The Kingdom of the World

An error has existed in Christian thinking from ancient times. It is that man’s eternal home is Heaven, that is, in the spirit world. It is true that our citizenship is in Heaven. We have been born from Heaven and our Father, Christ, the holy angels, and the saints are there. But Heaven is not our eternal home. The earth, first the present earth, and then the new earth, is our eternal home. We were not created in Heaven. We were created on the earth, and this is our proper dwelling. Satan and the fallen angels have no right to be here.

(3/5/2006) Christians for so long have regarded Heaven, the spirit Paradise, as being their destiny and their eternal home, that it may take the next fifty years before we understand that while our salvation comes from Heaven, our home is the earth. The time we spend in the spirit world after our physical death is temporary. And we actually know very little about it, in spite of the multitude of our myths and traditions. The Bible largely is silent on this topic.

The purpose of the resurrection is not, as supposed commonly, to bring us to Heaven. The purpose of the resurrection is to give us back our physical (although spiritualized in some manner) body so we can live once again on the earth. This idea seems to confuse God’s people, although had we never been taught to the contrary, it would appear to be both scriptural and logical.

The reason our transition from Heaven-thinking to earth-thinking indeed shall take place is that we are drawing near to the Lord’s return from Heaven. He is not returning to bring His Church to Heaven (from what passage of Scripture did we derive this notion?). The purpose for the Lord’s return from Heaven is that He might install His Kingdom on the earth. Since that event is certain, it also is certain that before too long we will be thinking of our place in the Kingdom of God on the earth, as we prepare our minds and hearts for the coming of the Lord.

Although I have been teaching for years that the goal of salvation is change into the image of Christ, and dwelling in untroubled rest in the center of God’s Person and will, and that this change in us is has nothing to do with where we are but what we have become in Christ, I was stirred anew on Sunday as we considered Revelation 11:15:

The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever."

Think of it! The kingdom of the world. Not the kingdom of Heaven, but the kingdom of the world.

What is the kingdom of the world? It is the world of today. The spirit of the world is one spirit, the spirit of Satan. The kingdom of Satan includes every nation on earth, from the greatest down to the smallest. All is pervaded with the spirit of Satan. He is the ruler of the authority of the air.

Where is Satan’s kingdom, the kingdom of the world, located? It is located on the earth.

What is going to happen to Satan’s kingdom, the kingdom of the world?

The kingdom of the world shall become the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Christ and His victorious saints.

I cannot emphasize this fact enough. Our destiny is not the spirit Heaven. Our destiny is eternal life in the Kingdom of God on this earth, and on the new earth when it comes down from Heaven.

Will we be able to move back and forth from the spirit world to the physical, material world? Undoubtedly, yes, depending on where our service to God directs us.

Can we look forward to going to Heaven when we die? Yes, and we ought to place our affections on things above, not on things in the world. But we must come to understand that what our life will be like after we die and are in the spirit world is not known to us. The Lord Jesus has told me many times that while I am free to imagine what will happen to me when I die, I actually have no idea of what my circumstances when I enter the next life.

The Lord Jesus exhorted us to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. This we are to do. "His righteousness" includes the righteousness ascribed to us when we turn from the works of the Law of Moses and place our faith in Christ. But "His righteousness refers primarily to the righteousness of personality formed in us as we follow the Spirit of God.

The Kingdom of God has two dimensions. The first dimension has to do with what we are experiencing now, on the earth. The second dimension has to do with the awful descent of Christ with His saints and angels at His appearing.

There appears to be a tendency today to ignore the awful descent of Christ to establish His Kingdom on the earth, and to stress that we are entering the Kingdom today as we seek to practice righteousness. This is a weak approach, because our motivation for seeking to practice righteousness today is greatly enhanced by the knowledge that the Lord shall appear and with violence set up His Kingdom on the earth.

We begin our entrance into the Kingdom of God when we are born again. After that we establish our life in the Kingdom of God as we follow the Holy Spirit in putting to death the deeds of our sinful nature. There is no sin in the Kingdom of God, and we cannot continue in the Kingdom while we are yielding to the lusts and passions of our flesh and carnal mind.

As long as we are following the Spirit of God in confessing and renouncing the deeds of our sinful nature, the Passover blood of the cross is shielding us from the judgment of God.

But when we are not following the Spirit of God in confessing and renouncing the deeds of our sinful nature, the Passover blood of the cross is not shielding us from the judgment of God. Those who continue in the deeds of their sinful nature shall reap corruption and have no place in the Kingdom of God.

The vision of the coming of the Kingdom of God, the doing of God’s will, into the earth, is far superior to the vision of living forever in the spirit Paradise.

Paradise was on the earth in the beginning. Because of man’s disobedience, God withdrew Paradise into the spirit world. Paradise is destined to return to the earth at the hands of Christ and His saints. They shall govern the present earth, and then the new earth, at their appearing. Disobedience to God shall be driven from the earth forever.

In that Day we will have no desire to remain confined to the spirit world.

We do not realize it, but we actually have no desire to live among creatures with four faces, or to stand beside a sea of glass laced with fire. What we truly desire is an earth from which all distressing aspects have been removed. This is what is on the horizon. Give this some thought and determine what you actually desire.

But God is not willing to give Paradise back to man until God is certain that man will not lose it again through disobedience. Therefore the history of the world has been for the purpose of teaching angels and humans the folly of following Satan, and also for the purpose of developing rulers who will be faithful to God and govern the world according to the laws of righteousness, the laws which are God’s Character.

The rulers of the world to come are being prepared now. Perhaps God is dealing sternly with you in the present hour. Your life has been interrupted and all your plans and hope seem to have been wrecked beyond repair. Do not quit. Do not curse God. Wait patiently while He examines your soul. You will emerge in triumph if you do not give up in despair. Keep trusting the Lord. Your are being prepared to govern the new world of righteousness.

At night we considered the ordeals that some of our members are experiencing. These can be very severe. But we are not to regard our fiery trials as strange. They are the normal part of our discipleship, as we change from knowing only the house of God to knowing the God of the house of God.

Toward the end of the evening study I explained the following passage:

Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and within his temple was seen the ark of his covenant. And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake and a great hailstorm. (Revelation 11:19)

After the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, the only temple God is interested in is Christ and those who are part of Christ. In Christ and each saint must be the three articles contained in the Ark of the Covenant: the stone tables of the Covenant, the memorial jar of manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded.

When the Lord Jesus appears with His victorious saints, at the revealing of the sons of God, the living Temple, which always is in Heaven at the right hand of God, shall be opened. The peoples of the earth will see those whom God loves as He loves Jesus Christ, His Firstborn son.

These saints will show within themselves the eternal moral law of God (the Ten Commandments, the eternal covenant of God with man); the memorial jar of manna (the members of the governing priesthood who live by the Word proceeding from the mouth of God); and transformed believers who abide faithfully in their calling, never seeking to usurp the pace of another in the Kingdom (Aaron’s rod that budded).

When the peoples of the earth behold such believers, they will understand that it is God who has sent Jesus Christ to the earth, and who loves the saints as He loves Christ.

Their descendants will be known among the nations and their offspring among the peoples. All who see them will acknowledge that they are a people the LORD has blessed. (Isaiah 61:9)