1870 107 "It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel," was God's announcement to the serpent in the hour of its apparent triumph that He would not leave it in undisturbed possession of power over man and the earth. From the time however of man's acceptance of Satan's guidance, violence, self-will, and oppression began to be manifested in the world; but God's purpose must be fulfilled. So, from time to time, during the forty centuries which rolled by between the prophetic announcement and the appearance of the one predicted, God disclosed something of the future concerning the kingdom to be established in power and permanence, where His authority has been disowned and His rights denied.
To Abraham it was promised, "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed," and to Isaac and to Jacob after him was this promise confirmed. (Gen. 22:18, Gen. 26:4, Gen. 28:14.) In the hope of the kingdom saints died. Jacob, before gathering up his feet into the bed, predicted the gathering of nations to Shiloh, who was to come (Gen. 49:10); Moses closed his blessing of the tribes with the prospect of the people's welfare, when the Lord should be reigning in person over the earth (Deut. 33:28); and David's last words are descriptive of the One who is yet to put down all that opposes itself to God. (2 Samuel 23) In the days of Israel's triumphs the hope of the kingdom was remembered, for they sang of it at the Red Sea, and looked on to it as the ark entered Jerusalem under David. (Exodus 15; 1 Chron. 16:23-33.) Individuals cherished the prospect of it in their hearts: witness Hannah, who, pouring forth the joyful utterance of a grateful heart, cannot close her thanksgiving for special favours without making mention of the king, the Lord's anointed. And David, as he wandered over the land he was one day to govern, and as he sat on his throne in the city of Zion, looked onward to that which we too expect (Ps. 18, Ps. 63); whilst the personal majesty of the king he sung of in Psalm 45, and the beneficent character of His reign he celebrates in Psalm 72. After him the prophets took up the strain. Isaiah, Micah, and others predicted the blessings that will be enjoyed under His rule, and Daniel fixed the date of His first coming to earth; whilst to Nebuchadnezzar God revealed in dreams the crushing power of the stone cut out without hands, and the setting up by the God of heaven of a kingdom which shall never be destroyed.
To Jewish ears then it was no strange sound which John the Baptist gave forth, as he proclaimed, "The kingdom of heaven [or heavens] is at hand." After him the Lord Jesus uttered the same words, when He began His ministry in Galilee; but both prefixed to their announcements the imperative call to repentance. (Matt. 3:2; Matt. 4:17.) For the children of Israel being sons of the kingdom (Matt. 8:12), its establishment in power is connected with that nation's blessing, and their future glory depends on it, as Daniel had predicted: "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" [or high places]. (Dan, vii. 27.) To them, then, whilst announcing the near approach of the kingdom, it was needful to declare the terms upon which they could enter it, and what God looked for from those who should receive it. In Galilee, therefore, the Lord preached repentance; on Nicodemus He impressed the necessity of the new birth (John 3:3, 5); to His disciples He made known the childlike spirit requisite for those who shall enter it (Matt. 18:3), and warned all against mere profession without practice, which would for ever shut out souls from that which Israel had been taught to expect. (Matt. 5:20; Luke 13:25-29.) To John the kingdom was future, for dispensationally whilst on earth he was outside it (Matt. 11:11); but the Lord could speak of it as existing on earth, manifested by the power over Satan which He exercised. (Matt. 11:28.)
John spoke of the prospect, the Lord preached the kingdom of God, and commissioned the twelve, and the seventy disciples, to proclaim it likewise. (Luke 4:43; Luke 9:1, 60; Luke 10:9.) The devils discerned the great change which had taken place consequent on His presence in the midst of Israel, for they felt His power, confessed His authority, and owned what alone they expected from His hands. (Mark 1:34; Matt. 8:28-31.) He had come, who was to destroy the works of the devil. The people who heard Him, and witnessed His works, should have discerned the great change and have rejoiced; for if He preached to them, as Matthew and Luke express it, "the gospel" or "glad tidings of the kingdom," or as Mark perhaps really wrote "the gospel of God" (Matt. 4:23; Matt. 9:35. Luke 8:1; Mark 1:14), the kingdom was in existence, for the king was present. A power which could deliver man from that one into whose hands he had put himself was manifested in Him who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil. The people saw it and marvelled; the rulers confessed the works and caviled, and blasphemed. (Mark 1:27; Mark 3:22-30.) Men, released from the tyranny of demoniacal possession, were witnesses none could gainsay. The King was really on earth, and gathering souls around Himself by the word of the kingdom, the seed spread abroad by the sower; all who heard and received His word became really what Israel were only nationally, true children or rather sons of the kingdom (Matt. 13:19-38), wheat or good seed sown in the field.
Turning back to Daniel 7:18, 27, we find mention made of two classes of saints: "the saints of the Most High" (or high places) who "take the kingdom and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever;" and "the people of the saints of the Most High" (or high places) to whom the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given. The former are the heavenly saints who shall reign on high over the earth, the latter are the people of Israel on earth during the millennium; for the kingdom, as prophesied in the Old Testament and often when spoken of in the New Testament, has reference to a rule to be exercised over the earth. To Jews therefore, though the term "kingdom of heaven" is not found in the Old Testament, the thought it conveyed was not a new one, and when John preached "the kingdom of heaven (or the heavens) is at hand" (and He did not, that we read of, use any other formula), whilst His message must have gladdened the hearts of the faithful, He would have stumbled by His language none who were acquainted with Israel's hopes, or had studied the Old Testament scriptures. And, often as we meet with the term "kingdom of heaven" in St. Matthew's gospel, where alone it is found, we never read of any one asking either John or the Lord what they meant by it, or what it was intended to express. The term might be new, but the thought it expressed had cheered the heart of many a saint in previous ages, as the language of the priest Zacharias, when his mouth was opened, shows us how the godly before the Lord's first advent looked onward to the fulfilment of God's word. (Luke 1:71-76.)
John the Baptist spoke of the kingdom of heaven, the Lord spoke besides of the kingdom of God. Are there then two kingdoms, or one? One only. It is the kingdom of God, because it belongs to Him; it can be called the kingdom of the heavens because in the heavenlies is, and will be, the seat of royal authority and power. If we take in the full range of the kingdom it comprehends both heaven and earth. So we read of the righteous shining forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father (that is the heavenly part of it), and of "the kingdom of the Son of man" (that is the earthly part of it), which has earth for its sphere, though the seat of power will always be in the heavenlies. (Matt. 13:43, 41.) Again, addressing those who form part of the heavenly saints, the Lord said, "I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom" (Matt. 26:29): whereas in the address He will at a future day make to the sheep, those amongst the Gentiles who shall have a portion on earth when He reigns, we read, "Come ye blessed of my Father (not your Father) inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." (Matt. 25:34.)
In general however in the gospels where the kingdom is spoken of, what was to be on earth, not in heaven, forms the subject of the teaching. And often we find the terms, kingdom "of God" and "of heaven" used interchangeably. Thus the Lord could announce that both were at hand (Matt. 4:17; Mark 1:15.) He could speak too of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven as in Matthew 13:11, and of the mysteries of the kingdom of God as in Mark 4:11, and Luke 8:10; for He was teaching the things concerning the kingdom in existence, but not in display as it would be known to the faithful, during the time of His absence before it would be manifested to the world. So the parables of the leaven and of the mustard tree are similitudes of the kingdom of heaven as well as of the kingdom of God (Matt. 13; Mark 4; Luke 13); for they describe the outward appearance and character of the kingdom on earth after that the King should have entered into heaven: and looking on to the day when the kingdom shall be seen in power, and the heavenly saints shall have entered into their inheritance; the Lord could speak of souls sitting down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 8:11) as well as in the kingdom of God. (Luke 13:28.) Both terms could thus be used, because the epoch contemplated was that subsequent to His ascension to the heavenlies. And even since the day that the cloud received Him out of the sight of His disciples, who stood gazing up to heaven, the kingdom as it exists on earth might be rightly called the kingdom of heaven as well as the kingdom of God.
But such was not always the case. When the Lord was on earth the kingdom of God was on earth, because He the King was there; but it would not be called the kingdom of heaven till He had taken His place in the heavenlies. So in certain places in the gospels, where Matthew adduces something characteristic of the whole of the present epoch, he uses the term the "kingdom of heaven," whereas in the parallel places in Luke, where something is introduced characteristic of the time when the Lord was on earth, the term employed, and the only one which could be, is "the kingdom of God." Compare Matthew 11:12-13 with Luke 16:16. In the former the Lord points out the new feature manifested in connection with the kingdom, which would be characteristic of the whole time till He return in power. The Jew looked on the kingdom as his by right, his title to it he considered was bound up with his genealogy. As a son of Abraham he was a son of the kingdom; his birth according to the flesh settled the whole matter. But this was a grievous mistake, as the aspect of things around would point out. The Spirit of God was at work on souls, and the kingdom whilst connected with birth, was connected with the new birth and not with descent from Abraham according to the flesh. Men were finding that out, and as acted on by the Spirit were taking the kingdom of heaven by violence, being in earnest about it. God's Spirit had then begun to work on souls who could not rest till they entered it. Such was, such is, the character of things as regards the kingdom. But in Luke the Lord speaks of what actually was done in His day: "The kingdom of God is preached," hence the change in the language, for we never read of the kingdom of heaven being preached. He preached proclaimed — the kingdom of God, and taught about the kingdom of heaven.
Again comparing Matthew 5:3 with Luke 6:20 we may note the difference, and understand the reason of it. Describing the character of those to whom the kingdom belongs, the Lord speaks of it as the kingdom of heaven, but, telling those before Him of the blessings already theirs, He calls it the kingdom of God, for that was the character of it then existing.
Very guarded then is the language of scripture, and it is well for souls to observe it. This Matthew illustrates. For whilst he so often wrote the words: the kingdom of heaven, he teaches us that there were occasions when, the Lord Jesus Christ could not use it. Disciples were to seek first the kingdom of God (Matt. 6:33), which had come unto Israel (Matt. 12:28), into which publicans and harlots were entering before the chief priests and elders; and from whom, because they rejected Christ it should be taken and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. (Matt. 21:31, 43.) These four passages are the only ones in which Matthew has used the term, the kingdom of God, except in Matt. 19:24. In the preceding verse we have the more common term for the evangelist, "kingdom of heaven." And whilst the common text with the majority of MSS. in verse 24 reads, kingdom of God. Lachmann, and Tischendorf, Tregelles and Alford, following Z and many of the fathers, read here also the kingdom of heaven. Whichever reading be preferred, on textual ground, there is nothing to forbid looking at the passage exegetically, the reading of the Dublin rescript from being the faithful preserver of the original form of expression.
The hope of Israel was the kingdom in power when Messiah should reign. The angel in his message to the Virgin Mary took cognizance of it (Luke 1:32); the wise men from the East expected it. (Matt. 2:2.) The aged Simeon died in the hope of it. (Luke 2:32.) John the Baptist's question by his disciples, when in prison proves it. (Matt. 11:3.) All classes were familiar with it. The chief priests and scribes could turn up the scriptures which spoke of it. Andrew a humble fisherman, and the woman of Samaria, and the penitent thief, by their language confirm it. So with Messiah at last really on earth, the appearance of God's kingdom was looked for as close at hand. To correct this mistake, the Lord spake the parable of the "pounds." (Luke 19:11.) Yet how deeply engraven this thought was on the hearts of the Jews is evidenced by the question addressed to Him by the disciples in their last moments with Him on earth. (Acts 1:6–9.) Joseph of Arimathaea who buried the Lord waited, we learn, for the kingdom of God; and the two disciples on their journey to Emmaus confided to the stranger, as they thought, the once cherished hopes of their heart, now dashed to the ground by His death. (Luke 23:51; Luke 24:21.) His answer confirmed the correctness of their hopes, and revived the anticipations of the nation's future blessing. "Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?" His death then, however startling and stumbling to His disciples, is no bar to the accomplishment of the prophecies recorded in the scriptures; for, as Paul taught the assembled multitude in the synagogue at Antioch in Pisidia, the mercies of David would be made sure through the King reigning in resurrection. (Acts 13:34.)
All this however is yet future, though the kingdom exists on earth. What then would characterize the epoch whilst this anomalous condition of matters should last, the kingdom in existence without the king's power being everywhere really owned? The prophets can tell us nothing about it, so the Lord gave these parables, which are called similitudes of the kingdom to explain it, and they supply the link in the chain, which we should in vain search for elsewhere. Found in Matthew 13; 18; 20; 22; 25; Mark 4, Luke 13, they come in each gospel, it should be remarked, only after His rejection by the nation has been unequivocally declared. See Matthew 12, Mark 3:22-30, Luke 11; 13. "Therefore," said the Lord, "every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven, is like a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old:" — "old things," because he can speak of what the prophets predicted; "new," because he can teach what the Lord revealed.
Of the parables in the gospels all are not similitudes of the kingdom. Those only are similitudes which have special reference to the characteristic features of the epoch between the Lord's ascension and return in power. Thus the parable of the sower is not a similitude of the kingdom, because it deals with the Lord's work, as the sower of the seed, whilst He was on earth; but the parable of the tares is a parable of the kingdom, because it describes the evils that would be disseminated in the field by the enemy while men slept. So that parable, peculiar to Mark, of the seed cast into the ground, is a similitude of the kingdom of God, because it tells of the crop growing during the absence of Him who sowed the seed. Again the parable of the husbandmen (Matt. 21), is not a similitude of the kingdom, because it only carries us down to the Lord's death, the heir killed, and the announcement of the judgment to be executed on the unfaithful husbandmen; but the parable of the marriage supper, which immediately follows is a similitude of the kingdom, as it treats of events on earth in the kingdom after the Lord's ascension. And these two, placed so close together, and dealing with acknowledged facts in history, the death of the Lord, and the death of His servants afterwards, help a careful student of the word to discern, when what is called the kingdom of heaven really did begin. Other parables there are, such as "the talents," and "the pound," which treat of God's general dealings with men, but are neither of them similitudes of the kingdom (notwithstanding the unfortunate interpolation of the Auth. Ver. in Matt. 25:14); for though they apply to all who shall be in the kingdom, they do not confine themselves to what is characteristic only of the time during the Lord's absence from the earth.
That He will return to the earth, having received the kingdom, many of these parables intimate, as they speak of judgments to be executed and rewards to be bestowed. But this event, the ushering in of the kingdom in power, is rather outside their scope, and is treated of fully elsewhere in the book. They suppose it, for responsibility as servants does not cease till the Lord takes the kingdom; but they do not describe His advent, which will not take place till the gospel of the kingdom shall have been preached in all the world as a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come. (Matt. 24:14.) This statement, very clear yet much misunderstood, marks at once the difference there must be between the character of the testimony that has been going forth since the Lord's ascension and that which was when He was on earth and will again be ere He returns to reign — "the gospel of the kingdom." This glad tidings He first announced and this glad tidings will again be heard. He preached it in the land of Israel; it shall be preached throughout the whole world among all nations. How this is to be effected we learn in Revelation 14:6, and what the terms of the message are we there read. It is the everlasting gospel or good news, as it speaks of God's kingdom to be at last established in power on earth, to whom all are exhorted to submit, though it differs widely from the gospel or good news of God's grace. The former will be good news because it will proclaim the end of the reign of wickedness and of Satan's meddling with the affairs of earth, and that the reins of power will henceforth be in the hands of the man competent to retain them. The latter is good news, as it tells us of God's plan of salvation for all the lost who believe on His Son Jesus Christ. Since the time when the Lord and His disciples preached the gospel of the kingdom before His crucifixion, that joyful sound has not been heard. When next it breaks forth, a message from God to a groaning creation and a down-trodden people, from heaven will the tidings fall on the ears of all who will give heed to them. How those in heaven will regard the approach of the epoch, when the Lord shall appear to the world and reign openly, Revelation 11:15–17 discloses. Without one dissentient voice it will be hailed with joy. How creation and God's people on earth will view it, Psalms 95 — 100 bring out: "Zion heard and was glad, and the daughters of Judah rejoiced, because of thy judgment, O Lord," is the simple statement of the Psalmist. And the Spirit, speaking by Isaiah, exclaims, "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation, that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth." (Isa. 52:7.) Till these days approach, though the gospel of the kingdom will not be proclaimed, the kingdom should have its due place in the teaching and preaching of God's servants. It had a place in the instruction which the first teachers of Christianity gave to their disciples, it should always have a place still.
During the forty days which elapsed between the Lord's resurrection and ascension, the kingdom of God had a prominent place in His teaching. (Acts 1:3.) Philip went down to Samaria and spoke about it. (Acts 8:12.) Paul at Ephesus, at Rome, and elsewhere preached it, and taught the things concerning it (Acts 14:22; Acts 19:8; Acts 20:25; Acts 28:23–31), but always as the kingdom of God and of Christ — terms which must bring before the heart the thought of responsibility. It is God's kingdom, therefore to His will souls should conform and His mind they should seek to discern. Were there contentions and strife about days and meats among the converts at Rome, the apostle would remind them that "the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." (Rom. 14:17.) Were the Corinthians taken up with gifts and the eloquence of their teachers, the apostle would have them remember, that "the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power." (1 Cor. 4:20.) And when he has to expose unrighteousness in various forms, he warns them that the unrighteous shall not inherit it (1 Cor. 6:9); and whereas, some were seeking to persuade them that there was no resurrection of the dead, he would have them know that all the godly must be changed, "for flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God." (1 Cor. 15:50.) To the Galatians, and in the Epistle to the Ephesians he has to speak of the same subject; for whether he has to write and reprove those who were slipping away from foundation truth, or is able to unfold the true place of a believer in Christ, the truth concerning the kingdom having to do with the believer's walk on earth finds its proper place in both these letters. (Gal. 5:21; Eph. 5:5.) The saints of Colosse are reminded of the grace which had delivered them from the power of darkness, and translated them into the kingdom of the Son of His love (chap. 1:13), though its display in power was and is yet future. The saints at Thessalonica had heard of it, and when in trouble were comforted by the prospect of it. (1 Thess. 2:12; 2 Thess. 1:5.) Timothy was reminded of it, and the Hebrews received exhortations founded on the hope of it. (2 Tim. 4:1-18; Heb. 12:28.) James speaks of it (James 2:5); Peter would stir up those to whom he wrote that they might have an entrance into it ministered unto them abundantly (2 Peter 1:11); and John declares that he and the saints in his day had part in it (Rev. 1:9), as all saints have still. At times then they taught about it as in existence, at times they spoke of its manifestation in power which is future, as servants and instructed scribes they knew how to speak of it, and what to teach about it.
To enter the kingdom however, and to be found in it when the Lord returns, are very different things. None can enter it now without being born of water and of the Spirit, nor even see it without being born again, and all who are so born during the time of Christ's absence become inheritors of it. It is the inheritance of God's Son, and God's children will inherit it with Him — "Heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ." But within its range, as it now exists, all manner of evil is found, which at His coming will be gathered out of it (Matt. 13:41); and ever after nothing actively evil will be allowed in it unjudged, though the unconverted will enjoy earthly blessings under His reign, if outwardly obedient to His sway. (Psalm 101; 18:44 — margin.)
Are the kingdom and the Church then the same, it may be asked? By no means. All who are of the Church inherit the kingdom, but all the heavenly saints will share in it likewise. (Rev. 20:6.) Connected with each there is a hope. The hope of the Church is Christ's descent into the air; the hope connected with the kingdom is the Lord's appearance with His saints. In the kingdom there are ranks, in the Church there are gifts. The rank and reward of each one in the kingdom will be determined by his service, as the catalogue of David's worthies shadows out, and the parable of the pounds clearly intimates. The gifts are bestowed on the Church in accordance with God's sovereign will, and responsibility flows from the possession of them. The place in the kingdom will be determined by the right use of the opportunities afforded and responsibilities discharged. From the kingdom all evil will be put out when the Lord returns; from the assembly evil should be put out by His members on earth whilst He is absent on high. The kingdom awaits an absent Lord, the Church is joined to a head in heaven.
A few words in conclusion. Varied are the terms used in scripture when speaking of the kingdom. It is God's kingdom as we have seen, and the kingdom of heaven likewise. It is also the kingdom of God's dear Son, because to Him the rule in it has been committed. It is the everlasting kingdom, because it never will end. The Father's kingdom and heavenly kingdom speak of the heavenly part of it; the kingdom of the Son of man is the earthly portion of it. We learn from the word the commencement of the existence of the kingdom on earth. We learn too when the present form of it will cease. We read in the prophetical portions of the book how it will be displayed in power, and we read too that a time will come when Christ shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father; but the kingdom will never end. He delivers it up, but it does not terminate. Daniel declares it shall last "for ever, even for ever and ever," and John in the last chapter of the Bible reaffirms it, as he writes "they shall reign for ever and ever." C. E. Stuart.