WHAT WAS THE KINGDOM TAKEN FROM THE JEWS?
TO understand this properly one must go back to the beginnings, as recorded in the Scriptures to which our Lord so often referred His hearers. The Kingdom of God on earth was set up by the Almighty Himself at Sinai and vested in the nation of Israel. Since then He has neither withdrawn the Constitution which He gave to the nation nor abdicated as King over it. Consequently all through the ages the Kingdom of God has been, and still is, vested in the nation of Israel, as far as this earth is concerned.
When our Lord came to this earth the northern house of Israel had rejected the Almighty and His Constitution, and had gone into idolatry; she had been given a bill of divorcement* and had been cast off for a period of punishment. The only official remnant of the twelve-tribed nation of Israel still operating, however imperfectly, under the Divine Constitution and still in covenant relationship with God, was the remnant of Judah in Palestine. They, however, failed to recognize our Lord as the promised Messiah, and thought fit to reject the New Covenant; therefore, the sentence was pronounced that the Kingdom of God should he taken from them and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.
This nation could obviously be none other than the other portion of the Israel northern house, which had already expressed its intention to return to God*and had set up an earthly kingdom, under the Davidic throne, in Ireland. The New Covenant came into force on the death of the Testator, and historical records shew without question that the northern house of Israel, domiciled in these islands accepted Christ’s message gladly; from that time the Kingdom has grown and expanded to the great commonwealth of nations existing to-day.
It must be clearly understood that the Kingdom that was taken from Judah was not an earthly kingdom in the sense in which the Roman Empire was an earthly kingdom, but was, in fact, ” the Kingdom of God.” The supremacy of the Kingdom of God in the world was, however, in abeyance during the period known as the times of the Gentiles, a period of 2,520 years, during which the successive empires mentioned by Daniel operated in the world.
In our Lord’s time the Roman Empire was the one actually in existence, and the rulership of the world being placed in Caesar’s hands obedience was obviously due to to him; and so our Lord obeyed the law.
The time is close at hand, however-in fact it is just beginning-when the rulership of the world by these pagan Empires and laws will be done away with; and the Kingdom Laws of God put into operation by and through the British and related peoples, which are the nucleus of the Kingdom of God upon earth.
To awaken our nation to this glorious vision of perfect peace, happiness and prosperity, and bring the consummation appreciably nearer, is the great objective of the Federation. We call on all our readers to assist us by joining up as members (or associates), if they have not already done so, and in any of many other ways that they can.
* Jeremiah 3:8; Isaiah 1:11
*2 Esdras 14:41-42
