Luckock, After Death, finds evidence of belief in the intercession of the saints in heaven as early as the second century. Invocation of the saints he regards as beginning not earlier than the fourth century. He approves the doctrine that the saints pray for us, but rejects the doctrine that we are to pray to them. Prayers for the dead he strongly advocates. Bramhall, Works, 1:57—Invocation of the saints is “not necessary, for two reasons: first, no saint doth love us so well as Christ: no saint hath given us such assurance of his love, or done so much for us as Christ; no saint is so willing to help us as Christ; and secondly, we have no command from God to invocate them.” A. B. Cave: “The system of human mediation falls away in the advent to our souls of the living Christ. Who wants stars, or even the moon, after the sun is up?”
III. The Kingly Office of Christ.
This is to be distinguished from the sovereignty which Christ originally possessed in virtue of his divine nature. Christ's kingship is the sovereignty of the divine-human Redeemer, which belonged to him of right from the moment of his birth, but which was fully exercised only from the time of his entrance upon the state of exaltation. By virtue of this kingly office, Christ rules all things in heaven and earth, for the glory of God and the execution of God's purpose of salvation.
(a) With respect to the universe at large, Christ's kingdom is a kingdom of power; he upholds, governs, and judges the world.
Ps. 2:6-8—“I have set my king.... Thou art my son.... uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession”; 8:6—“madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; Thou hast put all things under his feet”; cf. Heb. 2:8, 9—“we see not yet all things subjected to him. But we beheld ... Jesus ... crowned with glory and honor”; Mat. 25:31, 32—“when the Son of man shall come in his glory ... then shall he sit on the throne of his glory: and before him shall be gathered all the nations”; 28:18—“All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth”; Heb. 1:3—“upholding all things by the word of his power”; Rev. 19:15, 16—“smite the nations ... rule them with a rod of iron ... King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.”
Julius Müller, Proof-texts, 34, says incorrectly, as we think, that “the regnum naturæof the old theology is unsupported,—there are only the regnum gratiæ and the regnum gloriæ.” A. J. Gordon: “Christ is now creation's sceptre-bearer, as he was once creation's burden-bearer.”
(b) With respect to his militant church, it is a kingdom of grace; he founds, legislates for, administers, defends, and augments his church on earth.
Luke 2:11—“born to you ... a Savior, who is Christ the lord”; 19:38—“Blessed is the King that cometh in the name of the Lord”; John 18:36, 37—“My kingdom is not of this world.... Thou sayest it, for I am a king.... Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice”; Eph. 1:22—“he put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all”; Heb. 1:8—“of the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever.”
Dorner, Glaubenslehre, 2:677 (Syst. Doct., 4:142, 143)—“All great men can be said to have an after-influence (Nachwirkung) after their death, but only of Christ can it be said that he has an after-activity (Fortwirkung). The sending of the Spirit is part of Christ's work as King.” P. S. Moxom, Bap. Quar. Rev., Jan. 1886:25-36—“Preëminence of Christ, as source of the church's being; ground of the church's unity; source of the church's law; mould of the church's life.” A. J. Gordon: “As the church endures hardness and humiliation as united to him who was on the cross, so she should exhibit something of supernatural energy as united with him who is on the throne.” Luther: “We tell our Lord God, that if he will have his church, he must look after it himself. We cannot sustain it, and, if we could, we should become the proudest asses under heaven.... If it had been possible for pope, priest or minister to destroy the church of Jesus Christ, it would have been destroyed long ago.” Luther, watching the proceedings of the Diet of Augsburg, made a noteworthy discovery. He saw the stars bestud the canopy of the sky, and though there were no pillars to hold them up they kept their place and the sky fell not. The business of holding up the sky and its stars has been on the minds of men in all ages. But we do not need to provide props to hold up the sky. God will look after his church and after Christian doctrine. For of Christ it has been written in 1 Cor. 15:25—“For he must reign, till he hath put all his enemies under his feet.”