Why you haven't heard much about it


It is the glory of God to conceal a thing
But the honor of kings is to search out a matter. Prov. 25:2


I was walking through a busy airport.

A large poster ad caught my eye.

It read like this: "There's only one problem with religions that have all the answers . . . they don't allow questions. If you sometimes have questions about God and the meaning of life, come join the search for answers."

This was an advertisement for a mainstream denomination. I thought it was a good ad. It looked good. It read smoothly. Yet, to me, it was somewhat ironic. It was inviting me, not to have the answers per se, but rather to join a search party to look for them.

Didn't this church have the answers? Answers to:

"Who am I?"

"Why was I born?"

"Where am I going?"

"How should I live?"

"Is there a life after death?"

"What will it be like?"

Maybe they did have answers, but this ad didn't convey that feeling. If you went to a doctor, would you feel confident if she said 'Come join me in the search for the answer to your condition'? Should it be different for a spiritual matter?

Why you haven't heard much about it

I think I know why this church took this approach. After Jonestown, Hare Krishna, 'Moonies,' Eternal Flame, Aum, and other cults, it seems better, and safer, not to be too authoritarian. Hey, it's just not politically correct. When you say what you believe forthrightly, it can really ruffle the feathers. And, after all, the answers to those questions are not always so simple and obvious.1

The Bible is not simple. It contains some difficult passages. It contains mysteries. Even some of the prophets, like Daniel, did not understand their own prophecies.2

So we must indeed 'search for answers.' Sincere men and women of all ages have always 'searched for the answers.' The Bereans earned for themselves the title 'noble' for searching the Scriptures daily.3

And if you dig long and hard enough, you, too, can find the answers. But relatively few do dig into the Bible, and the ones that do often don't look in the right places. And not without some reason.

Pardon me for getting very real. But I respect your time and don't want to waste it. The Bible, even to many Christians, has a dry, dull and unreal air to it. Most copies are written in language hundreds of years old about places thousands of miles away. And about things that took place thousands of years ago. Some passages in the Old Testament seem so difficult -- even to Bible teachers -- that they are just plain avoided. "It's not about me . . . not about the way my life is today," many say or think to themselves. Undoubtedly, the most inaccessible part of the Bible has to do with prophecy and the kingdom of heaven.

Many Christians who are expert on many matters of the faith readily confess they know little about God's kingdom on the earth. Hence, this book. There are thousands of titles on other Bible themes, but surprisingly few on the kingdom of heaven, the real kingdom, what it will be like, and what you'll be doing there.

I hope this book will take some of the mystery and confusion out of the future. I hope this book will make it much more real to you. After all, this is an important subject. As a believer, this is where you are going to spend the rest of your (eternal) life.

The kingdom of heaven is the focal point of the entire Word. In a very real sense, the Bible is about nothing but that kingdom. Adam lost it in the Garden, Jesus Christ died to restore and repopulate it, and he's returning to make it a reality on this earth. The promised land is a type of it. The prophets wrote about it. The apostles preached about it. And they assumed their listeners knew all about it from the Old Testament.

Yet, ironically, like most of prophecy, the kingdom of heaven is the least studied and least discussed part of Christian theology. Why? Well, quite a few folks believe: "The Bible doesn't say too much about the future."

And not only lay folks. Bible scholars, too. For example: "To live in the blessed hope and continual expectation of the Lord's Coming is one thing: to have a theory about the Millennium is quite another. Some think the Millennium will be an Age of Blessedness in this present world; others, that it will be one of the Ages of Eternity after the flesh and blood order of existence has passed. And some talk as if they knew all about it."4

Or: "A study of the prophets will enrich the life of anyone who applies himself to learn their teaching; conversely, it will only add to the confusion of those who would use their writings as a basis on which to speculate about the future."5

William E. Biederwolf, the author of the excellent Second Coming Bible, said he ministered for 20 years without once mentioning the return of Jesus Christ to this earth before he wrote his important and exhaustive work.6

Since not much is said about the return of Christ and his kingdom in many seminaries, nor by many leading Christian scholars, most ministers don't know much about it, and consequently, most parishioners don't hear much about it. And for those who do want more on the subject for private study, the literature is somewhat limited, (though this has begun to change of late).

There are two main choices: A few excellent, comprehensive (and published) doctoral theses. These are somewhat inaccessible to the average person. They're just not a fun, quick "read," to put it another way. You've got to work your way through them. The other choice: several short works. Compared to the doctoral theses, these are superficial. They leave out too much to really give you a good picture of what it will be like on "the other side." The kind of picture God himself would like you to have, and has provided for in his Word.

The irony in all this is just how much detail the Lord has provided in his Word for those who would like to know more about the next life. Have you ever gotten a postcard from a friend visiting Europe? Perhaps it was a postcard of a magnificent cathedral . . . or a dramatic panoramic view of one of the capitals. Maybe it made you wish you were there, too. That's what God has sent each one of us in his Word. Only the scene depicted is a scene right out of the future. And it is just as detailed as a beautiful, highly ornate, baroque building in Europe. Quite literally!

For example, Ezekiel 40 through 48 presents an architectural blueprint in minute detail of the palace sanctuary of the millennium. The precise dimension of every hall, wall, courtyard, terrace and pillar. The palm tree decorations on the pillars. The wood paneling in the Temple and the Holy of Holies. The walls decorated with carvings of cherubim, each with two faces. One face -- that of a man -- looking toward the palm tree on one side, and the other face -- that of a young lion -- looking toward the palm tree on the other side.7

And on and on and on the description goes. But Christians don't make it their business to master the Old Testament, perhaps feeling that it doesn't apply to them, that it is a history book of the Jews. The irony, and it's a huge one, is that it is just the opposite: it's a message from the future -- and a highly detailed one at that. God promises that his Holy Spirit will, in fact, show each of us the things that are to come.8

And in tremendous detail. So this knowledge is there for the taking. Much of it is in the Old Testament. Another common reason that more Christians don't look into the future: "I'm just too busy struggling with just being a Christian, and living the Christian life, to look into the future." These folks don't feel it's practical. They feel that being a Christian is for now, and heaven's for later, and that thinking about heaven doesn't change what happens now. And what happens now is what really counts. But, actually, knowledge of the kingdom is an eminently practical insight into many everyday problems.

Take death, for example. That's a big everyday problem. Knowledge of the kingdom helped at least one person face death with courage. Jesus Christ. He was willing to die a shameful death on the cross because of the joy he knew would be his afterwards.9

The Lord said that his people were destroyed for lack of knowledge.10

And that where there is no vision, the people perish.11

Conclusion: a working knowledge of that great future kingdom on this earth doesn't add to the struggle of the Christian life, it helps overcome the struggle. It helps you live a purposeful, secure life here and now. It sets the stage for a breathtaking eternal life in the world to come. And it motivates us to endure to the end and not grow weary.

There's one last problem that really gets in our way of seeing the kingdom clearly, and it is a particular affliction of the earnest Christian believer. False humility. It seems 'worldly,' doesn't it, to dwell on the rewards of the world to come? Just a little too ambitious, too self-seeking. After all, 'I'm just a sinner saved by grace,' many say. And as the hymn says: "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me." Someone once said there is a lot of bad theology in a lot of good hymns. We once were sinners and wretches, but we're not accounted that by God anymore, not since Christ died to pay in full, once and for all, for our sins. We can confidently say that we are sons and daughters of God himself.

This is not a new problem, however. This was a problem in the time of the Lord Jesus as well. Speaking to a group of religious leaders during the feast of dedication at Solomon's porch at the temple, Jesus, as often was the case, had incensed them. This time it seems he had gone too far. This time they were accusing him of blasphemy. Jesus answered them: Is it not written in your law, "I said, Ye are gods?"12

Jesus was quoting Psalm 82. "Gods" here, in the Hebrew, is ha-elohim. That is a generic form, if you will, of God. This is what the judges were called in ancient Israel. Apparently, it was not an affront to the God who washed the disciples feet that these judges from the days of old were called 'gods.' But it was an outrage to the Jewish leaders of the day that Jesus would consider himself such a one. All Christians are "gods" -- in the sense that we are sons of God, for as many as received him, to them he gave the power to become the sons of God. 13

Not the original Father God, or the original Son God, of course, but we are members of the God family, nevertheless. Hence, 'gods.' Like the Smiths, or the Joneses. God's plan, simply put, is to create a family with whom to share his magnificent existence. The Lord Jesus Christ had all the power, wealth, glory, and honor that anybody could ever want right in heaven. He didn't come to earth and die to achieve any of those things. He came only for us. To create a family of like-minded beings, a new species, with whom to share his rule, his wealth, his world.14

So false humility should not stand in our way of accepting those things. As the late Golda Meir is reported to have said, "Don't be so humble, you're not that great." So, too, with us. We shouldn't be so humble that we can't accept what Christ has made available to us, and at great personal cost. Christians are God's kids, called by his name. So here is the God you always wanted. Here is the Father you always wanted. Your Father with an exciting future to offer you into eternity, and very real help for you now as well. The Lord God you can worship, involuntarily, from the heart. The Lord God you can pray to and talk to not in forced minutes per day once or twice a week, but across untimed minutes, frequently. Here is the Lord God who makes you the head and not the tail, and puts you above only and not beneath. 15

The Lord God who will take every care and set you free once and for all.16

If we can grasp it, there is contained in these truths a greater thrill, a greater exhilaration, more security than anything the world has to offer. There is power. Power to solve all our problems of identity crises, mid-life crises, middle-child complexes, anxieties and the other assorted psychological ills that beset us. In this realization is the power to tie up all the loose ends of our relationship with the Lord. To complete the loop from ritual to reality. There is the motivating power to live confidently. To minister to others. To minister to the Lord himself.


FOOTNOTES
1 Prov. 25:2 It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honor of kings is to search out a matter.
2 Dan. 12:8,9 I heard what he said but I didn't understand what he meant, so I said, 'Sir, how will this all come out?' But he said, 'Go now, Daniel, for what I have said is not to be understood until the time of the end.' LB
3 Acts 17:11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.
4 Henry H. Halley, Halley's Bible Handbook, (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Publishing House), p. 612
5 Homer Hailey, A Commentary on the Minor Prophets, (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House, 1972) p. 11
6 William E. Biederwolf, The Second Coming Bible, (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House), 1972, Introduction
7 Ez. 41:16-20, LB
8 John 16:13 He will show you things to come.
9 Heb. 12:2 He was willing to die a shameful death on the cross because of the joy he knew would be his afterwards. LB
10 Hosea 4:6 My People are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
11 Prov. 29:18 Where there is no vision, the people perish.
12 John 10:34 "'In your own Law it says that men are gods!' he replied.
13 John 1:12 "But to all who received him, he gave the right to become children of God.
14 Rom. 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
15 Deut. 28:13 And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath.
16 Psalm 55:22 Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee.



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Thursday March 28 2024 CHICAGO Last modified: Friday February 19 2016
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