CHAPTER XX
THE COMING KINGDOM
The drama which has been unrolled before our eyes in the events of the
"times of the Gentiles" has been a dark and tragic one, presenting
little on which the spiritual mind can rest with pleasure or complacency.
How could the ravages of wild beasts be a pleasant spectacle to rational
men? How could the triumphs of Satan, the wars and bloodshed of mutually
antagonistic nations, the great systematic organizations of evil, the
oppressions and persecutions of the people of God, the oppositions and
blasphemies of the apostasy, form anything but a painful subject of contemplation
to those who have the love of God shed abroad in their hearts, and who
enjoy the peace which passeth all understanding ? With a sense of relief
we turn from the history of the past to the Bible pictures of the future,
from the now nearly finished "times of the Gentiles" to the
blessed "times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord"
which are to follow! The stormy and painful past can only safely be studied
in the light of the calm, glad future. Only when the glory of a perfected
redemption is allowed to irradiate the dark enigmas of Divine Providence
does their meaning become clear. Then we perceive "the end of the
Lord," that He is very pitiful and of tender mercy, and that though
the bud may have a bitter taste, yet sweet will be the flower. Even a
human plan cannot be criticised until it is complete. If prophecy does
not enable us to understand fully the complete plan of Providence in the
creation and redemption of mankind, yet it puts us at any rate in a better
position to judge of it than we can be without its help. There remains
much that is mysterious, and we must wait for the explanation of many
difficulties, suggested by its very revelations. "The secret things
belong to God, but those that are revealed to us and to our children."
The entire scheme of Providence is not unveiled to us as yet, and we must
not reason about it as if we understood the whole; but nothing should
deter us from receiving and holding for certain truth the plain predictions
of Scripture as to the future. We must neither over-estimate our knowledge,
on the one hand, nor under-estimate the amount of revealed truth, on the
other; neither neglect or ignore any single plain prediction of prophecy,
nor indulge in baseless speculation where Scripture gives no light.
We have considered the kingdoms of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome;
it remains to consider that of the Son of man and of the saints. What
are the peculiarities by which this future kingdom of God is distinguished
from His present kingdom, the "kingdom of heaven," of which
our Lord so frequently speaks in the Gospels? It is important that its
distinctive features should be recognised, lest difficulties should arise
from confusion of thought.
It is the kingdom for whose advent Christ taught us to pray, saying, "Thy
kingdom come" -one consequently which was not then present, and which
is not yet so, seeing that this prayer is still offered by the Church.
Now there is a dominion or rule of God which cannot come, because it is
always in existence; in the broadest sense His kingdom is from everlasting
to everlasting, for His essential rule over all began with the first act
of creation, and must endure for ever. This essential dominion comprises
two parts; an acknowledged and manifested rule over the unfallen, and
a secret control over the fallen-an over-ruling of their evil for good,
exercised even during the period of their open rebellion against His authority.
His dominion or kingdom has never ceased or been interrupted in the case
of the holy angels, but it has been thrown off completely in the case
of fallen angels and in that of sinful men. The kingdom of God for which
we pray, as still to come, consequently is the manifested restoration
of His authority over His fallen and rebellious creatures on earth; it
is that state of things in which His will shall again be done on earth
as it is in heaven; that is, perfectly and universally. This double aspect
of the kingdom of God is recognised in the Lord’s prayer; as to His
essential and eternal rule over the whole creation we are taught to say,
"Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever and ever";
while as to His manifestly restored authority in this rebellious world
we are directed to pray, " Thy kingdom come."
The redeeming work of Christ has already restored the authority of God
in the hearts and lives of His people; it is willingly acknowledged by
them in theory even now, though imperfectly owned in practice; the laws
of God are to some extent written in their hearts and minds. But this
kingdom of God is a spiritual one, a hidden and not a manifested one;
it is the kingdom of God in a mystery. The future dominion of Christ is
to be an open, manifest reign over the nations of the earth; a reign in
which the King Himself will be visibly present among men, in which His
righteous will shall be fully and clearly made known, and His just authority
rigorously and constantly enforced, by the punishment of all rebels, and
by the open reward of the faithful: a kingdom in which all enemies will
be subdued under His feet.
This kingdom is represented in Daniel as destined immediately to succeed
the four universal monarchies, whose conjoint existence occupies the "times
of the Gentiles,"-as immediately following the fall of Rome, the
fourth and last. In the earlier vision of the image we read that on its
destruction the stone that smote it "became a great mountain, and
filled the whole earth"; and, in the interpretation of the symbol,
that at the close of the tenfold condition of Rome, "the God of heaven
shall set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom
shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume
all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever." In the later vision
of the four beasts the same truth is reiterated, and it is stated that
on the overthrow of Rome "behold, one like the Son of man came with
the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought
Him near before Him. And there was given Him dominion, and glory, and
a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve Him:
His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and
His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed." And again in the
close of the interpretation we read, "But the judgment shall sit,
and they shall take away his (i.e. Rome’s) dominion, to consume and
to destroy it unto the end. And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness
of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall he given to the people of
the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and all dominions shall serve and obey Him."
This is all that is revealed in Daniel about the kingdom of the Son of
man and of the saints; twenty-five centuries full of events of momentous
interest had to intervene before the close of the "times of the Gentiles,"
and the light of the earlier prophecies was made to fall on that long
interval, rather than on its close. The broad fact was presented that
at last the wild-beast empires should come to an end; that the persecutions
and blasphemies of the "little horn" should cease for ever,
and be followed by the glorious reign of Christ aud His saints. But of
this final kingdom no particulars were given, save that it should last
for ever, and never be succeeded or replaced by any other dominion. Unlike
the previous empires, which each in turn fell, and made room for its successor,
this kingdom was to be everlasting, "it shall stand for ever".
According to the plan consistently pursued in sacred prophecy however,
fuller light on this subject was given later on; progressive revelations,
as to the distinctive features of this future kingdom of God, were made
by Christ Himself and His apostles; and in the closing visions of the
Apocalypse given to John in Patmos, the nature and divisions, the blessings
and the glories of it, were unfolded, as well as the order of events connected
with its introduction. There it is clearly revealed that, as might have
been expected, a period of time and a series of events which together
constitute what we may call THE SECOND ADVENT ERA, will intervene between
the end of old Rome and the full establishment of the eternal kingdom
of God on earth. It is shown that the coming kingdom is to be divided
chronologically into two parts: a first, or opening section, which is
to last for a thousand years; and a second, or main portion, which is
to last for ever. We speak of the first, in consequence of its predicted
duration, as the MILLENNIUM, and of the second, because of its endlessness,
as THE ETERNAL KINGDOM. These two sections bear to each other the relation
of a portico to a building, or of birth to life, the one being merely
a brief introduction to the other. The millennial reign of Christ is an
introductory time of putting down all rule and authority and power, of
bringing everything into subjection to Divine authority, of giving men
one last supreme season of probation under the righteous government of
Christ Himself. It is the final stage in the work of redemption prior
to the introduction of its eternal results. It closes by the destruction
of the last enemy, death, together with the final expulsion and punishment
of its author; and the eternal kingdom dates from this close and completion
of the redeeming work of Christ.
The statements of Scripture leave no room whatever to question that the
millennial reign of Christ is distinctly a part of the mediatorial work,
by which the human race is redeemed and placed in a better position than
that which Adam lost. The progress of that redemption has already been
divided into three well-marked stages, and the millennial reign is simply
a fourth. Each age has been like a higher form in a school, an advance
on the previous one, both in the revelation which it has made of God-His
will, His character, His purposes,-and in the degree of saving blessing
which it has brought to mankind. The patriarchal age revealed the power
of God to create and (in the good) to destroy; but from Adam to Moses
there was no law, no moral law, to make known the Divine holiness, no
ceremonial law to typify the great salvation to be revealed in its season.
Judaism brought both of these, and then Christianity brought the great
salvation itself. Thus the creative power, the perfect holiness, and the
wondrous grace of God our Saviour have been all duly illustrated in succession;
but the governmental power, the righteousness and justice of God, blended
with infinite love, are yet to be fully manifested on earth, and the millennial
reign of Christ is the age in which this last manifestation is to take
place. The Christian dispensation has been one of forbearance with sin
and of grace to sinners, but one in which God’s power and justice
have been almost as much concealed in His dealings with the world at large-as
His glory. But the millennial age is fully to exhibit these attributes;
it is to be a reign of righteousness, a time of rewarding His saints and
servants, a time of destroying those that destroy the earth, of ruling
all nations with a rod of iron,- that is, in inflexible justice and resistless
strength. "He that overcometh, and keepeth My works unto the end,
to him will I give power over the nations: and he shall rule them with
a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers:
even as I received of My Father." " Behold, a King shall reign
in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment." "He shall
judge Thy people with righteousness, and Thy poor with judgment; He shall
break in pieces the oppressor. In His days shall the righteous flourish."
"The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see
it together." It is the age of the manifestation of the power, righteousness,
and glory of God in Christ.
But just as all the previous ages or dispensations of Providence, which
have afforded so many stages of probation to mankind, have ended in apostasy
and judgment, so, according to the teachings of Scripture, will even this
millennial age, although so supremely blessed and glorious during its
course. It is not only introduced by an era of judgment (#Rev 19:19-21)
but, like all previous dispensations, it closes with a similar era (#Rev
20:7-15). The opening era witnesses the destruction of the Roman beast,
with his false prophet and worshippers, the kings of the earth and their
armies, together with the binding of Satan for a thousand years; while
the closing era witnesses the final destruction of Satan, and of the rebel
hosts gathered through his deceptions, as well as the destruction of the
last enemy, death and hades being cast into the lake of five (#Rev 20:10,
13). Then-the work of redeeming the race of the first Adam having been
fully accomplished by the second Adam, the woman’s Seed having crushed
the serpent’s head,-the mediatorial kingdom of Christ passes into
His eternal kingdom, as it is written:
"Then cometh the end, when lie shall have delivered up the kingdom
to God, even the Father; when He shall have put down all rule and all
authority and power. For He must reign, till He hath put all enemies under
His feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. . . . And when
all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall the Son also Himself
be subject unto Him that put all things under Him, that God may be all
in all."
As Mediator, He delivers up the kingdom to God, even the Father, while
as God and Man He continues to reign for ever and ever, for the
eternal throne is "the throne of God and of the Lamb."
Christ is perfect God and perfect Man, in
two distinct natures and in one Person for ever. As very God of very God,
He is one with the eternal Father; and as Man, He is one with His redeemed people. But He is also a mediator between God and a
fallen world. In the fulfilment of this office He veiled for a time His
Divine glory, and though truly God, ‘made Himself of no reputation,
and took upon Him the form of a servant.’ Therefore He will also
hereafter, as Mediator; exercise for a season a peculiar dominion, till
all enemies shall be subdued under His feet. The era of this peculiar
sovereignty will be the millennium, or the day of future judgment. As
God, He will share for ever in the supreme worship and dominion rendered
to God the Father. The throne which is surrounded with eternal adoration
is the throne ‘of God and of the Lamb.’ As Man, He will also
enjoy an everlasting dominion, to be shared with His people. But the peculiar
dominion which He holds as Mediator will cease. When death, the last enemy,
shall be destroyed, its purpose will have been completely attained. The
God-Man will then resign that special dominion which He has held during
the time of judgment. Thenceforth, as the Lamb in the midst of the throne
He will share in His Father’s glory; and, as the Son of man, He will
never cease to exercise visible sovereignty over a ransomed universe."(Rev. J. R. Birks
" The First Two Visions of Daniel," p. 872.)
Later Scriptures about the kingdom thus amplify the brief, condensed,
early predictions of Daniel. Similarly, in the earliest prophecies of
the coming of Christ, His first and second advents were so blended, that
they could not be distinguished apart; while in later ones there were
intimations that the advent must be doubled, for Messiah was to be "cut
off," on the one hand, and to reign for ever, on the other. It was
not until the time of the first advent itself that it was made clear to
the minds of His disciples that the sufferings of Christ must by a considerable
interval precede "the glories that should follow"; and even
they never understood how long an interval was to elapse between His advent
to suffer and His advent to reign. So, as regards this kingdom. As foretold
by Daniel, it seemed to be one; as more distinctly predicted in the New
Testament, it is evidently twofold, like a star that to the naked eye
may appear single, while under the telescope it shows itself to be double.
It is important that this peculiarity of prophecy should be borne in mind,
so that the fuller particulars of subsequent visions may be welcomed as
giving additional light. The latest prophecy of the kingdom,-which is
that in #Rev 19 - #Rev 22, —should he allowed to cast its final rays
back over all the earlier predictions on the subject, and its consecutive
visions should be employed to bind together in their proper order the
separate links of previous prophecies.
It must be carefully noted that while, as regards its subjects, the millennium
is only a final stage of probation to mankind, and no part of the eternal
state, yet as regards its rulers, the Son of man and the saints, their
eternal state has already commenced before it is inaugurated. This is
involved in the fact of the pre-millennial advent. The Lord Jesus Christ,
as Son of man, has already risen from the dead; death has no more dominion
over Him; He is already clothed with a spiritual body, and His saints
are to be raised and changed into His likeness, at His coming. "Christ
the first-fruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at His coming."
"When He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him
as He is." Raised from the dead, or changed, if living, at the voice
of. the archangel and the trump of God, clad in the twinkling of an eye
in glorious, incorruptible, immortal, spiritual bodies, His saints are
"to meet the Lord in the air," and thenceforth their eternal
state is begun; the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His Church is for
ever united to Christ in resurrection glory. It is as risen and glorified
that "the people of the saints of the Most High take the kingdom
and possess it for ever." Those who live and reign with Christ are
those who have suffered with Him, including especially the martyrs, who
laid down their lives for His sake, and the apostles, to whom their Master
said:
"Ye are they which have continued with Me in My temptations. And
I appoint unto you a kingdom, as My Father hath appointed unto Me; that
ye may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and sit on thrones judging
the twelve tribes of Israel." [#Luke 22:28-30.]
To the already risen and glorified, to those already clad in spiritual
bodies like our Lord’s own body after His resurrection, earthly changes
make no difference, their eternal state has already begun. Not in the
thousand years of the millennium alone are His saints to live and reign
with Christ, but as Daniel distinctly says, "for ever, even for ever
and ever." So far then as the Church of which we are members is concerned,
our eternal state commences at the first resurrection, before the millennium.
Nothing that takes place during its course or subsequently can in any
wise alter or affect the condition of the Church, "which is His body,
the fulness of Him that filleth all in all." This is clear, for the
utmost perfection of creature existence must consist in full union to
God, and the marriage of the Lamb brings this to His blood-bought Church.
Even now we know what it is to be one with Christ in spirit, for "he
that is joined to the Lord is one spirit." But this is regarded in
Scripture merely as betrothal; in resurrection there will be that fuller
and more perfect union symbolised by marriage. The latter as contrasted
with the former is not a passing, but a permanent condition.
"‘The husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the
head of the Church. . . . Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also
loved the Church, and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and
cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that He might present
it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such
thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to
love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth
it, even as the Lord the Church; for we are members of his body, of his
flesh, and of His bones. . . . This is a great mystery; but I speak concerning
Christ and the Church."
The first resurrection or marriage of the Lamb introduces the eternal
future of the Church.
But the Church is not all that Christ has redeemed by His atoning death;
on the contrary, it is only as the "first fruits" of a great
harvest. The whole "Church of the first born" of all lands and
ages, though "a great multitude which no man can number,"[!!]
bears the same relation to the entire number of the redeemed as the "first
fruits" presented of old before God to time entire harvest of the
country. This is distinctly stated in Scripture: "Of His own will
begat He us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first
fruits of His creatures." [#Jas 1:18.] In order then to obtain clear
conceptions of the teachings of Scripture as to the future kingdom of
Christ, it is needful to bear in mind
1. That the kingdom of the Son of man and of the saints, which is to succeed
that of Rome, is an everlasting kingdom, never to be succeeded by any
other-the last form of government which this earth is ever to know-the
eternal, manifested kingdom of God over the redeemed race of man.
2. That the millennium is only the first thousand years of this never-ending
reign.
3. That this introductory section is distinguished by its being the closing
age or dispensation of this old world, prior to the creation of "the
new heavens and the new earth" that it is part of the work of redemption,
and not a part of its perfected results.
4. That during the course of the millennium redeemed humanity has not
entered on its eternal state, though the saints who rise in the first
resurrection and who live and reign with Christ, "the Church of the
first born," have dominion.
5. That to Daniel in Old Testament times, the historical position of this
kingdom alone was revealed, without any detail as to its character and
course; and that to John in Patmos, six hundred years later, after the
first advent, much fuller particulars were made known, so that the Apocalypse
gives in detail the order of the events destined to occur both in time
pre-millennial advent era, and in the post- millennial transition from
the introductory thousand years to the eternal portion of the kingdom
of God.
The order of events which it reveals in its closing chapters (#Rev 18
#Rev 19.) must not be changed or reversed. It is the final programme of
the future. It puts first the fall of Babylon, followed immediately by
the marriage of the Lamb, involving the "first resurrection"
or resurrection of saints. Then the glorious epiphany of Christ and His
saints for the final Armageddon conflict and victory. Next the binding
of Satan, and the millennial reign of Christ and His saints, followed
by the loosing of Satan for a little season, the post-millennial apostasy,
and the judgment on it, the final destruction of Satan, the judgment of
the dead, the second death, and then the descent of the New Jerusalem
and the eternal kingdom of God.
This is the order in which the Divine visions follow each other in the
closing chapters of the Apocalypse, and there is no warrant whatever for
any transposition of the events symbolised. Here is the detailed Divine
programme of what we may call THE SECOND ADVENT ERA, the period between
the fall of Babylon, or final end of Rome Papal, and the full establishment
of the eternal kingdom of God on earth. The "times of the Gentiles,"
lasting twenty-five centuries, were introduced, as we have seen, by the
captivity era,-a transition period of one hundred and sixty years in length,
during which Jewish power was declining, and Gentile power rising triumphant
over it. The nineteen centuries of the Christian dispensation were introduced,
as we have seen, by a Messianic and apostolic era of a century in length.
Similarly the 1,260 years of the apostasy were introduced by the bisection
era of the rise of the apostasies, of over a century in length. What wonder
if the era of transition between the six thousand years of the dominion
of Satan over this world, and the ETERNAL KINGDOM or God be a period of
a thousand years!
We are now living in "the time of the end" of the Gentile age.
The millennium itself with its introductory and closing events, may be
regarded as "the time of time end" of the entire story of man’s
redemption and restoration to full fellowship with God; for we must repeat
that though the Church has reached her full perfection prior to its commencement,
the rest of the redeemed do not do so until its close. To mankind at large
the millennial reign is indeed the Sabbath of its long week of sin and
sorrow, toil and suffering, a bright earnest of the full blessedness which
awaits it in the "new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness."
But it is nevertheless widely different from that perfected condition;
for not until it is over, not until after the final judgment of the wicked,
and the destruction of Satan and of death, is it said of the state of
things which is to succeed the millennium and last for ever, "that
there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall
there be any more pain : for time former things are passed away,"
and "all things" made "new."
Even the glorious millennial reign is closed by a fresh outbreak of rebellion
and apostasy, bringing down fresh judgments and destructions; but in the
new heavens and in the new earth such experiences are for ever excluded.
The blessedness of the nations of the saved is never again to be disturbed
by sin and Satan, by death and judgment: in the eternal kingdom there
shall be "no more curse," but unbroken peace and joy in perfect
fellowship with God, in paradise restored in the new earth.
Index Preface 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Appendix A Appendix B
