The Divine Conspiracy Continued: Fulfilling God’s Kingdom on Earth

I spent the next four days with Jane and the family watching over Dallas’s final hours. It was a very sacred time, one I will treasure for the rest of my life. We talked about many things and were able to conclude some of our conversations we had engaged in off and on for months, if not years. Some of these discussions were very intimate and private, and will remain so. Yet, as Dallas was coming to grips with his own physical death, and our talks tended to naturally turn toward the subject of our life and hope after death, heaven, and eternity, we also began to discuss how our character developed here on earth continues into eternity and all the implications that fact might carry for our life both now and then. As our conversations developed, Dallas and I began to realize others might benefit from the fruit of these interactions. Therefore, before his death he encouraged me to continue thinking and writing on these topics. I promised him I would. It was his final request of me. I am hopeful that work should become available in the near future.

In terms of worldly fame, Dallas was not what most would consider a “famous” man. Although he maintained a very faithful following, there are still many devoted Christians who have never heard of Dallas or his ideas—a surprising fact I routinely encountered as I was researching his theology. Undoubtedly he had earned respect and acclaim in certain arenas such as academic philosophy and the field of spiritual formation. But his notoriety did not reach as far as those who love Dallas and are familiar with his works often presume. Much of his work and a good majority of his ideas remain relatively unknown to a wide spectrum of Christian readers. Therefore, it is likely this work will find itself in the hands of those previously unaware of Dallas and his unique, life-giving perspectives on the gospel.

The book before you is an attempt to extend a set of proposals and perspectives on the kingdom of God and the gospel of Jesus first published in The Divine Conspiracy (1998). The Divine Conspiracy was originally conceived as a set of teachings Dallas started developing during his time at the University of Wisconsin while completing his doctoral work. In summary, The Divine Conspiracy is an articulation of the intent and effect of the gospel of the kingdom of God, which Jesus revealed most pointedly in the Sermon on the Mount. In laying out Jesus’s plan for attaining life to the full, Dallas not only deconstructed some significant alterations to Jesus’s original message contained in both liberal and conservative forms of contemporary Christianity; he also simultaneously reconstructed a positive and hopeful vision of the kind of existence human beings were created to experience under the loving and grace-filled reign of God.

The widespread acceptance and appreciation of The Divine Conspiracy hit a significant chord with many readers seeking a more robust and authentic vision of Christian faith. It became Dallas’s most recognized and celebrated work, achieving Christianity Today’s award for Book of the Year. Scot McKnight, a New Testament scholar and professor who has tracked the movements of contemporary evangelical Christianity for decades now, suggests that when historians look back at the key influencers of the twenty-first century, Dallas will arguably be among the few names mentioned as offering significant influence on the Christian faith.² Long before becoming the director of the Dallas Willard Institute at Westmont College, Gary Moon argued Dallas’s thoughts and insights should be considered as revolutionary and catalytic as those of Martin Luther. John Ortberg, a leading preacher, psychologist, and writer, has stated that, in his considered opinion, no one has been able to articulate the power and depth of the gospel better than Dallas.

In large measure, the success of The Divine Conspiracy stems from Dallas’s unique, life-giving, and commonsense description of the intents and purposes of God for human life, both individually and collectively. Questions such as, “Why are we here? What are God’s purposes for human life? What is the purpose of the church?” are the kinds of philosophical and theological questions that Dallas brought the full force of his mind to bear upon. He knew God had called him to preach the gospel, the good news, or, as he sometimes called it, “the benevolent knowledge of the way things really are” to answer these crucial, essential human questions. The Divine Conspiracy and his later work Knowing Christ Today focus on helping human beings grasp the nature and reality of God and his kingdom ways.

Although The Divine Conspiracy was a revolutionary work of inestimable value in its own right, one need not have read The Divine Conspiracy in order to understand the perspectives presented in this sequel. Those familiar with Dallas’s previous publications and ministry will recognize this work as a consistent application and continuation of his vision, ideas, and concepts. What is new here are the situations and circumstances of contemporary society we chose to engage and overlay that original vision upon.

Our desire for this work was to cast and articulate a broader vision for the way the gospel must move first in and then through the church. The church is the means God uses to bring his kingdom to fruition. Such a transformation from the kingdoms of our world into the kingdom of Christ can best occur when discipled leaders of all types and in all contexts are poised to influence and direct the institutions and systems of government, education, economics, commerce, law, medicine, and religion. When this occurs, Dallas believed, the “kingdom of goodness and blessing” would begin to permeate every arena of life, every family, every street corner, every neighborhood, every city, and every citizen throughout the world. This was Dallas’s understanding of purposes behind the Great Commission.

Dallas believed God’s kingdom is firmly established and grown when followers of Jesus incarnate the virtues, faith, wisdom, power, and godly character enough to infect the world with an insatiable virus of goodwill. This is the primary thesis of this book.

The chapters that follow coalesce around three areas of interest that Dallas spent nearly forty years developing and honing. The first area conjoins his thoughts on moral knowledge and leadership. These are topics Dallas has already engaged in his more academic writings, but here we broadened his more philosophical and theoretical approach to include the way the nature of moral knowledge demonstrated in the gospel must move into the arenas of Christian leadership, discipleship, and spiritual transformation if there is to be a positive effect for the kingdom in both our communities and the broader culture at large. Dallas was devoted to helping Christians—from every walk of life, in every workplace, and in every social organization, business, or institution—to realize their full potential as leaders and ambassadors of light for the kingdom of God. Therefore, he attempted to cast an encouraging vision that bridges the gap separating Christian leaders ministering in the local church from Christian leaders in the broader secular workforce who minister in the institutions of government, education, business, service industries, commerce, and other professions. Closing the sacred-secular divide was the primary way he believed the local church could become the essential beachhead of the kingdom of God within contemporary society. Only then could the kingdoms of our world begin to experience the benefits and blessings of the kingdom of our God and of his Christ.

The second area centers on how the revealed knowledge of God, applied through moral leaders with integrity and courage, would positively impact the individual vocations that are central to the establishment and maintenance of flourishing societies. This includes, but is not exclusive to, the key institutions of government, business, commerce, education, and ministry. The final area dovetails with the first two. Dallas was devoted to the work of the church and its leaders. He never stopped seeking new and better ways of equipping and training disciples of Jesus to inhabit each of these key positions of societal governance and bear their responsibility for administering the manifestations of light, life, and hope to the world as a gift of a good and loving God. In one of our final conversations, Dallas made it clear that his great hope was to help Christians better understand what it is that Jesus is doing today. He said:

Gary, we must help the church understand that Jesus is leading a subversion of all human governance. And that [subversion] will happen by the transformation of individuals, through the power of the gospel. And the community that emerges as a result is the divine conspiracy. They will not be overcome by evil but will overcome evil with good. That’s the whole deal. And of course Christian leaders in every area of society are at the very heart of that mission.

Much of the material covered here grew from lectures and notes Dallas compiled for the very popular course he taught at USC on professional leadership and ethics. Many of our initial conversations also surrounded an article he had written and spoken about at Trinity International University in 2008.³ A third resource we often discussed and expounded on was a two-day lecture series given at a Kern Family Foundation conference in January 2013. Dallas’s thinking, writing, and research compiled from the class and those two proceedings were our springboard to dive deeper into what he believed were the essential core issues for Christian leaders and professionals to reconsider. His overarching desire was to provide persons of influence in every arena of society with a vision for what our collective lives might accomplish if given over to the ethics, power, wisdom, and grace found under the shepherding care of God’s kingdom. What you now hold is the culmination of those ideas.

Dallas was devoted to the idea that our societies need well-placed, well-informed, thoughtful, gifted, effective, and supremely devoted persons of moral integrity to lead us through the opportunities and trials of contemporary life. He worked long and hard at helping the future leaders of our world, represented by his USC undergrad students, to develop the vision and means through which their leadership could actively pursue and attain common flourishing, prosperity, and general welfare. Likewise, the primary motive and intent of this work is to catalyze conversation, imagination, cooperation, and reconsideration of the ways and means we as Christian leaders participate in the “coming” of God’s kingdom to the realms touched by our own spheres of influence.

Dallas’s greatest hopes, and mine, would be for men and women from every walk of life and every profession and vocation that serves our societies—teachers, attorneys, physicians, pastors, accountants, tradespeople, and businesspeople alike—to read and discuss this book together. The book and the discussion questions are designed to instigate and facilitate these conversations, in coffeehouses, living rooms, elder board meetings, conferences, and retreats—wherever leaders gather to discuss their vision and hopes for God’s mission to our world. The church, though not only the church, should be a perfect place for such a transformative discussion.

Yet this is not explicitly a “how-to” book. We would not presume to tell professionals how to apply these ideas to fields and endeavors outside our areas of expertise. Instead, as outside observers we engage a few professional disciplines as case studies in order to better highlight situations where Christlike leadership is essential and offer a few suggestions, viewpoints, and insights that we hope will prove profitable in assisting Christian leaders as they reconsider or reengage the crucial issues that affect our lives.

Christian leaders must engage in deep reflection and then robust dialog before we can begin to transform our world. God has invited us to help him revolutionize the world so that his good will is accomplished throughout all of creation, just as it is in heaven. For this reason disciples of Jesus need to be knowledgeable of good so they can be effective in achieving it. In the end, we are attempting to assist leaders who are already seeking to faithfully discern the good way, the right path, and the beneficial news of the kingdom in the workaday world right where they are. We believe these ideas will not only assist discussion, but that they will also encourage a growing sense of unity, a broadening vision, and the development of mutual respect, encouragement, and support that must remain the trademark characteristics of those who live and lead as followers of Jesus in our world.

I praise God for what he accomplished in and through Dallas’s life and ministry. I am thankful for the gift of that first meeting. Finishing this project alone has forced me to face the stark reality of Dallas’s absence. His smile, his loving laughter, his personal guidance, and his active engagement in our lives are gone. His soul will never die, but his body is no longer living. What remains for us to engage is his extensive body of work, his wisdom, his words, his ideas, his faith, and our use of these invaluable gifts. This book is part of the attempt to carry on that heritage. For his family and countless others, perhaps millions, just like me, we can choose to dwell on what is only in our memories, or we can expand and expound upon his impact for the greater glory of God and the advancement of his kingdom. At Dallas’s funeral a prayer was offered that we would all be allowed to dream once again of a new vision that continues and builds upon the legacy of our friend, mentor, and guide. My prayer is that this work is one step in that very direction.

Gary Black Jr.

July 2013

CHAPTER 1
God’s Call to Leaders

Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God’s grace which was given me by the working of his power. To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all men see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose which he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confidence of access through our faith in him. So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory.

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever. Amen.

EPHESIANS 3:7–21

LET US START by clarifying the major point of this work as straightforwardly as possible. God’s “divine conspiracy” is to overcome the human kingdoms of this world with love, justice, and truth. This includes the whole world and all of human society—at the individual, corporate, and governmental levels. “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign forever and ever” (Rev. 11:15). This is what Handel proclaims again and again in his famous “Hallelujah Chorus.” This is reality. We could even say an eternal reality. The kingdom of God has indeed come; it has a past, it is with us now, and it has an unending future. The scriptures describe this future as the “day of the Lord,” when God will have his turn at bat. The primary question this book pursues is this: How can we best participate in this reality?

In these pages we will suggest to followers of Jesus who are leaders, spokespersons, and professionals that they must responsibly and explicitly address the public issues, proposals, and processes of society within their spheres of influence through teaching, proclaiming, modeling, and manifesting the reality of the benevolent rule of God, which includes working together as the body of Christ by God’s empowering grace. This influence encompasses every sphere of human action, not just those we think of as religious in nature. Such ambassadorial representation need not be overt or delivered in “Christianese” in order to be effective. No flag-waving and banner carrying are required. Such is the nature of a conspiracy, even a divine one. This is a tactic Jesus employed on many occasions with great aplomb.

Spokespersons for Christ are under the overarching imperative to love God and to love their neighbors as themselves. Their responsibility for what honors God and what is good for the public as well as for their closer “neighbors” dictates that they deal with economic, political, professional, and social issues that seriously impact life and well-being. It is not a religious conspiracy we are to pursue, but God’s conspiracy, founded, led, and empowered by Jesus the Christ.

It is the task of Christ-following spokespersons, leaders, and professionals to keep before their own minds as well as those of the public they engage—through whatever vocation they maintain—an understanding of what is good and what is not and what conditions are required for human beings to experience well-being. No one person need have exclusive responsibility in this regard, nor does there need to be some sort of continual media event to make a significant fuss about every issue or decision. At times some leaders and spokespersons may be required to take on a special, higher-profile responsibility because of their position in society or because of the sources of knowledge and power that come with a certain activity or expertise. Even in such cases, we are seeking things that benefit the common good and the flourishing of all peoples. We are not advocating for a special-interest group or that people use public positions or notoriety as a platform to promote a certain ideology or theology. We are not necessarily endeavoring to stack political power on one issue against that of another or to privilege one candidacy over another. Instead, we seek to present the wisdom of divine love in order to be a light shining in the darkness that cannot be missed, whatever the issue.

THE KINGDOM HERE AND NOW

A significant part of our Western Christian heritage over the past few hundred years and much of the explicit practical teaching that we hear from our pulpits, which becomes routinely modeled in our Christian communities, argue that the kingdom of God is something that is not readily available or accessible in the here and now. Thankfully, this view has shown signs of changing, in fits and starts, and to very good effect. But overall there remains a sense, sometimes overt, sometimes more covert, that one fine day, far in the future, all the earthly kingdoms of our current world will eventually come under the reign, or rule, of Jesus Christ. But until then we are left to hold on by our fingernails, if we can, to our piety and faith, doing our utmost to ride out the many storms of life that threaten our sense of well-being. This has remained a very familiar strain of thought and practice for many of our Christian preachers, teachers, and spokespersons today, as it has been over the past several centuries. Such ideas and images are difficult to reform and thus tend to leave Christians with only the fading hope that in the “great by and by” Jesus will return to finish his largely failed previous attempt to jump-start his reign as king over both heaven and earth.

What is less well known, let alone appreciated, is that such a perspective is not how the early church traditionally understood the rule or reign of Jesus. Nor is it what Jesus taught. Jesus’s kingdom has not been deferred until his return or until after he is able to “clean house” at the final judgment. He will return, and there will be a settling of accounts, we can be sure of this. But until then, he is not biding his time, having been limited to changing a few minds here and there, saving individual souls at various religious services, and making a few mystical appearances now and again, until some unknown period in the future when he can get his original intentions back on track. In contrast to such a passive theology, the teachings of the church through much of its history demonstrate a consistent testimony, even if ignored at times, that Jesus’s rule began when he said it began, at the proclamation of his “Great Commission,” which, as you recall, occurred just before his ascension—after his death and resurrection, but just before he went to be with his Father in heaven, where he now is actively positioned in the seat of authority “at the right hand of the Father.” As noted biblical scholars N. T. Wright and Scot McKnight, among many others, have clearly argued, Jesus was crowned king, is now ruling, and currently maintains all authority or dominion “in heaven and on earth.” Theologian Amos Yong has also helped us better understand how the Spirit of God, as the “chief empowerer,” is now “poured out upon all flesh” (Joel 2:28; Acts 2:17) and directs, leads, encourages, supports, and advocates for the reign of Jesus in and through the wills, minds, bodies, and even human institutions that serve his overarching purposes of holistic redemption.

What is important to understand here is that there is no “then” or “when” to the kingdom of God. This reign is a current, progressing, maturing reality, which means Jesus rules today. Jesus is the one who sits on the throne of the cosmos, and all authority, over all things, has been given to him (Matt. 25:31; 28:18). God is the God of all humanity (Jer. 32:27). God rules today through his Son, Jesus, the king, and he rules over everyone and everything—not just Christians or religious organizations. He is the King of Kings, the ruler of rulers (Rev. 1:5), and the dominion of his Spirit extends to every corner and crevice of the universe at this very moment—a fact even the demons appear to understand perfectly well (Mark 1:24; 5:7; James 2:19). The kingdom has come, and there is more to come. Thanks be to God.

Let’s take a moment and contemplate the implications of what all this means. A loving and omnipotent God is now ruling. Therefore, he has a holistic vision for human life that necessarily includes all the political, economic, and social realms—not just religious realms—along with the innumerable personal kingdoms that compose all human activity.

As previously stated, this is not a new vision, but one present throughout the Hebrew scriptures, revealed through the prophets, partially demonstrated in the people of Israel, made abundantly clear in the teachings of Jesus, carried forward in the first century by the apostles, and propelled through the ages until landing on the doorstep of the contemporary church. Through Christ all things, everything, everyone, is in the process of coming under the sovereign benevolence (Latin: bene, “good”; volens, “willing”) of God’s agape ethic and ethos (1 Cor. 15:28). Through Christ all things are being, and will be, made new (Rev. 21:5; 2 Cor. 5:17). Eventually, every knee will bow and every tongue will acknowledge this current reality (Phil. 2:10–11). Both believers and nonbelievers alike will be confessing an appropriate degree of both wonder and ignorance regarding the magnitude of Christ’s lordship and glorious representation of God, his Father.