From Calvary until the thousand-year Kingdom Age
If Christ is able to return with irresistible authority and power to set up His Kingdom, why did He not establish His Kingdom two thousand years ago? If He can release the whole world by His Glory, taking away the sins of the world and healing all sicknesses with a wave of His hand, why then was it necessary for two thousand years of agony to occur?
If Christ can destroy the devil and all sinners by His stupendous power and reveal His Glory to all men everywhere so they will believe, just as He will do during the thousand-year Kingdom Age, what, then, has been the purpose of the rise and fall of human kingdoms attended by so much misery? Of the sufferings of Christians? Of the fumbling of mankind in its attempt to keep the world functioning from the time of the resurrection of Christ to the present hour?
The working of God during the period of time between Calvary and the thousand-year Kingdom Age has been filled with purpose and productivity from the standpoint of the Kingdom of Christ. God never wastes anything, not time, not money, not personnel, not resources of any kind whatever. God does not allow His children to suffer one moment past the point necessary to bring about God’s purpose in the earth.
There is no movement or state of a single living creature or inanimate object in all the universe except that God knows about it altogether. He is aware of each sparrow and of every hair on the head of each of His people.
If a person does not understand the completeness of the authority and power of God or the extent of the knowledge and interest that God possesses concerning His creation, he will not comprehend the perfection of all that God is performing in His Church and in the nations of the earth. He will come short of the Glory of God in his thinking and behaviour.
During the era between the resurrection of Christ and His return as earth’s lawful King, God is creating the Kingdom of God and all the necessary elements of the Kingdom. The Body of Christ is being brought to unity and maturity.
Many souls have been, and are yet, believing and being baptized. From among them are being chosen the various leaders and officials of God’s Kingdom. The Temple of God is being completed—the eternal dwelling place of God among men. The Wife of the Lamb is being made ready for the heavenly Bridegroom.
The brothers of Christ are being trained for their appearance in glory with Him and for the destruction of every evil force in the earth. Sin is being permitted to come to maturity and will suffer the vengeance of eternal fire as an everlasting example to all of God’s creatures.
Because of the manner in which the foundation of the Kingdom must be established it was necessary that the construction be accomplished during two thousand years of tribulation. If the Kingdom of God could have been established in a happier environment it would have been brought about in that way.
Every believer enters the Kingdom of God through much tribulation. God is blessed when we sing to Him our songs of praise and thanksgiving. The melody is sweet indeed when by faith we sing to God in the midst of our furnace of afflictions. We are being perfected in the fire.