Lesson 10

Salvation and the Kingdom, Too?

Many grown-ups know that God has a Kingdom on earth and that the Messiah is King. But they have been tricked into thinking that if Christ is not physically present on earth, then He can't be ruling. Some think that the good news about God's reign on earth is meant only for the Jews. Some believe that even though Jesus was given all power on heaven and earth, He has, to a great degree, abdicated His throne to human rulers in disobedience to the will of God. Believing these things means that grown-ups can go on playing wizards until the King returns. This is not true.

We know from the Bible that God ruled the Israelites for three hundred years and He was never physically present. We know that the Kingdom is now open for everybody, naturalized Israelites as well as native-born Israelites. We also know that grown-ups believe that the State of Alaska and the United States are able to rule them, yet these fictions are never physically present. In fact, they are only make-believe! So, just because the Messiah is not here on earth does not mean he can't be ruling on earth. He can and He does. But men are free to reject Him as King until He returns. In the end bad things happen to those who reject God as King (Luke 19:27).At the very least rejecting God means living in a terrible fantasy world created by men - where mutually assured destruction is the end.

Grown-ups may try to teach you that God's kingdom is not very important. That is because a man named Paul wrote some letters in which salvation seemed to be more important than the Kingdom of God. Salvation means to be delivered from the power and penalty of sin. Sin means breaking the laws of God's Kingdom. When the Messiah was on earth He taught His followers mainly about the Kingdom. He didn't teach them about salvation separately because the two are really the same. God can save us if we have not rejected His government. We know this because of Isaiah 33:22. There we learn that the Lord is our law-giver, our judge and our King, and it is He that will save us. Save us from sin which is rebellion to God's law and Kingdom. That's what it means to repent and take Christ for your Lord.

All three branches of government, legislative, judicial and executive, are linked with salvation. What need is there for human government? Teaching about salvation and teaching about the Kingdom are really the same thing. Grown-ups try to limit God's salvation to the spiritual realm, but it can not be done. Salvation includes the temporal realm, too. Actually, there is only one realm: God's Creation.

Grown-ups may try to teach you that the churches they have made are the same as the Kingdom of God. These churches are only more invisible great wizards that grown-ups use to help them gain control over the minds of children so they will play Wizards of America. Churches have human wizards, too. They are called popes, priests, ministers, preachers, pastors, workers and many other names. They are all humbugs. They will tell you some true things, but they will also want you to believe that the Messiah has abdicated His throne to men and that He speaks mainly through church wizards and government wolf-men. This is not true. If God wants to speak to you He will speak directly to you, not to somebody else. In the new Covenant theocracy all are priests.

Girls, grown-ups will try to trick you about what a church is. The word church is a translation of the Greek word ecclesia which means town-meeting, the popular assembly of ancient Athens. It is a group of people that gather together for purposes of government, not religion:

The institutions by which this body of citizen-members undertook to transact its political business can be illustrated by taking Athens as the best-known type of the democratic constitution. The whole body of male citizens formed the Assembly or Ecclesia, a town-meeting which every Athenian was entitled to attend after he had reached the age of twenty years. The Assembly met regularly ten times in the year and in extraordinary sessions at the call of the Council. A History of Political Theory, George H. Sabine, Pg. 6.

You may have heard the Bible story of how the vacancy left by the death of Judas was filled by lot. This, too, was a feature of Greek government:

The system was a combination of election and lot. The demes elected candidates, roughly in proportion to their size, and the actual holders of office were chosen by lot from the panel thus formed by election. Ibid., pg.7.

For the ancient Greeks the church was a part of their democracy. For the Christians, who had rejected Caesar and the Roman Empire which they called the domain of darkness, it was part of theocracy. It was very natural for Christians to borrow this idea from the Greeks because many were already familiar with its operation. Today, after two thousand years, grown-ups have forgotten what the word church means. Today grown-ups think it means a religious assembly. Not true; it is a governmental institution established by the Messiah as part of the Kingdom of God and diametrically opposed to institutions of the state.

They also think the Bible teaches us only about religion. It does not. The word religion or religious is found only five times in the whole Bible. The Bible teaches about government. It tells us how good God's government is and how bad man's government is. If you go to church you will be taught a lot about theology, but little about theocracy, a lot about salvation, but little about the full power of the Lord on earth. Jesus taught about the Kingdom of God; wizards teach about Jesus and leave out the Kingdom.

I belonged to several churches before I realized what they were doing. Their main purpose is to make good citizens for the sovereign state, rather than for the sovereign God. They want us to be a willing part of the body politic . If they were real churches they would want to be part of the body of Christ, and not part of the body politic; part of a theocracy, not part of a democracy . Some churches will even teach you can be part of both bodies. That is being luke-warm and serving two master. Can two cats share the same tail? No, it must be part of one cat or the other. See if you can find the earliest Christians on the spectrum:

Man's Rule (Body politic)

God's Rule (Body of Christ)

Church humbugs will also want to baptize you. They will tell you this is a sign that you have become a church member, that you have turned to the Messiah for salvation. If you change churches you'll probably have to be baptized again. Grown-ups have forgotten what the purpose of baptism really is.

Salvation depends on giving allegiance to God as Law-giver, Judge and King. In other words, becoming a citizen of the Kingdom of God. Just as someone can renounce allegiance to all other governments and become a citizen of the United States by the process of naturalization, so, too, can someone become a naturalized citizen of the commonwealth of Israel, an Israelite. Baptism is merely part of the ancient Israelite naturalization ceremony. C.K. Barrett tells us that about two thousand years ago many non-Israelites were tempted but could not bring themselves to take the final step of circumcision, by which they would have cut themselves off from their own people and race. There were actually three steps required to become and Israelite: circumcision, baptism and (before the destruction of the temple) sacrifice. First, there was a period of instruction and examination concerning the law, then the question:

'Know thou that the world to come was made only for the righteous, but Israel at this present time may not experience very great good or very great afflictions.'

If he accept, he is to be circumcised immediately and received. In case of the discovery of any defect as to [a previous] circumcision, he is to be circumcised over again, and when healed brought to baptism immediately.

Two men learned in the Law shall stand near him and instruct him as to some of the lighter and some of the weightier commandments. He immerses himself and when he comes up he is in all respects and Israelite. (Yebamoth 47a, b.; as found in The New Testament Background; Selected Documents, pgs. 164-166).

When John was urging baptism on people who were supposedly already Israelites by birth, with circumcision and sacrifices at eight days, he was telling them they were so far from being citizens of God's Kingdom that they needed to be naturalized. That's what born again means, being spiritually reborn into the theocracy. After our natural birth grown-ups took us into the world they made up because they don't believe there is any other. After living in the fantasy world invented by men, we all get a fresh start by being born again into the real world. There is a new beginning of the world with each rebirth. Everyone enters the Kingdom like a child who must learn all over again. If you still cling to the old fantasy world of wizards, if you have not died to it, then you can not be born again into the new world. You can not drag the world of wizards into the world of reality, although many grown-ups think they can.

Many think that the first Christians very definitely were telling people about a government at odds with the Roman Empire. Reading in Acts 17:6 & 7 we learn:

Those that have turned the world upside down have come here, too; the ones Jason received: and these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another King, one Jesus.

Turning the world upside down is a revolution. It means the same as the last shall be first, and the first last. Roman law did not permit any King but Caesar. Christians not only had a different King, but a completely different government with its own town-meeting. Caesar, who was on top, was now on the bottow with everyone else; no more than equal to other men. Find where Caesar and the Romans stood:

Man's Rule (A man on top)

God's Rule (All men Equal)

Church wizards will try to explain away this direct conflict with the Wizards of Rome, because they want to play Wizards of America. They will tell you to Render unto Caesar. But remember Caesar was only a common man and a humbug. The only thing owned to Caesar is the same respect you would render to any other man, unless you have rejected God as ruler and live in a fantasy world. On the spectrum above find the place of people who render unto Caesar. A man named Paul wrote a letter to his friends at the time of Caesar and told them they had been chose to overthrow the existing order (Cor 1:28, NEB), which meant the Roman Empire. Find Paul's position on the spectrum. Jesus proclaimed the Kingdom of God. Find His position on the spectrum. God did not want the ancient Israelites to have a human king. Find God's position on the spectrum. Now the existing order is the nation-state world system.

If church wizards ever confuse you about who is actually ruling on earth just read Matthew 28:18, All power is given to me in heaven and in earth. Find Matthew's position on the spectrum. Jesus has not abdicated His throne. No power was given to wizards and humbugs. When men rule it is by force, not by power. Although many hate the thought, men have been given no power over each other. A man who is a citizen of the Kingdom is not subject to judgment by his fellow men (I Cor 2:15).

One final thing to be careful of . If you decide to become a Christian and to read and believe the Bible and go to church, you will meet many others who are doing the same. Every church group will tell you that they simply read the plain meaning of the words in the Bible without any interpretation. Yet each group may tell you the same words mean different things. Each claims to be right, but people often make mistakes. I have decided to figure out what the Bible means myself as best I can. This is the most anyone can do. I use other people's beliefs and interpretations only to help me find the truth.

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