Can world events change a revelation about God’s character? In this series of articles I’m briefly examining history and how the American Revolution restored the gospel of grace to the world.
The Kingdom Message of The Church
I need you to recognize how at this moment, as you read this article, you are only able to do so because of events which happened within the founding of this nation. For all that I have expressed so far, the majority of people (99.5%) in those experiences could neither read nor write. The letters the Apostle Paul wrote to the churches he founded, were often written by another in the language of those people and then read to those churches. It was extremely rare to find an individual who was capable of reading and writing in the native language. This is why Jesus proclaimed that direct revelation would be the basis for his church. People couldn’t read about the church of Jesus from the writings of an expert. They had to believe that God would reveal it to them.
As noble a thought of direct revelation from God might appear to the masses it was corrupted by the dealing of a State apparatus seeking to retain and strength the power over the populace. Hence, any language expressed about the nature of a heavenly kingdom would be framed in expressions which supported the present conditions familiar to the people. There is no inherit difference with the nature of a human king or a divine king when you mention how grace is the unmerited favor of the monarch. Since kingdoms are defined by their conquests, there is no difference whether it is a neighboring realm or the realm of darkness. The Church merely became an intermediary to the nature of kingdom influence by employing divine linguistics as a mediating tool to the masses.
The Kingdom Message by Revolution
Up until the American Revolution the message of the Kingdom of Heaven changed very little except to instill greater penalties upon the fallen human condition before an all-powerful deity. The mention of grace was uniquely offered to only those who were the worst of the worst (according to the dictates of The Church) and solely with a contrite heart towards the kingdom’s premise. The following description has been a common depiction of what grace is:
Grace is the unmerited favor of God. It is His undeserved love, mercy, and kindness that He gives to us freely. It is a gift from God that we cannot earn or deserve.
This is more than likely how you have understood grace for your entire life. However, this description is bound to the construct of all man-made kingdoms. When the American Revolution occurred, the true nature of a heavenly kingdom became apparent to those who had eyes to see and ears to hear. Thomas Jefferson penned a heroic claim in the Declaration of Independence which many today simply do not comprehend:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Never in the course of human history had mankind ever been recognized as being equal in position or stature with others. Nor had any rights been recognized as assigned by the Creator upon all humanity. In every instance prior to the revolution, kings, emperors, dictators, and rulers had direct control upon the condition of their subjects. The difference in classes was most prominent within the kingdoms of the world. If you weren’t the ruler, all cowered to the power the sovereign held over them. That power determined the issues of life, liberty, and happiness upon all. To be “in the good graces” of the king made life bearable, while “being out of the good graces” of the king put a bounty on your head, and possibly your entire family.
The Declaration of Independence redefined what it meant to be in relationship to God. God as Creator shifted the focus of mankind to the effect He holds on the entire world rather than just a small portion of it. “Unmerited favor,” “mercy,” “gift which isn’t earned or deserved” became terms unbridled to the bounds of the character of a few select men and their institutions.
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