The Kingdom Priority
INTRODUCTION
Kingdom
priority can be understood, in large part, as a theological principle based in
the belief that human beings must radically reorient their relationship with
God from one that values God for who he is and not what he gives. Through that
lens, I will draw primarily from the word of God. I explore the dangers of
religion, which negatively impacts human communities, especially those on the
margins of society. I will draw primarily from kingdom principles instead of
religious dogmas and creeds. In this sense I denounce religion that is rooted
in traditions and rudiments of man. Basically, religion is mankind trying to
reach out to God through human instruments. In his book Rediscovering the Kingdom: Ancient Hope for Our 21st Century
World, Munroe asserts, “The greatest threat to the future of the world is
religion. Nuclear weapons, terrorist, SARS, shifting governments, military
coups, and AIDS are simply tools used by religion.”[1]
Religion has been employed by those in power to control, manipulate, dominate,
and humiliate those who are disenfranchised. More harm has been done in the
name of God than any other reason. The canvas of history is littered with the
bloody marks of religious oppression. Munroe says, “Misplaced and misguided
religious passion has produced such historical scars as the Crusades, the
Inquisition, ethnic cleansing, and the horror of the Holocaust.”[2]
I prefer Munroe’s approach because it is rooted in the word of God that strikes
at what is at the core of God’s heart, the kingdom. Jesus admonished us to seek
the kingdom of God and his righteousness first and then all these things that
the world is dying for will be added to us. The priority is for the kingdom of
God. I take seriously Jesus’s passion, mission and vision. He is not concerned
with a limited or myopic worldview that is restricted by the rigid borders of
religion. He has a broader social imaginary, one that penetrates through
political, cultural and socio-economic barriers.
An Overview of Kingdom Theology
It
was a cold winter night—below 22
I
was born on the 28th of July 1984 in Harare Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe
gained its independence from the British colonial masters on the 17th
of April 1980. In our country we have a statement we make for those born after
1980, we call ourselves those who were born free. I was born after Zimbabwe was
freed from colonial oppression. The concepts of colonization, dominion and
kingdom have been difficult for me to comprehend because I grew up in what is
supposedly a democracy. However, I have gleaned a lot from listening to my
parents talk about the imperial rule of the United Kingdom globally and how
they used to sing the British national anthem “God Save The Queen.” After
careful study, I came realize that what my parents and ancestors went through
was the process of colonialization, as they became subjects of the British
kingdom. Zimbabwe became a colony of a foreign global imperial kingdom.
Zimbabwe
just recently celebrated 40 years of independence from the British Kingdom. We
might have had our independence from a foreign kingdom physically, but we still
feel the impact and influence of the British sovereign mentally. We all speak
the Queen’s English as our second language, we drink tea daily, we drive on the
left side of the road and we wear suits just like the British.
The
kingdom Concept of Colonization
The
concept of colonization is as old as the bible, in fact we can trace it all the
way back to Genesis. Let me take you through a historical journey back to Eden for
us to fully comprehend this ancient and biblical concept of colonization. I
must admit that this concept of colonization triggers negative responses among
those who advocate for justice and the protection of the rights of indigenous
peoples. However, from a kingdom perspective it does not need to make us feel
negative in any way because it is God’s way of extending his righteous kingdom
in the earth. God’s concept of colonization is not about the exploitation and
pillaging of indigenous people’s lands instead it is a concept of liberation,
justice and empowerment. Before we get
to the book of Genesis to do a historical excavation of the theological concept
of colonization, let me give you a few basic definitions of the idea of
colonization.
Colonization is defined as:
The process by which the dominant
power extends its influence in surrounding territories.
The migration of the crown’s influence to settler colonies.
The spreading of foreign species into a new territory.
The domination of a subject territory by an imperial power.
The process of establishing a colony away from the place of
origin.
The
etymological root of the term colonization is driven from two Latin words colonus (which means farmer or tiller of
the soil) and colere (which means to
cultivate or till the land). Therefore, colonization is the process of
inhabiting foreign lands by an imperial power thereby extending the crown’s
influence in settler colonies. Margaret
Khon and Kavita Reddy in their article “Colonialism” in the Stanford Enyclopedia of Philosophy posits,
“Colonialism is a practice of domination,
which involves the subjugation of one people to another. One of the
difficulties in defining colonialism is that it is hard to distinguish it from
imperialism. Frequently the two concepts are treated as synonyms. Like
colonialism, imperialism also involves political and economic control over
dependent territory. The etymology of the two terms, however, provides some
cues about how they differ. The word colonus,
meaning farmer. This root reminds us that the practice of colonialism usually involved the transfer of
population to a new territory, where the arrivals lived as permanent settlers
while maintaining political allegiance to their country of origin. Imperialism,
on the other hand, comes from the Latin term imperium, meaning to
command. Thus, the term imperialism draws attention to the way that one country
exercises power over another, whether through settlement, sovereignty, or
indirect mechanisms of control.”[3]
[1]
Myles Munroe, Rediscovering the Kingdom:
Ancient Hope For Our 21st Century World (Shippensburg, PA:
Destiny Image, 2004), 15.
[2]
Ibid.
[3] Margaret Kohn and Kavita Reddy,
"Colonialism", The
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2017 Edition),
Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL =
<https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2017/entries/colonialism/>.
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