Welcome to the Kingdom of God

Well, good afternoon, everyone! Very warm welcome to you here on this very, very beautiful day here.

I apologize for the little bit of a late start here. I was notified just a few minutes ago that from people coming down from the north that there were traffic problems on I-25 up that way, around a hundred, well, a few exits up, and then also people coming from the south that there were traffic problems on I-25 there. And then, lo and behold, show up here. And I sent out an email to many of you last night saying there'd be plenty of parking out here, and then pulled in. It took a few minutes to find a parking place because it turns out there's some kind of activity going on across the street over at the park there, and the parking lot's full. They're not supposed to use that, but I'm glad you all found a place to park here. And I think we have someone out now guiding people. There's actually a surplus parking lot just up the street a little bit, so we may have a few latecomers coming in. But welcome to all of you here for this occasion. Today we will be embarking on a journey into a new world, a bold new world, soon to come to this earth. Time is of the essence because the world that we live in today is waning. It's coming to its end as a new world is on the verge, on the stage, ready to begin. We're privileged to live in what is, I think, best characterized as a turning point, a tipping point in world history, on the verge of the transition from the age that exists now to the age that is to come. And that's the theme of this seminar today.

That's where the seminar gets its name, the time of the kingdom of God. And this is a kingdom of God Bible seminar. Today we live in a very divided world, divided on many, many different levels here.

But soon the world is going to be united. It's going to be united under one king, one ruler, and that is Jesus the Christ, the Messiah. But just what is the kingdom of God? What is it when we talk about that term? That's what we'll begin with today here. What is it all about? What is the kingdom of God? How will it come to earth? And that is what this seminar will be talking about.

And throughout this seminar, this is the first of a series that we'll be doing. We'll cover many more questions that are relevant to this, such as how will the prophecies of the coming of the kingdom of God affect the United States of America? How will it affect your life, the life of your loved ones, your family? How will it affect the other nations in the coming months and years ahead as they unfold? And what does the future hold before this event takes place? We certainly live in a very dangerous and troubled time. Tomorrow, of course, is the tenth anniversary of the 9-11 attacks, where nearly 3,000 Americans were killed in the attacks on the World Trade—excuse me, the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and then the other jet, Flight 93, that went down in a field in Pennsylvania that was apparently intended to attack either the White House or the U.S. Capitol building here. And on the news, if you've been watching the news yesterday or even this morning, you've probably heard reports that there are serious concerns about a possible follow-up attack sometime this weekend on the anniversary of those attacks 10 years ago. So again, we do live in a very serious time, a serious age. Think about some of the things we've heard about that have dominated the headlines over recent months. You may remember, back in the spring, we had one of the worst tornado seasons ever in terms of the deaths and destruction here in the United States.

We had an almost unheard-of earthquake on the East Coast, the eastern seaboard of the United States. We're used to hearing of earthquakes on the West Coast, but on the East Coast, it's virtually unheard of there. We had Hurricane Irene that came through, reaped billions of dollars in damage just a short time ago. And then, more recently, we've had terrible flooding, part of it as a result of that earthquake, but also heavy rains.

And you may remember, back in the spring and early part of the summer, terrible flooding throughout the Midwest along the Missouri River and the Mississippi there. We've also, more recently, had horrible droughts and rile fires down in Texas with large amounts of destruction down in that area there. We have, of course, in the headlines for months now, we've read about the economic turmoil that is affecting the world, not just the United States. We're obviously in a serious problem here with the unemployment rate, lack of jobs growth, and that sort of thing. But a lot of problems throughout the rest of the world, too. We actually have it relatively easy compared to some areas there. A lot of rising international tensions, such as Iran and its pursuit of nuclear weapons and things like that. But what does it all mean?

Why are all these things happening? Just one after another, bang, bang, bang, dominating our headlines like that. What does it all mean? Is there a tie-in to Bible prophecy? And if there is, what is that tie-in? What does it mean in that regard? How will these prophecies affect you and your family in the times ahead? How can Jesus Christ, the coming king of the kingdom of God, give us peace, give us confidence as we approach these times here? These are all crucial questions that we'll take a look at today in this seminar series. It is designed to answer those and other questions as well from the Bible about the wonder and the greatness of the coming kingdom of God. And also, we will focus somewhat on the prophetic timing and details of some of the things that will take place before that kingdom of God is established here on earth. Now, specifically in this first seminar today, we will examine this critical time in human history. We'll discuss the end of this age of mankind. The Bible refers to it in Galatians. The apostle Paul called it this present evil age. And that's what it is, this present evil age, because it is the age of mankind and the age of Satan ruling over this world. This is not God's world, as we'll see later on here.

And we'll cover seven different areas in this first part of the seminar, lasting again about 45 minutes to 55 minutes, then a break, and then we'll go into more details of it later on. So the first aspect that we'll talk about here is the kingdom that nobody knows, because a lot of people do not understand what the kingdom of God is all about. Think about how the Lord's Prayer begins. We've probably all said that a number of times. But how does the Lord's Prayer begin? Jesus Christ told His disciples, in this manner, therefore, pray, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. And then what does He say? He says, your kingdom come. What kingdom is He talking about? He's talking about the kingdom of God. And it is a kingdom that must come. It's not a kingdom we go to. It is a kingdom that comes here. So what does that mean here? What did Jesus Christ have in mind when He tells His followers to pray this? Why did He tell us to make this a part of our regular prayers? And just what is that kingdom of God that He tells us to pray for it to come? And perhaps most important of all, how can you be a part of that kingdom? What does it mean for you, for your family, for your loved ones, as well? These are all crucial questions because, again, the kingdom of God is something that is not understood by many people today, even many people who have read the Bible for years and years, perhaps, but they really don't understand what it's all about. They have a lot of misconceptions in their minds. And today we'll go through and discuss it in quite a bit of detail. We'll take what you might call the Christian bookstore test, for instance. By that, I mean imagine yourself walking down the aisles of a Christian bookstore and looking at the titles there, and walk through the doctrine section, for instance, and just imagine yourself trying to find or think back the last time you visited a Christian bookstore. How many books did you see with kingdom of God or some form of that in the title? How many did you see? You probably saw all kinds of booklets about heaven, about hell, about the Holy Spirit, about grace, about God, different things like that. But odds are, if you go to a Christian bookstore, you'll find very few, if any, books about the kingdom of God. And the ones that are probably are not going to be entirely biblically accurate. That's why when you came in today, hopefully you received a copy of the booklet on the Gospel of the Kingdom that does cover a fair amount of what we'll be talking about today, as well as a lot more here.

So let's get into this in more detail here with our next point. And our next point is that modern Christianity misunderstands or misinterprets what the kingdom of God is all about. So what was the very message that Jesus Christ brought when He came to earth? What was the heart and core of His message? We find it over in Mark 1, verses 14 and 15, where it says, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God. That's what He was preaching. And saying, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel.

So we see that Jesus Christ came again preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God.

And in just this one passage alone here, two verses, He mentions the gospel. The gospel is a word that means, it's an Old English word that means simply good news. It comes from God's spell, meaning good news in the Old English. But He mentions the gospel of the kingdom three times in just these two verses here, talking about the beginning of His ministry and what He taught about. He taught the gospel of the kingdom of God. And consider that carefully because that actually frames everything else that Jesus Christ taught. And if we don't understand what the kingdom of God is, the good news that Jesus Christ brought, then we're going to misunderstand a lot of His other teaching as well. So exactly what is the kingdom of God that Jesus Christ brought?

Now this may be surprising because, again, a lot of people have misconceptions about this, but it's important to realize that the kingdom of God is not just heaven. Most people think of those as being synonymous. Well, the kingdom of God is heaven. That's where we're going to go when we die.

But actually, we'll see that's not entirely correct. Yes, the kingdom of God is now in heaven because that's where God is. That's where God the Father is. That's where Jesus Christ are.

So the kingdom of God being the kingdom of God is where they are right now. So yes, it is a kingdom that is in heaven at this moment. But when the Bible uses the term kingdom of God, it's not talking about heaven. Nineteen centuries ago, the biblical teaching about the kingdom of God was misunderstood, misapplied, basically overturned, and a new teaching was taught about going to heaven here. So in that regard, let's look at what Jesus Christ had to say about heaven. John 3 and verse 13. Very interesting verse here, but it's quite plain. It says, No one has ascended to heaven, but he who came down from heaven, that is, the son of man who is in heaven. So just from this one verse, that should tell us there's something wrong with the traditional view of going to heaven when you die. Because here, the Apostle John states quite clearly that no one has ascended to heaven except the one who came down from heaven, Jesus, the Christ. So that should cause us to think, stop and think a little bit about our misconceptions, possibly about heaven. That's a whole other story that we don't have time to go in today. Our focus, again, is on the kingdom of God. But the biblical fact, again, as we read earlier, part of the Lord's Prayer is to pray, Your kingdom come. So the kingdom is something that is to come, not that we are to go to in heaven after we die. Again, we see this reflected in Luke 11 and verse 2, Your kingdom come. So the kingdom of God is something that is coming, and it's coming to earth.

Again, many people assume that the kingdom of heaven somehow means that the kingdom is, that those verses are talking about going to heaven. But that is just simply not the case.

Now, interestingly, the term kingdom of heaven is found 18 times in the Gospel of Matthew.

However, we see, if you look those up, we see that Matthew uses the term kingdom of heaven and kingdom of God interchangeably. We'll see a specific example of that in just a few minutes.

But he uses them just, they mean the exact same thing there. He's using the same term to apply to the kingdom of God as the kingdom of heaven. And again, it's referred to as the kingdom of heaven in part because that is where the kingdom of God now is, with God the Father and Jesus Christ, waiting for the time when it will be established on earth. The kingdom of God, that is, again, the Father and Jesus Christ is presently in heaven, but it is something that is coming to earth.

When Jesus Christ returns to establish his kingdom here. Another misconception a lot of people have about the kingdom of God is that it is something that is within people's hearts.

And they base this on Luke 17, actually a misunderstanding of Luke 17 in verses 20 through 21. So let's take a look at this passage and clear it out of our minds. Here it says, Now when he, Jesus, was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God does not come with observation, nor will they say, See here or see there, for indeed the kingdom of God is within you.

I think most of us probably realize that the Bible, our Bibles on our laps here, are an English translation of what was originally written in Hebrew or Greek or Aramaic.

One of those languages there. But let's just ask ourselves, is it true that the kingdom of God, when Jesus says, The kingdom of God is within you, was He talking about the Pharisees?

Because that's who He said it here, too. Indeed, the kingdom of God was within you. Does He mean that the kingdom of God existed in the hearts of the Pharisees? Well, think about that just a minute. Obviously not, because who were the Pharisees? They were the ones who, one of the groups who were actually trying to murder Jesus Christ. So it cannot mean that the kingdom of God is in their hearts. That's obviously not the case or what He means here. So, several other, the problem with this is one of translation. And that is the Greek word, intellis, which is translated here within, the kingdom of God is within you. Some other various meanings of that word could well mean in your midst. There's not a precise English word-for-word translation for this, so a better way of translating it here would be in your midst. And several modern Bible versions recognize this and translate it. For instance, the New Living Translation words this as the kingdom of God is already among you, already among you, not within you, but among you. Another version, the English Standard Version, translates this as the kingdom of God is in the midst of you, in the midst of you. But sadly, the Pharisees rejected Jesus Christ's message, His gospel, His good news of the kingdom of God. And again, the kingdom of God could not have been within the hearts of those Pharisees who wanted to murder Jesus Christ there. So Jesus Christ, however, as the king of kings, the one who will be the ruler over the kingdom of God, was certainly in their midst. He was among them. He was in the midst of them. So when Jesus Christ says the kingdom of God is among you, He's referring to Himself as the king of that kingdom, being there among them. And that if they had the spiritual discernment and understanding, they would have recognized that. They would have known from any prophecies that He was indeed the prophesied Messiah, the King of that coming kingdom to come.

So when Jesus Christ, we might ask ourselves a question then, when Jesus Christ returns to earth, where will that kingdom be? That kingdom will be, as it says here, among you, among human beings.

It will be in the midst of you. So there's not an inconsistency there in the way that that is worded.

So what is important about this for us today, for you and me? We know that Jesus Christ is our Lord. He is our master. He is our teacher, our Savior, our Messiah, our high priest in heaven today. But Jesus Christ can personally be our King now. And He should be. He can be and should be in the midst of our lives, of everything that we are doing today, considering what lies ahead for this world. So what are some of the other things we can learn about the kingdom of God?

Well, one thing, as we touched on briefly a minute ago, is that Jesus Christ constantly taught about His coming kingdom. That again, as we saw from Mark 1, 14, and 15, was the heart and core of His message. He came preaching the kingdom of God. And He told His disciples that the kingdom of God should be the highest priority in their lives as well. And this message, of course, is applicable to us today as well. It should be our highest priority as well, as Jesus said in Matthew 6, in verse 33, He tells us, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. So Jesus wants us to seek God's kingdom above everything else. And not just today, but every day. He wants it to be the uppermost goal in our lives every minute of every day, to seek first that kingdom. But again, how do we do that if we do not have a proper understanding of what that kingdom is all about? How badly does Jesus Christ want us to seek that kingdom? Let's notice two short parables, Matthew 13, verses 44 through 46. He says, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid, and for joy over it he goes, and sells all that he has and buys that field. So it compares the kingdom of God to a treasure that we should be willing to give anything and everything to buy that treasure, to take possession of that treasure.

That is the kingdom, the kingdom of God. And right after this, again, another short parable, He follows that up by saying, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls.

Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it?

So again, the kingdom of God is something we should seek first.

And to emphasize that point, Christ emphasized that it's like a treasure hidden in a field, or a valuable pearl, a one-of-a-kind pearl that we should be giving everything to own, to have a part in that. That's how important Jesus Christ says that should be for us.

Like the pearl of great price, most of Christ's parables were about the kingdom of God, in one form or another. And that kingdom is something that we should be willing to pay anything and everything for. And in line with this, the kingdom of God can and must be something that we enter, something that we enter. Let's notice Jesus Christ's words in Matthew 19, verses 23-24.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, Assuredly I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.

So we see that the kingdom is something that we have to enter as well. And following up with that, he then says, And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. So notice two things here in this short passage.

It's mentioned twice that the kingdom is something that we have to enter. And also notice here again, I mentioned earlier that the terms kingdom of heaven and kingdom of God are used interchangeably by Matthew and other writers of the New Testament. It means, again, the same thing. The kingdom of heaven is the same thing as the kingdom of God. When we use those two terms, or the gospel writers use those two terms, they're talking about exactly the same thing. So again, just what is the kingdom of God? To put it in briefest terms, it is God's very rule. It is the government of God over the world and over the entire universe. It is the government and the rule that is coming to earth in the form of a literal kingdom over which Jesus Christ will reign as the king.

It may be surprising to a number of people. Let's take a look at it, though, and prove this.

Again, Matthew 19, verses 27 through 28. Notice here, Peter asks Jesus Christ a question, very important question. Then Peter answered and said to him, See, we have left all and followed you. Therefore, what shall we have?

He says they've sacrificed, they've given up everything to follow Jesus Christ. And Peter rightly wonders, What is my reward? What is our reward? Your apostles, your disciples going to be for this. And notice carefully Jesus Christ answered here. Jesus said to them, Assuredly I say to you that in the regeneration, the regeneration, what does regeneration mean?

It means something that is new, that is regenerated. If you read toward the end of the book of Revelation, what does it talk about? It talks about a world that is like a new garden of Eden.

That's what this is referring to, the regeneration of the world, a very different world from this present evil age in which we live. So Jesus says, Assuredly I say to you that in the regeneration, and when is the regeneration?

When the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory. When Jesus Christ is enthroned as the King of Kings, as the Messiah on the world. And then He answers Peter's question as to what will my reward be? And notice what he says. He says, You who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

Remarkable statement here. He says, Those twelve apostles will sit on twelve thrones, ruling, reigning, judging over the twelve tribes of Israel.

Quite a remarkable statement here. So again, this is talking about a literal kingdom on earth.

Jesus Christ is going to sit on the throne of His glory, and assisting Him, reigning with Him, will be the twelve apostles, one of them over each of the twelve tribes of Israel.

Talking about, again, a physical kingdom ruling over physical people.

We'll see some more proofs of that a little bit later on here in just a few minutes here.

So Jesus, again, did not promise His disciples, His apostles, that they would go to heaven as their reward. No, He says, their reward is to sit on twelve thrones, judging and ruling over the twelve tribes of Israel.

A lot of food for thought there, and that passage there.

So if there is a kingdom, what are the requirements needed for a kingdom?

What does a kingdom consist of? What are the components of a kingdom?

So if we're talking about a kingdom, there are four basic components that should exist and comprise a kingdom here. So what are these four requirements or four components? First of all, you have government.

Because again, that's the hard and core of a kingdom. If you're going to have a kingdom, it means there's some sort of administration, there's some sort of reign.

So there is a government. That's the first requirement for a kingdom. And who is the government in the kingdom of God? Who will it be? Well, it will consist of a ruling family of God the Father and Jesus Christ.

Second component of a kingdom is territory. If you have a kingdom, you've got to have some territory. What the kingdom rules over, what it reigns over, what it administers there.

So what is the territory going to be of the kingdom of God?

Well, it's going to be earth, but not just earth. It's going to be the entire universe, which God the Father and Jesus Christ already have dominion over right now.

But the kingdom will be expanded and focused on earth as well. So it will consist the territory of the kingdom of God will cover the earth as well as the entire universe.

What is a third component of a kingdom? Well, if you have a government and if you have territory, then you need some people, some subjects of the kingdom that it's going to rule over. Who is that going to be? Well, again, it will be mankind, all of the human race at that time, as well as the angelic world, the spirit world, the unseen spirit world of angels that exist as well, which again, God the Father and Jesus Christ have dominion over at this time.

And last of all, if you have a government, if you have territory, if you have subjects of a kingdom, there's one other crucial component as well, and that is a system of laws or system of law. In other words, what is going to be the law of the land and the kingdom of God? And that one's pretty simple. It's going to be God's law. It's going to be the laws of the Bible. The Bible, you might say, will be the Constitution of this coming government there.

And people will live according to God's way of life, and not our own way of life, our own way of doing things, which has led mankind into a lot of trouble, as we see right now. So those are the basic components, requirements of a kingdom. And there is one other component here that we might mention briefly, and that is eternal life.

Because if human beings are going to have dominion over angels, over the entire universe, there's another component as well, and that is eternal life. That is being given a transformed body. Not these physical bodies that are weak and that wear out, but a transformed spiritual body. You can read quite a bit about that in 1 Corinthians 15. Again, we don't have time to go into it now.

But as Jesus Christ says, another verse, Matthew 19, verses 29 through 30, He says, everyone who has left houses, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake shall receive a hundredfold and inherit eternal life. Notice something here. He says, eternal life is something that we inherit. A lot of people think we have an immortal soul within us. Well, not really, because Jesus Christ Himself says here that eternal life is something that we have to inherit.

It is something that God must give us, eternal life. And then He goes on to say, but many who are first will be last, and the last shall be first. So the kingdom of God is a great gift. It is the inheritance, as we see here, that God has promised here, along with eternal life, and His desire is that we seek fully and foremost, as we read earlier, Matthew 6, 33, to seek God's kingdom above all else.

And again, Jesus Christ says in Luke 12, verses 29 through 32, He says, do not seek what you should eat, or what you should drink, or have an anxious mind. And that is something to keep in mind in this terrible time in which we live. He says, for all these things the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knows that you need these things. God is not oblivious to our needs.

But He says, seek first, excuse me, He says, but seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you. And then He says something very, very encouraging for us in the next verse. He says, do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. In other words, that is something that is going to make God very happy, to give us, to share with us His kingdom.

That is why we are here. That's why all of us in this room were born, to have a part in God's kingdom, to inherit that eternal life that we read about there just a few minutes ago. So we have now seen a brief overview of what Jesus Christ taught about the kingdom of God. We could cover many, many more scriptures, but this is just an overview to help you understand His teaching, His perspective on the kingdom of God.

But what about others? What about other Bible writers? What did they have to say about it? What did the prophets of the Old Testament, for example, teach? What did they write in prophesy about the coming kingdom of God? Well, for one thing, they did teach that a Messiah would come and that He would establish a world-ruling government. And just as God's true servants teach repentance, today repentance meaning to change, to change your course is what it literally means, means to turn from doing things our own way and to turn to God and to do things His way and to stop relying on our own thinking, our own faulty thinking there, but to look to God and to His Word and to His Spirit for guidance and direction instead. But notice what the prophet Daniel said when he describes some of the geopolitical events of the time of the end. We won't get into all of that. It's a very interesting chapter in Daniel 2. But notice what he says here.

He says, in the days of these kings, and he's referring to a final coalition of kings who will form a new superpower that is going to appear, I think, quite soon on the world scene, he says, in the days of these kings, the kings that exist at the time of the end, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed.

The God of kingdom will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed. It's going to be obviously, if it's a physical kingdom, it's going to come to an end at some point.

But this tells us it is a spiritual kingdom which shall never be destroyed, and it shall stand forever. That alone should tell us that a lot of our misconceptions about the kingdom of God are false. It's clearly something that God is going to set up, and it clearly hasn't set it up on earth yet because it would be obvious it would be existing somewhere, again, ruling over territory, ruling over people with laws, and with God or Jesus Christ at its head. So it obviously doesn't exist now, because if so, we would see it. We would recognize it somewhere. So it is something that will come, and when it is established, it will never be destroyed, and it will stand forever.

The kingdom of God will. The prophecy Isaiah recorded many, many prophecies about this coming kingdom of God. We'll just look at one of them briefly here, Isaiah 2, verses 2-4.

And I might mention here, too, the graphic down in the bottom corner here.

Anybody recognize what that is? A handful of people. If you ever visit the UN building in New York, this statue is set up outside of it. It's taken from a prophecy of Isaiah that they shall beat their swords into plowshares. And you see the man there with a big hammer and a sword, and he's beating it into a plowshare. It's taken from one of the prophecies about the kingdom of God. And again, that was part of the original thinking behind the United Nations, that eventually it would bring world peace. Obviously, it's been a miserable failure at that. So continuing on Isaiah 2, verse 2.

So, the mountain, the government of the Eternal's house, shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow to it.

Many people, then, shall come and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain or the government of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways, again, the laws that are going to exist in the kingdom of God. And we shall walk in His paths. Again, it's clearly talking about a physical kingdom of God with a headquarters at Jerusalem. And the nations are going to come, and they're going to learn God's ways there, and learn the law of the land. Again, the Bible is going to be the Constitution of that government of God. So this is describing that coming time of peace when Jesus Christ will reign on the earth, when He will rule all nations from Jerusalem. So the kingdom of God on earth will have what people and nations have always wanted, but they've never had. And that is genuine world peace.

Genuine world peace. It will also be a spectacular time of spiritual awakening for mankind, because Satan is the God of this world, as he's referred to in Paul's writings, and he will be removed out of the way, no longer to blind and deceive mankind. Revelation 12.9 says that he is the deceiver who has deceived the whole world. And one of his greatest deceptions is deceiving people about what the kingdom of God is. So what else do the Scriptures tell us, especially about the time that will lead up to the establishment of the kingdom of God?

I actually skipped a hit. Okay, I missed one of the verses here I intended to read. This is very important too. Continuation of Isaiah's prophecy. He says, For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. So Jerusalem is to be the capital of this kingdom of God. He, referring to Jesus Christ the Messiah, shall judge between the nations. Again, physical nations. This is not talking about a kingdom often in Heaven. It's talking about a kingdom of God that is established on earth, centered in Jerusalem. And He will rebuke many people. They shall beat their swords into plowshares, from which that statue is inspired, that I showed earlier. And their spear is into pruning hooks.

The implements of war will be transformed into implements of agriculture and productivity of feeding people. There, and doing good things, nations shall not lift up sword against nation.

Neither shall they learn war any more. So warfare is a means of solving our problems, and difficulties, and differences will be a thing of the past in that time. And it can't come soon enough. But before that happens, some very bad things happen, some very sobering things. Let's take a look about that, because the transition from this age of man to the kingdom of God is not going to be easy. And it's not going to be pre.

Many Bible prophecies focus on this time. I'm convinced it is just ahead of us now, considering the things that are taking place in the world around us. Let's notice what Daniel, the prophet Daniel, in Daniel 12 and verse 1 has to say. He says, At that time, referring to the time of the end, Michael, the archangel Michael, shall stand up, the great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was, since there was a nation, even to that time. And at that time, your people shall be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book, referring to the book of life. But the key point here is that this is a time of trouble that Daniel says, such as never was since there was a nation and never will be again. So it's going to be a horrible, horrible time. There. How bad will it be? Matthew 24 is what is commonly called the Olivet Prophecy. It's the prophecy Jesus Christ gave shortly before he was crucified and killed and resurrected. But he says here, referring to that time, he says, For the trouble at that time, this is from today's English version, for the trouble at that time will be far more terrible than any there has ever been, from the beginning of the world to this very day. Nor will there ever be anything like it again. He's echoing Daniel's words. This is going to be a time of trouble, of turmoil, worse than anything the world has ever seen or will ever see again. And he follows up, reading from the New Living Translation, that time is so bad, Jesus Christ Himself said, that unless that time of calamity is shortened, not a single person will survive.

But it will be shortened for the sake of God's chosen ones.

It's pretty sobering. What He's talking about here is the possibility of human extinction.

When did it become possible for human beings to annihilate themselves?

It started around the end of World War II with the introduction of nuclear weapons.

And now we have several ways to exterminate the human race.

Nuclear weapons, chemical weapons, biological weapons, environmental catastrophe, other things we probably haven't even thought about that may be on the drawing boards right now.

Ways to kill more and more human beings. This time will be so dangerous that Jesus Christ Himself said, if it is not cut short, no living human being will survive. That is what this world faces.

And that is frankly one of the reasons why Jesus Christ has to intervene to establish the kingdom of God on earth, because if He doesn't, there will not be a single human being left alive.

That's what Jesus Himself said right here.

Throughout the Bible, we find scriptural phrases that refer to this time of the end.

These include such expressions as, at that time, or in the latter days, or in the last days, or in the time of the end, things like that. But what else did Jesus Christ have to say about that time? What are some of the specifics that He prophesied will happen leading up to that time? Let's notice some of the signs that He gave of the end of this age of man.

Matthew 24, beginning in verse 6, He says, And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. So one of the signs will be wars and rumors of wars, and what we see in our headlines every day. What's at the top of the news? Another war, outbreak of violence, that sort of thing. Actually, I got this a little bit out of order. I meant to start with Matthew 24 in verse 3 as an introduction to this, which says, Now as He, Jesus said on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, Tell us, When will these things be? And what will be the sign of your coming? And of the end of the age. So they ask what He tells them He's going to return, and they say, Well, how will we know?

When is this going to happen? What will be the signs of that? And then He goes through and lists the number of signs. Verse 4 and 5, same chapter, And Jesus answered and said to them, Take heed, that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, I am the Christ, and will deceive many. And religious deception is one of the world's greatest problems right now. Again, tomorrow is the 10th anniversary of the 9-11 attacks, attacks on America that took 3,000 lives, attacks that were motivated by, and I won't mince words here, a satanic religious deception.

And I don't say that lightly. It's a deception that lies behind most of the wars and terrorism that take place in the world today. So this is a sign that Jesus Christ gave.

Verse 6, where I got ahead of myself, And you will hear wars and rumors of wars, See that you are not troubled, For all these things must come to pass, But the end is not yet. In other words, it's going to get worse.

It's going to get worse. So another sign. Next verse. Jesus says, For nation will rise against nation. Actually, in the original Greek, it's referring to ethnic groups, groups of people, cultures, rising up against each other. And you might think about the various civil wars that are taking place around the world, like in Serbia, Yugoslavia, when it broke up several years ago. What did it do? It divided up into three or four different cultures, cultural ethnic groups, fighting, warring against one another. We see this taking place in Africa all the time.

We see it in the Middle East. We see it in Libya right now, which we focus on Qaddafi, but a lot of that is tribal warfare. We see it in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A lot of that warfare and that violence is tribes, cultures, ethnic groups battling against one another for control. It's the exact kind of thing that Jesus Christ refers to here.

It goes on to say, And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.

All these are the beginning of sorrows. Again, it's going to get much worse.

And again, we see all kinds of international tensions taking place right now.

Crises all over the place. We have a major financial crisis affecting much of the world right now that is growing worse by the day. And as a result of this growing fear and instability and uncertainty, there are increasing political tensions between nations. These include things like the revolution, commonly called the Arab Spring. It's been taking place since the first of the year where I think, unfortunately, the outcome, if we pay attention to Bible prophecy, will probably be the rise of a number of radical Islamic states across the Middle East. Think of Iran multiplied four or five, six times over. I just read in the news this morning that yesterday Egyptian protesters attacked the Israeli embassy in Jerusalem, tore down a wall surrounding it to the point the Israeli ambassador had to flee for his life. They even climbed up on top of it, tore down the Israeli flag. Embassies are supposed to be protected territory and the Egyptian authorities, in years I can tell, stood by and did nothing. Those kind of things do not happen without the tacit approval of the governments in those areas. That's why I say look out because instead of one Iran in the Middle East, we may have four, five, six before this year is out. Very sobering thing.

Some of the other things Jesus Christ mentioned here are famines. There are several areas of famine right now. A lot of drought, very serious drought. We've been reading about the serious drought in Texas, officially its driest year ever. Least amount of rainfall since they've been keeping records there. Hottest summer. We were down in Dallas several weekends ago and I think Dallas area had 45 days in a row of over 100 degree temperatures there.

Due to the heat there, we're seeing all the terrible wildfires there, that sort of thing.

And not just Texas, many other areas of the United States are affected by drought as well.

And not just the United States, Australia also has been having a lot of weather problems. First, it was a major drought several years ago and now it's flooding. Back in January, an area was underwater. Underwater, that was the equivalent of the size of France, Germany, and South Africa combined.

And we probably remember the major floods here in the United States earlier this spring and summer as well. Huge problems here. What's that going to lead to when you can't plant because the fields are flooded and when your crops don't grow because of drought, you're going to have food shortages. Eventually, you're going to have famines as they're taking place in other parts around the world right now. As a result of that, you also have pestilence or disease epidemics as well, which Jesus Christ talked about and which are a perennial problem. It's bad enough in a lot of parts of the world, much less without drought and famine, to exacerbate the problem. And also earthquakes, as he said here. Now, this word earthquakes is a very interesting Greek word. Again, it's not a word-for-word translation in Greek.

In Greek, the word translated earthquakes basically means two molds or something creating chaos and confusion. It can be an earthquake, it can be a hurricane, it can be tornadoes.

Those are some of the other meanings encompassed by this Greek word as well.

You might consider the earthquake in New Zealand back in February of this year, and then the massive earthquake and tsunami that ravaged Japan. And it's still causing problems with the nuclear plants that were heavily damaged by that earthquake. They simply never planned, never expected an earthquake and tsunami that powerful to damage their nuclear reactors there. And again, here in the United States, we had an earthquake on the East Coast just a few short weeks ago, followed almost immediately by Hurricane Irene coming through there with all the flooding and damage for that. Terrible things. What else did Jesus Christ warn us about? He warns of religious persecution in verse 9 and 10 of Matthew 24. He says, then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for my namesake. What happens when conditions get bad in the world? It's our human tendency to look for somebody to blame.

Isn't it? And who are they going to blame? They're going to blame those who are talking to the world and warning them as to what is to come.

So they're going to blame Christians. And persecution is going to start. And you will be hated by all nations for the name of Jesus Christ. And many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another, as it says here. And He also warned again about something else as well, and that is false prophets. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.

And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will wax cold.

You might remember something if you see USA Today. Here's a page from back in May 20th of this year. An individual by the name of Harold Camping said, My sheep hear my voice, God is no respecter of persons. Judgment Day begins with a worldwide earthquake on May 21, 2011. Today is the Day of Salvation, and it goes through a lot of other details on here. But the man who unwisely chose to do this, and he placed the same ad in many newspapers across the world. He actually ran it in USA Today several times. They're enormously expensive to do that sort of thing. But he unwisely predicted that Jesus Christ would return on May 21, which obviously did not happen. So he revised it. So now it's rescheduled for October. So you better be aware of that. And also consider many others who have said that the world will end in 2012. As a matter of fact, you may have received your copy of the Good News in the mail this week, but that's the cover article about here, Will the World End in 2012? It goes into some of these false prophets and false prophecies explaining why they are wrong, why the world will not end in the year 2012. So be sure and read that when you get it. And of course, Jesus Christ also said in Matthew 24 and verse 36, He said, But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but my Father only. So we can certainly from the prophecies we read in the Bible have an idea, general idea, when these things will take place as we see prophecy beginning to be fulfilled around us. But we do not know the exact time, as Jesus Christ makes very clear here in Matthew 24 and verse 36. What else does the Bible tell us as we begin to wrap up here about the time preceding the coming of God's kingdom? One thing it tells us is that we have a specific duty to fulfill. It tells us that we need to have a personal and family strategy to build up our spiritual endurance. Because as Jesus Christ again said in Matthew 24 and verse 13, He said, But he who endures to the end, the end of these terrible events that are coming, shall be saved.

And of course, the corollary to that is, He who does not endure to the end will not be saved.

Goes without saying there, so we do need spiritual endurance and strength that comes from Jesus Christ, the source of all power. We desperately need Jesus Christ to be involved in every aspect of our lives, if we are to endure the things that are prophesied to come. And there's something else we need to be involved in as well in preparing for God's kingdom to come. We need to be carrying out the commission that Jesus Christ gave His followers. And we find that in Matthew 24 and verse 14, where Jesus says, And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. And this is one of the reasons that the United Church of God publishes things like the Good News, why we have things like our Beyond Today TV program, why we publish things like our Bible study course, and the many booklets that you'll see back there on the table. And again, as Mr. Hale mentioned, feel free to stop by, pick up any of those you'd like to take home with you. That's why they are there. We believe very firmly in helping teach people the truths about the Bible, about God's Word, and what is coming. And you'll find at least four or five different booklets back there about different aspects of prophecy, about the United States and Britain in Bible prophecy, about the Book of Revelation, about the Middle East in prophecy, about are we living in the time of the end, about how to understand Bible prophecy. We have booklets back there on all of those subjects there for you.

So again, this is part of our mission. This is part of why we are giving these Kingdom of God Bible seminars to help people understand the truth of what the Bible says. So the world absolutely needs to be warned as a witness, as it says here, to all nations of what is coming on the earth. And people also need to be encouraged to realize the world isn't going to end at a nuclear holocaust. But it is going to end with Jesus Christ's return to establish the Kingdom of God on earth. And that is what we are doing. So again, to wrap up, as we discuss today, the Kingdom of God has been misunderstood. It has been misinterpreted. And sometimes it has just simply been ignored. Because people didn't understand it, they ignored it and don't teach about it. Even though Jesus Christ had it as the heart and the core of His message.

So the good news of the Kingdom of God does explain why the world is in the terrible shape that it is in. Because we have been doing things on our own. We have been rejecting the revelation of God and following Satan's ways instead. And these Kingdom of God Bible Seminars are to help you understand what the Kingdom of God is all about. Jesus said, as we read earlier, the Kingdom of God is at hand. It is near. It is just around the corner.

But He also said something else. He said in that same passage, Mark 1, 14 and 15, He said, Believe the Gospel. And if you believe the Gospel, if you believe what He says about the coming Kingdom of God, that also implies something else. That means you have to act on it.

You cannot afford to let this knowledge pass you by and ignore it.

So in this seminar series, again, this is the first of four that we have planned. The next one will be coming up in January. We'll continue to explore the grand design of the Kingdom of God and how it's going to come to earth and what it will be like and why it will be totally different from anything this world has ever seen. We'll see what the Kingdom of God has to offer each of us personally and what we need to do to seek out and to enter and to be a part of that Kingdom.

So now we'll take a refreshment break for about 10 minutes, and then we'll address the second part of our seminar today, which is titled, Why Our World Needs the Kingdom of God Now.