THE UNIVERSAL KINGDOM

H. Robert Williams

        Ladies and Gentlemen, it is with a genuine regard for your friendship that we welcome you to this broadcast today.  Recently we had a letter from an interested listener and promised to notice its contents on this broadcast.  The spirit of the writer is appreciated, and although our views on the subject will not ben in agreement, this does not mean that we are in any sense unfriendly.  It is truly wonderful to live in a land which provides freedom of worship and most gratifying to find a man who presents an opposing view without being offensive.  We are today dealing with questions pertaining to the kingdom of God, as that kingdom was prophesied in the Old testament and presented as a reality in the New.

        No subject has elicited so much interest, and none has produced so many contradictory ideas as has the subject of the fulfillment of prophecies respecting the kingdom of God.  Countless books have been written.  The imagination of man has run so far as to make it almost impossible for him to discern that which is actually based upon the scripture from that which men have advanced in their many theories and speculations.

        I shall use great plainness of speech.  If it were not for the many speculations which supposed scholars have advanced in this matter, it would not be difficult for us to agree on the simple propositions of the scriptures.  If it were possible for us to unlearn all that we have acquired during the years and to come with an open mind, without prejudice and without preconceived ideas, we could read the sacred text with an understanding and appreciation before unrealized.

        So long as one reads the Bible with the idea of proving his point, or of supporting his won personal contention, he will not come to that full appreciation of the truth which will enable him to read with discernment.  The extreme to which some may go is illustrated in Paul's description of the anti-Christ in Chapter 2 of 2 Thess.  He, speaking of the mystery of iniquity, informs us that it is already at work and anticipates the time when "that wicked shall be revealed whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming...".  Whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved." (2 Thess. 2:7-10)  You see, it isn't enough just to know the truth, even though you assent to its teaching; you must learn to love it.

        The sacred writings were placed in our hands that we might know the will of God.  This will is discoverable only as we permit the Bible to be its own interpreter.  One who loves the truth will so read it.  Any other course will produce faulty reasoning and unfounded conclusions.

        Often in making reference to some controversial matter one may say, "I just don't understand it that way".  Please bear in mind that there is no such thing as more than one understanding of a given proposition.  If more than one conclusion is reached, it is certain that one of the parties does not understand the matter.  Possibly both are in error.  If I understand a thing and you understand it, then we will agree on ever essential point connected with it.  And so it comes again to a matter of loving the truth enough to receive it without quibbling.  Daniel's interpretation of the king's dream is recorded in Daniel 2:31-45.  We should like not to read it.  "Thou, O king, sawest and behold a great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible.  This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.  Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay and broke them to pieces.  Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them:  and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.  This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation hereof before the king.  Thou,, O king, art a king of kings:  for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory.  And whatsoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thy hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all.  Thou are this head of gold.  And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.  And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron:  for forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things; and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.  And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters' clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay."  And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.  And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men; but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.  And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.  Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter:  and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure."

        The following New Testament passages will help us discover the fulfillment of Daniel's prophecy.  Matt. 3:1 states, "In those days came John the Baptist...".  In what days?  In the days of thee kings, the Caesars.  What did John preach?  "Repent ye for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."  Jesus taught the same thing in Mark 1:15.  He said, "the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand, repent ye and believe the gospel".  Notice that the gospel and the kingdom are inseparably connected.  the twelve went about preaching "the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matt. 17:7).  And the seventy announced, "the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you"  (Luke 10:9).

        About a year before his death Jesus said, "Upon this rock I will build my church"  (Matt. 16:18).   In the 18th chapter of the same book and in verse 3 he said, "Except ye become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of God.  Now hear Mark 9:1, "Verily I say unto you, that there be some of them that stand here which shall not taste of death, till they see the kingdom of God come with power".  These scriptures teach beyond any question that the "will build" in Matt. 16:18 was yet future.  The disciples were not in the kingdom for the simple reason that it did not yet exist.  That the kingdom would   come the lifetime of some of the disciples and that it should come with power.  This is irrefutable evidence that the church and kingdom are one and the same.  Again, one year later in 33 A.D.., mark 5:43, gives the name of a man who also waited for the kingdom of God.  When Jesus the Lord had come forth from the grave he stood with his disciples and they said, "Lord will thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?"  After his victorious resurrection the disciples expected that the kingdom should appear.  When the spirit of God descended upon the Apostles on Pentecost, he brought with him the power that had been promised in mark 9:1.  With that power came the kingdom which had been prophesied in the dim distant years when Daniel 2:44 was spoken by the Lord.  Acts 2 designates the birthday of the church, the date of the establishment of the kingdom when at nine o'clock in the morning they spake as the spirit gave them utterance and invited men to unite their hearts with Christ.  Folks there were urged to become obedient to the gospel, to be added to the church, and to become citizens in the kingdom that had been promised.  Subsequent to that date the church was spoken of as a fact for the 47th verse of that chapter says, "the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved".  Paul the Apostle said, "God has translated us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his dear son", and John spoke of being in the kingdom and patience of the Lord.

        About two years before the incidents of Pentecost the Lord taught his disciples to pray, "Our Father which are in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come".  Thus they were taught to pray and to work for the establishment of the kingdom.  Some folks look at us in near disgust today when we refuse to appropriate these words in our prayers.  Look as you may you cannot find any New Testament Christian praying "thy kingdom come', after the day of Pentecost.  The reason is obvious.  It is useless and senseless to pray for something which we already have.

        Now comes the letter addressed to your speaker.  it reads:  "Dear Sir, I heard your lecture this morning.  In the 44th verse of Daniel 2 it says, 'The kingdom shall not be left to other people, that it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms'" end quote.  There is nothing here too difficult to understand.  Daniel simply says that the kingdom of Nebucadnezzar would in time give way to the Medes and the Persians, that they in turn should be over-run by Alexander and the Macedonians, and with the passing of time the Alexanderian kingdom should give place to the Romans; that after a while the roman empire itself should cease to exist.  In each instance the kingdom was actually left to other people, but in the case of the kingdom of Christ, Daniel announced, "It shall stand forever".  There is to be no national, international or world ruler ship.  That arrangement has forever past.  Jesus explained, my kingdom is not of this world; it is spiritual and not temporal.  It shall not, therefore, be left to other people for men and women of every race, color and tribe may come in obedience to the gospel and find citizenship in the kingdom which cannot be moved.

        Now back to the letter, I quote, "Verse 35 plainly tells you those kingdoms shall be like the summer's threshing floors and the wind carried them away, that not place was found for them:  and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and file the whole earth:, unquote.  Now in this text it is obvious that Daniel was using phraseology that was very understandable to the king and those about him.  He described the crushed and destroyed nations as being pulverized and carried away.  The ancients used to thresh their grain by flaying it with rods or by having the animals tread upon the threshing floors and when the grain had been shattered from the stalk it needed to be separated from the chaff.  A very simple and practical method was utilized.  When the wind arose and blew across the land the farmer who had threshed his grain would cast it into the air.  Thus he permitted the wind to carry the chaff away and the grain fell back to the threshing floor comparatively clean.   Daniel was simply telling Nebucadnezzar that his kingdom and the three which should follow were to be so completely destroyed that they would be carried away like the chaff on the summer's threshing floor.

        Let me ask you, "Where are they now?"  Not one of them is in existence.  Figuratively, the wind has carried them away.  It cannot be denied that God works along the nations of the earth to bring about his purpose and when the fullness of time is come his purposes are carried out.  There can be little doubt that the impact of the stone which was cut out of the mountain was so great that the last of the world powers mentioned, the Roman empire, was caused to disintegrate and to fall apart.  World-wide acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ and his kingdom would make such a universal, earthly kingdom impossible, for if we could get the ambitious dictators of the world to accept the pattern of life as inaugurated by Jesus our Lord, their ambitions and evil desires would come to naught and they would turn to peaceful pursuits.  We are not ready to say that the church alone was represented by the stone that was cut out of  the mountain, nor are we willing to say that Jesus alone was represented by that stone, rather it would include all the influence of Christ and all the influence of his church which is his kingdom.  This reasoning is substantiated in the reference that Daniel made to Nebuchadnezzar.  He said, "Thou art this head of gold".  Nebuchadnezzar was spoken of as the head of gold and at once as the kingdom represented by it.

        Now, my friend says in the letter, "If your preaching is true then we had all better take up Roman Catholicism as they are filling the whole earth which the church you call Church of Christ does not reach many nations", end quote.  Now just sit right still for a minute and listen to what I am going to say.

        While Jesus Christ and his gospel are not universally received, it is nevertheless a fact that his influence has gone into every corner of the earth.  In the face of scriptural evidence, none of you will say that Jesus did not inaugurate the church and none of you will deny that the gospel produced faith in the hearts of men who, upon their obedience, were added to that church.  (Acts 2:47)  Now to determine the extent of its influence consider the words of Paul in Col. 1:23.  Please bear in mind that this text was written hundreds of years before there was anything comparable to the modern Catholic Church or anything remotely allied with the idea of modern Protestantism.  Yet Paul said in that day, to members of the Church of Christ, "If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven, whereof I Paul, am made a minister:"  Now my correspondent must have overlooked that verse and I'm insisting that he write again and that he admit that the influence of the church for which our Lord died filled the earth, even in the first century and that the gospel which it preached and preaches was proclaimed to every creature under heaven.

        Let me send you a copy of this discussion.  Get your Bible and study it then write and tell me what is wrong with it.  We shall be pointed in our argument, kind in our disposition, and respectful toward anyone who is characterized by the sincerity evidenced in this letter.  May God bless us in understanding the truth, with willingness to believe it and a determination to follow his teachings at all costs.