THE TWO KINGDOMS OF CHRIST.
1. When our Lord finishes His priesthood and comes the second time, what will take place? “Then cometh the end [of the age], Matt. 28:20; 13:39], “when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when He [the Father] shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign [upon the Father’s throne], till He [the Father] hath put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For He hath put all things under His feet. But when He saith all things are put under Him, it is manifest that He is excepted, which did put all things under Him. 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.” 1 Cor. 15:24–28. 2. What is the throne called where Christ now reigns? “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace.” Heb. 4:16. 3. When did He take this throne of the Father? “When He [the Father] raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand.” Eph. 1:20; Heb. 8:1, 2. 4. What did the Father say to the Son at this time? “Jehovah said unto my Lord, Sit Thou at My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool. . . . Jehovah hath sworn and will not repent, Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” Ps. 110:1, 4; Acts 2:34–36. 5. Who then puts “down all rule and all authority and power”? “The Father, according to His promise.” 6. Where, and as what, does Christ reign until this is done? “On the Father’s throne, at His ‘right hand.’” 7. What promise to Abraham is thus fulfilled? “Thy seed shall possess the gate of His enemies.” Gen. 22:17. 8. When He shall have finished this priesthood for fallen man, what will He then do? “Then cometh the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father.” See above, No. 1. 9. What does the Father then give Him? “I saw [right down in the close of probationary time, see verses 10, 11, 14] in the night visions, and, 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.” Dan. 7:13, 14. 10. What is this kingdom called elsewhere? 11. How much did these promises to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David include? “For the promise, that he [Abraham] should be the heir of the world, was . . . through the righteousness of faith.” Rom. 4:13. NOTE.—It is the one promise to the Seed from the beginning, through Seth and Noah and Abraham and Isaac and Israel and Judah and Jesus and David and Solomon. 12. What was the extent of the dominion given to man in the beginning? “The earth hath He given to the children of men.” Ps. 115:16. 13. What solemn assurance has God given of this, despite the curse of sin? “For thus saith Jehovah that created the heavens; God Himself that formed the earth and made it; He hath established it, He created it not in vain. He formed it to be inhabited; I am Jehovah; and there is none else.” Isa. 45:18. 14. When will this prophecy be fulfilled? After the wicked are destroyed, and the earth renewed. “For evil-doers shall be cut off; but those that wait upon Jehovah, they shall inherit the earth. For yet a little while and the wicked shall not be; yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.” Ps. 37:9–11. See also verse 34; 2 Peter 3:7–13, et al. 15. For how long shall God’s children possess such a kingdom? “Jehovah knoweth the days of the upright; and their inheritance shall be forever.” Ps. 37:18, 29. “Thy people also shall be all righteous; they shall inherit the land forever, the branch of My planting, the work of My hands, that I may be glorified.” See Isa. 60:18–22; 54:17. “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, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him.” Dan. 7:27. See also Revelation 21, 22. NOTE.—There is much, very, very much more which God’s precious Word has to say on the kingdom of our God. Each soul is in himself in a way typical of the earth. It is by struggle, crucifixion, tribulation that he enters the kingdom and Christ reigns in his heart. So the earth must pass through her long suffering of sin from Adam until the coming of Jesus, through the millennium of desolation when the void earth shall rest (for the saints are in the New Jerusalem above, and the wicked in their graves), through the purifying fires at the end of the thousand years, and then an eternity of bliss. Reader, God invites you to this everlasting kingdom.