KINGDOMS IN CONFLICT
When we read the Bible and read history, we see that religious conflict and religious wars have always been a part of life. In simple terms, it could be said that religions are in competition with each other for the hearts, minds and money of followers. If we have any doubt about this, all we need to do is read the news where we routinely find reports of sectarian conflict from around the world. Religions that don’t compete successfully lose members, influence and resources. To guard against such losses, all religious kingdoms engage in activities euphemistically called outreach and evangelism. Sometimes these efforts can be ugly and violent.

Natural history shows that different religions have had seasons of growth and decline in different eras. Regarding Christianity in particular, statistics show that church decline is currently a very real phenomena. But, as we reported in God is Calling People Out of Religion, it appears that religious conflict is increasing. Therefore, no one should make the mistake of thinking that any reports of religious conflict, internal or external, past or present, public or private, have strictly human origins. Whether we recognize it or not, religious conflict is an ongoing phenomenon.

While the human drive for political power and money might be assumed to be the reason for historical religious conflict, the fact is that God has always been, and continues to be, actively involved in religious conflict — but not in the way we might expect. God’s strategy is to not get involved and let religious kingdoms duke it out with each other. His strategy is to let people learn from difficulty and disappointment that no religion and no religious leader can be trusted. And then, when individuals learn that truth, they will stop putting their trust in the words of religious leaders and politicians and start trusting his spoken word.

Sad to say, most religious people do not understand how God works. Sad to say, most religious people believe that if they obey the literal, written laws of the bible, observe certain religious rituals and traditions and pray a lot, God will fulfill all of his promises. And, despite practical experience that disproves the efficacy of these beliefs and habits, they vigorously continue in their religious beliefs and habits. But, no matter how hard they work at it, religion does not deliver to people what they want and deserve. They do not understand that religion cannot get them what they want because the faith that they practice is not the kind of faith that God wants. Religious faith and Godly faith are not the same thing.

Sooner of later, frustration over unfulfilled promises leads religious people to look for human obstacles that prevent God from delivering his promises. The most obvious place to look for culprits is in legislative and judicial bodies where they find unacceptable politicians and judges who, in their view, obstruct God’s will through laws that contradict God’s will as it is interpreted in the literal words of the bible. Those politicians and judges become God’s enemies and their enemies. Furthermore, the political parties that raise up and support those judges and politicians are also labeled as enemies.

The only way to remedy the situation is to replace unacceptable judges and legislators with new ones whose religious views agree with the beliefs of the frustrated, angry religious people who think that their God-given rights and privileges have been denied.

When we identify the role of religious beliefs in the analysis of the attack on Congress, we see that the conflict is not really about politics. It is about religious beliefs. We have well-meaning people on both sides of the political divide who sincerely believe that their politics and their religions are morally correct. Some attribute morals to God, others do not. But, even those who are not overtly religious exercise a kind of religious attitude about their beliefs, and they are no less zealous about the rightness of their beliefs than the people who justify their politics and actions on the literal, written words of the bible. It can be rightly said, therefore, that the conflict we see played out in politics and in the attack on Congress is nothing more or less than a religious conflict.

We see this truth in Bible stories where God uses several religious nations (e.g. Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, Canaan, etc.) to discipline Israel for its unfaithfulness. From this history we have no trouble believing that God continues to discipline any and all religious nations through conflict, even bloody warfare, with other religious nations.

The reason God disciplines religious nations is that they are all in competition with him for the hearts and minds of his people. Instead of directly asserting his own power and authority to punish, however, God disciplines his people by channeling the fleshly inclinations of religious leaders to accomplish his purposes. It is an application the of what others intend for evil, God uses for good principle. If we are careful to read between the lines, we see this principle at work throughout the Bible — most graphically in the death and resurrection of Jesus.

The desire to preserve or increase personal power and wealth is at work in all humans — but especially in religious leaders and politicians. In exercising this impulse, they do many things to create conflict that changes the balance of power in their favor. That might mean more income, more status, more people in their congregation, more degrees/titles, or more knowledge. These all-fit God’s concept of power and wealth. In a variety of ways, God gives religious leaders the ability to create various kinds of wealth to discipline his people. It is part of the “what others meant for evil, God meant for good” principle where God uses power and authority in the hands of religious leaders to discipline people who follow false gods so that they will return to God. It is a principle that exists throughout the Bible in every story of conflict between religious kingdoms and God.

Only people who have escaped from religion come to recognize how desire for various kinds of religious wealth contributes to religious conflict. Their eyes have been opened to see how they have been oppressed, enslaved, and stolen from by religious leaders who use them to advance their own selfish interests.  The more status, influence and money religious leaders have, the greater the potential and power they have to create conflict that touches more people. And they do it all to protect and advance their personal kingdoms.

Oddly enough, when religious leaders are successful, their followers take pride in the success of their leader. They wrongly believe that they are useful and necessary parts of some great spiritual plan to advance God’s heavenly kingdom, not realizing that they have only advanced the earthly kingdoms of religious leaders. It is all part of the deception of religion that God uses to discipline and teach his people to turn from following other gods in Egypt and Babylon and listen to his voice.

The process of learning about the shortcomings of false prophets is accelerated when religious leaders fall. In these difficult times, their followers suffer guilt and shame in the discovery that the one whom they trusted is not the infallible spiritual leader they thought he/she was. Stories of leaders who fall should be wake up calls for followers who should learn to listen to the spirit of God for instruction about God and not trust men. Seeing a beloved leader fall from grace causes a short-term setback for followers, but, sadly, most religious people will soon recruit or find another leader whom they find trustworthy and start all over again.

While they are in control, however, religious leaders apply their lust for power, financial wealth and social capital in big and small ways that enslave those who follow them. In fact, their followers expect leaders to take initiatives to expand their kingdoms. The typical thinking is that what is good for the king or queen, is good for the followers because the followers want a king/queen to fight their battles for them. If a king or queen is not fighting and expanding the kingdom, their spirituality is questioned, the viability of the kingdom is at risk, and the congregation will get nervous. It is a situation ripe for conflict. Seeing an opportunity to advance, a new leader is likely to rise up to fill the power void and take over the an existing kingdom or create a new one. Because this happens in the religious world just like it happens in the natural world, we see examples of conflicts between kingdoms (i.e. gods at war) throughout the Bible.

If a religious leader’s kingdom is not expanding, or at least maintaining membership and influence in the landscape of religious kingdoms, followers will see the religious leader as weak and ineffective and take initiative to replace their king or queen. We see this principle at work often in the natural world where an alpha male must constantly deflect challenges from younger males who want to take over his harem. It is like a beehive in which the queen is not producing new bees. The worker bees will raise up a new queen to succeed the old queen. The worker bees then kill the old queen so the new queen can take over, and the hive thrives again.

We see this pattern again and again in Israel when the king’s bad behaviors trickle down to affect the people so that change is necessary to stabilize the kingdom again. Sometimes the impetus for change comes from within the kingdom, and sometimes change comes from outside the kingdom. Whether from within or without, God is at always at work disciplining and testing his people with conflict and eventual control by religious nations to see if they will keep the way of the LORD.

God makes his point about not following human religious leaders (i.e. Kings, Queens and Princes) throughout the Bible. All stories of warfare and conflict represent striving for power personal and corporate power and influence in the world of religion. Even in the case of Israel we see this conflict in stories about inter-tribal conflict and ultimate division of the northern and southern kingdoms after the death of Solomon. The lesson for us in these modern times is that following worldly kings brings trouble, not peace. Peace can only exist when true worshipers reject religion and worship God in spirit and truth.

In his typical pattern of exaggerating a principle to teach a spiritual lesson, God gives us the stories about an almost endless succession of evil kings, mixed in with only a handful of good kings. See the following table in which only eight of thirty-eight kings are reported to be “good” kings. Notice that many of them came to untimely deaths.

This chart may at first seem like a boring bit of history. But, if we believe that all scripture is useful for training in righteousness, we will dig into the symbolism of these stories to discover something that we can apply to our lives.

One thing we notice in this chart is that at least one-third of all kings, including a few so-called good kings, suffered an untimely death and several more were imprisoned. We don’t hear much about religious people killing religious leaders these days, but it does happen in some religions. In Judaism and Christianity, however, we do not look only to physical killing to find that the lives of religious leaders are perilous and insecure. They may not die physically, but they may die socially, emotionally and financially when they lose their kingdoms. And when we consider that anger is the equivalent of murder in God’s eyes, and count up the number of people we know, perhaps including ourselves, who have expressed anger at religious leaders for one reason or another, we can begin to see that religious leaders in these modern times are assassinated by the power of the tongue.

Next we must assume that these kings were not killed or imprisoned without cause. Religionists who have been used, abused or let down in some way by their religious leaders know firsthand that leaders are imperfect and very capable of doing physical and emotional harm to the people whom they claim to love and serve. When we remember God’s warnings to Israel about the consequences of choosing to have a king, we see that religious leaders (i.e. Kings, Queens and Princes) will give people many reasons to be angry. So now we can begin to see that these stories about kings do have relevance to our lives.