PART 1: The Kingdom Gospel Messages Introduced
Christ mandated His disciples to preach THE KINGDOM GOSPEL to all nations, kindreds, and tribes and tongues and people, as witness and as a herald to His Second Coming. Matt 24:14 reads: “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.”
The Savior gave many signs of His soon return in the book of Matthew chapter 24 – signs of hope in nature, politics, religion, society, etc.
Signs in Politics: There shall be Wars and rumors of wars, NATIONS WILL RISE AGAINST NATION Matt 24:6-7a.
Signs in Nature: There shall be Earthquakes in diverse Places, famine, pestilence, pollution, etc., Matt 24:7b.
Signs in the Social world: Preoccupation with pleasure, materialism, greed, selfishness, iniquity, lawlessness, etc. Matt 24:12.
Men will be marrying and giving to marriage, eating and drinking. Matt 24:38.
Signs in the Religious World: False Christs and False apostles and prophets will abound, and brother will betray brother, etc. Matt 24:0,-11,
The Final Sign: The Kingdom Gospel shall be preached as a witness to all people in the context of the “Present Truth.” Matt 24:14. Of all the signs of Christ’s coming, the only one yet to be fulfilled is the preaching of the Everlasting Gospel to the entire world. The question comes: Which Gospel is yet to be preached? The Present Truth, of course. How is this so?
The Gospel of the Kingdom as the Present Truth
There is a Present Truth for every generation. The apostle Peter emphasized his commitment to preach the Present Truth to his hearers. In 2 Pet 1:12, he wrote:”Wherefore, I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth.” This means that the gospel must be preached in the context of the present truth relevant to the preacher’s contemporary hearers.
In the days of Noah, the Present Truth was “Get into the boat.”
At the time of Jonah, the Present Truth was “God will destroy Nineveh in 40 days.”
In the days of John the Baptist, the Present Truth was “Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.”
In the days of the early disciples, the Present Truth was “The Risen and soon coming Christ.”
In this time of the end, the Present Truth is the Three Angels’ Messages of Rev 14:6-12.
Rev.14:6-12 reads:
The first angel’s message has four elements, namely, “fear God”; “give glory to Him”; “the hour of His judgment has come”; and “worship Him who made the heaven and earth”.
The Second Angel cries out saying, Babylon is fallen! Come out of her my people!
Babylon here is the spiritual, symbolic one that has the same features as the ancient Babylon.
The 3rd Angel’s Message is warning against worshipping the Beast-Power, an authority that usurps God’s worship by creating a counterpart Sabbath, that is, Sunday Observance.
God threatens to pour out His wrath upon the Beast-Power, His image, his prophets and those who allow themselves to be deceived by them. Again, the Remnant Brethren are to go and warn men against the worship of the Beast-Power.
This volume deals with the First Angel’s Message. We shall consider deeper details of the Second and Third Angels’ Messages, respectively, .in next two volumes of the Kingdom Gospel Series.