Christ is a King, but not like Constantine

 Hello All,

I believe it's important that we understand how we view God.

When Jesus' fans wanted to take him and to thrust him into their idea of who and what the Messiah-King should be, he refused.  Jesus was a King who came riding in humility on a donkey, not a battle horse.  Jesus was a King who served.

Eusebius, the baptizer of Emperor Constantine, had this to say of his emperor's victories:

"And thus the Almighty Sovereign himself accords an increase both of years and of children to our most pious emperor, and renders his sway over the nations of the world still fresh and flourishing. …He appoints him this present festival, in that he has made him victorious over every enemy that disturbed his peace: He it is who displays him as an example of true godliness to the human race. … Invested as [Constantine] is with a semblance of heavenly sovereignty, he directs his gaze above, and frames his earthly government according to the pattern of that Divine original, feeling strength in its conformity to the monarchy of God. And this conformity is granted by the universal Sovereign to man alone of the creatures of this earth: for He only is the author of sovereign power, who decrees that all should be subject to the rule of one."

Dr. Brad Jersak remarks:

"Note here how Eusebius defines God’s ‘sovereignty.’ It relates to victory through violence and peace via conquest; monarchy through force and coercive power; rule through decrees and reign as subjugation. Rebellion—polytheism, pluralism and democracy—would be trodden underfoot for the sake of God’s kingdom. [...] What does all this imply? For Eusebius, God’s kingdom had come “on earth as it is in heaven” through the lifework of Constantine. The earthly emperor was now the image and agent of the heavenly King, with the institutional church written in as his happy chaplain, confidant and cheerleader!"

So, if Christian theology conveys to the Christian an exemplar of Jesus in the person of an earthly emperor who brings peace through force and violence, how do you think that Christian's view of God will be defined?  And what will their belief about God and the eternal destiny of a person who is an "enemy" be?  Will that God finally, ultimately, be violent, or will mercy triumph in the end?

Romans 11:32 - "For God has bound everyone over to disobedience (Greek: apeitheia, "obstinate rejection of the will of God"; "unpersuadable-ness") so that he may have mercy on them all."

Grace=Peace,

Jeremy