Life in the Earthly Kingdom

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Short Summary
The panel discussion explored the biblical promises and conditions of the mediatorial reign of Christ’s kingdom, emphasizing restoration, resurrection, and the learning of righteousness as central to God’s plan for mankind. The speakers highlighted the kingdom’s mission to restore humanity’s relationship with God through a process involving peace, health, unity, justice, and obedience, assuring that the majority will ultimately succeed in this transformative era. They also stressed the importance of using this hopeful message in witnessing to others as part of fulfilling the gospel mandate.

Long Summary
Detailed Summary of the Panel Discussion on the Mediatorial Reign in the Kingdom and the New Covenant

Introduction and Framework:
– The discussion focuses on the mediatorial reign of Christ in the Kingdom under the new covenant, emphasizing conditions during this reign rather than judgment.
– The panelists set boundaries for the discussion to avoid conjecture and rely on solid biblical evidence.
– Isaiah 55:8-9 is cited as a disclaimer: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways, saith the Lord… For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Value of the Discussion:
– Any scripturally based discussion is valuable (2 Timothy 3:16).
– The kingdom is central to Jesus’ teachings and is the story all mankind desires to hear.
– The kingdom offers hope and encouragement to a distressed world.
– Matthew 24:14 highlights the importance of preaching the kingdom gospel to all nations as a witness before the end comes.
– The discussion serves as both encouragement and a witnessing tool.

Mission and Purpose of the Kingdom:
– The primary mission: to restore mankind to at-one-ment with God, reestablishing the relationship lost in the Fall.
– Learning righteousness is essential to this restoration.
– Romans 5:11 states believers “have received the atonement” through Christ.
– 1 John 2:2 confirms Christ’s atoning sacrifice is for the sins of the whole world.
– The process spans a thousand years, including the “little season” (the period after the kingdom) until full harmony with God is achieved.
– 1 Timothy 2:3-4: God desires all men to be saved and come to knowledge of truth.

Key Promises and Conditions During the Kingdom:

1. Resurrection:
– Involves re-creating individuals with new bodies retaining their original identity and character.
– 1 Corinthians 15:38: God gives the body as He pleases.
– Hebrews 11:39-40: Ancient worthies will work alongside the Christ body in assisting mankind.
– Resurrection order: “the first will be last and the last first” (Fourth Volume, p. 640), raising people gradually in reverse order of death to ease transition.

2. Restitution (Restoration):
– Restoration of what was lost due to Adam’s disobedience, including life and dominion.
– Paradise lost will be restored, but the final test remains at the end of the kingdom.
– The earth itself will be restored (cleaned up, pollution removed) to a state like the Garden of Eden.
– The concept includes recompense for injury and restoration to original state.

3. Health, Vitality, and Nourishment:
– Isaiah 33:24: “The inhabitant shall not say, I am sick.”
– Revelation 21:4: God will wipe away all sickness, death, pain, and sorrow.
– Current healthcare challenges highlight the unsustainability of human efforts.
– Isaiah 35:1-7 describes wilderness blossoming and healing miracles (e.g., lame leaping, dumb speaking).
– The kingdom will provide sustainable health and nourishment, modeled on the original Garden of Eden diet.

4. Perfect Manhood and Human Capabilities:
– Adam and Eve were incomplete; the kingdom will restore perfect manhood.
– Reference to “Superhumans” TV show illustrating extraordinary human abilities suggests kingdom humans will exceed current limitations.
– Marriage will cease in the kingdom (based on scripture, not explicitly cited here).
– Humans will be complete individuals with enhanced capacities.

5. Government and Authority:
– Colossians 1:16: All things created by and for Christ, including earthly rulers.
– Earthly governments exist by divine permission but are flawed; kingdom government will be righteous and orderly.
– Kingdom will not experience anarchic disruption.
– The mediatorial kingdom will have Christ as head, working with the ancient worthies.

6. Truth and Knowledge:
– Kingdom will emphasize learning righteousness and truth.
– Current world is lacking truth; the kingdom will provide clear knowledge of God’s character.
– The “Lord’s great army” (anarchistic movements) reveal flaws to be corrected.

7. Peace and Safety:
– Isaiah 32:17: “The work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever.”
– Present world is full of violence and insecurity (example: high firearm ownership in the U.S., home invasions).
– Kingdom peace will be guaranteed under God’s iron rule.
– Peace is necessary for learning righteousness.

8. Loving and Nurturing Environment:
– Kingdom will foster love and nurturing, reflecting God’s love.
– Love for God and neighbor are the two greatest commandments.
– Unity and nurture are essential for spiritual growth.

9. Natural Balance and Dominion:
– Isaiah 65:25: Animals will live peacefully together; man will regain righteous dominion.
– Balance between mankind and nature restored; no harm or destruction in God’s holy mountain.

10. Fruitage (Spiritual Fruit):
– Kingdom conditions will promote development of fruits of the Spirit.
– Acts 3:23 warns those who will not hear the prophet (Christ) will be destroyed.
– Execution of disobedient individuals will occur as a correction mechanism (example of Nadab and Abihu).
– Isaiah 65:23: “They shall not labor in vain.”

11. Obedience:
– Ezekiel 11:19: God will replace the “stony heart” with a “heart of flesh.”
– Obedience is key: “Obey and live; disobey and die.”
– Kingdom law will be clear and simple.

12. Oneness and Unity:
– Revelation 5:9-10: The church comes from every tribe, tongue, and nation.
– Ephesians 4:4-6: One body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God.
– Zephaniah 3:9: God will “turn to the people a pure language” so all may serve Him with one consent.
– Kingdom will have harmony despite diversity.

13. Judgment and Justice:
– Psalm 98:9: God will judge the earth with righteousness and equity.
– Earthly judicial systems are flawed; kingdom justice will be fair and efficient.
– Christ and the ancient worthies will administer judgment.

14. Relationship to God:
– “Lo, this is our God” will be the universal confession.
– Thousands of conflicting religions today will be replaced by one true knowledge of God.

Using Kingdom Knowledge in Witnessing:
– Matthew 24:14 is foundational for preaching.
– Practical suggestions: distributing tracts at funerals, fairs, grocery stores, with gratuities, or to the homeless.
– Kingdom knowledge strengthens witness and encourages others.

When Will All Nations Know God’s Kingdom?
– Initial recognition begins with Israel; they will understand the spiritual kingdom and Jesus as King (Fourth Volume, p. 628).
– The process of worldwide recognition will be gradual.

Will the Majority of Mankind Succeed?
– Affirmative answer based on God’s desire and superior kingdom government.
– Most will succeed quickly; a few will fail and be weeded out (sheep and goats).
– Proverbs 9:10: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”
– Isaiah 31 warns rebellious children of sorrow.
– Matthew 22:32 and John 3:16-17 emphasize God’s desire for life and salvation, not condemnation.

Closing Scripture and Encouragement:
– 1 Corinthians 2:9: “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard… the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”
– Panelists express hope that the discussion will inspire kingdom-focused witnessing and joy.

Key Bible Verses Referenced:

– Isaiah 55:8-9
– 2 Timothy 3:16
– Matthew 24:14
– Romans 5:11
– 1 John 2:2
– 1 Timothy 2:3-4
– 1 Corinthians 15:38
– Hebrews 11:39-40
– Isaiah 33:24
– Revelation 21:4
– Isaiah 35:1-7
– Colossians 1:16
– Isaiah 32:17
– Ezekiel 11:19
– Ephesians 4:4-6
– Zephaniah 3:9
– Psalm 98:9
– Acts 3:23
– Isaiah 65:23, 65:25
– Matthew 22:32
– John 3:16-17
– 1 Corinthians 2:9

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This extensive discussion highlights the biblical promises and conditions during Christ’s mediatorial kingdom reign, emphasizing restoration, righteousness, peace, unity, and ultimate success for the majority of mankind. It encourages faithful witnessing grounded in these hopeful truths.

Transcript

You know, when we got this assignment, you know what my reaction was? Wow, we got the best subject ever. Think about it. This is the story that all mankind wants to hear, and we’re here to discuss it. You know, it reminds me of the Lord’s player.

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, and so we’re going to give, we’re going to frame up here what this is talking about. Now, this could be very broad. I’m going to kind of pull it in a little bit. It’s.

This is the mediatorial reign in the kingdom, so the new covenant it established, and this is not judgment. So we’ve kind of got some boundaries here as to conditions we’re going to talk about. I think it’s all, all important before we start to give a disclaimer, and the disclaimer is a scripture. Isaiah 58, 8, 9.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. So we’re going to offer our thoughts. We’re going to show the scriptural insights and realize, you know, as we discuss this amongst each other, we’re going to give each other some latitude. We’re not going to try to, you know, project and, and do things.

We don’t want conjecture, but there’s a lot of solid evidence in the Bible what conditions are going to be like, and it’s great. It’s great. Beyond anyone’s expectations. So the first question I’m going to put to the panelists is what’s the value of a discussion like this?

Just jump in. Jump in. Yeah, we’re jumping in, so I’ll jump in. First. I guess I would start off by saying that any discussion that we have that is based upon the Scriptures, there’s value in that discussion.

Second Timothy 3, 16 talks about how all scripture is prophet and talks about the things that it’s profitable for, for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instructions and righteousness. So as long as we’re up here talking about the Scriptures, I think there is value in the discussion. Before I pass it over to Brother Ed, I’m looking at Brother Lynn. I was not going to make the comment, but I think I’m going to make the comment anyway. Look, if the consecrated in this room are faithful unto the end, life in the earthly kingdom will not be ours.

But someone whispered in my ear before coming up here that if we do A good enough job in our presentation. Maybe some of us may change our mind. I’m not endorsing that though.

Passing it on. Thank you, brother Bryan. You know that our Lord, that’s all he talked about was the kingdom, and that’s something that we should be talking about with all that. Have a listening ear.

And if you remember throughout the scriptures that said that the kingdom of heaven is like, the kingdom of heaven is like, and we have anytime we have an opportunity we should share what that kingdom is, and for especially someone in the world that would be interested in God’s plan for the restoration of mankind. So that is very significant, and the other aspect of it does apply to us and that is that it encourages us to know that we have this opportunity to help bless the world of mankind in this kingdom process and help them on the other side.

Help them then help them learn righteousness and get on that highway of holiness. Yeah. You know, when we, when we discussed this earlier, this brought to mind Matthew 24:14 and this gospel. The kingdom shall be preached in all the world for witness unto all nations, and then, and only then shall the income.

Whose job is that sars. Blessed are your eyes for you see these things. So we should be very interested because we have the best story in the world to tell. God has a plan, everyone is in it, and it’s much better than anyone can expect.

But we can give them definites and we’re going to talk about some of those definites. So this is really part of our witnessing and our example to those in the world. So if you want a part in that Matthew 24:14, which we all do pay attention. Right. The second question we’ve got is what is the mission of the kingdom?

What’s its purpose? You know, we kind of frame it up so that we kind of realize why are we doing this? What’s the mission?

I would, I would say there’s two main objectives. One is the obvious. To restore mankind into at one ment with God. That’s what God had with Adam before the fall, and that’s his whole plan centers around re establishing that at one ment with God and having that relationship with our Heavenly Father.

And, and the second aspect of that is learning righteousness to get to that at one man process, and so really that’s the, the focus of the, of the, of the kingdom to get to the end when our, our Lord turns the kingdom over to the Father and, and restores that at one. But in that all that during that time they will have to learn righteousness yeah, and I like that word at one mint. Or atonement being a general sense, the mission of the kingdom, just by way of a definition, means the actions taken to correct a wrong that brought about a damaged relationship. You know, there are a lot of damaged relationships that individuals have.

They can have damaged relationships with friends, with work associates, with family members, even a spouse. But I would submit that there is no relationship that is more important to repair than that of the relationship that the human family has with our Heavenly Father. After sin entered into the world due to the fall of Adam, those that overcome and there are part that have been running the race for the mark of the prize of the high calling. Romans 5:11 tells us that we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have received the atonement. So that discusses the relationship that the church experiences, but that is expanded also for the world of mankind.

First John 2, 2 tells us he’s the atoning sacrifice, not only for our sins, but also for ours, but also for the sins of the whole world, and we’re talking about a process over a period of a thousand years, and I would submit, also following the presentation we heard yesterday by Brother Rick, would it be inclusive also of the little season until that fullness of the atonement is completed, when ultimately mankind will be in harmony with our Heavenly Father? Okay, very good, and.

And it kind of reminded me of 1st Timothy 2, 3 and 4, where it clearly states that God’s purpose, who he wants to have all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. So it’s coming back into alignment with God, his principles, his character, and then getting to know the Heavenly Father, getting to know him, and, you know, as we look in the world today, and if you watch the news, it’s distressing. It is. I don’t watch it as much as I used to, but we have a message of hope and encouragement that no one else has.

And so we want to look at the kingdoms you know, we’re promised by all the prophets of old. The promises are all out there, right? And you can go to any of the minor or major prophets, and they’ve got prophecies there. It’s telling what’s going to happen and the conditions. So we’re going to look at some of those.

And as we look at each of these things that’s promised, we want to say what conditions are necessary to bring mankind back and how is this different than today? So the first one is the resurrection. What conditions are necessary to accomplish this? So Maybe I’ll kick it off this time around. I happen to like definitions, so maybe I will start suggests one or resurrection.

And I would say it involves the recreation of a person and that individual is given a new body. But it’s going to come with that old identity or character superstructure that it went into the grave with. What that new body is going to look like, I can’t say for sure. First Corinthians 5, 1538, I should say says, but God giveth a body as it hath pleaseth him, so we want to bear that in mind. But another component of the resurrection involves us.

If we’re faithful unto the end, that is critically important. You know, if we take a look at Hebrews chapter 11, verses 39 and 40, there’s reference there made to the ancient worthies. They without us shall not be made perfect. So the ancient worthies are going to have a critical part in assisting mankind up the highway of holiness, but they cannot do the work alone. It’s going to start with us, with part of the Christ head and body that will share in that work, that helps bring them back and that they can assist in assisting mankind on the earth, obtain the blessings of life.

So thank you, Brian. Yeah, and, and that assistance is. Is an important aspect of that resurrection.

And that’s why we. We find that the order of the resurrection, it’s the. The first will be last and last will be first. We found a great reference in fourth volume, page 640 regarding that order.

We can see how reasonable it would be to expect those that have gone in their graves first would be raised last by recalling the dead gradually, and in the reverse order from that in which they went down. They would provide homes and be able to welcome them into this new kingdom, provide the necessary comforts of life for those risen, and they would be acquainted with the language and things that. That existed at their death.

And, and then he mentions that, well, if the order were reversed, the awakened ones would be quite unprepared, as these respects for the new conditions would be to complete strangers, and as to the generation in the midst of which their new lot would be calf. So, so you can see the wisdom in God’s plan and in his in this resurrection process to bring the first last and the last first. Everything will just gradually progress in, in a very logical sequence. So we see the wisdom of God in the.

In the arrangement of the resurrection and the management of the resurrection. I kind of look at it like this. Maybe you’re having a family reunion. This is the biggest Family reunion ever. What happens if no one shows up?

That’s why you need a resurrection to bring people back so they can have a basis to start. Start this process. Next, we’re going to look at restitution. Another thing that’s profit, and, you know, we could go through probably 30 scriptures where this is promised, but we’re not going to do that.

We want to talk about, well, why is restitution necessary as a part of this plan?

Go ahead, Brother Brian Holmes. Okay, look, restoration. Restitution is an expression that the brethren often use talking about paradise loss in paradise being restored, and the paradise loss obviously started. Started with Father Adam in the garden.

So what, what did Adam had? He had perfection of life. He was given dominion over the animals in the garden. He even had a spouse that was taken. Taken out of his.

Out of his side, out of his rib. So he was provided for so long as he remained obedient to our Heavenly Father, which we know did not take place. But that ultimate restoration, I would submit that that’s not even going to come during the kingdom because there is going to be a final test at the end of the day to see whether or not mankind has learned its lesson in a perfected sense, or it’s going to get cut off after being tested at the end. I would add that, you know, sometimes when we think of paradise today from a human standpoint, some may think of paradise like the Maldives Islands, so the Cook Islands or the Fiji Islands. There’s even a portion in the Overland Monthly that Brother Russell wrote under the heading paradise better than Honolulu.

Okay? And I don’t know how many have flown into Oahu before, but if you fly into the island of Oahu and to the airport there, and ultimately you have to drive into the city of Honolulu, it does not look like paradise. For whatever we envision paradise looks like, it looks like just about any other city across the country. So the paradise that ultimately is going to come through the work of the kingdom is beyond human imagination. Not Honolulu or any other island.

Thank you, Brother Brian. If you look at the definition of restitution and you think of God’s plan, there’s. There’s three things that mentions the restoration of something lost or stolen to its proper owner. Well, we know what was lost. Life was lost.

Recompense for injury or loss. Here’s a plan to provide recompense for that injury and loss, and then the restoration of something to its original state, and that’s exactly what this kingdom process is. Now, it not only included the loss of man’s life and, but the, the earth suffered as well.

So we will not only see the, the restitution of mankind, but we will see the, the earth being cleaned up and restored to it the way it was in the, in the Garden of Eden. Yeah, and so in its largest sense, you know, this is not just one thing. It’s really all these things that are promised because all of these are necessary. I will assert God doesn’t do anything unnecessarily.

He’s the divine economist, and as we look at these promises, we realize, well, if you are resurrected in a perfect body and you come back to a chemical waste dump, there’s going to be a problem. Right? Yeah. Or if you come back in the, the conditions are not good enough to learn righteousness, there’s a problem.

Or if you had health issues, that’s a problem, and I think as we look through all of these, these things take care of the if onlys. If only. My mind didn’t have ADD when I came back, so I was distracted. If only I didn’t have that limp, I could have served more.

If only. So there’s all these if onlys, and when we talk about restitution or restoration of the things that are promised, it’s all of those things, and so the next thing we’re going to look at that’s promised is health, vitality and good nourishment. I know good nourishments.

You’re going to have a few things to say about that. Well then go ahead, brother. He’s, he’s very.

I like the ego. Let there be no mistake about that. Look, Isaiah 33:24, and the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick. Okay?

Future promise, and there’s so much sickness and disease in this world today, it’s beyond belief, really. It’s, it’s unimaginable that things can continue on at this pace through man’s own efforts. Look, I’ll share this. Revelation 21:4 is a familiar verse of scripture that we know talking about how God will wipe away all tears from their eyes.

There will be no more death, sorrow, crying or pain. Okay, but even outside of that, think of the cost factor of today to manage all that in the world today. Global health care market estimated annual costs $30 billion, and it keeps going up seemingly every year, and then there are those that are losing insurance and you know, services are being cut back or individuals not able to get treatment.

So aside from all the sickness and disease, it’s not a sustainable model. So only the kingdom is going to provide something that’s sustainable for the human family, and I might also. One other point. I am mindful of how the first pair did eat in the garden.

And I think that that was a model or example ultimately as to what mankind will probably be doing, certainly if not during the, during the kingdom, but during the ages to come. So that’s my comment. Thank you, Brother Brian. We found Isaiah 35:1 1 through 7. It said, the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them.

And the desert shall rejoice and blossom as a rose, and, and shall blossom abundantly and rejoice even with joy and singing, and I’ll, I’ll skip up to, and to say to them that are of fearful heart, be strong, fear not, behold your God, come with vengeance, and then shall the lame man leap, as in heart and the tongue of the dumb sing. For in the wilderness shall waters break out and streams in the desert.

And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water. In the habitation of dragons where each lay shall. Shall be grass with reeds and brushes. Now that doesn’t that sound better than Honolulu? Yes, it does.

And, and so we know that in this restoration process, and, and I see the restoration process began when our Lord returned because we see there’s a lot of things that have been cleaned up, even from the, the cleaning up the environment, air pollution, water pollution. There’s been activists that have been pushing for that to happen, and gradually we’ve seen that same with our food. There’s processes going on to help better the food that we eat, and so it’s going to take some time, but it’s a process that will continue until we reach perfection.

So we’ve seen, I think, you know, if you look 100 years back, people didn’t live as long as we do. It was nutrition, it was sanitation, it was health care, all of these things. But these are, you know, they’re like anything in today’s world. These are temporary measures. Next we’re going to look at perfect manhood.

So, you know, when Adam, Adam was complete and then the rib was taken out of him and we have Adam and Eve, and that was necessary to fulfill God’s edict, be fruitful, multiply and fulfill the earth, fill the earth. But it went beyond that too. I mean, when, when the scriptures say that she’s your help mate and vice versa, the man is the help mate of the woman, means that we’re not complete. So how is that going to change in the kingdom?

Well, that, that’ll Change dramatically. We’ll see that man’s health will reach perfection.

Several years ago, there was a TV show called Superhumans, and it was by Stan Lee. He was, I think, creator of the Marvel comic superheroes, and the show ran from, I think, 2010 to 2014, and it featured people with extraordinary physical or mental abilities. For instance, there was a. They call them the human calculator, and they would just shout out these equations, and they had these young kids typing in their computer this equation, and this fella gave the answer before they could, before the computer did.

There was another, a blind autistic man who could accurately recreate any piano piece with hearing it. Once there were others with fantastic memories, and they took a guy to a Home Depot store and with shopping carts, and they put a hundred objects in that. In those carts, and then he remembered the price of each one. So when they went to the checkout, he gave the price before it scanned in.

And there was another fellow that went to the beginning of a. A marathon race and got the names of the people in the race, and then at the end of the race, as each one came across the finish line, that he gave the name of those people. So what does this all mean? Well, what they did is they took these people and did an MRI on their brain, and they saw a particular part of the brain that was very active, just one little part that lit up with a lot of activity.

And I thought, you know, think of that. If. If our whole brain had those capabilities, had all those functions, can you imagine what the perfect human being would be like to have those capabilities? And far beyond, and there were.

There were a whole list of these. The super human capabilities that, that those capabilities originated from a brain with just one small part very active, and so that just. It just almost sent chills down your spine. Yeah.

So we really don’t know, you know, how much we know. We’re using only a tiny portion of our brains. Yeah. But it goes beyond that. People will be complete individuals.

Marriage will no longer exist. We know that based on. On scripture as well. Going on to the next. What’s the dark man arrangement going to be?

Oh, so I’ll go to another scripture from Colossians 1:16, and Colossians 1:16 tells us, for by him all things were created, both in the heavens or earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, dominions, or rulers or authorities. All things. That all things have been created by him and for him, and the reason why I raised that scripture, cited that scripture is from this standpoint, those that rule on the earth, I would submit, are permitted to do so by God, to exercise authority over the human family which has been entrusted to them.

Now that may be something that’s hard for many to absorb and swallow. I recognize that we have an international audience when we take into account those that are online, probably. But I would say that because we’re in the United States and whatever some may feel about the government’s past and present of the United States, the conclusion should be, I suppose we can talk about this later if you disagree, but that a. How should we put it, a dictatorship may very well be better than anarchy only because there’s control of the people, whether one likes the feeling of that control or not. So in other words, we still have a government structure in place until the world just starts to rebel, the church is gone and we’re going to just see worldwide anarchy.

We’re not quite there yet, but we see a lot of things that are going on throughout. So that contrasts with the Kingdom. There’s not going to be disruptive disruption in the kingdom. God’s not going to permit it in all his holy mountain. They’re not going to disrupt or destroy any, any part of what the future arrangement holds.

And we can contrast that with today, and we can see evidences of that here and there, whether it’s this country or in other places. So today we’re clearly in trouble and always have been actually competing tribes, competing governments. It’s been an issue ongoing. There’s issues with fishing, for instance, and international treaties and so forth.

The latest is AI needs to be regulated worldwide. We can’t even get our own government. So we realize there’ll be one and one is good. When it’s a righteous government, we’re going to go on to our next area, which is truth and knowledge, which we know Brother Lynn gave a talk on, we know is in short supply. What’s the situation in the Kingdom?

What are we promised? Well, again it’s, it’s learning righteousness and, and that’s the, the, the, the basis of, of truth and knowledge to learn what is right, and uh, and we see that occurring in, really in the, in this anarchistic movement because you see in fact Brother Russell terms these anarchists as the Lord’s great army and he cautions us to stay out of that. But what they’re, what the Lord’s great army is doing is bringing to light things that need to be fixed, and, and, and from that I think we’ll see righteousness follow and, and, and truth that they will understand who God is who his character is and, and appreciate that more and more and then get to the point where they’ll be able to share with their loved ones that come back in the right direction.

Okay, very good.

Okay, next we’re going to look at promise, peace and safety. That’s in very short supply today.

Indeed. Isaiah 32:17 talks about the future peace and the work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and, and assurance forever. Forever. You know, needless to say, as to the lack of peace in the world today, I was just thinking, in the US alone there are an estimated 400 to 500 million which is more than people civilian owned firearms.

400 to 500 million. That translates to one and a half firearms per person in the US that use, uses or potentially can use in a variety of ways. Because I don’t have a gun. You know, you can raise that percentage up a little bit for others that do because presume both these gentlemen may not either. But the point is this peace in its most basic sense, the absence of war, the absence of violence, okay.

It is a state of tranquility, harmony, freedom from all types of disturbances both within oneself and externally. Look, there’s, I’m pretty sure that there is a brother right now, I’m not going to name his name, number of, you know him, but his home was robbed yesterday and he wasn’t at home. He was on the service call and on behalf of the Lord’s people. But his neighbors also were robbed, and make a long story short, these individuals went into their house waving machetes.

Okay. Within the house, and the Lord did not permit him to be there for that particular experience. That is not in my estimation the definition of peace. That will not exist in the future.

So and so why is peace and safety necessary in the kingdom?

It’ll be required and, and it’ll be under the iron rule. The, this, the whole process of learning righteousness will be that mankind will learn what it is and have to obey that, and as a result they will experience that peace and safety. So perfect learning conditions if you’re distressed, if you’re hungry, if you’re injured or sick, you can’t learn righteousness. If you don’t feel safe, you can’t learn righteousness.

Next is a loving and nurturing environment, and I will tell you, you know, looking at this convention, I see loving and nurturing people. When you go out in the world, you don’t see that. So why is that important in the kingdom?

Well, here again you it’s Just common sense that you will have to love and nurture each other. Know there’s that. Am I my brother’s keeper? Well, yes, you. You will love one another and nurture one another and, and share the goodness of God’s plan with others.

How do we learn the truth? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, most likely we. Well, even if we might have picked up a book and been drawn, we learn from experiences like this, from our brethren. Yeah, look, even as little children, for most of us, one of the earliest morsels of truth that we each learned was that God is love.

God is love, and when we think about. So we want to emulate God in our lives and the world ultimately is going to emulate God in their lives. We go back to the two great commandments, you know, when, when the question was teaching what’s the greatest commandment of the law? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind.

That’s the first and greatest commandment, and the second one is love your neighbor as yourself. So that is something that is going to have broad application, I would say, during the kingdom. This is supposed to be the United States of America. So, you know, we’re not talking about red states or blue states or even the supposed United States.

The world is going to be united under ultimately when God becomes all in all and the love of God is going to emanate throughout the globe. So that’s my comment. Yeah, it’s necessary. None of us as a child would. Would learn if we didn’t have anyone to nurture and guide us.

The next category we’ve got is natural balance and dominion, which man lost in the garden. Why is that necessary? Well, we looked at Isaiah 65, 25, and there are other scriptures that relate to the. The lion laying down with the lamb, says, the wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock, and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. It shall not hurt nor destroy in God’s holy mountain.

So. So we will see that there will be this balance of nature between the man and, and the, and the animals, so that there’s nothing will hurt nor destroy in his holy case. I mean, ultimately, after the little season in the ages to come, man will once again have dominion over the earth, but it’ll be in righteousness and it’ll be in God’s.

God’s arrangement. What about fruitage? You know, I know many times we do, we work long hard hours and then at work they change something and basically it’s all for not right, and even if we build a house, I mean, we may have a disaster and it’s torn up. What about fruitage?

Are there promises about that? And why is that necessary in the kingdom? Yeah, look, the fruitage of the Spirit, and we even talk about the fruits of the Spirit today insofar as the character, structure or superstructure that the Lord’s people need to develop, in many ways, the world is going to have to develop that as well. We can take a look, for example, at Acts 3:23, where it talks about, and it shall come to pass that every soul which will not hear that prophet part of the Christ, they’re going to be destroyed from among the people.

I, I will give you one other example, and this also comes from the overland monthly, page 131, bottom of page 131, the pastor talks about the element of execution. Now what am I referring to? I’m referring to if we take a look at two of Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, you know, they violated their relationship with God and what happened to them, they were struck down immediately, and so that ultimately for those that don’t come in harmony with that arrangement and don’t show the type of fruitage and development that they should, they’re going to be struck down, and I would like to hope and believe that those that see this taking taking place are going to want to be motivated to get their characters superstructure correct, to show the type of footage that they need to show in order to make progress during the course of the day.

I think this is a promise in Isaiah 65:23. They shall not labor in vain. So all things, you know, that are transitory today will be long term. They won’t be in vain. What about obedience?

Why is obedience necessary in the kingdom?

Ezekiel 11:19. I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you, and I will take the stony heart of our flesh and we’ll give them a heart of flesh out. I’m sorry, Take the stony heart out of the flesh and give them a heart of flesh. So obedience will be necessary.

God’s plan will be very simple. Obey and live, disobey and die. So it will be easy for those. They will understand what’s required and either you obey or you don’t. Yeah, universal principle, right?

Obey and live, disobey and die. That’s. That’s incredible. How about oneness? You know, now we have so many divisions.

Why is oneness necessary in the kingdom? Well, if we think about the church for a moment in Revelation 5, 9 and 10. Where does the Church come from? It comes from every tribe, tongue and nation. So that’s ultimately what the church is going to look like.

I would think that the kingdom is going to look like that as well. For example, Ephesians 4, 4, 6 emphasizes that there’s going to be one body, one Spirit, called to one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God. Okay, so mankind is not going to be living a star, separate and apart from one another, separate communities holding on to certain customs, you know, no borders, no immigration control, so on and so forth. Oneness is going to be needed under the guise first of the Christ, head and body. They’re going to learn instruction through the ancient worthies and learn what righteous living is about to ultimately be or have oneness or a oneness relationship with our Heavenly Father.

And the progress that they, that we trust they’ll make through the kingdom will bring that about.

Excuse me. Zephaniah 3, 9. For then will I turn to the people, a pure language that they may all call upon the name of the Lord to serve him with one consent. Harmony. Yeah, we look out in the media today.

There are so many messages and which one’s true? There’s only one truth and there’ll be a oneness in the people, just like our assembly. Did you notice? I mean, there are, there are young and old, there are different races, there are male and female, there are different nationalities and regions, and yet when we come together, as it should be, those are not significant.

We’re one, and so we’re demonstrating this right now in our own lives. What about judgment and justice? Why is that necessary?

Go ahead. Well, I, I think about my vocation before I retired some years ago and I worked around a lot of judges, and so what are judges supposed to do? They’re supposed to properly apply the law, but act in a fair, just even handed way. But because there’s so backlog, quite often they don’t want to have every matter brought before them.

So they’re committing sides to come to resolutions perhaps that are not based always on justice. Okay. Also in the courts of this world, just to compare, there can be results that may seem to be just, but you know, you can appeal those and they can get overturned, so on and so forth. So the human system is not a successful model in that regard. God’s system, God’s kingdom ultimately is geared to help mankind come up, and I’m repeating myself again, but come up before the highway of, of holiness.

Psalm 98, 9. Let them sing before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth. He’ll judge the world in righteousness and the peoples with equity that’s promised by God. God will deliver on that promise. Okay, and, and we know that in, in the kingdom, the mediatorial phase of the kingdom, we’ll have the Christ head and body corresponding with the ancient worthies to deliver that judgment and justice to those that are disobedient and fail to live up to the requirements of our heavenly Father.

All right, very good, and I’m going to just handle the last one because we’re getting short on time. Our relationship to God know they’re going to say, lo, this is our God, and if we look at the world today, there are thousands of religions. There’s much disagreement about beliefs.

There’s going to be one and all will know Him. So that’s a very wonderful thing. Now, so we’ve talked about really the conditions during the kingdom, restitution, resurrection, all of these different aspects. They’re all necessary so that no one will be able to say, well, if only I would have been able to make my consecration. Because they’re going to have to dedicate themselves to the Lord and be obedient, as has been pointed out.

So we’ve given you some insights and of course you have long lists of scriptures, God’s promises come true, all of the different tracks that we have that are wonderful for witnessing. So how can we use this knowledge and how should we be using it in our witnessing?

Look, I think you start off this discussion talking about Matthew 24:14. So as we have those opportunities to go out and preach the gospel, we should go ahead and do that. Now. Where can we do that? A multitude of ways, a multitude of places.

Funerals may be ideal places. I know there’s some brethren that are involved in fair booths. Perhaps you’re giving someone a gratuity for a service. Give them the gratuity. Attach a track to that.

Some may still mail bills you can always throw in with your check. You can throw it. There you go, and these fit in envelopes. Chinese grocery stores.

Very nice. So even to the homeless on the street, you know, give them a dollar, give them a track. So just some ideas. All right, very good. Another question we had was when will all nations know God’s kingdom?

Insight. Yeah, we, we know that, that the, much of that will begin with Israel. They’ll see the, the things that are going on in Israel. They already see that. They see Israel’s technology and, and, but they have no idea why this is going on.

And who gets the credit for it? But eventually we’ll see those blessings flow from from Israel to the world of mankind, and there will come a time in fact kind of scrambling to find where, oh, here it is. This, this was a reference from, I believe it was the fourth volume, 628 says Israel’s long cherished hopes of the kingdom will meantime be reviving amongst those who from the respect for the promises shall have gathered to Palestine. So this goes back to when they were able to buy land in 1878 and put their blood, sweat and tears into developing that into a nation.

Says when to these the ancient worthy shall declare the resurrection and the form of righteousness government will be established and then the plan will undoubtedly be promptly recognized as of the Lord, and when they shall learn that the real kingdom over them is the spiritual and that Jesus the crucified is the King and mentally with the eye of faith shall look upon whom they pierced, then they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only Son, and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn, and this struck me because this just came up in our second volume study where we were talking about the appearances in the body of Christ and we, we wondered if the our Lord’s body was was preserved somewhere for them to prove that it was our Lord. But here brother Russell suggests that they will mentally with the eye of faith recognize that. So they would need that but from then from Israel and when they recognize that God is this is the kingdom of God, eventually the rest of the world will will recognize that as well.

The process. It’s a process. Yeah. It’s not going to be immediate. We’re going to go.

We, we have many more questions to answer. I hope you realize we’re excited about this, this panel, and I hope all of you are too, because this is the gospel of the kingdom. Good news. Good news. Our Our fifth major question is when will the, when will.

Will the majority of mankind succeed in the kingdom?

Short answer I say yes, and one of the reasons why I say yes is because if we take a look at our day today and we see all forms of governments all across the globe and their failing governments? If Christ’s kingdom is supposed to be the very best governmental arrangement that the world has ever seen and and is a failure, then what difference would it be from the work from, from the, from the ages past and present? It has to be better. Mankind is going to succeed because our Heavenly Father wants mankind to succeed.

The Church, the Christ Head and body wants mankind to succeed. So are there going to be some that fall off? Yes. But the overwhelming majority, I would expect, will do well very quickly. Fourth volume 639.

Thus we see that the educational reforms and instructions of the future will begin with the hearts of men. They will start with the lesson from Proverbs 9:10. The reverence of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. One of the great difficulties of present day education, which tends to pride, arrogance and discontent, is its lack of its elementary wisdom. Every work of grace under the regulations of the kingdom will be properly begun and thoroughly accomplished.

So we feel that mankind, the majority of mankind, will succeed. Only the very heart of heart, and they will be weeded out with the sheep and the goats. Yeah, good news again. Most are going to succeed.

Here’s the promise now there are going to be some that are rebellious. Isaiah 31 what sorrow awaits my rebellious children? We know what that is. But the obedient it says in Matthew 22:2032, God is not the God of the dead, but of the living, and then, of course, all the world quotes John 3:16.

But 3:17 is the punchline, for God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but the world through him might be saved. Good news. Good news, and just to close, I see our chairman is up. We talked about, how do you close?

First Corinthians 2:9. But as it is written, I hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God have prepared for them that love you. Good news. So I’m hoping that when we have our meal this evening, we’ll all discuss kingdom promises, and maybe that’ll be the basis of our witnessing in the coming days and weeks, and so with that, we thank our panelists.

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