The Kingdom of Promise and Prophecy

by Robertson L. Whiteside

A LEADING DOCTRINE OF THIS CURRENT REFORMATION

When I was a young man, the gospel preachers who were then active in preaching the ancient gospel preached often on the establishment of the kingdom. As I recall those sermons, they usually began with the dream of Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel’s interpretation thereof, as recorded in the second chapter of Daniel. It was argued that the kingdom foretold in verse 44 began on the first Pentecost after the resurrection of Christ. That was one position on which there was no disagreement among “Christians only” in those days. It is true that there had been some speculations to the contrary in the days of Alexander Campbell. One Dr. John Thomas was a leading spirit in that agitation. It was contended that the restoration of the Israelites to a kingdom of their own in Palestine was the hope—the Elpis—of Israel. While we do not recognize Mr. Campbell as authority in matters of faith, we do recognize him as a teacher of great ability. It will do us good to read carefully some things Mr. Campbell wrote on the kingdom question. Note how the following fits into the present agitation on this question:

I will receive it as a favor from any person, to be informed of any people or preacher, on this continent or in the European world, that clearly or definitely stated or announced, in unequivocal affirmation, that the Christian church did not commence, and, consequently, was never organized, till the first Pentecost after the crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ; that then placed upon the throne of David, and upon the throne of God, he commenced his reign personally in heaven and spiritually upon the earth, by the mission of the Holy Spirit to his apostles, and through them to his church, which is now his natural and earthly body—the fullness, or manhood development, of Him who fills all things, in all places, with life, and beauty, and happiness.

The foregoing is taken from the Millenial Harbinger of February, 1852. In a footnote to the foregoing quotation we have the following from Mr. Campbell:

To prevent misconception of this allusion to the throne of David, I simply remark for the present, to be developed, probably more fully again, that the throne of David was, in fact, the earthly throne of God, in the midst of ancient Israel. David was his viceroy—that is, the Lord’s anointed—a fact not well understood by the church, and still less by some untaught and unteachable dogmatists of the present day. It was necessary to the plans of Jehovah, which are all sublimely grand and wonderful, that he should have two thrones—one on earth and one in heaven—for a time occupied one above, by himself, and one below, by his vicegerent, called or constituted by him; and therefore his solemn oath or covenant with David, that he would raise out of his person, in fullness of time, one that would occupy both thrones. Hence, said the inspired bard of Israel, “Jehovah said to my Jehovah, Sit thou on my right hand till I make thy foes thy footstool.” It is beautifully in accordance with this fact that Mary the Virgin was the last bud on the tree of David which could blossom and fructify, and bring forth a representative of David. So that, if Jesus be not the heir of David’s throne, there never can be one born, and God’s covenant has failed. This is a death blow to Jewish infidelity, if their eyes were not closed and their ears sealed. But Jesus was the Son of David, and born to be a King, as he told Caesar’s representative. On the throne of David, as King of kings, he now sits, and also on the throne of God; for he has all crowns upon his head, and affirms that all authority in heaven and on earth is given him.

Any one who desires to peruse the most conceited, consequential, and dogmatical treaties, based upon hallucination, and parody of the words “Elpis Israel,” will, if he have a dollar to throw away, have a demonstration of a disease called in Kentucky “the big head,” probably unequaled in this century; making the hope of Israel—indeed, the hope of the gospel in full development—to consist in raising up again a throne of David in Palestine in Jerusalem; as if that throne had been vacant now for eighteen hundred years, or as if Jesus Christ would remove his throne out of the heavenly Jerusalem, to rebuild and locate it in old Jerusalem, and there to aggrandize the empire of the universe! But this only in passing, as one of the specimens of the power of the love of notoriety or of the marvelous, in wrecking and bewildering the human mind. We regard this development of the passion for notoriety as one of the most admonitory dispensations in our immediate circle of observation. It has made a man, that might have been useful, worthless to himself, worthless to his friends, and worse than worthless to the world.

In the January Harbinger (1851) Mr. Campbell reports a sermon which he preached at Bloomington, Ind., from which I glean the following excerpts:

“On Saturday night our subject was the promised advocacy of the Spirit, after the return and coronation of the Messiah in heaven; the commencement of his kingdom, and the peculiarities of the Christian dispensation, in contrast with the patriarchal and Jewish institutions. We gave reasons why Christianity, or the kingdom of Christ, could not be developed till he received all authority in heaven and earth—till he received the kingdom and government of the universe.” “The kingdom has come, and the king has been on the throne of David now more than eighteen hundred years: still, myriads are yet praying, ‘Thy kingdom come’!” “Thus Jesus, after he had expiated our sins on earth, entered heaven, and basing his intercession, as our high priest, upon his sacrifice, he sat down a priest upon his throne, ‘after the order of Melchizedek;’ a high priest forever, ‘according to the power of an endless life.’ This, as set forth, is a leading doctrine of this current reformation.... It is pregnant with great revolutionizing and regenerating principles.”

If Jesus is not now our anointed Prophet, Priest, and King, he is not yet the Christ. Do you believe Jesus to be the Christ now, or the Christ that is yet to be?