There are moments in history when an entire civilization moves out of one era and into another. The German philosopher Karl Jasper coined the term “Axial Age” to describe these periods. Messiah the Prince was written at such an Axial Moment. William Symington wrote it amidst the throes of the Industrial Revolution, when Modernist ideals were capturing the imagination of western society.

That was several centuries ago. Today, we are at another Axial Moment on the other end of that same era. Now, the Industrial Age has given way to the Information Age, and Modernist ideals are giving way to…well, we don’t really know what system of ideals will captivate the imagination of emerging generations the way Modernist ideals did our forebears. Today’s cultural transition is still underway. This parallel between Symington’s context and our own makes this book vital for the 21st Century church.

In this book, we have a worthy model of Christian testimony during a period of cultural upheaval. Symington’s parents were part of the generation swept up by the Industrial Revolution and transplanted from the farm to the city. Symington, therefore, was a member of the emerging generation of that Axial Age, forced to sort through the confusion and uncertainties of the new urbanism of his day.

Gripped by Christ during his college years, Symington went on to become a pastor. He eventually settled in a Glasgow congregation, where his rich and colorful ministry sought to bring the timeless truths of the gospel to bear on the social and intellectual upheavals of the industrialized city. Messiah the Prince, Symington’s magnum opus, offers an inspiring model for Christians ministering the gospel in this present age of cultural uncertainties.

Furthermore, the particular topic of Symington’s work is relevant (indeed, crucial) for many of the questions being raised in our day. In this book, Symington takes up the biblical doctrine of Christ’s kingly office. Starting with the conviction that Jesus truly is the King of kings, Symington here explores the implications of Christ’s reign for the church and the state in the modern, increasingly secularized world. The dream of secularism, which was on the rise in Symington’s day, has taken full hold in our own day. Although many facets of Modernism have fallen under scrutiny, the effort to quarantine civic policy from religious thought seems even more vigorous today than ever.

Symington brought a biblical understanding of Christ’s kingship to bear on the Modern era. Other theologians had written on Christ’s kingship in the Roman, medieval, and Reformation ages (e.g., Augustine’s City of God, John Wycliffe’s De Civili Dominio, and Martin Bucer’s De Regno Christi). Symington sought to bring that same doctrine to bear on the Modern context. The verbiage of Symington’s book reflects the social situation of 19th Century Britain, but its doctrinal essence is precisely aimed at the same Modernist secularism we have inherited today. It is a timely work for rediscovery by the church on the other end of the Modernist Era.

There is a third reason this book is important for the church, today. There is a spirit of confidence about Christ’s reign that pervades Symington’s treatment that we don’t find in many other books on the “Christ and culture” shelf. Sensing the Axial Moment in which we live, numerous contemporary authors call upon Christians to “recover a Christian worldview,” to “influence the culture for Christ,” and so forth. I suspect Symington would appreciate much of that work, but his book gives us an essential foundation for Christian cultural influence that many recent writers have overlooked. Symington shows us that Jesus already is King of kings, whether the leading institutions of our society recognize His reign over them or not. It is a fact. Certainly, states and other institutions ought to acknowledge Christ’s reign—and the church should call them to do so, as Symington explains at great length. But he writes with refreshing confidence: Jesus already is the King of kings and Lord of lords.

That conviction fills this book with a spirit of joy in Christ’s reign, which the church needs today. There is a sense of freedom Symington teaches us—freedom for the church to be about her work no matter what political and social upheavals swirl about us, knowing that Jesus is King. We need to hear that message at the dusk of the Modernist Era, and it is that message that Symington proclaims to us loudly and clearly from the morn of that era.

William Symington died on Jan. 28, 1862. His last words were a quotation from Scripture: “There remaineth a rest to the people of God” (Heb. 4:9). Symington was a man who loved his Savior and looked forward to an eternity in His kingdom.

This book is filled with that hope in Christ. He offers us no utopian dream of making heaven on earth, confusing the kingdoms of men for the kingdom of Christ. But here is a book that shows us the eternal reign of Christ, with its implications for the institutions of this present world and its inspiring hope for the perfections of a rest yet to come.

—Michael LeFebvre, Co-author of William Symington: Penman of the Scottish Covenanters