03.10. World-wide Righteousness, Peace and Pros...
CHAPTER TEN World-wide Righteousness, Peace and Prosperity Promised in Christ’s Kingdom IN THE FIRST chapter of this book we set out to find the answers to certain great questions. The second question was: "Will this war-torn world ever have a real, permanent, worldwide peace?" The third question was: "Will the curse placed on this world because of sin ever be removed so that man can live here in a new Garden of Eden?" This chapter will answer these questions. During the reign of Christ on earth, the curse brought on nature because of sin will be removed. Wars will be no more, righteousness will prevail on the entire planet, and happiness will be universal. This wonderful era, this golden age, will be on this literal planet, the earth. We are not talking about Heaven, except in the sense that Heaven will be on this earth as it certainly will. In previous chapters we have proved that the kingdom of Christ will be set up on this earth and that He will reign on David’s throne, and now we want to discuss the happy conditions that will prevail in that golden age.
Animal Nature Changed; Gentle Lions!
We have called attention before to the promise of the Messiah’s kingdom as given in Isa 11:1-16. There we were told in verse Isaiah 11:1 that "there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots." Isa 11:2-5 tell of the wisdom, justice and judgment of His reign on the earth. Then verses Isa 11:6-9 tell us how even the nature of animate will be changed until a little child can lead the wolf, the leopard or the lion.
"The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious" (Isa 11:6-10).
What a great change in animal nature! The wolf, leopard and young lion will no longer be beasts of prey and will do no harm to the lamb, the kid and the fat calf. A child can play, in that day, with the beasts of the field, as he might today with a puppy. There will be no more carnivorous beasts, but "the lion shall eat straw like the ox"! Babies may play with poisonous snakes with no danger of harm, during the blessed kingdom of Jesus on this earth!
How like the Garden of Eden that will be! At that time God brought every fowl and beast to Adam "to see what he would call them" (Gen 2:19). We cannot imagine that animals in the Garden of Eden were enemies of mankind, and there is no hint in the Bible that animals were ever wild until God said to the snake, "Thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field," and "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed" (Gen 3:14-15). The snake was cursed "above all cattle;" that certainly means that all cattle and beasts were cursed because of man’s sin but that the snake was cursed more. When Jesus comes to take charge of the earth, the curse on animal nature will be removed. We may be sure that that change will reach even to insects and disease germs. If the lion will eat straw like the ox, and wolves, leopards, and poisonous snakes will be safe playmates for the babies, we may be sure that people in that happy time will be safe from the sting of insects, from infection and bacteria or from harm by any of God’s creatures.
Isaiah is full of glowing promises of the kingdom age. In chapter Isa 65:25, the prophet tells us again how the nature of animals and men will be changed in that day.
"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. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord" (Isa 65:25). Even if "dust shall be the serpent’s meat" in that day, no animal will hurt nor destroy "in all my holy mountain," says the Lord. The Curse on the Ground Removed The saddest day this world ever saw was when the serpent of sin first put its slimy head in the Garden of Eden and led away from God Adam and Eve and with them all mankind. Because of this sin, animal life was cursed and then all the ground was cursed. We are told in Gen 3:17-18 :
"And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shall not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field."
Since that curse on the ground, thorns and thistles have made life miserable for mankind. Animal life and plant life alike on the earth are against man. There is a curse on nature itself so that "the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now" (Rom 8:22), because of the curse of sin. This is the reason for storms, hail, floods, drought, barren land and deserts. For an illustration, the land of Palestine was once a land ’flowing with milk and honey’ (Num 13:27). Giant cedars of Lebanon were in Palestine, and the grapes of Eschol were so fine that a bunch had to be carried between two men on a staff (Num 13:23). It was a well watered, rich and happy land. But sin has brought a curse upon it. The soil has eroded. The trees have been cut down. The springs of water and brooks have dried up. Some of the land is desert and much of it is semi-arid. But the Holy Land will not remain under a curse, for the Lord has promised Israel that they should be brought back to their land and the land should be blessed again.
Eze 36:29-30 says:
"I will also save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you. And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that ye shall receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen."
Then verse Eze 36:35 in the same chapter says, "And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden." In some sense, the curse will be removed from all the earth, but more especially will that be true, it seems, in lovely Palestine; and it will become a veritable garden of the Lord. In Isaiah, all of Isa 35:1-10 tells of the wonderful transformation of the earth, particularly Palestine and Jerusalem during the reign of Christ.
"The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God. Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, 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 be grass with reeds and rushes. And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there: And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away."
Even the earth itself will "be glad," "the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose" in this kingdom of Christ on earth.
It is important to see that these passages are to be taken literally.
If the first Garden of Eden was literal, so the second will be literal. If the trees and animals of the Garden of Eden were literal, then will these be literal in the kingdom of Christ on earth. Notice the names of literal places, "Lebanon," "Carmel," "Sharon." Zion, in verse Isa 35:10, to which the ransomed of the Lord shall return with songs and everlasting joy, is the literal Mount Zion upon which the city Jerusalem rests. The water that shall break out in the wilderness and streams in the desert (verse Isa 35:6) reminds us of the "river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God" (Psa 46:4), which we discussed in the chapter on Jerusalem. The wonderful blessings of Isa 35:1-10 will not come to pass until it can be said to them of fearful heart, "Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you" (verse Isa 35:4). This is the return of Christ to establish His kingdom when "he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked" (Isa 11:4). The Curse Removed From Human Bodies, Too
It makes us happy to know that all nature will be glad, that the curse will be removed from beasts and from the earth itself. But happier still is the thought here expressed-that when Jesus returns to reign, the curse will be removed from our poor human bodies!
Isa 35:5-6 tells us that "then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing."
Read verse Isa 35:10 of the same chapter and see the redeemed hosts of the Lord coming to Jerusalem at the beginning of the kingdom!
"And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." No lame people! No blind, no dumb, no unmusical, and thank God, no sad people will live in the lovely city Jerusalem in that happy and prosperous reign of Christ. The Sunday before this was written in Dallas, Texas, there joined our congregation an old man who is stone deaf. Though he sat near the front, he could not understand what I said. He felt the presence of God. He rejoiced when sinners came. But only the loudest noise can pierce into the silence of his mind. But in that happy kingdom, the Spirit tells us that "the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped" and my brother will hear again!
Today some women went to see Mother Lindsey. She is infirm and palsied and blind. She has heard me preach many times on the radio, and today she wept as she told the visiting ladies that she longed to see me and wondered what I looked like. She prays to live long enough and be well enough to come to join our church and be present in person in our services. But even then, she will have to be carried or led, for she cannot see. But in the reign of Christ, we are told that "the eyes of the blind shall be opened," and Mother Lindsey will see again.
World-Wide Righteousness
Sin is responsible for all the trouble in this world and sin brought the curse of God on man and beast and plants of the field. If the curse is to be removed from these in the kingdom age, then we know that it will be because of righteousness. It will be a happy, peaceful, and prosperous age because a righteous one. The people of the earth will never be righteous unless they know the Lord. True righteousness is godliness. There can be no true morality without true religion. Christ is the Light of the world and the world will never be light until His light shines to every corner of the globe. People must know about God and know God through Jesus Christ before there can ever be any worldwide righteousness. This, we are told, will be true in the happy kingdom age. The Scriptures tell us that the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the whole earth during the reign of Christ. Isa 11:9 says: "They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." The accompanying verses tell us that will be in a day when the great root of Jesse and Branch of David shall come and regather Israel and rule on the earth. The knowledge of the Lord will be everywhere. A similar statement is found in Hab 2:14 : "For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea."
Satan Will Be Chained During Kingdom Age With all the preaching and teaching of nearly two thousand years, the earth has not yet been filled with the knowledge of the Lord. Bibles have been printed by the millions, and thousands of missionaries have spent their years all the way from Greenland’s icy mountains to India’s coral strand telling the story of Jesus. Multitudes have learned about the Lord, and many have been saved by His power, but we must admit that even yet there are multiplied millions in the earth today who know nothing of God, of His Son Jesus Christ, nor of the Bible, God’s Word.
Why the terrible spiritual darkness that covers the earth in spite of all the good gospel agencies? The answer is given in one word, Satan! The prince of darkness blinds the eyes of the people, stops their ears, hardens their hearts. The enemy sows tares among the wheat, puts leaven in the meal and makes the pure seed of the gospel into a denominational tree of human organization which becomes the home of wicked birds of unbelief. This world today is in darkness because Satan, the god of this world, makes it dark.
Then if the knowledge of the Lord is to cover the earth as the waters cover the sea, Satan must have his influence stopped that the light may shine on human hearts. And that is exactly what the Bible says will happen. In Rev 20:1-3 the story is told:
"And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season." This immediately follows the return of Christ in glory to destroy the armies of the wicked and to set up His kingdom, as told in Rev 19:1-21. Thus at the beginning of the kingdom of Christ on earth, Satan will be bound and shut up in the bottomless pit "that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled." Of the thousand years, and of the loosing of Satan for a little season, we will speak in another chapter. But mark well that the golden age of world-wide righteousness, peace, and prosperity will be made possible because the Lord will shut up Satan. Then the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth. Do not misunderstand me. The Bible does not say that every person alive on the earth during the kingdom age will be a Christian. A study of Rev 20:1-15, will show that some unsaved people will live on through the thousand years, unsaved. At the close of the thousand years, when Satan is released, he will cause them to rebel; but until that time they will live in morality and without rebellion against God, submitting outwardly, at least, to His laws.
Jerusalem Will Be the Center of Worship and Knowledge for the Whole Earth The prophet Micah, too, was inspired to tell of the kingdom of Christ on earth. The fourth chapter of Micah tells of that happy day, and verses Mic 4:1-2 read:
"But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it. And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem."
Jerusalem, Mount Zion, will be the center of worship, "for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem."
People all over the world will say, "Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob [the temple]; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths." Jerusalem will never fulfill its destiny until it is really the center of the earth. The people who come up to Jerusalem will once a year keep the feast of tabernacles. And those Gentiles scattered throughout the earth who do not come to Jerusalem to worship Jesus, "the King, the Lord of hosts," on them there shall be no rain. That is what Zec 14:16-17 tells us.
"And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain." The reign of Christ on earth will be a reign of righteousness, a spiritual reign, and the knowledge of the Lord will cover the whole earth.
All Israel Will Know the Lord
Among the Gentile nations of the earth, as we have said, it is evident that some will be unsaved, but nominally will serve the Lord without rebellion while Satan is chained. But among the Jews and at Jerusalem everyone will be devout and sincere children of God. Paul said concerning this time, "And so all Israel shall be saved" (Rom 11:26).
Elsewhere we will discuss the time of the marvelous conversion of all Israel. But now it is enough to notice that during the reign of Christ all Jews left alive will be Christian Jews as well as those saved Gentiles who will live with them near Christ in the Holy Land.
Jer 31:33-34 tells us how everyone of the house of Israel will have the law of God written in his heart and personally know the Lord in forgiven sins.
"But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more" (Jer 31:33-34). The kingdom age will be an age of righteousness, with all the blessings that righteousness and godliness bring. A Warless World
All that human education can do has never elevated mankind above strife and war. Peace treaties are scraps of paper. War grows more terrible with every invention of science, every centralization of government, every refinement of culture. Even Jesus Himself did not put a stop to war. Instead of that, He told how a few short years after His ascension Jerusalem would be utterly destroyed. And of the temple He said that "there shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down" (Mat 24:2). Of the course of this age, Jesus said that:
"And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows" (Mat 24:6-8).
War! Pestilence! Famine! Earthquakes! These are the characteristics of this wicked age in which we live. The kingdom which is promised was not set up at the first coming of Christ, nor since that time; but for it we must look to the future when Christ shall come in power to reign, when with the last great battle He will make an end forever of wars. Wars and rumors of war curse this earth, cause rivers of blood and tears. The bitterness, the hate, and the crime of war have blasted the hopes, broken the bodies, snuffed out the lives and damned the souls of uncounted millions. But thank God, it will no longer be so in the kingdom of Christ on earth. A bit ago we studied Mic 4:1-2. That is found almost word for word in Isa 2:1-22. Mic 4:1-13 is a wonderful picture of the kingdom, and verse Mic 4:7 says that "the Lord shall reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth, even for ever." The chapter certainly discusses, then, the reign of Christ on earth. Now let us read verses Mic 4:3-4.
"And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it."
Christ’s Reign on David’s Throne "According to the Flesh" In Peter’s sermon at Pentecost, he took occasion to mention, as he usually did, the resurrection of Christ and His position as the coming King of Israel.
All the apostles knew that Jesus in the future would take His place as the King of Israel and sit on David’s throne. They preached it again and again. They looked for that to occur at any time, just as they had been taught to watch continually for the second coming of Christ. In Acts 1:6, they had asked, "Lord, wilt thou AT THIS TIME restore again the kingdom to Israel?" and they were told that the time was not for them to know. In Acts 2:25-28, Peter quotes the sixteenth Psalm to prove the resurrection of Christ, and then explains it in Acts 2:29-31 as follows:
"Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption."
Notice verse Acts 2:30.
David knew God had sworn to him with an oath that "of the fruit of his loins, ACCORDING TO THE FLESH, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne." The resurrection of Christ was primarily looking toward the reign of Christ. The resurrection was a bodily resurrection, "according to the flesh."
"According to the flesh" Christ will sit on David’s throne! The reign of Christ, then, will be a literal one. With His literal, physical body, the body with the nail prints in the hands, with the side that Thomas touched, with the feet that "shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives" (Zec 14:4), with the body that ate broiled fish and honeycomb before the disciples (Luk 24:42-43), Christ will sit on the throne of David at Jerusalem and rule over the house of Jacob, as David did, except in a much greater fashion and with an everlasting kingdom! The kingdom of Christ on David’s throne will be "ACCORDING TO THE FLESH." In the revised version, Acts 2:30 does not use the term "according to the flesh" but says: "Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins he would set one upon his throne." The fact still stands out that Christ, in order to reign on David’s throne, must be resurrected in the body. In the resurrection of Christ, God the Father primarily had this in mind, that Jesus should reign on David’s throne. David had a human body when he reigned on his throne. His reign was a literal reign, a physical reign over subjects with physical bodies. So Christ, to sit on the throne of David, must have been raised from the dead with His glorified, human body. Do you see how this proves the literal reign of Christ? His reign will be different from any reign that could be administered without a human body. Jesus before His coming in the flesh could not have reigned on David’s throne. After His death, He could not have reigned on David’s throne, in the way the Scriptures foretold, without a human body. He must be raised from the dead. The Scriptures about His reign would not be fulfilled if Christ should not reign on a throne over such subjects and in such a kingdom as involved a literal, resurrection, glorified, human body.