In this episode, we're going to look at biblical patristic and early Anabaptist perspectives. Again, this series is in three parts. The first part is the kingdom worldview. We looked at the paradigm as changing. The second is we're looking at the biblical patristic and early Anabaptist perspectives.
And then the third one I'm going to be looking at is a warning from history, looking at particularly ways that the Anabaptists have got involved with politics when they've had some really good reasons to do it and how it would end up hurting them. And that's going to be the next episode. So in review, we've looked at terrible things that have been happening in this world, and we're acknowledging that we are living in very challenging times that we've seen all over our country. Just things absolutely falling apart.
We're now coming into a political system that's very divided and drawing for attention. And a lot of people are looking at this and saying, wow, the system's broken. And a lot of evangelicals and Catholics and Orthodox are beginning to say, wow, so maybe our ideas of the church involved with politics is not the best idea. Is there another system? And that's where people are beginning to look at the early church, looking at the Anabaptists, and that's what we're doing.
Looking at today, the thing that concerns me a lot is that right when people are starting to now look this way, this is the kind of stuff that's making the press. And I know you mean well. Many of you doing this kind of thing means well. But the very fact that you're cloistered is one thing that's difficult for the world to understand. But what they say is, well, at least you're representing some better thing that's our systems are messed up and you've got a better system.
But when you come and do this, I'm looking at a picture of an Amish buggy on a Trump rally. It's just there's so many things that just show us that we've got to look at the heart of where things went wrong and what's the original way to do things the right way, to do things the Jesus way. We looked at on the last session on this concept of the Kuyperian worldview, that the concept of, you know, trying to have the church change all of society and being a part of all of society.
But we saw that even with this Kuyperian worldview, there's this virus, there is this wrong, there's something wrong in this system of the systematic theology that must be changed. We looked at Richard Niebuhr and his views of trying to find this perfect balance of how Christians could get involved.
But now we're seeing, we also saw, oops, we also saw how evangelicals today, some conservative evangelicals, are feeling very torn and like, we've got to, we can't give our allegiance to this, we certainly can't give our allegiance to that. What's God saying? And that's what we'd like to look at in this episode. So kingdom, Anabaptists, early Christian worldview of the church in politics. Let me say what it's not. It's not intended to be a cloistered out group that has no influence in the world.
Jesus was very clear. Jesus was very clear when he said in John 17:15, " I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one." They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes, I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.
So we need to keep in mind that this concept is not intended to be out cloistered somewhere. We need to come and face our society and always have a prophetic voice in the society, but by Christian principles, by Christian kingdom principles that we should do this. So what was the early Christian kingdom view? The early Christian view was a genuine two kingdoms. They saw the worldview in a genuine two kingdoms, but that expects a genuine loyalty and allegiance to only one, to only one of those nations.
It is truly Jesus is Lord. Today you could say Jesus is king, or better yet, Jesus is president. It's not one kingdom, the church and the state with militant or even some kind of pseudo pacifist view. It's two kingdoms with genuine allegiance to just one. An analogy that often comes to my mind I think about for me is when I was in the army. So when I was in the army, we lived Tonya and I were both in the Army and we did most of our time in Germany and I was stationed in Germany.
While I was stationed in Germany, I was an American, I voted in American elections, I wore American clothes, I ate American food, I paid American taxes, and I might have known who the Burgermeister of Kaiserslautern was or something, but if I did, it was just by osmosis or something. It was clearly I was an American living in Germany.
And I think that analogy really helped me because that's the way we are to be here, be in the world, be a part of the society that we live here, but yet our kingdom, our nation is different. I love the passage in 2 Timothy 3:4, and it makes me think of my time in the army. You therefore, Timothy, to Timothy, Paul said, " You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." Hence, go off somewhere and hide, but you must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
But then he said this, " No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier." ' Cause so out of our, if I was been in the army over there and I would have said, you know, I'm gonna get involved. I'm gonna run for Burgermeister and my commander would have said, excuse me, no, you're not. That's the kind of allegiance that Jesus Christ wants from us. That's the kind of allegiance.
And that's the kind of thing that we see in the early Anabaptist view of the church. You know, now there's a lot of things the early Anabaptists stood for, and this coming into this Christendom that most Protestant churches take for granted now, the separation of church and state, the gathering around, you know, collecting of a church together around belief and faith and adult baptism. These things have become norm for most, for a lot of people.
But there was something more to that concept of the church that has not been dealt with by a lot of the Protestant churches and a lot of the systematic theology that still has this Christendom kind of tucked inside somewhere. The early Anabaptist confession, the Schleitheim confession in 1527, most likely penned by Michael Sattler, put it this way.
He said, " Finally, it is observed that it is not appropriate for a Christian to serve as a magistrate because of these points." And it's interesting, the early church said the same thing about the idea that you cannot serve as a magistrate. It goes on. The government magistracy is according to the flesh, but the Christians is according to the Spirit. For time's sake, the worldlings are armed with steel and iron, but the Christians are armed with the armor of God. I love that.
With truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, and the Word of God. You see how it's not intended to be hiding or anything. It's supposed to be warring, a warfare, but as the Church of God. And particularly about the sword, and I'm only bringing this in because of its politics, it says the sword is ordained of God outside the perfection of Christ. And this is going to be an important point with a clear concept of two kingdoms.
They didn't reject the authorities of this earth, and that is so important for an understanding of two kingdoms. I said, " The sword is ordained of God outside the perfection of Christ. It punishes and put to death the wicked and guards and protects the good. In the law, the sword was ordained for the punishment of the wicked and for their death, and the same sword is now ordained to be used by the worldly magistrates.
We're going to see that in both the early church and the early Anabaptists, they believe that God used governments to govern the world, but that we live by grace. We live by the grace of Jesus Christ and faith in Jesus Christ and the church. But God wants to make sure that there's not anarchy and He's given us. And I'm going to show you some very important passages and a paradigm shift as we heard about in the last session to help us to understand where that virus is in the Kuyperian view. Jesus and state.
So let's get into it. This is great. So Jesus made it very clear. Seek first the kingdom of God. And I tell you, so many people that I have spoken to that when they've just gone through the Scriptures and meditated on Jesus' call for the kingdom, it's sort of like you see a light bulb coming in, coming on. I've often called it the kingdom epiphany. It's like when someone gets that concept, the whole Bible starts to make more sense.
I mean, the people of God in the Old Testament going right into the prophets and you see how God wanted His people to glorify Him and His people to give blessings to the whole earth and this keeps going and it goes to the prophets and it comes to Jesus and it comes to the New Testament and you see the whole Bible coming alive and I've seen a lot of people that I've known that just focusing on Jesus' teachings and then reading that back into the Old Testament even, there's this like kingdom epiphany. It's awesome.
This concept is so central for Jesus. It's most the most common theological word used by Him. More than heaven, salvation, more than faith, the kingdom. And what did that mean to him? He said in the Lord's prayer, we know we pray this all the time, " Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth like it is in heaven." That's our prayer that what we do on earth is modeled after heaven.
He ends the Lord's prayer, but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. This theme of God's kingdom in this earth is the missing element in this Christendom concept. One of the most distinctive lines, I think if we can look at this, that Jesus and the state is the scene of Jesus before Pilate. You know, I don't think the line between the two kingdoms is so graphically demonstrated anywhere else than this spot, Jesus before Pilate.
And there's some really important stuff that's said there in this scene. In John 17: 33, it says this, " Then Peter entered the praetorium again, excuse me, then Pilate entered the praetorium again, called Jesus and said to him, " Are you the king of the Jews?" And it's interesting how Jesus answered all of these questions. Jesus answered him, " Are you speaking for yourself about this or did others tell you this concerning me?" He was like, " Did you get this from some sort of revelation?
Are you getting it, Pilate?" You know, and he's pushing that. But then Pilate pushes back and says, " Am I a Jew? Your own nation and chief priest have delivered you to me. What have you done?" And Jesus makes this very profound statement. " 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." Now, here's something very subtle you have to watch for right now, and that's the gnostic concept of spiritualizing spiritual truths, Christian truths. The tendency for us is to say, " Okay, so your kingdom is not of this world, so it doesn't really matter then." And that's what Pilate did. Pilate said, " Well, are you a king then?" I mean, Jesus said, " My kingdom is not of this world," and made this very proclaimed thing. So Pilate said, " Well, spirits will talk.
" Are you a king then?" And then very profoundly, I see Jesus just looking at Pilate right in the eyes and saying, " You say rightly that I am a king for this cause I was born." Wow, what a moment. So him spiritualizing, " Are you even a king then? " You said rightly that I am a king. " For this cause I was born. " And for this cause I have come into the world that I should bear witness to the truth." Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice. Are you hearing his voice? Are you listening to his voice?
I pray that we can hear his voice today. To accomplish this kingdom, Jesus inaugurated a kingdom that would live out His teachings, His cure for humanity, His plan for humanity in this world. One of my favorite teachers, John D. Martin, here's a great episode, a newest episode of Anabaptist Perspectives, interviewing John D. Martin. And John D. Martin's, I think, favorite quote is this concept of the church. And he puts it this way as you just concede the right way to view the church. So imagine the church.
Remember praying, " Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven," and all these things. And John D. Martin's quote is that the purpose of the church is to demonstrate to the whole world around us what the whole world would look like if it would only obey the king. See, on Judgment Day, those that are lost should be able to look and say, " Oh, that's what the church was talking about.
It's supposed to look like this." But when we take the lesser evil, when we give in to these politics of this world and don't take Jesus' cure to this world, we're losing this. So looking at backing it up and just making a quick jump through the Bible, we look at some of the ways that after the fall and after the things that happened in the fall, God wanted to use His kingdom to bless the whole world.
We see in Genesis 12:2, he said, " And I will make," this is God speaking to Abraham, " And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that curses thee. And in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." It's God's purpose to bring this nation, this kingdom blessing to the whole world.
Coming from Abraham, we go through 400 years or more, we're going finally to Egypt and we come to Moses, comes through the Red Sea and comes to Mount Sinai, and God is speaking to them and calling them to be this special people that will bless the whole earth and glorify Him. I love this passage. It's in Exodus 19. The scene is up there. Moses, God's speaking to them. This is what you should tell them. And Moses went up, this is Exodus 19:3, excuse me, Exodus 19:3.
" And Moses went up to God and the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, ' Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel, ' You have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to me above all people, for all the earth is mine. And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel. And this idea that special people, this called out people in numbers that talks about them being a singular people, different from the nations, glorifies God, and God has glorified that. So jumping through a lot, but coming up into the prophets, into the prophecies that are coming about Jesus, bringing this kingdom to us. In Isaiah chapter 6, it's so beautifully puts it there.
For unto us a child is born, excuse me, nine, verse six, Isaiah 9:6, " For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon His shoulder and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. We all know this is one of the most famous passages we hear during the Handel's Messiah. It goes on in verse 7, " Of the increase of His government, catch this, and peace, there will be no end.
Upon the throne of David and over his kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this." When Jesus comes and He inaugurates this world, the increase of that government in peace, there shall be no end.
And Isaiah, the beginning of that, it says, " Nevertheless, the gloom in Isaiah chapter nine verse one, even before that verse six that I gave, it says, " Nevertheless, the gloom will not be upon her who is distressed, and when at first he lightly esteemed the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterwards more heavily oppressed her by the way of the sea beyond the Jordan and Galilee of the Gentiles. The people who walk in darkness have seen a great light.
Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death upon them, a light has shine. And then we see Jesus. When He comes into the beginning, coming out of the wilderness after His temptation and coming into the beginning of His ministry.
Quotes from Isaiah, Matthew quotes from Isaiah saying, " This is fulfilled." And then verse 17, Matthew 4:17, from that time, Jesus began to preach and to say, " Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." That Jesus is born, Messiah, the wonderful counselor, Mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, and the increase of this government. And peace shall have no end. That was started in Jesus Christ.
And we should not trade that for any of the sweetest frames, any of the politics, any of the things that this world has to offer. Jesus has the cure for humanity. It's in the Sermon on the Mount and through His teaching and through the Word of God. This is what we should give to the nations, not their politics. This is what we get through the New Testament.
In Acts chapter 1 verse 3, after Jesus was ministering now for the time with the apostles, after filled with the Holy Spirit, after glorified body, in Acts 1:3, it says, " To whom also He showed Himself alive after His passion by many infallible proofs being seated, seen of them, 40 days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God." Speaking 40 days to them about the things of the kingdom of God.
In Acts, the end of Acts, the Apostle Paul, when he's in prison and house arrest, it's mentioning to him, mentioning of him in that verse in Acts chapter 28, verse 23.
" And when they had appointed him a day, they came many to him into his lodging, to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus both out of the law of Moses and out of the prophets from morning till evening." I would love to have been there to hear him expounding the kingdom of God, of Jesus all through the Old Testament. This is that view that you see the Old Testament as one continual story, the coming of the Messiah and His kingdom, glorifying God.
Jesus puts it that this is such a fundamental thing that it was created from the foundations of the world. They're giving us the glimpse of Judgment Day in Matthew 25:34.
Jesus says, " Then shall the king say unto them on his right hand, ' Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." So this mentality, this idea of this kingdom and the people of God, the Scriptures, the apostles wanted us to understand very clearly was not supposed to be of the world's system. Jesus is giving us His system, if you would, His ways. And to be mixing with the pagan politics and it's always been a mistake.
In 1 Peter 2:9, Peter repeating that Exodus 19 vision of Moses speaking to the people of God. Peter gives that to the New Testament through the Holy Spirit and says in 1 Peter 2:9, " But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation." Get that? You're a holy nation, a people belonging to God. Why? That you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
When we lose this beautiful kingdom of God and trade it for the world, we're losing this whole purpose, this whole purpose of this kingdom of God is to give glory to God. And that's just, you don't want to lose that. But it's supposed to be something that's active. Active, but not of this world. And so when you think of this Constantinian synthesis, when you think of this worldview of trying to say all of arts and this and the other, we should just Christianize all of that. Be careful with this.
Because there's a promise that you could miss. In 2 Corinthians 6:14, Paul's warning them, " Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers." If that's not clear enough to answer the politic question today, I don't know what is. But let's go on, " Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers for what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness, and what communion has light with darkness, and what accord has Christ with belial, something worthless? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever?
And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? If I can show you right beyond here is the State House. What Concord is there with that?" It goes on. For you are the temple of the living God. As God said, I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore, come out from among them and be separate, said the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean. And if you do this, and I will receive you.
I will be a father to you, and you shall be my sons and my daughters, saith the Lord, almighty." He's calling clearly for a separation. What does that look like in a Constantinian synthesis? He's calling for a separation of not mixing the world with the church. Now, it's not to be cloistered. It's a proper criticism to bring against Anabaptist or any kind of a kingdom view when we're out cloistering and not bringing Christ to the nations. It's fair, criticism.
He goes on in a few chapters later and gives us very clear that it's not to be passive. He says, " For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds. God wants us to be prophetic in every generation. He wants us to bring down these strongholds and these principalities and powers, but not involved with them.
And I tell you, when we think of what it means, what guilt we have upon ourselves when we begin to get into these politics? And I tell you, when I look through my life of the decisions that I've made, either in the Army, when I resisted going and being involved with the Persian Gulf War, all the way through the wars of my lifetime up into this last Persian Gulf crisis with the Syrian refugees, I am so blessed to have made that decision. There's one, listen to this.
We have heard that a half a million children have died. I mean, that's more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it? I think this is a very hard choice, but the price, we think the price is worth it. Price is worth it. You see, if I would have not have left and if I would have not have said, I'm not going to be part of this bombing of Iraq in the early 1990s. And there would have been a bit of a guilt of taking upon this kind of a thing.
I mean, I think it's a very hard choice, but the price, we think the price is worth it. I don't think so. One of the blessings that I've ever had, every time that I've had one of the biggest blessings in my life is a couple years ago when I was in Camp Moria on Lesbos Island, working with the Syrian refugees. And there was a particular couple refugees, a man and a woman, not married, who were coming from Iraq.
And they were telling of all the horrors and nightmares of things of coming from Iraq, and they were living in Syria, and now they've made it to Lesvos Island. And I was there in this little tent in the dark. It was at nighttime. And I began to talk to them. Unfortunately, Christian Aid Ministry had just published my book, " Change of Allegiance" into Arabic, and I had it with me. And I was able to show them that all that you're talking about there in Syria and those wars and those things, it's not our God.
It's not the way of Jesus. And when I was able to show him my testimony and things, he literally started crying in that refugee camp. And this was all through the translator. And I was just so blessed that to be able to tell him right in his face, Jesus has a better way. And when you watch the, you look into this and you start to see even the proxy war, the United States and Russia has fought back and forth over Syria and the Middle East and all that.
And it was a kingdom epiphany to not have to have the guilt on my hands of that politics. I encourage you in that. So then the question then is, so what is the place of human government? This is an extremely important question. And I'm afraid that a lot of pacifists, well-meaning, have messed this up.
The thing with the government is that an early Christian view of government and an Anabaptist view, an early Anabaptist view, a biblical view of government, is that we do believe that God has given us a human government to govern this earth, as I said earlier. In the Schleitheim confession, it goes on and it says this, " The sword is ordained of God outside of the perfection of Christ. It punishes and puts to death the wicked and guards and protects the good.
In the law, the sword was ordained for the punishment of the wicked and for their death. And the sword in the same sword is now ordained to be used by the worldly magistrates. This is a deep point. And you can't miss this. And I hope that some of this kind of pacifist understanding of this, I can dispel some of that so that you can get the beauty of the truth of what the early church and what the Scriptures is saying.
A lot of it comes out in Romans 13 and in the passage with the Matthew 22 of given to Caesar, what is Caesar, given to God, what is God? And these passages are very important for us not to just sort of confuse it and kind of hope for this kind of bizarre Christian principles added in in a little weird pacifist way or some weird socialist pacifist way into the government. That's a mistake. God calls for a radical separation from the politics of this world. Not in a retreatism, that criticism is fair.
Here in facing the people, but doing it by God's way in His kingdom. Romans 13 is very clear and let's not explain it away. Romans 13 says it good. Romans 13:1, " Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God." That's interesting, really important point. " For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.
Therefore, whosoever, whoever resists the authority, resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves." And then here's a really important point, and let's press this to the limit. For he, that is the emperor, the leader, for he is God's minister, Diaconos. He is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid. Why? For he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.
Now, Paul, just in the chapter before, instructed us to be not conformed to this world, but to be conformed to the ways of Christ and the renewing of our mind. He says to every way you can to bless those and feed our enemies and it will heap burning coals upon his head. So the question is, what do you do with the governments of this earth? And he's making it very clear God gave us those ministers.
Now, the sword that Paul was talking about, the sword given to him by God, did not change when the same sword cut the apostle Paul's head off. The authority given to him was given to him by God even when it cut Paul's head off. What? It's an important point to pay attention to. And let's go back to the scene between Jesus and Pilate to really get a clear understanding on it. In John chapter 19, it takes us to a detail that I don't want you to miss. Really important detail.
And John 19:10, " So Pilate said to him, " You will not speak to me?" So Jesus wasn't answering him and he was just being silent. " You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?" So, it's a very important point. I mean, Jesus is in front of Pilate. He's not talking to him. Pilate's saying, " Do you get it?
I have the authority to let you go or if you could just, you know, I have that authority." What's amazing is that Jesus didn't say, " Uh-uh." But it didn't say he didn't rebuke him. He acknowledged it, and it's incredibly important. Jesus answered him, " You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given to you from above." So Pilate was given the authority to kill Jesus by God, according to Jesus here. That doesn't make him blessed.
He goes on to say that the Jews had the worst sin, but still considers the sin, definitely. But the concept is that just because God has given authority to something doesn't mean he blesses it or even likes it. Watch me now, and let's go to see this even in the Old Testament. In Jeremiah chapter 25, when God wanted to bring judgment on his own people, on Judah, and to bring judgment to them, he was using Nebuchadnezzar.
There's lots of passages where he, two chapters from 25 or so, it mentions that he will give all the nations will bow to Nebuchadnezzar, bad paraphrase, but just making it clear that he has given the authority to Nebuchadnezzar. But here's the point. The question is, just because God blesses something in a system, there's like this governmental systems or something, it doesn't mean I mean just because God has given authority to those systems, it doesn't mean that He has blessed those systems.
Let's look at this passage and there's this one in Isaiah are really important. I'm trying to try to get through those layers of Christendom. So please pay attention. This is a lot of scriptures, but please pay attention because these next two verses, these next two sections, Jeremiah and Isaiah are very important for this. In Jeremiah 25:8, " Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, because you have not heard my words, behold, I will send and take all the families of the north," says the Lord.
And Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land. This word " my servant" is the Hebrew equivalent to that same word, the minister. God is calling Nebuchadnezzar his minister to execute wrath on his own people. So just because he assigned or give that authority, does that mean he's happy with Nebuchadnezzar? Does that mean he's blessed with them? No.
A couple verses later, he goes on to say in verse 12, " Then it will come to pass when 70 years are completed, that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity," says the Lord, " And I will make it a perpetual desolation." Wow. So God uses the human government. The human government does their thing that they're doing.
And then from that, after he uses them, he turns around and punishes them because he goes on another passage because of their pride and because he's done with them. The other passage that's really important, and there's a verse in here, it's the only time this really comes out so clearly in the whole Bible. It's really important to hear is in Isaiah chapter 10. Here now God is using the Assyrians to come against His people.
And he says it in Isaiah chapter 10 verse 5, " Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger and the staff in whose hand is my indignation." So he's calling the Assyrians his rod. " I will send him against an ungodly nation, and against the people of my wrath, I will give him charge. To seize the spoil and to take the prey and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. With the Assyrians, he's sending against his own people because of a judgment that he's bringing on them. But here's the really important passage.
So what's going through Nebuchadnezzar's mind? What's going through Pilate's mind? What's going through the Assyrians mind when they're being used of God? They're feeling, ah, I'm with God, I'm with God. Watch this next verse. It's really important. Yet, he does not mean so, nor does his heart think so. But it is in his heart to destroy and cut off not a few nations. Do you see the importance of this? That God uses these nations.
He may use America, he may use a king, he may use the king of England or whatever, and they don't know what's going on in their mind. In their mind, I'm just being a great emperor. I'm doing this great and powerful thing. But God is doing this. In his mind, he's thinking he's just conquering people, but God is using his passions to bring judgment on him. But even though he uses them like that, does he turn around and does that mean he's blessed with this activity? Does that mean he's happy with the Assyrians?
Again, no. A few verses later, " Therefore it shall come to pass when the Lord has performed all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, that he will say, ' I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the glory of his high looks because he said, ' This strength in my own hands have done this, and by my wisdom for I am prudent.' And he's done all these things and thinks he's very powerful. You know, I was a few months ago, I was following the president's activity about Iran and Turkey.
And as he was doing that, I came on this tweet and it reminded me of this passage from Nebuchadnezzar and this passage from the King of Assyria. And as soon as I heard, I just felt this sinking in my heart. I can't believe the president just said this. And it reminded me of Nebuchadnezzar.
President Trump said, " As I have stated strongly before and just to reiterate, if Turkey does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off-limits, I will totally destroy and obliterate the economy of Turkey. I've done it before. They must with Europe and others watch over da da da. When I heard that, I just got this sinking in my gut and went, " Wow, what could be happening? What could be happening to the president?
What could be happening?" This is an important concept because of co-pilot. This is an important concept because sometimes you start reading in history and you start to see this historical intervention of God. You know, like there's things here in Boston that you just think, I mean, it seems like God had to have done that. I mean, some of the revolutionary wars and some of the different things and you're like, surely God was involved with that.
And this allows this theology and particularly that Isaiah 10 passage to make us understand that God does use these nations according to the way he wants. Now, that doesn't make you a five-point Calvinist. Even the most Arminian Anabaptist still must recognize that God, even though He allows for personal choice, God is still controlling the nations according to His will. And he will say this far and no further. And we see that in many different things.
Like for instance, I grew up with these stories, like I'm gonna show you this quick video of these stories of God is my co-pilot, of how pilots were in World War II and they just miraculously got through. Here's one. Listen to this. You see God is every flyers co-pilot. It's an unforgettable story of unconquerable men and the spirit that rides with them into the rising sun. Men who know that God is their co-pilot.
So this is an important concept and I dwelled on it a little bit because of trying to understand the concept that God is working with the nations of this world to bring in that. So let's come into the next thing of where this came from and how to look at that sword and the law through the Old Testament. Now, I thought about actually break. If you would like to take a break, this would be a good place to make a break and to come back.
I have a few I have several more slides and with those slides, I'm going to be getting into some of these details of very important points about the basics of this kingdom concept of these two kingdoms. We're having to unravel and a lot of things that have been there over Christendom and through these things. So bear with me. I think these are very important points. So let's start looking into how God gives us this sword through history.
In Genesis chapter 4:15, " And the Lord said unto him, " Therefore, whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him." And this is the concept that when Cain was not living by the righteous way, we needed a law. We needed a fear of law to be able to keep order. And this is what it did. It gave this kind of an order.
So there was the people of God who live by grace and truth, and there's always been a people that God will govern in other ways. The two ways, so in Genesis 6:5, and God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And this is when God brought judgment through the flood. He also says in Genesis 6:8:9, " But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
Noah was a just man and perfect in his generation, and Noah walked with God." After the flood, the laws that God gave also of governing this earth. For man's sake, for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. Whosoever sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God made he man. And so the idea that this law, this resistance of evil, this bringing in of this natural law is something that God has put into our societies to govern this earth.
But he has desired, particularly the fulfillment of that with the new covenant, that we live by God defending us and God's government being different than this government. So let me give you some more that we have here. We have more to offer this earth. One of the analogies or the parables in the Bible that often get ignored is the argument is the one that comes here with Gideon and then judges. And in Gideon, you know he makes this incredible defeating of Baal worshippers and all these types of things.
And then people are like, this is the first time that I've found, I don't think there's any other before this, the first time that someone said, " Hey, why don't you be king?" The first time, and it's interesting to see the way he responded. In Judges 8:22, " Then the men of Israel, oops, then the men of Israel said unto Gideon, rule thou over us. Both thou and thy sons." He had a bunch of them. He had 70.
" And thy son's son also, for thou hath delivered us from the hand of Midian." And Gideon said to them, " I will not rule over you, neither shall my Son rule over you. The Lord shall rule over you." And I know we spiritualize this a lot and obviously we see in the Old Testament a working of a kingdom there of a Christian or not a Christian, a nation kingdom that particularly what starts happening here after with David. But this concept, again, we're not talking about non-resistance right now.
We're just talking about the concept of the nation in our ways and being the people of God or the people of a different nation. That he wants to be the king of this, of us. And mixing that with the world was very grievous to God. And interesting. So 70 brothers get killed and the half-brother is wanting to be king. And then Jotham gives this beautiful analogy. When Jotham learned that the people had crowned Abimelech as king, he climbed up to Mount Gerizim and told this story. And it's an interesting parable.
Judges 9:8, go look at this because it brings a lot of understanding of the way the people of God should be in this world. Judges 9:8. The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them. So you get the idea of the key. The trees went out and said, " Hey, we need a king." So they went out to first the olive tree and they went to the olive tree and said, " Hey, you be king." But the olive tree said, would I give up my fatness, my oils wherewith by me they honor God and man to be promoted over the trees?
No, I won't do that. I won't do that. So they said, no, I won't be your king. So he went up to the fig tree. They went to the fig tree, okay, you be our king. The fig tree said, would I give up my sweetness and my good fruit to be promoted over the trees? I won't be your king.
Okay, so they went to the vine and they went to the vine and said, " You be our king." The vine said, " When I give up my wine that cheered both God and man to be promoted over the trees, I won't do that either." So then they came to Briar Brush, some Bramble. And they said, " Okay, let's get this guy. Will you be our king?" He answered them differently. And he said, " If in truth, ye anoint me king over you, then come and put your trust in my shadow.
And if not, let fire come out of the bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon. So if you can come under me and be under me, I'll be your king, but if you lift yourself up, let the fire devour you. You see, in each case, the olives, the grapes, they had too much of a precious purpose. Too much of a great gift for this world than these politics of ruling. Do you see the analogy that they gave us there? God wants that place in us. So who will rule then?
If they're not going to do it, well then we'll say, well, if they're not going to do it, then only lousy people will do it. And if Christians aren't going to be in the government, then the worst people will be in the government. Exactly. But God is in control. And we have God giving us an understanding to know that. And Daniel 4:17, don't miss this verse. The prophet Daniel warning us today, he says this, Daniel 4:17, " This matter," think of all the mess we have right now and ponder this verse over it.
" This matter is by decree of the watchers," that's the angels, " and the demand by the word of the Holy Ones to the intent that the living may know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdoms of men, kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will and setteth up over it, the basest of men. That's the lowest. So I want you to understand, the angels are speaking to you that you need to understand that God rules, he's in control, but he puts over it the basest of men. Yes, the basest of men.
I got this meme the other day sent to me. If 2020 were a president election, it would look like this. So you don't need to worry. God's gonna get his man. And as we get in this, see, we get so wrapped up in the politics that we get all upset about this guy or upset about this guy. We can respect and pray for either one of these guys and understand that God's getting his man in the way that it's supposed to be. This is very important.
God made it, so finally when David, the time of King Saul, rather and the people of Israel, you know the story when they were asking for a king? God was grieved by it. And 1 Samuel tells us that he's speaking to Samuel, and he says, " And the Lord said to Samuel, they wanted a king. They're asking for a king." He said, " Heed the voice of the people, all that they say to you, that they want a king.
For they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me that I should not reign over them." I mean, isn't that a powerful passage? God considers it rejection of His people that they wanted a king. Now it's amazing how God works with our mess-ups. You know, he works with Saul, he works with David. He even works with Jeroboam. When Jeroboam was splitting up and saying, " Now, if you follow the right things, I'll bless you too." He works with our mess-ups.
But his purpose, that kingdom purpose that's through all this time is that he would be their king, that they lose something by getting involved and having a king. So the earthly government. And Hosea, he gives us a prophecy that's very important for us to understand that this given us of a king, this given this human government is a rebuke. He gives it to us, but he gives it to us as a rebuke.
Here's this Hosea prophet in Hosea verse chapter 13, verse 9, " O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself." You could look at this. Oh, America, you've destroyed yours. Oh Christian America, you've destroyed yourself. But in me is thine help. I will be thy king. Where is any other that may save thee in all your cities? And thy judges of whom thou saith, give me a king and princes. I gave thee a king in my anger and took him away in my wrath and let him die. Do you get that? It's an important point.
We have human governments. He gives it to us. He rules this world. He will have order. He will protect the people of God. He'll say this far and no further. But it's a rebuke. Peter Riedemann, the early Hutterite leader in the early 1500s, early Anabaptist leader, saw this principle, one of the best in the Reformation. And he said, " Since people did not want to let themselves be led by the Spirit of the Lord, God had to use a different rod to protect them from harm.
This was done so that the land would not be completely polluted with blood-guilty people, and so that he would not have to destroy the whole world on their account. The world could thus be preserved until the time of the promised offspring, in whom all things would be made. There in Isaiah chapter 9, it speaks about all the uniforms of men are just guilty and bloody and put in fuel for fire, for unto us a child is born. The promised Messiah has come. He's given us this rebuke. That's the sword.
The government, he says, is a picture for us, a sign and reminder of people's estrangement from God. You get that? It ought to encourage all people to reflect upon their predicament and to hurry back to God in order to be restored to the grace they have lost. There are few, however, who think this way. There sure are.
That human governments, with all of its codes and laws, and things, and sword, and that God has given them to govern this wicked earth, should remind us and want us to run back to God, to be ran and to be living in a kingdom of peace, a kingdom of grace and love. That's what he's wanting. He said, " Most people remain in their sins. Above all, the government, as long as it exists, continues to be a sign that God's wrath towards sinner has not yet come to an end.
Now let me ask you Hutterite colonies that are out there. Are you going to vote? Let me ask you the Amish groups and the different Swiss brethren of this early Anabaptist leader. Do you get few do not think this way? The whole concept is a deeper way where we're losing so much by selling out to these other politics. Again, it's not idle, not passive.
Peter Riedemann himself went on to say, " Since wars and the extermination of nations are more contrary to the Office of Government than agreement with it, God allows them nothing for such purposes and we can give nothing for them. We do wish, however, to serve humanity and its welfare and improvement in every possible way and do this as well as we can.
But regarding what is against God, against the conscience, and against our calling, we want to obey God rather than humans." The rightful criticism against the Anabaptist worldview of politics is missing this point of cloistering ourselves out into places. If you would see, I've been to ancient Hutterite communities in Moravia and in Czech Republic. They're right on the edges of a city. They were engaging with the people but very clear of their allegiance.
It seems like as soon as Anabaptist starts now getting involved with politics, I mean involved with this world, now they're picking up the politics of this world instead of Jesus. All right, the last few passages and that's it. The last few quotes, I'll take you to the early church and just a few of them. There's so many of them. But let this point be very sobering to you. Do you realize that when you read through the entire first 300 years of the church?
I don't know if you can see that, but here these books here are the Ante-Nicene, the ten volumes of the Ante-Nicene Volumes Church and they go through and they talk about all the letters and the things back between everything written before Constantine. And in all those letters, in all those ten volumes, everything written before the Constantine, before 325, they simply believed that Jesus meant every word he said. They saw a church that's meant to be put that's meant to put Jesus' words into practice.
And that that kingdom would be real and it influenced the earth and it was so powerful. It was conquering the known world with the power of Jesus Christ instead of the power of the sword. At Constantine, we lost that. Let's look at just four slides from the early church that would just give you a spirit of politics. Again, I'm not harping on non-resistance. I'm just right now looking only at politics and the involvement of the early Christians of politics. Celsus, excuse me, Tertullian commenting says this.
He says, " So long as you deem yourself a Christian." I love this quote. " So long as you deem yourself a Christian, you are a different man from a pagan. Give him back his own views of things. After all, he himself does not learn from your views. Why lean upon a blind guide? When you have eyes of your own, why be clothed by one who was naked if you have put on Christ? Wow. Why should we learn from them? Why should we learn from the politics of this world and their ideas? We've got a better plan.
The other quote, another one writing about this Celsus was a critic against the church and wrote a book against the church and challenged us. He says, " You're not getting involved in politics, so you're not doing what you're supposed to do to help our nation." And Origen gives a wonderful reply to that.
He says, " Celsus also argues us to, quote, take office in the government of the country if that is necessary for the maintenance of the laws and the support of the religion." So the critics in the early church were saying you need to get involved with the government so you can have maintenance of the laws and the support of the religion and that kind of a thing. And it's interesting because that sounds an awful lot like Niebuhr. But Origen answers this.
He says, " However we recognize, the early church, we recognize in each state the existence of another national organization that was founded by the Word of God. And we exhort those who are mighty in word and of blameless life to rule over churches. It is not for the purpose of escaping public duties that Christians decline public offices. Rather, it is so they may reserve themselves for a more divine and necessary service in the Church of God for the salvation of men.
This is that argument of the trees going out to the olive and to the fruit. We have something better. We don't get involved with these politics. And finally, this great quote from Tertullian and I gave the footboard of Wesley's The World of My Parish. Excuse me, it's excellent.
Tertullian gives this conclusion, this is my final quote, " All zeal in the pursuit of glory and honor is dead in us." So think about getting involved with the battles and the plans and the wars and the pomp and the circumstance of the government. He says, " All zeal in the pursuit of glory and honor is dead in us." So we have no pressing inducement to take part in your public meetings, nor is there anything more entirely foreign to us than the affairs of state.
We acknowledge one all embracing, all embracing commonwealth, the world. We acknowledge one all-embracing commonwealth, the world. Yes, as Wesley said, the world is my parish. This is such an important concept. And as we look at the ways of Jesus Christ and what He has, I really believe that He has the answers for humanity. He has the answers for this world.
And if we can allow ourselves to embrace that as churches again, rejecting the world's politics, rejecting this mixing of this Constantinian synthesis and the creating of this paradigm. I believe the brother is right, Carter, that said there's a new paradigm.
And the beautiful thing is that I'm seeing more and more people catching this kingdom epiphany, reading through the scriptures and seeing it in the light through the eyes of Jesus Christ and allowing the church to be the church and influence the world once again. So please stay tuned with us tomorrow where I will give the final session and we're going to be giving the examples, the sad examples of when the Anabaptist people have failed to keep this calling and to follow the politics of this world.
To give you a little preview, this is a Mennonite congregation, an altar here, table in Paraguay. And over the altar is a picture of Adolf Hitler. So we're going to be talking about some of these scenes tomorrow, and please hear this. And so I'm giving this not to attack at all, but as a warning, because I feel that we're getting close to this again.