WHAT IS THE GOSPEL?

Jesus Christ was born to be a literal King. Pilate therefore said unto him, "Are you a king then? Jesus answered, you say that I am a king. To this end was I born..."

The word gospel comes from the Greek word Euaggelion, meaning "to declare glad tidings." Of what, you might ask? Of a King and His coming Kingdom. Yet, why do so many people think that the Kingdom of God is simply the church, or that the Kingdom of God is already here? If God was in charge of this world, would he allow an evil like war to exist? No. The book of Isaiah says,

"They will beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war anymore." Isaiah 2:4

This has not happened yet, because man is not going to stop war until God makes them stop. When Christ restores the Kingdom of God on earth, He will stop all war.

Some insist that the church here on earth is the Kingdom of God, but in fact, Christ clarified that His Kingdom was not of this world. He said, "My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence." John 18:36-37

If the Kingdom of God is not of this world, at this time---then who is running the show? You might be surprised.

1 John 5:19 says, "We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one."

The Bible just told us who controls the whole world! Yes, the whole world is under the control of the evil one. When Satan tempted Christ, he offered Him all the Kingdoms of the world if He would bow down and worship him. Christ did not say "They are not yours to give."

"Again, the devil took him up into an exceeding high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And said to Him, all these things will I give thee, if thou will fall down and worship me." Matthew 4:8-9

When did Satan begin his rule of the earth? Remember the incident in the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve chose Satan over God? They made a choice that they preferred Satan. He has been the god of this whole world from that day forward. God is a God of truth, justice, kindness, and every good thing. This world is full of just the opposite...we are all paying for Adam and Eve's poor choice.

Men chose the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, which is symbolic of Satan and his system. They rejected The Tree of Life. Which is symbolic for Jesus Christ and His system of government. I'm not saying that there weren't these 2 literal trees in the Garden of Eden, but they represent more than that, they are metaphoric, as no literal tree can give you eternal life, but Christ can!

Adam and Eve rejected God's system and chose Satan and his system. Which we are still under, to this present day. When God takes charge of the helm again, He will not allow evil such as we see in this world to go on. The good thing is that Satan is not going to be the permanent ruler of the world. His time is limited and has a cutoff date. He will be removed for good. This time will sneak up on Satan and he will suddenly realize that the jig is about up. The demons mentioned in the New Testament also knew that they had a limited time. Some of the demons of Christ time said in Matthew 8:29, "...What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? Art thou come hither to torment us before the time?"

There is a day of reckoning coming for the demons and Satan and they know it. At the return of Christ, they will be gathered up and restrained in the bottomless pit for 1000 years during Christ's reign on earth, as we see in the book of Revelation 20:2-3.

"And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season."

The Bible prophesies that in the end time, Satan will realize that his days are short, and he will HAVE GREAT WRATH. All of a sudden he will realize that he doesn't have much time left at all and he will freak out. He will realize that God is getting ready to put the hammer down and deal with him for the first time in thousands of years.

"Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea, for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has but a short time." Revelation 12:12

Just as Satan has ruled over physical nations, so will Christ too. It is said that Christ will rule the earth with a rod of iron. Revelation 12:5 says, "And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron..." It didn't say in heaven. The Kingdom of God is the Kingdom of (from) Heaven.

Revelation 11:15 says, "And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever.

The New Testament and the Old Testament agree that Christ will rule on this earth. Below, in the book of Zachariah, it says it so plainly.

(THE LORD SHALL BE KING OVER ALL THE EARTH)

"Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.

And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark:

But it shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light. And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be. And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one.

Zechariah 14:3-9

What is the GOSPEL? Now you know! It is the glad tidings that a good King will finally replace Satan, and that King will rule the earth and set up the permanent and wonderful Kingdom of God forever. The Law will go forth from Zion. That law, that men always want to do away with, provides order and a stabile civilization.

When Christ restores all things and takes power to Himself, Satan will be removed from power and cast into the abyss of Revelation...also known as the bottomless pit. Here Satan and his minion demons will be restrained for a 1000 years. The Kingdom of God will finally be the utopia that all men have spoken of and longed for. The Kingdom of God will be over physical men and physical kingdoms, but their rulers will be Christ and the Saints.

Christ will indeed rule the earth with a rod of iron, as the book of Revelation says. Zachariah 14:3-9 portrays the exciting return of Christ and as it says, "the Lord shall be King over all the earth." That is the Good News or "Gospel"!