FEATURE ARTICLE – August 21, 2001

by Ed Stevens

Question: With all that preterists are saying about the "end of the age" and Christ's return already happening in the past, I am wondering, what next? What's left for us in the future?

Answer: Prov. 13:12 says, "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but desire fulfilled is a tree of life." Jesus promised to return in the first century. Because many of us think he hasn't returned yet, our hearts are indeed made very "sick." The Preterist view is a tree of life to those who hope to enjoy the blessings of Christ's Kingdom. We have that Kingdom now. It arrived in its fully established form when it was taken away from the unbelieving Jews of Jesus' generation and given to the Church. All of Jesus' parables about the nature and growth of that Kingdom apply now. Isaiah 9:7 says, "There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore." Daniel 2 talks about the little stone that becomes a huge mountain and fills the whole world. But I believe the best Biblical description of that on-going spread of the Kingdom's influence in the world is found in Revelation 21-22, where it says,

The nations will WALK BY ITS LIGHT, and the kings of the earth will BRING THEIR GLORY INTO IT. In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed; and they will BRING THE GLORY AND THE HONOR OF THE NATIONS INTO IT; and NOTHING UNCLEAN, AND NO ONE WHO PRACTICES ABOMINATION AND LYING, SHALL EVER COME INTO IT, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life. Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were FOR THE HEALING OF THE NATIONS. (Rev. 21:24--22:2)

Notice the words I have put in ALL CAPS above. These are things that indicate the world is still in existence after the New Jerusalem has come down out of heaven to dwell among men. Nations are still walking by its light and bringing their glory into it. The unclean, abominable and liars are still in existence, but are outside and unable to come into this city. The nations are still in existence and continually being healed by the leaves of the tree of life. This passage clearly describes the on-going Kingdom and its healing effects on the nations and cultures of this planet.

Ezekiel 47 talks about the little trickle of water that comes out of the new temple and eventually becomes a flooding river that baptizes all the nations. There is nothing said about that river of water ever diminishing back down to a trickle again. This is a very positive, optimistic and eternally long-term future for humanity. The futurists have nothing to compare with it.

Which gives God more glory? A finite number of people in heaven after the end of human life in the universe? Or a constantly growing number of saints coming into heaven throughout an eternity of human existence? The Kingdom will keep on spreading. Our children will grow up and become leaders in the next generation. They will raise godly children who will become leaders in the generations after that. They will continue taking the Gospel to every nation, saturating the whole world with Biblical principles and Christian culture, so that eventually Christian principles will "take every thought captive" in all the nations of the world the same way it did here in America. (2 Cor. 10:5) No culture can resist it forever. Christ will conquer every stronghold for His Kingdom, just like Ezekiel 47 envisioned. The Church will continue winning souls, multiplying disciples and filling the whole earth with the knowledge of God "as the waters cover the sea." (Isa. 11:9)