The Gathering of Israel - The Gospel of The Kingdom To Come

The old Jerusalem had walls, but this one is "without walls." The former became the grave of the Jews, but this one will be the cause of the fall of all the kingdoms of the world. The city of the Jews was conquered by the Romans, who alone fought against it; but this one, on the other hand, comes in collision with "all the peo­ple," and will conquer them. But in order to accomplish this it is necessary that a direct connection be established between the Son of the unknown God and the people, and this requires the work of John the Baptist.

2. John the Baptist. The movement he conducted proclaimed to the people the change of rule which the kingdom would be sub­ject to; and in this work he stood alone against the clergy of the status quo of his time. Their religious services then, as now, con­sisted of ceremonies and the offering of the spoils of the poor; but John turned the minds of the people to the Almighty God of prophecy, and exposed the hypocrisy. Many believed that John was Elijah, because of the fact that Elijah must come before Christ ascends the throne of David. Because he was hindered from ful­filling the mission of Elijah we have yet to look for the "1ea.~t in the kingdom of heaven," says Christ—thus we are to look, for a repe­tition of his work. (Mat. 11:10-14.) This "least in the kingdom of heaven" must first appear with manifestations of power which will prepare the way for Christ to reach his bewildered people. This proclaimer of prophecy will be the Elijah referred to in and connected with the following prophecy:

"For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall . . . Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dread­ful day of the Lord: and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse."—Mal. 4. Compare Mat. 17:10-14.

It is the work of Christ's forerunner to convert all who are in­clined toward the faith of Abraham and to the position exemplified by the believers at the time Christ finished his own personal work.

The forerunner of Christ in his second coming must convert all who adhere to the faith of Abraham and are in a position like that of the believers when the first movement of Christ ended. No one can fail to see the confusion now prevalent everywhere among the many hundred different denominations, each of which claims to be "the church of God"⁴. The idolatrous prelates, who run "greedily after the error of Balaam for reward," or wages (Jude 11th verse), sit there on the seat of the gods; therefore the command, "Take the prophets of Baal; let no one of them escape" (1 Kings 18:40), shall again be applied to the temple-destroyers in order to release the people from the worship of idols.