DOMINATE OR SERVE?
Greetings church family!
Have you ever played the telephone game? In this game, a group of people line up. The first person comes up with a short message and whispers that phrase into the ear of the second person. The second person then takes what he or she hears and whispers that message to the next person in line. This continues on down the line until the message reaches the last person in line. Then the last person in line verbalizes out loud the message they received. Invariably the last person’s message is quite different from the first person’s message. What may have started out as “Can you help me find my keys?” may very well end up as “Take a selfie of me
please.”
While error can be a source of joyous humor in the telephone game, it can be a dangerous trap in the spiritual realm. One of these dangerous errors is a popular teaching known as dominion theology.
Also known as "Kingdom Now” theology, dominion theology declares that Christians are required to take dominion over the earth’s social, political, and cultural systems in order to establish God’s kingdom on earth before Christ’s second coming. It draws its central idea from Genesis 1:26–28, where God commands humanity to “have dominion” over the earth. Many streams of this theology teach that Jesus will not return until Christians have gained control of all earthly powers and established a theocratic order aligned with biblical principles.
On the surface, this may sound ideal. However, let’s take a closer look into what Scripture says about this.
Genesis 1:26, 28 [CSB] says, Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth”...God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.”
The Hebrew word for “rule” (radah) means to manage. The immediate context is the natural world: fish, birds, livestock, and creation itself. God’s command to rule is a creation stewardship mandate, not a sociopolitical one. It concerns managing the environment, animal life, and resources. There is no mention of instituting civil rule over other humans in God’s name.
After Genesis 3, when sin entered the world, the concept of ruling became distorted. Humanity used power primarily to control, exploit, and harm rather than to nurture, benefit, and protect. Jesus, during his ministry on earth, came to remind us of the true meaning of ruling from heaven’s perspective. In a conversation with his disciples, Jesus says, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those in high positions act as tyrants over them. It must not be like that among you. On the contrary, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave; just as the
Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” [Matthew 20:25-28 CSB]
Furthermore, in the Great Commission, Jesus commands the disciples, not to go, therefore and make subjects of all nations, but to “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations...”[Matthew 28:19a CSB]. In Jesus’ kingdom, dominion is about serving and discipling, not controlling and dominating. It’s more about the transformation of people than the taking over of systems.
Ultimately, Jesus is clear about his kingdom being spiritual rather than territorial. Luke 17:20-21 [CSB] says, When he was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming with something observable; no one will say, ‘See here!’ or ‘There!’ For you see, the kingdom of God is in your midst.” The Greek word for “in your midst” is “entos,” which can also be translated “is within you.” The kingdom of God is within you!
Dominion theology seeks to reverse these truths. It aims for a kingdom of this world — established through human authority, social engineering, and/or political conquest. But Jesus’ concept of “Kingdom Now” comes to surrendered hearts, not by human force, but by Holy Spirit power. Romans 14:12 [CSB] says, “for the kingdom of God is ... righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.”
When we forget this, we run the risk of trading our spiritual mission for worldly power — the very temptation Satan offered Jesus in the wilderness: “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.” [Matthew 4:9 CSB]
The beauty of it all is that when Christ returns, he will reign visibly and universally. Revelation 11:15 [CSB] speaks of the time after Christ’s 2nd coming when “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever.” What a day of rejoicing that will be - a day marking Jesus’ universal reign of eternal selfless love, that will be both spiritual and territorial!
Until then, we are called to be witnesses, to embody the gospel in a broken world, rather than be power brokers who strive to control. This is how the world can know the beautiful experience of grace and transformation found in Jesus. This is how the world can discover that God is for them, God is with them, and God loves them.
Blessings!
Pastor Chris
