THE GREATNESS OF THE (Coming) KINGDOM

I've lost the cover in which BMH press originally cloaked the volume.  Perhaps it's shoved behind other books on the downstairs shelving.  I'd like to find it.  It has a picture of the author, Alva J. McClain on the inside flap.

In it (I recall) McClain looks theologically regal, and certain.  The Grace Seminary administration building is named after him.  Clearly, he set the tone for the fledgling seminary after the Grace Brethren had broken away from the Ashland Brethren.

His volume, to me, is almost priceless.  The Greatness of the Kingdom: An Inductive Study of the Kingdom of God.  For you, through Amazon.com, it's $21.24 in hardcover.  Write the check.  Read it.

In my first year of seminary, a fellow student urged me.  "Buy it; read it.  It will set the foundation for everything else."  His word was golden.

McClain explains -- "The Kingdom of God is, in a certain and important sense, the grand central theme of all Holy Scripture...in the Biblical doctrine of the kingdom of God, we have the Christian philosophy of history...to see the many-sided nature and vast scope of this Kingdom will not only shed light on the purposes and ways of God, but also give to men a better 'understanding of the times'."

McClain presented much of the material of this volume at Dallas Theological Seminary in 1954, at the W.H. Griffith Memorial Lectures.  He gives open thanks to John Walvoord, the (then) young president of the school who invited McClain down from Indiana.  No doubt, it would have been grand to be in Chafer Chapel.

THE COMING KINGDOM

McClain's inductive study is worth a full and reflective reading.  For me, most exciting is his treatment of the coming kingdom, when The King of Kings will fulfill his longstanding promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to David, and reign in glory on the earth.  McClain deftly ties together the panoply of Scripture from Genesis through Isaiah and Daniel and Matthew through Revelation. 

Chapter XVIII unfolds "the Blessings of the Prophetic Kingdom."  McClain writes, "The establishment of the Mediatorial Kingdom on earth will bring about sweeping and radical changes in every department of human activity, so far reaching that Isaiah speaks of its arena as 'a new earth' (65:17).  Every need of humanity will be anticipated and provided for: 'Before they call,' God says, 'I will answer' (65:24).  The King and His kingdom will come down upon the world 'like rain upopn the mown grass,' healing the arid and devastated areas of human life (Ps. 72:6).  Working through the chosen nation, God will 'fill the face of the world with fruit' (Is 27:6 ).  There will be an 'abundance of salvation' (literally, 'salvations'), so that no legitimate aspect of human life will be left without the regal, saving activity of God (Is. 33:6, ASV)."

Such descriptions are simply the tip of the iceberg, and for those hungry for the return of Jesus, McClain offers a view of the entire 'mass' if you will take the time to look below the waterline with him into the depths of the word of God. 

Human history will not end in a mass of evil and violence; it will culminate in the broad and wide fulfillment of divine promises yet unrealized.  Dr. McClain's work should not be ignored.  We do so to the peril of our thirsting souls.

Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus.