Kingdom's Reign
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3. After the duel between the Prince and Lucius, everyone kneels before the Prince, even His enemies, just as everyone will kneel before Jesus and proclaim Him Lord.
CHAPTER 7
1. The bottomless pit that Satan and his demons are cast into for one thousand years, as described in Revelation 20:1–3.
2. The reign of Jesus Christ as our earthly king.
3. Luke 19:12–19 and Revelation 20:6.
CHAPTER 8
1. Answer based on personal experience.
2. After suffering under Lucius’s tyrannical and diabolical rule, the people of Arrethtrae are probably still leery of anyone in authority. Cullen’s direction is also wise because people respond positively to a trustworthy leader.
3. Cedric and William have been given a purpose beyond any other: to serve the Prince. This purpose bonded them through times of persecution and triumph. This represents the fact that when we accept Christ and His calling, we become part of the family of God, which transcends blood ties. A good verse describing such a close friendship is Proverbs 18:24.
CHAPTER 9
1. Just as there is no age in the Kingdom Across the Sea, there is no time in heaven. James 4:14 says, “Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.”
2. Jesus says in Matthew 10:35 and in Luke 12:53 that His truth will divide families, because some will believe and some will not. Kendra didn’t know what happened to her siblings because they were taken when the Prince came for them. Read Matthew 24:40–41.
3. In Revelation 9:1–12, a frightful creature rises out of the bottomless pit that is described as being able to torment men like a scorpion. This is one of the seven trumpet judgments and is probably symbolic rather than an actual creature.
4. Answer based on personal experience.
CHAPTER 10
1. The Bible indicates that during the thousand-year reign there will still be sinners. So even though Jesus comes to earth to rule, there will be a need for correction and discipline. The world still isn’t paradise because of man’s sinful nature and free will to choose right or wrong.
CHAPTER 11
1. This signifies the fact that although we should honor God by following His commandments, it is our hearts and minds that He is most concerned about, for out of the heart flows the important things of life. Read Proverbs 4:23. Also in Revelation 2:23, God says He searches both the hearts and the minds of people.
2. The Bible often mentions sealing the believers of Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit, as in Ephesians 1:13. Many of the Jews will be sealed to God during the Great Tribulation as well. The bitter wine represents sealing the believers of Jesus and preserving them against the final Day of Judgment.
CHAPTER 12
1. Proverbs 27:17 says, “As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.” This means it is good to practice your knowledge and skill with another fellow believer, because you both believe in truth.
2. The King didn’t want pawns who were forced to obey Him; He wanted people who willingly followed His plans. This represents the free will allowed us by God to choose between good and evil, and it means that we are free to choose God and His plans or to choose our own way, which ultimately brings pain and sorrow.
CHAPTER 13
1. The release of Satan and his demons from the bottomless pit and the ensuing rebellion that begins. See Revelation 20:7–8.
2. Jaret is enticed by Histen’s promise of power. What Jaret foolishly doesn’t realize is that Lucius is the father of lies and cannot be trusted. John 8:44 says, “He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.”
CHAPTER 14
1. Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” See also Genesis 6:5; 8:21.
CHAPTER 15
1. Their presence in Arrethtrae indicates in a terrifying way that the Wasteland has truly been emptied of all its evil.
CHAPTER 16
1. Revelation 20:7–8. This is the final battle leading to the final judgment of Satan and his demons. This battle should not be confused with Armageddon, which occurs before the millennium and is depicted in chapter 6 of this book.
2. In Kingdom’s Dawn, the King used the Vactor Deluge to execute judgment on Arrethtrae, and He promised to never again use them. This event represents the Flood during the days of Noah and that God promised to never again destroy the earth by water. This event with the Vactors of Fire represents the final judgment on the earth by God in the form of fire. Revelation 20:9 says, “And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them.”
CHAPTER 17
1. New Chessington symbolizes the new heaven and new earth God will create for His people. Read Revelation 21:1–11, 22 through 22:21.
2. Romans 10:9 says, “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Salvation is a free gift offered by God to anyone who accepts Jesus Christ as his or her personal Savior. In the great apocalyptic book of Revelation, Jesus’ tender love and compassion for mankind is explicitly expressed in Revelation 3:20: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.”
AUTHOR’S COMMENTARY
Kingdom’s Reign brings to conclusion the allegory of the kingdom of Arrethtrae and its people. It is just a story. The characters of the Kingdom Series are imaginary … but we are not, and the kingdom of God is powerfully more exciting and adventure-filled than that of an allegory. If these books point you to discover the truth of God’s Word, then the words were not written in vain.
Kingdom’s Reign chronicles the journey of the saints from their entrance into heaven to the return of the saints with Christ in glory, through the millennium, and on to the new heaven and new earth spoken of in the book of Revelation.
It can be appreciated that there are a wide variety of doctrinal beliefs about the end times and the sequence of events as they occur. It is not my intention to promote one theological belief over another concerning the end times. Kingdom’s Reign was written to bring closure to the series as it attempts to depict the journey’s end of mankind. Unlike the biblical and modern history of man up to today, the end-times analogy of Kingdom’s Reign allowed a substantial amount of literary freedom since the events are not concrete, with characters and circumstances from which to derive the story. This is but one vague interpretation of life after the Rapture concerning the saints and the millennial period on earth.
Certain biblical events are quite evident: Christ will come again to rule on the earth, there will be a millennium period of peace on earth, a new heaven and a new earth will be established by God, and He will live with man forever. All of these elements are included in Kingdom’s Reign, and as in the other Kingdom Series books, the focus of the entire story is on the Redeemer of mankind, Jesus Christ.
It is my hope, as the author of the words penned here, that you will rediscover a zeal to explore the infallible Word of God and find the courage to remain faithful to Jesus. It is entirely within the realm of possibility that the end-times prophecies spoken of throughout the Bible could begin today. The battle for the hearts of men and women may be drawing to a close. Jesus said we should know the signs of the times. The signs of these times are powerful, and we must be diligent in our knowledge of God’s Holy Book. We must be prepared by first accepting the fact that we all desperately need a savior, the Savior—Jesus!
“And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.… Surely I am coming quickly.”
—REVELATION 22:12–13, 20
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Chuck Black, Kingdom's Reign