Editorial July 4, 1931 Issue

God's Kingdom

Clifford P. Smith

Although the New Testament does not always furnish a clear and dependable order of events, it furnishes ample reason for concluding that the first statement made by Christ Jesus in his public ministry was this one: "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand" (Mark 1:14, 15). In effect, Matthew and Luke have shown the importance of this statement by describing the Master's entire teaching as the "gospel of the kingdom" or as "the glad tidings of the kingdom of God" (Matthew 4:17, 23; Luke 8:1). Indeed, the Saviour himself used the first of these descriptions for his teaching. (See Matthew 24:14.)

When Jesus spoke to them, the Jews regarded God as their king and as the rightful ruler of all peoples. Most of them, however, expected God's actual government to begin in the future, and expected it to be material and political, abnormal and supernatural, rather than mental and spiritual, lawful and divinely ordered. At the beginning of the Christian era, only a few of all the Jews ever had attained to the plane of thought which had been expressed in the one hundred and forty-fifth Psalm: "The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth." And it is to be observed that this Psalm is prominent in the Old Testament as an antecedent for the Master's gospel of the kingdom of God.

In this situation, Jesus must have chosen to preach his good tidings in words with which his audiences might be familiar, even though "kingdom" is not an apt and natural word to denote God's mental and spiritual government of man. Presumably, he adopted this word from the Jewish Scriptures; and, presumably, he intended to develop and extend its meaning, not only for the Jews, but for all mankind. For this purpose, he used such sayings as Luke 11:20 and 17:21, with corresponding acts of power. These words and works, when comprehended correctly, show the domain, the nature, and the results of God's kingdom or government. Unfortunately for all mankind, the Master's teaching of this subject was not understood, not even by his followers, either at first or soon. It was comprehended only in a limited degree and in a general way until Mrs. Eddy's discovery and teaching of Christian Science. Now, it has been explained in modern terms and made available for universal use.

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