About Jesus  -  Steve Sweetman

The Constitution Of The Kingdom

A nation normally has a document that sets forth how it should continue to lawfully exist.  The American Constitution is one such document.  Over time, both in America and elsewhere, there is a need to amend the constitution.  Beyond that, there is the ever-present tendency to reinterpret the constitution to make it mean something it was never meant to mean.  At this point the intent of the constitution gives way to an evolutionary relativism that varies at the slightest cultural whim.         

You may not have thought about it this way but soon after His baptism Jesus faced a constitutional challenge in the desert.  Unlike most up and coming leaders Jesus didn't head off to Jerusalem to meet with His supporters and rally the troops.  Instead, He encountered a satanic challenge to reinterpret the Constitution of the Kingdom that if He would have embraced would have redirected the course of human history.  This is often called "the wilderness temptation of Jesus."

Each satanic temptation or challenge was accompanied by a supporting Scriptural constitutional clause.  Jesus refuted each challenge with another Scriptural constitutional clause.  This was more than a theological debate.  It was an attack on the original intent of the Constitution of the Kingdom that enthroned Jesus as the constitutional King under the authority of the Almighty God, not under the authority of satan as was the intent of the attack. 

Satan's attempt to undermine the Kingdom's constitution didn't end with Jesus in the desert.  Soon after the Kingdom of God dawned in the hearts of the believers in Acts 2, challenges to the constitution came from all directions and remain with us to this very day.   

In our day when constitutional challenges are routine, the authenticity and authority of Scripture has not escaped such challenges, as seen in the rise of liberal theology in the 1800's.  This liberalization of Scripture has emerged once again in the last few decades in Evangelical Christianity.  Many so-called Evangelicals no longer believe the Bible to be God's authoritative inspired constitutional document.  For them, if they read it at all, it's a book to inspire.  It's not a book of historical fact and it's definitely not a book to instruct individuals and nations how to conduct themselves.  The door has swung wide open to heretical ideas that redefine the original intent of the Bible.  It's another satanic attempt to undermine the very nature and meaning of God's Kingdom which includes the church.  According to the Apostle Paul, such divisive heresies show those who are approved by God and those who are not (1 Corinthians 11:19).  Therefore, in the present doctrinal dilemma that is sweeping through the western world church, those of us who embrace the authoritative inspired Word of God will stand as those approved by God in the midst of the present satanic attack.  

The health of the church in any geographical area depends on what the church does with the Bible, the Constitution of the Kingdom.  Unlike other constitutions, God's constitution cannot be amended, changed, or reinterpreted to mean something it was never meant to mean.  It stands as an eternal document, the standard by which all individuals, nations, and cultures will be judged.