Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 51:201 (Jan 1894)
Article: The Church And The Kingdom
Author: James M. Campbell

BSac 51:201 (Jan 1894) p. 131

The Church And The Kingdom

Rev. James M. Campbell

At the centre of the eternal purpose of God, in which all things are embraced, lies the idea of his kingdom. The kingdom of God is no new thing. Under two forms it has always existed: inwardly, as a divine ideal floating before the minds of men, feeding their noblest hopes, and inspiring their sublimest achievements; outwardly, as a divine moral government, embracing all souls, all systems, and all events —a “kingdom that ruleth over all,” a kingdom administered for the good of all; “an everlasting kingdom,” stretching over all time, spanning all the ages.

Upon its spiritual side, as the sovereign rule of God over man actually realized, the kingdom of God is a thing of growth. Typified in the Jewish theocracy, personally revealed in Christ, it was at length firmly founded at Pentecost, through the manifestation of Christ in the power of the Spirit.

When the Baptist proclaimed to the Jews, “The kingdom of God is among you,” he announced the presence of the long-expected king. The one in whom the dream of ancient Israel is fulfilled; the one in whom the ages are linked together; the one in whom the kingdom of God has its unity, and through whom it is to attain perfect realization, had at length come. The kingdom silently administered throughout the past was now openly declared. The king had entered upon his inheritance. All authority was given into his hands. Over that moral empire which sweeps

BSac 51:201 (Jan 1894) p. 132

the circle of creation, and which gathers into itself all good and loyal souls, he stood forth the rightful although as yet the unacknowledged sovereign.

At the first, no word was spoken by Christ touching his church. For a time the founding of his church was kept a profound secret. The gospel which he preached was “the gospel of the kingdom,” the good news concerning the restoration of the world to the divine order; and yet before the kingdom could come it was necessary that the church be instituted; for the church was the vital germ from which the kingdom was to be built up, the creative centre around which the kingdom was to be constructed. From the holy society of the church was to be developed the holy society of a regenerated humanity.

Great confusion of thought exists regarding the relation of the church to the kingdom. The two terms “church” and “kingdom” are often used interchangeably. Canon Free-mantle in his suggestive work “The World as the Subject of Redemption” defines the church as “the whole human race in all its modes of life inspired by the Spirit of Christ.”1 What he ...