The Coming of the Kingdom of God
The Coming of the Kingdom of God
John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus preached the coming of the Kingdom of God to the earth. I do not know when it happened, but somehow the Gospel of the Kingdom was changed into the Gospel of Heaven. Instead of the Good News being that the Kingdom was coming to the earth, the Good News now is that we will go to Heaven when we die or when we are "raptured."
Why was the Gospel changed? Probably to be more in line with the other religions of the earth, which teach that if we obey the tenets of the religion we will go to some sort of paradise when we die.
There is an invisible Kingdom of God. It is the rule of God in Christ in whomever Christ is dwelling.
There is a visible Kingdom of God. The visible Kingdom of God is the rule of Christ over all people living on the earth when He returns with His saints.
The Christian Church is the government of the Kingdom of God.
When the visible Christian Church comes down through the new sky to be installed on a high mountain of the new earth, it will govern the nations of people who have been saved to citizenship on the new earth.
It is not always preached that there will be two classes of people living on the new earth: God's Church, which is the new Jerusalem; and the people from the nations who are not of the Church but whose names are written in the Book of Life.
Until it is understood that the Church is a minority of earth's population, and that of the remainder of the people of the nations, some will be saved to eternal life and some will be thrown into the Lake of Fire because they are wicked, it is impossible to understand much of the Book of Isaiah and much of the Book of Revelation.
The salvation of the people from the nations can be understood readily in the twenty-fifth chapter of the Book of Matthew. The saved people from the nations are the sheep, for whom the Kingdom of God has been prepared. Thus they are part of the Kingdom, just as the Church is the government of the Kingdom.
One way of putting it is that we Christians are being trained so we can install and maintain a kingdom on the earth—a kingdom that is the inheritance of the "sheep."
Then the King will say to those on his right, "Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world." (Matthew 25:34)
The Kingdom is prepared for the people (sheep) saved from the nations, as God deals with us Christians. We must consider ourselves as a royal priesthood who will make it possible for the "sheep" to be reconciled to God and He to them. We have to go through a severe training by the Lord before we will be able to make it possible for the sheep and God to be reconciled, one to the other.
This is why today's preaching, in which the congregations are being told how God wants to make the believers prosperous and comfortable, is so terribly disastrous. The true training from the Lord teaches us to be more concerned about God's desires and the needs of people rather than how all of our desires should be met.
I believe, from my experience with the Lord, that we have to find out by revelation how incomparably valuable an inheritance of people truly is. Then we will not be so interested in living comfortably in a mansion in Heaven.
The Kingdom of God is created in the saints (holy ones) as we are born again and then formed in the image of Christ. This is the inner Kingdom of God. It is the forming of Christ in us that is the preparation of the Kingdom the sheep are to inherit.
The outer Kingdom of God will come when Christ and His brothers appear and govern the people living on the earth.
If we should find the demands of the Christian discipleship not to our liking, we cannot then choose to become one of the "sheep" and not have to experience the trials suffered by the members of the royal priesthood. If we are one of God's elect, and turn away from the rigors of discipleship, we will be led into the outer darkness when Christ appears.
Where is the government of the Kingdom now? It is wherever the saints are, in Heaven or on the earth. It is invisible. It will become visible when Jesus and His saints appear and govern with the iron scepter.
Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, "The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, 'Here it is,' or 'There it is,' because the kingdom of God is within you." (Luke 17:20)
It is of note here that the Pharisees were interested in the coming of the Kingdom of God. This reveals a mindset different from what we have today. The "coming of the Kingdom" is the reverse of the Heaven mindset.
Also, "the kingdom of God is within you" is better translated "the Kingdom of God is among you." The Kingdom of God was not in the disciples at that time; but it was in the Lord Jesus.
For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other. (Luke 17:24)
The "rapture" teaching of the present day suggests that the Lord Jesus is coming in secret to whisk away the believers. There will be no secret rapture. There is no scriptural basis for a catching up of the believers prior to the event mentioned in Luke 17:24. And that event assuredly is no secret!
According to the fourth chapter of First Thessalonians, the Lord shall return with multitudes of saints. They, along with the victorious believers who are alive on the earth at that time, shall receive Spirit-filled bodies and ascend to meet the Lord in the air. According to our current tradition, this shall take place secretly.
The saints who have returned with the Lord Jesus, have been in Heaven for a period of time—some for thousands of years. So why would it be sensible for them to then return to Heaven?
We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. (I Thessalonians 4:14)
According to the "rapture" doctrine, all these who are caught up in the secret rapture will then go to Heaven—presumably at that time to go to their mansion.
Now compare:
For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other. (Luke 17:24)
If there was going to be a secret rapture prior to the above verse, why didn't the Lord Jesus tell the Pharisees that if they served Him they would not have to wait for His coming "like the lightning" but would be caught up in secret?
Really, the whole notion of a secret rapture preceding the coming of "the Son of Man in his day" is not a respectable doctrine. The result of the "secret" teaching has been to put the believers into a waiting mode instead of doing each day what is necessary for them to enter the Kingdom of God at the present time; and also to prepare themselves to be part of the army of judges that will accompany Christ.
I think you will agree with me that the following passage is stating that the moment Christ is revealed, people who were unprepared were destroyed.
Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all. (Luke 17:26,27)
I do not believe every person who is not among those who were caught up to Christ when He appears will be destroyed. If that were the case, there would be no nations of people for Christ and His saints to govern.
But it is evident many shall be destroyed—perhaps those who had been called by the Lord but did not consecrate themselves to His service.
The "secret rapture" doctrine is maintaining that prior to the Day of the Lord, all people who "accept Christ" will be caught up to Heaven. Meanwhile, the people living on the earth may or may not be aware that Christ has come secretly. They will not be destroyed.
But then, perhaps years later, when Christ appears like the lightning, destruction will come upon the unprepared people on the earth.
In this case, where will the saints be who have been caught up during the period between the secret rapture and the coming of Christ "like the lightning"? Will they or will they not return with Christ when He comes like the lightning?
If we say they, having been caught up to their mansion in Heaven, do not return with Christ, we are going against the Scripture. Paul teaches clearly that we will appear with Christ.
When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. (Colossians 3:4)
Are we then to conclude that the saints will be caught up to meet Christ and then go to Heaven' Then, after a period of time, return to earth in the Battle of Armageddon and face Antichrist, Satan, the False Prophet, and the armies of the wicked?
When Revelation teaches us that Christ shall return at the head of His army and defeat the armies of Antichrist, are any of the members of Christ's army those who were caught up in a secret rapture?
What, then, is the purpose of the secret rapture? I think it is maintained that the purpose is to escape Antichrist and the Great Tribulation. If then the secret rapture is to permit fearful believers to escape Antichrist and the Great Tribulation, where, then, will they gain the courage to return with Christ and confront Satan and the armies of the wicked?
Some maintain that there will be no secret rapture until the end of the Great Tribulation. Thus the purpose would not be to escape the Tribulation. What then would be the purpose of a secret rapture of the believers to Heaven?
Here is another point of interest. The passage of Scripture that supposedly sets forth the secret rapture, says that the saints are caught up to meet the Lord in the air. There is a considerable difference between being caught up into the air to meet the Lord, and being caught up to Heaven.
I think the idea is that we will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air and then return with Him to Heaven.
If this is true, and there is no scriptural support for it, it is conjecture, the same question exists. What would be the purpose? Why would Jesus, before He is to make His grand return to the earth, secretly catch up to Heaven all who have "accepted Christ," many of whom are spiritual babies?
If the purpose is not to escape Antichrist, the great tribulation, or the moral chaos that America is approaching, what then is the purpose of the so-called pre-tribulation rapture?
The truth is, the return of the Lord Jesus to bring His Kingdom to the earth, as described in Matthew, Luke, and First Thessalonians, Four, is the historic Day of the Lord, the one coming of the Lord.
The teaching of the rapture, whether pre-tribulation, or mid-tribulation, or post-tribulation, is an error. The fruit of the doctrine of the rapture is immature believers who are not pressing forward in Christ. Why should they press forward in Christ? There is nothing to be gained by it, since they will be caught up in a sovereignly imposed rapture.
Sometimes it is said that by threatening the believers with an any-moment rapture they will serve the Lord fervently. It does not seem to work like that, Perhaps it might work for a month or two; but after that the believers turn back into their fleshly ways, trusting in grace to insure their participation in the rapture.
In any case, believers who will behave themselves only if they think the Lord is about to come, do not have a heart for Christ. If they are afraid of being caught in their sins, they do not really know the Lord or love God.
The truth is, when Christ appears "like the lightning," those Christians who are living victorious lives, as well as those who died in victory in Christ, will be given Spirit-filled bodies and will be caught up to meet the Commander-in Christ in the air.
They will mount the white war stallions and descend with their Lord to install the Kingdom of God on the earth. This will not be a secret. There will be the shout of war, the voice of the Archangel Michael, and the trumpet of God announcing the great cavalry charge.
This is the truth and it can be verified by many passages of Scripture. There is no scriptural basis whatever for a secret rapture in which God takes His Church to Heaven before Jesus returns.
I hope that the rapture myth soon will be discarded by devout Christian leaders as they read their Bible and listen to the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is speaking today about our confessing and turning away from our sins so we can stand during the moral chaos that is approaching our country.
It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. On that day no one who is on the roof of his house, with his goods inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything. Remember Lot's wife! (Luke 17:30-32)
Think carefully about the passage above. According to the rapture doctrine, God will call up to Himself those who are to be saved. Yet in the above passage, which is in the context of the Lord coming "like the lightning," the Lord is imposing conditions that would be impossible to keep except for the most devout Christian believer:
No one should return to his house and goods but go straight to the Lord who has just appeared like the lightning. No one working in the field should go back to check on his family or animals. Are the people who have been left on the earth possibly years after the rapture going to be able to keep such conditions? Not likely. Only the most consecrated Christian, if he were caught down town, would go straight to Jesus without returning to his or her family.
Can you see that if the Church had been caught up previously, Jesus would be speaking to those with no Christian training, telling them that when He appears they are to go straight to Him without looking back for an instant—like Lot's wife? This is ridiculous!
Below is the true and only coming of Christ to gather His saints from one end of the heavens to the other. There shall be no rapture before this coming:
At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other. (Matthew 24:30,31)
If there were a secret rapture prior to the above event (which certainly is not a secret), and its purpose was to catch up the elect to Heaven, why then does it say in the passage above that this is the time when the angels will gather the elect from one end of the heavens to the other?
Are the angels going to gather those who had been caught up to Heaven previously in a secret rapture? This makes sense?
Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have come from us, saying that the day of the Lord has already come. (II Thessalonians 2:1,2)