Dominionism vs Kingdom of God?

I was cured of Dominionism/Kingdom Age thinking (without knowing it) early in my active Christian life . Soon after my becoming spiritually alive Jimmy Carter came on the scene claiming to be born again and running for president of the USA. This would have been irresistible for me at the ballot box but strangely enough I became distracted on election eve and missed voting in that election. I missed voting for Jimmy Carter and often thank God for it.

Being a "Christian" does not make you a good leader. If there is a better example than Jimmy Carter, I don't know it. And so we don't forget this fact, Mr. Carter keeps reminding us in regular fashion.

I didn't know our early Christian efforts were Dominionism and surely at the time most Christians would not have put a label on it. We just wanted to use our civic duty to select good leaders. I just thought it was a good idea to prefer Christians in leadership. I still believe this. But being Christian is not a litmus test for me. Issue positions are most important in my political choice today, after the Jimmy Carter lesson.

Maybe George Bush is our second lesson.

Some say Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell were/are Dominionists. They believe the will of God is to have Christians in power and leadership and establish God's kingdom on the earth. I understood they simply felt as we all did, that Christian's should make good informed voting decisions. They encouraged Christians to become involved in politics and influence government for good and not evil.

I am capable of being door knob dense and I could have missed the true agenda. Pat Robertson's inner circle did not include me so Dominionism could have been the plan without my knowledge. And I will admit that we grass roots Christians had more than one encouraging conversation about Christians in political power. I did not however consider this as having anything to do with end time events or redeeming the earth. Maybe some people did.

Whatever I thought back then, I am further away from believing in Christian political effectiveness than ever. Not only did we send born again Jimmy Carter to Washington to destroy the government, we regularly send others who have little effect. But I will continue to prefer Christians if their values and positions are discernible. But I am not under any delusion that these efforts are part of the Kingdom Of God. The Kingdom of God is not meat nor drink but righteous, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. The Kingdom of God is not a political kingdom. It is not the United States of America, no matter how many good things the US has done or how ever many Christian founders the good old USA had.

Did Jesus say His kingdom is not of this world? Where did he say, "but my followers will change this"?

Here is a very good audio file on this subject. I believe this warning is important.

pidradio070708.mp3 Tom Horn interview.

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