When Tomorrow Becomes Today

Not one of us can avoid the relentless passage of time—second by second, the future turns into the past and plans become memories. Every human being experiences time’s unrelenting “forward march,” with seconds, minutes, and hours marking the transition of tomorrows into todays and todays into yesterdays.

This magazine is called Tomorrow’s World because it preaches the Gospel (or Good News) of what the world will be like when Jesus Christ returns and establishes the Kingdom of God. The late Herbert W. Armstrong, our predecessor in this Work, called that future time “the world tomorrow.” Maybe we could call it the “tomorrow of tomorrows.”

So much of the Bible points to that tomorrow, the major turning point in history that will begin on the day Jesus Christ returns in power and glory. One verse that succinctly describes this awe-inspiring turning point is Revelation 11:15: “Then the seventh angel sounded: and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!’”

The prophet Zechariah also wrote about that special day: “And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east…. And in that day it shall be that living waters shall flow from Jerusalem…. And the Lord shall be King over all the earth. In that day it shall be—‘The Lord is one,’ and His name one” (Zechariah 14:4, 8–9).

Living for Tomorrow

Jesus Christ’s return, as well as His imprisonment of Satan the devil, will occur on a very real day in the future. The Bible also says Christians must work to be ready for that day, because although God’s people will have a general idea of the timing of Jesus’ return, watching as He commanded for some very specific end-time events, they won’t know the exact timing until those events take place. Jesus explained, “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father…. Watch therefore, for you do not know when the master of the house is coming—in the evening, at midnight, at the crowing of the rooster, or in the morning—lest, coming suddenly, he find you sleeping” (Mark 13:32, 35–36).

On some yet-unknown day in the future, when Jesus returns from the clouds just as He ascended to them, He will change today’s world into tomorrow’s world. That future world will see the flourishing of the Good News that so many of God’s prophets and apostles wrote and preached about, and will be the time of “restoration of all things” (Acts 3:19–21).

There are hundreds of scriptures that contrast the world of today with the world after Christ’s return. Consider just a few examples. Today, some deserts, such as the Sahara Desert, are getting bigger. Tomorrow, they will blossom like roses (Isaiah 35:1). Today, men metaphorically beat their plowshares and pruning hooks into swords and spears, a process that will be reversed tomorrow (Isaiah 2:4). Today, mankind suffers from famine and disease. Tomorrow, the sick will be healed, and the harvests of food will be so great that the man plowing will catch up to the man still harvesting the previous crop (Isaiah 35:5–6; Amos 9:13).

Today, Satan reigns over this world as the ruler of darkness, the father of lies, and the original murderer (John 8:44; Ephesians 6:12). Tomorrow, Christ will reign as the “Prince of Peace,” the bringer of light, the restorer of truth and life, and the King with a heart to serve and the strength to administer justice (Isaiah 9:6; Matthew 20:28; John 8:12; 14:6). Today’s world is full of sorrow, tears, pain, and death, but one day the last tear of sorrow will fall, the last wince of pain will leave someone’s face, and death itself will die (Revelation 21:4; 1 Corinthians 15:26).

All of these and more are part of Jesus Christ’s message—the Gospel of the coming Kingdom of God that will change the world. We look forward to that tomorrow with a hope that almost seems too good to be true. But thanks be to Almighty God that it is true—all of it. We yearn for the tomorrow when Jesus Christ literally descends from the clouds and changes our world completely. We rejoice in that future time when we will finally call that longed-for tomorrow “today.”