Judaism Overthrown

III. The Restoration of the Kingdom—its heirs and subjects

The identity of the kingdom is found, as under our first head, in-1. The territorial dominion being the land of promise. 2. The heirs and subjects being an elect people, of Abraham’s family. 3. The royalty of the kingdom is in the house of David-and the government of Divine origin. 4. The capital, Jerusalem. JUO 16.2

When it is restored, therefore, we must find all these marks in the kingdom. JUO 16.3

1. The territory will be the land of promise-the land God promised to “Abraham and his seed.” The territory of David’s dominion was from the river of Egypt, to the great river, the river Euphrates. But there is another promise-Abraham is the father of many nations-and in him and his seed, all the families of the earth are to be blessed. “The promise that he should be the HEIR of the WORLD was not to Abraham or his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.” Romans 4:13. Thus, “the world” is the land of promise to Abraham and his seed. But not in its present ruinous condition. For he sought “a better country, that is, an heavenly:”-The new heavens and new earth. Hebrews 11:16. JUO 16.4

The promise of the heirship of the world is given to Christ, the seed and heir of Abraham. “Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree; the Lord hath said unto me, thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.” Psalm 2:6-8. JUO 17.1

But what will he do with the heathen, and the uttermost parts of the earth, when they are given to him? Just what God directed his people to do to the inhabitants of the land when he brought them out of Egypt to put them in possession of the land of promise-utterly destroy them-their iniquity is full. “Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron, and shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” “Those mine enemies that would not that I should reign over them, bring them hither and slay them before me.” Luke 19. The land of promise is the new earth, “the world to come.” The dominion of it is promised to Christ, Psalm 8.; applied by Paul, Hebrews 2:5-8. A paradisical earth, with all its creatures, animate and inanimate. The stone which will dash in pieces the great image (Daniel 2.) will then fill the earth. JUO 17.2

2. The heirs and subjects will be an elect people of Abraham’s family. JUO 17.3

God exercised his sovereignty, his elective franchise, in the selection of Abraham from all other families, to be the holy family, and progenitor of the Messiah, in whom all the families of the earth were to be blessed. This election was made when as yet Abraham “had no child,” and before circumcision, “that the promise might be sure to all the seed.” Of the two sons of Abraham, Ishmael was rejected and Isaac elected; and the promise renewed to him and his seed, before he had any child. Of his two sons, Jacob was elected and Esau rejected. Thus God reserved to himself the right of election, even in the holy family. Did he lose that right when the twelve sons of Jacob were born? Not at all. He had the same right to make another election in the family of Jacob, that he had in Abraham and Isaac. He has made another and final election; and that “elect” “in whom [his] soul is well pleased,” is Christ. He is the seed promised to Abraham, in whom all the families of the earth are blessed. And he is the heir of all the promises. The election is still in the original family, the house of Abraham. JUO 17.4

Who, then, is heir to the land of promise? The Jew? In no wise. Let us listen to the apostle Paul while he argues the case. First, he lays down a principle of law:-that a covenant once made and confirmed, cannot be changed, “though it be but a man’s covenant.” How much less God’s covenant! To whom, then, does the original deed or covenant convey the land of promise? He answers, “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made;-he saith not, and to seeds, as of many, but as of one; and to thy SEED, which is Christ.” JUO 18.1

But the Jew comes up again, and claims it on the ground of the law-that under the law of Moses, God gave it to his fathers. Paul answers, “This I say that the law which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.” That is, a law 430 years later than the promise to Christ, cannot take the inheritance from Christ and give it to the Jews. Who then owns the land? Christ. JUO 18.2

But says the Jew, “Wherefore serveth the law?” If it does not entitle us to the inheritance, why did God make it, and under it bring in our fathers and put them in possession of the inheritance? Paul replies, “It was added because of transgression, until the seed should come to whom the promise was made.” “Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster that it might bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, male nor female, but ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to promise.”-Galatians 3:15-22. JUO 18.3

“Baptized into Christ.” by the baptism of the Holy Ghost, the body of the Christian is as literally a temple of the Holy Ghost, the seed and principle of eternal life, as our natural bodies are temples of the blood of Adam-the principle of our mortal life. We shall be filled with, and quickened by that spirit in the resurrection, as we are now filled with and quickened by the blood of Adam. God has made of one blood all nations of men that now dwell on the face of the earth. He will then make of one spirit all who dwell on the new earth. “The first Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam, a quickening spirit.” “As we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall bear the image of the heavenly.” “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.” It must be our mortal body, QUICKENED by the spirit which raised up Christ from the dead. A spiritual but not ethereal body. Spiritual, because quickened by spirit and not blood; and because spiritual, incorruptible, immortal and glorious. Thus, all who have that spirit by which Christ was quickened from the dead, have put on Christ, are members of his body-are Abraham’s seed, and heirs to the inheritance, “according to promise.” JUO 19.1

Then not the Jews, all Abraham’s seed through Jacob-but Christians-all Abraham’s seed through faith in Christ, the seed of Jacob, are heirs. JUO 19.2

The Fall and Recovery of the Jews

I have a few words to say on this subject. What is the fall of the Jews? From what and how did they fall? JUO 20.1

This subject is fully discussed by Paul in the 11th of Romans, verse 12. “Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fulness.” JUO 20.2

The figure Paul has chosen to illustrate the subject, is an olive tree. We may as well follow it. The Jews are its natural branches; the believing Gentiles its engrafted branches; Christ is the good olive tree. He is so because he is the promised seed of Abraham, in whom the world was to be blessed. That blessing is salvation-eternal life. The Jews were the legal heirs and representatives of Abraham, through Isaac and Jacob, to Christ, when the final election from Abraham’s family took effect. They were of the same blood of Abraham with Christ, and were by that tie one common body; the same as the church is by the spirit of Christ. That was the only relation the Jews sustained to him by their natural birth-a blood relation. Now let us suppose a case. Suppose Christ to be of the blood of Abraham, and to have no other principle of life than that blood. He lives forever by it, and is the source of life eternal to all who are to be saved. He gives them life. Can they inherit more than he possesses? that is, the blood or life of Abraham. Then in the resurrection he must quicken into life those who are saved, by that blood; and none but those who are its partakers could live by it. He would call forth the natural branches and quicken them.-but he could not impart the blood of Abraham to the Gentile, and quicken him by it, and thus engraft him into the good olive tree, the Abrahamic family. JUO 20.3

But Christ shed his blood and dissolved his natural relation to the Jews. The shedding of Christ’s blood-his death-was the fall of the jews. Christ was no more their brother in his death, than he was of the Hottentot. He was brother by natural ties to neither the one nor the other. He was dead, and if he ever lived again it must be by some other principle of vitality than blood. That principle was the quickening Spirit of God. Abraham is dead, and if he ever lives again, it will be by the same Spirit, and in Christ. He can never benefit the natural seed by his natural life. Abraham, the father of the faithful, and Christ the promised seed, are both dependent on the Spirit of God for eternal life. The death of Christ being the fall of the Jews, they can never be restored to that from which they fell until Christ lives again by the blood of Abraham. JUO 20.4

The death of Christ was both the riches of the world, and the fall of the Jews. Let the reader pause here, and settle this question. If this was not “the fall of them,” what was? What else but the shedding of Christ’s blood enriched the world? If nothing else did enrich the world, that death must be the Jewish fall!! JUO 21.1

“The diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles.” The Jews all fell from their natural relation to Christ, but all did not fall from their spiritual relation, and cease to be branches:-for some Jews were in Christ when he died, and remained in him in his resurrection. Thus the natural branches of Christ were diminished, and the diminishing was the riches of the Gentiles:-that is, the Gentiles were brought on the same ground with the Jews:-they could be branches of the good olive tree on the condition of faith. JUO 21.2

If, by the diminishing of the Jews, or if the Gentiles are enriched when only a few Jews are brought in, how much more rich the church and the world would be if they had all remained as spiritual branches! It was necessary to the salvation of the world. Jews as well as Gentiles, that the Jews should fall from their natural relation, by the death of Christ: but not that they should fall from their spiritual relation. The Gentiles would be just as rich had they remained. JUO 21.3

Again: “If the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be but [except] life from the dead.” JUO 21.4

“The casting away of them,” is the same as “the fall of them.” They were cast away from the election, as natural branches, by the death of the Saviour. “What,” then, “shall the receiving of them be but [except] life from the dead;” or a participation of the spirit of Christ, the seed of eternal life, and the principle by which they are to be raised from the dead? They can only be restored, as the Gentile is, by the new birth. JUO 22.1

They must be like Christ-spiritual. He is the “first fruit,”-“the root,”-and is spiritual not natural;-then “the lump-the branches”-must be like him. JUO 22.2

If God took some branches of the wild olive-tree, the Gentiles, and grafted them in among the branches which remained of the good olive-tree, and made them living, fruitful branches, he can and will take the natural branches, which were broken off by their unbelief, and if they continue not in unbelief, graft them in again, and make them flourishing branches. But their restoration is wholly conditional-“if they continue not in unbelief.” JUO 22.3

“For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits: that blindness in part is happened to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.” JUO 22.4

“What is the fulness of the Gentiles?” Either the full number of Gentiles who will ever be saved, will be gathered in, and the door of mercy be closed to them; or the times of the Gentiles, spoken of by the Saviour, Luke 21:25, will be accomplished, and the Church delivered from her bondage to the Gentiles. In either case it will not end until Christ comes. For as long as he sits on the mercy-seat and pleads for sinners, “there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek.” But “whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” And when the dispensation of mercy closes, unless God raises up again the middle wall between the Jew and Greek, and has respect of persons, it will cease with the Jew as well as Greek. JUO 22.5

It is not true that the Jews have not had an equal privilege with the Gentiles-for they have had the same chance. God never cast them away from that privilege. They had their privilege before Christ-they have had it equally with the Gentiles. Will they have another exclusive privilege after the Gentiles are shut out? It is objected, if blindness is happened to them, how have they had an equal chance with the Gentiles? I answer, it is only in part; and it is the same with the Gentiles. They do not all see. Or, if it means “the times of the Gentiles,” then the Lord’s determination is, “to gather the nations, to assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them his indignation, even all his fierce anger.” JUO 22.6

Isaiah has settled the question of the national conversion of the Jews,-6:8-13. JUO 23.1

“Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saving, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I: send me. And he said, Go, and tell this people, hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and convert and be healed. Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate: and the Lord have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land. But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten; as a teil-tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.” JUO 23.2

From this quotation we learn, 1. That blindness and hardness is happened to the Jewish people, “lest they convert and be healed!” 2. That this blindness is to continue on the nation until the cities be wasted without inhabitants, the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, or as in the margin, “desolate with desolation.” Will such a desolation ever occur until the scene described, Isaiah 24th chapter, and 2 Peter 3rd chapter? Until then, the blindness is on them as a nation. Will it be said, that the “land,” “cities,” “houses,” etc., are only the land of Palestine; and was fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans? If so, then the blindness was then ended. But is it so? If not, it cannot be terminated until the end of the present state of things. JUO 23.3

But there is to be a tithe who will return, after this desolation ends. That tithe is the “HOLY SEED.” JUO 24.1

“All Israel shall be saved.” But “they are not all Israel,” do not constitute “all Israel, who are of Israel; neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but in Isaac shall thy seed be called.” The elect of Abraham’s family, not all his descendants, are the Israel of God. “We, brethren,” says Paul, “as Isaac was, are the children of promise.” The salvation of Israel, here spoken of, is not the conversion of the Jews, but the gathering of the holy seed into the heavenly inheritance, by the resurrection of the just. Eternal salvation. “As it is written,” in Isaiah 59:20:-“And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob.” Let the reader keep in mind, that the elect seed of Abraham’s family, according to the last election, is Christ and his children. “Behold I, and the children which thou hast given me,” is his language. The Jew has now no more right to the promise, than Ishmael, after Isaac’s birth; or Esau, after Jacob was chosen of God. The subject of the latest election being come, it is in his family alone. Ishmael and Esau have the same right in him, as Isaac and Jacob, provided they come in at the door. “Henceforth,” then, “know we no man after the flesh, yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now (since his death) know we him so no more.” He was a Jew, but is not so now. He is henceforth the Son of God, because he lives by the quickening Spirit of God. He laid down his blood or life, an ETERNAL SACRIFICE, and is now a new creature. Therefore, if any man be in him, he is a new creature, a spiritual heir of Abraham. JUO 24.2

That when the kingdom is restored, it will not he restored to the Jews, is clear from Christ’s parable, Matthew 21:33-45; where, by the parable of the householder, he taught the Jews, that for their rejection and murder, first of God’s prophets, and then of his Son, the heir of the inheritance, that when he shall come, he will take the kingdom of god from them, and give it unto a “nation bringing forth the fruit thereof.” That nation, Daniel 7:18, 27, is “the saints of the Most High.” The elect people, the heirs and subjects of the future “kingdom of Israel,” are “the house of Jacob,” through Christ-the saints of the Most High. JUO 25.1

3. The royalty of the kingdom is in David’s house, and the government of divine origin. JUO 25.2

The heir of David’s throne has already been shows to be Christ. Acts 2:30, further illustrates the same point. “Being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath unto him, that of the fruit of his loins according to the flesh, he would raise up CHRIST to sit on his throne; he seeing this before, spake of the resurrection of Christ.” David well knew that a mortal man could not fill his throne forever; hence he predicted the resurrection of Christ from the dead, to endure forever. JUO 25.3

Solomon, also, in his dedicatory prayer, understood Christ to be the promised heir of David’s throne. Rehearsing the promise to his father David, that there should not fail him a man to sit on his throne, he prays that God might remember, and fulfil his promise. “But,” he exclaims, “will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth?” Thus he evidently believed the kingdom of God and the kingdom of David or Israel to be one; and that Christ, the son of David, would reign personally on the earth. Christ, likewise, claims to have the key of the house of David, and to be able to shut, and no man open, and open, and no man shut. See Revelation 3:7. JUO 25.4

When God subverted the kingdom of Israel by Nebuchadnezzar, as shown under our second head, he declared, Ezekiel 11. that “it shall be no more until he comes whose right it is, and i will give it him.” Christ has come once, but that he did not at that time restore the kingdom is clear from our text, which was uttered just as he was about to leave the world. “Wilt thou at this time restore,” etc. “It is not for you to know,” etc. Had the kingdom been then restored, it would have been perfectly easy to have corrected the impression of the disciples, that it had not been restored. Had he only told them, “My disciples, you are mistaken on this point, the kingdom is restored, only it is a spiritual kingdom; the reign of David’s spiritual seed on David’s spiritual throne;” it would have settled the question forever. But he could not have taken a course more directly calculated to establish them and the church, forever, in the opinion that the restoration is yet future, and will be at his second appearing. Indeed, all our opponents admit that the times referred to, are the times of Christ’s second advent, by quoting this very text to prove that we can know nothing of that time. But when he comes again whose right it is, God will give the kingdom to him, and he will restore it to his people. “Come, ye blessed of my father,” he will say, “and inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” 5. Its royalty will then be in David’s house forever. JUO 25.5

The Government will be of Divine origin. Thus, the prophet Isaiah 33:22. “The Lord is our Lawgiver, the Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our King, and he will save us.” Ezekiel 36:24-28, God has promised to put his Spirit in them, and cause them to walk in his statutes, etc. JUO 26.1

Hebrews 8th chapter, presents the fact that a new covenant will be given the church differing from the old Mosaic covenant or law. That covenant will be in a state of perfection, where they will need no instruction; but all will know God intuitively. JUO 26.2

4. The capital of the kingdom is Jerusalem. The election of Jerusalem was made when David was chosen king. “I have chosen Jerusalem, that my name might be THERE.” 2 Chronicles 6:6. “The Lord hath chosen Zion, he hath desired it for his habitation. This is my rest forever, here will I dwell, for I have desired it.” Psalm 132:13, 14. “The time to favor Zion, yea the set time is come, for thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favor the dust thereof.” “When the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory.” Psalm 102. Also, Isaiah 24:23. “Then the moon shall be confounded and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.” “Nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king,” said the Saviour. JUO 26.3

Again, Matthew 23rd chapter; addressing Jerusalem as distinguished from her children, the inhabitants, he says, “Ye shall not see me henceforth, until ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” Then he will return to Jerusalem, and find a race of children who shall say, “blessed;” not the children of the old “Jerusalem, which is in bondage, with her children;” but the children of the “Jerusalem which is above and is free:” the children of promise-the glorified saints. Ezekiel 37th chapter, where, under the symbol of the valley of dry bones, the resurrection of the just is predicted, God promises to set his sanctuary among them forevermore. “My tabernacle also shall be with them; yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people” John, in vision, witnessed the fulfilment the scene, when he said, “Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.” This tabernacle is the new jerusalem. There Jesus Christ will dwell in the midst of them forevermore. There “the lord of hosts will reign in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.” Then Jerusalem shall enlarge the place of her tent, and stretch forth the curtains of her habitation. She shall break forth on every side, as foretold in Isaiah 54th chapter. The city, according to Revelation 21st chapter, will be 12,000 furlongs, i. e., 1500 miles square. JUO 27.1