“…Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” Mark 1:14,15
The recent elections in the USA, with a result that amazed much of the world, given all that is known about the winner, has raised numerous apocalyptic and end-of-world apprehensions and theories in the minds of many. Many who also hold a religious and spiritual view of the world, its histories, and its ongoing battles between good and evil. And even if one does not apply a religious view, many are shocked at the vote made by the majority of Americans. Commentators are citing racism, sexism, and misogyny at the root of the electorate’s choices. We in other parts of the world, including the Caribbean, must gird our loins for the effects of the radical policies promised by the winner during his campaign. Governments in office now cannot afford to be complacent, thinking that negative forces spewing misinformation, lies, deceit, violent and obscene rhetoric from their platforms, cannot win elections, even in the face of demonstrable successes by incumbent governments.
Whether in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, China or our own Caribbean, most citizens wonder whether we can ever know peace, stability, order, and freedom from fears, terror, storms, earthquakes, political upheavals etc. For many, religion provides hope and answers. And many who have no interest in religious solutions, look hopefully to economics, political change, social re-engineering, attention to climate change, etc. The world is a very messy place and always has been.
The Lord Jesus Christ went everywhere preaching the gospel, the good news, of the Kingdom of God. The proclamation of the Kingdom was Jesus’ primary mission: “I must preach the good news of the Kingdom of God to the other towns also because that is why I was sent.” (Luke 4:43).
When Daniel interpreted Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the four major kingdoms to rule the earth, he prophesied that “the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever” (Daniel 2:44). It was to this prophecy and others that Jesus referred to when He announced that “the time was fulfilled and the kingdom of God was at hand.”
The four major kingdoms were Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. The present world-power systems show the very end of the Roman era, “iron mixed with clay” (Daniel 2:43), characterised by superpower strength alongside many instabilities. The Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, represented by His universal Church, has been growing on the earth, like “wheat among tares.” With His return, the invisible Kingdom will be established visibly as the everlasting Kingdom of God.
The main task of Bible-believing Christians is to proclaim the reality of the Kingdom of God. The world must be reminded of the destruction prophesied by present ruling powers. The Apostle Peter predicted that “the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgement and destruction of ungodly men.” (2 Peter 3:7).
The Biblical “New World Order” will be found in “the new heavens and new earth, the home of righteousness.” (2 Peter 3:13). The Christian faith declares that Jesus Christ is “the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God.” (1 Timothy 1:17).
Standing before Pontius Pilate, Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world…My kingdom is from another place…you are right in saying I am a King. In fact, for this reason, I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” (John 18:36, 37).
The Kingdom of God is “not of this world”. The spirit of this world is depraved and corrupt because “they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God.” (Romans 1:28). The works of the sinful nature are responsible for the suffering everywhere. The Kingdom of God is identified by the “fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22).
Through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, accepting what the Bible teaches of Him, one is “born again” into the Kingdom of God. While this is first a spiritual experience, the promise is of a full bodily reality in the future. There we will experience true freedom and fulfilment. Faith and repentance, practised daily in accordance with the teachings of the Bible, identify one as a citizen of God’s holy realm. Jesus had taught, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” (John 14:15). When we fail, as we all inevitably do, we confess our sins and receive Christ’s forgiveness. (1 John 1:9). Faith is a fight and spiritual warfare is a reality.
The final, inevitable overthrow of the kingdom of evil men and angels will occur with the sudden appearance of Jesus Christ. “They will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather His elect, from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.” (Matthew 24:30, 31).
Students of the Bible, who know Christ Jesus as their Savior and King, believe that Earth and all systems of human government, are “to be displaced by the Kingdom of God under the sovereignty of the Son of Man.” After ages of failure, ethnic civil wars, racism, economic recessions, poverty, the holocaust of abortions, sexual perversions, authoritarianism, ecological disasters, rampant crime, “every man’s hand against his brother”, Christians, burdened by violence and corruption, – wait now on the threshold of the promise of the appearance of Almighty God the Creator, Redeemer and Judge. More than ever, in these increasingly darker days, the Kingdom of God is at hand!! Christ is coming again!
The Bible-believing Church, in these closing moments of world history, must remind itself of its God-given mission, and call men and women, as in Noah’s days, to prepare for judgement. The warning must continue: “You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come in an hour when you do not expect Him.” (Matthew 24:44). And in these days of diseases, murders, vehicular accidents, political upheavals – the finality of death and the closing of our lives books with their unchangeable records of faith or unbelief, underline the encouragement to make urgent preparation for death, judgement and eternity. Resurrection to eternal life in the Kingdom of God is promised to those who accept the Lord Jesus Christ as the Risen Saviour and King of the everlasting Kingdom of God.