ALL
AUTHORITY BELONGS TO GOD
Matthew
28:16-20
But
the eleven disciples went into Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus
had sent them. When they saw him, they bowed down to him; but some
doubted. Jesus came to them and spoke to them, saying, “All
authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go and make
disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all
things that I commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to
the end of the age.” Amen.
It
looks like that there is a great division
between the authority exercised in Heaven and in the authority
exercised on Earth, or on other habitable planets, pending extant
inhabitants. It
is just natural that there are divisions on Earth as it is written in
the Book of Exodus, chapter 8 that the Lord told Pharaoh through
Moses regarding one of the Ten Plagues, that :
“The
houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies, and also
the ground they are on. I will set apart in that day the land of
Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be
there, to the end you may know that I am Yahweh on the earth. I will
put a division between my people and your people. This sign shall
happen by tomorrow.”
Hardly
there is anything else on Earth but divisions and boundaries, within
the mineral kingdom, within the plants kingdom, within the animal
kingdom, and of course, within the human
relations,
cultural, political, social, geographical,
compartmentalization
everywhere. Unity is rare, harmony even less. Even in the untouched
rain forests deep in Brazilian jungle, almost everything is set for
mere survival, competition, decay, violence, predators and victims
everywhere, subjected
also to the forces in the macrocosmos, to the forces in the
microcosmos, called the quantum reality, where the Newtonian physics
does not apply anymore.
Nonetheless
the divisions on Earth are designed, including the boundaries within
the one human nation, as they are a part of bigger picture, called
salvation, as it is written in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles,
chapter 17, that “ He made from one blood every nation of men to
dwell on all the surface of the earth, having determined appointed
seasons, and the boundaries of their dwellings, 27 that they should
seek the Lord, if perhaps they might reach out for him and find him,
though he is not far from each one of us. ”
It
must be also natural, that there is a great division between the
natural and the supernatural, as this must be the very nature of
things in Heaven and Earth, in the skies and on the ground.
Although
Thoth, the Egyptian God, its Greek name is Hermes Trismegisthos, the
god of knowledge and etc whatever, allegedly revealed in the so
called Emerald Tablet, that as it is above, so it is below, thus the
affairs of Earth
mirrors or should mirror the
affairs in Heaven,
or the Kingdoms in space, if there are any out there.
However,
it is obvious, that Heaven is not Earth, the Earth is not Heaven, the
Kingdom of God is not a
material,
but a
spiritual
infinity.
Thus,
there is a great division between the Heavenly realm and the material
realm,
as it is written in
the Book of Job, chapter 26, that God “stretches out the north over
empty space, and hangs the earth on nothing. He binds up the waters
in his thick clouds, and the cloud is not burst under them. He
encloses the face of his throne, and spreads his cloud on it. He has
described a boundary on the surface of the waters, and to the
confines of light and darkness. The pillars of heaven tremble and are
astonished at his rebuke.”
As
it feels evident that God has ultimate authority in Heaven,as the
Almighty Ruler and King of Heaven, so it must be evident that as the
creator, the King, the ultimate Master of the Universe, God has
unmatched authority on Earth, on any other planets in space, whether
they have inhabitants or not.
As
the 74th
Psalm sighs that oh Lord, “You
have set all the boundaries
of the earth. You have made summer and winter.”
It
must be also obvious that God does not share this authority with any
one else.
Still, even the Apostle Paul claims that
“the
secular “authority has the sword not without a cause, but to punish
the sin, and we should obey not only because of the fear of the
sword, but of the good conscience too.”
And
indeed being or becoming a law abiding citizen is considered as a
morally justified virtue pending that the law of the state at least
parallel with the Ten Commandments, and not blatantly violates it,
which is the exact case sometimes.
However, let say that when
the secular authority is enforcing the law in order to proactively
prevent murder, theft, false witnessing, etc., then even the secular
authority obeys God, and though
acting
secularly, but it
acts in
the name of God or at least in the name of God’s commandments.
It
does not mean, that the secular authority can ever vindicate for
itself divine authority instead
of some partial authority,
because they make mistakes here and there, and many times the limited
governmental authority is also hijacked by ungodly dictators and
wicked Emperors like Caesar
Augustus,
or even the
clinically
insane ones like Caligula or Nero. However,
God
does
not make mistakes, and God’s
authority is infinitely
undivided,
and the
divine
nature of
God’s
authority
is unshared.
The
divine and ultimate authority
is still
shared,
but
only with the Son by the Holy Spirit, as
it is written by the Apostle Paul to the Philippians, in chapter two,
about the Son, who, when being born in the flesh to become also a
part of the one human nation, that “he
didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but
emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the
likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself,
becoming obedient to the point of death, yes, the death of the cross.
Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which
is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth, and
that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the
glory of God the Father.”
May
the Lord’s name and
divine authority
be blessed for ever in
our hearts.
AMEN
