Wallace G. Smith

[The text below represents an edited transcript of this Tomorrow’s World program.]

Three Commonly Asked Questions About the Bible

Those who read and study the Bible find their lives enriched and enlightened by the divine guidance they discover within its pages. But that doesn’t mean they don’t trip up on a question or two now and then. Today, we’re going to take a look at a few questions we often receive about the Bible and show you how to determine solid answers, straight from God’s word. So, stay right here for today’s program, “Your Questions, the Bible’s Answers!”

Biblical Truth—You Can Find It!

Greetings, and welcome to Tomorrow’s World, where we help you make sense of the world through the pages of your Bible!

If you are a regular viewer of our program, you know that we base everything we teach on God’s word, the Bible. When Jesus Christ prayed to God the night before His crucifixion, He asked His Father to set His followers apart from the world around them, saying, “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth” (John 17:17).

God’s word is THE TRUTH. No other source of knowledge reflects the very mind of the Creator like the Bible, and the answers to life’s greatest questions are found in its pages.

But that doesn’t mean that every part of it is easy to understand! In fact, some things we read in the Bible can be confusing. But the answers ARE THERE, waiting for the diligent student, with God’s help, to find them. Today, we’re going to tackle a potpourri of three Bible questions that students of God’s word sometimes ask, and we’re going to show you the Bible’s own answers to those questions.

As for today’s “Bible Q&A,” here are the questions we will address:

1. Does Jesus Christ command Christians to hate their family members?
2. Exactly how did Judas Iscariot die?
3. And, why are there souls under the altar in the book of Revelation?

First, let’s begin by reading a passage that generates questions among many and see what the Bible has to say about it. If you have a Bible handy, turn to Luke 14:26, where Jesus is teaching a great multitude. He tells them,

“If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.”

Reading this verse, many have asked: “Does Jesus really command Christians to hate their family members?”

Of course, the idea that Jesus is literally commanding His followers to hate their mother, father, and others would INDEED be contrary to many of His other teachings. Whenever you come across an apparent contradiction like this in the Bible, it should always grab your attention, because the Bible—including Jesus’ teachings—never contradicts itself. Christ makes this point, Himself, in John 10:35, reminding the Jewish leaders in His audience that the “Scripture cannot be broken.”

So, just what is He saying here in this passage? In understanding the Bible, it’s important to understand the context surrounding the verse, instead of just reading the isolated verse. When we do this in the case of Luke 14, it is clear He is explaining the high standards His followers must meet. Rather than a “come as you are” policy, Jesus demands that people change in order to follow Him and that they commit their lives to Him fully. In verse 27 of that chapter, for instance, Jesus explains that one must be willing to bear his own cross to be one of Christ’s disciples—not a literal cross, but bearing the burden of persecution, difficulty, discomfort, and trial—even to death—just as Christ did. He says in verse 33 that His followers must be willing to forsake ALL that they possess—willing to give up anything else in their lives, and even their own lives, themselves, for His sake—or else they cannot be His disciples at all.

These passages give context for the message Jesus is trying to convey. He is telling the multitudes, and us, that we must consider HIM the most important part of our lives, versus all of the natural loves, comforts, and possessions we otherwise have.

He is NOT commanding His disciples to literally “hate” their family members. Consider earlier in the book of Luke, in chapter 6, where He commands Christians to love even their enemies:

“But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you” (vv. 27–28).

Why would Jesus command us to love our enemies and those who would seek to do us harm while commanding us to hate our family members? Of course, He wouldn’t.

The phrasing here in Luke 14:26 is one of CONTRAST, not objective hate. Jesus is saying that, to be His disciple, one must be willing to put Jesus Christ first before even one’s most natural affections—toward, parents, spouse, or children. We see this even more easily by applying another principle of understanding the Bible: Look at multiple witnesses to the same event or teaching. For example, this same teaching is worded in a clarifying way by the gospel writer Matthew in Matthew 10, verse 37:

“He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.”

In fact, those who DO give their lives to Jesus Christ, find that they don’t love their families LESS than they did before. Instead, they love them MORE. They discover that putting God as the highest priority in your life helps set all other priorities right.

So, no, He is not literally commanding us to hate our families. But He is warning us that we must love Him more—more even than our families, and even more than our very lives.

Context Matters, Especially for the Word of God

Our next question is one that puzzles many when they read the accounts of Jesus’ death and the beginning of the biblical Church: “Exactly how did Judas Iscariot die?”

You might recall that Judas Iscariot was one of Jesus’ twelve apostles who betrayed Him for thirty pieces of silver. And on first glance, the Bible’s comments about Judas’ death might seem to be contradictory. Let’s take a look at two key statements and see if we can make sense of them.

In Matthew 27, we read that after Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver, he was remorseful and tried to give the money back to his conspirators, but the priests would not accept. Verse 5 tells us,

“Then he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed, and went and hanged himself.”

The priests felt the money was tainted as “blood money” and would not accept it, presumably leaving it in Judas’ name and, Matthew says, applying it sometime later to buy a field in which strangers could be buried.

However, while Acts 1 and verse 18 speaks of the field purchased with Judas’ money, it seems to describe a different fate for the traitor:

“Now this man purchased a field with the wages of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all his entrails gushed out.”

The field’s being purchased with Judas’ money is consistent, but falling headlong and bursting in the middle does not sound like a hanging. How do we reconcile the accounts?

As we’ve noted before, any time we see what appear to be different accounts of the same facts or circumstance in the Bible, there is no need to assume a contradiction—indeed, Jesus tells us that the inspired word of God does not contradict itself. Rather, the multiple accounts act as multiple witnesses, each adding its own detail to the overall picture.

For instance, consider the sign that was nailed above Jesus’ head while He was crucified. Depending on which of the four gospels you read, you get a different report concerning what the sign said.

• Matthew says the sign reads “This is Jesus the king of the Jews” 27:37).
• Mark writes that the sign reads “King of the Jews” (15:26)
• Luke reports that it reads “This is the King of the Jews,” and was written in Greek. Latin, and Hebrew (23:38).
• Finally, John writes that Pilate’s sign read “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews” (19:19).

Do the gospel writers contradict each other? Not at all! In fact, not only do they say essentially the same thing, but also when we put all of them together, we get A FULLER picture—one of a sign reading, “This is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.”

Similarly, the accounts of Judas’ death are not in contradiction when they are read as two accounts that work TOGETHER to make for a fuller picture. Judas did, indeed, hang himself out of guilt and shame. But as his body hung there, his corpse did what corpses do and began to decompose. Eventually, it fell from the rope, struck the ground, and burst open—a terrible, loveless end for the traitor who betrayed the Messiah.

Again, when you understand that the Bible does not contradict itself, but it DOES give multiple witnesses to provide a larger picture, the problem resolves itself.

Biblical Symbols Explained

For our next question, let’s look at Revelation 6, starting in verse 9. Here, in John’s vision of God’s realm in heaven, we read an odd description:

“When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, ‘How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?’ Then a white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer, until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed.”

So, many ask: Why are these mysterious souls under the altar in John’s vision? After all, does this mean that people will live, in heaven, under an altar, until Jesus’ return? That would certainly seem a very odd afterlife! “Thank you for your faithfulness and sacrifice in the name of Christ! Here is your apartment—under an altar!”

To understand this portion of John’s vision, we need to first understand that the book of Revelation is a mixture of literal description and symbolism. For instance, Revelation 8 verses 6 through 13 describe ecological disasters that will come upon the earth before Christ’s return. That is plain and literal. Yet chapter 6 describes events such as religious deception, war, famine, and pestilence depicted as four horsemen riding horses of different colors—clearly a symbolic picture.

In this case, the symbolism of the souls under the altar would be easily understood by those familiar with the first century sacrifices in Herod’s temple in Jerusalem—as the Apostle John surely was.

When an animal was sacrificed on God’s altar, the blood of the sin sacrifice would be poured at the base of the altar and pool there. We actually read a description of this design in Leviticus 4 and verse 7:

“And the priest shall put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of sweet incense before the LORD, which is in the tabernacle of meeting; and he shall pour the remaining blood of the bull at the base of the altar of the burnt offering, which is at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.”

So, the souls seen in John’s vision occupy the same place at the altar as the blood of animals, sacrificed for sins. And, indeed, Revelation 6 and verse 9 tells us that the voices represented innocents whose blood had been spilled because of their faithfulness to God’s word. Their slaying is a part of a terrible time of suffering still to come on the earth—the prophesied Great Tribulation.

To complete the symbolism, consider the tale of Cain and Abel in Genesis 4. After wicked Cain slays his innocent brother, Abel, God confronts him, saying, “What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries out to Me from the ground” (v. 10).

Just as the spilled blood of innocent Abel cried out to God, the spilled blood of God’s saints in the tribulation to come will cry out for vengeance, symbolized here as coming from the base of the altar. So, no, the Bible does NOT teach that the souls of martyrs somehow consciously live on in some sort of underground apartment complex under an altar in heaven.

We want to conclude today with some broader lessons we’ve learned through these questions and look at how we can apply them in our Bible study going forward.

Conclusion—Truly Knowing the Bible

There is a great comfort in seeing the Bible as a reliable source of truth, trustworthy in all it says. Because it has so much more to say than any history book or philosophy book that mankind has ever created. It answers the deepest questions of life, provides the only true hope of our lives, and points us to the very source of life: Our Creator God.

On today’s program, we’ve answered three common Bible questions.

First: Does Jesus Christ command Christians to hate their family members? The answer? Absolutely not. He’s teaching that we need to put Him first, even above those who are closest to us, but if anything, putting Him first, we end up loving them more.

Secondly: Exactly how did Judas Iscariot die? We’ve discovered that when you put the scriptures together, they paint a larger picture. That he did indeed hang himself in remorse, and then eventually his corpse fell and burst asunder.

And then third: Why are there souls under the altar in the Book of Revelation? We looked into the book, and noticed that parts of it were literal and parts of it were symbolic. And we actually tied in other scriptures that described the altar in the temple in Jesus’ day, and looked at the practices and looked at other examples, such as how the blood of Abel called out to god, in that sense figuratively. We found that that picture made so much sense, and it’s simply the lives of the martyrs and their deaths that call out to God asking for vengeance on their behalf.

But actually when you look at it, we’ve done more than that. In going through these three questions, we’ve also illustrated a number of principles that will help you get more out of your Bible and begin making sense of this book, which too many seek to dismiss.

We’ve seen that answering Bible questions involves understanding the context around a verse, such as the larger passage, and not just the verse in isolation. We’ve seen that it helps to understand that there is an additive nature to multiple biblical witnesses, in which different statements work together to give us a fuller picture and to clarify the confusions that human teachers sometimes create. And we’ve seen that we should strive to examine other scriptures on a related topic, seeking to allow the Bible to explain itself.

The Apostle Paul wrote to his young evangelist friend Timothy, reminding him about the power of God’s word in the life of one who believes in the message of Jesus Christ. He points out to him that…

“…from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:15–17).

We should note that the New Testament we have today did not yet exist when Paul wrote those words, so he had in mind primarily the Old Testament. We really do need the whole word of God, both Old and New Testaments—so don’t let anyone ever tell you otherwise.

A friend of mine was once explaining his appreciation for a preacher he highly admired, and he gave him one of the greatest compliments I think I’ve ever heard. He said the man knew His Bible as one would know a good friend with whom he had spent much, much time.

You can have a relationship with your Bible like that, as well.

[The text below represents an edited transcript of this Tomorrow’s World program.]

A Great Religious Deception

Believe it or not, Satan the Devil has deceived most of the churches of this world to virtually AVOID the very heart of Jesus Christ’s message to the world: The good news of the coming Kingdom of God! As a result, most who consider themselves “Christian” don’t even understand what the Kingdom of God is. If you want to defeat Satan’s plan to keep you in the dark, this edition of Tomorrow’s World is for you. Join us today as we answer the question the Devil wants you to ignore: “Just What Is the Kingdom of God?”

More to the Gospel Than Jesus?

Welcome to Tomorrow’s World! where we help you make sense of the world through the pages of your Bible.

Today, we are going to explain in plain and simple terms the Kingdom of God—a mystery which almost no one understands today, including those who call themselves Christians!

What is the Kingdom of God? Is it just a feeling in your heart? Is it the church or the collection of Christians throughout the ages? Is it only in heaven?

And why is it a mystery at all? Why is there such confusion over the Kingdom of God in the first place?

We’ll also be offering you a free resource that explains why today’s churches are in such utter confusion: It’s titled Satan’s Counterfeit Christianity. Keep an eye out for the information you need to get your free copy.

Constantly in the churches of the world or in videos online, you will find men and women preaching about JESUS—who they think He was, the story of His life as they understand it, the miracles He performed, some of the things He said or did, His crucifixion and resurrection.

It all SEEMS to make sense, and to be sure, Jesus Christ IS the savior of the world. It IS by His shed blood that we are forgiven our sins. But we have to ask ourselves: Is the message preached by these churches THE SAME MESSAGE THAT JESUS PREACHED?

As we’ll see in a moment, Jesus did not come to only talk about HIMSELF. The HEART AND SOUL of the message, preaching, and teaching of Jesus Christ was about the KINGDOM OF GOD! That might surprise some of you, because we don’t hear much about the Kingdom of God today. Yet it is mentioned around 150 times in the New Testament.

Let’s take a brief, but sweeping survey of the ministry of Christ and of His disciples, and see for ourselves.

In the book of Mark, chapter 1, we read of the very beginning of Christ’s ministry, right after the imprisonment of John the Baptist. Here in verses 14-15, Mark writes:

“Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the KINGDOM OF GOD, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the KINGDOM OF GOD is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”

Jesus came preaching the gospel of the Kingdom of God.

In fact, look at Jesus’ statement in the book of Luke. In chapter 4, Jesus makes a very explicit statement about His purpose and His mission—ABOUT WHY HE WAS ON EARTH IN THE FIRST PLACE! In verse 43 we read, “... He said to them, ‘I must preach the KINGDOM OF GOD to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent.’” Jesus tells us that His PURPOSE, the VERY REASON HE WAS SENT BY GOD, was to preach about the KINGDOM OF GOD!

The Kingdom of God was so central to Jesus’ message to humanity—to you and me—that He told us that seeking that Kingdom should be the number one focus of our lives. Read it with me in Matthew 6:33:

“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”

That same chapter of the Bible contains the famous passage commonly called “The Lord’s Prayer.” In that model prayer, Jesus mentions the Kingdom of God TWICE—at the beginning and the end. In fact, the four gospels are FULL of teachings and parables from Jesus ABOUT the Kingdom of God—so many we don’t have time on today’s program to read them all. Instead, let’s turn to a passage in the book of Acts that may surprise you.

Many people don’t know that the Bible says Jesus actually spent almost six weeks with His disciples before ascending to heaven to remain with His Father until His return—six weeks of teaching them and preparing them for their mission. And what did He focus on during that time? Acts 1:3 tells us that Jesus

“... presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the KINGDOM OF GOD.”

THAT’S how important the topic was to Jesus Christ!

And His disciples took His instruction seriously. Consider the famous Apostle Paul. Acts 14:22 pictures him speaking of the difficulty of entering the KINGDOM OF GOD. Acts 19:8 says he spent THREE MONTHS in the synagogues of the Jews “reasoning and persuading concerning the things of the KINGDOM OF GOD.” Acts 20:25 shows him testifying to Christians in Ephesus that he has been among them “preaching the KINGDOM OF GOD”—the list goes ON & ON & ON! At the VERY END of the book of Acts, we find Paul in a state of house arrest and receiving visitors. Acts 28 verses 30 & 31 tell us what he was doing there:

“Then Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house, and received all who came to him, preaching the KINGDOM OF GOD and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him.”

The testimony of the Bible is UNANIMOUS AND DEAFENING—the message of Jesus Christ and the message of His church MUST BE ABOUT THE KINGDOM OF GOD!

If the Kingdom of God was at the heart of Jesus’ message, WHY do most people who consider themselves faithful Christians not hear about it more? Why do so many not even know what it is?

Because the Christianity we see around us today has been long corrupted by the Devil and influenced to ignore or change many vital and inspiring truths of God—including the truth about the Kingdom of God!

I know that might be shocking to hear, but it is unquestionably true. There is a reason the modern Christian church is shattered into a thousand pieces, all teaching doctrines and practices that differ in ways great and small from the teachings of the Bible: Satan the Devil has been working to corrupt Christianity from its beginning.

The Four Keys to the Kingdom

Men make the Bible complicated and confusing, but God is not the author of confusion! When God speaks plainly, why not simply take Him at His word instead of adding our OWN ideas to HIS TEACHINGS?

If we want to understand the Kingdom of God, we need to consider: What makes a kingdom a “kingdom”? By seeking that plain understanding—and allowing the Bible to answer our questions—we can cut through the Devil’s confusion to see the beautiful, simple truth.

When we consider it carefully, we find that FOUR ELEMENTS make up every kingdom, including the Kingdom of God:

(a) King,Territory, Laws, and Subjects.

Looking to the Bible’s insights with these four elements of a kingdom in mind will reveal the answer to today’s question—and reveal the Kingdom of God.

Let’s first consider the KING. It may come as no surprise to you that the KING of the future Kingdom of God will be Jesus Christ! He will LITERALLY RULE THE WORLD!

People often get sentimental about the words of Isaiah 9 in verses 6–7, but they rarely actually look at what it SAYS. Let’s read it together.

“For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the GOVERNMENT will be upon His shoulder.”

Now pause for a moment. Did you catch that? The GOVERNMENT will be upon His shoulder! The first part of the verse is not a metaphor, why would this be one? Jesus Christ was born to GOVERN!

Let’s continue:

“And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His GOVERNMENT and peace there will be no end, upon the THRONE of David and over His KINGDOM, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.”

King David ruled in Jerusalem, over a REAL Kingdom. So, too, CHRIST will rule in Jerusalem, over a REAL Kingdom—but this time, a Kingdom without end. He will be exactly what He’s called in Revelation 19:16, “KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.”

But He will not be ruling alone. For instance, Matthew 19:28 tells us His twelve apostles will be ruling under Him in the Kingdom, judging the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Even more than that—EACH AND EVERY CHRISTIAN who has suffered and struggled in this world to overcome sin and follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ will DIRECTLY RULE THE WORLD UNDER CHRIST, AS WELL!

So many verses speak of this future. Daniel 7 verses 18 and 27 talk of the Kingdom being given to God’s people. Revelation 20 and verse 6 speaks of the saints reigning with Christ for 1,000 years.

Turn to 1 Corinthians 6 and verse 2, where Paul talks of the reign of the future glorified Christians very plainly:

“Do you not know that the saints will judge the WORLD? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life?”

JUDGE THE WORLD? JUDGE ANGELS? What an INCREDIBLE DESTINY ahead for the true followers of Jesus Christ!

The reward of the saved is NOT a heavenly retirement home—it is RULING TOMORROW’S WORLD in GLORY under JESUS CHRIST!

Here we see the second element of a Kingdom: The TERRITORY. The saints will rule the world under Christ—that’s THIS world, not Heaven, or some fuzzy, feel-good Kingdom in your heart! I know it’s hard to “unlearn” some things, but shattering the deceit of the Devil to learn the REAL TRUTH of Jesus’ message is worth it!

And the truth is plain for those willing to read and believe their Bibles. True Christians can proclaim the clear words of Revelation 5 and verse 10, and will say, “[You] have made us KINGS and PRIESTS to our God; and we shall REIGN ON THE EARTH.”

It doesn’t GET more straightforward than that! Those who follow Christ NOW shall REIGN ON THE EARTH! And earlier in Revelation, in chapter 2 and verses 26 and 27, Jesus encourages us: “And he who overcomes, and keeps my works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations—‘He shall rule them with a rod of iron….’”

“Power over the nations” means authority ON THIS EARTH!

Is Jesus LYING to us? Is He saying something He doesn’t really mean? Satan would have you believe that. Why can’t people just trust the Bible for WHAT IT SAYS?

One World Government Possible Under God!

Today, we are unlocking the Mystery of the Kingdom of God, and we are doing so by simply believing the Bible for what it says.

In our last segment, we highlighted that those who follow Jesus Christ will rule the world alongside Him, which may be a bit of a surprise to many of you who simply expected Christians to simply die and go to heaven. But, if you think about it, the truth of the saints’ coming world rule has been in front of you all the time, right in your Bible. Even many atheists are familiar with Jesus’ promise recorded in Matthew 5:5 The meek shall inherit the earth. There are so many verses we are skipping for the sake of time, but I want to ask you—aren’t some of these verses and passages beginning to make sense? Jesus really DID mean what He said! The meek are going to LITERALLY inherit planet Earth. When we sweep away the Devil’s ideas and embrace the plain truth of the Bible, so MUCH becomes clear.

Let’s continue. We’ve covered the first two elements of every kingdom—including the Kingdom of God: A KING, and TERRITORY. Let’s now look at the third element every kingdom possesses: A collection of LAWS.

The Bible is clear from beginning to end that the future Kingdom of God will be ruled by the Laws of GOD, embodied in the TEN COMMANDMENTS!

So many sincere but CONFUSED pastors, preachers, and priests will tell you that Jesus somehow DID AWAY with His Father’s commandments, but this simply IS NOT SO! For example, you can read for yourself in Matthew 19:16-17 how Christ replied when a young man came to Him asking to receive eternal life. Jesus answered, “If you want to enter into life, KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS.”

Many prophecies speak of Christ’s reign on earth and how the LAW OF GOD will form the basis of that reign. For instance, Isaiah 2 verse 3 tells us, “For out of Zion shall go forth the LAW, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.”

In fact, if we take a look at the larger passage there in Isaiah 2, we see the fourth element every kingdom possesses: SUBJECTS. The subjects of Jesus reign will comprise the entire world. Let’s read the larger passage, beginning in verse 2: “Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and ALL NATIONS shall flow to it. Many people shall come and say, ‘Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths.’ For out of Zion shall go forth the LAW, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem” (vv. 2–3).

Zechariah 14 tells us that this globe-covering reign will take some time, since some will refuse at first to be subjects of this Kingdom and come under the laws of God. But those nations will find that resisting this new world ruler is harder than they imagined.

For instance, when the glorified Jesus Christ calls for all the nations of the world to keep the biblical Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem, some nations will apparently resist. Zechariah records that Christ will not take such refusals lightly. “And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, on them there will be no rain” (vv. 16–17).

With the new King of kings controlling nature itself, it will not be long before all the world learns to submit. And they will learn that resisting only postponed the blessings that come from yielding to a loving God.

The result of Jesus Christ’s reign over the entire world‚ and the people of the world, will be the kind of world we have always wanted—one of peace and prosperity. As recorded in Isaiah 2,

“He [that is, Christ] shall judge between the nations, and rebuke many people; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore” (v. 4).

Completely understanding the mystery of the Kingdom of God and the role it plays in salvation—the heart of the real gospel of Jesus Christ—has changed more lives than I can count. And it is only the start of a beautiful journey of walking fully and closely with God.

You Can Start Living God’s Way NOW

We’ve been explaining the simple truth of the Kingdom of God: That it isn’t a matter of living among the clouds of heaven, or a “feeling in your heart,” or the church. Rather it is a REAL KINGDOM, with a King, Jesus Christ; ruling a Territory, the entirety of planet Earth; possessing Laws, the Ten Commandments and the Laws of God; and reigning over Subjects, the people and nations of the entire world. Regardless of how much the Devil seeks to obscure this truth, it is at the VERY HEART AND SOUL of the message that Jesus Christ brought to this earth.

Jesus has commissioned us to preach about the Kingdom of God—not merely a gospel ABOUT Jesus, or about His person or about His life, but the Gospel OF JESUS! And we here at Tomorrow’s World are devoted to doing just that.

In fact, you can see the mission of Tomorrow’s World reflected in Christ’s prophecy, recorded in Matthew 24:14:

“And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.”

And that gospel of the kingdom, along with the whole counsel of God that goes with it, is what we strive to deliver to you at Tomorrow’s World, week after week. The world that Jesus Christ will establish at His return, and that will spread to cover the entire earth, will truly be amazing beyond comprehension. His saints will rule with Him for a thousand years, reigning in power and glory alongside their Savior, and finally teaching the world all the truths that have been hidden by Satan the Devil for so long, including the remarkable purpose of man, and the way of life that truly leads to true life.

But you don’t have to wait until the return of Jesus Christ to begin experiencing the benefits of the Kingdom of God. You can begin to enjoy them, to some degree, in your life NOW. I know that there are people all over the world watching this program right now—I know because so MANY of you write to us each week and request our literature or to visit with one of our ministers. God IS calling some of you listening to this message today to understand more of His truth, and if God is calling you, you need to ACT!

You can begin a completely new and more dynamic walk with God right now! Psalm 34:8 tells us to “taste and see that the LORD is good” and you can begin doing that today! If anything in our messages here at Tomorrow’s World has begun to prod you to consider that there is more to the Bible than you realized, and that there is more to God’s way of life than you had previously imagined, feel free to contact one of our representatives. You can find a minister near you on our website at TomorrowsWorld.org or reach out to one of our Regional Offices, listed in our magazine, which you will receive with today’s free offer. If you have questions, we want to help with God’s answers.

Those who will be ruling with Jesus Christ after His return, making this planet the beautiful, peaceful paradise that God always intended it to be, will be those who learn to let Him rule their hearts and minds NOW. Those who rule WITH Him THEN, will be those who are willing to BE ruled BY Him NOW.

[The text below represents an edited transcript of this Tomorrow’s World program.]

Monster or Miracle?

Whales are among the most magnificent of earth’s creatures. Massive and majestic, they rule the oceans and inspire us to consider the wonder of life. Yet, many evolutionists claim that whales also provide powerful evidence for evolution—celebrated as clear examples of how life was not created by God, but rather evolved slowly over millions of years.

Is this claim true? Join us now on Tomorrow’s World, where we’ll take a close look at this whale of a tale.

Where Did Whales Come From?

Welcome to Tomorrow’s World! On behalf of myself and the crew behind the scenes, we’re delighted you’re here.

On today’s program, we’ll zoom in on one of the most popular icons of Darwinian evolution. We’ll also offer you the opportunity to request a free copy of one of our most thorough resources, Evolution and Creation: What Both Sides Miss. Be sure to watch for the information you need to get your free copy.

Some of the most famous words ever written are, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).

The theory of evolution offers a different tale, of course. According to Neo-Darwinian evolution, life began as a microscopic organism—much like the simplest bacteria we find today. (It’s best not to ask where the bacteria came from.) This bacterium would experience small, random, genetic mutations as it reproduced itself. Most mutations would harm its offspring, but a small percentage would benefit it, so that it survived longer or reproduced more successfully. In this process, Charles Darwin suggested that nature rewards some random changes and punishes others. The theory of evolution proposes that these unguided processes accumulated changes over a few billion years that turned that initial bacterium into the vast variety of lifeforms we see today…millions of species of every shape, color, and size. Life, in ALL of its MARVELOUS COMPLEXITY, all from one simple organism, due to nothing but random, undirected processes—no intelligent Creator necessary.

Certainly, it is quite a tale! Frankly, given life’s complexity, it seems quite a leap of faith.

Does the evidence justify the leap?

Darwinists CLAIM much evidence, and today’s free offer dives deeply into many of those claims. But for today’s brief program, we’ll examine one considered a crown jewel in evolution’s case—a masterpiece thought to be an undeniable example of God-less evolution in action.

Enter, the whale! These magnificent creatures stir imaginations with their majestic appearance, their graceful motion beneath the waves, and their sheer power. Whales exist in wonderful variety in our oceans, and, as the largest animals on earth, they are a sight to behold.

AND evolutionists present WHALES as some of their best evidence that life has evolved. Here’s why.

According to evolution, as animals evolve over millions of years into NEW and DIFFERENT animals, they leave numerous TRANSITIONAL FOSSILS demonstrating that change. Embarrassingly, the potential transitional fossils that HAVE BEEN found are FAR FEWER than what SHOULD BE FOUND if evolution is TRUE.

But evolutionists believe WHALES are exceptions. Fossils appearing to illustrate whale evolution parade through textbooks and popular writings. As evolutionist and author Jerry Coyne writes,

“But we don’t have to imagine how whales evolved…. Whales happen to have an excellent fossil record, courtesy of their aquatic habits and robust, easily fossilized bones. And how they evolved has emerged within only the last twenty years. This is one of our BEST examples of an evolutionary transition, since we have a chronologically ordered series of fossils, perhaps a lineage of ancestors and descendants, showing their movement from land to water” (Jerry Coyne, Why Evolution Is True, 2009, p. 52).

Let’s look at this supposed evolutionary lineage. While some depictions include additional species, this diagram gives a good representative idea. Using the general timeline evolutionists claim,

• Around 52 to 48 million years ago, we see Pakicetus. Complete skeletons are rare, but fossils suggest Pakicetus was a four-legged land mammal a bit like a wolf, only one to two meters long.
• Next stop, 48 to 41 million years ago—a creature labeled Ambulocetus, which means “walking whale.” Ambulocetus was larger than its supposed ancestor Pakicetus, but still mostly land-based.
• Next, we see Rodhocetus 47 to 40 million years ago, showing features that would have benefitted the creature in moving through water.
• Finally, arriving at 40 [to 34] million years ago, we find remains of 50-foot long Basilosaurus and smaller Dorudon—fully aquatic animals like today’s whales, spending no time on land.

This fossil sequence—elongating bodies, limbs becoming flippers, nostrils moving around on the skull—is considered some of evolution’s best evidence—taking us from wolf-sized, land-dwelling Pakicetus, to whale-sized, sea-loving Basilosaurus. In fact, paleontologist and evolutionist Stephen Jay Gould once wrote,

“This sequential discovery of picture-perfect intermediacy in the evolution of whales stands as a TRIUMPH in the history of paleontology. I CANNOT IMAGINE a BETTER TALE for popular presentation of science, or a more satisfying, and intellectually based, political victory over lingering creationist opposition” (Stephen Jay Gould, “Hooking Leviathan by its past,” Natural History, May 1994, pp. 8–14).

It IS quite a tale! But is it true? Is this collection of creatures really the pristine example of evolution many claim it as? Or do problems swim beneath the surface? We’ll dive into details in a moment.

A Fictional Journey

We’ve discussed the celebrated sequence of fossils that evolutionists point to as “picture-perfect” evidence for whale evolution.

But is it? Is the tale created using these fossils true, or just a fish story?

As explained more deeply in today’s free resource, part of the challenge is that evolution tends to be ASSUMED FROM THE BEGINNING, and then that ASSUMPTION is used to INTERPRET the evidence.

Let’s look more closely at this fossil sequence.

First, we should understand that the creatures depicted in these diagrams are often partially reconstructed with artistic license. Complete skeletons are rare. Often, the evidence consists of skull fragments, a pelvis here, most of a leg there, and skeletons are made from multiple creatures—with MISSING bones simply guessed at.

As paleobiologist Nicholas Pyenson wrote concerning studying fossils to determine how whales’ supposed ancestors moved from land to water,

“…most early stem cetaceans [that is, presumed whale-ancestors] are known from FAR LESS COMPLETE SKELETONS than many ARTISTIC INTERPRETATIONS would indicate…. The INCOMPLETENESS OF THESE FOSSIL TAXA, especially for early quadrupedal [or four-legged] forms such as Pakicetus, underscores the challenges of reconstructing their ecology” (“The Ecological Rise of Whales Chronicled by the Fossil Record,” Current Biology, vol. 27, iss. 11, June 5, 2017).

When diagrams show a beautiful, complete, transitional collection of creatures, often you are looking at far more “artistic interpretation” than you might realize.

How do scientists and artists “fill in” missing parts and other features? Often by relying on evolution-based assumptions, tainting the “evidence” from the beginning.

Still, for the sake of argument, let’s ignore that. There are larger fish to fry. Let’s assume that scientists and artist’s imaginations are “spot on” and the creatures looked exactly as they appear to look in their impressive charts. And let’s assume that they existed at the very times they are claimed to have existed, 40 to 50 million years ago.

Part of what makes this tale so convincing is the chronological order of the sequence.

As Jerry Coyne explains, this ordering of fossils is crucial to their ability to serve as evidence of the transition:

“We see ancestral whales spanning the gap between their own landlubber ancestors and fully modern whales. If evolution were not true, fossils would not occur in an order that makes evolutionary sense” (Coyne, p. 57).

Dr. Coyne says that we see fossils in the order evolution tells us they should exist. If you found a fossil of a creature that was OLDER than a fossil of its supposed ancestor, evolution would be in trouble. Descendants have to come AFTER ancestors—if evolution is correct, the fossils have to be in order.

Frankly, a number of exceptions can be found that contradict this expectation, but today we’re focusing on WHALES. Is it true that we’ve NEVER found ANY whale fossils OUT of sequence?

No, it is NOT true. In 2011, researchers did JUST THAT. As the Associated Press reported,

“The jawbone of an ancient whale found in Antarctica may be the oldest fully aquatic whale yet discovered….

“A scientist not involved in the find said it could suggest that whales evolved MUCH MORE QUICKLY from their amphibian precursors than previously thought.

“Argentine paleontologist Marcelo Reguero, who led a joint Argentine-Swedish team, said the fossilized archaeocete [or, ancient whale] jawbone found in February dates back 49 MILLION YEARS” (Michael Warren, “Ancient whale jawbone found in Antarctica,” Associated Press, October 11, 2011).

According to these scientists, this was a FULLY AQUATIC WHALE, which poses a SERIOUS problem. This places fully aquatic whales BACK at least TEN MILLION YEARS or so—LONG BEFORE some of their supposed ANCESTORS. This is like discovering that your family tree only works if you were born BEFORE your great-great grandfather!

If FULLY AQUATIC whales ALREADY EXISTED alongside some of their most ancient SUPPOSED ANCESTORS—IN FACT, when whales were still supposedly LAND creatures—then something smells fishy. Either our “picture-perfect” story is falling apart, or we have a time-traveling whale on our hands.

Yet problems with our whale tale don’t stop there. We’ll look at a bigger problem in a moment.

Created for the Sea

It is one thing to talk about a land-creature slowly adapting to become a sea creature, but we should consider what ACTUAL changes are involved with such a transformation. How long would it take evolution to produce them?

Whale DNA analysis suggests that some changes could arise through LOSS of biological function. This is a legitimately proven way Darwinian processes can work, as described in today’s free resource. But creating BRAND NEW bodily structures and biological functions is entirely different.

And when you examine the whale’s features that are specialized for aquatic life, the list of adaptations is LONG. Let’s dip our toes in and look at a few features evolution would need to create to change a wolf-like creature to a whale. In his book Zombie Science: More Icons of Evolution, researcher and writer Jonathan Wells details many:

• The whale’s tail, or fluke, is remarkably complex, working through a specialized and coordinated system of tendons and muscles that land-based ancestors would not need.
• The fluke’s shape resembles airplane foils, serving a similar purpose in creating lift, though demonstrating BETTER engineering.
• Whales’ famous blowholes demonstrate a great deal of specified design. They are naturally CLOSED by default, not open, even above water. A system of specialized muscles anchored to the skull open a tissue around the blowhole whenever the whale needs to breathe—a system that would be foreign to land-based ancestors.
• Collapsible lungs and rib cages, with diaphragms oriented completely unlike those of land mammals, allow whales to achieve deep dives that would crush other creatures.
• The interior linings of the whale’s lungs contain fluids that allow them to repeatedly collapse and re-expand. The lungs of whales’ supposed land-based ancestors had no reason to produce these liquids.
• Can you hold your breath for one hour? A sperm whale can, and beaked whales can stay underwater for TWO hours. This is only possible with a far more efficient metabolism shift than land mammals are capable of, redirecting blood to the brain and slowing the heart.
• A male cetacean’s reproductive organs are inside the body to streamline the creature in water. Their location poses a problem, because reproductive organs must be protected from the body heat mammals generate, in order to prevent sterility. In whales and dolphins, this is accomplished by a system in which blood from the dorsal fin on their backs, cooled by being close to the water, is carried directly to the reproductive organs, absorbing the excess heat and carrying it back to the dorsal fin. Without these coordinated systems, the animal could not reproduce.
• Finally, how whales nurse their young is highly specialized, involving organs that emerge from slits in the mother’s body and deliver milk to the calf through a pressurized system, which is important because whale calves cannot suck the milk as land-based mammalian young do.

(Jonathan Wells, Zombie Science: More Icons of Evolution, 2017, pp. 104–109).

Truly, whales are a wonder of our world, beautifully designed to rule in their watery domain.

This is only a small sampling of the changes needed to convert a land-dwelling mammal into an ocean-dominating whale. Even if these hundreds of innovations WERE possible through Darwinian means, how long might such a series of changes take? Jonathan Wells notes in his book that the accepted time frame gives land-lubbing Pakicetus around eight million years to “evolve” into a true whale. Is that enough time?

To answer the question, Wells looks at studies on the rates of genetic mutation in creatures such as fruit flies and human beings, and reports on the work of population geneticist Richard Sternberg, who applied these rates to whale evolution. Noting that a study suggested that fixing only TWO coordinated mutations would take 100 MILLION YEARS for humans, Wells reports on the obvious conclusion:

“Assuming a generation time of twenty-five years for humans and five years for the ancestors of cetaceans [including whales], Sternberg pointed out that fixing just TWO mutations in the latter would take MILLIONS OF YEARS LONGER than the time available in the fossil record. So there isn’t enough time to fix even TWO mutations, yet we need HUNDREDS or even THOUSANDS of new mutations. Obviously, eight million years is not long enough to accumulate enough accidental mutations to turn a “walking whale” into a real whale—even if neo-Darwinian theory were right about the power of mutations (which it isn’t)” (Wells, p. 113).

Yet, as we’ve seen, the problem is WORSE than that, because the discovery of a FULLY AQUATIC whale that existed around the same time as land-lubbing Pakicetus means that all of these changes would have had to happen within only ONE TO THREE million years!

If these changes could not have happened in eight million years, they DEFINITELY could not have happened in three—let alone ONE.

We’ll put everything together in the next segment and replace this fish story with facts and truth.

The Answers in Genesis

My friends, the more one dives into the details of the supposedly “picture perfect” tale of whale evolution, the less it seems like a masterpiece and the more it seems like a low budget monster movie fit for Mystery Science Theater 3000—the sort that people watch not because it’s good but because it’s so much fun to poke holes in it and laugh at the bad special effects. Today, we’ve seen that the plot has chapters that happen in the wrong order, poorly developed characters, some of which show up in scenes they don’t belong in, and everything happening in a ridiculously impossible length of time that is way too short—like in bad soap operas, where a character has a baby one day, and by the end of the season, the “baby” is already old enough for high school!

If this “picture-perfect” illustration of evolution is this problematic, then what of supposedly lesser evidence? Though claimed to be “scientific fact,” evolution simply is not so.

So, where DID modern whales come from? Genesis 1 and verses 20 and 21 has had something to say about that for more than 3,000 years:

“Then God said, ‘Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens.’ So God created GREAT SEA CREATURES and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.”

These magnificent creatures have a Creator! And HE is responsible for their remarkable design and engineering, their astonishing abilities, and their beautiful variety!

We should note, however, that it is wrong to assume the creatures God created cannot change at all, or that a great capacity for variety does NOT exist in living creatures. For instance, the whales of today may have changed somewhat from the original “sea creatures” of Day Five in the Genesis “Creation Week.”

Consider, when God created dogs on Day Six, do we imagine that meant He created every variety of dog EXACTLY as we see them today? Did Adam and Eve see VAST HERDS OF CHIHUAHUAS running across the plains? Or Great Danes, or Dachshunds, or St. Bernards?

No—apparently, He began with something much like a wolf, and from such magnificent beginnings, mankind has been able to tease out details, eliminate unwanted characteristics, and breed different varieties. Life’s design, including the REMARKABLE DNA molecule and its incredible programming language, is a tribute to a Creator of great forethought—something discussed and illustrated in today’s free offer. Yes, we can begin with a wolf-like dog and intelligently produce NEW dogs over time, like Chihuahuas and Great Danes. Yet, the idea of taking a wolf-like creature and producing a BLUE WHALE? As we’ve seen today, THAT is a different claim, entirely.

Yet, if THAT tale isn’t truly supported by the evidence, then what of the larger, grander tale of evolution in general? Not that a wolf-like creature can eventually become a blue whale—but that a BACTERIA can one day become a blue whale?

THAT fairy tale is one we’ll save for another day. But you can address it NOW with today’s free offer, Evolution and Creation: What Both Sides Miss. I hope you will order your free copy.

And I hope we will see you here at Tomorrow’s World next week, where Gerald Weston, Richard Ames, Rod McNair, and I will be waiting for you, ready to share the clear teachings of God’s word, what prophecy declares is coming in the days ahead of us, and Jesus Christ’s Gospel of His coming Kingdom. Until we’re together again, take care.

Thanks for watching all the way to the end! We hope today’s video was helpful for you, AND don’t forget to click here for today’s free offer. And also, don’t forget to subscribe, and to be notified when we put out future videos, just click on the bell.