When Will God’s Kingdom Come?
Do you pray, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven”? If so, then you will be interested in knowing God’s time for that prayer to be answered.
A JUST government, wisely administered, has ever been the desire of all honest men. But without a knowledge of God’s purposes men have groped blindly, hoping against hope that some day such a government would be realized. However, as the years roll by it seems that man has ever less reason for hoping, and certainly the world situation today does not warrant any optimism. If there ever is to be a righteous rule on earth God himself will have to bring it about.
And that he will, for none other than his own Son assured us of a righteous rule that someday would benefit all mankind, when he taught his followers to pray: “Let your kingdom come. Let your will come to pass, as in heaven, also upon earth.” Think what that means—God’s will done on earth as it is in heaven! No more war, no more wickedness, injustice and crime, no more disease, pain and death!—Matt. 6:10, NW.
Because 1,925 years have passed since Jesus taught his followers that prayer, many professed Christians have lost faith that it ever will be answered. Thus The Christian Century, June 29, 1955, editorialized regarding the situation in the United States: “The difficulty over here these days is to find churchmen who believe that the Kingdom of God can ever be realized, much less that it is around the corner.”
But how can we doubt that Jesus’ prayer will be realized? He would not have told us to pray for it if it were impossible, would he? Besides, did he not also say that “with God all things are possible”? Churchmen who doubt that someday the kingdom of God will be realized are blind guides, without faith and without understanding of God’s Word. They are Christians in name only.—Matt. 19:26, NW.
So let us first of all fully settle it in our minds that Jesus’ prayer will be answered, that God’s kingdom will someday be realized. But when? some may impatiently ask. Will it be another 1,925 years, or perhaps even longer? No, it will not. Fulfillment of Bible prophecy shows that the realization of the kingdom of God is “just around the corner.” In fact, the Bible shows that the kingdom of God has already been established and that for some forty years. How could that be? What is the proof?
FULFILLED PROPHECY GIVES PROOF
The Bible gives two lines of proof locating the time of the establishing of God’s kingdom: one is that of chronology and the other is the fulfillment of prophecy. Regarding Bible chronology, suffice it to say that on the basis of time periods indicated in the books of Daniel and Revelation, as far back as 1877 the date 1914 was given as the time for the coming or establishing of God’s kingdom. This information was first published by the first president of the Watch Tower Society in the pamphlet The Three Worlds and shortly thereafter in the columns of The Watchtower.
So thirty-seven years before 1914 it was announced that Bible chronology pinpointed that year as the time for the beginning of God’s kingdom, even though at the time not all the details were clearly understood. And this date has had the strongest possible corroboration in the fulfillment of Jesus’ great prophecy as recorded at Matthew chapters 24 and 25, Mark chapter 13 and Luke chapter 21. In proof thereof note the following:
In that prophecy Jesus stated, among other things, that “nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.” Have we seen that prophecy fulfilled since 1914? We certainly have. According to one Harvard University professor there have been many, many times as much havoc wrought by war since 1914 as during all the time that men have been keeping records on wars fought previous thereto, or for more than nineteen centuries.—Luke 21:10, NW.
“And there will be great earthquakes.” Without a shadow of doubt these words have also seen marked fulfillment since 1914. Statistics show that for the 2,000 years that men have been keeping records of earthquakes up until 1914 some 4,700 lives were lost each year. But since 1914 earthquakes have been taking an average of 24,200 lives annually. And in recent years the tempo of major earthquakes has stepped up still more.—Luke 21:11, NW.
The same is true regarding Jesus’ prophecy that there will be “in one place after another pestilences and food shortages.” The Spanish influenza took twenty million lives between 1918 and 1922. According to one authority this was “the proudest figure ever reached by one of the diseases in history known to us.” Neither the dreaded plague, nor typhus, nor leprosy reaped such a harvest with one single attack during the Middle Ages.
And as for famine or food shortages. Here again the evidence is conclusive. The facts show that the famines that followed World Wars I and II affected more than twice as many people as did the four major famines of 1016, 1344, 1790 and 1877.
Continuing, Jesus foretold that his followers would be hated and persecuted by all nations. World Wars I and II furnished the excuse for the enemies of true Christians to vent their spleen upon them. As a result the work of preaching the good news of God’s kingdom was banned in many lands, thousands of its preachers were imprisoned, thousands of others were mobbed, and today thousands of still others continue to suffer in lands dominated either by religious or political totalitarian governments. Jesus further stated that men would become faint out of fear and expectation of the things coming upon the earth. Certainly the mad race for supremacy in air power and in nuclear weapons gives abundant proof that men are very apprehensive regarding the future.—Luke 21:12-26.
Other features of Jesus’ prophecy identifying 1914 as the time of the establishing of the Kingdom are the “increasing of lawlessness” and the preaching of this good news of the Kingdom “in all the inhabited earth for the purpose of a witness to all the nations,” after which the accomplished end is to come. There is no question about the increase in delinquency and crime; and as for the preaching of this good news of the Kingdom world-wide, the 1956 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses shows that this is being done in some 160 different lands and islands of the sea, and that by more than 640,000 Christian ministers of Jehovah.—Matt. 24:12, 14, NW.
Jesus mentioned many other features, which space does not permit going into, that further established the date 1914. And so does the apostle Paul’s prophecy at 2 Timothy 3:1-7, telling of the perilous times of the last days. And especially does Revelation 11:15-18 point to 1914, for it tells of the beginning of God’s kingdom as being followed by the nations’ becoming angry. Certainly since 1914 the nations of earth have raged as never before. (For a listing of some thirty more features of the Kingdom Sign please see “Make Sure of All Things”, pages 337 to 344.)
WHEN KINGDOM BLESSINGS?
But perhaps at this point someone will ask: “If 1914 marks the coming or birth of God’s kingdom, where is it? Where are the Kingdom blessings and why are conditions on earth growing worse instead of getting better?” We cannot see the kingdom of God because it is a heavenly, spiritual, and therefore invisible, kingdom; humans can see it only by faith. Jesus Christ is its king and he said of himself that the world would see him no more. (John 14:19) And according to Revelation 14:1 and Re 20:6 he will have 144,000 others associated with him in the heavens and therefore also invisible to human eyes. These associate rulers he has been selecting since Pentecost.
The Kingdom was born in 1914, for at that time God commanded his Son: “Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.” Revelation 12:1-12 shows what followed the birth of the Kingdom, there pictured by the birth of a man child. There was war in heaven; Jesus Christ, as Michael, and his angels fought against the dragon Satan and his angels, resulting in Satan and his demons’ being cast down to earth. At that time woe was pronounced upon those on earth because of Satan’s having come down to them with great wrath, knowing that his time is short. This accounts for the increased evil and woes since then.—Ps. 110:2.
We might illustrate all this with the birth of the United States. Born on July 4, 1776, it took a seven years’ war before its thirteen colonies gained their independence from England. The years between 1776 and 1783 can be compared to the years between 1914 when the Kingdom was born and the time when the battle of Armageddon will be fought, which will mark the full end of this wicked old system of things and the beginning of Kingdom blessings for those on earth who survive that battle.—Rev. 16:14, 16.
God has arranged for this intervening time so that men of good will can hear the message of the Kingdom and identify themselves as the “sheep,” which Jesus places at his right hand. (Matt. 25:31-46) When this work has been completed the battle of Armageddon will be fought, in which all the “goats” will be destroyed and Satan and his demons be cast into the abyss of deathlike inactivity. This cannot be very far off, for Jesus said that the generation that saw 1914 “will by no means pass away until all these things occur.”—Matt. 24:34, NW.
So let all men of good will who long for a righteous rule on earth take hope. The kingdom for which Jesus taught us to pray is certain to be realized, and the fulfillment of Bible prophecy locates not only the birth of that kingdom in our generation but also its blessings for mankind. And let all who wish to enjoy those blessings continue not only to pray for it to come in its completeness but also to live in harmony with its righteous requirements, giving their allegiance to it and making it known to others. Yes, let all these “keep on, then, seeking first the kingdom” of God and his righteousness.—Matt. 6:33, NW.