The Sovereign King
By Rev. Paul Michael Raymond The Covenant News ~ January 03, 2009
As we enter into a New Year, one which is to be most challenging for both the United States and the entire global community, we must reflect back for a moment at the celebration of Christ's Advent festival. What exactly is the meaning of this celebration? What has Western Civilization actually celebrated by recognizing Christ's birth?
The Incarnation of God in the person of Jesus is the most astounding and yet, most misunderstood phenomena ever to grace the history of mankind. While many do indeed pervert the message of salvation, it is not so much that the salvation message is misunderstood per se, but rather it is the message of Christ's Supreme and Universal Lordship that seems to have been erased from the minds of men. While millions upon millions of people throughout the world celebrate His birth, very few understand the ramifications of its true meaning. It is the fact of Christ's supremacy over all areas of life that has been rejected from the scene of the American culture, since it has been either diminished or totally disregarded from the pulpits of liberal preachers. In these postmodern times it is this aspect of the incarnation, i.e. Christ's Lordship and the legitimacy of His supreme Law which is to be recognized, and applied to every culture and institution, that has been abdicated from being the focus of the Christian message.
R.J. Rushdoony once stated, in his work of April 1984, on a Christian Manifesto, "Sovereignty is an attribute of God alone, not of man, nor of the state. God alone is Lord…over all things; over state, school, family, vocations, society and all things else… Civil rulers who rule without the Lord and His Law are, as Augustine said, no different than the mafia, only more powerful."
The regal authority, and Lordship Supremacy, of the babe that was born of Mary has for too long been ignored by Christian laymen and clergy alike. In its place, the church has erected ‘another Jesus' whereby men are no longer bound to covenantal and divine responsibility, but rather it is the Christ who is bound to give men everything their carnal lusts desire and Who must conform to man's ideology and law. The result: a nation and a world on the brink of moral, political, economic and cultural ruin.
The war of religion, which now rages in America against Christianity in particular, has been directly ignited by the
church's failure to understand, and thus declare the Supremacy of Christ, and His legitimate Scriptural authority.
Today's modernized gospel is a fragmented and truncated message, which tends toward an individual, even existential focus, where the only benefit of the coming of Christ at His first advent is self-ward rather than Kingdom ward. The Advent message has become a travesty, focusing upon that "poor little child that had his life cut short by the wicked rulers of His day to save mankind from hell."
Today's Christian modernists desire redemption from hell, to be sure, but not necessarily from the sins that guarantee the wrath of God upon both men and nations. They love to keep Jesus in their mind's eye as the helpless babe, in order to never have to deal with Him as Sovereign Prince, Lawgiver and Judge who brings perfect justice through historical sanctions and stands ready to Judge the nations by His righteous Law.
If our nation and the global community is ever to regain the blessedness of the Lord of Heaven and Earth, the Crown rights of the Sovereign Universal King must once again be the central message of the Gospel of Salvation. For if He is Not Lord, He can never be the Savior.