Transitory Power

Only God’s kingdom will prevail and endure. All other political powers and regimes are fleeting. Already they are passing away.

Despite human pretensions, History demonstrates without exception the impermanence of political power, human ideologies, and governments. Rome endured for a thousand years, but that Empire fell all the same. Like human life, political power is impermanent, and regimes and even the greatest empires collapse unexpectedly and often quickly when their allotted time expires. Only the “Kingdom of God” will endure forever.

Unfortunately, many churches and Christians have yet to learn this lesson from History, the Bible, or both. Too often they invest their hopes, energies, and even faith in politicians and political movements that are destined to fail. They amount to what Jesus called “perishing meat.” Sadly this tendency is once again on the rise. Sadly, this tendency is once again on the rise.

[Photo by Caglar Araz on Unsplash]

At the height of his power, the absolute monarch of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, boasted before Heaven and Earth, “Is not this Babylon the great and exceptional kingdom that I built by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?” His boast was not an idle one. Babylon was one of the greatest powers of the Ancient World.

After destroying the remnants of the Assyrian Empire, and having subjugated Syria and the Kingdom of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar expanded his dominion to the border of Egypt. However, his presumptuous words received a response from an angelic figure:

• “O King Nebuchadnezzar the dominion has departed from you <…> until you come to know that it is the Most-High who has dominion over the kingdom of men, and to whomever he pleases, he gives it” - (Daniel 4:28-33).

Consequently, King Nebuchadnezzar lost his rational mind and was driven by society to live like an animal outside the city. After “seven seasons,” his mind restored, he lifted his eyes to Heaven and declared:

• “I, Nebuchadnezzar, my eyes to the heavens did uplift, and my understanding returned to me, and the Most-High I blessed, and to him that lives everlastingly I rendered praise and honour. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation, and all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and according to his own pleasure he deals with the army of the heavens and the inhabitants of the earth, and none there is who can smite upon his hand or say to him, What have you done?” – (Daniel 4:34-35).

From time immemorial, kings, emperors, dictators, prime ministers, legislators, and presidents have engaged in political conceit of the same magnitude. The Babylonian monarch’s boast was nothing new, and he was certainly not the last politician to make such claims. At the time, his kingdom was the greatest political power the world had yet seen.

Nevertheless, within two generations the Neo-Babylonian Empire was overthrown and replaced by an even greater power, the “Kingdom of the Medes and the Persians.” It has been thus throughout human history. Nebuchadnezzar, a ruler who promoted Babylonian learning and culture, should have known better.

Nebuchadnezzar learned the same lesson previously when he received a troubling dream that only Daniel could interpret. He saw a “great image” with a head of gold, the breast and arms of silver, the belly and thighs of bronze, and legs of iron with feet comprised of iron and clay. A “stone cut out without hands” struck the great image, pulverizing it, and that small unimpressive “stone” became the “mountain that filled the whole earth” - (Daniel 2:31-45).

Nebuchadnezzar’s “great image” represented four successive empires, beginning with Babylon. The coming kingdom of God would fill the whole Earth after the demise of the kingdoms and empires of this world. The end of Babylon was inevitable.

Political power would pass from one regime to the next until the day God “set up a kingdom for the ages that would not be destroyed.” The “stone” that destroyed the “great image” of Nebuchadnezzar symbolized the everlasting kingdom appointed by Yahweh that was destined to replace all existing political powers without exception.

FOR GOD’S PURPOSES

In the Book of Daniel, the prophet declared that God alone “changes times and seasons, He removes kings and sets up kings.” According to His own purposes, He gives dominion to even the “basest of men.” Nebuchadnezzar himself admitted that “Your God is God of gods and Lord of kings.” The pagan ruler acknowledged that his sovereignty was derived from a higher power.

Political authority comes from God and no government can reign without His say-so - There is no exception to the rule. This is the key theme of the Book of Daniel - God gives rulership to whomever He pleases.

This same story begins in the first paragraph of the Book. The capture of Jerusalem, the captivity of Judah, and the demise of the Temple of Jerusalem all occurred as God decreed.

Despite the downfall of the Kingdom of Judah, God used Daniel to direct the policies of the Babylonian Empire, and He enabled the prophet to do what none of the astrologers, priests, “wise men,” economists, bankers, “stargazers,” “monthly prognosticators,” or soothsayers of Mesopotamia could do – Recount and interpret the king’s dream. As a result, Daniel was elevated to a high position from which he influenced the course of the Empire - (Daniel 2:1-49):

• “You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators stand up and save you from the things that will come upon you” - (Isaiah 47:13).

• “The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, Are you able to make known unto me the dream which I have seen, and its interpretation? Daniel answered before the king, and said, The mystery which the king has demanded can neither wise men, enchanters, magicians, nor soothsayers show to the king. But there is a God in heavens who reveals mysteries, and he has made known to the king, Nebuchadnezzar, what will come to pass in latter days” - (Daniel 2:26-28).

• “Then the king made Daniel great, and gave him many great gifts, and made him to rule over the whole province of Babylon, and to be chief governor over all the wise men of Babylon” - (Daniel 2:48).

God uses His sovereignty to accomplish His plans and desires regardless of human intentions and machinations. He is never surprised by events. Kingdoms endure until He decides otherwise. Rulers who arrogate to themselves prerogatives that belong to Him alone risk removal from office and the destruction of their political power.

History confirms that all kingdoms, empires, and regimes fall.  Greece, Rome, and Byzantium all rose to great heights only to collapse. No nation today is an exception to the rule, period. Not one of them is indispensable to God and His purposes.

All governments except the Kingdom of God are impermanent entities, fleeting powers. Investing time and resources in the political institutions and processes of this age is a fool’s errand. As Paul wrote, the“forms of this world are passing away.”

Yahweh promised a coming day when the Messiah would sit at His right hand and rule over the nations and the “Kings of the Earth” until He made all his enemies Christ’s footstool - (Psalm 2:6-9, Revelation 1:4-7, 2:26-28, 12:5).

The New Testament is explicit and uncompromising. Not only is Jesus this “Anointed” ruler, but his reign began following his Death and Resurrection. As he declared to his disciples - “ALL authority in heaven and on the earth has been given to me” - (Matthew 28:18-20).

When God raised His son from the dead, He placed him “far above all rule, authority, power, dominion, and every name that is named, and he put all things in subjection under his feet” - (Ephesians 1:20-22, Philippians 2:6-11).

By his death, Jesus “despoiled the powers and principalities,” triumphing over them. By his resurrection, he became the “firstborn of the dead” and in “all things preeminent.” Already he reigns, and all angels, powers, and authorities have been subjected to him. All other political powers will perish from the Earth.

Thus, Yahweh’s “anointed” reigns over all things, and there are no exceptions to this present reality. By the time of his return, the “stone cut without hands” will fill the whole Earth, and all other regimes, ideologies, and kingdoms will perish from the Earth.

In the meantime, anyone who would follow Jesus must decide to which kingdom he belongs, and to which ruler he will give his absolute allegiance. It is a matter of life and (everlasting) death. Or as Jesus declared:

• “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in the heavens, where neither moth nor rust consume, and where thieves do not break through nor steal, for where thy treasure is, there will thy heart be also” – (Matthew 6:19-21).

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SEE ALSO:

• Loving Caesar - (The Inhabitants of the Earth willingly venerate the Beast and take its mark, although believers also are not immune from its allurements)

• Golgotha or Rome - (Jesus refused the political power of Rome when Satan offered it. So, why do we insist on seeking the very thing our Master rejected?)

• The Son of Destruction - (Many saints will apostatize when the Lawless One, the Son of Destruction, seats himself in the sanctuary of God)

• His Kingdom - (Jesus proclaimed a unique political reality, the Kingdom of God, one that differs radically from the governments and ideologies of this present age)