Far too many Christians have little or no concept of the millennial reign of Christ on the earth. For them, hope is more earthly than heavenly, and their lives are centered on attaining earthly goals. Their service is to God is very limited, while their service to themselves is paramount. They live their lives consumed by desire and confounded by the looming grave.

For the Christian who seeks the kingdom, life is very different indeed. Though his earthly circumstances may or may not suffer, he is joyous and hopeful, knowing that this is a time of service, a time for laying up treasure in heaven. His hope is certain, for his goals are grounded in heavenly soil.

An eternal perspective is the only path to peace and happiness in this earthly travail. If you seek to be happy, seek first the kingdom.

Many Christians feel that it is proper for them to hate Jews on account of Israel’s rejection of Christ as their Messiah. However, this is not the case. God has not ended His relationship with Israel. Though His dealings with them nationally have been suspended during this age, the Church Age, God will yet restore the Jews to full fellowship with Himself. He has not stopped loving the Jews, nor shall He. His promises to Israel were unconditional, and do not depend upon their faithfulness to Him. Blessing on earth was contingent upon their adherence to the Law of Moses, but the final estate of Israel is assured by the faithfulness of God.

When the Jewish Messiah returns to the earth at the close of the tribulation period, He will establish His throne, not in Washington D.C. or some other Gentile capitol, but in Jerusalem. While all the Gentile nations will have kings, Christ will be the King of kings and Lord of Lords. Every nation’s king will be subject to His rule. But Israel will have no king other than Jesus Christ. He is to be the King of kings, but He is, first and foremost, the King of the Jews.

God does not love Israel less today than when He delivered them from slavery in Egypt. Just as God continues to love Christians when they fall into sinful habits, so does He also continue to love Israel, though they remain in rebellion against Him.

We are a royal priesthood, but the Jews remain His chosen people. God’s relationship with Israel started long before the Church Age began. When He called Abram out of Chaldea, He entered into a covenant with him that not even He could break. While He might be terribly grieved by Israel’s continuing rejection of Him, God nevertheless knows that they will one day gladly accept Jesus Christ as their Messiah and King. He has known from before the foundation of the world that this time of alienation would come, but He has also known that the time of their restoration would arrive, and that Jesus would sit on the throne of Israel forever.

With the world rapidly declining into the darkest depths of depravity and sin, the day is fast approaching when God will intervene in the affairs of man, and when He will establish His throne in Jerusalem. It behooves every Christian to understand that his proper attitude toward the Jews is also the attitude of God.

God patiently seeks to draw individual Jews into the New Covenant during this Age. He is longsuffering toward them, just as He is toward Christians. Every Christian ought to bear the burden for the Jews that the Apostle Paul bore. That early saint would have given up his own salvation if only the Jews could have been restored in his day. Christians ought not hate the Jews, but seek prayerfully to carry the gospel of God’s grace to them individually at every opportunity.

There seems to be some confusion among Christians regarding the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God. They are not one and the same. The difference is significant, and ought to be understood by those who consider themselves students of the Scriptures.

The kingdom of heaven is earthly. It involves the sovereignty of God upon the earth. However, it includes much more than merely the millennial reign of Christ upon the earth. Throughout the last two thousand years of Satan’s dominion over the earth, the kingdom of heaven has been in place, though in a hidden, “mystery” form. The kingdom of heaven actually began with the rejection of Christ by His people. It has run through the entire Church Age, and will continue through the thousand years when Christ actually sits on His throne in Jerusalem. Today, it is the sphere of Christian profession on the earth. Soon, it will include a sitting King.

The kingdom of God involves more than that. It signifies God’s sovereignty over all that He has made, and includes heaven and earth and all the universe. The kingdom of God includes the kingdom of heaven, but extends to everything everywhere as well. It is because of the kingdom of God that Satan is now the king of this world. And it will be because of the kingdom of God that Satan’s rule will be overtaken by the rule of the Messiah on the earth.

While no one’s salvation will depend upon his knowledge of these two terms, it is important nevertheless for Christians to be precise in their discussions of doctrinal matters. The kingdom of heaven is earthly; the kingdom of God is universal.

Whenever the subject comes up, the first question is usually something like, “What’s it gonna be like in heaven?” Even the question is wrong. The Kingdom Age does not take place in heaven, but on earth. Neither is it on the new earth, but this same old earth that we’re on now. There will be some changes, to be sure, but the Kingdom Age is part of God’s program for this earth. Many of the people who inhabit the planet in that age will be in mortal bodies, just like the bodies of today. There will be Gentile nations all over the globe as there are today, and Israel will be located in the same place it is now, except it will encompass more territory.

When we see the glory of a sunset or the beauty of a flower, we are seeing the glory of God shining through the curse. In the Kingdom Age, the curse will be lifted, and we will see the true glory of God everywhere. That alone is enough to make the heart long to see the day. The earth will be as the Garden of Eden during that thousand year reign of Christ upon the earth. The thorns and thistles that plague those who till the ground today will no longer be present, but the earth will yield her fruit in great and willing abundance. We cannot imagine the colors that will be visible to us then, nor the great variety that shall then exist. We do not know how many wonderful creatures and plants were lost forever in the great flood of Noah’s day. Oh, you say, but Noah took a pair of each kind with him on the ark. yes, but after the waters receded, what did the carnivorous beasts eat? Herbivores. Every animal that was killed and eaten before breeding was lost forever. In every flood today, many plants are killed. How many medicinal plants did the earth lose in that great judgment? We cannot know today, but we shall see them again in the Kingdom Age.

The prophets speak of the shaking of the powers of the heavens as Christ returns to the earth. Jesus is not going to reign over a cursed earth. As He returns, the curse will be lifted. The heavens will be transformed as He passes through on His way back to earth. God alone knows today the glory of the heavens that shall be apparent to earth-dwellers in that glorious Kingdom Age. We do not often think of the beautiful world we live in today as cursed, but it is, and when He returns, its true glory will be seen by everyone. Today we only imagine the reasons that cause the heavenly hosts to sing praises to God continuously; then we shall ourselves be so overwhelmed by the glory of God that our voices will sing and shout His praises forevermore.

Christians tend to take a rather mystical view of world order in the Kingdom Age. Perhaps it would be better to call it a spiritual view. We do not think of it as government, for that would entail red tape and bureaucracies. However, there will be a political structure then. Every nation will have its king and its princes. Towns will have mayors and councils; provinces will have governors and law enforcement officers; governmental structure will certainly exist in the Kingdom Age, and it will be very centralized. The seat of government will be in Jerusalem, with Jesus Himself sitting on the throne. All the kings of the world will be subjects of the King of kings and the Lord of lords. But every nation will have its government, just as every city shall. There will be records kept on file as they are today, and everything will be ordered properly. Our God is not a God of chaos, but of order, and that order shall be imposed during the Kingdom Age.

Commerce will surely exist in an orderly fashion during Christ’s reign, as will means of transporting the world’s produce from one part of the globe to another. There will be systems of communications that span the globe, even as our telecommunications serve us today. Every nation will have its own economy, even as today, though the system will be one that is directed from Jerusalem. Citizens of the world will have jobs, as they do today. They will receive their wages and spend them or save them as they see fit. Money is not the root of all evil, but the love of money.

People will continue to be born and to die during the Kingdom Age. Although the devil will be bound in the bottomless pit during Christ’s reign, people will still be fallen and sinful. Though the tempter will be locked away, sin still exists in the human heart. That is the reason that Christ is said to rule with a rod of iron. Righteousness will be enforced. It seems difficult to imagine that men will rebel against such a loving God, but they do so today, do they not? Since sin will continue to exist, its wages will continue to be paid. People will marry in that age, have children, and die. It is life on this earth, though it will be an uncursed earth.

There is some question as to what will happen when a person is saved during the Kingdom Age. There is no more resurrection of the just following the resurrection of the Old Testament saints at the Second Coming. The only resurrection that remains after that is the resurrection of the unsaved to stand before the great white throne and be judged. Therefore, it seems reasonable to presume that those who are saved during the Kingdom Age will be immediately translated. As the Church is translated at the rapture, so shall the ones who are saved be individually translated during the Kingdom Age. Though we are not told this specifically, there seems no other reasonable explanation.

This raises another question. It seems unreasonable that mortals living on the earth during that time should see their fellow citizens translated on account of their faith and yet remain unbelievers. Nevertheless, this is to be the case. It is no more unreasonable than that they should remain unbelievers when they see the Church Age saints in their immortal bodies ruling over them and preaching the gospel of God’s grace to them. The saints will be living proof of the goodness and the certainty of the promises of God. Even then, however, men shall resist the truth. Even with unbelievers dying, and with Christ Himself sitting upon the throne in great glory, men shall hearken to their hardened hearts and resist the truth that could grant them the same glory of the saints who rule over them. This speaks of the nature of man that cannot be reformed. While overt sin will be immediately judged, men’s hearts will remain wicked, rebellious toward a God who who loves them.

Near the end of the Kingdom Age, Satan will be released from the bottomless pit to lead a great rebellion. Every unbeliever of that day will join in that rebellion. They will encircle the city of Jerusalem, hoping at last to overthrow the Righteous One and seize the kingdom. God will rain down fire from heaven upon them, killing every last one of them. For every sinner must face death, in order to be resurrected for the judgment of the great white throne.

The Kingdom Age ought not be such a mystery among Christians. Rather, it ought to be the great hope that causes each of us to serve Christ today. There is no condemnation for the believer, no cause to flee from God in fear. Every prophecy that pertains to the Christian is a prophecy of hope and blessing. It is impossible to cover such a great prophecy in the space of a few pages, but our aim is to spark enough interest to cause Christians to study and grow in hope and in the knowledge of God and His grace.

Adam and Eve lived sinlessly in the Garden of Eden. They walked with God righteously, singing His praises continuously. They communed with Him and knew His love in a way that no man has since. How they could be persuaded to sin remains one of the great mysteries of theology, even as does the question of how God’s chief angel, Lucifer, could have ever rebelled against such a wonderful and loving God.

When Adam sinned, his entire body was corrupted. He became a sinner. From that point on, he was not a sinner because he sinned, but he sinned because he was a sinner. His blood was corrupted by sin, and death reigned in him. It was impossible for him to live righteously from that time forward, for the rest of his life. He had become a sinner.

When Cain and Abel were born to Adam and Eve, they carried Adam’s blood. Sinful blood. Because their father was a sinner, it was impossible that they should be otherwise themselves. That they were sinners is proven by the fact that they offered sacrifices for their sins. Had they been sinless, there would have been no need for sacrifice. When Seth was born, he was also a sinner. The blood of a baby comes from his father, and the father of the race had sinful blood.

It was this singular fact that caused it to become necessary for Jesus to have been born of a virgin, born of the Seed of God. Had Jesus had a human father, His blood would have been sinful. He could not have died for anyone’s sins but His own. A sinner cannot pay for anyone else’s sins, but must bear the judgment for his own. Jesus had to be born with sinless blood if He were to be other than a sinner Himself. Therefore, he had to have a father who was more than human. Thus, His conception had to be miraculous if He were to pay the sin debt for the entire race.

It is impossible for man to reform himself and make himself righteous. If it were possible, then salvation would have come through personal righteousness, and not through the grace of God. If a man could be good enough to get to heaven, it would not have been necessary for Jesus to have died on the Cross. Salvation would have been through personal goodness. But every person born since Adam is a sinner, and if any were to be saved, then it was necessary for One to pay their sin debt for them. This Christ did because He loves us, though we are yet sinners.

The earth is cursed. Indeed, the entire creation is under the curse. Even if a man wanted to be righteous, he could not live in this cursed world and be sinless. However, even when the curse is lifted during the Kingdom Age, men will continue to be sinners. When Christ reigns on the earth, perfect peace and equity will be enforced everywhere. Men will see the glory of God fill the entire earth, and conditions will be perfect everywhere. Government will serve the citizens and the world economy will be one that is just and fair, favoring no one, but equally favorable to all. Farmers will find that their crops grow bountifully, producing adequate fruits for the entire world. There will be no famines or pestilences. There will be no crime of any kind. Divorce will not shatter homes, leaving children grieving for absentee parents. Love will be the order of the day. Wars will not rob families of sons and daughters, brothers or sister. Nature will itself be restored to its Edenic glory, and the King of kings will rule over the entire earth with righteousness and peace. These conditions will exist universally for a thousand years.