ON THE FULFILMENT OF PROPHECY, AND SCRIPTURAL IMPORT OF THE TERMS "KINGDOM OF GOD," "KINGDOM OF HEAVEN," &c. To the Editor of the Christian much the interpretation and "rightAdvocate ly dividing" the whole word of God, as this. It will be found most materially to affect the views we entertain not only of the prophetic word and its fulfilment generally, but in a great degree our views on such important matters as the spread of the gospel among the nations, * the inbringing of the Jews,-the second coming of the Lord Jesus-and the Millenial reign of the saints. DEAR SIR:- One of those fundamental subjects to which I referred in a former letter, as regulating, in no small degree, our general views of Scripture truth, is that of the "Kingdom of God,', or "Kingdom of Heaven." I know not any one scriptural expression upon the true understanding of which depends so In proof of this observation, I cannot here avoid transcribing a passage from a volume of more than common interest which has lately come into my hands, and to which I may have again to refer in the course of the letter,-intituled "Abdiel's Essays on the Advent and Kingdom of Christ, and the Events connected therewith, by the Rev. J. W. Brooks, M. A."-and which, as coming from the pen of a clergyman of the church of England, is the more striking, 'Having remarked, that the Church, under the present dispensation, is set forth in the scriptures as an Election from among mankind; and that the scriptures are accord. ingly written for and adapted to that Election, and to no others"-the Essayist goes on thus: "This view of the subject ought to moderate the expectations of religious persons with regard to the result of our Missionary undertakings. It is not to be wondered that men who set their face against the doc trine of election in every shape, should ex- Ꭺ I believe you will agree with me, Mr. Editor, that those who wish to peruse a sound elementary treatise on this important subject, cannot be directed to a better one than to Glas's Testimony of the King of Martyrs. That valuable treatise was chiefly written with the view of expounding the spiritual nature of the New Testament Church orKingdom, in opposition to those temporal and fleshly views of the kingdom which prevailed so much in the religious world, and particularly in Scotland, at the time when Glas seceded from the Establishment. Since his day, more scriptural views of the subject have gained ground; views for which many are more indebted to the pen of that well instructed scribe than they care to confess. But the present are indeed the last and perilous days. Founded upon more scriptural views of the spiritual nature of Christ's heavenly kingdom, the press now teems with publications evincing a latitude, and at the same time a fearlessness of interpretation of both Old and New Testament prophecy, which is quite overwhelming to a simple reader of his bible, and makes it of great importance that we do not loose sight of that plain path in which "the wayfaring man though a fool may not err." We have the prophetic word applied, with the most unhesitating confidence, to support views and dogmas of the most opposite descriptions. One of these, you, sir, lately disposed of in a very plain, and to my mind, satisfactory appointed for the church is to call out the remnant according to the election of grace, whether of Jew or Gentile,-and in regard to the rest, to preach the Gospel as a witness to them, then we are assured, whatsoever may be the result, that the Gospel is in the meanwhile performing the exact work, and enjoying the precise amount of success, which God hath appointed; as many as are ordained to eternal life helieve”(Acts xiii. 48) It may perhaps be thought that it is the manner; I allude to your remarks on the startling and surely rather novel interpretation of prophecy, which maintains that the Lord's second coming is past already. Then we have Millenarians. and Anti-Millenarians. dogmatically supporting their respective views of prophecy, professing to distinguish 1st. Prophecies which they say were of a purely temporal nature. 2dly. Prophecies fulfilled at our Lord's first coming. 3dly. Those to be fulfilled during the millennial reign, and 4thly. Those having a reference solely to the Kingdom of the Father; all which divisions vary ad libitum of the several writers. But how comes it, we may ask, that the apostles and other inspired penmen of the New Testament are silent in regard to such distinctions and divisions as these, or to any divisions at all in the interpretation and fulfilment of prophecy. They speak but one fulfilment, which they testify and declare to have taken place in the New Testament Church an·l Kingdom "the day of Christ," "the latter or last days," (Acts ii. 17, Heb. i. 2) "the end of the world" (1 Cor. x. 11. Heb. ix. 26.) "the world to come," (Heb. ii. 5.) all which expressions they manifestly use in the same sense. We shall look in vain to their preachings or writings for any of that disappointment, approachiog to shame, with which modern expounders of the word compare or contrast the glowing prophecies of the Old Testament Scriptures with what they are writer's views on the doctrine of Election which have had so damping an effect on his prospects for the missionary cause; but a perusal of his volume will leave no doubt on the mind of the reader, that it is the author's enquiring into the Scriptural nature of the Kingdom of God, and that manifestation thereof which has been the hope of the church in every age, that has led to opinions so little to be expected from such a quarter. pleased to call the partial, clouded, and incomplete fulfilment of the New. Men promise largely when the period of fulfilment is at a distance; but when the time draws near that the promise and its fulfilment must be compared together, they generally appear sobering down or explaining away much of the warmth and fervour of the distant promise. Not so with those who were honoured to see and declare the advent of Him in whom all the promises of God are yea and amen. Let us turn to the beginning of Luke's Gospel and we shall see how every character introduced into that most interesting of all narratives appears heightening instead of lowering the dignity and grandeur of that matchless kingdom and reign, which had been the subject of all prophecy, and this when it was about to commence in the manger at Bethlehem. "He shall be great" says the heavenly Messenger "and shall be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David; and he shall reign over the house of David for ever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end." And Zacharias declares this great event to be in fulfilment of what God spake by the mouth of all his holy prophets which have been since the world began. Nor did "the multitude of the disciples" nor the "little children" who spread their garments and strawed branches of trees before the meek and lowly King of Zion as he entered Jerusalem, evince anything like disappointment when they shouted after him Hosanna! Blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord. Blessed be the Kingdom of our father David that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the Highest!" But let us go forward to the day of Pentecost, when the God of heaven indeed "set up" the Kingdom which shall never be destroyed, having set his King on the heavenly Zion, the mountain of his holiness, and declared the decree, "Thou art my Son,-this day have I begotten thee." Do the Apostles then speak any vague or doubtful language, in declaring the fulfilment of prophecy? Do they even say,-this and the other scripture is now partially fulfilled, but the true and important fulfilment is to be looked for to a day yet far distant? Nothing of the kind. On the contrary, they say "yea, and all the prophets from Samuel, and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have foretold of these days." And then just let us look at the particular prophecies upon which they chiefly insist as being fulfilled on that "the day of God's power." If there is a passage in all the prophets which modern commentators would more readily fix upon than another, as having its fulfilment "in days that are very far off," it is that notable prophecy quoted by Peter from the 2nd chapter of Joel; for not only is that prophecy ushered in with the words, "And it shall come to pass in the last days saith God," but it is thus concluded-"the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come Yet did Peter, standing up with the eleven, lift up his voice and say, "THIS" (the outpouring of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost) "IS THAT which was spoken by the prophet Joel." The prophet Mal achi also spoke of the same great day, when he said-" Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord." And how did the great propbet himself interpret this, when asked by the disciples, on coming down from the Mount of Transfiguration,-"Why, then, say the Scribes, that Elias must first come"? (that is, before" the Kingdom of God come with power.' (Mark ix. 1.) "Jesus answered, Elias verily cometh first and restoreth all things, but I say unto you that Elias is come already." Let us next turn to another very remarkable Old Testament prophecy, commented upon by the Apostle James before the assembled church at Jerusalem, as recorded in the 15th chapter of the Acts, a prophecy much dwelt upon by the advocates of a literal return of the Jewish nation to their own land. I refer to the Apostle's quotation from the last chapter of the prophecy of Amos, which contains one of the fullest and most animated descrip tions of the restoration of Israel which is to be found in Scripture; the tabernacle of David to be raised up and built as in the days of old; the plowman to overtake the reaper; the captivity of Israel to be brought back, and they to be planted again in their own land, no more to be pulled up. And yet James, by the Spirit of God, implicitly declares that he himself and his brethren saw all this fulfilled, that he saw the ruins of the tabernacle of David built again, (although when he spoke the temple yet stood in its glory,) and though he saw when “God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name,"-even the true Israel, "Abraham's seed and, heirs according to the promise." So that the day spoken of in all these grand and glowing prophecies (which are generally introduced as this is by Amos, with the words, "In that day,") is no other than the day of Christ, which Abraham saw afar off and was glad; and the Israel which was then to be "saved with an everlasting salvation," is no other than the gathered church of Jews and Gentiles who were brought out of the nations by the power of the Holy Spirit sent down from the heavenly mount Zion, "making a willing people in the day of his power." The New Testament Scriptures must be admitted to be the only safe key to the Old. We cannot expect all the Old Testament prophecies to be specially referred to in the New; but it will be found that a sufficient number of the most notable of these prophecies are expounded and laid open by our Lord and his Apostles, to afford us a simple and safe guide to the rest. It must be our blindness to the glorious change which the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus wrought on the prospects of the Israel of God, which makes us dissatisfied with the fulfilment asscribed by the Apostles to these Old Testament prophecies. That change was one which shook not the earth only, but also heaven. Little as we may prize it, deeply important did it appear to the spirits of the just, and to the innumerable company of angels above. Heb. xi. 40. Praise waited, or was silent, in the heavenly Zion, Ps. lxv. 1. while the Son of the Highest was engaged in his great work; but when he had finished it on the cross,-yea rather when he was brought again from the dead, in the worth of his own blood, and set down on the holy hill of Zion, having the name given him above every name,-the redeemed from among men, out of every nation, tribe, and tongue, cast their crowns at his feet, and burst forth into that new song, "Thou art worthy to take the book and to loose its seals, (even the seals of the darkest prophecy it contains) for thou wast slain," &c. Let us just look for a moment at one other |