A Man-directed or Christ-directed Kingdom?

Now we have come to the most important issue found in this booklet. The question is, are Christians to take their faith and their gifts and go forth to attempt to deliver the world, to set up the Kingdom of God? Or should the believers wait patiently on the Lord until He shows us what to do, and guides and empowers us in doing the necessary work of the Kingdom? Will the Lord Himself build His own Church on the Rock, or does He expect us to build the Church? Will all these wonderful aspects of redemption drop down from Heaven some day as a persecuted remnant waits patiently before the Lord, or are the Christians to use their faith and energy to produce a triumphant Church that will take its place as the head of the nations?

For two thousand years the Christian churches have attempted to use the things of God, in addition to numerous physical devices including human talents, energy, wisdom, and especially money, and by them set up the Kingdom of God on the earth. Such efforts have not endured and shall never endure.

For several centuries the Catholic Church used every ability of the flesh, including political intrigue, treachery, and the torture and murder of its adversaries, in its attempt to establish what it believes to be the Kingdom of God, the will of God, on the earth. It has stopped at nothing and will yet stop at nothing in order to accomplish its own ends.

Today there is a movement among Christians termed Reconstructionism. Reconstructionism, if I understand the movement, is an attempt by Christian people to employ faith, the gifts of the spirit, politics, money, and whatever else can be brought to bear in order to establish the Kingdom of God on the earth. This effort is well-intentioned but, like the efforts of the Catholic Church, it is not in accordance with God's Word.

The moral depravity, the abortions, the sexual perversity, and all the other abominations that are filling the nations of the earth have irritated and disgusted Christian people until they are ready to take action. "Let us arise and put a stop to this corruption. Church of God, on your feet. Up from the pews. March forward in the name of the Lord Jesus."

Recently a major Pentecostal organization called for morality in the government of the United States of America. Perhaps it would be a better idea for the organization to stress moral behavior among its own people. The problems of the world will not be solved as secular governments repent and obey the laws of the Kingdom but as the Lord's people repent and obey the laws of the Kingdom (II Chronicles 7:14).

To be continued.