TWO KINGDOMS

Recently, Pastor Chris Ward of Yorba Linda Friends Church, began a sermon at Rock Harbor Church, Costa Mesa, with the following thought: We have been born into two kingdoms. Most are well aware of the establishment of the Kingdom of God or, synonymously, the Kingdom of the Heavens. Jesus talked about these continuously. It is no exaggeration to say that this Kingdom is the central theme of Jesus’ teaching, as stated by Cecil Maranville in his article, “What is the Kingdom of God?” Christians speak of “Kingdom work” as what we pursue in the service of God in this world.

However, other pastors and scholars, like Mike Erre, describe the Kingdom of God as the “now and not yet” kingdom. We are to pray that “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done…” ( Matthew 6:10) This is our prayer but not yet our full reality. Why? Because there is in existence in our world today, quite another kingdom – what Michael Canale, my friend and the co-author of this blog, calls the Kingdom of the Fallen Angel or Satan’s Kingdom. There is substantial Scriptural evidence for this.

The first Biblical reference is of Jesus, himself, speaking. In Matthew 12:26, where he talks about Satan and  refers to the Earth as “his kingdom.” Then, when in the wilderness Satan tempted Jesus, the following is stated:

“For the second test, he led him up and spread out all the KINGDOMS (emphasis added) of the Earth on display at once. Then the devil said, ‘They’re all yours in all their splendor to serve your pleasure. I’m in charge of them all and can turn them over to whomever I wish. Worship me and they’re yours, the whole works.” ( Luke 4:5-6) The Message.

The NIV says,

“The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the KINGDOMS (emphasis added) of the world. And he said to him, “I will give up all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me and I can give it to anyone I want. If you worship me, it will all be yours.” (Luke 4:5-7)

Satan’s temptation is, of course, resisted by Jesus. However, at no time does Jesus deny or in any way refute that Satan has such power as to these kingdoms and his possession of them. Truly, our world is enemy occupied.

It bears repeating, “This is the Kingdom of the Fallen Angel!” Fallen from what? – from Heaven when Satan and one-third of Heaven’s angels were thrown from Paradise because Satan sought to be equal with God. Interestingly, this was not a Heavenly coup attempt. He didn’t want dominance over God; he desired to be His equal, as Michael points out. Throughout history and very much today, this demon and his minions tempt mankind, God’s beloved. What more diabolical way to attempt to exact revenge against God for banishing him from Heaven than to go after His children – where all parents, including God, are most vulnerable.

Scripture is replete with examples of the human dilemma of falling prey to Satan’s temptation to fall in love with the charms of the devil’s Earthly Kingdom and its distractions and temporary treasures. These are the stock and trade of the enemy.

Michael reminds us of the Tower of Babel and these peoples’ temptation:

“Then they said, ‘Come, let’s build ourselves a city and a tower that reaches Heaven. Let’s make ourselves famous…” (Genesis 11:4) The Message.

Michael’s insight is that, like Lucifer, they were aspiring to equality with God, something that likewise triggered an expulsion of the sort experienced by Lucifer. Because they, too, were competing with God and trying to be famous alongside Him, God confused their language and scattered them throughout the world. Their different cultures, brought about the rise and fall of many Kings, rather than learning a lesson and acknowledging God as the one true King.

In this, Israel, God’s own Chosen People, was no exception. Despite God’s great faithfulness to them, there came a time when they, too, gave in to the temptation to have an Earthly King.  This is recorded, in part, in 1 Samuel 10:17-19:

“Samuel summoned the people of Israel to the LORD at Mizpah and said to them, ‘This is what the LORD, the God of Israel says: ‘I brought Israel up out of Egypt, and I delivered you from the powers of Egypt and all the KINGDOMS (emphasis added) that oppressed you. (No doubt, Kingdoms that were held under the sway of Satan and were satellite kingdoms of his). But you have now rejected your God, who saves you out of all your disasters and calamities. And you have said, ‘No, appoint a king over us.”

The Message translates these verses well when it states,

“And now you say, No! We want a King;  Give us a King!” (1 Samuel 10:18)

In 1 Samuel, Israel’s demand that God give them a King other than God, one like those of worldly nations, was granted. God preserved their free will and allowed them their horrific choice. He gave them a King – Saul, a disaster of monumental proportions!

Choosing Satan’s Earthly Kingdom over God, Himself, has much precedent in Scripture.

In 2 Kings 20, King Hezekiah, a good King up until this time, was visited by Isaiah with a message from God. The essence of the message was that God said, “Hezekiah, I know the future and all things. To sustain your highest good, it’s time for you to die.” Upon hearing this, Hezekiah begged God, with many tears shed, not to bring him home. What did he question? God’s timing. His response to God was basically, “You must be kidding! Really! I have this Earthly Kingdom and I am the King of it! I like this power; your timing couldn’t be worse!” So, God gave him 15 more years, during which Hezekiah fathered Manasseh who succeeded him as King and a worse King there never was. He was evil to the core. Also, as Isaiah warned Hezekiah, the Jews were dispatched to 70 years of Babylonian exile. In short, Hezekiah had questioned God’s timing because he was tempted to hold onto his Earthly Kingdom and its treasures and temporary power. The outcome was calamity.

King Solomon, who started out so well, in time, became tempted to marry many foreign wives, something God specifically warned him against. He formed an Earthly Kingdom, distracted by his wives’ foreign gods. The result was his penning of the Bible Book of Ecclesiastes, where he lamented about his life that the pursuit of material treasures and other gods was “Meaningless! Meaningless!” ( Ecclesiastes 1:2) In The Message, it’s “Smoke, nothing but smoke.” How telling of Satan’s Kingdom’s treasures- smoke and mirrors! All smoke and mirrors!

Michael points out that, in the New Testament, King Herod, upon hearing that Jesus had been born in Bethlehem, so feared the loss of his Earthly Kingdom and rule that he ordered the murder of all the male babies under two in this area. How firmly Satan had this King in his clutches; how despicable the outcome!

Sometimes the Kings of this world can be so mesmerizing that they are, themselves, a temptation by Satan, a cunning and clever king of his kingdom. This was true for Isaiah, one of God’s faithful prophets. Scripture tells us that he was so focused on a good and very charismatic King of this world, King Uzziah, that he was distracted away from God Himself. It was only when King Uzziah died that this changed:

“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of His robe filled the temple.”
(Isaiah 6:1)

When Satan can’t manage to get a person into obvious sin, he will be satisfied with a distraction, such as with Isaiah.

What, then, are we to do? How do we keep Earthly treasures at bay? Jesus talks about this in Matthew 6:19-21:

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth…But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

The Message says it this way:

“The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.”

Michael asks a truly probing question, one that mandates reflection:

“If Jesus came back today, would the world be willing to give up its worldly treasures and fully embrace his Kingdom?”

What would insure that we would? What would Jesus tell us to do in order to have his Heavenly treasures, the only ones that will matter one hundred years from now? The answer is set forth in Matthew 6:33:

“But seek FIRST his KINGDOM ( emphasis added) and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

It’s having our kingdom cake and eating it too, as well as eternity with him thrown in – It‘s the offer of a lifetime, bliss forevermore. Two kingdoms, one choice, one destiny. May God guard our hearts, our minds, our treasures!