Chapter10 Two Paths

Part 3 These two Kingdoms

There are two kingdoms upon this planet. They have been here since Cain and Seth walked upon the land of God’s creation. The ruling power of one is vested in a single ruling power or the collective and corporate voice of the people, who vow¹ to their ruling elite. The other Kingdom cries out in hope and faith, for men to seek the truth, love their neighbor as a brother, obey God, and follow His ways in liberty and charity.

In the first form of government, the people come together to give rulers the power God gave each man. They give or sell the responsibilities they were given by God for the benefits of men. Those rulers, tempted by power, seduce all with alluring schemes and promises of liberty, but end in appointments of agents to oppress every man his neighbor.

The spirit of its motivation is the judgment of good and evil, imposing its collective or individual will on others and exercising authority and judgment upon its weak or impotent members. As the people are remade in the image of their man-made gods, they move with a hedonistic spirit to satisfy their own hunger for prosperity at the expense of their neighbor and the peril of their own souls.

The other kingdom operates according to a fundamentally different paradigm. The people hold the responsibility that God has given them as precious. They see rights as duties, not privileges. They seek no ruler but God the Father, no justice or mercy but His. They seek no vengeance, but grant forgiveness. They are a people of peace, not oppression. The people come together because they love their neighbor as themselves and would not seek any benefit that is subsidized by taking from others. They do not desire to rule over their neighbor by vote or by any agency. They seek the will of the Father. They choose their ministers by consensus, not by majority rule. These people have begun a journey toward a kingdom of faith, hope, charity, and love. They are the Kingdom of Heaven at-hand.

To him who conquers, I will give a white stone, with a new name written on the stone which no one knows except him who receives it. Revelations 2:17

Returning to the Kingdom of God is like the prodigal son who did not come back to enjoy the pleasures of his Father’s house, but came back a sinner willing to be a servant, beckoning his father’s will and pleasure and not his own, because his heart had turned away from the wickedness that had tempted him before. He came back, not for the indulgence in comfort and pleasure, but in self-sacrifice and service to the father of justice, pleading the merciful righteousness of His dominion and government.

This was the call of John the Baptist. This was the washing of the pig from the mire. Do the Churches of today call men to Herod’s kingdom, to Rome, its affluence, its precepts and its decadence or to Jesus’ Kingdom of Heaven at-hand and its righteousness?

At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 18

When John and Jesus preach the kingdom of heaven is at hand and their appointed minister baptized the people, there were men of government who questioned their authority to do so, not the act itself. Jesus spoke of the Kingdom of Heaven in the present tense. He also used this phrase, “Kingdom of God”, interchangeably, speaking of it as if it was here now, at-hand, within our reach, and had been here for some time. He proclaimed He was going to take it away from those sitting in the seat of Moses and give it to others.

Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. Mt 21:43

The orthodox had sought the ways of Roman and Greek philosophers and they still do. The entrenched, confused, and ignorant Church has often delivered the people into bondage. John preached a kingdom of love and charity under the perfect law of liberty without force. A system of sharing and fellowship, not coercion and compelled compliance.

Liberty had been a major topic in the teachings of the early Church, as it was from the beginnings of the Bible. Liberty was a biblical issue in Babylon, Ur, and Egypt, to say nothing of the kings of Israel, Judea, and Rome. Jesus bought God’s liberty for us.