Author’s Notes

In the year 1952 I became an Australian resident. In the country of my birth an eminent Bible teaching evangelist taught me about God, the Bible, sin and eternity. This brother has now passed away. From the far North East down to the South West, from every corner of the country Christians came to his funeral service. When the very large crowd walked away from the church and its surrounding square, to the graveyard, local police had to stop or re-direct all traffic. I was not the only Christian to receive so much blessing from this late brother’s ministry. Today, after some sixty-five years, the Bible is still very dear to me and from those early Bible-studies vivid truths come to my mind.

During those sixty-five years, and the ages before, thoughts of men have tried to malign the ‘Word of truth’ (Colossians 1:5). Thoughts that brought much division amongst God’s people on earth. In the following chapters I refer to:

FIRSTLY: The fact that, in the Bible, God is dealing with three different groups of people.

- THE NATIONS

- THE NATION OF ISRAEL

- THE CHURCH OF THE LORD JESUS.

All three groups are sinful, yet not one of the three is like one of the two others! For each the grace of God is sufficient.

SECONDLY: God’s plans and purposes for each of these three categories also differ, consequently so do His dealings. Throughout the ages failure to recognize and acknowledge these facts led to many misinterpretations of the Bible. That is a large part of the reason for the many schisms in the Church of the Lord Jesus here on earth. In turn the world cannot recognize the one Church our Lord spoke about (Matthew 16:18). Aware of these sad problems I, on purpose, have refrained from citing any references, other than from my Bible.

All those references are from the New International Version (NIV) and all italics and capitals are mine.

THIRDLY: If a point of view is real Biblical truth, then the Bible will always confirm the Bible. During my years I have made many mistakes. It always was the Bible itself correcting me..

FOURTHLY: And most importantly, from God’s dealings with each one of the three categories we may learn much about God Himself, love Him more heartily as our heavenly Father and serve Him more earnestly as our great God which is most precious indeed.

For many years I have been thinking as I was taught; meditating outside the proverbial box. The time has come to share these thoughts and make the meditations public. It will not be surprising if and when there will be some raised eyebrows in protest. So be it.

In the following articles we will look at various sections in the Kingdom of God. We will see that the Kingdom of God is not the Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom of God is always in the eternal now. The Kingdom of Heaven is but a section of the eternal now. Today the Kingdom of Heaven still is in the future.

Neither is the Church of the Lord Jesus the Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom of Heaven will be a period of time when Heaven reigns on the sinful earth, with Heaven’s King on the throne of David in Jerusalem.

The Church is another of the sections in the Kingdom of God. In all our Lord’s epistles to His Church, through His apostles, He never once mentioned the Kingdom of Heaven. In the Old Testament God is dealing with Israel and the nations. To that came an interruption: The building of the Church of the Lord Jesus. Once that part of God’s plan has been completed and the Church is with the Lord in heaven God will take up again, on earth, His dealing with Israel and the nations. His Church is not a new, or spiritual Israel. In the Bible there is only one Israel, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

While the Church will be with her Lord in heaven, the Nations and Israel still on earth will pass through the great tribulation on their way to reconciliation with God (Matthew 24).

No such tribulation for the Church. The Church of the Lord Jesus has a wonderful and blessed hope in God in Heaven.(1 Peter 1:3-5). Israel and the nations have their own future on earth. If the Church is still to be judged by a most Holy God, what about the large part already with the Lord in Heaven? And what about the Head of the Body?

We will look at Israel and her eternal future on the new earth, where the kings of the nations will bring glory into the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:24,25). Finally we will admire the Bride of Christ, in her beautiful, new dress. May our Lord open many eyes and move many hearts to see and believe what HIS WORD in fact is teaching.

- Henk C.Kalkman