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the spiritual rule of Christ will find its consummation in a visible and majestic reign. It is a
mistake, however, to assume that the present kingdom will develop almost imperceptibly into
the kingdom of the future. The Bible clearly teaches us that the future kingdom will be ushered
in by great cataclysmic changes, Matt. 24:21-44; Luke 17:22-37; 21:5-33; I Thess. 5:2,3; II Pet.
3:10-12.
d. It is closely related to the Church, though not altogether identical with it.
The citizenship of
the kingdom is co-extensive with the membership in the invisible Church. Its field of operation,
however, is wider than that of the Church, since it aims at the control of life in all its
manifestations. The visible Church is the most important, and the only divinely instituted,
external organization of the kingdom. At the same time it is also the God-given means par
excellence for the extension of the kingdom of God on earth. It is well to note that the term
“kingdom of God” is sometimes employed in a sense which makes it practically equivalent to
the visible Church, Matt. 8:12; 13:24-30, 47-50. While the Church and the kingdom must be
distinguished, the distinction should not be sought along the lines indicated by
Premillennialism, which regards the kingdom as essentially a kingdom of Israel, and the Church
as the body of Christ, gathered in the present dispensation out of Jews and Gentiles. Israel was
the Church of the Old Testament and in its spiritual essence constitutes a unity with the Church
of the New Testament, Acts 7:38; Rom. 11:11-24; Gal. 3:7-9,29; Eph. 2:11-22.
3. THE DURATION OF THIS KINGSHIP.
a. Its beginning.
Opinions differ on this point. Consistent Premillenarians deny the present
mediatorial kingship of Christ, and believe that He will not be seated upon the throne as
Mediator until He ushers in the millennium at the time of His second advent. And the Socinians
claim that Christ was neither priest nor king before His ascension. The generally accepted
position of the Church is that Christ received His appointment as mediatorial King in the depths
of eternity, and that He began to function as such immediately after the fall, Prov. 8:23; Ps. 2:6.
During the old dispensation He carried on His work as King partly through the judges of Israel,
and partly through the typical kings. But though He was permitted to rule as Mediator even
before His incarnation, He did not publicly and formally assume His throne and inaugurate His
spiritual kingdom until the time of His ascension and elevation at the right hand of God, Acts
2:29-36; Phil. 2:5-11.
b. Its termination (?).
The prevailing opinion is that the spiritual kingship of Christ over His
Church will, as to its essential character, continue eternally, though it will undergo important
changes in its mode of operation at the consummation of the world. The eternal duration of the
spiritual kingship of Christ would seem to be explicitly taught in the following passages: Ps. 45:6
(comp. Heb. 1:8); 72:17; 89:36,37; Isa. 9:7; Dan. 2:44; II Sam. 7:13,16; Luke 1:33; II Pet. 1:11.