Saturday, December 27, 2025
Bible Reading
- Plan One: New Testament Only
- Plan Two: New Testament + Psalms
- Plan Three: New Testament + History
- Plan Four: The Entire Bible – Year 1 of 3, Year 2 of 3, Year 3 of 3
Don’t know which plan? Go to A Christ-Centered Bible Reading Plan: Quick Start.
Extras
Verse of the Day, Audio Capsule, and Video Minute
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(Book Installment)
The Duty of a Man:
Keeping a Family in Jesus Christ and the Bible
Chapter 4: The Rest of the Story
Renowned newscaster Paul Harvey had a recurring radio feature called “The Rest of the Story” in which he brought to light little-known aspects of well-known stories. I’m reminded of this because there are little-known aspects of the gospel of Jesus Christ which greatly deserve the light of day. That is, in addition to the gospel of Jesus Christ that has been largely forgotten by an increasingly secular world, there are important aspects of that gospel that have never fully come to light. In this chapter, I’ll take the 2,000-year-old gospel I described in the previous chapter and give it “the Paul Harvey treatment.”
A Cliffhanger
Christianity’s gospel has been traditionally presented as an unfinished story. Recall from the previous chapter that Jesus “would come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom would have no end.” This second coming of Christ was to be the long-promised coming of the kingdom of God – also known as the kingdom of heaven. This coming eternal kingdom had been the central theme of Jesus’ teaching. Therefore, this cliffhanger is not a minor aspect of Jesus’ gospel.
A Conundrum
Having a cliffhanger in the gospel is not a problem per se, but there IS a problem when a cliffhanger hangs too long. This one’s been hanging for 2,000 years! What compounds this problem is that Jesus and His apostles spoke of the coming as imminent in their day. Specifically, Jesus said it would occur before their generation passed away. It’s one thing to imagine Jesus sitting patiently at the right hand of God for the remainder of a single generation in anticipation of this kingdom; it’s quite another to imagine Him still sitting on the edge of his seat twenty centuries later!
The pages of the New Testament throb with expectation of the coming kingdom, practically every other page making some reference, direct or indirect, to this impending cosmic cataclysm. And this intensity increased with the later writings – most notably, the book of Revelation which states clearly in its opening and its closing that “the time was near” and that Jesus was “coming soon.” The apparent nonfulfillment creates a major dilemma because it calls into question Jesus’ credibility as a prophet of God.
A Conclusion
The “delay” is rooted in a misunderstanding. Most church leaders since the apostles’ generation have interpreted the Second Coming to be a physical event instead of a spiritual event. Therefore, because no generation has yet physically seen it, they assume it must not have occurred. They should’ve listened more closely to Jesus.
Jesus warned that His kingdom’s coming would not be observed in a physical way; rather, He said it would come like a thief in the night. He did specify that certain visible signs would precede the coming of His kingdom: wars, famines, earthquakes, persecution, lawlessness, and apostasy. He even predicted that Jerusalem and its temple would be destroyed – and history records that the Roman army did this in 70 AD. But the kingdom itself was the kingdom of heaven. As such, it would come, per Old Testament prophecy, “in the clouds.” No one physically saw Jesus sit down at the right hand of God – why then would they expect to physically see Him coming from the right hand of God?
Jesus Christ came in His kingdom exactly when He and His apostles said He would, which was in the late 1st century. That’s when Jesus inherited heaven and earth, that’s when He became King of the nations, and that’s when the eternal age began. All remaining biblical prophecy was fulfilled in that moment. The eternal age began then…and will never end. In that twinkling of an eye, every human being was adopted to be a child of God through the reign of Jesus Christ. Thus they – and all their descendants, including us – are going to heaven. Temptation, sin, and death are still realities – and so are the judgments and wrath of God. However, Jesus Christ has given us the tools we need to successfully navigate these realities. His kingdom is not in waiting; it rules us now! He has been revealed as our God and Father, and we will continue learning about Him for the rest of eternity. Therefore, as Paul Harvey would say at the end of each program, “And now you know…the rest of the story.”
Who Am I?
Who am I to tell you such wonderful things? A man…just like you. As you’ll recall from the first chapter, I was steeped in Roman Catholicism as a child, but quickly became and remained an agnostic secularist throughout adolescence and early adulthood. It was an evangelical Protestant who provoked me to read the Bible for myself. Once I realized Jesus was real, I began pursuing the knowledge of Him. I started going to church. I soon thereafter left my business career to pursue a seminary degree. I received it and became a pastor, and later received another seminary degree. But it was in the midst of all that church work that my continued study of the Bible convinced me that the kingdom of God must have already come. And I realized that I was distracting from that kingdom by trying to get people to join my church, because church had become thoroughly obsolete by the 21st century. The kingdom of God is everywhere – not limited to some building or some group of people.
I know this is a lot to take in; your head may be swirling. I didn’t learn these things all at once. They’ve come to me over years of reading, studying, and practicing the Bible – hesitating and stumbling much of the way. My goal is to help you learn what I’ve learned – but in a fraction of the time it took me. Our next step is to delve into the ancient past to confirm the historical truth about Jesus.
The Duty of a Man 