A Kingdom Divided

“And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, ‘He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.’ And he called them to him and said to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end.” (Mark 3:22-26]

“‘A house divided against itself cannot stand.’ I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved—I do not expect the house to fall—but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other.”

Abraham Lincoln spoke these words, borrowed from Jesus, when he delivered his famous “House Divided” speech in 1858 at the Illinois Republican State Convention in Springfield, Illinois. Illinois Republicans had just endorsed him as their choice in the forthcoming senate campaign. To Lincoln, the house was the United States. His thought was that it could not continue to be both pro and anti-Slavery. It had to be one or the other or else fall apart.

The house Jesus spoke of was the kingdom of Satan. The scribes, the teachers of the Jewish Law had accused Jesus of being a servant of Beelzebub meaning that He was doing the work of Satan. But Jesus rightly maintained rpthat He would be a poor servant of the Satanist kingdom since meant He was working to destroy the works of Satan. He had consistently demonstrated His work as the servant of Almighty God in a dynamic manner by casting demons out of people, healing the sick, and preaching the Kingdom of God. If, as the Pharisees maintained, He was doing this by the power of Satan, what he was doing was dividing the kingdom of darkness and it could not stand. Jesus did not come to divide Satan’s kingdom but to destroy it because He is God Himself. he had come to unite all people by reconciling them to the Father in Himself, which He did by His atoning sacrifice on the cross.

The words Jesus spoke are somewhat relevant to us in the current political situation in the United States. The nation is divided almost as much as it was 160 years ago. The Kingdom of darkness, however, seems to be working against itself by pitting adherents of the 2 major political ideologies at odds with each other and throwing in violence from terrorists and anarchists for good measure. Evil fighting against evil is what see producing our current lawlessness and incivility. The Christians Church must unite to work in opposition to this satanic agenda with the gospel of Jesus. The Church must rise up to preach His love, grace, and reconciliation which offers true freedom and peace in the Kingdom of God. The kingdom of Satan is nearing its collapse.