Kingdom Age New Creation

Kingdom Age New Creation

          In Matthew chapter six, Jesus teaches His disciples the essential substance of prayer.  It becomes quite evident in Jesus’ teaching regarding the substance of prayer that something very important to King Jesus is that He wants believers to maintain a Kingdom Age focus in their everyday lives during the Church Age. 

“⁹ After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. ¹⁰ Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. ¹¹ Give us this day our daily bread. ¹² And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. ¹³ And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen” (Matthew 6:9-13).

          Obviously, if we dare call ourselves the subjects of King Jesus, we should be preoccupied in our service to Him with His Kingdom.  His Kingdom is more about souls than it is about real estate.  The words “depts” and “trespasses” refer to two different things in the text.  “Debts” is from the Greek word opheilema (of-i'-lay-mah) and refers to something owed in either the monetary or moral sense.  “Trespasses” is from the Greek word paraptoma (par-ap'-to-mah), which refers to an error or transgression.  Therefore, Matthew 6:12-13 defines how people, destined for the Kingdom, should treat one another if they want to maintain open communication with the Throne of King Jesus.  These truths are essential to Kingdom thinking and Kingdom living. 

How errantly many view the Kingdom Age.  Most view the Kingdom Age from the perspective of change in blessing to them rather than in moral obligations regarding the way we live interactively with one another.  The local church is simply intended to reflect a miniature Kingdom Age view of living together under the Lordship of King Jesus forgiving one another and encouraging one another.  No matter how difficult this concept might appear to be, this kind of interaction and interdependence is the defining test of the reality of the kind of Christianity Jesus describes in Matthew chapters five through seven in His Sermon on the Mount.  The defining factors of radical transformation defined by the Beatitudes in Matthew 5:3-12 are seldom experienced by most Christians in their lifetimes, let alone on a consistent basis.  Failure here is why local churches so often and so easily self-destruct.

This expectation of Kingdom focus and Kingdom living is also described very thoroughly in II Corinthians 5:14-17, especially in II Corinthians 5:15.  This accountability to Jesus regarding the commandment of interactive living within the world and within the church family is a radical concept often ignored. 

“¹⁴ For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: ¹⁵ And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. ¹⁶ Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. ¹⁷ Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become {perfect tense = once forever} new” (II Corinthians 5:14-17).

          II Corinthians 5:15 reflects a Kingdom attitude, relevant to ministry, that should be expressed through the moment-by-moment living of every truly “born again” child of God.  Such living should overflow with the “fruit of the Spirit” (Galatians 5:22).  Galatians 5:13-14 introduces this idea with the phrase, “¹³ For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. ¹⁴ For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”  How radically different most local churches would be if this simple principle would become a priority for every believer.  This defines the microcosm of Kingdom living every local church is to be.

          However, what the believer is positionally “in Christ” is not necessarily what he is practically in his life.  This position is to what Paul refers in the sentence, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new {kahee-nos'} creature {creation}: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become {perfect tense = once forever} new” (II Corinthians 5:17).  

Practically becoming what we are already positionally involves spiritual warfare in a constant struggle against our own fallen natures.  Simply said, we are sinners.  We are our own worst enemies when it comes to being what God wants us to be and living the Christ-life.  Our effort in this struggle for holiness and sanctity before God will determine any spiritual successes we have in this life.  Our effort in this struggle for holiness and sanctity before God defined by the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew chapters five through seven, will define our understanding of the microcosm of Kingdom living every local church is intended to be. 

Understanding the concept of BEING a spiritually new creation positionally then requires that we seek to bring our lives within the practicality of that changed position.  The effort required to do this will dynamically change the way we read our instruction book – the Bible.  The effort required to do this will dynamically change the way we listen to sermons or read books from various Christian authors that might help us understand.  Within our effort to be Kingdom living Christians, we will soon discover we are being commanded to DO something and BE something totally beyond our capabilities.  Every person actually attempting to produce the Christ-life will very quickly learn that all of this will require that we “abide in the Vine” (John 15:4) or we will accomplish “nothing” for Christ (John 15:5).  It is in the actual process that we learn this.  Most professing Christians never learn to live in the New Creation because they never involve themselves in the spiritual warfare necessary for holiness and sanctity before God.  Trying to teach someone how to live the Christ-life without them being “born again” will be like trying to teach calculus to a slug. 

          By the time of the second coming of Christ at the end of the seven-year Tribulation, the earth’s ecological system will have been almost completely destroyed.  Over two-thirds of the world’s population that existed at the beginning of the Tribulation will have been killed by the judgments of God released upon the earth.  Thousands upon thousands of those who get saved during the Tribulation will have been murdered by the Antichrist hordes, while thousands more will starve to death because they cannot receive food or because they refused the mark of the beast.  Two-thirds of all life, and that which sustains it, will have been destroyed. 

Most of the earth’s fresh water and salt water will have been polluted by God’s judgments.  Most all animal life and plant life will be completely destroyed by God’s judgments.  The world’s infrastructure of sewers, roads, bridges, buildings, and cities will have been reduced to worthless rubble.  This will be the description of the earth at the beginning of the Kingdom Age.  Some radical changes will be necessary.  Some of those changes will take place as the Creator King Jesus’ feet touch the Mount of Olives.

“¹ Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. ² For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. ³ Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. ⁴ And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. ⁵ And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee. ⁶ And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark: ⁷ But it shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light. ⁸ And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be. ⁹ And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one. ¹⁰ All the land shall be turned as a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem: and it shall be lifted up, and inhabited in her place, from Benjamin’s gate unto the place of the first gate, unto the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananeel unto the king’s winepresses” (Zechariah 14:1-10). 

In a map of this area described in Zechariah chapter fourteen, we can see that the area of real estate that will be geographically exalted from Geba to Rimmon covers about fifty miles in length from North to South.  The newly created valley from the Mediterranean Sea to the Dead Sea running through the divided Mt. Moriah will be about one-hundred miles long.  This valley and this radical topographical change in the area around Jerusalem will be created by the simple touch of the Creator’s feet to Mt. Moriah. 

          Zechariah certainly refers to some radical topographical and geological changes in the Jordan valley at the second coming of Jesus.  There will also be some change in the day/night aspect of existence.  Many believe the words “that the light shall not be clear, nor dark” in Zechariah 14:6 refers to a return to the water canopy over the earth where the source of light is the glory of Jesus Christ within that water canopy.  The whole Earth will be filled and lit by the glory of the presence of the Lord Jesus.  The geographical exaltation of this fifty-mile-long piece of real estate is extensive according to Isaiah 2:1-5.  The Millennial Temple constructed (or created) by Jesus Christ will be exalted to “in the top of the mountains” (Isaiah 2:2).  We should understand this to be the highest place on planet Earth.  This will require the extensive topographical exaltation of Jerusalem or a combination of exalting the city of Jerusalem and lowering (de-exalting) the balance of higher mountains on Earth.  Anything is possible when the Creator is present. 

“¹ The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. ² And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. ³ And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. ⁴ And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. ⁵ O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the LORD” (Isaiah 2:1-5; compare Revelation 1:16).

Although Zechariah 14:1-10 might be understood to mean these geographical changes will take place only in Israel, this seems illogical since these judgments are intent upon judging the nations that have persecuted Jews.  Isaiah 40:3-5 also reveals some worldwide and radical topographical changes to the Earth.  This prophecy was reaffirmed in Luke’s account of John the Baptist in Luke 3:3-6.  The elements of this prophecy were not all fulfilled at the first advent of Jesus.  Therefore, they most assuredly will be fulfilled at His second coming.  There is no reason why this prophecy should be allegorized into some mystical meaning.

“³ The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. ⁴ Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: ⁵ And the glory of the LORD {the glorified coming Redeemer} shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it” (Isaiah 40:3-5).

“³ And he came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins; ⁴ As it is written in the book of the words of Esaias the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. ⁵ Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth; ⁶ And all flesh shall see the salvation {the glorified coming Redeemer} of God” (Luke 3:3-6).

          If we take these two Bible texts literally, and there is no reason we should not, we can imagine an Earth similar to that which existed prior to the continental shift that was most probably caused when God opened the waters of the deep (Genesis 7:11) to cause the universal flood of Noah.  This may be a reversal of the continental shift.  This is conjecture, but it is a highly probable conjecture.  Undoubtedly there was extensive geographical, topographical, and ecological changes after the Great Flood.  This is why the present studies of Geology is so faulty because its suppositions do not take into account the catastrophic changes that can happen very quickly, in a matter of a few years, in a worldwide flood. 

God could cause this geographical and topological change by merely speaking it into existence.  We do not know exactly how God will accomplish this tremendous reorganization of the Earth’s crust, but we know He is able.  The same God who spoke the universe into existence and sustains it in an ordered manner certainly is capable of a small rearrangement or reorganization of this small material world. 

God certainly is capable of changing the manner in which His created beings think or act.  There will also be a radical change in returning to a pre-flood existence between various kinds of animal life.  Certain predatory animals will no longer be predatory.  At the beginning of the Kingdom Age, all animal life will immediately become domesticated.  In other words, animals that once survived by killing and eating other animals will no longer have the desire to do.  Their instincts will have been recreated to want another source of food.  Lions will eat grass like the oxen.  Snakes will no longer be venomous and pose dangers to other animal life.  Animals once instinctively considered enemies will live together without fear of one another during the Kingdom Age.  The prophet Isaiah speaks of this domestication of previously carnivorous animals in two texts.

“¹ And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: ² And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD; ³ And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: ⁴ But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. ⁵ And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. ⁶ The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. ⁷ And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. ⁸ And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp {probably the deadly Cobra}, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den {probably the deadly Adder}. ⁹ They {previously deadly, predatory animals} 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 11:1-9).

          Isaiah 65:17-25 gives similar words, but begins with a statement regarding creating a new heaven and a new earth.  Normally, the references to the “new heavens and a new earth” are after the Kingdom Age.  This portion of Scripture appears to clearly be referring to the Kingdom Age.  Therefore, this should be understood to refer to a radical change in the atmosphere and topography of the Earth at the beginning of the Kingdom Age.

“¹⁷ For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. ¹⁸ But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. ¹⁹ And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying. ²⁰ There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed. ²¹ And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. ²² They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. ²³ They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the LORD, and their offspring with them. ²⁴ And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. ²⁵ The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the LORD” (Isaiah 65:17-25).

          The Jamison, Fausset, and Brown Commentary explains the statement in Isaiah 65:20 – “²⁰ There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed.” 

“20. The longevity of men in the first age of the world shall be enjoyed again. thence--from that time forward.

infant of days--that is, an infant who shall only complete a few days; short-lived.

filled . . . days--None shall die without attaining a full old age.

child . . . die . . . hundred years--that is, “he that dieth an hundred years old shall die a mere child” [LOWTH].

sinner . . . hundred . . . be accursed—“The sinner that dieth at an hundred years shall be deemed accursed,” that is, his death at so early an age, which in those days the hundredth year will be regarded, just as if it were mere childhood, shall be deemed the effect of God’s special visitation in wrath [ROSENMULLER].  This passage proves that the better age to come on earth, though much superior to the present will not be a perfect state; sin and death shall have place in it (compare Re 20:7-8), but much less frequently than now.”[1]

          This commentary expresses the meaning of Isaiah 65:22 – “as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.”  The intent is that the common life span of people during the Kingdom Age will be a thousand years.  In other words, they will live for the whole Kingdom Age period without really aging.  Other than executions for crimes or accidental deaths, there will be no deaths due to sickness.  The curse will still be in place and all children born of the saved families that begin the Kingdom age will still need to be saved “by grace through faith,” but life will be radically different.  There will be no need for Obama-care.  God will have instituted a new miraculous health care system that was part of the original creation in the human body’s capabilities to constantly regenerate. 

          The one-world government of Antichristism of the seven-year Tribulation will utterly fail.  That false one-world government will seek to enslave humanity in the bondage of unbelief and unrighteousness.  The one-world government of Antichristism of the seven-year Tribulation will be consumed with war.  The one-world government ruled by King Jesus and His new priesthood will be a government consumed with peace. 

“¹ The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. ² And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. ³ And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. ⁴ And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. ⁵ O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the LORD” (Isaiah 2:1-5).

“⁶ The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved {dominions were radically changed}: he uttered his voice, the earth melted {at the second coming and presence of King Jesus}. ⁷ The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah. ⁸ Come, behold the works of the LORD, what desolations he hath made in the earth {the Tribulation judgments}. ⁹ He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire. ¹⁰ Be still {cease}, and know {observe and learn} that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. ¹¹ The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah” (Psalm 46:6-11).

“⁶ For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. ⁷ Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this” (Isaiah 9:6-7).

          No false teaching or false religions will be allowed throughout the Kingdom Age.  Every living soul on planet Earth will be taught the Word of God in extreme depth and detail.  Again, the Kingdom Age will be a macrocosm of what is a microcosm in the local church during the Church Age.  However, according to Jeremiah 31:31-34 the knowledge of the Lord and His Word during the Kingdom Age will somehow be miraculously transmitted from one generation to the next.  We are not told how this will take place.  We are merely told that it will take place and that it will NOT happen because everyman taught his neighbor (Jeremiah 31:34).  Teaching the will of God to the next generation has been the universal failure of every generation of believers since the beginning of time.

“³¹ Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: ³² Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: ³³ But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days {after the judgment of the nations and the beginning of the Kingdom Age}, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. ³⁴ And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (Jeremiah 31:31-34).

          In summary, the average Jew would have known that all these various changes were the substance of their expectations of faith when Jesus taught them to pray, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).  They would have understood that the coming Kingdom for which they were praying included specific details for which they were praying.  In other words, they would have understood they were not just praying for some nondescript and undefined thing called the Kingdom.  They were asking God to fulfill specific prophecies regarding the complete transformation of the Earth, to establish a perfect human government, the transformation of animal life, the length of their own lifespans, and how they would live and learn during this span of time.  These are the changes anticipated when any believer prays, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).  The microcosm in the way every local church is supposed to function will become a worldwide macrocosm.  However, this macrocosm of love and grace will be supernaturally created by the presence of the Creator King Jesus.  Hopefully, understanding the macrocosm of what the Kingdom Age will be like will help us understand what Jesus wants His microcosm in His local churches to be like. 

“³¹ Therefore, when he was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him. ³² If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him. ³³ Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me: and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say to you. ³⁴ A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. ³⁵ By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13:31-35).

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[1] Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset, and David Brown. Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary, 1871, Sword Searcher Software 6.2.

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Numerous studies and series are available free of charge for local churches at: http://www.disciplemakerministries.org/ 
Dr. Lance Ketchum serves the Lord as a Church Planter, Evangelist/Revivalist. 
He has served the Lord for over 40 years.