RE-MYTHOLOGISATION 5: WHAT ABOUT GOD’S MASTER PLAN

by: Pieter Bos
date: 8/11/2009
Category: Society

A NEW DIRECTION IN THE CHURCH-STATE DEBATE:
Article 5
A PARADIGM SHIFT NEEDED, BY SEEING GOD’S MASTER PLAN

THESIS and summary of this series
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Content: Final fulfilment of the THESIS

5.1 Conclusion: God’s master plan
These articles present an unusual view of history, of our time and of the near future. I am aware of that. This view shakes the church that refuses to be Church (for use of terms, see Article 1). This view is the radical opposite of the current, increasingly aggressive, view which has less and less room for the God of the Bible in the public space. Secular thinking has to become increasingly aggressive, for “its time is short”; in a short while God will interfere in this secular short-sightedness and expose it. God’s “hand in history” will prove real; He will be faithful to his promises, even in the political sense of the word!
In the light of the THESIS and the earlier articles, it may be clear that the dynamism that God launched as master plan for his creation is this: (multiply and) subdue the earth (Genesis 1:26-28, a commandment from before the fall), build cities and make a one world government: the God-city and God-state relation.. note 1
Cain may have had some idea of this; he started to build a city when he had only one son. Nimrod built cities, including Babel, and established a one-world government; there was such a strong unity that he almost succeeded (Genesis 11:6, a unity in rebellion instead of in obedience to God, who manages the master plan). These are illustrations from the earliest history. The apocalyptic cities Babylon and Jerusalem illustrate this concept for the (near?) future. . note 2
Throughout history we see empires emerging, each with their own architecture and city planning and technocracies, each showing the contours of the master plan, however corrupted! God’s original design is never entirely lost, however badly spoiled by fallen man.
One of the emperors (or king of kings, see Daniel 2:37), Nebuchadnezzar, was given an insight which is relevant up to today. The moment that these powerful empires will be surprised by ”a rock cut out, but not with human hands” overthrowing these empires (Daniel 2:34, 44-45) is still in the future, but it will happen! At a certain point in time God will miraculously interfere in global politics. The biblical view of history includes all nations, including all the modern nations that dominate our political map or where we go on holiday! Samuel Huntington’s “scientific” (and fascinating) “The Clash of Civilisations” will be rendered out of date by God’s master plan, because the theme Babylon-Zion is not just a spiritual theme, but also a world political theme; the spiritual can no longer be separated from the political; a “re–mythologisation” of international politics is coming into view.
Only if Christians radically step out of the current secular thinking will they not be surprised by these developments!

5.2 All those nations and Israel
After the tower of Babel there were many nations. In § 1.7 and 2.5 of “The Nations Called” I offer ten illustrations to show that “nations“ is a pre-fall concept, part of the good creation. In § 2.4 of that study I show that God had a covenant with all nations, a covenant called “Beauty/Grace”. For the final application of the THESIS on the God-state relationship, in the framework of his master plan, we need to focus on the role of Israel in relation to all these nations.
Soon after Nimrod, God showed some of his master plan to Abraham: I give you a land to live in peace and to be a blessing and an example, to show all nations who I am, and to look forward to a city of which I am the designer and builder! (Genesis 12:3; Hebrews 11:10).
From then onwards the prophets (Ezekiel alone more than ten times) say: “...that all peoples on the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that they might always fear the Lord your God” (Joshua 4:24).
“I will show my greatness and holiness and I will make myself known in the sight of many nations. Then they will know that I am the Lord” (Ezekiel 38:23).
The election of Abraham and Israel included a high duty towards the other nations, in the framework of the master plan for world history: showing the peoples and states who God is and how a nation can and should live under God. Israel is God’s tool and partner and example and showcase and test case. God means that to be very material and visible, very convincing for unspiritual, secular eyes. . note 3
God also gives kings to Israel, David and Salomon, both a “King of kings“, with unheard-of power and creativity and glory and city-vision, and promises that a distant descendant, with even greater glory, will rule on their throne and in their city as a “King of kings“. The concepts of tribe, people, nation, kingdom, city are God’s idea, and at his return he claims the title “King of kings and of presidents and of chiefs”.
A key moment in God’s master plan is the return of Christ as King of kings in Jerusalem (city planning and one-world-government): the Millennium will be a political and societal reality, the Commonwealth of Israel.
The fact that in God’s master plan Israel is “elected” is a foolishness for the “Greeks” and humanists; election is a stumbling block for autonomous man with his secular thinking. But “...the nations will know that the Lord is God” (the brief closing sentence, repeated over and over by Ezekiel). . note 4

5.3 Do the key players notice the urgency?
We are now, 2008, in the period of the global countdown (Revelation 6, 8-10): seal after seal, trumpet after trumpet, thunder after thunder...
God, for whom “nations are like drops on a bucket”, will surely break into world history, and will call to order the key players. These are: Israel, the Church as mediator, and the leaders of the nations, the politicians. He made it very clear that his holiness requires that he shall judge and punish, and that he will extend grace to those individuals and nations, who appeal to the substitutional suffering and death of the Christ. God’s voice is silenced by church-state discussions (Article 1 and 2) and by international anti-covenants (Article 3 and 4). Will he not speedily break in into the world scene, with tsunami’s and 9/11’s? Seal after seal, trumpet after trumpet, thunder after thunder refers to ever-increasing ecological disasters, countless refugees, global terrorism, famines, untreatable diseases, a third World war, hysteria through rumours of war...
The nations, with increasing religious fanaticism and anti-Semitism, are en route to their own god-state relation, a one-world-government with an international state religion for Mother Earth. The nations do not of course expect ”a rock cut out, but not with human hands” to crush the last big world systems and make way for the God-state relation that was designed from eternity: Jesus’ Realm of Peace, the one-world-government out of Jerusalem!
Soon the church will be so secularised that she will no longer reckon with a divine breaking-into-history. The church will be swallowed in the “great falling away”.
The Church will be terribly persecuted until she is holy, united and burdened with God’s vision (as always the three conditions to be useful for God’s purposes) until she – therefore – cries out “Come, Jesus, come”. The people of Israel will be terribly persecuted also, in holocaust proportions. They may even be chased out of their territory, until they “will look on me, the one they have pierced”.
In the meantime more and more nations will get out of the UN, and covenant with God: “experiments, tryouts, pilot projects of the Kingdom!”

5.4 Paradigm shift concerning the Church; top down and bottom up
How close this sketch is to God’s scenario is not the issue. The real issue is whether the Church is ready for whatever scenario comes. A church discussing what might come is not ready for what actually comes, and will be taken by surprise. Is the Church ready for whatever comes?
Is it a Church…
-- that is totally abandoned to God
-- of radical mutual and socially involved love
-- of mercy ministry in the midst of increasing chaos
-- of inspired intercession with Elijah authority
-- of courageous and visionary societal involvement
-- of signs and wonders, showing divine power
-- of purely spiritual actions and reactions, so that she can mediate on behalf of God
-- of acting the truth instead of reacting with a sharp tongue or the sword
-- of steadfast and fearless testimony in holiness
-- of passionate and holy longing after the Bridegroom?
The Church’s action should be simultaneously “top down and bottom up”. Bottom up: each of the above things permeates society with Kingdom values. This is the “teaching to obey all that I have commanded you”, teaching by example and perseverance. These actions provide fertile ground for the top down action: faithfully interceding and prophesying, and so leading the government of the state or city to enter into a covenant with God and so endorsing publicly what was already happening bottom up.
Does the Church show divine love and power, through intercession and prophecy in a recognizable way in society? Then God will immediately come with his society-redeeming power (Article 2). Is the Church aware of her task to make nations into disciple-nations, into “tryouts of the God-state relation”; is the Church aware of her potential unto that task?
Jesus’ commission to disciple all nations is not a task for later, it is not a task besides evangelisation and church planting; it is the core task, for now! For that task there is no structure or guide or method that you can simply follow (a denomination, a G12 or cell church or other model). That core task requires the Church to be a spiritual body, in unity and holiness, in the midst of and for the sake of her town or city or nation, now! Not the church-state relationship, but the trio God-Church-state/city needs to be the centre of attention (Article 1). In no fewer than fifteen modern states I see examples at work; others see at least 500 examples of transformed communities world-wide (Article 2).

The church-state relationship is a hot item in discussion in the western world.
Does the Church have, rather: is the Church the right answer, now?

The world political dynamics rage with covenant passion and covenant breaking, with God’s holy wrath and his breathtaking grace, with eternal death and abundant life for nations and cities, with exalted kingship and passionate bridegroomship.
This is the ultimate picture and the URGENCY of world political dynamics.The God-state relationship in the Millennium as a political reality is its next phase. The nations are, in many fashions, moving towards or around or against this destiny. Is the Church aware of the urgency?


note 1 This master plan is just the creation mandate to Adam-till-the-end-of-time. Adam was “the crown of creation” after the seventh day, but he knew the final crown would be the city of God (to which Abraham was looking forward!). Back
note 2 Pieter Bos, “The City Called” – to be expected 2009 – elaborates this. Back
note 3 “The shroud that covers all peoples” (Isaiah 25:7) prevents many from seeing this as yet. Back
note 4 A separate article on “The nations and Israel” is coming soon. Back

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