Jesus refers to the hour of His death as the hour “that the Son of Man should be glorified”([John] 12:23). . . . The hour of Jesus’ death is the hour of His glory, because at the cross, Jesus actually saves His people, securing their redemption for time and eternity. He dies in order to produce much fruit, and the fruit of His death is the salvation of men and women from every nation, tribe, people, and tongue.

“The Fruitful Grain of Wheat” by Brian Vos in Planting, Watering, Growing: Planting Confessionally Reformed Churches in the 21st Century, eds. Daniel R. Hyde and Shane Lems, 11.

If we truly believe that many of the crowds turning out for a healing crusade in Uganda or Tulsa are filled with people who have an erroneous understanding of the gospel, we are in precisely the same position as the first Reformers, where “missions” and “evangelism” mean first recovering the biblical gospel. . . . The evagnelicals are not siimply “off a little” on this or that emphasis; there is quite often these days a fundamentally different message, leading to methods and a general agenda that is at cross-purposes with biblical, historic Christianity.

“Foreword” by Michael S. Horton in Planting, Watering, Growing: Planting Confessionally Reformed Churches in the 21st Century, eds. Daniel R. Hyde and Shane Lems, xvi.

The kingdom of God is His rule and reign over all things; it arises from His nature as King (Ps. 99:1–5; 1 Tim. 1:17). God is staggeringly majestic (Isa. 6:1–7). He is the incomparable King of glory, all-sufficient, controlling life and death, infinitely holy, a boundless ocean of love (2 Sam. 2:2–10; Ps. 136:1–3). God created the world in order to make a kingdom for His Son (Heb. 1:2). Since Christ is the heir of the world, His kingdom will gather all nations together through the gospel (Matt. 24:14).

Christ brings His kingdom step by step in history. God’s promise of the universal extension of Christ’s kingdom (Dan. 7:13–14) is realized through progressive fulfillment every time Christ acts in the world for salvation and judgment. The kingdom of Christ opposes and overcomes the kingdom of Satan (Luke 11:18–22). Satan attempted to set up a rival kingdom, usurping the Creator’s dominion on earth (Gen. 3:1–6; Job 1:7; cf. Isa. 14:12–14). Christ took up His office immediately upon the fall of man (Gen. 3:15), and whenever God appeared to men it was the Son who came (John 1:18). David was the greatest personal type of Christ (Ezek. 34:24), and the establishment of the kingdom of David and his sons was God’s planting of the root from which the messianic Branch would come (2 Sam. 7:12–14; Isa. 11:1; Jer. 23:5). The Old Testament as a whole was preparation for the arrival of the kingdom when the great King and Savior came in the flesh (Isa. 9:6–7).

The kingdom springs from Christ’s work in dying and rising again. By His death on the cross Christ conquered the powers of evil, slaying the spiritual Goliath with his own sword (John 12:31; 16:11; Col. 2:15; Heb. 2:14). Yet Christ’s redemption is not first and foremost a victory over Satan but a purchase (Mark 10:45); His humiliation was the price necessary to satisfy God’s law (Gal. 3:10,13; 4:4–5). The kingdom officially began after Christ’s resurrection, when He ascended into heaven, sat down at God’s right hand, and poured out the Spirit to empower His church to take the gospel to all nations (Acts 1:6–9; 2:23–36).

The essence of Christ’s redemptive kingdom is the Spirit (Isa. 11:1–2). The Father gave the Redeemer, the Son purchased redemption, and the Spirit is the blessing purchased (Gal. 3:13–14; 4:4–6)—Trinitarian redemption. In His Spirit the exalted King is conquering the Devil on earth, especially in converting and sanctifying the elect (Rom. 5:17,21; 14:17; Rev. 17:14). Conversion delivers a sinner out of the kingdom of the Devil and sin and translates him into the kingdom of Christ (Rom. 6:14,17; Col. 1:13).

The context of the kingdom is the church, where Christ’s royal power operates (Matt. 16:16–19; 18:20; 1 Cor. 4:19–21; 5:3–5; 2 Cor. 13:1–4). Christ rules His people externally through His Word and officers (John 18:36–37; Eph. 4:10–11) and internally by the influences of His grace, which make His people willing to obey by His power (Ps. 110:3). When Christ revives His church, believers rejoice to see the goings of their God and King in His sanctuary (Ps. 68:24). However, not all in the visible kingdom of Christ, the church, belong there; some are like bad fish caught in the net, which will be thrown away in the final judgment (Matt. 13:47–50).

God promised to extend Christ’s kingdom over every nation (Ps. 72:8–11). The satanic kingdoms of this world and its false religions will all ultimately fail (Dan. 2:44; 7:9–14), and Christ will reign as “King of kings and Lord of lords” (Rev. 19:16). The kingdom will reach its ultimate realization in the happiness and holiness of eternal life when Christ returns in glory (Matt. 13:43). In one sense Christ’s mediatorial work will be done and He will hand over the kingdom to His Father (1 Cor. 15:28). However, in another sense He will reign as never before in the hearts of His people, who will be with Him to behold the King in His glory to their eternal delight (Isa. 33:17; John 17:24; Titus 2:13).

—adapted from Jonathan Edwards, A History of the Work of Redemption

Christ’s Kingdom – HolyBible.com

The God who called Abraham was “the God of heaven and the God of the earth” (Gen. xxiv. 3). It was the Creator of the heaven and the earth (Gen. i. 1), who chose the seed of Abraham to be to Him a peculiar people, that through them all nations might be blessed. The Blessing of Abraham assures us that the particularism of the Old Testament religion is not to be explained by the evolutionist’s theory of a gradual development of the god-idea in Israel through animism, polytheism, henotheism to the ethical monotheism of the Prophets and Apostles, but that the universalism of Isaiah and of Paul was clearly present in it from the beginning, not as a mere “surmise,” but as a sure promise which the eternal and unchanging God had made unto Abraham His friend, and which He fulfilled in the gift of His Son to be Savior of the World.

Oswald T. Allis, “The Blessing of Abraham” in The Princeton Theological Review, Vol. 25, No. 2 (1927), 298.

Isaiah 33:22 – For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; he will save us.

John Calvin said, “Let us only yield to his [God’s] authority, hear his voice, and obey him; and, on the other hand, he will shew that he is our protector and most faithful guardian.”

John Calvin on Isaiah 33:22 (abstracted into bullet points):

• On the one hand
  • Yield to God’s authority
  • Hear God’s voice
  • Obey God
• And on the other hand
  • God will shew that he is our protector and most faithful guardian
  • i.e., “God will save us”

Isaiah 43:1, But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.

By the Incarnation, the Creator said to creation, “Mine!”

Isaiah 59:21, As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the LORD; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and for ever.

Generational blessings, that.

The locus classicus on civil government in the NT is Rom. 13:1-7. In making this statement, however, one should caution against looking only to these verses to understand the biblical teaching on civil government. They do not address themselves, e.g., to the question of what form this government should take, nor to the question of conscientious disobedience, nor to the question of whether Christians may participate in government. In considering government in the NT, due consideration must be given not only to Pauline theory and practice, but also to Christ’s teaching and practice under Jewish autocratic rule and Roman imperial authority. . . .

The concise statement of Paul in Rom. 13:1 with respect to “governing authorities” is that “there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God” (cf. 1 Pet. 2:14). All authority is ultimately derived from God, even though people may ignore Him or reject Him. God is sovereign over His creation, the world, and the people who live in it. The testimony of the OT agrees with this (cf. Gen. 9:5f.; Isa. 105; 45:1; Dan. 4:34f. [MT 31f.]; Ps. 75;6f. [MT 7f.]). The judgments of the omnipotent God on the nations serve to underscore the truth of His sovereignty (cf. Ex. 7-12; Joel 3; Isa. 13-27; etc.). In the NT Christ acknowledged the authority of the Jewish Sanhedrin, the high priest, Herod the king, and Pilate the Roman procurator (cf. Mt. 26:59; 27:1f.; etc.); He even recognized the civil authority of Caesar (22:15-22). Eschatologically, God’s final judgment on the empires of the world and the dragon that deceives the nations confirms the teaching that God is the ultimate authority from whom all other authority is derived (Rev. 17-20). It is then inconsistent with the Scriptures to consider that human governments derive their legitimate authority ultimately from a “social compact,” or from “the consent of the governed,” or even from “the will of the majority.”

The state, then, may be considered an expression of God’s common grace extended to all mankind. hence, to resist the governing authorities is tantamount to resisting God (Rom. 13:2). . . . Whatever the character of a ruler in NT times, whether high priest or king, procurator or emperor, the authority vested in him was to be honored and respected. Paul’s own practice under the autocratic Roman government was to acknowledge its authority. He frequently asserted his own obedient subjection to the laws of the empire, and even when imprisoned, his appeal to Caesar was a further recognition of the supreme authority whose laws he had obeyed and whose protection he sought. In this he followed the example of Christ, who tried by Pilate, a man unworthy of his high office. Even though the trial proved to be a miscarriage of justice, Jesus firmly reminded him, “You would have no authority over me, unless it had been given you from above” (Jn. 19:11).

The governing authorities are vested with twofold responsibility: the administration of justice and the promotion of the general welfare. Regarding the first, Paul states that the government wields the sword as a “servant of God, an avenger who brings wrath upon the one who practices evil” (Rom. 13:4). It is thus responsible for restraining evil by punishing crime and violence. Furthermore, the justice meted out upon evil reflect to a greater or lesser degree the righteous judgment of God, the Judge of all the earth. The ministers of divine justice, therefore, must take appropriate measures that fairness, firmness, and mercy be exhibited. Only in this way will retribution function for the defense and encouragement of good people as well as for the punishment of criminals.

The second responsibility of government is the promotion of the general welfare (Rom. 13:4-7). The OT prophets, concerned about the needy, especially urged upon kings their responsibility to care for “the afflicted and needy,” for “the orphan and the widow,” and even for the resident alien (cf. Ps. 72:1-4, 12-14; Jer. 22:16; Ezk. 34:16). This general welfare was described by Paul in another connection. When urging Christians to pray “for kings and all who are in authority,” he expressed the reason: “in order that you may lead a tranquil and quiet life” (1 Tim. 3:2). Without doubt, the general peace brought by the Romans (pax Romana) was one of the great blessings for the general well-being of the people in that period. Paul may already have had a premonition of times of distress and persecution, especially for Christians, in the decades ahead. Peter also acknowledged government’s positive role of promoting the general good when he instructed believers to submit themselves to “governors as sent by Him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right” (1 Pet. 2:14). The public recognition of those who do right is a tacit acknowledgement that government is responsible for promoting moral standards in the community and nation. There may be a difference of opinion about how much government should do, but consideration should be given to maintaining programs of public health and education, to encouraging philanthropic activities, and to protecting the disadvantaged from abuses by the wealthy and powerful sectors of society. . . .

Although human government is divinely instituted, it does not follow that its authority is unlimited. On the contrary, the Scriptures give ample evidence that when governments usurp the authority of God by demanding subjection to laws contrary to clear commands of Scripture, they have exceeded their authority. Acts 5:29 summarizes the concluding arguments of believers before the Sanhedrin: “We must obey God rather than men.” No one may claim that he is entitled to disobey the laws merely because of his personal disagreement with them. In totalitarian societies some laws may be hard to accept, but Christians as well as other citizens are responsible to obey them. No Christian, however, may be forced to declare “Caesar is Lord” as a recognition of Caesar’s deity and as a denial of the Lordship of Christ. Furthermore, when governments oppress the righteous, reward evildoing, prevent justice, and subvert the ordinances of God, it may be necessary for Christians to resist them.

The major difficulty is arriving at a consensus about when such a government has gone too far. The nature of the opposition to be offered is also a debatable issue. Resistance, demonstrations, and propagandizing for a particular position within the law is one thing. Civil disobedience that goes beyond the law, such as advocating or participating in the violent overthrow of the government is another. Such critical situations in the political affairs of government call for special periods of prayer “for kings and all who are in authority” (1 Tim. 2:1-4). This is not simply a pious platitude, but rather a sincere realization that “we wrestle against flesh and blood” (Eph. 6:12) and that “the weapons of our warfare are not worldly” (2 Cor. 10:4).

David’s experiences with Saul and other enemies amply illustrate this point. Hence, such prayers as Ps. 35:1; 43:1; 119:154; 129:1-4 may prove to be an encouragement. It is God who reigns and controls the destinies of the defiant rulers (Ps. 2:4; Rom. 9:14-24). In Rev. 6:10; 11:17f.; 15:2-4 the prayers of the saints persecuted and martyred by a demonically empowered world empire may hold the clue for Christians living under less severe conditions. Their trust is in a sovereign God who remains in control of political powers and who ultimately will vindicate the cause of the righteous.

P. R. Gilchrist, “Government” in International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, 2:545-546.

The law is nothing but a manifestation of the will of God. As the will of God is eternal, so also is the law. Consequently we are speaking here only of the law which is conducive to the godliness of the inner person. That is indeed nothing
other than a manifestation of the divine will. For example, this law: “You should love your neighbor as yourself” [Leviticus 19:18; Matthew 22:30] is nothing but the law of nature that says “Whatever you want done to you, do also to another” [cf. Mt. 7:12; Lk. 6:31] and conversely: “What you do not want, do also to no one” [Tobit 4:16]. Yes, this law of nature, which God made sweet with love, must only come from God. And although the heathen also accept it, it nevertheless does not come from human reason—let them say what they want. For this same reason only considers
itself and does not hold that it should show consideration for others, but that others should show consideration for it.
Therefore all laws which make the inner person godly can be from no one but God. However, understand: laws do not
have the power to make a person godly or righteous; rather, they point out only how a person should be if he wants to
live according to the will of God, become godly and come to God. According to Romans 7:12, “The law is holy and the commandment is also holy.” Now it cannot be holy unless it comes from one who is holy. Insofar as it came from us it would not be holy, for we are not holy. Therefore Paul says again soon after: “We know that the law is spiritual” [Rom.
7:14]. However, if we are carnal, then it is obvious that the law cannot be from us. All this proves that the law which teaches the true inner godliness must flow alone out of the divine will (Zwingli’s Short Christian Instruction [1523]).

Astrology is an ancient system of divination based on the belief that the stars can influence the fate and behavior of men and the general course of human events. A belief in the supernatural powers of celestial bodies was common to the Babylonians, Egyptians, Assyrians and Chaldeans. In the 4th century BC it reached the Greeks and somewhat later the Romans.

Isaiah (47:13) lists three classes of astrological practitioners common among the Babylonians: “Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up . . .” . . .

Astrology originated in Mesopotamia, where the celestial bodies were worshipped as deities. In the library of Ashurbanipal, King of Assyria, there were large numbers of clay tablets relating to astrology. These contained about 7,000 omens, based on observations of the sun, moon and the five planets. . . .

To the Greeks astrology was hardly known before the conquest of Babylon by Alexander the Great. Greek scholars created a new form of astrology and from being an eastern religion it began to acquire the semblance of a science. . . .

Astrology reached Rome in the 2nd century BC. It was banned in 139 BC by a decree of the Senate but nevertheless flourished and became an accepted Roman institution.

“ASTROLOGY” in The Archaeological Encyclopedia of the Holy Land, Rev. Ed., ed. Avraham Negev, 46-47.

ASTARTE; ASHTORETH Fertility goddess of the Canaanites, the Sidonians (1 Kings 11:5) and the Philistines (1 Sam. 31:10, where the name appears in the plural form, Ashtaroth). Ashtoreth is the counterpart of Baal, god of storm and fertilizing rain. The Babylonians and Assyrians knew her by the name of Ashtar, goddess of fertility and love. In the Bible she is referred to as the Queen of Heaven (Jer. 7:18). The cult of Astarte was universal in Palestine in the Canaanite period and was also much favored, especially by women, in the Judean and Israelite kingdoms. Thousands of Astarte figurines made of clay have been found at most of the excavated sites of Canaanite and Israelite periods.

“ASTARTE; ASHTORETH” in The Archaeological Encyclopedia of the Holy Land, Rev. Ed., ed. Avraham Negev, 45.

Our first remark on this subject is, that the ministry is an office, and not merely a work.

Charles Hodge, “What is Presbyterianism?” from address delivered before the Presbyterian
Historical Society at Philadelphia” [Appendix No. 1] in A. A. Hodge, The Confession of
Faith (Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, reprint 1998), 408.

Therefore, it is here necessary to remember, that whatever authority and dignity the
Holy Spirit in Scripture confers on priests, or prophets, or apostles, or successors of
Apostles, is wholly given not to men themselves, but to the ministry to which they are
appointed; or, to speak more plainly, to the word, to the ministry of which they are
appointed.

John Calvin, The Institutes of the Christian Religion, trans. Henry Beveridge (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1989), Book IV.VIII.2.

For were we to go over the whole in order, we should find that they were not invested
with authority to teach or give responses, save in the name and word of the Lord. For
whenever they are called to office, they are enjoined not to bring anything of their own,
but to speak by the mouth of the Lord.

John Calvin, The Institutes of the Christian Religion, trans. Henry Beveridge (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Company, 1989), Book IV.VIII.2.