The secret kingdom of postmillennialism

Pat Robertson is a well known and controversial Christian fundamentalist in the United States. He hosts the "700 Club", a TV program showed all across the world. In 1988, Robertson made an unsuccessful bid to win the Republican presidential nomination.

"The Secret Kingdom" is one of Robertson's most popular works, available both in separate editions and in a "Collected Works" edition together with "The New Millennium" and "The New World Order", two other widely read books by the same author.

Robertson is often criticized by other fundamentalists for various alleged theological errors. After reading "The Secret Kingdom", I see why. Robertson seems to be inspired by both the Word of Faith prosperity gospel and some kind of postmillennialism (while denying both influences).

Many of the ideas in this book remind me of Word of Faith teachings, but they are put forward with a different terminology. Robertson believes that the kingdom of heaven is presently at hand, but in an invisible and spiritual form. Through faith, Christians can reach into the powers of the invisible kingdom and make miracles happen in their lives. The author believes that Jesus revealed 10 immutable spiritual laws, which if followed leads to happiness and prosperity for individuals, peace for nations and healing for the Earth. These include the Law of Reciprocity, the Law of Use and the Law of Dominion. Robertson states that New Age and secular authors have discovered some of these laws, but are misusing them. He is also at pains to distance himself from the more extreme versions of Word of Faith theology. Christians sometimes do suffer or experience tribulations, the laws only work if you persevere, nations must be united to make the laws work for them, etc. Still, Robertson believes that the "official" fundamentalist denominations are missing an important part of the Christian message by only talking about redemption and ultimate salvation without mentioning the worldly blessings made possible by the Laws of the Kingdom. He also includes some extreme testimony about people being raised from the dead or people taken on a tour of Heaven, staples of charismatic and Word of Faith publications.

Since Robertson believes that the spiritual laws are applicable on a national or international scale, by governments and institutions, it's unclear how this is different from Dominion theology and postmillennialism. There is a tension in the book between an apparent belief in a much improved world created already before the second advent of Christ (the postmillennial position) and Robertson's nominal theology, which sounds Dispensationalist and hence premillennial. The usual scenarios about the Anti-Christ, the northern federation and the ten nation federation are all included, and so is a literal millennium set up by Jesus at his second advent, and a final rebellion of Satan after the thousand years have ended. (In Robertson's version, the northern federation are the ex-Soviet Muslim republics, while the ten nations are still the EU.)

"The Secret Kingdom" also contains tiresome attacks against gays and lesbians, political correctness on campus and feminism. These seem unconnected to the general context of the book, but obviously tells us something of Robertson's wider agendas. The author also boasts about his connections with Zaire and a lengthy meeting with Zambian president Chiluba. Robertson also makes the surprisingly radical demand for a universal cancellation of all debt, both national debts and personal debts, a kind of universal jubilee. Otherwise, he supports free market capitalism. Robertson also supports continued economic growth, the development of new energy sources, and a continued rise in population. By a miracle?

"The Secret Kingdom" is an interesting introduction to the religious speculations of Marion Gordon "Pat" Robertson.

(This review is based on the version published in the Collected Works of Pat Robertson. There may be some minor differences between it and earlier editions of the same work.)