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

I can’t remember the number of occasions I’ve been asked when I was “saved.” Since meeting Dallas I have several ways I can answer that question. One answer is that Jesus saves me from myself nearly every day. Another is to tell of the day when, as an eight-year-old boy, I realized and confessed my need for a savior. In that manner I can consider myself “saved” very early in life. But that is certainly not the only time God has saved me. I have been saved so many more times in my life than that original decision would suggest. One of those miraculous saving events occurred during that retreat. God corrected my view of him. He opened a window into the eternal reality of life, life as I had hoped it could be or thought at times it should be. Dallas confirmed that those deep instincts were even more grand than I could expect or imagine. And the God who created and called me into that life stood with open, loving arms and the offer, “Whosoever will may come.”

In the decade that followed I gradually lost sight of that early vision of God and his kingdom. Like the weeds that grew up and choked off the seed, my desires for my professional career began to take precedence in my heart and pull me away from the easy yoke of Christ. Mercifully, it was during this period that, while in the waiting room at my doctor’s office, I came across a Christianity Today article discussing The Divine Conspiracy. I raced to the bookstore, bought it, and read it cover to cover that weekend. And the hope and grace that had become a fleeting memory started to gradually flood into my heart once again. All those distant longings for wonder and excitement began to percolate toward the surface. I read it over and over during the next several months. In many ways The Divine Conspiracy introduced me to a Jesus that was so much more than my religious stereotyping had allowed. Dallas knew a Jesus far grander than I had assumed him to be and as a result my love and respect for Christ grew exponentially. The weeding had started.

But habits are hard to break, and transformation can be slow, especially for a stiff-necked person like me. It wasn’t until nearly another decade had passed that I fully relinquished myself to God’s call on my life. I retired from my career in the financial services industry and entered seminary. It was also around that time I was able to reconnect with both Keith and Dallas. What amazing grace those two reunions represent in my life.

My seminary experience helped me to place Dallas’s theology in context and recognize his insights were more than just another commentary on Christian doctrine, a program of discipleship, or plan for spiritual formation. I realized Dallas was articulating and advocating an understanding of the gospel that was often significantly at odds with the theology taught in the institutions and traditions of mainstream evangelical religion in America. As a result only a few pastors, and even fewer theologians, were critically engaging Dallas’s work. Once again with Keith’s guidance and Dallas’s encouragement, I began to recognize the need and opportunity to introduce Dallas’s theology and understanding of pastoral leadership more deeply into theological education. After completing my seminary degree, I entered a Ph.D. program in the United Kingdom, where I completed my dissertation on “Willardian” theology, hoping to offer some insight into and remedy for this situation.1

During those years Dallas offered tremendous assistance. He spent countless hours with me, patiently enduring my endless inquiries, sharing materials, e-mails, phone calls, encouragement, wisdom, and prayer. He faithfully read through each chapter of my dissertation and my revisions, as I endeavored to accurately portray his theology and its effects. I completed my degree in April 2012, and accepted a position in the Graduate School of Theology at Azusa Pacific University.

A wonderful benefit of moving to southern California was the opportunity to be closer to Dallas. We took advantage of that proximity during the last year of his life. One of my most treasured moments was presenting Dallas and Jane with a bound edition of my dissertation and news of a publishing contract to adapt the dissertation for a wider audience. We shared a wonderful afternoon together reminiscing about all God had done for us in the twenty years since we first met. Those were good times.

It was in June 2011, when, in passing, I first suggested to Dallas that he should consider writing a follow-up to The Divine Conspiracy. As I was combing through his writings, interviews, and lectures for my dissertation, it seemed to me there was a collection of insights, explanations, and applications he had developed related to the kingdom of God that had not been given ample treatment in his other published works. I thought readers could benefit from the way he had expounded on several issues and realities of contemporary life in the years since The Divine Conspiracy was published. We kicked around some ideas and potential chapter topics over the next several months. Eventually he agreed about the potential benefit of such a book. It was only when his medical condition was not improving as rapidly as he hoped that he suggested the idea of coauthoring the book. By January 2013, we had formatted the basic structure of what eventually became the final product.

In March 2013, his health continued to weaken. By then we had formal outlines of each chapter, discussed particular examples, and made a myriad of choices about what to include and what to omit. Before his death, we had several chapters complete and a clear understanding of what was left to finish. We tried diligently to finish the manuscript before he passed. We were very close. As it turns out we were only six weeks short. It was just a few days after we had arrived at our completed outline for the final chapter that I received that fateful call from Jane and kissed my family good-bye to join Dallas as he began his final journey into eternity. What I would have given for just six more weeks. We tried.

As I drove to the Willard home, I had a feeling this was the beginning of the end of his life. In some ways that drive allowed me to prepare. I didn’t know what exactly the next days or weeks held, but I did have a sense that difficulty and sorrow were ahead. Yet I also sensed that there would be a significant blessing as a result.

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.