The Incredible Human Potential PDF - Church of God Faithful Flock

204 THE INCREDIBLE HUMAN POTENTIAL"Lord," they asked, "wilt thou at this time restore again thekingdom to Israel?"Jesus again made plain that the Church is not the Kingdom."And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times orthe seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power. But yeshall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost [Spirit] is comeupon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem,and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part ofthe earth. And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld,he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of theirsight" (Acts 1 :7-9).The commission He had given the CHURCH was to preachHis gospel to all the world. They were to receive the Holy Spirit,begetting them as saints - as Christians - putting them intoGod's CHURCH. This would infuse them with the power to carryout the mission of the Church. But it was NOT the setting up of theKingdom of God. Of that they were not to know the time.Just what did Jesus mean, "It is not for you to know the timesor the seasons"? He explained it another time. It is recorded inMatthew 24:36: There He was speaking of the end of this world,and His Second Coming:"But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angelsof heaven, but my Father only." He was speaking of His SecondComing and the setting up of the Kingdom, the time of whichno man knows, but only the Father.However, though we do not, even now, know the day or thehour, we do know, from God's prophecies, that it is today verynear! Notice this, in Luke 21:25-32: He had been foretelling theworld events, right now beginning, leading to "distress of nations"in world troubles and world wars, "with perplexity" - "men'shearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those thingswhich are coming on the earth" - world trouble such as neverbefore experienced. "When ye see these things come to pass,know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand. Verily 1 sayunto you, this generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled."So all signs show we are in the very last generation of thispresent evil world.