Mystery of the Kingdom of God

Just what is the Kingdom of God? It is an unsolved mystery in this world, and that includes this world’s churches, theologians and Bible scholars!

Jesus Christ came to this Earth with a message. Matthew 4:23 puts it this way: “And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom ….” Christ’s message was the gospel, which means the good news. And that message was all about the Kingdom of God.

Why do churches disagree on what the gospel is? That, too, is a mystery. They have many definitions and dispute over whether it is even about the Kingdom of God. Some speak of a gospel of salvation, a gospel of grace, a gospel about Christ, a social gospel, a religious science or a gospel about their particular denomination.

Some say the Kingdom of God is all the Christian denominations. Is that true? Can you prove anything like that from the Bible?

One televangelist said the Kingdom of God is within you and used Luke 17:21 to “prove” it. But the original Greek and several translations show that this is a mistranslation that should be rendered “in the midst of you.” Jesus Christ represents that Kingdom. He is, in fact, the King of the Kingdom of God—and that King and Kingdom are often used interchangeably. The Kingdom was not something within the unrighteous Pharisees to whom Christ was speaking. Rather, the King of the Kingdom was in their midst. That King is going to rule the Kingdom that will govern this Earth and the whole universe!

All those different definitions of the Kingdom of God are wrong—every one of them!

Study the actual gospel message that Christ preached, and you will realize that few people preach or discuss that message. Why? One prominent evangelist’s answer is that it is just not for us today to know. Does that make sense? That God doesn’t want us to know the message Christ brought?

How can people be a member of God’s Kingdom if they don’t know what it is?

This is a serious subject, and it is the last mystery Herbert W. Armstrong examined in his book that unlocks the meaning of the Bible, Mystery of the Ages.

Let’s understand, from the Bible, just what is the Kingdom of God.

A Counterfeit Gospel

Mark 1:14-15 record that “Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.”

We must believe the gospel to be saved. And the gospel is “the gospel of the kingdom of God.”

Throughout His ministry, Jesus went everywhere preaching “the Kingdom of God.” After He was resurrected from the dead, He returned to His disciples and preached the Kingdom of God (Acts 1:3). Christ really wanted them to understand this message!

Galatians 1:8-9 discuss the gospel and pronounce a double curse on any man or even an angel who dares preach another gospel besides the true gospel of the Kingdom of God. Yet how many people understand this?

Jesus Christ preached the true gospel. But did you know that within just a century of His ministry, that gospel was suppressed? Another gospel, a counterfeit, was introduced. That is why so many don’t understand the true gospel! That is the origin of the many different conflicting definitions and ideas about the gospel and the Kingdom of God!

Daniel Reveals the Gospel!

The Kingdom of God is not only discussed in the New Testament. It appears throughout the Old Testament as well—the whole Bible, beginning to end.

Long before Christ’s ministry, God revealed to the Prophet Daniel what the Kingdom of God is. The book of Daniel was written only for the end time (Daniel 12:4, 9)—and it talks about the gospel repeatedly.

The kingdom of Judah was conquered by the Babylonian Empire, and young Daniel was one of the Judeans taken captive in 585 b.c. and made a servant to King Nebuchadnezzar. The king had a dream, and he demanded that his magicians and astrologers tell him not only the dream’s meaning but what his dream was. None could do it, so the king sentenced them all to die.

But God revealed the dream and its meaning to Daniel. “[T]here is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days,” Daniel said (Daniel 2:28). He told the king that his dream was a prophecy of events in our time today! Nobody can reveal or interpret God’s Word. You must let the Bible interpret itself. Only God can reveal the secrets of the Bible!

Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar that he had dreamed of a great statue. The king himself was represented by the figure’s head of fine gold. The figure’s silver breast and arms, its brass belly and thighs, and its legs of solid iron depicted three other empires. These four parts of the figure represented four successive world-ruling empires that have dominated human history—the Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Greek and Roman empires (verses 31-33, 37-43).

But then, a strange thing happened. A stone came from heaven, smashed all those empires, and grew to replace them (verses 34-35, 44-45). This represented the establishment of the Kingdom of God! “And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed …” (verse 44).

The Kingdom of God is a literal kingdom—just like the kingdoms of Nebuchadnezzar, the Persians, the Greeks and the Romans. A kingdom is a government that rules over people. It’s not some ethereal sentiment in your mind or something within you. The Kingdom of God is a real kingdom, a literal kingdom that is going to rule everything on Earth and in the universe!

The news of the coming Kingdom is the true gospel! That is the good news! That is the message Jesus Christ preached as a human being and preaches through His one true Church today: A literal, specific kingdom is coming, and it will rule the entire Earth!

When people think about the gospel or the Kingdom of God, they don’t think about one supreme Ruler ruling the Earth and the universe. Yet that’s what it is.

When Jesus Christ returns, He does so for the purpose of establishing the Kingdom of God! He will restore the rule of God on this planet—the most colossal event ever on this Earth! This is big news!

Not Flesh and Blood

All those whom God has called out before Christ’s return—His Old Testament prophets and true Christians in the New Testament Church—were and are preparing for that day and will be born into that Kingdom when He returns. They will help Him govern the people of the Earth.

“The Kingdom of God will rule over the peoples and nations of the Earth,” Herbert W. Armstrong wrote in Mystery of the Ages. “Yet these mortal peoples and nations will not be the Kingdom, not even in the Kingdom of God. They shall be merely ruled over by it!”

Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 15:50). The Kingdom is not comprised of flesh and blood, but of spirit beings.

God’s people whom He has called out before Christ’s return will be born into God’s Family at His return and therefore be part of that Kingdom to help Christ rule the nations. But we will only be born into that Family as immortal beings if we do what Christ tells us to and let Him direct our lives.

Realize: Most people throughout history never understood the Kingdom of God. This has been a mystery to the vast majority. Billions of people have never even heard much, if anything, about Christ’s return to Earth and ruling all nations with a rod of iron! The Bible is filled with those scriptures, yet millions, even in the churches, don’t hear about it. People are deceived about this truth. But how can you be part of the Kingdom of God if it’s a mystery to you? How can you possibly be saved?

I’m not exaggerating—I am simply telling you what the Bible says! You can read it for yourself. You need to read these scriptures and think about them. They reveal your future and mine.

God has a plan to resurrect all mankind and give everybody a chance to learn what His Kingdom really is. He will remove the confusion and deception about Christianity, the gospel and the Kingdom of God.

Ten Kings

Look again at Daniel 2:44. This critical verse begins, “And in the days of these kings ….” This is what the 10 toes , made partly of iron and partly of brittle clay, of the Daniel 2 statue represent. “The days of these kings” refers to a time just before Christ’s return, when there are 10 kings, represented by those 10 toes.

This is for our time today. Connect this prophecy with Daniel 7, Revelation 13 and 17, and you can understand that this is referring to an empire now forming out of the European Union. It is ready to burst onto the world scene, and it will have 10 kings, or 10 kingdoms. It will unite and become a superpower very rapidly! Then it will shock and stun the world by starting World War iii! So say many prophecies in your Bible.

But Daniel reveals that “in the days of these kings,” the stone strikes this European empire and grows into a mountain that dominates the Earth. This represents Jesus Christ returning in glory and power, smashing the evil governments of men, and setting up the literal Kingdom of God to rule Earth and the universe forever! This is leading into the beautiful World Tomorrow!

Remember, “gospel” means good news! This is the best news we could ever hear!

Jesus Christ came preaching that gospel message everywhere! He preached the Kingdom of God.

Forever and Ever

Did you know that this world has been sentenced to 6,000 years of being cut off from God because Adam turned away from God and was put out of the Garden of Eden and cut off? This whole world has followed in his footsteps and been cut off as well.

God is in control of everything, but He has let Satan rule this world for now. We are all learning what a disaster occurs when we follow the devil and do things our own way. It is not God’s choice, but He gives us that choice. He is trying to get us to choose life, but men keep choosing death! (Deuteronomy 30:19).

God gives human beings leeway to sin, but that doesn’t mean He isn’t ruling overall and shaping events to fulfill His plan. He is preparing now for a seventh 1,000-year period, when Jesus Christ will take over and rule the Earth with a rod of iron. He came to Earth and qualified to kick Satan off his throne, and He is about to do that.

At that time, everybody will have an open mind and be able to receive the Spirit of God. All people will have the opportunity to enter the Family of God, and most of them will. But God isn’t going to force it on anybody.

Revelation 11:15 prophesies, “… The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.” God is going to rule with His government and His law forever and ever!

During Jesus Christ’s trial before His crucifixion, Pilate the governor asked Him, “Are you a king then?” Jesus answered, “[T]o this end was I born” (John 18:37). He was born to be a king.

King over what? Over all nations! He is going to establish the Kingdom of God over the whole Earth to give everyone the opportunity to enter God’s Family. What a beautiful plan!

A Prophecy of Peace

What will life be like in this new civilization, the Kingdom of God? This is the gospel message, the good news!

Isaiah 2 tells us: “And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we shall walk in his paths; for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (verses 2-4).

Mountains represent governments, nations. God’s government will rule over all the nations. God’s law—which most Christians today reject and say is “done away”—will be established. God will literally rule with His law and government over the whole Earth from Jerusalem! And what will be the result? Peace and joy like you can’t even imagine!

Part of that passage is inscribed on the United Nations building in New York City. Human beings want a world and a government like that, but they are helpless to bring it about, and they resist God. They want peace, yet the nations and even so-called Christians resist His law and guidance and authoritative government. That is the problem!

When Christ assumes His throne, He will remove Satan the devil (Revelation 20). He will reeducate mankind and eradicate human nature. And eventually, He will extend His rule beyond this planet.

The Bible reveals that Earth is only the starting point! Eventually, God will liberate the universe from its bondage to decay: “For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay …” (Romans 8:20-21; Revised Standard Version).

The creation—including all the galaxies and stars and planets—has been “groaning in travail” ever since Satan rebelled against God and subsequently led mankind into rebelling against God as well. The creation, the universe, is awaiting God’s plan here on Earth to bring human beings under His rule and into His Family as His sons!

That is good news! That is the real gospel of the Kingdom of God!