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-centered, 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 behavior 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 fulfill on the earth what the Hebrew 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.

To be continued.