Addendum 2

The Earthly Kingdom Transition Process:
From Saul to David

 

One topic we’ve discussed relating to the increasing penetration of the heavenly veil and the Moses deliverance process, is the tension over the mindsets of “kingdom now” and “kingdom [yet to] come.” This too is a matter of process perception as we move across time between the realities of having the kingdom “in principle” (by faith) and having it “in fact.” A device I use to keep this “realities balance” in check is to distinguish between the kingdom terms “demonstration” (I Cor. 2:4) and “manifestation” (Rom. 8:19 KJV). This distinction is a bit arbitrary, but it works well for me.

At present we are “demonstrating” the kingdom through frail bodies that host Acts of the Spirit underneath the confines of the world system. But the kingdom is not yet “manifest” in its indestructible permanent glory replacing the kingdoms of this world. Until we are translated and the Lord physically appears in His Own personal uncreated body, the kingdom is not and will not be “manifest” on earth, though it is increasing in “demonstration” as we get closer to the manifestation. The increase in kingdom demonstration over the last century does not alter the fact that kingdom manifestation still awaits, though it does herald its imminence. For me that is the simplest way to keep kingdom ideology straight.

As we continue our focus on the unseen, we should be increasing conduits for the temporal “demonstration” of the kingdom until the undeniably permanent “manifestation” is ready to appear where the authority of Rev. 12:10 that says “Now has come…the kingdom” intersects the earthly time continuum and is manifestly brought forward into the present tense. That has not happened yet and no amount of confessing it or trying to dress up human cultures in “kingdom clothing” changes that. (If we still have to be urged to “make a difference” in the world as many kingdom teachers urge us—and we do have to be urged—the manifestation clearly is not here.)

But a prophetic illustration from the transition between the reigns of Saul and David can help explain away some of the confusion.

What confuses kingdom understanding in our perception is the overlapping nature of the kingdom transition. There is not a simple clean-cut switch over of earth control and influence from the beast (the statue of Daniel 2) to Christ (the rock cut from the mountain of Daniel’s vision). Rather, the changeover is more like the way David came to actualized power over Saul. Like everything else discussed above, this occurred through a long drawn out overlapping process:

 

Samuel prophesied to Saul that David was to become king before David was even born. This is akin to Daniel’s prophecy to Nebuchadnezzar that Nebuchadnezzar’s visionary statue was to be replaced by the rock of Christ in centuries yet to come.

Later, Samuel anointed the young David to be king while Saul was still king. This is akin to the falling of the Spirit on the young Church in Acts 2 while the “times of the gentiles” were still in force, as it remains to this hour. Importantly, though David was “anointed in demonstration” through some of his battles with the Philistines and displayed kingly qualities, he was not “inaugurated in manifestation” as the king in place of Saul. He was not king “in fact,” only “in principle.”

This clearly portrays the state of the church on earth from Acts 2 to the present. The church was anointed to reign in principle at Pentecost, but in fact does not yet and has never reigned over the nations of the earth. (Only the harlot church of Revelation 17-18 has done so. The inability to distinguish between “anointing in principle” and “rulership in fact” is where kingdom-now teachers have always gotten it wrong and keep giving birth to harlot movements.)

Next what happens? Saul finally dies in the chaos of international warfare, and there is a brief period of limbo. There is no manifest king. Confusion reigns. Then David goes up to Hebron and is at last crowned king in fact, but only by part of Israel. Then there is 7 ½ years of civil war between the remaining house of Saul and David until all Israel finally crowns David as manifest king.

 

It is this crisis of squeezed events at the end of Saul’s reign that prophetically portrays where the church is vis-à-vis the world system relative to earth rulership. The church is now where David was as the anointed king-in-principle at the end of I Samuel just before Saul’s demise. We are coming out of the wilderness, but major wars between Saul and the Philistines still loom until Saul is killed. The stage for these conclusive international wars is being set now and has been since World War I.

There is a difference however between David’s inauguration over Saul and Jesus’ manifest inauguration with the church over the earth. The difference between David’s inauguration and the Church’s is that unlike David, whose partial inauguration takes place after Saul is killed, the church’s inauguration through partial translation (Rev. 12:10) occurs before the beast of “Saul” is overthrown—in fact, even before the beast has fully manifested (Rev. 13). There is no limbo period where there is no ruler. There are actual overlapping competing reigns at this point. We will shortly be witnessing this clash between these two manifest kingdoms.

Rev. 12:10 is the church’s partial inauguration parallel to David’s initial partial inauguration at Hebron in 2 Samuel 2. It is partial because only part of the church is translated at this beginning point. It is in this state of partial translation that the rest of the woman’s seed goes off to war against the beast powers. This war against the beast by the partially translated church is portrayed by the long period of “civil war” seen in 2 Sam. 2-4 between the partially inaugurated David and the remainder of the house of Saul which still claims title to the throne through Ishbosheth fronted by the general Abner.

Finally, “the beast” of Saul’s house is overthrown. Abner and Ishbosheth die. All Israel comes to crown David. Likewise in these end times, all the remaining harvest of the church comes in to be crowned in rulership over the earth, including the restored Jewish-origined saints. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of David, fully manifests in His physical personal body to rule the earth with His church. “And so shall all Israel be saved.” All the earth is now put under his feet in fact. (For more from this prophetic type on what ensues after the Lord fully returns, please review the article Like Father, Like Son.)

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What I have just described is a bit truncated for time, but goes a long way to help resolve the confusion regarding current competing understandings of the kingdom. Past prophetic typologies can provide the kind of spiritual “road map” perspective I believe kingdom teachers need in order to get straight where we are at and to keep the “realities balance” in accurate check as we keep pressing forward in this momentous period of earth invasion by eternal forces.

 

 

Chris Anderson


First Love Ministry
- a ministry of Anglemar Fellowship
http://www.firstloveministry.org

3/11

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