13/02/2024
When does God’s government begin its rule? Does the Bible give an answer? We should expect that it would. Why? Well, because long in advance the Bible foretold when God’s Son would appear first as a human on earth to become the Messiah. In fact, it pointed to the very year that he became the Messiah. What, then, about the even more important coming of the Messiah, or Christ, to begin his Kingdom rule? Surely we would expect that the Bible would also tell us when this would happen!
But a person may ask: Where does the Bible foretell the very year the Messiah appeared on earth?’ The Bible book of Daniel says: From the going forth of the word to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Leader, there will be seven weeks, also sixty-two weeks,” or all together 69 weeks. [Daniel 9:25]
These, however, are not 69 literal weeks, which amount to only 483 days, or a little more than one year. They are 69 weeks of years, or 483 years. [Compare Numbers 14:34.] The command to restore and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem was given in 455 B.C.E. [Nehemiah 2:1-8]
So these 69 weeks of years ended 483 years later, in 29 C.E. And that is the very year that Jesus came to John to be baptized! On that occasion he was anointed with holy spirit and became the Messiah, or Christ.
—Luke 3:1, 2, 21-23.
Well, then, where does the Bible foretell the year that Christ begins to rule as king of God’s government? It is in this same Bible book of Daniel. [Daniel 4:10-37] There a giant, heaven-high tree is used to represent King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. He was the highest human ruler at that time. However, King Nebuchadnezzar was forced to know that someone higher was ruling. This one is “the Most High,” or “the King of the heavens,” Jehovah God.
[Daniel 4:34, 37] So, in a more important way, this heaven-high tree, comes to represent the supreme rulership of God, particularly in its relationship to our earth. Jehovah’s rulership was expressed for a time through the kingdom that he set up over the nation of Israel. Thus the kings of the tribe of Judah who reigned over the Israelites were said to “sit upon Jehovah’s throne.
—1 Chronicles 29:23.
According to the Bible account in Daniel chapter four, the heaven-high tree was cut down. However, the stump was left, and bands of iron and of copper were put on it. This would keep the stump from growing until it was God’s time to remove the bands and let it start growing again. But how and when was God’s rulership cut down?
In due course, the kingdom of Judah that Jehovah had set up became so corrupt that he allowed King Nebuchadnezzar to destroy it, to cut it down so to speak. This happened in the year 607 B.C.E. At that time Zedekiah, the last king of Judah to sit on Jehovah’s throne, was told: “Lift off the crown. . . . it will certainly become no one’s until he comes who has the legal right, and I must give it to him.
—Ezekiel 21:25-27.
So God’s rulership, as represented by the “tree,” was cut down in 607 B.C.E. No longer was there a government to represent God’s rulership in the earth. Thus, in 607 B.C.E. a period of time began that Jesus Christ later referred to as “the appointed times of the nations,” or, “the times of the Gentiles.[Luke 21:24; King James Version] During these “appointed times” God did not have a government to represent his rulership in the earth.
What was to happen at the end of these “appointed times of the nations”? Jehovah was to give the power to rule to the One “who has the legal right.” This One is Jesus Christ. So if we can find out when “the appointed times of the nations” end, we will know when Christ begins to rule as king.
According to Daniel chapter four, these “appointed times” would be “seven times.” Daniel shows that there would be “seven times” during which God’s rulership, as represented by the “tree,” would not be in operation over the earth. [Daniel 4:16, 23] How long are these “seven times”?
In Revelation chapter 12, verses 6 and 14, we learn that 1,260 days are equal to “a time [that is, 1 time] and times [that is, 2 times] and half a time.
” That is a total of 3 and half times. So “a time” would be equal to 360 days. Therefore, “seven times” would be 7 times 360, or 2,520 days. Now if we count a day for a year, according to a Bible rule, the “seven times” equal 2,520 years.
—Numbers 14:34; Ezekiel 4:6.
We have already learned that “the appointed times of the nations” began in the year 607 B.C.E. So by counting 2,520 years from that date, we come down to 1914 C.E. That is the year these “appointed times” ended. Millions of people still living remember the things that happened in 1914. In that year, World War I began a period of terrible trouble that has continued to our day.
When on earth Peter, Andrew, James, and John approached Jesus privately, saying: “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your presence [or that Jesus has begun ruling as king in Heaven] and of the conclusion of the system of things?” [Mathew 24:3]
Jesus foretells that there will be “wars and reports of wars” and that “nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom.” [Matthew 24:6, 7] He also says that “there will be great earthquakes, and in one place after another food shortages and pestilences.” [Luke 21:11] Jesus warns his disciples: “People will lay their hands on you and persecute you.” [Luke 21:12] False prophets will arise and mislead many. Lawlessness will increase, and the love of the greater number will grow cold. Additionally, he says that the “good news of the Kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.”—Matthew 24:14.
The first ever global conflict fought in 1914 and other subsequent others that followed and the condition of the world today is a testament to the fact that Jesus has received the crown as heavenly King of God's kingdom and has begun to rule, soon JEHOVAH will command his son to extend kingdom rule to the earth And because the Kingdom has already started its rule, how timely it is that we pray for it to “come” and wipe Satan’s wicked system of things from the earth!
—Matthew 6:10; Daniel 2:44.
