Christian Royalty and Commoners

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However, the Bible also reveals that God has a special heavenly people known as the church. This select body of saints began on the day of Pentecost with the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The church is totally separate from the nation of Israel; from Israel's divine program; and, from its destiny in the world. The church saints are intimately related to Jesus Christ as His body. Christians are joined to Jesus Christ at the point of salvation by the baptism of the Holy Spirit. So, Christians are described as being "in Christ." The church body is to be completed at the point of the rapture when we all meet the Lord Jesus in the air, as described in 1 Thessalonians 4:16:17. Church saints then go to heaven, and there they become not only the body of Christ, but also His bride.

Christians are Royalty

Commoners

Furthermore, the position of nobility which the Christian possesses is irrevocable. You cannot abdicate your royal status, and you cannot be deposed from it. The Christian nobility of the church age requires training for life as God's aristocrats. We are not born into the royal family with the characteristics; the quality; the bearing; and, the poise of nobility. We have to learn to be aristocrats, or we just move along like the same grubby commoners we were before we entered the royal family. Bible doctrine knowledge in practice transforms our common status into that of royalty.

Therefore, nothing must interfere with the training in biblical truth of the individual believer as he seeks to fulfill his royal duty. Nothing must interfere with the learning of doctrinal principles so that that Christian may rise to the aristocracy into which he has been born through the new birth. Every day, the Christian seeks to develop the thinking and the lifestyle befitting a member of God's royal family, the church. If he knows what it's all about, that's what's on his mind every day – to move forward in developing his capacity to live up to his station in life.

Commoners are Envious of Royalty

The commoners resent that. They resent the claim that you are uniquely related to the Lord Jesus Christ who is the King of the world and the King of the universe. They resent that because immediately that makes clear that there's a great distinction between you and them. This is why people resent the idea of being born again. This is why you get so much flak when you say, "If you are not born again, then you're not going to heaven. If you are not born again, God doesn't listen to you. Your prayers are meaningless. If you are not born again, you are not being prospered by God. Whatever prosperity you have, it comes from some other source."

So, commoners do not take kindly toward royalty. They are envious and antagonistic. Remember that the word "envy" is not merely "jealousy," which is a lower grade of evil. Envy means that they're out to destroy what you are as royalty. They're out to trip you up. They're out to strip you of everything that identifies you as a royal personage.

Furthermore, commoners do not have the intellectual discernment of the royal mind which has been trained in the doctrines of Scripture. Consequently, commoners make poor decisions, and they are poor leaders. They constitute the ignorant intellectuals of our day. They may have a higher IQ; they may have an education; and, they may have experienced, but because they lack a divine viewpoint frame of reference, they are in fact incapable of using the information they have in the proper way, so they are mere ignorant intellectuals. So, what we have among commoners is the morally incompetent who are teaching and leading the morally blind.

Also, commoners do not produce eternal good results within mankind. They are non-achievers spiritually, and they produce disaster socially. You want to remember that about commoners. Certain commoners hold positions of authority in our society of various kinds. Because that individual is a commoner, you must know (you must understand) that he is incompetent automatically in the performance of his duty. Only a Christian can be a competent politician. Only a biblically positive volition Christian can be a competent politician. Only a competent biblical Christian can hold public office to the benefit of the society that he serves. And only a biblically oriented royal educator can be a competent teacher, and so on, down the line. Whatever area of life you deal with, unless you are a Christian, you cannot do the job and do it so that people are benefited in the long run. Instead, you do it in such a way that people are injured. People are not benefited.

Commoners Defy Authority

It is interesting when people come and talk to me, they relate to me their various problems and the difficulties that they have in life, and very often I can trace what they are saying back to the fact that someplace along the line they resisted a line of authority, and while they felt they were mistreated; they weren't handled properly; they weren't understood; and, they weren't dealt with properly, the truth of the matter is that they insisted on having their own way; they were anti-authority; and, they were dismissing the fact that God puts us all under lines of authority as members of His royal family. It is the characteristic of commoners to be arrogant, and to refuse to respect constituted authority.

Every now and then, among the royal family of God, as historically among royalty, there are members of the royal family who don't like the lines of authority. They have someone who is in a position above them. They have a brother who is on the throne, and they're just second in line. We have many cases historically where the second-in-line saw to it that the one who ruled (who was on the throne) was murdered so that they could move up and take his place – rejecting a position of authority. It is sad when we see this among Christians.

How Commoners Describe Royalty

Right-Wingers

Victorian

Fundamentalists

Pro-Life

Absolutists

Deeply Religious

Hawks

Conservatives

Bereans

How Commoners Describe Themselves

Sexually Liberated

Pro-Choice

China has recently been praised in the public media for the fact that it has done so much to bring its population explosion under control. Genghis Khan could have been praised for the same thing. He did a lot to bring population explosion under control. So, did Adolf Hitler. He did a marvelous job of bringing population control by slaughtering.

Pluralistic

Enlightened

Anti-Nuclear

This is the kind of mentality that is described in these words that seems so dignified: enlightened; anti-nuclear; and, liberal. There's nothing liberal about them. Anything that a liberal does is to destroy your personal liberty, not to enhance it.

Pragmatic

Civil Libertarians

Center-of-the-Road

Ecumenical

Compassionate

Don't forget, folks, that we describing what the Bible calls the Laodicean age. Don't forget our study of the letter to Laodicea that gave us the horrifying picture of a vomiting God as he expressed His reaction to the culture that we have today.

A Woman's Right over her own Body

Once those madmen in the Supreme Court committed us to the course of abortion, in spite of the fact that all 50 states said, "No, it's wrong on moral grounds;" whatever you may say about the United States, it is a doomed nation.

Mrs. Danish and I had an interesting conversation with a group of people. I had an enjoyable evening at the Pyramid Room at the Paramount Hotel. One of the things that came out of that conversation with people who are knowledgeable in what goes on in important strategic places in our society is that the course of the United States now is so solidified in its thinking. The people who control and who pull the levers of government are so solidified in the thinking of secular humanism, that a Ronald Reagan and a Ron Paul and all the other people that have some glimmer of divine viewpoint orientation are never going to be able to turn it around. It was a little distressing to these people.

I pointed out that it seems that, while it is distressing, we also have to recognize that we have the picture of the antichrist ruling the world in the end times. That will be a world which is subject to him economically, because of computer capacity. The antichrist will be a man who can control whether you eat or don't eat, and whether you do business or don't do business, and he will be able to control everything you have. That kind of a world simply cannot exist with a United States in existence operating on its historical Christian heritage foundation. Immediately, everybody around the table agreed: "That's right." This country has to be destroyed in its Christian heritage. And once its Christian heritage is destroyed, then we have prostituted our role as God's client nation, and you may count on it that we will be destroyed. Don't forget, Jeremiah and his tragic message, and what he had to say, and how indeed it all came to pass.

So, when you see these words, put the right interpretation on them. When you see them flowing out of the mouths of our famous newscasters, you just understand what it is they're doing, and how cleverly they are constituting language to intimidate you as a Christian. The American news media is controlled by commoners. So, the ideas that it causes and champions are the bigotry of secular humanism. Its antipathy for biblical law is apparent. They control the flow of ideas in this country just like communist countries control the flow of ideas in their countries. You have to register in communist countries to own a typewriter, and you have to have a license to own a Xerox machine, because these are instruments by which people can enlighten one another, so they have to be controlled. But we have it in the same way, because we turn on that television set; we look at the evening news; we sit there and listen; and, we are impressed by what is said. Unless you see the code words, and unless you have a little background of understanding, then you are going to be swayed. But if you do, you'll be able to see right through the smooth talking of Ted Koppel, and you will pick up all the nuances of his contempt for one person he's talking to, and his promoting of another person that he's talking to. You'll be amazed how the evidence will come through. You'll spot it.

Furthermore, commoner leadership resents Christian royalty making authoritative divine viewpoint pronouncements to the masses about art; about literature; about business; about politics; about social programs; about law; and, about economics. I'm amazed how the commoners hate it when you stand up and talk about these matters. For example, they don't think that you, as a Christian, are qualified to make pronouncements (that you can have something to say) about the legal system: what's wrong; what's right; and, how it should operate. They don't think that you, as a Christian, can stand up and have something to say about what's good art, and what stinks. They don't think that you, as a Christian, have a right to get up and have some insight concerning the practice of good medicine and bad medicine. But, the Word of God gives us capacity in every field. I guarantee you that the commoners resent that. The commoners ultimately show disdain for Christian royalty by ignoring that royalty, and they do it by ignoring the noble achievements which historically have so blessed mankind.

The fundamentalists are so hated. Remember the puritanical Victorian fundamentalist Berean types – the worst possible combination. These were the people who provided educational facilities for others to benefit by. These are the ones who had the heart of compassion and provided the orphanages. These are the ones who took in the unwanted children. These are the ones who provided for the aged, and enabled them through the years when nobody else was interested in them. It is these kinds of fundamentalist types that provided the food and the clothing and the shelter to those who were dispossessed for one reason or another – not the liberals. Don't fall for that. It is the fundamentalist, biblically oriented Christian who has been responsible for these things historically. Don't you let them try to take that away from you – that the state (the government) is the source of this.

Commoners misrepresents the nature of Christian royalty in order to create fears of their motives. How often have you heard somebody have a snide remarks about Jerry Falwell? I heard a man the other day who said, "Oh, I don't trust Falwell. I'm afraid he would like to impose his views on everybody." And somebody else in the group said, "Why do you say that? Have you heard him try to do that? Are you aware that he has tried to do that someplace?" The man responded, "Well, no, but it's just the kinds of things he stands for." Well, what kinds of things does he stand for? He stands for those principles of biblical morality. That's what they fear. They are afraid of the 50 million Christians of us who go to church. Ten million of us could swing any election in any direction that we chose, if we could ever get the brains to get together, and to take a position of strength. That's what they're afraid of – that certainly there would be an amendment to the Constitution that would say, "No more abortions. Period." They're afraid that, in one way or another, the humanist would be stopped dead in his tracks.

So, the commoners are going to misrepresent you. They're going to make you look like some kind of a way-out weird character. They're going to attack you as being someone who doesn't know what he's talking about. They're going to try to overpower you by their degrees; by their prestige; and, by the fact that they have talked to someone who is in authority. That's the favorite: "I talked to this authority. I have the information from this scholar." And you're going to be dismissed as being a person who is just without understanding.

They misrepresent the nature of royalty as being dictators who are trying to impose their views. They never bothered accusing royalty of that until we began speaking out in the political scene.

Commoners are controlled by the inhuman elite. They seek to limit the freedom of the masses, and that elite group seeks to impose their human viewpoint concept – their concept of what constitutes quality of life in a brave new world.

From time to time, children are born with Down syndrome, a very serious kind of retardation in a child. It has almost become standard operating procedure that if a woman wants to let that child die, it's no longer just abortion, but it's infanticide. It's letting the youngster die after he is born, and after he is a living, breathing human being in a living, breathing soul. If you don't think it happens, you don't understand what's going on. It happens in hospitals all the time. They say that this is done because this child cannot have a quality of life. It might be retarded. Can you imagine the inordinate arrogance of these humanists who can look at a child and say this baby is going to be retarded? I know lots of people who are retarded such that you can't tell it by looking at them. As long as they're smart enough to keep their mouths closed, they're going to come off looking a lot better than they really are. That is the arrogance in the realm of psychiatry and the realm of the psychologists – that we can look at you and tell so much about you. When they talk, they're only revealing the crudity and the bestiality of their sin nature, trying to impose their degraded, brave new world that they envision. Nimrod did. He blew it all, and the little Nimrods have been trying to make a world without God ever since. What pathetic little creatures!

It is the commoners who have created the current chaos in American society. It is only the leadership and the influence of mature Christian aristocrats that can lead us out of the swamp of human degradation with all the repulsive creatures that have been found in that human secular swamp. It's only you who are the aristocrats that can lead us out. It is only you who can be in positions of authority, and can do the job.

But if you're a Christian, and you play sympathetic ball with the secular world, then you're no better than they are, and you are a disgrace to your lineage and to your royal position. Commoners resent that the children of Christian royalty are being reared with an understanding of the noble position that those children hold as Christians; the dignity that is upon them; and, the duty which is upon these children, sometime in the future, to assume a position of royal leadership, and of rising above the mediocre masses. That's why we have opposition to Christian schools. That's why we have this attack on tax exemption by the government.

For example, you've heard the decision of the Supreme Court toward Bob Jones University. Do you know what the issue is there? That decision has now crystallized the concept that if you are tax-exempt, like Berean Church or Berean Academy, the United States government has given you a subsidy. That's the point of the Bob Jones decision. The United States government has declared that if you are tax-exempt, then our taxpayers have given you a subsidy. Once that has been established, as it has now, then whatever the government does not agree on that you are doing; that you believe; or, that you practice, for sociological or whatever reasons, they can come in and take action against you. That is the next step that's coming. Now that tax exemption means government subsidy, the government has cracked the last barrier of being able to impose its secular, grimy hand upon the work of the Lord. You better be prepared that that is coming. That's the whole point.

Commoners frantically champion the protection of animals while they cruelly abort babies, but they call Christian royalty insensitive bigots because we reject such barbarism. Only in the most barbaric societies has this kind of slaughter been practiced and permitted. You need to understand the reasons that it is being practiced and permitted. There was a time when the abortionists said, "We want to do this for the poor girl who has been raped and has this child; this case of incest within the home; and, this pregnant girl that has this trauma. It is for that reason." That's why they brought it. But because it was wrong, even in those cases, now it has gone far beyond, and it is actually now being viewed (and that's what the Upjohn company is doing) to make it possible to keep enough people slaughtered off so that there will be enough human resources for everybody to have a quality of life. They are again assuming that man's ingenuity; man's godlike creativeness; and, the world that God has created and given to us with all of its wealth and resources, could not rise to feed any number of people if people were operating on God's principles.

To summarize, the commoners impose death; poverty; scarcity; and, slavery with their ideas, while the Christian royalty provides life; prosperity; plenty; and, freedom with their ideas from the Word of God. Don't forget that distinction. The commoners run the country; the commoners are politicians; the commoners are in the professions; the commoners are in the news media; and, the commoners are the educators. It is these people who are creating death; poverty; scarcity; and, slavery. We, who constitute Christian royalty, leave behind us a trail of life; of prosperity; of plenty; and, of freedom with our ideas from the Word of God.

The Qualities of Christian Royalty

Shun Evil

I cannot believe what I hear on programs. I see television entertainment programs like situation comedies, but I see them often at vast intervals. I saw one the other day. It was a comparatively nice program at one time, and I could not believe how degenerate it had become. Practically every other line that was coming from the mouths of the actors was a line that was dignifying some immorality and some evil, and they were playing cutesy-pooh with the thing like there was nothing to it, and it was something that everybody was supposed to do.

I've seen that in entertainers. I've seen comedians who could make you laugh. Their materials were so funny that we would capitalize on them for a Berean banquet skit. They were not degrading. It was just plain fun. Then all of a sudden, I hear those people again, and they're nothing but degraded filth. What are they doing? They're moving with the times. This is the kind of thing about which Paul said to Timothy: "Timothy, you don't follow the line of dirt of the rest of your society, because you're a prince. You're part of royalty."

2 Timothy 2:21: "If a man therefore purges himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified and fit for the Master's use, and prepare unto every good work." You and I, as royalty, are therefore to exercise concerned understanding for other members of the royal family, even when they want to act like dirt. We have to exercise concerned understanding. In Philippians 2:4, Paul says, "Every man should not look on his own things, but every man also on the things of others." We are to be concerned with those difficulties under which other believers live, and which sometimes brings them into traps of evil in their practice. And for that reason, as royalty, we don't gossip about or slander the other members of the royal family. The principle that we seek is to live and let live in terms of each member's preference of lifestyle, providing that that lifestyle is not in violation of Scripture.

I am often with Christians who have things in their lifestyle that I don't have in mine – that I have no taste for; no interest in; and, that I even think are a little dangerous. I can be with Christians sometimes, and they'll be ordering drinks, and I don't order drinks. Even if I wanted to, I am forbidden by the Word of God, by implication. The book of Proverbs makes it very clear that anybody who is a public official (who holds public office) must not consume alcoholic beverages. The Bible is very clear about that, and the Bible explains why. It is because your position of authority is one in which you're making decisions in which an innumerable number of people could be hurt. When you go into a restaurant, the rest of them are ordering their little wines; cocktails; margaritas; bloody Marys; scotch on the rocks; scotch under the rocks; scotch between the rocks; and, everything else that is there down the list. You act on a biblical principle, because there is a responsibility upon you and, you're not intimidated because you do. If government leaders cannot drink in order to preserve their sensibilities for decisions they make, certainly preachers would fall into that category as well.

Here is a test case for how much an aspiring political leader understands. If he knows the Word of God, one thing that he never touches is booze. The others are all ordering drinks, and they come around to you and say, "Would you like a drink?" At that point, you may demonstrate your noble lineage and breeding by simply courteously declining, or you order something non-alcoholic. You don't say, "No, I'm a Christian. I don't drink." You don't act like a slobby snob about it.

In Romans 15:7, Paul says, "Wherefore receive one another as Christ also received us to the glory of God." That is very important, as Christian royalty, to learn to live and let live. One of the defenses I find for people failing to live up to Christian principles, and for failing to go on in the Christian life to maturity, is the contempt they express over somebody they see who doesn't live up to what they profess. We have a room full of people who do not live up to what they profess from time to time. It is the height of arrogance to say, "That's it. I don't want anything more to do with that life. That's a bunch of baloney. I don't want anything to do with the Christian life. I'm not interested in that Bible study." Then you withdraw yourself like some superior Pharisee. That's all you are.

It is very important for you to learn how to walk with the Lord; how to be stable in your Christian life; and, to permit yourself to come to the point where He is going to prosper you. And please don't forget: I don't want to get off on this now. It's coming up a little later, but don't forget that the only reason you are here on earth to take your next breath is for God to prosper and bless you. You are not here to work for Him or to suffer for Him. You are here for Him to be able to prosper you, and to be able to bless you with your next breath. Your status in eternity is going to be very vitally determined (as we'll show you in a moment or so) by whether God is prospering and blessing you now. If you're not being prosperous and blessed now, you've got some real questions about what it's going to be like out there for you in eternity.

So, don't exalt yourself above other believers. That is the principle that the Word of God lays out. Have an appropriate modesty befitting your position. In Philippians 2:3, Paul says, "Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself." Don't try to exalt and put yourself above other believers.

Also, don't give lip service to Christian principles, and then live like a low commoner. That's what a lot of us do. We give this lip service to Christian principles, and we are very faithful in attending churches. We have all kinds of Christians, and we have that syndrome among us. In the parable of the son, the father asked the son to do something. He said, "No, I'm not going to do that," and he resisted. Then the father found that the son came and did it. Whereas, the other son said, "Yes, I'm cooperative, I'll do it," and then he didn't show up. We have that kind of going-on constantly – giving lip service to Christian principles, but then living by the world's compromising standards like a commoner. They are lacking a divine viewpoint and a sense of values.

Did you ever play a game? Did you ever sit around playing games with people of one kind or another? That's a splendid time to demonstrate the difference between lip service and real royal commitment to the principles of godliness. Do you play a game to win no matter what? Do you cheat; you lie; you exercise verbal abuse; you intimidate your opponent; and, if necessary, you come to physical threat and violence? You ridicule and you exploit. That's one way of playing a game. It is pretty disgusting to see people who are royalty playing a game like that, acting like dogs, squabbling and snarling over a bone, rather than acting with the royal dignity and grace, and enjoying an evening of social fellowship.

Devotion to Christian Service

Devotion to Christian service is really interesting, and band practice is a microcosm of the Christian life. The devotion is demonstrated that the things of God are number one. And the same youngster who has a job, his parents would have a blow torch on his tail to get out to that job; to get there on time; and, to get to that job. And he'd get up and say, "Well, I don't feel too well." They'd say to him, "That's OK. That's what's wonderful about this country. You can go to work feeling well, or you can go to work not feeling well. Get out of here." And they would get them out.

So, what are you teaching your heirs? You're teaching them some bad things. And we have them all scattered in the band of various ages. Some of them are very devoted? Why? Because they love the Lord. This is a Christian service ministry, and they're interested in ministering to the body. They don't stand around saying, "Hey, I've got a gift here, and I'm not going to use it." They rise up to the nobility that is in their souls. If they've got nobility in their souls, they rise up, and they use their gift for the Lord's glory and for the blessings of the body of believers.

Your service is not fitted to your convenience. Remember that God deals with us from his integrity. He commands of us, as royalty, to act from integrity – the integrity of doctrine toward Him and toward ourselves.

Royalty does not indulge in the evil lifestyle of others that the commoner does.

There are many more qualities. Next time, we'll look at some of these other qualities of Christian royalty, and maybe they'll help bring in focus the life that we should be walking as the aristocrats of God.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1982

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