Key Scriptures Used in this Seminar

 

Jesus preached the “gospel of the Kingdom of God.” Mark 1:14-15: “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”

What message did Jesus command His followers to preach?

Luke 9:1-2: “Then He called His twelve disciples together and . . . sent them to preach the kingdom of God . . .”

Matthew 24:14: “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.”

Was this same Kingdom of God a major theme in Paul’s teaching?

Acts 19:8: “And [Paul] went into the synagogue and spoke boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading concerning the things of the kingdom of God.”

Acts 28:23: “So when they had appointed him a day, many came to [Paul] at his lodging, to whom he explained and solemnly testified of the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus from both the Law of Moses and the Prophets, from morning till evening.”

What did Jesus Himself say should be the goal of every Christian?

Matthew 6:33: “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness . . .”

Christ’s Message was long anticipated by the Prophets: “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began” (Acts 3:19-21).

Daniel had long ago foretold the establishment of God’s Kingdom: “And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever” (Daniel 2:44).

Will Jesus Christ literally return to earth? And who will come with Him?

Zechariah 14:4-5: “And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, from east to west, making a very large valley; half of the mountain shall move toward the north and half of it toward the south . . . Thus the Lord my God will come, and all the saints with You.”

What role will Jerusalem play after Jesus Christ’s return to the Mount of Olives?

Zechariah 8:3: “Thus says the Lord: ‘I will return to Zion, and dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be called the City of Truth, the Mountain of the Lord of hosts, the Holy Mountain.’”

Jeremiah 3:17: “At that time Jerusalem shall be called The Throne of the Lord, and all the nations shall be gathered to it, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem. No more shall they follow the dictates of their evil hearts.”

Isaiah 2:2-3: “Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord’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 shall come and say, ‘Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us 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.”

Revelation 11:15: “And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!’”

What will be so different about this Kingdom compared to today’s world?

Revelation 20:1-3: “Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand
years; and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished.”

The earth’s barren and desolate wastelands will be transformed to become like Eden:

Isaiah 51:3: “For the Lord will comfort Zion, He will comfort all her waste places; He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness will be found in it, thanksgiving and the voice of melody.”

Isaiah 41:18-20: “I will open rivers in desolate heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. I will plant in the wilderness the cedar and the acacia tree, the myrtle and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the cypress tree and the pine and the box tree together, that they may see and know, and consider and understand together, that the hand of the Lord has done this, and the Holy One of Israel has created it.”

Isaiah 35:1-2, 7: “The wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose; it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice, even with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it . . . They shall see the glory of the Lord, the excellency of our God . . The parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water; in the habitation of jackals, where each lay, there shall be grass with reeds and rushes.”

The planet will become enormously fruitful and productive:

Amos 9:13: “‘Behold, the days are coming,’ says the Lord, ‘when the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him who sows seed; the mountains shall drip with sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it.’”

The world will see astounding miraculous healings—the blind will see, the deaf will hear, the lame will leap, the mute will speak:

Isaiah 35:5-6: “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb sing. For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.”

Nations will be at peace, and mankind will learn war no more:

Micah 4:3-4: “He shall judge between many peoples, and rebuke strong nations afar off; 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. But everyone shall sit under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid; for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.”

The world will at last be filled with peace:

Isaiah 65:21-23 (REB): “My people will build houses and live in them, plant vineyards and eat their fruit; they will not build for others to live in or plant for others to eat. They will be as long-lived as a tree, and my chosen ones will enjoy the fruit of their labour. They will not toil to no purpose or raise children for misfortune, because they and their issue [descendants] after them are a race blessed by the Lord.”

Even the nature of animals will be changed:

Isaiah 11:6-8: “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play by the cobra’s hole, and the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper’s den.”

The world will be filled with the knowledge of God:

Isaiah 11:9: “They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”

The Kingdom of God, under Jesus Christ’s supervision, will bring blessings of peace and prosperity to the world. God will restore to the world what He restricted to only a few since He expelled Adam and Eve from the Garden in Eden—access to the knowledge of Him through the tree of life (Revelation 22:1-2).

Will another miraculous, unprecedented event accompany Christ’s return?

1 Thessalonians 4:15-17: “For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep [that is, who have died]. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.”

Does the Bible tell us anything else about this resurrection?

1 Corinthians 15:50-54 (REB): “What I mean, my friends, is this: flesh and blood can never possess the kingdom of God, the perishable cannot possess the imperishable. Listen! I will unfold a mystery: we shall not all die, but we shall all be changed in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet-call. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will rise imperishable, and we shall be changed. This perishable body must be clothed with the imperishable, and what is mortal with immortality. And when this perishable body has been clothed with the imperishable and our mortality has been clothed with immortality, then the saying of scripture will come true: ‘Death is swallowed up; victory is won!’”

What will those brought up and given eternal life in this resurrection do with Jesus Christ in His Kingdom?

Revelation 20:6: “Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.”

Daniel 7:18: “But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever
and ever.”

Who will be in this resurrection to eternal life in God’s Kingdom?

Revelation 3:21: “To him who overcomes [that is, gains victory in struggling against sin and Satan] I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.”

Will the saints have special assignments during the millennial reign of Christ?

Luke 22:29-30: “But you are those who have continued with Me in My trials. And I bestow upon you a kingdom, just as My Father bestowed one upon Me, that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”

And the resurrected King David will reign over all of Israel under Christ (Jeremiah 30:9; Ezekiel 37:24-25).

Each person whom God has called and chosen has the responsibility to remain faithful to the end and to use his or her life to prepare for a role in this coming Kingdom. That is what the calling to the Christianity of the Bible will produce.

You can be a part of this Kingdom. You are hearing advance news—the good news (the true gospel Jesus Christ announced)—of this coming Kingdom of peace.