What Is the Kingdom of God?

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When Jesus was on earth 2000 years ago, what did He teach? What was His message?

Now after John was taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the Good News of God’s Kingdom, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and God’s Kingdom has come near! Repent, and believe in the Good News.” (Mark 1:14-15)

Everywhere Jesus went, He proclaimed the gospel. The word gospel just means “good news.”

What is the good news that Jesus proclaimed? That God’s Kingdom was coming. In fact, Jesus said this was the reason He came:

But He said to them, “I must preach the good news of God’s Kingdom to the other cities also. For this reason I have been sent.” (Luke 4:43)

What is the Kingdom of God?

When Jesus Christ returns, voices in heaven will announce, “The kingdom of the world has become the Kingdom of our Lord, and of His Anointed, and He will reign forever and ever!” (Revelation 11:15). Jesus Christ will become the King of the earth. The world will be His kingdom—the Kingdom of God.

At first, the nations of the world will not accept Christ’s rule. They will fight Christ at Jerusalem, nine days after God’s Kingdom is announced. But Jesus Christ will defeat the armies of the world on that day, and set up His kingdom on earth.

Some people think that God’s Kingdom will be in heaven because in the book of Matthew, God’s Kingdom is called “the kingdom of heaven.” “The kingdom of God” and “the kingdom of heaven” mean the same thing (Matthew 19:23, 24). God’s Kingdom will come from heaven, but it will be established on earth (Matthew 5:5; 6:10).

Remember the vision of the image in Daniel 2, which represented the sequence of world empires from the time of ancient Babylon until our day? At the end of the vision, a stone smashed the image on the feet, and the stone grew into a mountain. This mountain represents the Kingdom of God:

“And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will not be destroyed forever, and its kingdom will not be left to another people. It will break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it will stand forever.” (Daniel 2:44)

After the Beast and false prophet are defeated (Revelation 19:20), the saints—those who faithfully follow God in this life—will rule the world with Christ.

The kingdom and the dominion, and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole sky, will be given to the people of the saints of the Most High. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions will serve and obey Him. (Daniel 7:27)

This is also described in the book of Revelation:

I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. I saw the lives of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God, and such as didn’t worship the Beast or his image, and didn’t receive the mark on their forehead and on their hand. They lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.” (Revelation 20:4)

God’s Kingdom will begin with a 1000-year rule of Jesus Christ on earth (Revelation 5:10).

Jesus won’t be the only ruler. He will be “King of kings and Lord of lords” (Revelation 19:16). David will be resurrected and become the king (or prince) over Israel (Ezekiel 37:24-25). The 12 Apostles will rule the 12 Tribes of Israel (Matthew 19:28). Others who faithfully follow God now will rule over cities (Luke 19:11-19). God will remove all of the selfish leaders of this world and replace them with His servants, who will teach people God’s way of life (Jeremiah 3:15; Isaiah 30:20-22).

What Will God’s Kingdom Be Like?

The 1000 years will be a time of incredible peace. Jesus will teach people the way to peace:

Now in the latter days, it will happen that the mountain of the Eternal’s house will be established on the top of the mountains, and it will be exalted above the hills; and peoples will stream to it. Many nations will come and say, “Come! Let’s go up to the mountain of the Eternal, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us His ways, and we will walk in His paths.” For the law will go out of Zion, and the Eternal’s word from Jerusalem; and He will judge between many peoples, and will decide concerning strong nations afar off. They will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, neither will they learn war any more. But they will sit, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one will make them afraid: For the mouth of the Eternal of Multitudes has spoken. (Micah 4:1-4).

Countries that have been enemies for many generations will be at peace:

In that day, Israel will be one of three with Egypt and with Assyria, a blessing in the middle of the land; because the Eternal of Multitudes will bless them, saying, “Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.” (Isaiah 19:24, 25).

People will have their own land and plenty of food to eat:

“Look, the days are coming,” says the Eternal, “that the plowman will overtake the reaper, and the one treading grapes him who sows seed; and sweet wine will drip from the mountains, and flow from the hills. I will bring my people Israel back from captivity, and they will rebuild the ruined cities, and inhabit them; and they will plant vineyards, and drink wine from them. They will also make gardens, and eat their fruit. I will plant them in their land, and they will no more be plucked up out of their land which I have given them,” says the Eternal your God. (Amos 9:13-15).

Jesus will heal the disabled:

Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame man will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will sing; for waters will break out in the backcountry, and streams in the desert. (Isaiah 35:5-6).

Real Christianity Will Be Universal

For a thousand years there will be no more deception. When Jesus Christ returns, Satan, who deceives the world, will be put into a prison (Revelation 20:1-3).

For a thousand years everyone will learn the truth. There will be only one religion.

They will no longer each teach his neighbor, and every man teach his brother, saying, “Know  the Eternal,” for they will all know Me, from the least to the greatest,” says the Eternal. “For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31:34).

During this 1000-year reign of Christ, everyone will keep the seventh-day Sabbath:

It shall happen that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh will come to worship before Me,” says the Eternal. (Isaiah 66:23).

The seventh-day Sabbath is actually a symbol of the 1000-year rule of Jesus Christ on earth (Hebrews 4:4-8). The Bible also says that Christians today must rest on the Sabbath, just as God rested on the seventh day of creation, if they want to be in God’s kingdom:

There remains therefore a Sabbath-keeping for the people of God. For he who has entered into His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. Let’s therefore give diligence to enter into that rest, so that no one may fall after the same example of disobedience. (Hebrews 4:9-11).

God has given humans six days every week to do their work (Exodus 20:9). These six days represent the 6000 years God gave to man to try to govern themselves (2 Peter 3:8). But the seventh day, representing the 1000-year rule of Christ on earth, belongs to God (Exodus 20:10).

The Feast of Tabernacles, which comes a few days after the Day of Atonement, also represents the 1000-year rule of Christ. When Christ is King of the earth, all nations will keep God’s Feasts:

It will happen that everyone who is left of all the nations that came against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the King, the Eternal of Multitudes, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. It will be, that whoever of all the families of the earth doesn’t go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Eternal of Multitudes, on them there will be no rain. If the family of Egypt doesn’t go up, and doesn’t come, neither will it rain on them. This will be the plague with which the Eternal will strike the nations that don’t go up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. (Zechariah 14:16-18)

Why So Much Confusion Today?

Modern Christianity has rejected most of what Jesus Christ taught. They have rejected the Sabbath which foretells the 1000-year reign of Christ. They have rejected God’s Feasts which reveal God’s plan of salvation. They have rejected God’s Law, which will be the law of God’s Kingdom. They have forgotten that the gospel is the good news about God’s Kingdom. They have replaced the true gospel with “a different ‘good news’; and there isn’t another ‘good news.’ Only there are some who trouble you, and want to pervert the good news of Christ.” (Galatians 1:6-7).

Why is there so much confusion?

Even if our good news is veiled, it is veiled in those who are dying; in whom the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the good news of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn on them. (2 Corinthians 4:3-4)

Who is “the god of this age”? Who is “the ruler of this world” (John 14:30)? Who “deceives the whole world” (Revelation 12:9)? Who is the leader of popular Christianity (2 Corinthians 11:13-15)?

God’s Kingdom is not here yet (John 18:36). Right now, Satan is the leader of this world (Luke 4:5-6).

Think about it!

It is not God’s plan for everyone to understand the mysteries of His Kingdom now. When Christ came, He only revealed the mysteries of the Kingdom of God to a few people. Jesus told His disciples, “To you it is given to know the mysteries of God’s Kingdom, but to the rest in riddles; that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’” (Luke 8:10).

So what is God doing now? He is training the leaders of His Kingdom.

At this time, only those whom God calls can come to Christ (John 6:44, 65). Those who understand Christ’s message now and faithfully follow Him will live again when Christ returns and will help Him rule in God’s Kingdom (Revelation 20:4).

In God’s Kingdom, God will remove the veil that blinds all nations:

He will destroy on this mountain the surface of the covering that covers all peoples, and the veil that is spread over all nations.

At that time, when Jesus Christ is the ruler of the world, everyone will be taught by God (John 6:45; Isaiah 54:13).

God has a wonderful plan for all people, including everyone who has already died. You will learn about that plan in the next lesson. But if you understand the good news of God’s Kingdom now, perhaps God is calling you to rule with Christ in God’s kingdom.

The question is, what are you going to do about it?

For many are called, but few chosen. (Matthew 22:14)

Be careful therefore how you hear. For whoever has, to him will be given; and whoever doesn’t have, from him will be taken away even that which he thinks he has. (Luke 8:18)

Not everyone who says to Me, “Master, Master,” will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; rather he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will tell Me in that day, “Master, Master, didn’t we prophesy in Your name, in Your name expel demons, and in Your name do many mighty works?” Then I will tell them, “I never knew you. Go away from Me, you who engage in law-breaking!” Everyone therefore who hears these words of Mine, and does them, I will compare him to a wise man who built his house on a rock. And the rain came down, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it didn’t fall because it had been founded on the rock. Everyone who hears these words of Mine, and doesn’t do them will be like a foolish man, who built his house on the sand. And the rain came down, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it collapsed—and its collapse was great! (Matthew 7:21-27)

When God gives you understanding, He expects you to respond by doing what He says.

What are you going to do?

To learn more about the Sabbath, you can read What Day Is the Sabbath?

Next Lesson: Are Unbelievers “Lost”?

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