There were many good points made in this interview. As I'm not a Baptist, I found myself often disagreeing with Tony Costa (and of course the host Chris Arnzen), but despite some tangents and doctrines presented out of focus – it was overall a decent exercise.
However, Costa's posture regarding the Kingdom repeatedly sounded like a song just ever so slightly out of tune. While many of the criticisms levied at Dispensationalism are valid, I still found myself uncomfortable with how he was presenting the issue.
And then in the very last segment of the interview, Costa spoke with a greater degree of clarity and his argument subsequently collapsed. Again, there had been hints of it earlier but in the last segment he falls unmistakably into the 'we' pronoun confusion that dominates Evangelicalism – the 'we' confusing the Church and its identity with that of the larger culture. He speaks of the fact that because Christ is not acknowledged as King, there is a breakdown in society, a lack of moral compass, and no basis for law.
But he had already rightly stated that the vehicle or manifestation of the Kingdom is the Church. So how does the Church translate into the 'we' of Western society? It doesn't. If the Church is the manifestation of the Kingdom in these Last Days (as indeed it is) then the pagan society at large is outside the covenant and thus God's laws and ordinances will have little meaning for them. In fact they cannot obey them and even if compelled to do so by an Inquisition or something like it – their conformity will still fail to please God. If the sacrifices of the wicked are an abomination – then civil religion is certainly an invalid concept. And how much more in the New Testament!
Earlier he indicated that he wasn't a Postmillennialist but he is by all accounts a Dominionist and so the end result is functionally the same. It is critical to understand that while Christ reigns over all (in an eschatological Already Not-Yet framework), the world is not yet his Holy Realm – a reality that will only come into being at the eschaton. The Kingdom is Heavenly and Costa is right to condemn those who fail to understand its present reality. And yet, it is not of this world and so the New Testament posits that this world will be destroyed in the fires of judgment and replaced/re-created with a New Heavens and a New Earth – which is another expression for the Kingdom of Heaven wherein righteousness dwells.
The Kingdom is only accessible to those with the Holy Spirit, to those in union with Christ, and as such the Kingdom is outside the purview of the lost world. So to speak of the Kingdom as affecting society, laws, and so forth is to redefine and utterly misunderstand its nature.
And I think it should be said that for all the valid criticisms of Dispensationalism, there are very few left in that camp that consistently live out the rapture mindset (as it were). Though it makes no sense in light of their system and the implied implications of its eschatology, most Americans within that camp have also embraced some form of Dominionism. At the very least there is a great deal of confusion with regard to America and what is frankly a heretical belief about its supposedly sanctified status, granted to it by God – a belief that has no Scriptural basis and in fact is condemned by Scripture.
Costa also echoed a point that I recently read in a letter sent out by Jeff Pollard from Chapel Library/Mt. Zion Bible Church. Both men condemned the false systems of the world and then ran through the list of socialism, communism, secularism and the like. Pollard lamented the breakdown in authority and the fruit it has produced in the behaviour of children.
Amen, but if you don't include Classical Liberalism and its offspring ideologies such as Democracy, then you have no discernment and thus no standing. And this is especially the case when it comes to economic liberalism, the Capitalism that has stolen the hearts of many Christians, and the Utilitarian ethics it often relies on – as well as the avarice and consumerism it produces. If you don't recognize this, then you're as blind as all the 'woke' people you want to condemn. Mammonism affects ethics and how children are raised, and the values communicated to them.
I wish Christian leaders would quit taking their cues from political actors and operatives. Don't let these lost people frame the issues. The rejection of socialism or communism does not require the embrace of laissez-faire Capitalism. As Christians we ought to reject all world systems as flawed and the products of lost thinking. The Kingdom to which we belong and its systems (as it were) are not only in defiance of the world, they are (by the reasoning of fallen man) foolishness. The Kingdom was never meant to be legislated or to become a paradigm for society at large.
The interview was probably helpful to some people but at the same time I could never recommend it. The flaws are pervasive and potentially quite harmful. Dominionism is a cancer and it has metastasized. It's everywhere and affects how people think and reason – even if they don't really understand where it's coming from or what it means.
'No King but Christ' sounds good and for most it seems awkward and intuitively wrong to oppose the slogan – and we need not oppose it, but rather understand that profound and glorious truth can be twisted and so it is here. Christ is King but Costa is thinking like the Israelites who wanted a king so that they could be like the other nations. They want worldly glory. That's not the Kingdom over which Christ reigns. The glory of the New Heavens and Earth is something quite different.
And while he is Creator and Lord, his Holy Kingdom is only accessible to those who are in covenant with Him. To universalize the Kingdom before the Second Coming is to redefine it and decovenantalize it. Another way to state it – is this view secularizes the Kingdom. How ironic is that?
And as always under the Dominionist paradigm, the call to take up the cross is functionally rejected. 'No King but Christ' is for Costa and those like him a call to arms to take over the world. This is but another case of confusing godliness with gain and the warnings in the New Testament (built on models of Old Testament apostasy) are replete and terrible to behold. It's tragic to witness people falling repeatedly into these patterns. The Bride can turn Whore and indeed that is the story of Church History. But how does this happen? It must be said that as we enter 2024 – the lessons have been largely lost.
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