In the British parliamentary system, there is the ruling party and the opposition. On the website www.parliament.co.uk the following is written:
“The Opposition are the political parties other than the largest or government party. They are called the Opposition because they sit on the benches opposite the Government in the House of Commons and House of Lords Chambers. The largest of the Opposition parties is known as Her Majesty’s Official Opposition. The role of the Official Opposition is to question and scrutinise the work of government. In the House of Commons the Leader of the Opposition is the title given to the leader of the second largest party.”
The dictionary definition of “opposition” is: “resistance or dissent, expressed in action or argument.”
Synonyms are: “resistance, hostility, antagonism, antipathy, enmity, objection, dissent, criticism, defiance, non-compliance, obstruction, obstructiveness, counteraction.”
Those definitions don’t give a positive view of “the opposition”. In fact, that is usually how it turns out to be. Not very often do “the opposition” agree with the government; in fact quite the contrary as they have different political agendas and feel that they can’t be seen as being cooperative as that would boost the prestige and support of the government itself.
(We are not saying, of course, that the government is always right and that the opposition is always wrong or that there is never a time to disagree with the concepts or the way in which the government handles things. In this world which is cut off from God, disagreement with the government’s position on just about any given topic is more likely than not, but the opposition’s proposals are, in all likelihood, unacceptable as well. What we are saying is that God’s standards and methods are quite different from the way in which the government and the opposition are conducting themselves.)
The term “the opposition” can have a very negative connotation and can be divisive. How about using a term that will be a constant in the world tomorrow when Jesus Christ rules on earth in the Kingdom of God? That word is cooperation. If the term was changed at this time to “the cooperation”, hands would be thrown in the air and would be deemed to be inappropriate or impossible.
Of course, in the age when Satan is in control of society, there is no way that he would want cooperation and would see to it that it would not happen. He is the opposition particularly to God and the people of God and also to the rest of humanity. He doesn’t want to see people happy and cooperating with each other.
Rather than unity and cooperation, Satan has promoted, very successfully, enmity and division. We read in Matthew 24:12 when talking about the end times: “And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.”
This is a result of the activity of the one who wants to undermine everything positive and see the demise of humanity. It may seem a small thing about calling Members of Parliament who are not part of the ruling group as the opposition, but this strikes at the heart of UK governance. Opposition can have a negative feel about it and that is one of many things that Satan wants to promote.
In the coming Kingdom of God there will be total cooperation and the government will be absolutely unified as they do everything possible to promote God’s way of life to those living at that time.
Cooperation is the way of God and the way that we must adopt, promote and clearly reflect in our Christian lives now and is the way that we will live forever as members of the God Family. And it will promote happiness as never before!
