|
Other
Articles on Hope
The Christian Hope
Part
One
Part
Two
Hope Beyond the Terror
The Resurrection of the Just and the
Unjust
There Is Hope
What Is This World Coming To?
1-What Is This
World Coming To?
2-Today's
Headlines Written Nearly 2,000 Years Ago
3-Why God
Permits Evil
4-A Ransom For
All
5-The Call of
the Church
6-The Kingdom
of Christ
|
The Kingdom
of Christ
Chapter 6
The prophecies considered in Chapter One indicate that we
are at the end of the age, therefore the selection of the church
is nearly completed. The great time of trouble foretold in Daniel
12:1 and Matthew 24:21 is upon us. Haggai 2:7 contains a thrilling
promise that we should cherish in these troubling times.
Speaking of this "Time of Trouble" Haggai
prophesied, "And I will shake all nations and the desire of
all nations will come." How comforting! The legitimate
desires of all nations or peoples shall come. The Scriptures show
that one of the reasons for the "Time of Trouble" is
that the various segments of society are demanding both just and
fancied desires from each other. And nations are superimposing
their desires upon other nations. The result is the disintegration
of our present evil world. But all people have legitimate desires
that God will fulfill after the tribulation demonstrates that
selfish man cannot establish his own utopia.
What are some of these desires the Kingdom will fulfill? If
we asked the working man struggling to keep his head above water,
"What is your desire?" his answer would be, "If
only we had economic security." Speaking of the Kingdom,
Isaiah 65:21-23 says, "They shall build houses and inhabit
them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall
not build and another inhabit. They shall not plant and another
eat. They shall not labor in vain nor bring forth for
trouble."
There will be no unemployment problem, fear of automation,
inflation, depression or any economic problem. In the Kingdom, all
will have economic security as symbolized by these words of
Isaiah.
If we stopped a man on the streets of Harlem and asked him
what he desired, he would reply, "Why, if the needs of the
poor and minorities were only understood, and if we could only be
assured of justice, then life could be beautiful." The
Kingdom will satisfy these desires. Then "He [God] will
defend the cause of the poor, deliver the needy and crush the
oppressor." (Psalms 72:4) And Isaiah 9:7 again tells us,
"Of the increase of his [Christ’s] government there will be
no end.... It will be established with justice and righteousness
forevermore."
If we asked one of our elderly in our crime ridden cities
what is his desire, he would probably reply, "If only there
were no more crime and violence." This desire will also come,
for in the Kingdom we read, "They shall not hurt nor destroy
in all my holy mountain [Kingdom], for the earth shall be full of
the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea" (Isa.
11:9).
What would be the desire of patients in hospitals? Of
course, they would say, "If only there were no sickness and
crippling diseases, no cancer, multiple sclerosis, muscular
dystrophy. If only the blind could see, the deaf could hear and
the crippled walk." Oh! Thank God! These desires will be
fulfilled! Of the Kingdom we read in Isaiah 33:24, "And no
inhabitant will say I am sick." Isaiah 35:5— "Then the
eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf unstopped,
then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the
dumb sing for joy."
And what would be the desire of youth? One of their many
idealisms is, "Can’t there be a world without war? And why
can’t the billions of dollars and the cream of technology that
is wasted on the armament race be harnessed for peace and human
needs?" In the Kingdom we read in Isaiah 2:4, "They
shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into
pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation
neither shall they learn war anymore."
If we went to the sub-Saharan drought belt of Africa where
over a million have starved to death in a recent six-year period,
and ask, "What is the one desire in life you want?"—with
one accord they would say, "Oh, if only the rains could be
depended on, so that we could be assured that the land could bring
forth food to feed our children." The climatic conditions in
the Kingdom will be ideal. The earth will bring forth in
abundance. In Isaiah 35:1,7, we read, "The desert shall
blossom as a rose.... And the parched ground shall become a pool
and the lands springs of water."
Think of the countless millions who have lost loved ones in
death. Their one desire is the return of these dear victims. And
in the Kingdom they will be united with their loved ones. Speaking
of all that died, Hosea 13:14 says, "I will ransom [deliver]
them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O
death, I will be your plagues; O grave, I will be your
destruction." Is it any wonder Jesus taught us to pray,
"Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in
heaven"?
Is Man Too
Selfish?
Well, someone might say, God will
wonderfully bless mankind in the Kingdom, but there is still the
problem of man. If history has taught us anything, it is that man
is too selfish to permit an ideal society. This has been true, but
the reason the Kingdom will work is that God intends to change man’s
selfish heart of stone into a heart of love. We have seen in the
chapter on the permission of evil that the basic lesson God is now
teaching man is the exceeding sinfulness of sin. Man alienated
himself from God by disobeying and man without God results in
selfish havoc.
The Kingdom of Christ will rule in
righteousness; the knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth as
the waters cover the deep so that all will know the Lord (Isaiah
11:9). Satan will be bound so that he cannot deceive the people
(Revelation 20:1-3). The love of God will abundantly bestow
blessings of life, peace and happiness upon all. The very spirit
or influence of this Kingdom arrangement will have an overwhelming
transforming effect on the hearts of men.
Of this mighty working of the spirit we read
in Ezekiel 11:19-20, "And I will give them one heart, and I
will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart
out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh. That they
may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them:
and they shall be my people. and I will be their God."
The Iron Rule
For many an iron rule will at first be
required in order to change their heart of stone into a heart of
flesh. The laws of the Kingdom of Christ will be far more exacting
than those of any previous government and the liberties of the
people will be restricted to a degree that will be galling indeed
to many now clamoring for an increase of liberty without
responsibility.
Liberty to deceive, to misrepresent, to
overreach and to defraud others, will be entirely stopped. Liberty
to abuse themselves or others in food or in drink, or in any way
to corrupt good manners, will be totally denied to all.
Liberty or license to do wrong of any sort
will not be granted to any. The only liberty that will be granted
to any will be the true and glorious liberty of the sons of
God-liberty to do good to themselves and others in any and in
every way. Nothing will be allowed to injure or destroy in all
that holy kingdom. (Isaiah 11:9; Romans 8:21)
That rule will consequently be felt by some
to be a severe one, breaking up all their former habits and
customs, as well as breaking up present institutions founded upon
these false habits and false ideas of liberty. Because of its
firmness and vigor, it is symbolically called an iron rule,
"He shall rule them with a rod of iron." (Compare
Revelation 2:26, 27; Psalms 2:8-12, and 49:14.) Thus will be
fulfilled the statement, "Judgment will I lay to the line and
righteousness to the plummet. And the hail [righteous judgment]
shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters [truth] shall
overflow the hiding place," and every hidden thing shall be
revealed. Isa. 28:17; Matt. 10:26.
Some will feel rebellious against that
perfect and equitable rule. Now under the influence of Satan, they
lord it over their fellow men. In the Kingdom, these will attempt
to live wholly at the expense of others without rendering
compensating service. This present life of self-indulgence and
gratification will naturally demand and receive many and severe
disciplines under that reign, before such will learn the lessons
of that Kingdom-equity, justice, righteousness. Psa. 89:32; Luke
12:47,48
But, blessed thought! When the Prince of
Life has put in force the laws of righteousness and equity with an
iron rule, the masses of mankind will learn that
"Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any
people." They will learn that God’s plan and laws are best
in the end for all concerned, and ultimately they will learn to
love righteousness and hate iniquity. (Psalms 45:7; Hebrews 1:9)
All under that reign who have not learned to love the right, will
be counted unworthy of lasting life and will be cut off from among
the people. Acts 3:23; Rev. 20:9; Psa. 11:5-7.
Revelation 21:4 beautifully sums up the work
of the Kingdom: "God shall wipe away all tears from their
eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor
crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former
things are passed away."
At the end of the thousand-year Kingdom of
Christ, as mankind stands at the threshold of eternity, they will
look back upon this present life of suffering, sickness and
sorrow. Though this experience seems dark and interminable at
present, then, by contrast with eternity, it will seem trifling.
With this grand perspective, what this world is coming to now is
seen as only a necessary bridge that passes over into life
everlasting.
Men will thank their God for this experience
with sin and evil, and at that time all creatures in heaven and
every creature on earth will raise their voices in that grand
Hallelujah chorus recorded in Revelation 5:13, "Blessing, and
honor, and glory, and power, be unto him [God] that sits upon the
throne, and unto the Lamb [that was slain] for ever and
ever." Amen.
|
