"The Colonization of the Christian Soul" - (Part 2 of 3)

If you’ve ever felt your blood pressure rise over politics but struggled to find words for the gospel, this conversation is for you. We take a hard look at what it means to say “Jesus is King” while we live in a world obsessed with national power, prestige, and the next conflict. Yes, nations defend themselves and history is messy, but we keep coming back to the same question: are we acting like citizens of America first, or citizens of Christ’s kingdom first? 

We walk through the Bible’s storyline of kingdom and mission, from Genesis 12:3 and Israel’s calling to the prophetic focus on the Messiah’s reign. We talk about apologetics as apologia, a clear defense of what we believe, and why so many of us are overprepared to argue political talking points but underprepared to speak about sin, repentance, grace, and faith. Along the way, we confront the temptation to treat election like entitlement and to mistake dominion for discipleship. 

Then we address a theological flashpoint: dispensationalism and the claim that Jesus came to set up an earthly rule, got rejected, and moved to “plan B.” We test that idea against Scripture, including Acts 1:6, John 18:36, and Luke 17:20-21, and we argue that Christ didn’t come to conquer Rome but to conquer sin. We close by connecting empire thinking to the Tower of Babel and inviting a better kind of Christian citizenship that loves neighbor and nation by sharing Christ. 

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Transcript

Christ's Kingdom Is The Agenda

SPEAKER_00 0:00

And we forget the primary agenda that we have is the furtherance of God's kingdom here on earth. His kingdom, the Lord's kingdom, Christ's kingdom. If he is your king, if Jesus Christ is your king, we belong to a different kingdom. We belong to a different kingdom. Another reason for me wanting to bring this up is because as I'm going through the book of Romans throughout the week, in Romans chapters 6 through 8, we're going to learn and delve deep into this whole idea that Christians, we need to understand that we may be here in the body, but we do not belong to this world. We are not to be fighting their wars. You have many Christians that are arguing and are upset because they feel that America is fighting someone else's war. And it is true. But here's the thing: we as Christians are often always caught up in fighting someone else's war as well. We fight and represent the kingdom of Christ and Him only. We can't forget that. We can't forget that. So the stated justifications by these countries: religion, civilization, humanitarian concerns, national destiny, but we know that the underlying motives that they all have is all the same. Wealth, strategic power, security, prestige, access to labor and resources, all these things. And Brother Jay, nobody is saying that America shouldn't defend itself. No one is saying that. No one is saying that, brother. We know that because of the frailty of man, all countries have a right to defend themselves. And even in this particular war, last time I checked, I didn't recall anybody sending a rocket over here. But I don't want to make this a political discussion about world politics.

Patriotism Versus Gospel Warfare

SPEAKER_00 2:18

I want to make this discussion about Christianity. So many Christians are so prepared to act offensively or defensively against other nations because we're patriots, but you don't do this when it comes to the gospel. So many Christians are silent when it comes to the gospel. You're not engaged in that war. And the war that we have is against all the kingdoms of this world. See, so when I hear these people, Christians also coming to me with all this political nonsense, I don't want to hear it. Tell me the last place you went and preached the gospel. Tell me that. Tell me the last time you were out on the street or you were supporting somebody to go out to another country to share the gospel so that God can rightly colonize souls.

Apologetics And Real Spiritual Defense

SPEAKER_00 3:24

We talked the other day about what the word apologetics comes from. And in the Bible, the word apologetics comes from the Greek word apologia, which means defense. Which is where the apostle says, we must be ready to give a defense for those things that we believe. We must be ready to give an apology, not an apology out of sorrow for a wrong done, but a defense for what we believe and why we believe it. But so many, even amongst us, you have a lot of smoke for politics and the national agenda, but you have nothing, and that's okay, but you have nothing when it comes to defending defense of the gospel. You spend more time promoting the agendas of men rather than the agenda of Christ. Given my age, if I were younger, if we needed to go into a war that was necessary, I'd be the first to support it. But this isn't what I'm talking about. What I'm talking about is dealing with the neglect of the Christian attitude toward being citizens in Christ's kingdom and what we should do in support of that great nation, the nation that we belong to, that holy nation that we are. This isn't an abstract term. We're not an abstract people. We are God's people. And that nation is the one that has the agenda where the Christian heart should be focused on furthering, which is the spreading of the gospel, preaching of the truth, and bringing souls to Christ. Conquering souls. God is the great colonizer, and rightly so, because he's righteous and holy and good in every aspect. But he wants to colonize souls.

Dominion Belongs To God Alone

SPEAKER_00 5:54

So I want to present here this strong biblical argument that fallen humanity has repeatedly and continues repeatedly to seek to appropriate itself a dominion that belongs only to God and his Christ, not to man. And when we think that our nation or any nation has a right or an entitlement to other nations and to conquer other peoples, you are missing and distorting what God has commissioned believers to do, which is to bring people to him by conquering them through the preached gospel message that he gave you and me, so that others will turn and submit to Christ. But then there is the kingdom that God will actually establish and is establishing. That nation, that ancient nation, misunderstood their calling. In Amos chapter three, God said this, you only, speaking of Israel, you only have I known of all the families of the earth. To Abraham was promised land, seed, blessing, and a kingdom. Israel was chosen from among the nations, and given the covenants, given the law, the worship, given the promises, yet, in spite of that, the prophets repeatedly confronted a growing misconception that Israel's election, their election as God's people, were for her own exaltation rather than for God's redemptive purpose. They misunderstood their mission. How? I don't know. The prophets made it clear. The Lord made it clear. But they believed that their election existed for her own exaltation, her own dominion, not God's redemptive purpose. The covenant that God made with them was never intended to terminate upon that nation itself. This is what God said from the very beginning. He said this in Genesis chapter 12, verse 3. In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. This was the mission. Not for them to dominate over the earth. The mission was for them having these advantages to lead the charge so that all of the families of the earth might be blessed. Genesis 12, 3, simple verse. The promise was universal in scope from the very beginning. All the families of the earth were to be blessed. Just as in Genesis 12. Dispensationalists today will have you believe exactly what the ancient Israel misunderstood. And they are still, dispensationalists are still the greatest advocates of the wrong thinking that ancient Israel had regarding the covenant that God made with them, which was that in them all the families of the earth should be blessed. Before they were even a nation, Abraham was told by God that his name, Abraham, what it means, is what was intended. That he would be the father of many nations. And that was before there was an Israel. Israel was chosen to be an instrument through which the Messiah would come. And not as the final object of God's redemptive plan. That understanding was a mistake. And dispensationalists today continue to feed that. And now we're not even dealing with the actual people that were there that God was speaking to through Abraham and Moses. And yet many increasingly viewed these promises primarily in national and political terms. And not in divine terms, not from the divine perspective. The kingdom became identified with ethnic privilege. And that is what drove the mindset of colonization that continues to pervade societies all over the planet. The inheritance became identified with national supremacy, not bringing people to God, not causing them to understand that sin needed to be dealt with. The promises became detached from the promised seed, meaning Christ. They lost sight of this. They misconstrued the promises of God, probably, generally speaking, for their own self-interest. But that disease has pervaded and spread to every nation on the earth. Everyone wants to dominate. And what belonged ultimately to the Messiah was increasingly appropriated by those who were waiting for him. They were trying to take from the one that they were waiting to come and to bring them out of whatever they felt they deserved to get. And again, dispensationalism, this idea of this physical national Israel, they continue, dispensationalists, to perpetuate this idea, to perpetuate these man-human-centered urges. Dispensationalism aids and abets Israel in the furtherance of this continued error. But it's not just them, it's every nation now. It's every nation. It is all self-motivated and self-interest. The true kingdom of this earth was always promised to the Messiah, the Christ, the anointed one, our Savior and Lord.

The Messiah Claims The Nations

SPEAKER_00 13:43

The Old Testament consistently points beyond Israel to a coming king. We read this in Psalm chapter 2, verse 8, where it says, Ask of me. God says to his son, ask of me, and I shall give you the heathen for thine inheritance. Remember what I said at the beginning? God is the great colonizer. God is calling, is colonizing souls. This message is about the colonization of the Christian soul. Well, ask of me, God says. I shall give you. God tells his son, I'm going to give you the heathen for your inheritance. I'm going to give them to you. The inheritance does not belong to Israel. The inheritance does not belong to America. It does not belong to Russia or Africa or any other people. The inheritance collectively belongs to God's anointed king and him only. It belongs to him. Not a political nation, but a holy nation is where his dominion rises and sits. Look what Daniel said in chapter seven of his book, verse thirteen and fourteen, referring to Christ, one like the Son of Man. He would be receiving dominion and glory and a kingdom that all people, nations, and languages should serve him. God is the great colonizer. He colonized me, my soul. He colonized your soul. And he urges us to be in service to him, militant, going against the kingdoms of this world by preaching the gospel of the grace of Jesus Christ. Preaching the gospel of Christ Jesus to the world. That is how we subdue his enemies and our enemies. That is what we're supposed to be doing. Not joining in league with them, but bringing them to Christ so that they might be in submission to him and be in league with him and us. Isaiah also foresaw the nations flowing into the mountain of the Lord. Zechariah saw this. Look what Zechariah says. The prophets did not proclaim Israel's conquest of the nations, but the Messiah's reign over all nations is written in the Word of God. Somebody needs to tell the dispensationalists this. The earth was never promised to Abraham's descendants apart from Christ. Rather, it was promised to Abraham's seed, who is Christ who would come. And Christ, when he would come, we, the believers who repent from their sins, are being put into Christ's kingdom and become his servants and become his warriors against sin and death in this world, bringing the gospel to people that they might be turned from sin and death and to receive the blessedness of eternal life in Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ came here to conquer his enemies. He came here to colonize souls. And the error was made conspicuous. When our Lord and Savior finally came.

Dispensationalism And The Plan B Claim

SPEAKER_00 19:02

This should sound familiar. Territorial restoration. This is what their misunderstanding of the prophecies became so deep-rooted in their mentality and their psyche that by the time the Messiah came, they really believed that his role was political and earthly. Guess who still feeds and fuels that idea? The dispensationalists. When in fact, all people of all the earth are all on equal footing before Christ, before God. All men must repent. All men must turn to Christ. And all men who have turned to Christ, and all men who have the faith of Abraham, are Abraham's sons and daughters, being connected to him, having walked in faith the way he did. All of those who are justified by faith in God, faith in Christ, all of these, whether they be Jew or Gentile, are one family in Christ, one body in Christ, all in service to the Lord. Think about this for a second. You have dispensationalists that are going around, seeing them on all these videos, still talking about all this nonsense, because they believe, if they are consistent, they are saying that when Christ came, that the expectation that Israel had for him to be a religious or for him to be a general, a ruler, to take him into war like David, they believe that Christ came to do that. They say, the dispensationalists, they say that Israel got it right when they got it wrong. They say today that Israel had it right. They just got the time wrong. They say also that the Lord Jesus Christ did come here to set up an earthly kingdom, but when he was rejected, he went to plan B. That's what dispensationalism teaches. That is what it teaches. That Christ did come here to be an earthly king. He did come here to be like a divinic-like king, conquering enemies. They say he came here to do that. And that when he couldn't do it, when he failed, then he had to go to plan B. Can you imagine the cross being viewed as plan B? In fact, can you imagine God ever having to have a plan B? Why would God Almighty? How could he be Almighty if there's ever a plan B? Plan B would be the anticipation of plan A failing. And if God is omniscient, how could he not see that that was going to happen? And therefore making him have to have a plan B? That is silliness. See, from the very start of this whole thing, there's a problem understanding God. And if you have a misunderstanding about the nature of God, it affects your entire theological understanding. Plan B. If a person says they're a dispensationalist, if your pastor says they're a dispensationalist, go ask them because this is what they believe. This is what is stated. Christ meant to be a ruler and a king. But when they wouldn't give him his way or whatever, he had to go to plan B. That's got to be some of the dumbest things I've ever heard come out of a Christian's mouth. I know I'm so mean.

Jesus Rejects Earthly Empire Dreams

SPEAKER_00 24:28

Listen to what the disciples asked Jesus. Listen to what the disciples asked our Lord after his resurrection, not before. Listen to what they asked him after in Acts chapter 1, verse 6. Christ resurrects. They see him, talk with him now, and then they ask this question: Will you at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? They asked this question after his resurrection. They still did not get it. So, to some degree, they themselves believed that the first plan failed. They were viewing still, they still did not understand that the cross was not a detour. Because that's this question implies that very idea. The cross had to have been a detour. So now they ask the question so Lord, are you gonna do it now? Now that you resurrected, now are you gonna restore the kingdom to Israel? And notice they say, restore the kingdom to Israel. They still had a dispensationalist mindset. And today, knowing this, how can the dispensationalist, the modern-day Christian, still be supporting this question? Because the dispensationalist is still saying, and asking this question, they're not saying, they're not answering the question, they're saying that this question is presented more or less in a rhetorical fashion, meaning that he is going to do this. We just got the timeline wrong. See, they're always getting the timelines wrong. Because there isn't one that the Lord has ever given. But they ask him, it's it's a if you list Christians, write Acts 1.6 down and go look at this. It's amazing when you understand that this is when you put, when you rec when you really connect the fact that they're asking this question after the resurrection. They weren't thinking, they weren't big thinkers. They're still looking at small things. Okay, now, Lord, now that you resurrected, now that we've seen your power, you came out of that tomb. Are you gonna restore the kingdom back to Israel again? Are we gonna go back? But Christ repeatedly, over and over again, rejected this earthly imperial ambition. Jesus said in John 18, 36, My kingdom is not of this world. He said that before he went to the cross. He told his disciples, My kingdom is not of this world. And what do they ask? Are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel? Well, that wasn't enough. He says in Luke 17, verse 20 and 21, and when he was demanded of the Pharisees, now notice the Pharisees are asking, when he was demanded of the Pharisees when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God does not come with outward observation. You will not be able to say, Lo, he is there, or lo, he is here, for behold, the kingdom of God is what it is within you. The kingdoms that God is colonizing is the kingdom of your soul. He is subduing you. And yet, you have dispensational Christians out there teaching people, no, this is wrong. He's gonna come here back to earth, he's gonna rule and reign in Jerusalem for a thousand years, and all the nations are gonna go over there paying homage. So you're gonna have the glorified Lord Jesus Christ and his glorified body coming back from heaven with glorified saints to live on earth, to dwell among people who have not been glorified, and there's gonna be it goes on and on. It's stupid. Jesus says, This is not the nature of my kingdom. My dominion is in your hearts. I'm going to colonize souls, and I'm gonna add more to this. The Messiah did not come to conquer Rome, he came here to conquer sin. They wanted him to destroy Rome and take them out from under the rule of Roman authority. Jesus did not come here to seize Caesar's throne. He came here to sit upon David's throne in heavenly places where he sits right now. The same error appears, reappears throughout history, over and over again.

Loving America By Sharing Christ

SPEAKER_00 30:12

Empires have risen, believing that God uniquely favors their people, their civilization is superior, their rule is divinely ordained. Other people exist in order to be governed by them. And we as Americans have to remind ourselves daily, especially as Christian Americans, this is not what we ought to be. This should not be our mindset. Sure, if we attack, we need to go, we need to fight back and do what we need to do. However, our mindset cannot be to believe that this is a dessert of ours, to have dominion over anybody, or to feel superior to anyone, or to be believe that our rule is divinely ordained. And see, this is what a lot of us believe here in our own country. And I love America, as many of you, as I'm sure all of you do. But we need to understand that it is our mission to bring people, if you really love your people, if you really love your family, if you really love your fellow citizens, share with them the gospel of Christ. Get rid of all your political platitudes and share the gospel of Christ. That is what makes us the best type of citizen that we can be, even in our own country. I'm not talking about passivity or liberal attitudes and Republican attitudes. That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about having people's hearts prepared. Can you imagine what would happen if half if even if even a quarter of our of our politicians actually serve the Lord Jesus Christ? The language changes. Some speak of civilization, others speak of race, others speak of destiny and progress, and others speak about religion, but the underlying impulse remains remarkably similar. Men claiming for themselves a universal dominion that God has reserved for one man, the God man, his son. It is to he, to him, that all of the nations of the earth will give their due reverence and worship to. In humble submission or in forced submission. From ancient empires to medieval kingdoms, from European colonial powers to modern ideological movements, mankind continually, even to this day, attempt to build a kingdom that reaches to the end of the earth.

Babel's Ambition Still Haunts Us

SPEAKER_00 33:12

The spirit of Babel has never died. The spirit of Babel has never died. In Genesis 11, 4, it reads, At the Tower of Babel, let us make a name. Let's build our reputation. Let's take over this earth. From my standpoint, looking at the landscape of the earth right now, it seems like this is what is happening. There was one people at Tower of Babel. One people, one language, one collective ambition. They sought unity without God. They were searching for unity apart from God. They sought greatness without God. They sought a universal kingdom centered upon themselves. Babel was humanity's first attempt to establish a worldwide dominion.