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McLaren's vision is, simply, to return to Jesus and to rework and revitalize Jesus' kingdom vision. In The Secret Message of Jesus, McLaren explores a variety of phrases, including "empire of God," "dream of God," "revolution of God," "mission of God," "party of God," the "network of God," and the "dance of God." McLaren self-consciously brackets the "conventional" gospel message he grew up with among the Plymouth Brethren and reads Jesus, to cop the words of Marcus Borg, "again for the first time." What McLaren discovered was Jesus' thoroughly social vision, and he believes that most people—especially the conservative evangelical group in which he was nurtured—buried the kingdom vision of Jesus and distorted the gospel. "What if," he asks in what must be seen as a window to everything he is doing, "the religion generally associated with Jesus neither expects nor trains its adherents to actually live in the way of Jesus?"

Secret Message is "dedicated to all who work for peace among nations, races, classes, religions, ideologies, parties, families, and individuals, because these people are part of something bigger and more important than we fully understand." These peace workers, McLaren says, have "this unshakable intuition that both [Jesus] and his message are better than anything they've heard or understood or figured out so far." Furthermore, and typical for McLaren, a disclaimer: "I can't tell you that I have it all figured out, but I can tell you that I am confident that I'm onto something," and, "I've seen a few things that are making the pieces come together for me and many others." So what is the message of Jesus?

In a word, peace, or perhaps reconciliation, or perhaps love. Not just with God and not just in the heart, but both and more: the peace Jesus envisions is global. Jesus really "had a message that truly could change the world."

McLaren believes Jesus' kingdom vision is bigger than what many are accustomed to think. "I've been convinced that [Jesus' message] has everything to do with public matters in general and politics in particular—including economics and aid, personal empowerment and choice, foreign policy and war." Jesus countered the Zealots and the Sadducees and the Pharisees and the Essenes with a message about the "empire of God," and made the astounding claim that it was available to all right then and there. Jesus' kingdom vision was a "revolutionary new sort of revolution" in which "the ultimate authority is not Caesar but rather the Creator," and where you "find your identity—your citizenship—not in Rome but rather in a spiritual realm." Everything about Jesus brings Israel's story to fulfillment and "through him, God was launching a new world order, a new world, a new creation."

Right then and there. And here: "The radical revolutionary empire of God is here, advancing by reconciliation and peace, expanding by faith, hope, and love—beginning with the poorest, the weakest, the meekest, and the least. It's time to change your thinking. Everything is about to change. It's time for a new way of life. Believe me. Follow me. Believe this good news so you can learn to live by it and be part of the revolution." This revolution, then, is a revolution of peace and hope that, in both the insignificant and the Cross, in both sacrifice and love, reveals and unmasks corporate and cosmic evil.

In this aggressive emphasis on the here and now, we see a devaluation of the traditional view of heaven, and the need for a radical reworking of familiar terms—eternal life, heaven, kingdom, repent, believe, and sin. These terms now take their meaning from the story of God's current redemption of the entire created order through the followers of Jesus who embody and expand his message. In essence, then, the kingdom of God as Jesus teaches it is a "reconciling movement."

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September 2008, Vol. 52, No. 9