There is no doubt in our mind that the Lord Jesus is the true and only King and that the Father has chosen Him to inherit all things. But it is true also that the Body of Christ will be like Him and filled with Him. There will be two witnesses who are viewed as one manifestation of the Glory of God. It is the Son in the sons.

The Father and the Son are Two and yet One. The two witnesses of the day of image and union will be two and yet one. We would suggest that the two lampstands being filled eternally by the two "sons of oil" (olive trees) are Christ and His complement, His Body.

As was true of Adam and Eve, the Lamb and His Wife are two and yet one. On them will abide eternally the portion and the double portion of the Spirit of God. This is the Kingdom of God, the holy city, the new Jerusalem, the eternal Tabernacle of God. There is no temple in the new Jerusalem because God and the Lamb Themselves are the Temple dwelling in the personalities of the saints who together are the Wife of the Lamb.

There will be a period of time during which the more traditional ministry of the Church is continuing and also the Kingdom witness is coming into view. Since both of these ministries will proceed from the same group of people, the members of the Body of Christ, we do not expect to see an abrupt transition at which time the Lord's saints suddenly change from their work of reaching the lost and building the Body of Christ, into a revelation to the world of the power of the coming age.

Rather, we would expect to see the members of the Body of Christ, as they continue to pray and seek the Lord in the present hour, begin to show in themselves evidences of the Kingdom witness, while at the same time continuing in their customary ministries. It is God's way to prepare us carefully for higher planes of glory in Him.

Even though the transition will be accomplished slowly and attended by the gentleness and mercies of the Lord, the advent of the Kingdom will be a profound, radical change in Christianity.

Christianity commonly is viewed as a religion, as a group of churches of various understandings of the Scriptures that attempt to "save" people and to remind society of biblical moral values.

The concept of Jesus as King over the earth, and the coming forth from the womb of the churches of militant warriors who are prepared to destroy every institution, person, and spirit that opposes the absolute lordship of Christ, is new to Christians and new to the nations of the world.

There will be tremendous, violent upheavals in society as God reveals His intention to come and govern the earth through the despised saints. Let us not imagine that the nations, or most believers, are ready to give up their freedom of thought and action in favor of subjection to the Divine Emperor.

To be continued.