Principles of the Kingdom (God's Success Principles)

Thus, from these parables, we gain a picture of the kingdom in various stages of development. It starts small but grows to be big. It initially contains people with all kinds of hearts as represented by the different soils, some of whom will fall away, be snatched away by Satan, or wither and die. Those who remain produce fruit in various quantities. Yet, among them, there may still be some who are not real followers but are represented as either tares or bad fish, to be thrown out at the end of time. When, however, in chapter 19, he says of the children, “of such is the kingdom of heaven,” I believe that there he is talking about the basic nature of the kingdom as it will be at the end, after the removal of the tares and the bad fish.

I originally called this book .God‘s success principles. because I believe there are principles throughout the Bible which, if followed, can cause us to have a successful life. There are many speakers or writers who speak or write about some of these principles. Some of these speakers and writers may not be true followers of Jesus. Who is and who isn‘t remains to be seen until the final judgment. But that doesn‘t make the principles any less effective. Thus for the remainder of this book I intend to share some these principles which I have found helpful along with some quotes from some of these speakers and writers as well as from the Bible in the hope that as we follow them to the best of our ability, they will produce a measure of success in our life and endeavors.

Since the kingdom is what it is, as depicted by Jesus in the Matthew 13 parables, that is, since at the present time, it contains people of different types of soil and people in different stages of development and at present it must contain both wheat and tears, both good fish and bad and we cannot really tell the difference as yet, I thought it might be helpful to refer occasionally by way of example of some of the principles I am about to set forth— to some of the characters in my novel, .OF SUCH IS THE KINGDOM, A Novel of Biblical Times,. even though of the characters themselves are flawed. I use them to show examples of the principles I am about to set forth, even though they may not be the best sort of people to follow. They, according to Jesus‘ parables would, could or may be in the kingdom at the time, but whether or not they will remain in it to the end, we cannot now tell.