Skip to content

Add your phone number?

Optional. Nothing is sent unless you choose it.
The Historic Faith
Sign in

Jumpstarter 8 of 10

Ideas to help restart your discussion
The Kingdom that Turned the World Upside Down  /  Chapter 3, A Different Kind of Kingdom  /  Discussion Questions
All Questions
Question 8
Bercot highlights the conflict of living under “two different kingdoms” and stresses that God’s kingdom has no earthly capital or holy shrine; where do you see modern Christians recreating an earthly capital (a nation, a party, a movement, a celebrity leader, a building), and what tensions would arise if you treated yourself as interspersed “citizens” rather than culture-owners?
Another way to ask: Bercot says God’s kingdom has no earthly capital or holy building, and Christians live in two kingdoms at once. Where do Christians today treat a nation, party, movement, celebrity leader, or church building like the center of God’s kingdom, and what would change if you saw yourself as a citizen living among others instead of owning the culture?

Direct Answer The transcript suggests Christians easily drift toward treating some earthly place or structure as the “center” of God’s work, even though Jesus taught God’s kingdom has no earthly capital or shrine. If believers saw themselves as scattered citizens among all nations, they would feel sharper tension with worldly loyalties because they live under “two different kingdoms.”

Support from Transcript:

  • Bercot says citizens are “interspersed among all nations of the world,” not occupying a single territory.
  • This creates “continual conflict” because believers live under “a kingdom of the world and the kingdom of God.”
  • Jesus’ statement to the Samaritan woman: worship will be “neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem,” implying no geographic religious center.
  • “God’s kingdom would have no earthly capital or holy shrine.”
  • “Every human kingdom has an earthly capital, but God’s kingdom does not.”
  • The kingdom has “no national boundaries… no earthly king… no military forces,” undercutting culture-ownership.
Discussion Follow-ups What do Christians around you treat as untouchable because it feels like “God’s center”? What would change if your main identity was kingdom citizenship rather than defending a culture or institution?

Jumpstarter 8 of 10
Back Questions Next