Athen's Library

The Revelation of God’s Kingdom

Revised March 18, 2009

And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.  Matthew 24:14.

Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:  Matthew 25:34.

For many years evangelists, ministers and lay workers have been spreading the Everlasting Gospel to the world.  But in an effort to expedite the time of Christ’s returning to receive His Kingdom, the gospel of the kingdom message has been allowed to fall by the wayside.  We cannot allow the Plan of Salvation to be separated from the Place of Salvation.  The Plan of Salvation is of course the Everlasting Gospel but the Place of Salvation, the barn, also known as the Kingdom of Glory, must be established here on earth before Christ can return to receive this Kingdom.

The great deceiver has come to terms with the fact that he can not diminish our enthusiasm for spreading the Everlasting Gospel.  To this end he has chosen to repeat a tactic that proved to be extremely effective for him at the First Advent.  If he can entice us to overlook the present event in favor of eagerly anticipating a future event, he can cause us to lose faith and turn our energy against God’s work.

This transcript from a sermon given in 1949 and a paragraph penned in 1864 explains this better than I can.  We as students and gospel teachers have for years dwelt heavily on the signs of Christ’s second coming, but not at all on the signs of the Kingdom. As a result of this, Christendom has theoretically merged the signs of the Kingdom with the signs of the Second Advent.

Something similar to this is what the Jews of old did when they were expecting the Messiah’s first appearing. According to their private understanding they deeply studied the signs of the restoration of the Kingdom, but not so much of the signs of the Messiah’s coming. Thus it was that when they were told that the Messiah had come but not the time to restore the Kingdom, the leaders of the Jews, taking for granted that their private (uninspired) interpretation of the Scriptures was infallible, rejected the message of that day. Then in an attempt to safeguard their influence upon the common people and to subjugate them to their way of thinking, they crucified the Lord, their Saviour and King as they did also kill the prophets who went before Him. Their insistence that the Kingdom be restored in their day, though, profited them nothing.   2TG, No. 44 pg. 29.

About that period Messiah was expected. By many he was looked for to come as a mighty monarch. The Jews had boasted to the Gentiles of his coming, and had dwelt largely upon the great deliverance which he would bring them, that he would reign as king, and put down all authority. Every kingdom and nation would bow to him, and the Jewish nation would reign over them. They had the events of the first and second comings of Christ confounded together.  4aSG 115.

We my friends are living in the days when the prophecies point out it is time for this Kingdom to be established.  The Jewish leaders were expecting a Mighty Monarch to take the throne of David and rule the world.  Even though it is our hearts desire to see Christ return to receive His Kingdom, it will profit us nothing to insist that it is time for His return if in fact the Kingdom of Glory He is coming to receive has not yet been established.  Let us return to the verse in Matthew and read again the first part.  ...And this gospel of the kingdom...  We must remember the “gospel of the kingdom” is the last message to be preached before the end comes.  Jesus Said, After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.  Matthew 6:9-10.  Until we understand that like the First Advent, the Second Advent is governed by prophecy, and that the Second Advent begins with the establishment of the Kingdom of Glory and culminates with the return of Christ to receive His Kingdom, we will not be able to comprehend the Kingdom for which Jesus taught us to pray.  If we ourselves do not even comprehend the Kingdom, how can we then preach any good news about it to the world?

As the message of Christ’s first advent announced the kingdom of His grace, so the message of His second advent announces the kingdom of His glory. And the second message, like the first, is based on the prophecies.  DA 234.

In the prophecy of the image of Daniel chapter two we find that God’s Kingdom is likened unto a stone cut out of the mountain, without hands, and that this stone comes into existence, or is cut out, after the kingdom represented by the two legs of iron has come to its end.  From history we know that these two legs of iron represent Rome, whose rule ended in 1798 due to the deadly wound being inflected by a message of truth.  Rome’s rule has ended, and according to the dream when a kingdom ends we move down the image, this time we move down to the era represented by the feet and toes of iron mixed with clay.  This simple fact proves that the feet and toes of iron mixed with clay are the nations found in the world today.  And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.  Daniel 2:44. 

Next let’s look at the prophecy in Daniel seven.  A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened. ... But the saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever.  Daniel 7: 10, 18.  From history we know that the judgment for the dead began in 1844, from this fact and the fact that we are not now living in the Kingdom of Glory, we know it did not begin with the opening of the judgment of the dead.  From these two texts we now know that God’s kingdom is established during a judgment hour other than that of the dead, and that it then conquers our modern day kingdoms, nations.

Moving to the book of Revelation we find another verse dealing with the Kingdom of Glory.  And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.  Revelation 11:15.  It should be noted that this verse agrees with and complements Daniel 2:44.  Both are describing the time when the Kingdom of Glory is established.  Daniel writes, like a “stone” cut out without hands, it conquers our modern day nations: while John writes great voices in heaven declaring these modern nations are conquered.  With that said, let us study this prophecy in more detail.  As a refresher let us remember that John wrote about seven seals and seven angels with trumpets, and that the seals and the trumpets go hand in hand.  The seven seals represent seven periods of time in this world’s history and there is a matching trumpet for each of these periods of time.  The angels then arrive one at a time, one for each seal, and sound their trumpet announcing a judgment upon the people who have stood in the way of present truth for that period of time.  Now, returning to the verse we can see that when John wrote And the seventh angel sounded he is talking about the seventh trumpet.  Knowing that the trumpet announces a judgment we can determine from this verse that God’s Kingdom comes into existence during the judgment hour depicted here in the period of this world’s history represented by the seventh seal.  And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.  Revelation 8:1.  The silence here spoken of is a recess in the judgment hour and it divides the judgment into two distinct sections.  The first section is the judgment of the dead, and the second section is the judgment of the living.  From these four prophecies we now know that God’s kingdom is established during a judgment hour but more specifically at the opening of the judgment of the living, and that it then conquers our modern day kingdoms, nations.

To understand how the kingdom conquers the nations is to understand how the judgment works.  During the judgment of the dead the books in heaven were opened and each individual’s deeds were examined.  The same is true with the judgment of the living except in this case there is a companion event that takes place here on earth.  This companion event is the harvest; the separation of the wheat from the tares.  Each individual represented by wheat is cleaned up and given a new heart, then they are taken into the barn (kingdom), but the tares are bound into bundles ready to be burned.  As the good are gathered into God’s Kingdom, the kingdom grows.  And as the wicked are bound, their authority and ability to rule removed from them, the nations of this earth are conquered.

But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.  Revelation 10:7.

God, as the great general in the battle to save us has managed two separate categories of information, making sure this information is not understood in advance; keeping His hand over it and dispensing it as needed so it cannot be used against Him by the enemy.  One of these He calls His Secret, the other He calls His Mystery.  Revelation 10:7 contains information from both of the two categories, and we have been at a loss to understand this verse with our limited resources.  For this reason ...the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season?  Luke 12:42.  God sends us meat in due season, or truth to inform us about the events that are about to take place, because He promised He would.  Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.  Amos 3:7.

God’s Secret

Time is God’s secret.  Everything God does, He does according to His time.  To give an example, the children of Israel left Egypt at a specified time, the fifteenth day of the first month which was the selfsame day as four hundred and thirty years earlier God made a promise to Abraham.  Jesus came and started His ministry at a specified time, the end of the sixty nine weeks.  He was born in the middle of the Tabernacles week and raised from the grave at a specified time, in the midst of the Passover week.  God has promised that He will not do anything we need to know about unless He first tells us through His servants the prophets.  ...in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, is a specified point in time, and up until now it has been part of God’s secret because we are on a need to know basis.  But just recently, namely February 26, 2009 the Spirit confirmed to me that the seventh seal opened at Atonement, the tenth day of the seventh month, which by our calendar was October 9, 2008.  This literally means there are only a few weeks until the seventh angel begins to sound.  Remember, the seventh seal and the seventh angel go hand in hand.  On the first Passover after the opening of the seventh seal, the seventh angel will sound a judgment upon the firstborn, or leadership, who continue to stand in the way of present truth.

There is much we need to know to be prepared for this event.  First and foremost we need to understand that for God to bring us out of the captivity of sin, like He brought the Hebrews out of the captivity in Egypt, we must keep the Passover/Lords Supper according to the time pointed out in the Torah.  Jesus said ...The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat: All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.  Matthew 23:2-3.  This year according to the Rabbis who are in charge of preparing the calendar, the fourteenth day at even and the fifteenth day of the first month will correspond with our dates of April 8 at even and the day of April 9, 2009.  The Spirit explained to me that we should not accept a different time for this event from a Christian individual or denomination because this would not honor Jesus’ will.  We are told that God winks at our ignorance, and gives us partial credit when we do things at the wrong time or in the wrong way if we are truly ignorant.  (Act 17:30)  But when we are talking about a time of the judgment, like the Passover in Egypt, placing the blood upon the doorpost on the wrong day would not have saved the firstborn living within.  The same will be true this year, this year the week represented by the term half an hour will be the Passover week, even if we comprehend the importance of celebrating this Passover, if we do not celebrate it on the proper evening we will still miss out.  (The evening of Wednesday April 8, which is the beginning of the Passover Sabbath April the 9^th, we will celebrate Passover as a family, at our house.  We will begin by first taking the leaven out of our house in preparation for partaking of the Lords Supper.  We will wash each others feet and then ask a blessing over the unleavened bread and grape juice.)

And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.  Revelation 8:1.  This particular half hour of silence is the seven day period of the Passover week for 2009.  According to what the Spirit told me, this Passover week will mark the beginning of the judgment of the living, and is the same as the days mentioned in Revelation 10:7 when the seventh angel begins to sound.  Those who will step out in faith and prepare to observe this appointed time, according to the law, are depositing extra oil into their flask.  They will then be prepared to trim their lamps and transfer the extra oil into their lamps when the time comes in order to inherit the Kingdom of Glory.  Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:  Matthew 25:34.

God’s Mystery

The mystery of God is the other category of information of which God maintains tight control.  It is within this knowledge base that the truth of the extra oil is found.  Like all good mysteries this one also has clues, except in the case of this mystery the clues are hidden within the pages of the laws and stories in the Bible.  The five wise virgins of Matthew twenty five do not have the mystery completely solved.  For you can see that the clues they have found dealing with the extra oil are still in a separate flask when the seventh angel begins to sound.  The same is true for us today, the Passover week when the angel begins to sound is still ahead of us, and until that time the mystery will not be fully understood.

At this time I would like to share some of the clues the Spirit has pointed out to me.  Salvation for mankind and the planet earth they were given to rule comes from Jesus and His Family who step in and redeem Adam and his lost dominion using the principles found in the story of Ruth.  The person we now know as Jesus of Nazareth delivered His last will and testament to Moses in the form of a covenant.  He came into this world born of a woman in order to establish brotherhood with Adam and citizenship on this earth.  After a ministry of three and one half years confirming His covenant, He then modified the way we eat the Passover, taking the lamb off the table by showing how the lamb only stood in His place until He arrived to be our Passover.  With the recording of this one single modification (deletion of animal sacrifices) He then died leaving everything else in the will intact.  We all know that after the testator dies the will then becomes an un-alterable legal document.  The heir who is to receive this will, the child Jesus said He would send in His name, cannot be a servant, nor can he be the son of a bondwoman.  This child must be born of Jesus’ legal wife who was drawn out of His side while He was in a deep sleep upon the cross.  Jesus is the Olive tree that brings the oil of salvation and His Son is the Olive tree that brings the extra oil of salvation.  (See Zechariah 4:14)  Having only the knowledge of the oil of salvation is sufficient for all who are judged under the judgment of the dead.  But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished...  A rudimentary outline of this great mystery is that Jesus will have an only begotten Son (Hebrews 11:17) and that this Son will overcome and then sit down with His Father on the throne of David as Jesus overcame and sat down with His Father on the throne in Heaven.  For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.  1 John 5:4.  Until the time comes when the mystery of God is finished, or revealed to us in a manner we can understand, all we can do is continue to gather clues.  One of these clues is the manner in which Passover occurs this year, not only does it fall during the week so as to match the pattern, but it also falls in a way that allows it to fulfill prophecy.  It is my understanding that those who observe this Passover/half hour of silence week will inherit the Kingdom and will be filled with a message, the message of This Gospel of the Kingdom, to give to the world.

Solemn are the scenes connected with the closing work of the atonement. Momentous are the interests therein involved. The Judgment is now passing in the sanctuary above. Forty years (more that one hundred and sixty years at present) has this work been in progress. Soon--none know how soon--it will pass to the cases of the living. In the awful presence of God our lives are to come up in review. At this time above all others it behooves every soul to heed the Saviour’s admonition, “Watch and pray, for ye know not when the time is.” “Watch ye therefore, ... lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping.” [MARK 13:33, 35, 36.]  4SP 314.

When Moses struck the rock and the rock split apart allowing the water to gush out, we are given a picture of the First Advent. The next time water was needed Moses was told to speak to the rock, but instead he struck this second rock twice. In Moses striking the second rock, instead of speaking to it, he was making a prophecy of how the church would react when presented with a true understanding of the Second Advent.  Most of the churches are looking for Jesus to come and take them out of this mess, not expecting to be given the privilege of living and reigning here on this earth in the Kingdom of Glory with the heir, Jesus’ Son, during the harvest. 

Obviously for one to benefit from an inheritance that person must be alive.  The 144,000 are the first to benefit from Christ’s “will” by being made alive.  As these 144,000 captives are set free, God’s Church-Nation is born.  Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.  Isaiah 66:8.  God’s Church-Nation comes into being at Passover when modern-day Israel is led out of captivity.  Clad in the armor of Christ’s righteousness, the church is to enter upon her final conflict. “Fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners” (Song of Solomon 6:10), she is to go forth into all the world, conquering and to conquer.  PK 725.

Yours to keep the Passover and inherit the Kingdom

Athen Slawson