The first chapter details what precedes the coming Kingdom. I begin my book, "The millennial Kingdom is in the future and is the kingdom Jesus Christ loved and taught most often in His preaching ministry. Many regard the kingdom in which Christ came to rule, began in a spiritual sense at the day of Pentecost and exists presently but without His physical rule on earth. Believers who enter the Kingdom now by faith change dramatically, spiritually. But a change is coming in which Jesus Christ will physically rule on earth; believers will be changed physically into eternal beings with a spiritual body, they will have further transformation in their nature and they will become a part of that rule. Just ahead of us in God’s prophetic timetable is a period that is called the Tribulation, a time of suffering and death that involves the whole earth and will be of limited duration, lasting seven years. Before the Tribulation the church is taken from the earth or to use a popular term, we are raptured to be with Christ. This will be a supernatural event that will startle the world. According to Scripture, millions will be physically removed from the earth in an instant. Believers will be transformed to be like Christ and will become the bride of Christ, while tribulation rages on earth. At the end of the Tribulation, the millennial period will begin, when Christ, along with all church believers, will return to earth to rule and reign. The Millennium [which literally is translated "one thousand"] is a word that occurs six times in the first seven verses of Revelation 20. It gets its name from that chapter which in part states, 'He laid hold on . . . the Devil and Satan, . . . and bound him for a thousand years and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. . . .And they [believers] lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.' The one-thousand-year millennial Kingdom will precede eternity. Heaven is a term that refers to life in the millennial Kingdom and beyond the Millennium into eternity when all things are re-made and made new."
My book's focus is on that one-thousand year period looking at the Lord Jesus in His role as ruler, our role with him and our life in the kingdom, and the lives of others living in the kingdom with us, in particular, Israel, but also the many kingdoms that will exist on earth at the time.
Jesus taught continually about life in the Kingdom, and we will find that God pointed all of history toward that one-thousand year reign of His son, as we look at the accumulated wealth of information contained in the writings of the prophets. The entire theme of Scripture is to point out the glory of God, which He displays through His kingdom program. The Millennial Kingdom is the pinnacle, the high water mark, the full display of His program. Jesus declared that the signs of the end times, were signs the kingdom of God was near (Luke 21:31).
As we watch the turmoil that is sweeping the planet today, it is hard to resist the belief that we are approaching the end of days. My friends, the Millennial Program, held in the mind of God, desired by the Lord Jesus as evidence in His frequent teaching on the Kingdom, may arrive soon.
In the next few blogs, I want to talk more about that coming Kingdom and what it means for us, as believers today and how we should prepare.
God bless you,
Steve