IV The Kingdom: Is Christ Reigning Now?
We hold it to be of the very essence of
the gospel of the grace of God that He has raised up His Son from the dead to
sit upon the throne of His promised Kingdom (Acts 2:30-32); and we regard it as
one of the most disquieting features of the present confused state of the
affairs of God's people that there are so many leaders and teachers among them
who, while calling themselves "Fundamentalists," do strenuously
oppose this truly "fundamental" truth. But it is permissible here to
cite only a very small fraction of the evidence which the Scriptures supply in
refutation of this error.
The Son of God is the King of God's Heavenly Kingdom
His Kingdom is in this world
though not o/it. He rules it from God's holy hill of Zion, and its affairs are
administered by the Holy Spirit, come down from heaven. God has "delivered
us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the Kingdom of His
dear Son, in Whom we have redemption through His blood" (Col. 1:13,
14), which would be impossible if Christ were not the King of a present
Kingdom. Those who are in His Kingdom are saved; those who are without
are perishing.
Jesus Christ is "The King, eternal,
immortal, invisible" (1 Tim. 1:17). He is 'The blessed and only potentate,
the King of kings and Lord of lords" (id. 6:15).
Despite the
opposition of the kings, rulers and peoples of the earth, "God has set
His King upon His holy hill of Zion" (Ps. 2:6; Acts 4:25-28). It was
foretold of Him that the LORD would send the rod (or sceptre) of His strength
out of Zion;
that He would
rule in the midst of His enemies; and that His people should be willing
in the day of His power (Ps. 110-2,3). This is "the day of His power."
We have His own word for it that all power is given Him in heaven and on
earth (Matt. 28:18). God has sent the rod of His strength, "the Spirit of
power" (II Tim. 1:7) out of Zion, where His throne is. His people are
"willing." It's the whosoever wills that are saved, those who
willingly obey the gospel-call to repentance toward God and faith towards our
Lord Jesus Christ. Those who will not obey Him are yet in their sins.
These fulfil the prophetic parable He spake concerning a certain nobelman who
went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return, and
whose "citizens hated him, and sent a message after him saying, We WILL
NOT HAVE this man to reign over us" (Luke 19:11-14).
He is reigning in the midst of His enemies; for His willing people, those who willingly take His yoke upon them and learn of Him, who willingly obey "the law of Christ," are surrounded by the enemies of Christ, both human enemies and also principalities and powers of evil.
And "He must reign," in the
midst of those enemies, "until He hath put all enemies under His
feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." That will be
at the resurrection of the dead at the last day; For "then cometh the end,
when He shall have delivered up the Kingdom to God, even the Father,
when He shall have put down all rule and all authority and power" (I Cor.
15:24-26).
By this Scripture it is seen that our
dispensationalists place the beginning of the Kingdom of Christ just
where He delivers up the Kingdom of God the Father.
Those who postpone the Kingdom of God to
a future day and make it a kingdom in which our glorified Lord reigns over men
in the flesh, Jews and Gentiles, among whom sin and death still operate, where
"the child shall die an hundred years old;
but the sinner,
being an hundred years old shall be accursed" (Isa. 65:20), do grievously
misinterpret the Scriptures and debase the glorious Kingdom of our blessed Lord
and Saviour.
It should suffice to correct this
erroneous view concerning the future Kingdom of glory, that "the nations
of them which are saved" are not seen in "the thousand years" of
Revelation XX, but in "the new heavens and earth" of Chapter XXI. And
there too is the Jerusalem which is now above and "which is the mother of us
all," upon whose gates are the names of the twelve tribes of the children
of Israel and in whose foundations are the names of the twelve apostles of the
Lamb (Rev. 21:12, 14, 24). And this is the true outlook and prospect of God's
people, for which we should be looking and longing (II Pet. 3;12,13).
The subject upon which we are meditating
is truly of vita! importance; for the gospel of God concerning His Son
is emphatically the "gospel of the Kingdom" (Matt. 24:14). I
attribute the lamentable paucity of the results of gospel preaching in this
twentieth century to the success of the "Fundamentalists" in
converting so many to the idea that the Kingdom of God has been postponed to a
future dispensation. The remedy is for the servants of Christ to devote their
energies and resources to the unfinished business of the great evangelist, Paul
— "preaching the Kingdom of God" (Acts 28:31).
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