One of the most significant under-the-radar events from history has been on my mind lately.
It concerns the one and only time of political independence that Israel achieved during a 2,500-year period, from 586 B.C., when the Babylonians invaded Judah, till 1948, when the modern nation of Israel was re-established. This happened between the times the Old and New Testaments were written.
After the end of the Old Testament era the Jews were ruled by one foreign power after another. After the Babylonians came the Persians, then the Greeks, then after the breakup of the Greeks, the Syrians. This Syrian group, called the Seleucids, tried to harshly impose Greek culture and stamp out the Jewish religion. Things hit the tipping point when a Seleucid ruler, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, set up an altar to Zeus on the temple grounds and offered pig’s blood on the altar. This sparked a revolt (called the Maccabean revolt). The Jews were eventually victorious. This was in 160 B.C. Israel was independent again. Certainly it would be glorious!
But it wasn’t. It went downhill fast. The nation fell into infighting and factions and eventually descended into civil war, which prompted Roman intervention. The whole time of independence lasted, depending on how you measure it, was from 80 to 100 years. Then they were back to being ruled by pagan foreigners again; this time, the Romans.
Israel’s time of independence must certainly have been seen by some as an epic advancement of the Kingdom of God, but it ended in failure. It did not loom large in Jewish history. Perhaps this explains why it is never mentioned in the New Testament.
But the hope for a political/military restoration was still alive in Jesus’ day. Jesus felt pressure to be a militaristic type of messiah. Disaffection with the nature of Jesus’ mission–which was spiritual as opposed to political–may have contributed to his betrayal by Judas. And even Jesus’ followers, even at His last moments on earth before He ascended to heaven, asked him “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6). Old habits die hard.
It was not time for the restoration of the kingdom yet. The more overt and political aspects of the Messiah would have to wait until Jesus’ second coming.
This brings us to some thoughts on the nature of the Kingdom of God. Is it already here or is it still to come? The answer is: both.
It is already here because Jesus brought it with him. It is a kingdom of a spiritual nature, living inside the hearts of His followers: “Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, ‘The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, “Here it is,” or “There it is,” because the kingdom of God is within you’,” (Luke 17:20-21). So, in that internal sense, it is already here.
But we have to wait for the other aspect of the kingdom. We will know it when it happens: “So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the desert,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man,” (Matthew 24:26-27).
In the meantime, while we wait for the second coming, what should we do?
Some might think we can ‘build the kingdom of God on earth’. I’ve heard some church service projects promoted this way: “Come help us build God’s Kingdom.” But I don’t think it is right to phrase it that way. God builds and brings the Kingdom; our part is to go along with it. We cooperate with His Kingdom. We are subjects of it; we don’t build it.
What are some ways we can cooperate with this internal Kingdom that presently exists in our hearts? Service and mission projects are obvious examples. Evangelism is another. I’d like to add another example, one that is too-often overlooked: get involved in the political process, at least through voting.
We live in a time of moral crisis when things once considered unthinkable are now commonplace. Abortion, homosexuality, transgender surgery on minors, massive overspending…sometimes it seems like a deliberate abandonment of every biblical principle.
Voting rightly, voting with biblical principles in mind, can be an act of righteousness like any other. It is one of the many ways God’s truth and righteousness can be manifested through the church. The scriptures state that it is the responsibility of the God-established government to rewards good and punish evil (Romans 13:1-7). There is that a moral fiber to it. If it is a government that allows the people to choose its own leaders (and we should be glad that ours is), then those who have God’s Kingdom inside them can guide things in a just and righteous direction. Our nation’s founding fathers said many things along the lines of virtue and morality being indispensable for our form of government. John Adams, our second president, said: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
Compare that to this: just this week Gavin Newsom, governor of California, has proposed taxpayer-funded transgender surgeries for illegal aliens. How would the founding fathers react to that? Newsom has obvious presidential aspirations. He’s polling a close second for the democratic party presidential nomination for 2026. This is beyond madness. John Kennedy, the great U.S. Senator from Louisiana, said: “I believe that we are going to have to get some new conspiracy theories. All the old ones turned out to be true.” The evils of progressivism have wormed its way deep into our nation’s society. It’s taken us places no one could have imagined. We’ve got a serious moral crisis here.
Politics, elections, and voting might not seem to be very spiritual. Admittedly, some make too much of it. But while politics isn’t everything; it is something. Voting for the right and against evil is a form of Christian discipleship, it is nothing less than an act of Christian righteousness especially in these insane times where the unthinkable has become commonplace.
Christians should do all the good they can in every way they can, including through politics. The midterm elections are coming up in November.