On Trial: Zion vs. Zionism

Daniel 7: 9-10

"And the Ancient of Days was seated; His garment white as snow, And the hair of His head like pure wool. His throne a fiery flame, Its wheels a burning fire; A fiery stream issued And came forth from before Him. A thousand thousands ministered to Him; Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him.

The court was seated, And the books were opened."

The passage above comes from the middle of Daniel's most famous end-times vision; of four beasts rising up from the sea, (combined to match precisely with the beast from the sea in Revelation 13) and a "Little horn", or pompous, and boastful leader of an empire in the days leading up to judgment. It reinforces the reality that these final days are like an actual trial, for each and every soul on the planet. As I said in my last post, a lot of religious leaders are behaving in terribly unrighteous and unmerciful ways, while thinking of themselves as prosecution attorneys for the heavenly court, and not co-defendants.

Thousands of years ago, lots of warnings were planted for believers living in the last days. These warnings have rested protected and mostly dormant in Bibles around the world. Scriptures warn of false teachings, covetous temptations, the trappings of worldliness, and the spread of false gospels. Mainstream churches sometimes ignore these passages, sometimes use them to accuse other congregations nearby or abroad, and very rarely compare them to their own behavior. Because of that, the benefits and wisdom of these warnings isn't really clear. and a great majority of so-called Christians will be caught unawares and unprepared in the time of his return.

After a few intense years of studying the scriptures, and coming from a strictly evangelical childhood, I have come to believe that very few Christians even know the full gospel. What is being passed as the gospel for saving souls is not complete. It is a mass-produced, misinterpreted, cliffs-notes version of the real thing. This is a gospel that pays lip service, but ignores the responsibility of those who are called of God. It produces millions of spiritual babes, who are then left in a perpetual state of spiritual infancy through a lack of mature nourishment, or proper direction.

There are two sections of "The gospel" according to the New Testament: The Milk and the Meat.
Paul constantly taught about that difference, using that same analogy. Jesus also talked about it on occasion, but in parables and riddle sentences like; "If I tell you of earthly things and you do not believe me, how can you believe me when I tell you of the things of heaven?"

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The milk of the Gospel is this:

Jesus Christ is the son of God, who came into the earth to teach us how to live righteously, and who died on the cross as a payment for our sins. It is by him that all who love him (and obey him) will be saved from eternal death through faith in Him, and by the grace of God. There are none who haven't sinned, and all who are saved by the blood of Christ will have eternal life.

The meat of the Gospel is this:

God plans on establishing his kingdom on earth. This establishment happens first in the hearts of people, then spills out into the rest of the earth. At an appointed time, there will be a massive awakening of the Holy Spirit in the living body of Christ. All that is wrong, sour, and bad about the earth will be removed; bound up for a millennium as the earth is restored to a state very close to what Eden might have been like. This advance of the army of God will be swift and definitive. All who follow Christ and serve him will have a place in that kingdom, for a thousand years of peace (after a very dark, relatively short time of tribulation). Most importantly: all must be ready to prepare the way for Christ to return. Those that have lived in readiness, and died before the return will be resurrected in this "Last day"; those who are alive when the time comes for it to be established will be a living army of God, the "feet on the ground" who will be led step by step, sealed and set aside, to subdue God's enemies by nothing less than the Power of his Holy Spirit.

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It is very important to remember that Jesus himself preached the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. That was the subject of most of his parables, and in Luke the first thing Jesus preaches after his baptism is: "Repent (change your hearts and lives) for the Kingdom of God is near!"

The way the evangelical movement glosses over this meat is very clever. The term "Kingdom of God" has been replaced with "Kingdom of Heaven". The power of God's promises are all stored away in an ethereal heavenly realm, to be enjoyed after death (or after a pre-tribulation "rapture"). Under these circumstances, Christians can see themselves as mighty warriors of the faith, even if they don't know how to put on their armor properly, or even how to swing their swords in the present world. If our eternal destiny is simply hinged on the passive belief that Christ died for our sins, there's not a whole lot left for us to do. Many Christians are content in simply watching the world come apart around them, because they are waiting for their rescue. They see themselves as damsels in distress, and Christ in the clouds as their White knight. It is a completely helpless, passive, and lazy approach to the gospel. According to this doctrine, the world is to be merely endured, and not overcome. But God does not promise to raise up damsels in the last day: he promises warriors.

In the days of Christ and the early church, spirits of the adversary were already at work trying to corrupt and compromise the Gospel. The entire book of 2 Peter is a reminder of our responsibility, potential, and destiny in Christ (1/3rd of it is also a warning against false teachings). He wrote it because he knew he was close to death, and he knew that the enemy would try to disconnect God's people from the power of faith in His promises. Within a few hundred years of the death of Christ, this effort succeeded. The body of Christ, and the potency of the gospel of the Kingdom of God were buried and bound by the religion of Christianity. Cells within that body were born, lived fruitful lives, and have died to be reserved for the last day, but the body as a whole has been dead for two millennial days. Darkness has crept in to take back the dominion of light that was established by Jesus Christ. But this light is being restored even now. Eyes and ears are being opened.

We, who have been born just before the first early morning rays of the third millennium after the crucifixion of Jesus, are blessed because of the promise of resurrection. Cells of this body who are alive now will venture forth into all the world, swiftly, and sure of foot, carrying the message of God's kingdom to all the corners of the earth. God has been preparing his messengers for years, working with each of us at a pace that we can bear, faithfully attending to all of our hearts with His personal attention.

Time and time again the prophets speak of the "army of God", the "wise", the "remnant", but the most common scriptural reference to this group of people is "Zion". The Zion of the last days is a group of believers who overcome the trappings of Babylon, the seduction of Satan, and the corruption of their own flesh. It is Zion that will prepare the way for the coming of the Lord. It is Zion that will crawl into the windows of Babylon like thieves in the night. It is Zion that will conquer the full Promised Land of earth, as the army of Joshua did in Israel.

What's more, this true army of Zion will not use Scud missiles, or tank shells filled with white phosphorous (which can burn through flesh like it was hot butter, right to the bone in seconds) in it's process of overcoming. The weapon that Zion will use in this conquest is the truth of the promise of God's kingdom. And the enemies of this Zion will be burned by the Glory of the coming of the Lord. That distinction is very crucial. Zionism is another doctrine of racial supremacy (just like Nazism). Nothing more, nothing less. Innocent people are suffering under the creed of Zionism because it is being guided by a spirit of evil.

If Barack Obama safetly takes office on Tuesday, and George Bush finally leaves the White House, I plan on writing a book about the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, because it's a message that needs to be remembered. Over the last four years I have been engaged in a race against time to understand the nature of the last days, and the message of the scriptures. The full Gospel, and the promise of the Kingdom of God is that message.

I believe that anything could happen in the next four days, because it only took 3 days for the son of God to be arrested, tried, executed and resurrected. Plus, God's judgment will strike swiftly and suddenly, catching the world off-guard. But during these four years I have learned that the identity of the final Antichrist is not as important as the destiny and duty of the body of Christ. There have been antichrists since the first century AD, and there will continue to be antichrists until God decides to declare his great and terrible Day. Because of this, all who are a part of the body of Christ must always take up the cross of resisting the power that is behind these antichrists. The purpose of all cells of the body of Christ is to demonstrate to those around them what it means to live as though God were enthroned here on earth, ruling over us all, setting rules that we must follow as subjects of his kingdom. Thankfully, the rules are just, kind, and common sense.

We must believe that God is close in order to perceive that he truly is. We must live as though we were already in the kingdom of God, because as long as we have the light of Christ within us, we are. The rules and guidelines of this kingdom are saturating the scripture. It is our responsibility to take them seriously, and to act obediently. When we choose to do what is right, honest, merciful, loving and peaceful, we are advancing the light of Christ. We must be bold on behalf of truth, and not allow the corruption of fear, pride, or hatefulness to overcome us. We can only survive this battle if we are equally aware of the danger around us, and the power behind us. Our responsibility is to prepare ourselves spiritually for the time that the last trumpet sounds, and to demonstrate our readiness by living as strangers in this world, obeying the rules of the Kingdom of God even when no one else does. If anything disconnects us from love, we must resist it. And we must remind our children, our parents, our siblings and neighbors about the truly good news of the Kingdom of God.