The Red Bottle, the Blue Bottle, and the Kingdom Within
A Reflection
I saw the reel attached below. ..two bottles joined at the neck, one red, one blue. Coca-Cola and Pepsi, those ancient rivals, locked together in an impossible embrace. One empty, one full. The machine turns them, and as the red bottle rises, the blue one drains into it; as the blue rises, the red pours back. An endless exchange, a perpetual motion of filling and emptying, neither ever truly satisfied, neither ever truly empty.
And I thought: this is politics.
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The Journey Begins
My understanding of American politics was poor... I admit this freely. I am still learning, still watching as my eyes open to realities I once ignored. But I come from a place where politics has already shown me its ugliest face. In my own country, I have witnessed the poison of caste, the wounds of race, the violence of religion. I have seen corruption rot from the highest offices down to the lowest, a decay so complete that it no longer hides. So when I look at American politics, I am not shocked... I am recognition. The same blindness, the same rot, the same tribal dances dressed in different colors.
But I am not here to analyze American politics. I am here to connect the dots of my own journey... to trace how I arrived at this moment of seeing.
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The God of the Bible, the Word, and the Land
My journey began with Yahweh. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The God who spoke through prophets, who parted seas, who gave a land and a law. I held the Bible in my hands and believed it was the Word of God... every word, every command, every violent episode of conquest and judgment.
And Israel stood at the center of it all. The chosen people. The apple of God's eye. I was taught to bless Israel, to pray for Jerusalem, to see in that small nation the fulfillment of prophecy and the guarantee of divine favor.
Then came Jesus.
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The Character Who Confused Everything
Jesus was different. Totally, radically, uncomfortably different.
He spoke of turning the other cheek, not taking up the sword. He ate with outcasts, touched lepers, forgave prostitutes and tax collectors. He said His kingdom was not of this world. He wept over Jerusalem instead of conquering it. He died on a cross instead of calling down legions of angels.
The confusion was immediate. How could the God of the Old Testament... the warrior, the judge, the one who commanded genocide... be the same as this gentle teacher who said, "Love your enemies"?
The church tried to explain it. Theology built bridges. But the bridges felt like excuses, and the excuses felt like lies.
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When I looked at the present state of Israel...the military occupation, the suffering of Palestinians, the bulldozed homes and the walls... and then I looked at the Evangelical support for it all, unquestioning, enthusiastic, even eager for war...something broke inside me.
I raised my eyes and asked: Is this God? Is this what the Bible teaches? Is this the message of Christ?
Either the God of the Bible is a genocidal monster, or the Evangelicals have completely betrayed the very one they claim to worship.
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The Discovery: Dispensationalism
I began to dig. And what I found was a theology called Dispensationalism....a political theology, born not in the Bible but in the 19th century, popularized by men like John Nelson Darby and Cyrus Scofield. It divided history into dispensations, separated Israel from the Church, and turned the Bible into a roadmap for geopolitical prophecy.
This theology did not simply misinterpret Scripture. It hijacked it.
It turned the Sermon on the Mount into a pause. It made the Prince of Peace into a warmonger. It transformed the Gospel of reconciliation into a blueprint for conquest. It enslaved Evangelicalism to a political agenda and chained Western politics to a theology of violence.
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The Blindfold
The blindness is stunning. People who claim to love Jesus....who sing His name, who raise their hands in worship, who read their Bibles every day....cannot see that the Christ they await is not the Christ of the Gospels. They are waiting for a warrior on a white horse with a sword dripping blood. They are waiting for vengeance, for domination, for the conquest of their enemies.
They are looking for a different Jesus.
And if He came....the real One, the One who broke bread with sinners and washed feet and said "Blessed are the peacemakers"....if He came down again and stood before them, they would not recognize Him. They might even crucify Him again, all while singing hymns and holding their Bibles high.
They are making the exact same mistake the religious leaders of the first century made. They studied the Scriptures, they awaited the Messiah, they were certain they would know Him when He came. And they crucified Him.
Because He did not fit their expectations.
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The Inner Circle
But there is another way. A quieter way. The way of those who have understood the inner circle of Jesus's teaching.
These are the ones who have heard the words "The kingdom of God is within you" and believed them. They are not drunk on the red bottle or the blue bottle. They are not deceived by the endless exchange of power, the rotation of empires, the dance of flags and parties.
They know that the kingdom is not about borders or elections or military might. It is not about who controls the government or whose theology wins. It is about the reign of Christ in the human heart....a kingdom that cannot be shaken, cannot be corrupted, cannot be overthrown.
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The Two Bottles
The red bottle and the blue bottle will keep turning. The machine will keep rotating. One will fill, one will empty, and then they will reverse. This is the nature of politics.... not just in America, but everywhere. It is a closed system, a zero-sum game, a perpetual motion machine of power that never satisfies.
The same blindness that afflicts the religious right, the same tribal instincts, the same willingness to sacrifice truth for power.... it exists in every nation, every party, every ideology. The red and blue bottles are not unique to America. They are the universal symbol of human politics.
But those who have found the kingdom within do not need to drink from either bottle. They are not commanded by the rotation of powers. They are citizens of another country, subjects of another King.
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My Conclusion
I have learned to see the machine for what it is.
I have learned that the God I once imagined... the warrior, the nationalist, the tribal deity.... is not the God revealed in Jesus. The Bible is not a weapon to be wielded in political wars. It is a witness to the one who said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life."
And I have learned that the kingdom is not something we fight for with swords and votes and banners. It is something we receive, something we enter, something we allow to reign in us.
The red bottle and the blue bottle will keep turning. But I have found a place where the machine does not reach... a quiet center where Christ alone is King.
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"The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, 'Look, here it is!' or, 'There it is!' For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst." — Luke 17:20-21
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