QUESTIONS ABOUT THE JEWS, THE KINGDOM AND SALVATION
Tell me: When, or how, did Christ offer the Jews the kingdom? What passage, or passages, or teaching as a whole do you think the earth-kingdom advocates rely on to prove the statement that the kingdom was offered the Jews?
Was the kingdom offered the Jews in any sense that salvation was not offered them?
Did they reject the kingdom in any sense they did not reject salvation?
If the kingdom was offered the Jews, and they rejected it, and the Lord for that reason postponed the kingdom, why is it he did not also postpone the salvation offered?—X
Perhaps I might as well answer the foregoing questions as a whole as to answer each one separately. The querist has been doing some close thinking, and his questions open up a field for some profitable investigation.
The querist evidently refers to the Jews as a nation, and not as individuals. It is claimed by the kingdom speculators that Jesus offered the kingdom to the Jewish nation on condition that the rulers and people alike repent, but the assertion is not backed up by any definite proof. The advocates of that notion arrive at such a conclusion by assumptions and deductions. They assume that the prophets foretold the restoration of the old kingdom of Israel, a kingdom that was born in rebellion against God and in rejection of him as King! They assume that Jesus offered the kingdom to the Jews as a nation, but they gave no proof that Jesus offered that kingdom or anything else to a national Israel. But as such a kingdom did not come into being, they conclude that both the king and his kingdom were rejected. Matt. 3:2 is quoted in this connection, but they do not show how that Scripture proves their contention. John was preaching to individuals, and not to the nation as such. The fact is that he never did go and preach to the rulers, nor did they come to him. They did send a committee to inquire into his work.
I see no way to separate the kingdom from salvation, nor can I see how one can exist apart from the other. Of course the old kingdom had citizens who were not in a saved state, but I do not see how that could be true of the kingdom of Christ. However, we are told that only Jews who are born again will be citizens of the kingdom which they suppose Christ will set up when he comes again. In that respect, as well as in many others, this supposed kingdom will not be like the old kingdom.
That the future-kingdom advocates realize they have no certain proof of their rejection and postponement theory is shown by the fact that they do not agree on any certain Scripture, nor as to the time of this supposed rejection and postponement. John R. Rice puts it in the tenth chapter of Matthew; Scofield, in the eleventh; R. H. Boll, in the twelfth. John R. Rice says the kingdom at hand was never preached after the tenth chapter; the offer was then withdrawn. He should have read what Jesus a year later instructed the seventy to preach. (Luke 10:11.) In a note on Matt. 11:20-24 Scofield says: “The kingdom of heaven announced ‘at hand’ by John the Baptist, by the King himself, and by the twelve, and attended by mighty works, has been morally rejected. The places chosen for the testing of the nation—Chorazin, Bethsaida, etc.—having rejected both John and Jesus, the rejected King now speaks of judgment. The final official rejection is later. (Matt. 27:31-37).” On verses 28-30 he says: “The new message of Jesus. The rejected King now turns from the rejecting nation and offers not the kingdom, but rest and service to such in the nation as are conscious of need. It is a pivotal point in the ministry of Jesus.” R. H. Boll says: “In chapter twelve the antagonism of the Pharisees, stirred to its height by his Sabbath healing, came to a terrible climax: they went out and took counsel against him how they might destroy him. (12:14.) This was a great turning point.” As they find no Scripture which says what they claim, they depend on assumptions and deductions, and their deductions do not agree.
A PROPOSITION: The gospel plan of salvation is the scheme of redemption foretold in promise and prophecy.