“Your Kingdom Come” — Part One

We’re going to read from the Bible in Daniel chapter 7. We won’t read the whole chapter, having done that last week, but we’ll read from Daniel 7:9:

“As I looked, thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days took his seat; his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames; its wheels were burning fire. A stream of fire issued and came out from before him; a thousand thousands served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him; the court sat in judgment, and the books were opened.

“I looked then because of the sound of the great words that the horn was speaking. And as I looked, the beast was killed, and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire. As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time.

“I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

“As for me, Daniel, my spirit within me was anxious, and the visions of my head alarmed me. I approached one of those who stood there and asked him the truth concerning all this. So he told me and made known to me the interpretation of the things. ‘These four great beasts are four kings who shall arise out of the earth. But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, forever and ever.’”

Amen. Thanks be to God for his Word.

Let’s pause and pray together once again:

Lord, [your] Word abideth,
And our footsteps guideth;
[He] who its truth believeth
Light and joy receiveth.[1]

So grant that we might believe and that we might know that light and that joy. For Jesus’ sake we pray. Amen.

Now, I’m going to assume that you’ve been doing your homework and reading in Daniel chapter 7 and that you have made wonderful discoveries that you’re going to share with me in due course so that I might benefit from your insights as well. I mean that most sincerely. It’s important for us to keep in mind as we come again, now, to this seventh chapter that this section of the Bible, this apocalyptic section of the book of Daniel, was not written in order to intrigue us, nor was it written to bamboozle us in some way, but rather to reassure us that God is still on the throne and that his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. That, if we stand far enough back from the chapter, is surely the message. It was a message that needed to be heard by the exiles living in Babylon, because they would have been tempted to believe that somehow or another, things had gone so dreadfully wrong, leading not only to their disengagement from their homeland and from their worship and from the security that was represented in that but, in actual fact, that somehow or another, God and his kingdom was losing out.

And I love when we sing, at the end of the day here at Parkside, the hymn “So be it, Lord,” or “The Day Thou Gavest, Lord, Is Ended,” with the line “So be it, Lord; [your] throne shall never, like earth’s proud empires, pass away.”[2] And it’s important for us to make sure that we believe that and that we bow down underneath that when the kingdoms of the world seem to possess the power to destroy the church; when the forces of man—when the City of Man, if you like, to quote Augustine—seems to loom so large and to tower over the City of God.

This morning, throughout the world, many of our brothers and sisters in Christ are at the very epicenter of regimes that are vehemently, consistently, dramatically opposed to the notion that God is the creator of the universe, that he has revealed himself in his world in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that one day “at the name of Jesus every knee [will] bow.”[3] And the reaction of the dictators of the world is to say, “That will never be.” When we recognize that, when we realize that we may not be so far away from that, we need to anchor ourselves to the truth that is here in chapter 7.

And what we have in chapter 7 is really a kind of monumental sweep of prophetic history from the time of Daniel all the way through to the return of Jesus Christ and to the ultimate vanquishing of evil. If we don’t realize that, it will tend to make us fiddle about with pieces and parts of Daniel 7 in a way that will actually be detrimental, in the end, to grasping the big picture and understanding what’s going on. At the heart of it all is the fact that his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and it will not pass away.

Now, admittedly, there’s a lot to take in here. There’s a lot in Daniel chapter 7. There’s more in Daniel 7 than there really is in 8; 8 and 9 and so on are dealing with parts, but Daniel 7 is dealing with the totality of it. And it’s a lot to grasp, and we just should acknowledge that. It’s a lot to try and teach. It’s a lot to understand.

During the week, I had the privilege of being at NASA, in Houston, with the astronaut that came here and spoke for us at our pastors’ conference a couple of conferences ago. And I sat in mission control and watched as the screens conveyed exactly where the space station was and heard the communications coming both from Russia and in Russian and in American in the joint venture. And the thing that was so striking was how quickly the space station was moving in orbit—seventeen and a half thousand miles an hour, orbiting the earth in ninety minutes. Sixteen times in a day the station goes round, orbits the earth. And when you look down from there, as I saw the pictures, you said, “Oh, there’s San Francisco!” and then, ten minutes later, “Oh, there’s Boston!” How can you take in that in such a fast period of time?

And then you may feel the same way—I certainly felt the same way—in Daniel 7 this week. I read it and read it. I tried reading it backwards, forwards, in front, in back, and so on—said, “Wow!” So if you feel that, welcome to my world. But once—once—convinced of the truth that God’s kingdom will outlast all the kingdoms of the world and that his dominion will never come to an end, then we are, as Joyce Baldwin says, “in possession of the key to [all of] history.”[4] “In possession to the key to [all of] history.” For here we have, in this great sweep, the reality that the kingdom of God is at the heart of it all.

We said this morning in the Lord’s Prayer, “Your kingdom come.”[5] What are we saying? Well, we’re acknowledging the fact that the kingdom of God has come in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ; that the kingdom of God is coming through the progress of the gospel in the world today; and that one day, the kingdom of God will come finally and visibly and universally when Christ returns. And the fact of the matter is that ultimately, our individual lives find their meaning in relationship to God’s kingdom.

I think it’s very, very important to get ahold of that and just allow it to settle in our minds. You say to yourself this morning, where you’re seated, “Ultimately, the meaning of my life is tied to what is here in Daniel chapter 7.” That’s quite a stretch, isn’t it? Because if you’ve read it on your own, you said, “I don’t see that this has got anything to do with anything at all. It’s got nothing to do with the price of gasoline. It apparently has nothing to do with how you get half a dozen eggs safely cooked and so on. It’s nothing to do with the real life.” No, sorry! It’s got everything to do with the real life. It’s got everything to do with your marriage, everything to do with your singleness, everything to do with your view of work, everything to do with your understanding of science, everything to do with why it is that the arts matter, why everything in creation coheres. It’s got everything to do with everything! “Well,” you say, “that changes it, doesn’t it?” Well, of course it does!

Ultimately, our individual lives find their meaning in relationship to God’s kingdom.

You see, because when Jesus came, he said, “The kingdom of God is at hand. The time has been fulfilled. Repent and believe the good news.”[6] He steps onto the stage of human history, and he says, “The kingdom of God is here, because I am the King.” And then he shows himself to be King over creation. He shows himself to be King over the demonic world. He shows himself to be King over illness and all the things that hold us in its sway. And he says to people, “The key to your grasp of this is that you submit to me as your King.” And, of course, people say, “Well, we don’t want you as a king. We certainly don’t want a king that looks like you. We don’t want a king riding on a donkey. We don’t want a king that wears a crown of thorns. If we were going to have a king, it wouldn’t be this kind of king.”

The religious man Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night. He says, “I can tell that you’re a teacher sent from God, because no one could do the miracles that you do and say the things that you do if God were not with him.”[7] Jesus diverts immediately, and what does he say? “Unless [a man] is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”[8] “Unless a man is born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”[9] What a strange non sequitur, apparently. “Why are you on about this, Jesus?” “Because you’re a nice guy, Nicodemus. You’re a good religious man. You’re well-respected in the community. You’d fit nicely into the Chagrin Valley. But unless you’re born again, you’ll never see the kingdom of God, and you’ll never enter it.” And, of course, we’re not here to expound John chapter 3, but Nicodemus asks the inevitable question: “Well, how does this work?” And Jesus says, “Well, we’re talking about a spiritual birth as a result not of the work of a man nor of the work of a father but as a result of the work of God.”[10]

Can I ask you: Have you entered into the reality of this? When you sang this morning, “Lord, reign in me,”[11] was that a novel thought? Or was that simply an acknowledgment, in your song, that the King who has come to rule and reign in your life is to take total control of every department of your existence—that your entire life, that my entire life, finds its meaning directly in relation to the kingdom of God?

Well, in the first eight verses, which we tampered with last time, we were taken into the territory—the terrifying territory—of these kings and rulers whom we viewed through the veil of imagery. I have entitled subsequently the first eight verses, in my own books, “The Garden of Beasts.” “The Garden of Beasts.” Some of you may know that line from a book by Erik Larson about the appointment of the American ambassador to Berlin at the time of Hitler. That’s where I got it from. It’s a great title for a book. Anyway, verses 1–8: “The Garden of Beasts.”

Now, in verses 9–14, the scene fades, or those scenes fade, much like we do when we make these videos—or try to—and we were very excited when we were able to collapse the vision, and up came another one. And that’s exactly what is happening here: “And I saw in the visions in the night… In my dreams in the night, I saw this.” And “as I looked,” he has a vision of God. Thrones were put in place. The sound of the words of the horn gave rise to the destruction of the beast. And then the appearing of the “son of man” in “the clouds of heaven.”

So, in other words, in this vision of God, there are three parts to it. It’s not uncommon to read commentaries that suggest that these three parts should be viewed separately, they should be seen as taking place subsequently—in other words, that they are three successive events. Having studied this, I’m inclined to the view that these are three aspects of one event which unfolds over a long period of time, so that, for example, as you get on—it will be this evening—but when you think about these ten kings, instead of the kings all ending with the Caesars, as Calvin thought, I actually think that it is representative of that which is going on all through history, so that these three pictures need to be viewed concurrently, if you like, in relationship to one another. I hope I can make that that clear to you.

The Courtroom Scene

First of all, then, the courtroom scene: “[And] as I looked, thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days took his seat.” “The Ancient of Days” is a description of God. The fact that he is seated is a position of authority. His clothing and his hair are representative of his purity, and his fiery throne and the fire issuing from it is an indication of the execution of his judgment, and the fact that there are thousands upon thousands who serve him is an indication of the magnitude of what’s going on. Now, that is to say a lot in a few words. In brief, what you have is a picture of the purity and the power and the judgment of God—God’s purity, his power, and his judgment.

If you get concerned about the wheels, you might want to read the opening part of Ezekiel.[12] If you begin to stumble over the notion of fire, just think about how much fire is represented as coming from God as an execution of his majesty and his holiness. And Moses stood before a burning bush.[13] And you could go on to the chariots of fire that are represented in Ezekiel and so on.

And the picture of “a thousand thousands …, and ten thousand times ten thousand [standing] before him” is at least a reminder to Daniel, who probably felt a little bit alone—I would have imagined so—that he was not alone and that ultimately, the fact of the animosity of the kingdoms of man will be crumbling before the court as it sits in judgment and the books were opened.

In other words, this takes us, actually, to the very end of things, doesn’t it—when, in the book of Revelation, you have the books being opened and the accounts being settled? It makes me think of a song. Most things do. I don’t know if I can quote this:

There was a time on earth,
When in the books of Heav’n
An old account was standing
Of sins yet unforgiv’n
And my name was at the top,
And many deeds below
But I went unto the Keeper,
And I settled it long ago.

Long ago, long ago,
Down on my knees, I settled it all.
And the record’s clear today,
ʼCause he washed my sins away,
And the old account was settled long ago.[14]

You see, unless the account is settled in time, it will be settled. The justice of God will prevail. All of the bad stuff, all of the hatred, all of the injustice one day will be reckoned with when the books are opened. And Daniel, as he’s aware of the fact that these monsters have arisen under the threat of Babylon, under the threat of the Medo-Persian Empire, the strength of all of these people who are able to oppress God’s people, and he says, “And I saw, and I saw that the books were opened, and I realized this immense picture of God’s sovereign judgment.”

There is a higher throne
Than all this world has known
Where faithful ones from ev’ry tongue
Will one day come.[15]

That’s the first scene.

The Destruction of the Beast

The second scene, then, in verse 11 and following, is the destruction of the beast. And the little horn begins to pipe up. “And as I looked,” he says—verse 11b—“the beast was killed, and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire.” Well, that’s the end of that. There’s nothing more to be said, is there? Well, but “for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time.” As opposed to—thinking of the timing of things, if you just look down to where we finished at verse 18—instead of “a season and a time,” you’ve got “the kingdom forever, forever and ever.” I think that’s all you need to do with that stuff. That’s the point that’s being made. In other words, they were able to play out their story over the time of history.

I don’t know exactly what this means. But as I thought about it, I thought, “The influence of Babylon is still around, is it not?” Are we in any doubt that Persia does not have a voice to shout in our world today, that Iran has still got something to say? Well, you don’t want to get too particular about it, but the fact of the matter is, what he saw is the fact that God has set things in final order. History has not yet come to an end. But when it does come to an end, God will execute his judgment and his justice.

The Son of Man

So, scene one: the establishing of the throne and the courtroom scene; “All rise.” Scene two: the beast is destroyed; therefore, we don’t need to be unduly concerned about that. Number three: “[And] I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man.”

Now, just as the Ancient of Days is representative of God, so “one like a son of man” is representative of Jesus. Let’s just say that so that we get that settled in our minds. We can come back and then reverse, if you like, back into it again. But Jesus’ favorite self-designation was “Son of Man.” You read the Gospels, he refers to it again: “When the Son of Man [returns], will he find faith on [the] earth?”[16] and so on. He mentions it all the time. But when you read this, you say to yourself, “Well, exactly, why does it say, ‘And I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man’?” “Like a son of man.”

Well, a few years ago now, I had the opportunity to preach at a conference in a Presbyterian church in Memphis, along with Sinclair Ferguson, whom I refer to as my big brother. I do that with the greatest respect, because after my father died, I adopted him as my big brother. I informed him of the fact that I wanted a big brother and I had chosen him. So he is officially my big brother. And I love him, and I respect him, and he has as good a grasp of the Bible as any person I know on the face of the earth. So, when I had to preach with him—you don’t want to preach with your big brother! Especially when the assignment was seven addresses on the names of Jesus. One: Jesus, the Seed of the Woman, the Suffering Servant, the Prophet, the Priest, the King, the Lamb upon the Throne, and the Son of Man. And we said to one another, “Which one are you getting?” I said, “Well, let me tell you which one you’re getting, big brother! I would like to assign you Son of Man, because frankly, I’m not sure what I’m going to do with that.” So he took it on.

I remember I was there to listen to him preach, obviously. Mike Stokke, who was down in Memphis at the time—in fact, he’s still there, I think—we sat together as Sinclair expounded the theme “Jesus, the Son of Man.” And I remember when it ended, we were both just stunned into silence. I remember either I said to Stokes or Stokes said to me, “Could you do that?” And we both said no. He said, “Well, don’t worry about it, because you don’t have to do it.” But now I have to do it. So, thankfully, I remember a little bit of what Sinclair said. And anything that you don’t understand, it’s because I’m not as clever as he is to make it clear to you, and you can send him an email somewhere in Scotland.

But let’s just take a look at this and see what we mean: “[And] I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man.” So the one who comes in the clouds—“with the clouds,” actually—is like a human being, in that he is all that human beings, as God’s image, were meant to be but fail to be. All right? He is all that humans, made in God’s image, were meant to be but fail to be. So it’s not simply that he’s saying he is both Son of God and Son of Man, but that Christ is the perfect man. Christ is the embodiment of what God intended, in creation, in humanity. That that’s why Paul refers to him as the second Adam: “As in Adam all die, so … in Christ … all [will] be made alive.”[17] United with Adam, we find ourselves sinners. United with Christ, we are set free from our sins and enabled to live differently.

Jesus is all that humans, made in God’s image, were meant to be but failed to be.

So when we look at this one who is appearing in this way, we realize that Adam, who was, in the garden, given the privilege, the prerogative, to exercise a God-given dominion… Right? God says to Adam, “Now, this is what I want you to do. I’ve made a beautiful place for you here, a lovely garden. And I want you to tend it, I want you to care for it, and I want you to exercise dominion over all the beasts. You will name them, and you will rule over them, and they will be under your jurisdiction and under your dominion.”[18]

What happens? Adam sins. And therefore, his dominion is lost. And therefore, he falls short of God’s glory. Since then, man qua man—man as man, men and women—have sought to recover that lost dominion without letting go of our sin. Right? So we are sinful, bent, curved in upon ourselves, recognizing that somehow or another, we ought to be able to bring this thing under control; we can fix this; we can work this out; we’ll get it right. The fact is, we are, ourselves, endemically flawed as men, as women. “As in Adam all die…”

What are we in need of? We are in need of one who will come, “like unto the son of man,” who becomes the servant that Adam was supposed to be but failed to be, and who then in turn reflects the glory of God as he lives in obedience to God. Consequently, he is then highly exalted, he is given a name that is above every other name, and, in part, he receives the nations as his inheritance. The nations as his inheritance. This is Psalm 2, isn’t it? “Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance.”[19]

You see, God’s purpose from all of eternity is not Adam and Eve in the garden. It is Christ in the gospel. If your view is somehow that God started it once, it went a little pear-shaped on him, and so he had to come up with another plan, you’d better stop for a moment and start reading the Bible. And as you read the Bible, you will realize that God’s purpose from all of eternity was to redeem a people by the shedding of the blood of his Son and that in that, in that Son of Man, there is the triumph and there is the victory and there is the power—so that that is what we have here: in “the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man.”

God’s purpose from all of eternity is not Adam and Eve in the garden. It is Christ in the gospel.

Secondly, where did he come? Or, if you like, in which direction is the Son of Man going? If you haven’t looked at this, you’re going to tell me that this is him coming from heaven, at the end of time, to earth. But look at the text. I don’t think it is. He is coming to the Ancient of Days. He is not coming from the Ancient of Days.

Now, I haven’t spoken to Graham Kendrick. I love the song. We sang it again today: “And he [will] reign forever [and ever],” and “every nation, tribe and tongue [will worship] him on bended knee.”[20] Yes, they will, but not just yet. Not just yet. And I think that probably Graham assumes that this is a description of the end of the ages when Christ returns. You’re sensible people. Examine it. Figure it out.

Incidentally, when I say that the main things are the plain things and the plain things are the main things, I hope none of you think that I’m ever saying that there are some parts you’re supposed to believe and there are other parts that you really don’t have to believe. Nobody thinks that, do you? I hope not! Every part of it is to be believed. Every part of it is to be bowed under. But here, you can have a long conversation with your friends over coffee as to the direction in which the Son of Man is moving. I am of the opinion that this is not a description of Jesus coming from heaven at the end of time, but rather, this is a description of Jesus going to heaven after his death, resurrection, ascension, and then, finally, his coronation. It is a picture of the coronation of Christ, if you like: “And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that,” so that, “all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him,” which is represented in embryonic form but will be brought to fulfillment on the day when every knee will bow and every tongue confess.

Now, again, I say to you: you’ve got to think this out. But think about it: when Jesus is taken up in Acts chapter 1, he’s taken up.[21] He goes in the clouds. He comes in the clouds, to the Ancient of Days. He goes, if you like, back to headquarters, if we might say so reverently. He goes back to the Father, and he says, “Father, I have completed the job that you gave me to do. I have borne the punishment for sin. I have been raised to life. I have ascended now to your throne, and I’m asking you to give me the nations for my inheritance. And I am also making sure that the Holy Spirit is poured out upon the disciples that I have left behind.” You see how it fits?

The end of Matthew’s Gospel, he gathers his disciples, and what does he say to them? “[Now],” he says, “all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. [Therefore, go] and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”[22] In other words, the work of the gospel throughout the world is a logical deduction from the reality of who Christ is and what Christ has accomplished. If you’re not careful, you’ll read your history books all wrong. You’ll fall foul of the notion that somehow or another, what we’re doing in the world as evangelical believers is going out to foist on people something that is harmful and unhelpful to them. After all, they’re nice Muslim people, they’re good Hindus, they’re fine Jewish people, and so on. Well, if that’s the case, leave them alone! If all roads lead to heaven like they do to Timbuktu, it would be the worst thing we could possibly do to go out there.

But if this is true, God forgive us if we don’t go to the ends of the earth with a message that on that day when he returns, there will be a shout of joy and a cry of anguish—when Christ returns and every knee bows low. And here we have Daniel chapter 7, and as he returns to the Father, it is reaffirmed again that “his dominion,” then, “is an everlasting dominion.” It won’t “pass away, and his kingdom … [will] not be destroyed.”

Caught Up in the Vision

Whew! How are we doing? Probably just take a breath here. Are you doing any better than Daniel at this point? You say, “Well, how was Daniel doing?” Well, look at verse 15: “As for me, Daniel, my spirit within me was anxious.” Well, that’s good. I’m a little anxious myself. “And the visions of my head alarmed me.” Whew! So, he says, “I approached one of those who stood there and asked him the truth concerning all this.” Because all these first fourteen verses have all been description. It’s only 15 and on that you get interpretation.

Now, we’re going to have to deal with this this evening, which is why we’re not taking the service outdoors, because I want people to actually listen, and I want to be heard. But we’ll deal with the second half of it when we get there. But let’s just notice, in setting it up for tonight, that there’s something very interesting in verse 16: “I approached one of those who stood there.” What? I thought this was a dream? I thought it was a vision?

Well, this is apocalyptic, again. This is the same thing you have in Revelation with John. Daniel does not simply see himself now as someone on the outside observing what is taking place, but he is so caught up in the vision itself that he looks and he sees himself a participant in what’s going on. And so he says, “I approached one of the folks who was there, and I said to him, ‘Can you help me with this? I’m trying to understand this.’” And so in verse 17 we have the explanation that we have used to guide us in the early part of our exposition: “These four great beasts are four kings who shall arise out of the earth. But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, forever and ever.”

Well, that would have been a good close, wouldn’t it? If Daniel had just said “Thank you very much,” we could have said, “Okay, let’s do the closing hymn and move.” But look what he does: “Can you help me with the fourth beast, which is different from the rest, with its terrifying teeth of iron and its claws of bronze, and breaking up in pieces, and stamping what was left with his feet? And also, can you give me something on the ten horns that were on its head, and the other horn that came up and before the three of them fell, and the horn that had eyes and a mouth and that spoke great things and that seemed greater than its companions?” Wow! “[And] as I looked, [the] horn made war with the saints and prevailed over them.”

“But I thought you said that dominion would never end? I thought the whole thing conquered, and we won, and that was the end of it? Who’s prevailing? And how are they prevailing? And what’s happened to the saints here? And when does this happen? And how does it happen? And who or what is this horn? What is this antichrist figure? Who is this antichrist figure?”

That’s this evening.

Let’s pray:

Father, thank you for the Bible. May the truth of these verses stir us to action. May we not be paralyzed by them or intrigued by them, but may we rightfully bow down under the overwhelming reality they convey: that although the proud empires of man, throughout history and in our contemporary world, in so many ways stand opposed to the truth of the gospel, that you have called for us, as your people in our day, to stand, to take our place. And so we ask that you will help us to understand what that means and then to live in the truth that we discover. For we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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[1] Henry W. Baker, “Lord, Thy Word Abideth” (1861).

[2] John Ellerton, “The Day Thou Gavest, Lord, Is Ended” (1870).

[3] Philippians 2:10 (ESV).

[4] Joyce G. Baldwin, Daniel: An Introduction and Commentary, The Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Leicester, England: Inter-Varsity, 1978), 137.

[5] Matthew 6:10 (ESV).

[6] Mark 1:15 (paraphrased).

[7] John 3:2 (paraphrased).

[8] John 3:3 (ESV).

[9] John 3:5 (paraphrased).

[10] John 3:5–6 (paraphrased.

[11] Brenton Brown, “Lord, Reign in Me” (2006).

[12] See Ezekiel 1:15–21.

[13] See Exodus 3:1–2.

[14] Frank M. Graham, “The Old Account Was Settled” (1902). Lyrics lightly altered.

[15] Keith Getty and Kristyn Getty, “There Is a Higher Throne” (2003).

[16] Luke 18:8 (ESV).

[17] 1 Corinthians 15:22 (ESV).

[18] See Genesis 2:15, 19–20.

[19] Psalm 2:8 (paraphrased).

[20] Graham Kendrick, “And He Shall Reign” (1991).

[21] See Acts 1:9.

[22] Matthew 28:18–19 (ESV).