Which Kingdom?

Let me say first, that I believe in paying taxes, voting, volunteering for community needs, and serving in all forms of government jobs. This is not a call to disengage from civic responsibilities.

(6) Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” (7) He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. (8) But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Acts 1:6-8 (NIV)

The church has struggled with the tension between soul-saving and worldly power grabbing. If any section of scripture settles this debate, this section in the first section of Acts settles it. The apostles had raised these questions before to our Lord. James and John had even tried to position themselves into a better power position in the new political order. However, the entire New Testament is a movement away from worldly politics and toward individual salvation. The Gospel works on one person at a time.

So, the Gospel is to be preached to people. People are reborn, not governments transformed. A individual person’s life is changed, not a survey stat improved. Society is only impacted because individual people are changed. Christianity makes a difference at the kitchen table and only makes it to the public square because redeemed people act differently. The Gospel is not legislation. Jesus did not die on a Cross for an agenda, a party, a platform, or a candidate. His blood was shed for individual souls. His blood made a way for personal salvation, not a grab for money and power.

Preaching that blood-bought, life-changing, hope-filled Gospel is the true church’s mission. Everything else the worldly church does is a satanic distraction. The closer that ‘church’ gets to politics and prosperity preaching, the closer it finishes its ultimate transformation into the Great Whore of Babylon.

I have seen such a great falling away from the personal salvation I heard preached in the early 70s to what passes for Christianity today. The apostate church partners now with religious groups that deny the sonship of Jesus Christ, salvation by grace, and odd eastern cults for political expediency. We heard great men of God preach about the one-world apostate church supporting and cooperating with political rulers. I have lived long enough to see, at least the edge, of that day. I am heartbroken for what I see in the evangelical church.

There are some that will not hear what I am saying. Some are not fallen away but never knew Christ. You can wrestle with a wolf all day, but he will never be a sheep. I can’t force those into the light. However, there are some that started the race well, but now border on this satanic deception. Please stop and remember the blood-bought soul-saving Gospel. Remember the joy of the new birth. To those of you that are lost sheep, I beg you to hear God call you to repentance. You cannot serve God and Mammon!