Are the Rich and Powerful of Today the Same Who Were Rich and Powerful in the First Age, and in the Eternity Will There Be True Equality in the Kingdom of God or Will Some Be Higher in Rank and Authority Than Others?
Are the Rich and Powerful of Today the Same Who Were Rich and Powerful in the First Age, and in the Eternity Will There Be True Equality in the Kingdom of God or Will Some Be Higher in Rank and Authority Than Others?
Steve, sorry for this long question. Pastor Arnold Murray of the Shepherd’s Chapel Bible teaching ministry teaches us through God’s Word that there is nothing new under the sun. He says that what was in the first age will be again.
Does that also mean that the kings and queens, presidents, rulers, and people that are highly influential in power over this world today, or the super wealthy and talented that have major influence in the world, were also the rulers and great ones in that first world age?
I can go deeper, and say…is a wealthy and successful person, or a person of recognized talent of today, in the same status as they were in that first earth age?
I guess my pride is coming out in asking if a guy like me, who is basically a “nobody” in the eyes of this world, was also a “nobody” in that first world age, since there is nothing new under the sun?
In other words, does that mean all the people of rank, influence and authority that have lived through this 2nd age were also above everyone else in rank and authority in that first world age?
Will it be that way again when all is said and done after the Great White Throne Judgment and we enter eternity? Or will there finally be true equality in the eternity, unlike in this 2nd world age?
In this age, it is so unbelievably unfair in many different ways (even though God is indeed fair) But I’m just speaking of fleshly worldly things. Will it be that way in the eternity?
Thanks in advance for your answer!!
Steve’s Answer:
Those are good questions. And your instincts are probably correct on this matter, at least, in terms of the people who are rich and powerful today being the same people who were rich and powerful (so to speak) in the first age.
The question is this: In the first age, were they rich and powerful under Satan’s system, or under God’s?
Always keep in mind that in God’s system, the primary “riches” are wisdom and understanding, and that wisdom and understanding is always used by God’s faithful servants to help raise up others in wisdom and understanding. In other words, in God’s system, the wise serve and tutor others in God’s wisdom. That’s how they “share the wealth,” so to speak.
In Satan’s system, the primary riches were also wisdom and understanding. But that wisdom and understanding was strictly worldly wisdom and understanding. And it was used for enriching Satan and his followers with mammon and power, which is to say, wealth like gold and silver, and power to rule over others and to exert their authority over others in order to extract even more wealth from them.
In other words, those who followed Satan used their wisdom and understanding in a strictly self-serving manner (i.e., to further enrich and empower themselves), whereas those who followed God used their wisdom and understanding to help others.
As it’s written in Ez. 28, regarding the “prince of Tyrus” who was an earthly type of Satan:
Eze 28:4 With thy wisdom and with thine understanding thou hast gotten thee riches, and hast gotten gold and silver into thy treasures:
Eze 28:5 By thy great wisdom and by thy traffick hast thou increased thy riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches:
So, in the world that was, Satan used his wisdom to enrich himself, at the expense of others. Rather than helping others, he used his great wisdom and authority to become even richer and more powerful.
As it’s also written in Ez. 28 regarding the “king of Tyrus,” who is Satan himself, and not just a “type”:
Eze 28:12 Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.
Eze 28:13 Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.
Eze 28:14 Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.
Eze 28:15 Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.
Eze 28:16 By the multitude of thy merchandise [i.e., peddling of goods] they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.
So Satan used his God-given wisdom to enrich himself through a merchandising system (i.e., consumerism), largely at the expense of others, much like the super-rich do today.
On the other hand, God’s faithful servants use their God-given wisdom (which they earn through study and through fellowship with the Holy Spirit) to help each other. As Christ explained to the apostles:
Mat 20:25 But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them.
Mat 20:26 But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister [i.e., a “minister” in this case means an “attendant,” like a waiter at a table; generally used in terms of the role of a teacher or pastor]
Mat 20:27 And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant:
Mat 20:28 Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister [i.e., to attend to the needs of others, in His role as teacher], and to give his life a ransom for many.
In other words, the higher up you are in the chain of command in God’s kingdom, the more you serve others rather than serving yourself like Satan did. As it’s again written, regarding the apostles when they argued amongst themselves who would be greater in the kingdom of heaven:
Luk 22:24 And there was also a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest.
Luk 22:25 And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors [i.e., philanthropists, or well-doers].
Luk 22:26 But ye shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve.
Again, if you want to be considered great in God’s kingdom, or in God’s family household, you serve others rather than trying to rule over others and pretend you’re doing it for their own good (the very description of a liberal, by the way).
You help others by raising them up in understanding of God’s Word, and of what God wants from them, and helping them become a more productive member of the Body of Christ. You don’t rule over them, extracting everything you can get from them, and pretend you’re doing it for their benefit.
God’s Hierarchy of Rank and Authority
God does indeed have a hierarchy, which is to say, a system of rank and authority. That’s why we have, for example, archangels (like Michael and Gabriel, who are said to be the two most powerful angels, next to Satan) and regular angels.
We also have angels who sit on God’s ruling council in the heavens to help carry out God’s will (i.e., essentially, politicians; see Psalm 82), and we have angels who do other things for God, as well.
So there is indeed a hierarchy, or chain of command, among the angels, and each angel has their own job or duty to perform for our heavenly Father. And each has their own rank, in terms of authority that they’ve earned through their faithful service to God and to His children.
So according to Father’s Word, the higher up the chain of command you are, the more you must be a servant to those below you. (Unlike here in this flesh age, in which those who sit in the highest seats of authority make the rest of us their servants and work to extract as much as they can out of us in order to fill their own coffers.)
In other words, the most helpful of God’s children rank the highest in God’s eyes. It’s not the richest who rank highest. It’s not the most politically powerful who rank highest. It’s not the most talented who rank highest. It’s those who serve, i.e., who help others the most in terms of lifting them up in their understanding of God’s Word and of His family household and the responsibilities entailed therein.
Here on earth, which is Satan’s kingdom, the rich and mighty and powerful use their abundance of worldly wisdom to serve and enrich themselves. But God rarely chooses them as His servants.
Instead, this is what the Word of God says about how our heavenly Father chooses His servants:
1Co 1:26 For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:
In this flesh, not many wealthy and powerful are called into God’s service. Not many of bloodline nobility are called into His service, either. They’re too busy serving themselves at the expense of others.
1Co 1:27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
Those that world considers to be foolish and weak are who God chooses from. He comes to them through the power of the Holy Spirit and touches their hearts, drawing them to His Word, and gradually makes them servants in His kingdom.
1Co 1:28 And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:
God chooses His servants on this earth from among the “base,” which is to say, from among the “nobodies,” i.e., those not born into earthly wealth and nobility and power. He picks the “despised” (i.e., the least esteemed) to be His servants.
He chooses from among those the world would consider to be the weak and foolish, because He knows that in reality they have something the rich and powerful don’t have, i.e., true faith.
They may be “nobodies” in Satan’s kingdom. They may be counted by the rich and powerful as little more than “sheep to the slaughter.” But to God they are the most precious of all because they’re so rich in faith and willingness to serve Him as part of His family household.
And why does He choose His servants from among the base (i.e., the nobodies of the world) and those counted as weak and foolish and least esteemed by the world? As it’s written:
1Co 1:29 That no flesh should glory in his presence.
1Co 1:30 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
1Co 1:31 That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.
In other words, God chooses the weak and “nobodies” of this world to show that He’s in charge. He takes “nobodies” and turns them into somebodies, on His behalf, through wisdom and righteousness of God, which is Christ Jesus.
And He expects us to realize that we were nobodies before He chose us, and that it’s Him that’s raised us up into somebodies (so to speak). We give Him all of the credit for what He does in our lives.
Look, for example, at someone like Pastor Arnold Murray. No high-brow education. No great riches and wealth. No prestige. No royal birth. Just an old farm boy from Arkansas who had to join the Marines at a young age because, frankly, he didn’t have that much going for him in terms of worldly privilege.
But God chose this “nobody” and raised him up over the long course of time to a position in which he had, quite literally, worldwide influence to educate God’s children in the truth of God’s Word, and to cast down deception and religious tradition and help bring many, many of God’s children into the glorious light of the truth of God’s Word.
And the more Pastor Murray served people like you and me by freely teaching us God’s Word, the more wisdom and authority God gave him. Eventually, the ministry he founded became the largest independent Christian ministry in the world.
Pastor Murray can’t take credit for that. It wasn’t by His wisdom that this happened. It was by God’s.
It’s the same with Pastor Dennis Murray. He worked in marketing for the U.S. Postal Service — he was a nobody, in terms of earthly prestige and power. No Harvard education. No accredited seminary school. No great wealth and privilege.
But God called him, and raised him up to take his father’s place in the ministry. And the more Dennis serves God’s children, teaching them how to understand God’s Word so they can escape the deception of these end days, the wiser he becomes, and the greater his rank and authority in God’s kingdom becomes.
Father also has tens of thousands of servants like you and me, worldwide, who seek His Word and who do our best to help others understand it, which is to say, to help raise others up in God’s Word, so they too can become faithful and effective servants in God’s family household.
Will There Be Equality in Heaven?
So, in light of the above, you ask, “Will there be equality in the eternity?”
And the answer is both yes and no. Yes, there will be equality in that everyone in the eternity will have eternal life, equally. As in the parable of the workers in the vineyard (Mat. 20:1-16), we all get the same payment for our service in the end: life eternal, and all of its benefits, i.e., no more suffering, no more tears, no more sickness, etc.
So if, by the time the end comes, you’ve faithfully served the Lord 30 years and I’ve only faithfully served the Lord three years, we both nevertheless get the exact same payment, which again, is eternal life.
So, in that way, there is indeed equality in the eternity.
But…those who serve God’s children the most are also considered by God to be the greatest in the kingdom. In other words, in the hierarchy of God’s kingdom, and of God’s family household, those who give the most service to God’s children are those God esteems the most and grants the most authority and rank in heaven.
God is indeed perfectly fair. And it would be quite unfair of Him to make everyone completely equal in His family household, when some serve the family more faithfully and more effectively than others.
Because of our faith, we all get the same payment, in terms of eternal life and all of its wonderful benefits. But in terms of rank and authority, those who faithfully put the most effort into their service get the higher rank and authority in His kingdom and in His family household.
Just as today, Michael, Gabriel and other archangels have more rank and authority than other angels, because of the fact they dedicate their entire lives to service within God’s family household and within God’s kingdom.
And God knows they won’t lord that rank and authority over others, or use it to their own selfish ends, but instead, will use it to continue to help raise others (like you and me) up to higher and higher levels of understanding, so we too can become more effective servants.
The bottom line is that the more faithfully and self-lessly (as opposed to selfishly) you serve God by helping His children, the greater esteem He holds you in, and the higher your rank and authority will be in the eternity.
That’s only fair. Those who faithfully serve God’s children the most are among the most trusted. As Christ stated:
Mat 23:12 And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.
It’s those who use their wisdom for purely selfish purposes who will be abased (i.e., brought low, meaning they will lose their rank and authority).
And it’s those who use their wisdom to help others who will be exalted (i.e., raised to higher rank or authority) in the kingdom and family household of God.
Regards in Christ,
Steve Barwick
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