Customer Reviews

Announcing the Kingdom: The Story of God's Mission in the Bible

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What a pleasure to read this book! Glasser's view of Scripture is a delight to read, and encouraged this missionary in some great ways. Here are a few.

Glasser perceives the common thread of the Kingdom of God to hold the totality of Scripture together. Without needing to stretch or create seams, Glasser assists the readers in understanding God's sovereignty over Heaven and Earth and that "[t]he whole Bible is a missionary book."

The description of the calling of Abraham, and the missiological implications of the covenant are brought out in ch. 4. One of the frequent implications throughout the book is prayer, and it finds its first expression in this chapter: Abraham follows the discovery of God's graciousness (Gen. 18) with intercession. Glasser often reminds the reader that contact with the Kingdom of God is through prayer, and through communication with God, the mission is advanced. One omission in the advance of the mission, the section on "Mission and Passivity" notwithstanding (!), is the anticipatory response of Abraham to the Egyptians (Gen 12:10 ff); many missiologists and missionaries have observed the failure of Abraham to "bless" the Egyptians, and Glasser would have done well to elaborate on this forgetful act on Abraham's behalf.

The long elaboration of God's Mission through Jesus Christ (ch. 12) is a real treat. The chapter on "Demonstration" is welcome; Glasser does us all a favor by examining the deeds of Jesus, throwing light not only on Christology, but also in the process, delivering missiological distinctiveness to the familiar offices of Christ by adding the role of "servant." The section on "Teacher-Trainer," based upon John 1-4, was an unexpected appearance. The discussion on "The Consolidation of Faith" was challenging; later in the book, though, I wondered about some possible backtracking from some of the biblical description of God's "dramatic answers" that deepens the faith of new disciples. Apart from that curiosity arriving admittedly retrospectively, the chapter concludes strong with the emphasis that Jesus intentionally mentored and prepared "the Twelve for leadership in the missionary community of the Kingdom- the church." I came away with fresh and renewed convictions regarding leadership development.

One location that I had great hope for disappointed me, and that regret was the description of "God's Kingdom Extends over the Powers" (ch. 21). Glasser presumably addresses some nameless Christian leaders regarding the notion of "power evangelism." (Peter Wagner? The late John Wimber?) My critique here is that 1) Glasser seems to have dodged any response to John 14:1-14, especially v. 14 (although Glasser has employed the same passage elsewhere to serve some other interesting ends!), and I remain wondering why, and 2) the same Paul Hiebert who wrote the Foreword to this book also authored the now famous paper "The Flaw of the Excluded Middle:" why, then, would Glasser explicitly articulate a rationale for keeping the "excluded middle" in evangelism? Granted, Hiebert was no fan of the "Signs and Wonders" crowd at Fuller, but he compassionately and intelligently argued for the biblical presence of the Holy Spirit and power in anyone's ministry! My reading of this section prompted the rereading of chapter 12, and I wondered why any "mature Christian" would now consider supernatural phenomenon for the "consolidating" of the faith of a new Christian, but exclude from their ministry of evangelism any participation or expectation of signs and wonders. Glasser is not a cessationist! But, the splitting of the availability of God's power by the author creates confusion.

This book is good, and I am sure that I will read it again. I would have liked to read Glasser's engagement with some later exegetes like Joel Green, N.T. Wright and Raymond Brown; my hunch is that Glasser's work would become bullet-proof. Those desires notwithstanding, this book will now jump up alongside the works of Ladd and Cullmann: it is that strong. There are some real gems in here, but I would assert that Glasser has served the Kingdom and us in a larger fashion by developing the theme of the Kingdom of God that runs throughout Scripture, and, hopefully, empower the People of God for participation in the missio Dei.

Having read 5 well-published books within a timespan of 3 months on the subject of the Kingdom of God, this book was the most thorough and thought provoking. It's one downfall is the author's propencity to be sidetracked from the main subject at hand and his use of secular humanistic venacular. Besides these, it is very comprehensive and a joy to read yet not written for one's first book on the subject. If looking for an introductory book, look into Roberts's book entitled: God's Big Picture.

Although a long read, it's an excellent book on God's mission from Genesis to Revelation. Included in this book are many insight addressing issues in modern missions today such as ethics and strategy. Would make a great text for a biblical theology of missions class. Great for the seminarian, possibly challenging to the layperson.

i thought that the book was a great introduction to the idea of the kingdom of God and its role in the entire Bible. The book was written in a scholarly fashion, but was accessible to anyone with Biblical knowledge. It sets a great foundation for anyone who is serious about critical Biblical interpretation and especially the influence of the Kingdom of God on the Bible. It brought me great insight and appreciation to what the Bible discusses about Kingdom and its power in my own life.

This book clearly outlines how God has been working, is working, and will continue to work to redeem Mankind. The authors demonstrate, as reflected in the subtitle "The Story of God's Mission in the Bible," that God's redemptive plan began with Old Testament prophets and the Nation of Israel. His Plans culminates with Jesus Christ of Nazareth and continues with His Church. "Announcing the Kingdom" is an excellent companion to the textbook (a Reader edited by Winter and Hawthorne) used in the Perspectives on the World Christian Movement course. Every Believer should take this course; every Believer should read the book by Glasser, et. al.

I first heard Arthur Glasser teach on the Isaiah 2 vision of "the mountain of the LORD" at a Perspectives course in Pasadena in 1981. Having grown up in the Lord (all of 6 months a Christian!) under the likes of Jack van Impe and other dispensationalists, I had already dropped out of my computer science major because computers were associated by them with the Beast of Revelation!

But the seeds of truth Dr. Glasser planted stuck. Decades later, I find myself trumpeting the same prophetic vision, even among fellow frontier missionaries. Every page is filled with deep insight of a lifetime of - not just study and reflection, but also interaction in the mission of the church, both from his personal experience, and then his second lifetime of helping send forth others.

I donated this book to the Library my colleagues use on the field. It is breathtaking. He makes you sit back, looking more deeply than you imagined at what "missions" (indeed, the Church itself) is all about. It is not about us; it is about what the Lord is seeking to accomplish in and through us.

There is no more profound and well-written book on the subject of the Kingdom of God. It is not just an excellent look at the vision of the prophets about the ministry that would be accomplished through Christ (who has already appeared!), but is integrated in practical insights that make it a useful handbook to reevaluate and truly adjust course, beginning in my own heart.

Announcing the Kingdom is a widely scoped treatment of the people of God. The author starts at the beginning by tracing the spread of the kingdom of God on earth. The premise of the book states that "all scripture points to the fact that God is a missionary God, that the church is to be a missionary community, and that God's people are to be missionary people (268-75 references are Kindle locations). The author critiques the modern church for failing to live up to the ideal of church because he states that "we live in a time of fragmentation-of substituting theologically founded mission for aimless activism" (279-86). Throughout this book, the author is striving to recapture the missional DNA of God's people. If this is not accomplished, the pattern of God is to raise up another congregation that will accomplish this task (287-93). The author feels that the church culture has become internally self-infatuated, not unlike the self-centeredness of Cain. When congregations become preoccupied with themselves, social indifference invades the congregation (829-36).

Much of the material in the book deals with the need of God's people to have a conscience toward the innocent victim, the downtrodden, the poor, and the stranger in the land. Much of the biblical narrative is God's pressing his people to react to the injustice in this world. This flows along with the theme of the book in declaring a new world order. The way of the kingdom of God is one that is "righting the wrongs" of this present age.

The author provides a beautiful insight into the nature of conservation. He reacts to the current Christian culture in which salvation is preeminent, and discipleship is secondary. The modern man will desire to have a relationship with Jesus Christ but will refuse to participate with God's creation in this world. People seem to desire connection to Christ without connection to community. However, the author notes that this is opposed to the intentions of God toward salvation. Once one is saved, the natural reaction of the individual is to spend life together with fellow believers.

Another noteworthy perspective in the text concerns the inability of the nation of Israel to attain the missional spirit of God (3,382-89). Even though the people did not reach out with intentionality, the appealing nature of Judaism was making an impact in the world. Polytheism was left in bankruptcy, whereas monotheism was much more logical (3,902-9).

Sometimes the author seems to press his missional thought too far. He states that Jesus treated both Samaritans and Gentiles with courtesy and grace, but this appears to stretch the truth. Some might argue that Jesus was "rude" to the woman in Matthew 15:21-28. Another area of disagreement is his exegesis of the "keys" of the kingdom. He seems to place priority on Peter's being a leader of the early church (5,022-30). One has learned that the Greek term for "rock" has multiple meanings in the original language. One usage means "little pebble" whereas the other usage means "a foundational rock."

The author evidently wishes to refute any attempt at patternism within the text. He acknowledges little sense of pattern in Acts, and he certainly does not see a pattern in the rest of the New Testament (6,700-7). He also does not present the role of the minister in the text. He argues that there was no official minister in a church during the early history of Christianity. But this is a different time. It would be difficult with the level of commitment and the organizational complexity which exists within the method congregations for them to be efficiently run through volunteer help. There is a need for specialized training in the current church landscape. Shockingly, he sees a pattern here, but no pattern anywhere else in the Bible. One wonders why this would be authoritative when pattern is discounted in other areas.

Announcing the Kingdom is a wonderful book that traces the dynamic story of God as he announces his kingdom to the world. The author touches on the major themes that are gaining in popularity because of the missional movement. Much of the text is a development of the missional hermeneutic.

It was actually a gift for my father, who is a seminary student. He needed it for his discertation. Her really liked it a lot. It was worth the money! :)