As Christians are allegiance is to a kingdom unseen, The Kingdom of Heaven. We are not suppose to put stock in the kingdoms of this world, for we are sojourners “Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul,” (1 Peter 2:11), this is not our home, “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,” (Philippians 3:20).
Therefore the politics of this world is not our purview, we may vote, but our chief concern is Christ’s Kingdom.
Sadly, Christianity has been infected with politics. It began with Christian Empire, when Emperor Constantine became lord of Church and State, able to appoint bishops and rule citizens with imperial power. The Byzantine model of Church and State fused together survived, it spread in the West via Roman Catholicism, with kings needing the blessings of popes, and in the East it continued with emperors l, tsars, and later rulers. It even survived in America, where now in Evangelicalism it is at its apex, where politicians are able make the Kingdom of Heaven one and same as the Govt of the United States, a New Christendom. Unfortunately what this does is if you arn’t with that brand of politcs it alienated people from the gospel, Jesus l, and His Church. When Christ and the Kingdom is for all people, not one political caste, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28). In gact Jesus purposely seperates God from Politics when he said, “Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they marveled at him,” (Mark 12:17), and “Jesus answered, “My Kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. If it were, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish leaders. But my Kingdom is not of this world.” (John 18:36).
What is happening is Satan is destroying the church from without with political Christianity and from within via sexual abuse scandals. It is a two pronged, forked tongue approach of the Serpent to achieve the destruction of the Church. And its working.. over 70% of the next generation are Nones, no affiliation with any religion, their distrust of authority is reinforced by corrupt political-christianity-blends and scandals.
How are we to repair and restore? To take back Christianity? It requires another Reformation. We have to break down the last pieces of Constantinian Christianity and the political-christian offspring. This means let go of the buildings, replace them with house churches like in Acts, “And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers,” (Acts 2:42), and “And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts” (Acts 2:46). Have no paid priests or pastors, have them be bi-vocational like the apostle Paul, he made tents for money and pastored for free. Don’t separate children from parents in services, the early church never did this, that way no one who has infiltrated the church to conduct abuse is alone with kids, parents being in same room with their children for services in the home. It also means that we have to accept losing influence in our government, that is trying to create a Neo-Christendom. Its fine to vote your values or run for office, but no merging national agendas with the Kingdom of Heaven, they aren’t compatible. At some point the Kingdom and the nation part ways, hence, “you cannot serve two masters,” ().
As Christians we are called to a different government ruler by God. Originally God was king, but then Israel wanted a fallible man to be ruler, rejecting God as ruler (1 Samuel, Chapter 8). Ever since man-made governments have become corrupted and crumble. Now The Kingdom pf Heaven is invisible, but One day it will come to earth, Jesus ruling in the flesh for thousand years (Revelation 20:4-6) and then the Kingdom of Eternity with a New Heaven and Earth (Revelation 21:1-56).
You either believe Jesus is the King of Kings (Revelation 19:16) or you trust in a fallible king, president or prime minister. While yes we are called to obey authorities over us (Romans, Chapter 13), but our heart must in the end be pledge to One Kingdom, God’s or Man’s. You must decide. The blend hasn’t worked, Christendom doesn’t work, it’s either The Kingdom Not Of This World or the kingdoms of this world. Amen.
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