Page 352 Note 1 Recent works in our own country are Professor Candlish's The Kingdom of God (Cunningham Lectures, 1884), and Professor A. B. Bruce's The Kingdom of God (1889). A good discussion of the subject is contained in an article by D. J. Kostlin, in the Studien und Kritiken for 1892 (3rd part). I may mention also Schmoller's recent work, Die Lehre vom Reiche Gottes in den Schriften des Neuen Testaments (1891); another by E. Issel on the same subject (1891); and a revolutionary essay by J. Weiss, entitled Die Predigt Jesu vom Reiche Gottes (1892).
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Page 353 Note 1 Vol. i. p. 79. Kaftan similarly remarks: "In Paul also the doctrine of the highest good is determined through faith in the risen and exalted Christ who had appeared to him before the gates of Damascus. It can indeed be said that the glorified Christ here fills the place taken in the preaching of Jesus by the super-terrestrial kingdom of God, which has appeared in His Person, and through Him is made accessible as a possession to His disciples."--Das Wesen, p. 229.
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Page 353 Note 2 Not always, however; e.g. Rum. xiv. 17. Besides, what Christ meant by the present being of His kingdom is always recognised by these writers.
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Page 353 Note 3 Cf. article by Kostlin above referred to.
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Page 354 Note 1 Recht. und Ver. iii. p. 11.
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Page 354 Note 2 1 Cor. xv. 28.
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Page 354 Note 3 E.g. Wendt.
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Page 355 Note 1 Cf. as in earlier note (p. 334), Reuss, Hist. of Christ. Theol. i. pp. 217, 218 (Eng. trans.); Bruce, Kingdom of God, chap. xii.
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Page 355 Note 2 The kingdom of God, in its simplest definition, is the reign of God in human hearts and in society; and as such it may be viewed under two aspects: (1) the reign or dominion of God Himself; (2) the sphere of this dominion. This sphere, again, may be (1) the individual soul; (2) the totality of such souls (the Church invisible); (3) the visible society of believers (the Church); (4) humanity in the whole complex of its relations, so far as this is brought under the influence of God's Spirit and of the principles of His religion.
It is obvious--and this is one source of the difficulty in coming to a common understanding--that Christ does not always use this expression in the same sense, or with the same breadth of signification. Sometimes one aspect, sometimes another, of His rich complex idea is intended by this term. Sometimes the kingdom of God is a power within the soul of the individual; sometimes it is a leaven in the world, working for its spiritual transformation; sometimes it is the mixed visible society; sometimes it is that society under its ideal aspect; sometimes it is the totality of its blessings and powers (the chief good); sometimes it is the future kingdom of God in its heavenly glory and perfection.
The view that Christ looked for a long and slow process of development and ripening in His kingdom may seem to be opposed by the eschatological predictions in Matt. xxiv. Even here, however, it is possible to distinguish a nearer and a remoter horizon--the one, referring to the destruction of Jerusalem and the dissolution of the Jewish state, and demoted by the expression, "these things" ("this generation shall not pass away, till all these things he accomplished," var. 34); and the other, denoted by the words, "that day and hour" (ver. 36), regarding which Christ says, "Of that day and hour knoweth no one, not even the angels of heaven, neither the Son, but the Father only."
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Page 355 Note 3 The eschatological view alone is that taken by Kaftan, Schmoller, J. Weiss, etc.
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Page 355 Note 4 See History of the Church, opening paragraphs.
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Page 356 Note 1 Paul's large view of the philosophy of history in Rom. xi., of a future "fulness of the Gentiles," etc., is against this supposition. It is too hastily assumed that the Apostle looked for the Lord's return in his own lifetime.--See note by Professor Marcus feds on 1 Thess. iv. 15 in Schaff s Popular Commentary on the New Testament.
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Page 357 Note 1 John xii. 31, xv. 11, etc.
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Page 357 Note 2 On above see Matt. vii. 11, xix. 8-0; John II. 1-11 (of. Matt. ix. 15); Matt. xxii. 21, etc.
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Page 358 Note 1 John xvii. 15.
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Page 358 Note 2 Matt. v. 13-16.
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Page 358 Note 3 e.g. Rom. xiii.; 1 Tim. ii. 1, 2; Heb. xiii. 4; 1 Pet. ii. 13-15.
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Page 359 Note 1 "In truth the life of the soul hidden with Christ in God is the kernel of the Christian religion."--Kaftan, Das Wesen, p. 76. Kaftan has here the advantage over Ritschl, Schleiermacher, etc.
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Page 360 Note 1 John xii. 32, xiv. 26, xv. 7-15,
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Page 361 Note 1 It is curious how this feeling of an impending crisis sometimes finds expression in minds not given to apocalyptic reveries. Lord Beaconsfield said in 1874: "The great crisis of the world is nearer than some suppose." In a recent number of the Forum, Professor Goldwin Smith remarks: "There is a general feeling abroad that the stream of history is drawing near a climax now; and there are apparent grounds for the surmise. There is everywhere in the social frame an untoward unrest, which is usually a sign of fundamental change within."
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Page 361 Note 2 Isa. xl. 3, 4 (R.V.)
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