He Will Reign Forever: A Review
He Will Reign Forever: A Review
Michael Vlach's view of God's Kingdom
When we get to heaven, will we get wings and float around on clouds? Will there be angels that specialize in making the harp strings, or will they miraculously never wear out? Our view of the state after this life—the life to come—is, far too often, shaped by medieval paintings, popular television shows, and—in our social media-soaked world—memes.
Just how much of this is real? It depends on your view of how the world ends—your eschatology.
If you think we are currently building the Kingdom of God on the Earth—postmillennial—then you would hold all the Biblical passages that refer to a physical Kingdom are in the hear and now, and the kingdom becomes spiritual after Christ returns. If you hold the physical descriptions of the Kingdom are all allegorical, or fulfilled in Christ’s incarnation, then you would also hold to the “angels on clouds” view.
According to Michael Vlach in He Will Reign Forever,[1] neither of these views line up with what the Scriptures say. According to the Scriptures, there is a physical Kingdom yet to come, ruled by Christ, in two parts—a millennial kingdom and the eternal state.
This Kingdom is not spiritual, it is physical. We will not be living in clouds playing harps, but rather living on a renewed Earth, in renewed societies, doing all the things humans were intended to do. The future of mankind is a return to an environment something like the Garden of Eden, rather than spiritual existence and continual songs of praise.
Vlach’s view of the Kingdom is particularly premillennial; Christ will return to set up his Kingdom, fulfilling the literal promises God made to Israel, and the literal prophecies God made to the nations, at some point in the future.
How do we know this Kingdom is yet future? Look around—does where we are living look like the Kingdom of God?
A small point—the author is not concerned with defending a premillennial view in this book. There are some points where premillennial thought is defined or defended, but the burden of this book is not a defense of premillennialism.
Instead, this book is a “romp through the Scriptures,” examining every instance of the Kingdom from Genesis through Revelation. At each point, Vlach considers which view of the Kingdom fits the literal meaning of the passage in hand best. In each case—and without stretching the Scriptures, or taking them in some sense foreign to their natural reading—the author shows how a future, physical Kingdom fits the text of the passage better than any other view.
He Will Reign Forever is broken down into four parts. The first dscribes various views of the Kingdom, the second examines sections of the Tanakh (Old Testament) to see which they fit best, and the third examines sections of the Apostles (New Testament) to see which they fit best. The final section considers theological issues of the romp through Biblical theology.
I would pine for more theological depth, but I’m also probably a bit of an unusual reader of theological books, so don’t let that dissuade you from reading Vlach. He’s one of the foremost defenders of premillennial thought today, and well worth reading.
If you are looking for a book to give you a solid understanding of the Kingdom of God, especially if you prefer to read the Scriptures in their literal sense, there are few introductions to the topic than this one. He Will Reign Forever is immanently readable and well-argued.
[1] Michael J. Vlach and John MacArthur, He Will Reign Forever: A Biblical Theology of the Kingdom of God (Lampion House Publishing, LLC, 2017).