The Apostle Paul described our day in 2 Tim. 3:1-4 (New American Standard Bible): “In the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.” This describes the attitude of many people, particularly mankind’s leaders.

These are the last days of this present evil world, under the control of Satan, the god of this world. (Gal. 1:4; 2 Cor. 4:4) Jesus has returned, as a thief in the night, to wrestle control of this world out from Satan’s hands. Ultimately, Jesus will bind Satan for 1,000 years so he might “not deceive the nations any longer.”—Rev. 20:1-3 (NASB)

Jesus said, “How can anyone enter the strong man’s [Satan’s] house and carry off his property, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house.” (Matt. 12:28,29 NASB) Jesus has returned to bind Satan and then, carry off the human family, currently Satan’s house through deception, bringing them back to God.

But this transition to Christ’s earthly kingdom will be difficult. Peter writes, “The day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.” (2 Pet. 3:10 NASB) We are in the day of the LORD. The symbolic heavens [church systems] are being destroyed and the elements, earth and its works [this world’s financial, social and political institutions] are being burned up or destroyed. They must all be swept away to make room for Christ’s perfect, righteous, earthly kingdom so man can be taught righteousness and brought back to harmony with God.

This transition is described in Psa. 2:1-3 (NASB): “Why are the nations in an uproar And the peoples devising a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand And the rulers take counsel together Against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying, ‘Let us tear their fetters apart And cast away their cords from us!’” From the Ukraine war to Israel’s fight with Hamas, from the rivalry between the US and China to the struggle over immigration, inflation and people’s rights, the nations and the peoples are in an uproar. They are struggling against one another for solutions to these many intractable problems.

But they are also struggling against the establishment of Christ’s earthly kingdom which will solve all of these problems. Nevertheless, God has selected His king, our Lord Jesus, during Jesus’ first advent and is now installing Jesus as king, upon God’s holy hill of Zion. Zion pictures Jesus’ resurrected followers, the church of the first-born. (Heb. 12:22,23; Rev. 14:1). Once that process is complete, God will give the nations to Jesus as his inheritance, because Jesus purchased them with the sacrifice of his perfect human life nearly 2,000 years ago.

God is shaking the nations and then, the desire of all nations, Christ’s earthly kingdom, will come. (Haggai 2:7) Paul describes this desire, “For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God (Christ’s kingdom). … that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” (Rom 8:19,21 NASB) Mankind wants to be free from its slavery to sin, sickness and death and that is what Christ’s earthly kingdom will bring.

This promised kingdom revolves around regathering the Jewish people to their promised land, Canaan, because Christ’s earthly kingdom begins with God making a New Covenant with the house of Israel and Judah. (Jer. 31:31-34) Paul writes, “What will their [Jewish people] acceptance be [back to God under the New Covenant] but life from the dead?” (Rom 11:15 NASB) This is resurrection of the dead Jesus promised in John 5:28,29. This resurrection will offer every human being who has ever lived the opportunity for everlasting life here upon the earth through obedience to the laws of Christ’s earthly kingdom. God “will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.”—1 Tim. 2:4 King James Version

Image Copyright:  AdobeStock_300192769

For more information please see related booklets and videos listed below: