At the risk of making this too long, I wish to notice by number the items listed by Brother Bales.
1. Read the American Standard Version on Rev. 1:6, then look at the Greek. “Kingdom,” not “kings.”
2. I am not endeavoring to establish a kingdom in the United States.
3. I know not what Brother Bales means by “antagonistic”; that is a strong word.
4. We have not space here to discuss this passage, (Isa. 2:2-4) but trust to do so later.
5. No individual is allowed to take vengeance; even this government forbids that. God takes vengeance through his appointed channel, the human government.
Pointed Paragraphs:
Israel fell because of its own internal corruption, and so has many another nation fallen. That is the greatest danger facing our nation today. When God is ruled out of the educational, social, and business life of a nation all sorts of corruption follows, and corruption means decay and death.
THE NEW TESTAMENT WORD FLESH
In the New Testament the word flesh does not always have the same significance. Sometimes it refers to our material bodies, and sometimes to the bodies of other living things. (1 Cor. 15:39.) It sometimes refers to that state or condition in which the gratifying of the appetites and passions of our bodies is our chief concern—strictly a worldly life. (Romans 7:5, 8:6-9.) It is to mind the flesh—a contrast with a spiritual life. And some times the word flesh refers to a race or nation, as distinguished from another race or nation. Paul speaks of the Jews as “my flesh”. (Rom. 11:14.) “As concerning the flesh”, Christ was of the fathers of the Jewish race—that is, as to his flesh he was a Jew. After stating that Christ died for all, Paul adds, “Wherefore we henceforth know no man after the flesh: even though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now know him so no more.” In Christ there are no fleshly distinctions—no race discriminations. “For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek: for the same Lord is Lord of All.” (Rom. 10:12.) And as Christ is the savior of both Jew and Gentile, and is Lord of all—king over all, we can no longer regard him as a Jew—we no longer think of him as a Jew, or in any way identified with fleshly Israel. Yet the future Kingdom advocates still identify him with fleshly Israel and speak of him as “Israel’s Christ,” “Israel’s Messiah,” “Israel’s King.” They encourage the Jew to glory in the fact that he is a Jew. They would have the Jew to believe that the Jewish nation is even yet God’s chosen people, a nation with glorious future, exalted above all others subservient to them. But not so with Paul.