The Kingdom of God Will
Be on Earth
Be on Earth
It seems natural that a JW may well ask: How can Jesus return literally and physically to the earth when the Kingdom of God is to be in Heaven? After all it is called “the Kingdom of Heaven!” This is a legitimate question and which I will endeavour to answer from the Scriptures and with a certain amount of historical information as follows.
In fact, the earliest Christians did originally view God’s Kingdom as being established on earth. However, when it did not come within the first few centuries after Jesus’ ascension the church officials made a change in what was meant by the kingdom, so that it now became attached to the idea that at the moment that a Christian dies his soul departs for heaven which is the Kingdom. Apart from this idea being based on the further unbiblical view of an immortal soul that lives on after death, we must ask: is this idea even vaguely connected to God’s promises to faithful Christians? So, the purpose of this chapter is to demonstrate that, according to the Bible, the coming Kingdom of God will be set up on earth with a returned Jesus as King in the literal Jerusalem of the future when he, with his associate rulers, will immediately set about the task of bringing about paradise conditions so that all war, crime, poverty and pollution are quickly eradicated. Increasingly the nations will be living in harmony. This is in contrast to the invisible kingdom that the Watchtower declared was set up in heaven in 1914 but with worsening conditions on earth.
The Kingdom Is Described as and Foretold
The Kingdom Is Described as and Foretold
to Be on Earth
to Be on Earth
As will be shown later in this book no Christians are promised a destiny of going to heaven according to a proper analysis of all relevant Scriptures. Therefore, the Kingdom they will inherit, although origin- ating with God in heaven, will be a kingdom established on earth as Daniel’s first end-time prophecy in vision shows where Daniel, under inspiration from God, interprets Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the huge ____________
THE KINGDOM OF GOD WILL BE ON EARTH
image, saying:
The feet of this image were firmly placed on earth and therefore when this stone, as picturing the Kingdom under Christ, strikes the image and then expands over the whole earth it is clearly a kingdom on earth. Daniel further reveals that, “the kingdom and the rulership and the grandeur of the kingdoms under all the heavens were given to the people who are the holy ones” (Dan. 7:27), so that, according to John’s Revelation, “The kingdom of the world did become the kingdom of our lord and of his Christ…” (Rev. 11:15). This all fits with the fact that the “stone” i.e. the kingdom expands throughout the earth.
The Kingdom Is to Be an Earthly Paradise
The Kingdom Is to Be an Earthly Paradise
Connected with Israel
Connected with Israel
The Genesis creation account tells us that, “God planted a garden (paradeison in the Greek LXX) in Eden” (Gen. 2:8, 9; 2:10, 15; and 3:2). This Greek rendering gives us the definition of the word ‘paradise’ for the rest of the Scriptures as an earthly park of great beauty, i.e., this is the default meaning. Therefore, living in such a future earthly paradise is what Jesus offered the dying criminal, and what Paul had a vision of, as well as being the promise in the Book of Revelation
‘PARADISE’ IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
Of these three occurrences of ‘paradise’ the first concerns the seditionist hung next to Jesus pleading with him to, “…remember me when you get into your kingdom! And he [Jesus] said to him: “Truly I tell you today, you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:42-43). Here, Jesus equates the Kingdom with paradise, and paradise was thought of by first century Jews only as related to the earth. So, this criminal is to be resurrected into paradise on earth and so showing that the Kingdom will be on earth.
The second occurrence in the NT of the word “paradise” was when Paul describes how, “…a man [probably Paul himself]…was caught away as such to the third heaven ... he was caught away into paradise” __________
THE KINGDOM OF GOD WILL BE ON EARTH
(2 Cor. 12:2, 4). But where is the location of this “third heaven/ paradise” in Paul’s mind? It seems most likely to be the third “heavens and earth” that Peter later described in 2 Peter 3:5, 7, 13 as “new heavens and a new earth” and was therefore Paul’s vision of the coming paradise on earth which is, as already noted, the default meaning given in Genesis
The third occurrence in the NT of the word “paradise” is where Jesus makes the promise to faithful Christians that: “To the one who conquers, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of God” (Rev. 2:7). Therefore, because Jesus equated the Kingdom with paradise (Luke 23:42-43), and paradise is earth-bound according to Genesis 1 and 2 clearly the Kingdom must also be on earth. Indeed, the Scriptures consistently use the term paradise in a setting that is of the earth and there is no thought of it as being relocated to heaven as the following verses show:
“the Kingdom of the heavens belongs to them...they will inherit the earth” (Matt. 5:3, 5).
“Let your kingdom come. Let your will take place, as in heaven, also on earth” (Matt. 6:10).
“…they will reign upon earth” (Rev. 5:10 KIT, but not ‘over’ as in the NWT).
A further aspect of this is that Israel is involved when the disciples ask: “Lord, are you restoring the kingdom to Israel at this time?” (Acts 1:6). However, Jesus did not correct the disciples as regards the location of the Kingdom in Israel on earth, but only showed that the time of its appearance would not be known.
THE PHYSICAL CONDITIONS IN THE KINGDOM
Jesus taught that, “…many from east and west will come and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of the heavens” (Matt. 8:11). So, here, Jesus showed the physical conditions of “the kingdom of the heavens” as being on earth and clearly Abraham will be resurrected onto the earth. Further physical aspects of the kingdom are shown by Jesus in teaching that he, “will not drink again from the product of the vine until the kingdom of God arrives” (Luke 22:18) and “…just as my Father has made a covenant with me for a kingdom, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones to judge the twelve tribes of Israel” (Luke 22:29, 30). All of this is very physical and never applies to activities in heaven. ________________
THE KINGDOM OF GOD WILL BE ON EARTH
So, after discussing the Parable of the Soils in relation to the Kingdom… Professor W.C. Allen stated that: “There is nothing here nor elsewhere in
this Gospel to suggest that the scene of the Kingdom is other than the present world renewed, restored and purified.” So here he summarizes the New Testament teaching and shows that the Bible writers did not expect believers to ‘go to heaven,’ but that Jesus will return to the earth to rule with Christians on a renewed earth as the rest of the Scriptures show.
So why is it called “the kingdom of the heavens”? Simply because it originates from “heaven,” namely with God Himself and parallels the term “Kingdom of God.”
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