|
There can be
no Kingdom of God established in the earth in the absence of the
King. It is therefore necessary that Jesus return to the earth.
This is indeed the clear teaching of both Jesus and his Apostles.
The Teaching of Jesus
Both in his
parables and in his plain teaching Jesus taught his disciples that
one day he would come back to the earth again:
“He said
therefore, A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive
for himself a kingdom, and to return. And he called his ten
servants, and delivered them ten pounds and said unto them, Occupy
till I come. But his citizens hated him, and sent a message
after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us. And
it came to pass that when he was returned, having received the
kingdom, then he commanded these servants to be called unto
him to whom he had given the money, that he might know how much
every man had gained by trading” (Luke
19:12-15)
“For Son
of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels;
and then shall he reward every man according to his
works” (Matthew 16:27)
The Teaching of the Apostles
There can be
no doubt that the Apostles looked for Jesus to come back again:
PETER
said:
“And he (i.e. God) shall send Jesus Christ, which before
was preached unto you: whom the heaven must receive until
the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by
the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began” (Acts
3:20-21)
JOHN wrote:
“And now, little children, abide in him: that, when he shall
appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him
at his coming” (1 John 2:28)
PAUL wrote:
“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a
shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God:
and the dead in Christ shall rise first” (1 Thessalonians 4:16)
The Testimony of the Angels
There is no
clearer and more emphatic statement in the whole of the Bible than
the words of the angels to the disciples as Jesus ascended into
heaven after the resurrection:
“Ye men of
Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus,
which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like
manner as ye have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11)
How Will Jesus Come Back?
From the
words of the angels quoted above it is clear that Jesus will
return LITERALLY, VISIBLY and BODILY. It will be
Jesus himself who returns.
How Christ’s
Coming will Change the World
The return
of Jesus will be the greatest event in history. It will be a time
of trouble in which men will be engaged in war (See Daniel
12:1; Joel 3:9-16; Ezekiel 38). Jesus will intervene in the
affairs of men with the result that, upon the ruins of the
existing governments of mankind, Jesus will establish God’s
Kingdom on the earth. Commencing, as we have seen in a previous
study, with the nation of Israel, Jesus will bring great blessings
to all mankind. Some of these blessings will be:
1) Peace on
Earth:
“And he
shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people:
and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their
spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against
nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (Isaiah 2:4)
2) One
World-wide Religion:
“At that
time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the LORD; and all
nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the LORD, to
Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the
imagination of their evil heart” (Jeremiah 3:17)
3) One
Universal Language:
“For then
will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call
upon the name of the LORD, to serve him with one
consent” (Zephaniah 3:9)
4)
Agricultural Prosperity:
“Behold, the
days come, saith the LORD, that the plowman shall overtake the
reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the
mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt”
(Amos 9:13)
5) Housing
Problem Solved:
“And they
shall build houses and inhabit them; and they shall plant
vineyards and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and
another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat: for as
the days of a tree shall be the days of my people, and mine elect
shall long enjoy the work of their hands” (Isaiah 65:21-22)
6) Disease
Controlled:
“And the
inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein
shall be forgiven their iniquity” (Isaiah 33:24)
The Solution of All Problems
Psalm 110:2
tells us that Jesus will “rule in the midst of his enemies”
and Paul writes that Jesus “must reign until he hath put all
enemies under his feet” (1 Corinthians
15:25).
This process of subduing his enemies and solving the problems of
the world will take 1000 years (Revelation 20:4). At the
end of this MILLENNIUM death will be removed from the earth. Thus
the end of the thousand years will see all problems solved and the
purpose of God with the earth will have been brought to its grand
conclusion:
“Then cometh
the end, when he (Jesus) shall have delivered up the kingdom to
God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and
all authority and power. For he must reign until he hath
put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be
destroyed is death” (1 Corinthians 15:24-26) |
