The time we are currently thinking about will be when Jesus returns to set up God's Kingdom on earth. This will be a stepping-stone towards God's ultimate plan - so beautifully expressed in Isaiah:
| 9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD As the waters cover the sea. | |
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Isaiah
11:9
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The Kingdom of God will be focused on Israel and its capital will be Jerusalem. Right at the start God promised the land of Israel to Abraham - and to his offspring. (See What is this to do with the problems in the Middle East at the moment? for more details)
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And the LORD said to Abram (Abraham) ... "Lift your eyes now
and look from the place where you are—northward, southward, eastward,
and westward; 15 "for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever . 16 "And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered . 17 "Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you." |
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Genesis
13:14-17
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And it carried on down the family line - his grandson Jacob received the same promise:
10 And God said to him, "Your name is Jacob; your name shall not be called Jacob anymore, but Israel shall be your name." So He called his name Israel.
11 Also God said to him: "I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall proceed from you, and kings shall come from your body.
12 "The land which I gave Abraham and Isaac I give to you; and to your descendants after you I give this land."The promise of the land and the Kingdom continued through King David. In 1 Chronicles 17 God makes a promise to David. It talks of his immediate son, Solomon, but also of his future son, Jesus:
11 "And it shall be, when your days are fulfilled, when you must go to be with your fathers, that I will set up your seed after you, who will be of your sons; and I will establish his kingdom.
14 "And I will establish him in My house and in My kingdom forever; and his throne shall be established forever ."All the time the promises talk about what will happen well into the future.
7 Of the increase of His government and peace There will be no end, Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, To order it and establish it with judgment and justice From that time forward, even forever... Jesus, who was a descendant of Abraham, Jacob and David, fits in with the promise. The angel gave this message to his mother before he was born.
32 "He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David.
33 "And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end."He came to reign on David's throne. The Kingdom of God will be where the King will be reigning, and that will be from Jerusalem. The people will flock to Jerusalem to worship God:
17 "At that time Jerusalem shall be called The Throne of the LORD, and all the nations shall be gathered to it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem. ... But this is an interim arrangement and we read that at the end of this period Jesus will hand the Kingdom over to his Father. That is when there will be no more opposition to him, and everyone alive will want to serve and worship him. The Book of Revelation speaks of that time:
1 Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth , for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea .
2 Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
3 And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.
4 "And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death , nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away."All human systems of government that we currently see will be replaced, as prophesied long ago to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, a dream that Daniel interpreted in Daniel chapter 2. God showed Nebuchadnezzar what would happen in the ages to come, culminating at the end of time (2:44) when someone (represented by a stone) would come and destroy the kingdoms of the earth - this is the return of Jesus. His reign will grow until it fills the whole earth (2:35), and this two-stage process is what we can see prophesied through the pages of scripture. (See How can we be so confident that this Kingdom will come? for more details)
The followers of Jesus, we are told, will possess this Kingdom, which will be an everlasting Kingdom, in contrast with everything that has gone before.
There will be "salvation to the ends of the earth" (Psalm 98:3) and it will, as God proclaimed, be "full of the knowledge of the Lord".
Jesus said during the Sermon on the Mount, "The meek will inherit the earth", because it is the meek and the humble who will share in God's Kingdom to be set up on earth. So it's quite clear, then, that this coming Kingdom will be here on the earth, and that the exact spot where you are sitting will be a part of it.
The question is, do YOU want be part of it?