The Reward Without End

NICENE CREED

whose kingdom shall have no end.

Now this statement gives a hint as to what the majority believed and could agree on concerning the eschatology of the fathers during this time frame of the Spirit’s reign (2Cor.3:17). This statement being tacked on at the end of the previous statement, concerning the coming judgment of Christ (2Tim.4:1), signifies that the rule that Christ possesses now differs somewhat in how Christ promises to rule in His return to judge the living and the dead (Acts 10:42; Rom.14:9), which is why in unison the creed continues with the same lines as the Apostles’ Creed by declaring the reign of the Spirit of Christ (the Holy Spirit) in the present church age until Christ comes and sets up His glorious reign in the nation of Israel again (Lk.2:25-26, 29-35; Acts 1:6-8; Zech.2:12; 3:2), which is a kingdom without end because the second death has no power over her glory in His earthly reign over every nation, tribe, and tongue through His instrument, Jerusalem of Israel (Isa.14:1; 44:1; 49:7).

The empire of this kingdom has no end because no flesh is able to stand against the glory that intersects the kingdoms of the world through the presence of the King of kings and Lord of lords (Rev.19:11-16). Therefore, this statement conjoined to the statement that Christ will come again to judge the living and the dead distinguishes that judgment in two parts by separating the living from the dead like a shepherd divides the sheep from the goats (Dan.12:1-3; Matt.22:31-32; Lk.14:13-14; 20:34-38; Jn.5:24-29; 11:23-26; Acts 24:14-16; Rom.6:5; Rev.20:5-6). Therefore, as this kingdom without end intersects the world of the kingdoms of men predestined to fall off the face of the earth (Rev.14:8; 18:2), the dead will be rooted out from among the living to be judged in the resurrection of condemnation so that the living may receive their rewards and to rule and reign with Christ under the season of His millennial peace (Matt.15:13; 19:28-30; 25:31-46; Acts 3:18-23; Rev.14:13; Rom.6:5; Rev.20:1-15; Mic.4:1-5:5; Isa.2:1-5; Zech.6:12-13; 9:10; Jn.15:1-5).

Therefore, there is no end to the living who live under Christ’s reward (Ps.27:13; 52:5; 116:7-9; 142:5; Isa.38:10-12; 53:8; Jer.11:19; Ezk.26:20; 32:23; Rev.22:12-13). But those who refuse the reward shall be cursed with the second death because they did not love the glory of Christ’s inheritance (2Thess.2:3-12; Rev.20:7-10, 14-15). This why those who live in the glory of God look for a new heavens and a new earth wherein righteousness dwells (2Pet.3:10-13), for the kingdom of the dead have an end to their earthbound reward (Matt.6:2, 5, 16; 16:26; Ps.17:13-14), for the glory of this world is prepared to fade and pass away to the degree that it is promised to be cast outside as waste material at the footstool of the new creation to burn forever in the darkness of the lake of fire that has no light of the life of the eternal Lamb who torments them as though it were still day and night but have no rest in the recess of their souls (Matt.8:11-12; 22:11-14; 23:33; 25:30; Lk.12:5; Rev.14:10-11; 21:22-27; Rom.16:20).

Therefore, since the kingdom of the living has no end, neither does the kingdom of the dead, for it is an eternal death under the conscious torment of both the soul and body of the damned (Matt.10:28). Therefore, there will be degrees to this torment in both body and soul as the reward to those who sought righteousness apart from the righteousness of God in obedience to the natural light that they had in the creation itself (Rom.2:2-16). What is the application of this understanding? Knowing that we should fear the judgment of God’s righteous wrath appointed for those who hate the wisdom of the cross of Christ and love death disguised as life through the imagination of the serpent’s cunning power to deceive, we should flee the wrath to come by crying out to be delivered from the present wrath that fully abides in those who don’t believe (Jn.3:36), and in those inward parts of the believer that remain unsanctified that demonstrate our evil depravity that still secretly dwells within (Rom.7:24).

  Another interesting passage, sometimes overlooked, is Eph. 1:13, “In Whom having believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise”: belief, and so, we are entitled to infer, some verbal manifestation of it, precede baptism.

These and other passages (there is no need to cover the familiar ground in detail) substantiate the hypothesis that a confession of faith was normally expected at baptism at the time when the documents quoted were written.

 J. N. D. Kelly, Early Christian Creeds