The political language of the gospel never ceases to amaze me.
Consider the terminology of Revelation 11.15–19: “kingdom,” “Lord,” “Christ,” “reign,” “thrones,” “Lord God Almighty,” “power,” “nations,” “judged.” This is the language of power politics, and yet it shows up constantly in the religious lexicon of Christian believers.
Some of these terms are obviously political in nature, but a few of them have lost their political character through repeated liturgical use and changes in form of government. We offhandedly refer to God as “Lord God Almighty,” for instance, but do we see how politically loaded that title is? Emperor Domitian, in the late first century, claimed to be dominus et deus, after all: “lord and god.” The world “almighty” in Greek is pantocrator, which means “ruler of all.” Now, either God is almighty or Caesar is. This is not a matter of interpretation; it is a simple question of fact.
Put bluntly, then, the gospel is a political message, a message about who rules whom, and to what end. For Christians, God rules creation with an eye toward eternal justice: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”
But, by the same token, the gospel is not a humanly political message. It is not, in other words, a message that necessarily compels us to register as Democrats or Republicans. (I am of the personal opinion that on some issues, one political party is on the side of the angels, on other issues the other party, and on many issues, both are simply flirting with the devil.) We do not usher in God’s kingdom through political activism. He establishes it at the Second Coming of Christ. In this life, those who have attempted to usher in God’s kingdom through power politics have merely succeeded at creating hell on earth.
The coming of God’s kingdom, in other words, is a future event at which he personally will bring justice to an earth whose history has been characterized by injustice. As the twenty-four elders describe it in their song of praise to God, it is a time of “rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.”
The first six trumpets heralded the disasters that are portents of the end of time. They include environmental devastation, demonic oppression, vicious warfare, pestilence and plague, and the persecution of believers. The seventh trumpet announces the end of these disasters and the advent of God’s kingdom, and so alludes to Christ’s Second Coming and the Final Judgment. That is why the elders describe God only as the One “who is and who was” rather than also as the One “who is to come” (1.4, 8; 4.8). With the seventh trumpet, history ends, and eternity begins.
How shall we live in light of this prophecy of the end? Not, as I have already explained, by trying to usher in God’s kingdom through political activism, although, Christians should always be good citizen. Rather, we heed the words of John’s prophecy by living now as if already God was king of our hearts. And we invite others, while there is still time, to do the same. The Lord does not wish that “any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Pet. 3.9). For the kingdom of God is not merely a kingdom of divine power and justice, but also of heavenly grace.
And that is why the political language of the gospel never ceases to amaze me.
GeorgePWood.com 