21st Century Perspective of Christendom and Millennialism

In this Appendix, we canvas some aspects of "Millennial Thinking" both its history, impact of the concept in world affairs and current trends in millennial thinking. Here the author hopes to tie-in a few aspects discussed elsewhere in these papers regarding "The Millennium" as a topic for analysis. This is an attempt to explain or expand our position on the "Millennium" for our "Model" for interpreting Biblical Prophecy. The catalyst for writing this paper came from a statement made by Australian Prime Minister Mr Tony Abbott reported on 4/3/15 that "Ideas of a Millennial Caliphate (i.e., ISIS/ISIL) are ... being absorbed by 'susceptible' minds".

For a long time, the ancient Jews the ancient Hebrews or the ancient Israel recorded in the pages of the Bible, expected that there would one day be a kingdom of great peace, prosperity and rule of law. To some extent, all this thinking began from the promise God gave to mankind via the Seed of the Woman Programmes referred to in these papers1. Indeed, within this concept of The Millennium, God Himself would somehow rule the earth either in this era, or at the end of it or after the era of Man's misrule that ensued after Adam's fall. There are some well-known verses referring to this Millenial Kingdom which clearly show it does not presently exist on Earth. For example, lions playing with young calves or wolves and lambs at peace with each other (Isaiah 11:6). In that presumably forthcoming Kingdom, every man sitting under his vine will enjoy all the fruits of it instead of the landlord getting 50% (Micah 4:4). The reigns of Solomon (circa 950 BC) or Hezekiah (700 BC) were, in their day, seen by some as either models of the future kingdom or perhaps as actual manifestations of the Kingdom on Earth. However, it is clear from His Story, and indeed from History, that no such era has existed on Earth - So Far!

We could describe this era, now generally known as "The Millennium" from the passage in Revelation 20:2-7, as a Utopia. Other ideas about these 'ideal' or 'model' societies can be traced back to the ancient Hebrew concept of a Glorious Era of God's reign on Earth. Even more modern examples of a Utopia2 (as well as the Original) were derived, in all probability, from the Hebrew writings. This is a conclusion we come to from a revision of world history based on the revised chronology. Plato's Republic was a response to the extravagances in the last years of Solomon's great era of Peace, Political Stability and Prosperity. Some classical scholars even describe "Plato" as "Moses written in Greek". Solomon's utopia3 ended up with excessive taxes burdening the people especially out in the regions or outside the capital city4. Plato perhaps felt it was the office of kingship that led to that negative end-result. Therefore he recommended that kings should be replaced by some other type of ruler or system of Government. Our modern nations invented the concept of presidents ruling republics but as many countries found out they can be just as profligate as kingdoms5.

In varying manners of introduction, "The Gospels" actually commence with John the Baptist preparing the way for the Kingdom to come and Jesus Himself, and In Himself, actually offering it to Israel. Many commentators express surprise that the Gospels seem to commence so oddly6. But there was actually nothing odd at all about the way the Gospel recorders commenced with this appeal to prepare for the kingdom to come. Principally, they were of course simply reporting the facts. Most people fail to understand that by 7 BC, when Jesus was born, Daniel's prophecies about the Messiah's arrival were then due for fulfilment (e.g., Daniel 9:24). Admittedly, exact calculations of the 490 year period were (and still seem to be) impossible to precisely calculate because of inaccurate calendars, misplaced archives (Ezra 5:17 - 6:2)., etc. Of course, such difficulties made little difference to Messianic Expectations at the time and, for other reasons as well, regarding Messianic expectations now either! In any event, and doubtlessly to the extraordinary surprise of Gentile observers, Israel rejected John and Jesus' offer to induct The Kingdom of God. Believing Gentiles may even have been peeved off by Israel's rejection! We say the extraordinary rejection by Israel of Jesus of Nazareth's claim to be Messiah (especially after all the miracles He did) fulfilled the implicit yet enigmatic prediction in Exodus 4:8a. This point is overlooked by most theologians. In each Gospel, we read four different perspectives7 explaining how Israel proceeded to reject the offer over a three year period (circa 27-30 AD) culminating with the Romans execution of the Messiah when He was 37 years old8.

In Acts 1:6, after the Resurrection and immediately before Jesus' Ascension, the Eleven Disciples, and perhaps others present, asked if Jesus was at that time, or very soon, going to "restore" the Kingdom9. The point usually overlooked is that Jesus never denied it was still going to come into play. All He had said was that it would be re-
offered, or be delivered to, a different (future) generation of Israel. There was only one thing that had changed regarding the delivery or presentation of the Kingdom of God to Israel. That was now a matter of timing. It would no longer become available to the present generation of Israel which the Disciples, Apostles and Jewish followers of Jesus partly comprised and very much a minority at that.

Going back in History, one 'generation' of Israel had died out in the Sinai desert between circa 1485-1445 BC. That was because it had rejected God's offer to deliver the "Promised Land10" into their hands. However, back then, forty years later, the very next generation of Israel did enter and acquire the Promised Land under Joshua in 1445 BC. Jumping forward 1.5 millennia, to AD 70, there occurred quite the opposite to a revived Messianic-Davidic Kingdom being "restored" to Israel 40 years after the Ascension in AD 30. Instead of the Romans being driven out, Jerusalem and its temple were once again (previously in 586 BC) turned to rubble but that time by the Romans. "No stone was left unturned" in the Temple in AD 70. The Romans gained even firmer control of Israel. After the Romans, from about AD 300, many other Gentiles (Greco-
Romano-Syrians, Arabs, Byzantines and Turks) controlled Israel until 1947.

The Millennium definitively did not arrive in AD 70 when some Apostles were still alive. It did not arrive after the last Apostle died (John in circa 90 AD). Jesus simply said, in Acts 1:7, it "is not for you to know the time" when the Kingdom will now come. In fact, Jesus' prayer that "Thy Kingdom Come", initially taught so that Israel would make the correct choice between AD 27-30, would now become a responsibility for the Church of Christ to pray for11. The Church should not be deciding that it has somehow and mysteriously become "Israel" and appropriate this opening request in The Lord's Prayer12 for itself. The True Church of Christ's body of members does look forward to Israel receiving her long-promised Kingdom. It is "Christendom" that wants the Kingdom for itself. This is a defining, if not The defining feature or distinguishing differential between a true Body of Christ and counterfeit Christianity.

Inevitably, after its first century and under an increasingly Gentile majority, the millennial focus began to focus on "The Church" or more specifically "The Church Age". It is difficult to say exactly from our perspective such a long time later, but it seems the early Church took some time to get used to the possibility that the Millennium could be delayed for a considerable period or for considerably longer than 40-70 years, a generation, 400 let alone 2000 years13. Furthermore, it was only in Revelation 20:2-7, that the vital information that the Kingdom would last 1000 years was explicitly revealed. One writes "explicitly" because it is evident from genetic research that the human body could exist for a thousand years. Indeed, some early descendants of Adam, as well as the First Man himself, did live for well over 900 years. So the fact that there is a Biblical view of a Glorious "Millennium" where men and women could live for 1000 years in a carnal and un-resurrected body is neither disputed nor particularly fanciful14. After the first few generations, the accumulating impact of The Fall prevailed against men living more than 6-8 decades.

If we then go on to assume the Millennium will eventually become an historical fact, our modern genetics will not be embarrassed15. The Revelation to "Saint John" commenced not with the famous Tribulation chapters but with three chapters that seem to outline (opinions differ) a History of a Church Age to operate in the world. That would continue until a seven-year period of a unique set of terrifying circumstances called The Tribulation. It would appear to close off man's era of reigning over the Earth; that is to say, 'an era when mankind would abysmally attempt to govern the Earth'. These future circumstances envisage a "beast" emerging to take power amidst all the chaos. All that appears to be ready to descend on us, coincidentally about 2000 years after the Ascension!

On this point of the "2000 years", there are some interesting observations to make as we develop a more up-to-date model of the Bible and how it should be studied in these Last of the Last Days. One aspect of our overall model suggests that the era of Man goes through three stages16 of about 2000 years for each one. The previous two were: The Era of Conscience (Adam to Abraham or 4000-2000 BC); and The Era of Law (Mosaic, 2000 BC to Christ , 30 AD). Before describing our third era, stage or age, one should note the following technical point about the Mosaic era. We take the view that ideally God would have wanted Law to come into place through His Plan for a Chosen Nation to live by it as soon as possible or virtually immediately. Very importantly, this 'Nation' ("Israel" of course) was to come out of the loins of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. So, from this perspective, it was God's Ideal that Law would come into place in the Patriarchs' day (circa 2000-1900 BC).

Unfortunately: various disputes within the Family of Israel; the sojourn for 400 years in Egypt; and the era of chaos under 400 years of The Judges; all delayed the full introduction or implementation of Law. Only under King David did Israel really begin to operate under the Mosaic Law in any way that got close to a position or situation that would please God. Even after David and Solomon, between 1000 BC - AD 30, Israel regularly failed to comply with Moses' Law. Specifically, in Jesus' Day, Israel's Leaders had turned the 613 Laws of Moses into a nightmare or labyrinth of thousands of Talmudic regulations. The conclusion here is that we can therefore view the entire period from Abraham to Jesus as that of Moses. Previous attempts to construct what are called "Dispensations" have faltered over this and other technical points, sometimes for good reasons. Similarly, within the period between Noah and Abraham (about 450 years). God's first move into bringing some law into man's affairs came via Noahic Law into man's affairs. Theologians and commentators, for good reasons we need not go into here, prefer or like to place another or extra "Dispensation" therein.

So, using II Peter 3:817, to construct a Model of Three Two-Day = Three Two Thousand Year eras or "Dispensations"; to be capped by "The Millennium" or "Seventh Day of Rest", one comes up with a case for a Third (two thousand-year) Era, or that of the Church of Christ. Thus a crucial question emerges! "Will The Church have just Two Thousand Years to operate"? [We have to re-state here, this is just a 'Model' even though there may be codes within the text, that we happen to be following, to support this idea. But it is not to be used for "date-setting", the perennial disease incurred by those who try to take things; that are NOT therein; out of Prophecy.]

In many ways, it is because of the terrible deterioration in World Affairs over the last decade and a half that one is almost driven to a view that three eras of approximately 2000 years will be capped by a seventh millennium of just one thousand years. This reflects the Six Days of Re-formation of the Earth destroyed as a result of the previous Satan-led angelic Rebellion, and the Rest of God on the Seventh Day which ultimately is to be shared with human believers (Hebrews 4:9) saved betwen Adam and the Last Day of The Tribulation. So there is an implicit possibility that the era of Man governing the Earth has a fixed time limit. Three different regimes of two days or two thousand years were allowed to test Man's actions in governing Earth. Man had three regimes18 under which to prove himself at Governance or Government, Justice, fair play, Love, etc. Man's record in all three was very poor!

What was, and is, endlessly disputed is the timing and manner of the Kingdom's arrival, coming or eventuality. Some Christians (Amillennial) even deny there will be a millennium. They perhaps believe that once Israel rejected it there would not be one. Others of this persuasion tend to see the Bible in mostly allegorical terms so that all sorts of interesting ideas erupt or blossom! Acts 1:6 easily refutes the Amillennial position. Other Christians, correctly in the author's opinion, believe the Millennium must appear one day in the future so we live in a Pre-Millennial era at the moment and still look forward to it. Indeed, from this operspective, it is a great and realistic hope to look forward to. But the real issue of confusion arises in the various camps that say we are now in the Millennium or that it occurred sometime in the last two thousand years. Those are now the much more commonly prevailing ideas about the "Millennium". Broadly speaking, these options come under the Post-Millennial View. And that is the concept whence Muslims get their theology because post-millennial views also predominated in Christendom in AD 700 when Islam began with reformer Mohammad. The Salafis and Sunnis, and probably ISIS/ISIL and even perhaps groups like the Taleban and Wahabis, believe a world-wide Caliphate will represent this Millennium. A powerful "Caliphate" did exist through the Ottoman Empire which collapsed during World War One (WWI). Now there is renewed momentum amongst some Muslims for a new Caliphate. If one accepts Islam is part of Christendom because it holds Jesus of Nazareth to be a prophet, then via the Ottoman Empire it can be said to have carried the flag for Post-millennialism for centuries after Europe's Christendomite congregations abandoned the idea following the Thirty Years War (1618-48).

Some Muslims now advocating for a Caliphate are saying previous generations of Muslims were not real Muslims. That is why, they say, the Ottoman Caliphate, and other previous versions (circa AD 800-1500) all failed to last or survive. Perhaps other Muslims take another perspective from Christians and suggest the time for the Caliphate is now or soon. Why would they take that view? This may be best explained by surveying Christian views of the Millennium from the Post-Millennial perspective. Islamic ideas of the end of man's rule on earth emanate from the most corrupted era in Christendom (700 AD). They understand nothing of the proper Biblical information on The Millennium which is a problem shared with the rest of Christendom.

After AD 30, as Jesus delayed His Second Coming for years and years which became centuries, then millennia, a view developed that the Millennium had in fact begun at Pentecost in AD 30 although its duration should not be taken literally while its eventuality should be taken literally. That was obviously a contradiction! From AD 700, the Muslim expansion shattered Christendom's hold on vast tracts of territory in North Africa, the Levant and southern Europe. Pagan Germans and Nordics swamped Christendomite kingdoms in northern and western Europe. So the 'Christian Kingdoms', or what some might characterise as Christendom, really seemed to be on their last legs. Of course the Islamic and Pagan advances could be seen as an early stage of the Gog and Magog situation in Revelation 20:8 or a sign that Antichrist was on his way (or a combination of both sets of prophecy). However, the careful theologian surely must have wondered if AD 700-800 might not be a bit early for such an interpretation if the Millennium were now stated to have begun in AD 30 and still had as many as three centuries to run19. However, in a truncated form, Christendom spluttered on to AD 1030. Many Nordics and Germans had converted by then, even though they held on to many pagan traditions and festivals but Muslims remained hostile to Christ's Tenets and True Godly status. Still, in the years after AD 30, The Christ Tarried. So, as AD 1030 and a theoretical date for the end of the Millennium approached, the Pope and others decided that Jerusalem had to be captured and taken off the Muslims20 before The Lord would return. Hence the rationale for the Crusades. And everyone in Western Christendom was called upon to help. William of Normandy even decided to bring Britain's riches into the fray by conquering it. Furthermore, William I wrote up the Domesday Book (Doomsday) to account for the Lord's 'English' assets presumably on the eve of Doomsday or the Last Day, the day the Master would return to see how his subjects had fared. One of William's successors, Richard I Lionheart, took the Crusades seriously, if one wants to be charitable towards him, or took to them with plunder and glee, if one wants to be more scathing with one's analysis of his career. Anyway, at the end of the 12th Century AD, even with the help of others, Richard did not re-take, secure and hold Jerusalem to present the city to The Lord on 'His Return'. Unfortunately, even with Jerusalem temporarily in the hands of the Crusaders for the most-part of the 12th Century, Jesus tarried even longer. Worse, the Crusaders permanently lost Jerusalem to the Muslims. Non-Muslims (Infidels) never again saw Jerusalem in any hands other than Muslim ones until General Allenby, a well-known British Christian, entered its gates, walking alongside his horse, in 1917.

Even before the Crusaders had lost Jerusalem to the Muslims,, seemingly perpetually, thinkers were theorising anew as the Renaissance dawned. Depending on how one might analyse these things, one could view or regard the Muslims' re-capture of Jerusalem as the catalyst for the New Thinking or Re-Birth of a New Way of Thinking. The reason is that the old way was proving to be either wrong or very misleading. That was especially true when after many years of Christians holding on to Jerusalem circa AD 1110-89, The Lord still Tarried. Many leading lights in the Renaissance showed that they were post-Christian. For example, Leonardo da Vinci literally painted himself with ten buddies and a woman (or man looking effeminate) as if he, Leonardo, were inaugurating the Church's Communion in his The Last Supper.

The 'New Thinking' was, in a sense, a double-edge sword for Christians. The knowledge and technological advances of the period were used to recover lost ground for those wavering in unbelief. Someone was able to demonstrate with the manufacture of the Turin Shroud, that The Resurrection of Christ had indeed occurred. Unfortunately, although in most respects it was a cleverly subtle counterfeit or forgery, the image of the man under the cloth was anyone but a Jew. But the conspiracy of the shroud does reveal an intensive battle for the minds and hearts of the populace once it became clear the period AD 30-1030 was not, after twelve hundred years of debate, the Millennium after all. The Vatican, in particular, embarked on massive church building programmes and attendant artwork, murals and stained glass windows. To some extent these images seduced the general populace in ways similar to those Hollywood, television and Internet do today. Furthermore, the capture of Jerusalem in order for Christendom to rule the city, really just a rural town in those days, had made no difference either. Mankind continued to stumble along in Darkness - in Western Europe. Other parts of the world were living under much happier circumstances.

But the Renaissance did some other things few would or could have anticipated. These were things that to some extent have been revived recently, or which are still happening depending on ones own personal situation, in our day especially over the last twenty years or so. The author explains this in his explanation of the Harmony between the Bible and Science, Archaeology and History and in his 3-D Aleph-Tav Model for Bible Study21. Another phenomenon is that which Daniel 12:4 described. When knowledge increases, our understanding of the Bible also increases. The Renaissance encouraged genuine and faithful Christians to adopt new and better translations of the Bible and hence better thinking about it too. They were Christians, like their true predecessors. They had received revelation about the true Nature of Christ from God Himself as Jesus had explained to Peter (Matthew 16:16) on the occasion of Peter's momentous statement of faith. Renaissance Christians also took a rethink (repent) of the way they had read and interpreted their Bibles. No longer were they satisfied with the translation and re-translation errors from the Latin Vulgate; that had itself been a translation from the Greek Septuagint (for the Old Testament); or errors from other translations. The Old Testament-Septuagint was written (translated into Greek) so non-
Jews; or Jews, especially in Egypt, who could no longer read Hebrew; could read the Old Testament. The Septuagint appeared three centuries before Christ's First Advent.

So, from the Renaissance, some more forward-looking Christian thinkers attempted to learn Hebrew and translate the Old Testament directly into 12th or 13th Century English, or French, German or even Nordic-Danish. Various attempts at this process continued for the next three or four centuries (1200-1600) throughout both the Renaissance and Reformation22. With printing presses, there was a much wider dissemination of the Bible and a much wider discussion and debate relatively free from vested, staid, tired-
out political and social interests. The Catholic countries stuck with the Latin or Greek versions. They failed to see the new interpretations that became available from better translations of the Bible and from a re-evaluation of just what "The Millennium" actually or really meant. There were predictable splits between Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox Christians and Calvinists and others chiming in with other variations of reform, leading to some very hot intemperate behaviour. That began boiling over in the mid 16th Century and heated up so much that by 1618 the fighting flared and inflamed and began to involve nations, princedoms, fiefdoms, city states and even empires (Hapsburg and Ottoman). The fighting became known as The Thirty Years War.

In 1648, after Thirty Years of Religious War, peace was established. Another new phase of thinking arrived. That was The Enlightenment. In retrospect, genuine Christians in AD 2015 now see this era as being better termed The Endarkenment.

In this new phase in thinking, the intelligentsia decided that we forget all about this "Millennium" stuff. After 1648, Western Society seemed to have decided to leave isuch discussions for churches alone to discuss. In future, governance would be about building a better society for ourselves and for the rest of the World. So the Western Hemisphere nations, princedoms etc., decided to usher in a new era of Governance for the entire world. The nation-state was designed as the optimum vehicle for organising taxation and public works etc. Once the basics of good society were established, the world would or could begin other projects like aiming for the planets and stars or, as the Bible put it when men began building the Tower of Babel, "Making a Name for Mankind". The Sky would not be the limit. The outer reaches of the Universe would be. But we basically see here that by 1648, though people could discuss such things in church, theological arguments would be set aside in order to get on with world development programmes from a purely secular and materialistic perspective. Science: Physics, Biology and Alchemy-Chemistry; would be used to investigate exactly what made man tick so that every man, woman and child could be made more productive and enjoy a better lifestyle. The quality of human capital would be a vital component of this 'Way' but the People of The Way the Apostles taught (Acts 18:25, 19:9, 19:23, 22:4, 24:14 and 24:22) could keep their opinions to themselves or within their churches. In practice, that suppression of Millennial Thinking was so successful that not even the churches any longer desire to hear anything about The Millennium in the Bible. Their teaching covers the past, though very inaccurately, the present for the me-too and me-
now generation, and the most distant future in the New Universe. But any talk about developments in the near or medium-term future, the rise of Antichrist, the Tribulation, the current crises surrounding God's Plan for Israel in the Very Last Days, is virtually forbidden. The Masters of the Enlightenment have very successfully emasculated The Church of Christ's Mission for today.

Between 1648 and circa 1848 people happily embarked on this plan23. One is summarising and arbitrarily date-setting here, and obviously ignoring all sorts of various other ideas and nuances. Although the nation-state was the preferred vehicle to do all this, the western nations in fact ended up with massive empires around the world as they attempted to bring good Government, or better Government, or what they thought was good government to other tribes or ethnic groups in both the western and eastern hemispheres. Britain brought North America and India into the project. Likewise the Spanish and Portuguese brought in Latin America, the Philippines and parts of southern and western Africa. The French and British brought in north and eastern Africa. The Dutch brought in the East Indies (Indonesia). In the Eastern Hemisphere, China had abandoned world leadership between AD 1000 and 1500 and lost conttrol of the American continent as Europeans and Africans colonised it. China's retareat even enabled the French to develop Indo-China. Thailand said it could manage itself, thank you very much and the Americans worked on the Japanese who then said we will join in and manage our affairs our own way too. Of course the Japanese then allowed themselves to venture abroad 24 in the first half of the Twentieth Century. Britain inherited Australia, somewhat willingly, and New Zealand, somewhat unwillingly, because the weakening and declining Dutch had a big enough mouthful to consume with Indonesia. The Pacific Islands fell under several of the western empires' orbits.

The big one outstanding remained China. It had always looked after itself in the past. Why should the West have to be responsible for its involvement in the world project. As a start, Britain and Portugal took over China's best ports in Hong Kong and Macao. But China just kept on going from bad to worse through the 19th and early 20th centuries. The world wars left China battling the Japanese much to the former's great dishonour. The very idea that the islanders off the Chinese coast should take over so mich of China's assets was a terrible affront. After WWII, the Japanese driven out, China submerged into an experiment with communism and isolation. But after some forty years failure in the Communist Project, China has now quickly emerged to become a key motor in the world economy and politics.

Of course, though most people were unaware of this, the Western Empires were actually fulfilling an old Biblical Prophecy that Japeth would "enlarge his borders" while, somewhat obscurely, "Dwelling within the Tents of Shem". The irony furthermore is that as we left the Twentieth Century the one actor in the olde worlde we have not mentioned, the Islamic nations, are now in upheaval as they wildly debate millennialism.

Impact on the World

Europe's fifteen century25 struggle with what the Bible was saying about governance led to the spread of a gospel of governance that Europeans decided would be good for the world. Europe itself emerged from a theocratic system to a secular one. We could call the spread of this idea the Gospel of Secularism. The nation-state is now the mantra for the United Nations. However, as it appears in many Islamic countries there is a growing disagreement over what 'governance' should be. The European model believes in things like free speech, transparency in government, 'religious' freedom etc. Islam does not really tolerate religious freedom even within its Islamic religion. The European ideal is also breaking down in Africa where Presidents only see the electoral process as a means to set themselves up as 'king' with a right to rule for life26.

Anyway, if our inter[retation of The Bible's Prophecies are correct, current international political disturbances and other events on the horizon lead us to believe the world's governance system will be shaken up by a formal World Government that will decentralise itself into ten regions with ten 'kings' or perhaps 'presidents'. Through that system arises the Biblically forecasted World Dictator - The Antichrist - 666. So at this stage, we now turn our attention to the more general issue of 'governance' and what the Bible says about that in the History and Prophecy contained therein.

World Governance Through the Ages

The following is written from a Biblical viewpoint or world-view. In that context the question of governance goes back to 4000 BC. When Adam violated the covenant he had with God by not leaving the "Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil" alone, Adam in effect embarked us on a path to death and destruction.

With our modern understanding about knowledge, computers, robots etc., we can easily see the point here. Knowledge can be very dangerous and destructive. Satan suggested we could become like 'gods' if we used the knowledge that was in the tree God put in the Garden of Eden. We now think this tree was a Touch-Tronic computer literally embedded in a tree of some sort. God put it there to test the Man to see if he would obey this one simple command. Eve made the point one should not even "touch" it. The Bible in Genesis 3:6, noted:

And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, ...."

They actually partook of the tree's fruit. Obviously this was something one consumed by the use of touch and by using one's eyes. The Hebrew to eat is acol ( ) or literally 'a all' which can in turn be universally expressed as '@'. The point is that we now appear to have come almost full circle back to the garden of Eden although we are now accessing a humanly constructed knowledge base. Unlike God's knowledge base, ours is imperfect. It does not fully encompass the 'a' in "The At Sign" which in turn can be expresed in Hebrew as , , or transliterated into Greek , , . Thus the Bible has encoded at its beginning and end the passage of Man from innocense through Fall to eventual redemption - for those who believe and accept God's Plan outlined in the Bible.

In the very beginning of the Bible all is good but in Genesis 1:2 it slips into chaos until God renovates the Earth in the first chapter at the end of which the renovated Earth is :Very Good". Adam brings the world into chaos that culminates with the events in the Book of Revelation. Revelation finishes with a good and ordered new universe.

So in this paper we now look at how is all this chaos initiated by Adam's fatal error is to be managed in Man's affairs. And that is what Governance is really all about.

The Three Eras

1.	Conscience

Although not explicitly stated in the Bible in so few words, God's Plan for the World's governance required some disciplines. Firstly, God allowed Man's conscience restrict or contain his evil or capacity to practise thereof. For two thousand years that had very limited effect. By approximately the year 1550 (2450 BC) or about 600 years after the death of Adam, Satan had a plan to prevent God's son being born through a woman, as Jesus was; for Him to become the world's Saviour; by getting fallen angels to impregnate the Earth's women. However, the world was descending into much wickedness generally. So God flooded the world for a second time, the first being after the Archangel's rebellion When God destroyed the Earth's Edenic palaces27 built for Satan. However, despite that lesson, the survivors of the Flood embarked on a project described at the Tower of Babel where they said, "Let us make us a name for ourselves". God observed, "Now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do". God also responded with "Let us go down and there confound their language". So God stopped the project, threw a spanner in the works and did that by confusing what we now recognise to be a crucial factor in transferring knowledge and producing even more. He confused language. God also broke up that conglomeration in lower Mesopotamia (South Iraq) and effectively dissipated the world's human population so that the task of continuing with the babel Project would be stymied for a while. Now it is back on again.

So Governance really starts here. God required Noah;s descendants to implement government to execute murderers probably because of the terrible slaughter that presumably occurred in the wicked era of humanity prior to the Flood. But it really remained up to Man to decide how he was going to arbitrate or mediate arguments, resource allocation etc., which is the stuff of Economics and its mate, so to speak, Politics. Thus for the first two thousand years of humanity existence here there was little nee for governance except to restrict people's propensity to take other men's lives.

2.	Law through Israel

For this second era, God selected a man named Abram who lived in Babel to make a name for him, as it were, so that God could demonstrate His mode of living for mankind even under conditions of the Adamic-induced Fall. Through Abram there would be several nations as he eventually become father "of many nations" that he would inherit through procreation. Some think that was a reference to another aspect of God's Plan that through one special descendant ("seed") of Abraham, actually a woman's 28 as it happened, there would be the Promised deliverer or World Saviour. One family in particular through his only begotten son Isaac then through Isaac's son Jacob, surnamed "Israel" God would develop this plan for a Godly or Goodly Nation. It should not be overlooked that there had not been any nations up to that time. Med lived in cities like Babel, Ur, Sodom, Gomorrah etc. At best these were city-states. So God's Plan for Israel would be quite distinvct from them. Israel would be a nation of many towns, cities and villages with a Holy Capital for the country;s ruler to administer the nation through.

Now another point usually overlooked is that Abraham did not follow through The calling he received, as most of are wont to do, and delayed going to Canaan after leaving Babel and Ur and arriving at Haran in North Syria. Even when he got to Canaan he soon went on to Egypt to live there for a while. So to some extent Abraham frustrated God's Plan fo Israel from Stage II (Haran). Consequently various city-states in Canaan then later collections or alliances of city states formed their own nations. Egypt was probably first to do this with the first couple of dynasties although we have insufficient information to date such things precisely. By the time Isaac and Jacob had inherited God's Promise for Israel in Canaan these other groups, either city states or collections thereof had formed nations, customs and laws which Isaac and jacob fely obliged to follow rather than the Law God had planned for them. We can only speculate on the point, but had Abraham gone straight into Canaan instead of messing around for half a century he would have had the authority to stamp on Canaan the laws God intended for the region. Eventually, some 500 years later Moses brought hat about but it really took a millennium befoe King David reslly set Israel on the path of Law that god had envisaged.

3.	Christendom

The Third era canme about because the Promised Deliverer, i.e., Jesus of Nazareth was rejected by his kith and kin, the nation of Israel, as, in our opinion, or as in the lynchpin verse of Exodus 4:8 we suggest God foretold Israel's rejection of Jesus of Nazareth in AD 30 some 2000 years after Abraham's original calling and 4000 years after Adam's Fall. So Jesus, following the rejection by Israel, established "His Church29". We suggest this was in fact foreknown to God so that when He spent Six Days re-formatting the Old Earth damaged by the destruction necessitated by Satan's fall and judgement, He had anticipate the facts presented so far. God could have brought everything in this world's environment into being at one call just as God presumably did for the Universe originally created for the angels' enjoyment.

When God moved Apostle Peter 30 to write, "One day with The Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day" (KJV) we mostly read this as a metaphorical statement but it could be that it has to be read literally aas well and that we are supposed to link the statement with the staged re-formatting of the Earth in Genesis chapter 1. It means that the Millennium we have been discussing above is actually going to be the Seventh Day of Rest all believers will enjoy when God rules directly through Jesus and below Him the resurrected King David and the apostles over the Twelve Tribes of Israel and various gentiles ruling the other nations during that Millennial Era.

Thus the Plan God has for Earth since Adam's fall is to try out three experiments - Conscience, Israel and The Church - in Mankind administering this planet in the wake of the fall. It need not have been like this if Adam had obeyed that first simple and basic but arguably quite difficult test. As Apostle Paul realised in his epistles 31 each one of us is imputed with Adam's error. We therefore also inherit Adam's sinful nature. Remember this contrasts with God's earlier plan with or for the angelic realm. If Adam had obeyed, there would have been no need for the Son of God to come and stand in his place. Therefore, under this covenant (deal) we also impute Jesus' righteousness and resurrected body if we believe and trust in Him.

Governance since 2000 BC

So the fundamental issue 'Government' has to resolve is the sin nature of mankind. Building on this sinful nature we have lust for power, status and lust of the eyes and lust of the flesh etc. It is that nature that leads to arguments over resources, who owns what etc. For a longtime there was plenty of land for people to explore, tame and use32. Once people had developed some space they might need to defend it from people who would think to take it over for themselves. The Bible does not give us much information about these issues as they oertained to most of the planet. It does tell us quite a bit about the region we name "The Middle East" and more specifically in the regions around Israel. More precisely for tjhis paper, the Middle East is really the Fertile Crescent formed by the rivers Tigris, Euphrates, Orontes-Jordan and the Nile to its fifth cataract or set of waterfalls in the south of modern-day Egypt. However, using the written histories of China, India and the Americas, as much as these writings can be read today, or translated, one can piece together a reasonable survey of world history but in this document we will concentrate on what we know from the Biblical text and extrapolate that to the other civilizations further out. Even so, every civilization had broadly the same issues to resolve. There always had been competition from various regimes which saw invasions, confederations, colonizations etc, lead to a change in governors or rulers.

Priest Kings

In the Bible, the first recorded priest-king was Melchizedek. In some Jewish tradition this man was Shem the eldest son of Noah and the great-great grandfather of Abraham. Whomever the man was, he officially acknowledged Abraham's role as the recipient of God's Plan for a nation to be known as Israel. If this king was Shem, the eldest son of Noah, it implies he left Babylon before the Tower Project began or in the early stages pf the project knowing it to be godless and destructive. But Melchizedek, if he was Shem, also provides a link between the two eras. Shem's father had to bring Government to the world via execution of murderers. That necessitates things like constabularies, armies, courts and judges etc. Jesus was the transition between the end of the Mosaic System for Israel and His own Law of Christ so Melchizedek, if he was Shem, did the same thing. He obviously set up a kingdom or city-state in Jerusalem known in those days as 'Salem'. So there is some sense in making that link between Shem and Melchizedek. It means these priest kings were responsible for meeting the commandments God gave to Noah. So Government was well on the way by 2000 BC with rulers like Melchizedek which is actually a title meaning 'King of Righteousness'.

However, at this early point we see that it is a significant person who is able to offer sacrifices for sin who is the ruler. Melchizedek put the mantle around the shoulders or crown on the head of Abraham. Abraham did not confer kingship on Melchizedek by defeating the man's enemies. As we shall see in later history that would change. Abraham led a coalition or army to defeat an alliance of kings determined to overthrow Melchizedek for some unstated reason. But the military leader did not install or become the king.

One assumes there were no kings or priests for that matter in the era before Abraham and Melchizedek unless men like Enoch amd Methuselah were priests or priest-kings. Government did not come into play until after Noah left the ark. That was only about five centuries previously. The Bible's narrative jumps quickly from Noah to the Tower of Babel then onto Abraham. Certainly, ever since God first slaughtered two animals to clothe Adam and Eve to cover their emblem of sinfulness, their nakedness, we learn that mankind did have to sacrifice animals to remind men and women of the penalty for sin. For those who obeyed this practice there was some spiritual comfort. Unbelievers probably just buried their conscience as unbelievers do today. Ever since Adam we have been moved by our conscience but with the progress of time, Israel and the church added other or different observances to remind us of our sinful nature and to either cover our sins (before Christ) or acknowledge he has now paid for them as well as paying for the sin of all pre-Christ saints who obeyed God's commandments in faith and who trusted in God's Grace and Mercy.

Since Melchizedek, circa 2000 BC, we know of a priest who served Pharaoh in Joseph's day, for he married a daughter of this priest, in circa 1900 BC. One can therefore assume that priest served the true God and not a pagan Egyptian one. It could also be a clear example of a situation where the business of government was getting so complex that priestly functions had to be devolved to a specialist who after all is bridging God and Man via the animal sacrifices. It is a Holy function. Kings needed to be prepared for it. They became too busy with affairs of state so they had to devolve or delegate.

In 1500 BC we find Moses living with Jethro a priest who may also have been a king of Midian. The Hebrew33 tells us he was a . This also tells us via the alternative and much older name for Arabia's city of Medina, i.e., Yathrub, that Jethro was the priest at Medina now one of the three holy cities of Islam34. Moses could also be regarded as a priest-king. Kings had to sit in their courts and resolve disputes betwen subjects. When Jethro visited Moses in the desert after the destruction of Egypt, and watched Moses burning himself out with court duties, Jethro advised Moses to train assistants to be "rulers over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens" 35. Moses brought delegation and devolution to the task of government on the advice of the ruler of Medina. That is something of an irony in today's world considering the crisis in Islam and its contest with the rest of the world. In many ways, this is yet another weighty piece of evidence for the veracity, historicity and prophetic role of Biblocal Scripture. Jethro came to Moses after an attack on Israel by his people the Midianites (the usually misleading transliteration of the Hebrew which should be transliterated 'Medina-ites'). This may suggest Jethro was overthrown as king so the Bible scribe records him as 'priest' only.

Later, perhaps around 900 BC, Job may also have been a priest-king. In the case of Joseph's pharaoh, the priest was probably performing priestly duites on behalf of the king burdened with the ever increasing responsibilities of governance and administration. Thus Joseph's bos the Pharaoh found himself divesting of the priestly function. He would also appoint Joseph as Prime Minister, in effect, when it became necessary to instigate the programme to prepare Egypt for seven years of 'Plenty' to be followed by seven years of 'Famine'. Priestcraft was what the first kings actually did whenever they first began. They were generally more successful or well-to-do individuals. They would have animals of sufficient quality, probably unblemished, to satisfactorily offer sacrifices and they would invite others to join their service.

Jumping forward 3000 years from Melchizedek we see Charlemagne actually removing the crown from the hands of a pope at his coronation and placing the crown on his head by himself. Over three thousand years we see in that action the long slow march from communal priest to priest-king and finally to king with, as noted in the first section of this paper about Christendom and millennialism, the religious affairs of Man kept solely within synagogue, church, temple or mosque. As we shall see to that list of religious places or worship one could add the residences of the philosophers as religion gave way to 'thinking' in its own rite.

So in this paper we will see how the world moved through different governance systems as it struggled with the concept of Government. We will see that they all failed although there were some successful outdomes from various regimes under different resource and environmental endowments. Systems of social structure varied and they were affected by religious, secular or philosophical considerations.

God Kings or Divine Right of Kings?

The Bible points out that eventually a man without conscience, an enemy of both Israel and the Church of Christ, a man opposed to the worship of anyone but himself will rise up to control the world in accordance with the prophecy of the second or other child of Genesis 3:15. Later verses in the Bible amplified this baby's career. The Prophets Jeremiah and Daniel give more specific information about this person and the Book of Revelation (or Apokalupsis) details his work in The Tribulation.

The 'god-king' concept goes a long way back. It goes so far back that we cannot be sure exactly what the ancient documents are telling us about 'god-kings'. Did the ancient pharaohs really think they were God or even a god? It is quite possible Alexander of Macedonia felt he might be a god and died from alcoholism once he realised that gods apparently got old and died. Or worse for him, he realised he was just another sinful and frail human after all. Before considering what exactly these ancient records of Egyptian and other nations' kings tell us about god-kings or The Divine Righte of Kings we need to consider why anyone would think he is a god at all.

We know from the Bible that several genealogical records were recorded and handed down from generation to generation. Those that were recorded were considered special for some reason. In the Bible that reason was to keep track of a royal lineage that would eventually generate a woman who would bring The Saviour (or 'The Promised Deliverer') into the world. Of course, there may have been an interest in keeping track of the line of ancestry that would produce the antichrist. In the Bible, the main interest in genealogies is to look forward to God's Only Begotten Son the Messiah of Israel and Saviour of the World. In the Bible we see various genealogical lines discontinued, for example those of Cain and Esau. As the centuries rolled by and as further revelation came on, the line of descent of this 'World-Saviour' narrowed to a particular clan of the Tribe of Judah through the family of Jesse then through a line of one of David's sons (Nathan) from whom Mary eventually came into this world.

The Bible explains how the world began to get impatient at the delay in sending the saviour promised to Adam36. This was probably a plea for God to rescue man from the Fall of Adam. Little did they realise back then that God now intended to let man find out the consequences for himself. We are in the best position of any generation to grips with that point. It is usually overlooked here that Eve though the birth of Cain would meet the prophecy of the Seed of the Woman in Genesis 3L15. After a couple of generations to Enos (refer note 36) it must already have become patently obvious how awful sinful man could become. But it would be 1600 years before any sort of Government would be mandated and then a further few centuries before significant administrations appeared in Egypt and Babylon circa 2200 BC.

It Appears from this very early stage in Man's History after adam's fall that people began to wonder who might give birth to this promised deliverer. Thus two things became apparent. Eithere God would provide the world with a wonder child who would grow to become a great ruler or people destined to rule would be selected by God at the conception stage.

Enter the Sons of God and the Nephilim

Into a volatile situation, probably exacerbated after the death of Adam and Eve, the promised deliverer nowhere in sight a millennium after the Fall, mankind became exposed to interference from the angelic realm. More specifically from the demonic fallen angels who had sided with Satan in the war of the worlds (the Universe) waged long before the Creation of the world's current environment of vegetable-plants and animal-flesh. Satan sent angels to mate with women to poison their wombs to prevent any woman from actually delivering the promised saviour-child.

That plan nearly succeeded. The offspring were called the "Nephilim". Exactly what powers or strength these offspring had is unknown and can only be speculated on. Certainly some of their activities and exploits in this world were documented and re-told as the survivors from Noah's Ark began to spread across the globe after 2450 BC or 2000 BC the approximate date for the Tower of Babel. As far as can be ascertained from the Bible, these angels were warned not to try such evil again or be permanently imprisoned in a place usually referred to as "The Abyss". A report in the Book of Judges that Nephilim were in the Land of Israel (Canaan) in the days of Moses was an outright lie by those explorers who were not faithful enough to believe God would deliver the Promised Land into Israel's hands in circa 1485 BC. Israel had to wait another 40 years while those unbelievers (and liars) died out.

The Mosaic Jubilee system

Jubilee splist into Left and Right

"You will always have the poor" (because of sin)

Don Stewart Researcher

http://donstewartresearcher.com/book

http://don-stewart-research.blogspot.co.nz;

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Wellington, New Zealand, 17 August 2017

Endnotes