Post Enlightenment Athenian political practice and theory has demonstrated a recurring tendency to swing between two extremes. For Athens, either ultimate power resides in individual human beings (classic liberalism, libertarianism, Lockian Social Contract) or it resides in the collective (fascism, communism, absolute monarchism, Rousseau's republic).
Either ultimate power resides in the Many or the One. Either ultimate power resides in individuals, and the powers of the State derive from the people, or the ultimate power resides in the State, and the individual (his property, his family, his life) derive from the collective. But both extremes alike agree on this one fundamental principle: ultimate power and authority derives from, and belongs to, Man. Man is the only king of Athens.
(There is a further strand of Post Enlightenment Athenian political theory which we may characterise as Burkean or classic conservatism, which has argued that ultimate power resides in the conventions and rules which have been transmitted to us historically, and which represent the collective cumulated practical wisdom of our forbears. However, it is fair to say that classic conservatism has never enjoyed widespread appeal or traction. It has been “swamped” in Athens by the yawing either towards the One or the Many.)
Most political systems represent a ceaseless warring between the One and the Many; however, it has to be acknowledged that over the last one hundred and fifty years the “balance of power” within Athens has moved markedly towards the One, the Government, or the State. Governments have become more powerful, larger, more intrusive—which is to say they have arrogated more and more power to themselves, which has entailed less and less individual liberty and responsibility. In Athens, in recent centuries, the One has been getting the nod. But all in that city are relatively content, for this is not a blasphemy.
The constitution of the Kingdom of God is entirely different. It considers all Athenian political theories and arrangements as idolatries, which end up absolutising and semi-divinising one or more parts of the creation. All debates between competing political philosophies in Athens are intra-mural in nature: they are arguments over my god versus your god, my idol versus your idol. But, as we have consistently pointed out, all Athenians idols really represent the worship of man. Athenian political philosophies demonstrate this most clearly: man is ultimate authority whether as an atomised individual, or as a collective, or as an historical tradition, or as abstracted and absolutised human reason. All Athenian political philosophies are really one: the disputes are merely over which representation of man is to be worshipped and served.
As we have argued previously, in sharp antithesis to all that Athens represents, the Kingdom of God is an absolutist, totalitarian Kingdom. It is ruled over by a totalitarian Sovereign, an all governing Governor, an all conditioning Conditioner, an all dictating Dictator—the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, absolute authority does not reside anywhere in the creation. It resides in Him alone. All authority in heaven and upon earth has been ceded to Him; every knee is to bow, and every tongue is to confess Him. It either bows willingly or unwillingly—but bow it most certainly does.
The constitutional documents of the Kingdom, or of the City of Jerusalem, leave us in no doubt about this. We are told that all men have their being, they live, they think, they act only in Him—by His will and power and command (Act 17:28); from Him and to Him and through Him are all things that exist (Romans 11: 33-36).
Athens itself, in all its wretchedness and idolatry exists only by the will and command of the King. He permits it to continue in its unbelief for the ultimate manifestation of His glory. Usually, unbelieving Athenians rapidly conclude that because they and their ilk continue in the earth for a time (that is, the destruction of their city is not immediate), their power and authority is genuine and original. However, it is derived. It is granted. It is permitted for a time. It is temporary. And it will be taken away.
Once again the Scriptures make this very clear:
What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?Athens continues to exist for the sake of those who are being called. History must continue until the full number of the called are gathered into Jerusalem, resulting in the full manifestation of His glory, of His mercy. The full number are to be from every tribe and tongue, people and nation. The continued existence of Athens is not an evidence that the King is not absolute: quite the reverse. The particular command of the King which ensures the continued existence of Athens for a time is for the greater manifestation of His glory and power.
And He did so in order that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.
Romans 9: 22-24
The Lord has made this quite clear in the following parable of the Kingdom.
The Kingdom of Heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares also among the wheat, and went away. But when the wheat sprang up and bore grain, then the tares became evident also.
And the slaves of the landowner came and said to him, “Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?” And He said to them, “An enemy has done this!” And the slaves said to him, “Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?” But he said, “No; lest while you are gathering up the tares, you may root up the wheat with them. Allow them both to grow until harvest; and in the time of harvest, I will say to the reapers, 'First gather up the tares; and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn.'” . . . .
The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, and the field is the world; and as for the good seed, these are the sons of the Kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil one; and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are the angels. Therefore, just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age.
Matthew 13:31—40
The tares (Athenian Unbelievers) are allowed to continue for a time for the sake of the sons of the Kingdom.
But the all conditioning Conditioner, the omnipotent King of the Kingdom is also subduing all enemies under His feet. Gradually, throughout history, the Kingdom of Heaven grows larger, stronger, more powerful. More wheat seed is planted and flourishes. Meanwhile, the city of Athens gradually withers, weakens and attenuates into the shadows. The two kingdoms occupy the same space and time. Only the citizens of Jerusalem are aware of the existence of both cities. Athenians see only their own City of Unbelief; they can only see all of life, all existence in terms of their own unbelieving frame.
When the citizen of Athens meets a Believer, the servant of the King, the Unbeliever cannot comprehend or acknowledge the King whom the Believer serves. Consequently, he cannot understand the Believer. He sees him only as one like him, but as one who serves a different idol. He has no conception that the Kingdom of God manifested before him in the person of the Believer is so totalitarian in its nature that all that the Believer has and is, has been submitted to a willing obedience of the King—even to the point of death itself. Every thought, every motive, every action; every penny, every relationship, every deed; every goal, every motive, every standard. All dedicated to the service, obedience, and disposition of the King.
The Unbeliever consequently cannot “see” the Believer in truth. The Believer is beyond his knowledge or comprehension. He is blinded, and can only see in terms of his own unbelieving frame. He sees the Believer through his Unbelieving glasses. He sees the Believer as a particularly stupid and especially mistaken or ignorant idolater—but an idolater just like him, nonetheless. To the blind Athenian, the “King” of the Believer is simply one more abstraction conjured up out of the heart of man.
The Kingdom of Jerusalem is unlike any found in the realms and satellite cities of Athens. Its Sovereign Lord is acknowledged as such by all in Jerusalem. Its citizens know and profess that the very hairs on the head are numbered and known by their King; that not only sparrow can fall apart from His command; that even things regarded by man as utterly random (such as the casting of a lot) are totally commanded by the King.
The Kingdom of God is not an ideal. It is not a formal or fictional warranting concept. It is real. It is here. It is now. It is historical. The heartbeat of the City of Jerusalem is to live for, and to serve, the King—with great joy and gladness. The highest dignity of its citizens is that they have been made, and therefore found, worthy to be His servants.
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