The coming (or "presence") of the Kingdom of God is the entrance of eternal, incorruptible resurrection life into the material realm. It is the bringing of the holy Presence of God into the world. The kingdoms of the world will come under the dominion of God and His Christ. What is holy will once again be available to mankind on the earth, as was true in Eden.

The memorial of the blowing of Trumpets, the fifth of the seven feasts of the Lord (Leviticus 23:24), signals the beginning of the Jewish civil year. The Blowing of Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah—New Year's Day) comes after the feast of Weeks (Pentecost). To us Christians this means that as soon as we experience the spiritual fulfillment of the feast of Pentecost, which is the work of the Holy Spirit in our life, we can expect God to speak to us about the coming of the Kingdom of God. We begin to look for the entering of the holy Life of Christ into the earth such that God's will is done in earth as it is in Heaven.

The first manifestation to us of the coming of the Kingdom is the judgment that falls on our deeds. The sincere saint of today is experiencing the judgment of God and is kept busy obeying the Lord while the Divine fire burns away the love of the world, the love of sin, and the love of self-will that are in him.

The transition from a spiritual emphasis to a material emphasis is revealed clearly in the two overlapping years of the Jewish calendar.

The religious year of the Jews, the year of religious observances, begins with Passover (Exodus 12:2).

But the civil year, the year of kings, birthdays, and contracts, begins with the first day of the seventh month of the religious year, with Rosh Hashanah (the celebration of the Blowing of Trumpets—Leviticus 23:24).

When we first come to Jesus we begin a "year" of religious, spiritual life. Many times the Apostle Paul urges us to concentrate on our citizenship in the heavens, to set our love on "things above."

But after Pentecost, as we enter the spiritual fulfillment of the Blowing of Trumpets, we commence a "year" of the setting up of the Kingdom of God on the earth. We can note this transition from the spiritual to the material as we pass from the first two words of the Twenty-third Psalm ("The Lord") to the first two words of the Twenty-fourth Psalm ("The earth"). The Twenty-fourth Psalm is a prophecy of the coming of the King to set up His Kingdom in the hearts of men in the earth.

The Spirit of God is following the pattern of the feasts of the Lord as He restores to us the original Gospel of the Kingdom. Accompanying the original Gospel is a much clearer understanding of Paul's teaching of grace. We have been shown that God's grace in Christ is not a substitute for, an alternative to, righteous and holy behavior. Rather, God's grace is the means of producing righteous and holy behavior in the earth, of producing the Kingdom of God.

To be continued.