Wheaton College Alumni Magazine Spring 2014 | Page 48

I

Dr. Philip Graham Ryken ’88
is the eighth president of
Wheaton College. Dr. Ryken
earned a master of divinity
degree from Westminster
Theological Seminary, and a
doctorate in historical theology
from the University of Oxford.
He then joined the pastoral staff
at Tenth Presbyterian Church
in Philadelphia, preaching there
until his appointment at Wheaton.
Dr. Ryken has published more
than 40 books, including Art
for God’s Sake (P&R, 2006),
Loving the Way Jesus Loves
(Crossway, 2011), and Liberal
Arts for the Christian Life
(Crossway, 2012).

The last two chapters of the Bible form
That is not the whole story, however,
an inclusio with the first two chapters:
because one day God’s kingdom will
the garden in the city, the wedding
come in all its power and glory. Jesus
of the spotless bride, and the promise
will come again, the devil will be
of God’s presence will all come true.
defeated, and everything wrong will be
When God says, “Behold, I am making
made right.
all things new” (Rev. 21:5), he means
When the kingdom comes, God will
exactly what he says. He will not create
be with us forever. This is the ancient
promise of the everlasting covenant—the “all new things,” but take what he has
promise that God first made to Abraham. already made and perfect it.
The more we know about the
God will be with us to be our God.
kingdom of God, and the more we
Thus the divine presence that Adam and
meditate on its coming, the more
Eve enjoyed in the garden, but lost, will
obvious it becomes that the kingdom
be restored.
is not something we can bring into the
If the promises of God are like streams
world. In this suffering world, we will
and rivers, then the end of Revelation is
never see an end to pain. We do not
the vast ocean into which they all flow.
The major themes, the dominant images, have the power to raise life out of death,
or to regain the paradise that we have
and the greatest promises of the Bible—
lost, or to fulfi ll any of the other ancient
including the ones that go all the way
back to early Genesis—all come together promises of God. These powers
belong only to the Savior who has
in the last two chapters. Everything in
conquered sin and death through the
the Bible comes together at the coming
cross and the empty tomb. Therefore,
of the kingdom. Revelation hearkens
the kingdom is something that Jesus
back to Genesis in order to show us
brings—only Jesus.
creation recapitulated.
W H EATON .EDU / M A G A Z I N E

141833_56-65.indd 59

John Milton beautifully expressed his
longing to see the coming of Jesus in
one of his prayers:
Thy kingdom is now at hand, and thou
standing at the door. Come forth out of thy
royal chambers, O Prince of all the kings
of the earth! Put on the visible robes of Thy
imperial majesty, take up that unlimited
scepter which thy Almighty Father hath
bequeathed thee; for now the voice of thy
bride calls thee, and all creatures sigh to be
renewed. 1
Our goal individually as Christians
and corporately as the body of Christ is
to give people good reason to believe
in kingdom come. By the joy of our
worship, the truth of our words, the
integrity of our faith, the beauty of our
art, the purity of our justice, and the
tenderness of our compassion, we want
people to believe that there really is a
Savior who will make everything right
in the end—when the kingdom comes.
1 John Milton, Animadversion upon the
Remonstrants Defence against Smectymnuus
(London: Thomas Underhill, 1641), 493.

WHEATON

3/19/14 8:28 PM