Michael Allen

This third and final post by Michael Allen seeks to explore how the heavenly-minded are more likely to find their way beyond the fragmentation of life and provide the greater societal good as well. To embrace Christ is to let go of ourselves. If we want to enjoy more peace here on earth, then we need to be grounded in heaven.

We need to acknowledge that our rightful emphasis on whole-life discipleship can easily be manipulated – by marketers without and our sinful inclinations within – as a justification for caring about the things that we would have cared about irrespective of Jesus. Given the relatively well-resourced and prosperous condition of most who embrace Kuyperianism in the last century, we ought to be keenly aware that it can be twisted to cover over our inordinate love for earthly goods. If even the secular is a good to be received with thanks from God, how much more shall we long for the better hope of the sacred kingdom of God?

What might a mature hope look like, one that has been strengthened by Kuyperian emphases but that doesn’t reduce itself to those interventionist elements? What would wholeness look like in terms of our eschatology and its corresponding lifestyle or ethic? In this post and the next two, I’ll seek to explain a more holistic vision that centers itself upon the heavenly presence of God.