The Gospel message always has contained a witness to the world of the coming of the Kingdom of God. This specially was true during the ministry of the Lord Jesus, as He sent His disciples to heal the sick, raise the dead, and proclaim the coming of the Kingdom.

Whom Jason hath received: and these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus. (Acts 17:7)

The preaching of Christ as the One who saves us from our sins has occasioned vicious persecution throughout the centuries of the Christian Era. But the preaching of Christ as the King who is coming to take over the governments of the earth will bring on us the full fury of Satan and the powerful and wealthy people of the world.

The Apostles were a witness in their own day of the power of the coming Kingdom Age. The witness of the Kingdom has been given throughout the two thousand years of the history of the Christian Church. However, the stress on the construction of church edifices and the building of large congregations of worshipers has almost totally eclipsed the vision of the inner kingdom—the kingdom that must be established in the personalities of the saints before the outer manifestation of the Kingdom can take place.

The dimension of Divine judgment we behold in the ministry of the two witnesses of Revelation 11 has not always been emphasized in Christian preaching. Yet the concept of Divine judgment is an integral part of the Christian Gospel, as we note in the fourth chapter of the Book of First Peter.

For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? (I Peter 4:17)

Divine judgment is stressed in the ministry of the two witnesses of Revelation because the coming of the Kingdom of God will be accompanied by the destroying of all sinners and their sin from the earth. In order to be a true witness of the coming of the Kingdom of God, the end-time remnant will be empowered to "strike the earth with all plagues, as often as they will."

We believe that during the thousand-year period (the sixth day) the preceding five days will continue to develop according to the wisdom and power of the original declaration of God. If this is correct, the following work will take place during the Kingdom Age, the Millennium, the day of image and union:

The day of unveiling will continue. The four aspects of the original declaration will continue to unfold: man will be changed into the image of God; man will enter union with Christ and with others of his kind; man will bear the fruit of Christ throughout the universe; man will exercise total authority over the works of God's hands.

To be continued.