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The Gospel of the Kingdom
Jesus’ Revolutionary Message
David Seccombe
Whitefield Publications, 2016

Do we really need another book on the Gospel of the Kingdom of God? One would have thought the market is flooded. Many of us think we know Gospel back to front. Many of us think we are well aware of the foundations our faith and believe that to re-examine the basics of the Christian message is useful reminder but no more than that.

I defy anyone to maintain this widespread view after reading the latest book by David Seccombe.

In C.S. Lewis’ classic “The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe” when the resurrected Aslan is asked what his rising from the dead means, Aslan replies, ‘It means that though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is magic deeper still that she did not know.’ This book entitled “The Gospel of the Kingdom”, is about the deeper magic.

In this book the deep definition, the internal workings, the far reaching ramifications and the global effect of the Jesus’ revolutionary message are examine with a clear and passionate mind. It examines many of the questions us Christians have suppressed long ago. (eg. Where is the Kingdom now? Why is it justification by faith? What happens when we die?). It looks forward to the future and why the early Christians were so motivated.

These are weighty themes but Seccombe’s writing brings these topics to life. Though dense in subject matter this beautiful book is eminently readable without the usual gimmicks of lengthy anecdotes and long winded metaphors. On reading it one feels as if one is absorbing the distillation of a lifetime spent pondering these wonderful things. Considering the subject matter it could easily be triple the length but at about three hundred pages the writing is crisp, lean and unencumbered.

In short, this is a tremendous book from one of the nation’s most original Christian thinkers and it deserves to become a classic. Seccombe has taken some of the most clichéd and hackneyed terms of the Christian faith and brought them back to the original and deep meaning that empowered the apostles in the first century and can still empower us today.

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