“The whole world has now become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever.” (Revelation 11:15) New Living Translation.
The Bible makes clear that this world’s kingdoms are to become one kingdom, under the sole rule of Jesus the Christ, or Messiah.
When Jesus stood in Pontius Pilate’s judgement hall, the Roman asked him, “Are you a king, then?” Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world…” Pilate represented the Roman Empire and Jesus represented the kingdom of God – the issue was Kingdom versus Empire. In the almost 2,000 years since that quiet exchange, God’s Kingdom versus Man’s Empire has always been the issue – but never as much as it is likely to be in the days that lie ahead of us.
For Empire read this world’s nations, and for Kingdom read the present heavenly rule of Christ through his church, and his future earthly rule over the nations, when he returns in power and glory. The kingdom that Jesus said to Pilate was “not now” – “not at this time” – seems likely to come sooner than most people think. Global political and religious developments now have gathered such momentum that a military attack on the nation of Israel appears inevitable.
The historical backdrop to the “problem” of present-day Israel is that the ancient kingdom of Israel was admired by kingdoms near and far. But the breaking away of ten of its twelve tribes after Solomon’s death reduced it to a tiny mountain kingdom. The break away northern kingdom was soon after conquered by invading Assyrians, who populated the land with pagan peoples they had conquered by the Assyrians.
Alliances with pagan kingdoms by the kings of Judah were repeatedly condemned by the prophets as desperate measures by monarchs who placed no trust in the Lord’s ability to defend the boundaries of the kingdom. Yet in Judah and in Jerusalem a small number remained faithful to the God of Abraham.
The Babylonians destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem six centuries before Christ and took most of the Jews into captivity. It was in Babylon that God gave Daniel the interpretation of a significant dream by King Nebuchadnezzar. The inspired interpretation gave Daniel great status in Babylon.
The dream took the form of a giant statue, with Babylon symbolized as its golden head, Medo-Persia its silver upper torso and arms, Greece its brass lower torso and thighs, and Rome its iron legs, and iron and clay mixed feet. This increasingly unstable (in weight, value, and strength) succession of empires would finally collapse when the statue’s clay feet were smashed by a stone “cut without human hands”. The stone (which represented the kingdom of the coming messiah) would then become a majestic mountain that would fill the earth entirely.
The king’s dramatic dream portrayed the fall of the successive empires of the ancient world, their image crushed to dust by the sudden arrival of the everlasting kingdom of God and Christ.
Later, in a night vision, Daniel was shown the cruel, destructive nature of these kingdoms. His prophetic view had as its focus the Holy Land and its people. Only those world empires that would affect the people of promise, and Jerusalem in particular, had prophetic relevance. Post-biblical empires would dwarf those of Daniel’s dream, but their relevance to the Holy Land would be limited to political and military decisions of the kind that eventually would restore the land to its original owners, the Jews.
Throughout the centuries that followed, the cruel Spanish empire plundered South America, the fierce Ottoman Empire subjected Arabia and the Middle East to its despotic rule, the proud English empire (about which it was said “the sun never sets”) would rule over huge areas of Africa, the sub-continent of India, numerous large colonies, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the far-flung islands of the South Pacific. In 20th century Europe, the ruthless communist empire imprisoned its satellite nations behind an Iron Curtain, and the brash empire of the United States of America swayed the economies and pervaded the cultures of nations around the globe.
In 1917 Ottoman forces surrendered the Holy City of Jerusalem to General Allenby’s victorious British army. In 1948 the nation of Israel was established. In 1967 Jerusalem was recaptured by its original owners, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Since then, Israel’s role in world politics has been disproportionate to its size. Now, as always, the friendship or animosity of nations towards Israel defines their attitude towards the God of the Jews, and determines their ultimate blessing or punishment by Him.
The final struggle between Kingdom and Empire will end only when “the kingdoms of this world” gather to destroy the nation of Israel. In the meantime, those who worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob pray that the “lost” sons and daughters of Abraham will come to place their trust in Jesus their Messiah. Jew and Gentile believers together now form “the Israel of God”, a people comprised of all who believe in Jesus — regardless of ethnic origin or religion.
To win the struggle, those who believe must rediscover the biblical identity of the one true God and of Jesus His Son. The successive kingdoms that comprised the statue in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream absorbed the customs of those they had conquered. It’s undeniable that the Roman Empire absorbed the philosophy of the Greek Empire, even renaming its many capricious gods with their own names (e.g. Zeus became Jupiter, and Hermes became Mercury). The restoration of Christ’s church will come after it restores the Apostles’ Doctrine to the Church.
Secular scholarly books on the life of the Roman Emperor Constantine throw doubt on his Christian experience — correctly, since he worshipped the Sun god. They view his adoption of Christianity as a pragmatic means of strengthening his empire. The final struggle may be difficult for some, since it will require a critical evaluation of creeds long set in stone, and of church traditions as untouchable today as were those held by the Pharisees in the time of Christ. There will be opposition.
But our need to study the first century church in the light of the New Testament will not require that we dress in Jewish garments, learn Jewish customs, spend time in a kibbutz, dance to the tune of “Hava Nagila”, or learn to speak Hebrew. (On the island of Borneo and in the Republic of the Philippines our use of the name “Jesus” in local dialects healed the sick with equal effect.)
The final struggle will end outside Jerusalem. The dénouement will see armies gathered under the aegis of a world empire. The struggle between Kingdom and Empire that began thousands of years ago will climax in Christ’s triumphant return and his following worldwide rule.
Just as the Assyrian flood swept toward Jerusalem, overwhelming all other cities and leaving the Holy City described by the prophet Isaiah as “up to its neck” in floodwater, so also will aggressive armies surround a helpless Jerusalem, long isolated by a hostile media and roundly condemned by world opinion.
The outcome of this soon-coming final struggle was long ago prophesied in the Bible. The issue always has been, is now, and always will be, the Kingdom of God versus the Empire of Man. It is imperative that we redouble our efforts to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom to the nations of the world — while we can.
The reign of Jesus Christ on earth will give us “all the time in the world” to make this world a better one – but that will be too late for those for whom time will have run out.