Kingdom

I believe this song is a reference to the Sermon on the Mount, the most famous of Jesus' teachings. The first part of the song is responding to Jesus promise: "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened."

I admit I have a hard time completely understanding the artist's feelings about God and the Kingdom of heaven in this song. In some Depeche Mode songs, John the Revelator comes to mind, they come down clearly against Christianity. Still it's possible (and perhaps wise) to be skeptical but also hold out at least the possibility of the divine, the Kingdom, and also love. "If there's a kingdom beyond it all?/ Is there a god who loves us all?/ Do we believe in love at all?"

Some may wonder what love has to do with it. I am not sure if this is exactly what the artist meant, but here is my explanation. I believe that most people do not realize how strongly associated many of our romantic ideas about love are with God. If there is no God, if there is only the material world, then what is love really? Nothing more than a chemical soup in our animal brains, neurons firing in the dark. The kind of love that we all hope someday to find can only be a transcendent thing-- indeed, a gift from God. All our hopes for love are inextricably tied up with our hopes for God.

So here Dave Gahan looks around and takes note of the apparent contradiction. The ideas of love and God are compelling, but where are they to be found on this twisted planet of mass murders, starvation, broken hearts, and pain? If there is a God who loves us, then what kind of love is that? He sarcastically directs this question to a God he obviously doubts exists: "So in your infinite wisdom/ show me how this life should be/ all your love and glory/ doesn't mean that much to me." Here the artist has leveled the most difficult problem for Judaism and Christianity, that is, the problem of evil. It is such a difficult question because it cannot be answered completely.

One of the oldest and most profound attempts to deal with evil is the Book of Job, a piece of Hebrew wisdom literature also found in the Christian Bible. Job has suffered many problems because Satan has accused Job of being faithful to God only because he has been blessed with wealth, children, etc. God allows Satan to take everything away from Job but still he remains faithful. In the end, God himself comes in a whirlwind. Still, he does not explain himself, in fact he turns the question on its head by demanding by what right Job may even ask for an explanation. I believe the lesson is that, if God exists, there must be a reason for every suffering we experience because he is a perfect being and therefore everything he does must also be perfectly right. But if we lack the necessary knowledge to say with certainty that our sufferings are unnecessary and this world is imperfect, then we also lack the knowledge to understand why God believes they are necessary. Thus, the question remians unanswerable and, in this life, we will have to look elsewhere for evidence of God.

In the interest of disclosure, I feel I should let you know that I do believe in God. Unlike Dave Gahan, I also believe that we live in a world created by a loving God. I believe in the Kingdom of heaven, and I believe that it has come in the person of Jesus. We do still live in suffering (mostly because of our own choices), but God himself experienced suffering and redeemed it at the Cross. In the words of Jesus, "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

P.S. If you are interested in a similar song to Kingdom from a different perspective, try David Crowder Band's "Rescue Is Coming".