The Enthronement of Christ

The Old Testament Prophets said that "the millennium" would not begin until after the Messiah had been anointed King and took the Throne of David. When did -- or will -- this happen?

From the perspective of "the Establishment" in Jesus' day -- the Roman Empire and the Pharisees who owed their existence to the permission of Caesar -- the preaching of Jesus of Nazareth (along with the Old Testament prophets who were put to death by the forefathers of the Pharisees) was a "conspiracy." Followers of Jesus were accused of "turning the world upside down" (Acts 17:5-7). We can call this The Christmas Conspiracy. The Prophet Daniel predicted that the Messiah would destroy the Roman Empire (Dan 2:44). It happened. The Roman Empire is dead. Christianity continues to spread.

The concept of Christ's Kingship is widely misunderstood in our day. Many hold the same anti-Scriptural views that were held by "the Zealots," the "Sicarii," and other Jews in Christ's day, who advocated violent revolution because they rejected Jesus as the Messiah and desired instead a rival Emperor and an army of bureaucrats and armed shock-troops to violently overthrow the existing political order and establish another top-down empire - with themselves at the top, of course. They really didn't want an end to oppression; they only hoped that the oppressors and the oppressed would simply change places. They wanted a king much like those of the demonic empires that had dominated human history up to that time. When they attempted to make Jesus the kind of king that would rule them from an earthly throne, He fled them (John 6:15). Violence, the sword and government compulsion was not the vision of Christ and His Kingdom. In our day Jesus also flees those who would limit His Kingship to the sinful methods of the Fallen Angel and his earthly political henchmen. We must not follow those Jews who sought to force Christ into an earthly throne in Jerusalem.

THE ENTHRONEMENT OF CHRIST THE KING

Let us postpone an inquiry into the nature of Christ's Kingship and find out if Christ's Kingdom is the Grand Kingdom foretold by the Prophets, and if Jesus can presently be said to be King.

Christ's Kingship Foretold

King David was told that his was not true Kingship; rather one of his descendants would be established as the True King (2 Samuel 7:12,13; 1 Chronicles 17:11-14). The Psalmist sang,

The LORD hath sworn in truth unto David; He will not turn from it; Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne.
Psalm 132:11

This descendant is also called the Branch, a stem out of the root of Jesse (David's father):

Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.
Jeremiah 23:5; cf. Isaiah 11:1-10

Christ's Kingdom Announced

Christ is everywhere in the New Testament spoken of as a King (Matthew 2:2; 21:5; 25:34,40; Matthew 26:64 + Mark 14:62; Luke 1:32,69; 2:11; 19:38; Luke 22:69 + John 18:37; John 1:49; John 12:13 + Mark 11:10; Acts 17:7; 1 Corinthians 15:25; 1 Timothy 1:17; 6:15; Hebrews 7:2,22; 8:1; Revelation 15:3; 19:6). But His Kingdom does not derive its power from the power of the old world, He does not administer justice from any earthly throne in the capitol of any nation, nor does He claim any one nation as "His nation" (John 18:35-36). This is what most Establishment theologians do not understand about the Kingdom foretold by the Prophets and claimed by Jesus as His own.

It should have been obvious to everyone who had read the "conspiratorial propaganda" of the Old Testament Prophets that Christ's Kingship would be completely different from David's kingship, and in fact, it was obvious, but the politically-minded, unspiritual, power-hungry Jewish hierarchy suppressed this knowledge. Because of this self-deception, the people of Jesus' day did not understand how kingship could be exercised without resorting to terrorism, intimidation, violence, and coercion, and it was necessary to repeat continually that this Jesus, born of a peasant virgin, was indeed the Christ, the Son of David, the Promised King (Matthew 9:27; 12:23; 15:22; 20:30-32; 21:9,15; Matthew 22:42-45 + Mark 12:35-37; Mark 10:47-48; 11:10; Luke 1:32,69; 18:38-39; 20:41-47; John 7:41-42; Acts 13:23; 15:15-16; Romans 1:3-4; 2 Timothy 2:8; Hebrews 12:2; Revelation 3:7; 5:5; 22:16).

Christ's accession to the Davidic throne is at the heart of the Christmas message, and was at the heart of Peter's sermon on the Day of Pentecost. When David prophesied of the coming King Who would sit on his throne, he had in mind the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ to the heavenly throne, which is called "the right hand of power" (Mark 14:62), and not to any finite, earthly throne in Jerusalem - or in Washington D.C. As Peter explained:

Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, He would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; he seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ. . . . This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we are all witnesses.
Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear. For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, "The LORD said unto my Lord, sit thou on my right hand until I make thy foes thy footstool." Therefore, let all the House of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
Acts 2:29-36

Peter tells us that the secret of The Christmas Conspiracy is really no secret. It is an open conspiracy to enthrone Jesus as the Christ. Establishment theologians tell us to accept the legitimacy of the Old World Order and wait for Jesus to come again and take the throne of David and become a U.N.-recognized Political Dictator, robed and crowned. The Establishment hates The Christmas Conspiracy. They deny that Christ is now King. They want power in a coming kingdom of religious power politics. But no clearer statement than Peter's could be hoped for to demonstrate that Jesus is the Christ (Messiah) and occupies David's throne as described by the Biblical Prophets. That The Christmas Conspiracy succeeded and the Messiah now sits at the right hand of God (the position of True Power and Might) is claimed of Jesus again and again in the New Testament (Matthew 26:64; Mark 16:19; Luke 22:69; Acts 7:55-56; Romans 8:34; Ephesians 1:20; Colossians 3:1; Hebrews 1:3-13; 8:1; 10:22; 12:2). This is clearly the fulfillment of Psalm 110:1, one of the most quoted Old Testament prophecies in all of the New Testament, and is said to be so in Peter's sermon on Pentecost.

The very term "Christ" means "Anointed King," and for His co-conspirators to claim that Jesus was the Christ was a dangerous political act (Acts 17:7). Can any true Christian claim that Jesus is not the Christ, the Anointed King? But He is the Conspiratorial Christ, not the "christ" of the theologians of the Old World Order.

In a future post, we'll distinguish the operation of the Kingdom of Christ -- which is a spiritual and non-violent power that transforms society -- from the compulsory, violent, and frequently revolutionary operation of the kingdoms of this world. Those who say that Christ is not now the King of kings is usually based on a belief that Jesus still intends to become an emperor like the kings of this world -- using coercion, sitting on a physical throne, assisted by an army of bureaucrats.