The Evasive 'Gospel of The Kingdom'
In the strangest turn of events, I find that the hardest people to discuss The Kingdom of God with are Christians. The reason is simple. For the average Christian, the ‘church’ service and ‘church’ life is often the centre from which all else finds expression. So if one doesn’t talk about God in the context of attending a service, doing some religious activity or belonging to a religious organisation or denomination, the average Christian can’t understand it. However, when you bring up the portion where Jesus says “THIS gospel of THE KINGDOM shall be preached as a witness to all nations – and then shall the end come” (Matt 24:14), certain things become clear:
1. Someone dying is not good news, for starters – and ‘gospel’ can be loosely translated to mean ‘good news’
2. That said, the goodnews/gospel could not be about Christ dying because, er, He had NOT died.
3. Jesus was talking about the goodnews/gospel and people coming into The Kingdom when there were NO Church services… Remember, this was way before the book of Acts (and the gatherings in homes described by Acts are nothing like our ‘services’ – but that’s topic for another day)
So if you can, for a moment, forget about your church, forget about your services, forget about your speakers you randomly call ‘ pastors’, forget about what you do every Sunday morning. Forget about all you know about how to worship this GOD that none of us have seen with our eyes, and if you can, please follow me now as we go on a journey to attempt to unravel this elusive and evasive concept of The Kingdom of God – and from which certain interesting concepts will begin to ‘fall out’ such as:
1. The Kingdom
2. The Fall
3. The Divine Romance
4. The Divine conflicts
5. Houses of peace
6. Spheres of Influence
7. Finding our end in the beginning
First of all, since I am writing in English language, we will simply stick to the rules of language as we go along. Forget the spiritual interpretations of the things you have heard and you will start to find that many things are not as complex as we make them sound if we receive The Kingdom like a little Child.
I say this because I asked someone WHAT the Kingdom of God is, and the person said ‘Righteousness, peace and joy’ in the Holy Ghost’. This may make sense till you realise it is like me asking someone what an Island is and someone person replying with, ‘An Island is harmony, tranquility and the power of God’.
Er, you may find harmony and God on an Island, but that does not DESCRIBE the Island, except this words are used to describe it within the CONTEXT of a particular story and then I can say, after shedding some light on my experience at Islands, ‘Islands, for me, are peace and harmony’.
Without this context, an Island is simply a piece of land surrounded by water – just like a Kingdom, in simple English, refers to a DOMAIN.
Like I said earlier, I will attempt to write like I am speaking to a little child, these amazingly cute creatures that spurt out of our loins, easily buy into The Kingdom, and who will live forever to extend the boundaries of purpose… *Sigh*
What is The Kingdom of Heaven?
It is UP…
Yes, the sky. Actually, it is above the Sky. Remember you are a child now so I will speak simply.
Once upon the period before Time began, there was The Creator, the Source, the Power, the Light, the ALL in all, and The Constant that started out everything and had no beginning.
How could God have no beginning? Very simply, before the Universe, there was no time as there was only stasis – but Time itself began to count or was recognised when the Universe as we know it came to be. And it is for this simple reason that it makes sense that God refers to himself as the ‘I AM’ or if it was to a scientific community, He might have said, ‘I am Constant K’ – no beginning, no end, just in existence. All that have a beginning came after the creation, and when people say if God created everything, he must have had a beginning, they simply miss the simple fact that when something exists OUT of time, it has no beginning.
It simply IS – and if you asked that being what state the being exists within, the being would simply reply ‘I AM’.
So God WAS (and IS and Would Be) in the beginning…and again this is something hard to grasp because we PERCEIVE Time as linear, but perception is not reality – but that is not the subject of this article. God WAS and occupied, and after Time came into BEING, we read that God created beings – and what an artiste he was! He made some tall and some short, and some had wings and some had no wings, and some had two wings and some have six wings and some have two eyes, and some have their bodies covered in eyes, and some have one face and some have several faces – but he didn’t just stop there.
He made some things that we now call trees, with leaves of various colours and textures and hues, and many of them line the embankment of a beautiful river that flows out from where God sits… And I know this sounds a bit strange to you because this place that people often refer to as Heaven is hardly talked about anymore. We think Ferraris are the ultimate and think God is about giving us another bungalow on our dying planet – and I guess that is why you find it hard to think about how beautifully the Thunders on the other side sing or imagine the colours of the living rainbows that line the throne rooms, or the beings we call angels who are sometimes child-like or who are muscular, some skilled at fighting, others skilled at music, but every now and then, they all close their eyes in ecstasy as they breathe in the living air from The One who started everything that we call LIFE while enjoying, thoroughly, being around one another – each one totally accepting of the other.
If you ever walk in that place, you suddenly realise there is no vacuum, because the air around you, right now, is covered with chemicals and bacteria and atoms and ions, but unlike that place, you are unaware because they do not sizzle with the buzz of life, like you would experience in that place where everything is alive and rich and bubbly and realer than real, clearer than the bet HD picture you will ever see, always beautiful for a simple reason.
There was no death – like this place you and I currently live in. We are currently alive in a coffin and the writhing of maggots and the stench of death is what we now call ‘normal’.
But let me go on.
Now if you know anything about life, you will realise that the very nature of life is GROWTH…expansion. Cancer cells multiply, like sperm cells latch onto eggs and form zygotes, with cells multiplying rapidly till you hold a baby in your arms that is made of billions of cells that started out from just two – and in the same way, seed falls to the ground and brings out fruits that result in trees, that result in forests that house a myriad of birds and ‘lower’ unicellular life forms and insects that breed and spawn new offsprings by meeting their mates or just budding a new entity from themselves like the Hydra. Bottom line is LIFE constantly seeks to expands, whether it is ‘good’ or ‘bad’ – and the idea was that that the Kingdom, that some would call The Kingdom of Heaven where God lived with his initial array of beings and subjects was to expand beyond its current boundaries.
Now, just as businesses can expand the geographical markets they operate within, businesses can also provide new products in the geographical markets they operate in – and this was the idea you find behind expansion to Eret: A new set of species were to be added to The Kingdom and they were to operate within a geographical location, breathing the same air, enjoying the same life of The Kingdom of Heaven. This new location would be an extension of The Kingdom of Heaven and all together, the Kingdom of Heaven and Earth would be under one Ruler – God… It would be his Kingdom.
The Kingdom of God.
And I guess that slipped out; Eret (or Earth) was the chosen location for Life to extend to, that would house new species, new life forms, but beyond the replication of the ambiance of the First Heaven, there would be a strange creature on Earth. These creatures would be made from the same chemical components of the environment they were to live in, have a great amount of smartness, never-ending curiosity and intelligence, would not have wings, but would control so much and in their wisdom, would come to provide guidance to much-senior angels for one reason: They would be wired with the very essence of the ‘I AM’ himself – unlike any other creature that had been in existence before these creatures. These creatures would be ‘gods’, like their Father, The Most High – though subject to Him like everything and everyone else.
No other being that had been created would be LIKE the Most High…
It has been said that the creation of these beings caused the first rifts in The Kingdom of Heaven, because a certain son of God wanted to be like the Most High. The Bible calls Angels sons of God sometimes and Lucifer falls into this category. The Koran calls this son Iblis and tells a story of how he got irritated and would not bow to man. However, everyone knows how the story plays out: There is a rift in Heaven, Satan challenges God and is chucked out of The Kingdom of Heaven.
But you see, while we know the resulting story of Satan tempting Eve and of that blasted ‘apple’ (the Bible never says it was an apple), there is a bigger issue here based on a simple premise:
Life, by its very nature seeks to expand, whether that life is good or bad. In very simple terms and bringing the story home, Lucifer, the former son of God, had begun to walk and seek evil, but like every other being, He was created by God, and lives by the Life God had given him and what I said before, I will say again to drive home the point: Life, whether good or bad, by its very nature, seeks to expand
And Lucifer had life…
TO BE CONTINUED...
2. That said, the goodnews/gospel could not be about Christ dying because, er, He had NOT died.
3. Jesus was talking about the goodnews/gospel and people coming into The Kingdom when there were NO Church services… Remember, this was way before the book of Acts (and the gatherings in homes described by Acts are nothing like our ‘services’ – but that’s topic for another day)
So if you can, for a moment, forget about your church, forget about your services, forget about your speakers you randomly call ‘ pastors’, forget about what you do every Sunday morning. Forget about all you know about how to worship this GOD that none of us have seen with our eyes, and if you can, please follow me now as we go on a journey to attempt to unravel this elusive and evasive concept of The Kingdom of God – and from which certain interesting concepts will begin to ‘fall out’ such as:
1. The Kingdom
2. The Fall
3. The Divine Romance
4. The Divine conflicts
5. Houses of peace
6. Spheres of Influence
7. Finding our end in the beginning
First of all, since I am writing in English language, we will simply stick to the rules of language as we go along. Forget the spiritual interpretations of the things you have heard and you will start to find that many things are not as complex as we make them sound if we receive The Kingdom like a little Child.
I say this because I asked someone WHAT the Kingdom of God is, and the person said ‘Righteousness, peace and joy’ in the Holy Ghost’. This may make sense till you realise it is like me asking someone what an Island is and someone person replying with, ‘An Island is harmony, tranquility and the power of God’.
Er, you may find harmony and God on an Island, but that does not DESCRIBE the Island, except this words are used to describe it within the CONTEXT of a particular story and then I can say, after shedding some light on my experience at Islands, ‘Islands, for me, are peace and harmony’.
Without this context, an Island is simply a piece of land surrounded by water – just like a Kingdom, in simple English, refers to a DOMAIN.
Like I said earlier, I will attempt to write like I am speaking to a little child, these amazingly cute creatures that spurt out of our loins, easily buy into The Kingdom, and who will live forever to extend the boundaries of purpose… *Sigh*
What is The Kingdom of Heaven?
It is UP…
Yes, the sky. Actually, it is above the Sky. Remember you are a child now so I will speak simply.
Once upon the period before Time began, there was The Creator, the Source, the Power, the Light, the ALL in all, and The Constant that started out everything and had no beginning.
How could God have no beginning? Very simply, before the Universe, there was no time as there was only stasis – but Time itself began to count or was recognised when the Universe as we know it came to be. And it is for this simple reason that it makes sense that God refers to himself as the ‘I AM’ or if it was to a scientific community, He might have said, ‘I am Constant K’ – no beginning, no end, just in existence. All that have a beginning came after the creation, and when people say if God created everything, he must have had a beginning, they simply miss the simple fact that when something exists OUT of time, it has no beginning.
It simply IS – and if you asked that being what state the being exists within, the being would simply reply ‘I AM’.
So God WAS (and IS and Would Be) in the beginning…and again this is something hard to grasp because we PERCEIVE Time as linear, but perception is not reality – but that is not the subject of this article. God WAS and occupied, and after Time came into BEING, we read that God created beings – and what an artiste he was! He made some tall and some short, and some had wings and some had no wings, and some had two wings and some have six wings and some have two eyes, and some have their bodies covered in eyes, and some have one face and some have several faces – but he didn’t just stop there.
He made some things that we now call trees, with leaves of various colours and textures and hues, and many of them line the embankment of a beautiful river that flows out from where God sits… And I know this sounds a bit strange to you because this place that people often refer to as Heaven is hardly talked about anymore. We think Ferraris are the ultimate and think God is about giving us another bungalow on our dying planet – and I guess that is why you find it hard to think about how beautifully the Thunders on the other side sing or imagine the colours of the living rainbows that line the throne rooms, or the beings we call angels who are sometimes child-like or who are muscular, some skilled at fighting, others skilled at music, but every now and then, they all close their eyes in ecstasy as they breathe in the living air from The One who started everything that we call LIFE while enjoying, thoroughly, being around one another – each one totally accepting of the other.
If you ever walk in that place, you suddenly realise there is no vacuum, because the air around you, right now, is covered with chemicals and bacteria and atoms and ions, but unlike that place, you are unaware because they do not sizzle with the buzz of life, like you would experience in that place where everything is alive and rich and bubbly and realer than real, clearer than the bet HD picture you will ever see, always beautiful for a simple reason.
There was no death – like this place you and I currently live in. We are currently alive in a coffin and the writhing of maggots and the stench of death is what we now call ‘normal’.
But let me go on.
Now if you know anything about life, you will realise that the very nature of life is GROWTH…expansion. Cancer cells multiply, like sperm cells latch onto eggs and form zygotes, with cells multiplying rapidly till you hold a baby in your arms that is made of billions of cells that started out from just two – and in the same way, seed falls to the ground and brings out fruits that result in trees, that result in forests that house a myriad of birds and ‘lower’ unicellular life forms and insects that breed and spawn new offsprings by meeting their mates or just budding a new entity from themselves like the Hydra. Bottom line is LIFE constantly seeks to expands, whether it is ‘good’ or ‘bad’ – and the idea was that that the Kingdom, that some would call The Kingdom of Heaven where God lived with his initial array of beings and subjects was to expand beyond its current boundaries.
Now, just as businesses can expand the geographical markets they operate within, businesses can also provide new products in the geographical markets they operate in – and this was the idea you find behind expansion to Eret: A new set of species were to be added to The Kingdom and they were to operate within a geographical location, breathing the same air, enjoying the same life of The Kingdom of Heaven. This new location would be an extension of The Kingdom of Heaven and all together, the Kingdom of Heaven and Earth would be under one Ruler – God… It would be his Kingdom.
The Kingdom of God.
And I guess that slipped out; Eret (or Earth) was the chosen location for Life to extend to, that would house new species, new life forms, but beyond the replication of the ambiance of the First Heaven, there would be a strange creature on Earth. These creatures would be made from the same chemical components of the environment they were to live in, have a great amount of smartness, never-ending curiosity and intelligence, would not have wings, but would control so much and in their wisdom, would come to provide guidance to much-senior angels for one reason: They would be wired with the very essence of the ‘I AM’ himself – unlike any other creature that had been in existence before these creatures. These creatures would be ‘gods’, like their Father, The Most High – though subject to Him like everything and everyone else.
No other being that had been created would be LIKE the Most High…
It has been said that the creation of these beings caused the first rifts in The Kingdom of Heaven, because a certain son of God wanted to be like the Most High. The Bible calls Angels sons of God sometimes and Lucifer falls into this category. The Koran calls this son Iblis and tells a story of how he got irritated and would not bow to man. However, everyone knows how the story plays out: There is a rift in Heaven, Satan challenges God and is chucked out of The Kingdom of Heaven.
But you see, while we know the resulting story of Satan tempting Eve and of that blasted ‘apple’ (the Bible never says it was an apple), there is a bigger issue here based on a simple premise:
Life, by its very nature seeks to expand, whether that life is good or bad. In very simple terms and bringing the story home, Lucifer, the former son of God, had begun to walk and seek evil, but like every other being, He was created by God, and lives by the Life God had given him and what I said before, I will say again to drive home the point: Life, whether good or bad, by its very nature, seeks to expand
And Lucifer had life…
TO BE CONTINUED...
John, I love the way you think and the way you write. Your understanding is deep, where do you get all these from?... May the good Lord continue to teach you the truth and expand your coast unto his glory....with this story, am genuinely beginning to picture heaven's glory and yes, I agree that God has truly given us great intelligence and hunger for truth and to expand, though we are failing in the right use of this expansion and what we are learning. Cant wait for the next story. God bless you and us all!.. #HisKingdomRains
ReplyDeleteI did call you crazy many times amidst my laughter. Yes, we just have to make things unnecessarily complicated. An island is an island.
ReplyDeleteI like your approach. Makes some good sense. The way you told it like a simple story for dummies.
The time lines needn't be specific for the purpose of this piece, I guess-whether it was immediately he chose earth that he put man there or it was a space of a few thousand decades. God extended his kingdom to earth at some point. That's the main issue.
Enjoyed the piece.