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Subscribe NowThe Real Truth is “a magazine restoring plain understanding,” as the cover of each issue states. Our related World to Come program’s tagline is “analyzing world news—explaining Bible prophecy.”
Simply put, the Work you are in contact with is commissioned to explain truths understood nowhere else—including within the realm of prophecy. God’s Church has for decades taught what the Bible really says on impending matters of great importance, going back to the Worldwide Church of God and continuing today in The Restored Church of God.
But God foretold that a burst of new prophetic knowledge would come before He intervened in world affairs (Amos 3:7). The picture of prophecy long understood in God’s Church has been greatly amplified over recent years in a largely internal series of sermons I have given titled “The Greatest Untold Story!”—now nearly 500 in number. This undertaking, led by God, has detailed how God’s Kingdom will come to Earth. Every time you pray “Thy Kingdom come,” you are asking God to do something He has been planning for millennia!
The concept of a 1,000-year Kingdom is relatively well understood by Bible readers. Revelation 20:4 plainly says saints reign “with Christ a thousand years.” What no one can agree on is what precedes this. Many in Christendom believe in a seven-year Antichrist reign wherein this evil figure shows his true colors and betrays mankind halfway through. In contrast, longtime members of God’s Church have believed the first half of this seven-year period was already fulfilled by Christ 2,000 years ago. This left only 3½ years in God’s Plan before the Millennium. Over 900 hours of messages given in The Restored Church of God—with many multiple thousands of hours of study and preparation—reveal neither is the case. God has revealed much over recent years—including the central truth of how God’s Kingdom comes!
Our prophetic literature is largely correct, just incomplete in light of what God has shown. A brief preface will be added where necessary to explain the full picture of how God’s Kingdom truly comes. It is provided here in preliminary form.
The Kingdom of God is called an “everlasting Kingdom” in Daniel 7:27. The prophet Isaiah said it would have “no end” (9:7). Revelation explains that it starts with the Millennium—“a thousand years” (20:4). But the run-up to this Millennium is what few understand!
The book of Daniel holds the key. He explained in 9:24, “Seventy weeks are determined upon your people and upon your holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.” These 70 prophetic “weeks”—universally understood to be 490 years (7x70)—end as the 1,000-year period begins.
The last verse of chapter 9 explains only one “week” remains: “And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate” (vs. 27). This seven-year period is widely speculated on among Christendom, but few actually understand its great purpose!
Note that a “covenant” will be “confirmed” for this final seven-year period. The disciples in Acts 1:6 called it “the Kingdom to Israel”—something no one talks about! Having spent years with Christ, they understood God’s incredible Plan for humanity.
All mankind who has ever lived will be resurrected and given opportunity to pursue eternal life in a time of unprecedented peace to start the final “week” (John 5:25-29). While not yet the full Kingdom of God, it will be the best time humanity has ever experienced! They will be taught God’s Way—the only life that leads to true happiness, and ultimately membership in His Family. Those who wholeheartedly respond can avoid the punishment designed to wake people up during the final 3½ years. This will ensure billions enter the Kingdom of God as the Millennium begins. What God is actually going to do is far more merciful and wonderful than any “idea” or interpretation of men!
A final related note in understanding how Christ and the apostles taught about the Kingdom of God. Most are shocked to learn parables are meant to hide the “mysteries of the Kingdom” from the masses (Matt. 13:10-13). Some “Kingdom of heaven” and “Kingdom of God” parables, for instance, hold lessons and application for life now, and may also apply in the seven-year run-up to the Kingdom of God.
Keep the superstructure of God’s Plan in mind as you read: 3½ years of prosperity, followed by 3½ years of punishment, then the 1,000-year Kingdom of God, which continues into eternity. It will be crucial in framing all you read in Bible prophecy and in this text.
With just these few paragraphs, you already understand the Kingdom of God better than almost all who have puzzled over its arrival!
This Personal is short for a reason. The increase in prophetic understanding, while revolutionary, is logical and provable. If you are like vast numbers who are learning the truth for the first time, it should be relatively easy to accept and understand with some study. But those with a Church of God background can also grasp the powerful “simplicity that is in Christ” of what was just explained (II Cor. 11:3). (Note that part of this process of revising our literature will involve updating and reposting our article explaining the 70 weeks prophecy, proving in detail that one prophetic week remains before the Millennium.)
Of course, all that has been learned will be reflected in literature updates and corrections where necessary. Portions of revised books and booklets may even be reprinted in the form of Personals in future issues of The Real Truth, all the while hoping and praying God intervenes in world affairs and cuts this short!