What was God’s purpose in making the world? Did he create the world in order to destroy it? Did he create the world with one purpose only to see that plan thwarted by human freewill? Does he intend for the majority of human beings to be lost? Does he desire to see the human race multiply and flourish in unbelief only so that at the end of time he can destroy the world and send the vast majority of those he created into everlasting punishment? It seems that this is what many Christians actually believe, even many Reformed Christians. The world is going to hell in a handbasket… literally… and that’s just what the Lord intended all along. The other possibility is even more troubling and unbiblical: namely, that this is not what God decreed or desired but it’s the best he can do given the mess man made with his freedom. In other words, God is not sovereign at all. He’s in charge, technically, but he can’t be held responsible for whatever happens because he is not actually in control. He tells us what is right, but it’s up to man to do right, and if we don’t, God can only do so much about it.
There is another option, one that the Church in earlier generations knew but that many modern Christians have never seriously considered. That is that God made the world in order to fill it with his glory, and he is, and he will. That the human race was created to multiply and fill the earth with worship, and they are, and they will. That the kingdoms of this world are under the sovereign authority of Jesus Christ, and they will all come to know it and, eventually, to bow the knee to King Jesus. That in the end more people will be saved than are lost, that the “few” who are saved refer to the Jews in Jesus’ own generation (cf. Matt. 7:13-14), but that in the end “all Israel will be saved” (Rom. 11:26) and God will “bring many sons to glory” (Heb. 2:10).
We may not all agree on when, where, or exactly how God’s promises will be fulfilled, and whatever we expect it to look like, we might expect the reality will take us by surprise. But we should have a larger and more hopeful vision than many of us do. We should read current events through the lens of Scripture, and not read Scripture through the lens of current events. We should think better of the Lord than to imagine that he created a world for the purpose of failure and loss, or worse, to imagine that he wants to do better but simply cannot. Will God be most glorified by allowing the world to fall into utter corruption and finally destroy it, saving only a handful of the image bearers he made, or by redeeming, sanctifying, and transforming an entire world so that it becomes a holy temple, a new creation, filled by worshipers of the one true and living God?
We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God, and in this world you will have trouble but be of good cheer [Christ] has overcome the world. But this is not all that Scripture says. Yes, evil will persist and so too will evil-doers until the return of Christ. God’s saints will suffer in many ways in this present age before we pass into glory. But God’s Word elevates and reorients our thinking. It lifts us above the plane of suffering where we presently find ourselves and enables us to survey the field and the Lord’s larger strategy. It fills us with hope in knowing that Jesus is not only Savior but also King, not only Redeemer but the Lord of all. Yahweh shall be King over all the earth (Zech. 14:9). Hear the word, believe it, and rejoice.
Wouldn’t it be better to say that Jesus *is* king over all the earth? Although not all recognize him as king, he is already King.
That’s certainly true as well and is central to the gospel proclamation. But the title of the article is a quotation of Zechariah 14:9, so I don’t think any modification would be “better” than the words the Spirit gave us. There is an aspect of the already/not-yet tension in these prophecies. Christ *is* King, and he *shall* reign in a consummate and visible way as the world is won by the Spirit’s work in the Great Commission.