The King of Kings
II. - The Everlasting Kingdom
“For unto us a Child is born, unto us a
Son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulders: and His name
shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The everlasting Father,
The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be
no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to
establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever. The
zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this” (Isaiah 9:6,7).
The ultimate essence of the entire
universe is the Spirit of God, its Creator. Beyond that, everything is illusory
and transient. It all disappears with the using. According to James, life on
the earth is “a vapor that appeareth for a time and vanisheth
away” (James 4:14). God does not
seem to interfere with this disintegrative process, even when it affects His
children. If He did, to do so would be to encourage the idea that there is
substance and value to the world after all. What He wants to do is to impress
His creatures with the reality of the realm of the spirit. This is the realm
over which He presides as the undisputed Ruler.
Jesus said to Pontius Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world.” He
was certainly not interested in usurping Caesar’s power. Indeed, He was not
even interested in calling forth cohorts to save His life. For Him to interfere
with the processes of earth and make of it once again an Edenic
place to live, would be to defeat the ultimate purpose
which is to bring everything under His complete control, so that its
motivations and processes and energies will be of the spirit realm and not of
the flesh realm. This is, of course, the quality of the eternal. All who would
be one with God throughout eternity must possess this quality of the Spirit.
In the last issue (q.v.) we discussed
the meaning of governance. There are many human misconceptions about the word,
as we discussed it. In this prophetic statement by Isaiah, the word for
governments—shar—occurs
three times. In every case it means “rulership.” Even
the phrase—“Prince of peace”—means
“Ruler of peace.” As we suggested, the ultimate purpose of God in the world is
that everything will be under His rulership,
including the process of peace. True peace will come only as the entire
universe is in harmony under God’s aegis (cf. Romans 8; I Corinthians 15; and
Hebrews 2). This will include all of nature, as well as all of mankind. At the
present time, all the spiritual forces of the universe are under His rulership. This includes the Kingdom of God, sometimes
referred to as the “Kingdom of heaven.” In Matthew 13, the so-called “Kingdom
parables” are referred to by Matthew as the “Kingdom of heaven.” Luke, in the
same parables, (Luke 21) refers the Kingdom as “The Kingdom of God.” The
difference may be that Matthew, a Jew, was more reluctant to use the name of
God than was Luke, a Gentile.
In these parables, which give us a very
precise delineation of the Kingdom of God by Jesus Himself, the main thread or
theme that runs through all of them is the inevitable expansion of the kingdom
from something very tiny, as the mustard seed, to something very
all-encompassing, as leaven or yeast in the loaf of bread. We conclude then
that whatever the meaning of the Kingdom of God, its ultimate
extent will be the entire universe—“Heaven
and earth and all that are therein.” When the earthly
aspects of this Kingdom will take place is not known, despite all the myriads
of efforts by “religious promoters” to garner support for their enterprises by
sensationalist predictions. People are always vulnerable to future
predictions as is indicated by the overwhelming number of
predictors—astrologers, spiritists, palmists, fortune
tellers and so-called “prophets” within the Church—all of whom profit from this
vulnerability.
So what can we know for sure?
The Bible is very clear about the
spiritual kingdom which exists now and will exist forever, and that there will
be something of an earthly kingdom focused in the Middle East. Prior to the establishing
of this kingdom there will be a time of great upheaval. What has gone on
recently and what is going on now does not really fit the descriptions of
Revelation. In the midst of this upheaval, one will rise up who will claim to
be the Messiah. This figure is commonly known as the “anti-Christ,” but that
term is somewhat misleading. Most people think of him as being against Christ
(the common usage in English), but in Greek the name means “in place of
Christ.” He is a false Messiah. He will in fact be received as the Messiah—the
ultimate deception.
After he has won the people over and
received full power, he will turn against the people of God and persecute them
severely (the time of Jacob’s trouble). At this point Christ will return to the
Mount of Olives with His cohorts
from heaven and totally overcome him. At this time the so-called “Millennial Kingdom” will begin and
there will be a thousand years (assuming a literal translation) of peace when
Christ will rule “with a rod of iron.” During this time, Satan will be chained
and harmless, but will be released when the thousand years are ended. At that
time he will gather together such forces of evil that have been held at bay
during the millennium and launch a siege of Jerusalem. Satan and his
hosts will be quickly vanquished by Christ and the Everlasting Kingdom will be
established upon the earth. (Read Ezekiel 38; Daniel 11; Zechariah 14;
Revelation 19 and 20). There are many other passages, but these are basic to
the ideas that we have advanced. For a further discussion,
read the author’s collection of essays—“The Prophets Speak.”
There is little or no debate about the
reality of the Spiritual Kingdom of God. Of course, if God rules over the realm
of the spirit, He rules over the most essential element of the universe. But
there is some debate over the issue of an earthly kingdom, as an everlasting
one. And there is much room for discussion. Absolutes in this area can get us
into difficulty. However, in the passage that is before us, the phrase—“upon
the throne of David”—would seem irrelevant if there were not an earthly
kingdom. Again, the reference to “peace” is more significant in the context of
an earthly situation then a heavenly one. That there should be peace in the
spiritual kingdom of God would be assumed,
but peace on earth, in the light of the thousands of years of conflict would be
prophetically meaningful.
Obviously we have only scratched the
surface of the subject. But in a survey of the many prophetic passages,
especially relevant to Israel, there is an
overwhelming sense that much of it goes beyond spiritual symbolism. For
example, in Ezekiel 44-48 there is a temple erected from which flows a great
river down through the Judean Valley and into the Dead Sea. The
newly-watered wilderness springs forth in verdant growth and the waters of the Dead Sea are sweetened,
permitting life once again to flourish in it. Is this merely symbolism? Does
all of this take place for a brief period of time? On the other hand, is this
earthly phenomenon really everlasting? One must be careful about absolutes
here. One only suggests that these passages be read with the possibility of an Everlasting Earthly Kingdom. The author has
always treated the subject with reserve, and that, after a great many years of
study both in the Hebrew and in the Greek texts. And yet, even so, one
hesitates to be absolute. It is often true that the less one knows,
the more certain one is about one’s convictions. Often such ones assume that
their conviction comes from the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The problem
with this attitude is that people with quite variant ideas make the same claim.
The ultimate conclusion or “bottom
line,” if you will, is that Christ is the “Father of eternity,” and the “Ruler
of peace” whose Kingdom is without boundaries. All who
possess His Spirit by the “new birth,” will and, in fact do, participate in
this Everlasting Kingdom. How much of it
may or may not be earthly, is subject to debate. What is not subject to debate
is that we belong to God for eternity. How He chooses to incorporate His
earthly creation is within His province and not readily understood by finite
minds.
David Morsey
February 1992
www.harvestermission.org