[Page 3]
THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM
The Message of its Five Chief Preachers:
A re-examination of Dispensational Teachings
G. H. LANG*
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[* He will give also
the patience and strength to meet the opposition that may come.
It is forbearance
when opposed that commends the truth professed. - G. H. LANG.]
IN
theology, as in any other science, we should avoid or escape
from many serious errors were we more carefully to collate and to compare
all the relevant facts before forming theories.
In these papers we wish to examine the statements of Holy
Scripture regarding the subject matter of the preaching of John the Baptist,
the Lord Jesus Christ, and His foremost messengers - the apostles, Peter, Paul,
and John. Positively we may thus discern much illuminating truth, and
incidentally we may detect some confusing errors.
I. JOHN THE IMMERSER
(1) The Kingdom. It must have been a mighty message given in mighty energy which could draw from their duties and pleasures into
the deserts the vast masses and all classes of a whole country. Such it indeed
was, its burden being this stupendous announcement: Repent! for the kingdom of the
heavens has drawn near! (Matt. 3. 2;
etc.).
Some five centuries earlier, just when
world dominion had passed from Israels kings to Gentile sovereigns, the
prophet Daniel had outlined to the first Gentile emperor the divinely foreseen
course of world history, and had declared that in the days of certain kings, to
be ten in number, the God of the heavens shall set up a kingdom ... which shall stand
for ever (Daniel 2. 44). This was the culminating event to which all prophecy
pointed; it became the ardent hope of true believers (Luke
1. 67-79;
2. 38; 23. 51); and naturally, the countryside was thrilled when one in
the spirit and power of the great Elijah cried, The kingdom of the heavens has drawn near! - for the
use of this expression would recall to the hearers the well known phrase in
Daniel. Its retention in the written record in the gospel narrative serves
similarly to refer the reader to Daniel, and so it forms an illuminating verbal
connection between the beginning of the New Testament and the Old Testament.
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But we may not assume that the masses of
Johns hearers understood his message correctly. They were as liable as we, though perhaps with more excuse, to read into it what
they wished to hear, and to gather from his words what they did not say. It is for us to notice exactly what he did say and
also what he did not say.
John did not announce that the time had arrived when the Stone cut
out from the mountain without hands should break in pieces all world-powers, and establish by force a new universal and imperishable empire. Daniel foretold this, and this will most assuredly come to pass. But John did not declare this to be imminent or then possible. He could not have
done so without exposing himself to the
immediate and fatal retort that the ten kings were not present in whose days
those events were to happen. Any
such assertion would have destroyed his character as a prophet. World conditions in his time did not
correspond to those required by [divine] prophecy.
What he did announce was that the kingdom of the heavens had drawn near. Here is to be observed the vital
need that translation should be as strictly accurate as language can possibly
admit. The rendering the kingdom ... is at hand naturally raises the idea of it being near
in point of time, but this is not contained of necessity in the word, and
should not be introduced unless that be of necessity the sense, which here it
is not. For other meanings being possible, this one is not the necessary meaning.
Two kingdoms may be said to have
drawn near to each other when the sovereign of one visits the territory of
another, for a kingdom is concentrated and represented in its king.
Again, a small state may cut itself out of an empire by
rebelling and setting up its separate government. The empire may
be said to have drawn near to such a state if the emperor
should venture thereinto with an appeal for submission and an offer of pardon. And should any rebels accept such gracious overture, and return to their true allegiance, they would thus, morally and legally, have
received the empire and have entered into it, though perchance continuing [for a time] to reside on rebel territory.
The statement of John demands no more fulfilment than this,
and this strictly and fully corresponds to the historic facts. Through John,
His ambassador and forerunner, and then in person, Jesus, the Sovereign of the
kingdom of the heavens, had [Page 5] drawn near to this rebel world with a
call to repentance and an offer of pardon. Such as submitted to the call
received the King (John 1. 12) and received the kingdom (Mark 10. 15), and thus to their vast advantage
found that the kingdom had indeed drawn near. These would then await the day, near
or distant, when the forces of the empire should suppress the rebellion, to the
destruction of persistent rebels, and by power reincorporate the state into the
empire. The waiting time in the midst of rebels from whom they
had seceded would often be difficult and even dangerous, but the hope of the
triumph of the empire would animate their hearts and guide their actions. But already, without the
coming of that time, they would know
that the empire had drawn near to
them, that they had received it and
were now [the Kings ambassadors] in it, being [repentant,
faithful, and obedient] subjects of its sovereign.
Nothing further than as above is required to fulfil Johns
announcement;
therefore nothing further should be read into it. It has been taught dogmatically
that John offered to Israel the
immediate establishment of the visible kingdom in glory; that because Israel as a nation rejected
the offer it was withdrawn; that
thereupon another offer was substituted therefor: but these ideas do not arise from anything which John said or anybody
else ever said,
as will be apparent when we advance to what later preachers taught.
(2) Repentance. From the nature of Johns message
it followed that his first call was for repentance: Repent ye, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn near.
Repentance, as the Greek word shows, means a change of mind. This may or may not be accompanied by profound inward disturbance, by
anguish of heart, emotional display. Its essence is that one accepts and
acts upon a new view of matters.
Change your mind as to God and His divine rights and demands; as to your false, rebellious, self-opinionated attitude towards Him; as to the sin of independence of and animosity against Him. Adopt His view of the situation in place of
your own; yield your own demands and
consent to His terms; surrender your
arms, cast yourself on His mercy;
cease to do evil, learn to do well. Such was Johns [and our Lords]* imperious, inflexible condition as preparation for
[an entrance into] that kingdom in which no sin is tolerated, in which unquestioning, undeviating obedience to the will of God is
the law of life, the secret of bliss.
[* See Matt. 5: 3-10, 20, R.V. Cf. 7: 21-24, R.V.]
Such repentance is an inevitable preliminary to entering the [Page 6] kingdom of God in any sense, present or future, for rebellion against a sovereign of
necessity excludes from his - [Millennial (Rev. 20: 4-6; 11: 15; cf. 2 Pet. 3: 8, 9, R.V.)] - Kingdom.
(3) Baptism. It is further emphasized that John preached the baptism
of repentance (Mark 1. 4). The term to baptize means to dip,
to immerse. The plunging of the person beneath the
water was a symbolic burial, as of one who had died, with a view to his resurrection into a new
life. In this sense the act was already well known to Jews and to heathen.
John called repenting sinners to
acknowledge by this step that their former life was so wrong as to merit death,
that they held themselves as in heart‑intention dead to the former life,
and that they desired henceforth to live in that new moral world of which John
was the herald, the kingdom of the
heavens. After
death - never before - comes burial. None but the dead should be buried: all the
dead should be. After
burial comes resurrection, a walking
in newness of life in a new world.
(4) Faith. As a faithful
herald John directed the hearts of his hearers away from himself toward his
Sovereign. Paul summarizes Johns ministry thus: John baptized with the baptism
of repentance, saying unto the people that they
should believe on Him that should come after him, that is, on Jesus (Acts 19. 4). His message was, that entrance into
the kingdom was by faith in Christ.
But never
a hint did John give that if the people would receive Jesus as Messiah,* the visible kingdom ** could forthwith be set up. In truth his
message was exactly the contrary: he seeth Jesus coming to him, and saith, Behold! the Lamb of God, that
taketh away the sin of the world. And this he repeated, saying on the
morrow, Behold! the Lamb of God (John 1. 29, 36). The daily ritual of fifteen hundred years, the
substitutionary death of millions of lambs, had taught the people that the lamb
must die, its blood must be shed, ere any sinner could escape death and enter
into life under the favour of the Holy One.
[* NOTE: The word messiah is the title given to a
world-ruler. Saul, the first king of
At present, this sin-cursed world has two God-given messiahs! - Satan, -the god of this world, and Jesus, - our Lord and divine Saviour. Satans time is now almost at an end;
and, after apostasy, rebellion, and Divine Judgement, he will
be replaced by Gods presently, rejected and crucified Messiah.]
Thus from the beginning John taught that Jesus must die as the
substitute of men in order that the sin of the world might be expiated. This was an entirely indispensable
preliminary to this earth being incorporated into the
kingdom of God at last, or to any
individual entering that kingdom in present heart experience.
The theory that the visible [millennial] kingdom* could be offered to
Israel then and there without the sacrificial death of the Son of God, if only Israel had been willing,
proposes what was a legal and moral
impossibility. Divine
law and sound morality demand that sin shall be punished, and law and morals be
thus vindicated; and that this be effected through the punishment of a willing
and worthy Substitute if the actual culprits are to have opportunity of pardon
and of entrance into the kingdom of God.**
[* That is, for entrance into both: (1) Gods Messianic*
(Matt. 17: 9,
R.V.), and (2) Eternal** kingdom: (Rev.
3: 21. cf.
Rev. 21: 1,
R.V.): would be a legal
and moral
impossibility before the death of Christ Jesus - the Firstfruit to rise out of dead ones (Acts 4: 2, Lit. Gk.).]
The theory is, of course, flatly contradictory to the Old.
Testament Scriptures. It would have meant that Psalm
22, Isaiah 53, and all such passages,
never would have found fulfilment - a sheer impossibility. John never could
have made such a proposal without exposing himself to the condemnation of
making void the whole sacrificial ritual of Moses, and the express and many
declarations of the prophets that Messiah must suffer. In simple fact, it was
upon Christ as the atoning Lamb that he called men to place their faith,
obviously presupposing His death.
(5) Remission of sins. Upon the basis
of the prefigured and soon to be accomplished atonement, John proclaimed, what
upon no other ground whatsoever would he have dared to declare, the forgiveness
of sins: he preached the baptism of repentance unto the remission of
sins (Mark 1. 4). Then, as now, it was blessedly true of God that He pardoneth
and absolveth all them that truly repent and unfeignedly believe His holy
gospel; the
genuineness of the repentance and confession being attested at the time by
public submission to baptism.
(6) Evidential Works. John laid the heaviest possible
stress upon the producing of proof of heart repentance and renewing by the
doing of good works: Bring forth therefore fruit worthy of repentance ...
Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance
(Matt. 3.
8: Luke 3.
8). He smashed with a blow all trust in godly parentage;
think not to say within
yourselves, We have Abraham to our father:
he insisted that each tree would be judged by its own
fruit, and if this were not good the tree would be
cut down and cast into the fire: he
protested that the Coming One, to whom he directed men, would, preserve only wheat, but
burn up all chaff.
(7) A New Society. This implied, in
effect, that Christ would in result gather a new
society of men~ composed of [Page 8] persons compared to trees bearing
good fruit, to wheat.
(8) The Baptism in the Spirit. Finally, John
announced that the One of whom he spoke, standing unknown as
yet in their midst, was He who should fulfil the ancient and rich
promises of God, given through Ezekiel
(36. 26, 27) and Joel (2. 28),
and baptize such as believed on Him in the Holy Spirit. Thereby should be
made inwardly effective and enduring that preliminary work of repentance and
faith and holiness which it was Johns high honour to begin by preaching and by
baptizing in water, so preparing the way of the Lord Jesus.
II. THE LORD JESUS CHRIST
(1) The Kingdom. John had a just
conception of his own position in relation to his Lord: He must
increase, but I must decrease (John 3. 30).
Presently he saw his public ministry concluded by imprisonment, and this
occasioned the commencement of the public ministry of Christ. Now when He
heard that John was delivered up ... from that
time began Jesus to preach, and to say, Repent ye;
for the kingdom
of the heavens has drawn near (Matt.
4. 12, 17). To the end of the age the message must
be continued, though the former messengers disappear; so Christ
continues what John has commenced. The Lords announcement is made in exactly the
same words as Johns: their subject was one and the
same.
It is to be remarked that Matthew reports Christ as declaring
that the kingdom
of the heavens has drawn near, whereas Mark gives
as His message that the
[* NOTE: To teach that the gospel (i.e.,
good news) of the Kingdom is
synonymous with the gospel of the Grace of God,
would suggest, contrary to all scripture, that our works after
regeneration, are necessary to obtain the free
gift of God which is ETERNAL LIFE (Rom.
6: 23,
R.V.)!
But when the Spirit of truth causes an Apostle to use the
word kingdom instead pf the word grace (in a context of a regenerate believers
works), He is teaching an entirely different gospel-message - a message
about Messiahs coming millennial kingdom
(Rev. 20)
- which can only be understood as an event which will appear in the future: after
the Death and Resurrection of a suffering Messiah.
All who believe in an age yet to come by a ruling Messiah, will
understand the following command in this context:-
For the Son
of man shall come in the glory of his
Father with his holy angels; and then shall he render unto every man according
to his deeds. Verily I say into you,
There are some of them that stand here, which shall in no wise taste of death, till they see the
Son of man coming in his kingdom. And after six days Jesus taketh with him Peter, James,
and John his brother, and
bringeth them up into a high mountain apart:
And as they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, Tell the
vision to no man,
until the Son of man be risen from the dead: (Matt. 16: 27 - 17: 1, 9, R.V.).
This coming Kingdom
can only appear, throughout this restored earth (Rom.
8: 18-22, R.V.), at the time of our Lords manifested GLORY.
See 1 Pet. 1:
11, 13-17; 4: 13, 14; 5: 1, 4; 2 Pet. 1: 13-20, R.V. Cf. Isa. 35: 2ff.;
40: 5; Hab. 2: 14, R.V.etc.).]
The difference between the terms is that one describes the region where the kingdom centres, whence its government proceeds; the other names its King. Yet it is but one [Messianic] kingdom. It is
thus one may speak of the
There is no room for conjecture as to the sense in which
Christ preached the kingdom, for John the apostle was guided by God to
record an instance of the Lord preaching the kingdom privately some time
prior to the public preaching. For
the kingdom was His theme in the conversation with Nicodemus (John 3). Verse 22 of the chapter mentions events after that conversation, and then (24) we are informed that John was not yet cast into prison. So that the
conversation preceded the preaching in
Now to Nicodemus He said not a word about the
visible kingdom being then possible. Rather it is things spiritual
that He presses upon His visitor: such as the ineffaceable contradiction
between two moral natures, flesh and spirit; the absolute necessity that the
new nature be begotten in a man if he is ever to see or to enter the [manifested] kingdom of God; that this change is a
sovereign work of the [Holy] Spirit.
But most important of all, as determining what was
Christs outlook at that period, is His definite and emphatic statement that,
with a view to men receiving the life eternal, He Himself must of necessity die
upon the cross: the Son of Man must be lifted up.
Thus from the beginning of His ministry the Redeemer was
contemplating and announcing His sacrificial death as a positive necessity, which entirely precludes the notion that He was at the same time
contemplating and announcing His willingness then and there to set up the
kingdom in visible glory. Such an offer He could not have made bona fide; it would have involved on His part a mental
reserve, an equivocation, which
it were sheer blasphemy to attribute to Him.
In addition, the reasons given above why John could not [Page 10] make that offer apply equally to Christ: the public circumstances
for the fulfilment in that sense of Daniels prophecy were not present, and the predictions concerning a suffering Messiah must have
fulfilment. So definite was the Lord
upon this last matter that He regarded as foolish and blameworthy that His
followers ever expected anything else as to Himself, saying, O foolish [senseless] men, and slow of heart, to believe in [after] all that the prophets spake! Behoved it not the Messiah to suffer these
things, and - [after His Second Advent] - to
enter into His glory? (Luke 24. 25, 26).* Where
was the justice of this severe rebuke had a large part of His own ministry
encouraged the opposite expectation!
[* See
also 1 Pet. 1: 11, R.V.]
He knew that in the roll of the Book these experiences were prescribed
to Him (Psalm
40. 1, 2, 7), and the guiding rule of His whole life was that [all of] the Scriptures must be fulfilled. From time to time He had laboured to impress upon the disciples
that He must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer ... and be killed, and the third
day be raised up; and He had sternly rebuked Peter for proposing that He
should avoid such experiences, declaring Peters sentiments to be the mind of
man, indeed of Satan (Matt. 16. 21-23: Mark 8. 33: Luke 9. 22; 18. 31-33).
The Lords uniform teaching to this effect is joined
in one unbroken circle by the use of the same emphatic term at its beginning
and at its close. To Nicodemus He said, It behoves (dei) the Son of Man
to be lifted up:
on the way to Emmaus He repeated, Behoved (edei) it not the Messiah to
suffer these things, and to enter into His glory? In due time Peter learned this
lesson well, and summarized the whole Messianic
message of the Old Testament prophets in the statement that the Spirit of Christ, which was in them ... testified
beforehand the sufferings [which should come] unto Christ
and the glories that should follow them (1 Peter 1. 11). The glory must follow the
suffering; it could in no wise precede it. The end portion of Psalm 22
(22-31) could
not be fulfilled before the earlier portion, and Isaiah 53. 12, had said, Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great ... because He poured out His soul
unto death.
When therefore Jesus declared that the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has drawn near
(Mark 1. 15),
He did not mean that the time had come for the Son of Man to come with the
clouds of heaven, which would be the manner of [Page 11] setting up the
visible [messianic and millennial] kingdom according to Daniel (7. 13); for the
Son of Man had already come, and was there present in humble guise, nor,
obviously, could He come with the clouds of heaven, until after He should have died and returned to heaven; but He
meant that the time had arrived for Zions King to come just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, according to Zechariah 9. 9. In accord with this is the fact
that early in His ministry, in the synagogue at
When, therefore, Christ announced that the kingdom had drawn near,
He was continuing Johns message with the same meaning, which is clear in such
statements as these following, all addressed to the world. When the Pharisees
said that He cast out demons by Beelzebub He answered, If I by the
Spirit of God cast out demons, then is the
kingdom of God come upon you (Matt. 12. 28). Therefore the kingdom, in the sense
in which Christ heralded it, had come upon them from the beginning of His ministry, for all along He had been
casting out demons (Matt. 4. 24); but it had not come in visible glory and external government.*
[* See Isaiah
6: 3; cf. Isa. 35: 2; 41: 16; 66: 18, R.V.]
Again, being asked by the Pharisees
when the kingdom of God cometh, He did not seize the occasion to press the possibility of the
kingdom coming in the sense they had in mind, if only they would receive Him as
Messiah, but He asserted the exact contrary as the then present aspect of the
kingdom, saying, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation [as
somewhat that may be discerned by intent watching], neither shall they say, Lo here! or, There! for
lo, the
And again, to His foes Christ foretold that days will come
when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them [the disciples], and then shall they fast in those days (Luke 5. 35). This announcement of His coming
departure from the earth, and the consequent trials of His followers, was made
early in His ministry, and distinctly precludes the notion that He was at the
same time proposing the kingdom in glory.
Down to the last days of His life the
Lord continued the same theme, speaking
of the kingdom, calling it now the
(2) Repentance. In consequence,
the Lords demand was the same as Johns: Repent ye, and believe in the gospel
(Mark 1. 15:
Matt. 4. 17).
(3) Baptism. Like John also
He called for immersion in water on the part of those who professed repentance,
Himself in grace fulfilling this righteousness by being baptized, and forthwith
instructing the disciples to baptize such as wished to be known as His
disciples (John 3. 26; 4. 1, 2). Further, after
His resurrection, when charging the apostles to preach the gospel in all the
world, and engaging to be personally with them in so doing even unto the end of the age,
He made thereby this ordinance of perpetual obligation upon preachers and
converts until that end of the age should have come, [Page 13] (Matt. 28. 18-20: Mark 16. 15, 16).
(4) Faith. Christs
message, like Johns called for faith: Repent ye,
and believe in the gospel (Mark 1. 15). This good tidings Mark had just
before described as the gospel of Jesus Christ, the
Son of God (ver.
1). Himself being the subject of it, to believe in it meant to
believe on Him. So He declared human destiny to turn upon faith in Himself,
saying, Except ye believe
that I am He, ye shall die in your sins (John 8.
24); but, on the other hand, whosoever believeth on Him should not
perish, but have eternal life (John 3. 16). And even as at the first He said to
Nicodemus that the Son of Man must be lifted up, so later He said publicly, When ye have
lifted up the Son of Man (John 8. 28). He never expressed a willingness to sit at that time upon
Messiahs throne, but privately and publicly foretold that He must occupy
Messiahs cross, so fulfilling the word they pierced My
hands and My feet (Psalm 22. 16). It was to faith in Him in this holy office that He first invited men, as had John
before Him. He knew full well that as Priest He must offer
Himself to God as the Lamb before He could reign as King, and that sinful men
must rely on Him as the former before they could rejoice in Him as the latter.
(5) Remission. With what
profound, inexpressible delight of heart must the gracious Son of God have
uttered such words as, Son, thy sins are forgiven
(Mark 2. 5), and to the repentant woman, Thy sins are
forgiven (Luke 7. 48). He possessed authority on earth to forgive sins (Mark 2. 10);
but He was deeply aware that He must acquire this precious right by Himself
bearing our sins in His body upon the tree; and so the night before His passion
He said, this is My
blood of the covenant, which is poured out for
many unto remission of sins (Matt. 26. 28). Repentance by the sinner without atonement by the Saviour were
unavailing.
(6) Evidential Works. Like John, the Lord laid mighty
stress upon good fruit being the one conclusive proof that the tree is good;
and, like him, and by the same figure, declared the judgment of men to be as
the hewing down of a bad tree and it being cast into the fire (Matt. 7.
16-19). The scribes and
Pharisees taught righteousness, but did not
practise it (Matt. 23. 3); Christ
plainly announced that without a better practical righteousness than that, not
even disciples should on any [Page 14] account enter into the kingdom of the heavens, nor if they
cherished pride and carnal ambition (Matt. 5. 20; 18. 3).
(7) The New Society, the Church. Thus He too implied a separation between men and so the
forming of a new society. This thought He developed further than John by
speaking of it distinctly as of a new structure which He would erect of living
men, which He named My church, and then the church (Matt.
16. 18; 18. 17).
The falseness of the exegesis which
asserts the Gospels to be Jewish, not of direct Christian bearing, can be easily seen. For the purpose of this theory Matthew is the
most Jewish of the four. The Sermon on the
Mount (chs. 5-7) is for a supposed remnant of the
Jews of the tribulation era who believe in Jesus (though Scripture knows
nothing of such a remnant), or it is the laws of the
kingdom during the millennium (though the moral and social conditions regulated
will then not exist). Chapter 10 is instruction for preaching the gospel of the kingdom at the end of the age, not for the guidance of preachers of
the gospel of the grace of
God to-day. But chapter 13 interposes with what is confessed to be a prophetic-historical outline of
this present age. Chapters 14 and 15 are Jewish; then chapter 16 breaks in with the
Let such as can regard this as exposition; we deem it
arbitrary and confusing. Is it not inexplicable that the
most Jewish of the Gospels, (Matthew) should be the very one that records the Lords teachings
concerning His church?
And if Matthew was being guided to
write a Jewish Gospel, which specially should report that the earthly kingdom had been offered and rejected,
why was he also guided to record [Page 15] that the kingdom that had been offered was the kingdom of the heavens? He alone of the evangelists reports
that this description was used, of which fact is there any better explanation than
that the intention was to emphasize that it was the heavenly, the spiritual
form of the kingdom that was then proclaimed? When the Gospels
were issued the break with Judaism was far advanced, if not complete, and they
were penned by Christian writers for Christian readers, so that the Lords command might have fulfilment and all
disciples observe all things whatsoever He had commanded the apostles (Matt. 28. 20). Thus the early church viewed them; and into, the second century at least,
as Justin Martyr tells us, they were
regularly read publicly in the Christian assemblies.
(8) The Baptism in the Spirit. This portion
also of the preaching of John, Christ continued and amplified, enlarging upon
it both before and after His resurrection (John 14. 16; 20. 22, 23: Acts 1. 4. 8).
III PETER
(1) The Kingdom. Even after the
resurrection, but
prior to the gift of the [Holy] Spirit of truth, the apostles were still entertaining the idea of an immediate
setting up of the visible kingdom: Lord, dost thou at this time restore the kingdom to
Almost certainly this parable must
have recalled to His hearers that, some thirty years before, at the death of
Herod the Great, his son Archelaus had hurried off to the Emperor at
Now under the conditions of travel of those days the going to
and coming from a far country meant of necessity a long [Page 16] journey, especially with the tedious and momentous matter of a kingdom to
be discussed. The Lord thus taught that, while His return as king is certain,
His absence would be long. And what an illuminating
suggestion is here as to the business now on hand in heaven, even the steps necessary for securing the kingdom to its rightful King.* And so careful was the Lord that the
outlook of His followers upon this point should be correct, that after only a few days He reimpressed
the same matter upon the four to whom He explained so much on Olivet. He warned them that they should take heed that no man lead you
astray, for many
[Anti-millennialists] would attempt to persuade them that the end was come;
but, said He, the end is not yet
(Matt. 24. 4-6), the end is not immediately
(Luke 21. 9).
[* See Psa. 2: 8; cf. Psa. 110:
1-3,
R.V.).]
This was plain enough; but repeating the parable just noticed,
the Lord added: For it is as when a man going into
another country, called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods ... Now after a long time the lord of those servants cometh and maketh a reckoning with them
(Matt. 25. 14, 19).
We notice in passing the emphatic expression, his own servants. To escape the disagreeable lesson concerning the wicked and
slothful servant, it is suggested that this man is not to be viewed
as a real servant, but as a hypocrite. But in John 10. 3, He calleth his
own sheep by name, the expression is the same, yet no
one suggests here any such meaning, for only blessing and comfort is in
question. The exposition is surely wrong which nullifies exercise
of conscience in [regenerate] believers, and disannuls the solemnity of the judgment seat of Christ for Christians. It is to such, to those who are really His own, that the Lord is speaking.
Now Peter was one who heard this repeated emphasis by the Lord
upon a lengthy absence being ahead. Peter heard, too, their question as to the
immediate restoration of the kingdom to
Yet it has been diligently asserted, and
widely accepted, that a few weeks after Pentecost, Peter was
nevertheless saying exactly the reverse, and was telling
It is marvellous that
acute and sincere minds - [today, even after
regeneration, should be so easily duped by
Satan, and] should have involved themselves
in such an impossible contradiction. But if the theory - [so popular amongst the Lords hyper dispensational people today] - puts Peter in an obviously
false position, where
does it place the Holy Spirit Himself? Was He inspiring Peter to
contradict Christ? or was Peter not
speaking by [divine] inspiration at all?
That Peter had the [promised messianic and millennial] kingdom before him is clear. In his first address
he spoke of that great and notable day of the Lord, and quoted the words, Sit Thou at My right hand, till I make Thine
enemies the footstool of Thy feet (Acts
2. 20, 34,
35). But that he did not offer to
These words suggest an absence of the Lord in the heavens for some
period, not at all His instant return thence to the earth;
for had the latter been in the mind of the speaker the phrase, Whom the
heavens must receive until, would not have occurred to him. And
he indicates sufficiently clearly the circumstances that will attend the close
of that period of absence. The prophets had taught that the times of
restoration of all things will be ushered in by such developments as these:
(1) The readjusting of world-empire into a
ten-kingdom [Page 18] confederacy. (2) The subsequent emergence of another small kingdom. (3) The conquest by this last of three of the ten kingdoms, with the subsequent rise of its sovereign
to world supremacy. (4) His oppression of the
people of God for three years and a
half. (5) Other prophecies are to be fulfilled, such as the re-peopling of
With these and other
such stupendous events to be fulfilled in
connection with the restoration, and yet no sign of any one of them as then
in sight, how could a Spirit-taught apostle have suggested the return forthwith
of the Deliverer of Zion?
If Peters own epistles be cited to
show what Peter taught to his fellow Israelites - and this is proper, for an
inspired teacher will not have to correct early statements by later - we learn
without difficulty what he did really teach. It was a new birth through the
death and resurrection of Christ, with a view to inheriting an imperishable
portion in heaven,
even as Christ had from the very beginning taught Peter, saying of the persecuted, great is
your reward in heaven (Matt. 5. 12). But this inheriting [after our Lords return], Peter taught, must
therefore be preceded by an experience of manifold trials on earth, demanding that the [regenerate and obedient] believer walk here as an alien and pilgrim, passing through a land not his own
to his own country elsewhere. This has nothing in common with the [popular] view of his message
which we repudiate.
(2) Repentance. In brief, his message was precisely
that of John and his Lord. Repent, he cried, and with many other words he testified and exhorted
- his words were solemn, his call urgent; but not to beg them to expect the
immediate coming of Messiah - but he said, save yourselves from this
crooked generation (Acts 2. 38-40). This generation is doomed to suffer
the stored-up wrath due to long centuries of wickedness confirmed by present
stubborn sin (as Christ had openly declared: Matthew 23. 35, 36); it remains only that you separate yourselves from it.
Repent!
(3) Baptism. Repent ye,
and be baptized every
one of you. Die!
be buried! enter the new
circle of disciples of [Page 19] Jesus! and at
once 3,000 hearers did so, and the building of Christs church went on apace
from that day.
(4) Faith. He also pointed to Jesus Christ as the
object of saving faith: be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.
(5) Remission of Sins. He also proclaimed remission of sins;
be
baptized in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of sins.
(6) Evidential Works. Peter also
insisted upon good works by the baptized, and was the first in the church to bring condign judgment upon evil-doers, even to
the premature death of Ananias and Sapphira for lying. His epistles further show how heavy was the emphasis he placed upon
godly living.*
[* NOTE: God willing, immediately after
this writing is completed, it is my intention to place an extensive article (on
BAPTISM
by G. H. Pember.
To obey the command is much more important than multitudes of regenerate
believers imagine!]
(7) The Church. The immediate result of the preaching
of Peter was the addition of thousands to the new society (Acts 2. 41),
who continued steadfastly in the teaching, fellowship, ordinance, and
united worship of the new community (Acts 2. 41, 42).
All the features of the corporate life of the church of God were thus
present from the beginning, including the apostles as its first elders (Peter
describes himself as an elder, 1 Pet. 5.
1), and quite shortly
deacons (Acts
6. 1-6).
Hence, the society is shortly described as the church
which was in
(8) The Baptism in the Spirit. This portion also of the gospel Peter
proclaimed, saying to his hearers that upon repentance, baptism, faith, remission, ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Thus exactly the elements that were combined
in the message of John and Jesus were continued by Peter.
IV PAUL
The theory that the
first three gospels were primarily Jewish was possibly not carried to its
full logical [Page 20] development by those who, introduced
it a century ago,
but later this was done thoroughly. The outcome was that only the prison
epistles of Paul were finally left as of direct
Christian application; the rest of the New Testament, including Hebrews and the Revelation,
being primarily Jewish.
The theory demanded the insertion of an interim dispensation, ending, as its inventors
alleged, with the rejection of Paul by the leaders of Jewry at
This included, of course, earlier
assertions; such as, that Pauls gospel differed in character from that of John
the Baptist, the Lord Jesus, and Peter; that to Paul personally was first given
the revelation concerning the church which is Christ's body; that to him was first given also the
knowledge of that resurrection and rapture mentioned by him for the first time
in 1
Thessalonians 4, and
later in 1
Corinthians 15, and not
revealed until he was writing to the Thessalonians.
As far as I can discover, the origin of this whole network of
suppositions is this. Over a hundred years ago, when some devout men were pioneering
in prophetic truth, they thought they saw clearly that the resurrection and
rapture of 1 Thessalonians 4 and 1 Corinthians 15 must certainly occur before the rise of Antichrist at the
close of this age. The closest
scrutiny of those passages cannot yield this idea; the indications are the other way: but these men felt sure as to this
point.
But they were faced with the undeniable feature that the
Old Testament knew nothing of any descent of the Lord Jesus from heaven until
His appearing in glory at the close of the reign of that great and last tyrant;
nor does the prophetic teaching of Christ speak of any such earlier coming; nor
is it indicated in the Revelation.
Presently a seemingly feasible
solution of this problem was found in
a suggestion that all that preponderating mass of prophetic scripture applied
to Israel, not to the church; that the church is an unique company, revealed to
Paul as to its character and destiny, not before; and that it will, and must
be, removed from the earth before the dealings of God with Israel can
recommence, and consequently its removal will entail a [Page 21] secret coming of Christ prior to the end days. This saying, therefore, went forth among
the brethren, and
ever since the most part believe as they have been taught;
yea, this saying was spread abroad and continueth unto this day. But it has no more real basis
than those two other sayings to which the words now used apply (John 21. 23: Matt. 28. 15).
Strikingly enough, it is Paul himself who
shatters this whole scheme by declaring that the blessed hope of Christians,
so far from being a secret coming of
Christ, is in fact nothing else than the appearing [forthshining] of the glory of our
great God and Saviour Jesus Christ (Titus 2.
13), which is manifestly the same event as the Lord Himself
described in the words, They shall see
the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with
power and great glory (Matt. 24. 30). Were these not the same, then we must
expect two forthshinings of the glory, and even then we shall be still without that supposed secret coming
of Christ. To avoid these dilemmas, in the interests of the theory, some have
resorted to the desperate shift of stating that the blessed hope is one event, even the alleged
secret pre-tribulation coming, and the appearing of the glory a second event, even the later visible coming. We
cannot think that any true unbiased scholar will thus do violence to the Greek,
for, as Alford says, hope and appearing belong together; and the passage
should read the blessed hope, even the appearing, for which sense see Weymouth, Conybeare,
Faussett, Rotherham, etc.
Let us turn from theory to the facts.
(1) The Kingdom. Summarizing his three years ministry
in the very church to which he shortly afterwards wrote what is confessedly the
chief church epistle, Paul himself says (Acts 20. 25), I went about preaching the kingdom. To
him, as the words immediately preceding show, this was testifying the gospel of the
grace of God, the message of the kingdom and the
gospel of grace being thus identified. And his ministry at Rome, four or five
years later than at Ephesus, in which (as the theory declares) he was at length
setting forth the full doctrine of the church, his companion Luke summarizes
thus: he was preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 28. 31). The
But if now we drop out of mind the human
suggestions criticized, and consider the statements just quoted, it is evident
that Paul did in fact proclaim exactly the same gospel as John, the Lord, and
Peter. Their message could be just as exactly and fully
summarized in the words applied to his, the
Now as Paul did not offer the immediate establishment of the
visible kingdom, the more that his ministry was mainly among Gentiles, it could
only be that he offered the kingdom as a present spiritual
experience,
to be consummated
in the kingdom visible at the time of the restoration of all things,
even as his predecessors had done. And this is supported by his own statements.
To the Romans he said that the
Yet that he looked for the kingdom hereafter [yet to
be manifested] is certain, for he wrote that God calleth you unto His own kingdom and glory (1 Thess. 2. 12), and
He joined together Christs appearing and His kingdom in connection with a [future] judgment of the living and the dead* (2 Tim. 4. 1).
[* That is, a judgment of the dead before
the time of their Resurrection! Heb. 9: 27; Luke 20: 35; Phil. 3: 11; Rev. 20: 4-6; cf. Acts
2: 34; 7:
5.ff; 2 Tim. 2: 15-19, R.V.).]
Thus his outlook and his teaching as to
the kingdom were precisely that of his predecessors.
(2) Repentance. He said that he testified both
to Jews and to Greeks repentance toward God; and not only at Ephesus, but from the
very beginning of his ministry after his [Page 23] conversion he had declared both
to them of Damascus first, and at Jerusalem,
and throughout all the country of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that
they should repent (Acts 20. 21; 26. 20).
Thus he never at any time had but one message, and it was the
same for Jews and heathen, as had been that of John before him, who had said to
heathen soldiers who asked him, And we, what must we [non-Jews] do? similar things to those he said to
Jews (Luke
3. 14).
(3) Baptism. Christ did not send Paul or any one
else with baptism in water as the leading item of their commission, but with
the preaching of the gospel, with the view to making disciples [i.e., followers of Jesus -those who are
prepared to walk with Him], as the primary work (Matt. 28. 19: Mark 16. 15, 16: 1 Cor. 1. 13-17). Yet Christ did command the baptism of
such as should avow discipleship, and so did Peter, and so did Paul, as the
context of the Corinthian passage shows. He had himself baptized the first
converts he made in that city- Crispus, Gaius, and
the household of Stephanus, and they baptized further
converts, as is clear from the fact that these had been
baptized. Paul also baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus the disciples
that he later found at
(4) Faith. That Pauls preaching
called for faith in Christ does not require proof. His message, as he himself
said, to both Jews and Greeks, was repentance toward
God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ (Acts
20. 21). His sternest conflicts were
against those who would place works beside faith or instead of faith for
justification before God.
(5) Remission of Sins. This also formed a primary element in
Pauls message. Be it known unto you therefore, brethren, that through this
Man is proclaimed unto you remission of sins, he had declared on his first tour in
(6) Evidential Works. None more firmly
than Paul rejected works, before or after conversion, as
a ground of [a future] salvation;* [Page 24] none more firmly demanded good
works as a consequence of [that coming (Heb. 2: 3ff.,
R.V.)] salvation. The letter to Titus
is as fully an epistle of good works as
is that of James. He epitomizes his message thus: I declared ... that they [Jews and Gentiles] should repent and turn to God, doing works worthy of
repentance (Acts 26. 20). An immediate object of Christian teaching
is that they who have
believed God may be careful to maintain
good works, for it was an express purpose for which our Saviour Jesus Christ gave
Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all
iniquity, and purify unto Himself a people for His own possession,
zealous of good
works (Titus 3. 8; 2. 14).
(7) The
Again, Peter, following his divine Teacher, compared the
people of God, viewed corporately, to a temple: Ye also, as living stones, are built up
a spiritual house (1 Pet. 2. 5). Paul uses the same comparison, saying that the building,
fitly framed together, groweth into a holy temple (Eph. 2.
21). Now it is of the mystery, the one new man, that Paul is
speaking, which later in this epistle (4. 16) he illustrates by the picture body. The body and the temple are,
therefore, the same company, the church, according to Paul; and the temple of Paul
and Peter is the same, for God was not
at that time building two spiritual houses on earth, one by Peter [the
Jews and], another by Paul [the
Gentiles]; and therefore the temple of Peter is the same society
as the body of Paul, for
things which are equal to the same things are equal to one another.
Various figures are employed to convey fully Gods thoughts [Page 25] concerning this society. Primarily it is pictured as simply a building, without
defining its nature or use: I will build My church
(Matt. 16.
18). Because it pleases God to make its members His abode on earth it is then the house of God. Because it is God who dwells therein it is not simply a house, but a holy
house, a temple, a sanctuary. Because it is a living temple, being built of
living stones, and the one Spirit of Christ animates and utilizes each member,
the thought passes on easily to the idea of a body, analogous to the human body
and its head, in which also one spirit animates every part. Because the vital
force of the Head produces in it the fruit of good living, the comparison to a
vine is employed. And lastly, because of the intimacy
in glory with Christ to which its members are called of God, the picture of its
final state is that of (1) a bride
to the bridegroom and (2) a capital
city as the residence of the sovereign (Rev. 21; 22).
But these many figures are of only one society, as far as the New Testament
is concerned. And for exact exposition and true learning it is most important
to observe the period and the limit of object in the use of each several
figure. For example, the term bride is never used of present relationship to Christ, but
only of the future [millennium] in glory. Now the believer is an affianced
virgin (2 Cor. 11. 2): I espoused you to one husband, that I might [on the
marriage day] present
you as a pure virgin to Christ; and again: Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her; in order that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the laver [composed of] water in the word; in order
that He might [on the
marriage day] present the church to Himself a glorious
church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that she should be holy and without blemish (Eph.
5. 25-27). It is only when the marriage of
the Lamb is come
that the affianced maiden becomes the
bride (Rev. 19. 7, 8). Moral evil among Christian mystics might perhaps have
been avoided if seductive ideas attached to the bridal relationship had been
avoided, by not bringing forward to the present what Scripture attaches only to the morally
perfected state of the future.
On the other hand, the figure of the body is used in Scripture only of present relationship to Christ,
never of the future at and beyond His coming. If now we seek to learn from this picture aught concerning that
future, we shall learn nothing, [Page 26] though we may, of course, imagine anything. Thus,
when it is proposed to determine
by this figure that every believer, without any
possible exception, must rise in the
first resurrection because otherwise the body of Christ would be mutilated or
incomplete, the argument is invalid,
being merely an inference concerning the
next age from a figure used in Scripture only of this age. That question
must be settled on other grounds by other passages. This figure is used to enforce practical
moral teaching, not dispensational.
Its misapplication to the latter only
misleads in that sphere and weakens its force in the other.
But it will be urged that Paul declared
that the mystery (that is, the secret) of the church had not been revealed
before it was made known to him. To this we oppose a
positive and emphatic denial. He not only never said this, but he said
precisely the contrary. That this truth was made known to him by direct
revelation from the Lord, not through others, he does indeed declare, but it is
a wholly unwarranted inference that it had not been made known to others also,
or before the time he received the revelation of it. If one says, I had this information direct from the man himself,
that does not assert that the man had told no one else, and had never before
mentioned the matter.
Pauls words are (Eph.
3. 3-6): by revelation was
made known unto me ... the mystery of Christ,
which in other generations was not made known unto the
sons of men, as it hath now been revealed unto
His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; that
is to say, that the Gentiles are
fellow-heirs, and fellow-members of the body, and fellow-partakers of the promise in Christ
Jesus through the gospel. Here it is to be observed:
1. That other apostles and prophets had
received this revelation, not Paul alone. That it is in his writings principally
and most largely that God caused the permanent record of this truth to be
preserved for later times in no wise means that others did not know it equally
with Paul or before him.
The argument from silence is treacherous, and must always be scrutinized closely. The New Testament does
not preserve any full and formal exposition of the doctrine of justification
other than by Paul, but no one infers that other apostles
and evangelists did not know and
teach that truth, though on this, [Page 27] as on the subject of the church,
their references to it are occasional. The Bible is not a complete collection
of the writings of inspired men, as this very Ephesian passage shows (I wrote before in few words: see also Col. 4.
16). It is a symposium, each writer contributing somewhat that
God saw it needful to preserve permanently; and there is comparatively little
repetition, save in some historical portions. It must not, therefore, be argued
that other writers did not know what any one of them may have been used by the [Holy] Spirit mainly or solely to mention.
2. Pauls words before us deny also that
this mystery had been completely concealed until the revelation given to him.
What he says is, that in other generations it was not made known unto the son of men
as it hath now been revealed. It had been revealed, but only faintly, as of a thing far off,
and partially.
The mystery has two dominant features: (a) that into the one
new society Gentiles would be incorporated, not only
Jews; (b) that the final place and
state of this company would be heavenly, not on the earth. There will be a
millennial period, with
(a) With regard to the first matter, Paul himself had already
shown (
From its very beginning the law of
Moses had made provision that the foreigner should not be oppressed [Page 28] (Lev. 24. 22: Deut. 24. 14; 27. 19; etc.),
but should be loved by an Israelite as if he were an Israelite (Lev. 19.
33, 34). The ban against an Edomite or an Egyptian entering the assembly of Jehovah was
to be lifted in the third generation (Deut. 23.
7, 8). The foreigner might
be incorporated into
As we have noticed, the prophets had messages to or concerning
Gentile peoples, as Jonah for
Though Peter permitted old prejudices to warp his mind and to restrain
his obedience to his Lords command to preach to the whole creation, he was at
length constrained to go among Gentiles and to perceive that in every
nation he that feareth God and worketh
righteousness is acceptable to Him (Acts
10. 34, 35).
But by what measures and by what stages this union in blessing
would be brought about was developed, and could only be developed, by the birth
on earth of the Seed promised to Abraham for the purpose, and by His atoning death, His
resurrection in power, and the consequently possible enduement of men with His
divine Spirit. Thus it had been before made known that
Gentiles were to be fellow-heirs,
yet not so made known as it came to be through Christs apostles and prophets.
(b) It had been also made known of old
that there was a calling on high (as it is termed in Phil. 3.
14), as well as a calling to blessing on earth. For Enoch had been
taken into the upper world, as Elijah was later. And Abraham and Sarah,
Isaac and Jacob, had all died in faith, not having [Page 29] received the
promises, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on
the earth. They desired a better country than even Canaan, that is, a heavenly: wherefore God is
not ashamed of them to be called their God; for
[i.e., it is plain He is not ashamed of them, for] He hath prepared for them a city,
because they looked for the city
which hath the foundations, whose architect and maker is God, that is, for
the heavenly Jerusalem (Heb. 11. 8-16).
A thousand years later again a similar
prospect had been opened to Joshua, the high priest, after the return of Israel
from Babylon (Zech. 3. 7): Thus saith Jehovah of
hosts: If thou wilt walk in My ways, and if thou wilt keep My charge,
then thou shalt also judge My house, and shalt also keep My courts [present privilege], and I will give thee a place
of access among these who stand by, the
angel servants of the Angel of Jehovah (see verse 4) - that is, future reward in heavenly places for fidelity to God in His house on
earth. Upon this whole book, and this vision
especially, see David Barons
masterly commentary The Visions and Prophecies of Zechariah.
Thus the heavenly calling and prospects had of old been opened
to men of faith and embraced by them, but as afar off, and here also the steps
of resurrection or rapture by which that upper world would be reached were not
plainly indicated till Christ had come. There was
light, but it was the dawn, not the noontide of revelation; yet exposition which - [ignores Gods conditions (Matt. 5: 20),
and] - darkens that dawn must be misleading.
That the whole of Pauls message was
contained, at least in germ, in the Old Testament he distinctly asserted to Agrippa:
I
stand unto this day testifying both to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses did say should come; how that the Messiah must suffer, and that He first by resurrection from among the dead
(ex anastaseos nekron) should proclaim
light both to the people [of Israel] and to the
Gentiles (Acts 26. 22, 23).
The Lord Jesus had taught along the same line of basing
teaching upon earlier revelation, and Paul followed Him. Christ
had reproved Nicodemus that he, being an official teacher of the Old Testament,
was puzzled by the nature of and necessity for a new birth by means of water
and wind (ex hudatos kai pneumatos) for
entering the kingdom of God, [Page 30] for Ezekiel had
announced the purpose of God to sprinkle clean water and so to cleans from
filthiness, and then to put within the cleansed a new heart and a new spirit (Ezek. 36. 25-27), this latter operation being pictured
as the wind breathing over the dead and re-quickening them (ch.
37). But in this matter also
it waited fuller explanation as to what and when would be the fulfilment of
that water of cleansing typified in the sprinkling of the leper (Lev. 14) or the otherwise defiled (Num. 19), and in that breathing of the wind
in regeneration.
Even as regards the details of resurrection, most that Paul
taught had been made known before. To the
Thessalonians (4. 16,
17) he mentions these particulars. (1) It
would be the Lord himself who should act in the matter. Now Christ had before said: I come again, and will receive you unto Myself
(John 14. 3). (2)
The
Lord himself shall descend. Christ had said: they shall see the Son of Man coming. that is, from the right hand of
power (Matt. 24. 30; 26. 64).
(3) With a shout:
Psalm 50. 3-5, had said: Our God cometh ... He calleth
... gather My saints together
unto Me; and so
again, in general connection with the triumph of Messiah, God is gone
up with a shout, Jehovah with the sound of a
trumpet (Psalm 47. 5). (4)
With the voice of the archangel and with the trump of
God. The Lord had
added: The Son of Man shall send forth His angels (commanded naturally by the
archangel), with a great sound of a trumpet (Matt. 24. 31). (5) The dead in
Christ shall rise first (this is the one item that seems to
be newly specified by Paul); then we that are alive, that are left, shall together
with them be caught up. Christ said, they [the angels] shall gather together His
chosen from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. (6)
Caught
up in the clouds: the Son of
Man coming on the clouds had been
specified by Christ, and that it is to Him there the angels would gather His
chosen is plainly implied. (7) So shall we
be for ever with the Lord, even as the Lord had said, I come again to receive you unto Myself,
that where I am there ye may be also. (8) To the Corinthians (1 Cor. 15. 52) the item was added that both
resurrection and rapture would take place in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump (compare Rev.
11. 15, 18), and thus Christ also had compared His [Page
31] descent to the equally instantaneous lightning flash, when those
whom He would receive to Himself to be His companions (paralambano, to take to
oneself, as a companion) shall be taken, as birds gather together to their point
of attraction (Luke 17. 24, 34-37). (9) This consummation, so greatly to be desired, the truly blessed hope of believers, Paul indicates is
founded on the Old Testament, for it will be the fulfilment of the ancient and
triumphant prediction that Death is swallowed up in victory (1
Cor. 15. 54: Isa.
25. 8: Hos. 13. 14).
Thus all these details of the resurrection
and rapture could be assembled by a Spirit-taught mind from Christ and the Old
Testament. A properly new revelation to Paul was not needed, nor does he assert
it. His statement (1 Thess. 4.
15) that he was speaking by word of the Lord is equally applicable to truth
learned as above. Nor does his statement to the Corinthians, Behold,
I tell you a mystery, we
shall not all sleep, etc., say, nor could he say, that the secret had been kept till he was
then writing, for he had already declared this truth in the letter to the Thessalonians
written some years earlier. The expression was natural when writing to men who
all their life had been lost in the ignorance of heathen philosophy or the
murky mazes of Judaism, for to such truly it had been a secret. It imports no
more than that what had been only dimly foreshadowed in olden time had now been
manifested
by the appearing of our Saviour Christ Jesus, who
abolished indeed (men) death, but (de) brought life and
incorruption to light through the gospel (2
Tim. 1. 10).
John had indicated generally what
would mark the commencement and the close of the era of the preaching of the
Christ had enlarged upon both subjects, giving fuller
particulars as to His death, resurrection, and the gift of the [Holy] Spirit, and also as to judgments to close the age
and the gathering of the wheat into safety. For He gave such
details as the sowing of the wheat, the angels being
the reapers, the clouds being the
garner, His own descent from heaven in glory being the hour, and that a resurrection [at that time] of some from among the mighty host [Page 32] of the dead would then occur (Luke 20. 34,
35).
Peter, at the beginning of his
ministry, taught that the sending back of Christ to the earth by God was to be
the occasion of that restoration of all things which God had of old promised (Acts 3. 20,
21), and at the end of his days he was pressing the same point,
exhorting his fellow-elect that they should set their hope perfectly upon the
favour that is being brought unto them at
the revelation of Jesus Christ (1 Pet.
1. 13), and that it is when the
chief Shepherd shall be manifested that faithful servants will be rewarded (5. 4). It is to be observed that Peter also
knows nothing of a secret invisible coming for the godly, but mentions the " revelation and manifestation of Christ as the expectation of believers.
Very clearly all this is the basis of, and included in, what
Paul taught on the subject; any further details which
he gives being an elaborating, systematizing, and completing of the same theme,
not the announcing of something new and unknown.
We will notice one more important point in which this
agreement may be traced.
Christ intimated plainly that sharing in that first resurrection
which will lift dead believers - [out of Sheol / Hades
(Matt. 16:
18; Psa. 16:
10; Acts 2:
27, 34; cf. Luke 16:
23; Acts 7:
5; 2 Tim.
2: 17,
R.V.), and] - into the kingdom in glory requires that the individual shall
have attained thereto and be accounted worthy thereof (Luke 20. 34,
35). Negatively He had taught plainly that practical righteousness of
high degree, acquired and marked by
strict obedience to the least divine command, as also true humility, were
indispensable to entering that kingdom at all (Matt. 5. 20; 18. 1-3), so indicating
the conditions of being accounted worthy and attaining.
Peter, concluding
his ministry, addressed those who had obtained a like precious faith with
himself in the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ (2 Pet. 1.
1-11); even persons to whom had been granted
the precious and exceeding great promises of God, with the view that they might
not only have the life of God
(which every believer has immediately upon faith in Christ), but also might become partakers of the divine nature, and thus the
character, disposition,
and tendencies natural to God might become so in them, through claiming in faith the fulfilment of
the promises pertaining to sanctity of nature and of walk. But for this to become fact they must
add on their part all diligence in developing out of faith in other [Page 33] dominant Christian virtues. Thereby they should
make secure their calling and election of God unto His eternal glory in Christ.
For the calling of which Peter speaks is not simply unto deliverance from
wrath, but to share the eternal glory of God (1 Pet. 5. 10), a
prospect far nobler, belonging to the people of the heavenly calling only.
No true preacher of the gospel would say to unregenerate men, If ye do these things you will secure eternal life,
for that is the free gift of God
(
[* That is, an entrance
is a thousand years prior to the commencement
of the eternal
kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ!]
Similarly Paul, ever most emphatic upon the acceptance
of sinners by God being solely through the imputation to them by grace of the
righteousness of Another, is equally definite that the
final obtaining of the [millennial] glory of God is not a guaranteed certainty, but demands the fulfilment of conditions.
So he prayed unceasingly for the Thessalonians that God may
count you worthy
of your calling, for which prayer there could
be no call if they were already entirely secure of the same (2 Thess. 1. 11). But he knew otherwise, and therefore he most earnestly exhorted, encouraged, and testified
to the end that ye should walk
worthily of God, who calleth you into His own kingdom and glory (1 Thess. 2. 11, 12). As with Peter, so with
Paul so the calling is not to exemption from wrath, but to entering the [Messiahs promised (Psa. 2: 8) coming] kingdom and sharing in its glory.
Thus the words of Christ as to being accounted worthy of that [next] age are adopted by Paul - that God may count you worthy; and he knew that this could only be
on the ground of works done, and so his prayer proceeded that God would
fulfil every desire of goodness and every work of faith with power,
in order that (hopos)
the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you [now], and ye in Him
[in His [messianic] day]. And that this
can only be, yet can be, according to the
grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ he knew well and taught clearly, as did Peter also (the God of all grace [Page 34] Who called you ... shall Himself perfect ... you (1 Pet. 5. 10). Yet both knew that while grace
enables, it does never coerce, so that the utmost diligence on our part
in godly living must be added in order that no man should fall short
of the grace of God (Heb. 12. 15), and not obtain the whole of what grace
made possible in Christ.
Finally, the Lord had attached this
condition of attainment and worthiness to the specific matter of rising in the first resurrection, and so did Paul
also. For to the Philippians (3. 11) he wrote of his own strenuous efforts in the service and
fellowship of Christ that they were directed to the
end if by any means I may attain unto the resurrection
from among the dead, which sentence is a repetition of the words of the Lord in Luke
20. 35, they that are accounted
worthy to attain to that age, and the resurrection from among the dead.
(8) The Holy Spirit. It is not
necessary to cite passages to show that Paul taught much concerning the
gracious and indispensable ministry of the Spirit of God. It was a principal and
constant theme, interpenetrating and vitalizing his whole ministry, even as he
knew it must do all godly living and all attaining; for
Every virtue
we possess,
And every victory won,
And every thought of
holiness
Are His alone.
It thus appears that the essential elements in the ministries
of John, the Lord, and Peter were the essential elements in the message of
Paul.
V JOHN THE APOSTLE
Before stating the general conclusions to be drawn from this examination we will glance briefly at the message of John
the apostle. Marked by characteristics all its own, the deeper elements of his
message were those of his Master and his fellow apostles. What else should be expected of him who had leaned on Jesus breast,
and most intimately of all men had known His love?
(1) The Kingdom. It is John who
supplemented and illuminated the other histories of Christ by giving the
narrative of [Page 35] the interview with Nicodemus, in
which we hear the Lord teaching about the kingdom in the sense before observed
(ch. 3).
(2) Repentance. In chapter 4 he shows Christ producing repentance
by forcing, with kindly spiritual compulsion, the woman of
(3) Baptism. It is John who tells that Jesus was
making and baptizing more disciples than John the Baptist, adding that He did
not Himself immerse any, but caused His disciples to do so (ch. 4.
1, 2).
(4) Faith. Every page of his gospel and epistle
shows the place of and necessity for faith in Christ, with the blessed
consequence thereof in the reception of eternal life, and the mighty privileges
involved in this possession.
(5) Remission of Sins. It is in Johns Gospel that the Redeemer is shown
dealing in the open court of the temple with the woman taken in the very act of
adultery; the Lord by no means excusing the sin, but exempting
her from its immediate penalty under the law. His words, Neither do I
condemn thee: go thy way; henceforth sin no more form a striking illustration of (a) the condemnation of the sin, yet (b) its non-imputation judicially to the sinner,
and (c) the effect
intended to be produced in the future by this act of clemency.
Then, in immediate context and
contrast, John gives the Lords terrible warning to the self-righteous, except
ye believe that I am He, ye shall die in your sins (ch. 8.
21, 24).
But to believers he gives the mighty
assurance: I write unto you for the very reason that your sins are
forgiven you for His names sake (1 John 2.
12).
(6) Evidential Works. It is in John we read that every one that doeth evil hateth the
light, and cometh not to the light, lest his works should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his works may be made manifest, that they have been wrought in God (ch. 3. 20, 21). And by him we are made to hear
Christ say: If ye were Abrahams children,
ye would do the
works of Abraham ... Ye do the [Page 36] works of your
father the devil ... If God were
your father, ye would love Me (ch. 8. 39-44). And his epistle presses strongly
that it is a mans walk
that declares his relationship of fellowship with or hostility
to God, the truth, the light; that he that doeth righteousness is righteous,
even as He
[God] is righteous, but he that doeth sin is of the Devil (1 John 3. 7, 8). He endorses in effect
what Paul said, that love is the fulfilling of the law, but this love must be shown not by word only,
but in deed and truth (1 John 3. 18).
It is a most characteristic feature of John that he based his teaching
on and developed it out of the sayings of his Lord, his doctrine being thus in
strict continuity from that of Christ.
(7) A New Society. It resulted that John repeated and
enforced that severe, ineffaceable separation between the sons of light and the
sons of darkness, the receivers of the truth and the rejectors of it, the
regenerate and the unregenerate, [the obedient and the disobedient] - those within the kingdom and those without it. He concentrated this
distinction in the incisive statement: We know that we are of God, and the
whole world lieth in the evil one (1 John 5.
19).
He shows also the heavenly origin, character, and hope of the members of this
company. Their life is that Life which before was with the Father in His
realm, and then was manifested to us in this realm (1 John 1. 2). This life consists in heart
knowledge of Him who descended out of heaven (John
3. 13), and told to men heavenly things (ver. 12), so that they might get to know - [in a more intimate way (see Phil. 3: 11; cf.
Matt. 7: 21-23, R.V.)] - the Father and the Son (John 17. 3:
1 John 5. 20). Their walk
here should correspond to His walk here, marked God-ward by obedience,
manward by love (1 John 2). Their love must in no degree be set upon this world, - [i.e.,
upon this evil, and now apostate age]
- but upon the Father in His world -
[or during His promised messianic
age] (1 John 2 [See also Ps. 2: 8; cf.
Matt. 8: 11,
12, R.V.]),
even as Paul had said that our mind should be set upon the things above, where
Christ is, not on the things on earth, and for the same reason as John gives,
that Christ is our life (Col. 3. 1-4);
and even as Peter exhorted that we should set our hope perfectly on
the revelation of Christ, and have our
faith and hope set on God (1 Pet. 1. 13, 21). An essential quality of their
new, heavenly life-principle of faith is that it combats and conquers this
world (1 John 5. 4,
5), as the Lord who is our life had done
when on earth (John 16. 33). The several local communities of these regenerate persons John calls by
their [Page 37] regular name of churches (Rev. 2 and 3: 3 John 6, 10).
He taught also the heavenly [and
blessed] future of the regenerate, for he records the Lords promise to come
again and receive His followers unto Himself, that they may abide - [after
the first
rapture
(Luke 21: 34-36; Rev. 3: 10)] -
in that one of the many regions of the upper world to prepare which for their
use He was leaving them awhile (John 14. 2, 3).
But John knew also how indispensable
it is that the servant should walk, serve, suffer, and overcome
(Rev. 2; 3), as the Master had done, if he would attain - [i.e., gain by
effort] - to that heavenly portion. Wherefore, repeating Christs own strong and reiterated call
to abide in His love, that is, in Himself,
by obedience (John 15), John says: And now,
little children, abide in Him;
that, if He shall be manifested,
we may have boldness, and not be ashamed
[not shrink with
shame] from Him in His presence (1 John 2. 28). For John, listening intently to the
graphic parables of Christ, had seen in his minds eye the [regenerate and] faithful servant enter into the
joy of his Lord at that Lords return, but
had also marked the shrinking and shame, the disgrace and punishment* of the - [regenerate,
but disobedient and apostate] - servant who had been
unfaithful and unprofitable while his Lord had been absent (Luke 12; 19: Matt. 25).
[* See Heb. 10: 26-31; cf. Luke 12:
45-49; 13: 24-30; Col. 3: 25, R.V.).]
And what is the Revelation but a combining and completing of the
whole of Scripture upon the coming
of the King and the - [messianic, millennial and eternal] - kingdom? Here the Lamb
takes over the government of heaven and earth; the angels come forth; the
axe is used to cut down the proud, the
fire burns up the chaff, the field
is cleared, the firstfruits and the
harvest of the living are garnered into the heavens at their respective times,
the first resurrection ushers the worthy
into [His messianic] glory. The Son of Man descends to the clouds first (14. 14; comp. 1 Thess.
4.
16,
17),
and then, as the Word of God, comes
down to the earth (ch. 19), and the kingdom
of the world is become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Messiah: and He shall reign
for ever and ever ([Rev.] 11.
15).
And those members of the churches who had
conquered in the battles of the kingdom shall reign with Him for ever and ever
([Rev.] 2. 26;
22.
5).
Thus the bride, the wife of the Lamb, arrayed in the beauty of the righteous acts of the saints, wrought out on earth by them through the
unrestrained inworking of the grace of God [and power of
the Holy Spirit], is presented to the Lamb without blemish
and unreprovable in His sight, And the great
church triumphant [becomes] the church at rest. And finally, when this mediatorial kingdom
shall have served its purpose [Page
38] and run its course, and after the final and destiny - announcing session of the judgment seat of
Christ, the great white throne, the kingdom merges into the eternal ages,
with new heavens and new earth wherein
shall dwell only righteousness, the
Son having restored the kingdom to the Father purified and perfected; and thus, as Paul says, God shall be all in all (1 Cor. 15. 24-28).
(8) The Baptism in the Spirit. It is John who records the full
teaching concerning the coming of the [Holy] Spirit as given by the Lord the night before He
suffered (chs. 14-16), and which he utilizes in his
epistle for the comfort and assurance of men of faith, as encouragement to endure,
to conquer, to inherit, through the Spirit's all‑sufficient grace.
Thus does John the Apostle, while emphasizing the aspects of
Christ specially given to him, and expressing them in his own distinctive
manner, embody and expand the very same message which John the Baptist had
commenced, and Christ, Peter, and Paul had continued.
VI RESULTS
Important results follow from these facts.
1. There is but one Gospel Message*. It is gospel, for it is the good spell, i.e., good news. It is the gospel of
the kingdom, for it announces the overthrow of the authority of Satan,
sin, and sorrow, and the establishment of the
[*
Note the context to Mr. Langs
heading. To say that
the good news of salvation by grace (Eph. 2: 8,) is synonymous with the good news of the word of the kingdom (Matt.
13: 19,
R.V.), and that both are the same thing! would be
a wresting the Scripture out of context!]
Paul calls it my gospel (
In the Galatian letter Pauls express subject is the true
nature of the gospel; that it is by free promise of God, not by contract
between Him and men (ch. 3), God acting alone in giving the
promise (3. 20); that it is of grace, not of law; by
faith, not works. And so far is Paul from implying that his gospel was peculiar
to himself, as contrasted with other or earlier gospels, he bases his whole
argument upon exactly the opposite position that the gospel was preached
beforehand unto Abraham, for the precise reason that it was divinely foreseen that Gentiles were included in its scope. As
we have seen, this was a feature in the message of John the Baptist, Christ,
Peter, and John, as well as Paul.
The law of Moses under which Israel was
placed, was a temporary interposition until the Seed [Christ] should come unto whom the
promise hath been made (Gal. 3.
19), whereupon the dealings of God could be resumed with all men
upon the exact lines of His dealing with the Gentile Abram prior to the law or
even to the rite of circumcision (Rom. 4. 9, ff.). It is
to be noted that the law was to last only until the
promised Seed should have come, not until He should have come and gone, let alone until
several years later still when Paul should be a prisoner at
2. There is but one Book of the Kingdom. To gain accurately the mind of God the
whole New Testament must be construed together as
dealing with one message. Upon this matter the reader
should by all means ponder Bernards
weighty and [Page 40] helpful treatise, The Progress of Doctrine in the New Testament. In chapter 2
he says: We have to observe how the Gospel collection
[the four Gospels] is fitted to its place and fulfils its function as the commencement of
the Christian doctrine of the New Testament (p. 34). In chapter
3 it is shown that every
doctrine expanded in the Epistles roots itself in some pregnant saying in the
Gospels, and the first intimation of every truth revealed to the Apostles by
the Spirit came first from the lips of the Son of Man. In each
case the later revelation may enlarge the earlier, may show its meaning and
define its application, but the earlier revelation stands behind it still, and
we owe our first knowledge of every part of the new covenant to those personal
communications in which the salvation began to be spoken by the Lord ... There was nothing, then, on the lips of
the preachers of the Gospel but what had been begun to be spoken by its former preacher, and in following
to their utmost the words of the Apostles we are still within the compass of
the words of the Lord Jesus (60, 61).
Bernard
illustrates this as follows: The whole argument on
justification in the epistle to the Romans is involved in the assertion that the Son of Man was lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish, but have
eternal life; the exposition of the
Christian standing in the epistle to the Galatians is comprehended in the
words, The servant abideth not in
the house for ever: the Son
abideth ever. If the Son therefore shall
make you free ye shall be free indeed; the sacrificial doctrine of the Epistle to the Hebrews is implied in all its parts
by the words, This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for you, and for many, for the remission of sins (60).
Personally I cannot be too thankful to the God
of truth that some fifty-five years ago I heard this noble work recommended by
that eminent Bible teacher, Dr. A. T.
Pierson. The passages quoted started in my mind an examination of the
theories of the Jewish character of the
Gospels, the postponed kingdom, the interim dispensation, and of the assumptions and
distinctions demanded to give to these even a semblance of standing in the New
Testament. I had been reared in these opinions, but I
saw that if Bernard was right these theories must be wrong; and critical study
of his proposition [Page 41] very quickly justified it. The many
years of further examination and reflection have confirmed this. The line of
study set forth in these pages supports it.
It is plain that the doctrine of there being a first
resurrection to precede the coming age roots itself in the words of the Lord, they that are accounted worthy
to attain to that age and the resurrection which is from among the dead
(Luke 20. 35), and is amplified by Paul (Phil. 3. 10-12) and John (Rev. 20. 4-6). The prospect of some being transferred from mans normal region of the
universe, the earth, to the upper region of heaven is introduced by Christs promise, I come again
and will receive you unto Myself (John 14.
3), and is elaborated in 1 Thessalonians 4 and 1 Corinthians 15, with Revelation 14. 14-16. The circumstances of the Parousia
are set out in the Lords forecast on Olivet (Matt. 24; 25: Mark 13: Luke 21), which first illuminates the Old Testament as to the end
days and then itself opens out into the Epistles and the Revelation. Any line of exposition which cannot be so
conducted is erroneous, being inharmonious with this uniform fact and principle
of the New Testament. It is no more justifiable to
disunite the Epistles from the Gospels than the New Testament from the Old.
Eminent scholars and teachers beside Bernard have recognized
this feature. By common consent Mr.
David Baron was one of the greatest expositors of the Old Testament of our
times. Being asked in
3. The Change of Dispensation. The revelation of and the fulfilment of the plans of God advanced, and
still advance, by stages. The call of Abram was one such stage, and of the greatest
moment. The bringing of Israel out of Egypt, and the placing them under law
toward God and to one another, with a typical, ritualistic religion, was a
temporary measure to educate them for the coming of the promised Redeemer (Gal. 3:
Heb. 7; 8). The arrival of that Redeemer ended that temporary period, and resumed
the sequence of the call of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with the view to all the families of the
earth being
brought into blessing. This extension of favour to the Gentile peoples
synchronized with
Meanwhile that heavenly company, who embrace the calling to the
heavens as Abraham did, are forming a spiritual family of his children,
composed of such of his natural seed as believe in Christ and of Gentiles who
do so. This people for Gods name (Acts
15. 14) upon completion will
be transferred to the heavenly world to reign over the universe with Christ,
superseding the angelic government which now rules under God, for not unto angels did God
subject the inhabited earth to come (Heb.
2. 5),
but know ye not that the saints shall judge the world
... [and] angels? (1 Cor. 6. 2, 3).
When the formation of this governing body shall
have been completed, the way will be clear for the continuance of the
divine plans and promises as to the natural descendants of Abraham in
connection with
The length of this period during which the kingdom spiritual
is to be preached cannot be known, but its
commencement and its end are indicated in Scripture. It will end with that
resurrection from among the dead mentioned, for so the Lord showed by His
words, The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but they that are accounted worthy to attain to that age and the resurrection from among the
dead neither marry, nor ... etc. (Luke 20. 34, 35). That age, to follow this age, cannot be eternity, for the latter is not one age, but ages of ages in ceaseless continuance. It is the millennial age; and the dividing epoch
where this age ends and that age begins is the descent of the Lord to the air
and the events to accompany and to follow it. This is to be at the [Page
43] close of the great
tribulation, the point where all
Scripture places that descent. That tribulation will be the climax of mans day (1 Cor. 4. 3),
its every feature being but the intensifying of the features that have obtained
throughout this age; for, as Paul taught (2 Thess. 2), the mystery of lawlessness has been
at work all along and will reach its crisis and doom in the presence and work
of the Lawless One. It is therefore quite in accord with the generally
painful experiences of the church throughout this age that it should end those
experiences only when the age ends and the day of God begins. And thus
Paul from the first taught that the rest of the afflicted saints would come at that revelation of the Lord
Jesus which will bring vengeance
upon [the unregenerate], and the godless - [regenerate, -
i.e., them that obey not the gospel of the Lord
Jesus.*] - (2 Thess. 1.
7, 8).
[* NOTE the and in verse 8 can
be used as a disjunction separating two clauses. (1)
to them that know not God
- i.e.,
the unregenerate
and nominal
Christians; from (2) a disjunction
- and
to them that obey not the gospel
- the regenerate but disobedient Christians! See also Col. 3: 25; Heb. 10: 26-30, R.V.).
Divine vengeance must fall on both
parties! Ezek. ch. 3. & 33.; Num.
14: 28ff.
Malachi 3: 6;
cf.
Gal. 5: 21ff.; 1 Cor. 10: 5, 6, 11. R.V.]
The point of commencement of the age is
indicated by the facts adduced in this paper. The
message of all the preachers considered being one and the same shows where the
one age passed into the other; and this the Lord most distinctly intimated by saying
with the utmost definiteness that The law and the prophets were until John: from that time the good tidings of the
kingdom of God is preached (Luke 16.
16: Matt.
11. 13).
John therefore both closed the former period and ushered in the new era, and so
his brief ministry, not
[Page 44]
Those who regard the Cross as the dividing hour of the two
ages place too great stress upon but one of the many salient factors, namely,
upon the fulfilling of the typical sacrificial ritual as ending the one age and
introducing the next. Those who insist on Pentecost, tend to be
over-occupied with the place and future of the
The general situation may be illustrated
thus. When a great commercial concern is to be merged
into another undertaking, a day is fixed from which the transfer begins,
legally and actually. But the task of merging the old
business into the new, until the new completely holds the field, will take
time, longer or shorter according to the nature of the two concerns.
Thus it took time for the educating of
the apostles for the vast work of propagating the gospel of the kingdom of God,
for the superseding of types by realities, the inculcating of grace in place of
law as the ground of acceptance by God, the reaching out beyond Israel to the
whole world, the building up of the house of God, the church. Calvary was
indispensable for affording the ground of grace consistently with the divine
law against sin; Pentecost was necessary for supplying the moral
energy for the mighty advance; but these both, however indispensable, are to be regarded as steps only to the
carrying onward of the purposes of God to the goal of the coming of the kingdom
to the earth.
As we look back through nineteen centuries, we may well see
nothing less than a mighty example of the illimitable power of God in the fact
that the superseding of so venerable and revered an institution as the law and
the prophets was accomplished in so short a space as one generation of
disciples. And to gain this most valuable perspective
it is needful to accept our Lords plain assertion that the present age began
with the witness of, John the Baptist.
4. The Age of the Law was parenthetical. A further matter
[Page 45] upon which clarity is of signal importance is as follows. It
has been a dominant element of the usual dispensational scheme that the present
Christian age is parenthetical, an inserted period during the time of Israel
being set on one side, in which period God is completing a purpose before
unannounced in the outgathering of the church. This having been accomplished He
will pick up the threads of
The covenant with Abraham (Gen. 15) is the continuous basis of all Gods
ways with men in salvation. Believers of this present age are blessed with
the faithful Abraham, and thus upon Gentiles also comes the blessing of Abraham in Christ
Jesus (Gal. 3.
9, 14). The Abrahamic covenant has two
planes of operation; the heavenly seed of Abraham and his
earthly seed. The full programme to which that covenant is directed on the
earthly level is the blessing of all the families of the earth (Gen. 12.
1-3). The fulfilment on the heavenly
plane is the gathering out from Jews and Gentiles that special company known as
the ekklesia, the church, to
be transferred to the heavenly regions at the coming of the Lord. This prospect
of a sphere in the heavens was opened to Abraham, and
embraced by him (Heb. 11. 9, 10, 13-16).
The whole and permanent fulfilment, earthly and heavenly, depended upon the
coming of that foretold Seed of Abraham, even Christ the Son of God become man.
It is the descendants of Abraham through whom the purposes of
God are to be accomplished, but the earlier of these
became ignorant and degraded in
Therefore it is the age of the Sinaitic law
that is the interim [Page 46] dispensation, inserted for necessary
purposes into the out-working of the covenant with Abraham. It is thus that Scripture
distinctly describes the law.
Therefore we should dismiss from our minds the
notion that the Christian age is a parenthesis in the ways of God, and regard
it as the continuation of the primary, pre-Mosaic covenant with Abraham in
which the heavenly aspect of that covenant is being carried forward. Upon the
completion of this part of His purpose the Lord, at His return to the earth,
will develop the earthly purpose of the covenant with Abraham in the blessing
of
5. There is but one Kingdom. The final result
of our study to be noticed is that there is but one
[* Greek: a
kingdom of all ages, (Septuagint, LXX translation.]
There may be many regions, many races of beings (Eph. 3. 15, R.V.), many ranks; there can be only one empire of Jehovah, and nothing can be external to its
authority. The - [promised (Psa. 2: 8),
messianic and millennial] - kingdom
asserts itself on [this restored (Rom.
8: 19-22)] earth in two
chief stages: the present, a spiritual, in Christ obtaining His lordship in the hearts of men by their
free and saving consent; the other
future, when - [after His
Second Advent] -
He shall come in power and great glory*: but it is one kingdom.
[* Compare Psalms
72 & 110 with Luke 24: 25-27, R.V.]
The church, as the bride, the wife of the Lamb, herself His
queen, will be still part of His kingdom, though occupying, indeed, the most noble position in it after Himself. The angel hosts of
all ranks are His subjects. On - [this restored earth (see Rom. 8: 19-22, cf.
Gen. 3: 17, 18, R.V.)] - earth
And in its due time that wondrous moment
will be reached when every created thing
which is in the heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and on the sea,
and all things
that are in them [will be] heard saying:
Unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, be the blessing, and the
honour, and the glory, and the dominion, for ever and
ever. And the four
living creatures said, Amen! And the elders fell down and worshipped (Rev. 5. 14).
Let us say, Amen
[Page 48]
Oh, that
with yonder sacred throng
We at His feet may fall,
Join in the everlasting
song
And crown Him Lord of all.
Amen and Amen!
II CONCLUSION
During the first two centuries after the apostles
the dominant expectation of Christians was that this Christian age will close
with the rise and rule of a personal Antichrist. He will be
overthrown by Christ at His personal return to the earth, Who will
thereupon establish His visible kingdom and rule for one thousand years. So Barnabas, Papias, Justin, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Hyppolytus, Cyprian, Victorinus,
Lactantius. Justin Martyr set this forth as the general belief of orthodox
Christians (Dialogue with Trypho: about A.D. 150).
In the latter part of the second
century there set in at
This process greatly prepared for that abandonment of the hope
of the personal return of Christ, and the events to flow from it which became
the general outlook when Christianity was made the State religion. Augustine
mightily furthered this changed outlook. The Papacy presents the notion
that the church has the task in this age to subdue all
mankind to itself and so establish on earth the authority of God.
Even where this political aspect is not held there is too commonly the
idea that the gospel is to convert the race,
and that only thereupon will Christ intervene and wind up affairs by a general
judgment.
Much basic truth was recovered by the Reformers but not that of the Biblical
expectation of the rise of a personal Anti christ,
the visible return of Christ, and the [subsequent] millennial kingdom. Their horizon was filled by
their near and giant enemy, the Roman Catholic Church, which to them was a
corporate Antichrist, the Papacy being both antichrist,
Beast, and Scarlet Woman.
Thus the common Protestant
outlook did not envisage at
the end of this [evil and apostate] age a restoration of Israel, or their prior persecution by Antichrist, or
the personal return of Christ, followed [Page 50] by the millennial kingdom. Though this programme is the
subject of innumerable passages of [unfulfilled Prophetic] Scripture it is simply blotted out by
the non-millenarian view that things will go on as now until at some
indefinitely remote time the great white throne judgment will close earths
history. This outlook has no room whatever for two resurrections with the
thousand years between, though this is declared
categorically in Rev. 20. One disastrous result of this indefiniteness
is that the people of God are deprived of all anticipation of and preparation for events that Scripture says are to come upon
the earth as this [evil and apostate] age ends. They have
to meet grievous and perilous days, charged with Satanic
subtlety and terror. In view of these perils the Lord
gave to us - [His disciples (see the context in verses 5-19)] - the solemn and urgent warning found in Luke 21. 34-36:
But take heed to yourselves, lest haply your
hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that day come
on you suddenly as a snare: for so shall it
come upon all them that dwell on the face of all the earth. But watch ye at every season, making supplication, that ye
may prevail to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.
This is but one of very many such
warnings, and it is a
truly serious responsibility which they accept who nullify the whole forecast
of the end days, and cause those who
are misled by them to risk the deadly peril of which Christ spoke so definitely
and solemnly; Nor do they leave
ground upon which to warn the worldly of the fatal dangers before them when
that period shall dawn.
In century seventeen Biblical
students in
It is natural and healthful that a reaction has come against
these mistaken assertions. It is to the good that such features as these of the
Notes of the Scofield Bible should be challenged. But it is to be regretted that many critics have failed to
see that these details are not essential to the millennial hope as set forth in
Scripture and can be dismissed without loss. These opponents have too often
thrown over the broad purposes of God while rejecting the accretions of men.
For example: the rise and doings of Antichrist do not
depend on whether the church is to be removed before or after his reign. The plain
statement of Scripture that there are to be two resurrections, one before the
millennium and one after, is not jeopardized by whether Old Testament saints
will share in the first or only in the second resurrection.
Certain consequences plainly flow from the beliefs of
Christian teachers who directly followed the apostles.
First. The
deferring of Daniels seventieth week to the close of this Christian age;
including that a personal Antichrist will then arise; that he will be destroyed
by the descent of Christ from heaven; that the Lord will then reign visibly at
Jerusalem for a thousand years - these are still four most prominent features
of the Futurist interpretation of prophetic scripture.
Second. Therefore
the allegation that this scheme was first suggested by the Jesuit Ribera in
century sixteen is utterly unfounded, and must have been the result of
ignorance or controversial malice. Riberas purpose,
as to these matters, was to counter the assertion of the Reformers that the
Papacy was the fulfilment of the prophecies concerning Antichrist. For this purpose he revived the primitive belief that the Antichrist
will be a person not a system, and therefore could not be the Papacy. In this he was right. The common Protestant belief is clearly
contrary to primitive belief, and with it falls the
laborious attempt of the historical school to
identify the events of the Christian era with the visions of the Apocalypse.
Third. It
is equally plain that in the sub-apostolic period the majority of Christian
teachers known to us did not hold the non-millenarian view; and it may well be
asked how those who directly followed the New Testament days could have held
almost unitedly the futurist outlook had it been the case that the apostles had
taught quite the contrary.
In this present discussion attempt has been
made to remove some of the confusing additions mentioned, while
retaining firmly the general divine programme on the main issues. If other
teachers of Christian doctrine are helped to see this
distinction and to preserve a balanced judgment, the
When ye pray say
THY KINGDOM COME.
THE END