The Coming Kingdom of the Messiah: A Solution to the Riddle of the New Testament

by Anthony Buzzard

There is an impressive agreement among New Testament scholars that the Kingdom of God was the principal theme of all that Jesus taught. What Jesus meant by the Kingdom, however, remains a puzzle both to commentators and Bible readers. Since the Kingdom of God is the heart of the Christian Gospel, any uncertainty about Jesus’ core concept will mean that the whole issue of salvation is obscured. Readers of the Bible are often unsympathetic to Jesus’ Jewish Messianic outlook. His claim was to be the Messiah, a highly charged political title meaning that he believed his destiny was to rule the world from Jerusalem, bringing peace and order to the whole of mankind in a renewed earth. New Testament Christianity thus presents the only realistic hope for the resolution of the world’s chaotic condition. Anthony Buzzard contends that contemporary preaching reflects a longstanding and confusing tradition of ignoring the saving Gospel of the Kingdom as preached first by Jesus and then by the Apostles. In church circles Jesus’ death and resurrection have been wrongly presented, with an appeal to isolated verses in Paul, as the entire Gospel. But this is to overlook the obvious fact that there are thirty chapters of Gospel preaching in Matthew, Mark and Luke in which the death and resurrection of Jesus are not even mentioned. Something is seriously awry with a "Gospel" which fails to include the Kingdom of God as its central element. The results of a "gutted" Gospel are apparent in the currently fragmented and weakened church. Jesus shared with the prophets of Israel the vision of a coming new era of peace for all mankind. As Messiah appointed by the One God of Israel he confidently expected to return to the earth, overthrow his enemies and govern the world. The biblical Jesus is far removed from the ethereal figure presented in much Christian literature and art. He was a genuine human being, and a career preacher, as was Paul, of the Kingdom of God Gospel, the message of salvation by which men and women are invited to prepare now for entrance into the Kingdom of God which will be inaugurated on earth at the Second Coming of Jesus. The Messiah’s Gospel challenges us all to embark on the journey which leads to immortality and an administrative, servant position in the coming Messianic rule.

Genres: Christian

119 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Sir Anthony Farquhar Buzzard, 3rd Baronet, ARCM (b. 28 June 1935), is a biblical scholar, unitarian Christian theologian, author and professor on the faculty of Atlanta Bible College.

Reviews

[Troy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Coming Kingdom of the Messiah highlights many long forgotten and abandoned truths and is a solid foundation for further research and study. "…the entire traditional Christian system, urgently need[s] a new orientation. We must cease mounting our own tradition against the word of God…"

[Steve Mueller · Rating 5 out of 5]

The gist of this book is: "Until expositors reorientate themselves to the Hebrew, Messianic environment in which Jesus taught and react in sympathy with it, they will continue to obscure the one Jesus of history and faith, both the man and his message."

This book will open you eyes that the dead are dead waiting in the grave for their resurrection, we are meant to live eternity on earth with Christ as King while fellowshipping with God (the way Adam and Eve were intended to do but blew it) not in 'heaven', and that we owe our lives in obedience to God because he made eternal life easily available to us through the hard sacrifice of and the unprecedented obedience of his only begotten son.

Why would God would create man in paradise with perfect fellowship with Him and then . scrap that idea at the end and re-invent our destiny and habitat to mirror the pagan beliefs of the ancient Greeks, Romans, and other non-chosen (not Israel) cultures? He didn't and this book shows why.

[Jacob Ballard · Rating 3 out of 5]

I agree with most of Buzzard points, but find him lacking in argumentation in some regards. In order to make the book short and readable, there are times when he just states that we “must see” scripture in his way. He also does not engage with scholarship in a helpful way. He will praise those who agree with him, and belittle those who disagree with him. There is no nuance.

I did read the oldest version of this book, and the brevity which breeds a distorted view of his opponents may be fixed in other editions not constrained by length.

[Brian Brooke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book!

Don't usually read but really enjoyed this book looking forward to The Kingdom of God! Thank you Anthony Buzzard for all you do!

[M. Shane Tomblin · Rating 5 out of 5]

The truth of the Kingdom message has been there all along. Tradition has covered it up, but the author has done the job of uncovering it. One just has to listen.

Very illuminating and enjoyable. Not the usual mainstream soul farm tradition. I don't agree with this author on everything, but he is well worth reading.