HIS COMING AND KINGDOM.
By W. N. G.
"THE coming of the Lord draweth nigh," and the message bearing this "Gospel of the kingdom" is now due to the world. "And this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." Matt. 24:14. The principal aim of the enemy of souls is to pervert the Word of God and confuse the minds of those who desire to do God service. Jesus said to his disciples, "The time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service." John 15:2. And Paul declared that he was "zealous toward God" when he "persecuted" Christians "unto the death." Such is the extent to which the evil one is enabled to confuse and deceive over-zealous people with respect to the teaching of the Word of God. Then it is not surprising that we find men going astray in regard to the doctrine of the coming and kingdom of Christ. If men can not be dissuaded altogether from a belief in this doctrine, it will answer the great deceiver's purpose just as well if they can be drawn into an erroneous conception of it; and in this latter scheme he seems to be enjoying an unprecedented degree of success at the present time. There is much ado in various circles about setting up the kingdom of Christ in this nation, as tho it were to be confined to this nation, or to begin in this nation to conquer the world. The various plans for the great consummation are all of a political nature, and civil law (compulsion) is to be the great lever of preparation. Christ is to be made king "thro the gateway of politics," says one of the great societies that is working to this end. The Bureau of Reforms has a great many "reform" strings to its bow, but they are all to be accomplished by means of civil law, notably compulsory Sunday observance. The National Reformers would "prepare the way of the Lord" by a formal acknowledgment of his authority in the Federal Constitution, and the formal enactment of the Ten Commandments into civil law. They are also in harmony with the "Christian citizenship" movement, which would inaugurate the kingdom of God by filling all the civil offices with professed Christians. In contrast with this principle we have the example of John the Baptist, the forerunner of the first advent of Christ. The basis of his proclamation was, "Repent ye; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." He did not say to the people, Put your good churchmen in office; or to the nation, Compel men by law to acknowledge the coming One; or to write it upon their statute books that God is the source of all power and to him is due all allegiance. John was "the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight." How were they to do this?—They were to "repent." Repentance is an individual matter. The people to whom John came were all nominal churchmen, and so far as they filled civil offices such offices were already in the hands of churchmen. Had this been all that was required, the Jews were already in condition to receive the Messiah and to be recognized by him. But such profession did not constitute a preparation of the way of the Lord. The call went forth to all, "Repent ye;" there was not a single exception. Both the Pharisees and Sadducees were denounced as "a generation of vipers," needing to repent. And when Jesus entered the ministry, six months later, he repeated the call, "Repent; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." He, too, made the preparation for his kingdom a personal matter, and the initial act was repentance. Of that over-zealous religious class—the scribes and Pharisees—who thought themselves already fitted for the kingdom of God, he said, "Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." What kind of righteousness did the scribes and Pharisees have?—They had law righteousness, their "own righteousness, which is of the law." And this is the kind of righteousness which the legion of reform associations, unions, leagues, bureaus, federations, etc., would establish to-day as a preparation for the kingdom of Christ. It is all "of men, and will come to naught." Acts 5:38. Man has nothing to do with the setting up or the ushering in of the kingdom of Christ. The Lord will attend to that himself. The image of Daniel 2 shows that it is not made of any of the kingdoms of this world. The stone was cut out without hands that fell upon the image representing the kingdoms of this world, breaking them to pieces together. That stone represented the kingdom set up by the God of heaven; men had no hand in it; and when it fell upon the governments which men had successively set up, none of them were spared. They "became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them; and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth." In further evidence that man has nothing to do with the setting up of the kingdom of Christ in the earth, and that the preparation for it is an individual matter, we have the parable of the nobleman who left his business in the hands of his servants, and went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and return. And when he returned he reckoned with his servants, individuals, and not with the nations as such. Notice, he received his kingdom in a far country; in other words, in heaven, for that is where Jesus went when he ascended from the earth. Still further evidence on these points is found in the announcement of the manner of his coming to reward his people: "When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory; and before him shall be gathered all nations; and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats; and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you before the foundation of the world." Then this kingdom was prepared before man had an existence. What, then, has man to do with the coming and kingdom of Christ?—Nothing whatever but to prepare for an entrance into it, by repentance and bringing forth "fruits meet for repentance." What are the fruits meet for repentance?—"I was a hungered, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in; naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in prison, and ye came unto me." Again, it is said of the saints at that time, "Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." They will not be found trying to manufacture a kingdom of Christ out of the rotten material and rusty machinery of decaying civil governments. They will not be found trying to compel their fellow-men to yield obedience to man-made ordinances and religious institutions not warranted by the Word of God. All who enter the kingdom of Christ will be such as have followed in his footsteps, doing good to their fellow-men, without reference to the political affairs of those temporal governments which are all to be displaced by His coming and kingdom.