WE will now make some comment on what Dr. Bullinger teaches about the Kingdom of Heaven. The following quotations will tell us what that teaching is. "The Kingdom... belongs to the past Dispensation. It was proclaimed by John the Baptist; and afterward as being then 'at hand';... but, having been rejected, it is now in abeyance until the time comes to set it up in Divine power and glory" ("How to Enjoy the Bible," p. 115). "There can be no kingdom without a king, therefore while He [The Lord Jesus] is away, the kingdom must be in abeyance" ("The Mystery," pp. 10, 11). "The end of the Kingdom was marked externally by the destruction of Jerusalem and the dispersion of Israel" ("The Kingdom & the Church," p. 16).
Just as Dr. Bullinger taught that the believer ceases to exist at death, so now he teaches that the Kingdom of Heaven ceased to exist when Titus destroyed Jerusalem and scattered the Jews among the nations. This is clearly what he means when he says the Kingdom is "in abeyance." We would like to know what warrant he has for this statement, for we know of no such insinuation in the Word of God. He tells us "there can be no kingdom without a king." By that he means a visible King on. earth. The Sermon on the Mount teaches us plainly the fact of the Kingdom being on this earth, spite of the absence of the King. We read in Matt. 4:2323And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. (Matthew 4:23): "And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom."
Then we read that great multitudes followed Him "from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judea, and from beyond Jordan." What a stir there was! What a mighty hunger to hear the Kingdom gospel! He then went up into a mountain with His disciples, and taught them. His discourse on this occasion is commonly called The Sermon on the Mount. And what does this Sermon contain? Surely instructions as to the Kingdom of Heaven, its characteristics when the King is absent, and how the children of the Kingdom must comport themselves in the circumstances of His absence. There cannot be a Kingdom without a King, but this King may be rejected, and therefore absent. And this is what is happening at the present time in relation to the Kingdom of Heaven.
Will any be "poor in spirit" when the King is present, and has set up His Kingdom in power and majesty? No; in His absence this can be and is true. It is true of the Kingdom during the absence of the King.
Again we read: "Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (ver. 10).
Will any be persecuted for righteousness' sake when the King is in power? Impossible! It sets forth what is taking place when the King is absent.
The whole of the Sermon on the Mount is framed from the standpoint of the Kingdom of Heaven being, in the absence of the King, subject to persecution and violence. Blessed are the subjects of the Kingdom, who are hungering and thirsting after righteousness, which certainly they will not do when the King reigns in righteousness. Blessed are they when men revile them, and persecute them, and say all manner of evil against them falsely for the King's sake, a condition of things that will certainly not be allowed when the King is all-powerful.
But some follower of Dr. Bullinger's views may say, "This will be all true of the remnant after the Church is caught up. There can be no application of this to the Christians of this dispensation."
We reply that Dr. Bullinger's own statement rules that out. He writes with an air of finality that there can be no kingdom without a king, meaning a king visibly present and in power. During the Great Tribulation the King will be absent as much as now. So that explanation will not work in the light of Dr. Bullinger's dogmatic statement.
Six times over in Matt. 13, that great Chapter of the parables of the Kingdom of Heaven, the sentence occurs, "The Kingdom of Heaven is like." Dr. Bullinger's comment on this is as follows: "When He [the Lord Jesus] says, 'The Kingdom of Heaven is like,' it is as though He said, 'The Kingdom is to be in abeyance, here is a likeness of what will happen to it; here is another; here is another. I am speaking concerning the things connected with the Kingdom which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world" ("The Kingdom" & "the Church," p. 9).
The Lord Jesus said, "The Kingdom of Heaven IS [PRESENT tense] like." Dr. Bullinger says that our Lord by these words meant that the Kingdom of Heaven would be in "abeyance," meaning that it would cease to exist. Any child of tender years in one of our schools could tell the learned doctor that this is practically saying that white is black. Can any sane Christian swallow such a gross contradiction of the words of the Lord Himself? One hesitates to say so, but it looks very much like blasphemy to contradict the very words of our Lord. One cannot believe that Dr. Bullinger did not know the meaning of words. To say that our Lord's "IS" means Dr. Bullinger's WILL is more than serious. Dr. Bullinger says: "The public preaching of the Kingdom ends with Acts 19:2020So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed. (Acts 19:20)" ("The Kingdom" & "the Church," p. 14).
How does Dr. Bullinger know this? Is he omniscient? It is true that the last recorded mention of the public preaching of the Kingdom is in Acts 19:88And he went into the synagogue, and spake boldly for the space of three months, disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God. (Acts 19:8) (not verse 20, which Dr. Bullinger quotes, and which says nothing about the preaching of the Kingdom of Heaven). But the last mention in Acts 19:88And he went into the synagogue, and spake boldly for the space of three months, disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God. (Acts 19:8) does not necessarily mean that the public preaching of the Kingdom of Heaven ceased then. There is no hint that it was to cease, nor do we think it did. On the contrary, we read in the last two verses in the Acts of the Apostles, "And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him, preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him" (Acts 28:30, 3130And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him, 31Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him. (Acts 28:30‑31)).
Would not the Apostle have publicly preached the Kingdom of God, if he had had his liberty? But he used what liberty he had in proclaiming the glad tidings. And was he the only preacher of the Kingdom of God?
We know that only the Gospel of Matthew uses the expression, "The Kingdom of Heaven," yet the allusions to the Kingdom of God in Mark and Luke clearly refer to the "Kingdom of God" as synonymous with the "Kingdom of Heaven." Here and there it speaks of the Kingdom of God in its real aspect, as it does also of the Kingdom of Heaven.
Even with the parables in Matt. 13 this is so in more than one instance. The "treasure hid in the field" (ver. 44), and "one pearl of great price" (ver. 46), only include the real; whereas the wheat and the tares, the mustard tree, and the leaven in the three measures of meal, set forth profession, and include what is real and unreal.
The Kingdom of Heaven is presented from its purely moral aspect in Rom. 14:1717For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. (Romans 14:17). We read: "The kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost."
When the King comes in power, "all things that offend, and them who do iniquity" (Matt. 13:44And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up: (Matthew 13:4)) shall be gathered out of His Kingdom.
Plainly in Scripture the Kingdom of Heaven is in mystery now, the King is absent. The glorious day is coming when it will be in manifestation and power. Lord, haste that day! "Thy Kingdom come!" (Matt. 6:1010Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:10)).