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About Jesus - Steve Sweetman
The
Kingdoms Of Men - Part 1 It was August 1980 when
my wife and I turned onto the beltway that circles Washington
D .C.. Relocating from small
town Once we settled into the I never made it to JFK
stadium to see the Redskins play a game.
I did, however, visit the White House and the U. S. Capitol
Building. While Within the year my wife
and I moved south from On one occasion I was
handed a number of boxes containing political pamphlets.
I was happy to coordinate the canvassing activities for my
congressional precinct in the 1982 midterm election.
I went door to door encouraging everyone to vote for the
re-election of Republican Congressman Thomas Bliley.
Ironically, no one knew that I would not be voting in the
election. I would not vote
because I could not vote. I
could not vote because I was not an American citizen.
I was, and still am, a Canadian. There's no doubt that I
was influence by When we returned to Canada
in 1984, Conservative, Brian Mulroney, was Prime Minister of Canada.
My dad sarcastically called him Brian Bologna.
Dad had no sympathy for politicians; no appetite for politics.
As far as he was concerned, politicians were all hypocritical
liars and crooks, as was confirmed to him the day President Nixon
resigned the presidency in disgrace.
My dad's anti-political
sentiment was held by much of his generation of Evangelicals.
It was passed down from the previous generation who often
preached a gospel of political abstinence.
Those of the new Christian Conservative persuasion blamed these
non-political minded Evangelicals for the moral decline in the
social/political environment of both Once back in I'm now 3 decades older
than I was in the mid 1980's. I
am still politically, socially, and religiously, conservative.
I keep myself informed on political issues because they are
important in relation to Biblical prophecy.
I will cast my ballot to elect a true conservative in the
upcoming election for the leader of the Conservative Party of Ontario. Despite
my social/political stance, my aspiration to sanctify the political
world within the kingdoms of men has been greatly tempered.
I recall a prominent Bible teacher telling me that if Pat
Robertson ever did become president he'd be demoting himself from his
position as a preacher of the gospel.
His point was well taken.
My dad's disdain for all
things political and all things pertaining to the kingdoms of men has
some merit. No matter their
political stripes, all nations are at odds with God to one degree or
another, as I believe the following Biblical passages makes clear.
Part 2 My dad's distain for the kingdoms of men is rooted in Genesis 1:26. As his KJV Bible put it; God appointed man to "take dominion" over His creation. The word "dominion" is translated from the Hebrew word "radah", meaning, "to tread, to dominate, or, to rule." Adam relinquished his role to rule to satan. For this reason Jesus called satan the prince, or ruler, of the nations (John 12:31). The first politician
recorded in the Bible is Nimrod. He
oversaw the construction of the city of Babel
and its famous tower. Despite
popular opinion, God did not have a problem with the tower.
It was Nimrod's humanistic, and I believe satan inspired,
aspiration to make a name for himself that bothered God (Genesis 11:4). Babel
eventually became Babylon. Because In reaction to Babylonian
style kingdoms Deuteronomy 32:8 tells us
about the formation of nations. "When
the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when He divided all
mankind, He set up boundaries for the peoples according to the number of
the sons of Israel (NIV)." The
NIV says the formation of nations has something to do with the sons of
In Daniel 10:21 and 12:1
we note that the angel Michael is the prince and protector of Israel. Daniel 10:20 speaks of the
prince of Persia
and the prince of Throughout the prophetic
books of the Old Testament we see all nations, including We should note that satan
offered Jesus all the kingdoms of the world in Matthew 4:9.
Satan could rightly make this offer because the kingdoms were in
his control. Jesus refused
the offer. He'd have them in
the end anyway. My dad would remind me
that the Apostle Peter agreed with his assessment of the nations.
Peter pleaded with his fellow Jews to save themselves from their
corrupt generation (Acts 2:40). I
guess the Apostle Paul agreed with dad too.
According to Ephesians 6:12 he said; "our struggle is not
against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against authorities,
against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces
of evil in the heavenly realms (NIV)." These
evil forces in the heavenly realms are the same evil princes the angel
Michael would have fought. They
are the same evil powers influencing nations today. The fall of both the
kingdoms of men and the evil angelic princes supporting them will occur
as the nations gather to attack Jerusalem at the end of this age (Joel
2:3). As they approach Jerusalem, Jesus will devastate them in one brief second with the mere words of
His mouth. He will then save
the repentant remnant of It's clear to me, as it
was to dad, that from Genesis through to Revelation, all nations oppose
God to one degree or another. Unlike
dad, I do believe that some nations oppose God less than others, but
that's no consolation. A
little opposition is still opposition.
Besides, all nations these days are speeding down the fast track
away from anything pertaining to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ. In light of what I
believe the Bible says Part
3 "Christian
involvement" As I've stated
previously, my dad's disdain for all things pertaining to the kingdoms
of men was common among Evangelicals in his day.
This world view was accompanied by an emphasis on heaven and the
future Another aspect of the
gospel concerns the At a glance you might
think we have a dilemma. On
one hand Jesus said the Kingdom
of God
was just around the corner and on the other hand He said it would come
at the end of this age. There's
no dilemma. The Kingdom
of Just prior to His
ascension Jesus spent 40 I'll personalize what
this means. When I received
the Holy Spirit, I entered the Kingdom
of I often look to the
Apostle Paul for guidance on this matter.
He was a Jew, but he was also a Roman citizen.
Some suggest that he was a member of the Jewish parliament known
as the Sanhedrin. Whatever
the case, he was well informed in both Jewish and Roman political
matters. In Acts 9 we see
that Jesus clobbered and dragged Paul into the Kingdom
of Paul certainly understood
the Roman world and his rights as a Roman citizen.
He skillfully used his civil rights to promote his cause when he
thought it necessary. On one
occasion, after being unlawfully arrested by the Jews, he stood his
legal ground before governor Festus and appealed to Caesar (Acts 25:11).
This he could only do because he was a Roman citizen.
A brief reading of the book of Acts shows us that Paul was quite
capable of defending his position in a court of law and before the Roman
authorities. He never backed
down from a fight when the Kingdom
of
As Christians living in
western style demoncracies, like Paul, we can and should use any rights of citizenship at
our disposal to promote and defend the Kingdom of God
values. Caving tinto anti-Christ pressures isn't an option.
Beyond these legalities, I could never discourage Christians from
entering the political arena. I
would only hope they understood the nature of the beast, and, a beast it
is according to the books of Daniel and Revelation. A
Christian lawyer confirmed this beastly nature of nations when he told
me that once you enter the world of Canadian law and politics, the
values of the Kingdom
of God
no longer apply. That world
operates under a completely different value system that has little
relevance to the Kingdom
of
So,
here's my bottom line. Unlike
many
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