Living in His Kingdom

The New Testament is addressed to believers and provides us with the mind of God on many subjects both practical and spiritual. One of the most overlooked, and in fact tortured, subjects is the relationship a believer and the body of Christ should have with the country in which they live. In America we and our children have been taught that America was birthed as a Christian nation and that it came into being by the hand of God. Of course everything exists under the sovereign auspices of Almighty God, but the suggestion is that God directly orchestrated the Revolutionary War in order to begin the country known as America. Even the Pledge of Allegiance has the words “one nation under God” in its wording. And the words “Creator” and “God” appear in the Declaration of Independence.

And although none of the founding fathers could be considered evangelical, it is true that some of them may well have been believers even though some of them were slave owners and had problems with infidelity. The Lord knows the beginning from the end of everything, and it is without controversy that God has used the body of Christ that would live in this new nation. And it is also without controversy that the hedonistic and humanistic culture in this nation has slowly enveloped God’s church until it made the Scriptures bend to accommodate such behavior. Teachings like the health and wealth gospel, the go into debt building programs, and the alignment of Christ and allegiance to the nation are a result of the culture. All of these core teachings and practices were borrowed from the culture and incorporated into ecclesiastical belief and practice.

But the New Testament only commands us to obey the laws, not to form any alliances with any earthly nation. Even the obvious prophetic hints concerning God and Israel in the future carry no suggestion that we align ourselves with Israel. We are a holy nation, and our citizenship is in heaven. All earthly citizenships can be leveraged for the kingdom’s sake as did Paul, but Paul, being a Roman citizen by birth, would never have shown any allegiance to that secular nation. And who could imagine Paul accepting the role of a Roman soldier and being used to defend or expand the Roman Empire?

Romans chapter 13 is a guide for Christian behavior under secular governments, but it has been misused to suggest that since God can and does sovereignly use earthly governments for His own purposes that we as believing followers of King Jesus should get entangled with the affairs of this world. And now the church has long since waded into the murky and carnal waters of politics and presented the gospel of Jesus Christ as some moral and conservative cause. Much of the lost world in America sees our faith as a moral crusade that includes marriage, capitalism, democracy, and all sorts of issues. They are blinded to the redemption of Jesus Christ because we have presented a message of condemnation rather than redemption. It seems Christ’s followers have forgotten that He Himself did not come to condemn that which is already condemned.

When you travel to other countries around the world and speak with other believers, you may find that most, if not all, hold very little allegiance to their native country and many are offended at what they deem the arrogance of America’s believers. We have been duped by a falsehood that proposes that not only is America interested in the good of all people, but that God is on her side. The New Testament truth is that all nations are before Him, and that there are none that are good and there are none that seeketh after Christ and His kingdom.

My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.

And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

There is only one heavenly kingdom, and it lives within the heart of every believer. It knows no earthly nationality; it knows no race; it knows no gender; and it only receives the word of one King. Every believer lives with certain providential aspects of his life. His birthplace, his parents, his physical attributes, and a host of other issues began with the providential plan of the Father and are being manifested by all of us. But the Father never planned for us to grow an affection for our environment and to parse out our loyalties to anything and anyone but the Lord Jesus. All our earthly obedience, all our humanitarian ministries, all our participation in the mundane issues of life, and everything about our lives must be lived through the power of the King and with the unmistakable and undiluted fragrance of His exalted and unique kingdom.

How can we be so content as to blend in with political agendas and national interests? How can we Americanize the gospel and be distracted by issues that cannot save and have no eternal essence? Where did we lose the axe head and yet continued to pretend we are still sacrificially following Him who blazed a trail of redemption through His own culture? How is it that we claim to be inhabited by the Creator of the universe and yet remain so unremarkable within a kingdom of darkness? Can we not see that we have constructed a gospel of convenience and ease that mirrors the surroundings in which we live?

The blood has long been absorbed by the ground on Golgotha, and the tomb has long since given up its dead. The upper room set a handful on fire with the gospel message and that fire lit the known world with the light of Jesus Christ. That light was so bright and brilliant that men either embraced it or killed those who shined. But one thing the world could not do was ignore that light. But today in America we are given a seat at the pluralistic table, and we cling to some indigestible scraps of revisionist history that claim a Christian origin. That’s all we have, brethren? Some historical argument over which religion some of the founding fathers seemed to espouse? Our power is somehow manifested in quoting dead men and interpreting them in order to leverage respect for our so called Christian roots?? What a pitiful lot we are!

Where is the Lord God of Elijah? Where is the power to which we claim access? And why is Jesus so much more prominent in our teachings and theology than He is in a living and vibrant display of our lives insomuch as sinners cannot help but notice the distinctiveness of our existence. Away with all labels that attach themselves to us without bearing the Savior’s reproach! Away with conservative or liberal; away with Democrat or Republican; away withMoral Majorities or Religious right; and away with proudly claiming to be an American, the country which murders the unborn and embraces all gods. The nation that fares sumptuously while children starve. The country which uses violence to achieve its national interests. Away with anything but Christ and Christ alone.

Radical, you say? I challenge you to read through the New Testament in one week and ask the Spirit to make it know to you once more.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.

Without hashing over whether we should sell everything, let us begin with “What do we actually sacrifice for Christ and does it even remotely reflect that parable?” Warning: Unless you are willing to see things that make you uncomfortable, then as the sign says, “I’d turn back if I were you!”