"...The Kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, `Lo here!' or, `Lo there!' for, behold, the Kingdom of God is within you." Luke 17:20-21

"And the Jews' Passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and found in the Temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting: and when He had made a scourge of small cords, He drove them all out of the Temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables; and said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not My Father's house an house of merchandise! And His disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of Thine house hath eaten Me up. Then answered the Jews and said unto Him, What sign shewest Thou unto us, seeing that Thou doest these things? Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this Temple in building, and wilt Thou rear it up in three days? But He spake of the temple of His body." John 2:13-21

"Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" I Corinthians 3:16

"Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: when your fathers tempted Me, proved Me, and saw My work. Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known My ways: unto whom I sware in My wrath that they should not enter into My rest." Psalm 95:8-11

Greetings of peace I bring this day to my friends near and far away! Though cannons of war belch their fire, the sons and daughters of Jesus Christ know the blessedness of sweet peace within. Although there are "wars and rumors of wars" (Matt. 24:6), the Son of Peace is fast approaching from a distant land, to establish a new kingdom founded in love and ruled in righteousness. When God called His people out of Egypt, it took a full forty years for their minds and hearts to get prepared to go in to possess that land promised unto their fathers. More than nineteen centuries ago, God sent tidings of peace unto earth (Lk. 2:14), but His Chosen People would not receive that Messenger from Heaven. The story of old repeated: they, as well as the Gentile nations, have had to wander in the wilderness during this long period of testing. But soon the heavens and earth shall light up with the glory of the returning Son of God, coming to lead His people into a land of peace and of plenty.

What is it the world needs more than peace? I do not know of anything we need more, unless we were to say "love"; for wherever there is true love, there is also peace. But the trouble is that Christendom at large has as yet not arrived at the entrance to the kingdom of peace – to say nothing of enjoying its fruits. Like the Jews of old, Christendom has put the cart before the horse and then killed the horse: there is no power left to either push or pull.

Christendom at large looks forward to the kingdom of peace to be established by our Lord, and that is right and proper. Yet that can scarcely be called a beginning, and certainly less than half of the story. The true beginning, and the complete story, is founded in the individual's full acceptance of Jesus Christ, which leads to the individual's personal entry into that kingdom of peace and joy and plenty here and now. When our Lord was questioned about the Kingdom of God by the Jews of His day, He replied, "The Kingdom of God does not come by observation, but is within you" (Lk. 17:20-21). Naturally, when a representative number of individuals have attained unto the Kingdom conditions within their own selves, then does the Kingdom of God become a reality in a larger sense – that is, for a community or for a nation, or a company of nations. Surely we should understand that by the words which the Lord replied – that the Kingdom of God will not be established by force from the outside, but must come about through love from the inside. As and when that has taken place within a representative number of people, then will Christ, the Prince of Peace, return to become the Head of that people. ...Not until!

I have shared about the first time that Jesus went up to the Temple at the Passover season and cleaned house (Jn. 2:13-16). And I also showed how He took the words out of the mouth of the Jews, who said that their Temple had been in building forty-six years – which statement, coupled to the words of the Lord Jesus, became prophecy unto the world (Jn. 2:18-21). Now the very last days of that prophetic measure are upon us, and so we know that a new day is also soon upon us.

The details of that account you will find in the second chapter of John's Gospel. This time I want to dwell further on the same details and show you more of its prophecy. For, we cannot tie up God in a little bushel basket, neither can we limit the glory-truths of His Word to a few paragraphs. His truth is as boundless as the universe itself! His Word is Truth (Jn. 17:17). Therefore, as we grow in understanding, and personally draw nearer to the fountain of truth, then does its horizon brighten and enlarge to include ever-broadening vistas.

In verses 14, 15 and 16 we are told how He found oxen, sheep and doves in the Temple, together with the merchants and money-changers doing a big business. In the days of Jesus, those conditions represented a part and parcel of the manifestation of the Kingdom of God as their religious leaders understood it. Sheep, oxen and doves were part and parcel of the sacrificial rites – so why not make them available to the people, many of whom had come from far, and who would not have found it too convenient to bring an ox or a sheep with them? From the casual perspective, there would seem to be from little to nothing wrong with the businessmen's practice of making suitable sacrificial animals available to such people. So just why did our Lord so strenuously object to this practice? HE drew a sharp line of demarcation between business conducted on the Temple premises, in contrast to business outside of the Temple grounds.

Shortly we will look further at this, but for the moment let us consider what the Temple actually stood for. Basically, the Temple was for the purpose of worshipping God. But clearly are we told in Scripture that the human body is also the Temple of God (I Cor. 6:19-20; II Cor. 5:1; II Pet. 1:13-14). For, as the Temple of wood and stone and precious metals had been built for a nation in which to worship God, so similarly has the human body been constructed for its indwelling spirit to so live as to become a life in worship of God. During the forty years that Israel wandered in the wilderness, the Mosaic Tabernacle was carried from place to place. So similarly is it with man: during his pilgrimage of testing here in the "wilderness" of this world, that human tabernacle, intended as a monument-in-worship unto God, is carried from place to place.

Now let us come back to the Temple-cleaning episode by our Lord, and set it up alongside modern Christendom. Christendom of today has developed countless practices which are just as abominable as those of the Jews in the long ago. But we, like the Jews, think that they are perfectly all right and in place. Man labors frantically to lay up for old age. In order to do so he buys life insurance, and maybe he invests in bonds and stocks. Maybe he carries accident insurance and fire insurance. Besides that, man has deducted from his pay unemployment insurance, and a contribution to a retirement pension fund, and maybe other deductions and contributions to make sure that one's old age is going to be a bed of roses. But according to countless letters which I have received, I must conclude that those beds of roses have also many thorns.

We have just seen how the human body is intended to be a Temple for the worship of God. Clearly did our Lord associate all those things with that which is contrary to God; for, He summed it up in that one word "mammon" (Matt. 6:24). For all the things under the heading of "mammon" does man labor frantically, until now life has become what some have labeled "the rat-race." And I think that description is quite fitting. What is the difference? The Jewish merchants of old sold beasts and birds that God might be worshiped according to the ordinance of Moses; but today we have invented far more practices of a strictly business nature, all under His caption of "mammon," in order that the Temple of the human body may properly carry on for a long time in the worship of God (or at any rate, so run the hopes of man).

Since the human body has been labelled "the Temple of God," that constituted the Jews of old God's "temple nation." In precisely the same sense is Christendom of today His "temple people." Therefore, I say that these countless practices which have been built up within the lands of Christendom, are identical and even worse than those of the merchants and money-changers in the Temple in the time of Jesus. The Jews of old would not receive the rulings by Jesus, neither will Christendom of today receive the verdict of His Spirit. Therefore, I have no illusion that very many will receive my word. But in spite of that, I warn you: all of these practices are contrary to the Spirit of Christ, and will be booted back into the Pit at the time of His return to earth. Even in some well-established churches of today, people pay stipulated fees to get prayers said for them....

According to this narrative of Jesus cleaning out the Temple, He answered the Jews that if they were to destroy that Temple, He would raise it up in three days. From time to time I show you how the length of one day as based on Jesus' life, amounted to an even 42 years. If paper and pencil is convenient, write down that number 42 and multiply it by 3 and you will have 126. Perhaps that number means nothing to you, but it comes within a minute decimal point of being the square root of 15,915. Again I have shown you how God manifests to man in the ratio of 100 to 1. Therefore, we can divide this 15,915 by 100, and the result is 159.15, which, in turn, is the radius of a circle of 1,000 circumference. Is not Christendom waiting for that 1,000-year period commonly referred to as "the Millennium"? During that Millennium, Christ the King is going to rule, and peace shall reign throughout the earth. Do you suppose that Christ will reign without having a temple in which to dwell, and from which to rule? There, then, we have this Temple which He said He would raise up in three days; which numbers we have seen constitute the radius of the millennial circle. That millennial reign will demonstrate the glorious Temple of God.

Sometimes it appears such a hopeless task to bring people into a right perspective of man in relationship to God. As we study the life and sayings of Christ our Lord, we find that in virtually every point of issue He was the very opposite to the religionists of His day, and indeed, very contrary to present Christendom. As for instance, years before the Cross of Calvary, which Cross He alluded to in saying that He would raise up the Temple in three days, He realized the absoluteness of God's power, that it was fully capable of restoring to life a dead and mangled body. He had no fear of death and the grave: He knew that the power of His Spirit could laugh in the teeth of death. He virtually challenged them to kill Him, saying that on the third day He would rise up again. Some might be prone to reply, "That was the body of the Son of God"; in which case I must remind you that the decaying corpse of Lazarus came back to absolute normalcy just so soon as the Son of God called out his name, bidding him to come forth (Jn. 11:38-44). Jesus did not believe in death! He realized that experience which was common to man, but with a difference: He knew the power of God, and that this power of Spirit had the dynamic to revitalize the decaying cells, or restore a mangled body to again become the glorious Temple of the Spirit of God. When the daughter of Jairus had died, He said to the people, "She sleeps" (Lk. 8:41-42,51-55). Similarly did He speak of Lazarus after he had died (Jn. 11:11). He was loath to use the word "death" because it was the work of the enemy, while God was Master of every situation (and in His Kingdom there is no death)!!!

We have been brought up to think of death as inevitable; and linked thereto is sickness and accident, pain, sorrow and suffering. We have been schooled to believe in every vicissitude invented by the Devil, and these we have magnified to loom up like "giants in the land of promise"; while we, like Israel of old, have trembled and refused to go in to take possession of the Kingdom promised unto our fathers. Like Moses who went into Egypt to take his people out, so similarly did the Son of God come to earth to lead His people out from all bondage unto Lucifer (which would include freedom from every accident and disease, freedom from all pain and sorrow and suffering, freedom from frustration and useless labors, freedom from fear and worry and disappointment). But His people, like their forefathers, beheld all these evils as great giants standing before them (Num. 13:31-33) to prevent their entry into the fullness of the Kingdom. Therefore, in His indignation, God decreed that they were not going to enter into His rest (Ps. 95:8-11). Therefore was the mantle lifted from the Jews of Israel, and cast upon a spiritual organism known as the Church of Christ. But Christendom, which has sprung up about it, has copied every sin of the Jews in Israel, and enlarged upon them. We, like those of old, have steadfastly refused to go in to possess the Kingdom, and as a consequence thereof have been forced to wander these many long and trying years in the wilderness of this world.

Hear The Voice of Tomorrow: the Kingdom of God is for our here and now! That was the message of Christ the Lord: that the people should repent of their established ways and ideas and habits, because the Kingdom had come near unto them (Matt. 4:17; Mk. 1:14-15)! It was theirs for the asking right then – but before they could enjoy it they had to repent. Repent of what? Of their established ways, thoughts, beliefs and practices. That is the message I have for you today: repent of your countless ideas and beliefs, almost all of which are part and parcel of Lucifer's kingdom, without any trace of truth. The Son of God went to Calvary's Cross to set us free here and now! The work of redemption He wrought was for earth-man right now. When Jesus went about preaching the Kingdom unto the people, when and where did He give the slightest hint that it was for their "souls" in a future world and a hoped-for tomorrow? But no, He was a Realist Who lived in the present and dealt with this moment. Similarly rings His invitation for us of today: repent! – For the Kingdom of God is at hand. Not that we must wait until He returns from Heaven, but that you and I are to boot out all the lies and deceptions of Lucifer's kingdom, and accept the fullness of truth as taught by Jesus Christ, that our earth-lives may become glorified right now!