According to the words of Christ in Matthew 6: 9-15, the Kingdom is a matter of doing God's will, recognizing God's hand in our daily blessings, receiving his pardoning mercy and granting similar mercy to others, appropriating heavenly power to live victorious lives on earth, and ascribing glory and power and dominion to God as our heavenly Father and ruler of the universe.

Demonstration of God's Kingdom on Earth Needed

The global war is ended, and we thank God for that. However, the cessation of hostilities among the nations has not solved the major problems of the world. Our legislators are searching to find a plan which will make a peace that is lasting. Unless they do find a plan that will remove hatreds, jealousies, and fears, this world will be damned by the chaos which now threatens it.

Discussions by the leaders of the major powers may have their place, but unless they are willing to let loose the power of God upon mankind, mankind will be destroyed with the power which man has been able to harness and release.

Our only hope of staving off atomic bombings is to release the power of the kingdom of God upon the earth---the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is no power like it in all the world. Even the atomic bomb is impotent in the face of God's will wrought in human hearts.

God's will done by the people of earth would put out the fires of hate, revenge, fear, and jealousy. It would release good will, mercy, brotherly kindness, forgiveness, and love which would be manifested in sharing, healing, co-operating, and mutual sympathy and understanding.

It will pay the Church big dividends to send out missionaries who are God's missionaries--heaven's emissaries of good will---to introduce the kingdom of God to a world that is lost, bleeding, and dying. wherever Jesus Christ is preached, the kingdom of God comes to earth through hearts that crown him Lord of all. The kingdom of God is ever coming, and yet it is ever a present reality through Jesus Christ. His presence on earth through redeemed men creates new homes, new communities, a new world where nations can get along on the basis of reason and love.

How swiftly the kingdom of God comes to Japan, China, India, Russia, Africa, and other countries depends upon the sincerity of the church of God in America and so-called Christian lands---depends on how the church prays, gives, and works.

The Never-Changing Message of the Church

The message of the apostolic church was, "Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand." John preached that message, Jesus preached it, the apostles preached it, and we should proclaim it.

The kingdom of God is within reach of every person. Repentance and faith in Jesus Christ as one's personal Savior make the Kingdom a reality to the redeemed soul. Jesus said long ago and men must hear it now: "Except ye be born again, ye cannot see the kingdom of God." The kingdom of God is a manifestation of God's will being done in and through those who accept him as Savior. There is no other way to usher In the kingdom of God. This message is basic. Without it all human efforts will come to naught.

The World and the Whole of Human Life Included

The kingdom of God is the reign of God not over man. but in and through men. It is God being recognized in all we say and do. It is the recognition of God in man's quest for salvation and in man's relationship to man.

The world has tried the way of kings' and dictators but has never fully put the principles of the kingdom of God, as propounded by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, into daily practice.

While it is true that the kingdom of God is spiritual in nature--"righteousness, joy, and peace in the Holy Ghost"---it is also true that it touches our everyday lives. It is concerned about daily bread. It is concerned about justice, mercy, righteousness, and love between individuals and nations. It is concerned about the rights of minority groups and underprivileged people. There is a social manifestation of the kingdom of God as well as a religious manifestation of it. The social phase is manifested through spiritual qualities. Right relationships, right attitudes, right conduct reveal the kingdom of God to those who are praying for it to come. It is for this reason that Jesus revealed the social-religious phrase of the kingdom of God by saying, "You must love God and you must love your neighbor as yourself."

God's Kingdom Cannot Be Established by a Majority Vote

Rulers of earth are elected, and forms of government are established by a majority vote. But not so with the kingdom of God. It must come! No electioneering can stop it when it comes. An awakened soul will sell all he has to obtain it. An aroused community will repent in sackcloth and ashes to receive its benefits.

Sad to say, the majority of the people of earth would vote against the kingdom of God if its establishment were a matter subject to voting or balloting. Even if a nation voted in its favor that would not mark the coming of the kingdom of God to that nation. It takes more than social legislation, better housing, welfare work, international agencies like Red Cross and peace organizations, to equal the kingdom of God. It may include all these, but it rises above them; they are its products and not its producers.

Many people labor under the delusion that if we could only establish co-operatives, just laws, international good will, we would have the kingdom of God on earth. There is one great fallacy with such an illusion, and that is that Jesus Christ is left out of the picture. The will of man cannot usher in the kingdom of God. But the kingdom of God comes to earth when man's will is surrendered, yielded to God. A man-made utopia is too much earth-centered and time-conscious. The kingdom of God is heaven-centered, a bit of heaven let down to earth, eternity invading time, the Spirit of God taking up his abode with and in man.

God's Part in Establishing His Kingdom

Christian people must pray for the coming of the kingdom of God. We must pray earnestly. We have just been saying prayers and not really praying. The condition of our home, community, nation, the world, ought to send us to our knees to pray as we never prayed before for the kingdom of God to come. This is our only hope individually, nationally, and internationally.

In answer to the fervent prayers of the saints, backed up with hands, feet, tongues, and means, God will cause the Kingdom to come. God's part is to supply our needs, to give grace to do his will. God gives, forgives, delivers, and sanctifies.

Satan and wicked forces array themselves against God and would frustrate the coming of his kingdom. But where forgiveness, love, and service are manifested genuinely and sincerely, there the kingdom of God has come. Men will begin to forgive those who trespass against them. Forgiveness will beget love for the forgiven, and that will lead to unselfish service among the forgiven and forgiving. The laws of forgiveness, love, and service are manifested genuinely and sincerely, there the kingdom of God has come. The laws of forgiveness, love, and service will bind the hearts of men together in a kingdom that cannot be moved.

This article appeared in the January 4, 1947 publication of "THE GOSPEL TRUMPET" A publication of the Gospel Trumpet Company Anderson, Indiana