THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM
from
IS THE CHURCH WHICH IS CHRIST'S BODY
IDENTICAL WITH THE KINGDOM
PROPHESIED IN THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES?
Maurice M Johnson & James D Cox
Series of radio messages
from the home of JDC
Charlottesville, Virginia
April 1967
James Cox: What about the keys?
Maurice Johnson: Now the keys, yes. "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I'll build My church, and the gates of hell shall not, prevail against it. I give unto thee the keys of the kingdom." Now why try to make the church referred to there, and the kingdom, identical? My friend, the kingdom of God as prophesied, we've already given for instance in Daniel, will fill the whole earth. It won't be an ecclesia, a called out company. But while the kingdom in Matthew 21:43, we read, "The kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof."
In the 17th chapter of Luke the Lord Jesus said... when some of the disbelieving, willful, disbelieving Jews said, "Show us a sign. When will the kingdom of God come?" He said, "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation; for behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst." Now those who say He meant the kingdom of God is in your heart, did He say to those Christ rejectors, "The kingdom of God's in your heart"?
My friends, the phase of the kingdom that was later and is now in the hearts of believers is referred to very clearly in the 6th (sic) chapter of Romans, "The kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit."Now, if that is the aspect and the phase of the kingdom that was taken from Israel, then the whole nation was doomed and damned. But the phase of the kingdom taken from Israel was the Messianic, Davidic, Davidic, Palestinian kingdom. That phase of the kingdom was taken from Israel when the King Himself allowed them to crown Him with thorns and spit on Him and nail Him to a cross, and He never let the world see Him again, but He went back to glory.
But read what He said after He got back. He's going to come back in flaming fire. He's going to restore the kingdom to Israel. In the meantime He's taking out of the Gentiles a people for His name.
No, the keys to the kingdom have nothing whatsoever to do with the church which is Christ's body.
Cox: Brother Johnson, if those Jews had the kingdom within them, Peter didn't need any keys to let them in did he?
Johnson: Exactly, exactly.
Cox: We're told the keys are the gospel, and that Peter used one key on the day of Pentecost when he preached to the Jews on the day of Pentecost and opened the doors of the kingdom to the...
Johnson: That's what your Southern Baptist theologians taught you when you were in seminary.
Cox: That's right. And I don't know why they say there were two keys because he preached the same gospel, as far as personal salvation was concerned, in Acts. 10.Johnson: Well, I can see how he had two keys. He opened the first door to Jews and then left the key in it and then went to Gentiles in Acts 10 and ... and used another key. What a monstrosity. Call that Bible exposition?
Cox: The keys of the kingdom, my dear friend, are the executive powers given Peter and the apostles which they wilt surely use ...
Johnson: ...And they did use.
Cox: That's right. And they will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel according to Luke 22. Christ said, "You are they which have continued with Me in My temptation, And I appoint unto you a kingdom, that you shall sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel," Here in the book of Acts, the seats that they sat on most of the time were jail seats. They didn't sit on thrones.
Johnson: That's right.
Cox: One of these days they're going to sit on some thrones as the Lord promised ...
Johnson: Yes.
Cox: And they'll judge the twelve tribes of Israel, Thank God.