One of the States of the Universe — The Lost Dominion to Be Wrested from the Usurper
By C. P. BOLLMAN
WHEN God created this earth, and placed man on it, He did so in pursuance of His divine purpose to fill it with free moral agents, loyal to their Creator. "For thus saith the Lord 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 the Lord; and there is none else." Isa. 45: 18.
The divine plan necessarily involved human probation; and so, when God had created the world, and fitted it for human habitation, He created man also, and gave him dominion over the earth. The inspired record is: "And God said, Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." See Gen. 1: 26-28.
This dominion, of course, was to be exercised subject to the will of God. The earth was, so to speak, to be simply one of the states of the universe. But by sin, Adam lost his dominion, and this not in the sense that it reverted to God, from whom he received it, but in the sense that by his own act, man exchanged the service of God for the service of Satan, and both he and his dominion passed over to the archenemy, by whom he had been overthrown. "For of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage," says the inspired Word (2 Peter 2: 19); and again, "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey?" (Rom. 6: 16.) Adam had abdicated his dominion in favor of Satan, whom our Lord Himself three times called "the prince of this world." See John 12: 31; 14: 30; 16: 11.
Dominion in Fact, but Not by Right
WHEN man sinned, and thus became the servant of Satan, it was as though the British East India Company, having received from the British government, in 1668, dominion over the presidency of Bombay, had, by yielding obedience to some foreign prince, transferred that dominion to him. The allegiance of the company, and its authority over Bombay, would have vested in that prince as sovereign in fact, though not sovereign by right.
The traitorous act of the East India Company could not have given the foreign prince any title to the presidency of Bombay, but it would have given him the dominion, until such time as it should be wrested from him; and if, in this supposed case, the British government had determined not to use force immediately, but only moral suasion for the time being, and not to resume the government of the colony until such time as a sufficient number of the inhabitants to people the colony returned to their allegiance to the British crown of their own free will, we would have a case somewhat analogous to the rebellion of man, and the giving of his dominion into the hands of Satan, a prince in rebellion against God.
That the earth will finally be wrested from Satan was foretold in the curse pronounced by the Lord upon the serpent: "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." Gen. 3: 15. This seed was Christ; for He is mentioned repeatedly in the promise to Abraham (Gen. 12: 7; 13: 15, etc.), and in Gal. 3: 16 we are told positively that that seed is Christ. Says the apostle: "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ."
The promise made to Abraham was a promise of this earth. So far as the record in Genesis goes, it might be understood to apply only to the land of Canaan; but in Rom. 4: 13 we have the explicit divine testimony that "the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith."
This inspired commentary upon the Mosaic record is too plain to be mistaken. Coupled with the text already quoted from Galatians, it means that the world was promised to Abraham through Christ. "And if ye be Christ's," says the apostle, "then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." Gal. 3: 29. Hence the destruction of Satan's power, and the establishment of the everlasting kingdom of God in the earth, is a matter of vital interest to every one who, by faith in Christ, is a child of God.
But Satan's usurped dominion will not be wrested from him until, by moral suasion, a sufficient number of the sons and daughters of Adam to people the world have been persuaded to return to allegiance to their Creator. God will have a willing service. It is the "willing and obedient" who "shall eat the good of the land." God is now visiting the nations, "to take out of them a people for His name." Acts 15: 14. When this work shall have been accomplished, then, and not until then, will Christ receive at His Father's hands the kingdom, and come crowned "King of kings, and Lord of lords."
Two Distinct Thrones
THE expression just quoted from Rev. 19: 16 is supposed, by many, to describe Christ at the present time; but that this is a mistake is evident from a number of scriptures. In Rev. 3: 21 we have this testimony: "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne." Here are brought to view two thrones; namely, the throne of the Father, and the throne of the Son. The Father's throne, the one upon which Christ now sits, is called, in Heb. 4: 16, "the throne of grace"; for it is the throne from which mercy is dispensed. Says the apostle, "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need."
Christ now sits on His Father's throne as a priest after the order of Melchizedek; in other words, as a priest-king. Says the apostle: "Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an High Priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens."
But when Christ takes His own throne, then shall be fulfilled these words: "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 the8King say unto them on His right hand, Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." "Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." Matt. 25: 31-34, 41.
The Reckoning Follows His Return
HUMAN probation continues only so long as Christ sits as a priest upon His Father's throne. When He leaves that throne, the decree goes forth, "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still." And immediately follow the words, "And, behold, I come quickly." Our Lord likened Himself to a nobleman going "into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return." Luke 19: 12. And immediately following the return comes the reckoning with the servants — that is, the final Judgment.
It is true that Christ is now a King, and that He reigns over the kingdom of grace, perfecting, through the ministry of His word, subjects for His glorious kingdom; but it is not true that He has yet taken possession of the territory of that glorious and eternal kingdom, or that He now reigns "King of kings, and Lord of lords." He now sits a Priest upon His Father's throne, winning, by His mercy and matchless charms, willing subjects for His future glorious kingdom, which is erelong to be established in this earth, now sin-cursed, but which, renewed and purged of all trace of sin by the fires of God's justice, is to "rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God." May God hasten the day!
