Thy Kingdom CAME? What is THAT all about?
The Kingdom of God is the undeniable focal point of every word that flowed from the mouth of Yeshua the Messiah. From the beginning of his public ministry to the last words he uttered hanging from the cross on Golgotha’s hill, the Messiah taught us about the Kingdom of God. The most important and perhaps the most overlooked thing he taught was that the Kingdom of God was coming soon…very soon. In HIS generation!
Matthew 16:27-28 [KJV]
For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.Matthew 24:34 [KJV]
Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.Matthew 23:33-35 [KJV]
Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.Revelation 1:1-3 [KJV]
The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John: Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw. Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.Revelation 22:6 [KJV]
And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to shew unto his servants the things which must shortly be done.Revelation 22:10 [KJV]
And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand.Revelation 22:7 [KJV]
Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.Revelation 22:12 [KJV]
And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.Revelation 22:20 [KJV]
He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
In the eyes of Yeshua, the Kingdom of God is everything, all important. In fact, it is so important and so urgent, that he told a young man whose father had just died to let the dead bury him so the man could come and follow HIM. It is so important that we should strive to enter the Kingdom even if it means losing the relationships of even our closest loved ones. He compared the Kingdom to a “Pearl of Great Price” which, if found, one should sell everything he had to go and buy that pearl!
After almost 40 years of walking with God and studying his word, sometimes faithfully, too many times not so faithfully, I came to find out that I knew almost NOTHING about God’s Kingdom. Matthew 6:33 (Seek ye first the kingdom…) had haunted me literally for decades until finally, I found that sin had dragged me into the pits of a very dark spiritual crisis of self-deception at the end of 2010. This crisis also came at the end of more than ten years worth of constantly escalating medical, financial, and social trials. I had no light at the end of my dark tunnel and if I had seen one, it probably would have been a speeding freight train! I cried out to God, prayed and fasted, and begged him to heal me, forgive me, and then to give me greater spiritual discernment and wisdom about his Kingdom so that I would never be spiritually deceived ever again.
It is absolutely true that our Father will not give us a serpent or a stone if we ask him for bread. I am here to testify that I have since received the bread of my petition in abundance and I continue to feed on that wonderful bread of his presence day after day, thanking my God for graciously answering my cries for help in my darkened spiritual state. Bless his holy name forever!!
As I came out of my time of spiritual blindness, I began to see that many doctrines from my past Christian training were, unfortunately, just not based in scriptural truth. In fact, I came to understand that several of these doctrines were directly responsible for enabling my deception. I began doing studies on the Kingdom of God and focused only on the words and preaching of Christ in the gospels. What became glaringly apparent was that our Messiah had been urgently and repeatedly declaring to his generation that the Kingdom of God and a raging, fiery judgment were quickly descending upon Jerusalem and Judea of the 1st century A.D.. I began to notice very urgent time statements which I had paid little, if any, attention to before, always just following the standard eschatological views taught by the various churches. All of these churches, in some form or another, expected and preached that the Lord’s 2nd coming was still yet to come. The familiar story I had been taught as a child was that Christ’s return was going to occur any day very soon and that no man knew the day or the hour, but we all had better be READY!
I discovered in my further studies there were many scriptures which gave me an inkling that something just wasn’t quite right about a “future” return of Christ and that just maybe he had already come back at the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70. After three years of focused study on the subject of biblical eschatology, the time of the end of Israel’s covenant with Yahweh, I am now wholly convinced beyond any reasonable doubt that our Messiah did in fact return to establish the Kingdom in fullness in A.D. 70. Furthermore, his return in judgment on Jerusalem brought complete fulfillment of every remaining prophecy of both the Old and New Testaments, including and especially those in the book of Revelation. Thus, we are NOT living in the so-called “Last Days” today because those days have already come and gone!
We are now living in the fullness of the Messianic Age of the SPIRITUAL body of Christ with the SPIRITUAL Kingdom of God having been in full operation since A.D. 70. It is my intent to demonstrate this beyond any shadow doubt to my readers and prove it irrefutably by the scriptures so that the body of Christ can come to a much greater unity in the TRUE faith of Yeshua Messiah, our Lord. However, while the truth is plainly in the scriptures, enabling your spiritual eyes to see that truth will take some time and study on your part. Traditional doctrines are not easily removed from one’s belief system and rightly so. It took me three solid years of study and prayer to accept these things and come to grips with the implications of going against 2000 years of church history and tradition.
While I am very concerned about persuading people in general to make an affirmative decision to simply believe in Yeshua and enter the Kingdom of God, my evangelistic audience is not particularly those outside the church. I want to reach those inside the church. I am convinced that until a significant number of members of the body of Christ (ALL of them!) come to a correct understanding of Bible prophecy and its complete fulfillment in the siege of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, that the body of Christ, and the lost souls that need to hear the TRUTH, will continue to languish in a significant degree of spiritual darkness, or perhaps even worse…the satanically deceptive “light” of false biblical doctrine.
Consider this…can anyone rightly proclaim to be a member of a Kingdom which he or she cannot properly discern according to scripture? A Kingdom that you think is still yet to come, but which has, in truth, already ARRIVED? How can one even serve with credibility as an ambassador and priest of a Kingdom he doesn’t even recognize?
To all those expecting a future, physical, visible, bodily return of Messiah as 5′ 5″ Jewish man riding on a cloud, breaking the eastern skies and touching down on the Mount of Olives for “every eye to see,” please read what Messiah himself said about the Kingdom of God:
Luke 17:20-21 [KJV]
“And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the Kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.“
For those who think the Kingdom of God will be a violent, temporal, military-style conflict where Christ destroys everyone and everything in a time-ending, fiery global conflagration, please read what Messiah told Pontius Pilate again:
John 18:36 [KJV]
“Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.”
I am well aware of the standard Christian orthodox “But what about…” responses and we will deal with them in due time. Believe me, I had every single one of those same questions as I considered the possibility that our Lord and Messiah had already returned to establish his Kingdom on Earth. It took me three years of studying with gradual, reluctant acceptance of what I now see as the irrefutable, undeniable, scripturally-based TRUTH.
I’m certainly not here to judge anyone’s salvation and membership in the body of Christ. However, we simply cannot be effective ambassadors, evangelists, and priests of a Kingdom we do not properly (and spiritually!) discern according to the truth in God’s word. Surely, the body of Christ has maintained its zeal for God, but not according to KNOWLEDGE. Christian doctrine must stand, not on the ground of “tradition”, but on the ground of sound exegesis using proper hermeneutics of interpretation. Tradition is worthless to Christianity if it is based on falsehood. Every Christian in all ages since the time of Messiah is responsible for personally verifying that what he is being taught agrees with the scriptures.
I submit there are several critical areas where the church has failed to act like the Berean brethren whom the apostle Paul commended. As a result, false doctrines, especially regarding the subject of eschatology, have been formulated which do not stand the test of sound Biblical exegesis. It is on these critical areas of darkness in our common understanding as members of the body of Christ that I intend to shine much more light until only the TRUTH of God’s word stands pure. It is up to each one to judge whether God’s word has been rightly divided or not where traditional Christian orthodoxy is concerned. The so-called “church fathers” were not inspired, only the New Testament writers and apostles of Christ were inspired by the Holy Spirit. We are admonished to call no man our “father” upon the earth.
Matthew 23:8-10 [KJV]
“But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ.”2 Timothy 2:15 [KJV]
“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
Again, I know your reactions to my statements above will likely produce some instantaneous visceral responses and strong emotions due to a perceived need to protect the tenets of Christian orthodoxy. However, if that orthodoxy is not found upon close examination to be based in sola scriptura, then it is useless to bring all men into a perfect knowledge of Christ. Any doctrine, no matter how “sacred” or “traditional” which does not align and agree with the teachings of Christ and his apostles must be immediately removed and correct doctrine must be installed in its place. As always, judgment must begin at the House of God. And what is judgment if it is not at least spiritual discernment?
I am not a “Lone Ranger” in this matter either. The biblical views I have come to hold are shared by a growing number of very conservative brothers and sisters in the body of Christ who have also studied these things long and hard and have come to the same conclusions. The Bible very clearly declares that Christ and his disciples prophesied and expected his return in their generation in the 1st century. To suggest otherwise is to hold Christ to be both a liar and a false prophet not to be believed. Like R.C. Sproul, I am willing to accept that someone, a lot of someones, got it wrong for 2000 years. I am not willing to accept that Christ and his inspired apostles got any of it wrong.
God’s Kingdom is HERE NOW….and HERE COMPLETELY!!
To begin the process of coming to a correct understanding of God’s revealed truth in both the Old and New Testament scriptures, you must learn some things about how your modern, Grecian mindset has hindered you from understanding the very unique ways in which the Hebrew writers thought and wrote. Remember that the Christian faith is nothing more and nothing less than the Hebrew faith FULFILLED! The apostle Paul said that he preached NOTHING but the Hope of Israel found in the prophets.
Acts 26:6 [KJV]
And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers:Acts 26:22-23 [KJV]
Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come: That Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should shew light unto the people, and to the Gentiles.
Please begin your journey to understanding the FULL revelation of God’s truth by starting with THIS POST.
Thy Kingdom Came... 