|
About Jesus Steve Sweetman The Politics of God And The Bible Part 9 The
Politics Of Jesus I've
just made a distinction between Yahweh's ecclesia and Jesus' ecclesia.
Jesus' ecclesia differs from Yahweh's ecclesia on many fronts.
For example, the Law of Moses was given to The
Law of Moses told Israel, "don't kill". Jesus
tells Christians, "don't get angry without good cause".
The Law of Moses told In
Deuteronomy 13 God told Christians
are to live as Jesus lived while He was on earth.
We don't kill the false prophet or those who worship other gods.
We proclaim God's grace as seen in the forgiveness of sins once
the sinner repents and hands His life over to Jesus.
As Jesus stated in His inaugural address, we proclaim "the
day of God's favour". Yahweh
told The
Jews handed Jesus over to Pilate. We
know how Jesus felt about Roman officials. In
Matthew 20:25 and 26 Jesus said that Gentile rulers "lord it
over" their subject, but that was not to be the case in the Kingdom
of
When
Jesus stood before Pilate He rebuked Pilate for thinking he had
authority over Him. In John
19:11 Jesus told Pilate that he had no authority other than what His
Father authorized. Was Jesus
thinking specifically of Pilate when He said this, or was He thinking of
political leaders in general? Jesus
was talking specifically to Pilate, so good hermeneutics tells us that
Jesus only had Pilate in mind when He spoke these words.
That being said, I believe there's sufficient Biblical evidence
to say that what Jesus told Pilate also applies to other political
leaders, including the one you voted for.
Jesus
also told Pilate that His kingdom was not of this world. If it were, His
servants would fight to prevent His arrest. (John 18:36) Christians
don't belong to the nations in which they live.
We're citizens of the heavenly kingdom. For
this reason we are passivists when it comes to the advancement of the Kingdom
of I
must comment on Matthew 11:12. The
KJV reads, "from the days of John the Baptist until now, the
kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by
force". The NIV reads,
"from the days of John the Baptist to now, the kingdom of heaven
has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it".
If you read these two versions carefully, I think you will agree
with me that they say different
things. To
me the KJV suggests that violent men use force against the Kingdom
of The
NIV seems to suggest the opposite when it says "the kingdom of
heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of
it". Christians are the
ones who are violent in the NIV, not the persecutors of Christians.
Again, this is how the Roman soldiers would have understood this
passage when they spread terror in the name of Christ throughout the
middle east in the crusades of the 11th and 12th
centuries. I've
heard this passage misused countless times over the years.
People see the words "violence" and
"forceful" and believe the gospel of Jesus must advance with
military like force and fervor. Some
people have been physically violent while others have been violent in
their attitude. Whatever the
case, I believe such violent actions and thoughts go against everything
Jesus taught and the way He lived while He was on earth.
We are not to be militant extremists, either in deed or in
attitude. We are to be
humble servants, speaking the truth in love, even if it kills us, as it
killed Jesus and countless others throughout the centuries.
In
Matthew 11:12 Jesus was saying that the
We certainly need to be single-minded and dedicated in the advancement of the Kingdome of God, as some understand Matthew 11:12 to mean. That being said, being militant and violent is nowhere to be found in the politics of Jesus and the Bible.
|