True Bible Teaching - What the Bible really says about God and His Purpose

The Desire to Find ANSWERS

Everybody has questions they want answered. It’s one of those things that brings us all together, whoever we are.

We like to know, we want to understand, we explore, we evaluate, and we seek knowledge. Yet it’s tough to untangle life’s big questions, like:

❖Why do we exist?

❖What do we really hope for? and

❖Why do many people have it really tough and others find life easy?

Experience is a hard teacher, because she gives the test first and the lessons later. So we conclude that life is complicated, though we would prefer it to be simple. As it is, every way we turn some issue or other confronts us. It’s no wonder that many just try to escape − seeking peace of mind − into the depths of the countryside or elsewhere. And others just decide not to think about such matters and live life day by day, heedless of what might come afterwards – if anything!

Just Surviving

There is something deep inside us that acts as a defence mechanism. We naturally seek to exist; our concern is centred on the next meal, finding a safe place to sleep, having some money in our pocket and protecting our family. This inner drive is common to all life on the planet; it is the way of things: it is natural, instinctive and inbuilt into all life. The way that humans satisfy it is what sets us apart from all other creatures. We have a far greater awareness of life and the awesome capability to comprehend.

How we go about getting fulfilment differs greatly from person to person. Many people aspire to greatness, for example, but only the few achieve it –

❖famous sports champions,

❖business leaders,

❖war heroes,

❖wise investors,

❖world leaders.

These people also acquire riches as well as greatness. There is a gulf between them and people who sleep rough in the street, and the difference can be hard to explain. All of us have the same basic aptitudes, yet we harness them in quite differing ways. And we are developed by the experiences we share and the environment in which we grow up – whether on a pacific island or a busy city.

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Paradise On Earth or in Heaven?

Jesus had a few words with the thief who was crucified alongside him, as recorded in Luke 23. It ended with the Lord saying: “... today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43).

The essential issue is: Where will the righteous be rewarded? And, to a lesser extent: When? So it is a limited Scriptural teaching which is being considered in this short article. It is not the aim to discover what makes a person righteous in God’s sight, simply where are they to be rewarded – in heaven, or on earth?

SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES

A valuable method of Bible study on essential matters would seem to be; examine simple, clear, unambiguous passages and use them as a basis. This is what we are now about to do.

Firstly, we are told where the righteous will NOT be rewarded. Look at the following clear statement:

"No one has ascended to heaven but he who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven" (John 3:13).

So, subsequent to the life, death, resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ, the apostle John can record that NO ONE HAS ASCENDED TO HEAVEN. There was, by the time of writing, one exception − the Lord Jesus − and the writer is careful to include that in the record. (He was, of course, writing under inspiration and therefore the words are accurate.) The teaching of that passage is clear.

Other people who had died had not gone to heaven, however good they might have been.

The same teaching is found in the Book of Acts when the apostle Peter says this about David the good king of Israel. He was a man described by God as “a man after My own heart” (Acts 13:22), yet this is what the apostle Peter said:

For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself: “The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at My right hand’” (Acts 2:34).

So, although he was righteous, yet David did not ascend to heaven but was (and remains) in the grave until the resurrection of the dead, as the apostle Paul later affirms (Acts 13:36).

WHAT THEN?

If people who have died are not in heaven, where are they? A clear Bible principle is established in one of the Psalms:

"The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s; but the earth He has given to the children of men" (Psalm 115:16).

This is a wonderful promise; that this beautiful earth, at an appointed time, will be taken from man’s misrule and, under God’s control, will be given to mankind. This is in perfect accord with the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples:

"Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10).

These well-known words of the Lord’s Prayer teach his disciples to pray for the time when God’s kingdom will again be set up on earth. Do you recall these words of Jesus?

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5). (To pursue this further look up the  following passages: Psalm 37:9-11; Proverbs 2:21,22; Proverbs 11:31; Numbers 14:21; Psalm 72:19 and Isaiah 45:18. There are many others.)

GOD'S COMING KINGDOM

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GOD'S PLAN FOR THE WORLD:

THE view of planet earth, seen from outer space, is very beautiful indeed. Confirmation of this has come from the astronauts who have gazed upon it. The earth is the fairest jewel in God's creation and it is the chosen place in the whole universe where He has promised to reveal His Kingdom in all its glory. That is why it is so beautiful.

The earth, of all the planets in the solar system, is the one that is perfectly suited to all forms of life and the one that orbits at exactly the right distance from the sun to provide comfortable conditions for the human race.

Bible Prophecy is the Sole Source of Information on God’s Purpose.

The Bible alone explains why and how this should be. The reason is that the Creator "formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord, and there is none else" (Isaiah 45:18).

We think it is logical to assert that if there is a Great Designer, and if He created a race of beings to inhabit this planet and no other, then there must have been an ultimate objective in His mind. Happily, we have not been left to guess what that goal might be. From the day that God put a human being on this earth, His one supreme purpose was that His creation should willingly respond to His own perfection:

"For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea" (Habakkuk 2:14).

The final stage in fulfilling that intention is what the Bible describes as THE KINGDOM OF GOD ON EARTH.

A REAL KINGDOM:

Because it will be in every physical and political sense a real kingdom it will have a king, a government, a capital, and an international system of laws. God has already delegated "all power in heaven and in earth" to His own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. What is more, we learn that the date has been set in the divine calendar:

"God hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained" (Acts 17:31).

The kingdom of God on earth will soon be here. The abundant signs which confirm this are not the subject of this booklet; but we are mightily convinced that it is so! This coming Millennium will be the most exciting thing the world has ever seen. It will overshadow all those periods in history labelled with names like 'the age of enlightenment', 'the classical age', 'the renaissance' and so on. The kingdom of God will provide a superb environment on this lovely planet for all who will acknowledge God as supreme Creator and Jesus Christ as king of the world.

A BEAUTIFUL WORLD:

Use your imagination for a moment! Think of a world at peace, its inhabitants healthy and well-fed and doing rewarding work. Imagine a world in which there is full employment, where people are not exploited and where a man can live a long and prosperous life; a world in which famine and pestilence no longer kill one quarter of the population and where the full resources of the land and the seas are harvested. Already you are getting a picture of the Kingdom of God.

Now ponder on the absence of religious bigotry or sectarian strife; imagine the benefits of internationally accepted laws, with justice administered by fair-minded yet uncompromising judges. Conjure up a mental picture of life without terrorism and child-abuse; where good neighbourliness prevails and evil tendencies are discouraged, where governments establish good standards of behaviour, and implement just forms of retribution. That will be the kingdom of God on earth!

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