Kingdom of Heaven as declared by Jesus and John

Kingdom of Heaven & God: by O. P. Armstrong, July 2013 r3/15 Kingdom of God as declared by Jesus & Apostles David declared by the Spirit  All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. For the kingdom is the LORD'S: and he is the governor among the nations. All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: and none can keep alive his own soul. A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this Daniel said of Christ Kingdom:  And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. FN3 The Angel speaking to Mary of Jesus stated clearly:  He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end Jesus during his natural life plainly spoke;  The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it. To Nicodemus he explained, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Finally to Pilate; „Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here." Pilate therefore said to Him, "Are You a king then?" Jesus answered, "You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice. Many teachings about the Kingdom of God were stated in parable by Jesus. The founder of the CW&MA, A. B. Simpson, penned the following observations about this Kingdom nearly a century ago. They are likely still relevant today:

Page 1 of 30

Kingdom of Heaven & God: by O. P. Armstrong, July 2013 r3/15 “It is the mystery of the kingdom, the coming of the Lord, the plan of the ages, the meaning of the times, the purpose of the dispensation, the secret of the last time, which so many have missed and which is so blessed to understand. Oh, that the ministry of today might better know and more faithfully impart to the household of faith the mystery of the kingdom and the treasures of the Father's house. Then would we cease to sorrow over the wretched degeneracy of the modern pulpit and a large part of the modern Church. Then would men lose their taste for the silly sensation, the empty trivialities, the lengthy recreations which bear so often the very name of religion, and invade so frequently the sanctity of the pulpit and the very sanctuary of God. Such a steward was Eliezer, Abraham's servant, who took his master's treasures and went forth to win for his son a bride, and attracted her confidence and love toward his noble master, first showing her and then bestowing upon her the rich treasures which he had brought. The ministry of Christ is appointed to dispense the richest treasures of God's grace. To us are committed the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. Paul tells us what some of these mysteries are. One of them was the glorious secret of Christ's indwelling through the Holy Ghost. This was the mystery that had been hid from ages and generations, and was at last made manifest to the saints, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. This glorious mystery the apostle longed to communicate to all the world, to tell them of the power and of a Presence that could be a substitute for all their weakness, failure and sorrow, and sustain them amid all emergencies, distresses, temptations and conditions, giving them a charmed life and talisman of power and victory, no matter what might come. Another was the mystery of the Church, the body of Christ, the wonderful fellowship, not of cultured society, not a political alliance nor even of family and kindred ties, but of a common life in Christ and a common love to one glorious Head, and all the glory to be revealed in that heavenly body and blessed bride. This was one of the glorious mysteries that he loved to proclaim. We are candidates for the great government appointments in the mighty empire of the future. Let us be ambitious to show ourselves fitted for the highest place. Our lot is cast in the times of great enterprise and importance. We are on the threshold of the coming kingdom. We are in the midst of a mighty competition. Prophets and martyrs are already waiting for their appointments. Busy and earnest lives today are sweeping on in the power of the Page 2 of 30

Kingdom of Heaven & God: by O. P. Armstrong, July 2013 r3/15 Holy Ghost. Beloved, do not let us be left behind. May God arouse us from lethargy, apathy and petty goals. We have a glorious crown to win. We have a living age in which to win it. We have one short life to gain our future rewards. This will be our joy and crown of rejoicing in the presence of Christ at His coming. That we are laying up our treasures over yonder and life is being invested in the glorious possibilities and prospects of the ages to come and the kingdom which shall never pass away. Let us then be "steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord," for "we know that our labor is not in vain in the Lord.' When the Lord Jesus appeared we find Him at once facing the "Sabbath question, and we notice two distinct attitudes which He takes from the beginning. The first is a positive recognition of the Sabbath as one of the institutions which He assumed and incorporated into His kingdom and took under His direction and authority. "The Son of man," He says, "is Lord also of the Sabbath." Mark2.28. In the Lord's day parallel passage in Matthew 12:1-8, He assumes still more authoritative direction of this day; and, after citing several Old Testament precedents for a proper freedom in the observance of the day, as, for example, in the case of David and the priests themselves, who were obliged to minister in the many manual services. He then adds the strong expression of His authority to deal with the Sabbath supremely: "But I say unto you that in this place is one greater than the temple, for the Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath day." The Lord Jesus Christ thus distinctly recognizes the Sabbath, but, on the other hand. He as distinctly set His face against the severe Jewish conception of it, and from the very beginning insisted upon the new construction of its meaning and a new charter of liberty and beneficence in its observance. He openly defied the prejudices of the people by walking through the cornfields on the Sabbath day and allowing His disciples to pluck the ears of corn. He healed the man with the withered hand when He knew they were waiting to watch Him and condemn Him for it. He recognized the Sabbath as an institution of Christianity. He also recognized His right to change it and set it free from all that was peculiar to the transitory system of Judaism that had encrusted around it. Not in any sudden or formal propaganda of a new Sabbath law did He startle and shock even His disciples, but gently He allowed a new character and significance of the day to grow up out of incidents and events as He allowed almost all the important acts and Page 3 of 30

Kingdom of Heaven & God: by O. P. Armstrong, July 2013 r3/15 ordinances of His kingdom to develop out of the circumstances that gave them birth. The Gospel did not start out as a rigid system of theology laying down cardinal principles and enacting written laws like the Mosaic economy but it grew out of living facts so that every institution and ordinance of Christianity has behind it an incident rather than a proclamation. Even the Lord's Supper grew out of the farewell meeting of Christ with His disciples. The very assemblies of Christianity evolved themselves out of the simple gatherings of the apostles. The government of the Christian Church was not laid down in any text book or manual of laws, but evolved gradually out of the history of the early Church. So it was with the Sabbath and its important changes. He wanted it to spring spontaneously in their hearts as the new memorial of something dearer than even the deliverance from Egypt, or the first creation, and. so keeping ever before their minds the great fact of His coming resurrection as the central point of the Christian faith and hope. He ordered that glorious event to come, not on the Jewish Sabbath, which was not fitted to signalize it, for it marked rather the end of things than the beginning of a new series of glorious events which run through eternal ages. One other glimpse of the light shines through the dimness, where we find the apostle John going apart on this same day and the Holy Ghost was recognizing it, and the Lord Jesus making a personal visit from the heavens and giving to his aged servant the apocalyptic vision of the coming ages and the kingdom of glory. Do we want more light? Does not love know how to take a hint? Is not the Sabbath sweeter to Christ as the quick response of our spontaneous love than as a mere matter of rigid ordinance? It would seem as if Jesus wanted it to spring up with this sort of freedom from all the associations fitted to make it so dear, and if His sweet example and the example of the early Church and all the sacred associations of the day are not enough for this spontaneous observance, the heart of love must be cold and dull indeed. But, further, we know that our Lord gave to His disciples a great many commandments which have not come to us in categorical form. The apostle John and other apostles tell us that during the forty days He spoke to them in detail all things concerning the kingdom of God, and commanded them to teach the Church to observe these things. John also tells us that if all Page 4 of 30

Kingdom of Heaven & God: by O. P. Armstrong, July 2013 r3/15 the things which He said were written the world would not contain the books that should be written. Another was the mystery of the kingdom, the coming of the Lord, the plan of the ages, the meaning of the times, the purpose of the dispensation, the secret of the last time, which so many have missed and which is so blessed to understand. Oh, that the ministry of today might better know and more faithfully impart to the household of faith the mystery of the kingdom and the treasures of the Father's house. Then would we cease to sorrow over the wretched degeneracy of the modern pulpit and a large part of the modern Church. Then would men lose their taste for the silly sensation, the empty trivialities, the lengthy recreations which bear so often the very name of religion, and invade so frequently the sanctity of the pulpit and the very sanctuary of God. And so, early in this epistle we are brought into immediate contact with the great Redeemer "who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins." "And having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; ... whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. And you, that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblamable and unreproveable in his sight." Here we find redemption reaching even farther than sinful men, for Christ hath reconciled all things both in earth and heaven. It was out of darkness: "Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son" (Col. 1:13). It was out of doom: For they had been under condemnation as the enemies of God. "You, that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled,"(Col. 1:21), "Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross"(Col.2:14). It was out of death. "And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses" (Col.2:13). Dead in sin once, they had become dead to sin now through the cross of Jesus Christ. Crucified with Him they had come forth to resurrection life. They were raised with Christ, and he could say of them, "Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God."

Page 5 of 30

Kingdom of Heaven & God: by O. P. Armstrong, July 2013 r3/15 In speaking of the true seed of the kingdom Christ says the good seed are "the children of the kingdom." And so again He says, "Ye are the light of the world." It is not what we say, but what we are and what Christ is within us that constitutes the strength of our testimony and the power of our life. It is the life of Christ within shining through the broken vessel in a suffering saint, a feeble instrumentality that most honors God and most effectively works for His kingdom and glory. David, in his exile years, was surrounded by the outlaws and outcasts of Israel, but through the power of his own personality and the grace of God that was with him, these men became transformed into his noblest followers and friends, and afterward were made the very princes of His kingdom. So the Lord Jesus Christ takes us, a company of poor, worthless sinners and things that are despised, and, by the transforming power of His grace, He lifts us into His own likeness, and crowns us with His own glory. And so, as we are thrown into the society of evil men, be it ours to lift and ennoble them, and instead of letting them draw us down let us lift them up to the mounts of blessing, where God has set us, in order that we may be the lights of a dark world and shine the brighter through the very darkness that surrounds us. But the redeemer not only sacrificed his own inheritance, but also brought back the forfeited inheritance of the dead husband; and so our precious God has brought back for us all that we lost in Adam, and added to it infinitely more -all the fullness of His grace, all the riches of His glory, all that the ages to come are yet to unfold in His mighty plan, victory over death, the restoration of the divine image, sonship with God, triumph over Satan, a world restored to more than Eden blessedness and beauty, the crowns and thrones of the coming kingdom, and all the exceeding riches of His grace and kindness toward us which in the ages to come He to show. All this and more is the purchase of His redemption, "In whom the tribes of Adam boast more blessings than their father lost." But the best of all the blessings brought by the Kinsman Redeemer is Himself. Not only does He redeem the inheritance, but He purchases the bride and He becomes her Bridegroom. When Boaz bought the inheritance of Elimelech he took Ruth also in and she became his bride. And so our blessed Kinsman Redeemer Page 6 of 30

Kingdom of Heaven & God: by O. P. Armstrong, July 2013 r3/15 is also our Husband. Not only does He come down into our nature in the incarnation, but He takes us up into His person in that wondrous betrothal which is to reach its consummation in the Marriage of the Lamb. Finally, the fruit of the union was the dynasty of David and the birth of Jesus Christ, the Son of man, the King of kings, and Lord of lords. Ruth's faith brought her into a family of princes and a kingdom of glory. And so for us, too, redemption means a crown and a throne at the Master's glorious coming. But back of the throne and the crown lays the love story of redemption and the bold appropriation of faith. We must learn to know the Bridegroom now if we would sit with Him upon His throne then and share the glory of His millennial reign. Oh! shall we take Him as our Redeemer, our Husband, and our coming Lord, and have Him say to us, "Thy Maker is thy Husband and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole earth shall He be called." In speaking of the true seed of the kingdom Christ says the good seed are "the children of the kingdom." And so again He says, "Ye are the light of the world." It is not what we say, but what we are and what Christ is within us that constitutes the strength of our testimony and the power of our life. It is the life of Christ within shining through the broken vessel in a suffering saint, a feeble instrumentality that most honors God and most effectively works for His kingdom and glory. The first is the story of the creation. Recognizing, of course, the literal and historical reality of the record, we have the authority of the scriptures themselves to regard it as the figure of the new creation, which the Divine Spirit is working out in the hearts of God's people, and ultimately will consummate in the Kingdom of Glory. “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them.” “If any man be in Christ Jesus he is a new creation; old things have passed away, behold all things have become new.” The first chapter of Genesis is repeated in the twenty-first chapter of Revelation, “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away.” Underlying the whole record of the first creation we can trace the story of grace in figure and spiritual foreshadowing. Like that ancient process, the new creation begins in wreck and chaos -- a wreck, like that of primeval order. The new creation like the old emerges from a scene of darkness and desolation. Every new stage begins in comparative evening and ends in a clear morning, and it is as true now as in the creation days, “It was evening and it was morning, one day.” So the transformation is going forward in every Christian heart, and “the path of the just is like the shining light, which shines more and more unto the perfect day.” So too, the kingdom of God is going forward through Page 7 of 30

Kingdom of Heaven & God: by O. P. Armstrong, July 2013 r3/15 the ages of time, and by and by “it will be evening and morning,” one eternal day. “And he that sits on the throne will say, behold I make all things new.” Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a man that is a householder, who brings out of his treasure things new and old.” Have we received not only the truth, but “the spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given us of God”? We are in the Palace Beautiful; the Interpreter leads us, and as he shows us all its treasures, he stops and adds, “These things are all your own.” Have we received them? -- the new creation, the bridegroom's love, the rest of God, the flowers and fruits of His spiritual husbandry, and the life of Christ to be made manifest even in our mortal flesh? Then, indeed, for us is it true even now, “He that sits upon the throne says, behold I make all things new. And he said it is done; I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcomes will inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he will be my son.” God's fourfold picture of His Son. One by one are we, also following in sublime procession and entering into the spirit of the new man, and the Son of Man, the kingliness of His Sonship, the strength and patience of His crucified and risen life, and the intimacy and exaltation of His ascension and heavenly fellowship; and bye and bye we shall stand with Him in all the glory of His mediatorial throne, and shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of our Father. This was the ideal of redeemed humanity which God placed as a group of heavenly statuary, as a pledge of our future destiny, as the goal of our highest aspirations, at the very threshold of man's lost inheritance, and in the very hour of man's deepest fall and darkest gloom. So ever, when things seem the saddest and even our fears have almost overwhelmed us, the same unconquerable love meets our helplessness, lifts up our sinking weakness, and points our languishing eye forward and upward to the prize set before us, and purchased for us by the glorious Captain of our salvation. Let us rise to meet His marvelous love. Let us realize these infinite and eternal possibilities. Let us claim these divine resources and promises, and, from the gates of Paradise lost, begin the pathway which leads by the way of the cherubim to the closing pictures of Revelation, and the open gates of Paradise restored. There is another miracle and mystery of grace, which was also foreshadowed by the birth of Isaac -- that is, the new birth of all the spiritual seed of Abraham. Just as truly as Isaac was born of the Spirit, and Jesus became incarnate through the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost, so "except a man be born of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God." This is not a natural Page 8 of 30

Kingdom of Heaven & God: by O. P. Armstrong, July 2013 r3/15 reformation, not the result of human energy or will, but the work of the Almighty Spirit; beyond the power of nature and after it has failed. "As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God: which were born not of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." Have we experienced this mighty new creation? Blessed be God, it is for us as well as Abraham. This is not to be despised; this is not depreciated even in the Scriptures, but it cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The word "natural" in the Epistles is literally "psychical," the man of soul rather than the spiritual man. This is the nature which all the sons of Adam inherit, and which sin has tainted and overshadowed with the curse. The fact that Isaac had but one bride in an age of polygamy was a marked type of his illustrious Antitype, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is gathering to Himself His one spiritual and beloved partner in the fellowship of His glory and His kingdom. Isaac's bride was chosen by the most deliberate counsel and care from his own kindred in distant Mesopotamia; so God is calling out of this remote world a people for his Son, and a race who are linked with Him by the kindred ties of His own blood. "I know that in nothing I shall be ashamed;" "The Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto His heavenly kingdom ---"; “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day." So also he says to Timothy: "According to the prophecies which went before on thee, that by them thou mightiest war a good warfare." It was for the joy set before Him that our Master endured the cross and despised the shame, and we, too, shall overcome as we steadily hold in view our high calling and our immortal crown. And so it shall be during the days of tribulation that Christ's brethren after the flesh, the Jews shall recognize Him, repent of their sins, and be restored to His friendship and blessing, and afterwards share with Him in their own separate national life, as in Egypt of old, the blessing of His millennial kingdom. This is to be one of the crowning glories of the once rejected Nazarene that "they shall look upon Him they have pierced, and shall mourn," and shall be reconciled to the Messiah that they delivered to the Gentiles, and that God has made such a blessing to the Gentiles, as He made Joseph of old. A selfish Christian is as inconsistent and impossible as a selfish Christ. We, too, are come to our kingdom for such a time as this. Years of famine are coming to the souls around us; in a little while they shall be perishing for eternal bread; they need our prayers, our help; and even although they may not know it now as we do, yet the day is coming when they shall reap the blessings of our faith and our foresight. Let us be true to our trust, and thus worthy to Page 9 of 30

Kingdom of Heaven & God: by O. P. Armstrong, July 2013 r3/15 stand with Joseph and his greater Master, as the dispensers of God's blessings to a dying world. The Great Deliverer has come to bind up the brokenhearted; to preach deliverance to the captives; to set at liberty them that are oppressed; to deliver us from the power of darkness and translate us into the kingdom of His dear Son. Only let us recognize our true condition; let us take His side against our oppressor; let us not, like them, refuse Moses when he comes to set us free; let us lift up our cry to heaven, and the answer is already spoken. "Behold the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me, and I have seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. And this word, Yet once more, signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore we, receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire." To these beautiful words Let us add, "see that you refuse not Him that speaks;" this mighty salvation, this mighty indwelling, in working Christ; but receiving a kingdom that cannot be moved, a kingdom of grace and of power, let us have grace, not our own efforts, our own desperate struggles, but the grace whereby we may be enabled to serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear. He does not say, "let us try our best," but let us have the grace of God to do it; and it will keep us, and enable us to so appropriate His holiness and love, that those words will not affright us, "our God is a consuming fire." "Your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things? Seek you first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." He showed Himself alive after His passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.** Acts 1:3 And look at his interview with Simon Peter! What backslider need ever doubt again the Savior‟s forgiving love, or fear to come and know that he will be welcomed to a nearer place in His heart and a higher service in His kingdom if only he can say as Simon said, '' Thou knows all things, Thou knows that I love Thee. Yes, there is not anything on earth, animate or inanimate, but is going to be benefited by the spreading of the Gospel and the coming of the kingdom of Christ.

Page 10 of 30

Kingdom of Heaven & God: by O. P. Armstrong, July 2013 r3/15 That is what He means. The whole material universe is to be made free through its uplifting power. So Saul, when searching for his, lost asses, found not only the asses but a kingdom, too, and went home from the prophet‟s house another man and to enter a higher sphere and service. It may have been the same mountain where the sermon of Matt.5:8, was delivered, the famous Horns of Hattin, where He had first proclaimed the principles of His kingdom to the world. It is probable that the five hundred brethren, of whom Paul speaks in 1Cor15 as having all seen Him at once, were the persons present at this gathering. They formed the surviving few who still remained faithful after all the tragedy of the crucifixion. His great commission to them to go forth and establish His kingdom among all nations; and thirdly, the promise of His presence through all the days until the end of the age. In declaring that all power is given unto Him in heaven and in earth, He does not refer to His primeval deity and His Divine rights, but to that special kingdom and authority given to Him in the eternal covenant of redemption on account of His finished work. It is something that has now been given to Him; it is the throne of the Mediator which He assumes at the Father's right hand, for the purpose of accomplishing His great work of redemption, for which He has already suffered and died. 'The Father hath committed all judgment unto the Son.'' 'The Father loves the Son and hath given all things into His hand." ''He must reign until He hath put all things under His feet ; then shall He Himself be subject unto the Father to whom He shall deliver up the kingdom, and God shall be all in all." The word ''power" here more exactly means "dominion, authority," and has reference to the scepter and sovereignty of a king. The Lord Jesus means that He has been appointed to administer the government,

Page 11 of 30

Kingdom of Heaven & God: by O. P. Armstrong, July 2013 r3/15 both of heaven and earth, until the consummation of redemption. It is, indeed, a glorious and transcendent claim. He Himself could say, 'Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him." Through His Name and the acceptance of His words all sins are forgiven, and the guilty soul in a moment translated out of the kingdom of Satan and from the curse of sin and hell to the glorious liberty of the children of God and heir-ship of His everlasting kingdom. Divine life until 'out of weakness they are made strong," and can carry and sustain us through all the difficulties and apparent impossibilities that may surround our work for Him. Let us go forth, especially in the kingdom‟s work realizing this that nature is subordinate to redemption and the natural subordinate to the spiritual and the kingdom of matter is under the control of the King of Saints: Finally, our risen Christ is yet to have all the power of earth's kingdoms under His Scepter and to be the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. God will overturn and overturn and overturn, until He come, whose right it is, for the kingdoms of this world must become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. This is Christ's covenant right and reward, and the Father's heart will never be satisfied for His Son until His will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We shall yet see our blessed King wearing the crown of the entire world, and we shall see every knee bowing to Him, and every tongue confessing that He is Lord. The Great Commission: ''Go ye therefore, and disciple all nations, Because of His power, and because of His right, He bids His disciples go forth to establish His kingdom among all nations. 1. We must be struck, first of all, with the boldness and majesty of this command. He did not send them now simply to individuals, but to nations. He looked upon the mighty communities of earth as not too great for the conquest of His „kingdom, and the mission of His followers to win. Forty Days were passed, and they were likely marked by many interviews, as He taught them of the things concerning the Kingdom of God with a fullness of which John says, „If they should be every one written, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written." ''Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom of Israel? “His answer is a very faithful and yet tender one. He does not rebuke them or even intimate that their desire is wholly without foundation in the purpose of God. He does Page 12 of 30

Kingdom of Heaven & God: by O. P. Armstrong, July 2013 r3/15 not deny that He will restore the kingdom to Israel, but He simply tells them away from this expectation to their proper and present work, and gently reminds them with a shade of reproof ''that the times and seasons are not for them at all, but reserved by the Father in His own power. And so the whole story of the planting of the church in Jerusalem was the story of the power of the Holy Ghost, and the testimony of Jesus through the lips of weak and humble instruments. The same power is still ready to crown our labors with success and establish Christ's kingdom in our midst. In the fifth chapter we behold Him as the Priest-King, the Lion and the Lamb together, combining almightiness and mercy, as He takes the book to open the seals, and administer the mediatorial kingdom. And in the nineteenth chapter we behold Him in His royal majesty about to leave the heavenly throne and assume His millennial kingdom on earth. Such are some of the scattered. There is no natural law but is now perfectly subject to His control. There is no physical force but He can use or restrain at His Sovereign pleasure. There is no created intelligence but He can move at His will or destroy at His command. His ascension has forever challenged the absolute despotism of natural law and physical force and placed at the command of faith the highest force, which will be employed whenever His kingdom requires it, in defiance of every natural and ordinary principle. True, He does not ordinarily need to act in a manner contrary to existing laws and principles, any more than the entry of the young king of Germany upon the administration of the empire requires him to change the machinery of the government. He usually works in a line with it, but is always supreme above it. So the Son of God, sitting upon the throne of providence and grace, does not constantly assert His power by coming into collision with the existing machinery of the natural world, but works in harmony with it and uses it for His own higher purpose. But He is perfectly at liberty to suspend it and contradict it when He so pleases. The ascension of Christ, therefore, has given us the right to expect His interposition, even to the utmost extent of the miraculous and supernatural, where the interests of His kingdom truly requires it ; and yet His power may be no less mighty when it is working along lines of perfect simplicity and naturalness. Christ is King of nations. Strange as it may seem, yet He has been controlling for eighteen centuries the dynasties and kingdoms of earth in accordance with Daniels prophecy, and along the lines which are to develop to His own Second Coming. He is King and Head of His Church. Christ is King of nature and Page 13 of 30

Kingdom of Heaven & God: by O. P. Armstrong, July 2013 r3/15 providence. His hand makes all things work together for good to them that love God. His power appears in every chapter of the story of the Apostolic Church. The Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me unto His heavenly kingdom." Is He our King? Have we enthroned Him above every difficulty, adversary and circumstances, and placed on His head many crowns? It was for this that He ascended. He holds the reins of universal power for our sake and on our account. He is Head over all things for the church which is His body. At last He said to me -Oh so tenderly- “My child, just take Me, and let Me be in you the constant supply of all this, Myself.” And when at last I got my eyes off my sanctification, and my experience of it, and just placed them on the Christ in me, I found, instead of an experience, the Christ larger than the moment‟s need, the Christ that had all that I should ever need who was given to me at once, and forever! And when I thus saw Him, it was such rest; it was all right, and right for ever. For I had not only what I could hold that little hour, but also in Him, all that I should need the next and the next and so on, until sometimes I get a glimpse of what it will be a million years afterwards, when we shall “shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of our Father” (Matt13:43), and have “all the fullness of God.” And so I thought the healing would be and it too, that the Lord would take me like the old run-down clock and wind me up. CHRIST'S OWN TESTIMONY. The Lord Jesus Himself when He was on earth always left the impression that He was coming back again, actually, visibly, personally to His people. He repeatedly told them also that when the Son of man should come He should sit on the throne of His glory and they should sit on thrones and receive rewards for their earthly sacrifice and sufferings. One particular event in the very middle of His career, the Transfiguration on the Mount, was an object lesson, a demonstration of this very thing, foreshadowing the fact that He who seemed so obscure was really to be unveiled some day in the great Apocalypse of the Advent and appear in Page 14 of 30

Kingdom of Heaven & God: by O. P. Armstrong, July 2013 r3/15 glory. The risen dead were represented by Moses and the transfigured living by Elias. In Matthew 24, we have a detailed prophecy of the Lord's return. We have also the parables of the Talents, and the Pounds, the Marriage of the King's Son, the Ten Virgins, the Sheep and the Goats. These have no meaning unless the Lord is coming back again. All His teachings crystallized around two focal points, His cross and His advent. Peter also in his second epistle forewarns us of the same conditions. "But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingered not, and their damnation slumbered not" (2Pet2:1-3). "Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation" (2Pet3:3-4). Jude also forecasts the same. "But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ: how that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. These are they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit" (Jude1719).Already the fulfillment of these ominous forewarnings is manifest on every hand. The Church of the Apostles became the apostasy of Rome, and the „Church of the Reformation‟ appears in even greater danger of developing into the Laodicea of the Apocalypse, if not the Babylon of God's last and most terrible judgment. (See Footnote 1) Page 15 of 30

Kingdom of Heaven & God: by O. P. Armstrong, July 2013 r3/15 PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM: But the Lord Jesus has not left us mere fragments, of prophetic foreshadowing, but has given us in the seven Parables of the Kingdom in the thirteenth chapter of Matthew a very distinct unfolding of the progress of Christianity from the Ascension to the Advent. The disciples were looking for prosperity and popularity. They were delighted with the success of their Master, with His victory over disease, Satan, death and sin. What power could resist Him? They saw themselves already sitting with Him on the thrones of David's restored kingdom. The Lord knew better. He saw the dark scenes that were just before them and the centuries of suffering and seeming failure for the cause which He was establishing at such awful cost. It was necessary that they should understand it, should be disillusioned and should be sent forth as ministers of the New Testament with their eyes fully opened. It is a very dreadful thing to-day for the minister of the Gospel to go forth expecting a brilliant future, expecting the acclamations of the crowd, expecting the people to applaud him because he is true to Jesus Christ. It is necessary that the worker should understand that the kingdom of heaven always means the cross, the judgment hall, the minority with the Lord Jesus Christ, our rejected Master. This was what He taught them in this series of parables. The parable of the Sower represents the planting of Christianity. Three parts .of the seed are lost, but onefourth is productive, and the increase is thirty, sixty, and one hundred fold. They had to learn that most of their words seemed to fail, and there would be no response from the multitudes of hearts. From others the fruit would be transient and soon forgotten. From other it would be lost in the temptations of the world. Only part of it would come to perfection. That is the first lesson the worker has to learn.

Page 16 of 30

Kingdom of Heaven & God: by O. P. Armstrong, July 2013 r3/15 The parable of the Tares represents the planting of error in the Church, the heresies, corruptions and intermingling of evil men in the early Church as well as later times. Even the little that grew got mixed with Satan's seed. The disciples thought they could pull up the tares, but He said that in pulling up the tares they would pull up the wheat also. The people that are in the business of judging are not in the Lord's employ. "Let both grow together till harvest." Our dreams of a perfect Church are doomed to be disappointed. The devil worked while the Church was asleep, a work, alas, which we can ill eradicate by our discipline or Henceforth, the visible denunciation, but must wait for much of it to be Church is a mixture of truth burned out at the great harvest time. and error, good and evil. Next, in the Mustard Seed we see the rapid growth of this mingled system covering the earth with its extensive shade, and lodging the fowls of heaven. Is not this most promising? Let us not be too sure. The fowls of the air who lodge in the branches have already a bad reputation from the first parable, as the destructive and mischievous intruders who picked up the good seed, and they would seem to be here the same ill brood of evil emissaries who find shelter in the great, proud, worldly and unhallowed Church of the age of Constantine and to-day. This is made much more plain when we come to the fourth parable, the Leaven, which is God's uniform .symbol of corruption; and when the woman is added to the picture it becomes a significant and unmistakable emblem of the great apostasy which sprang up in the sixth and seventh centuries and speedily permeated the whole Church with the leaven of the Papacy and all its kindred corruptions.

Page 17 of 30

Kingdom of Heaven & God: by O. P. Armstrong, July 2013 r3/15 But was there no residuum of good left of all the apostolic sowing? Yes, the Hid Treasure and the Pearl represent the two sides of the elements of good in contrast with the two symbols of evil. The Treasure represents the pure and Scriptural elements surviving in the Church in the individuals-the many; the Pearl in their unity, as the one small, yet pure and heavenly jewel of the Lord amid the encompassing corruption. Both find their historical fulfillment in the faithful few who have ever existed in even the darkest ages of medieval corruption; the Albigenses and Paulicians, the Hussites and Moravians, the Waldernses and Vaudois, the Wyc1iffites and Huguenots, the Reformers and Covenanters, and the pure and true ones who have before and since dared to be faithful to God and His holy Word. There has ever been a little flock, of which He says: "They shall be mine in the day when I make up My jewels." There are some who identify the Treasure with Israel, and the Pearl with the Church, the Bride of the Lamb. But this does not affect the dispensational bearing of the parables. Thus have we seen the two sowings, the growth of the evil, the hidden remnant of the good; and we ask, perhaps, are they always to be thus confounded? No, the parable of the Draw Net reveals to us the final separation. Angel hands will make it with impartial and unerring exactness, and they shall be consigned to their eternal states and places, the righteous to "shine forth as the sun in the kingdom .of their Father," the wicked to "the furnace of fire."

Page 18 of 30

Kingdom of Heaven & God: by O. P. Armstrong, July 2013 r3/15 Once more in the Seven Epistles to the churches of Asia, our Lord's last word to the present age, we have what appears to the most thoughtful expositors an historical panorama of the successive stages of visible Christianity from die vision of Patmos to the end of time, the seven churches correspond to the seven parables of the thirteenth chapter of Matthew.

They teach the same lessons and unfold the same panorama and we may well meet the solemn conclusion which the Master does after He had delivered them, "He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches," for that is the "last message of the Holy Ghost to the modern church. It is not the ancient church, not the apostolic church; it is the church that was on earth two generations after the death of Jesus. Thousands had gone to heaven. Thousands of churches had been organized. And now at last the Lord comes down to earth again for a second visitation in person, and on the isle of Patmos He gives John a last revelation, a last outlook of the churches of the present age. The wisest expositors have almost uniformly united in recognizing in these seven epistles a panorama stretching down from the days of John to the last time, each of these churches representing a different age, and yet each of them continuing in spirit to the end and adding a new coloring to the whole picture. They seem to meet like a great stream flowing down through church history. It begins in the church at Ephesus. Then we see another tributary running into it, the church of Smyrna. Then come Pergamos and Thyatira. Still later Sardis pours its dark waters. Then follows the bright crystal river of Philadelphia, and at last it ends in a great sluggish swamp, Laodicea, which lies hard by the cities of the plain, Sodom and Gomorrah, and the gates of hell. The church in Ephesus, orthodox, active, conservative and growing cold, represents the second generation of primitive Christians, already so far losing their first love that Paul and John both speak of this same Ephesian church as turning away from them. The church in Smyrna is a suffering church, going through its ten days of tribulation and purchasing by blood and shame the martyr's crown. This Page 19 of 30

Kingdom of Heaven & God: by O. P. Armstrong, July 2013 r3/15 corresponds to the age of persecution that came in the second and third centuries to recall the cold and formal Ephesus to her first love, during which a series of ten distinct persecutions swept the whole line with fire and blood, and carried countless martyrs into heaven. The church in Pergamos is a different type. It dwells at Satan's seat, the dominion of the world. It is assailed by Balaam's wiles, the allurements of the world. It is the church of Constantine and the converted empire, the church suddenly exalted to imperial favor, wealth and power and corrupted by the world from its faithfulness and purity; until the smile of an emperor, the seat of honor at a banquet, the grand cathedral, the proud bishopric or patriarchate took the place of ancient simplicity and fidelity, and prepared the way for the next and deeper plunge. Then comes Thyatira, "that woman Jezebel,” “the "depths of Satan," a true and vivid picture of the rise of Romanism and all its deep and devilish wiles and widespread domination over the Church of God from the sixth to the sixteenth century. Sardis represents a yet darker eclipse, "a name to live, and thou art dead." It is the Dark Ages, the putrid corpse of Medieval Romanism. And yet in both these churches there are a few exceptions; there is a holy seed; there are those in Thyatira that "have not known this doctrine," and there are "a few names even in Sardis that have not defiled their garments." These are the refugees of medieval times, the martyrs of Romanism, the witnesses for God before the Reformation, who suffered and died for the testimony of Jesus, to the number of countless millions. Like a burst of sunrise comes the church in Philadelphia. It has "a little strength," but it is true. Especially does it honor God's "Word" and hold up Christ's "name." Can we mistake it? It is the Church of the Reformation, and its honored names shall forever be as pillars in the Temple of God, and share the glories of the New Jerusalem. But there is one chapter more (would that we had not to write it). It is Laodicea, the church of wealth and pride, but so languid and lukewarm that the impatient Master is about to reject it as a nauseous offence. It is our modem Protestantism, boasting of its numbers, its works, its resources, while 149 out of every 150 of the human race are yet unsaved, while heathenism is increasing at the rate of two million a year, and one sixtieth of one per cent of „our' wealth is given for the Gospel, and one third is paid for whiskey and tobacco alone; while luxury, avarice and pleasure are sapping the springs of piety and morality, and culture leading thousands into skepticism; and the Master, in anger and concern, alternately pleads and warns, begs her to open the door and let Him in, threatens with rebukes and chastening, and, with His hand on the very latch of Time, is about to enter once more His temple and His world, and make His last awful Inquisition. And yet He pauses, and pointing to the Millennial Throne on Page 20 of 30

Kingdom of Heaven & God: by O. P. Armstrong, July 2013 r3/15 which He is just about to sit down, He offers this glorious reward: "To him that overcomes will I grant to sit down with Me on My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father upon His throne." Such is the picture of the Church through the Christian age. "Have we understood all these things?" Have we seen any family photographs? Are we ready for the inspection of Him who walks amid the Seven Golden Lamps, and looks with eyes that are as a flame of fire? Are we in Ephesus, Laodicea or Pergamos, or worse, in Thyatira or Sardis? Or are we in suffering Smyrna, or humble, faithful Philadelphia? Thank God, the Seven Churches are not merely for brief and transient periods, but the spirit of each continues to the end. So there is a holy Philadelphia even amid an insipid Laodicea, May He find us with the little flock to whom it is the „Father's good pleasure to give the kingdom‟. A woman is many times used in tine Scriptures as a type of evil. The prototype of this same evil power was the ancient Jezebel of Samaria. In Zechariah the emblem of corruption is a woman sitting in an ephah and carried forth to Babylon (vss. 7. II). In the parable of the leaven it is a woman who prefigures the spirit of corruption there symbolized. John wonders at this woman because he had seen the Church just before (ch.xii.) as a woman clothed with the sun. Alas that so soon the Bride of Christ should seem like an harlot! Once more in the same chapter, and more fully in the 18th, the same system of evil is described by yet another name-viz., BABYLON, or MYSTERY OF BABYLONthat is, not the real, but the mystical Babylon, corresponding in spirit and destiny, in pride, profligacy and destiny, to the ancient Queen of Empires. This name may refer THE GREAT APOSTASY especially to the city of Rome as much as to the system of Romanism. We know this name was given by the early fathers to it, and even Peter is thought by many, in writing his epistle "from Babylon," to have really meant Rome. The fall of Babylon, in the 18th chapter, involves probably the destruction of the city of Rome. The next feature of this system of evil is universal dominion. "Power was given him over all kindreds and tongues and nations." During the middle ages the power of Rome was universal, so far at least as the world was under the sway of any European State. It was to be a blasphemous power. We cannot better interpret this than by quoting the following reference to the names and claims of the Roman Pontiff at various periods in the past: "He claims a homage which even rivals that of Jehovah. Some of the titles which have been given to him are truly awful. Christopher Marcellus in the fourth session of the fifth Lateran Council, called Pope Julius II. another God upon earth. In the sixth session of the same council, Leo. X. was called by Simon Bengnius the Savior that was to come; and the same Pope, in the next session of that council, was called King of kings. It Page 21 of 30

Kingdom of Heaven & God: by O. P. Armstrong, July 2013 r3/15 was to be worshipped. The word worship here applied both to the Beast and the Dragon. This worship of the Beast was really a worship of the Dragon. Papal worship is therefore devil worship. The word worshipped here means literally "kissed." The method of Papal worship is to kiss the great toe. And in St. Peter's the bronze statue said to represent St. Peter has had more than half of its toe literally kissed away. To make the description still more literal it is said that this statue is not St. Peter at all, but just an old heathen JUPITER found at Rome, and dedicated to the great Apostle. If this be so, then their worship is truly to the Dragon, for all the gods of Greece and Rome were literally symbols of demon powers. He was to do great wonders, and deceive them that dwelt on earth by those miracles that he should have power to do. This describes the miraculous claims of Romanism, and the false, deceptive character of some, as well as the undoubted supernatural reality of others. He was to call fire down from heaven. This might well describe the anathemas of the Popes which call down upon all who provoke them, 1. He was to control the very buying and selling of all who refused his authority, How exactly this describes a Papal interdict, which the Pontiffs sometimes passed on refractory subjects, completely cutting them off from all human fellowship, and forbidding all persons to transact business with them. 2. The Beast is denoted by a numerical name -viz., SIX HUNDRED AND SIXTY-SIX. While there have been innumerable guesses at the meaning of this mystical number, no interpretation seems more reasonable than that of Irenseus, the Christian Father, that the word "Laieinos,' by adding up the numerical value of each letter, spells the number 666. The word means "Latin," and it is especially applicable to Romanism, which is called Latin Christianity, and which since the year 663 has made the Latin language the vehicle of its teaching. 3. The Papal woman is clothed in scarlet, and the Beast she rides is also scarlet. We need not say that this is the processions, making this the distinctively Papal color. It would seem as if the Lord had ordered that Rome should establish her own identity by her very face. 4. She was "decked with precious stones."Who has not wondered at the countless treasures of Roman altars? Let anyone go through the famous St. Paul's of Rome, beyond the walls, and look at the altars presented by 'Various European sovereigns, flashing with the splendors of jasper and sardonyx, and it will be strange if he does not leave with a sense of worldly show such as the most extravagant earthly entertainment could not rival, and with the thought of how much better these things could serve the Master if converted into Bibles and scattered through the world. 5. She was represented as a harlot committing fornication with the kings of the earth. The idea is, of course, the unholy union of the Papal Church and the governments of earth. This has been the story of European politics for twelve centuries. The Papacy has always leaned upon the sword. Her first decrees of universal supremacy she obtained from Roman emperors; her grants of territory came from Pepin and Charlemagne and the Princess Matilda; her debaucheries THE GREAT APOSTASY of Protestants were carried on by the hands of the Duke of Alva and the Catholic powers of Europe. Her last years were upheld

Page 22 of 30

Kingdom of Heaven & God: by O. P. Armstrong, July 2013 r3/15 by the bayonets of France and Austria, and her present attempt is to get control of the democracies of Europe and America. 6. She is represented as holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations. The very seal of Rome is a woman holding in her hand a golden cup with the inscription-"Sedet super uniuersom:" 7. She is to be supported by the kings of earth and then despoiled by them. "They shall hate the harlot and make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire." This is one of the most remarkable fulfillments of prophecy. The world has witnessed just this spectacle for nearly one hundred years. France, the eldest son of the Papacy, was the first to turn upon her. The French Revolution struck her the first terrible blow, and then Napoleon finished it, capturing and deposing the Pope himself. Then Italy finished what France began. Portugal has since followed suit, and today Cardinal Manning truly says, there is not a nation to stand up, for the rights of the Church. 8. The same picture as Daniel gave of her as a persecuting power. She Is "drunk with the blood of the saints and the martyrs of Jesus." 9. And the same duration is also assigned, as given by Daniel, "Power was given to continue forty and two months"; that is, 1,260 years, 10. The fall of Rome is described in the eighteenth chapter. This has not yet come. It would seem to indicate some sudden and terrific catastrophe coming "in one hour," and engulfing the City of Ages in a ruin like Sodom and Gomorrah, Ever since the days of the fathers it has been supposed that 'this will come through some great natural convulsion, and that Rome will go to its doom amid earthquake shock and fearful eruptions‟ of fire and brimstone. 11. But before this comes it may be we have much to develop. Out of its mouth, along with the Dragon and False Prophet; are to go, and are going, "the unclean spirits, like frogs, which are the spirits of devils working miracles," which are to gather the kings of the earth to the last battle of the present age, the day of Armageddon. It is to grow more distinctly and manifestly evil to the close, its last head will be the 'devil himself. When Romanism falls then Satan in person is to be the head of the old Roman beast, and lead the powers of earth once more against the Lamb'. "The beast that was and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven and goes into perdition." This, then, is the Divine picture of the great Apostasy. Today she is making her last desperate struggle. Let us not be deceived. Her kingdom is gone, but her life is not dead. Innumerable facts show her vitality. She is not going to be converted, but consumed. But there is a remnant in her .bosom that God is calling forth. And our ministry preparatory to the end is to send forth the heralds of the Gospel among all her benighted votaries, and cry: "Come out of her my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues."

Page 23 of 30

Kingdom of Heaven & God: by O. P. Armstrong, July 2013 r3/15 THE PAROUSIA The Parable of the Ten Virgins in the 25th chapter of Matthew gives us a far-off vision of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, and suggests with solemn warning the danger that some may miss their place in that blessed company. Surely there must be a difference between the saintly souls that have been "washed and made white and tried," and the men and women who have found and would not understand their happiness in the things of the world, the Rapture of the Bridegroom‟s love. Are these earth-stained souls, even if saved at last, to have the same place as John of Patmos, and Bernard of Cluny, with Monica and Mary of Bethany? Surely, the question is enough to make us pause and ask our hearts if it is worthwhile to run the risk. What would an earthly marriage be without love? Then what will heaven mean if we do not already know the betrothal of the heart to our Heavenly Bridegroom and the rapture of His love? Have we seen Him in His beauty? Have we hearkened to His call? Have we been won by His love? And have we learned, "For Oh the Master is so fair, His smile so sweet to banished men, that they who meet Him anywhere, can never rest on earth again."And they who see Him risen afar, At God's right hand for sinful men, Forgetful stand, of home and land, Remembering fair Jerusalem." GRACE AND REWARD: The principles on which the judgment will be based are made plain. First note the distinction between salvation and reward. Salvation is altogether free; reward is bestowed for service rendered. Just as in a college course there are subjects which all must take, and honor classes which are entered only by those who specially compete for prizes; so in the kingdom of God all must repent, believe, and be born again, but all may not be heroes of faith, or service, or sacrifice, and all shall not wear garlands and crowns of glory. The laborers in the vineyard may represent the principle of the common salvation, the Parables of the Talents and Pounds the principle of rewards at the Lord‟s coming. Christ's words to the woman of Samaria, "If you knew the gift of God," describe the former; his words just afterwards to the disciples refer to the reward: "He that reaps receives wages and gathereth fruit unto life eternal, Page 24 of 30

Kingdom of Heaven & God: by O. P. Armstrong, July 2013 r3/15 that both he that sowed and he that reaps may rejoice together:' Here is the double reward for service, addressed to them, the servants, viz., wages, paid as they do the work, and a share in the fruit at harvest time. Again, the striking passage in I. Corinthians 9:24; "They that run in a race run all, but one receives the prize, I therefore run not uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beats the air: but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection, lest after I have preached the Gospel to others, I myself should be a castaway"; or, more correctly, "a disapproved competitor." It literally means one rejected at the end of the race as regards the prize-not finally lost, for such a thought never entered Paul's mind. GRACE AND REWARD: ACCORDING TO WORKS: Again the reward is according to service rendered. It is in exact proportion not to the quantity always, but to the spirit and value. How finely this is brought out in the Parable of the Pounds. Five pounds multiplied bring five cities, and ten pounds improved bring ten cities. The doubling of one talent is as much rewarded as the doubling of five. The humblest worker, if fully faithful, is 'recompensed as fully as the most illustrious."He that shall receive a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet‟s reward, and he that shall receive a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shalt receive a righteous man's reward." GRACE AND REWARD: JUDGMENT OF THE SAINTS: The service that was in the heart to do, but for which we had no opportunity, will be rewarded, "according to what a man hath, and not what he hath not." Many a quiet heart will be brought out into the light of heaven as the true instrument of a blessing in which others, perhaps, had a more public part. Some of the special recompenses are definitely described. There are wages and fruit for the reaper in life's harvest, and glories like the eternal stars for those that turn many to righteousness. There is "a crown of glory that fades not away" for the faithful minister. There is a crown of life for the man that bravely and truly stands in the battlefield of the life and endures the ordeal of temptation. These bitter strokes are fashioning our diadem for by-and-by. Then the suffering martyr shall find his blood drops crystallized into the rubies of a "crown of life." Then they who simply overcome shall receive a royal heritage with Christ Himself. And even they who could do little else than live and look for His appearing shall be recompensed with a crown of righteousness." The one that has faithfully used his natural talents shall receive in proportion to his improvement of them Page 25 of 30

Kingdom of Heaven & God: by O. P. Armstrong, July 2013 r3/15 (Matt.25.) and he who has multiplied and rightly employed his spiritual privileges and endowments will be made a ruler over as many cities as the pound she gained. The faithful and wise steward who took good care of his Lord's household here, and gave to his children a portion-in season, will be made "ruler over all that he hath." And they who left all and followed Christ shall be recompensed hundredfold more in that time in the things they sacrificed for Christ. Even the secret thought of service that never was expressed will be recognized and recompensed, and "every man have praise of God." Nor will our gifts to His treasury be lost. The generous millionaire and the self-denying widow will find all their gifts on deposit, at compound interest, and they will stand astonished at their colossal fortunes. Like the crowns of the Restoration time, forged out of the golden gifts of the captives in Babylon, their gold will be found hanging in diadems above their heads on heaven's pillars, inscribed with their names inwrought with His. Oh, then, no sacrifice will seem to have been too great, no gift too large, no love too warm, no enthusiasm too intense. Life's full significance will be unrolled, and our only regret will be that we cannot live it over again. “End Quotes of ABS” Footnotes FN1 Great Beast ABS (1843-1919) seventy plus writings were penned in large part between 1880 and 1917. Since then a century has passed from which to take a perspective on his writings. The only changed perspective is here-in held that the great beast and abomination of revelation 17 may be seen as a confluence of ApostateChristianity, Judaism, and Islam centered in Jerusalem. ABS alluded to some aspects of this in his writings. There is no better way to focus the lens of understanding than passing of time. RTN14 FN2: The Not Kingdom Therefore do not let your good be spoken of as evil; for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor Page 26 of 30

Kingdom of Heaven & God: by O. P. Armstrong, July 2013 r3/15 drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God FN3: Kingdom Ages Not all ages or dispensations of the Kingdom are the same. The Kingdom started under John and will never end. But the next dispensation came under Jesus, then the Church Age, next follows the Judgment Age, then Rest, and last God being All-in-All. Presently the idea of grace was shown when James and John ask Jesus, „shall we call fire upon them as did Elijah (2Kg1.10)?‟ but Jesus answered; “The Son of Man came to save life not destroy”. When the 2 witnesses begin their work then ends this age of grace. For at that time theses two will have power to smite the earth as often as they wish. And if any man seeks their harm then fire comes from heaven to destroy those who would harm the two witnesses. The 2 witnesses‟ time may also indicate an end to the Gentile Church. For there are sealed of the 12 tribes of Israel to give witness. Next follows the full wrath of God upon earth when all sea life and about ½ of world‟s population perish in the Great Tribulation and full wrath. GoPg1

Page 27 of 30

Kingdom of Heaven & God: by O. P. Armstrong, July 2013 r3/15 # 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36

Gospel Parables of Jesus in Chronological Order New cloth on an old coat (why the old must go) New wine in old wineskins (old way, law, preferred) Lamp on a stand (also see #6) Wise and foolish builders Moneylender forgives unequal debts Lamp on a stand (2 time, see #3) nd Rich man foolishly builds bigger barns Servants must remain watchful (also see #44) Wise and foolish servants (also see #42) Unfruitful fig tree (Nation Bearing Fruit, NBF) Sower and four types of soil Weeds among good plants (Kingdom of Heaven) Growing seed (Kingdom of Heaven) Mustard seed (Kingdom of Heaven) Yeast (Kingdom of Heaven) Hidden treasure (Kingdom of Heaven) Valuable pearl (Kingdom of Heaven) Fishing net (Kingdom of Heaven) Owner of a house (Kingdom of Heaven) Lost sheep (sheep as children, also see #29) The sheep, gate, and shepherd Master and his servant Unmerciful servant (Kingdom of Heaven) Good Samaritan Friend in need Lowest seat at the feast Invitation to a great banquet Cost of discipleship Lost sheep (sheep as sinners, also see #20) Lost coin Lost (prodigal) son Shrewd manager Rich man and Lazarus Workers in the vineyard, early and late Persistent widow and crooked judge Pharisee and tax collector

Matthew 9:16 9:17 5:14-15 7:24-27

Mark 2:21 2:22

4:21-22

13:3-8, 18-23

4:3-8, 14-20

Luke 5:36 5:37-38 6:47-49 7:41-43 8:16, 11:33 12:16-21 12:35-40 12:42-48 13:6-9 8:5-8, 11-15

13:24-30, 36-43

4:26-29 13:31-32 4:30-32 13:33 13:44 13:45-46 13:47-50 13:52 18:12-14 ( John 10:1-5, 7-18 )

13:18-19 13:20-21

17:7-10 18:23-34 10:30-37 11:5-8 14:7-14 14:16-24 14:28-33 15:4-7 15:8-10 15:11-32 16:1-8 16:19-31 20:1-16

Page 28 of 30

18:2-8 18:10-14

Kingdom of Heaven & God: by O. P. Armstrong, July 2013 r3/15 # 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46

Gospel Parables of Jesus in Chronological Order King’s ten servants given minas (also see #45) Two sons, one obeys one does not Wicked tenants (Nation Bearing Fruit, NBF) Invitation to a wedding banquet Signs of the future from a fig tree Wise and foolish servants (2 time, see #9) nd Wise and foolish virgins Servants must remain watchful (2 time, see #8) nd Three servants given talents (also see #37) Sheep and goats will be separated

Matthew 21:28-32 21:33-44 22:2-14 24:32-35 24:45-51 25:1-13

Mark

12:1-11

20:9-18

13:28-29

21:29-31

13:35-37 25:14-30 25:31-46

RTN14

Page 29 of 30

Luke 19:12-27

Kingdom of Heaven & God: by O. P. Armstrong, July 2013 r3/15 Other Kingdom texts Luke 1:32-33 Matt.13:16-23 Rom13.14 John18:36-37 Matt. 13:24-52 Phil3.9 Matt. 18:23-35 Mark 4:1-20 John 3:3 Matt. 19:13-26 Mark 4:26-29 Luke16:16 Mark 4:30-32 Matt. 20:1-16 Matt. 5:20 Mark 10:17-27 Matt20:20-28 2Cor5.21 Matt. 7:13-23 Matt. 21:28-32 Mark16.15-19 Matt.11:11-14 matt22:1-14 Luke 8:1-18 OT overlooked Kingdom source materials Ps45.5-7 Dan2:44 Ps93.1-2 Ps96.1-6 Ps97-99 Ps22.22-30 RTN.24

Page 30 of 30

Luke 9:2 Luke9.62 Luke 11:9-13 Luke 12:22-31 Luke 13:22-28 Luke 15:24 Luke 18:15-16 John 6:57-58

John 8:12 John 14:16-17 1Cor15:50 Acts14:22 Rom14:17 1Cor6.9-11 Gal5.19-21 Heb12.28