How the Kingdom of God Is Manifested On the Earth

Jesus said: "Pray this Way... [the Father's Kingdom] come, His will be done, On earth as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10). Long have Christians struggled to do "good" so they could die and go to Heaven, thinking Heaven was some faraway place in the sky. Actually the Heaven they should be concerned about is the heaven that is coming on earth. It is here that God's will is to be done like it is already being done in Heaven. So called "heaven" is actually a spiritual place where God (God is a spirit, Jn 4:24) dwells. He desires a permanent spiritual house on the earth within which to dwell; that is in the Kingdom of God.

Man has been trying from the beginning to build God a house within which to dwell on earth. Moses built a tabernacle (or sacred tent) in the wilderness and an Ark of the Covenant for God to dwell within in the Holy of Holies in the tent. The sacred tent (Heb. mishkan, "the dwelling-place") is the movable tent-temple which Moses erected for the service of God, according to the "pattern" which God himself showed to him on the mount (Ex. 25:9; Heb. 8:5). Later Solomon built a magnificent temple for the Lord and on the day of its dedication the presence of the God was so prevalent that the priests could not stand to minister (1 Ki. 6-7; 2 Ch. 3-4). When that temple was destroyed by the Babylonian invasion it was rebuilt in the Days of Ezra and Nehemiah during Persian rule of Israel. However that temple was found to be inferior to the glory of Solomon's temple.

The next place temple was Herod's Temple built around 19 B.C. on the site of Solomon's temple. Herod was a Jew but ruled Israel on behalf of the Romans who occupied the country at that time. That temple was destroyed by Roman invasion in 70 A.D. No further physical temples have been built in Jerusalem to this day.

The Kingdom temple, in the Kingdom of God, will be a spiritual Temple made up of Christ and His Saints. St. Peter said, speaking to his churches scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia: "And [we the Saints] coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, YOU ALSO, AS LIVING STONES, ARE BEING BUILT UP AS A SPIRITUAL HOUSE FOR A HOLY PRIESTHOOD, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 2:4-6). The individuals constituting the churches were to be the building blocks of the new spiritual temple.

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E-kirja: 4. toukokuuta 2013