After telling us to "hold fast till I come," Jesus proceeds to give a special promise to the saints, in connection with His coming and personal reign on earth, by saying, "He that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron. As the vessels of the potter shall they be broken to shivers, even as I received of my Father." Here is a most emphatic promise, of the rank and authority which those saints will have in Christ's millennial kingdom, who by their overcoming faith, shall be counted worthy of a place in His bridehood. This promise of the gift of power, has more than one fulfillment. Like other Scriptures, it must not be limited to only one application. It has a fulfillment in the spiritual life, during the present age, and will have its complete fulfillment in the coming age. In the present life, when a believer by faith overcomes all the works of Satan in his heart, he receives by the incoming of the Holy Spirit, a gift of power in the moral world over those who are around him. And although this enduement of power does not bring all the persons with whom he associates into subjection to Jesus, yet, notwithstanding, they feel the force of a holy heart and life, and as an individual unit he possesses his quota of power over the world. Many suppose that this is the only fulfillment which these promises have, but that is greatly to belittle the word of God. Those who do not believe in the premillennial coming of Jesus suppose from this Scripture that the nations of the world in their present state are to be subdued by the spiritual power in the hearts of what few believers there are who have a baptism of the Holy Ghost. But the Scriptures nowhere warrant this view. There is not a single text in the entire Bible which teaches that the nations are to be converted and saved in the present age or under the present order of things. The apostle tells us in the Acts that God is now "calling out a people for His name from among the Gentiles," and St. James tells us that the believers in the present age, "are a kind of first fruits," and we are told that the world, the ungodly portion of mankind, live in the hands of the wicked one, and that the wheat and the tares will grow together until the end of this age. The teaching of the word of God is that Christ is not only saving as many in the present age as He can, but that of these saved ones there is a special company who give themselves up entirely to God, and serve Him without any reservation, and who have in them the martyr spirit and the full baptism of the Holy Ghost, and these are technically called in Scripture "the elect," "the overcomers," "the bride of the Lamb," "the church of the first born," or "the hundred and forty-four thousand," "those who are called and chosen and faithful," and these are the ones who are to be raised in the first resurrection, or caught away at the appearing of Christ in the clouds of Heaven, and glorified with Him, and sit with him at the marriage supper of the Lamb, and then return with Him to this earth after the great tribulations, and sit with Him in His millennial kingdom, and be appointed as prophets, and priests, and princes, over all the earth to subdue the nations and bring them into a state of holiness, and, with Christ, rule over them a thousand years. There are scores of Scripture passages which can not possibly have any rational and satisfactory explanation except in harmony with this statement. This promise of Jesus we are now considering has no meaning except thus interpreted. We know most assuredly that these words where the overcomers are to have power over the nations and rule them with a rod of iron, have never yet been fulfilled. The ungodly have governed this world from the fall of Adam, except for a few brief years after the flood, when Noah and his family had charge of the depopulated earth. And we also know that this Scripture can not be applied to the Kingdom of God in the third heaven, where the throne of the eternal Father is located, because there are no sinful nations there to be conquered. Neither can it apply to the history of mankind beyond the general judgment, for then all the saints and sinners are forever separated. Hence we see that the only period in the ages where this promise can ever be fulfilled is during the millennial reign of Christ on earth.

Some have supposed that at the second coming of Jesus all the unsaved nations are to be destroyed and burnt up, but if that were the case how could God's saints ''rule over the nations and break down their power like the potter's vessel?'' There is no Scripture that teaches that the nations of the earth are to be destroyed or killed at the appearing of Jesus. On the other hand, it is abundantly taught that they will remain here and pass through the terrific scourgings under the administration of the Ancient of Days.

In the parable of the ten virgins, those who have the oil, that is the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, will be taken away into the wedding banquet, and those who have lost their grace, or have not the oil, are left behind, but not destroyed.

Again Jesus presents three scenes in connection with His coming in the clouds. A night scene, two shall be in bed together, the one taken, the other left, A morning scene, two shall be grinding corn to prepare the morning meal, the one taken, the other left. A midday scene, two shall be in the field working together, the one taken, the other left. All these Scriptures prove that when the elect are taken up from the earth with Jesus in the clouds of heaven the people of the earth will be left, to live on and pass through the tribulations and propagate the human race, and when Jesus and His bride return from the wedding they will find the nations still living on the earth. Of course those who are taken away* will be glorified like unto Christ, and Jesus says, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but will be equal to the angels, and they are the ones who are to be His officers and sub-rulers in His millennial kingdom.

This is the exact teaching in the eighth Psalm that, when Christ reigns in all the earth, those persons who were perfectly humble, like little babes, shall be ordained with strength, and have power to still the enemy and the avenger. And further on in the Psalm that these saints were made for a short while lower than the angels, but will be glorified and crowned with glory, and honor, and have dominion over the works of God's hands, over all sheep, and oxen, and fowls of the air, and fish of the sea. That prophecy refers emphatically to Christ's millennial kingdom and the reign of His saints over the earth. The parallel of that Psalm is found in the second chapter of Hebrews. The apostle had stated in the previous chapter the doctrine of the ministry of angels during the present age over the heirs of salvation, but he says that the angels will not have charge over the habitable earth which is to come, that is in the coming age, but that these humble and holy men, who were made for a little while lower than the angels, and who have been sanctified and made one with Jesus, are to be crowned with glory and rulership in the coming age.

Compare Heb. 1:14 with second chapter, verses 5 and 11. In the forty-fifth Psalm we have a marvelous portrait of Jesus as a king, and of the elect saints as His queen, standing at His right hand, dressed in the gold of Ophir, and in the close of the Psalm we are told that the members of this queenhood are to be '-sent forth as princes in all the earth. " That Scripture has never yet been fulfilled, except in a very limited sense, of those apostles and evangelists who have gone through the earth saving souls, but they have never been princes over all the earth, even in that sense, but only over a few penitent and believing souls in a moral way.

We have a similar prophecy in Psalm 46, giving a description of the desolation which God will make in the earth during the great tribulations, and then He will make the wars to cease unto the end of the earth, and break the bow, and cut the spear in sunder, and burn the chariot with fire, and make the nations to be still, and to know that He is God, and that He will be exalted among the heathen in the earth. That Scripture has never yet been fulfilled, and the only time it can possibly be accomplished will be when Christ and His glorified saints take charge of the world. In Psalm 47 we have another inspired picture of the Lord Jesus as being king over the earth, and the psalmist says: "He shall subdue the people under us,, and the nations under our feet." That Scripture has never yet been fulfilled; on the other hand, the people have kept the saints of God under, and the nations have put their feet upon God's holy ones. But the day is coming, and that speedily, when these words of the psalmist will be literally and abundantly fulfilled.

In the thirty-second chapter of Isaiah we are told that "a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment, and a man, that is a glorified man, shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest," which corresponds with the teaching of Paul in the second of Hebrews that the glorified saints are to be the custodians, and guardians, and protectors of the people who will be born in the millennial age, just as angels are now our guardians and protectors. And to show that this prophecy in Isaiah refers directly to Christ's millennial kingdom it is in connection with the prophecy in the previous chapter, and "that day when men will cast away their idols of silver, and idols of gold, and when the Lord shall lift His ensign in the earth, and put his fire in Zion, and His furnace in Jerusalem." We read in the seventh chapter of Daniel ''that the saints of the most high shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever." And to prove that this refers to Christ's coming reign, he says in the same chapter that the kingdom shall be under the whole heaven, and shall be given to the people of the saints of the most high, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him. This prophecy has certainly never yet been accomplished, and we notice that the reign of the saints of the most high is put in this prophecy, as also in that of Isaiah, right in connection with the reign of Christ Himself, that is, the glorified saints are to share the kingdom with Christ, and to be rulers under Him.

The word "horn" in Scripture always signifies "government," dominion, and Daniel says in the same chapter: "I beheld, and the horn of the beast made war with the saints, and prevailed against them." We know this Scripture has been fulfilled for many centuries, and especially when the beast of Romanism prevailed against the saints in the dark ages, and this prevailing of the beastly horn against the saints still goes on, and Daniel says will go on until the Ancient of Days come and judgment is given to the saints of the Most High, and the time comes that the saints possess the kingdom. That prophecy of Daniel corresponds exactly with this promise in the second of Revelation, that Christ will give power to His overcoming saints over all the nations of the earth to rule them with a rod of iron.

We read in Malachi that when the Lord shall come as a blazing sun of righteousness, with healing in His wings, then those who love and fear Him shall go forth as calves of the stall, and shall tread down the wicked like ashes under the soles of their feet. In order to get a more correct understanding as to who these are that shall go forth as calves of the stall to tread down the wicked, they are described in the previous chapter where it says: "They that feared the Lord spake often one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before Him," "and they shall be mine, saith the Lord of Hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels" The word "jewels'' in our common version is in the original "my special treasures,'' distinctly indicating the class of believers entirely devoted to God. These are the saints that shall be gathered out in the day of the Lord, and the prophet goes on to say that these saints shall return, that is, come back with Jesus from the wedding supper, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, that is, they will be judges, with the gift of discerning the spirits and superintending and controlling the nations that are still living on the earth. Jesus says in Matthew, 24th chapter, "that those faithful servants who shall be found feeding the household of Christ with the meat of a pure gospel at the time of His second coming shall be blessed; and Christ declares He will make such servants rulers over all His goods. Jesus means exactly what He says, that such servants shall be His princes over the earth during His reign.

Also in the 22d chapter of Luke, Jesus affirms that those disciples who have continued with Him in His temptations, not those who began and fell out by the way, and not those who continue with Him in luxury and ease, with light work and large salaries, but those who persistently cling to Him through trouble, and sorrow, and loneliness, and temptation, and come off as overcomers, He says to such, I will appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father has appointed unto me, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

What horrible work a great many church teachers make of this Scripture, in trying to twist it into a Swedenborgian mystical meaning. The infinite Christ does not trifle with His people, and means exactly what He says, and just as infallibly as God the Father hath appointed a kingdom to His Son, so as infallibly, Jesus will appoint His victorious followers, who serve Him with perfect loyalty, a kingdom, and give them thrones, and principalities, over the nations of the earth. Here is a definite prophecy that the twelve tribes of Israel will, during that kingdom, be restored, and put under the jurisdiction of glorified apostles.

The same truth is set forth in the 5th chapter of Revelation, where the "four living creatures,"' who represent glorified saints, sing a new song unto Him who was slain, and hath redeemed them by His blood, and hath made them kings and priests, and concludes by saying, "and they shall reign on the earth." This is an emphatic statement, that the kingdom referred to is not in some distant world, but on this very earth where they had been redeemed. Another proof text is found in Revelation twelve, where the man-child, which does not represent as some suppose the Lord Jesus, but which signifies the indefatigable martyrs slain by the red dragon of the Roman inquisition, and these martyrs, it is said, shall rule the nations with a rod of iron; that is, they will form a part of the bridehood of the Lamb, and come back with Him to govern the world. Another proof text is found c in Revelation twenty, concerning those who are counted worthy of a place in the first resurrection, where it is said, "blessed and sanctified are they that have part in the first resurrection, for they shall be priests of God, and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years."

These Scriptures are all clear, specific, and unanimous, and there are scores of other passages that could be cited to prove the same truth. The significance of the expression, "to rule the nations with a rod of iron, " will be considered in a future chapter, when we come to the setting up of the theocratic throne of our Savior in Jerusalem.