JOHN the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, "Repent ye, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand." Matt. 3:1, 2. "Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent ye, and believe the gospel." Mark 1:14, 15. And as Jesus sent forth the twelve to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, he said to them, "And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of Heaven is at hand." Matt. 10:5–7.
We have now reached a very important point in the discussion of this subject. Many will meet us here with the popular view that the kingdom was set up at the time of the first advent. They will use the phrase, "The kingdom of Heaven is at hand," expressed by John, Jesus, and the twelve, with force upon the minds of those who do not study the subject in all its bearings. But, as we have shown, in no sense of the word whatever was the kingdom set up at the time of the first advent of Christ. The words, "kingdom of Heaven," and "kingdom of God," have but two significations: first, the plan to save men by grace; and, secondly, the future condition and reward of the saved. The plan of salvation, or the kingdom of grace, was instituted soon after the fall; and the reward of the saved, or the kingdom of glory, is future.
The Greek word translated "at hand," as used by Jesus, John, and the twelve, is enggizo, and is defined by Greenfield as follows: "To approach, draw near. By metonymy, to be at hand, to impend. Matt. 3:2; 4:17; 10:7; Luke 10:9, 11; Mark 1:15." The immortal kingdom was not at hand, according to this definition, or the obvious meaning of the phrase, in the days of John and of Jesus. In fact, Paul warned the church at Thessalonica against the idea that the day of Christ—the day to destroy earthly kingdoms, and establish the immortal kingdom—was even then at hand. "Be not soon shaken in mind," says the apostle, "or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand." 2 Thess. 2:2.
The Greek word translated "at hand" in this text is enistemi, and signifies, according to Greenfield, "To place in, or upon; to stand near, be at hand, impend. 2 Thess. 2:2." In their bearing upon the subject of the kingdom, there is really no difference in the signification of these two Greek words. But, does Paul contradict John, Jesus, or the twelve? Certainly he does not.
What, then, did John and Jesus mean in proclaiming the kingdom of Heaven at hand? Not that the kingdom of grace was soon to be set up. No; that had been instituted more than four thousand years before that proclamation. Neither did they urge immediate repentance on the ground that the kingdom of Heaven was at hand in the sense of being the next universal kingdom! With this view, their fervent announcement would seem to lose its force. But their proclamation had direct reference to the wonderful manifestations of divine power and grace immediately to follow, during the work of confirming the covenant, Dan. 9:27; first, by Christ, for three and a-half years, and by the apostles, Heb. 2:3, the same period of time.
John looked forward to the ministry of Jesus, which was approved of God "by miracles, and wonders, and signs, which God did by him." Acts 2:22, and proclaimed the kingdom of Heaven at hand. And Jesus looked forward to his own ministry, and also to that of the apostles as "they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following," Mark 16:20, and proclaimed the kingdom of Heaven at hand. This view of the subject is sustained by the commission given by our Lord to the seventy: "Go your ways. Behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves. And into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you. And heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you." Luke 10:3, 8, 9. The kingdom of God in this connection can mean nothing more, and nothing less, than the manifestation of divine power and grace.
And with this agree the words of Christ addressed to the worthy scribe. "And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God." Mark 12:34. This scribe was sound on the fundamental principles of God's government. He only needed to know Christ and the power of his great salvation, in order to enjoy all the privileges and blessings of the kingdom of grace.
Deception has been the work of Satan ever since he so successfully deceived Eve. He led the Jews to expect in the Messiah a ruling monarch, instead of a meek and lowly teacher, and finally the sacrifice for sinners. The Pharisees supposed the kingdom of Israel would then be established with outward show. "And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation; neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you." Luke 17:20, 21. But was the kingdom within the unbelieving Pharisees? The marginal reading—"among you"—helps the case. What was then among them? Christ had just cleansed ten lepers who showed themselves to the priests, and one of them returned to give glory to God. In their midst were the wonderful manifestations of divine power and grace in the miracles of Christ; hence, he said to the Pharisees, "The kingdom of God is among you." The work of divine grace was manifested among them. At the time of the second advent, and the establishment of the eternal kingdom, the people will doubtless be under as great deception relative to the nature of the coming kingdom of Christ, as the Jews were relative to his mission at his first advent. Then he came as the humble teacher of the people, closing his mission with giving himself a sacrifice for sinners. The Jews rejected Jesus because he did not meet their vain expectations. Satan led them to look for the coming of Messiah with outward show, and grandeur, when he was to come in humility. And now that he is soon to appear the second time in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, to raise the righteous dead, and reign in his tangible kingdom forever, Satan has the delusion prepared for the people that Christ's coming is spiritual, at death, at conversion, or in the outpouring of the Spirit of God. Jesus anticipates the heresies of our time and says: "The day will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see it. And they shall say to you, See here! or, See there! go not after them nor follow them. For as the lightning that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day." Luke 17:22–24.
In close connection with the establishment of the future immortal kingdom will be the second coming of Christ with power and great glory. This prophetic event does not have its fulfillment in a plurality of ways, each differing from all the rest, as in the popular applications to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman army, to conversion and to death. These mystical applications are expressed by the words of our Lord, "See here or see there," while the one grand event of the second advent is illustrated by the lightning that flashes across the entire heavens.
Christ, the King of kings, and Lord of lords, in his own glory, and in the glory of the Father, attended by all the holy angels, will descend. The earth will tremble and the heavens will blaze with glory. The voice of the Son of God will call the righteous dead from their graves, and the living righteous will be changed. These will be gathered from all parts of the earth, up to meet their descending Lord. "And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." Matt. 24:31. The saints of all ages and from all countries and nations, will be in that vast gathering. "Many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven." Matt. 8:11. These will be the immortal subjects of the eternal kingdom. But if the kingdom is already set up in any one church, or in all the Christian churches of our time, where are these patriarchs? Search as closely as you please among the followers of Luther, Calvin, Wesley, or Alex. Campbell, and you positively cannot find Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But when the righteous dead shall all be raised and gathered home to their everlasting rest, the patriarchs, prophets and the saints of all ages will meet in the grand assembly of the redeemed, and together sit down in the kingdom of God.
FITNESS FOR THE FUTURE KINGDOM.
But in order to enter the future kingdom of glory we must first be in the kingdom of grace, sharing all its blessings and privileges. The faithful John bears testimony which has direct bearing on this subject. He looked forward to the new heaven and the new earth, and the holy city, in the glorious restitution where there will be neither pain, sickness, sorrow nor death, as the eternal kingdom of the redeemed. And yet he declared himself while in the present state of tribulation, as being in the kingdom of Jesus Christ. "I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ." Rev. 1:9. The beloved John was in the kingdom of grace.
And Paul, in delineating true Christian experience in his epistle to the Colossians, speaks of deliverance from the power of darkness, a redemption through Christ's blood, and a translation into his kingdom, which can apply only to the present probationary state. He sets forth the emancipation from the bondage of spiritual darkness into the light and liberty of the sons of God and the attainments which believers may reach in fullness of spiritual understanding, and of strength, in order to a moral fitness to be partaker of the eternal inheritance, in words that should stir the soul and burn their way to every Christian heart:
For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and long suffering with joyfulness; giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light; who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son; in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins." Col. 1:9–14. The words delivered, translated, and redemption, may usually express the transition to the immortal state; but in the foregoing quotation they express the power and work of grace in connection with the forgiveness of sins.
The moral fitness for the next life must be attained in this life. The last change to immortality is not a moral change. It is simply an exchange of the corruptible body for one that will be incorruptible. This is expressed by the apostle thus: "Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body."
The exchange of the sinner's vile nature to the glorious character of the Son of God must take place during the period of probation, while Christ pleads his blood before the Father on the sinner's account. If this change does not take place while Christ is our mediator, the change of the vile body will not take place at his second advent. Now the sinner may, in obedience to the law of the Father, by faith in the blood of the Son, attain to the moral fitness for the inheritance of the saints in light.
"There is a fountain filled with blood,
Drawn from Immanuel's veins,
And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains."
Washing and ironing, however laborious, must be done in order to have clean clothing. Our robes of character must be made pure before Christ lays off his garments of mediation, and puts on his kingly robes. Now we may wash and be clean. Then it will be said, "The time is at hand. He that is unjust, let him be unjust still; and he which is filthy let him be filthy still; and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still; and he that is holy, let him be holy still. And behold I come quickly, and my reward is with me to give every man according as his work shall be." Rev. 22:10–12. "Wherefore, beloved, seeing ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless. 2 Pet. 3:14. This washing of the soul from the stains of sin demands diligence.
Paul says that "Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing." Eph. 5:25–27.
And John sees the washed and glorified multitude, who had pressed their way to Christ and Heaven through the moral darkness of this world, and had come out of great tribulation into the kingdom of glory. "After this I behold, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. Rev. 7:9, 10. "And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? And whence came they? And said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said unto me, These are they which come out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." Verses 13, 14.