A few words on the difference between the various kingdoms mentioned in Scripture might be found useful to some of your readers. We have the Kingdom of God, Matt. 12:28; the Kingdom of heaven, Matt. 25:1; the Kingdom of the Father, Matt. 26:29; the Kingdom of the Son of Man, Dan. 7:13,14; the Kingdom of the Son of His love, Col. 1:13; the Everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, 2 Peter 1:11; Heb. 12:28.
You are introduced to the first named in connection with the Lord when upon earth, for in answer to the Pharisees’ demand “when the kingdom of God should come?” He answered them and saith, “the kingdom of God cometh not with observation, neither shall they say, lo here, or lo there, for behold the kingdom of God is within you,” or as the margin reads it, “among you,” (Luke 17:20-21). One has well described it as “the exhibition, or the manifestation of the ruling power of God under any circumstances,”—and, in the person of His Son, God was manifesting His ruling power at this time; God was there in Him.
It is also spoken of as existing at the present time, for in Rom. 14:17 we read, “the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost:” and again, in 1 Cor. 4:20, “the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.” In these cases, the ruling power of God is again exhibited, not in the Son, but by the Spirit, who, through. His presence on earth, produces in those that believe practical righteousness, peace and joy, and in His servants power to correct evil where needed. In Christ, then, during His time on earth, the Kingdom of God was to be seen; by the Spirit now. The Kingdom of God was the circle of Christ’s workings previous to. His being received up into glory, Now, it is the circle of the Holy Ghost’s workings. Scripture would seem to teach that in Christ’s day none but He could be in it, for though “among those that are born of women, there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist,” yet, “he that is least in the kingdom of God, is greater than he,” (Luke 7:28).
The Kingdom of God then was confined to Christ Himself in His day, though every man was pressing into or towards it, (Luke 17:1-6), waiting, as it were, till the Holy Ghost’s descent should open the door for them. This took place at Pentecost, and then the new creation entitled everyone to enter, (John 3:3-5). And thus the ruling power of God, exhibited only in Christ when on earth, is now manifested in those whose bodies have become the temples of the Holy Ghost.
So far as to its divine or proper form. The name however, is applied in Scripture to what the divine’ thing has in man’s hands become, what we know by the name of Christendom. The “tree” and the “leaven” (Luke 13:18-21), give us its outward dimensions and its internal condition. Outwardly, what was but a grain, a small thing, at Pentecost, has become a huge overgrown mass that shelters even the devil’s emissaries; while internal evil and corrupt doctrine has permeated that which was the people’s food. What a description of Christendom, and yet how accurate! —a vast system, but rotten within.
Thus Rom. 14:17, 1 Cor. 4:20, describe the present inward or divine aspect of the Kingdom of God. Luke 13:18-21, its external or human condition.
“The kingdom of Heaven,” or literally of the heavens, differs from the kingdom of God, and yet, in some respects, resembles it As we know, the name is only used in the Gospel of Matthew, and this is readily accounted for by the fact that to this Evangelist belongs the task of commending the truth to Jewish consciences, and amongst other things he proves that the kingdom foretold in old Testament writings was that which the Messiah proposed to introduce. He therefore calls it the kingdom of the heavens, because that name coincides with the description given of it in the Law, Psalms, and Prophets,
Israel was taught to lay up the Lord’s “words in their heart, and in their soul, and bind them for a sign upon their hand, that they might be as frontlets between their eyes—that their days might be multiplied, and the days of their children, in the land which the Lord aware unto their fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon earth.” (Deut. 11:18-21.) It was said of David, too, that his seed should “endure forever, and his throne as the 8 of heaven.” (Psa. 89:29.) And likewise it is said of the power of the gentiles that it should continue till the time that they should know “that the heavens do rule.” (Dan. 4:26.)
Hence we may trace throughout the Old Testament allusion made to a time when God’s will would be “done on earth” (as the prayer which the Lord then taught His disciples expressed it), “as it is in heaven,” (Matt. 6:10).
This time the Baptist came to introduce the Messiah, and therefore announced (Matt. 3:2) that “the kingdom of the heavens was at hand.” Jesus Himself (Matt. 4:17) makes the same statement; but instead of His claims being submitted to, they hold a council to destroy Him (Matt. 12:14), and consequently the kingdom of the heavens assumes a mysterious form (Matt. 13:11). The mystery being that it should be a kingdom with an absent king, a thing unknown in history—the king being rejected.
The 13th chapter presents the kingdom of the heavens to us in six different ways. But before we say a word as to these, we would direct the reader’s attention to Matt. 11:11-12, which seems coupled with Matt. 16: 19, to give us light as to the time when the kingdom commenced.
John Baptist was not in it, blessed as was the position he occupied—the door was not thrown open though Christ was on the throne, until Peter unlocked it on the day of Pentecost, and, then “the violent” (those really in earnest) reached the goal that they had been seeking for since the days of John the Baptist. Thus, then, it could not have been said the kingdom of the heavens is “among you,” neither could it be said, “I give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of God.” The kingdom of God and the kingdom of the heavens are distinct and different. The one existing while the Lord was on earth—the other commencing on Christ taking His seat on the Father’s throne. The latter opened by a human instrument—the former inaugurated by Christ Himself. In certain points however, they resemble each other; both having’ an outward and an inward, a human (as one may say) and a divine form. As to the outward form, the same similitudes are applied to each—the “mustard seed” and “leaven”—as to the inward, we have in the one case the thing formed by the Holy Ghost, and in the other what the thing formed comes to. Outwardly then, the kingdom of the heavens is like a tare field, a tree, and leaven. A mixture of the Lord’s and Satan’s people—that mixture grouped into a huge wide spreading system, powerful outwardly, internally corrupt; such is Christendom of the present day. But to faith there is an inner or divine form which the kingdom takes, and this is seen in separate pieces composing “a treasure” precious to God; and in a thing whose oneness and purity reminds us of the excellence of the Church of God as seen of Christ, and in a form of separation from evil that shows us that God delights not in the mixed company of the first three parables, but in companies gathered apart from the surrounding corruption. These latter are the kingdom of the heavens from God’s side. Thus, then, the kingdom of the heavens proper is the rule of the heavens upon earth—the days of heaven—the Lord hearing the heavens, and the heavens the earth. (Hos. 2:21.) This however; was refused by man, and consequently, now the days of heaven upon earth are seen by those to whom it is given, to exist in a mysterious form until Messiah comes to bring in the times of restitution of all things with the trumpet of Jubilee.
The kingdom of the heavens thus was openly offered by the Messiah at His advent—refused, and therefore commenced in a mysterious way on His ascension and is running on during the present time and will exist after the church’s removal, until the millennium commences; when it will take its proper form, but will be known partly as the kingdom of the Father, and partly as the kingdom of the Son of man.
These both commence and end simultaneously. The kingdom of the Father relating to things above, the kingdom of the Son of man to things below.
For the former, the Jewish remnant pray when they say “Our Father... thy kingdom come.” They will be gathered as the wheat into the barn and will as the righteous, shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. (Matt. 13:30-43.) A heavenly people; their reward is in heaven in the scene of their Father’s, dwelling. The kingdom of the Father is for the heavenly people. The kingdom of the Son of man for the earthly. The 8th Psalm explains this, as Son of man He takes the Headship of all below, the place that Adam lost. As Son of man He executes judgment (Matt. 13:41). As Son of man He welcomes into His kingdom the blessed of His Father-the sheep who satisfied His hunger, quenched His thirst, clothed His nakedness, and cheered Him in sickness and imprisonment, (Matt. 25:31-46). An earthly people, they have been counted worthy to “stand before the Son of man,” (Luke 21:36).
Thus the millennial “world kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ” (Rev. 11:15) has a heavenly and an earthly aspect—the one embracing only glorified saints, the other, including the earthly ones, having eternal life but not glorified as to their bodies. The one is the sphere of the Father’s glory, the other the scene of the rule of the Son of man. Both will alike cease when He delivers “up the kingdom to God even the Father.” (1 Cor. 15:24.)
It remains but to notice “the kingdom of the Son of his love” (Col. 1:13), and “the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,” (2 Peter 1:11).
These are quite distinct in their characters from those we have already mentioned, and give us rather the thought of position than display. The one refers to our present place, the other to our future glory.
They are more to be felt than described, and are only mentioned each once in Scripture. Christ has a present kingdom, the Christ whom the world refused to own as king. One which the Father’s love bestowed on Him the Son of His affections, and into this, we who have believed have already been translated. It is the region of blessing of which Christ is the center, and Christ in the most excellent way as Son of His Father’s love; we may enjoy it though we can’t describe it.
The other is before us, and a blessed contrast to the things that are “fading away” around us. It is everlasting, and we shall share it with Him, and His desire is that we should enter it, as one may say, full sail—as Paul when he said, “I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have “fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me de crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me.” (2 Tim. 4:6-8.) May it be ours, then, to add to our faith all these things that 2 Peter 1:5-7 contains, so that not merely an entrance, (we are sure of this as those who are “elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father”), but “an abundant entrance be administered unto us into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” Amen! D. T. G.