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It is one thing to see fulfillment in the New Testament, but it is quite another to see the New Testament so totally reinterpret the Old Testament that what the Old Testament says carries no meaning at all.2 Yet, kingdom now theologians consistently seek to sell their hearers on the notion that somehow the New Testament has changed how the kingdom is portrayed in the Old Testament. By the same token, if the New Testament contradicts the Old Testament, it cannot stand. The Book of Mormon and other books by cultic groups fail to stand because they contradict the New Testament. On the contrary, the validity of the New Testament is seen by how it conforms to what was already revealed in the Old Testament. Hebrew-Christian scholar Arnold Fruchtenbaum explains the fallacy of such a proposition: t is incorrect to say that the Old Testament should be interpreted by the New Testament because if that is the case, the Old Testament had no meaning and seemed to be irrelevant to the ones to whom it was spoken. No Old Testament revelation concerning the future Kingdom of God indicated that the Kingdom would consist of two forms, one spiritual and the other political, established at two different points of time in the future.1 Therefore, the problem with using New Testament verses in an attempt to argue that the Messianic kingdom now exists in spiritual form only is to interpret the New Testament in a manner that contradicts the Old Testament. This reality causes Renald Showers to observe: Several items of Scripture reveal that no form of the future Kingdom of God foretold in the Old Testament will be established before the Second Coming of Christ. Thus, an understanding of the kingdom in strictly spiritual, non-geopolitical, non-terrestrial terms is not found in the Old Testament.
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Although the kingdom certainly has other qualities, an inductive study of the kingdom as portrayed in the Old Testament makes it impossible to divest the kingdom of these terrestrial, geopolitical characteristics. When the kingdom comes, it will exercise dominion over a repentant Israel (Ezek. First, as explained throughout this work, the Old Testament portrays the kingdom in earthly, terrestrial terms (Gen. Problems with Kingdom Now NT Interpretations There exist two general problems with how kingdom now theologians use the New Testament to argue for a present, spiritual form of the Messianic kingdom. Third, the book’s final major section will conclude by noting why this trend of equating God’s present work in the church with the Messianic kingdom is a matter believers should be concerned about since this theology radically alters God’s design for the church (chapters 22‒26). Second, future chapters will examine a few isolated texts that kingdom now theologians use and show their insufficiency to convey kingdom now theology (chapters 16‒21). First, this chapter will set forth some general problems with a New Testament based kingdom now interpretation (chapter 15). The purpose of the next major section of this book is to scrutinize those passages that “kingdom now” theologians routinely use and to demonstrate that these texts really do not prove “kingdom now” theology. In view of this, why do so many believe that the Messianic kingdom has already materialized? Is there a biblical basis for such a belief? The same handful of New Testament texts are routinely and consistently employed in an attempt to argue for “kingdom now” theology.
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General Problems with Kingdom Now Theology Preview In prior chapters, the biblical teaching on the kingdom of God has been surveyed from Genesis to Revelation (chapters 2‒14).