Why the sense of urgency?

If this book were simply a history of the Kingdom of God there would be no sense of urgency. But it is not simply a history. It is an attempt to bring together the past and the future in the present in a way which helps make sense of these times, and asks deep searching and powerfully relevant questions. Questions like:

• What is the larger Purpose and Plan for humanity and the planet?
• What does it mean to align with Divine Will, Purpose and Plan?
• What are the themes and challenges of this time?
• What might the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom process look like in the twenty-first century and the Age of Aquarius?
• What of twenty-first century discipleship?


At this moment many people have moved into siege mentality. While there is always a call for discernment, such ‘wall building’ simply produces the effects we most want to do away with – fear, suspicion and deliberate separativeness or divisiveness. It would be far more productive if we could celebrate together the universality of the Kingdom of God, begin to appreciate what such a reality might mean for all humanity once extricated from religious and political agendas, and get on together, as people of goodwill, with the work of bringing it to fruition in the world, where it has already existed since the beginning of history.

Many of our children and young people refuse to take on board the old exclusivities and old Kingdom battles. They see with eyes which are not blinkered and with hearts not yet closed off. And many of them despair of making a real difference. Most of them are deeply spiritual at core, but do not belong in the ‘old religions’. They, like Canadian 1982-born Craig Kielburger, intuitively know what it means to align with a far greater will than their own; they know how to powerfully serve in very practical hands-on and co-operative ways to externalise the Kingdom of God on earth. This book, especially in its final chapter, sets out to validate their vision and support their potential.

In 1938, on the eve of the greatest confrontation the world had ever seen, highly respected Jewish theologian Abraham Heschel was asked to bring a reflection to a group of Quakers. These words, later to be published in Man’s Quest for God were probably part of that reflection:

“There is a divine dream which the prophets and rabbis have cherished and which fills our prayers, and permeates the acts of true piety. It is the dream of a world, rid of evil by the grace of God as well as by the efforts of man, by his dedication to the task of establishing the kingship of God in the world. God is waiting for us to redeem the world.” (4)

I was born in the midst of that global conflagration. My journey has taken me from a Seventh Day Adventist childhood influenced by ‘apocalyptic end-time theology’ to mainstream Christianity, Eastern studies and the synthesising Trans-Himalayan tradition. During that journey I have been powerfully sustained by a deep sense that the Kingdom of God process as seen by Zarathustra and powerfully detailed by Jesus engages this whole planet. Over the centuries this vast vision has been far more clearly articulated by visionaries, poets, artists and genuine servers that it has ever been by theologians.

In his best moments Friedrich Nietzsche was such a visionary. In 1888, in a moment of profound Kingdom insight, he was to say:

“The ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ is a condition of the heart – not something that comes ‘upon the earth’ or ‘after death’……….. The ‘Kingdom of God’ is not something one waits for; it has no yesterday or tomorrow; it does not come ‘in a thousand years’ – it is an experience within a heart: it is everywhere; it is nowhere.” (5)