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Building the Kingdom: The King, part 1

There are four main elements that constitute a kingdom: a king, citizens, laws, and territory. The Kingdom of God has been developing over a period of thousands of years. It existed in the beginning, at least in embryo form, but Adam’s sin created a lengthy detour, during which time men established many imperfect versions either in God’s name or in their own names.

Men have usurped God’s right to rule since sin first entered the world. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden, they failed to recognize God’s right to be obeyed. By usurping the right of the King, they made themselves gods, according to the word of the tempter, who created doubt in their minds, saying, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” In other words, God might be wrong, or He might have evil motives. He might be denying you good things. He might be keeping truth from you which you deserve to know.

In fact, this is the main tenet of modern witchcraft and satanism, which says that the Creator is evil for depriving mankind of knowledge, by which they might become gods in their own right.

The tempter convinced them that “You will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5). The path to deity was to disagree with God and set their own standard of good and evil. This path leads inevitably to the idea that good is evil and evil is good, because the tempter’s goal is to recreate the world in his own evil image.

To support this goal, the idea was put forth that God and the devil were equal in power and that there was an eternal struggle between light and darkness, where each would take turns dominating the world. Hence, darkness would reign for an age, and then light would reign for the next age. Hence, this doctrine of Dualism made the devil co-equal with God. This idea has taken many forms throughout history and is found in most religions. Traces of it are rooted in most Christian denominations today, and to truly establish the Kingdom of God, these beliefs must be uprooted by proper teaching of God’s sovereignty.

The Creator

It all begins in Genesis 1;1, “In the beginning, God alef-tav created the heavens and the earth.” The biblical text includes the two Hebrew letters, alef-tav, which are untranslatable to most people who do not understand why the first and last letter of the Hebrew alphabet are written into the inspired text. It is to set forth the idea that God is the beginning and the end.

This is set forth at the end of Scripture in Revelation 22:13, using the first and last Greek letters of the alphabet:

¹³ I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.

This is part of God’s nature, which was set forth in Genesis 1:1, though it was hidden from us by most translations. Nonetheless, Scripture itself explains the significance of this revelation. We read in Revelation 1:8,

⁸ “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

The significance of being “the Alpha” is that the Lord God “was.” The fact that He is “the Omega” is that the Lord God “is to come.” He is the boundary of all time and all created things. Therefore, He is also the God “who is” within the parameters of time. The implication is that He is “the Almighty” at all times, and that He has never lacked the foreknowledge of every detail of history from beginning to end.

Everyone else lacks some knowledge. The devil is not co-equal with God and does not know all things. God is the only Sovereign, and therefore, we who have faith in Him need not fear. So we are comforted in Revelation 1:17,

¹⁷ … And He placed His right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last.”

In other words, there is no need to fear, because God knows all things and is in control. We can put our trust in Him that in spite of evil in the earth, God knows how to work all things out for our good (Romans 8:28).

The Light

Having identified the Creator in Genesis 1:1 as the alef-tav, the beginning and the end, we see that this is first a statement of the sovereignty of God. The devil created nothing and therefore can only usurp (temporarily) that which belongs to God by right of creation. We do not live in a dualistic world, where God shares sovereignty with the devil. From the moment that God created light in Genesis 1:3, darkness has fled. John 1:5 says,

⁵ The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

The Greek word translated “comprehend” is katalambano, which means “to lay hold of, seize upon, to overtake, understand, comprehend.” Darkness cannot comprehend light; hence, it cannot control it. Those who walk in darkness cannot comprehend the light of truth; hence, they cannot resist it. They can only flee from it.

John tells us that Jesus is the Light that was spoken as the first Word (Logos) in Genesis 1:3. In John 1:9 we read of Christ,

⁹ There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.

In John 12:46 Jesus says,

²⁶ “I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness.”

The light overpowers all darkness. Both exist, but not in the sense of Dualism, where they are said to be co-equal and co-eternal. At the end of time, when God is “all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28), darkness too will cease to exist, because “God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5).

Creator’s Rights

One of the most basic and fundamental laws of God is that he who labors has the right to own and enjoy the fruit of his labor. The first chapter of Genesis, therefore, presents to us the God who labored six days to create all things. Therefore, He owns all things, and anyone who appropriates or uses God’s property without His authorization or contrary to His will is a usurper who violates God’s rights.

This is set forth in Genesis 1:1, where God is presented as the Creator of both the heavens and the earth. This is, in fact, the scope of His Kingdom. His Kingdom is not limited to heaven, as some have thought, nor is it limited to the earth, as some might think. John 1:3 says,

³ All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.

Paul says further in Romans 11:36,

³⁶ For from Him [or “out of Him”] and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.

All things came “out of Him,” which means that He did not create matter out of nothing (ex nihilo). He created all things out of Himself—out of God particles, if you please. The creation is not God, as Pantheists believe; creation came out of God and is intimately connected to Him. God has a stake in creation and its redemption is necessary for all God particles to return to Him in the end. That is the “restoration of all things” foretold in Acts 3:21.

God’s rights as the Creator thus go beyond mere labor rights. He literally put His very Being on the line, for if He were to lose any particle in creation, He would be forever incomplete. He then could never be “all in all,” as Paul envisioned.

The Limited Power of Sin

The Kingdom of God, then is assured success, for God cannot fail. Though it seems as if He has failed to keep the devil from usurping large portions of His God particles, this is only a temporary situation. God foreknew all things and planned accordingly. His plan will succeed, because failure is not an option. To fail is literally to sin, because the Hebrew word for sin is khawtaw, which means “to miss, to fail to reach one’s goal or target.”

So we read in Judges 20:16,

¹⁶ Out of all these people 700 choice men were left-handed; each one could sling a stone at a hair and not miss [khawtaw].

Again, Paul defines sin in Romans 3:23, saying,

²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Paul’s metaphor pictures an archer or one who slings stones, who falls short of his target. In this case the target, or goal, is the glory of God. He who falls short of this goal is a sinner, a failure.

But thanks be to God, He is not a failure, nor will He fall short of His original goal for creation. Creation was called to reflect His glory. Sin will not win in the end, for sin is not sovereign, and Christ is the Savior of the world (1 John 2:2). The effects of sin will be fully eradicated by the power of the blood of Jesus. Hence, we have a Kingdom that cannot be destroyed or shaken, for when God shakes the heavens and the earth, He will remove all that can be shaken (Hebrews 12:27).

The will of our sovereign God is therefore more powerful than the will of any man or devil. The blood of Jesus is more powerful than any sin ever committed. This is the power of our King. Our faith in Him is unshakable, because it is based on reality, not upon wishful thinking. Because He is all powerful, we are more than conquerors (Romans 8:37).