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Thy Kingdom Come

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 25, 1875

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 45, No. 13.

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Thy Kingdom Come.

By Roby Tuttle

We are living in the last days, very near the time when this petition is to be granted, and we need very much of the grace of God. While professors and non-professors are alike running into infidelity and spiritualism, either throwing the Bible entirely away or make it only a metaphor, we who do believe God, and take him at his word, need much heavenly wisdom to sustain us, that we may endure unto the end and be saved. Our divine Master saw our need, and provided for us a throne of grace, to which he bids us come boldly. Not only has he invited us to come to a throne of grace and promised that whosoever will come unto him he will in no wise cast out, but he has taught us how to pray.
He would not have us as the hypocrites are, who pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, or as the heathen, who use vain repetitions, thinking they shall be heard for their much speaking. But he says, “After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil; for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.”
Two ideas we pause to notice: First, we should understand for what we pray; secondly, we should pray with heart felt earnestness. Not simply repeat these words because it is customary or because it is our duty, but remembering Jesus has taught us thus to pray. Therefore, we should pray with the Spirit and with the understanding also, and if we cannot pray thus, let us not repeat this prayer at all. This portion of the prayer which we have chosen for a subject, let us endeavor to understand according to the teachings of Christ, the prophets, and apostles.
Thy kingdom come. The disciples understood by the Scriptures that God had promised that the kingdom of David should sometime be restored by the Messiah. They knew God had promised David that of the fruit of his loins according to the flesh he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne. They also understood the prophecies well enough to know that the time was near at hand when Christ, the seed of David, should come into the world. And by the teachings of Christ, and by the many miracles which he did, they believed him to be the true Messiah, the appointed heir of David’s throne. But when he would restore the kingdom they did not know. As to the nature of the kingdom, they expected it would be just as literal a kingdom as the one which his Father David had once inherited and ruled.
They had no idea of a spiritual kingdom in a spiritual land, but believed that when God promised David that his seed should possess his throne forever, he was able to fulfill that promise, and restore unto Israel the kingdom. And Christ himself never taught them differently, but rather taught them that he was the Christ, and king of the Jews, and encouraged their ideas concerning the restoration of the kingdom of David. Hence, when he rode into Jerusalem and the people followed, shouting, Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is the kingdom of our father David which cometh in the name of the Lord; hosanna in the highest, Christ did not rebuke them, nor tell them the kingdom was never to be restored, but left them to cherish their fond hopes. Why was it? was it because he desired to have them in ignorance, and cherish a hope which, although comforting to them at present, must shortly fall to the ground, leaving them in disappointment and grief to behold for the restoration of the kingdom of David only a metaphor? Or was it because for their fondly cherished hope there was some foundation? If we can rely on the promise of the Lord, if we can take him as meaning what he says, and saying what he means, we can safely say, It was because there was foundation for their hope, and he had no reason to correct them that he did not do so.
But if we are to cast aside the promise of God as of no account, if we cannot rely on his word concerning the time and place of the restoration of the kingdom of Israel, but must accept the teachings of popular theology, which is a kingdom beyond the bounds of time and space, then certainly they had no foundation whatever for their hopes. But thanks be to God, we can rely upon his word, and it will accomplish that whereunto he hath sent it.
When Christ was before Pilate, and Pilate asked him, Art thou the king of the Jews? he did not deny but said, My kingdom is not of this world, if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered unto the Jews; but now is my kingdom not from hence. Pilate saith to him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king; to this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.
For this cause was I born, i. e., I was born king of the Jews; I came to restore to them the kingdom of David. But the time of its restoration is not come. My kingdom is not from hence, not from this time forward; I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened till it be accomplished. Men are mortal, under sentence of death, because of sin. God’s holy law has been broken, and without shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. I must die for the nation that the nation perish not. I must pass through the valley of the shadow of death before them. I must bind the strong man, and take from him his armor wherein he trusted. I must gain the keys of death and the grave, that I may open the charnel house, liberate my people from death, and give them immortality. For the kingdom of Israel, when restored, is to be an immortal kingdom, and immortal subjects must dwell there. It is to be a kingdom of righteousness, and righteous subjects are to dwell therein. My blood must be shed for the remission of their sins. They must be reconciled to the Father and his law. I must intercede for them, that the Father may forgive their sins, and accept them in my name as subjects of the kingdom of God.
The kingdom of God, the kingdom of Israel (restored), and the kingdom of our father David, are all one and the same kingdom. Therefore, when we pray, Thy kingdom come, we pray for all these. Said the angel to Mary, “Thou shalt bring forth a Son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David; and he shall reign over the house of Jacob [Israel] forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.”
The Israelites were God’s chosen people, and God himself ruled over them. Other nations formed themselves into kingdoms and had kings of the sons of men to reign over them. “And the elders of Israel gathered themselves together and came unto Samuel and said unto him, Make us a king to judge us like all the nations. But this thing displeased Samuel, and Samuel prayed unto the Lord. And the Lord said, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee; for they have not rejected thee, but have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. . . . Now, therefore, hearken unto their voice; howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and shew them the manner of the king that shall reign over them.” So he gave them a king in his anger, and took him away in his wrath. Read 1 Sam. 8:6–22.
This kingdom, given to Israel and organized under Saul, was established under David, and made in some respects a type of the kingdom of God, soon to be established under the seed of David, the Lord Jesus Christ.
God has promised his people a kingdom, one that shall never end, and as his promises cannot be broken, for he has sworn by himself, and can swear by no greater, the kingdom will surely come. When? Christ gives us the time. It is when the Son of man shall come in all the glory of his Father and of his holy angels, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory. Therefore this kingdom will be established when Christ comes again, without sin unto salvation. In the establishment of this kingdom we have also the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham, “Thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies.”
In the overthrow of the kingdom of David, God said, “Remove the diadem and take off the crown; this shall not be the same; exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high. I will overturn, overturn, overturn it; and it shall be no more, until he comes whose right it is; and I will give it him.” It has been promised to Christ, the seed of Abraham, the seed of David. Hence it is his right.
Christ, in order to keep before the minds of his disciples, and to impress them with the truthfulness of a literal kingdom, “taketh with him Peter, James, and John, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, and was transfigured before them, and his face did shine as the sun, and his garment was white as the light. And there appeared unto them Moses and Elias, talking with him.”
Here we have a representation of the kingdom of God. Peter, speaking of this, says, “We have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye witnesses of his majesty. For he received from the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from Heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount.” The apostle has just before these words counseled the church to add to their faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity. And says, “If these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” And, “If ye do these things, ye shall never fall; for so an entrance shall be administered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.”
It will be seen by very many passages of Scripture that, with the establishment of the kingdom of God, all other kingdoms must have an end. The stone which smote the image on the feet broke “in pieces the iron, the brass, the silver, and the gold, and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them; and the stone became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.”
“And the seventh angel sounded, and there were great voices from heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ; and he shall reign forever and ever.” “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, . . . and all dominions shall serve and obey him.”
This kingdom is to be a kingdom ruled in righteousness, sin and wickedness are to be obliterated, sinners destroyed, the earth cleansed, and filled with the glory of God. All hatred, malice, and envy, shall be done away. None but the pure and good can enter there. None but those who are willing and obedient can enter through those pearly gates and eat of the tree of life.
It is to be an immortal kingdom, and the immortal saints will reign there. Sickness, sorrow, and death, can never enter the kingdom of our God. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
Who cannot join in the petition, Thy kingdom come, with a sincere desire for its fulfillment?
“Thy kingdom come. Thus day by day We lift our hands to God and pray; But who has ever duly weighed The meaning of the words he said.”
ROBY TUTTLE.