The World and the Word

                                    The Wheat and the Chaff

In Luke 17:20, the Pharisees demanded that Jesus tell them when the kingdom of God should come. The Pharisees wanted to use Jesus' power as a weapon to drive the Romans from their country. When Jesus told them that they would not see the kingdom of God at that time, He did not mean that it would never come. The eternal kingdom of God will come in the end of the world when God burns up and then recreates the heavens and the earth. II Peter 3:10-13.

Jesus went on to inform these evil Pharisees in Luke 17:21 that the kingdom of God already existed within them. Jesus clearly taught in this verse that every human, whether good or bad, possesses a dual nature; that is, the good image of God and an evil spiritual death.

Jesus taught this same doctrine in Luke 14:12-15. Jesus spoke directly to the Pharisee who had invited Him to dinner. Jesus did not preach the gospel to Him. Jesus did not tell him that he had to believe in Jesus as his suffering Messiah and become "born again" in order to be saved by grace because Jesus knew that he would not believe. Jesus advised him to do good works and promised him that he would be "recompensed at the resurrection of the just." This resurrection could not be in the Rapture of the Church because this Pharisee was not a believer in Jesus. In this case, Jesus prophesied about His general resurrection in the end of the world. Jesus informed this evil Pharisee that He would be "just" in this general resurrection which can only mean that God will raise God's image in him from the dead, recreate him to live on His recreated earth, and reward him for whatever good works he had done on the former earth. Revelation 4:11; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:1-5; Revelation 22:11-12. God clearly informed all readers in Revelation 21:5: "Behold, I make all things new." Since God created all positive things in the first place, then He must recover and recreate all positive things that have been spoiled by sin and evil in the end of the world. Revelation 22:11-12 clearly teaches that God will effect an absolute separation of all that is good from all that is evil in the end of the world. Romans 11:29; Romans 11:36; Romans 8:18-23; Colossians 1:15-20; Isaiah 45:21-24.