Posted by
Stan Grant on Tuesday, May 01, 2007 5:03:51 PM
To gain a right perspective of world events, a people must apply a correct Bible grid through which they filter information and arrive at subsequent conclusions. This writing is a brief look at Kingdom order and government, and an overview of how America fits into God’s purposes for our world today. May we always subject our purposes to His, and yield any personal or national agendas to the God who has created and blessed us as a people.
God’s election of Israel began in the book of beginnings known as Genesis. Genesis 12 onward reveals Abraham / Isaac / Israel to be the focal point, and they begin to come into being during this time. They grow from individual to family to tribe, all the while being identified as God’s elect people. History now reveals them to be the Saxon people, or Isaac’s sons (‘Saac’s sons), and America is the gathering place for the “lost” 10 tribes of Israel. Thus, America is the Biblical people group known as the “House of Israel” and is distinct from the Biblical people group known as the “House of Judah”, or the Jewish people.
By the time the Bible student gets to Exodus 19:6, Israel is operating as a nation and God reveals them to be His Kingdom nation on earth. Unfortunately for other races at that time, the only way into the Kingdom of heaven was to be born into it. In proximity to Exodus is Deuteronomy 28:1-2, and we see that God desires for them to be distinct from other nations. The promise was to set them “on high, above all nations of the earth” if they’d simply place Him at the center of their culture. This is not a statement of equality, it’s a statement of distinction for the people of God, and His intent was to use them as a servant race showing the world the way to God and His blessings through right government. Blessing through obedience…judgment through disobedience…a cycle we see all throughout the Old Testament.
Now fast forward to Jesus’ times…
Jesus comes along preaching the gospel of the Kingdom, which in the minds of the people was already in motion. He didn’t declare an abandonment of that Kingdom and an establishment of a new one, and he did not declare the gospel as a kingdom (which is what the church has largely converted the message to today). The church has turned the Kingdom into a mere belief system (like the Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses) with no tangible expression other than to be nice to people, play institutionalized church, and rate itself merely on productions and packaging. But the question remains about Jesus’ message when He showed up on the scene of human history. The underlying question is this: What Kingdom was intact that necessitated a new “gospel” or order by which it was to function? The answer is simple: The Kingdom already set in motion back in Genesis / Exodus. He’s not redefining the Kingdom with His message in Matthew through John, He’s just redefining the order by which it is to operate. He’s upsetting the power structure by rightfully placing government upon His shoulders, and the Pharisees hated Him for it. This shift was so complete, He told the House of Judah (the Jews) in Matthew 21:43 that He was taking the administration of the Kingdom from them and giving it to a nation which would produce the fruits of it. The prevailing assumption within Christendom is that the new Kingdom nation is that of the church, but according to Matthew 10:5-23 that nation was the House of Israel, long departed from the region and into the British Isles by this point in time. At best, Old Covenant laws had governed the Kingdom until then and now it was to be governed by a new way…a New Covenant where the laws were to be written upon the hearts of men. And it was to be governed by a new leader…Jesus Christ. It didn’t release Israel to chase its own agenda or find its inspiration in other cultures, it released them from ceremonial ordinances to bind their hearts to their Maker and give birth to His Kingdom on earth.
With this New Covenant, the big news for Israel is that they could no longer rest on the laurels of being born into the Kingdom for now they must be born a second time, or born again (John 3). Physical and spiritual must be in harmony. They must have a complete heart change and demonstrate this through total allegiance to their King and His culture established on earth as it is in heaven. After all, that is the goal and nothing less. The big news for the gentiles is that they now have access into that same Kingdom through the same heart change, and it demands total assimilation into what God is doing in the House of Israel (the Saxon people) for they are at the forefront. The ongoing news for Israel is that they must pay close attention to implementing God’s laws nationally, since the eyes of the world are still upon them and people are being drawn to their nation. They bear the name of God, and judgment awaits if they do not follow God.
The entire global community must understand that the SUBSTANCE of the Kingdom didn’t change when Christ showed up…just the ACCESS into the Kingdom and the ORDER by which it would run. Remember that Jesus came to “confirm (make firm) the promise to the fathers” (Romans 15:8), and that promise was of Kingdom dominion vested into Israel as a people. They were destined to be one nation under God with global hegemony. Jesus didn’t abolish these promises, He didn’t fulfill them, He reaffirmed them and thus validated every promise made to physical Israel in the Old Testament. This is why the disciples asked Jesus if the Kingdom would be restored to Israel in Acts 1:6. Jesus didn’t correct the substance of their question because it was substantively correct. After all, He’d just spent a great deal of time instructing them on the Kingdom (Acts 1:3), so theirs was an intelligent question based on what they’d learned from Christ Himself. What He told them is that they wouldn’t know the timing of all this, and they needed to start spreading this gospel by which the Kingdom would be governed. As gospel settlers, they’d start in Jerusalem, move outward to Judea, Samaria, and finally to the uttermost part of the earth. Not “uttermost parts” (plural), but “uttermost part” (singular). And they wouldn't just DO witnessing, they were to BE witnesses. Become something…a holy nation built on Christ…predominantly Israel…open to gentile nations through conversion…culminating in the uttermost part of the earth. Start colonizing on the foundation of Christ, and in the process drive out demons, heal the sick, and raise the dead. The final place of colonization is the west coast of America, for that is the furthest landmass from Jerusalem settled by Isaac’s sons. It is truly the uttermost part for a settler beginning their journey in Jerusalem. Everything converges in America, and the time is soon for the revelation of the Kingdom in its fullness. We are in the end game.
The long-term purpose of God is found in Revelation 21, and it’s found with the name of “New Jerusalem”. It is not old Jerusalem remodeled, but rather New Jerusalem. This is what God is building towards, it is His concept birthed in the courts of heaven, and it will be realized on earth. One will find that New Jerusalem consists of 12 foundations named after the apostles, and walls with gates named after the 12 tribes of Israel. The foundation of the Kingdom is the New Covenant, but the container of this Kingdom is still found within the 12 tribes of Israel. Walls and foundations are different, and the only thing being preached by the church today is the foundational truths of the gospels and not the walls that reveal the container for the Kingdom. In short, we understand the gospel of the Kingdom, but not the Kingdom of the gospel. In Matthew 13:52 Jesus said anyone instructing on the Kingdom must take from both old (covenant) and new (covenant), and the old has been abandoned. Hence, our loss of understanding to what God is doing in the earth through nations. All because we don’t know what the Kingdom container looks like. Yes, Jesus did say “my Kingdom is not of this world”, but that’s a statement of origin, not location. He didn’t say “my Kingdom is not IN this world”, He said it’s not OF this world. In like fashion, Christians are IN the world, but not OF the world. Our location is very much here, even though we’re not of the same spirit of the world, and His Kingdom is very much here in location though not of similar makeup as other governments and cultures.
The heart of this message is to take a person beyond the personal application of Jesus Christ and apply Him to our national life. Does Jesus want you to serve Him as a person? Absolutely. But while the gospel of salvation is for the individual, the gospel of the Kingdom is for the nation and the consummate work is national in scope. Jesus didn’t come to create a new religion and He didn’t come to make a Kingdom out of a belief system alone. The Jehovah Witnesses and Mormons have done just fine with that because the Kingdom aspects of Christianity have given way to doctrinal creeds alone, and it leaves people grasping for something substantive. When we reconnect the spiritual atmosphere to the correct physical expression, all alternative cults lose their footing and get washed away in the flood of the Kingdom. Tremendous upheaval is ahead for American government and the American church, as tares must be separated from wheat in the Kingdom of God (Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43). Every spiritual and political leader in our nation will either knowingly or unknowingly flow in harmony with these truths, and suffice it to say that God’s people today have been destroyed for a lack of knowledge. May we have ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to our nation, and may our prayer be “America, America, God mend thine every flaw…Confirm thy soul in self-control, thy liberty in law”.
Stan Grant
www.stanforpresident.com