Stephen McDowell: There's a direct relationship between the coming of Christ
>> Stephen McDowell: Welcome to America's Providential History Podcast, where we talk about the real story of America and explore the hand of God in our history. Now, here's your host, Stephen McDowell. Glad you're joining us for this edition of America's Providential History Podcast. Now, we've been examining over this past year in this podcast how without God and the Bible, there would be no United States of America. There's a direct relationship between the coming of Christ. Into the world and in the beginning and the birth of the United States of America. See, there would be no America, the land of the free, no American nation birthed in liberty and prosperity without Christ, because Christ, God himself, when he came into the world, provided the means to liberate men and nation. So there is a direct relationship between the birth of Christ and the birth of the United States. Now, in this month of December, we remember, we celebrate the Incarnation. This is what Christmas is all about. Christ, the, sovereign of all the universe, becoming a man, becoming part of history in order to redeem man. Now, the founders of America understood this relationship between Christ and the nation of America. John Quincy Adams, our sixth president and an oration he delivered on July 4, 1837, said, Is it not that in the chain of human events the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior, that it forms a leading event in the progress of the Gospel dispensation? Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer's mission upon earth, that it laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity and gave to the world the first irrevocable pledge of the fulfillment of the prophecies announced directly from heaven at the birth of the Savior and predicted by the greatest of the Hebrew prophets 600 years before? So John Quincy Adams was saying that, that America is really the fruit of what God had promised that he would do for man from the very beginning after man fell, that he had a plan to restore all things, and that Christ the Messiah came in order to make that provision. And so what I want to begin to examine in this broad, in this podcast, and we'll look at in the next few that follow here during this month of December of the coming Messiah, of the Savior, of the birthday of the Savior, and the implications that has for not only individual men, but for mankind, for the earth, for the world, for history, for the birth of America. Because there's a indissoluble link between the birthday of the Savior, the coming of Christ Jesus, and all of what we've been talking about in this podcast during the past year, what we see is the miraculous hand of God, the fruit of God that came forth from the coming of Christ into the world.
From the moment Christ Jesus set foot into the world, there has been increase
And so I want to begin to take a look at, the implications of the incarnation, the implications of Christ coming into the world. And in particular, we're going to see that from the moment Christ Jesus set foot into the world, there has been no end to the increase of his kingdom. This is what Luke 1:33 tells us. Of his kingdom, there shall be no end. And so from. And Luke is just quoting from the Prophet Isaiah, chapter 9, verse 7, which says of the increase of his government and peace, there shall be no end. And so there has been and will continue to be a, progressive advancement of the kingdom of God in history on the earth. Again, John Quincy Adams was recognizing this, that America is just the fruit of the coming of the kingdom, of the coming of Christ, of the planting of the seed of liberty and the restoration of all things. And, the scripture speaks to this in many places. The parable of the leaven and the mustard seed show that Christianity is destined to grow, grow. This parable of the. Of the leaven. These parables are presented in Matthew 13:31 through 33, Luke, chapter 13:18 through 21, Mark 4, chapter 30 through 32. Which in these scripture. This scripture in Matthew 13 says this, that Jesus presented another parable to them, saying, of course he's teaching his disciples and taught them in, in parables at many places. So here's parable. He said, the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field. And this is smaller than all other seeds. But when it is full grown, it is larger than the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches. He spoke another parable to them. The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three pecks of meal until it was all leaven. So in that parable of the mustard seed, he said, the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field. And this is smaller than all the other seeds of God's kingdom. Christ, when he came, ushered in, the kingdom began very small, planted very small. But over thousands of years, we've looked at some of those events, especially in the history of America, of the fruit of this seed planted by Christ. And it's becoming more and more mature. In its growth, it becomes larger than the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches. And it's also like leaven, which a woman took hid in three pecks of meal until it was all leaven. So these two parables affirm that Christianity is destined to grow and grow. It has, in the past 2,000 years, grown and produced much good fruit. And we would only expect it to continue to do that, you know. Jesus taught us to pray in the Lord's Prayer, the first fundamental thing. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. And then he taught us to pray. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So the very essence of the foundation of what we should be praying is for his kingdom to come, for his will to be done. He doesn't want his kingdom to come to heaven. It's in heaven. He wants his kingdom to come to earth as it is in heaven. Now, the reason that we pray this prayer and he taught us to pray is because of the fall. See, before man fell that we read about in the book of Genesis, God's kingdom, his government, was ubiquitous. The kingdom of God. In its simple understanding or simple definition, the kingdom of God is the government of God, the rule of God. That's how that word kingdom is used in the scripture. So for the kingdom of God to come to earth, it means for the rule of God to come to earth. And to the extent that his rule comes is the extent to which his kingdom comes. And so before man fell, his rule was everywhere. That's how he created the earth. It was sovereign. But when man disobeyed, God rejected him. We then had need of praying this prayer, Lord, thy kingdom come. And so at creation, God's kingdom was universal. God's government was universal. Now, we read in Genesis, chapter one. In the very beginning, how God created all things. In six days, he created everything we see. And then at the very last, the highest of his creation, we see in Genesis 1:28, that God said to them, speaking to he created first, he created man in his image, both male and female. He created them, and then he gave them a commission. It's called the creation commission, or the cultural mandate. And he said to man, and really the family, male and female. The family is a creation institution. And he gave him a mission. He said, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and rule over every living thing that moves on the earth. And so the beginning, God created man, created everything. We see the earth, set him in the earth and gave him the mission. This is mine, I created it. And by, since I create it, belongs to me. But as Scripture tells us, he's given man the responsibility to be his vice regent, to rule in his place, to be a good steward over the earth and over its creation. And so he told them, be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and rule over everything that moves on the earth. And so after the creation and before the fall, we read, learn from Scripture, that Satan and some angels rebelled against God and were cast to the earth. 2nd Peter 2:4 Jude 6. And and so, and he was cast to the earth because Satan had attempted to usurp the authority and the government, the kingdom of God. and so God cast him to earth, but he hasn't. Satan, after being cast to the earth, has still continued to try to set up his own kingdom and to continue to usurp God's rule and purposes. Scripture tells us that Satan seeks to destroy mankind. And so if he can attack mankind, God's highest creation, he in essence is attacking God. So he seeks to destroy mankind and keep him from fulfilling the mission that God gave him to do. To take dominion over the earth, to rule over the earth, take dominion over the earth, steward the earth, cultivate the earth. This is all, ah, part of our mission God gave man from the very beginning, and it's still our mission today. so before the fall, God's kingdom, his government was everywhere. But after the fall, man surrendered the earth to Satan. but while man surrendered the earth to Satan, God's mission for man remains the same. He reiterated that mission to Noah after the flood, to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth. You reiterate to Abraham, to Moses and the children of Israel. And as we'll see, Christ reiterated, that mission as well. So man disobeyed God. And with the fall, God, though immediately, began to initiate a plan to restore his kingdom and his government to the earth. Acts 3:21 tells us that Christ is bringing about the restoration of all things. And he's risen up into heaven and will stay there until the restoration of all things. Acts 3:21 tells us. And so from the very beginning. After man disobeyed God and surrendered his rulership to Satan ruling over the earth. That's the mission God gave us. But immediately God, began to institute his plan. We read in Genesis 3:15. How God said, promised to send the Messiah.
The Bible teaches us the kingdom of God is like a seed
God said to the serpent, the seed of woman shall crush you on the head. So from the beginning, God said, okay, I'm going to institute a plan to restore man's capacity to fulfill the mission why I created him in the first place. even though he surrendered his authority and power to Satan, I'm going to restore it and restore his capacity to fulfill that original mission he decided, he planned. I'm going to send the Messiah who will crush Satan and reclaim his kingdom. Now, that promise is restated many times in the Scriptures. The promise of the Messiah and his kingdom coming from the seed of the woman, in particular from Abraham and his descendants, who God raised up, through which he would bring forth, the Messiah. We can read that in Genesis 3, 15, Genesis 12, 3 Genesis 22, 18, Genesis 26, 4 Genesis 49, 10 Deuteronomy 18:15, 2 Samuel 7, 12 and 16, Psalm 132, 11 Isaiah 4, 2 in Isaiah 7, Isaiah 9, Isaiah 40, Jeremiah 23, Ezekiel 34, 4, and 37. Many places in Scripture speak of the coming Messiah. Who would, restore to man the capacity to do what God intended him to do from the beginning. And so. We might ask the question, well, how does God's kingdom come? He taught us to pray, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So how is this kingdom going to come to earth? Well, the Bible teaches us the kingdom of God is like a seed. In Luke 13, 18 and 19, it starts small, very small. But gradually, over time, it grows and grows and grows. And this is how his kingdom has come into the world. Very gradually. It doesn't come from the top down. It comes from the inside out. I love the same that you can count how many seeds are in an apple, but you cannot count how many apples are in a seed. This is how the kingdom of God works. See, one seed contains the potential of producing millions of pieces of fruit. The small mustard seed of the kingdom. The kingdom is like a mustard seed Jesus taught us, you plant. It's very, very small. Doesn't look like much. But over time, with God's care and cultivation, that seed is going to grow and grow and grow and become a forest. And that that is how he has been restoring his kingdom to the earth. And so, as we mentioned, Luke 1:33 tells us that there's no end to the increase of his kingdom. So how then did the seed of the kingdom, how was it planted and how has it grown over the centuries? Well, he promised the Messiah there in Genesis 3. And then we read in the book of Genesis how God made a covenant with Abraham to bless the nations of the earth through his family. It was through Abraham and his seed that is his family. We read in Genesis 12 and following that he said okay, I'm going to restore all things. The seed is going to be planted, through the covenant I make with Abraham. I'm going to bring forth in through his seed the Messiah who will restore all things. And so we read in the book of Genesis how God called Abram to found the Hebrew nation and how Abraham and his wife Sarah rejected Urs pagan city state government and culture to follow God and, and fulfill the calling he had upon his life. And so we read in the scripture of how the, the founding of the Hebrew nation and this was the nation as that was God would use to bring forth the seed for the restoration of all things. We of course can see in, in the book of Genesis and Exodus how Abraham's descendants is Abraham, Isaac, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. How they through Joseph found their way as slaves living in the land of Egypt for about 400 years they lived, lived there as slaves. And God raised up Moses as a deliverer, delivered them out of Egypt and into the promised land. And so the promised land, the nation of Israel, which is the seed, the family of Abraham from which the Messiah would come, in the establishment of that Israel was like a beachhead for God to re establish his kingdom in the earth. Again. God had a plan. I'm going to bring forth the Messiah. I'm going to restore to man capacity to do what I created him to do in the very beginning. And this is how I'm going to take back the earth from Satan that who usurped the authority from man by leading man and to disobeying God. It's kind of. So it's a beachhead. It's like in World War II when the Allies were going to go back into mainland Europe to, to take that back from Nazi occupied territory that they launched that initial attack at D Day where they went to the. Normandy and other beaches. That was the beachhead, the beginning place where they would then begin to spread out and push back the enemy and take back the territory that belonged to, to the allies, to them, to the various nations. And so Israel was like a beachhead that God said all right, I'm going to launch the retaking of my earth from Satan here at this beachhead. So Israel was the covenant nation through which God would retake what was rightfully his. And Israel was unique as a nation. What made it unique among all the nations of the world, Deuteronomy 4, 5, 8 tells us is that Israel had two things that made it unique and made it special. One, it had the presence of God. God was with them, had a plan for them, was directing and leading them, guiding them, watching over them. And he also gave. They also had the law word of God. Because God delivered to the nation of Israel his word as summarized, his moral law summarized in the Ten Commandments. He gave his law to them and said, I'm giving you a written constitution if you will, and if you follow the precepts in this constitution, then it will go well with you. So see, God knew that Israel to be successful, needed his presence and they needed His Word. And we need that today. We need the word of God, the law of God, the standard by which we live our life and establish our society and families and businesses. But we need God's presence as well. Both of those. That's what made Israel unique and special among all the nations of the world. Because His Word forms the moral and civil laws of Western civilization. This is what formed the law of the United States of America. As we touched on in some of the previous podcasts that, that it's easy to show. The Ten Commandments are the foundation of civil laws in America. Just go read the laws there was that the Pilgrims wrote and the Puritans wrote, and the Massachusetts Body of Liberties, the first laws written in Jamestown based upon the Ten Commandments, and on and on. So God delivered the law m to Israel, but it was for all men. And all nations and it still is applicable today that moral law as presented in, in the Ten Commandments. Because the Ten Commandments affirm ten fundamental values, ten fundamental rights, God given rights that we possess. And in future podcasts we'll, we'll take a look at the all the great liberating truths that are found in the Ten Commandments. And so the nation of Israel been called the Hebrew Republic because of the unique form of government that it had, that it wasn't a top down form of government but is based upon Christian self government, that the nation of Israel was not very successful in living in accordance to it because they had not yet been given the freedom, the capacity under the coming of the Messiah to have a new nature, a new heart, one that wants to obey. So they weren't too successful. But these principles, to the extent that they lived according to them, produced great fruit and made Israel, like no other nation in the world, the most prosperous free nation that there, there was in the world. And to the extent they obeyed God, they were blessed and things went well. But when they disobeyed him, they began to go backwards and have all kinds of, of troubles. So the Hebrew Republic provided a blueprint or a matrix, for building a godly, free, prosperous, just nation in all aspects of it, for its governments, for economies, for education, for law and so forth. And a lot of the books that we offer, you can see them at our website, providencefoundation.com explore this one on ruling over the Earth Biblical view of Civil Government and Stewarding the Earth Biblical view of economics. We have a little booklet on the ten Commandments in modern society and a Bible study on the ten Commandments, as well.
Without the coming of the Messiah, there would be no United States
So what we're looking at here is God's plan, how the Messiah came into the world in order to restore all things, which is a directly impacted the United States of America. Because without God's plan, without the coming of the Messiah, of course there would be no United States as we know it. So God began to execute his plan. He called Abraham, around 2100 B.C. we see how he raised up the, the nation of Israel around 1500 BC or so, led them out of Egypt, brought them into the, to the promised land. And in the scriptures we read about Israel's you know, struggles at times they would do well and follow God. Many times they would disobey God. And we read about that throughout, in the, in the history but books and the prophetic books of the Old Testament. But all of this was part of God's plan of bringing forth the Messiah, the promised Messiah that would redeem man and restore to him the capacity to do what God created him to do in the very beginning. And so Jesus Christ came into the world. All of history is dated around the coming of Christ. now because of some faulty. Faulty things in our calendars, it's probably around 3 BC with our modern calendar that Christ was born into the world and, and lived until he was crucified around 30 A.D. but somewhere around, you know, that the time between BC before Christ and then after the coming of Christ which our calendars are based, Jesus came into the world and Jesus was the promised Messiah. Now there's many scriptures that affirm that Jesus was the promised Messiah, the Messiah who would come crushed Satan under his heel, the Messiah who had come to bring liberty and restore to man what he had lost in the fall. Acts 13:33 34 says, and we declare to you glad tidings that promise which was made to the fathers. God has fulfilled this for their children in that he has raised up Jesus. As it is also written in the second psalm, you are my son. Today I have begotten you. Romans 15:8,9 says, Now I say that Jesus Christ has become a servant to the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers, and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. And another scripture, Acts 3, 20, 21, says, that he may send Jesus Christ, who has preached to you, before whom heaven must receive, until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of his holy prophets since the world began. And so Jesus was the promised Messiah, spoken of from Genesis 3. The Prophet spoke of him. Isaiah and Jeremiah and others spoke of the becoming Messiah. This was what the children of Israel were looking for for centuries. And the Messiah came. And, about 2,000 years ago. And again it's Christmas when we celebrate the coming of the Messiah, the birth of the Messiah, which would change everything. Because when Jesus came here, the king of the kingdom has come. And he instituted a new age for man. See, ever since the fall, man lived under the old covenant age, an age where the scriptures tell us, nations were deceived, people were blinded. They couldn't understand. They couldn't see. Truth or light or anything. it was during this time of the old covenant age, before the coming of Christ. From the fall of man to the coming of Christ, this was an old age. We can't comprehend the transformation that has occurred with the coming of Jesus. This is the most dramatic transformation, that has or ever will occur in history is the coming of the Messiah, the promised one, to restore all things for the restoration of all things. It was during this old covenant age that the Messiah was foretold. Scripture speaks the Messiah is coming, that he will make all things new. He will wipe away every tear. You can read about this in Isaiah beautifully in Psalms and many other places of how it would be Abraham's seed and come forth from the nation of Israel, that through this, this was through Christ. He was providing a way for the restoration of all things. And so when he came, he instituted the Gospel age. He instituted. The Messiah had come, the king has come, and his messianic kingdom has been established. So during the Gospel age, it's an age where. The, realization and the outworking of the Christ stripping Satan of his power is occurring, you know. So Christ came and defeated Satan, stripping him of all his power. And he instituted a new covenant, a new family, through which he would rule and reign in the earth. John 12:31 says, now judgment is upon this world. Now the ruler of this world shall be cast out. So with the coming of the Messiah, the ruler of this world. This is speaking of Satan, who, who usurped that authority from man when he disobeyed God and fell. So Christ's work gave him his death. And resurrection triumphed over death. It gave him authority to evict Satan from the earth. You see, Satan is a squatter, that the church, Christ's ambassadors, are to go and remove from their inherited property. So through the work of Christ, he restore to man, in particular, redeemed man. That's what the church is. The church universal, made up of all body of believers who have received the grace of God in Christ and restored to the new family, the family of God that Jesus established. Restored to him. That we are now his ambassadors. That we are to. We are ruling and reigning, with him. We've been given authority over Satan through Christ. M. Matthew 12:29 says, how can anyone enter the strong man's house and carry off his property unless he first binds the strong man and then he will plunder his property. When Christ came, he bound Satan. Now because of that, his church, that's the universal body of believers, is now able to enter his house, the world, and plunder his goods that were surrendered at the fall. See, we have authority. Christ has given us authority over Satan, that that Satan was crushed under the heel of Christ. Now with the coming of Christ, with the coming of the Messiah, his, kingdom came to earth. His government. Now, scripture teaches us, that with Christ's resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, to live inside all of the redeemed of God, the messianic kingdom was established. The kingdom of God was established first within man, within the heart of man. The church. which is God's covenant family, is reclaiming the spiritual and material world God created for man. Luke 12:32 tells us, it is. Your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. And so Christ, through his redeeming work, has given to his people the kingdom of God. He's called us to rule in and over his kingdom, that we have been given authority to go and reclaim all aspects of life. Because God's kingdom is over all. See, Christ provided the way for us to do what God created man to do from the very beginning. To rule over the earth, reign over the earth. We're his vice regents. We're his ambassadors. We've been Given authority to. To rule over the earth, take dominion over the earth, to cultivate the earth, to be good stewards of the earth. And during the Old Covenant era, man couldn't do that. But when Christ came, he stripped Satan of his power. Restored to man the original authority that God had had given him. To go and, rule over the earth. And so we now, since the coming of Christ, our task is to go and reclaim all that belongs to God. See, Christ provided the means for man to take back the earth for God. So we're to. Or to reclaim the entire earth for Him.
Abraham Kuyper: Beginning of America is linked to Messiah
Abraham Kuyper was a, Dutch theologian. And served as the prime minister of the Netherlands from 1901 to 1905. He. Made the famous statement. There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence. Over which Christ, who is sovereign overall, does not cry mine. See, all things belong to Christ, the Messiah. He's the king of the kingdom. He is the sovereign one. he's the one who has all authorities been given unto him in heaven and earth. He declared in Matthew 28. And then he gave us a mission. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations. So we're to go and to disciple, not just individuals, not just a congregation, convert men. But we're to disciple all nations. And how do we do that? He said, first by baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. In other words, to convert them. Because the kingdom of God is first within us. It's planted within us. As we get a new nature, a new heart. God takes out our heart of stone, gives us a heart of flesh, a heart that wants to desire him. We are, you know, born again. in the words of Nicodemus, that we've become a new creature. We're a new creature, creation in Christ. We're restored to our original relationship with God as he intended it. That was given away when man disobeyed God. So we have a new nature. The authority God originally gave us. Has been given back to us through Christ and his redeeming work. And he said, go, therefore. And so we. We transform men. Baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit. And then teaching them to observe all that I commanded. And so. We disciple nations by teaching all that Christ commanded. And Scripture speaks to all of life. Scripture addresses all aspects of life. Our personal relationship to God, but our family and training our children. And it addresses economic affairs and governmental affairs and sanitation and weights, honest weights and measures and all kinds of things. And so we need to discover what that says, go and teach that, because that's how we're going to disciple the nations. And so we're to go and reclaim every square inch of the earth for him. Romans 16:20 says, and the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. See, Satan will be crushed under the feet of the church. He's speaking of your feet, the church. We're God's ambassadors. And that we're to go and. Exercise the authority Christ gave us, be triumphant and reclaim all things. And so, here's the beginning of the mission again. Beginning of America is linked to the coming. To the coming of Christ. There would be no United States of America without the Messiah, the triumph, the, the one, the King of the kingdom, coming into the world. And with the coming of the king, he, reestablished man's capacity to fulfill the mission that God has given us in the very beginning and that we, God's people, in the last 2000 years, have been carrying out the mission of being triumphant. And so in future, in the next couple of podcasts, I want to examine, the advance of God's kingdom during the last 2,000 years. There's been no end of the increase of his kingdom. So I want to just in general look at that and how everything has been impacted by the becoming of the Messiah. And most certainly the nation of America, that nation that we've been exploring and looking at God's hand in the history of America, that's played an important role in reclaiming every square inch of the earth, for Christ and restoring and reclaiming and implementing ideas of liberty and self government and the value of the individual and the importance of God given rights and liberties have come forth uniquely in the United States. But this is all part of God's plan and the mission that he's given us. Christ the Messiah, when He came. So I hope you'll join us in the next number of broadcasts so that we can. See the outworking of what Christ the Messiah has done. Well, if you want to, learn more, I encourage you to Visit our website, providencefoundation.com There is a little booklet that I've written called the Kingdomnomics of God that. explores God's kingdom more and this more you can pick up our book America's Providential History, because we actually start that book at creation. Noah Webster, when he wrote his, history of the United States of America, he began his history of America with creation because as he said, you can't understand America's history if you don't understand God's plan for man from the very beginning. So we, when we wrote our Over 35 years ago, our book America's Providential History, we started with creation as well. And we give, an overview of the, of what I've touched on here in this podcast and we'll touch on the next few podcasts as well. So providencefoundation.com you can take a look at some of those resources and articles, order some books, but I hope you'll join us next week as we continue this powerful story. God bless you.
