CHAPTER ONE

There is no subject of deeper Scriptural import than the kingdom of God and the great redemptive foundation upon

which it rests. The tendency has always been to whittle it down, to over-simplify it, to see part of it and to imagine

that this is the whole. The fact is that it is nothing less than the entire purpose of God for heaven and earth in all its

variety and complexity, and because of this it is the theme of the Word of God from Genesis to Revelation.

The Lord Jesus Christ is Himself the source, centre and goal of it all. He is the all-sufficient Redeemer of this

creation which tragically has become involved in sin and death and without His redemptive work, the attainment of

this kingdom would be impossible. These great barriers must be removed before the kingdom of God can be

realised and the one offering of Himself as the sin-bearer on the cross of Calvary has made this gloriously certain

(Heb. 10:11-14). Not only is the Lord Jesus brought before us in the Word as the one Redeemer and Saviour, but He

is also the King of Israel (John 1:49; Matt. 21:4,5) and in a far greater sense He is `KING OF KINGS, AND LORD

OF LORDS' (Rev. 19:16), the supreme King and the supreme Lord of the universe to Whom one day `every knee

shall bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth' (Phil. 2:10). The kingdom of God

does not rest on anything so flimsy as the limited strength or wisdom of any created being; rather it rests solidly

upon the almighty strength and wisdom of our great God and Saviour, Christ Jesus.

At the outset we must be careful not to interpret the word `kingdom' as merely the exhibition of sovereignty or

government as some have done. The Bible knows nothing of a kingdom without a king or a king without a

kingdom. A kingdom pre-supposes a ruler with adequate authority and power and a realm of subjects whom he

rules and both these are clearly presented in the sacred Scriptures. God says `Yet have I set My King upon My holy

hill of Zion' (Psa. 2:6). Early in the Bible we find it presented in typical form by the first man Adam, who was

given by God a dominion over the whole earth:

`And God said, Let us make man (Adam) 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' (Gen. 1:26 and see Psa. 8:3-9; Heb. 2:5-9).

In reality Adam was a king who shadowed forth the last Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ, the supreme King Who

finally will reign over His whole creation.

It is our intention in this study to consider the testimony of the whole Bible with respect to this great subject of

the kingdom of God. Only in this way shall we be able to get any adequate conception of its vastness and wonder.

Some have made the great mistake of limiting their research to the New Testament, and have gone so far as to base

it on one verse only, namely Luke 17:21, `Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, Lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of

God is within you', and from this verse they imagine that God's kingdom is nothing more than an attitude of mind

and bears no relationship to the material world. We shall deal with this verse later on and hope to show how grossly

unscriptural and inadequate this conception is.

There have been many conflicting ideas as to what this kingdom really comprises. Broadly speaking, these can be

ranged under three headings as being: (1) the reign of God in heaven after the last judgment; (2) the periods between

the second Advent of Christ and the last judgment and (3) the visible church between the first and second Advents.

From these there are varying ideas some of which are the following:

(1) Jewish scholars, though differing in details, have felt that the kingdom belongs solely to Israel in the days of

the Messiah.

(2) The reign of Christ is inaugurated at His second Coming to the earth in power and glory. It must be said that

this was the predominating conception of Christians for the first 21/2 centuries of our era. It was reversed

largely by the works of Origen and Augustine. The latter, though he first embraced it, changed his mind and

began to adopt spiritualisation as his method of interpretation and this is set out in the 22 books of his De