Will the Gentiles Also Look Beyond the Mark?

  The Kingdom of God:  Both Religious and Political

The kingdom of God is both religious and political: the religious having to do with the gospel of Jesus Christ and individual salvation, and the political having to do with governments and national or corporate salvation. Like husband and wife, these two classifications are distinct yet synergistic components of one complete unit. Consider the categorization enumerated below.⁽⁵⁾

On the one hand, the religious realm deals with the gospel of Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice wrought at his first coming, through which individuals may overcome the effects of sin. On the other hand, the political realm deals with the proper role of governments in preserving mankind's freedom. Christ's second coming pertains to his delivering his covenant people as a corporate body from physical captivity. The Law of Moses pointed to Christ's first coming and all that it entailed. The Abrahamic covenant points to Christ's second coming and all it entails. The Jews, who were stewards of the first, focused their expectations on the second coming. The Gentiles, who are stewards of the second, now focus their efforts on the first coming. Will the Gentiles also reject their Messiah, only on different terms, this time pertaining to things political? Will they also look beyond the mark?

To be numbered among God's people, we must be valiant in both realms. Pointing to our ultimate salvation, John said that Christ "hath made us kings and priests unto God...."⁽⁶⁾ Does God offer mankind a selection of either becoming priests (and priestesses) or becoming kings (and queens), as if they could obtain one and not inherit the other? Can the Gentiles inherit God's kingdom by professing devotion to the religious to the exclusion of the political? Were the Jews justified in clamoring for the political to the expense of the religious?

When Zion is established, the kingdom of God will be set up as both a religious and political institution. Church and State will not be separated. They will be merged. The inhabitants of Zion will not be adherents to one or the other; they will be adherents to both.

If the Jews, who were God's chosen people, looked beyond the mark, how much more need have the gentiles to beware lest they do the same? Paul cautioned the Gentiles, "For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee."⁽⁷⁾ The only way to not be "cut off" from the tree of God's kingdom is to "continue in his goodness...; be not highminded, but fear."⁽⁸⁾ "...If thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own olive tree?"⁽⁹⁾ The Lord of the vineyard's instructions to his pruners is, "Begin at the last that they may be first, and that the first may be last...."⁽¹⁰⁾ Anciently, the Jews were plucked out, and the Gentiles were grafted in; but in the latter days, the reverse is going to take place: "...Blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved..., for this is my covenant unto them."⁽¹¹⁾

The goal for us individually, is to not be numbered among those who will reject the Messiah in his latter-day mission, but to be numbered among God's chosen people by clearly understanding the issues set forth for our time and responding appropriately.⁽¹²⁾ This would include hearkening to the political responsibilities that are laid on this generation.

Due to the complementary nature of the religious and the political, a look at the gospel will reveal some fundamental correlations to government, which will enable one to more fully understand and perform his duty. On the religious level, an individual is given commandments from God. Obedience brings salvation and disobedience brings damnation: freedom on the one hand and slavery on the other. Because all men sin and fall short of the glory of God, Jesus wrought the atonement to pay the price of sin and enable one to repent and be purified.

On the political level as well, God has ordained correct principles for governing nations. When nations deviate from those principles, freedom is eroded and slavery ensues. When this takes place, only the Lord's intersession can deliver a penitent people from that captivity.

Another important correlation is the tempter-temptee relationship. In the case of an individual, two forces are at work to cause a person to sin. Satan tempts, and the person yields. So long as an individual remains obedient to God, Satan has no power over him. But once the person yields to sin, the cycle of captivity begins to take effect until the person is brought down to hell. All the while, the person may be redeemed if he will turn to God for deliverance.

Thus it is with nations. As long as a nation remains virtuous, forces that would seek to overthrow its freedom are restrained. But when the people in that nation begin to become wicked, the cycle of captivity ensues as secret combinations infiltrate and usurp the liberty of the land until ultimately utter destruction occurs. All the while, if that nation repents and turns to God, God can bring about their deliverance and make them free once more.

How are we as Christians doing in this land of liberty? Are we providing righteous leaven for the loaf of society? Have we been a light to the world and the saviors of men?⁽¹³⁾ Or are we as the children of Israel: being more influenced by the world than the other way around?

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Endnotes:

5. Sterling D. Allan, "Chapter Three: The Kingdom of God: Both Religious and Political," The Vision of All: Our Past, Present and Future as Foretold in Book of Mormon History, 2nd Ed., 1991.

6. Rev. 1:6.

7. Rom. 11:21,17; Jacob 5:7,9. Jacob introduces this chapter about the wild and natural branches of the Lord's vineyard with a reference to the Jew's looking beyond the mark. (Jacob 4:14.) His stated purpose for citing Zenos' allegory is to explain the mystery of how it is possible that the Jews "after having rejected the sure foundation, can ever build upon it, that it may become the head of their corner." (Jacob 4:17.) The mysterious statements Jacob cites in Jacob 4:15-17, and then explains through Zenos' allegory, are from Isaiah 28:13,16,29, which Jesus also quoted in Matthew 21:42-44.

8. Rom. 11:22,20; Jacob 5:69,65,48.

9. Rom. 11:24; Jacob 5:36,37,54.

10. Jacob 5:63.

11. Rom. 11:25-27; Jacob 5:75; 6:2; Isa. 11:11; 2 Nephi 21:11.

12. 2 Nephi 30:2; 28:32; Rom. 11:17; Jacob 5:64.

13. Matt. 5:13; 3 Nephi 12:13; Doctrine and Covenants 103:9,10.

"Would God that ALL the Lord's People Were PROPHETS"

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