Locus 15 — The Kingdom of Christ
evil," that is, that you do not take up arms to establish a new kingdom under the pretext of the Gospel. Thus, the apostles were sent for the ministration of the Gos pel, that is, to teach and not to grasp the empires of the world. are no hypocrites. But pastors must perform their du ties—they must teach purely and faithfully and must request of Christ the glorification of the church. Mean while, in this life there will always be churches with a mixture of evil, and many ungodly people will hold do minion in the kingdoms of the world and will cruelly persecute the church until the glorious coming of Christ.
And yet in the midst of these persecutions Christ with His good counsel will preserve some remnants so that the church does not entirely perish. Such is the kingdom of Christ in this life.
Therefore, Paul says [cf. 2 Cor. 3:8] that the Gos pel is ''the ministration of the Spirit," that is, in the Gos pel we are offered spiritual and eternal blessings, but we do not establish new kingdoms of the world. And in 2 Cor. 10[:4], he says, ''The arms of our warfare are not fleshly but the power of God for destroying coun sels." Again, 2 Cor. 5[:20], "Therefore we are ambas sadors for Christ, commending ourselves to you as the ministers of God in afflictions." Again [2 Cor. 1:24], "We do not have dominion over your faith."
And it is also evident that even if some new church of this kind were to be established in the future, yet the teachers by their own judgment and without the manifest command of God must not take up arms to establish such a church. Nor is any such new command to be expected, for Christ would not issue any mandate contrary to the Gospel.
Therefore, since the apostles have only the man date to teach, it is irreverent to believe that the teachers of the Gospel must by force of arms establish new king doms, as the Jews and the Anabaptists dream, that in the last days the kingdom of God must be established in such a way upon the earth that the saints will rule and forcibly destroy all the ungodly, and that there will be no hypocrites in the church. And this Jewish delirium often erupts in the church. For in days gone by there were also those fanatic spirits, Chiliasts and Pepuzians,1 who dreamed of such an Anabaptist kingdom.
But because the Jews and the Anabaptists cite the prophets, who in speaking about the reign of Christ often do use figures of speech which are taken from the area of government in this world, I reply first: The Gospel is the interpretation of the prophets. Since the Gospel clearly teaches that the kingdom of Christ is spiritual, that it offers spiritual and eternal blessings, that it does not hold dominion in this world but rather suffers persecution, we must understand the prophets according to the Gospel. And thus, the apostles in the book of Acts clearly transfer the statements about the kingdom in the promise to David to this spiritual king dom which is subjected to persecution. And Christ Him self criticized the apostles when they held the Jewish persuasion and thought that they were going to occupy the kingdoms of the world.
We still need to gather testimonies which teach that in the church until the last day there will be a pro miscuous mixture of the good and the evil. Luke 17[:2830], "As it was done in the days of Lot,... so will it be on the day in which the Son of Man is revealed." Again
[v. 34], "In that night there will be two in one bed, the one will be taken and the other left." Matt. 13[:30] re garding the tares, "Let both grow until the harvest." And a little later [vv. 39-41], "The harvest is the end of the world. .. . The Son of man will send His angels, and they shall gather from His kingdom all the grain, and those who do iniquity. ..." Likewise [vv. 49 ff.], "Thus it will be at the end of the age: the angels will come forth and separate the evil from the righteous and send the evil into the furnace of fire." These statements tes tify that there will be no separation of the saints from the hypocrites until the last judgment.
Second, the prophets themselves, although they use different figures of speech, yet from time to time they also bear clear witness that the kingdom of Christ is spiritual. Daniel clearly says [9:26] the Christ is going to be killed. And Is. [53:10] says, "He shall make His soul an offering for sin." Therefore He will not have physical dominion in this life. Besides this, they affirm that the kingdom of Christ is eternal, while no physical civil government in this life is eternal. Therefore the figures of speech which involve physical civil govern ments, which they sometimes apply to the eternal king dom of Christ, must be understood allegorically. And this eternal kingdom begins in this life in the Spirit and in faith, and it will continue on forever after this life.
Therefore, the prophets speak this way from time to time, with the result that they do not distinguish the times of this life from the life of the future. But some times they do distinguish and clearly are making proph ecies of the future, that the church in this life will indeed suffer persecutions. Thus in Ps. 2[:2], "The kings of the earth rise up, and the princes take counsel together against the Lord and against His Anointed." And Ps.
116[:15], "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints." And Ps. 72[:14], "Precious shall be their
Also we must consider the fact that pastors have the command to excommunicate by means of the Word, without the use of physical force, those who are guilty of manifest crimes. It is not the duty of human judgment to look into the hearts and to judge concerning those who do not have manifest crimes. Thus Paul [1 Tim.
5:19] says, "Receive not an accusation against an elder unless there are witnesses present." And those who cannot be convicted by witnesses should not be put out by human judgment. Thus before the last day it is impossible to establish such a church in which there
' The Montanists were sometimes called Pepuzians because they believed in the immanent establishment of the millennium at Pepuza in Phrygia.
And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to eternal life and some to shame and everlasting contempt." blood in His sight." Isaiah very beautifully describes the church in this life in ch. 30[:20], "The Lord will give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teacher He will not remove." This testifies that the church must be preserved, but yet only among afflictions.
We must cling to these and similar passages in order that we may have comfort under the cross and we must truly learn to understand that the kingdom is spiritual, that is, to seek spiritual consolations and to exercise our faith. These passages sufficiently refute the Jewish and fanatic opinion about a physical rule by the saints in this life.
Daniel clearly is prophesying about the perse cution before the last day [in 11:33], "Those of the peo ple who understand ... shall fall by the sword." And shortly afterward [12:1 ft], "At that time Your people shall be delivered, everyone who is written in the book.
Locus 16 The Resurrection of the Dead The doctrine that affirms there shall be a resur rection of all the dead, and that then there will follow the judgment, eternal life, the eternal glory of the godly, and the eternal punishments of the ungodly, is clearly taught in the Gospel or in the preaching of the New
Testment without any equivocation. Not only so, but also the resurrection itself is begun. The beginning of this new life—in which there will be new light, wisdom, and righteousness, without any sin and without death— had been demonstrated to the apostles and to the rest of the assembly which had been joined to the apostles and placed before all eyes, when Christ after His death came back to life, and many other prophets anti fathers were also raised from the dead. And this marvelous work was not revealed to the church in vain. Christ willed that His own resurrection and that of others be a clear and evident testimony to His own people, who were gathered together among the apostles, and to the other groups attached to them during the forty-day pe riod, that there is indeed a resurrection and eternal life.
Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 sharply contends for and beau tifully describes this article.
Although the statements in the apostolic writings are well known, we shall gather some old passages from the prophets in order that the ongoing teaching of the patriarchs of the church, the prophets and apostles and the consensus of the universal church of God may be seen.
Is. 26[:19—21], "Your dead shall live; My slain shall rise again. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust, for your dew is like the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. Come, My people, enter your chambers and shut your doors behind you. Hide yourselves for a moment until the indignation is past.
For, behold, the Lord comes out of His place to punish the iniquity of those who dwell on the earth, and the earth will reveal her blood, and will no longer cover her slain." This very clear statement speaks of the raising of the dead, of the joys of the saints, of the punishments of the ungodly and of the present affliction of the church.
Therefore it should be carefully considered. "Your dead," he says, "shall live." He calls the saints God's dead to signify that the church is afflicted for the sake of God; as if he were to say, "Your sons are also killed for Your sake, and those who are a concern to You shall live again." And what kind of life will it be? "Sing," he says; that is, the godly will live and flourish in ev erlasting joy, perfect knowledge of God, and perfect righteousness, without sin and death, just as they revive by "dew of herbs." Then he brings consolation regard ing our afflictions. But sometimes it is necessary that the church be afflicted and death endured. They will be enclosed as in a "chamber," that is to say, they will be protected in the church and by the Word until the day of judgment. He [Isaiah] preaches about the punish ments of the ungodly and repeats the statement about the resurrection: "The earth will no longer cover her slain."
But if we should often think of this, not only would our assent or faith be strengthened in our minds con cerning this article, but also we would more easily bear the burdens of this brief and fleeting life, keeping our eyes on that most joyous fellowship with Christ and with those who have been raised. For doubt was removed during many of those days, (namely, the forty days) by the conversation and meetings among all those people and also by what they saw with their eyes, and by their conferences and conversations. For we should not think of Christ and those others who were raised as being furtive specters, who would flee when the apos tles were present, but there were crowded and long meetings and familiar sermons concerning this great work of God, concerning the restoration of human na ture, concerning the great glory which is given to us through the Son, concerning the spreading of the Gos pel among the Gentiles. And finally, there were exhib ited some sure testimonies of life and happiness.
Nothing like this ever happened and nothing so great ever took place in the history of the world. And since
God has not put this remarkable sight before our eyes for any vain purpose, we must always bear in mind this forty-day schooling. And on the basis of this and many other incidents, let us seek the testimony of Scripture regarding the resurrection and eternal life.
Is. 66[:22-24], " 'Just as the new heavens and the new earth [will endure],' says the Lord, 'so shall your seed and your name remain before Me. And from month to month and from Sabbath to Sabbath all flesh shall come to worship before Me,' says the Lord. 'And they shall go forth and look upon the corpses of the men who have transgressed against Me. Their worm does not die and their fire is not quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.' " This passage de scribes both the eternal punishments of the ungodly and the joys of the righteous; and it teaches what eter nal life is like when it says, "there will be unending months and unending Sabbaths," that is, an unending festival day, so that all the saints shall adore the Lord forever. Therefore eternal life is unending adoration,
We must also hang on to the clear passages in the sermons of Christ, such as Matt. 25[:34], "Come, you blessed of My Father, receive the kingdom which has been prepared for you." And John 5, and John
6[:40], "This is the will of My Father who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him has eternal life. And I will raise him up on the last day." And