A Critique of Ladd’s ‘Already but not Yet’ View of the Kingdom

Abstract

The kingdom of God is an important subject for theology and for a Christian worldview. As one of the most influential theologians of the twentieth century, George Eldon Ladd is arguably the father of the widely held ‘already but not yet’ view of the kingdom. Ladd contends that the kingdom can be both present and future at the same. The key to Ladd’s theory is his definition of the kingdom. If the kingdom can be present and future at the same time, Ladd realises that logically it cannot also be so in the same sense. Therefore, he postulates that Jesus offered a new and unexpected form of the kingdom, arguing that the New Testament radically reinterprets the Old Testament and calling this the mystery of the kingdom. This article critiques Ladd’s definition of the kingdom. The kingdom cannot logically be present and future at the same time. Moreover, Jesus did not offer a new ‘form’ of the kingdom. Regarding the mediatorial kingdom of God, the missing key is the word ‘conditional’.