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Last Updated on :
Saturday, November 22, 2014

 

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Contents|| Preface || 1 || 2 || 3 || 4 || 5 || 6 || 7 || 8 || 9 || 10 || 11 ||12 ||13 || 14 ||

 

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Christ on Earth Again


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CHAPTER IV
THE KINGDOM THAT IS COMING


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WHAT we have submitted in the foregoing chapters concerning the second appearing of Christ and the work to be done in connection with that event is immeasurably strengthened by a contemplation of the nature of the Kingdom of God as revealed in the Scriptures of the prophets, and in the teaching of Christ and his Apostles. The modern understanding of the phrase (the Kingdom of God) is but the merest shadow of the Scriptural
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idea. We have to go wider afield, and take many things into view before we see the Bible conception of the Kingdom of God. The kingdom of Israel was the Kingdom of God in a preliminary phase. It is so styled (2 Chron. 13 : 8 and 1 Chron. 17 : 14), and because it was so in fact : for in every element of its constitution, it was a divine work by visible operation, from the rescue of the people from Egyptian bondage to the last message of inspiration. It was removed because of the insubordination of Israel in many generations. As it is written, .. Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom, and 1 will destroy it from off the face of the earth; saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith the Lord" (Amos 9: 8). God purposes the restoration of this overthrown kingdom. "I will raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I wI1l build it as in the days of old" (verse 11).
This kingdom of Israel restored is the Bible conception of the Kingdom of God. The question put by the apostles to Christ before his ascension is enough to show this: "Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? " (Acts 1 : 6). If it needs confirmation, the confirmation is found in the promise of Christ to them. "When the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel" (Matt. 19: 28), and in Paul's description of the gospel as " the hope of Israel", to which the twelve tribes looked forward (Acts 28 : 20; 26: 7).
It shines especially in the covenant of the land to Abraham and his seed, which is the groundwork of the Kingdom of God. We must keep all our spiritual ideas fastened here as with hooks of steel. It is impossible for diligent and intelligent readers of the Scriptures to miss this as a first principle.
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The promise to Abraham as recorded in Genesis is without ambiguity: "For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever" (Gen. 13: 15). The very frequent allusions, throughout the Scriptures, to the relations subsisting between Israel and God, lay hold of this land covenant as defining the essence of that relation in its briefest, pithiest form. "An everlasting covenant, saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance" (Psa. 105: 10-11). The apostolic application of the matter connects it with the essential fabric of the one faith and hope for believers: "God gave it (the inheritance) to Abraham by promise"
(Gal. 3 : 18); "a place which he should after receive for an inheritance • . . He sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country" (Heb. 11: 8, 9). "To Abraham and his seed (which is Christ) were t,)J.e promises made ... And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise" (Gal. 3 : 16, 29).
Paul tells us that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob saw these promises afar off (Heb. 11 : 13), and that though strangers and pilgrims on the earth, they, nevertheless, sought a country-the promised country-a better country than the one Abraham had left by command, to which he had it in his power to return if he had been so minded-the betterness consisting of this, that it was " a heavenly country "-not heaven, but a country of heavenly character, a city or polity having foundations (which no Gentile country has-Babylonish or British) whose builder and maker is God. The prophets abound with indications of the characteristics that will constitute the land of Canaan a heavenly country in the day of the fulfilled promise-a city having foundations, with God for its architect.
1. A supernal condition of the land physically.
"They shall say, This land that was desolate is
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become like the garden of Eden" (Ezek. 36: 35). " Whereas thou hast been forsaken and hated so that no man went through thee, I will make thee an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations" (Isa. 60: 15). "The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir tree and the pine tree and the box together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary, and I will make the place of my feet glorious" (verse 13).
2. The blessed state of the inhabitants.-" The inhabitant shall not say, I am sick" (Isa. 33: 24). " Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing" (35: 5, 6). "The voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying. There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days; for the child shall die an hundred years old . . . They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble"
(65: 19, 20, 23).
3. The enlightened character of the population.
"Thy people shall be all righteous; they shall inherit the land for ever" (Isa. 60: 21). " They shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord" (Jer. 31 : 34). "They shall use this speech in the land of Judah, and in the cities thereof, when I shall bring again their captivity, The Lord bless thee, 0 habitation of justice, and mountain of holiness" (31 : 23).
4. The powerful influence for good it will exercise in all the earth.-" The Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit" (Jer. 16: 19). " The isles shall wait for his law" (Isa. 42: 4). "Out of
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Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem" (Isa. 2: 3). "Many people and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of Hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts: In those days it shall come to pass that ten men out of all the languages of the nations shall even take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you" (Zech. 8: 22, 23).

 


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