Disciples Global Network

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

The  Parable of the Sower  provides the key to understanding the parables of Jesus. The story’s point is that the Kingdom of God began to invade the present age starting with the proclamation of the Gospel by the “ Son of Man .” That process commenced with his announcement of the Good News when he was in “ Galilee of the Nations .” Ever since then, the Kingdom has been advancing across the Earth though largely unnoticed by humanity and even by many of his followers.

The  Gospel of Mark  provides only a few examples of the many parables taught by Jesus (“ Apart from a parable he did not speak to the crowds ”). In them, the dominant theme is the Kingdom of God that invaded the Earth in the ministry of Jesus and continues to grow and produce fruit wherever the Gospel is preached. The “ Son of Man ” taught the Jewish people in parables, but only as they “ were able to hear ,” and this clause stresses the responsibility of the listener to hear and heed his words.

Is the Gospel of the Kingdom of God a message of hope for only SOME nations, or is it Good News for all nations and peoples?  Too often in church history, the Gospel has been perverted into Good News for some nations, but apparently bad news for others, or at least for the latter, a less appealing message. And this occurs whenever representatives of the church of the same Jesus who gave his life for the entire world associate and even identify his name and Gospel with certain nations, races, cultures, and political ideologies.

In popular usage, the English term ‘Christendom’ refers to “that part of the world in which Christianity prevails,” either because most of a nation’s citizens claim to be Christian, or because a specific church or denomination is recognized by the State as the country’s official religion. Thus, the nation becomes identified as “Christian,” it is one of the “Christian nations” as opposed to the less enlightened non-Christian peoples and cultures of the planet.