The Kingdom of God Will End Suffering and Evil

by Erik Jones
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Topics: Doctrine, Kingdom of God, God’s Plan

This last part in our series on three great themes of the Bible covers the most important theme. It explains your destiny and the future of the entire world!

These blogs showed that God desires to build a loving family relationship with human beings, but that sin—the breaking of God’s law—has separated mankind from God and prevented this relationship from developing. We also learned that God has made it possible for individuals to have a relationship with Him through the process of repentance. That process is made possible only through the work of Jesus Christ.

Both blogs explained that only a few are being called by God now and granted the opportunity to repent (Acts 11:18). But is that it? Is God calling only a small number to have a relationship with Him—and dooming the rest of the world? Is the human suffering that is a result of sin going to last forever? Does this world have any hope for a better future?

The good news

The answer to all these questions comes by understanding the greatest theme that runs through the pages of the Bible—from Genesis to Revelation! In fact, this theme is so important that God gave it to Jesus Christ as the central identifying element of His message when He walked the roads of the holy land nearly 2,000 years ago: “Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God” (Mark 1:14).

Jesus Christ’s message was all about the future Kingdom of God—what that Kingdom will be like and the way of life human beings must live now to be in that Kingdom. Repentance is a key factor to Jesus’ teaching about the Kingdom of God (verse 15).

What is the Kingdom?

The Kingdom of God, God’s family governing the earth, will bring an end to all suffering and evils that have plagued mankind since Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3). As we covered in part 1 of this series, mankind has been cut off from God because of sin since that moment that Adam and Eve rejected God’s government over their lives (Genesis 3:24; Romans 5:12). Part 2 covered establishing a relationship with God, probably for the first time!

Jesus Christ’s message was all about the future Kingdom of God—what that Kingdom will be like and the way of life human beings must live now to be in that Kingdom. The message of the Kingdom of God is that Jesus Christ will intervene in human affairs to stop our often self-inflicted suffering and evil just before we literally destroy ourselves (Matthew 24:22). At the time of Jesus’ return, He will take control of all human governments and will establish His rule over the entire earth (Revelation 11:15).

Yes, Jesus Christ is returning to earth to rule and spread the knowledge of His ways throughout the earth. That is the basic definition of what the Kingdom of God is—the ruling government of God administered by Jesus Christ and His family (Revelation 5:10). That government will include the four basic elements of any government:

• Leadership: Jesus Christ will serve as “King of Kings and Lord of Lords” (Revelation 19:16) and rule with an administration of His spirit-born family (Daniel 7:27).
• Law: The law of God—the Ten Commandments—will be the basic laws governing society (Isaiah 2:3).
• Territory: God will restore His rule to the entire earth (Acts 3:20-21; Revelation 5:10; 19:15).
• Subjects: After Jesus returns, He and His family will rule “all peoples, nations, and languages” (Daniel 7:14).

The Kingdom: from Genesis to Revelation

The Kingdom of God as the solution to human suffering and evil is a theme that runs through the entire Bible. It first shows up in Genesis 3:15, which is a prophecy of how Jesus Christ (“her Seed”) will defeat Satan the devil (“your seed”) when Christ returns to this earth. The ultimate fulfillment of this prophecy is found in more detail toward the end of the Bible in Revelation 20:1-3, 10.

The Kingdom of God is a theme that runs through the Old Testament. King David, the second king of Israel, wrote about it in the book of Psalms (see, for example, Psalms 2 and 72). The prophets, who represented God throughout much of the history of Old Testament Israel and Judah, constantly prophesied of the Kingdom of God as the ultimate hope for the people of Israel (Isaiah 2:1-4; Amos 9:11-15; Micah 4; Zechariah 14) and the entire world (Jeremiah 16:19; Zechariah 2:11; Malachi 1:11).

As was already covered, the Kingdom was the major theme of Jesus Christ’s teachings. It was taught and emphasized by the apostles, who continued Jesus’ work after His ascension to heaven. The apostle Peter and the apostle Paul taught about it (Acts 3:19-21; 2 Peter 1:11; Acts 28:31; 1 Corinthians 15:24-25, 50).

Satan’s removal will be one of the first steps in the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth. When Jesus Christ returns, a new era will commence—“the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began” (Acts 3:21). This will be a future time when the government (the rule) of God—the Kingdom—will be restored to earth.

This central theme of the Bible is often neglected in mainstream Christianity. Few churches make it their central message in the same way that Jesus Christ did, and almost none teach the biblical definition of the Kingdom of God.

This blog has covered some aspects of what the Bible teaches about the Kingdom of God, but there is much more to learn. To learn more about this central biblical theme, read our informative article What Is the Kingdom of God?

This concludes our series on three great themes of the Bible. These three themes are core truths that must be understood in order to understand the entire message of the Bible. Of course, there are many other themes in God’s Word that are essential as well. Continue to read the material at Life, Hope & Truth to learn about the great truths of the Bible.

Date Posted: August 20, 2013