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The Kingdom of God on Earth

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The Kingdom of God on Earth 1 The Kingdom of God on Earth Contents 1. A vision of the kingdom ............................................................................................................ 2 2. The Return of Jesus ................................................................................................................. 8 3. The establishment of the kingdom ......................................................................................... 25 4. Topographical changes .......................................................................................................... 42 5. Environmental changes .......................................................................................................... 52 6. Buildings ................................................................................................................................. 63 7. The temple .............................................................................................................................. 69 8. Travel in the kingdom ............................................................................................................. 84 9. Trade in the kingdom .............................................................................................................. 97 10. Agriculture .......................................................................................................................... 110 11. Health in the kingdom ........................................................................................................ 114 12. Daily life in the kingdom ..................................................................................................... 119 13. The end and beyond .......................................................................................................... 129 14. A personal vision of the kingdom ....................................................................................... 145 2 1. A vision of the kingdom Many people are worried about the future of the earth. Will the earth be destroyed by climate change? Will the entire population of the world be wiped out by an uncontrollable pandemic? Will the temperature of the world continue to rise, and the earth become like Venus due to a runaway greenhouse effect with all life extinguished? Will the world run out of food and water leading to the death of billions? Will terrorism ever end? Will science and technology come to the rescue and solve these problems that threaten the very existence of mankind? The Bible answers “no” to all these questions. The Bible presents a positive vision of the future. A vision of hope. Astounding though this may seem, and utterly unlikely in the natural scheme of things, the Bible presents a vision in which the earth becomes part of Heaven, when God himself, the creator of the universe will walk on this earth. The Bible tells is that one day even the ultimate disease of sin and death will be eradicated from this earth. The next major stepping stone to the ultimate purpose of God of filling this earth with men and woman like himself is the return of the Lord Jesus Christ to the earth rule the kingdom of God on earth. To the natural eye, there is no indication that this vision presented by the Bible is about to happen. Let’s explore this concept of vision for a moment. An intriguing verse is found in Proverbs 29:18 “Where there is no vision the people perish, but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.” This verse talks about a life-sustaining vision. What kind of vision is this? Of course, if a whole community were literally blind, they would have trouble surviving. We could take it to mean that some kind of vision is needed to give direction and meaning to our lives. This is generally true. For example, all successful business ventures start with a vision called a business plan. A building starts with a vision – an artist’s impression of what the completed building will look like. The reference to God’s law suggests that this verse is talking about spiritual rather than literal vision. Jesus refers to a spiritual vision in Luke 9:62 “No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” This vision is a vision of the kingdom. Our spiritual vision needs to be directed to the kingdom. There will be problems and obstacles to be overcome on the way, but the vision will enable us to keep going. Many of us have difficult issues and problems to face in life. For example, a chronic or terminal illness, an unhappy relationship, experiencing a traumatic divorce, difficulties with children, loss of a child or spouse, job loss, financial hardship, a crisis of faith. In summary, you could be in a bad place. Even if everything is going fine in life, ultimately there is no escape from death. We might see ourselves as spiritual failures and not at all suitable for God’s kingdom. In spite of our failures, God really wants us all to be there. Jesus said, “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32). 3 The need for focussing on the kingdom is underlined by the words of the Apostle Paul to Timothy, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing” (2 Timothy 4:7). From this verse, it is clear that all who receive a crown of righteousness (symbolic of receiving eternal life in the kingdom) will in some way have loved the return of Jesus. This is a major challenge that we all face – to really want Jesus to return. We can take great comfort from the fact that no matter how difficult our circumstances, Jesus will return, and the kingdom will be established. It does not matter what people do or say to us, they cannot stop the kingdom from coming. And no one can stop us from being in the kingdom if we really want to be there. A picture of the kingdom All of us have some kind of mental picture of the kingdom. Maybe we imagine a pastoral scene in which the pace of life is much slower than today. Maybe we imagine a world free of email, text messages, iPods, iPhones, computers and the Internet. Some of us may imagine the opposite – a world more technologically advanced than today. Irrespective of the technological aspect of our vision, all of us imagine a world where people are much happier than today – a world free from the blight of hunger, disease, illicit drugs and rampant crime, a world free from the adverse effects of climate change. I used to live in the UK, not noted for warm weather and cloudless skies. Consequently, my personal vision of the kingdom was of a tropical paradise. Paradoxically, now that I live in an actual tropical paradise, Queensland, my vision of the kingdom is of rural England. Of course, it is naive to think that in the kingdom the world will be tropical from pole to pole. An event early in life inspired me to embark on this study of the kingdom. The year was 1968, or thereabouts, and I was 10 years old. I was sitting in a Christadelphian meeting in Bournemouth, a town on the south coast of England. The speaker, David Livingstone, was talking about the return of Jesus. He made the point that we will not read about the return of Jesus in the newspaper, and soon after an airline ticket arrive in the post for a flight to somewhere in the Middle East to meet the Lord Jesus Christ. He went on to say forcibly “It won’t be like that brethren and sisters!” This set my imagination going, and I asked myself the question, what will it really be like in the kingdom? I have been studying this topic ever since. I was taught about the return of Jesus and the kingdom from an early age. I remember my mother telling me that the kingdom will be so good that we can’t imagine what it will be like. At the time, I thought this meant that the sky, trees and grass would be a different colour! A few years later, I came across some infrared images in a magazine in which the sky looked dark and the vegetation a brilliant pink. For some reason, I imagined that the kingdom would look like this. Later, I realised that my mother meant that the world would be better 4 environmentally and socially rather than physically different. In the kingdom, the sky will still be blue and the grass green. The nearness of the return of Jesus Each generation has hoped to see the return of Jesus. Of course, the return of Jesus can only happen in one generation and can never be more than a lifetime away for an individual. A general complaint is that ‘life is short’. Jacob said as much when he came before Pharaoh 130 years old and described his days as being “few and evil” (Genesis 47:9). James speaks of our life as a “...a vapour, that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away” (James 4:14). It is clear from the writings of the New Testament (NT) that Jesus’ disciples and first century saints expected the return of Jesus at any time. This is demonstrated in the Lord’s prayer “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven...” For the past 2,000 years believers have always prayed and hoped for God’s kingdom. The ascension of Jesus to heaven Jesus left the earth and went to heaven nearly 2,000 years ago. Six weeks after the resurrection, Jesus stood with his disciples in the Mount of Olives just east of the centre of Jerusalem. Jesus said goodbye to his disciples and ascended to heaven to meet his Father face
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