Kingdom Principles

Kingdom Principles

religion; they had a kingdom. So when God set out to restore what they had lost, He set out to restore a kingdom, not a religion. Religion is an invention of man, born of his efforts to find God and restore the kingdom on his own. But only God can restore the king dom man lost. After the disaster in Eden, the King confronted His rebellious corulers and their deceiver and addressed each one in turn. Of greatest interest to us in this context is what the King said to the ser pent, because it has kingdom implications: I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will crush your head, and you will strike His heel (Genesis 3:15). Referring to the woman’s “offspring” by the singular pronoun “He,” indicates that the King was speaking of one specific offspring— one who would strike a fatal blow against lucifer and his schemes by “crushing” his head. As the rest of Scripture makes abundantly clear, this one specific offspring appeared thousands of years later as the man Jesus Christ of Nazareth, who was the Son of God embodied in human flesh. When Jesus appeared on the scene in real, space-time history, He brought a message not of a religion, new or old, but of the Kingdom: From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near” (Matthew 4:17). These are the first recorded words of Jesus. The phrase “that time” refers to the arrest of John the Baptist, a prophet whose mis sion was to announce the arrival of the King. Now the King Himself was on the scene, and He was announcing the arrival of the Kingdom . This was the only message Jesus preached. Search all four of the New Testament Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and you will

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