The Gospel

of the

Kingdom to Come

A Series of Lectures

Concerning the Development of

The Messianic Kingdom

"Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

Julia Lee

FROM THE OLD PARADISE TO THE NEW

"In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations."—Rev. 22:2.

The history of the human family began with the first Paradise; it will be concluded in the prophetic Word of God by the entrance of this family into the new Paradise, situated on a new earth under­neath a new heaven. This shows us that God's plan of salvation is dual, also that the development of the human being for the eternal home takes place on his journey between the old Paradise and the new.

The first Paradise consisted of a pleasure garden, where all manner of fruit trees, bushes, and flowers, contributing to the hap­piness and sustenance of life, permitted a peaceful and unconcerned existence. When the planting had been completed and the home had been set in order for the family, God placed man therein.

With much care he made man susceptible of development, an image of himself. He made him of earth and called him Adam, meaning earthy. He then gave life to this earthy image by raising the perfectly organized being and transforming him from dead earth to living flesh. By this, however, only the physical image of the Creator was perfected. It remained for Adam to be developed in knowledge—to be instructed in the school of life. For this purpose God had created developing-agents, corresponding with the develop-able capabilities of the earthy man. The tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil belonged to these agents.

The tree of life contained a life elixir of secret power, by means of which the vital powers of the earthy man were increased as long as he continued to have access to this tree to eat of its delightful fruit. This is corroborated by the fact that the way to the tree of life was closed by the sword of the cherubim, so that death predominated as soon as Adam deviated' from the freedom which had been given him in the truth, and gave ear to the voice of falsehood. And when he transgressed he was bound in slavery under the prince of death.

The tree of knowledge was a beautiful product of God's genius, capable of appealing to the intelligent mind and of inducing the reasoning powers. But God prohibited the first pair from eating of its fruit, and the threat of death punishment was placed where enticement would affect them the most. The object was to teach man how to restrain the lusts of the flesh, to teach him to obey God's Word and to value that life-lengthening power which was capable of transforming him, on the road of obedience, into a being like his Father. God had said that he desired to make of him a Michael, that is, one like God', so that man would be able to reign over the kingdom God had created for man, which fact is seen from the following counsel and commission:

"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and-over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth."—Gen. 1:26-28.

Thus Adam was created a king over the creation that was placed on a plane below him, and the kingdom was a miniature representa­tion of the new Paradise, although wisdom and experience unto happiness were lacking there. The development of man into a Michael must be brought about through the cooperation of two creating minds, God's and man's. For this reason God permitted the liar to tempt man, for if man could not realize the necessity of obeying his Father's Word, he could never acquire a perfect ruling-ability, it being impossible for anyone to exercise a bliss-bringing ruling-power who has not first learned to rule over the lusts of his own flesh.

As a result of unrestrained desires, which the sorcerer aggravated to such a degree that they desired improper enjoyment in, opposition to the life-giving Word of God, the drama of the human world began to evolve close by the tree of knowledge. Then and there Adam and Eve began to understand the power of the Word of God, and the value of life—there man was obliged to commence his journey through the kingdom of death.

`And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil; and now, lest he put, forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever [become an immortal sinner] : therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubim's, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life."—Gen. 3:22-24.

Principality with divine ruling-power, peace, bliss, security, and the superabundance of all things—all slipped out of the hands of Adam. But the secret power in the promise that the seed of the woman, the Son of man, would come and return to man what he had lost, was given him—and us—as spiritual food on the journey of faith and hope. In the degree that the bitterness of death pressed on, the number of promises increased as a stream of running water, giving the dying family solace and hope. Now we can understand that it was through the good grace of God that man did not possess inherent immortal life but was made dependent on the tree of life in order to continue to live; it is good fortune for us all that the slaves of unrestrained lusts are cut off from life.

Though we all feel the need of reaching the tree of life, no one can do so before the new Paradise becomes a reality. Man himself has created a tree of knowledge, and the liar that took up his abode in, God's tree of knowledge now has his continual habitation in man's tree of knowledge. By means of lie and deceit, contained within an outer covering of the truth of God, he has founded his kingdom at the expense of man, of God, and of the truth; and by preaching through his angels lie continues to develop this king­dom of apostasy. Now it is fully developed and stands under the judgment of the words of Christ, "Every plant, which my Father bath not planted, shall be rooted up."

When the tree of life was fenced off from the reach of man, it remained for him to listen to and obey the Word of God inorder to perpetuate his life by means of the secret power emanating from the Creator. If man eats of this Word his mind becomes united with the Fountain of Life, and the Word creates a new, a spiritual, life, which becomes enveloped by a new body when the secret power of faith liberates the earthy being from the power of the kingdom of death by giving him birth into the new world.

The power contained within the Word is as it were a stream, commencing in the first Paradise and attaining to completeness only when the new Paradise is a reality and all the Word of God has become materialized. It follows man just as the stream of words which the serpent started in the tree of knowledge has fol­lowed him and has grown wider from time to time.

Observe carefully that the tree of knowledge was connected with two gods, both capable of creating things. When Adam's mind was controlled by the serpent's mixed gospel of falsehood and truth, which undermined confidence in the fear of God, he severed himself from the pure kingdom of truth and the tree of the secret power of life. He had drunk from the cup of another god. And now it was necessary that the secret power clothed in words should once more gain his obedience in order to prepare for him the way to the new kingdom which leads through the kingdom of death. Thus the Word becomes a stream of life, adjacent to which is planted the governmental tree of truth. This governmental tree presents to us prefigures of coining realities. Let us now see if we can discern between the governmental tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil, in which the serpent is god and from which he rules over the people through the works of man.

Let us climb a hill overlooking a natural landscape on, one side and a large city on the other. What do you see? On the one side you see the fruit-bearing earth, which sustains from an invisible artery of life the myriads of living things which the Creator first planted in, his kingdom. Heaven and earth, the sun, the moon, and the stars, birds and fishes, lions and lambs—all obey the law that was established yonder in Adam's little world. The will of God is obeyed to the minutest detail; everything moves in accordance with it—except man. All of this is a faint shadow of the kingdom of life, which is to be created by the prophetic Word that sustains nature to this very day.

What do you see in the valley on the other side of you? A city, consisting of brick, stone, iron, clay, and wood. There are palaces, high defiant towers pointing threateningly toward heaven, fire ­vomiting cannons, and bloody swords. There you see a drudging, toiling mass of people and beasts. And if you will apply your ear to the ground, you will notice that it trembles, as if the earth itself were groaning in its shackles—for the brick and stone pavements are like iron bands which do not allow it even a little air.

Listen! Don't you hear how both animals and people sigh and wail? Violence and crime, suffering and tears, want and famine, privation and despair, rise up toward heaven like a grinning skeleton in the center of the city! Is not this "good and evil"—a modern Nimrodian product? Let us step down into the city! Consider the residents of the comfortable palaces! They are now eating freely of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Sparkling jewels and ornaments decorate women clothed in priceless silks, who coquettishly entertain themselves in the company of well dressed, half intoxicated men. Delicious dishes whet the appetite, and the foaming contents of the varicolored wine goblets give the drinkers pleasant sensations, while gifted voices captivate the ear with light vaudeville. Ah, it is enchanting in there! Laughter and flattery, false promises and empty phrases sweep through the whole gathering. "Good !" cry the eaters. Of how much value is the Word of God to them at this moment? They do not wish to lend even a moment's thought toward it.

Let us go out into the street and look at the contents of the glimmering shop windows! Do you notice the magnificent prod­ucts which genius has made of the different raw materials? There you see all the metals of earth, the furs of wild beasts, the elegant plumage of birds, the warm blankets of sheep, and the skins of cattle—everything has here assumed attractive shapes. Do you feel how your desires agitate within you? Articles of luxury, things which your life has no need of, exercise the greatest drawing power. Do you feel how the sight of this fruit of knowledge banishes from your mind the memory of the natural, in-artificial kingdom you first saw on the other side of that high hill? Do you see the flowers in that magnificent flowerpot? Enchanting, isn't it? And they do not wither—they are artificial. The painting does not change like the original it represents, and you forget the suppressed kingdom of life, while you plant as it were this beautiful but dead fetus in your enchanted heart—a tree "good for food ... pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired."—You have said the same as Eve.

Had you been placed before that tree of good and evil, enchanted and en-rapt by ripe and golden fruit—Would you have had the power to disregard the devil, Arrest all carnal thoughts and appetites acute? You many times have felt how waters of delusion Are able to bewitch—o'er good things bring confusion?

A person is inclined to remember that tragic little drama back in Eden solely as an antiquate—a relic regarded with a supercilious smile, or one which is indifferently cast aside—an old almanac which has given away to things more modern. Nevertheless, at this very day we all find ourselves in a universal drama, standing on trial before both of these governmental trees.

The rich man clothed in linen and purple (the linen garb of high priests and the purple of kings represent the two high offices created for God's Michael) occupies his throne in and preaches from the tree of knowledge. Therefore we read in Dan. 4:4-25, that Nebuchadnezzar represented the governmental tree created by human and satanic knowledge, which is finally to be hewn down. The gods of the rich man must be worshiped and his furnace of fire feared. A class of people sit in this tree to this very day who never give value for what they consume. Like the serpent, they establish themselves comfortably, living on other people's toil, and are surrounded by the most beautiful things artistic labor can produce. God foresaw this, and his enemy, Satan, scheming to bring it about, began to operate in the tree of knowledge. Under the scepter of this god of knowledge, the producing class becomes more and more destitute and helpless from time to time. The classes herein referred to are described in Luke 16:19-31.

As a perfect contrast to this tree of the kingdom of Mammon stands Jesus, the personification of the creative power of God, in the preparatory kingdom of faith as the figurative symbol of the true vine. He had received of the Father the gift of having life within himself, and he gave his soul for lost man that the latter should live—through His death and resurrection, which he yearly reminds us of in nature. This governmental tree, Christ, is accessible to the person who hears the gospel of life and permits himself to be grafted into its branches. In Him we find the same secret power as in the tree of life, though in Christ it is of a much higher value, since it can even give life to nature in its state of death. By him as the Word of God both the tree and the river of life are created, and everything living is nourished by the power he represents. Christ is therefore a Michael, because a real ruling-ability requires not only the power to kill, but also the power to give life, which means more than to prolong life. This governmental tree is now visible only through the eye of faith, and no one, except he who believes in the truth of God, can gain citizenship in the kingdom it represents, because faith is the very means by which a person may be united with it.

The prehistoric prefigures enable us to follow the stream of the secret power of the Word of God through the ages, and to see how it reveals time and again the existence of this secret power, the kingdom, and the sword of the cherubim.

Enter again the environment of nature and see how spring breaks the fetters of winter. Both sea and land are as it were released from the prison of death. What is this? Does it represent emanations of life from the kingdom of brick and stone 9 No! There the ravages of death continue to prevail with undiminished fervor, good and evil continually racing with one another. But in nature you see life, only life, so that the very earth underneath your feet seems to bound with new life. Nature has once again risen from death. Why? Because heaven and earth obey the Word of God.

The basic element of the governmental tree of Christ is the Word of God. Do you see the embryonic form of a new Paradise, having for its foreshadow the original pleasure garden in the East? We see an aged couple, who, in expectation of the fulfillment of the promises of God, are as though resurrected to life from a seventy-five year winter. All at once these withered old people receive a son, and then. the fruit of their lives gradually expands into a mighty nation, which expels and destroys thirty-one tribal branches of the kingdom of brick and stone. Wonderful changes take place, and this lively governmental tree finally grows an ornamental crown on its trunk, before which the imperial branches of the brick kingdom bow to the earth in humiliation. Who would have thought that in this old pair of the wilderness—the centenarian, Abraham, and his ninety year old Sarah—there existed such a mighty spring of life? No one but the Invisible knew the hidden course of this throbbing artery. It was the Word —the Word of life—that united things visible with things invisible in a life which was a living demonstration of the will of God. And the whole was the accomplishment of the Word of God in the form of a real kingdom.

Do you see the kingdom? No! It is hewn down because it was only the first prefiguring model of the reality; but the stump still remains. It en roots itself more and more, and the producing characteristic of the Abrahamitic race is stamped at its roots. The name of Jesse, the father of David, is on the upper end of the stump, while the name of Abraham is at the nethermost roots.

A rod shoot's forth from the old root. It was expected that a new crown would grow on the large stump, but from the imperial tree of knowledge came a prohibition forbidding a descendant of David to establish the old competitive scepter, and the Son was torn. away. The symbolic tree, Christ, was plundered way down to the roots. But see, spring followed winter—life again broke the chains of death. He was raised to a position still higher, and a more glorious body was resurrected. The true Son of David rose, invisible to unbelief, but visible to faith as the Word portrays him. Unlike the products of the imaginations of men, this portrait of the Word contained a seed of life which, when the resurrection of spring came, returned to us the death-torn Hero in immortal form.

Now read Isa. 11:1-16 and you will see a beautiful picture of the devastated governmental tree. When will the spring come that will raise it from the dead? The answer is given in the 11th verse. The kingly scepter of Jesse shall rise out of the dust when the Lord "shall set his hand the second time to recover the remnant of his people ... from the islands of the sea" and "shall assemble the outcasts of Israel and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth."

Then the Rod, the Son of David, will come, who shall "smite the earth with the breath of his lips ... and slay the wicked." All nations now endeavor to hinder his growth, but "he shall come upon princes as upon morter"—iron bars, copper doors, and forts will melt as frost before the sun when he raises his kingly scepter over the thrones of his enemies.

The Invisible, the Father, is the husbandman of the vineyard, and the Word, personified in the flesh of Christ, is the vine—the everlasting tree of life, accessible to the children of faith who bow themselves under the sharp sword of the Word. In order to be grafted into this tree, a person must subject himself to the flaming sword of the cherubim, inasmuch as this sword separates the constituent parts of the two governmental trees from each other, hews off limbs, and unites similar parts.

If you renounce all connection with the bewitching world tree, it is necessary that you not only be severed from its rights of citizenship, but that you disappear, so to speak, and merge into the vine of the Word of life. During the first process you feel the bitterness of death, but as soon as the joining-act is effected, you experience the sweet comfort of life. Your position in the world becomes more and more critical according to the degree your development is worked upon by the husbandman. You become the subject of double exertions on the part of both god powers. The imperial tree of "good and evil" has a mortgage on your flesh which is great or small according to the degree you have eaten of its fruit; and the enchanter mobilizes all his skill and genius in order to regain his missing customer. If he fails to win by good means, he resorts to evil means. Most people allow themselves to become enticed or intimidated by these equally dangerous and powerful means from assuming a position of complete union with the Word of life—they fear temporal death more than eternal death. But the one who continues to remain as a branch in the tree, eating of the Word of which the tree consists, is constantly subjected to a cleansing process—a painful operation, intended to make the branch small but the good fruit better. The natural cultivation of grapevines may here serve as an illustration.

The trunk of a grapevine is allowed to grow until it reaches the height of about three feet. Then the husbandman begins to prune, or "chasten," the plant. As soon as a new branch shoots forth, it is pruned more or less by the shears, only a bit of the beautiful, richly foliaged limb being left. But if you will observe the result of this chastening, you will find that the largest and juiciest fruit grows on these small branches. While the unpruned, or unchastened, vine becomes richer in leaves from year to year, and requires more and more room, it produces less, poorer, and less nourishing fruit. Nature offers a good illustration of the ruling-systems of the two governmental trees. When we consider how it is with the tree of knowledge, we find that this unpruned tree produces poorer fruit from year to year, for instance, artificial foodstuffs as a substitute for the real. And the profiteers of that system rejoice during years of famine and need.

Christ and his disciples (the governmental tree in flesh) constituted a fountain of benevolence, which revealed, by spiritual and temporal good things, the Father of life to a people that had received the sting of death. At the side of this beautiful, spiritually enlightened, and God-chastened congregation stands the tree of good and evil. This tree has now become religious too; it has even a greater appearance of godliness than the tree of Christ, its saviors receiving the titles, "generals," "popes," "princes of peace," "cardinals," and "bishops." It has branches all over the world. It is richly foliaged, having castles, churches, temples, houses of prayer, institutions, and factories.

It took Christ more than three years to rear twelve disciples, and when they were going to pass their examinations, one of them turned out to be a traitor, another sought to forswear all acquaintance with the Master for fear of death, and the other ten fled from the life-testing onslaughts of the cherubim sword. Do you see how the husbandman stunts the appearance, reducing it as it were to a subterranean artery of life?

But the undisciplined tree of Baal manufactures in its modern seminaries thousands of disciples each year, and the honor and power of the bewitching tree grows daily. But observe the fruit more carefully—it is truth and falsehood, good and evil. If you are hungry, you are confronted by stone—stone in churches and stone in, prisons. Consider their pompous "divine services," their eulogized "charity," evidenced in dances, church socials, tea and coffee parties. Loudly they proclaim the announcements of the proceeds, which "are for the poor." This is divine service that can be seen. "Good!" say the feasting drones. "Hypocrisy !" cry the deceived and disappointed people.

Listen! Do you hear a dull distant murmur? What is it? Curses are called down upon the "feasting churchgoers," who have withheld the wages of the laborer, who have robbed the widow, dishonored the virgin, and sold worthless articles in their houses of prayer for large sums of money. Evil! It is the crown on all that is evil, say the deceived masses. The religious people who have been grafted into the tree of life are dry limbs, cut off because they have not adhered to the truth. Truth, which creates and nourishes, constitutes the tree of life which we have access to.

Turn again to the true vine! Do you see how experience grows within these humble fruit-bearers? But where is the fruit? Ah, it is not stored up; it i eaten by the hungry and the bewildered. Sometimes it serves as a lifeboat for persons half drowned in sin, or crushed by infidelity, and other times it assumes the shape of lodging and clothes. But it journeys into the kingdom of life with the life that has been nourished and saved; and new harvests go the same way.

The fruit-bearer is ridiculed by his false brethren with the words, "Where is the fruit? You don't save any souls! What do you accomplish ?" and so forth. Inquire of the apple tree for the apple, or of the wheat for the kernel, which hunger has devoured! Not so in the case of the tree of knowledge of good and evil; it leaves behind dead works in great multitudes. This is just what Christ came to save the believer from.—Heb. 9:14.

It is not enough' to be a limb in this vine. Yearly the limb must yield more and better fruit for the sustenance of life. When you as a limb have completed your course, the husbandman—not you—has the harvested fruit in his garner, a decoration for you, an honor to him, and the life which the branch has saved a source of help forever. It is the Word in flesh, revealed by the kingdom to which it belongs. Can the tree of life yield dead fruit, or can its limbs preserve their own fruit of life? Impossible! That is why Christ and his disciples did not build temples and houses of brick and stone, nor demand the money and belongings of the people.

The sword of the cherubim guards the way to the new Paradise and the tree of life, and is described with the following words: "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." (2 Tim. 3:16, 17.) "For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."—Heb. 4:12.

At the end of the ages a desperate struggle will be fought between the kingdoms of Life and Death. The battle, and the resulting victory, is described in the following manner: "And out of his [the resurrected Champion's] mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it lie should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron [lie shall turn their own weapons against them] : and he treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God."—See Rev. 19 :11-21.

Through this process, Christ, "the true vine." becomes the "King of kings and Lord of lords." When his servants have hewn down the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the fowls and the wild animals are invited to a feast—they are permitted to avenge themselves on. their Nimrodian enemies—and they "eat the- flesh of kings and the flesh of captains and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great."

The good is separated from the evil, and then for the first time you will see the two governmental trees of the past—the tree of life and the tree of good and evil—assume perfect shape. The power of life has then produced a beautiful crown on the tree of life, consisting of the Word of God personified in many victorious heroes. These are the kings and priests "of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years." (Rev. 5: 10; 20:6.) This administration reverts over the past ages in order to separate, inch by inch, the roots of the two kingdoms from each other. Fire envelops the kingdom of brick and stone, and for every inch that the kingdom of Christ grows, a new springtime makes its appearance, bringing forth its harvest, long dormant in the bosom of the earth, but now assimilated with the roots of life. The good, consisting of righteousness and truth, is inseparable from the governmental tree of life, but the evil is left to vanish in the fire, inasmuch as it has been united with the governmental tree of death. A thousand years of this process uncovers the stumps and roots of both trees. A short description of this concluding scene is given in Rev. 20:4-15. A wonderful, magnificent spring! Sea and land give up all the dead—small and great are resurrected in the presence of the administration of the kingdom. This weeding-out process continues until all who have engraved their names in the Book of Life, representing the victorious experiences they have lived through, have been amalgamated with everlasting life, and all who have done evil have been united in the fire with the governmental tree of death.

Then death, as it really is, is visible in all its indescribable ruthlessness, transferring to an eternal night all who have allowed themselves to become united with deceit and falsehood under the scepter of the tree of good and evil. They are then separated forever from life and good things—for them there is no more spring. Oh, how terrible!

Now you can see the stump, upon which the beautiful crown of life fits. It is made up of an industrious people who have been obedient to the Word of God as far as they have understood it. Obedient to the first commandment God gave fallen man, they have honestly fed themselves in the sweat of their brow. With respect to knowledge, some are like the beast of burden which has suffered under yoke and harness, hunger and death. The dual developing ability of the Word of God has become, through this painful but instructive process, a means of bringing about perfection in the once fallen but then redeemed people. The tree of death, with its defenders, will be changed to ashes under the soles of the feet of the saints.—Mal. 4 :3.

A great and wonderful change takes place "under the whole heaven." The paradisaical earth steps forth in a complete, perfect, and enlarged form. It is written concerning its government, "Righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins."—Isa. 11: 5.

The result of this is best visible in the word-picture which the prophet has written concerning the kingdom of the future.

(See Isa. 11.) Wolves and lambs, leopards and kidsy calves and lion cubs, and small children—all play in peace with each other. The old are united through their little ones. Cows and bears, lions and oxen, snakes and little tots, find pleasure in each other's company. Bloodthirsty hunters, with their brick walls, are not to be found there, neither enmity, nor destruction.

What do you see in the middle of the land? Not the smoky, sooty city of brick, with its lie-manufacturing and crime-producing establishments, its bloody corpses, and weapons of murder. No! Place the prophet's telescope, found in the 21st and 22nd chapters of Revelation, before your eyes! Now you will see an indescribable capital city, having a radiance corresponding to that of a thousand suns. The surrounding beauty of nature defies all endeavors of description. There is the tree of life. But the tree of knowledge of good and evil does not exist any more; the people are now developed. Knowledge of how to rule has been gained through the experiences of the past. For this reason the tree of knowledge of good and evil finds no room in the perfect Paradise of Truth.