"Your Kingdom come. Your will be done in earth as it is in heaven." [Matthew 6:10]
In previous discourses I have shown that the kingdom of
which the gospel speaks will hereafter be
established on earth. But many hold
the notion that the church itself is the
kingdom. And this although
they are expressed by two
words which differ as much in Greek as in English. Church is ‘ekklesia’ (a called-out assembly), kingdom
is ‘basileia’.
‘Ekklesia’ occurs about
one hundred and fifteen times in the New Testament but is never translated kingdom. ‘Basileia’ occurs about one hundred and sixty times
but is never translated church. If
they were the same ought they not, like
other synonyms, to interchange and make sense?
But
see how strange and unscriptural it would sound to substitute church for kingdom in the following sentences.
A
kingdom that shall consume all these kingdoms. [Daniel 2:44]
The saints shall take the kingdom and possess the kingdom; (the saints themselves are the church; will the church take the church?).
[Daniel 7:18]
The time came that the saints possessed the kingdom. [Daniel 7:22]
"Inherit the kingdom prepared for you." [Matthew 25:34]
"There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth when ye
shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob,
and all the prophets in the kingdom
of God, and you yourselves thrust out." [Luke 13:28]
"Sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the
kingdom." [Matthew
8:8]
"Who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom." [2 Timothy 4:1]
"Your
kingdom come." (Could the church pray for itself to come?) [Matthew 6:10]
But among those who suppose the kingdom to be already in the world there is a wide
difference of opinion as to the time when it was set up, some say on the first Pentecost after the Saviour ascended, others a great while before that.
The latter class base their opinions, it seems, on a misunderstanding of such expressions as
the following,
used
before Pentecost: "The
kingdom of God is preached
and every man presses into
it" [Luke 16:16];
"You shut
up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, neither suffer you them that
are entering to go in" [Matthew
23:13];
"The kingdom of God is come upon you" [Luke 11:20] A. Campbell,
of Bethany, Va., taught that the kingdom was
not set up until the day of Pentecost. I will
therefore
let him answer the preceding objections. He says,
"Because
the Messiah was
promised and prefigured in the patriarchal and Jewish ages, the Paidobaptists will
have the kingdom of heaven on earth since the days of Abel;
and because the glad tidings of the reign and kingdom of heaven and the
principles of the new and heavenly order of society were promulged by John, the Baptists will have
John the Baptist in
the
kingdom of heaven, and the very person
who set it up.
The principles of any reign
or revelation are always promulgated, debated,
and canvassed before a new order of things is
set up. In
society, as in nature, we have first the blade,
next
the stem, and then the ripe corn in the ear. We call it wheat, or we call it corn, when we
have only the promise in the
blade. By such a figure
of speech the
kingdom of God was spoken of, while yet
only its principles were promulging.
Jesus often unfolded its character and design in
various similitudes, and everyone who
received these principles were said to '
press into the kingdom 'or to have' the kingdom
within
them f and wherever these principles were promulged
'the kingdom of heaven' was said to
have 'come nigh' to that people, or to have overtaken
them; 'and those who opposed these principles and interposed their authority to prevent others from
receiving them, were
said to shut the kingdom of heaven against men;'
and
thus all those Scriptures must of necessity be
understood
from the contexts in which they stand.
In anticipation,
they who believed the gospel
of the kingdom received the kingdom of God, just
as in anticipation He said, 'I have finished the work which you gave me to do,' before he began to suffer; and as he said, 'This cup is the New Testament in my
blood, shed for the remission of
the sins of many,' before
it was shed. Those who received
these principles by anticipation
were said to enter the kingdom."
"Christian System,"
1839, pp. 171-174.
But that writer did not carry this principle of
interpretation to its proper length, for the same kind of expressions
used
after Pentecost, such as "has
translated us unto the
kingdom," or "your companion in the
kingdom" must be
understood in the same way, that is, as said by a
figure
of speech called prolepsis or
anticipation; for I shall
presently bring an overwhelming array of expressions
which prove the actual setting
up of the kingdom and the actual
entrance therein to be future.
For convenience let us collect these testimonies into, 1st, those which prove that the kingdom was not set up before Pentecost; and
2nd,
those which prove it was not set up at Pentecost and will not be set up before the second coming of the Lord Jesus.
I. Testimonies which prove that the kingdom was not set up
before Pentecost.
(1), John the Baptist said, "The kingdom of heaven is
at hand," or "the reign of heaven approaches." — Campbell's edition, 1832, [Matthew 3:2]
At hand does not mean "has come," but refers to
future things, as "The end of all things is at hand, which, being said 1,800 years ago, proves
that the expression can have a
very wide scope. [1
Peter 4:7] See also
Deuteronomy
32:35.
Thus,
towards the close of this dispensation, on the very verge of the second advent,
the kingdom is spoken of not as having come long before, but as
being "still at hand
"When you see
these things come to pass, know you that
the kingdom of God is nigh at hand" [Luke 21:31]
That cry, "the kingdom of God is at hand,"
extends over the whole present dispensation
until it is fulfilled in the actual coming of the kingdom. The Saviour
and His apostles likewise declared the kingdom to be at hand. [Matthew 4:17; 10:7; Mark 1:15]
What Matthew calls "the kingdom of heaven," the
other evangelists, in reciting the same parables
and incidents,
call
“the kingdom of God."
(2). "He that is least in the kingdom of God is
greater than John." [Luke 7:28]
Hence John was not in the kingdom, though certainly
"in the congregation of God," as was Moses in former
times. [Acts 7:37-39] This
proves that one can be in the church without being in the kingdom.
If the congregation were
the kingdom, you would have to believe
that the least in the congregation was
greater than John, of whom the
Saviour said there was not a greater prophet
"among those that are born of women."
After sprinkling a few drops of water on the face of an
infant, the Episcopal service says, "This child is now regenerate
and grafted into the body of the
Messiah’s called-out
Assembly." But can you suppose the Saviour to mean
that the least and worst little infant
sprinkled in this way is
greater than John? I dare
not so torture His words but understand
him to say that the least
immortal and glorified saint in the kingdom will be greater than John then was, in his mortal state; and at once
the beauty and fitness of his words are seen.
And those Jews who were too carnal and worldly in their ideas of that kingdom
which the Messiah was
foretelling, were, by this
declaration of his, made
to receive a more exalted conception of the nature
and glory of it. "Is greater
than John" means "shall be greater." It is the prospective present, as
"They are equal to the angels," i.e., they shall be equal to them after the
future resurrection. [Luke 20:36]
(3). "Except your righteousness shall exceed the
righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no
case enter into the kingdom." [Matthew
5:1, 20]
This was said to those who had become his disciples,
and
it proves that neither had they yet entered the
kingdom.
(4). "Seek you the
kingdom of God." [Luke 12: 22, 31, 32]
This too was said to the disciples; the "little flock"; but why tell them to seek it if they had
already found it and were in it?
(5). Pray you
"Your
kingdom come." [Matthew
6:10] But why pray for it to come, if it had
already come?
Tertullian who wrote near the end of the second century, shows that this prayer was used by
Christians in his time, and that he did not regard the
kingdom as having already
come; for he says, in commenting
on this petition,
"Our
wish is that our reign be hastened, not our servitude
protracted. Even if it had not been prescribed
in the prayer that we should ask for the advent of the kingdom, we should, unbidden, have sent forth that cry, hastening toward the realization of our
hope.
(6). Joseph was already "a disciple of Jesus,"
and yet he was "waiting for the kingdom." [John 19:38; Luke 13:51
The participle is in the present tense, ‘prosdechomenos’, "waiting"; and in Titus 2:13, is translated "looking for," It would be
quibbling to say that he was still waiting for it because he was an unworthy congregation member; for this is at once
refuted by the strong certificate of Scripture
that he was "a good and just
man." [Luke 23:50]
Can you suppose that the kingdom was in the hearts of the
wicked Pharisees but not in the heart of Joseph!
If the kingdom only means grace ruling in the heart, that kingdom must have
been on earth ever since Abel; for I
do not see how any man from his time until now could be righteous unless grace ruled in his heart. Instead of "the kingdom of God is
within you" the margin reads "the kingdom of God is among you." [Luke 17:21]
The word ‘basileia’, rendered “kingdom," also means
"royal dignity" (see Greenfield's Lexicon), and this royal dignity
is embodied in the Messiah,
"in whom dwells all
the fullness of the the nature of God
bodily," and in whom
all the promises concerning that kingdom are, yea
and
amen. This metonymy of speech had
been used in [Daniel
7:17, 23], in which a king is put for a kingdom; the fourth one of the "four kings" in verse 17 is called "the fourth kingdom" in (vs.
23). Thus, the meaning would be, "The King is among you." By a similar metonymy He
said, "I am the resurrection"
Dean Alford says, “The is
understanding
which rendered these words 'within you,' meaning this in a spiritual
sense,
in your hearts, should have been prevented by
reflecting
that they are addressed to the Pharisees,
in whose hearts it certainly was not. See
also John 1:26,
and 12:35,
both of which are analogous expressions." The sentence in which that expression occurs in Xenophon is translated by Charles Anthon,
LL.D., Professor of Greek and
Latin, thus;
"and other things also,
as many as were within their lines ‘entos
auton’ both
effects and persons, all they saved."
(7). As the Saviour journeyed towards Jerusalem, near the
close of his ministry,
“they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear." [Luke 19:11]
This proves that it had not yet appeared.
(8). "I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until
the kingdom of God shall come." [Luke 22:18]
Thus, "when eating the last supper, he distinctly said that the reign of God was
then future"
Having now brought sufficient proof that the kingdom was
not set up before the Saviour's death, let me
next invite you to consider.
II. Testimonies proving that it was not set up at Pentecost and will not be set up before
the second coming
of the Messiah.
(1). When Peter explained what took place at Pentecost, he
did not say,
"This is that which was spoken of by the prophet
Daniel, in the days of these kings shall the God of
Heaven set up a kingdom"; but
"This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel, I
will pour out my Spirit." [Acts 2:16, 17]
If the long-predicted kingdom had been set up on that
occasion it would certainly have been the great
event
of the day; and it seems to me incredible
that the apostles would
have neglected to call attention to the
fact, especially when I see how prompt they
usually were to call
attention to less important events
that fulfilled some part
of prophecy.
(2). "We must through much tribulation enter the
kingdom of God." [Acts 14:22]
This was said about twelve years after Pentecost, and proves that the disciples and even Paul
himself, though certainly
in the called-out Assembly of
God,
had not yet entered the kingdom, but were still waiting for it like the disciples before Pentecost.
The tribulation and kingdom are not simultaneous; we must pass "through" the former
before we enter the latter. The
same is taught in 2 Timothy 2:12;
Romans 7:17,
18. Paul does not say, "We have entered
the kingdom," as many moderns tell those
who have joined the
church. Can you hesitate as to which
language is right, Paul's or
theirs? It is admitted that he uses a cutting
irony when 26 years after Pentecost; he says to
some, "Now you are full, now you are rich, you have reigned as kings without us. We are
fools for the Messiah's sake, but you are wise in the Messiah; we are weak, but you are strong." But, dropping the ironical style, he says,
"Would to God you did reign, that we also might reign with
you." [1
Corinthians 48-10]
(3). "An entrance shall be"; not has been “ministered
unto
you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus the Messiah." [2 Peter 1:1, 11] Said about 33 years after Pentecost to the
church itself, which had
"obtained like precious faith" with
the
apostles.
(4). "That you may
be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you also suffer." 2 Thessalonians 1:5]
About 21 years after Pentecost, he does not say, "You have been counted worthy of the kingdom in which ye also suffer."
When will they be counted worthy?
"When the Son of man shall come in His glory" and
invite them to "inherit the kingdom." [Matthew 25:31, 34]
(5), "Walk worthy of God, who is calling you into His
kingdom and glory." [1
Thessalonians 2:12]
This is the correct translation, as given by the American
Bible Union. Dean Alford also gives the same rendering, and he remarks, "’Kalountos’, present, because the action is extended on to the future by the following words. God calls us to His kingdom, the
kingdom of our Lord Jesus, which he shall establish on earth at his coming."
This exhortation of Paul was addressed "to the called-out Assembly of God, which
is in God the Father, and in the
Lord Jesus the Messiah."
See 1 Thessalonians 1:1] And it shows that God, by spiritual
culture and training, is calling the congregation of the present into the
kingdom of the future. This
text alone is enough to prove that
the church is not the kingdom. It is
parallel to [1
Peter 1:11] The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
[Romans
14:17] This appears to be a metonymy in which
the effect or end to be obtained is put for the
cause
that leads to it; as, "I have set before you life and death" [Deuteronomy 30:19] i.e., the things which cause or lead to life and death.
"There is death in the pot" [2 Kings 4”40] i.e., a cause leading to death.
"To be carnally minded is death." [Romans 8:6] i.e., leads to death, as its punishment.
And so,
righteousness, peace, and joy lead to an inheritance
in the kingdom at last; but a contention with
brethren
about meats and drinks will not do this, for "meat
commended us not to God," and "the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of
God." [1
Corinthians 6:9; 8:8]
(6), "The kingdom which he has promised (it does not say has given) to them that love him." [James 2:5]
James
speaks in the same way of the crown of life, which
is also future; "the
crown of life which the Lord Jesus has promised to them that love him." [James 1:12]
(7). "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun
in the kingdom of their Father." This does not occur before the
great day of "harvest," as the context plainly shows. [Matthew 13:43]
(8). He "shall judge the living and the dead at his appearing and His kingdom." So, we are not to expect his kingdom until his appearing; these events God has joined together and let not any human
creed put them asunder. [2 Timothy 4:1]
(9). The very same latter-day signs indicate the nearness of the kingdom and of our
redemption; hence the
kingdom and the redemption will come simultaneously,
for the Lord has
joined them together.
(10). "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of
God." [1
Corinthians 15:50]
That one sentence is enough to prove that Christians are
not yet in the kingdom. Is it
not a very carnal view to say
that mortal and erring creatures in the present "flesh and blood" nature do enter and commence their reign
in that kingdom as soon as they join the called-out Assembly of God?
A modern writer who taught that the church is the kingdom, has even said that "The kingdom which Jesus received from his Father, however
heavenly, sublime, and
glorious it may be regarded, is
only temporal. It had a beginning, and it will have an end." (Chr. Sys. p.153, edition 1839).
I suppose this was perfectly consistent with the popular
modern notion of a present church-kingdom, but it
is contrary to Scripture, which plainly
declares that "of his kingdom
there shall be no end" and calls
it "the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus the Messiah." [Luke 1:32, 33; 2 Peter 1:11]
(11). The whole structure of the parable of the Pounds
proves that the kingdom which the Nobleman went
to receive does not appear until He "In
bliss returns to reign"
as the missionary hymn says. Luke 14:12-27]
(12). It is not when they enter the congregation, but when they rise from the
grave that the saints begin their reign
with the Messiah. [Revelation 20:4]
(13). The time for them to possess the kingdom does not
arrive until the Ancient of days comes, that is,
until the Messiah comes "in the glory of his God and his Father, Yehovah." [Daniel 7:22; Matthew 16:27]
(14) Certainly, when
the kingdom is set up, the
Messiah,
the King, will take his seat on
his glorious throne, but he does not take that seat until his coming; hence the kingdom is not set up till then. [Matthew 25:31]
(15). It would be unseemly for the nobles of a kingdom to
obtain their coronets and subordinate thrones
before
the king obtains his; hence the Saviour does not say before but "when the Son of man shall
sit in the
throne of his
glory, yes
the apostles will also sit upon twelve thrones." And
when will that be? Let his own words be our answer:
"When the son of
man shall COME in his glory
and all the holy angels with him, THEN
shall he sit upon the throne of his glory." [Matthew 19:28, with 25:31]
(16). When the kingdom is set up the descending Stone is to
smite the image in its divided state i.e., on its
feet and toes of iron and clay. But at the
first advent the image
had not arrived at its divided state but was existing in its iron form and under one
head, as proved by the
decree from its one ruler at Rome "that
all the world should be taxed."
Hence the smiting which attends the setting up of the kingdom did not take place at the first
advent. The image did not commence being divided
into the ten parts, indicated by the
ten toes, until the fourth century after the first advent. [Daniel 2:34, 44; Luke 2:1]
Plainly enough prophecy shows that the image is to be smitten in the days, not of iron only, as
at the first advent, but in the days
of "iron and day." [Daniel 2:34, 42] Nor does the stone go softly up to the
image and gradually absorb it as by the mild and gentle words of the gospel, but suddenly smites it
with a crushing blow
[Matthew
21:44], and "THEN" the fragments are
swept away so that no place is found for them; (vs.
35). Think you that we should find human
governments in the world today, if that smiting had occurred eighteen hundred years ago?
Having clearly proved that the kingdom is not to be set up
until the second advent, let me now call
your attention to some of the signs which
denote that it is "nigh
at hand." We are not to neglect this branch
of study but are commanded to give attention
to the signs and learn the lesson
which they teach.
"When you see
these things come to pass, you
will know
that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand."
[Luke 21:31]
"Can you not
discern the signs of the times?" [Matthew
16:3] Study Matthew 24 and 24 and look around at what is
happening today!
We are
now living in the very last extremity of the image, in the very last days of
mortal rule, and on the
verge of the moment when the descending Stone will crush into dust all human
governments and fill
the earth with the kingdom of God. When Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, he
certainly did not place the
advent in an indefinite future, but plainly taught that some generation of
believers those who "are alive
and remain"; shall
be eyewitnesses of the advent, and that it should occur after a certain power then existing should be taken out of the
way, and the man of sin developed.
[1
Thessalonians 4:16; 17; 2 Thessalonians 2:8] But
signs even more vivid than those already considered are given for the comfort
and warning of waiting and watching ones, by
which they may know that "the
morning comes and
also the night"; the
morning of endless joy for the righteous, the
night
of eternal death for the wicked, [Isaiah
21:12]
The constant drying up or wasting away of the power
symbolized by the "great river Euphrates" is one of those signs. See Revelation 16:12-15. Anciently the Assyrian empire,
bordering on that river, was the
political Euphrates, and that nation, extending itself and conquering its neighbours,
was compared to that
river overflowing its banks.
[“Now therefore, behold, Yehovah bringeth up upon them the
waters of the river, strong and many,
even the king of Assyria, and all his glory: and he shall come up over all his
channels, and go over all his
banks:”] [Isaiah
8:7]
Hence the wasting away of that empire or nation might have
been aptly compared to the drying up of that
river. There can hardly be a doubt but that, in symbolic language, the Turks
are the modern Euphrates. (Waters, in
the very next chapter, "are peoples and multitudes and nations and
tongues." [Revelation
17:15] I think we first get a view of that
nation under the 6th Trumpet, when the four angels,
or four sultanies of the Turks – the
Beast Power that the 10 Muslim nations that surround Israel, were
loosed from the great river Euphrates as a warlike scourge upon the nations west of that river. On
that loosing of the four angels the "Comprehensive
Commentary" says: "This
is explained by the most approved interpreters, according to the emblematical
style of the prophecy, to be a
prediction that the TURKS, or OTTPMANS,
who have
hitherto been restrained beyond
the EUPHRATES, would be released from that restraint, and proceed to make
conquests to the west of that
river."
A glance at the history of the Turkish Empire from A.D.
1820 to the present time will show how steadily
has been progressing the drying up of that fearful Euphratean inundation, which once carried consternation into Europe itself and will do so again. Watch, for the time that the
Beast Power will sign a treaty with Israel is coming very soon and when that happens,
we have 7 years to the end of this age and the return of the Lord Messiah Jesus
to take his place on the throne of David, at Zion!
[From " Songs of Zion."]
How blest are all that hither come;
And mindful of His word,
Are planted in the wat'ry tomb:
For so was Christ the Lord.
Then rising from the cleansing wave,
A holy life to lead,
They will His aid and comfort have
In ev'ry time of need.
For scenes like this there's joy among
The Angels bright above;
And on the earth, in sacred song,
We praise redeeming love
Written in the 1800’s by
Wiley Jones an elder in the called-out Assembly and edited by Bruce Lyon
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