Question 2: We still haven’t determined whether God’s kingdom is on earth or in heaven. The Lord Jesus once talked about “the kingdom of heaven being at hand” and “the kingdom of heaven coming.” If it is the kingdom of heaven, it should be in heaven. How can it be on earth?

Answer: We should all be clear that “Heaven” is always referred to as God. The “heavenly kingdom” obviously refers to God’s kingdom. Revelation says, “the tabernacle of God is with men,” “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ.” This means that God’s kingdom will be established on earth.

Question 2: You just talked about some lawless acts, so what specific acts do you mean when you say lawlessness is increasing?

Answer: The increase in lawlessness means mostly that those religious leaders, pastors, and elders go against God’s will and go their own way instead. They don’t follow God’s commandments, and they misinterpret the Bible to shackle, control, and deceive people, drowning them in biblical theology, and taking them away from God, turning churches into places of religious ritual, and they treat their responsibilities and duties as access to status and income, which leads to many hypocritical acts that resist God in the church.

Knowing the Lord Jesus: Why Did the Lord Jesus Work Amongst Man in an Ordinary Form?

By Li Qian

I am a pastor and I’ve worked and preached for the Lord for many years. Each time I opened up the Bible, I saw the words written in Matthew 13:53–57 which say: “When Jesus had finished these parables, He departed there. And when He was come into His own country, He taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, From where has this man this wisdom, and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter’s son? is not His mother called Mary? and His brothers, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us? From where then has this man all these things? And they were offended in Him.” And also John 19:6–7 which say: “When the chief priests therefore and officers saw Him, they cried out, saying, Crucify Him, crucify Him. Pilate said to them, Take you Him, and crucify Him: for I find no fault in Him. The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God.” Each time I read these words, I couldn’t help but think: “When the Lord Jesus was performing His work, many people denied His identity and essence because He appeared normal and ordinary, and they treated Him as an ordinary man. The Jewish chief priests, scribes and Pharisees in particular knew perfectly well that the miracles performed and the way preached by the Lord came from God, but not only did they not seek or investigate this way with a God-fearing heart, on the contrary, they relied on their conceptions and imaginings to judge the Lord Jesus as being nothing more than a carpenter’s son, and they blasphemed against the Lord, saying that He cast out demons by the prince of the devils. In the end, they colluded with the Roman authorities and crucified the Lord Jesus upon the cross. God is so supreme, so why would He deliberately choose such a normal, ordinary form to come amongst man and perform His work? If God had been born into a king’s family in a high and noble form and after the manner of a great man, then not just the Pharisees but all the people of Israel would have easily accepted the Lord Jesus’ gospel.” This issue perplexed me for a long time.