Christ and His Saints Go to Work:1

The more that human beings attempt to straighten out the world the more corrupt the situation becomes. This is because the heart of man is corrupt. We are ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

The solution to the chaos is the return of Jesus Christ to govern the nations. This is the blessed hope of the Christian Church, although our hope has become confused because of the unscriptural emphasis on a "rapture" of the believers to Heaven in order to escape Antichrist and the great tribulation.

It is time now to refresh the original blessed hope of the Church, because the way we view the purpose of the return of the Lord, and our role in His return, directly affects the diligence we apply to our discipleship today.

Introduction

The world is heading toward chaos in every area of human life: morals, education, medicine, economics, the military, the arts and sciences, the vocations. While there are advances in knowledge, justice and wisdom in the use of the knowledge is not always present. </p>

For example, the Internet, a significant leap forward in communication techniques, is sometimes used to defraud the unwary, to purvey pornography, to instruct young people in the construction of explosives. With all the progress in science and technology, a small percentage of the earth's population is overweight while multitudes are starving.

The more that human beings attempt to straighten matters out the more corrupt the situations become. This is because the heart of man is corrupt. We are ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
The solution to the chaos is the return of Jesus Christ to govern the nations. This is the blessed hope of the Christian Church, although our hope has become confused because of the unscriptural emphasis on a "rapture" of the believers to Heaven in order to escape Antichrist and the great tribulation.

It is time now to refresh the original blessed hope of the Church, because the way we view the purpose of the return of the Lord, and our role in His return, directly affects the diligence we apply to our discipleship today.
I'll tell you what got me started on this essay. I was doing my devotional reading last night and it so happens I am in the Book of Isaiah.

I ran across several passages that have to do with Christ returning and bringing justice to the nations.

For example:
"Listen to me, my people; hear me, my nation: The law will go out from me; my justice will become a light to the nations. My righteousness draws near speedily, my salvation is on the way, and my arm will bring justice to the nations. The islands will look to me and wait in hope for my arm." (Isaiah 51:4,5—NIV)
"My justice will become a light to the nations."

Just prior to this promise of justice to the nations we see that God is going to bless His people.
The LORD will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; he will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the LORD. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing. (Isaiah 51:3—NIV)

Here is the pattern. God will build up Zion. As soon as He does, Christ will appear with His saints and bring justice to the nations of the earth.

For the LORD will rebuild Zion and appear in his glory. (Psalms 102:16—NIV)

I laid my Bible down and began to think. The world is in terrible shape today. Tonight on the news we heard about the fall of the stock markets around the world, the worsening problem in Iraq, and the slaughter of men, women, and children in Kosovo. Not a bright picture. Any one of these dangerous situations has the potential to radically disrupt the lives of multitudes of people.

As we think about the governments of the world we realize they are controlled by self-seeking leaders who will do anything to retain their power, even if millions of their countrymen suffer. We consider the super-rich individuals who play their games with money without considering what is happening to the rest of us.

There is no hope for the bringing of justice to the ordinary members of the nations.

Yet there is a hope, a future for the world. The Bible promises that Jesus Christ will return with His saints and powerful angels and bring justice to mankind. Isaiah has quite a bit to say about this, as does the Book of Psalms also.

May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine upon us, Selah That your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations. May the peoples praise you, O God; may all the peoples praise you. May the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you rule the peoples justly and guide the nations of the earth. Selah May the peoples praise you, O God; may all the peoples praise you. (Psalms 67:1-5—NIV)

God will return in Jesus Christ and in the saints to bring justice and gladness to the people of the nations of the earth. This is the good news of the coming of the Kingdom of God.

And then I asked myself, how in the world did we get into this mansions in heaven idea, golden slippers, rapture, and all the rest of the mythology? How did Christianity ever become so self-cantered, forgetting what the Scriptures say about the Gospel of the Kingdom, the bringing of justice to the nations?

How did the Christian salvation get turned into a means of bringing untransformed Gentiles into Paradise without regard to the bringing of justice to the nations? How were we able to turn faith in Christ into an escape from Hell instead of the transformation of believers into new creations of righteous behaviour who would be able to serve as the moral lights of the world?

How did we drift so far away from the Bible?
When I was in Bible school I was taught that God has two brides, a Jewish bride and a Gentile bride. The Gentile bride is destined to go to Heaven to recline on sofas in fabulous mansions while the Jewish bride will fulfil on the earth what the Hebrews Prophets have spoken.

I have been out of Bible school for fifty years and have had a chance to read the Bible for myself. I am here to tell you this idea of a Gentile kingdom in Heaven and a Jewish Kingdom on earth is totally unscriptural. It is this teaching that has cut off the Christian churches from the Prophets, leaving us with no clear vision of our destiny in Christ, why we were saved, why we must press forward to maturity in Christ, why the Lord deals endlessly with us night and day.
Any smart high-school student could prove easily from the New Testament that the two-kingdom doctrine is absolutely against the plan of God.

For example, Paul taught in Galatians that those who are in Christ are the one seed of Abraham. Paul's teaching here is clear, without possibility of ambiguity.

If Christ and those who are part of Him, whether Jewish or Gentile, are the one Seed of Abraham, and beyond doubt the nations will be blessed through the one Seed of Abraham, where, then, is the Jewish Kingdom?
If we Gentiles, having received Jesus Christ, have been grafted into the one Olive Tree, which is Christ, where then is the other olive tree?

The two-kingdom, two-bride doctrine is woefully unscriptural.
But more than that, this unscriptural philosophy removes the motivation from Gentile Christians to press forward to maturity in Christ. If our goal is to recline on a sofa in a mansion in the spirit realm, what need is there to press forward to maturity? But if our goal is to return with Jesus Christ to bring justice to the meek of the earth, and if bringing justice to the nations will necessitate a confrontation with all the forces of Hell, then spiritual maturity is required of us.

Satan has managed to drive a wedge between Israel of the Old Testament and the Church of the New Testament. He has done this because the Kingdom of God will always be associated with the nation and land of Israel, and yet derives its authority and power from Jesus Christ.

The truth is, Israel of the Old and the Church of the New are one olive tree. They are absolutely one new man, inseparable, the one Seed of Abraham through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul taught that those who receive Christ, whether Jewish or Gentile, are one new man in Christ. Once we are born again of the Spirit of God we no longer are identifiable by race in terms of the Kingdom of God. As to culture, yes, we may be quite different. But in the Kingdom of God we are of the one body and blood of Jesus Christ. This is what the

Scripture states.

This is what is true.
All of the promises of the Messianic Kingdom, the Kingdom of God, that are found in the Hebrew Prophets, have to do with Jesus Christ and those who are part of Him. There are promises in the Prophets that apply to the physical land and people of Israel. But the promises referring to the coming Kingdom of God apply only to Jesus Christ and His Body.

Paul said the Deliverer would come from Zion and remove godlessness from Jacob. This means when Christ appears with His saints they will bring salvation and the Presence of God to the physical people and land of Israel.

If you as a Christian want to read about your destiny, read the Hebrew Prophets. You, being part of Jesus Christ, are spiritual Israel, the one Seed of Abraham, a branch of the one Olive Tree that has its roots in Abraham and the other patriarchs and prophets of the Old Testament.

This is why the Book of Hebrews, when it teaches us the meaning of "the righteous shall live by faith" uses exclusively the saints from the Old Testament. They are one with us and we all shall be made perfect together in one Body of Christ.
And so the doctrine that there are two kingdoms and two brides of God, a Jewish kingdom and bride and a Gentile kingdom and bride, is as destructive a teaching as could be developed. Let us who love the Lord flee from this unscriptural doctrine at once. The Necessity for Cultivating the Heavenly Life Copyright © 2006 Trumpet Ministries, Inc. All Rights Reserved