The prophet Isaiah glimpsed it through divine inspiration: a child would be born of a virgin and would become known as mankind's Saviour. God's omnipotent government would be made plain through an unparalleled advent of spiritual understanding. Isaiah didn't say specifically when this would take place. He probably didn't know. Nonetheless, he knew that these things would come to pass—and they did, in the birth and the life of Christ Jesus.
True prophecy, of course, isn't like crystal ball-gazing. And it is more than being able to predict some historical event. It has to do with eternal spiritual facts dawning on human consciousness. Through God's Word, spiritual sense is awakened and renewed and the dream of hypnotic materialism is broken. We are lifted into a realization of Immanuel, or "God with us," and so we see beyond the immediate circumstances we seem to be living in.
In actuality, divine Love is ever present, and it therefore doesn't have to "arrive." To those who asked Christ Jesus when the kingdom of God would finally come, he answered, "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you." Luke 17:20, 21. He taught his followers to pray "Thy kingdom come." Matt. 6:10. And Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy explains the meaning of Jesus' words: "Thy kingdom is come; thou art ever-present." Science and Health, p. 16.
