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There are only two things that a person can do with a command--he can obey it or disobey it. One whose heart is right toward God will do whatever God commands him to do.

THE JEWS AND THEIR KINGDOM

For some time I have had on hand some letters from an aged Texas brother, an ardent advocate of the future-kingdom theory and its allied theories. These letters contain seven closely written pages--too much for this page. In his last letter the brother says: "You answer questions for others, but it seems that my questions are a little too hard for you.... We recall that some months ago you said that the kingdom of David and the kingdom of Jehovah were the same kingdom, and that Solomon sat on the throne of Jehovah. Solomon sat on the throne of David."

When a person asks for information, I give his question attention as soon as possible; but when a person is merely trying to flunk me on what he considers a hard examination, I take the examination when it suits me. Besides, those who ask for information should have first consideration. The editor assigned me the task of answering questions, and not to carry on debates; but I must break over this time and stand the examination, and also do a little debating.

But the brother's memory seems to be at fault. I do not recall saying that the kingdom of David and the kingdom of Jehovah were the same. At least, that is not my idea at all. In a general sense God rules in all the universe, but in a special sense he ruled Israel for a time. At Mount Sinai, Jehovah said: "Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be mine own possession from among all peoples: for all the earth is mine: and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation." Later they rejected Jehovah as their king. Jehovah said: "They have rejected me, that I should not be king over them." God permitted them to have a king. The resultant kingdom was conceived in sin and brought forth in rebellion against Jehovah. The people dethroned Jehovah, so to speak, and organized a kingdom of their own. "It is thy destruction, O Israel, that thou art against me, against thy help. Where now is thy king, that he may save thee in all thy cities? and thy judges, of whom thou saidst, Give me a king and princes? I have given thee a king in mine anger, and have taken him away in my wrath." And yet all the time of that kingdom the right to rule the people was Jehovah's. The king sat on Jehovah's throne over Israel.

But our brother does not think Solomon sat on Jehovah's throne, but on David's throne. It is strange that these future-kingdom advocates can see 1 Kings 2:12, 24, but cannot see 1 Chron. 29:23: "Then Solomon sat on the throne of Jehovah as king instead of David his father." This language shows also that David had sat on the throne of Jehovah. It was really Jehovah's throne, but was called David's throne because he occupied it. And while Solomon occupied it, it was also his throne. Concerning Solomon, Jehovah said: "I will establish his throne forever." It was Jehovah's throne, David's throne, and then Solomon's throne. Hence, God had allowed the people to have their way and put a king on his throne. The management of the affairs of the kingdom was in the hands of the king. "Now when Saul had taken the kingdom over Israel." The whole organization of the kingdom was in the king's hands. But enough of this. Here are the questions:

It was a kingdom like other kingdoms. The people said: "We will have a king over us, that we may be like all the nations." And Jehovah said to Samuel: "Hearken unto their voice." That settles it. It was a kingdom patterned after other kingdoms. That kingdom was destroyed and how any sane person should expect God to restore a kingdom that was organized in rebellion against him is one of the mysteries.

God did not say that he would restore that rebellious kingdom as it was. The tabernacle of David was the royal family of David. The royal house, or family, of David fell. It was set up again when Jesus, of the royal family of David, was exalted at God's right hand and made both Lord and Messiah. According to James, this had to be done before the gospel could be preached to the Gentiles. That prophecy of Amos has been fulfilled.

Ezekiel uttered that prophecy while Israel was in captivity. Any Israelite who heard or read that prophecy would understand him to be referring to their then existing captivity. Our brother does not believe that the same David of old would be again their king, but that one of the seed of David would be king. Jesus was of the seed of David, and is now king. Neither are the Jews now in captivity. It is strange that any one would take a passage that speaks of delivering the Jews from captivity and apply it to the Jews of today or of tomorrow. In the prophecy referred to, Jehovah said: "I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, whither they are gone." They were among the nations at that time, and from that condition Jehovah would deliver them. As to whether they then became a glorious nation would be determined by their own conduct. "And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; if they do that which is evil in my sight, that they obey not my voice, then will I repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them." This prophecy was spoken direct to Israel as a warning to them.

The old kingdom was not restored, but the kingdom of God was set up on Pentecost. Christ is on the throne, where he will sit till all his enemies are subdued. The last enemy to be abolished is death. Death will be destroyed when the whole human family is raised from the dead. Jesus will occupy his present throne till that event is consummated. He will deliver up the kingdom to the Father. That leaves no room for Jesus to reign on another throne before all the dead are raised. Yes, the apostles spoke of the return of Christ as future; but, unfortunately for the future-kingdom theory, they did not put the establishment of his kingdom in the future. Neither did these ambassadors for Christ tell us that the Jews would yet be restored to Palestine.

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Instead of recognizing that God was working out through them his plan for the redemption of the world, the Jews concluded God cared for no other people. The promise to Abraham and their own prophets should have taught them the truth, but they were too much wrapped up in themselves to see the truth.

From the things we learn from God's dealings with nations, it can be safely said that no nation falls so long as it serves a purpose in God's plans. That was true anciently, and it is true today.

WILL JEWS RETURN TO JERUSALEM?

From Tennessee comes this question: "Do the Scriptures teach that the Jews will return to Jerusalem and then Christ will come and rebuild the temple there?"

We learn from a note accompanying the question that a Holy Roller or some similar kind of preacher is creating a little confusion by teaching that the Jews will return to Jerusalem and Christ will soon come and rebuild the temple.

There is no way to keep fanatics from making wild guesses, nor to keep speculators from perverting the word of God. But if people studied the Bible as they should, such fellows would create very little confusion. It is hard to tell just why such a high fever has lately developed about the future of the Jews. Some preachers seem not to have much thought for any one but the Jews.

God promised Abraham to make of his seed a great nation and to give to them the land of Canaan. After Israel came out of Egypt, God entered into a covenant with them, promising to make of them a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, on condition that they obeyed his voice and kept his covenant. But as they neared Canaan, Jehovah said to them: "And it shall be, if thou shalt forget Jehovah thy God, and walk after other Gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish. As the nations that Jehovah maketh to perish before you, so shall ye perish; because ye would not hearken unto the voice of Jehovah your God." The nations spoken of perished permanently, never to inhabit Canaan again. Israel was to perish as they did, if they turned from Jehovah in rebellion against him. I think one can safely say that not a future-kingdom advocate believes that Scripture just as it reads.

Some, at least, of those who look for the return of the Jews to Palestine and the restoration of their old kingdom tell us that the land promise to Abraham and his seed was an unconditional promise. If so, why have the Jews been deprived of their land for eighteen and a half centuries? If the Jews were driven out because of their conduct, then the land covenant, or promise, was conditional. It seems to me that their theory virtually charges God with a failure to carry out an unconditional promise. Just here the interested reader should read carefully Deut. 27 and 28. But some will tell us that the land promise and the national promises have not yet been fulfilled to the Jews; but in so contending they run squarely against plain statements of Scripture.

After Israel had conquered the land of Palestine and each tribe had entered into its inheritance, Joshua called the people together and made an address to them, in which he said: "And behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth: and ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls, that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which Jehovah your God spake concerning you; all are come to pass unto you, not one thing hath failed thereof." Joshua had already declared: "So Jehovah gave unto Israel all the land which he sware to give unto their fathers; and they possessed it, and dwelt therein.... There failed not aught of any good thing which Jehovah had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass." Hence, they had come into possession of all that God had sworn to their fathers to give them. All of God's promises to them have been fulfilled, even though they never again see the land of Palestine.

Some centuries after they came into possession of Palestine the Israelites became so corrupt and rebellious that they were carried into captivity. Many of the prophets foretold this carrying away into captivity, and there were numerous prophecies that they would be brought back into their own land. These prophecies, long ago fulfilled, are now brought forward to prove that the Jews will again be brought back into their own land. It is a miserable perversion of prophecies that have had their fulfillment in the restoration of the Jews from their Babylonian captivity. Why should any one call it speculation about unfulfilled prophecy?

In applying the lesson of the parable of the householder, Jesus said: "Therefore I say unto you, the kingdom of God shall be taken away from you, and shall be given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof." This nation is the new Israel of God, the church. Christians are now the circumcision. Christians are now "Abraham's seed, heirs according to promise." The promises and prophecies that have not been fulfilled to fleshly Israel are to be fulfilled to the church, which is now God's Israel.

It has already been shown that there is no ground for expecting the Jews to return to Palestine. Instead of finding any teaching to that effect in the New Testament, as we would expect to find if such is to take place, we find the weight of New Testament teaching to be against such an event.

The return of the Jews to Palestine, the rebuilding of the temple, and the restoration of the Jewish kingdom are all so interwoven in the program of the future-kingdom advocates that they stand or fall together. It is a significant fact that the prophecies relied on to prove the fore-going propositions were all uttered before the Babylonian captivity or during that captivity. The Babylonian captivity had often been foretold. Therefore, when any prophet spoke of the regathering of the Jews to Palestine and the rebuilding of their temple, every Jew of that time would understand the prophet to be speaking of their return from Babylonian captivity and the rebuilding of their temple then. Ezekiel prophesied during the captivity, being himself one of the early captives. Of course, anything he said about the return of the Jews and the rebuilding of the temple would be understood by every Jew of that time as referring to their deliverance from their present captivity. Without some special words of explanation they could not have understood it otherwise. But no such words of explanation were given. The prophets knew how the Jews would understand them, and yet they let it go at that. Are we to understand that God, through his prophets, deceived the Jews? Surely not. The prophets foretold the return of the Jews from captivity. The Jews would understand them to refer to their return from Babylonian captivity. What then? Sound principles of exegesis demand that these circumstances and conditions be taken into consideration in the application of these prophecies. This the future-kingdom advocates fail to do. But they tell us that some of the promises in these prophecies concerning the return of the Jews from captivity have not yet been fulfilled. But such an affirmation ignores the conditionality of God's promises. It is the same blunder that is made by the advocates of the impossibility of apostasy. Even if it could be shown that some things promised to the Jews on their return to Palestine were never fulfilled, that would not prove that they will yet be fulfilled. The human side must be taken into consideration. Hear the Lord through Jeremiah: "Behold, as the clay in the potter's hand, so are ye in my hand, O house of Israel.... And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; if they do that which is evil in my sight, that they obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them." This is God's warning to Israel, but it has no weight with the future-kingdom advocates.

The Lord brought the Jews back from captivity and planted them in their land. They would have had God's choicest blessings had they obeyed his voice; but they failed him, and plunged into the grossest sins. This criminality culminated in their murdering the Son of God and many of his saints. It was not the crimes of individuals here and there, but the deliberate crimes of the nation. Death is the punishment for deliberate murder. National murder demanded national death. The Jewish nation suffered that death in the destruction of Jerusalem.

When God sent his Son into the world, he did not send him to reorganize the Jewish kingdom, but to open up a way of salvation for sinners. He did not fail to accomplish what he was sent to do, as the future-kingdom advocates claim. Hear his own words: "I glorified thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which thou hast given me to do." That statement should settle a lot of speculation about the rejected king and the postponed kingdom.

When Jesus comes again, he will not come to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, but to render judgment. His temple is here now. "Upon this rock I will build my church." That church is his temple. "Know ye not that ye are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man destroyeth the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, and such are ye." "Being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief corner stone; in whom each several building, fitly framed together, groweth into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom ye also are builded together for a habitation of God in the Spirit." In the old material temple, animal sacrifices and other material sacrifices were offered; in this new spiritual temple, spiritual sacrifices are offered. "Ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." Can any one believe that we are to give up this glorious spiritual temple for the old material temple? this spiritual worship for the carnal ordinances of the material temple? If so, he has poor taste for the spiritual.

The temple in Jerusalem was but a type, a shadow, of this glorious spiritual temple. This spiritual house is a "greater and more perfect tabernacle." Now, we are gravely told that in the millennium we will exchange this glorious spiritual temple for the material temple with its animal sacrifices, give up the substance for the shadow, give up the gospel of grace for the law of the temple, which means the law of Moses. That temple, we are informed, will be again sanctified by the blood of animals. Such material conceptions as this whole future-kingdom idea suits very well such materialists as the Russellites, but has no place in the thinking of one who glories in the cross of Christ and in his blood-bought church.

As a sample of the passages relied on to prove that the Jews are yet to be restored to Palestine and their temple rebuilt, read Ezek. 34:11-31; also chapters 37; 39:21-29, and to the close of Ezekiel. Remember, as you read, that Ezekiel prophesied while he and his nation were in captivity. In the temple of which Ezekiel speaks there were to be all the offerings and ceremonies required by the law of Moses. The blood of the animal sacrifices served the same purposes as the law specified. The priests were of the tribe of Levi. This cannot refer to the future, for no Jew now knows to what tribe he belongs. With the blood of animals atonement was to be made for the people. If a man can believe all this is yet future, he can believe anything that suits his fancy; facts will be no barrier to anything he wants to believe.

Pointed Paragraphs:

From Alabama comes this request: "Explain Ezek. 37, concerning the dry bones and sticks. When did this take place?"

The children of Israel were then in captivity; from that captivity they were to be delivered. The dry bones coming to life represented their return from captivity. Their return would be as if they were coming alive from the dead. Their captivity was their burial; their return would be as if they were coming from their graves. They had been divided into two kingdoms. Joining the two sticks into one stick represented the joining of the two peoples into one nation after their return. Their return is told in Ezra and Nehemiah. After that return they were one people. And they would have had a glorious kingdom had they obeyed Jehovah. The prophecies of the Old Testament concerning the fate of the Jews in their disobedience are being fulfilled all down the ages.

PROPHECY OF AMOS 9:13-15

Has the prophecy in Amos 9:13-15 been fulfilled?--Mrs. X, Detroit.

Amos 9:13-15: "Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. And I will bring back the captivity of my people Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be plucked up out of their land, which I have given them, saith Jehovah thy God."

Amos had gone from his home at Tekoa to Bethel to prophesy against the kingdom of Israel, which had become very corrupt, and to warn the people of their coming doom. They were to be sifted, scattered, among the nations. As Amos was speaking of their captivity, which they later suffered, it seems reasonable to conclude that the verses in question referred to their return from that captivity. All who wanted to return from that captivity to their own land had abundant opportunity. There is no evidence that the Jews will again be carried out of their own land into captivity, so as to be brought out of captivity in the future. All the prophecies that speak of a return of the Jews out of captivity have been fulfilled. One thing is sure: they are not now in captivity; therefore, they could not now be brought out of captivity, unless again carried into captivity.

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ALL THINGS THAT PERTAIN

"Seeing that his divine power hath granted unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that called us by his own glory and virtue." We are in the habit of saying that God has given us in the gospel everything that is essential to life and godliness; but Peter goes a little farther than that and affirms that God has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness. There is a difference. To illustrate: There are certain things that are essential to an automobile; and there are other things that pertain to an automobile; but are not essential to it. When you have all things that are essential to an automobile, you can go to a supply house and purchase a lot of extras that pertain to an automobile. But suppose you have all the essentials of an automobile, and then you add all the things that pertain to an automobile, nothing else could be added that would make it any more complete. God has not only given us all things that are essential to life and godliness, but he has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness.

But do religious people believe it? If so, why all these flummeries that God has said nothing about? If you will read the verse again, you will notice that he has given us all these things through the knowledge of Christ. The knowledge of Christ means the knowledge that has been revealed about him--the gospel of Christ. Hence, through the gospel God has not only given us all things that are essential to life and godliness, but all things that pertain to life and godliness. If there is, therefore, anything in your religion that did not come to you through the gospel, it does not so much as pertain to life and godliness. Is it not time to check up on our religion and see if we have anything that we cannot find in the New Testament? Any person of intelligence can do that for himself.

MATTHEW 16:28 EXPLAINED

Please explain Matt. 16:28. I have to contend with the Boll theory. What I want to know is how the disciples were to "see" the Son of man coming in his kingdom.--W. C. Anderson.

Matthew 16:28.

"Verily I say unto you, There are some of them that stand here, who shall in no wise taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom."

Pointed Paragraphs:

The apostles were practical men. Some were fishermen; one, a tax collector. Both callings teach a person not to believe all he hears.

MATTHEW 19:28; 25:31; LUKE 22:28-30; 1 COR. 6:2 EXPLAINED

Matthew 19:28; 25:31; Luke 22:28-30; 1 Cor. 6:2, 3. Please explain--Owen W. Smith.

This statement of Paul that "the saints shall judge the world" has led many to suppose that the judging here mentioned is to take place at the final judgment. But clearly the judging and the sitting on the thrones are declared to be contemporaneous with the regeneration and with Christ's sitting on his throne; and, therefore, they must be regarded as now in progress. If we are correct in this, of which we entertain no doubt, the judging consists in pronouncing decisions on questions of faith and practice in the earthly kingdom, and the twelve are figuratively represented as sitting on thrones, because they are acting as judges. During their personal ministry they judged in person; since then they judge through their writings. True, we have written communications from only part of them, but judgments pronounced by one of a bench of judges with the known approval of all are the judgments of the entire bench.

The apostles have sustained no such relation to the twelve tribes of Israel, literally so called, as the text indicates, nor is there any intimation in the Scriptures that they ever will. Their work is with the true Israel, and not with Israel according to the flesh; consequently, we are to construe the terms metaphorically, the twelve tribes representing the church of God of which they were a type.

In judging, the apostles declare who is free from guilt and who is condemned. This is made plain in John 20:23: "Whose soever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven unto them; whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained."

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