Control and the Kingdom of God
A growing fear is that Christians are trying to take control of the world. Several books have been written warning the Christians in the United States are using the political system to get control and force their religion on the rest of society.
In the world, authority is accumulated. People with authority try to get more. In Satan’s kingdom, a few people hold a great deal of authority and the rest submit to them. Unfortunately, some Christians are quite keen on this model.
In the Kingdom of God, the opposite happens.
- Authority is chopped up into bits.
- Authority is pushed down and out to people who do not have it.
Control and authority are diffused as widely as possible. When Jesus got authority he gave it away to as many people as possible.
I guess that those who fear the Kingdom of God would worry less, if all Christians understood this.
3 comments:
i agree with you. what then does authority look li9ke inside the church? what are your thoughts of a pastors, elders or deacons role?
Good question Joe.
The only New Testament office is the elder. The word pastor is a verb, describing what some elders should do. More on pastoring here.
The role of elders to teach Christians, so that they can quickly become elders themselves. Then they just watch from a distance. More on elders here and here.
A deacon is someone who cares for the poor. It is not a position of power. More on deacons here.
Joe
If you are interested, send your postal address to getrad2 at yahoo dot co dot nz and I will send you a free copy of my book, Being Church Where We live, which answers your question in more detail.
Ron
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