Advent is the season of the church calendar leading up to Christmas. During this time, Christians remember when the divine Son of God became a fully human man named Jesus, about two thousand years ago.

Jesus was born to the virgin Mary, in order for Jesus to grow up, live a perfect human life, and die on the cross as the final sacrifice for humanity's sin. As a result, Jesus can give eternal life to everyone who has ever put their faith in him.

Yet after his death, Jesus miraculously came back to life three days later, and several weeks after that, he ascended into heaven. This is the series of events that took place during Jesus' first coming. Therefore, Christmas is paired with Easter as the two most important Christian celebrations which remember Jesus' earthly life and ministry.

However, these four weeks of Advent should not be only about remembering the time when God's people looked forward to Jesus' first coming. Advent should also be about anticipating Jesus' yet-future second coming, and all that will take place then, when Jesus will leave heaven and return to defeat God's enemies and set up his worldwide thousand-year kingdom.

I think it is good for Christians to dedicate a certain period of time each year to think about the future and the subject of biblical eschatology (the last things), which is usually a very neglected topic. This is in contrast to the topic of politics, which it seems is constantly in the news and on many people's minds.

As I will explain in this post, I believe the themes of the season of Advent can give us some much-needed perspective on politics, which can reduce the stress that Christians may feel when we read the news and give us hope for the future, regardless of what happens in politics.

Corruption in Politics

If you follow politics, or even skim the news headlines, you will notice that the topic of corruption appears regularly. Regardless of which party you support, or which country you are in, it is likely that there is someone accusing some politician of being corrupt.

It seems that the longer that politicians are in government, the less they care about doing what is good for the people who elected them. They begin to focus on their own ambitions or interests, such as voting themselves more power or money. Sometimes they even forget about trying to fulfill the promises they made while running for election.

We might think to ourselves "Well, if only my favourite party, or leader, could get into power, then we could fix this!"

But when we think this way, we're forgetting an important theological truth: every system of government is run by humans. And as it stands now, every single human on this planet is sinful. Even Christians still struggle with our sinful inclinations, and can give in to selfishness.

Selfishness has been one definition of sin that Christians have used throughout history. The term incurvatus in se (or "turned in on oneself") has been used by several theologians to explain what sin does to humans. We become self-focused and selfish, caring only about ourselves and not others, or caring about others only insofar as they are useful or beneficial to ourselves. At worst, we may even care about ourselves at the expense of others!

This is the exact opposite of what Jesus said is the summary of all God's laws:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself. (Luke 10:27, repeated elsewhere like Romans 13:9-10)

Because of human selfishness, politicians are easily tempted to do things that benefit themselves instead of their people. We've all heard of politicians who vote themselves raises. Or politicians who take donations from people that they should not, and as a result, become far more wealthy by the time they leave office than when they entered it. Or politicians who give contracts to companies who they or their family are associated with. And on and on. The forms of corruption seem to be endless.

Perhaps some political systems can restrain corruption better than others. Democracy is probably better than monarchy or totalitarianism, because at least in a democracy if there's an especially bad politician the people can vote them out—assuming that the election is fair and has not itself been tainted by corruption, that is.

But even in democracy, the problem is that the voters themselves are selfish! They are often uninformed about politics, foreign affairs, or economics, and don't realize the long-term implications of these issues. When a politician appears who promises to give the people more government handouts, the people enthusiastically vote for it—not realizing that future consequences will likely hurt both them and their society in the long run.

Even judges who are meant to uphold the law can become corrupt. Corrupt judges will not prosecute politicians accused of various unlawful activities, or will give a light sentence which does nothing to discourage others from doing the same thing.

If society as a whole has strong ethical convictions, perhaps some systems will last longer without being compromised by corruption.

But sooner or later, every system will become fully corrupt, and it will no longer operate in the best interests of the country or people. Decisions will be made that ultimately undermine the stability of the society and will lead to its decline.

And so eventually, every political system will fail. We can see this if we look at history. Monarchies fall to revolutions. Totalitarian leaders are taken out by military coups. Democracies vote in dictators. Empires fall due to invasions or internal decay.

In the past, sometimes groups of people could leave old countries and go establish new countries with new political systems to escape oppression or corruption in their countries of origin. But as we see in the USA, even a country built on semi-Christian principles and morality (although not without its own dark periods due to sin) ends up with the sorts of scandals and dishonesty and problems that we see today, which are seemingly bringing it to a point of political and economic crisis.

But we can also guarantee that every political system will fail simply because of the principle of human sinfulness. It is impossible for sinful humans to design a perfect system which can restrain human sin. Even a system of checks and balances assumes that at least one of those checks or balances can correct the others. But if each is infiltrated and corrupted one way or another, then that system will also fail.

Some say the solution is better education, or better parenting, or more ethical or religious instruction. But there is no system or philosophy that can totally eliminate sinfulness in humans. Sinful humans cannot eradicate sin, regardless of what we try. It has been sinful human attempts to impose morality upon people by force which produces the most awful results, whether that morality was Christian or Communist.

What then is the solution? Keep reading to the end of the article...

Dispensational Biblical History

The fact that sin corrupts all human systems and societies is also proven when we look at the history of the world as described in the Bible.

One way of understanding biblical history is to divide it into different periods of time called dispensations. In each dispensation, God deals with humanity in a slightly different way. The way to obtaining eternal life is the same in every one (i.e. acceptance of God's grace through faith—Ephesians 2:8), but how that faith or obedience to God is to be expressed varies. Some examples of how individuals have expressed their faith in God in different dispensations are seen in Hebrews 11:1-40.

In each dispensation there is a recurring pattern. God inaugurates a new dispensation by giving new instructions to a particular group of people about what he wants them to do or how he wants them to live. But each dispensation ends with human failure due to sin, and God's judgment comes as a result. God then starts over with a remnant of his still-faithful people, and a new dispensation begins. (A great book on this topic is Dispensationalism, Revised and Expanded by Charles C. Ryrie).

The number of dispensations and their names may change depending on which author you read.1 I categorize them like this (roughly in line with C.I. Scofield and Issac Watts):

1. Innocence/Garden of Eden

When Adam and Eve were in Eden, God only had one rule for them, which was to not eat fruit from one tree (Genesis 2:16-17). But they sinned, and were kicked out of the garden of Eden as judgment. Outside of Eden, humanity had to work for their food, and nature was less hospitable and cooperative. From that point on, humanity experienced diseases, painful childbirth, and eventually, death (Genesis 3).

2. Conscience

This dispensation was from the time when Adam and Eve left Eden in Genesis chapter 3, up to the worldwide flood in Genesis chapter 9. During this time, God let people follow their own consciences. There were no real instructions or rules that were given for people to follow, although people seemed to have had some idea of sacrificing animals to please God (Genesis 4:3-4, 8:20). But eventually the world became so full of violence that God sent the flood (Genesis 6:5-6), which started humanity over beginning with only eight obedient individuals.

3. Human Government

After the flood, God allowed humanity to enforce the death penalty against murderers as an attempt to keep evil in check (Genesis 9:6). But humans banded together and spoke one language which enabled their cooperation. They built the Tower of Babel which might have been an attempt to either save themselves from another flood, or raise themselves into the heavens to become gods, or maybe something else.

Whatever they were trying to do, God judged humanity by confusing their single language so that people now spoke many different languages. This made human cooperation much more difficult, slowed down the progress of technological innovation (Genesis 11:6), and forced humanity to split up based on who could understand one another, and these language-based groups spread out over the world (Genesis 11:7-9). These groups of people eventually grew into tribes and nations, where each ruled themselves and also came into conflict with other groups.

This was the scenario for most of human history:

And he [God] made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. (Acts 17:26-27)

4. Law

But God did not abandon these nations entirely. God chose Abraham to be the ancestor of a special people through whom God would reveal himself and his laws to the rest of the world (Genesis 12:1-3). After multiplying Abraham's descendants in Egypt, God brought the Israelites and others who went with them out into the desert (Exodus 12:37-38). There, God gave them his law through Moses, so that they could be a holy people who would serve God as a kingdom of priests (Exodus 19:5-6).

These divinely-inspired laws should ideally have led to a good society, especially when compared to how other nations lived at the time. The Israelites pledged their faithfulness to God and promised to follow God's laws, but they almost instantly fell into sin. The history of Israel was not any better, since the Israelites repeatedly fell into idolatry, injustice, and various evil practices such as sacrificing children to false gods. Even when the people asked for a king to be chosen to rule over them, it didn't solve the problem, because the kings were also mostly evil, except for a few good ones.

During this time, God judged the nation of Israel repeatedly, which ended by allowing the country to be invaded by foreign armies who sent the Israelites into exile in foreign countries. Only a remnant of faithful people were brought back from these countries when the time of judgment was over, to begin and re-establish the country of Israel. But even then, there were challenges and difficulties, and Israel was frequently ruled by larger and more powerful countries or empires.

The most recent instance of this sort of divine judgment of the people of Israel occurred in 70 AD when the Romans invaded and destroyed Jerusalem, leaving the Jews to flee and live in various places around the world since then, where they have continued to face much persecution.

I agree with those who say that the reestablishment of the modern State of Israel in 1948 is for the purpose of leading up to the final seven years promised to Israel under the dispensation of Law. These final seven years of the Tribulation will prepare the Jews to accept Jesus as their Messiah at Jesus' second coming (e.g. Daniel 9:26-27, Jeremiah 30-31, Ezekiel 38-39, Isaiah 65-66).

5. Grace

Once the nation of Israel rejected Jesus as their Messiah and crucified Him, God turned to working in the world primarily through the Church, composed of all true Christians everywhere, which continues Christ's mission to the world. Christians are not limited to only one particular country or race or language, but we go out spreading God's message and teachings to all people (Matthew 28:19-20).

But of course, Christians are still imperfect people, and so we have caused problems also through persecuting one another, persecuting non-Christians, and trying to rule the world. This history proves that the Church on its own is not going to be able to reform society or bring in God's kingdom on earth through social justice or charity or activism, no matter how hard we try.

Christians have also become divided into many denominations that argue with one another about theology and about how Christians should live and worship. This division makes the Church's mission even more complex and unlikely to succeed.

Additionally, as we see now in western countries, societies that were formerly strongly influenced by Christianity eventually become resistant to the gospel and to Christian ethics, and people want to start doing things their own way again. In many other countries where other religions and ideologies are dominant, Christians are often persecuted for our faith.

Thus, the world does not seem to be getting any better under this dispensation, and Christianity, too, seems to now be on the decline, even though there are still some areas around the world where Christianity is spreading and growing.

Some people might think that this outline of history given so far is overly pessimistic. They might say things like: "Doesn't the world generally tend to get better and better? Surely, with God's help, Christians will be able to improve the world until Jesus finally returns and congratulates us for all of our success. Like, just compare life now to how awful it was during the middle ages, right?"

Unfortunately, I'm convinced that the Bible teaches that things will get far worse before they get better, because there is simply no other way to deal with all the details of the Book of Revelation in a serious way (that is, without allegorizing them or ignoring them), as I explain in my post here.

The details in Scripture matter; otherwise God wouldn't have included them. Therefore, it is not faithful Biblical interpretation to gloss over the details of Scripture. Taking all of the Bible seriously, believing it to be fully inspired by the same Holy Spirit (2 Timothy 3:16, 2 Peter 1:21) who is God and never lies (Titus 1:2), means that we should attempt to harmonize all the prophecies that still remain to be fulfilled.

When we do put all these pieces together in a way that takes the details seriously, we see that the dispensation of grace does not end with the world getting better and better until Jesus' Millennial Kingdom suddenly appears. Instead, this current dispensation of grace will end with the future seven-year Tribulation as described in the Book of Revelation.

Jesus says the Tribulation will be the worst time in the entire history of the world (Matthew 24:21). The Book of Revelation describes twenty-one divine judgments in which God will pour out his wrath on the God-rejecting people of the world who will be left behind after all true Christians are taken to heaven in the pretribulation Rapture, since we are not destined to face God's wrath in the Tribulation (1 Thessalonians 4:18, 5:9, 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4).

In addition to these terrible divine judgments, during the Tribulation, the one-world government of the Antichrist will persecute and kill many of the new Christians who will only come to believe in Jesus after the Rapture happens (Revelation 13:7). Some of these new Christians will survive the full seven years, but they will need to refuse to take the Mark of the Beast, which means they will be unable to buy or sell anything, which will make survival very difficult.

The Tribulation will end with the second coming of Jesus Christ, who will destroy the Antichrist's one-world government and defeat all of God's enemies (Revelation 19:11-21). Jesus will rescue his faithful remnant of Christians and any Jews who will finally accept Jesus as their Messiah (Zechariah 12:10, 13:8-9, Revelation 1:7).

Additionally, after the Tribulation, Satan and his demons will be locked in the bottomless pit, so they can't deceive and tempt anyone (Revelation 20:1-3).

Jesus's return will lead to the establishment of a new dispensation, his Millennial Kingdom.

6. The Millennial Reign of Jesus

This dispensation will be unlike anything we've seen before.

Jesus will rule the world from Jerusalem, through his incorruptible government composed of resurrected and perfected Christians. His kingdom will last for at least a thousand years. Finally, the world will be under the control of the only perfectly-wise, completely-good, and non-corruptible leader who can enforce world peace and solve everyone's problems.

Some key Bible verses that support this future reality of Jesus' Millennial Kingdom are:

• Revelation 20:1-6, which describes the setting up of the Millennial Kingdom and the binding of Satan for a thousand years.
• Revelation 19:15: "From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron.". This theme is also seen in Revelation 12:5 and Psalm 2:9. A similar idea is in Daniel 2:44-45.
• Isaiah 2:2-4, which describes Jerusalem becoming the center of Christ's government for the entire world, leading to worldwide peace.
• Isaiah 11:1-10, which describes Jesus as a ruler who will judge in perfect righteousness and wisdom.
• Jeremiah 23:5-6: "Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: 'The Lord is our righteousness.'"
• Daniel 7:13-14: "Behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed."
• Daniel 7:27: "And the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High; his kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him."
• 1 Corinthians 15:24-28 says that Jesus will destroy every other ruling power, and he will reign over everything until his enemies are conquered.
• Jude 1:14-15 refers to a prophecy by Enoch about God coming with his saints to bring justice to a sinful world, similar to Revelation 19:11-16.
• Hebrews 1:8-9: "But of the Son he says, 'Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions'."
• Jeremiah 30:3, 8-11, and Ezekiel 39:25-29 describe Israel being restored as a nation in peace and security under the rule of Jesus.

Jesus' perfect government will be composed of two different groups of people:

1. Christians who lived and/or died before the Tribulation. They will be resurrected and made immortal at the Rapture (1 Thessalonians 4:13-17, 1 Corinthians 15:51-53).
2. Christians who die during the Tribulation but who will be resurrected after Jesus' second coming (Revelation 20:4-6).

Evidence for the above is found in all the promises given to Christians about our faithfulness being rewarded with ruling privileges:

• Revelation 20:6: "Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years." (Perhaps echoing Daniel 7:18 and 7:22).
• Revelation 2:26: "The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father."
• Revelation 3:21: "The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne."
• 2 Timothy 2:12: "if we endure, we will also reign with him."
• Luke 19:16-19 shows Jesus rewarding faithful Christians with rule over cities. Matthew 25:21-23 is the parallel, and promises faithful Christians will be "set over much", in terms of responsibility. This echoes Matthew 24:45-47 where the faithful servant is "set over" all the master's possessions.
• 1 Corinthians 6:2-3 says the saints will judge the world, and will even judge angels!
• Luke 22:28-30 shows that the 12 apostles will have a special role ruling over Israel in the Millennium and perhaps eternity.

If you're interested in this topic, a much more detailed book on all of this is titled The Millennial Kingdom by John F. Walvoord (1959).

The Sheep and Goats Judgment

When Jesus returns at his second coming, the first step to setting up his kingdom will be to judge all individuals who remain alive after the Tribulation:

When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. (Matthew 25:31-45)

This passage is not about the final judgment, because the Sheep and Goats Judgment is based on works (Matthew 25:34-36), whereas eternal salvation is based only on faith in God/Christ, and so they are different things. This is clear when we remember that eternal life depends on only faith:

"What must we do, to be doing the works of God?" Jesus answered them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent." (John 6:28-29)

There are different judgments in Scripture, and it's important to distinguish them correctly, or we will get confused and think our eternal salvation depends on works, when it actually depends only on faith in Christ (e.g. John 3:16, Ephesians 2:8). Whether a person is given eternal life or not is different from being allowed into Christ's Millennial Kingdom. Don't confuse the two.

As a result of the Sheep and Goats Judgment at the end of the Tribulation, anyone who showed mercy to the persecuted Jews and Christians during the Tribulation (i.e. Jesus' "brothers" in Matthew 25:40), and who did not take the Mark of the Beast (Revelation 13:16-18, 14:9-11) will be allowed to live in the Millennial Kingdom.

These people will still be in their mortal bodies, and so they will repopulate the world. Their lives will be much easier due to the removal of the curse of nature which I discussed in my post about climate change and the end times.

But these people who repopulate the world will still have a sinful human nature. This detail explains why Jesus will have to rule with a "rod of iron" as mentioned in several of the verses listed above, in order for him to ensure that human sinfulness will be kept in check so that it does not get out of control and ruin things for everyone yet again.

What Life Will Be Like in Jesus' Millennial Kingdom

The Bible gives many hints about what the conditions of the world will be like during the Millennial Kingdom, including:

• Nature will be far more fruitful and productive than it is now (Isaiah 30:23-24, 35:1-2, 35:6-7, Amos 9:13).
• Human lifespans will be extended back to what they were before the Flood (Isaiah 65:20, 22).
• Disabilities will be healed (Isaiah 35:5-6).
• Nature will be re-ordered so that animals will no longer be dangerous and will not eat one another (Isaiah 11:6-8, 65:25).
• Satan will be confined and not allowed to tempt people as he does now (Revelation 20:2-3).

This view of the Millennial Kingdom is the only view of the end-times which can explain why we have verses that describe people having children and growing old in Christ's kingdom, such as Isaiah 11:6 and Isaiah 65:20-22. This shows that Christ's Millennial Kingdom is not identical to the future New Heavens and New Earth (Revelation 21) that God will create after the final judgment, since then everyone who is eternally saved will be immortal and there will be no more procreation (as per Matthew 22:30, Mark 12:25).

So while the Millennial Kingdom still won't be perfect, it is definitely going to be much better than our world as it is right now.

The Theme of The Millennial Kingdom in Christmas Songs

The Millennial Kingdom is my favourite theme in Christmas carols. This idea might seem strange, since we typically think of Christmas carols as being about Jesus' first coming, but if we examine the lyrics closely, we can see many references to Jesus' second coming and his thousand-year kingdom afterward.

For example, "Joy to the World", is actually about Jesus' second coming and Millennial Kingdom:

Joy to the world! The Lord is come:
let earth receive her King!
Let every heart prepare him room
and heaven and nature sing.

Joy to the earth! the Saviour reigns:
let men their songs employ
while fields and floods rocks hills and plains
repeat the sounding joy.

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
nor thorns infest the ground:
he comes to make his blessings flow
far as the curse is found.

He rules the earth with truth and grace,
and makes the nations prove
the glories of his righteousness
and wonders of his love.

There is also the famous "For Unto Us A Child is Born" by Handel, which is basically Isaiah 9:6:

For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given,
and the government shall be upon His shoulder;
and his name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.

Along with Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus," with lines like:

Hallelujah, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth;
and He shall reign forever and ever;
the Kingdom of this world is become the Kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ!

There are a few modern songs also that I really like with this theme.

In "He Shall Reign Forevermore" by Chris Tomlin, the chorus is:

And He shall reign forevermore, forevermore
Unto us a child is born
The King of kings and Lord of lords
And He shall reign forevermore, forevermore

The song "Mary Did You Know?" also includes some of these themes, where it says:

The blind will see, the deaf will hear
The dead will live again
The lame will leap, the dumb will speak
The praises of the lamb!
Mary, did you know that your baby boy is lord of all creation?
Mary, did you know that your baby boy would one day rule the nations?

So when you sing these songs at Christmas, remember that you're not singing only about Jesus' first coming, but also about his second coming. I really look forward to when Jesus will finally come and fix all the mess that the world is in currently.

The End of Jesus' Millennial Kingdom

Unfortunately, not even Jesus' direct rule over the world for a thousand years will solve the problem of human sinfulness. Thus, the Millennial Kingdom will also end in human failure.

At the end of the thousand years, God will allow Satan back out of the bottomless pit for a short time, to incite those still-sinful mortal people who want to rebel against Jesus' rule to get up the courage to openly revolt. They will gather into a large army and will surround Jerusalem, but God will judge them for their rebellion by sending down fire from heaven to destroy them (Revelation 20:7-10).

At this point, there are no further dispensations. The history of this fallen world will end with the final judgment of everyone who has ever lived (minus the already-perfected raptured Christians and resurrected Tribulation saints) (Revelation 20:11-15). Following this judgment, God will create the eternal New Heaven and New Earth, which will never be tainted by any sin, sadness, death, or pain (Revelation 21:1-4).

The Value of Dispensationalism

As explained above, the theory of dispensationalism shows us that by the end of Jesus' Millennial Kingdom, God will have tested humanity under every possible method of government, both human and divine. It will be proven to everyone that there is no perfect system which can solve the problem of sin. For even when the world is under the perfect, incorruptible government ruled by Jesus himself with a rod of iron to ensure that righteousness and justice is done, sinful people will still rebel against God.

There will be nothing left to blame except for humanity's sinful hearts. This will prove that fallen humanity's problem truly is sin—not politics, political systems, political parties, particular leaders, electoral colleges, proportional or first-past-the-post systems, human judges, constitutions, bills of rights, border walls (or lack thereof), or whatever else we might think the problem is now.

Of course, in the meantime, Christians should do what we can to restrain evil in our societies, such as by engaging in politics in various ways. But I'm not optimistic about the results.

My opinion is that this fallen world is like the Titanic after it hit the iceberg; it's sinking, and nothing will stop it. Maybe we could take some measures to slow it down, but its fate is ultimately certain. This means that arguing over politics is basically the same as arguing over who should be captain of the doomed Titanic, and what the captain should do.

Although there is perhaps some value in engaging in politics to help restrain evil, I believe that Christians' main priority should be on getting people into the eternal lifeboat, by preaching that anyone who puts their faith in Jesus as their Savior will have eternal life. Unlike on the Titanic, there is enough room for everyone on this lifeboat.

Conclusion

So I'm sorry to disappoint you if you thought that somehow sinful humans could bring in a utopia upon earth. The Bible clearly says this will never happen.

Instead of putting our hopes and dreams in the hands of corrupt human politicians, let's recognize that what the world needs is Jesus. Let's not put our hope in the next election, but in Jesus' second coming.

In the meantime, let's eagerly look forward to Jesus' coming to rescue all true Christians at the Rapture and encourage each other with this fact (1 Thessalonians 4:18, 5:11, Hebrews 10:25, 2 Timothy 4:8). While we keep on watching for Jesus' return at the Rapture, we should also remember to be busy faithfully engaging in Christ's business of loving others and spreading the gospel message (Luke 19:13).

We need to remember that as Christians, our home is not this world. We're in the world, but our citizenship is in heaven, and we're waiting for Jesus to return from there to rescue us (Philippians 3:20-21). Let's not get so wrapped up in worldly politics and concerns that we stress ourselves out about the future. Our eternal future is secure, and it will be wonderful and will infinitely outweigh anything negative we experience now, regardless of how things go in this temporal life (Romans 8:18).

Jesus is indeed our Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). Let's trust him as the source of our personal peace this advent season, and into the new year.

Footnotes:

• 1. Charles C. Ryrie, Dispensationalism: Revised and Expanded (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2007), 72-81.