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The Daily Word of Righteousness
Orientation to the Kingdom of God, continued
And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. (Daniel 2:44)
Wherever Christ (or any saint in whom Christ is dwelling) is, there is the Kingdom of God. There is the rule of God. There is the power and wisdom of God to release the world into righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
The entire Scriptures emphasize the coming of the Kingdom of God into the earth.
The resurrection from the dead, which is a major part of the entrance of the Kingdom of God into the earth, will take place as the Lord Jesus descends from Heaven, bringing with Him the perfected spirits of the righteous dead. The all-powerful Conqueror will descend from Heaven with a shout, the voice of the chief angel, and the trumpet of God. He will destroy Antichrist at His glorious appearing.
As part of the advent into the earth of the Kingdom of God, we who remain alive on the earth unto the coming of the Lord will go forth, along with the dead in Christ, to meet the Lord Jesus in the air. We then shall have resurrected bodies.
The hope of the Christian Church is the return of Christ to the earth in order to receive His saints, to destroy Antichrist, and to establish a righteous government on the earth in fulfillment of the words of the prophets of Israel (II Thessalonians 1:7-10).
The prophecies, doctrines, and admonitions of the prophets and apostles have to do with our being transformed into the righteous and holy image of Christ so we can serve God acceptably on the earth (Isaiah 40:10,11; Daniel 7:27; Matthew 25:31,32; John 17:21; Revelation 2:26).
It is obvious that our concept of the Kingdom of God will affect the seriousness with which we obey the many New Testament passages that exhort us to enter now into the transforming work of the Kingdom in us; for if we are waiting to die and go to Heaven we may tend to give little attention to the laws of the Kingdom of God.
Why pay attention to the laws of righteousness if we are waiting to die and go to Heaven where our faith and strength of righteous and holy conduct will not be tested constantly; where we will behave in a godly manner without effort (we suppose)?
Perhaps the central issue of our discussion is this question: exactly what is the Kingdom of God? Is the Kingdom of God the place called Heaven? Or is the Kingdom of God a change taking place in us today in preparation for the invasion of the earth by Christ and the saints and elect angels?
Is the Kingdom of Heaven a place where we go or is the Kingdom the filling of the peoples of the earth, and the earth itself, with Christ?
Is the Kingdom of God a land beyond the stars where we will travel some day if we profess Christ? Or is the Kingdom of God the transformation of the world by introducing Christ into it?
To be continued.