THE SANCTUARY AND THE DOMINION
THOSE who have deeply studied the Bible know that the living descendants of God’s People ISRAEL are today those nations which are commonly known as the “Anglo-Saxon” group, including the British, the Germans, the Scandinavians, the Dutch, and their descendants in the United States and the various colonies of these nations. Knowing this fact enables us to explain and understand their history as the fulfillment of Bible prophecies concerning ISRAEL: and it also enables us to foretell their future by applying those few Bible prophecies concerning ISRAEL which have not yet been fulfilled.
Every event in our history for 3,000 years has demonstrated its faithful adherence to God’s prophesied plan: each event for its own purpose – which also required each event to come at its appointed time. If we lose sight of PURPOSE, we fail to understand why the event happened WHEN it did; if we lose sight of TIME, we misunderstand the PURPOSE.
When the people of ISRAEL entered the Promised Land of Palestine, they were 12 Tribes organized into one nation – just like this United States of 50 States. Even from early times, however, there were internal jealousies which foretold the coming division into two nations: David was king over Judah for several years before he became king over all ISRAEL. On the death of King Solomon, in 975 B.C., the nation was broken in two – the ten northern Tribes becoming a separate kingdom with their capital city at Samaria, and keeping the name Israel; while the two southern Tribes of Judah and Benjamin kept the old capital city of Jerusalem, and took the name JUDAH for their kingdom. The great turning points of our history are no mere accidents; and God said of this division, “This thing is of Me” – (I Kings 12: 24).
ISRAEL left Egypt and entered Palestine as ONE nation: yet God’s purpose in the later division was already predestined. Psalm 114: 1-2 says:
“When Israel went out of Egypt, the House of Jacob from a people of strange language, JUDAH was His SANCTUARY, and ISRAEL His DOMINION”
– TWO PURPOSES to be served, each by a separate nation.
Through Jesus Christ, God reached down toward man, to bring man salvation, redemption, a good life under God’s own rule; to complete this contact and receive these gifts, man reached up toward God, through God’s Chosen People, ISRAEL. But what is too often lost sight of is the fact that God’s purpose toward man involves more than just the religious phase, necessary though that is. FOR WHAT PURPOSE are we saved? It is to live in THE KINGDOM OF GOD, that same Kingdom of God which Jesus Christ preached throughout His entire career. The end of God’s purpose is social, economic, governmental, to which the other is but the means. Hence we must recognize both the religious and the governmental purposes.
Jesus Christ came the first time as our High Priest, to offer on our behalf the sacrifice of His own blood for our sins; He will come again as King of kings and Lord of lords, to rule a world-wide empire from the throne of His own Kingdom. A priest functions only at the altar; a king only at the throne. Hence, there must be provided for Him the altar of sacrifice at His first coming, and the throne at His second coming. Note how God fulfilled this: Psalm 114 tells us that JUDAH was His SANCTUARY, and ISRAEL His DOMINION, and that this was predestined from the time they left Egypt -5 centuries before the nation was divided, and 15 centuries before the crucifixion.
After the division into the two nations in 975 B.C., the 10-tribed northern kingdom of Israel had no need to remain longer in Palestine, for its destiny was to furnish the DOMINION, the Kingdom of God, to be ruled by Jesus Christ when He shall come the second time. The tiny land of Palestine can never furnish this: it would scarcely provide standing room for the multitudes which ISRAEL would become, according to God’s promises in the Bible, and it lacked the enormous resources promised to ISRAEL and which were needed to produce the mighty power of the predestined Kingdom. Accordingly, they were removed from their old, Palestinian land, by the Assyrian captivity – a thing which seemed harsh at the time, yet it was necessary for they would not have left their old home voluntarily. After about 715 B.C., they were out of Palestine, embarked on the long migration which would bring them, many centuries later, into their north and west European homelands, and from there to spread into the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. In these new homes, they developed such advanced civilization, such wealth and power as were never before known in all world history – and this, also in fulfillment of God’s prophecies for ISRAEL. While they remained frankly, boldly CHRISTIAN, these nations ruled half the world. It was only after we allowed those who hate Jesus Christ to immigrate, to infiltrate our institutions, to influence and corrupt our leaders, that we have been put on the defensive and driven out of our colonial possessions. We must remember that it is JESUS CHRIST’S DOMINION that we hold: and we can keep it only as long as we hold it FOR HIM. In these, the ISRAEL nations, we find the DOMINION, just as the 114th Psalm prophesied; but they had no part in the First Coming of Jesus Christ, as the SANCTUARY for the High Priest was not in their destiny.
But what of the other, the southern, two-Tribed Kingdom of Judah? Originally, the throne had been in Judah, but out of the Tribe of Judah was taken David and his family to be the kings; and the throne was forever given to the House of David. But the DOMINION was not in the destiny of the Kingdom of Judah, so the Davidic king line ceased in Judah at the time of the Babylonian captivity; but it was transferred to Ireland, where the two king lines of Pharez and Zarah were united; and from here can be traced the British royal family today-so the throne, the DOMINION, has remained in ISRAEL.
However, the SANCTUARY, the Temple, remained in the southern Kingdom of Judah. True, it was infiltrated and corrupted with alien priests and alien doctrines, after the return from Babylon: yet it was still His Sanctuary, even though occupied by usurpers, just as the Kingdom is still His, even though usurpers have wrongfully occupied His land. Since only the SANCTUARY was to be there, we find no majestic dominion in Judah. In its very origin, it was reduced to only two out of the 12 Tribes. It shrank in importance, becoming vassal alternately to Egypt and Babylonia; after the Babylonian captivity it was vassal to Persia, Syria, and finally the least of the provinces of Rome. But here was the SANCTUARY and to it came Jesus Christ; here He offered Himself in sacrifice, and entered into the real Holy of Holies with His own blood as the offering for our sins. This completed the work of the SANCTUARY, the separate destiny of JUDAH, and 40 years thereafter JUDAH ceased to exist as a nation separate from ISRAEL.
Jesus Christ preached only the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, not the Gospel of Personal Salvation. The prophets before Him had foretold His life, crucifixion, resurrection, and the salvation of men and redemption of ISRAEL which He accomplished thereby. Why repeat it? As Jesus said,
“If they will not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they believe though one rose from the dead.”
Therefore, He did not preach the part of His mission which was finished. Now it was time to preach the KINGDOM OF GOD, to inspire His people ISRAEL to work out their destiny in preparing for Him the Kingdom, the DOMINION, for His second coming.
When He came the first time, the priests ignored the 114th Psalm, and would not accept Him as Saviour, as the Great High Priest: they would accept Him only as King, or not at all. Today, nearly all churches make a similar mistake. They ignore the 114th Psalm; they refuse to see we are ISRAEL, and our destiny is to furnish the DOMINION, not the SANCTUARY. They preach only a Savior, not a King; they offer Him only the cross, not the crown. But God’s destiny is not to be frustrated: The Israel NATIONS have created the DOMINION, whose work is still ahead. The history of JUDAH leads to Christ’s first coming; the history of ISRAEL leads to His second coming. The THRONE is as literal as the CROSS: He was given His SANCTUARY: Now we must give Him His DOMINION.
