The Christian religion has forestalled and anticipated nearly
everything in relation to the literal coming "Kingdom of God."
1st. The "Kingdom of God" has been forestalled
and anticipated, in holding up that Kingdom to be exclusively a spiritual and only
a spiritual Kingdom* already possessed.
2d. The Kingdom of God is to be as visible and
universal as the present fallen one is, "And the greatness of the Kingdom under
the whole Heaven." See Daniel 7:27.
3d. Mount Zion and Jerusalem have been forestalled and
anticipated by spiritualizing them away, and declaring that they have nothing to
do with place, but "only mean the heart," or "our
Church"--thus limiting and confining them to this present dispensation.
4th. So with the "Saints," or "People
of the Most High God," it was expressly and plainly told the Prophet Daniel that they
were to be "Thy People," (who were Jews.) See
Dan. 7:27; 8:24; 9:16 and 24; 10:14; 12:1 and 7.
5th. The Hallel, or 118th Psalm, is and has been entirely
forestalled and anticipated, and cannot be applied with any degree of consistency to the
present state of things or to any that has ever yet taken place.
6th. Redemption also has been forestalled and
anticipated, and is by most Christians confined to the soul; as if it was never to extend,
and had nothing to do with the Body and outward and inferior creation; and even the
Glorious Resurrection of the Bodies of the Saints is to this day, by the Hicksite Quakers
and Shakers, and other spiritualizers, denied to extend its power to Flesh and Blood,
or the outward Body; so that the Resurrection consists only, they say, in the
Divine Life rising and possessing its influence over the soul, and "that
there will never be any other Resurrection."
7th. And even the coming of the Messiah is declared to be
nothing more than the coming or arising of the Divine Life in the soul; thus,
like "Hymeneus and Philetus," not only saying "the Resurrection is past
already," but the Messiah has come and the Redemption has finished its work--not
in visible fact, but in mind and feeling. Thus we see how Ann Lee could with any degree of
plausibility of consistency declare she was the "Word of God" which
"was the only coming of the Messiah that ever took place at first, or that ever will
take place at last;" thus all Personality, consequently Individuality,
and therefore all Identity and Accountability, are forever lost, for
what is a soul without a Body? a life without any medium to manifest
itself by.
Abstract thought and feeling, however excellent they may be, are but a
spiritual phantom, or fancied vision. The Truth is, all Souls have a Body,
either fallen or unfallen, without which Body they could not have any susceptibility,
neither perceptibility, upon which consciousness and self-existence are
dependent. Bodies are given us for distinguishing one from the other, and for Identity.
8th. The "Glory of God" has been
forestalled and anticipated, and misunderstood by confining it to the Praise and Honor
attributed to God in adoration and worship; whereas the "Glory of God" is the
Shechinah, or visible manifestation of God's Presence; is a "Pillar of Cloud
by Day and a Pillar of Fire by Night," as was visibly seen over the
Israelites.
9th. The Universality and Catholicity
of the True Church has also been forestalled and anticipated both by the Romanists and
Church of England, and all other claimants, under the present dispensation for Universality
and Catholicity, and cannot take place until there is a Unity of Faith
and Practice, and until the time the Prophet Daniel says it will take
place, which was not until "the Thrones were cast down and the Ancient of
Days did sit, and his Throne * was like the fiery flame and his wheels as
burning fire," and "a fiery stream issued and came from before him." Dan. 7:9
and 10.
Ask yourself this one question--was the "Gold, the Silver, the Brass,
the Iron and the Clay" broken in pieces by the Stone 1800 years ago, so that "no
place was found for them?"
Answer. No, for they all exist until this day, and place
is found for them, therefore the Kingdom of Jesus was not the Kingdom of the Stone;
and you have forestalled and overlaid the Kingdom of the "Living
Child," and you do not belong to the True Mother; for although you may say the spiritual
part, or half, of the Kingdom was set up 1800 years ago, yet in thus dividing the
"Living Child" you prove yourself the false Mother, for she still exists, which
is your whole profession of Christianity.
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