KINGDOM - OLOGY 12

The Mediatorial Kingdom will take the form of a theocracy

At the very outset of creation it was clear that God was ruler over man. He did not hesitate to give direction to man in the Garden in relation to His position over creation (Gen. 1:26-30), as to the limitation of his privileges (Gen. 2:15-17), as to the naming of the animals (Gen. 2:18-20), in the creation of a companion (Gen. 2:21-25). All this is reaffirmed in the temptation, the fall, and the imposition of penalty which followed (Gen. 3). It is also clear that the authority which was delegated to Adam was only delegated and not inherent, and therefore he is accountable to God not only before the fall, but also since the fall. All this looks forward to the theocracy when God will rule in perfection over the earth and He will carry out this ruler ship through the perfect Son of Man.

The fall in Adam introduced a feature into the purpose of God that was destined to stretch out over the centuries of time. When Adam sinned there was the lifting up of his own will against the will of God in an act of positive disobedience. Through this act his relation to God was radically changed. The state of primeval submission to God gave place to a state of conscious rebellion. In Adam the race came under "the law of sin and death." It was therefore necessary to introduce at this point the ministry of redemption, so that in the course of the millenniums man might be brought to that point which was originally intended, namely, the establishment in perfection of a theocracy in the earth for the entire human race. Revelation from this point on must be designed to convince man of his sinfulness, to awaken in him the desire for redemption, and to make known to him the nature and mode of this redemption. This must include the fact that God is not only the supreme ruler, but also the Holy One who abhors sin and as righteous Judge must punish unrighteousness, but as merciful Father forgives the repentant.

But in all this ministry of redemption a theocracy is never lost sight of. Even though Adam failed, God exercised His theocratic control by expelling him from the Garden (Gen. 3:22-24). Divine authority continued to be exercised in the face of growing rebellion from Adam to the time of the flood (Gen. 4-5). Men died because of sin. When "God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Gen. 6:5), He repented that He had made man and He determined to destroy man with the earth, except for eight souls who found grace in His eyes (Gen, 6:6-8). The flood is an everlasting reminder that God is determined to be King in the earth.

Even though God made a fresh start in Noah and his sons toward the realization of His eternal purpose, moral deterioration soon took its course and the vast population of that day organized in rebellion against God. As God looked at this situation:

“The Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language: and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth and they left off to build the city” (Gen. 11:6 8).

In this refusal on the part of mankind to bow the knee in submission to the authority of God man demonstrated his need for redemption. But the judgment that fell from God displayed the fact that God had not abandoned His purpose to establish in the earth a theocracy.

By this time idolatry had begun to flourish in the earth, even though God was not left wholly without witnesses to His unity and supremacy. Such witnesses are to be found in men like Job and Melchizedek (Gen. 14:18-19; Job 1:1). But scattered individuals and families could resist the strong tendencies to idolatry and rebellion against God. So the time had come for a new step in the work of redemption, and a new manifestation of God as the one supreme God as over against idols. One writer makes this observation:

“So long as the constitution of society had not advanced beyond the patriarchal stage, and the family continued to be the chief element, God's rule over men could be but imperfectly set forth. His authority could find fit expression only in a nation; whose citizens He could bind together under visible institutions of His own immediate appointment, and to whose laws all must render obedience. He could best be made known to the nations as the Supreme Ruler at the head of a people; and as One God, in the unity of their worship.”

This explains the next step in the outworking of God's eternal purpose.. He calls a man by the name of Abraham to be the founder of a nation. Through this man redemption will be effected not only for his seed, but all the families of the earth (Gen. 12:1-3); and in addition, kings shall come out of him, an everlasting covenant will be established with his people, and a land will be given to them for an everlasting possession (Gen. 17:6-8). But it was not until this people had multiplied to the number of several millions, and had been redeemed out of Egypt, and was gathered at the foot of Mount Sinai, that a theocracy was formally established by mutual agreement of God and the people (Ex. 19:1-25). From this point on God was king over Israel. The cloud of glory on the Mount and later manifested above the mercy seat was the evidence that God was ruling in Israel. This relationship continued until rebellion on the part of the people forced God to depart and the glory to disappear from the temple (Ezek. 11:22-23). But this does not negate the plans of God to establish a theocracy in the future on a higher level (Acts 1:6-7).