The Object Of It All
God's purpose with the earth is stated thus:

"God formed the earth and made it; He hath established it, He created it not in vain, He formed it to be inhabited" (Isaiah 45:1 8).

This is comforting -- the earth to be inhabited -- not to become a desert void as pictured by the scaremongers of space fiction.

Isaiah -- a prophet from whom Jesus loved to quote -- again declares:

"The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea" (Isaiah 11:9).
"When God's judgments are in the earth the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness" (Isaiah 26:9).

Ideas like the "knowledge of the Lord" and "righteousness" don't appeal much to people today -- but for all their contempt they must admit that ignorance of God and unrighteousness haven't got us far. Does not wisdom dictate that we try the other method? The world is going to whether it likes it or not, and whether it believes it or not, for God is going to bring it about. The only trouble is we might not survive these "judgments of God" unless we do something about it now.

From Genesis onward the Bible is full of predictions about vast changes to be brought about in the earth. Abraham was told that all nations would be blessed through a descendant of his (Genesis 22:17) who is identified in the New Testament as Christ (Galatians 3:16). Psalm 72 speaks of a King (the Lord Jesus), who shall set up a universal rule of such benefit to humanity that "all nations shall call him blessed."

Jesus Christ Comes Back to Earth
All these changes are dependent upon the return of the Lord Jesus Christ to the earth (Acts 1: 11). He will return unobtrusively (Revelation 16:15), and not as some great flaming spectacle descending from the sky. He will probably be viewed as a new and powerful Jewish leader when he first manifests himself in the earth, for he will reach the headlines by defeating a great Russian confederated army which will invade Israel as the first step to world conquest (see Ezekiel 38 and 39). People will not realize at first that it is the Lord when he first takes over in the Middle East. They will doubt it, even though the Israelis accept him as King -- for the prophet Zechariah declares that this will come to pass. He presents a word picture of Christ revealing his identity by showing the scars he received on the cross.

This is the clear teaching of the prophet. Writing some 500 years before the first advent of Christ, but referring to his future Second Coming, he declared:

"They shall look upon him whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn" (Zechariah 12:10).

Notice that this prophecy, given some hundreds of years before the birth of Christ 1900 years ago, foretold conditions we can verify today. It predicts that the Jewish people would not accept Jesus as their Messiah, until his revelation at his second coming! That prophecy has been thoroughly vindicated. Though the Jews claim to put their trust in the Bible, and though it is more widespread in Israel than in any other nation, THEY REFUSE TO ACCEPT JESUS AS MESSIAH.

It will be his manifestation as King in Jerusalem that will change the attitude of the Jews in that regard. So Paul taught: "Blindness in part is happened to Israel" until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in" (Romans 11:25). That epoch will terminate at the coming of Christ. Setting up his rule in Jerusalem, which he describes as "the city of the great King" (Matthew 5:35), he will extend his power until eventually all mankind will be incorporated into his realm.

Whether men recognize him soon or late, the fact is there -- Jesus Christ is alive and will come back to earth, with power and decisiveness, to manage affairs his way.

300 times the New Testament attests the fact. If we are going to have any Bible, and any Christian religion at all, we must accept this fact that Christ will come again.

When the Lord departed from the earth, shortly after his resurrection, the record states that the disciples witnessed his ascension (Acts 1:10-11). But then they realized that two angels (or messengers of God) were standing by them. These angels addressed the disciples:

"Why stand ye gazing up into heaven? (there was no chance of following him up there!) this same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, SHALL SO COME IN LIKE MANNER as ye have seen him go into heaven" (Acts 1:11).

So come -- literally, physically, personally, bodily -- not merely into men's hearts, into their thinking, into their doing -- but literally he is coming into the arena of human affairs to transform them beyond recognition.

The book of the Acts of the Apostles records a number of speeches made by the early followers of Jesus. They reflected what he had taught them about the Kingdom of God in the forty days after his resurrection (Acts 1:3). A speech by Peter in chapter 3 (v. 19) speaks of times of refreshing which shall come from the presence of the Lord, "and He shall send Jesus Christ, whom the heavens must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets." Peter taught that Jesus Christ will fulfil all the predictions of coming power and glory that shall stem from the reign of Israel's Messiah foretold by Bible prophecy.

Paul, the Apostle who was dedicated to preach to Gentiles, once spoke to an audience of learned Greeks in Athens, under the shadow of the Acropolis. In his perambulations just outside the city, he had observed an altar inscribed "TO THE UNKNOWN GOD." In his oration, Paul, in effect, said, "Men of Athens - you're frightened you might miss one of the Gods out. Well the One you don't know, is the One I preach to you. He is the only true One. He made all things and He has 'appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness -- by that man whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised him from the dead' " (Acts 17:31). That is the purpose of God as consistently taught throughout the Bible: a purpose that will see removed present political and religious systems to make room for Christ's reign on earth.