Question by Editor

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Dec 11, 1879

Question.

By Editor

IT is claimed by some here that Christ received his kingdom while here on earth. Will you please explain Luke 9:27? I have been asked how we can harmonize it with our view?

It is not difficult to harmonize our faith with Luke 9:27. The connection shows that the Saviour here referred to his glorification in the transfiguration. Peter also, speaking of "the power and coming of the Lord," gives as proof that they "were eye-witnesses of his majesty." He refers also to the transfiguration. But this glory did not continue. It was but an evidence to them of what shall be. So the Saviour says again, "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." Matt. 25:31.

When the Lord comes in his glory two classes of saints will be glorified with him: the resurrected, represented in his transfiguration by Moses, who had died; and the translated, represented by Elijah, who never died but was translated. So this view of "his majesty" was a just representation of "his power and coming."

In Luke 19:11-27, the Lord spake a parable "because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear." In this he represents himself as a nobleman who "went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return." It is a pity that, to this day, the instruction of this parable passes unheeded by so many. In Dan. 7:13, 14, we learn that the Son of man receives his kingdom in the immediate presence of his Father—the Ancient of days. In Rev. 11:15 we are informed that he receives it under the sounding of the seventh trumpet, just at the close of this dispensation. Note the context.

This does not at all interfere with the fact that he is a kingly priest on the throne of his father. Heb. 8:1. But we must ever bear in mind that he occupies two thrones at different times. See Rev. 3:21. His priesthood will close; that kingship he will "deliver up" to God the Father. 1 Cor. 15:24-28. But the other—his own throne—he shall occupy forever; of his reign thereon there will be no end. See Luke 1:32, 33. We can cite very many scriptures to confirm this view, but we suppose this brief notice will suffice to answer the question.

But, on the other hand, if this view is still denied, how will they harmonize Luke 9:27 with Luke 19:11-27? If his kingdom was then manifest, as is also claimed on Luke 17:21, how is that fact to be harmonized with the facts and scriptures above presented? We think the objectors take a partial or one-sided view of the teachings of the Scriptures on this important doctrine.