OLD TESTAMENT
KINGDOM PROGRAM
The Bible says: “Now after that John
was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom
of God, saying, the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand:
repent ye, and believe the gospel” (Mark 1: 14-15). The Bible defines the
Gospel preached by Jesus as the Gospel of the Kingdom. The Gospel of the
Kingdom was not a message about the Person of Christ Jesus; it is a message
about the Gospel of the kingdom. When
Jesus and His disciples preached this Gospel message, they talked about the
coming Kingdom of God. This is the message that was also given to the children
of Israel during the Old Testament, but they failed to understand it. Our
Apostle says: “For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but
the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that
heard it” (Hebrews 4: 2).
Upon Christ’ arrival, He did not
appear to the Jews as they thought He should have. They were looking for their
conquering King of kings, but instead He came as the sacrificial lamb, that was
offered to take away the sins of the world. The Jews failed to see the
distinction between Christ First Advent and His Second Coming. They could not
grasp the shock of His humiliation. When He came as the atonement for sin, they
had no faith in His sacrifice, and they went about to establish their own
righteousness by works (Hebrews 9: 11-12; Romans 10: 3-4). Our Apostle Paul
wrote of Christ: “Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers
and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save
him from death, and was heard in that he feared; Though he were a Son, yet
learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; and being made perfect,
he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him” (Hebrews 5: 7-9).
Under
the Old Testament Kingdom
program, God made a Covenant
agreement with Israel promising them:
Ø
A
Land, they had to own, He promised
Ø
A
kingdom, which had to have a king and a Kingdom had to have subjects, and
finally
Ø
A
Kingdom had to have laws governing it
The Jewish nation was to eventually become a nation of priests who would bring Salvation to the Gentile nations of the world. This prophecy was
to be fulfilled after the
Messiah had come and set up His
Kingdom in Jerusalem.
Thereafter the Children of Israel
would be sent out to all nations of the world with the purpose of leading
Gentiles to their God in Jerusalem. Because all of Israel did not believe
Christ Jesus to be their Messiah at His first
coming, and did not accept Him as their King; the fulfillment of the
prophecy that said the Children of
Israel would be sent out to all nations of the world with the purpose of
leading Gentiles to their God
in Jerusalem was postponed. When Israel rejected Christ as their Messiah they rejected the coming in
of His Kingdom under the Dispensation of Law. God’s plan from the ultimate point of
rejection was to call out a people for His name out of the Gentile nations.1 To accomplish this, He chose to use the
Apostle Paul who was saved and
appointed Apostle of the dispensation
of Grace.2
This dispensation of Grace began at the death and resurrection of
Christ Jesus and ends at the Rapture.
This is when Christ Jesus comes in the air to evacuate all Born-Again Christians from the earth.
Born-Again Christians are
removed from the earth prior to Tribulation because they are not recipients of
God’s wrath. The Rapture
finalize the Dispensation of Grace,
from this point, God picks up where He left off with the Jews. The Age
of Grace has ended, the Body of Christ is gone to be with the
Lord, and the last seven years, the
Tribulation begins; and at its
end closes out the Law Dispensation.
Tribulation describes the terrible Day of the Lord’s wrath that is coming upon all those who made the choice to
reject His Dear Son.3
The Latin verb Raptare, and the Greek word harpizo, both have the same meaning, and means to be caught up or to be snatched up. At the Rapture, Christ Jesus will literally
snatch His Body of believers out of harm’s way, protecting us from the wrath of God.4
Christ coming for His saints at the Rapture
is a different event from His Second
Coming.5 During the Rapture, the saints meet Christ in
the air; and at His Second Coming;
Christ plants His feet on the earth with the purpose of saving Israel, and
making His enemies His footstool.6
The Old Testament program had its
beginnings sometime after the Great
Flood; around 2000 B.C. God chose Abram,
a descendent of the survivors of the Great Flood to make of him a special
nation; God later renamed Abram Abraham.7
God made promises to Abraham, promising him that he would become a great
nation.8 When God made this promise to Abraham,
He not only had Israel in His thoughts, He had all the nations of the world in
mind. God chose one man and his descendants to become the nation He would use
to reach the rest of mankind.9 God
established His Covenant with Abraham’s son Isaac and then with Isaac’s son
Jacob, who God renamed Israel.10 The
Nation of Israel consists of twelve tribes from the descendants of Jacob. After
the Nation of Israel had been in Egyptian slavery for many years, God called
Moses to lead them out of Egypt. Once they were out of Egypt, God gave them an
extensive set of Laws referred to as the
Law of Moses, or simply, the Law.
Forty years after God gave the Law to Moses, the Nation of Israel
entered into the land of Canaan which had been promised to their ancestor Abraham
long before. Over the course of time, God would speak to Israel through various
prophets. Many of their prophecies were about their future King [Messiah] that
was to come one day and establish His Kingdom on earth.11 The Kingdom spoken of did not come in
at that time, when it does come; it will be centered in Jerusalem according to
Scripture. Christ Jesus will have
already returned in the air and taken out His Church. Sometime after Tribulation is when Christ Jesus sets
up His Kingdom, this is when all the Jews will work as priests to the nations.12 The Kingdom did not come in at Christ
first coming because the Jews did not accept Him as their Messiah, which is the
reason God delayed the fulfillment of the prophesied Kingdom deviating from His
original plan, and He took the message of Salvation to the Gentiles. From that point, God began to call
out a people for His name using the Apostle
Paul. Paul received a new message to dispense to a new people, under a
new dispensation. The new message was called the Gospel of Grace, and the
dispensation of this administration is Grace where God uses the Apostle Paul
for its delivery, instead of the Jews.13
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