CHRIST'S KINGDOM by Milton C. Wilcox

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 17, 1879

CHRIST'S KINGDOM.

By Milton C. Wilcox

We agree with all Christian denominations that the kingdom spoken of in Dan. 2:34, 35, 44, 45, and 7:14, 27, is the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We do not agree with those who assert that this kingdom was set up at the first advent or on the day of Pentecost. Acts 2:1, etc.

We could not agree with them for the following reasons:—

1. “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.” 1 Cor. 15:50. We learn from this text, (1) that the kingdom of God is an immortal or incorruptible kingdom; and (2) that mortal men have no place in that kingdom. That mortal men have lived with and without Christ since the time of the first advent, of course none will deny.

2. The kingdom of Christ will destroy, break in pieces, and utterly consume all the kingdoms of this world, that no place will be found for them. Dan. 2:35, 44.

3. Christ's kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36), or, of this world in its present state. Compare with 2 Pet. 3:5-7, 13; Isa. 65:17; 66:22; Rev. 21:1, 5.

4. Peace, joy, love, and unalloyed happiness are to exist in the kingdom of Christ; while sorrow, strife, and all sin, and its effects, will be banished thence. Rev. 21:3, 4, 8; 22:5; 2 Pet. 3:13; Isa. 35.

Yet in the face of all this evidence, which is not a tithe of what might be adduced, its many ministers and professors of theology would have us believe that we are living in Christ's kingdom. Pitiful theology! Christ's kingdom, when heathen Rome was slaying nations, and wading in the blood of human sacrifice! Christ's glorious kingdom, during the “ten persecutions”! Messiah's everlasting kingdom, when the saints, “the children of the kingdom,” were well nigh destroyed by Papal Rome during the 1260 years of Papal supremacy! Christ's peaceful kingdom, during the dismemberment of the Roman empire, that deluged the earth in blood; during the revolution of 1848, which shook the world to the very center; during our own civil war, in which the blood of thousands was shed and all the land was in mourning and tears! Christ's immortal kingdom, while famine, war, disease, pestilence, and death in all its terrible forms, continue to ravage the earth, sweeping off countless victims in their awful desolations! No; it is not the kingdom of our Lord. The world, physical, political, religious, groaning and travailing, tells us it is not. God's word tells us it is not.

But the kingdom is near. Our Saviour tells his disciples that after the fulfillment of certain signs in the heavens and earth, we “shall see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory;” that “our redemption draweth nigh,” and that “the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.” And then adds, “Heaven and earth shall pass away; but my words shall not pass away.” Luke 21:25-33. Those signs have passed. What next?—The kingdom.

It comes with the second advent of our Lord. Paul places them together; 2 Tim. 4:1; 1 Thess. 4:15-17; and John, Rev. 14:14 with 15:2, 3. The faithful shall inherit it. Gal. 3:7, 29. We enter it “through much tribulation.” Acts 14:22; 2 Tim. 3:12. The overcomers shall inherit all these things (Rev. 21:7); for “He is faithful that promised.” Oh! glorious kingdom! Oh! glorious King! “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in Heaven.” “Amen. Even so come, Lord Jesus.”

MILTON C. WILCOX.