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![Text Box: THE KINGDOM-NOW THEOLOGY VERSUS THE SPIRITUAL KINGDOM OF GOD
Renette Vermeulen
By courtesy of Now Unbanned Publications
Humankind is indeed the custodians of planet earth, yet through man’s fall in Eden, Satan became the ‘god’ of this world. He is not the OWNER of this world, but he is indeed its ‘god’ and RULER, (2 Cor. 4:3-4; Jn. 14:30, 12:31; Eph. 2:2; 1 Jn. 5:19.)
As such, the devil made Jesus a preposterous proposal in Mt. 4:9, “ALL these kingdoms of the world and their glory I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.”
That’s why Jesus answered the Pharisees who asked whether it is lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not, “…Pay therefore to Caesar, [the kings who govern the physical kingdoms of this world,] the things that are Caesar’s; and pay to God, [the Most High Spiritual King, Judge, Owner, and Ruler of His entire universe,] the things that are due to God.”
The Caesars, (the rulers of the world, who rule under the control of the evil one,) and the Most High God, Who is Spirit, rule and reign in two completely different dimensions.
Generally, God does not ‘interfere’ with the affairs of Caesar, even when Caesar abuses his power to unbelievable extent – (just think of the many atrocious holocausts throughout history, which God allowed,) alternatively, God expects Caesar not to meddle in His.
During our New Testament era, the Spiritual Kingdom of God, being of a completely different Origin and Source, will not ‘conquer,’ ‘save,’ ‘convert,’ ‘restore,’ or ‘change’ the physical kingdoms of ‘Caesar.’ History had proven that God allows Caesars to rule their physical kingdoms the way they choose, while God focuses primarily on the salvation of SOULS - the citizens of His Spiritual Kingdom!
There will come a day when every Caesar will have to render an account of his affairs, and bow the knee to the Living God. Ultimately, the Just and Righteous Judge of the universe will bring order OUT OF all the chaos. According to the full context of Scripture, however, the Most High God will not take control of the world’s kingdoms UNTIL that day when Jesus returns on the clouds to bring order out of Satan’s present-day chaos here on earth.
John prophesied in Rev. 11:15, “The seventh angel then blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, shouting, The kingdoms of this world have now become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!”
Since the day of the fall, and especially during the New Testament dispensation of God’s SPIRITUAL Kingdom here on earth, Satan has been focusing humankind’s attention on political and religious structures to ‘save’ this fallen world by ‘changing’ everything that is bad into something ‘good,’ thereby ‘converting’ this sinful world into the ‘kingdom of god here on earth.’
These Kingdom-Now teachings are complete fallacies, however, for Peter prophesied in 2 Pet. 3:10-11, “The day of the Lord [His return] will come like a thief, and then the heavens will vanish (pass away) with a thunderous crash, and the [material] elements will be dissolved with
leaders, they become elevated religious ‘mediators’ – Catholic ‘priests,’ Lutheran or Calvinist ‘dominees,’ ‘ministers,’ and ‘reverends,’ whom the people pamper and revere, and through whom ‘god’ establishes his physical kingdom here on earth. This is exactly what the ‘infallible’ pope of Catholicism has been claiming for nearly two thousand years. Even leaders of other religions such as Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, etc., became ‘god-men’ in order to rule ‘god’s kingdom’ in the here on earth.
The writer of Hebrews wrote in chapter 1 v. 1, “God, Who at various times and in various ways spoke in times past [during the Old Testament dispensation,] to the people by the prophets, has in these last days [the New Testament dispensation,] spoken to us by His Son, Whom He has appointed Heir of all things…”
Sadly, modern scholars look at this dreadful distortion of God’s Word only in terms of the Pentecostal and charismatic movements with their ‘restored (Elijah)-prophets,’ [or ‘restored’ OT prophets,] and so-called NT ‘apostles,’ also known as the ‘five-fold ministry.’ These charismatic leaders also call themselves ‘the manifest sons of God.’ They actually believe, and even confess, that they are gods - through whom believers need to get ‘more and more’ of ‘the anointing’ to ‘overcome.’ [Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn, and all their peers preach that they are gods. See: ‘The blind and the dead,’ Texe Marrs; ‘Christianity in Crisis,’ Hank Hanegraaf, etc.]
The truth is that the Holy Spirit continually and habitually lives INSIDE every true believer, (Gal. 4:6.) He does not ‘come upon’ them time after time like in the OT dispensation! Sincere believers “overcome by the blood of the Lamb” – which is their blood-bought, NT POSITION in Jesus Christ, and through their obedience to the Moral Law of LOVE, (Gal. 3; Jn. 14:21-24,) not by their so-called ‘anointing!’
The true Gospel of Christ has nothing to do with the Pentecostal and charismatic technique of ‘visualization,’ their doctrine of ‘positive confession,’ (which are occult practices,) or their unbiblical ‘anointing’ through which they supposedly ‘create’ their own miracles!
These so-called ‘restored prophets and apostles,’ also known as Joel’s Army, believe they will save the whole wide world. That is every soul on planet earth! (Read Jesus words in Mt. 24!) They will even ‘conquer’ physical death through their ‘anointing’ and through their obedience to their twisted view of ‘kingdom principles.’ Most importantly, all of this will happen before the return of Christ! Thus they will become physical-immortal god-men here on earth, (they will become God in the flesh, the ‘manifest sons of God,’) submitting the whole world with all its science, military might, and wealth to the physical ‘kingdom of god.’
What is really scary, is that they plan to govern this kingdom by the Old Testament law, the ‘ten commandments.’ And so, the ‘anointing,’ administered through these ‘prophets,’ will solve all of the ills of this world, here, in this physical dimension, in the ‘kingdom of god here on earth.’
However, De Semlyen wrote in ‘All roads lead to Rome,’ “The church does not have a mandate in the Bible to set up [a physical] Kingdom for God, although Restorationists with their ‘apostles’ and ‘prophets,’ Reconstructionists, Latter-Rain… Word of Faith, Positive Confession, and Prosperity schools, all advocate the ‘Social Gospel,’ and all have the church restoring the Kingdom of Christ for His coming.”
In fact, these ‘prophets’ and ‘apostles’ are substitutes for Christ. They became ‘mediators’ between God and man, as they continually blend irreconcilable differences between the Old- and the NT dispensations, while they rob millions of sincere believers of a real relationship with God the Father through His Son: Jn. 4:21-23. E.g., In order to enter into their ‘prosperity,’ they demand the paying of OT tithes, (which were the Theocratic taxes of Old Israel,) to earn NT blessing. But Paul clearly stated in Gal. 3:10-14 that Christ ‘BECAME a curse for us, so that we can INHERIT ALL the blessings of Abraham,” or live in a position of complete blessedness in Christ as born again children of the Living God!
Genuine New Testament prophets are nothing like those of the Old Testament.
In 1 Cor. 12 & 14 Paul described prophecy as a “gift” of the Holy Spirit. This gift does not turn a NT ‘prophet’ into God’s OT instrument who guides, rules, and stands between the people and their God. That place belongs to the Man Jesus Christ. Where Paul named the so-called ‘five-fold ministry’ in Eph. 4:11-13, he was simply referring to the GIFTS of 1 Cor. 12-14, which the Holy Spirit administers through His God-called ‘elders,’ or servant-leaders. These NT ‘elders’ are humble servant-ministers of the body of Christ, (1 Tim. 3:1-10.) And Jesus Christ Himself, through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, is the personal Head, Mediator, Teacher, Deliverer, Guide, Counselor, and Comforter of every individual believer. This is the only Scriptural, (New Testament-dispensational) anointing that exists! - (1 Cor. 6:19.)
These ‘Elijah’s’ or ‘Joel’s army’ are doing exactly what the pope has done; what ‘Master’ John Calvin of Protestantism had done; what Martin Luther King, the ‘reverend’ Jesse Jackson and all their communist peers have done; what the Dutch Reformed Brotherhood ministers of the apartheid-regime have done.
In a MASSIVE distortion of God’s contextual Word, ALL of them preach a SOCIAL GOSPEL.
This is a ‘different gospel,’ which twists God the Father into a political patriarch; the spiritual Messiah Jesus into Communism’s Comrade Jesus the political fighter - and it either obliterates the gifts, work and power of the Holy Spirit, (as in traditional Catholicism and Protestantism,) or ‘turns’ the gifts of the Holy Spirit into lying signs and wonders, (as in modern Catholic- and Protestant, Pentecostal and charismatic movements, where believers are ‘slain’ [killed] in the spirit, grow gold teeth, laugh hysterically, bark and howl like dogs, etc.)
All of these movements attempt to turn God’s Spiritual Kingdom into a physical ‘kingdom of god here on earth’ - a concept aimed at conquering the entire world and submitting it to ‘god’s’ totalitarian rule on a political, as well as a religious level!
The humanist idea that man is a god can be traced to that day in the Garden of Eden when Satan assured the woman, “If you eat of the tree you will be like God…” In fact, Satan promised, ‘if you disobey God, you will be god!’ Gen. 3:3-5, “You shall surely NOT die. For… like God, [or being god yourself,] you will know the difference between good and evil and blessing and calamity.”
The deceiver was lying, of course! Man is a pathetic ‘god;’ exercising very little, if any discernment between good and evil, and blessing and calamity. Humankind inherited the evil nature of Satan when they ate of the forbidden fruit, thus their thoughts and actions, too, were completely corrupted: Rom. 3:9-31.
Everything fallen humankind touches is in danger of destruction: Gen. 6:5-6; Mt. 15:19.
Consequently, it was never God’s intention to supply fallen humankind with political- and religious structures to keep his demonic nature ‘in check.’
God had given fallen man the spiritual rebirth through faith in and acceptance of His Son and His atonement, thereby renewing the innermost ‘heart’ or spirit, and transforming the fallen mind of those who choose to truly accept and follow Him: Jn. 1:12-13; Rom. 12:1-2.
Religion and political power cannot bring fallen humankind to a living relationship with God the Father. (And anything can be a religion - the love of money, of self, of power, of people, of position, etc.; Buddhism; Satanism; Hinduism, Christianity…)
Only the Lord Jesus Christ can accomplish the spiritual rebirth, or spiritual renewal, and lead humankind to truly worship, know, and obey God, (Who is Spirit,) in spirit and in truth, (Jn. 4:21-24.) For this reason Jesus said in Jn. 3:3 & 5, “Unless a man is [spiritually] born again, he cannot see, [that is, know and be acquainted with, and experience] the [Spiritual] Kingdom of God… Unless a man is born of water [the Word of God, Who is Jesus Christ Himself,] and of Spirit, he cannot [ever] enter into the Kingdom of God.”
What is born of the Spirit, is spirit; what is born of the flesh, remains flesh.
Thus the ONLY commission Jesus gave His born-again believers is to proclaim His real Gospel, (His complete atonement for fallen humankind,) to a world dead in sin; to baptize His sincere believers or disciples, and to teach them everything HE had said – [Rom. 3:23-24; Jn. 1:12-13; Rom. 12;1-2; Mt. 28:19-20; Jam. 2:14-20; Eph. 4:28.]
This is the Truth of the Gospel; this is His Word; this is spirit and life – Jn. 6:63.
God NEVER commanded His believers to change the political structures of this physical world, to war in the ‘flesh,’ or to build Him a physical ‘kingdom’ here on earth!
On the contrary, Jesus declared in Jn. 18:36, “My Kingdom belongs NOT to this world. If My Kingdom were of this world, My followers would have been fighting to keep Me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, My Kingdom is not from here; [it has no such origin or source.]”
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![Text Box: Jn. 18:36, ‘Jesus answered, My Kingdom is NOT of this world, if My Kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews, but now My Kingdom is NOT from here. [It has no such origin or source.]’
1 Jn. 5:19, ‘We know that we, [the truly born again believers of the Lord Jesus Christ,] are of God, and the WHOLE WORLD lies under the sway, [is in the power or under the rule] of the wicked one.’
2 Cor. 4:3-4, ’If our Gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the GOD OF THIS WORLD has blinded, who do not believe, lest the Light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, Who is the image of God, should shine on them.’
Eph. 6:12, ‘We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the RULER of the darkness of this world, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places.’](image1653.gif)