The Reign of God from a pretheist perspective
Jesus spoke at length about the coming “Kingdom of God,” or as more accurate modern translations put it, the coming “kingship” of God, or “reign” of God. He described the coming reign of God as being like a tiny mustard seed that grows to become a great bush, or like a small amount of yeast that leavens many loaves of bread. In other words, the reign of God is something that will grow and spread and expand.
It is too much to read into Jesus’ words about the coming reign of God that he understood it in terms of an emerging or evolving God, but that is how we can choose to look at it today. At this present moment, God does not reign over the world. Any casual observer can see that the world does not operate as if God were in control. There is too much evil, too much sorrow and suffering, too much wrong with the world to suggest that an all-loving, all-powerful God is reigning over it.
But the message of Jesus, and of radical Quaker pretheism, is that God will reign over this world. The kingdom of God is coming! Truth will triumph over falsehood, and love over hate. The lion will lie down with the lamb and nation shall learn war no more. And justice will roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream…