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Foundations of the Kingdom of God, part 1

The Kingdom of God has undergone many stages of development over the millennia. It started with a limited plot of ground called the Garden of Eden. This was the seat of earthly government (Genesis 1:26), but the earth as a whole was still chaotic, and Adam was instructed to “subdue it” (Genesis 1:28). This was not a military mandate. He had to bring order out of chaos by the authority of the word of God.

Sin, however, expelled Adam and Eve from the Garden and from his highest governmental position. He became part of the problem, and his descendants soon proved this. Genesis 6:11 says,

¹¹ Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence.

God then cleansed the earth with a flood, but this did not restore Kingdom government. The hearts of the people remained unchanged. Violence continued. Noah, and then Shem, remained as the rightful birthright holders of Kingdom government, but few followed their righteous example or accepted their word as authoritative.

Nimrod’s Kingdom

Nimrod then rose to power among the competing carnally minded kings. He conquered cities militarily and put them under his authority that was centered in the city that he built—Babel, or Babylon (Genesis 10:9, 10). By violence and force, he usurped the authority of Noah and Shem, so finally, Shem left Mesopotamia. Shem went to Canaan and built the city of Jerusalem, taking the title of Melchizedek, “king-priest.” He was also known as Adonizedek, “Lord of Righteousness.” So the book of Jasher 16:11, 12 says (in reference to Genesis 14:18-20),

“And Adonizedek king of Jerusalem, the same was Shem, went out with his men to meet Abram…”

The Shem-Melchizedek identification is not unique to the book of Jasher. It is an established Jewish tradition also found in Genesis Rabbah 43:6 and Babylonian Talmud, Nedarim 32b.

So two competing cities were established in those days: Babylon and Jerusalem. Essentially, Babylon was a city of war, while Jerusalem was a City of Peace, as its name indicates. Each projected two different methods of establishing a kingdom. Yet because men were violent by nature, the warlike method prevailed. No doubt most people thought it was silly to hope for a kingdom that could prevail through peace. Yet the name itself, built on the word shalom, shows the mindset and the faith of Shem and his followers.

Nonetheless, by the time of Joshua, Jerusalem was no longer ruled by godly men. History does not record how this change occurred. We only know that the king of Jerusalem still held the title, though slightly modified as Adoni-zedek, “Lord of Righteousness” (Joshua 10:1). Righteousness had changed over the generations and was redefined in terms of military conquest. The seeds of violence had been sown in what ought to have been the Kingdom of God. What happened?

All we know for sure is that Abraham was Shem’s heir. Yet by studying biblical chronology we find that Shem lived 600 years and outlived Abraham. Hence, Isaac, the child of promise was Shem’s actual heir. When Shem died, Isaac was 110, and Jacob was 50.

Yet for some unknown reason, Isaac did not move to Jerusalem and did not assume the throne. This probably indicates that some kind of power struggle occurred, ending with another descendant of Shem usurping power that rightfully belonged to Isaac. Isaac’s heir to the throne ultimately fell to David, who conquered Jerusalem from the Jebusites (2 Samuel 5:7).

The Bloody City

David, though imperfect, was a righteous king, because he always repented for his sins. But a righteous king does not ensure that his descendants had the same humility. After a few centuries, in fact, God raised up the Babylonians to bring judgment upon the city. The prophets said it had become “The Bloody City” (Ezekiel 22:2; 24:6, 9; Nahum 3:1), built on blood (war, bloodshed), rather than upon peace (shalom).

For this reason, Jerusalem lost its calling as the capital of the Kingdom and was replaced by the New Jerusalem, a heavenly city (Hebrews 11:16; 12:22; Galatians 4:26; Revelation 21:2) that was truly founded on shalom. This is the city that Abraham was promised (Hebrews 11:10). The earthly city by that name is founded on bloodshed and war by carnally-minded men and is the bondwoman and her children of the flesh (Galatians 4:25, 29).

I am appalled that so many Christians today reject plain Scripture and are so desirous of claiming the earthly Jerusalem as the center of the promise of God. Yet I understand the mindset, having been raised in that tradition in my early life. The rejection of the word of God has resulted today in the political support and advocacy for the bloody city, asking God to bless the children of the flesh and put the children of promise under their authority in the Kingdom of God.

In doing this, they cast aside the word of God through Paul in Galatians 5:1,

¹ It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore, keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.

The Meaning of Empire

Daniel 7 prophesied of four distinct empires, each pictured as a different beast, which God would give the Dominion Mandate on account of Jerusalem’s bloody rule. We now live at the end of that long cycle of beast rule, when “the time arrived when the saints took possession of the kingdom” (Daniel 7:22). Verse 27 continues,

²⁷ Then the sovereignty, the dominion, and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the Highest One…

These “saints” are not children of the flesh, for they are not children of the Old Covenant. They are the overcomers who are children of the New Covenant, begotten by the “enduring word of God” (1 Peter 1:23), not begotten by the flesh.

But what sort of Kingdom do they envision? What do they hope for? One’s perspective will determine which Jerusalem they support, as well as the method by which they establish it.

Technically, the coming Kingdom is an empire, because, as Revelation 15:3, 4 says,

³ … Great and marvelous are Your works, O Lord God, the Almighty; righteous and true and Your ways, King of the nations! ⁴ Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy; for all the nations will come and worship before You, for Your righteous acts have been revealed [phaneróō, “made visible, brought to light, manifested”].

Christ will be “King of the nations,” not because He has forcibly conquered them militarily, not because He has threatened them with annihilation, not because he threatens to send them to hell if they fail to submit, but because His righteous acts have finally been brought to light. The nations finally see that the fleshly ways of man are not the answer. Once the ways of God are fully brought to light, every nation will want to be part of His Kingdom. When multiple nations join together under the Prince of Peace, with His capital as the heavenly City of Peace, that is what defines an empire.

Revelation 21:24-6 says,

²⁴ The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it… ²⁶ and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it.

There is no suggestion here that the nations and kings are being forced. If force were necessary, it would merely expose non-compliant hearts. One does not need to force those who are in agreement already. Force is only necessary when children of the flesh try to build a fleshly kingdom for their own benefit.

So when Adam was told to “subdue” the earth (Genesis 1:28), and when Paul writes that all things will be “subjected” to Christ (1 Corinthians 15:28), it is clear that this will not be accomplished by the arm of flesh or by military might. It will happen because the people will finally see the righteous acts of Christ and will submit themselves voluntarily to His way of thinking.

If this were not so, He could have subdued the earth immediately without having to endure thousands of years of opposition. The way of peace has never been popular, even though everyone wants peace. The problem is that they want it on their own terms and are willing to kill and destroy in order to obtain peace. But what kind of peace is that? In the end, such “peace” cannot be secured by military force, because war does not change the hearts of men.