THREE SPHERES
BLESSING
61
OF
`He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth'.
`Ask of Me, and I shall give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy
possession'.
Yet again, the prophet Zechariah says:
`He shall speak peace unto the heathen: and His dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even
to the ends of the earth' (Zech. 9:10).
Moreover, in The Revelation we read:
`The seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are
become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever' (Rev. 11:15).
The kingdom on the earth will have an administrative centre:
`And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD'S house shall be established in the top
of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall
go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He
will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of
the LORD from Jerusalem' (Isa. 2:2,3).
This is supplemented by Zechariah, the prophet:
`And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even
go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. And it shall
be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of
hosts, even upon them shall be no rain' (Zech. 14:16,17).
Inasmuch as the bulk of Scripture is taken up with the history and prophecy of this earthly people and kingdom,
no attempt on our part, particularly considering the limitation of our space, can possibly do more than indicate the
fact of its existence. There is, however, unanimity among most believers regarding the first, or lowest, sphere of
blessing, and while we shall have to return to the subject when certain of its features will be compared with those of
other spheres, we now pass on to the consideration of the next sphere, having left nothing unproved or resting upon
mere assumption. Therefore we feel that we can conclusively make this statement:
The earth will be a sphere of blessing in which there shall be set up a kingdom, over which the Lord shall be
King, with Jerusalem the chosen centre, and Israel a Kingdom of Priests. This we will call the First Sphere.
The Second Sphere, The Heavenly Jerusalem.- We come now to the second sphere; that which is associated with
the heavenly Jerusalem. While it must be recorded as a fact of importance, that no hint of such a sphere is to be
found in the whole of the Old Testament, yet, when we study the New Testament, we learn that its existence was
intimately known by Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. For this information we turn to the epistle to the Hebrews, where,
by the example of Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, in chapter 11, the apostle illustrates the statement
that `Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen'.
Coming to the example of the patriarchs, the apostle pauses to add:
`By faith he (Abraham) sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles (tents)
with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: for he looked for a city which hath foundations,
whose Builder and Maker is God' (Heb. 11:9,10),
and after speaking of Sarah's faith, the apostle reverts to the subject of this city, saying:
`These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of
them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say
such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from
whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country,