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We're born, we live, we die and then we're history. But when we're young we think about our future!
A humorous American ad campaign for a credit card company asks the question, "What's in your wallet?" The creatively presented point is that if you have their card in your wallet, then your credit will be safe and you'll be able to buy lots of stuff. In fact, it will drive away the Vikings, pirates, Saxons or other dangerous warriors almost like a credit card force field!
I enjoy the ads on television so much that I never remember the name of the company! All I remember is that great question "What's in your wallet?"
Likewise, my hope is that this article will provide vital answers about your life by impressing on your mind the far greater question: What's in your future?
Read it, watch it or hear it-however you gather the news about the world today, it's not cheery. So should we not think about 2012's degenerating economic conditions, political instability across the Middle East and elsewhere, an ongoing global rash of serious earthquakes, the shrinking superpower of America and all that this implies? We haven't even discussed the plethora of high-tech but unhappy youthful trends.
Fact is, we live in the last years of this age of history. It will end spectacularly-and terrifyingly-with the second coming of Jesus Christ. Terrifying because nothing less than the worst world war ever will precede His return. The good news is that those, including vertical thinkers like you, who faithfully follow the great Lord and Savior will find that part of their future less frightening-still sobering, but exciting.
Take this part of your future seriously. Study God's Word and pray daily so that you'll be prepared spiritually for anything. However, the immediate future of this year and following years is not our most important future. God has far greater things in store for us!
When Jesus does return, He'll launch a new age of mankind's real and wonderful future. Literally, for the first 1,000 years plus (Revelation), Christ will directly rule all the nations from a completely rebuilt Jerusalem. The Latin word for "1,000 years" is "millennium," so Christ's reign is often referred to as the Millennium-with descriptions of that time referred to as "millennial."
I really love the idea of true world peace, don't you? That peace is our future. Millennial prophecies speak of the Kingdom of God being established on earth. As the wonderful, powerful and loving Messiah, Jesus will brook no political, business, educational or religious falsehood or intrigue. None-and no wars either!
Then when humanity follows God's way of living, He will give great blessings. His law-summarized by the Ten Commandments-will be the law of all the lands. Violence and murder-gone! Lying, cheating, stealing and other crime-finished! Honesty will not only be the best policy, it will be the only policy. Sexual immorality-no more! As God intended, sex will be saved for and marvelously enjoyed within marriage. Divorce will disappear. Children will grow up in stable and happy families.
Let's look at a specific and marvelous millennial prophecy. About 2,700 years ago God inspired His "Shakespeare of the prophets"-Isaiah-to draw this spectacular word picture of the millennial age to come:
"The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play by the cobra's hole, and the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper's den" (Isaiah 11:6-8).
Visualize this supremely peaceful and pleasant domestic farmyard scene. Jesus Christ will change the nature of wild animals. Today's large, dangerous carnivores will be as completely tamable as our household pet cats and dogs. Snakes will no longer be poisonous to man or child.
Of course, Christ's main purpose for the future is not to tame wild animals but to change the wild, selfish nature of humanity. The change in animal nature is literal but also symbolizes the human process of repentance from sin and true, spiritual conversion. The whole world will be "tamed" as all people become "partakers of the divine nature" (1 Peter 1:4).
That incredible change in the nature of man portends more: "They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea" (Isaiah 11:9).
God's holy "mountain" is a common biblical symbol for government, which here means the Kingdom of God with Jesus as the King of Kings on behalf of God the Father. The government of God's Kingdom will rule the entire earth during the Millennium. God's government will be as different in every good way from humanity's best government as one end of the Milky Way Galaxy is distant from the other.
When Christ rules the world, no nations will attack other nations. Crime will be served justice by the plateful until there is no more crime. Sweethearts will learn to treat each other faithfully before God to the extent that the true love of marriages in the future can't even be imagined by the jaded, immoral, shallow and short-lived relationship-seekers and breakers of today! Then, no one will hurt or destroy-including among marriages, parent-child bonds, communities, tribes and countries.
We're talking peace like you've never seen before! Peace based on the true knowledge of the God of the Bible-not the false knowledge of the world's religions, including the traditional Christianity of today. Peace based on God's great law of love, as Jesus Christ said: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind," and "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 22:36-39).
When the waters cover the seabed there are no dry spots. Consider that when light from the sun shines on an object that's not transparent, there is always a shadow behind or below it where the light does not directly reach. In the case of water covering the ocean floor, there is no place the water doesn't reach. The knowledge of God in the age to come will reach everyone. Truth will prevail and will be understood everywhere.
God is looking for vertical thinkers who are people of truth and peace-no matter old or young-to worship Him and to serve humanity in that wonderful Millennium and beyond. Further, Jesus Christ is seeking a few good people to help spread the good news of that coming divine Kingdom and to serve as living examples of His way today. What's in your future? It's right here, right now!
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Keywords: future role kingdom of God Jesus' return Jesus' rule world peace
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