be on hand?
Stanley L. Jaki, the author of more than forty books, is the winner of
the Templeton Prize for 1987.