Recovering the True Gospel of the Coming Kingdom of Yahuwah

Why did Yahuwah create human beings? For what purpose did He make us? You would expect that everyone would be pondering, discussing and debating this most basic of all issues. But they are not! The public and even the church mind is on other things. Such is the deception, which Satan has worked in human society.

And if indeed Yahuwah has a purpose, what is His plan for carrying it out? Could there possibly be any more foundational information for you to possess than that of knowing your destiny? All other knowledge and effort surely pales by comparison. Use this, perhaps, as an opening for discussion with those close to you, or others you encounter day by day.

It is not surprising to learn that a prominent biblical figure, one who Yahuwah says was a man after His own heart, put the highest priority on the question of his existence. King David, one of the most powerful men in history, was humbled by the realization of his (and our) ultimate destiny. Looking up into a starry night some 3,000 years ago this king of Israel proclaimed his awe and amazement at what the Creator of the vast universe has planned for us seemingly insignificant human beings on this tiny planet:

“When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained; what is man that You take thought of him, and the son of man that You care for him? Yet You have made him a little lower than the angels, and You crown him with glory and majesty! You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet” (Ps. 8:3-6).

Just over 1,000 years later, the writer of the New Testament book of Hebrews repeats this encouraging and positive statement of David’s, but reminds us of a temporary setback: “For in subjecting all things to him [mankind], He [Yahuwah] left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him” (Heb. 2:8).

The writer goes on to show that, to date, only one man, Yahushua the Messiah, has achieved the glory which all of humanity was designed to have. This same unique and godly man, Yahushua, who was murdered by the religious leaders of his day 2,000 years ago, is the one who said of himself that he would one day return to this earth and share that glory with others: “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. All nations will be gathered before him; and he will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep on his right...and say to those...‘Come, you who are blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world’” (Matt. 25:31-34).

Indeed, at the foundation of the world Yahuwah had prepared a kingdom for men and women, just as Yahushua said. In the beginning of human history we find Yahuwah our Father encouraging us with these words: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Gen. 1:28).

Yet, as the writer of Hebrews said, the creation is not yet subjected to man as intended. We have failed to rule Yahuwah’s creation in a way that brings it into the godly subjection that becomes a blessing for all nations. In fact, the creation has ruled us (with thorns and thistles) and has overcome us (our fate is that must return to the dust from which we came). How then will Yahushua one day cause us to inherit the Kingdom prepared for us, and begin to rule it rightly, using us to assist (Dan 7:27)? Ah, that’s the incredible PLAN of how Yahuwah’s amazing PURPOSE will be fulfilled! The fact that we will by Yahuwah’s grace inherit this Kingdom on earth prepared for us from the beginning is the overarching story of the entire Bible. As author John Bright astutely points out: “The Bible [Old and New Testaments] is one book. Had we to give that book a title, we might with justice call it ‘The Book of the Coming Kingdom of Yahuwah.’”¹

If we were to jump to the end of the story found in the pages of the amazing book we call the Bible, we’ll find encouraging confirmation for the successful future completion of Yahuwah’s immortality plan for human beings: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and His Christ [Yahushua], and he will reign forever and ever” (Rev. 11:15). And speaking of the international believers from all times, “You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our Yahuwah, and they shall reign upon the earth” (Rev. 5:10).

The above is, in fact, confirmation of what Yahuwah showed the prophet Daniel over 2,500 years ago about what was to occur at the end of this present age, when He promised: “The God of heaven will set up a Kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that Kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put to an end all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever” (Dan. 2:44). And that Kingdom is to be right here on the earth where the saints of Christ will rule with him in love: “Then the sovereignty, the dominion and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the saints of the Highest One. Their kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom and all the dominions will serve and obey them” (Dan. 7:27).

This inheritance and destiny will come about for us at Christ’s return in power and glory, at which time he will raise the faithful dead from their graves. This happens following the final time of tribulation. At that time these believers will be awakened from their sleep and receive eternal life (literally “age to come life”) in the Kingdom of Yahuwah. Enjoy and be strengthened by the biblical vision of how this will occur:

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17: “For the Lord [Yahushua] himself, with a word of command, with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of Yahuwah, will come down from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.”

So, the inheritance we are to receive, this Kingdom of Yahuwah of which we are to be a part one day in the future, is what the entire Bible strains toward from beginning to end. It is this very gospel message (good news) of the coming Kingdom that Yahushua came 2,000 years ago to proclaim (Luke 4:43; Mark 1:14, and many other verses). Belief in this gospel message and the things concerning Yahushua as the King, persuaded people to be baptized in his name, and thus be saved (Acts 8:12; Acts 2:38). Belief in this coming inheritance on the earth under Yahushua the Christ (Messiah, King) is the prerequisite to healthy living even now, and eternal salvation in the age to come (Matt. 13:11-15; Luke 8:10-12).

Unfortunately, this has not been the message generally taught and proclaimed as gospel over the course of the past 2,000 years following the death of Christ and his apostles. And obviously, one cannot believe in something that has not been heard. Not only has there been deafening silence about this gospel of the Kingdom, but a different gospel has replaced it, so that it becomes even more problematic to recover the truth of man’s ultimate destiny. That which has replaced the truth of the gospel must be unlearned first, and this means overturning deeply entrenched traditions. Until this is done, these traditions stand as a roadblock to understanding and believing the things that lead to salvation and the achievement of what Yahuwah originally created us to become.

Rather than the plain biblical teaching of the resurrection of the dead at the end of this age, tradition has taught that man’s destiny is to live elsewhere as a disembodied spirit being (some say a “soul”) immediately upon death. The good news/Gospel of our reward in a literal Kingdom of Yahuwah on this earth has been replaced by a “heavenly kingdom,” something completely unheard of by the Hebrew biblical writers. In his book The Theology of Martin Luther, Paul Althaus tells us that the 16th- century reformer had no agreement with the false idea of disembodied souls going to heaven at death:

“Luther generally understands the condition between death and the resurrection as a deep and dreamless sleep without consciousness and feeling. When the dead are awakened on the Last Day, they will — like a man who wakes up in the morning — know neither where they were nor how long they have rested...Luther therefore says nothing about souls without their bodies enjoying true life and blessedness before the resurrection. They sleep in ‘the peace of Christ.’ Later Lutheran Church theology did not follow Luther on this point...Seventeenth-century Lutherans moved away from Luther’s idea that souls sleep in death...only the body sleeps, the soul remains awake” (pp. 414, 417). The return to paganism is obvious!

Althaus himself agrees with Luther’s assessment: “The hope of the early church centered on the resurrection of the Last Day. This resurrection happens to the man and not only the body...The original biblical concepts have been replaced by ideas from Hellenistic Gnostic dualism. The New Testament idea of the resurrection which affects the whole man has had to give way to the immortality of the soul. The difference between this and the hope of the New Testament is very great” (pp. 413-414).

To achieve a successful return to the real Kingdom message of the Hebrew Scripture (your task!), this false Greek philosophical concept of disembodied life must first be ripped from the minds of all would-be followers of Yahuwah and Christ. There is much more detail to the story of how Yahuwah’s promise to restore His Kingdom to this earth has been and will be worked out, but this story must be told within the framework of a right understanding of what the Bible says about death, specifically what happens when we die. We must eliminate the confusion that results when we subconsciously mix two completely dissimilar ideas (resurrection at the end of the age vs. disembodied existence immediately upon death). This is not hard to do, if we just allow Holy Scripture to be the final word on this subject. We will find that the New and Old Testaments are perfectly unified in their teachings.

In the Old Testament, it is enlightening to learn that we have no thoughts or consciousness in death:

Ecclesiastes 9:5: “For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing.”

Ecclesiastes 9:10: “For there will be no work, nor reason, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave where you are going.”

Psalm 146:4: “When his spirit departs he returns to his earth; on that day his thoughts perish.”

Furthermore, while dead we do not remember Yahuwah nor can we praise Him. This is a strange situation if we are in fact alive as disembodied souls in heaven (or hell for that matter):

Psalm 6:4-5: “Return, O Yahuwah, save my life; rescue me because of your kindness, for in death there is no remembrance of you.”

Psalm 115:17: “It is not the dead who praise Yahuwah.”

In the New Testament, the idea that the dead are dead until the end of the age at resurrection time, gives absolute confirmation of what the Christian belief on this subject must be:

John 5:28-29: “Do not be amazed at this, because the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good deeds to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked deeds to the resurrection of condemnation.”

When Yahushua returns, that’s when the dead come back to life, and not until then. It will be a spectacular event:

1 Corinthians 15:22-23: “For just as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be brought to life, but each one in proper order: Christ the firstfruits; then, at his coming, those who belong to Christ.”

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17: “For the Lord himself, with a word of command, with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of Yahuwah, will come down from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.”

It appears from historical accounts that it wasn’t long after the death of Yahushua and his apostles that the biblical teaching of the resurrection began to be replaced by the false, pagan Gnostic notion that the dead go immediately to heaven or hell as spirit-like beings without bodies. Justin Martyr, one of the early “church fathers,” protested in 150 AD that this was already taking place: “For if you have fallen in with some who are called Christian, but who do not admit the truth of the resurrection and venture to blaspheme the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; who say that there is no resurrection of the dead but that their souls when they die are taken to heaven: Do not imagine that they are Christians” (Dialogue with Trypho, ch. 80). The alarm has gone unheeded.

Revelation 20:4-5 sums up well the bright future for those who now sleep in death, and the good news of when the destiny of humankind will begin to be realized in a fullness that has not yet been seen. Speaking of the saints, the faithful believers of the gospel and Yahushua Christ, we read, “They came to life and they reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were over.”

We now have enough background information so that we can proceed with the rest of the story: what Yahuwah has already done and what He will yet do to fulfill His great purpose for mankind. Can you teach Yahuwah’s plan to others — our part in the Great Commission?

¹The Kingdom of God, Abingdon, 1981, p. 197.