Heaven Misplaced Quotes

“For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. (1 Cor. 15:25–26) In the common assumption shared by many Christians, at the Lord’s return the first enemy to be destroyed is death. But the apostle here says that it is the last enemy to be destroyed. The Lord will rule from heaven, progressively subduing all His enemies through the power of the gospel, brought to the nations by His Church. And then, when it would be easy to believe that it just couldn’t get any better, the Lord will come and deliver the kingdom to His Father, and God will be all in all.”
― Douglas Wilson, Heaven Misplaced: Christ's Kingdom on Earth

“What Satan offered Christ in the temptation in the wilderness, Christ refused. But Christ did not refuse the offer because He didn’t want what was offered. He didn’t want it on those terms, but the reason He had come down to earth was to obtain those very kingdoms. He refused the tempter’s offer because He was planning to knock him down and take the kingdoms of men from him. “No one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. And then he will plunder his house” (Mk. 3:27).”
― Douglas Wilson, Heaven Misplaced: Christ's Kingdom on Earth

“Historical optimism about Christ’s kingdom on earth means that we believe—because the child was born two millennia ago—that since that time, the increase of His government and peace has been unceasing. We believe that the government is on His shoulder, not that it should be. Jesus believed the same thing, because when He sent His disciples out, it was with this truth as the basis for the commission. “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Mt. 28:18, niv). For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. (1 Cor. 15:25–26)”
― Douglas Wilson, Heaven Misplaced: Christ's Kingdom on Earth

“No greater indictment of the contemporary church than this can be found: the secular state is operating on all cylinders, and yet for the most part, the Christian pulpit remains a safe place to be.”
― Douglas Wilson, Heaven Misplaced: Christ's Kingdom on Earth

“We ought not to think that when men are converted, they each become a little lamp, and if enough of them get converted, they will be able to form a consortium and pool their lamps to try to make a sun. The vision of the coming noontime glory does not depend at all on us trying to get some momentum up. The sun has risen, and it will continue to do what rising suns do.”
― Douglas Wilson, Heaven Misplaced: Christ's Kingdom on Earth

“But the Psalmist, frequently the designated victim of an approaching lynch mob, is about as uncooperative as a victim can get. And we see here a deep irony in the problems that many modern Christians have with the imprecatory psalms† and psalms of protested innocence. We think the language is over the top. The man is sitting on the back of a horse, hands tied behind his back, and a rope around his neck. He looks at the bulls of Bashan round about and calls them a brood of snakes. “Tsk,” we think. “That kind of language is a little inappropriate.”
― Douglas Wilson, Heaven Misplaced: Christ's Kingdom on Earth

“Jesus was crucified in a public way, and so His death must have public ramifications. There is no way to be fully faithful to the message of His death and resurrection in private. Private faith in this public event cannot, in the very nature of the case, remain private. The love of God, as displayed in the cross, is as public as it gets.”
― Douglas Wilson, Heaven Misplaced: Christ's Kingdom on Earth

“We have to come to grips with the fact that when God became man, that one event altered human history forever. Jesus was not born of a virgin in order to conduct “a short visit” of thirty-three years, after which everything returned to normal. The Incarnation† was the beginning of the great transformation.”
― Douglas Wilson, Heaven Misplaced: Christ's Kingdom on Earth