THE HOPE OF ISRAEL - The Preterist Archive

The Hope of Israel: What Is It? 179
your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom"
(Lu. 12:32) ;
and at a later time they had heard Him
say to the chief priests and elders at Jerusalem, "Therefore
I say unto you, The Kingdom of God shall be
taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth
the fruits thereof" (Mat. 21:43). And finally, during
those forty days when He had appeared to them
from time to time, He had been "speaking of the things
pertaining to the Kingdom of God." Hence the question
was "intelligent" enough.
But it is needful to remember that there were certain
things concerning the kingdom which He was not
ready to make known to them, because they were not
as yet ready to receive them ; things they were to learn
later on through the teaching of the Holy Spirit. The
Lord had said to them on the night of His betrayal,
"I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot
bear them noiv. Howbeit, when He, the Spirit of
truth is come, He will guide you into all truth" (John
16:12-13). Especially the truth as to Israel's relation
to the kingdom was a thing they could not "bear"
until baptized by the Spirit; for to natural Jews that
truth is unbearable. Also they had yet to learn that
"the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness,
and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost" (Rom.
14:17).
Accordingly they were given to know, through subsequent
revelations of the Holy Spirit, that the promised
kingdom was of spiritual character, and that the nation
to which it was to be given was not "Israel after the
the true "Israel of God."
flesh," but
Furthermore, the question involved "times and seasons"
which the Father had put in His own power.
It is the Father who bestows the kingdom (Lu. 12 :13) ;