By: T.F. Stern | Self-Educated American
This morning I enjoyed reading another Facebook entry by my good friend Bob Kersten. His topic centered on the meaning of the Kingdom of God as he shared his ideas on what that meant. He referenced the Lord’s Prayer, specifically, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” Most Christians recognize Matthew 6:10 as being part of the Lord’s Prayer.
My friend highlighted a quote from a book written by John C. Nugent, Endangered Gospel, a thought he concurred with. “His conviction is that we, the Church are to be a preview of the consummated kingdom of God that Jesus Christ came to earth to inaugurate.” I’d have to agree as well.
In our day, where do we find that church in which Jesus Christ came to earth to inaugurate? Does it exist or did the formal Church vanish with the passing of the last apostle within only a few years after having been established? No doubt the great apostasy lasted for hundreds of years. Then, with the dawning of the Renaissance came an awakening of the human spirit along with the awareness of man’s relationship with God.
Michelangelo’s depiction of God’s finger giving life to Adam as painted on the Sistine Chapel ceiling may be one of the best summations of this relationship. (Image courtesy of pinterest.com)
Keeping in mind that the Lord requires that His church here on earth be organized and run the way it was when Jesus Christ established it during his ministry in the flesh, is there any one church that can lay claim to this?
“The Kingdom of God on earth is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (D&C 65). The purpose of the Church is to prepare its members to live forever in the celestial kingdom or kingdom of heaven. However, the scriptures sometimes call the Church the kingdom of heaven, meaning that the Church is the kingdom of heaven on earth.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the kingdom of God on the earth, but it is at present limited to an ecclesiastical kingdom. During the Millennium, the kingdom of God will be both political and ecclesiastical.”
Those last two paragraphs almost certainly will annoy or aggravate quite a few individuals; however, since I’m expressing my belief and sharing it for the sole purpose of enlightening folks that the Church which Jesus Christ established during his mortal ministry, that same Church has been restored in our day, then you’re obligated by the Savior Himself to forgive my boldness. His Church will never again be taken from the earth as we await the Second Coming of our Lord and Savior, even Jesus Christ. Amen.
