Jesus Is an Anarchist
1.
Jesus Very Life Began in an Act of Defiance to Government (And Would
Later End in Defiance to Government)
If it were not for
Joseph and Mary's intentional act of defying that which they knew to be
king Herod the Great's will and escaping with baby Jesus from out of
Herod's mid as fugitives to the land of Egypt then Jesus would have been
mercilessly killed and needless to say His ministry and the fulfillment of
Scripture would have never come about.
Thus in the most
fundamental of regards, there is a great antagonism from the very start
between Jesus and government (to say the least): Jesus was born into the
world as a criminal and would latter be killed as a criminal a criminal
as so regarded by the government, that is. And what was baby Jesus's
crime? From Matthew 2:1-6 we find the answer:
Now after Jesus was
born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men
from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, "Where is He who has been born
King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to
worship Him." When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all
Jerusalem with him. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and
scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was
to be born. So they said to him, "In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is
written by the prophet: 'But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, Are not
the least among the rulers of Judah; For out of you shall come a Ruler Who
will shepherd My people Israel.' " (NKJV, as elsewhere unless noted
otherwise.)
So here we learn that
Herod became troubled at the thought that there might be someone else that
people would come to regard as their king other than Herod. Herod regarded
Jesus as a threat to his power: was his fear unjustified?
It is my judgement and
this document's central thesis that Herod was correct in his assessment of
Jesus as being a threat to his power although not just to Herod as an
individual but to all that Herod represents, in a word: government; along
with the unholy usurpation, deception and subjugation of people that it
necessarily entails. For as I will show, Jesus's Kingdom is to be the
functional opposite of any Earth-bound kingdom which has ever existed. And
for government, this is the ultimate crime of which Jesus was guilty, and
which required His extermination. Here we read of this pivotal act of holy
defiance to government, without which there would be no Christ as we know
of:
Matthew 2:13-15: Now
when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in
a dream, saying, "Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to
Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the
young Child to destroy Him." When he arose, he took the young Child and
His mother by night and departed for Egypt, and was there until the death
of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through
the prophet, saying, "Out of Egypt I called My Son."
As well, so enraged
was Herod upon learning that the wise men had disobeyed his order to
report back to him on the location of baby Jesus that he ordered the
extermination of all the male children in Bethlehem and the surrounding
areas from age two and younger, all in the hopes that baby Jesus would be
among the slaughtered (Matt. 2:12,16-18). It was only after king Herod the
Great had perished that Joseph brought his family out of the land of
Egypt, and then only to Nazareth as Herod's son Archelaus was then
reigning over Judea (Matt. 2:19-23).
How very considerate
indeed Jesus was being when He advised His disciples in Mark 8:15:
Then He charged them,
saying, "Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven
of Herod."
At the time Jesus
offered the above advice He would have been referring to Herod Antipas.
Jesus would later be mocked and ridiculed by Herod Antipas before finally
being put to death as a common criminal by the Roman government (Luke
23:8-12). In handling the case of Jesus, Herod Antipas asked Jesus many
questions, but Jesus refused to answer any of Herod's questions (Luke
23:9).
Thus, not only did
Jesus's very life begin in an act of holy defiance to government but it
would also end in holy defiance to government. It was also Herod Antipas
who beheaded John the Baptist (Matt. 14:1-12; Mark 6:14-29; Luke 9:7-9).
The story of Jesus's
life can in part be summed up as suffering through this unjust Satanic
world system for having preached the Truth, with government being chief
among the culprits of this Satanic world system. All one has to do is
review the life story of Jesus to plainly see that government far from
being instituted by God is and has been a demonic tool of Satan used to
oppress the righteous.
And I will demonstrate
that Jesus and the early Church leaders as recorded the Bible knew
this to be the case and preached the same. The instrument which Satan used
in an attempt to snuff-out that Truth in an act of deicide was government
from the beginning of Jesus's life to the very end, it was government
which sought to exterminate this most dangerous threat of all to its
power.
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