The coming kingdom ...

Front matter

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By C. A. ROMINGER, A.B., D.D.S. 1

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Introduction

IN PLACING this book before the reading public, it is the hope and belief of the author that it will be nothing short of a revelation to many an earnest Bible reader. And yet, the author lays no claim to revelation. It is simply the rational reading and interpretation of what is plainly written in the Book. He does claim, however, that he is, in a measure, divorced from the old denominational prejudices that have obscured the spiritual vision of many a child of God, and that he has rejected, almost wholly, the old school of spiritualizing Scripture.

Israel is the key that unlocks prophecy. Christ is the coming King of earth He who reads with these two thoughts before his mind, will find much of the prophecies simple and intelligible. Israel is God's elect, from the athletic contest at Peniel, to the end of the vision on Patmos.

The law and the prophets were for Israel. We must not spiritualize the prophecies to apply them to the Gentiles; for that does violence to the word of God, and wrests its meaning. The parts that God meant to apply to the Gentiles are plainly so stated. It is robbery to take the covenants and prophecies made to Israel and give them to the other nations.

The loftiest heights of Isaiah's visions, for instance, were but glimpses of the Kingdom of Christ, as it will be here on the earth. They are only brief word paintings of what he saw of the millennial Kingdom, as he looked down the vista of the ages to come, when God pulled the curtain aside for a few moments at a time, and told him to write what he saw. True, much of what the prophets saw and wrote, were scenes of woe and destruction, through which Israel was to pass because of her sin, and of the judgments on the nations that oppressed Israel.

The Bible many times declares that Israel and Judah will again be united into one Kingdom; hence the Jews are not the only Israelites in existence today. If the House of Israel and the House of Judah are to be re-united, then the House of Israel is still in existence somewhere. We accept the theory that the Anglo-Saxon race are the lineal blood descendants of the House of

Israel; Israelites, but not Jews. However, he who reads this book and sees nothing but Anglo-Israel in it, has read very blindly; for the object of the book is to define the Kingdom, and to differentiate it from the Church. They are not the same.

There is very little in prophecy concerning the Church. And yet, in these latter times, the Church has been regarded as the end, instead of the means, until it has almost eclipsed the Kingdom.

Surely the Christian world has forgotten, or else never knew, that the Church, as an organization, will disappear when the Kingdom is inaugurated under the Christ. The Church is only the assembly that is called out for the perfecting of the plans of the Kingdom. It is the scaffolding around the buiiding. The Kingdom is the real structure that is to stand when the scaffolding is torn away. The Kingdom, as described by the prophets, and as taught by Jesus, is the all-conquering power that is to subdue the whole earth.

Now, if the burden of all the prophets was the Kingdom, and if the Lord Jesus devoted the whole of his ministry to preaching the glad tidings of the Kingdom, we feel that we need not make any apology for thrusting this book before the public with all the emphasis that language can command.

Every where the ministry and the laity are crying out in a piteous wail that the churches have lost their power. Is it any wonder? They have lost sight of the very object for which the Church was formed — the selection of the rulers of the literal Kingdom of Christ on earth — and they have spiritualized the Kingdom into a myth, and placed the Church in its stead as an end.

It is our belief that when the Kingdom is held up before men in the real light of Divine revelation, that the Church, as a means to that end, will have ail the power that God vouch-safed unto it. Let us take our moorings anew, if perchance, we may find some corrections to be made in our log-book of interpretation.

Much missionary zeal, money, and labor have been wasted because we have not recognized that the only hope of the nations is through Israel. The Gospel of the Kingdom is to be preached again in all the world for a witness to the nations.

God's way is always best, and more people will be blessed and saved by obeying His commands, than we can bless or save through the impotent churches as we find them today. Let the Kingdom be held up before men in its real character, and many will be pressing into it. Herein is the wisdom of God's plan manifest.

God never promised that the Church should conquer the world, nor that all men should be brought into it; but on the other hand, Paul tells us that the glorious coming of the King will not occur, until there is a great falling away first of the Church, and the man of sin is revealed. Jesus told His disciples of the awful days of the tribulation that would precede the ushering in of His glorious reign. Hence, it is a vain hope that the nations will be brought to Christ, and into the Church before the Lord comes. The evangelization of the world before the Lord comes is an ideal fancy without a Scriptural promise.

On the other hand, we are told that the fifth world Kingdom of Dan. 2:44 will subdue all other Kingdoms and that it shall endure forever. Many, many times we are told of the final triumph of Christ's Kingdom over all; but not so of the Church. Think.

The Coming King, and the First Resurrection 174