Kingdom:
Past, Present and Future
Written by
Emeka Orji
September 2023
God’s intent has always been to extend His Heavenly Kingdom on the earth. In other words, to rule the earth through man. It is to this end that He created and commissioned man. Therefore, man was originally created to be God’s Kingdom representative on earth (Genesis 1:26-28, Psalm 115:15,16, Isaiah 45:18). Unfortunately, this agenda was disrupted and God’s Kingdom on earth was lost at the fall of man. Furthermore, it’s important for us to understand that God’s plan may change, but His purpose or intent doesn’t change.
In His love and commitment to His intent, God has been working towards the restoration and establishment of His Kingdom on earth.
All the dealings of God with men like Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and the Israelites as communicated in the Scriptures are means towards His Kingdom restoration and establishment agenda.
As we know, God is the God of all, hence, He also communicated His Kingdom restoration and establishment agenda to a gentile king named Nebuchadnezzar via a dream. King Nebuchadnezzar couldn’t understand the meaning of the dream so he summoned his magicians, sorcerers and astrologers, demanding that they tell him what he had dreamt as well as the interpretation.
Unfortunately, they couldn’t until Daniel a child of God who was one of the officials of Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom offered to describe the king’s dream as well as the interpretation.
Daniel then sought the Lord and the Lord revealed the dream and the interpretation to him.
Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and Interpretation
As revealed by the Spirit of God, Daniel correctly described the dream in every detail thus;
Nebuchadnezzar had seen a great statue with a head of gold, chest and arms of silver, abdomen and thighs of bronze, legs of iron, and feet made partly of iron and partly of clay. Then a stone cut out with no human hand smashed the feet of iron and clay and proceeded to break the rest of the statue into tiny pieces, which the wind blew away. After this, the stone grew into a great mountain that filled the whole earth (see Daniel 2:31-35)
Daniel gave the interpretation of the dream as recorded in Daniel 2:39-45; he explained that the different parts of the statue represented different kingdoms that would arise in the earth. Bible scholars generally agree that except for the feet of iron mixed with clay, the various segments of the statue refer to kingdoms and empires that have come and gone on the earth.
- The head of gold represents Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom of Babylon
- The chest and arms of silver represent the Medo-Persian Empire
- The abdomen and thighs of bronze represent the Greek Empire
- The legs of iron represent the Roman Empire (the 2 legs representing Western and Eastern Roman Empire). Though this empire has fallen, but it’s important to note that our world till today is still being run by the political, economic, and religious systems they established.
- The next kingdom represented by the feet of iron and clay has not yet emerged, but many believe it’s already in the making and there are various interpretations that have been given to Today we hear of things like the New World Order and Global Reset, which is all about a new political, economic, and religious system upon which this word will be run. I personally believe these are all in preparation for the emergence of the next kingdom. The Scriptures in Revelation 17: 10-14, indicate that it is from this New World Order/Governmental System that the beast/the antichrist (Rev. 13:1-8) will emerge.
God’s Kingdom; a present, as well as a future reality
The most important part of the king’s dream is concerning another kingdom symbolized by the stone, a kingdom that will smash and blow away all the others, a kingdom that will grow to fill the whole earth and will last forever. This kingdom is the Kingdom of God. From these Scriptures (Isaiah 9:6,7, Daniel 2:44, 7:27, Rev. 19: 11-21), we can understand that the Lord Jesus Christ upon His return, will set up or physically establish His Kingdom, rule and reign on the earth from Jerusalem with all the saints (Rev. 20:1- 6).
As stated earlier, among the things that man lost at the fall is the Kingdom of God, hence, the need for restoration. By redemption, God restored His Kingdom on earth. This is the very mission of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the glory of God, He accomplished this through His shed blood on the cross, resurrection, ascension to Heaven and enthronement (Rev. 5:9,10, Col.1:13,14, Eph.1:19-23, Matthew 28:16-18).
It’s close to 2000 years now that Jesus Christ walked this earth, preaching and teaching about the KINGDOM OF GOD and ETERNAL LIFE as we can see from the four gospels (Mathew, Mark, Luke and John). He raised and commissioned Apostles and disciples to carry on with His message (Matthew 28:16-20). As Jesus Christ ascended to Heaven and in fulfilment of the promise of the Holy Spirit, the Church was born/inaugurated on the day of Pentecost (a Jewish festival, Acts 1: 1-11, Acts 2). The propagation of the Gospel (The Good News of God’s Kingdom) has continued from then till now and spiritually, Jesus Christ has been establishing the Kingdom in the hearts of men (Luke 17:20,21).
From the above, we can see that God’s Kingdom has been restored spiritually and God’s desire is that we become CITIZENS of HIS KINGDOM as well as retain our KINGDOM CITIZENSHIP whilst we look forward to the physical establishment of His Kingdom.
THIS OUGHT TO BE OUR PRIORITY AND PURSUIT IN LIFE
(Matthew 6:10, 33)
Through SALVATION/NEWBIRTH/SPIRITUAL BIRTH EXPERIENCE we become KINGDOM CITIZENS (John 3:3-7, Col.1:13, Eph.2:19) but by doing the WILL OF GOD/WALKING IN OBEDIENCE TO GOD’S WORD we retain OUR KINGDOM
CITIZENSHIP and continually PARTAKE OF THE BENEFITS therein (Col.1:12, 2 Peter 1:10,11, Mathew 7:21-23)
Citizenship of God’s Kingdom is therefore the vital key to overcoming the challenges of this present world and the assurance of a glorious and blissful experience in eternity.
May we all become and remain citizens of God’s eternal Kingdom!
Emeka Orji
Product of my personal contemplations aimed at enhancing our understanding and deepening our conviction.
Reviewed and endorsed by spiritual mentors.