“The time came for the saints to possess the kingdom.” OK, but what does this mean in practice? Is there some graphic description of what life might be like for the “people of the saints of the Most High” in resurrection? Strangely enough, tomorrow’s news was written some 3,000 years ago by Solomon, in the early days of his Kingdom, when displaying the amazing gift of wisdom he received from the Lord. Here are three snatches from his writing which are helpful and descriptive. (Wisdom 1:12-15, 2:12-16, and 5:1-8)Do not invite death by the error of your life, nor bring on destruction by the works of your hands; because God did not make death, and he does not delight in the death of the living. For he created all things that they might exist, and the generative forces of the world are wholesome, and there is no destructive poison in them; and the dominion of Hades is not on earth. For righteousness is immortal.
[Men say] “Let us lie in wait for the righteous man, because he is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions; he reproaches us for sins against the law, and accuses us of sins against our training. He professes to have knowledge of God, and calls himself a child of the Lord. He became to us a reproof of our thoughts; the very sight of him is a burden to us, because his manner of life is unlike that of others, and his ways are strange. We are considered by him as something base, and he avoids our ways as unclean; he calls the last end of the righteous happy, and boasts that God is his father.”
Then the righteous man will stand with great confidence in the presence of those who have afflicted him, and those who make light of his labours. When they see him, they will be shaken with dreadful fear, and they will be amazed at his unexpected salvation. They will speak to one another in repentance, and in anguish of spirit they will groan, and say,
“This is the man whom we once held in derision and made a byword of reproach — we fools! We thought that his life was madness and that his end was without honour. Why has he been numbered among the sons of God? And why is his lot among the saints? So it was we who strayed from the way of truth, and the light of righteousness did not shine on us, and the sun did not rise upon us. We took our fill of the paths of lawlessness and destruction, and we journeyed through trackless deserts, but the way of the Lord we have not known. What has our arrogance profited us? And what good has our boasted wealth brought us?”
And so the “times of restitution, spoken by the prophets from olden times” will begin to take place, and people will begin to learn righteousness as the Holy Spirit convicts them of waywardness in the presence of God’s ambassadors. There will be multitudes in the valley of decision in that day. It is good to know and depend on these vital truths during these final days of corruption, violence, perversion, and destruction.
May the Kingdom of the Lord arise, and take the whole world by surprise,
And flood the earth with light instead of darkness;
May the sons of God be manifest, and all creation be at rest,
And yearn for inner peace instead of waywardness;
May the trumpets of the Lord be heard, and resurrections be observed,
And all the sons of faith be well established,
Come, Thou Bright and Morning Star, and lead Thy people near and far,
And let the Holy City be completed!
(A.E. 1980)
