The Gospel of the Kingdom—The Book of Revelation
Rick Joyner
We come to one of
the most wonderful and exciting declarations in the Bible:
Then the
seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, "The
kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and
He will reign forever and ever."
And the
twenty-four elders, who sit on their thrones before God, fell on their faces
and worshiped God, saying,
"We
give You thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty, who are and who were, because You
have taken Your great power and have begun to reign” (Revelation 11:15-17).
The seventh
trumpet, or the seventh worldwide message to go forth, is the greatest of
all—the King is taking up His kingdom and will now rule over the earth.
“Gospel” means “good news,” and the earth has never heard better news than
this.
Jesus said this
Gospel of the kingdom must be preached throughout the earth before the end of
this age could come (see Matthew 24:14). It is the opinion of many that this
Gospel has not been preached to the whole earth, and that it has not been
preached since the first century. What has mostly been presented is the gospel of salvation, not the Gospel
of the kingdom. The gospel of salvation is certainly “good news,” and so
wonderful that it is understandable that this alone could become the focus and
have such power to transform the world. Yet, it is not the whole Gospel, and it
is not the Gospel that must be preached to the whole world.
The Gospel of the kingdom is about the coming kingdom of God. It begins with the
redemption of the earth by the cross of Jesus, but it goes on to the
reconciliation of the earth to God. This is followed by its restoration from
the consequences of the Fall. It is consummated when the Son delivers the
restored earth to God, the Father, and God Himself comes to live on the earth
among men.
To know that the
earth will be the paradise that it was originally intended to be is almost too
wonderful to comprehend, but to know that Almighty God has chosen the earth to
be His ultimate dwelling place takes it beyond comprehension. God is going to
walk with man in His garden again. Now consider this—the way has already been
opened for us to experience this now.
The Lord has used
the Fall of man to bring forth “a new creation” that transcends the original
creation, and we have been invited to live in this now. Becoming a new creation
is not just being restored back to what Adam had, but it is an invitation to
become members of God’s own family and take on His divine nature in the
resurrection. He has invited us to sit with Him now on His throne and become
more at home in the heavenly realm than in the natural, earthly realm.
As one of the
ancients wrote, “We are not called to be natural men who have occasional
heavenly experiences, but we are called to be spiritual men who have occasional
natural experiences.” The new creation means to be a new species that is both
natural and spiritual, but one that is morphing into becoming more and more
spiritual. Some believe that this is what Enoch did so that there had become
such a thin veil between him and the heavenly realm that God just pulled him
over into heaven. Perhaps, but there are many references to this being our
calling in Christ—to keep our eyes on things above and not on the earth.
The resurrection
at any level will be more wonderful than we can comprehend in this life, but we
are also told of “a better resurrection” that some attain to. This is the “high
calling of God in Christ” that Paul wrote about in Philippians 3. Paul did not
consider that he had yet attained to it, but he had come to the place of
focusing everything on attaining this high calling.
In II Timothy 2:15, we are told about “rightly dividing the word of
truth” (KNJV). We cannot take just one Scripture verse or
concept and apply it to the whole when there are others that address the same
issue differently. These differences are not in conflict with each other, but
they reveal different aspects of an issue. For example, some have taken the
references to the heavenly resurrection to assume that all who are given
eternal life and are resurrected in heaven when many other Scriptures talk
about those who inhabit the earth after the resurrection. These are not in
conflict, but both are true. The heavenly resurrection is “the better
resurrection” that some attain to, but not everyone.
Some have assumed
that everyone who believes in Christ will attain the heavenly resurrection, and
that the earthly one is for those righteous ones who walked with God before
Christ. Yet, there are Scriptures that refute this. Even so, the Scriptures are
pretty ambiguous about both resurrections, so we should not be dogmatic about
our conclusion. Nonetheless, we can be sure that there is “a better
resurrection” that some attain to.
Keep in mind that
we see in part, and so remaining open, it appears that the multitude that
stands “before the throne” in Revelation has gained eternal life by their faith
in the atonement of the cross of Jesus, but they have lived less than
overcoming lives. Most Christians today would fall far short of even being a
disciple, according to the incredibly stringent qualifications for this that
Jesus gave. Yet they are resurrected and have gained eternal life by the faith
they have in His atonement. However, they will be those reigned over by those
who attained authority in the age to come through the ways Jesus specified in
His teachings, such as in the Parable of the Talents.
There are many deep and rich discussions and debates about this from teachers
in church history. Even so, I think the Lord intentionally left this so
ambiguous to keep us pressing on for the prize, like Paul the apostle
expressed. However, about the kingdom itself we have many more specifics, and
these we must know and begin to proclaim. This is the next great message that I am expecting to hear proclaimed.