The Two Kingdoms
The Two Kingdoms
Should Christians Pledge Allegiance to Earthly Nations?
Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world; if My kingdom were of this world, My attendants would have struggled that I should not be delivered to the Jews. But now My kingdom is not from here.”
John 18:36
The words of the Lord beg the following question: If Christians are those who follow Jesus, and He denied the world and any right to rule over it at that time, why do disciples struggle over the nations of the world?
Christ Jesus is gathering all the nations to Himself, and will even rule over all His enemies (1 Cor. 15:25). Once again, if the devil is ‘the divider,’ and all things in heaven and upon earth are being gathered together into Him as the head (Eph. 1:10), then where lies the warrant to battle and war one nation against another, especially when one or the other claim to be Christian nations?
Why is it just lip service for Christendom to place citizenship in Heaven? Paul’s testimony to the Philippians (3:20) is definitive:
For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the Living God, the heavenly Jerusalem . . . (Heb. 12:23)
This citizenship begs the question: to which do we belong? Where is our allegiance?
We are thus compelled to revisit the sublime allegorical teaching of the apostle Paul to the Galatians, who were falling under the spell of the circumcision faction, and indeed were relinquishing their new freedom in Christ to re-enter slavery to “the rudimentary things of the world” (Gal. 4:3) once again.
For it is written that that Abraham had two sons, one from the maidservant and one from the freewoman. But, indeed, the one out of the maidservant has been born according to the flesh, and the one out of the freewoman through the promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants, one indeed from Mount Sinai, begetting to slavery, which is Hagar. Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the Jerusalem that is now, for she is in bondage with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, who is our mother. . . . But what says the scripture? Cast out the maidservant and her son. For by no means shall the son of the maidservant inherit with the son of the freewoman. Wherefore brothers, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the freewoman. (Gal. 4:22-26,30-31)
Upon this foundational truth is built the ekklesia, or congregation of God. We cannot serve two masters (Matt. 6:24), which allegorically speaking means we cannot serve both the flesh and the Spirit, for a divided allegiance amounts to harlotry, or spiritual adultery, and is a cause for casting one off.
Though the Jerusalem of the earth may be beautiful and full of desirable things, she is still a harlot, as God has spoken through His servants the prophets, many times.
And thus, all of the clever spiritual arguments of Christian Zionists and Messianic Jews will never be able to contradict the clear and present teaching of the Word of God. All of the cities of the earth are of a piece with Jerusalem, and all of the nations are under another covenant – A COVENANT OF BONDAGE – to the elementary things of this world.
When Americans pledge allegiance to the flag, even if they claim it to be a nation under God, what are they saying? They are swearing to YHWH, the true God, and yet swearing by Baal at the same moment – “those who bow down and swear by the LORD but also swear by Molech“ (Jer. 12:16). As they shed a tear for the rockets red glare, do they not swear by the gods of War who condemn their children to a fiery death? As they roll tanks down the capitol mall do they not declare that their kingdom is not of the heavenly city, but of the fleshly kingdom that owes its allegiance to the Adversary, not the Living God?
Who is the god of the nations until the Lord’s kingdom is established on earth as it is in Heaven? Do the nations display their allegiance to the Prince of Peace, or do they evidence their worship of the gods of materialism, greed, war and death?
Again, the Devil took Him to an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and said to Him, “All these things I will give to you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus says to him, “Go, Satan; for it has been written: The Lord your God shall you worship, and Him alone shall you serve.” (Matt. 4:8-10)
So there it is. Him alone shall we serve. Not God AND our nation, but YHWH alone.
And there is the crux of the harlotry of the Christian church in America – and around the world for that matter. They claim a Kingdom of Heaven but fight for the kingdoms of the world.
Psalm 46 reminds us that God is putting an end to wars to the ends of the earth. So why is Man still in rebellion and carrying on war? It is the nature of the old man, the beast. This will not bring in a kingdom that knows no end (Isa. 9, Zech. 9). That Kingdom is prepared for those who eagerly await Him (Phil. 3:20), for surely the witness is true: He will save those who eagerly await Him (Heb. 9:20).
And that eagerness is betrayed by any and all of us who labor to build our fiefdoms in this world, who worship the work of our hands and serve the kingdoms of this world (Rev. 9:20-21). That is divided loyalty which is hateful to the Lord. Spiritual adultery is just that divided loyalty and the antithesis of this eager anticipation of the Bride and her bridesmaids who await the coming of the Lord, a longing which is picked up by Peter (2 Pet. 3:11-13)
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
Does this mean we should live lawlessly and ignore the rules of the worldly government under which we live? God forbid. We can see the effects of lawlessness in many authoritarian dictatorships around the world, along with the efforts of such a power to rise within the United States as well. We cannot bear witness to the higher Kingdom of God if we do not live according to the Law of that higher Kingdom, and also attract possible faithful dwellers by our own behavior according to the laws of the land. To wit, Paul and Peter both make the case.
Let every soul be subject to the authorities being above him. For there is no authority except by God; but those existing are having been instituted by God. Therefore the one rebelling against the authority has resisted the ordinance of God, and those having resisted will bring judgment upon themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Now do you desire not to fear the authority? Do the good, and you will have praise from him. (Rom. 13:1-3)
Be in subjection to every human institution for the sake of the Lord, whether to the king as being supreme, or to governors as being sent by him for vengeance to evildoers and praise to well-doers, because the will of God is this: doing good, to put to silence the ignorance of foolish men, as free, and not having the freedom as a cover-up for evil, but as servants of God. (2Pet. 2:13-16)
By integrating these roles as citizen of the Heavenly city, and alien dweller in the world, disciples can demonstrate that there is truly One Sovereign, one ruler over all the kingdoms of the world, and Him alone we worship.
All of this boils down to the riddle of the two sons, the two kingdoms, the two cities, the two covenants, a riddle in which it turns out that the Jerusalem of the earth is another name for Babylon, even as Israel demonstrated her harlotry and was cast off, only to be reclaimed and redeemed at a later point in the Plan.
We cannot be people of divided allegiance, people of two minds, two hearts, or two spouses. And so it is written in scripture, that we cannot make allegiance to an earthly kingdom an impediment to our Love and fealty to God.
Esther had allegiance to her king, Ahasuerus, but in the end was willing to risk her life to save her people — and she was the Queen!
For God’s Church in America, the land of many idols, many gods, it is a difficult word — for there is a pernicious thought in the body politic, that America is “exceptional.” But in God’s Kingdom, there are no exceptions. All are subject to the same commandment: You must live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
And in this case, when Jesus says you must love your neighbor as yourself and thus fulfill the Law (cf. Gal. 5:14), America is not exempt, not allowed to love Christians of their own stripe, but to hate everyone else, and to even bomb Muslims, or keep brown children in cages. These are just a couple of examples showing the travesty against God and His children that are consequences of divided allegiance to two kingdoms, of being enslaved to the covenant of Sinai and the earthly Jerusalem which has no inheritance in the Light.
Christ has set us free for Freedom and in this we are free in deed. The tanks may be rolling in the streets, and the fighter jets flying in formation over head, but we are meant to be set free from this slavery to sin and to death.
Though all the kingdoms of the world be offered to the rulers “what profiteth a man if he gain the whole world and loseth his soul?” If those who claim allegiance to Christ conquer all the kingdoms of the world what does that mean when it is NOT their calling but God’s action which will accomplish that end? NO. Man is to worship God alone, and to forswear his own action to lay claim to God’s world which shall be brought into the Kingdom in its due time.
Grace and Peace in the name of the Prince of Peace, even Jesus Christ.