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The Kingdom of God on Earth: The
Bible -- Sole Source of Information
The view of planet earth, seen from outer space, is very beautiful indeed. Confirmation of this has come from the astronauts who have gazed upon it. The earth is the fairest jewel in God's creation and it is the chosen place in the whole universe where He has promised to reveal His Kingdom in all its glory. That is why it is so beautiful. The earth, of all the
planets in the solar system, is the one that is perfectly
suited to all forms of life and the one that orbits at
exactly the right distance from the sun to provide
comfortable conditions for the human race.
We think it is logical to assert that if there is a Great Designer, and if He created a race of beings to inhabit this planet and no other, then there must have been an ultimate objective in His mind. Happily, we have not been left to guess what that goal might be. From the day that God put a human being on this earth, His one supreme purpose was that His creation should willingly respond to His own perfection:
The final stage in
fulfilling that intention is what the Bible describes as
THE KINGDOM OF GOD ON EARTH.
The kingdom of God on
earth will soon be here. The abundant signs which confirm
this are not the subject of this booklet; but we are
mightily convinced that it is so! This coming Millennium
will be the most exciting thing the world has ever seen.
It will overshadow all those periods in history labelled
with names like 'the age of enlightenment', 'the
classical age', 'the renaissance' and so on. The kingdom
of God will provide a superb environment on this lovely
planet for all who will acknowledge God as supreme
Creator and Jesus Christ as king of the world. Now ponder on the absence of religious bigotry or sectarian strife; imagine the benefits of internationally accepted laws, with justice administered by fair-minded yet uncompromising judges. Conjure up a mental picture of life without terrorism and child-abuse; where good-neighbourliness prevails and evil tendencies are discouraged, where governments establish good standards of behaviour, and implement just forms of retribution. That will be the kingdom of God on earth! To many people, the
Kingdom of God is just a vague hope that one day man will
bring about a state of happiness on earth. To others, the
Kingdom is a dream of heavenly bliss in the skies. But
the realist knows that the aspirations of men are not
producing a better world for us or our children. And
anyone who reads his Bible carefully knows that there is
no evidence for the common belief in an afterlife in
heaven. The Kingdom has to do with a real, tangible world
empire which will be set up when the Lord Jesus Christ
returns to earth from heaven in the near future.
Christendom still repeats the prayer. "Thy kingdom come" should always be on the lips of the faithful Christian. For the most part, human beings act as though there is no Creator and no purpose in the world around them. But they are without excuse, for just look at the wonders of the human body and the miracles of plant life! Did they occur by chance or by design? Even atheists are forced to marvel at the incredible wonders of living cells. The apostle Paul, a well-educated man of his time, declared that atheism is untenable because "that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse" (Romans 1: 19,20). If there is a God, and He has a future for the human race, then surely He has told us? Of course He has! The whole Bible, from beginning to end, reveals His plans for the earth. He spoke to the "fathers" and through prophets, and "in these last days by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things" (Hebrews 1:1,2). That is why the Gospel was the centre of Christ's ministry. "And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom" (Matthew 4:23). He left no doubt when that kingdom would happen:
Where
on Earth will it be? After the exodus from Egypt the special relationship built up between God and the Israelites caused Him to name them as His kingdom. God was their leader and they were His people:
Israel could not keep
their side of the bargain for long and often degenerated
to the level of the nations around them. But in their
prime, in the days of King David and his son Solomon,
they experienced what it was like to be the Kingdom of
God. They prospered and expanded and had peace in the
land. It was summed up by king David when he said: "He
(God) hath chosen Solomon my son to sit upon the throne
of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel" (1
Chronicles 28:5).
That statement was a tremendous forecast of the desolation of the royal line until the greatest heir to the throne should come-Jesus Christ! In other words, until the kingdom of God should again appear on the earth. It is not surprising, therefore, that there was always a remnant of faithful Jews who were looking for a Messiah from the line of King David of the tribe of Judah. The disciples of Jesus were greatly excited at the prospect of the renewed kingdom of God in Israel's land. After he had been raised from the dead they asked: "Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" (Acts 1:6). They were, in fact, in too much of a hurry! They had seen his title "King of the Jews" placarded on the cross outside the city walls of Jerusalem. He had come out of the grave and once more was amongst them, alive and well, indeed immortal, and they were impatient to see the crown on his head and the kingdom of God restored there and then. It was not to be -- yet. The gospel of the kingdom had first to be preached to all nations -- not only to the Jews. Jesus quietly told them:
Jerusalem -- Crossroads of the World
We have seen that the kingdom of God will be focused on a Jewish State with a Jewish king. Now, every king must have a residence, a capital, a central seat of authority. Jerusalem will be that centre; and what place more fitting? One thousand years before Christ the Jewish poets declared:
It will make a superb capital -- more central than New York, Moscow or Strasbourg -- and convenient to the great land continents of Europe, Africa and Asia. This kingdom of God is to be a world empire and Jesus Christ the emperor. This was revealed long ago. The prophet Daniel, interpreting a vision which forecast the successive empires of Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome, to be followed by a fragmented world of strong and weak governments leading up to the coming of Jesus Chris pictured God's agent in the form of a "stone" descending to crush the rebellious nations at the time of the end:
Here is another prophetic statement:
Judgements
on the World
Readers will find more
details on these traumatic happenings in the companion
booklets Christ is Coming!, Your Share in God's
Promises and Raised to Judgement. National ambassadors will begin to arrive to pay their respects to the King: "The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba (Arabs) shall offer gifts. Yea, all kings shall fall down before him" (Psalm 72:10-11). Even the survivors of those enemies which invaded the holy city will come to worship, for "everyone that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles" (Zechariah 14:16). Nations will be rallying their peoples: "Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord". They will do this because:
The effect of this
education will be remarkable. Nations will "beat
their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into
pruninghooks" -- a colourful way of describing
disarmament. There will be no more war. The first group will include Jesus, the universal king; Abraham, David and other great "worthies", who will have positions of honour in the empire; the twelve Apostles, and the faithful followers of Jesus -- the 11 saints" -- who will be the administrative rulers and educators of the new age. The second group will
consist of the mortal peoples of the world who, at
Christ's return, survive the judgements on the earth and
are willing for Jesus to be their king. This will include
Jews who are allowed to live in Israel.
We must not think of an immortal being as something like a ghost. Jesus, after his resurrection, was immortal; but he ate and drank with his followers and showed himself to have remarkable physical powers. The immortal body has flesh and bones like others, but is energised by the Spirit of God, suffering no disease or disability. Jesus, like any wise
ruler, will delegate much of the conduct of his empire to
others who have been suitably trained. Prominent among
those to be closely associated with the King will be the
great Biblical examples of faith: men like Abraham,
described as the "heir of the world" in Romans
4:13, and "my servant David shall be their prince
for ever" (Ezekiel 37:25). Isaac, Jacob and Joseph,
Moses and Samuel, will be there; women, too: Sarah, Rahab
and Ruth, Mary and Elisabeth.
In the book of Daniel, the prophet saw a vision of the kingdom of God on earth, and he was told about those who should be in charge:
What is so special about these immortal rulers called "saints"? "Saint" means a holy or separated one -- someone chosen for his dedication to divine principles. Like the men who were first selected and given the Spirit of God to help Moses to govern ancient Israel, they will be "able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness". But with one big difference: those in times past died -- but the rulers of the future will not die, and their qualities will not be lost with age. The King will have the
discernment to select the right men or women for the jobs
on hand and to utilize the skills of mind and body which
they began to develop during their service in this
present life. What a transformation will
begin to work its way across the earth when Christ's
immortal administrators are sent out from Jerusalem. New
laws, based on Biblical principles, will have the effect
of cutting through partisan politics and will rapidly
remove the cause of so much bigotry among contesting
religions. We must not think of the
coming age as a fanciful, too- good-to-be-true fairyland.
It will be a very real world, peopled with those who have
survived the judgements and have come to accept that
Christ is a world ruler who, for the good of the whole
civilisation, is prepared to rule with "a rod of
iron". But the mortal nations will still have their
own characteristics and cultures, and their own racial
backgrounds. The rulers will have the gift of speaking in
other languages; but it may be some time before the
world's dialects are completely changed into the one
universal language that will reverse the confusion of
Babel (see Genesis 11) and allow the suspicions and
difficulties of multi-language communication to be
dispersed.
When "princes shall rule in judgement" (Isaiah 32:1) the whole balance of society will change: no longer one law for the rich and one for the poor! The same rules will apply whether you live in Washington, Moscow or Peking, because they will be based on the Sermon on the Mount and on divine principles laid down by the King and his court in Jerusalem. How will this affect the lives of the people? When criminals and hooligans perceive that the judges can see right through them and that the punishment will always fit the crime, the majority will soon learn that loving one's neighbour and the virtues of honesty and truth are much to be preferred in the attainment of a happy and prosperous life. Not only does it mean that families and neighbours can live in complete harmony but it will spill over into a release from national and international tensions. As Isaiah said: "The work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever" (Isaiah 32:1 7). The restraints imposed by
the immortal rulers will prevent the worst excesses of
human nature. Unrepentant sinners will suffer summary
execution and the otherwise long lives which people might
enjoy will be cut short. "With the breath of his
lips shall he slay the wicked"; and, "The
sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed"
(Isaiah 11:4; 65:20).
This suggests that infant mortality, which is still a scourge in many developing countries, will be wiped out. If someone only reaches the age of 100 he will still be accounted a child. What a change from the present, when life expectancy in some countries is only 40 years or so, and even in the medically advanced countries it only attains what the Psalmist described as "threescore years and ten". Childhood will be a joy, and old age no disgrace, for, "there shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, and every man with his staff in his hand for very age. And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof" (Zechariah 8:4,5). If Jesus, the Great Physician, in his first ministry could heal the sick, cure blindness-from-birth, make cripples walk, exorcise mental disorders and raise people from the dead, then there is every certainty that he and his aides will do that, and more, in the future. When the people of the world are moved to turn to divine standards and to seek help in the right quarter, then scourges like cancer and heart disease will disappear. When families again have a reverence for the sanctity of marriage and for correct sexual behaviour then pestilences like AIDS will no more afflict the nations. The good news is that:
World
Resources for the Good of All It is worth remembering that Jesus was a great organiser as well as a great teacher. What he could do in feeding thousands of men, women and children in well-ordered groups of fifty or a hundred, with a dozen assistants, he will surely do among the starving millions when he is God's King on earth. The heart-rending scenes we have seen reported from Ethiopia or Mozambique or Bangladesh will be a thing of the past. No food mountains will rot in European storehouses; no American crops will be burned because the sale price is too low. The Bible foresees the curse on the ground being removed, and plentiful crops for all who will labour for them. "There shall be an handful of corn ... upon the top of the mountains; the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon", said king David (Psalm 72:16). "The mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters", said Joel (3:18; see also Amos 9:13). The farmer's crops will be abundant, for "the seed shall be prosperous; the vine shall give her fruit, and the ground shall give her increase, and the heavens shall give their dew" (Zechariah 8:12). Then there is the prophet
lsaiah's vision of the desert rejoicing and blossoming as
the rose (35:1 ). Think of the vast areas of Africa, the
Middle East and Asia where every year the sands are
encroaching on fertile ground and millions are dying.
Governments seem unable to spend the huge sums of money
necessary to bring up the water that often lies just
below the surface! Then what a blessing it will be for
desert peoples to be engaged in huge irrigation schemes
and to benefit from the new fertility of their lands.
These are the wonderful things that will be possible in
the kingdom of God.
Arabs
Working with Jews Eventually the Millennium must come to an end. It will be marked by a deliberate easing of the King's strong reign in order to allow vestiges of rebellion among some of his subjects to come to the surface in a final desperate challenge to his will (see Revelation 20). These disloyal subjects will attack Jerusalem, but will be utterly destroyed. It will be mankind's last death fling. It will provide the necessary marker, a millennium-end "sign of the times", to the people of the world that the finale is about to take place. When the rebellion is over, Christ's work as Saviour and King is nearly done. The dead of a thousand years must be raised from their graves, to meet again their King and Judge:
Alongside those raised
will stand the millions who are living. They must now
await Christ's righteous judgement. The rebels and those
who represent the worst elements of human nature will
die, consigned to the "lake of fire", the death
from which there is no returning. On the other hand, the
faithful subjects of Christ's kingdom on earth will then
receive their reward, everlasting life, just as their
rulers had done a thousand years before.
We may find it difficult to think that far ahead, or to visualize what is meant by God being "all in all". But it will be the climax of the Creator's great purpose with the earth -- and it will be very wonderful!
Don't let this marvellous future slip away from you! Jesus will be here soon. Please, read your Bible, and pray with all your heart:
STANLEY OWEN Reproduced by courtesy of the Christadelphian Magazine and Publishing Association by whom all rights are reserved. |
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