God's Coming Kingdom

God, in the pages of the Bible, often speaks about the coming kingdom of God on earth. This page is a continuing series of articles about this coming kingdom, as shown in the Bible.

Part 34      God's Coming Kingdom

Peter clearly explained when Jesus would “restore the kingdom to Israel” when he appealed to his audience,

“Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you - even Jesus. He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets” - Acts 3:19-21.

In case there might have been any need for clarification about the way in which “God will send the Christ” the angels informed the apostles while Jesus was ascending,

“They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. ‘Men of Galilee’, they said, ‘why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven’ ” - Acts 1:10-11.

The gospel record is clear that Jesus was subject of a bodily resurrection. John 20 shows that Mary Magdalene first found the stone moved away from the tomb entrance, and the body of Jesus missing. After informing the apostles she returned to the tomb and was met by Jesus. Mary immediately took hold of Jesus and would not let go of him.

“Jesus said to her, "Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father...” - John 20:17. There is no difficulty in appreciating from this that the body which was missing from the tomb was now the living Jesus, whose body was held by Mary. To confirm this, Jesus suddenly appeared among the apostles. “They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. He said to them, ‘... Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.’...” - Luke 24:37-43. The mortal, “terrestrial”* (earthly) flesh and blood body of Jesus died on the cross, but the immortal, “celestial”* (heavenly) body of Jesus ascended to heaven.

*See 1 Corinthians 15:40.

From this we understand from the message of the angels to the apostles, that the same physical, bodily Jesus who ascended to heaven will return in the same immortal bodily form.

After his return, said Peter, “he will restore everything” connected with the Kingdom of God which had been overthrown, whose government was in Jerusalem and ruled by David and his dynasty, and Jesus will be physically present to rule during the final thousand years of mortal mankind’s existence - Revelation 20:4. After that, Jesus will step down and God will rule directly over his then entirely immortal subjects -1 Corinthians 15:24-28.

The restoration of God's kingdom is a golden thread of promise throughout the Old Testament prophets.

In Isaiah’s “oracle concerning Moab” there is great contrast between the future of that nation and that of the kingdom of Israel. Moab is one of those nations referred to in the previous article, which no longer exists. But Israel who does more than merely exist in our times, will soon welcome the restoration of the Kingdom of God under Jesus who will sit on David’s throne, “In mercy the throne will be established; and One will sit on it in truth, in the tabernacle of David, judging and seeking justice and hastening righteousness” - Isaiah 16:5.