14. (a) What, then, is the kingdom that is God’s means of saving our race? (b) When and why was the preaching of that kingdom diminished, but why is now the time for it to be preached?

¹⁴ What, then, is the kingdom that God will use for saving the human race? It is the kingdom that was proclaimed by Jesus Christ up and down the land of Palestine nineteen centuries ago, saying: “The kingdom of the heavens has drawn near.” (Matt. 4:17, 23; 10:7) This is the same as saying: “The kingdom of God has drawn near.” (Mark 1:14, 15)

15. (a) When on earth, Jesus’ preaching the nearness of God’s kingdom pointed to what important feature about it? (b) What can be said about the crushing of hopes of a kingdom in Christ’s hands at his execution on a stake?

¹⁵ The fact that so far in the past as the first century C.E. Jesus Christ preached, “The kingdom of God has drawn near,” points to an important feature of this kingdom that does not originate with men on earth. What feature? That Jesus Christ, who was then near at hand on earth, is God’s appointed one to rule in that widely preached kingdom of God.