The Kingdom of God Not Yet In Existence, But To Be Established Visibly On The Earth At A Future Day, continued

We repeat that, in these circumstances, the question we have propounded is the most important to which attention can be invited.

What, then, is the Kingdom of God? Different answers will be given by different classes of people. Some conceive it to consist of the supremacy of God in the hearts of men--a sort of spiritual dominion existing co-extensively with secular life. Others recognise it in the ecclesiastical organisations of the day, styling them, as a whole, Christendom, or the kingdom of Christ, while a third party behold it in universal nature, continuing from generation to generation.

The holders of the first idea find a sanction for their belief in the words of Christ' "The kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17v 21). They overlook the fact that these words were addressed to the Pharisees, of whom Jesus said, "Ye outwardly appear righteous unto men, but WITHIN ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity" (Matt. 23v 28). This is not the state of mind that exists where the kingdom of God is supposed to dwell; and the fact that the statement in question was addressed to men of this character, shows that it had not the significance generally claimed for it. If the reader will examine any marginal Bible, he will find that "among" is given as the true rendering of the word translated "within "; which alters the significance of the verse. What Christ meant to intimate was his own presence among them as "the Royalty of the heavens," in answer to the mocking enquiry of the Pharisees.

Romans 14v 17, is also quoted "The kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost "; but this only affirms one truth, without destroying another. It is true the kingdom of God when established, will be characterised by the qualities enumerated by Paul; but it does not therefore follow that the kingdom of God will not be a real and glorious manifestation of God's power on earth through the personal intervention of His Son from heaven.

The second idea, that the Kingdom of God is to be found in the religious systems of the day, as "the visible church," is without even the semblance of Scriptural foundation. Its existence is traceable to the times succeeding the overthrow of Paganism, in the beginning of the fourth century when Constantine delivered Christianity from its persecutors, and exalted it for the first time to the throne of prosperity and power. In the joy of the great change, the bishops said the Kingdom of God had come in the establishment of the Church. But we must go to the New Testament--not to ecclesiastical historians --for a Scriptural idea of the Church. The Church, we find to be composed of the heirs of the Kingdom, in probation for coming exaltation. They are not the Kingdom itself. We refer, for proof, to the argument to follow in the present and succeeding lectures.