The New Testament Evidence

The New Testament furnishes the completest evidence that our Lord is not King over all the earth, and that His kingly rule is still in the future. The notion that the church is the Kingdom in which the Lord Jesus Christ rules as King, and that the Old Testament predictions of Kingdom glories are realized spiritually in the church, is a pure invention. Nowhere is the church called the Kingdom, nor do we find the Lord Jesus ever called “the King of the Church.” He is the Head of the church, which is His body. The New Testament still looks forward to the Kingdom to come. The Lord has left the earth to receive a Kingdom and to return (Luke xix:11-28). He occupies the Father’s throne, which is not His permanent place, for He is to have His own throne. “When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory” (Matt. xxv:31). He waits in heaven for the time when all enemies will be made the footstool of His feet (Heb. x:13). “But now we see not yet all things put under Him” (Heb. ii:8). No nation serves Him and the Kingdoms of this world are not His Kingdoms during this age. They will become His and heaven will resound with many voices saying: “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ and He shall reign forever and ever” (Rev. xi:15). But that is future. When the seventh angel sounds His trumpet, when heaven opens and He appears as King of kings, crowned with many crowns (Rev. xix:11-16), then He will receive the nations for His inheritance.