THE NATURE OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD, AS SHOWN THE APOSTLES
The Lord Jesus Christ, in one of his discourses with his disciples, gave them the promise, that there were some of them standing with him, that should not taste of death till they saw the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. Matthew 16:28.APEC 24.1
The kingdom of which he spake was evidently the one he is to establish when he comes to reward every man according to his work. Did the Savior ever fulfil this promise? I am aware it is sometimes said he did, on the day of Pentecost. But I deny it, and ask for the evidence.APEC 24.2
No writer, either sacred or profane, has ever testified that Jesus Christ was seen on that occasion. But the text explicitly declares, “they shall see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” But the day of Pentecost was emphatically the dispensation of the Holy Ghost.APEC 24.3
Again. If the Pentecost was the fulfilment of the promise, then all who heard him, with the exception of Judas, saw it; for it was a private conversation with the disciples. So that not some, but all, except Judas, saw it. But the promise was literally and truly fulfilled about six or eight days after those sayings, when “Jesus took with him Peter, James and John, and went up into a high mountain apart, and was transfigured before them; and his face shone like the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.” In what greater glory can the “Son of Man” ever appear than that in which he did appear on that occasion? But Moses, that faithful servant of God, who died and was buried by God’s own hand, was there, in his glorified body, assumed for the occasion; for he appeared in the form of a man, as well as Elias, who never tasted death. These both were there; the former, the representative of those who shall be dead and raised when Christ appears in glory; the latter, the representative of those who shall be alive, and be changed from mortality to immortality, at the appearing of the Savior. And while this company of glorified beings communed together, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and a voice out of the cloud said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.APEC 24.4
But that the transfiguration was an exhibition of the kingdom of Christ, we have yet farther evidence. 1 Peter 5:1. Peter calls himself “an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker (or companion) of the glory which shall be revealed.” But he was never (a companion or) a partaker of that glory except at the transfiguration. There he was a partaker or partner of it. Again, 2 Peter 1st chapter, he dwells largely upon the theme. He first exhorts his brethren to a faithful performance of Christian duties, and assures them that by doing thus an entrance should be ministered to them abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To the end they might keep the kingdom of God in view as the prize for which they run, he tells them he would not be negligent to put them in mind of these things; not because they were at that time either ignorant or unsettled on the subject, but because he was shortly to put off his tabernacle, as Christ had showed him, and wished they might be able, after his decease, to have these things always in remembrance. “For we have not,” he says, “followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; but were eye-witnesses of his Majesty. For he received from God the Father, honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we heard when we were with him in the holy mount.”APEC 25.1
But, notwithstanding Peter was an eye and ear witness of the kingdom and glory of Christ, he assures us we have also a more sure word of prophecy than even his testimony, viz., the testimony of the holy prophets, who wrote of old as moved by the Holy Ghost.APEC 26.1
From the foregoing exhibition and testimony, we learn that the kingdom of Christ is to be in a state of glory and immortality; for when the kingdom of God was exhibited to the apostles, they saw as its subjects,—APEC 26.2
1. Jesus Christ, in a glorified body, his countenance shining like the sun, and his garments as white as the light.APEC 26.3
2. Moses, who had passed the gate of death, but, on that occasion, clothed in a glorious body, was there, as an exhibition of what the saints will be at the resurrection.APEC 26.4
3. Elias was there; an example of those who will be alive when the Savior appears, and be caught up to meet him in the air, to be forever with him. Such, then, will be the society of the kingdom of heaven.APEC 26.5