The Congregation is the Kingdom of Christ on Earth
By Rev. Jack Cascione

 

It was disappointing to read on the Sunday, Nov. 11, 2001, bulletin cover from CPH, "The Kingdom of God is within you."

Some LCMS pastors reject the fact that the congregation is a kingdom of Christ. They claim identifying the church as the kingdom of Christ means Christ has many kingdoms instead of one church.

The translation from CPH becomes their proof that the local congregation is not the Kingdom of Christ. Some even believe only the presence of an ordained minister makes the congregation the Kingdom of Christ.

However, if the local congregation is not the Kingdom of Christ it also is not the church. Christ says in Matt. 18:20, "Where to or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them." He doesn't say "in them."

Every local congregation is the Kingdom of Christ, just as every Communion wafer is the Body of Christ, not a piece of the Kingdom or a piece of the Body of Christ.

The NIV is incorrect when it translates Luke 17:21, "The Kingdom of God is within you." Lenski and Kretzmann are also incorrect when they translate, "For lo, the kingdom of God is inside you (or within you.)!" The King James Version started this bad translation and many follow, but not NASB, Beck 1976, or RSV or commentaries by Arndt, Just, Alford, or Tiede.

Noted Commentators Write:

Arndt is correct when he translates, "The Kingdom of God is in your midst."

Doctor Arndt explains, "The Kingdom was identified with the church, and the passage was regarded an important test to prove that the church is invisible." He points out that there is no other verse using "entos" that places anything inside anyone in the New Testament.

Arndt is brilliant when he says, "It must not be overlooked that Jesus is addressing Pharisees; He would not say that the rule of God was in their hearts."

Doctor Just is also correct when he translates, "the Kingdom of God is among you." Just writes, "'Within you' would introduce a foreign theology that is not reflected in Jesus' theology in any of the gospels."(page 662) He points out that the Kingdom comes from Christ through Word and Sacrament.

Arndt's interpretation preserves the "people as the church." Christ tells us Matthew 18:20 "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."

Alford writes, "The misunderstanding which rendered these words, 'within you,' meaning this in a spiritual sense, 'in your hearts,' should have been prevented by reflecting that they are addressed to the Pharisees, in whose hearts it certainly was not."

Tiede states, "The kingdom of God is in the midst of you. This is consistent with Luke 10:9,11 where the kingdom 'has drawn near to you' in the preaching of the apostles and with Luke 11:20 where Jesus 'exorcising by the 'finger of God' is the sign that the Kingdom of God 'has come upon you."

No one individual or pastor is a church. No one has the kingdom of God in them. When we enter a local congregation we enter the Kingdom of God. We must have two or three gathered together in Christ's name around Word and Sacrament who then have the authority of Christ's Kingdom to be a congregation, a kingdom of God, the church, and the authority to issue a divine call.

Hence, the voters are the supreme authority in the church because there can' t be an LCMS congregation unless the voters confess the truth about the means of grace, the presence of Christ and His kingdom.

The Confessions Teach:

  1. Luther's Large Catechism, Second Petition: Par. 54 "so that through the Word and the power of the Holy Ghost Thy kingdom may prevail AMONG US,"
  2. Apology: Articles VII and VIII: Of the Church. par. 16] "Besides, THE CHURCH is the kingdom of Christ,"
  3. [same par]Therefore, the Church, which is truly the kingdom of Christ, is properly the congregation of saints.
  4. Article IX: Of Baptism. [53] " . . . It does not, however, pertain to those who are outside of Christ's Church, where there is neither Word nor Sacraments, because the kingdom of Christ exists only with the Word and Sacraments."
  5. Power and Primacy of the Pope [16] " . . . For it is manifest that the kingdom of Christ is scattered throughout the whole world; and to-day there are MANY CHURCHES in the East which do not seek ordination or confirmation from the Roman bishop [which have ministers ordained neither by the Pope nor his bishops]."

The local congregation must be the kingdom of Christ because only the local congregation uses the sacraments. The presence of Christ on earth is the kingdom of God on earth identified by the means of grace, the marks of the church.

The Bible Teaches:

Luke 16:16 The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it.

Colossians 1:13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.

We see here that the kingdom of God is not in us but that God has placed us or translated us into His kingdom. The change of status took place at our Baptism.

Luther:

In his early years Luther was adamant that the Kingdom of God is in us. He used Luke 21:17 to prove that we didn't need the Pope because we were individually the kingdom or the church of God.

Luther calls the heart, "God's Sanctuary" in (LW10: 419).

Again, "It is as if He were saying: 'Outside of you is exile. Outside of you is everything which is seen and touched, but within you is everything which is believed only by faith." (LW25: 3 83)

And again, "They keep running to Rome, Jerusalem, St. James's, and a thousand other places, as if the kingdom of God were not with them instead (Luke 17:21). (LW 27:337)

And finally, "since the kingdom of heaven (as Christ says) is within us." LW 42:147 (1519)

Then in 1521, Luther's understanding of Luke 21:17 changed. He writes, "Th e kingdom of God is in the midst of you. LW 39:218 (1521)

Luther's German Bible reads, in Luke 21:17 "mitten unter euch" or "centered among us." He translates Matt. 18:20 "mitten unter ihnen" or "centered among us" when Christ says "Where two or three are gathered together there am I in the midst of them."


Rev. Jack Cascione is pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church (LCMS - MI) in St. Clair Shores, Michigan. He has written numerous articles for Christian News and is the author of Reclaiming the Gospel in the LCMS: How to Keep Your Congregation Lutheran. He has also written a study on the Book of Revelation called In Search of the Biblical Order.
He can be reached by email at pastorcascione@juno.com.

November 13, 2001