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 HATEVER may be
said of the preaching of the glad tidings of the Kingdom or reign of
God, of Christ and of heaven, as preparatory to its full
establishment on earth, it is most evident, from innumerable divine
testimonies, that this glorious kingdom is still future. He whose
right it is, has gone to receive it and to return to possess it with
his saints. Lu 19:11-27 Eze 21:27; clearly prove that the
Kingdom of God has not yet appeared.
Da 7:13,14. “I say in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of
man came with the clouds of heaven (referring to Christ’s second
coming: ‘Behold he cometh with clouds,’ &c.; Re 1:7)- and
there was given him dominion and glory, and a kingdom that ALL
people, nations and languages should serve him,”&c. This has not yet
been fulfilled. The nations “have set themselves against Jehovah and
against his anointed.” He will dash them to pieces as a potter’s
vessel, and “the kingdom and dominion and the greatness of the
kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the
saints of the most High,”&c. Da 7:27.
Observe, this kingdom is not to be in some distant region of space,
nor is it a mere spiritual matter. “The kingdoms of THIS WORLD” are
to “become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ.” It is the
kingdom UNDER the whole heaven that is to be given to the saints.
“We shall reign ON THE EARTH;” Re 5:10; have “power over the
nations;” Re 2:26; “inherit the earth,” Mt 5:5; “reign
with Christ,” Re 20:4; when he shall come to be glorified in
his saints and to take vengeance on his enemies. See Da
2:34,35.
On this very theater, where Jehovah has been dishonored by the
rejection of his only begotten Son, he will glorify his great Name
by exalting his beloved on the throne of his father David, causing
all nations to bow down before him and serve him. He who was here
despised and rejected of men, shall here be acknowledged as their
rightful Lord and King. When he shall have trodden the wine press of
his Father’s wrath, and destroyed the man of sin by the brightness
of his coming, he shall sway his blessed scepter of righteousness,
of peace, and love, over the whole earth. All shall be fulfilled,
for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
With this kingdom our hour of death has no connection. It existeth
not, in the proper sense, until the seventh angel shall sound the
trump of God; Re 11:15. It cannot be established until the
King himself comes.
It is a truth too much overlooked by Christians, that the exceeding
great and precious promises of their future felicity have reference,
not to any happiness to be enjoyed by disembodied spirits in the
intermediate state; but to their participation in their Redeemer’s
kingdom when he comes. Of this kingdom they are “joint-heirs with
Christ.” When, I ask, according to the scriptures, are we to enter
into life”-“into the joy of (our) Lord”-to be with him-to “see him
as he is,” and be “like him,” and “shine forth in the kingdom of
(our) Father?” When are we to receive the reward of grace and enter
upon the “many mansions” our most gracious Lord has gone to prepare
for us? Our Savior himself teaches us most plainly that it will not
be until he shall “come again,” “I will come again and receive you
to myself; that where I am, there shall ye be also.” Joh 14:3.
“For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his
angels; and THEN shall he reward every man according to his works.”
Mt 16:27. “Thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the
just.” Lu 14:14. It is “when the Son of man shall come in his
glory,” and not at the hour of death, that he shall cheer our hearts
with the thrilling welcome, “Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit
the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”
Mt 25:31-34. It is “when Christ who is our life shall appear,” that
we shall “appear with him in glory.” Col 3:4. It is when he
cometh after a long time to reckon with his servants that he shall
say to his faithful one; “Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”
Mt 25:19,21. It is not until the harvest, which is “the end of the
world,” or present state, that the righteous shall shine forth in
the kingdom of their Father. Mt 13:30,39,43. So David looked
for the satisfying glory, not to the hour of death, but to the
resurrection morning. “As for me, I shall behold thy face in
righteousness. (When?) I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy
likeness.” Ps 17:15. He looked “for the Savior, the Lord Jesus
Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned
like unto his glorious body.” Php 3:21.
Paul had no expectation of receiving his crown unto the day of his
Lord’s appearing, 2Ti 4:8. Indeed, all the ransomed are
represented as waiting for their salvation until that day. “He will
swallow up death in victory-And it shall be said in that day, Lo,
this is our God; WE HAVE WAITED FOR HIM, and he will save us: this
is the Lord, we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in
his salvation.” Isa 25:8,9 Ro 8:18-23 confirms the same
precious truth. “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present
time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be
revealed in us.” When? At death? No. “For the earnest expectation of
the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God-“to
wit, THE REDEMPTION OF OUR BODY.” “To be clothed upon with our house
which is from heaven-i.e., the incorruptible body,)- that mortality
might be swallowed up of life.” 2Co 5:1-4. “I pray God your
whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the
coming of the Lord Jesus Christ!” 1Th 5:23. “And then shall ye
see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And
when these things begin to come to pass THEN look up and lift up
your heads for your redemption draweth nigh.” Lu 21:27. “When
the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory
that fadeth not away.” 1Pe 5:4.
Why were the Thessalonian Christians directed to wait for their
Savior from heaven, if they were going to heaven to him eighteen
hundred years before he was to come from heaven? 1Th 1:10 2Th
3:5 7. The Bible represents the great object of the saint’s hope to
be, not any felicity in the intermediate state, but the coming of
Jesus Christ, our resurrection from the dead, and our gathering
together unto him in his kingdom.
“Fear not little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to
give you the kingdom.”“ Behold what manner of love the Father hath
bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God-and it
doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that when he shall
appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is.” “And I
appoint unto you a kingdom as my Father hath appointed unto me.” “To
him that overcometh will I grant to sit down with me on my
throne,”&c. “Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall
raise up us also by Jesus.” “If by any means I might attain unto the
resurrection from the dead.”“For our conversation is in heaven, from
whence also we look for the Savior, who shall change our vile
body,”&c. “Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing
of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.” “Blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which, according to his
abundant mercy, hath begotten us again to a lively hope, by the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance
incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away, reserved in
heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith unto
salvation, ready to be revealed (when? at death?) in the last time,
wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season if need be ye
are in heaviness through manifold temptations, that the trial of
your faith may be found unto praise and honor and glory (not at
death, but) AT THE APPEARING OF THE LORD JESUS.” “Be sober and hope
to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you (when?) at
the revelation of Jesus Christ.”“ Rejoice inasmuch as ye are
partakers of Christ’s sufferings, that when his glory shall be
revealed ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.”-See also 2Pe
1:10,11 1Jo 2:28; Revelation, chapters 20,21,22 Mt 25:34 Joh 6:40
17:24, comp. Da 7:14; and Mt 25:31 Ro 5:17 2Th 2:14 2Ti
2:12 4:18.
Eternal life and entering into the kingdom of God are essentially
the same. See Mr 9:45,47; and Lu 12:31 8. Among the
innumerable promises, to the saints in general, of future
blessedness, not one is to be found of felicity in the intermediate
state.
The words of our Savior to the individual thief shall hereafter be
considered. The apostle having announced the transcendently glorious
fact of the Lord himself descending from heaven with the voice of
the archangel, and the trump of God, and that the dead in Christ
shall rise first and meet the Lord in the air, exhorts the saints
“to comfort one another with these words,” “concerning them which
are asleep.” “Is this animating truth, or the supposition of going
immediately to heaven, most generally presented by modern preachers
as matter of comfort to dying believers and surviving friends? Alas!
how do our unfounded opinions turn us aside from the living oracles
of God! Is it possible that the apostles could have believed in the
conscious felicity of the saints in the intermediate state, and yet
never refer to such felicity as a source of consolation, as modern
Christians are continually doing? I shall hereafter prove that
2Co 5:8; is no exception. Why should the glory which is more remote
be always presented to the redeemed, as the object of hope, and
matter of consolation, while that which is nearest is never
presented at all? With those who believe the popular theory, it is
precisely the reverse.
It is true that the fact of the glory of the saints not being
consummated, until their Lord shall come and reign, is no proof that
there is no intermediate state of partial felicity. Were this
however true, it would doubtless have been found among the promises
to the saints in general. If the soul (which is certainly the part
of man which was first and chiefly in transgression) is to escape
the penalty of the righteous law of God and never die-if it is
merely to leave the body and enter into the presence of God where is
“fullness of joy,” the apostles would not have directed the saints
to wait for their Lord from heaven for their joy, nor would the
Savior have taught his disciples that they would not see him until
he should “come again.” He did not say “if I go away, “ you shall
come to me at death, but “I will come again and receive you to
myself, that where I am (i.e., in his kingdom, see Mt 25:34)
there ye may be also.”
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