A friend said....

A friend of mine named Kevin was about twenty years old when he wrote the following in 2005:America has always been the antithesis of the Kingdom of God. I have been studying the book of Daniel lately with some friends at the workplace (don't worry, I'm not in a church service, LOL). In Daniel chapter 2 we read about a dream that King Nebuchadnezzar had, of an image with a head of gold, shoulders of silver, loins of bronze, and legs of iron, feet of iron mixed with clay. These, according to Daniel, represented the coming world empires, of which King Nebuchadnezzar's Babylon was the first. The empires that have followed have all been part and parcel of that original Babylonian structure. America is Babylon. Just as Rome was Babylon, Christendom was Babylon, etc. Babylon has dominated world history since the time of Daniel and will until Allah sends his son, Jesus, to destroy the kingdoms of the this world and set up his kingdom.

The Kingdom of God is not a re-structured human government. It is human anarchy, divine rule. Trying to reform human governments does not give us something "closer" to the Kingdom of God. The only "closer" there is is the "closer" contained in our own spirits, for, in this time when Babylon still reigns on the slaves and feasts on the martyrs, Jesus' words are truer than ever before. Luke 17:21 - the kingdom of God is within us. We can release this kingdom in our own personal sphere of influence, by thanking God for every moment that we live in, by accepting each breath as a gift. Then our inner peace will flow out and transform our own lives and our own spheres of influence.

I have been amazed to see this happen in my own home. Since my wife and I have lived on our own in our own house, we have become "Crazy Pet People." We have a dog, three cats, and three fish. And you would have to see it to believe it, but the literal Kingdom of God rules the interactions of these animals. They are full of peace towards us and towards each other. In our backyard the wild animals want to be near us, and especially near the altar I have set up where I observe the nature of the God I love and the signs of the stars and the moon which He made for us. I work at a youth center, where I just had a co-worker tell me that I "create heaven on earth" for our patients, and that the way my own personal atmosphere is, is "the way the whole world is supposed to be." I don't say these things to lift myself up, merely to encourage anyone who doesn't know to get a hold of the Kingdom of God that Jesus imparted to us, separate yourself from anything anti-Kingdom, and watch peace on earth become reality, if not in the rest of the world, at least in your backyard.

And as for the rest of the world: support the human rights of all, the rights of workers, and peace, justice, life, and health. Don't put any hope in any individual nation or party. But I do believe in using this current order against its own self to liberate as many as possible from the bondage of wealth, politics, and religion which emanate from the same statue that Nebuchadnezzar erected in Daniel 3. Ever asked yourself if the statue in Daniel 3 was modelled after the image in Nebuchadnezzar's dream in Daniel 2?
-Kevin X