5. The earthly-kingdom misreading: repeating Israel's mistake

From Sovereign Grace and the Scope of Election: A Comparative Examination of Attainment Theology and Grace Theology, with Particular Attention to the Question of Whether God's Elect Are Found Among All Nations and Religions

There is a final irony. The signature error of first-century Israel was reading the kingdom carnally, expecting thrones, ranks, and territory: "Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom" (Matthew 20:21). Christ's answer to that request is the standing answer to every tiered-heaven system: positions in glory are "not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father" (20:23), prepared, again the election word, and the disciples' rank-seeking is met with "whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant" (20:27). When the mother of Zebedee's children asks for graded seats, she is corrected; when a denomination asks for Zion's summit for its workers, it is the same request in institutional dress. Likewise Acts 1:6, "wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?", is answered not with a map of heavenly tiers but with "ye shall be witnesses unto me... unto the uttermost part of the earth" (1:8): the kingdom's advance is the Spirit's reach into all nations, which returns us, fittingly, to the thesis of this document. And Matthew 8:11-12 seals it: "many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham... in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out", the outsiders from unreached compass points seated with the patriarchs, the credentialed insiders excluded. Matthew 8:11-12 deserves unhurried meditation from any reader who has been taught that the highest heaven is fenced: the strangers from unreached compass points are seated with the patriarchs, and the credentialed are without. The verse is not comfortable, and it was not meant to be; the question is only for whom.