What God's Kingdom Will Do

When Jesus taught his followers to pray for God's Kingdom, he knew that its coming would bring an end to thousands of years of human rule independant from God. During all that time, God's will was not being done on earth in general. (Psalm 147:19, 20) But after the establishment of the Kingdom in heaven, God's will is to be done every where. The time for the all-inspiring transition from human rule to God's heavenly Kingdom rule is getting very near.

Marking this transition will be the period of time that Jesus called the "great tribulation such as not occurred since the world's beginning until now, no, nor will occur again." (Matthew 24:21) The Bible does not say how long that time period is to be, but the calamities that are to take place during it will be worse than anything the world has ever seen. At the beginning of the great tribulation, something will happen that will be a severe shock to most people on earth: the destruction of all false religion. That will not be a shock to Jehovah's Witnesses, for they have long anticipated this. (Revelation17:1, 15-17; 18:1-24) The great tribulation ends at Armageddon when God's Kingdom crushes the entire Satanic system.- Daniel 2:44; Revelation 16:14, 16.

What will this mean to people "who do not know God and those who do not obey the good news" about his heavenly Kingdom in the hands of Christ? (2Thessalonians 1:6-9) Bible prophecy tells us: "Look! a calamity is going forth from nation to nation, and a great tempest itself will be roused up from the remotest parts of the earth. And those slain by Jehovah will certainly come to be in that day from one end of the earth clear to the other end of the earth. They will not be bewailed, neither will they be gathered up or be buried. As manure on the surface of the ground they will become." - Jeremiah 25:32,33.

Next time: The End Of Wickedness