The End Time Church: From the Cathedrals to the Catacombs

By Dan L. White

Copyright ©2017 by Dan L. White, all rights reserved.

Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (WEB) which is in the public domain.

Chapter 40

Two Kingdoms

Two kingdoms, in continuous conflict, each trying to eliminate the other.

One is the Kingdom of God. Christ spoke often about that kingdom.

Mark 1:14-15
14) Now after John was taken into custody, Yeshua came into Galilee, preaching the Good News of the Kingdom of God,
15) and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand! Repent, and believe in the Good News.”

Luke 8:1
1) It happened soon afterwards, that he went about through cities and villages, preaching and bringing the good news of the Kingdom of God. With him were the twelve,

Christ had good reason to teach about the Kingdom of God. After all, that’s why He was sent.

Luke 4:43
43) But he said to them, “I must preach the good news of the Kingdom of God to the other cities also. For this reason I have been sent.”

The Kingdom of God, also called the Kingdom of Heaven, is not of this world, not of this present age.

John 18:36
36) Yeshua answered, “My Kingdom is not of this world. If my Kingdom were of this world, then my servants would fight, that I wouldn’t be delivered to the Jews. But now my Kingdom is not from here.”

Paul wrote that the Kingdom of God is not a fleshly kingdom.

1Cor 15:50
50) Now I say this, brothers, that flesh and blood can’t inherit the Kingdom of God; neither does corruption inherit incorruption.

The Kingdom of God has its beginning in its King and his redeemed, but the fullness of it is still to come.

Luke 21:5-7, 28-31
5) As some were talking about the temple and how it was decorated with beautiful stones and gifts, he said,
6) “As for these things which you see, the days will come, in which there will not be left here one stone on another that will not be thrown down.”
7) They asked him, “Teacher, so when will these things be? What is the sign that these things are about to happen?”

28) But when these things begin to happen, look up, and lift up your heads, because your redemption is near.”
29) He told them a parable. “See the fig tree, and all the trees.
30) When they are already budding, you see it and know by your own selves that the summer is already near.
31) Even so you also, when you see these things happening, know that the Kingdom of God is near.

So the fullness of the kingdom is yet to come. The Messiah’s followers who will be in the Kingdom of God are often described as a flock. Yahweh, or Yeshua, led Israel through the wilderness like a flock of sheep.

Ps 77:20
20) You led your people like a flock, by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

Ps 78:52
52) But he led forth his own people like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

However, Israel acted more like goats than sheep, leading to a new flock.

Isa 40:10-11
10) Behold, the Lord Yahweh will come as a mighty one, and his arm will rule for him. Behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.
11) He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom. He will gently lead those who have their young.

Ezek 34:22-23
22) therefore will I save my flock, and they shall no more be a prey; and I will judge between sheep and sheep.
23) I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd.

In his earthly years, Yeshua often referred to his followers as His flock.

Luke 12:32
32) Don’t be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.

John 10:1-16
1) “Most certainly, I tell you, one who doesn’t enter by the door into the sheep fold, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.
2) But one who enters in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.
3) The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out.
4) Whenever he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.
5) They will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him; for they don’t know the voice of strangers.”
6) Yeshua spoke this parable to them, but they didn’t understand what he was telling them.
7) Yeshua therefore said to them again, “Most certainly, I tell you, I am the sheep’s door.
8) All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn’t listen to them.
9) I am the door. If anyone enters in by me, he will be saved, and will go in and go out, and will find pasture.
10) The thief only comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.
11) I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
12) He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who doesn’t own the sheep, sees the wolf coming, leaves the sheep, and flees. The wolf snatches the sheep, and scatters them.
13) The hired hand flees because he is a hired hand, and doesn’t care for the sheep.
14) I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and I’m known by my own;
15) even as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. I lay down my life for the sheep.
16) I have other sheep, which are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will hear my voice. They will become one flock with one shepherd.

That flock is the beginning of the Kingdom of God —

One of the two conflicting kingdoms.

The other kingdom is of this world.

1John 5:19
19) We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

When Satan offered Christ the kingdoms of this world if Yeshua would worship him, those were Satan’s to give.

Matt 4:8-9
8) Again, the devil took him to an exceedingly high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world, and their glory.
9) He said to him, “I will give you all of these things, if you will fall down and worship me.”

The kingdoms of this world are Satan’s kingdom.

During Christ’s earthly life, the seat of this world’s kingdom was Rome, the apex of worldly kingdoms. Even to this day Rome is widely praised for its efficient government administration.

So how did Rome — this world’s kingdom, Satan’s kingdom — govern?

The hallmark of the Roman Empire was its extensive system of imperial administration, which included a hierarchy of magistrates and provincial governors.[1]

Which is to say, the prime mark of the Roman Empire was its smothering government bureaucracy, the penultimate pyramid of power.

At the top of the pyramid was the emperor, Augustus being the first.

Augustus built a foundation for his rule by consolidating political power in himself. At the same time, he maintained the veneer of the old republican political institutions by preserving the Senate, popular assemblies, and magisterial offices, though over time these bodies became more ceremonial than functional, merely rubber-stamping the decrees of the emperor. Augustus also reshaped the Senate, reducing its number from over one thousand to six hundred by weeding out senators he considered unworthy and handpicking its membership.[2]

Rome governed – and Satan governs – by centralizing power in a person. The first emperor Augustus kept the Roman Senate, giving the appearance of still having the Republic. However, the Senate was reduced in number, then the senators were handpicked by the emperor and therefore controlled by the emperor. It was no longer a Republic Senate, just a Rubber Stamp. They were not a check on the power of the emperor. They were just a part of the emperor’s pyramid of power.

Augustus and his successors built a system of imperial government to administer the empire’s vast territories and link them to the capital. This system, which allowed the provinces some measure of independence while being subject to Roman taxation and military control—functions crucial for the maintenance of the empire—proved quite efficient. Augustus settled former soldiers in the provinces, thus spreading Roman political and cultural influence and securing his power in distant lands…[3]

The emperor controlled Roman administration as he had done with the Senate. Every government position was an extension of the emperor’s power — just a piece of the pyramid.

The period of peace and prosperity inaugurated by Augustus persisted until the end of the second century, the high-water mark of the Roman Empire. By this time, the empire had attained an unprecedented degree of organization and unity—a remarkable achievement for such a large and diverse set of territories. This unity was attributed directly to the emperor: whereas under the Republic Romans’ chief loyalty had been to the state and its institutions, under the empire the emperor himself became their primary allegiance. Throughout the empire, cults were formed to worship the emperor and his family.[4]

Notice that the focus was placed on one powerful person, so much so that the person in power was even worshiped.

The emperors from Augustus through Marcus Aurelius (121–180) continued to strengthen their position and prerogatives. Many emperors came up through the military, and they used the power of the army to secure their rule. By the second century the emperor was named in public documents as dominus noster (Our Master), and his decrees were legally binding—indeed, all laws came from the emperor in the form of edicts, judgments, and mandates…[5]

All laws came from the emperor. His word was law. Naturally then, it was unlawful to disagree with the dictator who made the laws. After all, he was dominus noster, “Our Master.”

The emperor was known as the princeps (first citizen) during the first two centuries of the empire. Under this system, called the principate, the emperor consolidated the political power of several offices that had existed under the Republic: He took on the executive functions and imperium (absolute authority) of the consul (chief magistrate) and the religious authority of the pontifex maximus (high priest). Additionally, the emperor was invested with two other types of absolute authority: imperium proconsulare, governorship and command of the provinces, and imperium proconsulare maius, the power to trump any magistrate anywhere in the empire. Over time, the emperor took on all lawmaking authority…[6]

The emperor was imperium consul, pontifex maximus, imperium proconsulare, and imperium proconsulare maius. In other words, he was it. The government of Rome that is so praised for efficiency was that way because it bulldozed over individual freedoms.

That was how Rome governed – an extensive system of imperial administration under the emperor.

That’s how Satan governs.

Satan’s kingdom has power centralized in a person. That person is evil to whatever degree before they receive that power, then their evil is magnified by that power. Roman emperors are without exception signets of unchained human nature, the evil embodied in the human heart allowed free rein by royal reign.

Under that powerful person are political appointees who serve the centralized power. This pyramid of power is upheld by force of arms, soldiers whose sole purpose is not to uphold right and wrong but only to uphold the centralized power. The emperor or king or party chairman or fuhrer is right and it is wrong to even question whether he is right.

For example, in 30 CE the Roman emperor Tiberius had Herod in Galilee and Pilate in Judea. They were appointed by Rome and sought to serve Rome. Pilate knew that killing an innocent and righteous man was wrong, yet when the Jews threatened him with not being a friend of Caesar, he did what he knew was wrong because of Rome. The Jews themselves condemned Yeshua to death, to solidify their position with Rome. The Roman soldiers tortured and executed a man they didn’t even know, because they served Rome. They never questioned whether Rome was right because Rome itself was right. The soldiers were merely pawns of Roman power.

Those enslaved under such a government are indoctrinated not to individually evaluate right and wrong because the power itself is said to be right. You do not question whether or not the pharaoh, king, Caesar, Fuhrer or party chairman is right, simply because he cannot be wrong. To question whether or not the Fuhrer is right is itself wrong. You’re being disloyal to the Fuhrer.

This is extremely important to understand. This causes people to not individually judge what is right and wrong. They simply have someone else tell them what is right and wrong. When people are told to do wrong, they think they are doing right, because their leader told them it is right, and the leader is always right.

Why did so many Germans fight to the bitter end in World War II? After the imbecilic invasion of the Soviet Union, Germany had no chance of winning a war on multiple fronts, yet the Germans fought on, even to the last block around Hitler’s bunker in Berlin. Why? Why did Germans accept attacking so many nations who had not attacked Germany? Why did Germans participate in crimes against humanity seldom heard of in human history? Why did Germans give up their own lives and well being in a futile and fatal cause?

They did that because they thought they were doing right, because serving the Fuhrer was right.

Heil, Hitler.

This happens over and over in history, as in Rome, Socialist Germany, and Communist China, etc. The focus is subtly shifted from what is right to who is right. People then stop judging what is right and wrong, and simply accept their leader as being right. This is Satan’s prime tool of deception, giving up free will to follow the leader’s will.

This type of government is said to be from the top down. It is not. It is government from the bottom up, because somebody on the bottom gets in front of God. In this government, God does not set right and wrong. The human leader does. And when Satan centralizes human government in such a leader, all he has to do then is control that one person and he controls everybody who follows that person.

As can be seen today in most accounts of the Roman Empire, this type of government is often praised because of its ability to control the people. How does it control the people? By not allowing them the freedom to disagree. They are not unified by the spirit but by force. Unify or die.

The Roman Republic had been founded on the premise of rejecting this type of total government control. But after years of civil war in Rome, an all controlling government was accepted and embraced by the Romans because of its peace keeping ability. Most were content to follow and even worship the emperor, and any who actively disagreed were inactivated.

When this type of government is combined with a charismatic messianic leader, it is viewed as the epitomical human government. Its subjects are emotionally inspired while they’re spiritually numbed. When Hitler became chancellor of Germany in January 1933, a million Germans joyfully took to the streets to celebrate. They no longer had to judge right and wrong. It was right for the National Socialists to outlaw all other political parties because the Fuhrer said so. It was right to hate and kill Jews because the Fuhrer said so. It was right to invade Czechoslovakia and Poland and Belgium and Holland and France and Russia because the Fuhrer said so. Germany would win an impossible war because the Fuhrer said so. They knew the Fuhrer was right so all they had to do was follow the Fuhrer.

Because of their maniacal messianic support of the Fuhrer, sixty million people died, including many of those on that march.

When Yeshua began His new covenant flock, two parallel kingdoms were in continuous conflict, each trying to eliminate the other. One is the Kingdom of God, with Christ and His flock. The other is the kingdom of Satan, typified by Rome, with territories conquered by war, an economy supported by slavery, peace enforced by soldiers and a pyramid of power that spread a blanket of suffocating government control.

And that’s how Satan’s kingdom is governed.

How is the other kingdom governed? How does a Shepherd lead a flock? Does He have a human messianic leader with his own personal pyramid of power, like Rome?

Endnotes

[1] “Roman Empire”, Gale Encyclopedia of World History: Governments http://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcriptand-maps/roman-empire

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid.