1. What is the Kingdom?
Jesus taught something called "The Gospel of the Kingdom," and He said that this Gospel would be preached all over the world before the end of the world. Jesus said in Matthew 24:14,
14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be spread to all the nations as a sign, and then the end will come.
What is this Kingdom Gospel? Is it the same as the Gospel of Salvation, which so many people are preaching right now? No, the Gospel of the Kingdom isn't just about being saved. Its main focus is on how people can become members of the Kingdom of God. But most people don't know much about the Kingdom of God itself, so they can't see it clearly. So let's start from the start. Genesis 1:1 is where the Kingdom of God should start.
In the beginning, God made the earth and the sky.
Everything that God made, both in heaven and on earth, is part of the Kingdom of God. So, the Kingdom is not just heaven; it also includes earth. It's important to know the rules of the Kingdom from the start, because if you know the beginning, you know how the story ends.
What God makes is His by right of making it. Because of this, the Bible assumes that God owns the whole earth and has control over everything He owns. So, God has the right to give land to anyone He wants, to control everything that happens on earth, and to set the rules (laws) for how people can live on any part of what He made.
Sin and death came into God's Kingdom, first in the skies and then on earth. This caused a temporary problem that God has been fixing since the beginning. At the end of earth's past, the problem will be completely solved. Sin and death will be gone, and, as was later said, God's glory will cover the whole world.
It is important to know that God said the world he made was "good" from the start. When everything was done, God said, "Very good" (Gen. 1:31). Not a bad devil, but a good God made all the dirt, rocks, water, plants, animals, and man.
Later, many faiths taught that matter is bad and only spirit is good, so this basic fact was questioned. In Paul's time, the Greeks couldn't understand how a good God could live inside a human body through the power of Pentecost. How could God get dirty by living in a body that is "evil"?
So, to understand the Gospel of the Kingdom, we need to know that matter is not inherently bad. It was made well, and it showed the artistic skill and character of the one who made it. This view of where everything came from will decide what happens at the end of history.
Sin and death are not built into the world; they are outside forces. Sin has caused history and time to go in a different direction or last longer so that the problems caused by this invasion can be fixed.
A big part of the Gospel of the Kingdom is about the goal of events. This Gospel tells us about God and how He relates to the world He made. It tells us how sin and death are a problem. It tells us how God wants this problem to be solved. And finally, it shows that in the end, God will succeed and win. He made the heavens and the world for a reason, and that reason will be reached.
The earth was made to show how great God is. If God didn't reach this goal, He would be a sinner, because the Hebrew word for sin is kawtaw, which means "to fail to achieve a goal or to hit the mark."
But God wasn't caught off guard by sin, and He isn't so stupid that He can't fix everything. Acts 3:21 says that the end goal of history is "the restoration of all things." In 1 Cor. 15:28, Paul said it another way,
28 And when everything is under Him, the Son will also be under the one who put everything under Him, so that God can be all in all.
The rest of the Bible tells us how this goal is going to be reached. There are a lot of details, and each one shows something new about who God is and how He relates to His world, especially to man. To talk about each of these details in depth would take a whole Bible study and more books than anyone could read (or write) in a lifetime. But this paper is meant to give people a general idea of what the Gospel of the Kingdom is all about. Other books will go into more detail. If we can see the big picture, it will be easier to learn the details without getting lost in them.
Throughout the history of the Bible, God taught people two ways to set up the Kingdom. The first one was meant to fail, so we could learn what DOESN'T work. The second one was made to be a full and total success. The Old Covenant and the New Covenant are both about these two ways.
In the Old Covenant, it was up to human flesh to carry out God's plans and make everything right. It didn't work, so the Old Covenant was thrown out and replaced by the New. Through the New Covenant, Jesus Christ was given the job of carrying out God's plans and making us all perfect. The New Covenant hasn't been fully put into action yet, but the Gospel of the Kingdom says that Jesus Christ is the One through whom God's plans will be carried out.
For a place to be called a country, it must have four main things. It needs a king, people, rules, and a territory. All of these things are in the Kingdom of God. History is the story of how the Kingdom of God grew from a small seed to a huge tree that spreads across the whole world.
So, to understand the story of the Kingdom of God, we need to look at these four parts and see how they fit together.
2. The King of the Kingdom
Adam was the first king of the earth. Gen. 1:26 tells us.
26 God said, "Let's make man [Hebrew: awdawm, or "Adam") in our image and likeness, and let them rule over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the cattle, the whole earth, and every creeping thing that lives on the earth."
In Genesis 1:26, the word awdawm is used without the Hebrew article and particle. This makes the word mean "man" instead of Adam. Genesis 1 gives us a general description of how God made man and how it fits in with the rest of creation. This helps us know that God made man on the sixth day.
Then, in Genesis 2, we learn more about how God made people, starting with Adam. In Genesis 2:7, the Hebrew word eth ha-awdawm is translated as "this same man Adam." (See what Bullinger says about Genesis 2:7.) In other words, Genesis 2:7 was talking about the same man as Genesis 1:26.
The Dominion Mandate was given to the first Adam, making him the rightful king of the land. God was, of course, the most powerful King because he made everything. He did not give up control of the world when He gave Adam power over it.
Adam was God's ruler. In fact, he could only be king as long as he obeyed the One who made and owned everything. God had every right to make kings or get rid of them.
So, when Adam sinned, his sinful nature tried to run the world on its own, as if it were his. In a way, he took God's place on the throne. His free will took him out of the realm of life and into the realm of death, just as God had said he would in Genesis 2:17:
17 But you can't eat from the Tree of Knowing Good and Evil, because if you do, you will die the day you do.
We shouldn't spend too much time talking about the tree itself and what it might mean. From what we've looked at so far, it's enough to know that eating from the "tree" was a mistake, or disobedience. Because of his sin, Adam died.
Adam and Eve had more children who looked just like them. If they had had children before they sinned, those children would have been like them, which was like God (Genesis 1:26). But it turned out that they had children who looked like evil flesh. Because of this, Adam's mistake made him mortal, and all the generations that came after him also became mortal. In Romans 5:12, Paul says,
12 Because of this, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, death spread to all people, which is why they all sinned.
Death is man's deadly flaw, weakness, or "disease," which makes him sin. The Gospel of the Kingdom shows us how to get past death so we can stop sinning. Also, it tells us what God's plan is not only for us as people but for the whole world (1 John 2:2).
King Adam had trouble because of death and sin. If he had stayed ageless, he would have stayed King of the Earth and wouldn't have had to give the crown to his children. Adam's job was to subdue the earth, which means to bring everything under the moral rule of God. But because he sinned, he failed, and it took another "Adam" to win where the first Adam failed. Jesus was the "last Adam" (1 Corinthians 15:45).
Because Adam was mortal, he would die, so his cap would have to be passed on to the next generation. And because men were now made in the image of Adam after he sinned, they would tend to look out for themselves. Many people would want to be in charge of other people. Because they were selfish, they would plan how they could force others to do what they wanted and make men their slaves. This is where the kings of men came from.
But their crowns would be fought over by many people who would stand up for themselves and try to take the crown for themselves. But let's go back to the beginning and take a quick look at how kings and states came to be.
One of the two mandates that made up the Birthright was the Dominion Mandate. The other was the Fruitfulness Mandate, which was found in Genesis 1:28. It said, "Be fruitful and multiply." This second command is where the idea of "sonship" came from, and it was meant to bring people into the Kingdom of God to live there. Obviously, if Adam and Eve had had children who looked like God, all of their kids would have been members of the Kingdom and not been a problem.
Adam gave Seth the Birthright, which included both of the Commandments in Genesis 1. Seth's son Enos got it after he died. The Birthright kept being given to their kids until Noah, who took it with him during the flood.
Shem got it from Noah, and he kept it for 600 years (Genesis 11:10, 11). Because he lived longer than his children and grandkids, none of them got the Birthright while they were still alive. Shem was still alive after ten generations of his children and grandchildren had been born, lived, and died. If you look at Genesis 11, you will see that Shem even lived longer than Abraham, who would have gotten the Birthright if he had lived longer than Shem. See Secrets of Time for more.
When Isaac was 110 and Jacob was 50, Shem finally died. So, Abraham didn't get the Birthright. Instead, it went straight to Isaac. The Bible talks clearly about the Birthright for the first time when Isaac's twin sons, Jacob and Esau, fight over it.
Jacob did end up getting the Birthright, but he ran into trouble because he wanted it for selfish reasons. In later years, Jacob's boys each got a piece of the Birthright. He took the Dominion Mandate out of the Birthright and gave it to Judah (Genesis 29:10). The rest of the Birthright, mostly the Fruitfulness Mandate (Genesis 49:22), he gave to Joseph. This is shown in 1 Chronicles 5:1 and 2.
People said that Judah's claim to the Dominion Mandate was brief and would only last "until Shiloh comes, and the people will obey Him." (Gen. 49:10). The meaning of the promise wasn't clear at first, but as time went on, it became clear. The Ark of the Covenant and the tent were set up in Shiloh, which was a town of Ephraim (son of Joseph).
Later, when the house of Eli's priests became corrupt, the Ark had to be moved from Shiloh to Jerusalem (Psalms 78:60–68). Still later, God's glory was taken away from Jerusalem because those leaders were bad (Jeremiah 7:12–14). God left Jerusalem "as if it were Shiloh." From there, it was meant to find a lasting home in the New Jerusalem, a spiritual city where we are the temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:16) and His name is written on our foreheads (Revelation 22:4).
In the end, the "Shiloh" promise has come to mean a group of people instead of a place on earth. Christ is the leader of this group of people. Together, they make "one new man" (Eph. 2:15) and are pictured as the final "temple" built on the basis of the apostles and prophets, with Jesus Christ as the chief cornerstone (Eph.
Jacob split up parts of the Birthright, but they were meant to come back together in Christ. He came the first time as a member of the tribe of Judah and more specifically as a descendant of David so that he could legally get the Dominion Mandate.
When He comes back a second time, He comes as Joseph so that He can also get the Birthright. Rev. 19:13 says, "He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood." This is done to show that He is the same person as Joseph, whose robe was dipped in blood in Genesis 37:31. This second coming is important because it finishes the work that Jesus started when He first came to earth. He would not be able to get the Birthright of Joseph without a second coming.
But getting back to the Dominion Mandate, Jesus' first appearance was from the tribe of Judah and the line of David, which made Him the rightful King of the Earth. In the end, all kings will serve Him—not because they have to, but because they want to. They will serve him gladly and with joy. Jesus never said that people should be forced to honour him or bow down before him. Instead, He has decided to show them the love of God to earn their love and respect. Psalm 67:4 and 5 say,
4 Let the peoples be happy and sing for joy, because you will judge the countries with justice and lead the peoples of the world. 5 Let everyone praise you, O God; let everyone praise you.
Even so, history shows that many people have tried to take over the world's throne. From the beginning, Jesus' right to rule the world has been questioned. Nimrod was the first person to take over people and start a rival country. This kingdom was called Babylon. He must have known that the Messiah was going to come and rule the world, and Nimrod wanted to be that Messiah.
Shem then left Nimrod's kingdom in Babylon and went west to the land of Canaan. There, he built a city he called Salem, which means "peace," or Jeru-Salem, which means "city of peace," and set up his throne as Melchizedek, which means "king of righteousness." Then, these two rival countries became the models for Mystery Babylon and the New Jerusalem in history.
Later, King David was given the Dominion Mandate, and it was said that one of his offspring would be the Messiah. Absalom, who was a son of David, thought he could take the throne because he was a son of David. But Absalom was a thief, and his actions showed that he wasn't good enough to be given the Dominion Mandate.
A thousand years later, Jesus came from the line of David to claim His throne, but He too was challenged in the same way that Absalom had attacked David. In the New Testament, when the top priests stole Christ's throne, the story of David and Absalom was retold. But just like David had a "second coming" that got rid of Absalom and killed him, Jesus Christ will have a "second coming" that gets rid of the usurpers and destroys their fake kingdom.
At the same time, Christ will show up as Joseph to bring the Birthright and the Sceptre back together. At that time, the Kingdom of God will not only have a King, but also the Sons of God, the first fruits of creation (James 1:18), who will rule under Christ. In the "first resurrection," these people will be given eternal life and won't get old.
3. The people who live in the kingdom
The second most important thing a country needs is a group of people who live there. People who serve God and the King He chose to rule the world are part of the Kingdom of God. Today, we call them "Christians," but God doesn't think that everyone who calls himself a Christian is really a member of the Kingdom. God doesn't look at the title, but at the heart.
The main point of the "be fruitful and multiply" command in Genesis 1:28 is the idea of citizenship. Adam and Eve were supposed to have children who looked like God. If they had had kids before they did wrong, those kids would have been the Sons of God. But when they had children after they had sinned, they had children that looked like flesh. The difference is explained in 1 Corinthians 15:47–49,
47 The first man is from the earth and is earthy. The second man is from heaven. 48 As the earthy is, so are the earthy people, and as the heavenly is, so are the heavenly people. 49 We have taken on the image of the earthly, and we will also take on the image of the holy.
The name "Adam" comes from the Hebrew word "adama," which means "earth." Paul compares the first Adam to the last Adam, who is Christ, in the above passages. The first Adam made us think of things on earth, but the last Adam makes us think of things in heaven, which is what God wanted from the start.
So, the people who live in the Kingdom are meant to have the picture of heaven, which is the image of Christ. This is what Sonship is all about. The Bible explains in different ways how they become sons and how they are found to have the image and picture of Christ in their character. The feast days of Israel are the best way to explain this three-step process.
In my book, The Laws of the Second Coming, I talked in depth about these three feast days. In the book of Exodus, these three feasts remembered the most important parts of Israel's journey from Egypt to the Promised Land. They also told about our "journey" from the rule of men's countries to the rule of God's kingdom.
The three feasts show us at three different stages of our trip. Because Passover was the day Israel left Egypt, it is a time when a person who doesn't believe in God becomes a believer and, in a sense, "leaves Egypt." This is the holiday that makes you a member of the Kingdom of God, and it happens when you believe that Jesus Christ is the real Lamb of God.
Pentecost is the second feast day. It remembers when God came down from Mount Sinai and gave Israel the Ten Commandments. Pentecost is the feast that shows how the people of the Kingdom are trained to become leaders. This training is meant to help the Christian grow spiritually and teach him the principles of biblical law so that he can rule and judge the people in a wise, fair, and merciful way.
Tabernacles is the third feast day. This is the day that Israel was meant to move into the Promised Land. Israel wasn't ready to go into Canaan at that time because it was a sign of a future time when God would have taught many rulers over many years to rule in the Tabernacles Age. The Feast of Tabernacles will be finished when the Sons of God come to life. They will rule under Christ's leadership.
As the Passover shows, all you need to be a citizen of God's kingdom is faith in Christ. Rulership takes maturity, which is shown by the Feast of Pentecost and is fully reached by the Feast of Tabernacles.
Tabernacles is a prophecy about how the Sons of God will show up when all of the grown people in the Kingdom have been fully changed into the image of Christ.
You can sum up these three steps with the words: faith, submission, and agreement. Faith is the first step on the path to Sonship. Then it moves on to duty, which is a time when a believer's human nature must learn to submit to God's will. He learns to listen to God and follow the Holy Spirit.
During this time, the believer's heart slowly starts to change. Obedience means giving in to God's will, even if one's own will is different from God's law or order. But as a person learns more about how God works, loyalty gives way to agreement. Agreement is when someone doesn't need to be told to do something because they already want to do it on their own. This is called an inner motivation.
So, the goal of Sonship is not faith or obedience, but full agreement with Christ's thoughts. This is done by making the Feast of Tabernacles come true.
Being a citizen of the Kingdom of God is not the same as being a citizen of a Christian country. In the Old Testament, Jesus Christ, who was known as Yahweh to Moses, set up the country of Israel as a Christian country. Exodus 15:2 and Isaiah 12:2 both say, "Yahweh has become my Yeshua." In other words, Yeshua (also called "Jesus") is Yahweh, the Lawgiver who created the country of Israel through Moses.
So, even though the word "Christian" didn't exist when Moses lived, it still applies. In fact, "Christ" is the Greek word for "Messiah," which is Hebrew for "The Chosen One" who was supposed to lead Israel. In this way, Jesus had not yet come as the final Anointed One, but there were others, like David, who sat on His throne in the meantime.
Israel was made to be a country for Christians. Under the Old Covenant, it had some problems that ended up killing it. First, the Old Covenant was based on the citizens themselves. They had sworn to follow the law (Exodus 19:8), so their safety depended on doing what the law said. It was a surefire way to fail.
Second, the laws of the country said that they could only stay citizens if they followed religious practises in public. Under the Old Covenant, the law was weak because it couldn't punish someone for having a heart problem. Instead, it could only punish someone for what they did. For example, Matthew 5:22 says that hate is a sin, but in the Old Covenant, a person had to actually kill someone to be tried. Under the New Covenant, however, you have to be better than the Pharisees (Matthew 5:20), because hatred is enough to get you kicked out of the Kingdom of God.
The law wasn't thrown out. In fact, the rule was changed to include things like how you feel and why you do what you do.
A Christian country is a way for the rules of the Kingdom to be carried out on earth through the Old Covenant. As long as the people follow the rules, they don't have to go to court. In the history of the world, the idea of pursuing "hate crimes" is new. It's not very useful because it's a worldly attempt to control or change people's hearts without the Holy Spirit's help. It will only make people hate each other more. The law can never change the heart from the outside.
Israel found out that God's laws couldn't be enforced when most people didn't agree with them, or when the laws weren't written on the minds of the people. People usually went their own way because that was how they were raised. Even the priests and teachers of the law started to twist the law so that it said things that God had never meant it to say. So, the "traditions of men" took the place of the law and made the law invalid (Mark 7:9). We will talk about this more later.
In the end, the temple itself became a "den of robbers" (Jeremiah 7:11), or a place where thieves could hide from God's law. At that time, God sent the Babylonian troops to destroy the country and send its people away into exile. The same thing happened in the New Testament. In Matthew 21:13, Jesus used Jeremiah's words to talk about that building. The Romans razed the temple and the city in 40 years.
The point is that a Christian country is one that follows God's laws, but that doesn't mean it can change people's hearts. This is what kills it. On the other hand, the idea of the Kingdom of God comes from the New Covenant. It is mentioned in the Old Testament, along with the idea of the New Covenant (foretold in Jeremiah 31:31–34). However, it wouldn't become real until the Messiah came as the Lamb of God and died on the cross to seal this New Covenant with his blood.
So, under the Old Covenant, a person's citizenship in the country of Israel depended on what they did, but under the New Covenant, a person's citizenship in the Kingdom of God depends on what's in their heart.
In both cases, being a citizen is based on being circumcised. Under the Old Covenant, it was all about the flesh. Under the New Covenant, it's about how you feel. Under the Old Covenant, getting your flesh cut didn't mean much because the outward sign didn't generally show what was going on in your heart.
Still, religious and political leaders thought that being circumcised was a sign of citizenship in the country. With the New Covenant, there are no more outward signs. Instead, it goes straight to the heart. Paul says in Romans 2:28 and 29 that a Jew is NOT someone who is physically circumcised, but is someone who has a circumcised heart. He is explaining what it means to be a member of God's kingdom. Paul was saying that to be a member of the Kingdom, you had to have your heart cut out.
This went against the rules that the temple priests had set up. They had put guards at the door of the courtyard to keep women and people who weren't Jewish away. To prove that they were from Israel, everyone who went through that door had to show the guards that he had been cut. Their custom said that only these kinds of men were good enough to talk to God. No one asked him or looked at him to see if his heart had been cut.
Israelites and Judahites were only considered citizens because they had been circumcised, which usually happened when they were eight days old. But according to the law, even a real Israelite could lose his citizenship if he broke certain laws, like the law of offering.
In Leviticus 17:1–7, it says that a person who wants to make a sacrifice must bring it to the tabernacle (or house) and give it to God there. In verse 4, it says that if he doesn't do this, he could be "cut off from among his people." That is like giving up your passport.
Under the New Covenant, where Jesus is the real sacrifice for sin, a person loses their citizenship in the Kingdom of God if they don't bring the blood of Jesus to the place where He has put His name. In other words, we must put the blood of Jesus on our foreheads because we are now the real house where His name has been placed (Rev. 22:4). Whoever doesn't do this is not a member of God's Kingdom.
"The law is spiritual" (Romans 7:14). In the Kingdom of God, it will be implemented, but not in the same way as under the Old Covenant.
The New Covenant showed a truth that has always been true, but not many people knew about it before. The heart, not the body, was what made a person a member of God's kingdom. When the New Covenant was signed, it was clear that anyone who had only a physical circumcision was NOT a member of God's Kingdom. It made it clear that everyone who wanted to be a citizen had to follow the rule of sacrifice. Men had to accept and offer the real sacrifice of Christ and put His blood on the real temple, which is their body.
Whoever didn't do this was NOT an Israelite or a Judahite. So, Paul says that this person is NOT a "Jew" (or a member of Judah). This had nothing to do with who someone was or where they came from. It was about the law as it related to the New Covenant, which had just been signed.
People who were not born in Israel have always been able to become citizens of Israel. Under the Old Covenant, they were required to get their bodies cut. Even so, they were often handled like second-class citizens, which made many people not want to do it. Under the New Covenant, everyone must have their hearts cut, no matter where they came from, and when they do, they are all equal in God's Kingdom. From Galatians 3:28,
28 There is no such thing as a Jew or a Greek, a slave or a free man, a man or a woman. You are all the same in Christ Jesus.
Everyone has the same chance to become a citizen, and everyone gets citizenship the same way. No one can use his family tree or ancestry, or the fact that he was circumcised, as a reason for being a citizen. Everyone has the right to move from Passover to Pentecost and then to the feast of Tabernacles, where the Sons of God are shown. Everyone has the same chances.
4. The Laws of the Kingdom
The rules of the Kingdom are just anything that God tells people to do. To obey the King means to follow His rules. The rules of the Kingdom are just a reflection of how righteous the King is. They are the standard for what is right and wrong. Sin is when you go against what the King stands for.
Sin is called khataw in Hebrew, which means "to miss the mark or fail to reach the goal." Rom 3:23, for example, says,
23 Because everyone has sinned and falls short of God's glory.
That is, none of them have reached the mark, or the goal. All of us have failed to live up to God's moral standards. Everyone has failed.
The point of law is to deal with people who break it. As long as there are people who do bad things, there must be rules to stop people from hurting each other. To keep peace in the country, these laws must have consequences for not following them. This way, when people break the rights of others, the legal order can be restored.
In 1 Timothy 1:8–11, Paul tells us what the law is for. He says,
8 But we know that the Law is good if it is used properly, 9 knowing that the law was not made for a righteous person but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, 10 and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers and anything else that goes against good teaching, according to the
In the beginning, before sin came into the world, there was no need for greater powers to make rules for people. But when people started to sin, the law was needed to deal with this new fact. And in the end, when God is "all in all," people won't need rules anymore because God's law will be written on their hearts. Men will do what is right because it is in their nature to do so. They won't need a forceful police force to stop them from doing bad things to each other.
As people have become less moral, God has gradually shown them his rules. Gen. 2:16–17 gives the first rule.
16 And the Lord God told the man, "You may eat freely from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree that knows both good and evil, because the day you eat from it, you will die."
At that time, there was no need for any other rule. But this one rule was enough to give Adam and Eve the chance to fail. Once people sinned, they began a long decline, and more rules had to be given so that people could know what God thought about these things.
After the flood, God showed Noah other rules for running the world. Noah was the rightful king of the world because Adam's Birthright had been given to him. Noah already knew the difference between clean and dirty animals because he had to bring animals into the ark before the flood (Gen. 7:2).
In Gen. 9:1–7, God told us more about himself after the flood. They weren't to eat the blood with the meat (9:4), because blood was not made to be food for people. And if a man killed his neighbour, he would also lose his own life (9:6). Surely, inspiration would show many more of God's righteous traits in the years to come. After all, Gen. 26:5 says that God blessed Abraham by saying:
5 because Abraham did what I told him to do and followed My charge, My commands, My rules, and My laws.
So, it is clear that Abraham lived by divine rules long before the time of Moses. God told Abraham to leave Ur of the Chaldees and go to the land of Canaan. Abraham did what God told him to do. Abraham had a lot of faith, but that faith was shown by how he lived.
Four hundred years after Abraham, Moses took Israel out of Egypt and to Mount Sinai, where God gave them more detailed rules for the Kingdom. These rules were supposed to guide how God and people related to each other and how people related to their neighbours. These rules made sure that the punishments were always the right ones for the crime. The amount of money paid in restitution was supposed to be directly related to the crime. When there was no way to make things right, the crime was punishable by death.
These laws, like all the other laws of the Kingdom before them, were made to stop people from being greedy and taking advantage of each other. The rules had judgements that said exactly what the punishments were for breaking the rights of others. Not only did these decisions protect the rights of the victims, but they also protected the rights of the people who broke the law. As history shows, people tend to make decisions that are much harsher than the crime itself.
In Romans 7:12, the Apostle Paul says this about God's law:
12 So, the law is holy, and the word is holy, righteous, and good.
In line 14, he goes on to say, "The law is spiritual." Many people have taught that God's rule is "carnal" or "fleshly," as if it came from man's "carnal" mind. But that's not the case. John 4:24 says, "God is spirit," which means that any law that comes from Him is also spirit.
Judges with a natural mind, on the other hand, can easily mess up the way the law is carried out if they don't know what the law's author meant. In Israel's later years, this became a problem, and Jesus had to fix how they interpreted the law in His famous "Sermon on the Mount."
The ways that people interpreted the law were called "the traditions of men." Men have used modern legal decisions, also called "case law," to figure out what the Constitution means. Men, however, have a natural tendency to change the original purpose of the law when they don't agree with what the first lawmakers were trying to do. This might be a good idea when it comes to the rules of flawed people, but it shouldn't be done with God's laws.
But the rabbis changed the way the Bible was read in ways that made the law useless. Jesus came to show us what the law really means, as God meant it. But in later years, when the Church made its own customs based on what people thought, it made the same mistake. When people didn't agree with what God thought, they changed what he said to fit their own ideas of what was right and wrong.
In later years, the "traditions" of the rabbis were written down and became the Jewish Talmud. The Bible is not the Talmud. The Talmud is a collection of the stories and beliefs of people. We can read in Mark 7:
5 The Pharisees and Scribes came up to Him and asked, "Why don't your disciples follow the traditions of the elders? Why do they eat their bread with dirty hands?" 6 He told them, "Isaiah was right when he said, 'This people honours Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me.' 7 But they worship Me in vain, teaching the rules of men as if they were beliefs.' 8 Instead of following God's rules, you follow the customs of people. 9 He was also telling them, "It's nice that you put God's rules aside to keep your tradition."
Notice the difference between what God says and what people say is right. Jesus only said good things about God's law and commandments. He didn't have much good to say about the parents' ways. To find out what's really going on here, you have to know the difference.
Paul made it clear that God hadn't stopped following His rule. Jesus had paid the full cost of breaking the law for our sins and for the sins of everyone else in the world. This "fulfilled" the law, which means it did what the law said should be done.
Jesus could have avoided the cross by throwing out the law, but instead, He kept the law's requests for justice by dying on the cross for our sins. He showed that He agreed with the law's call for justice by going to the cross. By taking the punishment, He saved everyone from dying. In Romans 6:14, Paul tells us,
14 Because you are not under the law, but under grace, sin will not be your master.
To be "under law" means that you have broken the law and must pay the cost for your sins. When a person sins, the law punishes him for it, and the law won't let the person go until the punishment is paid. When Jesus paid the penalty that the law required, the law was met and the sinner was set free. The law was no longer a threat to those who did wrong. He was now "under grace," not because the sin was now okay, but because the punishment (or fine) for the sin had been paid.
This did not, however, make sin any less bad. Still, stealing is a sin. Killing is still wrong. Even now, adultery is a sin. Jesus' death on the cross did not in any way make sin okay. The law against these wrongs did not get thrown out. After Jesus died on the cross, theft did not become a good thing to do.
God's character is still shown through the rules. The main difference is that when Jesus paid the price for our sins that the law demanded, the law could not ask for any more punishments on top of what it already said. We are thus "under grace."
Paul, on the other hand, makes it clear that we shouldn't "continue in sin so grace may abound" (Rom. 6:1). In Romans 6:15, he says,
15 Then what? Should we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? May it not happen!
In other words, if I break a speed limit on the highway, a police officer might give me a ticket, and I might have to pay a fine. If I can't pay the fine, I would be "under the law" until the fine could be paid. I might have to stay in jail for 30 days. But if my uncle paid my fine, I would be "under grace," which means I would be freed by the law.
What would my uncle think of me if I kept breaking speed limits even though I knew he would always pay my fines? Would that make him proud? No, not at all. Still, many Christians have been told that they now have the right to sin (break the law), as if Jesus' death on the cross made sin acceptable because he paid the price for it.
Sin is wrong and Christians have no right to keep doing it. John says, "Sin is lawlessness" (1 John 3:4). Jesus said that on the day of judgement, many people will stand before Him and say they did many great things in His name. But Jesus will tell them, "Get away from me, you who do wrong" (Matthew 7:23).
The rules of the Kingdom were made to stop people from being too lawless. God has dealt with the problem of people not following the rules in two ways. Under the Old Covenant, Moses used the power of the law to stop people from breaking the rules. The way the New Covenant works, which Christ put in place, is for the Holy Spirit to change a person's nature from the inside out.
The Old Covenant method only works partly, but history shows that keeping people in line by making them afraid of the police will never work in the long run. Because of how people are, they will always try to get around the law or find ways to do wrong without getting found.
Because of this, countries tend to pass more and more rules that make life harder and harder. In order to stop anarchy and stop people from breaking the law, the penalties are getting progressively worse. In the end, the punishments are much harsher than what is fair, but crime keeps getting worse.
The New Covenant does more than just stop people from breaking the law. The Holy Spirit lives in our hearts and does his work from there. Instead of ruling through fear, the Holy Spirit writes the law in our hearts through love. Because of this inner work, we start to take on the good qualities of God, not because we have to, but because we agree with God. It can be done by reading the Word (the law), being led by the Spirit, understanding the author's purpose, and looking at the law through the eyes of Christ.
In this way, God's law shows not only what kind of person God is, but also what kind of person the Christian is. Even if the rules of the land said he could steal, kill, or cheat on his wife, he wouldn't do any of those things. Laws from the outside don't drive him. His drive comes from within.
With the help of the New Covenant, this is how God is righting the world right now. People in the Kingdom are having the rules of the kingdom written on their minds. God is teaching people how to be good members of the Kingdom and how to show other people what a good person He is.
5. The Territory of the Kingdom
The Kingdom of God has land, which is all the things God made, whether they are in heaven or on earth. Everything He owns is part of His Kingdom, and He has the right to own the land because He made it.
When God gave Israel its land in Canaan as a gift during the time of Moses, God made it clear that the people did not really OWN the land. They weren't given ownership of the land; instead, they were given power over it. This is clear from what God says in Lev. 25:23:
23 The land also can't be sold for good, because it belongs to Me. You are just visitors and strangers here.
In other words, the government told people how they could use the land. It wasn't always true. If they didn't follow His rules, God said He had the right to punish them and even kick them out of His land (Lev. 26:33).
In other words, Israel's right to live in Canaan depended on how well they followed the rules. God kicked them out of the land, first by the Babylonians and then by the Romans, because they didn't listen to him and didn't follow his rules.
When God kicked Judah off the land through King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, He told them again that He had the right to do so as the Creator. Jeremiah 27:5,
5 I made the earth, the people on it, and the animals that live on it with My great power and a spread arm, and I will give it to the person who makes Me happy.
God made the earth to show off His greatness, and His plan will be completed in the end. God will not fail to do what He wants to do.
The land of Canaan was a sign and a shadow of something much bigger that would happen later. Think of Canaan as a model made to show us what God wanted for the whole world. He is "the God of the whole earth" (Isaiah 54:5), not just the God of Canaan or the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
The Old Covenant was the first way God tried to get what He wanted to happen. It was meant to fail because God wanted people to learn what they could and could not do. The Old Covenant said that it was up to man to be obedient to God and build the Kingdom through his own work, will, and ability to keep his promise to be obedient (Ex. 19:8). Real life had to show them how wrong they were about the flesh.
First Israel failed and had to leave the land, and then Judah did the same. God then made a new agreement, called the New Covenant, in which He took it upon Himself to bring justice to the world. God says in the New Covenant, "I will" and "you will." This is different from the Old Covenant, which said, "IF you." God's power, not man's power, is what makes it possible for the New Covenant to be kept.
Also, the Kingdom's area grew from a small strip of land in Palestine to the whole world.
When God kicked Judah out of Canaan during the time of Jeremiah, the people thought that they would only be gone for 70 years, after which they would come back and life would be like it was before. In Daniel 2, Nebuchadnezzar had a dream that showed Babylon was just the "head of gold" on a much bigger picture. That picture showed a much longer imprisonment that would last until the end of the world.
So, when Judah's 70-year captivity in Babylon finished, they were ruled over for another 200 years by the Medes and Persians. The two "arms of silver" on Nebuchadnezzar's dream-image were made by Medo-Persia. Then came Greece, which was called the "belly of bronze," and finally, Rome, which was called the "legs of iron." Daniel also saw in a vision that Rome's time would be extended in a different way by a "little horn" (Daniel 7:8, 20), which Papal Rome did after Imperial Rome fell in 476 A.D.
Daniel only saw a short overview of history in this succession of empires, but he did see that in the end, the saints of the Most High would be given power and control over the earth. The long time in prison wouldn't end until then. When we look at the New Testament, we see that the saints would be given power, not by the power of the first covenant, but by the power of the New Covenant.
God would also use this line of Babylonian empires to join the world, just as Nimrod, the founder of Babylon, had tried to unite people through conquest in the past (Gen. 11:4). So, God has used Babylon's plan for His own plan, which is to make the Kingdom cover the whole world. So, when God destroys Babylon, He can take all of its assets at once and claim ownership of the whole world.
So, while Christians may be worried about Babylon's plans for a one-world government, a one-world religion, a global economy, and the destruction of national borders, those who understand God's plan and believe in his power can watch these things happen without fear.
They know that this is all part of God's plan and that God is using the Babylonians as His servants, just like He used King Nebuchadnezzar (Jeremiah 25:6). They work for God without knowing it, and their job is to get the countries of this world in order for the Kingdom of God. When they're done, God will take what they've built, put it under His laws, and make it part of His Kingdom. In Revelation 11:15,
15 And the seventh angel sounded, and there were loud voices in heaven saying, "The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will rule forever and ever."
Jesus said that those who were loyal to Him and didn't hurt other people would be given control over His house. From Luke 12:42 to 44,
42 And the Lord said, "Who then is the trustworthy and wise steward, whom his master will put in charge of his slaves to give them their food at the right time? 43 When his master comes, the slave whose work is like this will be blessed. 44 Really, I tell you, he will put him in charge of everything he owns."
Here, we can see that the "faithful" servants will be given charge of "all His possessions." In other words, they will be in charge of people who didn't earn the right to be in charge. The conditions for being a leader are to treat other people with love and kindness instead of unfairness and power over them. We show that we belong by how we live in this time.
In Daniel 7:27, these leaders are referred to as "the people of the saints of the Most High." In the age to come, when the Stone Kingdom breaks the picture of Babylon on its feet, they will be in charge of the Kingdom of God. In Revelation 5:10, we also read,
10 And You made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they will rule over the whole world.
Who are going to be these "saints"? Christian Zionism says that they will be Jews who change their religion at the last minute. The New Testament makes it clear that they will be Christians, and not just Christians, but the ones who win. They are the ones who have been on the whole trip, from Passover to Pentecost. No matter where they came from in their family tree, they were the ones who saw beyond Pentecost to the Feast of Tabernacles.
It's crazy to think that Jews will be able to accept Christ and then become leaders in the Kingdom right away. This idea comes from the wrong belief that one's family tree is enough to make them a master in God's Kingdom. They think that the Jews are Israel and that just having been through Passover will make them ready to rule the world. That is not in the Bible.
God has broken down the wall that divided people in the middle and is now making "one new man" in Christ (Eph. 2:15). This new man is a group. Jesus is the head, and the people who have overcome are the body. No matter where they come from, everyone joins that Body in the same way. To be ready for the first rising, everyone must be forgiven by Passover, set apart by Pentecost, and made holy by Tabernacles.
Paul also describes this "one new man" as a corporate building built on the Apostles and Prophets, with Jesus Christ as its Chief Cornerstone. No matter how it is pictured symbolically, the basic truth that is shown is that it depends on how close someone is to Christ.
In Revelation 20:6, it says that these people will rule with Him for a thousand years, until the end of the Sabbath "day" (millennium). This will end the first "week" of Adam's life. Then the next big part of God's plan will start. All the dead will be brought back to life, judged, and put under the control of the Body of Christ. At that time, everyone will bow to Christ and call Him Lord (Phil. 2:10, 11). Also, "no one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except by the Holy Spirit" (1 Corinthians 12:3).
This will be their Passover experience (justification by faith), because at that point, everyone will become a believer. But they must then learn good behaviour through Pentecost in the final age to come, up until the Creation Jubilee, when all of creation will experience the freedom of the Sons of God.
6. The Entire Earth Kingdom
God's Kingdom is no longer just in the old land of Canaan, which is now called Palestine. That kingdom was part of the Old Covenant, and it was meant to fail. However, it served as a model for the Kingdom of God, which would one day cover the whole world.
Israel had its first chance to go to the Promised Land, but the people didn't have enough faith to go. The twelve spies came back, and ten of them told the people bad news. The people believed the bad news. Then God told Moses that He would start over with him and make the promises come true through him. Moses said that the rest of the world would think that God couldn't keep His word to Israel.
In Numbers 14:21, God replied to the idea that he might not be able to do this,
21 But as long as I live, the glory of the Lord will fill the whole world.
Here, God told us what he had planned for the whole world. Canaan was just a small part of what God had in mind. Canaan was just a small part of the bigger plan to spread God's glory over the whole world.
Since it says "as long as I live," it is one of God's VOWS. Since there was nothing else He could swear by, He swore on His own life. Later in the Bible, this promise is made in different ways. This is first mentioned in Psalm 72:19:
19 And may His great name always be blessed, and may His praise fill the whole world. Yes and yes.
This is stated a second time in Isaiah 6:3, where the cherubim in Isaiah's vision say:
3 And one person said to another, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory."
The same teacher also said the third quote. From Isaiah 11:9:
9: For the knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth like water covers the sea.
The last quote comes from Hab. 2:14, where it says,
14 Because people will know as much about the glory of the Lord as water knows about the sea.
It is common knowledge that the water covers the whole sea. So, the whole world, or 100% of the world, will know about the glory of the Lord. There will be no place on earth where the glory of the Lord is not known or seen.
In Daniel 2, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had a dream in which he saw a huge image with a head made of gold, arms made of silver, a belly made of copper, and legs made of iron. Then he saw a stone hit the picture on its feet, destroying it completely. Then he saw the stone grow until it covered the whole earth (Dan. 2:35). Daniel told him what this dream meant. In Daniel 2:44, it says,
44 And during the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never end, and it won't be passed on to another people. It will crush and destroy all these countries, but it will last forever.
This is what the stone that gets bigger and bigger until it fills the whole earth means (v. 35). It has something to do with the Kingdom of God. The Babylonian powers of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome will be replaced by God's Kingdom one day. It is the fifth and last kingdom in the history of the earth as told by prophets.
God's Kingdom will get rid of all kinds of oppressive human governments and set all people free to enjoy the wonderful freedom of God's children. I think we've reached the point where the "stone" is starting to crush the picture on its feet. We don't know how long this will take, but the most important thing will be the coming of the Sons of God, who are called to rule with Christ in the Age to come.
This is talked about in more depth in the seventh chapter of Daniel. Daniel also had a dream that was similar to the one that the king of Babylon had. Daniel saw four animals: a lion, which stood for Babylon, a bear, which stood for Persia, a leopard, which stood for Greece, and a fourth animal with iron teeth, which stood for the Roman Empire.
He also saw a "little horn" coming out of the Roman beast. This "little horn" was a part of the fourth beast of Rome, which was Papal Rome. This "little horn" went to war with the saints and beat them, or took control over them, until the end, when the saints of the Most High, also called "Sons of God," took over.
13 I kept looking at the night sights, and I saw a Son of Man-like figure coming with the clouds of heaven. He went up to the Ancient of Days and was shown to him. 14 And He was given power, glory, and a kingdom so that all people, countries, and people of every language could serve Him. His rule will never end, and neither will His Kingdom be destroyed.
Nebuchadnezzar had a dream about a stone kingdom. This is like that country. It is God's Kingdom. The King of this Kingdom is Jesus Christ, but Daniel 7:22 says that "the saints took possession of the kingdom."
This fits with Revelation 20:6, which says that those who were raised from the dead in the first resurrection "will reign with Him for a thousand years." So, the Sons of God are called to run this Kingdom for Jesus Christ, who is the King. Dan. 7:27 ends with,
27 Then, all the power, authority, and greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole sky will be given to the people of the Highest One's saints. His kingdom will last forever, and all the kingdoms will serve and follow Him.
This is what the Bible says about the Kingdom of God. It talks about a time when everyone on earth will know Jesus Christ as their king, and the overcomers, the Sons of God, will rule them with love and fairness.
In Psalm 67, a song about this time, it says,
1 God, be kind to us and bless us, and let His face shine on us, 2 so that Thy way will be known on earth and Thy salvation will be known to all people. 3 Let everyone praise you, God; let everyone praise you. 4 Let all the people be happy and sing for joy, because you will decide the people fairly and lead all the nations on earth. 5 Let everyone praise you, God; let everyone praise you. 6 The land has given us its harvest, and God, our God, is good to us. 7 God blesses us so that people from all over the world will respect and fear Him.
In Haggai 2:7, the prophet says that Jesus and His Kingdom are "the desire of all the nations." The Kingdom of God is not a time of oppression, but of freeing the countries from the oppression of human governments and the rule of imperfect men.
The main thing that will show that power and authority have been given to the saints of the Most High God is when the Sons of God show up. In Romans 8:19–21, Paul says,
19 Because everything in the world is anxiously waiting for the Sons of God to show themselves. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not because it wanted to, but because it was submitted to futility by the One who subjected it, in the hope that the creation itself will be freed from its slavery to corruption and given the freedom of the glory of God's children.
The whole world is looking forwards to this event because it will show that the law of Jubilee will free the whole world from sin. So, the earth will be doing what it was made to do.