Return of the Kingdom: A Biblical Theology of God's Reign by Stephen Dempster

Return of the Kingdom: A Biblical Theology of God's Reign by Stephen Dempster (IVP, 2024). 

In a world captivated by the 24-hour news cycle and the latest political drama, it's easy to get swept up in the whirlwind of who's in power and who's vying for it. We place our hopes in elections, pin our dreams on political leaders, and participate in endless debates about proper policies and competing visions of Christian cultural engagement.

In his book Return of the Kingdom, Stephen Dempster invites us to explore the grand narrative of God's sovereign rule—a kingdom that has been unfolding since the beginning of time and will continue long after the political landscapes of our age have shifted and faded. Carefully considering this work may provide the biblical-theological antidote we need to both overdone alarmism and cold-hearted indifference in our social interactions.

God’s Kingdom and God’s Story

Dempster’s study connects the way God works in the world with what God has revealed in his word. The biblical canon is not a wax model of God’s intended plan for his creation that can be shaped and molded by each new generation of readers. Dempster insists that the biblical collection has an enduring shape that we should not seek to refashion. Rather, we should allow the Bible’s contours to mold and shape us as we encounter its comprehensive narrative framework and its multifaceted textual world. 

“In the Bible,” he explains, “the first few chapters provide an introduction not only to the book but to the world, and the last two chapters provide a conclusion for both” (5). This means that in the Scriptures, “the world and the story are intimately woven together” (5). 

The central theme of the kingdom of God helps believers navigate the reading of biblical texts and the rhythm of their lives. For Dempster, the “return of the kingdom” is a way of “comprehending the entire biblical message” (2). In this “one succinct phrase,” we can behold the grand “storyline of the Bible” (4). 

As Dempster demonstrates throughout his extensive study, God’s kingdom and God’s story are not simply parallel tracks heading to a similar destination—they’re intertwined like the mutually reinforcing strands of a DNA double helix. 

Gain a better understanding of the nature of the kingdom, and you will deepen your perception of God’s purpose for his people. As a biblical reader, this prevailing theme of God’s kingdom gives you a place to stand as you navigate the unity and diversity of the Bible as a whole.  

The Coming Day of the Lord Jesus 

The power of this perspective is that it provides a fresh line of insight into the familiar biblical storyline. In the beginning, God created a good world in which human image-bearers would worship and obey as representatives of God’s ruling authority (they were to rule on God’s behalf). The entrance of sin into the world marked the beginning of a rival kingdom. The dark lord of this counterfeit kingdom warred against the Lord and his anointed king by tempting each new generation of image-bearers to reject the lordship of God’s kingdom. 

In God’s providence, though, he provided spaces in which God’s people could worship and catch a glimpse of the ultimate restoration of God’s rule and reign over all the earth. The garden, the tabernacle, the temple, and the covenant community each enabled the people to serve the Lord in their time and also prefigured the brilliant dimensions of a coming consummation. In the end of days, then, God will not merely return to a previous time but will establish a new heavens and a new earth with a redeemed people who gladly participate (they will rule with God forever).

As Dempster tells this story and traces this theme, he avoids bulldozing the diversity of biblical texts to create a roadmap to theological unity. But he also doesn’t get bogged down in the weeds of technical details. The kingdom of God is a central theme that helps us see “the pathway from tragedy to glorious destiny” (10). However, Dempster also reminds us that this “pathway marked through the Bible is not straight ahead but more like a long winding road that goes forward, curving off to the side, tracking backward, zigzagging in another direction before advancing again” (10). 

A distinctive feature of biblical theology and Dempster’s study of the kingdom is the spotlight it throws on king Jesus himself. As he notes, the “fourfold narrative repetition of the life of Christ is unparalleled in the Scriptures” (156). The Gospels demonstrate Jesus’s royal lineage, display Jesus’s royal works, and communicate Jesus’s royal words. The book of Acts then shows the expansion of God’s kingdom by the proclamation of the gospel about this king and his present yet coming kingdom. 

Sing to the King 

The final vision that Dempster reflects upon is the cosmic scene of ultimate consummation—“the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign forever and ever” (Rev 11:15 NIV). Until this end of days, believers are called to persevere each day in light of this ultimate reality. In a world dominated by doom scrolling and information overload, Jesus gives us access to “the newsfeed of the kingdom” (200). This kingdom newsfeed is full of “upside-down headlines” (200). 

People are oppressed, but there is someone feeding the poor. Leaders are corrupt, but there is someone ministering gospel truth to the lost. Fake news is everywhere, but someone is speaking truth to power and wisdom to the saints. Because Christ is king, the church can be a royal priesthood of believers who are not beholden to the lies of counterfeit kingdoms. 

In the end, biblical theology can ignite and sustain the fire of biblical worship. If this story of God’s kingdom is true, Dempster insists, we can live in peace even as we navigate the weariness of this world. Dempster’s work is a reliable guide that can help us see the greatness of God, the bigness of the Bible’s story, and the life-giving hope that comes from focusing our gaze on the king of glory and his comprehensive kingdom. 

Also posted at The Gospel Coalition (2024).