THE LORD'S PRAYER
Many people today recite this prayer of the Lord,
given to His disciples before He left this earth and returned, fulfilling all prophecy. Is it relevant today
to pray "thy kingdom come" ? In my view, it is not.
Christ was speaking before His kingdom came, not to you and me, but to His Jewish disciples.
The Old Kingdom under the law was still in effect,
and were warned in Matt. 5:17 not to disobey one iota of it until all was fulfilled.
At the demise of the Old Covenant in AD70 the kingdom did come, and this prayer was answered.
We all know this prayer by heart,and many denominations speak it every Sunday by rote, not
discerning what they are praying for. Perhaps this practice is one reason that it is so difficult for people to understand that the kingdom already
came!
Not to mention all of the hymns that foster the same futurist views. Sometimes we sing a song
over and over until we believe that the Bible
actually says what we are singing.
Matt 6:9-13, " Pray,then, in this way: ' Our Father who is in heaven,Hollowed be your name. Your
kingdom come Your will be done,on earth as it is
in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and
forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but
deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.'
In verse 10 Jesus was teaching His disciples to pray that the Father's kingdom would come.
Remember that they still had to keep the law as
long as Jesus was alive. This new kingdom is Christ's rule and reign in the hearts of men, not
anything that one can see, like one could see, feel,and touch the physical temple 'made with hands'.
"Kingdom" in this verse is defined as royal power,
kingship,dominion,rule, not to be confused with an actual kingdom but rather the right or authority to rule over a kingdom of the royal power of Jesus as the triumphant Messiah.
At the time that Jesus was teaching this prayer,
His reign, or kingdom, was still in the future and
His disciples were to pray for it to come .
But, "On earth as it is in heaven" did not mean peace between men and it does not mean that
every man would from then on do His will. Nor does it mean that for 1000 years, God's will would
be done perfectly by all in a perfect material world.
Many people, His people, do His will in this physical life as best we can, and we have the
'peace of God that passes all understanding'.
Peace between man and God. Is God dwelling
with man today on earth? Yes, He is, His kingdom is here just as surely as it is in heaven.
" Ye are the temple of God."
Rev 21:1-3, " And I saw a new heaven and a new earth , for the first heaven and the first earth were
passed away, and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the
tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them,and be their God."
Men should not expect a kingdom seen with human eyes, for His kingdom is in men's hearts,
where He dwells with them. The only way to change a man's action is to change his heart, his
thinking,and his emotions. This is the kingdom,or
reign of God. This is a relationship, not a physical place we go when we die.
We see the results of the kingdom by the actions of the person who lives there with God, and we can easily see the results or works of evil that results by living outside of the kingdom,or reign of
God.
But we cannot see physically the reign (kingdom)
of God in men's spirits. Every man before the entrance of the New Jerusalem was sent to the grave to await resurrection and condemnation or acceptance. They were judged by the law, Romans 2:12.
Heb.11:8-10 , "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after
receive for an inheritance, obeyed, and he went out,not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as a strange country,dwelling in tabernacles (made with hands)
with Isaac and Jacob,the heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God."
Abraham did not have the 'city' described in Revelation,the kingdom not made with hands while on earth. All he had was the promise of it,
and as an heir,he looked toward the future, toward
the city built by God.
People who understand fulfilled eschatology know that Christians never die, and we can't possibly realize what it must have been like to face death,
knowing that one had to wait in a grave and face a judgment someday.
The horror of this probably escapes us, but those believing in a future resurrection still have the same fear - "Where will I go? How will I be judged?" - so sad for them not to understand that
we are not under the law anymore,but under grace,where there is no death to those who are
His by faith.
But until the entrance of the New Kingdom, the new reign, that is what mankind faced and why they yearned for their Messiah to come. That who
were righteous and did their best to serve God under the law, or before the law was given,still
had to wait until the law ended to begin their everlasting life in the presence of God.
Death is the absence of God. After Adam and before the coming of Christ Jesus, the 'second
Adam', everone's body and soul went to Hades,
to await their resurrection and judgment.
Christians who are futurist must have some problems putting it all together. On the one hand,
they say that they are saved,washed in His blood.
On the other hand, they think that they will go to the grave and await resurrection and judgment,
which is no better than what man had before Christ came.
One can see that if one is saved already, clean already, then he has already been declaired so,
for Christ Jesus said in John 5:24 "Verily,verily,I
say unto you,He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life,and shall not come into condemnation, but is
passed from death unto life".
The word 'condemnation' is used only in the KJV,
all other versions use the word 'judgment'.
Christians today,and since AD 70 will not have to go through a judgment, but are already saved and
declared righteous, if not, they are 'dead while they live'. 1 Tim 5:4. Does it follow that if one is
alive,and dwelling in His presence that he is already in the heavenly realm also?
Yes! Believers in God "never die" , John 11:26.
"And whoever lives and believes in Me shall
never die. Do you belive this?"
We have put on Christ,we are in the heavenly relationship already when we accepted Him as our Savior......Love and Peace, Marilyn Hart
please e-mail any comments to:
artmch@yahoo.com (Marilyn Hart)
|
