Seeking Hegemony Power For Its Own Sake
By Al Cronkrite The Covenant News ~ April 28, 2006
Power controls the affairs in our world. I have written several essays on this subject.
Man was created to act as a sub-agent to the primary source of power. Power belongs to the Creator and when men seek it for themselves they often use it improperly.
My erstwhile mentor, a crusty Irishman uneducated but physically strong and full of wisdom, would often remark that in our Democratic system we elect the wrong individuals. Seeking political office is a quest for power and the pursuit of power is the wrong motivation for righteous government. His analysis was correct as it pertains to secular politicians.
Every politician should be seeking God and His Will because God is the only source of the immutable righteousness that is impervious to the distortion of human opinion. He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, His mandates are unchanging; men may distort them but they remain the only rock on which a righteous society can be built.
The life of John the Baptist is a sterling example of humble obedience and Godly confrontation. Though he had hundreds maybe even thousands of followers he clearly expressed his lowly stature as only a messenger while strongly denouncing as unlawful King Herod’s dalliance with his Brother Phillip’s wife, Herodias. Reproving the king’s conduct cost John his life. Jesus offered him high praise.
At the time of Christ the power structure of Jewish civilization was centered in the Sanhedrin which was a seventy one member organization made up of different religious elements including both Pharisees and Sadducees. The Sanhedrin’s power was only limited by the tyranny of Rome. It was thought to be dominated by the Pharisees.
The occupied nation of Israel was not unfamiliar with the gift of power. God had chosen them as a people and as a nation and had blest them with a string of unusually powerful successes. However, the continuation of this blessing was contingent on obedience to His commandments and Israel had over a long period of time failed in fulfilling the contingency. One of their major failures involved the imputation of human righteousness to their priestly offices. Jesus discerned this arrogance and bestowed upon it His most strident criticism.
It was the quest to preserve human power that was responsible for Israel’s failure to recognize and apprehend the advent of their Savior and the blessings that were rightfully theirs; that failure remains with the Jews to this day.
Even before Jesus began His ministry, Pharisees and Levites were sent to question John the Baptist concerning his station and his ministry. Their concern was not about proper preparations for the coming of Messiah but rather about a challenge to their powerful positions.
They were humanists and they bequeathed a humanistic religion.
The quest to obtain and maintain human power is a murderous quest.
For several hundred years inquisitions were used to forcibly convert individuals to the Catholic faith and if that failed to brand them heretics and burn them at the stake. This usurpation of God’s power resulted in the torture and death of thousands.
When Martin Luther began the Reformation by confronting abuses that had become common practice in the Catholic Church he exposed himself to a charge of heresy and ultimately came close to losing his life by being convicted.
In a mirror image of the Pharisaical rejection of Jesus the Catholic Church had usurped the delegated power God gave them and begun to use it for their own humanistic ends. Instead of repenting from the sin that had permeated their church, they used human power to erase the obvious. Herod had done the same by beheading John the Baptist.
Today, the entire spectrum of the Christian religion, Catholics, Protestants, Evangelicals, Charismatics, Independent churches, home churches, and the 150 or so different denominational churches are all unwieldy, unteachable, and largely apostate. Power that should be exerted to extend God’s hegemony over His creation is being used to support a Zionist agenda.
American anti-Semites complain loudly about the power the Jews have acquired in America. Jews are used to having power. As I wrote in the above paragraphs, when God chose them as a people and as a nation He delegated to them unusual powers. The Pharisees claimed God’s powers as their own and secular Jews have continued to follow that pattern over the centuries. They have assumed that it was their privilege to have dominion and been successful in their quest.
Secular Jewish dominion is to a great extent a result of Christian abdication. In 70 AD at the time of the Diaspora Jewish leaders had not only consistently failed to obey God’s Commandments but had rejected and called for the death of God’s Son, their Savior. As a result, God rejected both Israel and the Jews and grafted in Christians and the Christian Church. It is now incumbent on Christians to march forth with the assurance that God has empowered them to take dominion and on the Christian Church to appropriate the power and blessings God has bestowed upon it. Both individual Christians and the Christian Church must obey God’s Commandments in order to maintain that blessing.
Pharisaical arrogance should not be a part of the New Covenant but a determined persistent quest for dominion backed by the power of the Holy Spirit should be the main thrust in the life of every Christian. It should be the subject of every sermon and the major quest of God’s Church.
I can hear the squealing and squawking already. The idea is utopian. We cannot expect that a diverse society could willingly come under the legal mandates of the Living God. Some Christians will say their mission is to support political parties or to convert sinners. Others will believe they need to work within the system to bring about Godly change.
Let me leave you with a thought. Some 70% of America’s citizens claim to be Christians and maybe half of those worship the Lord with some enthusiasm. With close to 300 million citizens at least 100 million should be live, enthusiastic Christians. United States is home to less than 10 million Jews. At a minimum Christians outnumber Jews by a ratio of 10 to one. With odds of that sort Christians should hang their heads in shame for allowing our Nation to fall into the hands of secular Jewish power and particularly so since that power is tantamount to the very spirit Jesus vehemently condemned.