32-CHAPTER XXVI EXPECTATION OF AN EARTHLY KINGDOM IS UNWORTHY OF THE HIGH SPIRITUAL CALLING OF TH...

CHAPTER XXVI EXPECTATION OF AN EARTHLY KINGDOM IS UNWORTHY OF THE HIGH SPIRITUAL CALLING OF THE CHURCH"

"The expectation of an earthly visible kingdom of God is unworthy of a citizen of heaven. The Church is heavenly and therefore is permitted to expect only spiritual blessings. Therefore an earthly, national literal ‘material’ kingdom has no place in the possessions for which they hope." The expectation of a Millennial kingdom is connected less with die perfecting of the church than with the perfecting of Israel, of the nations, of Nature, and the earth. Here we must not intermingle the different historical lines of salvation. In God’s kingdom of creation and His plan of salvation there exist different groups of created beings. Israel is not the church. The church is not the nations. Again, the angels are another group. Further, the different kingdoms of Nature are to be distinguished, the starry world, the vegetable world, the animal world. For all of these God has His plans of love and revelations of love. But these differ for each group, and each according to its place in the whole counsel of God. Concerning the place of the church in the Millennial kingdom Holy Scripture says to us nothing direct. It lets us presume only this, that the risen believers will then reign from heaven with the glorified Christ. "The church of Jesus through rapture and resurrection has left the visible earth and entered its heavenly abodes, to which the nature of its glorified bodies corresponds. The Scripture says nothing to the effect that the Lord will bring back His church from their new heavenly home to the earth to live here. The earth is indeed not yet transfigured. Therefore it cannot offer to the Lord of glory or to His transfigured church a suitable dwelling in the fill sense of the word. Perhaps Christ and His chosen will occupy a similar relation to the earth as between His resurrection and ascension, that is, that they will appear as often as the earth requires their presence, while their dwelling remains in heaven. But the chief matter is that they will be with the Lord always (1 Thessalonians 4:17)." (Dr. T. Harbeck.) But this spiritual perfecting of the church does not exclude that Israel, the nations, and the earth—within the frame of their various orders of life, which differ from that of the church—will jointly experience a visible triumph of the Lord upon the scene of their former history. It is no way unworthy of a citizen of heaven to expect that God will bless and perfect the other groups of His creation, each according to its station and calling.