and get into another
Believers were cast out, excommunicated, deported and chose separation.
John 9:35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God?
Jealousy, envy, and greed brought persecution to the early Christians as they became successful in their separate and holy Kingdom, established by Jesus the Christ (anointed king). Those persecutions kept the Body of Christians pure from the corruption that was so prevalent in that day and now in our own time.
When Constantine legalized the church, with the edict of Milan, some were already on the road to corruption. As the legal church began a fornicating relationship with the kingdoms of men, true Christians departed to the remote ends of the earth. Christians were eventually persecuted by both the kingdoms of men and the legal churches, reciprocally empowered by each other.
Today, legal churches are not incorporated in the body of Christ, but in the body of man made governments. The few duties that the church still performs are done so by the authority vested in them by the state and therefore they serve the State. They still claim their right to tithe but have relinquished the obligation of the daily ministration to the state, having squandered the tithing on temples of stone and wood and glass. These churches claim that God has ordained that men should not only bow down to these governments but that we are to serve them with our sweat and our blood.
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." 1
Men in the world today have returned to the corvee' slavery that God had taken them from in Egypt. Because of the subtle economic and social oppression, women cast out their children by the tens of thousands each year in government endorsed abortions. Large sections of the population feast on the sweat and blood of those living souls who toil in service to man made institutions. The prophetic warnings of Samuel are accepted as the should be fate of all patriotic Christians.
If we are to listen to the apostate churches we would have to conclude that Enos should have built a city, that Cain was right in establishing the city of Enoch; Abraham should have stayed in Ur or at least in Haran; the Israelites were better off in Egypt; that Paul should not have departed from Rome; and that we should serve the United States Federal Democracy, its Emperor (Comander in chief), its Principas Civitas (first citizen, chief executive officer, president) and its Apo Theos originator of gods (god, ruling magistrate, appointor of justices)2.
Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation. Judges 10:14
Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free,
and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. (Ga 5:1)
Simon Peter
And the keys
And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Matthew 16:19
We are supposed to believe this is when Jesus put Simon Bar Jona in Charge of his Church. It is only in Matthew that this story is even told. So how significant is it?
The keys to the kingdom are the covenants, contracts and constructive obligations made and unmade with the world and its rulers by the consent and deeds of men. Our word, our oaths, our actions, our conversation with the world and the things and people of the world bring us closer to God or farther away.
The message of God is told in Old and New Testaments. God is the same today as he was yesterday but as we grow we must also grow into a greater understanding of the word of God, of His Character, precepts and principles.
Over and over in the Bible he tells us not to make covenants with the world and their gods.
Exodus 23:32 Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.
God tells his not to bind themselves with other but to throw down their altars.
Judges 2:2 And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: but ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this?
What are their altars? What is God's altar and what does it look like?
Is this just Old Testament? Jesus almost never gave specific instruction in the Bible. Most of what has come down to us through that text were parables. He did several times give specific instructions
The keys to the kingdom are:
What you bind on earth is bound in heaven.And
What you loose on earth is loosed in heaven.
These are the keys to the kingdom of heaven.
Servanda pacta sunt. Agreements must be kept.
But having the keys is not entering the gate.
What is the kingdom of heaven on earth like?
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field. Matthew 13:44
Who is willing to give up all he has and the life God has given him for the sake of the kingdom? When you die you will have lost all but who is willing to loose or lose all to be able to live in the Kingdom of God on earth?
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it. Matthew 13:45
Many people want to live in the kingdom of Heaven on earth but they want to live comfortably with their stuff, too. They are interested in what the Kingdom of Heaven can provide them but they are not quite as interested in what they can do for the Kingdom of Heaven.
Jesus advised us:
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Matthew 6:19, 21
This was not a new idea to the teachings in Israel. It was clear in the law and the wisdom of the original testament that the:
Treasures of wickedness profit nothing: but righteousness delivereth from death. Proverbs 10:2
The world, and the gentile princes that govern it take their wealth from the people of their world by force, fear and lies. They are not righteous in their ruler-ship though they may be legal rulers of men by consent or debt or participation which is apparent consent.
1 - Benjamin Franklin
2 The three offices delivered after election, solemnized by oath, to Caesar Augustus and other subsequent rulers of that day and this day.