“A PEOPLE MUST BE PREPARED.”
The special mission of Christ’s
kingdom in this Dispensation.
It certainly was for a specific purpose.
If I rightly apprehend it, it is:
1. To
make a revelation to the world of its ruin by sin, and the great work of
redemption undertaken by Christ for its recovery—that the provisions of this
remedy were all-embracing—to be offered to every man of Adam's fallen race. The
organization of all the beneficiaries of this grace into distinct bodies was,
that, as organized and co-operative forces, they might act the more efficiently
and potentially in preaching the gospel to all nations, and by the proper
administration of the ordinances, preserve pure the vital doctrines of
Christianity. It should be borne in mind that, since the ordinances set forth
in most forceful symbolism, all the saving truths of the gospel, so long as
they are duly administered, the faith of the church will be preserved in its
purity, but that a corruption of the saving doctrines follow immediately upon a
perversion of the ordinances. Let these be perverted in their design, and the
more extensive the missionary operations of the churches, the greater the
injury resulting to both Christianity and the world. The first and most important work of
the churches is to guard the purity of the ordinances, that a pure faith and a
pure practice may be conserved.
This fact should rebuke those Baptists
who now are carrying fagots to the feet of the faithful few who are witnessing
for a pure faith and a pure practice, while they at the same time encourage
missions!
2. It
is not the mission of the churches of Christ, the only constituents of his
kingdom, to convert all nations, as many teach, and especially upon the
platforms of missionary conventions, to the manifest disparagement of
Christianity and discouragement of all thinking Christians. There is nothing in
the teachings or the effects of the preaching of Christ and his apostles to
warrant the idea. How very little did Christ himself and his eighty-two
official ministers, with the aid of manifold miracles, accomplish during his
entire ministry! In his commission to his apostles he does not command them to
preach to the nations until all were converted, and then the end should come,
but to preach the gospel “for a witness to all nations, and then shall the end
come,” i. e., the end of this dispensation. If this be the mission of the
“gospel of the kingdom,” then has it been a tremendous success; but if to
convert the world, it has been a most signal and disheartening failure, and it
is the part of honesty to confess it. It is questionable if there are as many
real Christians in proportion to the population of the earth to-day as there
were twelve hundred years ago, and the number is doubtless growing less, while
mere nominal Christianity may be increasing. Christ never designed that all the
world should be converted by the preaching of the gospel in this or the age to
come. He knew it would not be, and therefore he never made it the mission of his
churches to accomplish it. But what he commanded the apostles was accomplished
by them; for, before the death of the last one of them—even before the close of
the Jewish Dispensation—the hope of the gospel had been preached in every
nation of the known earth. (Col. 1:23.) It must be confessed that we are very
nigh the end of this Age, since the Bible and the living minister have been
sent to nearly every nation of the habitable earth, and island of the sea, and
thousands and tens of thousands in all lands are renouncing idolatry for the
Cross. Yes, the gospel is accomplishing its glorious work, the mission of the
kingdom in this Age is well-nigh completed, and his people may lift up their
joyful eyes, since “the day of their redemption draweth nigh.”
If the world is to be converted by the learning of theological schools, the eloquence of modern pulpits, and the efforts of our boards of home and foreign missions, aided by Bible and tract societies, why should Christ 'come in flames of fire, taking vengeance on a guilty world,' striking through kings in the way of His wrath, 'executing his vengeance in fury, and his judgments in flaming fire,' visiting a scoffing world with judgments and distress such as they never heard of? This idea originated in the self-sufliciency and importance of the human heart; it is the popular doctrine of the schools and doctors of our modern divinity, and tickles and lulls to repose a guilty world. It will prove a failure, and the world will be made skeptical thereby, and reject it as false. Theirs is the dangerous theory; for they teach the world that the Gospel was designed to do this, and should it fail to accomplish it, as it will, universal unbelief will sweep over the land, or to the extent of the influence of their teaching. But the Gospel was not sent to convert the whole world, but only to be preached as a witness to all the nations until God should call out from among the Gentiles a people for His name. And this it will do, and not fail, while the subjection of a rebellious world and wicked nations to Christian rule and government will be effected by Christ Himself at His second advent.--[Graves in "Satan Dethroned"-Ed.]
A People Must Be Prepared.
Christ
has a definite object to accomplish in the dispensation of his grace in this
Age beyond the mere salvation of sinners. Before his first Advent he sent John,
not to convert a whole nation or city, but to preach to all, and make ready a
people prepared to receive him, and with whom he might form the nucleus of his
church and kingdom. He is doing the self-same thing now, although on a
far grander scale. The gospel is not confined to one nation and race of people
as then, but is being published to every race, among all nations, and for the
self-same purpose, not to convert all of any nation or city or village--and in
the course of eighteen hundred and eighty years it has not converted a race or
nation, a city or town, however small-but “to take out of them a people for his
name.”(Acts 15:14-18) This people will be prepared to receive him, prepared and
qualified by the instruction and discipline as subjects of his government in
this, to be associated with him as joint rulers over the nations in the
Dispensation to come. In this, his children, though heirs of the kingdom
in its universal and glorious phase, are servants and subjects, under tutelage
and government until the time appointed:
“Now I say that the heir, as long as he
is a child, does not differ at all from a slave, though he is master of all,
but is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father.”
(Gal. 4:1-2)
But this feature will be more fully
treated in future chapters. If these positions are well grounded, we are
warranted in drawing the following
Practical
Conclusions.
1.
That John the Baptist was a duly called and qualified Christian minister,
belonging to the Gospel, and not the Legal Dispensation.
2.
That he was both a member of Christ's church and officer of his kingdom.
3.
That he preached the Gospel, and his baptism was therefore as valid as those
administered by the apostles.
4. We
have proof conclusive that the church and the kingdom of Christ were
institutions of the Gospel Dispensation, and not reformed phases of the old
Jewish Theocracy.
5. We
conclude that the locality of the churches, which alone constitute the kingdom
of Christ, is this earth, and that where he has no church he has no kingdom.
6. We
conclude that Christ has no kingdom in heaven, and that it is teaching falsely
when we pray him, as so many do, that when we die he may “ save us in his upper
and better kingdom.” We teach those who hear us that we are not saved before
death, and do not want to be, and that Christ has two kingdoms—one on earth and
one in heaven—which is not true.
7. We
conclude that a great deal of the teaching in our missionary meetings is
contrary to the Word and intent of God, i. e., when it is urged as the bounden
duty of the churches to convert the whole world by missions, and that it is
fast being done by money, and even the time computed when the last heathen
shall be converted, etc., etc.
8. We
conclude, if Christ’s second and glorious Advent is waiting upon the Gospel
being published among all nations as a witness by the instrumentality of the
churches, that by greater zeal, activity and sacrifice the coming of Christ can
be hastened, and this makes clear an inexplicable passage as it stands in our
Common Version : “Looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God.” (2Pet. 3:12.) What a powerful incentive to push forward the missionary enterprise
on the part of those who love and earnestly desire the Presence of the blessed
Lord once more upon this earth!
The times of the
Gentiles must be fulfilled, and their fullness be brought in.
It is clearly predicted that the present
desolated condition of the Jews, and of their city and country, must continue
until this second prophecy is fulfilled. The prophecies referring to both
events are :
1.
“And for the overspreading of abominations he [the king of the North,] shall
make it desolate even until the consummation and that determined, shall be
poured upon the desolate.”—Dan. 9:27.
2.
“And Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles
be fulfilled.”—Luke 21:24.
3.
“That blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the
Gentiles be come in.”—Rom. 11:5, 25.
4.
“But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for
it is given unto the Gentiles, and the holy city shall they tread under foot
forty and two months.” —Rev. 11:2.
There are a variety of opinions as to
the meaning of these passages. Commentators are divided between these two :
(1.)
Until the time appointed for the domination of the Gentiles and their
oppression of the Jews is accomplished, after which the Jews will return to
their land, and rebuild their city.
(2.)
Until the full number determined by God to be saved out of the Gentile nation
shall come in—i. e., into the kingdom—and be saved.
It is quite clear to my mind that both
these views are established by these predictions. Daniel, Luke and Revelations
certainly refer to the time, and Paul manifestly to the complement of a
definite number to come in; i. e., to be converted out of the Gentiles.
Let the thoughtful reader examine these
suggestions:
1.
That Christ and his saints are to reign over all the earth, in the Dispensation
to come, is taught in both Covenants. No unregenerate person is to have any
share in the government or instruction of the nations in that age.
2. The
number of saints required for this " high vocation " will be many
millions, since it will require not less than five per cent. of the population
of a country to govern and instruct it properly.
3.
Christ can not come and establish his reign on this earth, until there have
been a sufficient number of Jews and Gentiles converted to be associated with
him as rulers and instructors—i. e., to subserve the ends of good government
and the most perfect instruction of the entire race.
4. If
a sufficient number has not yet been saved to accomplish this, Christ can not
come to establish his jurisdiction over the nations.
5.
When this number is converted and prepared for his service, “he will come and
will not tarry.”
6. The
mission of his churches, by the preaching of the gospel and the energizing
influences of the Holy Spirit, is to gather in this full and required number.
The greater, therefore, their zeal, activity and sacrifice, the sooner this end
will be accomplished. This appears to me a satisfactory explanation of this
perplexing passage, viz.:
“Expecting and hastening the presence of
the day of God” (literally translated). The passage, as it stands in our Common
Version, is inexplicable.
2Pe 3:12 Looking
for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on
fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? {hasting…: or, hasting the coming}
Php 1:6 Being
confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will
perform it
until the day of Jesus Christ: {perform: or, finish}
While all the true lovers of Christ must
certainly expect and earnestly long for his coming, they are exhorted to hasten
his coming by their efforts, as instruments in God's hands, to complete the
number that must be saved before Christ can come and reign. May we not,
therefore, conclude, with reason, that as Jewish saints will in that day reign
over the seed of Abraham, when the fullness of Israel has been gathered, that
the Dispensation of the Gospel closed to that race, and was given to the
Gentiles; so that this Gentile Dispensation of gospel privileges, will be
continued until the fullness—the requisite number, known only to the
Omniscient— shall have been saved out of all the nations to be associated with
Christ “as kings and priests” for the Gentile nations, and will then be
suddenly closed by the coming of Christ “to take to himself his great power and
reign?”[see
also Gal. 4:9; Acts 15:14-17, 18 -ed.]
This is my view of the subject, and,
therefore, as I long for the speedy coming of my Saviour, and, that it may even
be in my day, I am anxious for the gospel to be preached and the Bible sent to
every nation and people of earth, that the fullness of the Gentiles may be
speedily gathered in.
by J. R. Graves in the “Work of Christ in the Covenant of Redemption; Developed in Seven Dispensations.” part III, “Eschatology” ch. III, the “Gospel Dispensation” and ch. VII, the “Prophecies Fulfilling and To Be Fulfilled Before the Coming of Christ.” 1883 A.D.