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Month: April 2023

The Kingdom Of God (II)

What was at the heart of all the teachings of our Lord Jesus ?   The answer was clear in Luke 4:43 – the Kingdom of God.

(Luke 4:43 NIV.  But he said, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.” 

Mark 1:14-15 NKJV. Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God [g]is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”)

Most of our Lord’s parables focused on the Kingdom of God.  And even after His resurrection and before His ascension to heaven, He spent some 40 days with the disciples preparing the disciples for their mission ahead by teaching them on the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God. 

(Acts 1:3. NASB.  To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of things regarding the kingdom of God.)

We read in Acts of what Paul did primarily in his missionary journeys when he went around preaching and testifying about the kingdom of God.   

(Acts 14:22.  And after they had preached the gospel to that city and had made a good number of disciples, they returned to Lystra, to Iconium, and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying, “It is through many tribulations that we must enter the kingdom of God.”

Acts 19:8. And he entered the synagogue and continued speaking out boldly for three months, having discussions and persuading them about the kingdom of God.

Acts 20:25.  “And now behold, I know that all of you, among whom I went about preaching the kingdom, will no longer see my face…”

Acts 28:23. When they had set a day for Paul, people came to him at his lodging in large numbers; and he was explaining to them by solemnly testifying about the kingdom of God and trying to persuade them concerning Jesus, from both the Law of Moses and from the Prophets, from morning until evening. 

Acts 28:30-31. Now Paul stayed two full years in his own rented lodging and welcomed all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching things about the Lord Jesus Christ with all openness, unhindered.)

It is with much sadness that I realize many churches do not preach centrally about the kingdom of God anymore but focus mainly on paradoxes of doctrines and differences in practices on one extreme; and false teaching of life without tribulation as abundant life in Christ on the other extreme.  The devil has been very successful in corrupting the plain truth of the kingdom of God over the centuries.

What constitutes a kingdom ?  A kingdom must have at least these 4 elements – a King, territory, laws and subjects.

The King of the Kingdom of God is our Lord Jesus Christ.  In Eph 1:10, we read that it is God’s plan in the fullness of the times to bring all things together under the kingship of Christ.  The territory is still the same planet earth.  It will be renewed again. Heaven will descend on this new earth at the end of age.

God’s laws will be the basis of the reign of this Kingdom and will be adhered perfectly in this Kingdom for all subjects will be perfect as He is perfect when Christ returns. (Isaiah 2:2-4).  False teachers have preached about the abolition of God’s laws. They have completely ignored the clear teaching in the Bible that God’s laws are good and perfect.  We were created in the original image of God and His laws were the blueprint of our godly character.  But the fall of man caused us to lose most of this image. The subjects of this new Kingdom of God will be those who place their trust in the Lord Jesus and desire everything in this Kingdom. It is inconceivable of those, who do not desire the laws in this kingdom, still wishing to enter this kingdom.

In the Millennium,  the saints will reign on the physical earth with Christ our Lord.

(Rev 5:9-10. And they *sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are You to take the scroll and to break its seals; for You were slaughtered, and You purchased people for God with Your blood from every tribe, language, people, and nation.You have made them into a kingdom and priests to our God, and they will reign upon the earth.”)

The Jews at the time of Christ on earth were expecting a real kingdom of God ruled by the Messiah to be imminent. Because Jesus was near to Jerusalem, they asked Him whether the kingdom of God would come immediately. In Luke 19:11-27, we read that Jesus answered them with the parable of the ten minas. In verse 12, He said, “A nobleman went to a distant country to receive a kingdom for himself, and then to return…” The government of this kingdom of God will be on His shoulder and there is no end to the increase of His government and peace. Isaiah 9:6-7. During the Millennium, He will rule and judge righteously and there will be no conflict. Isaiah 11.

Let not the false apostles and prophets of the New Apostolic Reformation corrupt the saints with the idea that the Kingdom in its full form will appear before Christ even return. it is just a fallacy to establish their apparent authority over the church by insisting that the Kingdom is now happening and they are placed in charge. Luke 19:12 clearly debunks that.

(The early church leaders also taught of the coming physical kingdom of God. For further research, one can read up their writings on this subject.)

Our current mission is to go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey every commandment of Christ now so that they can fully appreciate and desire the Christ-like life in the Kingdom of Christ our King and Lord.  Matt  28:19-20.

In Matt 6:33, we read that if we seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, all things will be added to us, yet in Heb 11:35-40, we read that many heroes of faith did not receive what was promised though they were all commended for their faith. As the Scripture is definitely inerrant, the promise of all things will be realised in the coming Millennium Kingdom. The Old Testament saints were all waiting for the coming perfection together with all the New Testament saints. (Heb 11:40). CS Lewis put it this way : aim at heaven and you get earth thrown in, but if you aim at earth, you get neither.

In summary, the Good News is that the kingdom of God is at hand and we no longer need to be under the bondage of the kingdom of darkness. In a nutshell, it is accepting and putting Jesus as King and Lord in repentance and enter and live in His kingdom. His kingdom is here and yet not here. It is here in one sense that Jesus is reigning as King in the hearts of the truly repentant, and will be fully here when Jesus returns as King when He reigns physically from Jerusalem.

The Bible’s Teaching On Spiritual Gifts And The NAR New Age Teachings

I took the liberty to summarize and paraphrase one chapter of the book, Counterfeit Kingdom authored by Holly Pivec and R Douglas Geivett, which detailed the new age teachings of the NAR movement.  I did so in the hope that the summary could give a quick understanding of the danger of such teachings.

Occultic Practices

Biblical teachings about miraculous gifts and the NAR new age teachings are worlds apart.  The Christian gifts are given to serve and build up the church.  However,  God forbid occultic practices that seek to obtain supernatural power and secret knowledge such as fortune telling and communicating with the dead using various methods of divination.  Deut 18: 9-12.  They are forbidden because they are usually associated with the activity of demons.  Deut 32:17; Ps 106:34-43; Acts 16:16-18; 1 Cor 10: 19-21; 9:20-21.  The stranger thing is that these NAR prophets acknowledged that all such practices were stolen from the Christians. Jonathan Welton in one of the chapters of the book, The Physics Of Heaven, said that spirit guide, trances, meditation, auras, power objects, etc, were actually stolen and cleverly repackaged by the New Agers. As such, many NAR prophets believe they have to reclaim these practices to advance the Kingdom of God.  The Christian gifts are given by the Holy Spirit and nowhere does the Bible teaches that they can be activated. 

Levitation And Teleportation

A generation growing up with Harry Porter would surely be drawn to the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry (BSSM).   It is no surprise that these BSSM students attempt to practice levitating coins and guitar picks and walking through walls.  Bethel leaders merely laughed them off when questioned by the media. 

Psychic Fairs And “Spirit Readings”

After the BSSM students are activated with a prophetic gift, they are sent out to the Bethel community to “prophesy “ to strangers.  Usually they will go undercover to set up booths in psychic fairs to offer dream interpretation and spirit readings. They will claim that they are involved in a creative way to reach the New Agers with the gospel.  And that is strange because in blending in, they won’t say anything religious and refer to God as Spirit of Creation.  By not sharing about Jesus, wonder what is the gospel they are sharing ?

Destiny Cards

At these fairs, the BSSM students used a Christianized version of the tarot cards, the “Destiny Cards” designed by a Christian organization named Christalignment.  The card images of angels, animals and nature scenes have symbolic meanings and functions much like tarot in the hands of prophetic readers.  Through Christalignment readings,  clients can receive answers to questions like “Have I chosen the right career ?” or “Will I have any more children ?”.   The following description of one deck of Destiny Cards appeared on an early version of Christalignment”s website :  “Psalm readings are similar to Tarot in that cards are counted out according to your birth date…Only three cards are used and these will represent your past, present and future.”  This controversy erupted in 2017 when it came to light that many BSSM students had joined Christalignment teams over the years and Bethel Church prophets Kris Vallaton and Theresa Dedmon published statements online defending Ken and Jenny Hodge, the founders of Christalignment and their Destiny Cards.

Telepathy

Mind reading or telepathy is taught by Seth Dahl (a BSSM graduate) and co-author with Bill Johnson of the children’s book, God Is Really Good.   In one Facebook video in 2017, Dahl told parents that the practice is helpful with children who are very young or sick or have trouble verbalizing their needs. He said he used it successfully with his son who was one and a half year old then.  His son could not sleep and they communicated spiritually with each other and his son psychically told him to stay near his crib and rub his back, and his son fell asleep within minutes.  How absurd !  It is just plain common sense.

Seeing Dead People

Ben Armstrong, the Bethel Church’s Prophetic Ministry Director, shared in a video about stories of Christians who have seen and talked to dead people.  The deceased people they encountered were Christian “revivalists” including faith healers such as Maria Woodworth-Erter and Kathryn Kuhlman. Such practice known as necromancy is strictly forbidden by Scripture.  Deut 18:9-12; Gal 5:19-20; Acts 19:19. 

Christian “tarot cards” session