"Jesus is the first, the chief element of the kingdom and He should, therefore, be first and foremost in the proclamation of the everlasting Gospel."--Expositor, p. 519.
The only place where the phrase "Everlasting Gospel" occurs is in Rev. 14:6, "I saw," says John, "another messenger flying in mid-heaven, having (dispensational good news) to proclaim to the dwellers upon the earth, and to every nation, and tribe, and tongue, and people." In the Common Version, aion "good news," or "good news concerning the age, or economy of the fullness of times," is rendered "the everlasting Gospel." In the next verse we are informed what the good tidings are in these words, "Saying, with a great voice, fear God, and give glory to him, because the hour of his judgment comes, and render homage to him who made the heaven and the earth, and sea, and fountains of waters."
Such is the testimony. Is Jesus "the first and the foremost in this proclamation?" God, a certain hour, and the approaching judgment, are the chief elements of it. The name "Jesus," does not appear in the record. The writer, therefore, of the passage at the head of the column must review his premises, and amend his conclusion.
But perhaps he does not mean the "Everlasting Gospel," but some other proclamation. If he did not mean it, he should not have written contrary to his meaning. The "Everlasting Gospel," proclaimed by the messenger John saw, is not an invitation to God's Kingdom and Glory, but a command to do homage to him, under pain of approaching judgment. The "Gospel of the Kingdom of God" is an invitation to his Kingdom and Glory, as appears from the apostle's words, who says to the subjects of the "one baptism," "we exhort, and comfort, and charge every one of you, as a father doth his children, that ye walk worthy of God, "who hath called you to his kingdom and glory," and "that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye suffer" (1 Thess. 2:12; 2 Thess. 1:5). They were "called," or invited, to certain things which became their hope; styled, therefore, by Paul, the "one hope of the invitation," or calling; and elsewhere, "the Hope of the Gospel." The kingdom and glory of God were the hope of all new converts in Paul's day, that he had to do with. For this "and" the resurrection he was called in question (Acts 23:6), and suffered the loss of all things that he might win them, for in winning them he won Christ. The kingdom and glory being the hope of the Gospel, is the reason why so much is said in the New Testament about them. All Christians in those days looked for the kingdom and glory, which constituted "the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus, the anointed one and Lord" (Phil. 3:8).
When Paul went to a city, it was to tell them about the kingdom of God, and to make them an offer of possessing it, on certain conditions, at the appointed time. Thus, we are told, that Paul and Barnabas preached the Gospel at Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia (Acts 14:6,7,21); and that when they returned from Derbe to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, they exhorted the disciples they had made to "continue in the faith," saying that "we must, through much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God" (ver. 22) -- continue in the faith of that for which they suffered. Would they have endured "much tribulation" without faith in a well-defined hope? Could they have continued in the faith of that hope if Paul had not preached it to them in the Gospel? Nay, verily. They were exhorted to continue in the faith of the kingdom he preached to them in the gospel of the kingdom. They believed this gospel and obeyed it, but did not therefore consider themselves already in it; but they hoped to enter into it as a reward for patient continuance in well-doing through much tribulation.
The "Everlasting Gospel" is preached hereafter. The advent of Jesus will have occurred before its proclamation. I say, then, the apocalyptic "Everlasting Gospel" has never yet been announced. In Rev. 14:6, it is only prophesied that it will be preached just before the inauguration of the judgment; so that if there be any nations, or persons, like the contemporaries of John the Immerser, desirous of escaping the impending vengeance, they may do so by transferring their homage from "the powers that be," to the theocracy that sends forth the proclamation. This is very different from Paul's message, inviting people to become "heirs of the kingdom." Paul's gospel will not then be proclaimed. Ours, we believe, is the last effort to bring men back to his gospel. In a few more years it will become like the proclamation of John the Baptizer after Pentecost, an affair of the past, which, having answered the purpose designed, had fallen into desuetude [used no longer]. Does the reader imagine that the gospel of the kingdom will be preached after the kingdom has come? The gospel was designed to take out of the nations a people for that kingdom; but when the kingdom is come, all that remains is for that invited people to "take the kingdom, and to possess the kingdom, ad alma wead alam almarya, during the Age, even during the Age of ages" (Dan. 7:18).
Jesus, though "the truth," was not this gospel, but the Apostle of God, sent to preach it. In his teaching he did not say, "Make me first and foremost in the proclamation of the everlasting gospel," but what he said was, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and tell no man that Jesus is the Christ" (Matt. 6:33; 16:20). When one said, "Lord, before I follow thee, suffer me first to go and bury my father;" Jesus said, "Let the dead bury their dead; but go thou and preach the kingdom of God" (Luke 9:60). But had the Expositor been present, we may suppose he would have spoken what he has written, and have said, "not so, Lord, tell him rather as thou art the first, the chief element of the kingdom, that first and foremost he go and preach that thou art the Son of God." Our friend will see that he has a weak standing here. He had better look to it, lest his foundation slip from beneath his feet.
Jesus preached the gospel of the kingdom for three years and a half to the Jews, and to them only. When his ministry was drawing to a close, he delivered his celebrated prophecy on Mount Olivet, and therein, referring to the gospel he was preaching, he said, "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the habitable, for a testimony to all the nations" (Matt. 24:14). Hence it was the same gospel he preached before he became a sacrifice for sin that was to be preached to the Gentiles of the Roman habitable. It follows, then, that on and from the day of Pentecost, the same gospel of the kingdom, preached by Jesus, was still preached by his apostles, with something additional, which he only darkly hinted at, and his apostles, till after his resurrection, did not understand. See our article on "The Pentecostians," on last page of the March number [1856]. There is proof there in print. Besides this, turn to Luke 18:31-34, "Behold," said he to the twelve, "we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man (before he becomes Son of God with power -Rom. 1:4, and de facto, King" -Matt. 25:34), shall be accomplished. For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be marked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on, and they shall scourge him, and put him to death; and the third day he shall rise again. And they understood none of these things; and this saying was hid from them, neither understood they the things which were spoken."
It was the gospel of the kingdom, then together with the things the apostles did not understand concerning the sufferings of the Christ, that Jesus commanded them to go and preach to Judah and the nations, when he said, "Go ye unto all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15). There is no sophistry that can over-ride this. Now, we pray the reader to mark well, that salvation is predicated on the belief of these two classes of things which constitute the one gospel, namely, the things concerning the kingdom the apostles did understand (Matt. 13:11), and the things concerning the sufferings of the King, which we have seen they did not understand till just before Pentecost, because God purposely concealed them from them, as he had done from the prophets and angels of old time (1 Pet. 1:10-12): "He that believes not the good news of the kingdom shall be condemned." This is the teaching in Mark 16:15-16. They are "the wholesome words of the Lord Jesus," and neither more nor less can be made of them.
Again, the divine order in which things are to be presented to men for faith, is laid down in the example of the Great Teacher himself, and upon whose method we deny that any one can improve. Take the method he adopted in teaching the twelve:
1. He first instructed them in the secrets of the kingdom.
2. He convinced them that he was the King, or Anointed, and Son of God, and demanded their confession of it.
3. He then began to talk to them about his sufferings enigmatically; and
4. He explained the enigma after he rose from the dead, and breathed upon them.
1. He began his work in Galilee, by preaching the gospel of the kingdom (Matt. 4:23). The discourse on the mount is a specimen of his preaching to the children of the prophets (Matt. 5, 6, 7). He then worked great miracles, confirming it as the doctrine of God (Matt. 8, 9). After this introduction, he selected from the body of his disciples, twelve for a special purpose (Matt. 10). He continued to preach the kingdom (for that he was sent to do - Luke 4:43) enigmatically to the people at large, but explaining his parable to the twelve in private (Matt. 13).
2. His doctrine and miracles convinced them that he was the Christ, or King; and Son of God; and when he considered the time had come, he demanded of them their conviction concerning him. Peter, for himself and the rest, declared that they accepted him as "The Anointed, the son of the Living God" (Matt. 16:16).
In the twentieth verse of the chapter last quoted, Matthew says, "Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he is Yahweh, Shua, The Messiah," or in English, I shall be the Mighty, the Anointed; and in Greek, Jesus the Christ. He then goes on to say, "From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders, and chief-priests, and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day." "But they understood not that saying, and were afraid to ask him" (Mark 9:32). Still ignorant of what our friend of the Expositor thinks of more importance than the things of the kingdom (p. 519), three of the twelve were favored with a view of how Jesus will appear when he shall stand and feed Israel in the majesty of the name of Yahweh, his God (Mic. 5:4; Matt. 17). After this, he talks to them about Elijah coming to "restore all things" - "the Regeneration," in which he declares they shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel (Matt. 19). All this time they were in the dark about the sufferings, death, burial, and resurrection of "the Wonderful."
After promising them royalty with himself, he represents his future, or premillennial entrance into his capital, amid the acclamations of his subjects, by riding into Jerusalem on the foal of an ass. This future entrance, he afterwards informed them, would come to pass when "the times of the Gentiles should be fulfilled," and Jerusalem should be free. Compare Matt. 21:9, with 23:39; Luke 21:24.
Having preached judgment against Jerusalem and the Commonwealth, he directed their attention to the end of the Gentiles' times, when he should come in power and great glory, to put them into possession of the kingdom, and punish the unjust in the judgment of the devil and his angles (Matt. 25). The last three chapters contain the history of the sufferings and resurrection he predicted, the meaning of which they could not comprehend.
4. After he rose from the dead, "Jesus breathed upon them, and said to them, 'Receive ye the Holy Spirit: whose sins soever ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose sins soever ye retain they are retained.'" (Jno. 20:23). We believe that from this time they understood the meaning of the sufferings of the Christ, and how believers in the gospel of the kingdom might obtain repentance, forgiveness, and eternal life, through his name. On the day of Pentecost, they were qualified to speak what they had learned in the forty days (Acts 1:3), in divers languages, and to confirm their doctrine by miracles. The spirit the Lord Jesus breathed into them called all things to their remembrance, and its Pentecostian descent endued them "with power from on high."
Such is the Divine Method which our friend of the Expositor is unwittingly seeking to subvert, in his articles on "Valid Immersion." He divides the preaching into important and "less important" things. But waving the question just now of our friend's right to impose this diversion upon the gospel elements, we would ask, in the face of what is before us, is it not manifest that what he styles "the less important things concerning the kingdom," had the precedence in the preaching of Jesus? He illustrated his own words, "Seek first the kingdom of God, &c.," in teaching it first to the disciples of his school. We like Christ's order better than the Expositor's. We are contented with it, and have neither respect nor fellowship for any other. His method made disciples of the genuine type. The Expositor's method is that endorsed by all the schools of the Gentiles, from the Roman Propaganda, to the Divinity Class at Bethany: and according to the method, so are the disciples--all faiths by turns, according to the breeze. The heirs of the kingdom come from better seed than this.
(By Dr. John Thomas, 1856