Understanding the Unity of Prophecy_

Luke

Bible Prophecy • Sermon • Submitted 4 years ago

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This book is an attempt to unify all the prophetic data of Scripture

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Companion Press

P.O. Box 351

Shippensburg, PA 17257

ISBN 0-914903-74-8

For Worldwide Distribution

Introduction

The author must acknowledge that much of the material used in this book is not new, but has already been presented by exponents of the four principal systems of explaining biblical prophecies. In this book, insights from many sources are used to unite all the prophetic data into a synthetic view of God's great plan leading to the end of the ages. The extent of our debt to others in this lifelong study is such that we find it impossible to mention the names of most of those who have contributed elements to the present attempt to unify the data involved. We will mention authorities only when their testimony is crucial to our thesis, and in that case their names will be included in the text rather than in footnotes. This is in accord with the nature of the book, which is offered as a suggested synthesis rather than as documented interaction with scholars. We believe, however, that enough thoughts are original to fully justify its publication and enough material is traditional, although used in a new way, to recommend it to those who believe that the Holy Spirit has always been teaching the Church.

Some of our readers may have the legitimate fear that any effort to unite all the data of prophecy into a single synthesis may result in a misunderstanding or a corruption of the original meaning of the parts. This danger is real, and we do not profess to have always been able to avoid it. It is necessary, however, for those who believe that all the Scriptures are the truth of God to pay attention to all and to seek to understand and correlate the meaning which unites all of them; otherwise they cannot be fully intelligible as truth. Nor can they be applied to moral and spiritual life if they are considered contradictory in nature.

The consideration of so many biblical prophecies in so short a compass prevents our explaining and justifying the choice of some textual lessons and the exegesis behind the use of many passages. We can only hope that others may find that our main synthesis is legitimate and that they will be able to confirm or improve it in its details.

When the Bible translation used is not indicated, it is usually the King James Version, although the author occasionally expresses in his own words what he considers to be the meaning. He also, very occasionally, chooses a textual reading which is not found in the English versions; in that case the reference of the verse is followed by the letters “v. 1.” The chapter division is always that of the KJV, even when reference is made to the Septuagint.

Introduction

Chapter Page

1. The Problem 1

2. The Presuppositions of a Christian Eschatology 12

3. A False Principle of Interpretation 16

4. The Promised Man: “The Seed of the Woman” 21

5. The Promises to Abraham and His Seed 36

6. The Eschatology of the Mosaic Covenants 53

7. The Davidic Messiah 73

8. The Day of Jehovah 88

9. The Servant of Jehovah 113

10. The New Covenant 122

11. Daniel's Kingdom of the Suffering Saints 131

12. When Shall Jerusalem Have Eternal Righteousness? 143

13. Restoration Begun and Completed 163

14. Conclusions 173

15. The Unfolding End Times in the Book of Revelation 180

Appendix: What Ordinances Will Be Practiced in the Millennium? 205

Chapter One

The Problem

As a multitude of researchers has bent over the Bible and investigated its diverse aspects, the overall result has been the fragmentation of the Scriptures, rather than the uniting of all into a single synthesis. Disagreements multiply among the experts, and many of them tend to find contradictory strands and sources in the biblical documents. Others follow the traditional scheme of understanding which each has inherited, failing to modify it or call it into question when contrary evidence seems to invalidate it. There is no consensus as to what is the central unifying theme of all the genres of the Scriptures.

This book studies, in the approximate chronological order of their appearances, the main prophetic themes of the Bible. It calls on its readers to anticipate the disclosure of a fundamental unity in them. Such an understanding must be sought as a needed corrective to the fragmentation of the Scriptures, but must not force them into its mold.

The correlating of the prophecies is a path by which the principles of unity of the whole Bible may be discovered. The historical books are generally seen by their authors as verifying, rendering specific and accomplishing what had already been predicted. The poetical and wisdom books, in turn, spring from the diverse historical situations. We hope, in a further work, to show how all this leads to a unified picture of all the books of the Bible, based on the principles of unity of the prophecies which the present book outlines.

From the very beginning, the biblical account of world history is accompanied by predictions. The Prophet Amos attributes this phenomenon to God's desire to continually inform His faithful initiates of what He intends to do: “Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets” ().

Even on the supposition that the biblical documents are not the inspired Word of God, one must admit that their inclusion in a single book, by a particular people, would not have taken place if they had not had a certain consistence and unity. The later prophets certainly believed what the earlier had written. They wrote to confirm, supplement and explain, not to contradict the earlier writers. In order to understand the unity of their growing elaboration of future events, and to seize the underlying principles of the whole, it is advantageous for us to take the same position of faith and to accept all statements at their face value, including historical statements. We will also make the supposition that the later reinterpretation of prophecies, in the biblical development of prophetic themes, is not disloyal to their original purpose. We will therefore seek to find reasons which might explain that linkage, even when it may occasionally, at first glance, seem unjustified.

Believers in the truth and basic unity of the prophecies have not found it easy to reconcile all the predictions and to form a clear picture of the whole. In Judaism an attempt was scarcely made to elaborate a systematic theology of the future, an eschatology.

The problem is not diminished for those of us who hold also to the inspiration of the New Testament (NT). Its historical accounts are presented as the record of an initial accomplishment of the prophecies of the Hebrew Scriptures; it teaches also that many of the Old Testament (OT) prophecies are yet to be fulfilled, and adds to them its own elaboration of that future. Its definition of our hope is not, however, easily reconcilable with all the predictions of the last times found in the Old Testament. That this difficulty is real is confirmed by the variety of prophetic viewpoints which have existed in the Christian churches.

We will trace briefly these prophetic positions, which we will later criticize, synthesize and supplement. Most have been designated by terms expressing the relation of the return of Christ to His reign “with a rod of iron”, the thousand-year duration of which is mentioned only in the Book of Revelation, chapter 20. Those who find a key to prophecy in the teaching of the thousand-year reign generally use it to locate the time of all the future earthly righteousness, peace and prosperity of which the Hebrew prophets spoke. Premillennialists are those who believe that Christ will return before the millennium; Postmillennialists believe that He will come after the millennium; Amillennialists do not believe that there will be any distinct temporary reign of Christ preceding His eternal reign — other than His present sitting at the right hand of God — but that His perfect eternal reign will be immediately inaugurated by His Second Coming and the last judgment.

There are two general types of Premillennialism which are distinguished in the historical summaries which follow, namely “Historical” Premillennialism and Dispensationalism. The point of view which is developed in this book is a Premillennialism which contains features of both.

I. Historical Premillennialism

When applied to the early Church, this term has more often been replaced by the term “Chiliasm”. Most of the early Christian writers on eschatology, before Augustine, believed that Christ would come back to destroy a future antichrist and to reign on earth for 1000 years with His resurrected saints. Early writers such as Papias, Irenaeus, Tertullian and Lactantius believed that the Old Testament predictions of an age of material earthly blessing would be fulfilled when Christ and the Church would dwell literally at Jerusalem, reigning over an Edenic earth which would produce fantastically abundant harvests. The Church would inherit these blessings because she has replaced Israel as God's chosen people.

They seem to have believed that Christians, who are to be resurrected at the Coming of Christ, will then live on the present earth and so will not, at that time, receive glorified incorruptible bodies. It was supposed that they would live in ideal conditions, feast on the abundant harvests and be tested and prepared for incorruptibility during the thousand years.

That hardly seems a good way to be tested and sanctified! However, the main objection to this teaching is that it contradicts the fundamental Christian hope of receiving immortality in a glorious body “in the twinkling of an eye” when Christ comes (). The theological error may be partly due to a textual error: many early manuscripts have false readings at , such as “we shall all be raised but we shall not all be changed”. Thus Irenaeus taught that not all Christians living on earth during the millennium would, at its conclusion, gain the right to live in the heavenly part of the new creation.

Some modern Evangelicals wish to be identified with this Chiliasm under the common designation of “Historical Premillennialism”. We doubt that they wish to espouse the objectionable features of it which we have mentioned. They do, however, share with it the belief that the Church will be persecuted during the time of the rule of antichrist, before the Second Coming of Christ; they believe also that, in the millennium which will follow, the natural descendants of Israel will not keep Levitical ordinances or have a distinct covenant from which Gentiles will be excluded.

There is another matter in which “Historical Premillennialists” have differed among themselves throughout later history. For several hundred years after the Reformation, Protestant Premillennialists taught that the Pope was the antichrist and that his predicted rule of 42 months or 1260 days signified 1260 years (; ). They took a historicist view of the Book of Revelation. This view is still perpetuated by the Seventh Day Adventists. Many modern “Historical Premillennialists” take the 42 months as literal and expect the last generation of Christians to live through them; they view the antichrist as a single individual of the last days rather than as the “continual person” of the Pope.

II. Amillennialism

It is not surprising that Augustine revolted against the sensual Chiliast hope, saying that only a carnal man could believe in carnal feasts in the millennium.

In Augustine's view, the millennium is occurring now. The Old Testament prophecies of the progress and triumph of righteousness on earth are experienced in the present age, in which the Church is to increasingly dominate. Unfortunately, this teaching supported an objectionable teaching of Augustine's, which was that schismatics could be obliged by force to return to the Church. If the present age is a millennium characterized by the reign of the institutional Church with Christ over the nations of the earth, then the Church has every right to persecute heretics and Jews! The teaching of Augustine dominated Europe for 1000 years, and this was an evil effect of it.

Through Augustine the denial of a distinct millennial reign of Christ after His Second Coming became the dominant attitude in the main branches of the Christian Church. Modern Evangelicals may maintain this position only by considering the thousand years as non-literal, equating them with the more lengthy Church age. Some hold the view that the disembodied souls of the elect exercise the millennial reign now in heaven; thus they avoid the insinuation that Christians should now reign over the world. The part of the prophets' description of a golden age which cannot be taken to describe the Church now is applied to the new earth, after Christ's Coming and the last judgment.

The general tendency of this school of thought is to minimize the idea of changes of dispensation; that is to say, of periods when God's administration of His people takes a different form in history. In addition to setting aside the literal millennium, some of its adherents, Covenant Amillennialists, believe that a single covenant was given to all the saved, from Adam on, in the Old Testament as in the New. Some seem to suppose that the same kind of new birth was given before the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost as was given afterwards.

The Amillennial eschatology is simple: the Coming of Christ as judge at the end of time consigns men either to heaven or to hell. The earth will then pass away and the final kingdom, or new earth, will come, suddenly and not through an intermediate period or millennium. This system may consist with the hope that the Coming of Christ is near, and the majority of Evangelical Amillennialists no doubt look for the soon-coming Christ.

III. Postmillennialism

The Victorian age saw this interpretation at its apogee, since that century of Protestant missions and of the Empire seemed to many Britishers to be the beginning of the golden age of the earth foretold by the prophets. (The summit of absurdity of this position was the teaching of certain “British Israelites” that the British Empire would continue to expand until it covered the whole earth, with the center of the kingdom of God at London!) They do not believe that Christ Himself must come first to bring in His kingdom: His Church will do it with the help of men of good will. Two world wars and the dechristianizing of the Occident have discredited this belief, although it has been revived in some circles. Our option retains certain elements of it, since we too believe that the righteousness announced by the Gospel will eventually prevail on earth.

IV. Dispensationalism

The most prevalent form of Premillennialism in our time is no doubt that which forms a basic and integral part of the Dispensational theology first elaborated by J. N. Darby.

We follow Darby's own account of the origin of his point of view, as expressed in his letter to Professor Tholuck:

“In my retreat, the 32nd chapter of Isaiah taught me clearly, on God's behalf, that there was still an economy to come, of His ordering; a state of things in no way established as yet. The consciousness of my union with Christ had given me the present heavenly portion of the glory, whereas this chapter sets forth the corresponding earthly part. I was not able to put these things in their respective places or arrange them in order, as I can now”.

This quotation reveals the origin of an earthly-heavenly dichotomy of God's kingdom, which is at the heart of the Dispensational system. The Old Testament prophecies of the earthly reign of Messiah are “in no way” accomplished now in the believer, whom God considers as seated spiritually in heavenly places in Christ and not on the earth (; ). In other words, instead of seeking to show that Christianity fulfills the prophets' predictions of the future kingdom, Darby renounces all attempts to do so, and puts their promised blessing of the earth entirely in the future millennium. The present era was unpredicted, is entirely distinct and prepares the heavenly part of that kingdom.

This dichotomy was subsequently developed to extend to four main areas of biblical interpretation:

1. There are two eternally distinct chosen peoples. One, Israel, is destined to rule on earth; the other, heavenly in nature and destiny, is the Church. The Church did not replace Israel or inherit its promises, but has an entirely different nature and calling, revealed to the Apostle Paul.

2. There are two distinct and unrelated periods of time, the one inserted into the middle of the other. This is what Darby meant by being able to “put these things in their respective places or arrange them in order”. The encompassing period of time is that which was seen by the Old Testament prophets, when God deals with Israel as His chosen people, in order to set up an earthly kingdom; the inserted or parenthetical period stretches from the beginning of the Church, at Pentecost, to the future day when Christ will come to take her to the heavenly mansions which He will have prepared for her.

These two periods of time are very different in nature. The times which concern Israel have been precisely chronicled. There are exact durations of time predicted, the first up to the triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem and His death () and then, resuming the measuring of time after the unforeseen Church period, a seven-year covenant of a Roman prince (), followed by the reign of 1000 years.

On the other hand the duration of the period of the Church is not measured, nor is the Church to be sought in the prophecies of the Old Testament. The coming of the Messiah, spoken of in the Old Testament, is not only fulfilled by two separate advents, as all Christians admit, but the period between the two has an unforeseen character, like an unexpected valley between two mountains seen from afar as one, revealing a radically different people. It is useless to search the Scriptures to determine when this age will end, for that date has not been revealed by God. The prophetic clock of God will not start again until the Church is gone and the chronicled prophetic program on behalf of Israel is resumed.

3. There are two great categories of Scripture, each of which applies primarily to only one of the two divisions of God's plan for time. Thus the Scriptures must be “rightly divided” to be understood in the Dispensational manner (). All the Old Testament prophecies are related to Israel, and fit into the time up to and including the first advent, death and resurrection of the Messiah; or they apply to the seven years of “the great tribulation” under the antichrist, the Second Coming of Christ to earth and His millennial reign. In addition to the Old Testament, certain parts of the New Testament are also considered to be addressed primarily to Israel rather than to the Church. These include most of the teaching given in the synoptic Gospels, including the Sermon on the Mount and the Olivet discourse. It is held that Jesus presented Himself as the rightful Davidic king of the Jews and that only when His rejection as king was shown to be certain did He speak briefly of His future Church and parabolically of its mysterious epoch. In His prophecies of the end times He did not speak of the future hope of His Church, however: these concern only Israel, after the rapture of the Church.

Chapters 4 to 20 of the Book of Revelation are also considered to be outside the Scriptures primarily applicable to the Church. They relate to the time when the Church will no longer be on earth and God will again deal with Israel as His chosen earthly people. Since Israel is considered to be eternally bound by the covenants which it received during the time of the Old Testament, it is possible for a Dispensational theologian like L. S. Chafer to maintain that Judaism will be restored during the millennial reign of Christ (Systematic Theology, Vol. IV, page 248).

4. There are two future Comings of Christ or phases of His Coming, although there is a lack of unanimity with regard to the terms by which the two should be distinguished. Paul revealed the first, which will be when Christ comes to take to Himself the Church; that Coming was not revealed in the Old Testament, or even in the Gospels, except perhaps in . After His Coming to rapture the Church and the seven years of the great tribulation, the other Coming, the glorious Appearing of Christ with His saints, will take place. This will be as it was revealed to the Old Testament prophets; Israel will be converted, its enemies will be destroyed and Christ and the Church will descend to the earth to reign. Figure 1 illustrates the Dispensational prophetic program.

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Figure 1

The Task of this Book

We will take the Old Testament prophetic themes in the approximate order in which they arise in history, tracing each into the New Testament. Most themes will terminate in the Book of the Revelation which, although partially symbolic in nature, explains their final accomplishment. After finding what the Scriptures teach about each theme, we will try to decide which prophetic position best fits each of them. The prophetic schemes will be evaluated by the prophetic themes. This will be accompanied by the construction, by stages, of a figure to represent visually the biblical program. The basic schema will not, however, represent in detail the transitional times between the present age and the millennium. Those times will be treated in some detail at the end of this book, in a chapter on the Book of Revelation.

Another purpose of the book is to undertake a search for the center or unifying principle which most completely sums up the message of the prophets.

It will be convenient to abbreviate the lengthy terms for the eschatological positions. Henceforth in the text “Amil” will replace “Amillennial”, “Postmil” will replace “Postmillennial” and “D.” will replace “Dispensational”. The addition of an “s” to one of these abbreviations will indicate the adherents of the position.

A Glimpse of Our Final Conclusion

The position which we set forth may be seen as intermediary between three other principal views, as explained by figure 2.

It will be seen from this diagram that we accept two out of three of the affirmations of each of the three other points of view. As do Postmils and D.s, we believe in the future millennium; like D.s and some Amils, we believe that Christ may come soon; like Postmils and Amils, we do not believe that there will be a reinstitution of Judaism or its ordinances. We believe rather that the thousand-year reign of Christ will be a Christian millennium.

The position which will be set forth resembles Dispensationalism in being a “Pretribulation Premillennialism”. It differs in rejecting all dichotomy; for that reason we have called it “unitive pretrib premillennialism” in figure 2. In seeing a single redemptive program it resembles “Historical Premillennialism”.

Figure 2

Chapter Two

The Presuppositions of a Christian Eschatology

Although it will not do to impose our solution on the reader before considering the scriptural data, yet we must make clear the direction to be taken in this book and enumerate some of our essential presuppositions.

I. The Gradual Definition and Accomplishment of Prophecy

God did not reveal the future to early generations in categories which their experience had not yet fitted them to understand. The main function of the prophetic messages was to produce faith and obedience, and to that the part played by prediction was subservient.

There was a gradual development and redefinition in history of the revelation of God's ultimate purpose, as each prophet added the contribution which was relevant to his time.

The first mention in history of each prophetic theme is usually very simple and undefined. Gradually the themes are developed and elaborated by later writers, in much the way that a walk through the countryside causes distant features to become more detailed as one advances. The Book of the Revelation, where nearly all the themes terminate, is therefore taken by this author as the final court of appeal in settling troublesome prophetical questions.

Generally speaking, it must be assumed that later writers were acquainted with earlier writings and may be alluding to them when they speak of similar things. This is most evident when certain features of previous predictions are assumed known or are clearly alluded to or quoted. Joel, for instance, seems to quote Obadiah with the words “as the LORD hath said” (; ); Daniel had a knowledge of Jeremiah ().

The NT, of course, abundantly quotes from the Old, and claims to show how the fulfillment of its prophecies has been inaugurated. Its allusions to the OT are, however, much more extensive than its quotations. One must also assume a certain continuity when there is a similarity of vocabulary and doctrine. The Septuagint Greek version of the OT (LXX) often helps to identify themes of the OT alluded to in the Greek NT. There is evidence also that readings of Theodotian's Greek version existed in Apostolic times.

II. The Old Testament Must First Speak for Itself

A second principle of interpretation is implied in the word Christ. Every time that the NT uses this word, it appeals implicitly to the authority of the OT, which first spoke of the Messiah. While it is true that the word messiah, meaning the one chosen and anointed by God, was not often used in so exclusive a sense in the OT, yet it was foretold that an anointed king, an anointed servant of God and an anointed preacher of good news would come (, ; ; ; ). The NT appeals to such promises, seeing them realized in a single person, and by so doing makes the OT its foundational authority. For us too the OT statements must therefore be valid in themselves, since they are the authority to which Jesus Himself appealed when He confessed that He was the promised Messiah.

When the OT predictions are compared and synthesized by letting the insights of prophets in later times help determine the meaning of their predecessors, a unified picture may be obtained. Despite some NT quotations of the OT which seem to be used out of context if considered as proof texts, the whole NT order is founded on OT predictions, as will be seen. It will not be assumed that any feature of a NT prophecy is new if there is an OT precedent from which it may arise.

It is our conviction that the meaning of OT prophecies must be seen in the total context of the OT, on the foundational principles of the Book of Genesis and according to the direction in which fulfillment is eventually seen to be moving. The immediate context is what made the prophecy intelligible to its hearers; the total OT context enables us to better discern the intention of the Divine author. The various prophecies of the OT must not be considered in isolation but, since the truth is one and united, may be combined into a complete synthesis.

The Amils sometimes pass over OT predictions which do not conform to their own short and simple picture of God's program, alleging their caducity, since they are not repeated in the NT. However, since Christ appealed to the OT for His authority, its statements must be credible to Christians, even in matters which our Lord did not specifically mention.

We find, in fact, that Jesus and the Apostles were much more exclusively dependent on the OT for all their teaching and their interpretation of Gospel events than is generally believed. They meditated on it day and night. Even the message given under the effusion of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost was expressed by Peter in language almost entirely taken from the OT. When he speaks of “those that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call” () his thought is still impregnated with the unquoted continuation of a verse which he has already partially quoted, as well as with another prophecy (; ). Paul declared before Agrippa that he witnessed “saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come” (). He did not also have another separate body of teaching which was not founded on the OT.

III. The NT Writers Correctly Explained the OT

This third principle is also suggested by the word Christ. The Christ is the one authorized by God to lead and teach His people. Therefore a Christian eschatology must conform to the teaching of Christ and His chosen Apostles.

This may seem too evident to mention, but the D.s often seem to approach the interpretation of the OT prophecies without asking the questions: “What were the principles which Christ and the Apostles followed in interpreting and applying the OT prophecies? Did they refuse to apply the prophecies to the Church? Did they teach that the results of the advent of Christ turned out to be completely different from what the OT prophets predicted? If they did not, should I so teach?”

In other words we must, as Christians, assume that the OT prophecies and their interpretation by the NT agree, and are to be accomplished in a single reality. Thus we must both verify our view of the OT by NT teaching and test our conception of NT teaching about the prophecies by what the OT actually says.

In fact, Amils and D.s both give the impression that the OT and NT prophecies do not agree; the former by refusing to give a place to numerous OT prophecies which speak of the progressive submission of all nations to the reign of Jehovah, and the latter by implying that the work of Christ produced in the Church an effect other than that which the OT predicted, or that the prophets saw the Messiah but did not see the Church which He was to build.

We will seek to show that the eschatology of the NT writers, following their great Teacher, is in accord with the true meaning of the OT in its global context. They discerned keys to the true purpose of God in what may seem sometimes to us to be obscure passages. As Jesus chose key verses to summarize all the moral law () or to explain the priority of the mercy of God over legalistic sacrifices (; ), so certain OT verses used by the Apostles provide us with the keys to the authentic logical framework of biblical eschatology.

Terms of the OT are often given a meaning by NT writers which is more absolute than their meaning in their immediate literary context; yet this procedure is perfectly legitimate, and is not to be equated with “spiritualizing”. The full meaning, which cannot be sustained by the immediate context, can in fact be sustained by the global OT context. For instance, uses the term Son of God in its ontological sense as an eternally pre-existent divine Person of the Trinity, and appeals to , a verse in which the word son does not have this meaning. This use is, however, theologically justified, even on the basis of the OT alone, because other passages of the OT describe the One whom God will send as Jehovah ( etc.). A figurative use of the word son, the only use possible when referring to such as Solomon, gives place to a more literal meaning of the word, that of “one who holds from another the same nature as the latter”, in speaking of Jesus. Neither of these meanings is, however, completely literal, as in the sense in which Moslems deny that God can have a son, because He has no wife.

When our great God speaks by the inspired Scriptures, we are to expect His words to carry great and full meanings and His power to accomplish all that He promises. Let us not permit unbelief to make us accept only the lowest possible denominator of His words. It is not for us to impose our systems on Scripture, but to observe the OT scriptural categories actually discerned and used by the NT authors. This applies in eschatology as much as in other aspects of doctrine.

Chapter Three

A False Principle of Interpretation

The polemic between D.s and Amils is often made out to be a question of the choice between a literal and a figurative interpretation of the OT prophecies. Behind this issue is another which is more decisive, but which is not always recognized. It is the attitude of each of these positions to partial and progressive accomplishment of the promises.

Darby's attitude was that the kingdom prophecies were “in no way” accomplished in this age; it must be all or nothing! This leaves no place for partial and progressive fulfillment. If the fulfillment is not complete in every detail, those who bring it forth are accused of spiritualizing, of not believing in the literal interpretation of Scripture.

On the other hand, the Amil mentality is completely satisfied with the present partial accomplishment; the part is accepted for the whole!

The basic presumption of the D.s is supported by the doctrine of a parenthesis in the program shown to the OT prophets. This teaching must be investigated before our study of the scriptural themes can begin. If, in fact, one great category of prophecies must always be excluded from giving its witness when one considers the destiny of the Church, then the conclusions which will be reached by this method will certainly differ widely from those which are drawn using all the Scriptures. There can be no hope of progress in the dialogue as long as the participants are not agreed on the scope of the application of their source of authority. In fact, the major work of this book will be considered invalid, since we will have no right to trace OT prophetic themes into the NT Epistles. We must, therefore, first examine the D. theory of the “parenthesis” in its limitation of the Scriptures which may speak primarily and authoritatively of, or to, the Church.

Some D. doctrinaires isolate the particular revelation of the Church age in a very extreme fashion, not being content with the word “parenthesis” to describe it, since a parenthesis has some point of contact with what surrounds it. For instance, in his Systematic Theology, L. S. Chafer prefers to call our period “an intercalation — a period thrust in which is wholly unrelated to that which went before and to that which follows” (Vol.4, page 167; cf. page 41).

Alleged Proofs of a Parenthesis

The alleged proof of this partial blindness in OT prophetic vision is of two sorts. First, there are inferences: for instance, it is inferred from the differences perceived between the teachings of Jesus and of Paul that each speaks for a distinct group of God's people in a different dispensation. (Marcion used the same kind of “proof” to show that the God of the OT was not the God of the NT.) This indirect sort of “proof” will best be answered by explanations throughout the book, rather than here.

Other evidence alleged in support of this hermeneutic is of a more deductive nature. It is held that, since the Apostle Paul speaks of the Church as a “mystery”, which was not revealed to former generations, nothing that pertains in particular or primarily to the Church was revealed in the OT prophecies.

In reply, let us examine the meaning of the word mystery and its use in the various passages of the Bible.

The Apostle Paul's use of the Greek word for mystery may have been suggested by its presence in a prophetic passage of the Septuagint version of the OT. It is used of the content of the dream given to Nebuchadnezzar, but not retained or understood by him ( etc.). Thus we see that to be a mystery, a revelation is not required to have been previously completely absent. There must be something which is known to be mysterious. Daniel was later told to seal up his prophecies until the time of the end when knowledge would be increased (). There was something given which was to be sealed; its full meaning was not yet revealed by experience. Nonetheless that meaning was contained in it and would in the future be brought out of it by further discernment, revelation or accomplishment. Thus the Church, although it was a mystery in former ages, may now be seen and explained by the use of OT prophecies and types.

Paul was not the first to explain the mysteries. Our Lord previously spoke of “the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven” (), things which Matthew says had “been kept secret from the foundation of the world” (13:35). Everyone agrees that these things concern, in part at least, the present age.

Were these things which Jesus taught by parables completely absent from the OT? Since He concluded His parabolic teaching in Matthew thirteen by saying that “every scribe of the kingdom of heaven ... bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old” (), that cannot be the case. A scribe teaches from what is already written; it could well be argued that even the “new” things contained in the parables came from the OT, since they also are said to come out of the treasure of the scribe, which is the Holy Scriptures.

To research Paul's use of the word in his Epistles in chronological order, notice that the first mystery which he mentions is the “mystery of iniquity” (). This has to do with the first manifestations of the antichristian power which will culminate in the appearance of “the man of sin” (). This identical wickedness was not, however, entirely unknown to former generations, since it had been predicted by Daniel as characterizing the rule of “a little horn” () and of a prince who would make a firm covenant with many of Daniel's people ().

First Corinthians contains the word mystery at five places. In the first instance, Paul says that the wisdom of God in a mystery, which he preached, was unknown to the princes of the world who crucified Christ. But he adds: “as it is written”, using an OT verse to prove that such a mystery had previously been said to exist (2:6-9). Likewise, after his last use of the word in this Epistle he says, speaking of the mystery of the resurrection, “then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written” (15:51-55). In the Epistle to the Romans it is even more evident, in two uses of the word, that the mysteries of which Paul speaks were first mentioned in the OT. One mystery which Paul explains is that of the future conversion of national Israel (11:25-27). Although some of the Corinthian Christians seem to have been ignorant of this truth, yet the prophecies of the OT are full of it, and Paul quotes one of them at this place. In the last chapter of Romans, despite his affirmation that the mystery of the Gospel of Christ was kept secret since the world began, he says that it must now be preached “by the scriptures of the prophets” (16:25-26), which are in the OT.

In Ephesians, Paul speaks of the mystery of the final summing up of all things in Christ in the dispensation of the fullness of times (1:9-10). It will be one of the main affirmations of this book that this teaching has its source in the OT. In Ephesians three we have the most extensive explanation of what Paul meant by mystery. He begins (3:4) by referring the believers to what he has just written, in chapters 1 and 2, about “the mystery”. One may see, by looking back to these chapters, that his “mystery” teaching was based on reminiscences of the OT (1:13, 20, 22; 2:6, 17, 20).

The content of the mystery is said to be “Christ” (), “the unsearchable riches of Christ” (3:8); the words “that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel” (3:6) may indicate the purpose, rather than the content, of the mystery (A. T. Robinson, Grammar, p.1089). What was revealed to Paul was Christ Himself, in order that he might preach Him among the Gentiles (). The “promise in Christ”, of which the Gentiles partake, is found in the OT. Its meaning was not revealed “as it is now revealed” (3:5), but it was there already. The study of the use of the word promise in Paul's writings shows that he nearly always used it in speaking of OT promises. It is difficult to prove that in any instance he spoke of any promises given only in NT times. We now may enjoy what the OT promised.

The promise was indeed made to the Jews, and its extension to the Gentiles formed part of the mystery. Nevertheless, if Paul had spoken of the mystery as nowhere promised, not even to the Jews, we might expect that he would have insisted on the need for gratitude on their part as much as he did on the part of Gentiles who had unexpectedly inherited it (2:11-22).

In , Paul again uses an OT passage to speak of a mystery, comparing the unity of Christ and the Church to that of the first human couple. He terminates his letter by asking his readers to pray for his preaching of “the mystery of the gospel”. We may conclude that the whole Gospel message may sometimes be in view in the word mystery. The basic principles and predictions of the Gospel are found in the OT.

In the content of the mystery which is preached among the Gentiles is said to be “Christ in you, the hope of glory”. Our study of the prophetic themes will show that this great mystery of unity with the Messiah begins with the OT and is a key teaching of it.

In , “the mystery of the faith” and “the mystery of godliness” are surely not things of which there is no trace in the OT prophecies!

The Book of the Revelation also unveils a mystery based on OT prophecies: “the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets” (10:7).

Hopefully, it is now evident that a scriptural “mystery” is not something of which nothing was ever written before its NT revelation. There is always a previous imperfect knowledge of it, increased by man's sinful blindness, followed by a later, fuller knowledge based on a revelation by the Spirit of God. This fuller knowledge is often verified by its fulfillment in personal experience. There remains an element of the unknown in the mystery, due to its supernatural nature and infinite dimensions. The previous hiding of it, of which Paul speaks, is not an absolute theoretic ignorance, but an ignorance of the times and details of how the promise would be achieved by God and experienced by man.

Since these “mystery” texts, often used to prove the absence of “Church truth” in the OT prophecies, have proved exactly the contrary, it does not seem necessary to martial now all the verses which state categorically that the grace promised by the prophets was destined for the Church (e.g. ).

Often, when Paul uses such questions as “Know ye not?” in speaking to believers, he assumes that they should have a knowledge of OT prophecies and a willingness to apply them to their experience in Christ (, , , ).

The fact that the mysteries were in fact present in the OT, but were not then understood, depends partly on a figurative element contained in the prophecies. This should warn us that a purely literal exegesis cannot succeed in explaining them.

Chapter Four

The Promised Man: “The Seed of the Woman”

to 2:3 depicts the whole universe arranged, at the creation, for the happiness of man; reveals the creation of man for the progressive benevolent conquest and rule of all nature.

The Creator is seen as good, wise and supremely powerful. It would seem to be a logical deduction from the nature of such a God that His original intention to bless man and nature could not be ultimately thwarted. To that extent we may therefore consider His expressed purpose in this chapter as a kind of prophecy.

Thus this first chapter of Genesis contains a prophecy whose accomplishment extends to our own time and concerns our future. Is it not in our time that the process of man's filling the earth and dominating over its life forms is coming to a crucial climax?

It is perhaps significant that, whereas God called the inanimate and animal creation good, it was only after He had given His instructions to man, His agent, that it is said that He saw that the whole creation was “very” good. Was not the potential for its improvement by man part of what made the creation very good?

Man himself was made in the image of God. The context seems to indicate that the term “image” included the thought that man was to be sovereign over all, like his Creator and under Him. The latter part of verse 26 gives man dominion over the earth and over its threefold sphere of life. Verse 28 says that man was to subdue the earth, to put it under his feet. That involves a struggle and a victory; only thus would the world be “very good”. Even in Eden, man was to “dress and keep” the garden.

It is to be noticed that in verses 29 and 30 God gives only vegetal food to both man and animals. There is no indication either in Genesis or in the geological record that such a paradisiacal time ever existed, except in the Garden of Eden. Abel surely kept his flock partly for food; the symbolism of his offering to God of the firstlings of a flock, like that of Cain's fruit of the ground, depended on the idea that these things were food, offered to God (cf. ). Would it not be best to consider verses 29 and 30, not as a universal historical vegetarianism, but as constituting prophetic instruction to man as to what he would eventually be able to achieve under God: the elimination of the need to slaughter for food, even on the part of carnivorous animals (cf. )?

Chapters two and three bring us to the calamity of the fall of man into sin and into a permanently sinful condition, which greatly diminished his control over nature: he had henceforth a continual struggle with thorns and thistles. He, himself, would finally be assimilated by the dust of the earth. The thwarting of man's full control over nature and the corrupting of his good and godly superintendence of the earth were results of his fall, which was essentially separation from God.

The second predictive element in these three chapters of Genesis is the presence of the tree of life in the Garden of Eden (; , ). Since that tree would make man live forever, we see that immortality was offered to man in the beginning, even though it soon became inaccessible to him because of his disobedience.

Could the wise and beneficent Providence, who is pictured in these three chapters as knowing and controlling the future, have made a tree of life without ever intending eventually to give eternal life to man? Was the serpent to be at last triumphant, as in the Gilgamesh legend, definitively depriving all men of immortality? One might perhaps so have understood the Genesis account in isolation, if it were not for the presence in it of such a God, unknown to Gilgamesh.

The third predictive element in these chapters is that of the sentences pronounced by God on the serpent, the woman and the man (). The fate meted out to humanity in the persons of its first parents has been verified since that time; the prediction of the fate of the serpent requires particular attention. Despite the completely retributive expression of it, believers have always considered it to contain a promise; the crushing by man of the head of the serpent, man's mortal enemy who caused his fall, must mean the victory of man.

Even if we consider this story in isolation from the rest of the Bible, we cannot imagine it to be an ordinary snake which was so clever and effective in ruining God's creation. The snake, by its prostrate position and proximity to the dust, which it seemingly must eat, became a symbol of Satan and of his eventual defeat.

Why does verse 15 speak of the woman and her seed rather than of the man and his seed: “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel"? Is it not that God is taking the part of the woman, whom the serpent deceived, intending to avenge her? That is another indication that the salvation of mankind is here foreseen.

The second affirmation of this verse is that God will put enmity between the seed of the serpent and that of the woman. That idea raises questions which only the rest of the Bible can answer. A snake has offspring, but if the serpent portrays Satan, how can the latter have seed, and who is his seed? It may be thought that his seed represents the angels who followed him, and that may be part of the truth. But more certainly men, though not directly through physical procreation by Satan, may be considered nevertheless to have become his “seed”. It seems that two opposing factions of men are foreseen, exemplified by Cain and Abel. They are not enemies by circumstance, but enemies by nature, since they are two different “seeds”.

How does this difference of spiritual nature come about in men who are of the same physical descent? The example of Cain, no doubt, will help us to understand. God offered him victory over the sin which was in him, crouched ready to spring on him, but he refused (, ). God had said that He would, Himself, put enmity between the two seeds. Since God could not make men wicked, the difference between the two seeds of men must be due to His grace. It is His grace that takes a part of the sinful race and makes of it His own people, causing an enmity to arise with the rest of men who are still in opposition to God. That means that all men who, like Cain, do not avail themselves of the victory promised by God remain by nature a seed of Satan (cf. ; ).

The third affirmation of this text is that the seed of the woman will bruise the serpent's head. The surprising thing about this statement is that the enemy in view is no longer the numerous seed of Satan, but Satan himself. He is to receive a single stroke, presumably a fatal one: the head is more vital than the heel! Since a single personality receives the blow, it seems that the seed of the woman who administers it must also be an individual. The double reference to the “seed of the woman” in this passage, both as a chosen people and as an individual, is illustrated by figure 3.

Finally, it is said that the serpent will bruise the heel of the seed of the woman. This shows that the man or the group of men who share the victory over Satan will not do so without suffering, as was the case with Abel.

The defeat of Satan is also portrayed, in verse 14, by the sentencing of the serpent to go on its belly and to eat dust. Since there is to be a decisive victory of man over Satan, it must have the effect of undoing the harm which has been caused by him. This would fortify the supposition that the tree of life will again become available and that man will be able in the end to completely fulfill his mandate to subdue the earth. The harmful effects of Satan's work — sin, guilt, judgment, suffering, death, hate and the bruising of the righteous — will be overcome.

By following out the implications of the first three chapters of Genesis it is possible to arrive at a composite picture which will be seen to correspond with what the New Testament teaches. Man, in God's purpose of restoration, will have supremacy over ALL things: he will submit to himself all the earth (), all evil spirits and all evil men (). This is illustrated in figure 4.

The sentences pronounced on Adam and Eve were meant to be determinative for all their descendants in all time to come. All men were involved in Adam's fate and all women in Eve's. This suggests that the predicted deliverance of all of the woman's true posterity, those who become opposed to Satan, might also result from a determinative action by a representative individual.

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Figure 3

Man's Predicted Future Confirmed in the Old Testament

There are token accomplishments of these predictions of man's enmity with and victory over Satan and his evil works even in the book of Genesis: Cain hates Abel, and Abel dies by his stroke but is avenged by God; Enoch receives a victory over death; Noah is saved from the judgment which comes on the world; Abraham, justified by faith, is delivered from guilt and condemnation, and triumphs over an evil Babylonian alliance, delivering Lot from his captors. In another early book Job gains a moral victory over Satan and a happy end.

The Old Testament everywhere presupposes the result of the fall of man as described in Genesis three; but only rarely does it take up the theme of the promised defeat of Satan and the renewed access of man to the tree of life.

Apart from Genesis three and Job, Old Testament history seldom shows Satan as the real cause of the constant opposition to God's people. That does not mean that he was not there, opposing man secretly, as he was in the book of Job. The abominations and occultism of the Canaanites conquered by Joshua, the hatred of Haman and the triumph of Esther on behalf of her people are examples of the partial working out of the theme of in history.

Nevertheless, the promise is never fully realized in the Old Testament and it is reiterated therein only in the form of a future hope. Isaiah echoes Genesis in saying that God will create new heavens and a new earth, that “the seed of the blessed of the Lord” shall live there and that “dust shall be the serpent's food” (, , ). The verses preceding these promises make it clear that only a remnant of Judah, those who are God's servants, will inherit these things (65:8-16). Micah says that God will pardon a remnant of His heritage, subdue their iniquities and make their enemies lick the dust like a serpent (7:15-19). But at the end of the Old Testament history the remnant which has returned from the Babylonian captivity has not yet received what was promised; only the few among them who fear the Lord “shall tread down the wicked”, and that in a future day ().

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Figure 4

The Themes of in the New Testament

With the coming of Jesus Christ, and in His person, the hope held out by began to be realized. Even as a little child He escaped an attempt by Satan to kill Him (); He began His ministry by a complete personal victory over the tempter.

The application to Himself, by Christ, of the title “the Son of man” seems to have had as one of its ultimate sources and , by way of . This latter passage, in saying that God has put all things under the feet of man, or the son of man, is only echoing in different words what is said in , where the verb “subdue” has the meaning, in Hebrew, of “putting under one's feet”. We know from certain passages in Paul's Epistles, and especially from , that these verses of the Psalm received a Messianic interpretation in the Apostolic Church. Its source may be in the teaching of Christ Himself, since He called Himself “the Son of man” and since the same idea is found in two kinds of Epistles.

Since the concept of crushing under foot is found in , the putting of “all things” under the feet of “the Son of man” is a very appropriate expression of the defeat of Satan in the ministry of Jesus. It was fitting that the Overcomer of the “strong man”, the Conqueror of “Beelzebub”, should take to Himself this title ().

As the Son of Man, Jesus claimed authority to forgive sins () and even to set aside the Sabbath precept (; ). He had power over inanimate nature, as is seen in His stilling of the tempest, walking on water and multiplying bread. He had power over sickness, death and unclean spirits and could even delegate power over these things to His disciples, as a pledge of the fall of Satan himself from heaven (; ).

We may also express the authority of man and thus that of the Son of Man in the words which reaffirmed it to Noah and his sons after the flood. In somewhat different terms than in the beginning it was said that the animals were “delivered into their hand” (). Similar language is used to reveal that all things were delivered into Jesus' hands (; ) and that all things had been delivered to Him by His Father (). He said also that He would draw all things to Himself ( v.1.).

These powers go beyond the original context of the words “Thou hast put all things under his feet” (). Nevertheless the words, taken in an absolute sense, perfectly express the authority of the Son of Man. The miracles of Christ are usually imputed to His divinity. It is worthwhile considering, however, whether or not His powers are not viewed in the Gospels as equally depending on the authority promised to the Perfect Man, the Son of Man, rather than only as showing Him to be divine. It was as the Son of Man that He was to exercise judgment (). It may be that His other great works mentioned in the later chapter, the giving of spiritual and physical life, were also seen as depending on His authority as Son of Man (cf. ).

In certain verses of the Gospels it is also implied that the Son of Man is in some sense the representative of men and the example to be followed by all: it is because the Sabbath was made for mankind that the Son of Man has authority to regulate it for the good of man (); He has no place to lay His head, so others who follow Him should be ready to risk a similar fate (); since the Son of Man came to save men, His followers should never seek revenge on them (). This last incident is one of many incidents in the Gospels that show that, until this time, Jesus alone understood and fulfilled the function of man as God intended him to be. The disciples “knew not of what spirit they were”. They would receive the Spirit of God only after the glorification of Christ ().

According to the Gospels, the cosmic work of the Son of Man required that He should die. At the end of His ministry He said that He had overcome the world () and that by His death Satan's world power would be annulled (). By being lifted up, as was the serpent in the desert, He would give eternal life to believers in Himself ().

We will not discuss here the authority of Christ over all nations as the Son of Man (). This must be traced to a prophecy of the Book of Daniel and will be treated later with another theme. Both and (and perhaps ) contribute to the total New Testament picture of the one “Son of Man”.

Paul's Doctrine

The most extensive development of the eschatology of to 3 is found in the Epistles of Paul. We may conveniently divide Paul's use of it into three parts, which concern Christ, the present experience of the Church, and its final destiny.

1. Paul says that Christ is the Image of the invisible God (). Is he speaking of His divine preexistence or of His nature as the God-man? If he means that it is as man that Christ is the image of God, then this is surely an allusion to . Paul is presenting Jesus as the Perfect Man. If He were not God's image as man, He would be as invisible as “the invisible God” and could not reveal God to us! The preceding clause speaks of Him as the “firstborn of every creature”. The context, therefore, is that of His human existence; in calling Him “the firstborn”. Paul is speaking of a position as man and not attributing a temporal beginning to a Divine Person (cf. ). Then, in verses 16 and 17, he proceeds further and founds this preeminence also in His divine preexistence and His creating and sustaining works.

By the cross Christ “slew the enmity” () and “triumphed over principalities and powers” (); those expressions remind us of and may allude to it. The same is true of the teaching that, by His resurrection and ascension, all angelic powers were subjected to Him: . In these latter verses Paul quotes as being fulfilled.

2. As a result of this exaltation of Christ, those who believe in Him are already introduced into a position in Him from which they may now experience the same victorious combat. We are seated in Christ above all principalities and powers; the power which placed Him there operates in those who believe (; ). We battle with angelic powers, not flesh ().

Adam is a figure of Christ in the sense that, by one act, each of these two representative men determined the destiny of all who belong to them (, ). Christ is a prototype of many sons of God (). We therefore are recreated and renewed in His image ().

3. The future work of Christ in transforming or raising us at His Coming also depends on His role as “the last Adam": for “since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead” (, ). And when Paul says that the transformation of our vile body is by “the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things to himself” (), he is no doubt alluding again to . The Church enters into her inheritance after being glorified with Him (; ). All things are ours (), for we are joint-heirs with Christ, if we are of those who suffer with Him (). We will inherit all things, for He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, will, with Him, freely give us all things ().

The Church will then share in His action as the Victorious Man. Satan will be crushed under our feet (); we will judge angels (). By “the manifestation of the sons of God” the whole creation will be delivered from vanity, according to God's original intention ().

In , the last thing of all said to be completely put under the feet of Christ is death. This event cannot refer to our own resurrection, for we have just seen that after our glorification we will be associated with Christ in His conquering of other enemies. It is rather the final eradication of death from the universe.

Coming to the Epistle to the Hebrews, we find that the two primeval themes of the Son of Man's inheritance of all things and His victory over Satan are very evident. The Son has been appointed heir of all things (1:2). Chapter two presents Christ as man: the victory of the Son of Man over the devil and death, by His own death, is associated here with His subjection of all things to Himself. “The habitable world which is to come” will be subjected to Him (2:5, Darby). This habitable world is actually the present earth, “the works of God's hands” (7).

The First Epistle of John scarcely refers to any teaching of the Old Testament which is not related to the first chapters of Genesis. Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil; those who are not born of God are of the evil one, as was Cain (); the children of God overcome the world and its false teachers (; ).

Finally, the Book of the Revelation has many links with the first chapters of Genesis. Christ appears as a Son of man (1:13), as the only man found worthy to be the inaugurator of God's judgment upon the earth, prevailing by His death (5:1-9).

The blessings to the overcomers, which are found not only at the end of each of the seven letters to the churches, but also throughout the book, link up with the promised triumph of man over all things. The overcomers will inherit the tree of life and the things of the new heavens and the new earth (2:7; 21:7), in which there will be no more curse (22:3).

There is no doubt that John took the “serpent” of Genesis to be Satan, since he calls the latter “that old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan” (12:9; 20:2). The enmity of the “old serpent” of Genesis comes to a paroxysm and to an end in the Revelation. The travailing woman's “man child”, who escapes from Satan by being caught up to heaven, may include the Church, the “brethren” who are said to have overcome him (12:1-11). Michael and his angels cast Satan and his angels down to earth for a last short furious activity (12:7-12), characterized by the persecution of Israel (12:13, 17), the rise of the “beast” (ch. 13) and the mustering of the nations to fight against God (16:13, 14). Then he is cast into the abyss so as not to be able to deceive men any more for a period of 1000 years (20:3). His final destiny, after a short release, is the lake of fire for eternity (20:3, 7, 10).

After that, in the eternal ages, because of Christ's victory, there are no longer any effects of the fall: neither tears, death, mourning, crying nor pain (21:4) and no curse (22:3), but rather the enjoyment of “the tree of life” (22:2, 14).

Which Eschatological Plan Best Fits These Data?

At the end of this chapter and of each chapter treating a prophetic theme, we must ask ourselves what are the logical and moral implications of the theme. Which eschatological position best does justice to them? There are always three main temporal periods to consider, in which prophecies may be fulfilled: the career of Christ, the career of the Church disciples of Jesus during His earthly ministry were able to wage a successful war against the kingdom of Satan. The wars of the Old Testament were against flesh and blood, not against the spiritual rulers of the darkness of this world. The disciples did indeed experience a temporary training in which the very demons were subject to them in the name of Christ, but they soon began to fail in this work and to merit His words: “Get thee behind me, Satan!”; “How long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you?” (; ). They were warned that Satan had asked to have them, to sift them like wheat ().

None was able to effectively take up the offensive against Satan before the shedding of Christ's blood, which gives believers victory over the accuser (); Christ's ascension was also needed, so that they could be seated in Him in heavenly places above all evil spiritual powers. The Coming of the Holy Spirit was prerequisite to the experience that greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world ().

On the other hand, D.s do not deny that victory has come in Christ, as a new experience; but, if their theory is to be consistently followed, the teaching of that experience is parenthetical and can have no relationship to the promise of , nor even to the cross! Paul and John, however, use the language of the promise in speaking of our victory (; ).

If we do not now, and at the Rapture, experience the promised victory over Satan, one might ask the D.s when men will experience it. Not in the past age, for Christ had to first conquer Satan before others could so do in Him. Not in the “great tribulation”, for then his power will be more furiously manifested than ever; not in the millennium, for then Satan will be in prison, and will not deceive men. Only the Church logically remains to experience it. Jesus promised this future victory to His Church: the gates of hell will not prevail against it ().

The Church Must Win the Battle on the Earthly Scene

The D. view tends to lead to pessimism with regard to our task on this earth: Satan is the prince of this world; each dispensation terminates in failure; besides, we are a heavenly people, not of this earth. Who cares about the world?

Yet the victory of the “brethren” in , is a victory on the earthly scene, which leads to a rapture to heaven (). All things are in a sense already placed under the feet of Christ, Who is “head over all things to the church” (). Christians should not, therefore, think of the Church on earth as being too exclusively a heavenly people, as some D.s have done. Christ sends us to teach all nations with all authority on earth, as well as in heaven (). We are the salt and light of the earth (); our spiritual authority is now exercised “on earth”, in church discipline and in prayer (). We must seek now to bring all men and things under the Lordship of Christ, even though the eventual refusal of the world to accept His Lordship will lead God to judge all the “habitable earth” (, Darby).

The Earth Will Share the Victory When Christ Comes

On the other hand, the Amil position is essentially a pessimism with regard to the final victory of man, under God, on the present earth. One might ask the Amils whether Christ came only to wrest souls from Satan, and not also to completely defeat him in the sphere of the present creation. They commendably seek now to bring all things under the Lordship of Christ; but by their pessimism with regard to the future they call men to what seems to be a lost cause, which will never triumph for mankind on earth.

Yet it is written in that the time will come on earth when Satan will be removed. If one replies that this is in the present age of Christian experience, then when is the time when the brethren combat and overcome him, or when he is cast down to bring woe to earth? Do all these contrary descriptions, by the same author, point to the same thing? How can the nations now be deceived by Satan () and yet no longer be deceived by him ()?

Does a view which supposes that Christ's Coming leads to the destruction of the earth, and not to its submission by regenerated man, really do justice to the teaching about the Son of Man? The full subjection of the earth to God's will is required of man by God and is not left to God's action alone: we have traced it back to the first mandate given to man to progressively subdue the earth. Therefore it is more logical to believe that it will be achieved progressively, in a millennium, than by a final sudden act of God at Christ's Coming.

Can we really believe that Satan has caused God to give up His revealed purposes with regard to the full submission of the earth to humanity? When will animals and all nature be completely reconciled to man, as predicted?

If God is a God who works in history, will He not be successful in history and not just when earth shall pass away?

The Postmils go to the other extreme in their optimism. The Gospel will produce such a universal effect that at the end of this age only a few rebels will need to be judged. This means that, towards the end, the servants will be greater than the Master. Christ, the Seed of the woman par excellence, had His heel bruised by Satan; yet those who follow Him in the latter days will have outgrown the need for suffering and rejection. The many predictions of the increase of satanic activity and power in the last days before Christ's Coming belie this hope.

The millennium cannot come before the Coming of Christ to raise us from the dead. It is when the “sons of God” are glorified that all creation will be liberated. Before that time Christians also groan, waiting for the redemption of their bodies (). To expect the conversion of the world and the harmony of all nature before Christ's Coming is a false optimism.

The Search for the Unifying Theme of Prophecy

It has been seen that the promise of a conquering seed in and the commission to man to rule over all things as expressed in apply first to Jesus Christ, as the cause and the prototype, and then also to the Church. We suggest that this combined agency is the key to all prophecy; we use the Augustinian expression “the Total Christ” to refer to it in the rest of the book. The use made of it will go further than Augustine's meaning, however. Christ and the Church together form the Total Christ, which is God's agent to bless others, and is not appointed only for self-realization. In the present case, this role is to defeat Satan and deliver the creation from bondage. A millennium is required to complete this mission, during which Satan is bound, men are no longer seduced by him and all creation may reach its objective, for which God created it.

Chapter Five

The Promises to Abraham and His Seed

After the flood God said that He would never repeat the destruction of the earth by water. His promise was guaranteed by a covenant; this in spite of God's knowledge that men could do no better in the future than in the past, since “the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth” (). Noah sacrificed burnt offerings to the Lord, recognizing publicly God's sovereignty and His right to punish sin. God, on His part, was pleased with the offering and communicated to Noah the knowledge of His benevolent purpose.

The reason that God could promise, in spite of the continued universal evil of man's heart, that He would spare humanity from annihilation as long as earth should last, was that He intended, as He had promised, to reclaim a “seed of the woman” by His own grace. It was in Abraham that this redemptive purpose was initiated.

The promises which were given to Abraham throughout his life may be seen in three stages, in each of which the blessing promised is increasingly greater and given with stronger guarantees.

God first simply speaks, or promises by His Word. He said that Abraham would become a great nation, that he would be blessed and have a great name, that he would be a blessing, that those who bless him would be blessed and those who curse him would be cursed, and that in him all the families of the earth would be blessed (); the land of Canaan would be given to his seed (); Abraham himself and his innumerable seed would inherit it forever ().

On the two following occasions, the promises to Abraham are described as a covenant. God tells the Patriarch that his “seed”, his own physical posterity, is to be as countless as the stars. As a result of his faith in the promise, Abraham is counted righteous and God makes a covenant with him, informing him also of the Egyptian captivity, the return to Canaan and the gift of an even greater territorial inheritance, reaching to the Euphrates river (). At the next formulation of the covenant, circumcision is given him as its sign; the covenant with him and his seed is called “everlasting”; and he receives the name “Abraham”, to indicate that he will be the father, not just of one but of a multitude of nations, through Sarah ().

When Abraham, near the end of his life, proves himself ready to obey God even to the point of offering his beloved son, God swears by Himself, in order to give an even more emphatic promise of blessing and multiplication, and says: “Thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed” (). This became known as His “oath” ().

The promises were reiterated to Isaac () and to Jacob (). The nation of Israel became the recipient of these promises.

Several things may be noted about the promises. First, Abraham personally, and not just his descendants, was to inherit the land forever (, ; ; ), although he did not do so during his lifetime. He was to go to his fathers in peace (, ). The force of the word “peace” is better realized if it is known that it has been translated in another context as “in good health” ()! Nor did death end all for Jacob: he was “gathered to his people” (). That does not indicate his burial, for he was not buried until 70 days later (). God had spoken of his funeral procession from Egypt to Canaan in such a way as to indicate that He would not even then be abandoned: “I will go down with thee into Egypt; and I will also surely bring thee up again” ().

The fact that God had promised the Patriarchs personally the eternal inheritance of the land and that they, as well as Joseph, although they did not inherit it during their lifetimes, insisted on being buried in Canaan, indicates a hope of resurrection, at which time they would inherit it ().

The personal blessings given to Abraham himself are also the prototypes of blessings to come to others: “I will make your name great so that you will be a blessing” (, NAB). He had the blessings of being counted righteous by faith (), of knowing God as his friend and of being informed about the divine purposes for the future ().

God also gave to Abraham and to his seed what might be called a “universally mediating position": he and his seed were to be a source of blessing (), and that to all the families of the earth (; ). The blessing of others was to depend on their attitude to Abraham and to his seed: those who blessed him would be blessed and those who cursed him would be cursed (). His seed was to possess the gates of his enemies (). This latter clause seems to indicate a universal victory, since the next phrase speaks of all nations being blessed by his seed.

In seeking to determine the full extent of what was meant by the promises to Abraham, we must not forget what the early chapters of this same Book of Genesis have already revealed. The unity of Genesis, or at least of its final redaction, would lead us to believe that the promises to Abraham further defined the promise to Eve and that the promise to Eve concerning her seed applies to the seed of Abraham. Is it not evident that the same seed is in view? Is not the victory over Satan and the curse caused by him the same reality as the bringing in of universal blessing through Abraham? Since all things were to be put under the feet of victorious man, was not the seed of Abraham therefore intended to inherit all creation, and not merely the land of Canaan? Did not God plan to “make His blessings flow, far as the curse is found"?

Was the Abrahamic Covenant Unconditional?

There has been much discussion as to whether or not the fulfillment of the covenant with Abraham is unconditional. It seems better to say that the accomplishment of its promises is certain, viewed from the side of God's electing grace (, NIV), and that God Himself unconditionally promises to eventually provide for the conditions of its fulfillment, rather than to say that it is unconditional. There were conditions on the human side, even for Abraham to receive it, and there were always conditions attached to receiving its blessings in every generation.

The giving of the promises to Abraham was conditional: first he had to leave his country (); his justification was dependent on his faith (); those of his descendants who were not circumcised broke the covenant (); the full and final promise was sworn to Abraham because of his obedience in offering up his beloved son ().

Henceforth Abraham could know that what God promised to him was certain to be accomplished. He could know that his descendants would have a permanent ethnic existence and a heritage, and would never all be rejected ().

Yet the certainty of the promises did not indicate that moral compromise could exist on the part of God. The rebellious, like the generation which perished in the wilderness, would not inherit the promise, even though they were descendants of Abraham.

Even in disobedience, however, the seed of Abraham later experienced the patience of God, who sought for them as a shepherd seeks his lost sheep (; ; 2 Chron. 15:36); the final remnant of them will be saved, as we shall see.

The Promises to Abraham Fulfilled in the Old Testament

The good things that God did for Israel in the Old Testament constituted an initial fulfillment of the promises made to Abraham.

The nation of Israel enjoyed varied and multiple experiences of the promised blessing during its history (cf. ). Even during the Egyptian bondage it experienced the blessing of multiplication (). The deliverance from Egypt was in fulfillment of the Abrahamic pact (; ; ). The Mosaic covenants at Sinai and Moab will be considered separately, but they were given to fulfill the promises to the Patriarchs (cf. ).

The conquest and possession of the land of Canaan were also in fulfillment of the promise to Abraham (). The land was, however, a means rather than an end: by delivering the children of Israel from Egypt and giving them their own land, God could effectively be their God (; ; ). They could, if they would, enjoy rest in Him () and be an example to all the nations of the world of how God can bless a people ().

Nevertheless, it must be admitted that a stable state of blessing was not then achieved and that, at the end of the Old Testament period, most of the promises had not come true. Although a part of the exiled people had returned to the land, they were still under the domination of their enemies. They were still subjugated to others when Zacharias saluted in the baby Jesus the One who would perform the mercy promised in the oath to Abraham to deliver them from their enemies (); there had as yet been no significant blessing of all nations by Israel when the old Simeon took the baby in his arms and announced that He would be “a light to lighten the Gentiles” ().

Members of other nations could, in Old Testament times, be circumcised and eventually enter into the privileges of the Abrahamic covenant (, ; , ). It is to be remarked, however, that these proselytes never had any national existence apart from Israel, but were incorporated into the nation and into its institutions (). Yet the Abrahamic covenant had said that all nations were to be blessed by the seed of Abraham, and had not indicated that they were to become Jews.

The rite of circumcision kept Israel distinct from the Gentiles. It was not in itself a means of blessing: circumcision of heart was needed (; ). As Paul taught, Abraham himself was justified by faith before being circumcised (; ; ); as Stephen implied in his defense, circumcision did not keep the ten Patriarchs from rejecting Joseph, who was to save them (, Darby).

The “universally mediating position”, which was promised to the seed of Abraham, only had a limited application in the Old Testament. Abraham himself was a source of blessing: to Lot, delivering him from captivity by combat and from destruction in Sodom by intercession (; ); and as a prophet and intercessor for Abimelech (). Joseph was used by God to save Egypt and other peoples from famine. We may think also of Jonah, Elijah, Elisha, David and Solomon, who were blessings to Gentiles. These and others brought only a limited blessing to the world. They demonstrated the possibility for a son of Abraham, if fully obedient, to bless the Gentiles; but it is evident that the promised blessing of all nations was still in the future when the Old Testament ended.

The negative aspect of the mediatorial position of Israel was much more evident, i.e. the cursing of those who cursed them. The sentences of judgment on Egypt, Assyria, Edom, Babylon, etc., because of their mistreatment of Israel, are too numerous to document.

The New Testament Relates the Blessing of Abraham to the Eternal State

Christ not only predicated to Abraham a happy intermediate state and a final resurrection (), but also indicated that the identical blessing comes to others because they are associated with him: Lazarus was carried to Abraham's bosom after death, and many non-Jews, coming from east and west, are to be seated with Him in the kingdom (; ; ).

Both the message of Stephen, given in his defense, and the Epistle to the Hebrews emphasize the eternal eschatological import of the promises to the Patriarchs. They say, first of all, that God promised the land to Abraham personally (; ); then they insist that he in no way inherited it during his life, and that thus he must therefore inherit it at the resurrection (; ).

Paul must have similarly interpreted the Abrahamic inheritance, since he preached to a Jewish king that “the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers” was the hope of resurrection (, ). He also taught that the heritage of the seed of Abraham was not just the land, but the world (). The inheritance is both spiritual and physical, since it has the Holy Spirit as its foretaste and yet concerns the final redemption of our body (; ).

According to Hebrews it is a heavenly, eternally grounded city or country which the Patriarchs sought (, , ). This might seem to be in contradiction with the promise to eternally inherit a land. Certain considerations, however, lead us to conclude that in both cases the same inheritance is meant. It was at the resurrection that the Old Testament believers were to inherit the promise (). Resurrection is not the same as creation: it implies that there is a continuity with the original body. In the same way, the land of Canaan of the original promise has a continuity with the country to be inherited eternally. The New Jerusalem comes down from heaven to the new earth (): it is heavenly and yet to be on earth.

These passages should be enough to persuade us that the principal blessing and inheritance of the covenant with Abraham was to enjoy full, final and eternal happiness on the new earth. Every time that the word “forever” is used in the Old Testament promises we are obliged to look beyond a millennium; the full accomplishment, whether it be literal or antitypical, can only be envisaged in the eternal state.

Jesus Christ Was the Mediating “Seed of Abraham”

Without deprecating the pious remnant which existed at the time of our Lord, the New Testament indicates that Christ alone was the Seed of Abraham by whom the blessing was to come (, ). He alone of Abraham's descendants did not sin, and thus could have toward others the universal mediating function. The first verse of the New Testament calls Him “the son of Abraham”; His first sermon began by announcing blessing () and that because of Himself ().

He came for the lost only of the children of Abraham (; ; ; , ); if He did not come for any others than the lost, it was because all Israelites were lost, and could not fulfill the mediating function promised to Abraham. When He said that Abraham had seen His day and rejoiced to see it, He implied that the promises to Abraham of eternal blessing were only to come true through Himself ().

Peter considered Jesus Christ to be the only true Seed of Abraham who could cause blessing to come to others. When he announced the Gospel to the Jews, he did not tell them that they were the seed of Abraham by whom the nations would be blessed. He told them instead that they were one of the nations, the first, which could be blessed by Christ, the true Seed of Abraham ().

Paul also taught that Christ is the only Seed of Abraham who brings the blessing, remarking that a singular word, “seed”, is used to speak of his seed in the prophecies (). Since the word “seed” in the sense of “descendants” always has a singular form, this might seem to be a thought imposed on the text and not found in it; however it is to be noticed that, in Genesis, when the whole nation is designated by the word “seed”, other accompanying words often indicate plurality: “theirs”, “them” (); “their” (). In the oath made to Abraham in , on the other hand, we read that the seed shall possess the gates of “his” enemies, a singular possessive adjective being used. The least that can be said about this verse and verse 18 is that they speak of the seed as a unity, if not as an individual.

Those Who Receive Abraham's Blessing through Christ

The first candidates for the blessing of Abraham through Jesus were His own Jewish disciples to whom blessings were pronounced (). Like Nathaniel, “an Israelite indeed, in whom was no guile” (), those who had been taught by the Father came to Christ () and were pronounced “blessed” because of their faith in Him ().

The choice by Christ of twelve Apostles indicated clearly that those who were to be blessed by Him were not a previously unannounced group, but were to be eschatological Israel, the people that was to transmit the blessing. As Israel had twelve tribes, so all the blessing coming through Israel, from Himself, would be given under the authority of these chosen Twelve. He told them so: “He that receiveth you receiveth me” () and, “as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you” (). Thus they also, by their association with Him, had an indirect and dependent participation in His universal mediatorial work as the Seed of Abraham. However, even “little ones” among His disciples bring His blessing to those who receive them ().

On the other hand, those Jews who rejected their Messiah and His disciples incurred the inverse effect of the promise to Abraham: “I will curse him that curseth thee”. They will hear the words of Jesus: “Depart from me cursed” (). Far from being Abraham's children they were, He said, of their father the devil (). John the Baptist had said that God did not need hypocritical, self-sufficient Israelites to form the children of Abraham, but that He could raise up children for Abraham from the stones (). The unmerciful rich man cried in vain to his father Abraham ().

The Gospels also indicate that the blessing of Abraham was to be extended to the Gentiles, in order to fill up the place which remained when the rebellious Jews, the invited guests, refused to come (; ; ; , ). The “one fold” to which the “other sheep” belong is the Church, in the last reference. In the parable of the separation of the sheep and the goats there seems to be an application of the principle that Gentiles will be blessed and will reign when they bless the seed of Abraham. It is because they will have helped Jesus' “brethren”, His Jewish (Christian) disciples, that men from all nations will hear the words, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you” (). This parable was no doubt given to the Apostles to teach them that men of all races would share the kingdom by identification with Christ through them and their mission.

The promises to Abraham to make him a father of many nations and to bless all nations by his seed receive an accomplishment in the Church, whose Gentile members not only are blessed by Abraham, but also become his seed, according to Paul (; , , ).

The “new Jerusalem”, the Wife of the lamb, which is to descend from God to the new earth, is to have the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel written on its gates (); this shows that the Church inherits the place of Israel.

Is the Church the final group to be blessed, or will the body of believers also become the means of the entire world eventually believing, as suggested by ? Will whole nations, all nations as nations, some day be blessed on earth by Abraham? The natural meaning of the promises would lead us to expect it: it was not said to Abraham: “Some from every nation will be blessed in you”. The many prophecies of the Old Testament which speak of nations as such being blessed require it (; ; etc.). The verses which speak of Israel as a nation blessing nations would also seem to require it (; RSV); Assyria and Egypt will be associated on an equal plane with Israel in worship and blessing ().

We must go to the Book of Revelation to determine what the final destiny of the nations on the earth will be. They will be radically decimated by the wrath of God (11:18; 19:15), but “nations” will also be in the earthly kingdom to be ruled over by Christ and the overcomers of the present age (2:26; 12:5; 15:4-5; 20:3). Although the Revelation does not refer to the blessings of Abraham, in speaking of this reign, it speaks again of “nations” in the final eschatological period when there will be no more curse (21:24, 26; 22:2).

When Does Christ Give the Blessing of Abraham?

The New Testament indicates that Old Testament believers will not receive the full blessing of Abraham until their resurrection: they “died in faith, not having received the promises” (). It teaches also that, since Christ's advent, believers on earth have a greater blessing than was available previously to the descendants of Abraham: “some better thing was provided for us” ().

The chapters in which Peter and Paul refer to the blessing of Abraham which came through Christ may help us to determine how and when the promised blessing came on earth.

Peter said to the Jews of Jerusalem: “Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities” (). The word “sent” gives trouble in this verse, for if the “raising up” of Christ refers to His public ministry, then He was not sent to the Jews “first”, but rather to them only (); if it is after His resurrection that He was sent, He was not then sent physically to any but His disciples. The Greek-English lexicon translated by Arndt and Gingrich, however, gives us another possible meaning for the Greek word “sent": “it often means simply that the action in question has been performed by someone else”. In other words: “God, having raised up Christ, had Him act with the purpose of blessing you.” (A.T. Robertson's Grammar says that the present participle of this verb is here “used of the future in the sense of purpose”, p. 891.)

Christ acted to bring the promised blessing, first by gathering disciples, and by giving them His teaching, which, from the first beatitudes, laid down the conditions of blessing. His death also was prerequisite: “Christ hath redeemed us ... that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles; that we [Jews as well as Gentiles] might receive the promise of the Spirit ...” (). His exaltation by God's right hand was also necessary for the giving of repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins (). The blessing came by the gift of the Spirit.

It follows that the Old Testament saints and the disciples of Jesus could not receive this blessing before Christ shed forth His Spirit from heaven. They were heirs of it, but were not yet transformed from servants to sons (). Christ had to be in heaven before men could “be blessed ... with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” ().

Those who now imitate the faith of Abraham are his heirs (). Within the Church of Christ there is equality between Jews and Gentiles as heirs of Abraham (). All Jews are potential and rightful heirs, but only on the condition of accepting Christ, the true Seed of Abraham.

The Dispensational Denial That We Are True Israel

The Church became the true heir to the blessings promised to the seed of Abraham and given in Christ by His finished work. This simple fact destroys the D. principle of discontinuity. This age is not an unrelated parenthesis: it is linked to Old Testament promises and to the work of Christ which brought them to fruition; it is also linked to the future time when all nations will be blessed by knowing what Christ has done for the Church.

Some insist that the Church has not become Abraham's heir in a national sense, but has received through him only spiritual blessings, while the Jews are to receive all the promised earthly blessing. We maintain that the inheritance cannot be divided in this way.

The Church is now the full and direct heir of the world by Abraham (), and all future blessings to the world will also come because of him, but through her as well.

Gentile believers became full heirs because of the refusal of most of Israel to receive Christ. Those members of the nation who did receive Him, the Jewish disciples, did in fact become full heirs of the Abrahamic promises and entitled to all, both because of their race and of their adherence to the Messiah. Although the offer of blessing was forfeited by the members of the nation who rejected their Messiah, there is no evidence that it was then in the least degree withdrawn from His disciples or changed in nature, as the D. view requires. They were the election which obtained what Israel sought, and not something else ().

Gentile believers were later added to them to form one and the same flock, or body. Do they not therefore inherit fully and equally with their Jewish brethren? Have they not also obtained “what Israel sought"? The only difference is that Jews became heirs by the promise made to their nation, while Gentiles did so by default of the Jews, and by God's mercy (; ; ).

In order to deny that the Church inherits Israel's promised eschatological place, D.s often say that the New Testament never applies to the Church the names which belong to the chosen people of the Old Testament.

It is true that the Christian Church must be distinguished from the OT Israel and that, generally speaking, the NT uses distinct terms for both. There are some passages, however, that apply names and designations of Israel to the Church.

In Paul ascribes the terms “Jew” and “circumcision” to Gentiles, maintaining that the significant possession of these terms before God is not determined by the letter of the Old Testament, but by the state of the heart as manifested by righteousness of life. In the eschatological nature of his reasoning appears. He denies that those Jews who are not elect according to the promise are truly Israel or the seed of Abraham, and he affirms that there are Gentiles who have part in the promised reintegration of lost Israel, and are therefore named “my people”, “beloved”, and “the children of the living God”.

In , as we have seen, Paul says that to be Christ's makes one Abraham's seed “according to the promise”, his posterity in an eschatological sense. “As Isaac was, we are the children of promise” (). Surely, in the light of these passages, we must conclude that, when he speaks of “the Israel of God” in , he is not referring only to Jewish believers, as some have maintained. He nowhere else seeks to give titles to the latter which he does not give to Gentile Christians.

In and spiritual circumcision is attributed to Gentile believers. In accord with the context of the latter verse, it is to be understood as an antitype: circumcision has a prophetic meaning, as “a shadow of things to come” ().

The term “Jerusalem” is also associated with the Church (; ; ; , ). In this case the name is always qualified by other words which distinguish the Church from the literal city. It is called “Jerusalem that is above”, “the heavenly Jerusalem”, “the new Jerusalem” and “the holy Jerusalem”. Again, the prophetic or typical sense of the name is evident.

It must also be noted that the terms “Abraham's children”, “circumcision”, “Jew”, “Israel”, and “Jerusalem” are also sometimes denied to unbelieving Jews (; ; ; ; ). If D.s wish to show that these words are never used in a spiritual or eschatological sense, they must explain not only why they can apply to Gentile believers, but why they are sometimes refused to Jews. It is because the Church has more moral right to these names than does unbelieving Israel!

The “spiritual”, or rather the “eschatological”, meaning of the terms must, however, be well understood and applied with care. Its use does not arise from a propensity to loose and allegorical expression on the part of the Apostles. The Church is called Israel in the true eschatological sense of the name, because she is heir to all that was promised eternally to Israel.

Jacob had personally received the new name “Israel” because of what he had become by grace: “as a prince hast thou power with God and men and hast prevailed” (). But Israel as a nation has lacked the empirical fulfillment of its name, which came first in Christ, and by Him in the Church.

It is impossible for Jews in any way to inherit the promised blessings of Abraham without Christ, in whom both Jew and Gentile are one. It may be noted that an application of this truth negates any philosophy of a divinely approved Jewish state or right to Palestine based on the Jewish religion or race without Christ. It is true, however, that the Jew has a natural right to the things of his Messiah, while the Gentiles are only substitutes, as wild olive branches grafted into a vine ().

Amillennial Identifying of Israel and the Israel of God

The Covenant Amils seek to equate the Church with Old Testament Israel or its elect members. Yet Old Testament Israel lived in the hope of receiving the promises and did not yet have the promised full reality. Only by truly receiving what was promised in Christ could it become what its name signified. Even true believers like Nathaniel, and Abraham himself, rejoiced in the coming day of the Messiah, knowing that only then would they really possess what was promised ().

There are two possibilities of confusion at this point. If Amils equate the whole nation of Israel with the Church, then there is the danger of applying to the Church categories which were intended to unite the members of an unregenerate nation as it strove to inherit the promise; but these are like old wineskins which cannot hold the new wine of the true participation which now has come by grace. It is understandable that, since Christianity came to Europe by the conversion of nations, the national churches should have adopted practices of national Israel and a covenant theology which justified them.

The other danger comes when one equates only the righteous in old Israel with the Church. It is true that this is necessary in preaching, to apply to the Christian life Old Testament truth which is profitable to us. However, one must be careful to distinguish the situation of the righteous before and after Christ. Then the whole unregenerate nation was ostensibly the chosen people, and was so treated, whereas now Peter's call echoes: “Save yourselves from this untoward generation” (). Then there was hope of a blessed seed of Abraham, but now we live by faith in the blessing which that Seed has obtained for us and allows us to experience.

Christ, Himself, was the first to be that blessed Seed; but since He died for all, His death represented the death of all natural Israel and of its hope of achieving blessing in itself (). Only in Christ resurrected is true blessing found; there is therefore a break of continuity with the Old Testament people. It at best could only typify the blessing and feebly illustrate the privileges which the New Testament people now effectively possess in Christ.

It is as individuals that we now belong to His people, by grace and not by race. To one born a Jew no special process was needed to belong to Israel, except to have it signified by circumcision on the eighth day. This was not done by the subject himself, nor with his consent or knowledge. All these things are changed in the New Testament. Now a knowledge of Christ, faith and repentance are always called for, before the rite of baptism. The rule of “a new creature” now governs “the Israel of God” ().

Postmillennial Joining of Present and Kingdom Ages

In the Postmil viewpoint the present age forms a continuum with the millennium, at which time all nations will be converted. Whole nations are not now blessed by conversion, but the time of their full promised blessing will gradually come. That will happen by no other resources than those which are now available, without the preliminary Appearing of Christ and His saints.

This position takes the promise of the blessing of whole nations seriously, as it should. But we submit to the reader the claim that our premil model better fits the details of the promise of the blessing of the nations by the seed of Abraham. In the original promise, the seed which blesses remains distinct from the nations which it blesses. In the postmil scheme, however, the Church, as the seed of Abraham, absorbs the converted nations and all distinction between those who bless and those who are blessed ceases. In our scheme, since the Church is glorified before the blessing of the nations as nations takes place, the two groups remain distinct.

It was the rite of circumcision which kept Israel distinct from the nations; it is the passing of the Church through physical death and resurrection which will keep it distinct from the nations on earth which will subsequently be converted. This is in accord with the spiritual meaning of circumcision which Paul associates with that of baptism, i.e. death and resurrection ().

As Christ had to leave the earth and go to heaven before the Church could be blessed, so the Church must be glorified in heaven before the world may see the blessing and be blessed.

Dispensational Linking of Mosaic and Millennial Ages

The D. principle of making the Church a parenthesis causes the millennium to be linked with the age of the law, whereas, as we have just stated, it should be linked with the age of grace. Blessing in the millennium will be copied from that of the Church. The nations are to “bless themselves” by Abraham's seed, according to the reflexive sense of certain verses (, Darby), which means that they will see in His true seed what they wish to adopt. It will not be as if the millennial Jews will revert to Old Testament principles (with pardon by the death of Christ tacked on!) after the end of a Gospel parenthesis. Law and grace cannot be mixed ().

Whatever inheritance Israel may have of Palestine in the millennium will be obtained in accordance with the principles of grace. Nations will joyfully bring them back, but non-Jews will live with them and even partake also of their identical priesthood (; ). This return to the land is only hinted at in the New Testament, however, as in . “The breadth of the land” upon which the nations will “mount” (cf. ) to attack “the beloved city” at the end of 1000 years also supposes their future return to Jerusalem ().

If there are Old Testament prophecies which seem to indicate that there will then be inequality between Israel and the nations, we should interpret them rather in a Christian sense. This age anticipates the next. We taste the power of the age to come (). Since, even in this age, the Jew is “first” in honor and partaking of Christ (), he may be first among equals in the millennium. Old Testament prophecies are best explained by their present partial realization: for example, we see even now how men may fall on their face before a people in whom God dwells ( cf. ); we already have illustrations of how those who oppress God's people may become servants of the oppressed ( cf. , ); Gentiles have already brought their gifts to their Jewish benefactors at Jerusalem ( cf. , ).

Whatever Abrahamic prophecies may be accomplished in the millennium, it is rather in eternity that the full and final inheritance of the promises will take place. Since all things will then be made new (), the literal details in which the prophecies were initially described will necessarily undergo a certain metamorphosis.

The physical features of the promised land will then no longer be exactly the same as those of Palestine, since, for example, there will be no more sea (). The area attributed to our foursquare city which descends from heaven is more than the equivalent of Palestine (). The Patriarchs will inherit with us a heavenly city, or country, on earth.

The nations will bring their glory into it (, ). If our understanding is correct, these are they who will have been converted in the millennium () and found written in the Lamb's Book of Life at the final great white throne judgment (). The Church will not be judged at that time, having already reigned in glory with Christ for one thousand years.

Postmil and Amil Refusal of a Rapture in History

It seems to this writer that the main reason for the postmil and amil positions is the reticence of their adherents to credit such a seemingly fantastic eventuality as a rapture of millions of Christians in history. One such ascension for the blessing of men, that of Christ, is permissible. But it could only be in a final dissolution of known universal laws that God would ever do such an incredible miracle on behalf of millions!

There has, however, already been a comparable action of God in history on such a world scale, producing on earth a new order — the deluge (). And Christ's resurrection in history calls us to hope for its extension to all believers in history: “If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him” (). If Christ rose from the dead and mounted to heaven to bless the Church, why may not the Church also rise from the dead and “appear with him in glory” () to bless the entire creation, and not just for her own salvation ()?

If, at Christ's Coming, as in the amil and postmil schemes, there will immediately be a new earth for us to inhabit, with no millennial time lapse while we reign in heaven, how is it that the New Testament speaks so much of heaven as the place of our awaited inheritance (; ; ; )? Why is it not said that we will immediately enjoy our glorified earthly inheritance? We shall indeed descend to enjoy it there after our priestly millennial ministry is done, but not as our first and principal glory (, ).

The Unifying Theme of Prophecy

It has been seen that the expected seed of Abraham, which was to bless the world, is embodied in Christ and in the Church. This chapter has confirmed, therefore, our thesis that the Total Christ is at the center of God's plan. In the Old Testament, participation in it was the hope of Israel's calling; now it is the right of believers to be fellow heirs with Christ.

Chapter Six

The Eschatology of the Mosaic Covenants

In the last four books of the Pentateuch is found the record of how God did wonders for the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, proving that He was Jehovah, the Living God, who had the power to accomplish His promises.

He caused the people to increase greatly in number and then delivered them from the slavery of Egypt, with great miracles and judgments on the Egyptians. After they were free, He brought them to a personal meeting with Himself at Sinai, to teach them the conditions necessary for experiencing the blessings which had been promised to them through their father Abraham. Their relationship with Jehovah their God is expressed by all the words of the covenant made at Sinai () and by its later reformulation for the following generation in the plains of Moab (), to prepare them for life in their new land.

Since these covenants were made in view of the future, they have much to teach us in the domain of eschatology. They do it principally in four ways: by the titles given to Israel to indicate its future role; by the promise of a prophet like Moses; by the blessings and curses set before them according to whether or not they conformed to the law; and by the rites and ordinances, which had an eschatological (typical), as well as a commemorative, meaning.

Titles Which Indicate the Future

Moses told Pharaoh that Israel was God's son, His firstborn (). The implication of the term “firstborn” is that others are to follow. But the word also indicates the special relationship of the firstborn to those who were to follow. He had a double portion, and in rank and authority was superior to his brothers. He was consecrated to the Lord, in the case of men as with animals. The Levites took the place of the firstborn sons of Israel in order to serve in connection with the worship of the tabernacle (). The position of the Levites in Israel may therefore enlighten us as to the meaning of the distinct position of Israel as firstborn of the nations.

Before giving the Ten Commandments, God also conditionally offered Israel other titles: obedience would make her “a peculiar treasure” to God “above all people ... a kingdom of priests and an holy nation” ().

In Israel is called “the lot and portion” of God and is assured of that place by the meaningful “coincidence” that its number was according to the number of the nations when the latter were dispersed over the face of the earth. This may mean that, as there were then 70 nations (), so there were later 70 members of the family of Jacob who came to Egypt (). Thus God signified that He had chosen Israel to represent all the nations of the earth before Him.

The Promise of a Prophet Like Moses

When Israel requested to no longer be obliged to hear the terrifying voice of God which gave the Ten Commandments at Sinai, one response which God made to their request is recorded only in the Book of Deuteronomy (18:15-19). God said that He would no longer speak to them directly, but that He would send them a prophet like Moses. Radical implications of this promise spring from the determinative place of Moses himself, whom the promised prophet was to resemble. Moses was no ordinary prophet (; ). He was a savior, a legislator and a worker of unparalleled miracles. His work laid the foundation of a new dispensation. Such was the promised prophet to be.

The context also indicates that this prophet would have an even more definitive ministry than Moses. He would replace, not Moses, but the voice of God which spoke from Mount Sinai; God Himself would requite every man who would not listen to him: He would not leave it to the people to punish such rebels, as was the case with the Law of Moses. The ordinary prophets of Israel only partly partook of these privileges.

Future Blessings and Curses

The redemption, function and privileged position of Israel made imperative her obedience (; ; ; ). That leads us to another way in which the eschatology of the Mosaic covenants is developed, i.e. by predictions of the blessings to be given for obeying the law (; ) and of the sufferings consequent on future disobedience (; ; ; ). To these are added promises that if, after having learned by chastisement the justice of the curses, the people repent and keep everything prescribed by Moses, they as a people will be reestablished in the favor of God and in their land (; ; ).

The blessings and the curses, which at first appear to be contingent, were later revealed to be certain to come. Because Israel had such a sinful nature, they would be certain to rebel and to suffer the curse (, , cf. ); on the other hand, the power and love and glory of God were such that He could not destroy them all (), but would finally make atonement for His land and for His people (, Darby). The blessing of their conversion was to take place “in the latter days” (). Although they were as yet in a fixed condition of blindness, it was implied, in , that the day would come when God would open their eyes and ears.

This final restoration of Israel was to differ in many ways from their original adoption as a people when God saved them from Egypt. It will be seen to resemble more closely the New Testament salvation. It was to be a spiritual, efficacious transformation, not merely a physical and ritual deliverance; it was to follow a confession of national and personal sins (), whereas the law had not yet revealed sin when Israel came out of Egypt. It was to be experienced only when the people sought God with all their heart (). The circumcision which was to characterize it was that of the heart, in order to enable them to love the Lord () by excising their pride and causing them to humbly accept the punishment of their sins (). According to the textual lesson of the Septuagint and of Paul in , the nations were finally to rejoice with Israel (. 1.).

Two means are mentioned which God was to use to bring about this final conversion of Israel. One was the punishment and exile which would come upon them because of their sins (); another was that they would be provoked to jealousy by a “foolish nation” (). This latter surprising thesis of another people replacing Israel is not found only in Deuteronomy: God once previously wanted to destroy Israel and make of Moses a new people ().

The Future Seen in Types

A third source of eschatology in the Law of Moses is found in its ceremonies, and in the typical nature of the Exodus salvation. We must first establish the fact that the ceremonies were not ordained to subsist forever and that they had, from the beginning, an intended meaning, which spoke of things to come.

The tabernacle in which the glory of God dwelt under the Mosaic covenant was perishable in nature. God indicated to David that He had never been interested in having men make Him a more permanent house ().

The ark itself, although covered with gold, was made of perishable wood, like other parts of the furniture. It had staves permanently attached to it, for it to be carried. This showed its transitory nature, especially when we note that even in the temple, when the ark was no more to go out, the staves remained (; ). In fact, the day would come when there would be no more ark (). Since the Ark of the Covenant was the throne of God and center of all the worship, its absence would necessarily be accompanied by profound and far-reaching changes in the future.

The repeated order to Moses to make all things according to the pattern shown him on the mount shows that God gave to these rites a symbolic significance (; ; ). David also received from God the pattern for the temple (, ). The New Testament did not invent the spiritual meaning of the Mosaic ceremonies; it is already apparent in the Old Testament.

We have already seen the significance of circumcision. The tabernacle and the temple were models of God's abode in heaven (; ; ). The cherubim surrounding the mercy seat in the holy of holies spoke of the living creatures which surround the throne of God in heaven (; ; ).

The veil illustrated how sin had separated men from God (). The seven-branched lampstand spoke of the Spirit of God (, ); the altar of incense represented the offering up of prayers (); the hyssop, used to sprinkle the sacrificial blood, signified spiritual purification (). The sacred aromatic oil, employed exclusively to anoint the high priest and the holy things, is used by the Psalmist to speak of the joy of brotherly unity ().

The separation between pure and impure meats signified the necessity of separation between God's holy people and the nations ().

The prophetic nature of the ceremonies also appears in the use which the prophets made of them in speaking of things to come. The water of purification () symbolized for Ezekiel the future cleansing of hearts from sin (); sin offerings were used to explain the self-offering of the future Servant of Jehovah for the sins of the people (); the future offering of the Israelites of themselves to the Lord is compared to the offerings made in the house of the Lord () and to fragrant incense: “I will accept you as fragrant incense when I bring you out from the nations” (, NIV). Hosea says that the repentant people will one day offer words of their lips instead of calves. ().

As might be expected, the fixed times of the law seem also to have had a prophetic meaning. In the midst of a discussion of the sin of Israel, God says by Hosea that He will make them dwell in booths “as in the days of the solemn feast” (12:9). He seems not to be speaking of the repetition of the rite but of the future experience of its spiritual meaning. In this same feast is said to be destined for all the nations; since the prophet goes against the letter of the law in giving it to Gentiles, could he not also be seeing beyond its literal meaning to envisage an antitypical sense?

The interval of seven is found on an increasing scale, beginning with the seventh day, followed by seven sevens of days (), the seventh month (), the seventh year () and the seven sevens of years (). Since Daniel incorporates the largest interval, the seventy sevens of years, into a prophecy about the coming of eternal righteousness, it may be presumed that all these ceremonial sevens also prefigure the future salvation ().

The Mosaic Ceremonies Will be Abolished

Finally comes the crucial question: “Was the arrival of the eschatological blessings signified by these ceremonial elements intended to lead to the abolition of the ceremonies themselves, or were the rites to continue along with the coming of their spiritual reality?”

We have already remarked on the temporary nature of the tabernacle. Isaiah seems to mock those who would build a temple for God (); since he says that all the people are to be priests (61:6), and that even some Gentiles will have the same privilege (66:21), the perpetuation of a ritual in which only the high priest can come into God's presence, and that only once a year, seems excluded. When God said: “My tabernacle will be over them” (, Darby), He spoke of a time when all the people would be in God's presence all the time; the future dedication of Jerusalem as the throne of the Lord is to replace and eliminate even the ark with its mercy seat (). It is seen, therefore, that a unified Old Testament theology requires the conclusion that God planned the replacement of all rites by their corresponding eschatological realities. The coming of the eternal Messianic priesthood will leave no place for Levitical priests and their order (, ). The old selective laws of holiness will no longer apply when everything is holy (, ).

In the time of the prophets the sin of Israel had already made hateful to God their diligent observation of the ceremonies (, etc.). Hosea announced that, as punishment, God would make all these things cease ().

Another fact which encourages us to think that the Mosaic ceremonies were made to speak of things to come is that God's saving acts at the period of the Exodus were also used by the prophets to explain greater things to come.

God will again bring Israel into the wilderness (); since, in the following verse, He promises “the valley of Achor for a door of hope”, it may be that both verses are to be taken as symbols of future spiritual blessing: “Achor” meant trouble, and the literal valley was where Achan troubled Israel.

The “sea of affliction” through which God will bring them is suggested by the crossing of the Red sea (, Darby). The “way of holiness” is suggested by the path through the desert ( cf. ); the pillar of cloud and of fire prefigures the future protection by God (); as in the time of the Exodus “new things” and “marvelous things” are to show that God lives and saves (; ). Since God's former prodigies were not to be exactly duplicated, but prefigured greater things coming in the future, the rites commemorating them may be expected to have done so as well. The prophets of Israel made an eschatological use of the books of Moses.

All the history of Israel leading up to the New Testament demonstrates that never did that nation fulfill the conditions which would give it the promised restoration of the latter days. The extent of its repentance in the Babylonian exile and of its subsequent return to Palestine was only minimal. Not only did the people fail to become a “royal priesthood”, but even the Levitical priesthood is menaced by rejection in the last book of the Old Testament (; ), whereas the sacrifice of Gentiles is expected to be acceptable to God in all the world ().

Jesus Seen in the Mosaic Eschatology

Jesus is confessed throughout the New Testament as the “Son” of God. Applied to Jesus this term has a high metaphysical sense; yet the same word may also take up other, more humble, themes of the Old Testament and apply them to Jesus. One of these is the use of the word as applied by God to Israel: “My son, my firstborn”. Matthew applies to Jesus a description of Israel as God's son (). As Israel was tempted in the wilderness, so also was Jesus; He quoted verses from Deuteronomy, the book which tells of Israel's temptation, when Satan tempted Him three times as the Son of God (). Jesus, the true Son and Firstborn, did not succumb to the temptation as did Israel.

The coming of a prophet like Moses was widely expected in the time of Jesus, and that prophecy was often applied to Him (; ; ). Our Lord did not clearly make that identification; His silence was in accord with His long reticence to accept any Messianic title except the rather ambiguous title of “the Son of Man”. However, we have every reason to believe that He thought of Himself as fulfilling the function of the “prophet like Moses”. He taught that Moses had spoken about Him (, ); Peter said the same thing, and the only text which he quoted to that effect was , (). The text about the prophet like Moses is therefore one of the most likely texts for Christ to have applied to Himself in the Law of Moses.

Christ said that He had come, not to abolish the Law of Moses, but to fulfill it. He added that not one jot or one tittle would pass from the law until all should be fulfilled (). By using the word “fulfill” with regard to the law, Christ indicated not only that it would be supplemented by His own teaching as the “prophet like Moses”, but that all its contents would receive a fuller explanation and that its purpose to promote holiness in every moral and predictive passage would come to full fruition through Himself.

In spite of His mention of not “one jot or one tittle” passing from the law unfulfilled, it is evident that the teaching of Jesus, in the process of perfecting the teaching of every jot, often did set aside the exact literal expression of it. The letter of the law was insufficient, and He brought out God's full intention by the repeated use of the words, “Ye have heard that it was said ... but I say unto you”. He contrasted the law and the prophets which were preached until John with His own teaching of the kingdom (). He showed that He abundantly possessed the right, as did the priests in the temple and those who circumcise on the Sabbath, to set aside the letter of the Sabbath law (; ; ). By saying that that which enters into a man does not defile him, He declared all foods clean (), contrary to Moses' regulations. He explained His disciples' new conduct by the illustration of the necessity of putting new wine in new bottles (). He did not require the stoning of the adulteress as Moses had commanded () and taught that only two commandments of the law suffice to determine the validity of all conduct ().

The Gospels show as well that the rites of the law receive a fulfillment in Christ which abolishes them. He is the true sacrificial Lamb which takes away the sin of the world (); the brazen serpent prefigured His elevation on the cross (); the Passover was to be fulfilled by His death (). The veil in the temple was rent from top to bottom (); Jesus' body is the true tabernacle () and temple (, ), and worship in spirit and in truth will not be necessarily linked with Jerusalem (). Since rites were to be abolished, the literal words of the law which prescribed them must have become non-binding, abrogated as precept.

The moral regeneration promised for the latter days should have been known to Nicodemus, the teacher in Israel, by his study of the law; Jesus explained to him that it would come from above, by the gift of God's Son, received by faith (). This shows a radical difference between the way in which privileges were offered to Israel by Moses, as conditional on its law keeping, and the way in which they were freely to be given in Christ.

When Jesus told the Pharisees that the kingdom of God would be taken from Israel and given to a “nation” bringing forth the fruits thereof, He may have been alluding to the foolish nation which was to provoke Israel to jealousy (). Our Lord's words, however, go further than , proving that there will be a real substitution of one people for another as heir of God's kingdom. He did not in this deny the possibility of a future admission of the Jewish nation to the kingdom, since the only Jews whom He declared would be rejected were His contemporaries who disbelieved. He elsewhere speaks of Jerusalem one day receiving Him ().

The Teaching of Paul

Paul applies to Christ, in different ways, the title of “firstborn” which was first given to Israel: He is “the firstborn of every creature”, “the firstborn from the dead” and “the firstborn of many brethren” (, ; ). His resurrection is also the “firstfruits” of ours ().

He gives a full explanation of the way in which the promises of the law would be realized through Christ, apart from the law (, ). He insists that he fully honors the law. In order to truly honor it, one must maintain it in all its rigor and insist that all men, because they are “under sin” () are unable to keep it and thus to obtain everlasting life (; ; ). The law can only curse, condemn and kill us (; , ; , ).

In this hopeless situation God has intervened. By taking on Himself the curse of the law, Christ has redeemed us at the cross (; ). Thus the penal aspect of the law is honored, but at the same time it is ended. What is attributed to us by our faith in Christ is not the righteousness of keeping Moses' law, but the righteousness of God Himself in Christ (; ).

The reasoning of Paul concerning the end of the law affects the eschatological questions before us. The quest for righteousness by means of the law of Moses must continue to be set aside in order that the promised fullness of blessing may be realized both in this age and in the next (). For the eschatology of the elect is the same thing as salvation, which comes apart from the law.

Paul states as a fact that our old man was crucified with Christ (). We are therefore to consider ourselves as dead to the law (), crucified to the world (), and dead to the rudiments of the world (). We are not obliged to submit to the “weak and beggarly elements” of the law — “days, months, times and years” (). We are not “as though living in the world ... subject to ordinances” such as circumcision, rules about meat, drink and what we may taste or touch, holy days, new moons and Sabbath days (). Even though the elementary creation of God made provision for such things as months and feast days (), we belong to a fundamentally new creation (; ). Even though the law and many of its ordinances were expressly stated to be eternal, yet by Christ's representative offering of His body we are counted as having died, and therefore are no longer in the sphere to which the old law applied ().

Our relationship with the risen Christ gives us a new life. The active principle of that new life leads us to fulfill “the righteousness of the law” (), but does not to bind us to its letter (; ). The law was only added “till the seed should come to whom the promise was made” (). By our position “not under the law”, Paul means not only that the law does not condemn us, but also that all its regulations for living do not bind us: we need not live “after the manner of the Jews” (; ), although we must be led by the Spirit so as to avoid sin (; ).

Yet Paul taught that all the law, in the sense of the five books of Moses or of all the Old Testament, speaks to the present age. It was by the law that he was dead to the law (). Righteousness apart from the law actually confirms the words of the law, which taught that, like Abraham and David, the nations would be justified and blessed by faith (; ).

Israel Provoked to Jealousy for its Salvation and the World's

Paul quotes in to show that God will use the Gentile converts, when their full number will have come in, as the “foolish nation” which will provoke unbelieving Israel to jealousy.

In , he teaches that, by being provoked to jealousy by the “foolish people”, “all Israel” will be saved. The Israel of which he speaks is not spiritual Israel, the Church, but ethnic Israel, to which he attributes, in these same verses, a “fall” and a “blindness in part”.

The impact of Israel's future national salvation will be such that the nations of the world will then receive riches much greater than they had received when Israel's rejection of Christ opened to them the door of salvation (11:12, 15).

Some have thought that teaches that the result of the conversion of the Jews will be the immediate coming of the resurrection, identified as “life from the dead”. However, that suggests a qualitative rather than a quantitative difference between the two stages of Gentile blessing, which is not supported by the parallel verse 12, where the second enriching is simply described as “much more”. It is not evident how a national conversion of the Jews could bring resurrection to the nations, whereas it is easily seen that it would help towards their conversion. Since Paul is arguing here on the basis of reason, by asking a question, we cannot insist that he is teaching something which is not readily evident. The first process, the “reconciling”, took a period of time to be accomplished, so it is to be supposed that the second, “life from the dead”, will also be an age-long work in the world. In Paul's mind, however, this “life from the dead” may have been seen as issuing finally in the complete victory over death in the universe (; ).

The salvation of “all Israel” cannot apply only to the elect Jews who are saved and incorporated into the Church in this age. Paul calls it a future “mystery”, ignored by the Romans to whom he reveals it, some of whom were themselves converted Jews (). The present salvation of Jews was no mystery to them.

To prove that this great mystery will take place, Paul uses a translation of which states that the Deliverer will come out of Zion and turn away all ungodliness from Jacob. Although he does not expressly explain that part of the quotation, he includes it. It can hardly be thought that it refers to the first Coming of Christ, for Paul is speaking of the future. If we take it as the Second Coming of Christ, then the simultaneous “coming in” of the full number of the Gentiles of the Church could be the rapture. This is in accord with passages in which the verb “to come in” is used of the gathering of Christ's people at His Coming (; , , ; ).

The process is resumed and explained in verses 30 and 31. The KJV is right in omitting the second “now” in (found in the NIV, for example). It is not now that all Israel will be saved.

Figure 5 is a graphic representation of the order in which Paul links the various future events implied in .

Saved Israel Will Not be Under the Law

Since it is only in the eleventh chapter of Romans that Paul speaks clearly of the future salvation of Israel as a whole people, it is difficult to prove what he held to be true about the binding literal applicability of the Law of Moses to their lives at that future time. Nevertheless, the whole direction of the teaching of Paul would lead us to believe that he could not have expected a return to legalism and literalism:

1. If he so taught, what would become of his putting a curse on any who would preach a Gospel other than that which he had preached? If even angels would thus be accursed, would not men in any future dispensation ()? Paul protests to the Galatians: “Are ye so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” (). Did he think that God, having begun to bless humanity by the Spirit in this age, would make His work perfect in a future age by the works of the law?

2. If Israel failed to receive righteousness as a nation because they sought it by the works of the law (), how can they receive it in the future by making the same mistake?

3. The Old Testament chapter which Paul used to show that Israel would be provoked to jealousy and saved testifies that Israel by itself would only continue to sin (, ). God would act on their behalf solely for the glory of His name (32:26-28), by pity for them (32:36), by His sovereign power (32:39), and by means of an atonement (32:43, NIV). Since, according to Paul, Christ's atonement removes believers from the sphere of the Mosaic Law, he would also have considered the legalistic requirements as transcended in the future by the atonement for all Israel (). He even taught that all creation, as well as the Church, is to be reconciled by Christ's blood (, ). God will therefore give to Israel the blessings of without legalistically tying them to the performance of all the laws given them by Moses on the plains of Moab. As Paul taught that the divine indwelling, legally conditioned in , is now given by grace (), so also can there be a valid spiritual accomplishment in the millennium without a return to the old legalism.

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Figure 5

4. Since it is by means of a “foolish nation”, which is not saved by the law, that God will provoke Israel to emulation, it must be in order that they should imitate that people in being saved and perfected in the same way, without the Mosaic Law. Jealousy would only be provoked by a mutually desirable good.

5. Although “the gifts and calling of God are without repentance” (), and Israel will therefore find mercy as a nation, yet in this eleventh chapter of Romans there is not the slightest hint that a different kind of grace will be given to them in the future than what they were called to receive in Christ, and which we have now experienced by their default.

Granting the truth that Old Testament Israel was the “root” on which believers now grow as “branches” does not require any perpetuation of the legal principles of a former age. “Roots” are not the same as “branches”, even if they do belong to the same tree (). Paul calls the future members of saved Israel “branches” even as he does us; believers in both eras of salvation are branches, similar in nature but differing with the underground “root” which existed before Christ.

The Epistle to the Hebrews and the Epistles of Peter

The Epistle to the Hebrews gives to the Church the title “the Church of the firstborn [ones]” (12:33). It also lays a logical foundation for the fulfillment of the types and prophecies in Christ and teaches a change of the law (7:12). The author does it entirely by the authority of the Old Testament, seen as applying to Jesus.

Peter says that faith secures, even to Gentiles, the titles which Moses had offered conditionally to Israel: they are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people (). Paul too links one of these titles, that of “peculiar people” (), to our redemption.

The Writings of John

Some have thought that, in speaking of a remnant which keeps “the commandments of God”, John shows that he considers the Mosaic Law still to be in force (). However, if the same John wrote , it is clear that for him the commandments of God are those of Jesus Christ; in he defines God's commandments as faith in Christ and love to one another.

In the Book of the Revelation, the typology of the temple of God is applied to eschatology rather than to our present salvation, as in Hebrews. God's temple is in heaven and the Church worships forever in it (3:12; 7:15; 11:19); God Himself and the Lamb constitute the temple of the New Jerusalem which will descend from heaven (21:22). It would seem, therefore, that the temple worshipers mentioned in 11:1-2 (as in 7:15) are in the heavenly temple, and that the outer court represents the earth, for it is there that sacrifices are made (cf. 6:9). The Revelation does not speak of any material temple before or during the millennium.

According to 5:10, the royal priesthood, now the heritage of the Church and not of national Israel, will be exercised in a future time when “they shall reign on the earth”. They will serve in this priesthood in the temple of God in heaven (7:15).

Dispensationalism and Our Claim to the Promises

Since the Old Testament titles of “firstborn”, “peculiar treasure”, “kingdom of priests” and “holy nation” come to the Church, it is evident that the New Testament program is continuous with that of the Old.

Strange as it may seem, even L. S. Chafer states that “the office of king and priest combined belongs to Christ and His Church alone. To ancient Israel was given the opportunity of this position () but she failed.” (Systematic Theology, Vol. 4, p. 378). How this harmonizes with the doctrine that the present age is an intercalation having nothing whatever to do with Old Testament prophecy, we are not told. Since the Church pre-empts the supreme position offered to Israel, there is at least continuity as to the plan to have a priestly nation.

The Old Testament does, in fact, reveal the Church as a distinct people: it is the “foolish” people, which is outdo Israel, provoking them to jealousy by becoming God's true people first.

It is true that, as a result, there will be a place for Israel: “all Israel will be saved”. Nevertheless, D.s may be asked the question: Did this promise so influence the Apostle's theology that he reserved all appropriation of the promises of the Old Testament uniquely to that future time? Rather, we find that he attests that all the promises of God are for Christians (). Not often, in fact only once, did he make known the future salvation of Israel as a nation. Since many Christians apparently ignored this “mystery”, it could not have been a dominant factor in the kind of exegesis and application which Paul taught them to make of the Old Testament, their only Bible at that time.

To Whom Does Christ's Teaching First Apply?

Nor is the applicability of Christ's words in the Gospels reserved for a future tribulation or millennium. We have seen that He is “the prophet like Moses”; listening to Him, in “whatsoever he shall say unto you”, was required in the age of grace (). Neither the Sermon on the Mount nor the Olivet discourse may be excepted from that rule.

In the following tabulation there are seven distinct witnesses to the fact that the words of Jesus are primarily for us now, not for a future age.

Table 1: WITNESSES THAT JESUS TAUGHT FOR THE CHURCH

1. THE FATHER:

He said, “Hear ye him”, and this word was said to be intended for the time after the resurrection (, )

2. THE SON:

Jesus said that His sayings applied to “everyone” (), that they would never pass away () but should all be taught till the end of the age (); all men will be judged by them ()

3. THE HOLY SPIRIT:

He brought all Jesus' words to the remembrance of the Apostles in the age of grace ()

4. THE APOSTLE PETER:

“I want you to recall... the command given by our Lord and Savior...” (, NIV)

5. THE APOSTLE JOHN:

“Jesus Christ the righteous... if we keep his commandments” ()

6. THE WRITER TO THE HEBREWS:

“How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord...?” ()

7. THE APOSTLE PAUL:

“If any man... consent not to... the words of our Lord Jesus Christ... he is proud, knowing nothing” (; ; , NIV)

In addition, James may refer to Jesus as the “one lawgiver” (4:12 cf. , ), and Jude warns against those who deny Jesus Christ as “our only Sovereign and Lord” (4, NIV).

Since both the Old Testament and Jesus Himself predicted that the legal and ceremonial regime was to be replaced by a more perfect order, as we have shown, this underlines the D. error of thinking that our Lord first taught a law incompatible with the grace which actually came at Pentecost.

This Age Prepares For the Next

If it be admitted that “the fullness of the Gentiles” must come in “and so all Israel shall be saved” when “there shall come out of Zion the Deliverer”, then one is encouraged to think positively about the Church completing its task in the last days and cooperating in preparing the Coming of Christ by publishing His message. This age is indeed to be used to prepare the next: “thus” or “so” all Israel will be saved (); through the mercy shown to us they will then find mercy (). The evangelization of Jews now living in the state of Israel can only receive a great breakthrough by the calling out of a people friendly to them, by Christ, from the Arabs which surround them, to provoke them to jealousy.

The idea of working “to bring in the kingdom” is very suspect in some Evangelical circles. Yet the program of God is carried on through men and is not disconnected. From the foundation of the world He has been at work without ceasing, preparing for us a kingdom.

The Old Testament itself envisioned the ultimate destiny of Israel in terms of replacing ceremonial types by their antitypical realities; therefore the accomplishment of those realities in the Church shows that this age prepares for the age of Israel's restoration.

God's Literal Promise of Restoration for Israel

Let us now consider the D. objection that God is bound by His promise to literally give to converted Israel in the millennium all the things which Moses promised, and that these things therefore cannot apply to the Church. We are not regathered to Palestine, blessed there with material blessings and successful there in wars against our enemies (; ).

The condition of being blessed under that Mosaic covenant was to maintain strict, complete and continued observance of all the laws and ordinances of Moses. Thus only could Israel have expected to experience the literal accomplishment of all the promises (). The Old Testament and the New Testament unite to say that their sinful human propensities made that impossible.

Since God was determined to bless them, and all mankind, He had to take things entirely into His own hands. He prepared a divine, supernatural salvation. He found a means of putting all men to death in a Substitute so that the old law, having exhausted all its claims, could neither condemn nor regulate their lives. The death, resurrection and ascension of Christ made all believers part of a new creation in which another law, that of the Spirit of life, operates to fulfill all that is just and permanent in the law (). The Spirit of God reveals to us the law of the Spirit through Jesus' and His Apostles' words, and through the Old Testament revelation as it comes to fruition in the New Testament, “not according to the letter” ().

If we, as a new creation, are not bound by the letter of the old law, will God Himself still be bound by it? Since the promised salvation comes uniquely from Him and not by any compliance of sinful man, may God not make it of greater proportions, for the glory of His name? May not the new creation and the salvation accomplished uniquely by God transcend and supersede the legalistic and ceremonial framework as to the millennial form of the predicted blessing? Must the fulfillment of prophecies be tied to the letter of an abrogated law? Surely not!

Thus we hold that neither God nor Israel in the millennium will have to literally observe all the details of a legalistic covenant forfeited by sin and cancelled by Calvary (). Nevertheless God will not do less by His grace, but more. The full and eternal regathering, greater than that of Jews to Palestine, will take place in Christ “in the dispensation of the fullness of times” (), in a new heavens and a new earth.

However, there are to be other regatherings in preparation for that time. That of the Church, the firstfruits (; ; ), will lead to others. In the regathering process there is no need to set aside a preparatory step of a temporal, millennial regathering of Jews to their land; but at the same time there is no warrant for putting God under bondage to Mosaic details which are in disaccord with principles instituted through His Son.

Amillennial Limiting of the Full Scope of Old Testament Promises

Although we thus envisage a fulfillment of some Old Testament prophecies which is “not of the letter”, this is not to renounce the substance of Old Testament prophecies. Even minute details may be fulfilled if they are in harmony with New Testament principles; past detailed accomplishments of prophecies show that God is pleased to bring to pass all He has said, even if men do not merit it. Some teachers, even “Historical Premillennialists”, would reduce our expectation to those promises which God has confirmed with an oath. However, God's Word is as good as His oath, as ours must be. If conditions have changed so that every detail in the promise is no longer applicable, He will give what is now equivalent. If He gave some promises with an oath, it was only to strengthen the weak faith of men: that “we might have a strong consolation” ().

The “contingent” nature of the Old Testament prophecies has been said to be evidenced by the case of Jonah's unfulfilled message of doom on Nineveh. So, it is said, God does not need to accomplish all His good promises. It does not seem to be noted that this argument depends on God's unexpected goodness, in order to prove that He will not accomplish all the good He has promised, which does not seem too logical. The message of Jonah was not literally fulfilled, but it had been preceded and qualified by another, much greater, message, which intervened to benefit the people of Nineveh. The sublime revelation of God to Moses had proclaimed: “the LORD, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering and abundant in goodness and truth”. Even Jonah knew that revelation to be the supreme reality and expected it to overrule ( cf. ). God did not act otherwise than He had already said that He would act. His Word in the Old Testament may be trusted, but it must be interpreted globally, in its total context.

Amils rightly teach that Mosaic ceremonies, even if they are embedded in Old Testament prophecies, will not be reinstituted, but are prophetic, in the same way as are the prophecies in which they are found.

Yet it is evident in the texts that all these future realities have been promised in greater scope than what has so far transpired. They are on a national and territorial scale, surpassing that of the “few which find” in this age. True, men no longer seek the ark in order to approach the throne of God, as Jeremiah said would be the case. But the prophet also foresaw that it would be not just a scattered elect, as at present, but all nations, who would recognize a new form of the divine enthronement in the literal city of Jerusalem, at a time when procreation is nevertheless taking place and Israel is “multiplied and increased in the land” (). An intermediate future age must be posited for the credibility of many such promises.

Postmillennial Hope Without the “Blessed Hope”

Does our study of Moses' prophecies and their New Testament interpretation encourage the hope of the conversion of the nations before the Second Coming of Christ?

In are seen two separate and contrasted times of the enriching of the world by the Gospel. In one time the nations are blessed by the fall of the Jews; in the second time the world is to be enriched in a much fuller way by their fullness. If one compares the Old Testament descriptions of the latter method of bringing about blessing with the New Testament revelation of how the fall of Israel has blessed the nations, contrasting methods are seen in each: in the New Testament, messengers go out to the nations with the Gospel; in the time of Israel's conversion, according to the Old Testament, it will rather be the Gentiles who will come in to see the ideal example, in Israel, of what God is doing for a people, and to learn the secret.

What has been said in the preceding chapter about the continuing separateness of “the seed of Abraham” from the nations which it will bless, so that the conversion of nations must await the rapture of the Church, is confirmed also in this case. Since the Church will continue to be a “peculiar people”, “a kingdom of priests” and “a holy nation”, it must continue to manifest separation in some way from those who are the beneficiaries of its service. In all cultures the efficacy of the priesthood depends on its separation and distinction from the people for whom it exists. In heaven we will be glorified kings and priests for God on behalf of the millennial earth. The millennium cannot come in this age, for elective priesthoods among God's people are abolished.

Chapter Seven

The Davidic Messiah

The roots of the hope of a royal Davidic Messiah properly begin with the books of Samuel, although there are previous allusions to him under the names of “Shiloh” () and “a Star out of Jacob and a Scepter out of Israel” ().

The idolatry, anarchy and oppression of the times of the Judges had revealed the necessity for a righteous king (; ; ) in order to make the Abrahamic blessings operative for the individualistic and lawless tribes (cf. ; ). The mother of Samuel prophesied that when the Lord judged the ends of the earth He would exalt the power of His Anointed (); her own son had the privilege of anointing the first two kings of Israel.

It was necessary, in a dynasty which was to represent Jehovah and culminate with the Messiah, that the first king possess the proper qualities to be an example to those who would follow. Saul would not do, so God chose David, a king after His own heart. The Messiah could not be called “the Son of Saul"! What the Messiah was to be had to be partially defined by the life of the first king of the dynasty. The name “David” was even permanent enough to be given to the Messiah Himself in certain prophecies (; ; ).

It is for that reason that many of the Psalms in which David gives his testimony can also speak to us of the Messiah, especially those which define the position and powers of God's authorized king. These remain applicable to David's seed forever (). Some, especially , , and 110, apply better, on the whole, to the Messiah than to David or Solomon. If we ask how David's own spiritual experience with God could have led him on to speak of the future life of his son, the Messiah, we find an illustration in a similar transition in the song of Hannah: her joy in her deliverance by God from the humiliation caused by her adversary led her, in a spirit of praise, to recognize the power and glory of God as the One who raises up the poor and humble, and who will therefore judge His enemies and strengthen His chosen king ().

The basis of the Messianic hope is found in the promise of God to David himself, given through Nathan the Prophet. Different accounts are given of this promise in the Old Testament, in each of which some aspect which had a relevance for a particular time is accentuated. In , no doubt the most ancient account, God promised that David's seed would build the temple, would have an eternal throne and would be treated by God as His sons, being punished when they sinned. In , in his “last words”, David said that the covenant which God made with him, although it required a righteous king for its fruition, was everlasting and certain of accomplishment. In , Ethan the Ezrahite, perhaps composing a song to be used by the king in time of military defeat, claimed the eternal promises made to David, that his reigning heir should be a firstborn son of God, higher than the kings of the earth (, ). In , the last account given, there is no mention of possible sins of the seed of David. It is not only David's throne or house which is seen as eternal, but one of his sons, who will reign forever in the house of God. The Messiah is thus distinguished from Solomon and from other members of David's dynasty. Since the books of the Chronicles were among the last books of the Old Testament to be written, at a time when no son of David reigned, the promise was being applied to the future eternal Messiah.

In the Psalms, God's anointed King is seen as rejected, suffering and even descending into Sheol before He is delivered and His position and power are confirmed and established. This is in accord with David's own experience of persecution, rejection, suffering and war before his final triumph. The kings of the earth take counsel and gather together against the Anointed; with them are the rulers whom takes to be the Jewish leaders (). His rejection by His own people is also indicated in the Psalms by the expressions “the strivings of the people” (18:43), “despised of the people” (22:6), “a stranger unto my brethren” (69:8) and “the stone which the builders refused” (118:22).

In some Psalms the sufferings of the King go further than that which David could have known: “the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me: they pierced my hands and feet. I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me. They part my garments among them and cast lots upon my vesture” (22:16-18), “they gave me also gall for my meat; and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink” (69:21).

Many Psalms describe the abasement of the Anointed in terms which suggest death: “the gates of death” (9:13), “the sorrows of death compassed me”, “the sorrows of hell” (18:1-4), “the waters are come in unto my soul” (69:1-2).

His deliverance from death is described as a resurrection: “Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt Thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption” (16:10); “Thou hast brought up my soul from the grave” (30:3); “He brought me up also out of an horrible pit” (40:2); “Thou... shalt quicken me again and shall bring me up again from the depths of the earth” (71:20).

The salvation of the King is at the same time the salvation of His people (18:27-28; 20:5-6; 69:29-32; 110:1-3; 144:10-12). He witnesses before the great assembly that God has raised Him up (22:22, 25; 40:10).

The “day” of the Anointed's triumph, both over death and over His enemies, is mentioned and celebrated: “this day have I begotten thee” (2:7); “in the day of thy power”, “in the day of his wrath” (110:3, 5), “this is the day which the Lord hath made” (118:24).

The Messiah's divine titles and universal power appear: “I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion ... Thou art my Son ... ask me and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance ... Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron” (2:6-9); “Thou hast made me the head of the heathen” (18:43); “Thy throne, 0 God [speaking of the King], is for ever and ever” (45:6); “the LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool”; “Thou art a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek” (110:1, 4); “the head stone of the corner” (118:22, 26).

Finally, we may mention the hope given of an eternal peaceful Edenic reign of the Messiah over all the nations in .

All the details of David's life and psalms do not, of course, have Messianic significance. Our retention of many elements as Messianic must depend on ulterior divine revelation in the Old Testament and the New. Once Jesus is recognized as the Messiah, many parallels are seen between His life and that of David.

Additional Messianic data are found in the Prophets. They give us more clear prophecies of the Messiah as an individual, distinct from David, than do the Psalms. His future birth is mentioned (; ; ; ). In contrast to the Psalms, the Prophets do not clearly state that the Davidic Messiah will suffer and be rejected by His people. We reserve for the study of the Book of Daniel the prophecy: “Messiah shall be cut off” ().

The Davidic Messiah of the Prophets is anointed by the Spirit (, ), possesses divine titles (; ; ), and has an eternal past (). Like the Messiah of , He will have priestly functions (), and he will build the temple of the Lord as in ().

His Coming is to be peaceful (), and although He is sometimes represented as bringing peace by warring (), He is to destroy human methods of making war (; ). He will slay the wicked one with the breath of his lips (); the Gentiles will voluntarily seek Him (), as will the ten lost tribes (). He will gather the people of Judah to their land and subordinate to them the surrounding nations (). He will bring salvation to Israel () and even animal nature will be transformed ().

Despite His sudden coming to reign, according to some passages, other verses speak of His reign as constantly increasing (; ).

He will dwell among His people as a prince forever (; ); He will lead and feed His people as a shepherd (; ; ).

The Prophets do not, however, always limit the privileges of the Davidic posterity to an individual king. The Messiah will reign associated with princes (). As with the first prophecy, that of Nathan to David, it is sometimes the “house” of David to which the promises are made (; , ; ). In the Messiah is seen delivered with His people.

Two passages in particular envisage the extension of the Davidic promises to a multitude. The seed of David will be as numerous as the stars and the sand (); in fact, “every one that thirsteth” may enter into the benefits of the everlasting covenant made with David ().

Jesus's Earthly Life and David's Throne

The Gospels of Matthew and Luke tell of the birth of Jesus as the Davidic Messiah who is to reign (; ; ). In all four Gospels He is given the Messianic titles of “Christ”, “Son of David”, “Son of God” and “King”. Although He finally accepted the ascription of these titles to Himself, He long avoided publicizing His royal rights outside His immediate circle. He did not come to judge between men () or to accept political power (cf. ).

From the time of Herod's attempts to kill the Christ child, through John's confession of Him as the Lamb of God () and the early attempt to throw Him down a hill at Nazareth () it was evident, in all His ministry, that the leaders of the people were out to destroy Him and that God had ordained His death.

It was when Peter confessed Him as Christ and Son of God that Jesus began to tell the disciples of His future crucifixion and resurrection (). He called them to a similar fate; not to fight, but rather to take up a cross and follow Him. At His royal entrance into Jerusalem He fulfilled the prophecy of being a meek king, seated upon an ass (Matt. 21:59); before the rulers of the people in the temple He advocated, not revolt, but the paying of taxes to Caesar (). Before Pilate He confessed that His kingdom was not of this world, but that He was King of the truth (). The crown of thorns, the scarlet robe and the ascription on the cross proclaimed Him as King, but as a rejected King.

The Gospels draw many of the proof texts of the inevitability and details of His death as Messiah from the Davidic Psalms. It is not to negate His royal rights that one must admit that He did not come to reign. He will eventually reign, but first of all He had to suffer, as our study of the Messianic Psalms has shown, and as He Himself said: “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things?” ().

His Ascension Did Not Bring His Reign

The first two Gospels announce repeatedly that the official public appointment of the disciples to meet the resurrected Christ was fixed for Galilee and not for Jerusalem (, , ; ; ). This emphasizes the non-political nature of His resurrection; it was not intended to make Him, as yet, a king reigning over those who had rejected Him (cf. ).

In his sermon on the Day of Pentecost, Peter combined and to show that, since David knew that he would have a reigning descendant, he was speaking of the resurrection of Christ when he said that His flesh would not see corruption. This does not prove that Peter taught that Christ already reigned, by His resurrection; it only shows that the promise of the Messiah's future reign gave David the assurance that He would rise from the dead.

Nor does the New Testament state that the present invisible sitting of the Messiah at God's right hand, according to , makes Him a reigning king. It is only when He shall appear there gloriously that His reign over the earth will begin (; ). A king does not reign when the vast majority ignores or flouts his authority or does not even know he is alive.

Men may now, however, be “translated into” Christ's kingdom (); the use of this expression shows that, although He now has a kingdom, only regenerated men are in it. It is a striking fact, however, that Jesus is never called the King of the Church. It is the Father who is called our King. Although Christ sits at God's right hand, we are pictured as seated there too, in Him.

Many titles (but not that of “king") are said in the New Testament to be given or confirmed to the Messiah sitting at the right hand of God before His Second Coming: “Lord” (; ; ), “Christ” (), “Son of God” (), “Prince and Savior” (). The word “prince” might seem to convey the idea of “king”, but its use in the other passages of the New Testament where it is found favors the meaning of instigator or originator (; ; ), associated with life and salvation rather than with reigning. Its LXX use as head of a tribe or family is not sufficiently universal to refer to kingship. His present position is above all heavenly beings () and higher than the heavens (), but from that position He has not yet taken His power to reign on earth (cf. ).

His Present Work is Tied to Davidic Prophecies

Mark alludes to when he reports the exalted position of the Lord, who worked with His Apostles as they preached to all creation; Peter associates this position with His gift of the Spirit to the Church () and says that Christ was exalted by the right hand of God to be a Savior. The Epistle to the Hebrews links , with His exalted work as High Priest. Paul situates at the right hand of God Christ's present ministry of intercession for us ().

John's writings do not very often quote the Old Testament textually, and yet they are perhaps based on the Old Testament more than any others. That is because John completely assimilates Old Testament teaching into his own thought and terminology. This is also true of those teachings of Christ which John reproduces in his Gospel. When Christ speaks of going to His Father, we may presume that He reproduces the thought of , “Sit thou on my right hand....”

That being the case, we have an explanation of the meaning of , “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; because I go unto my Father”. Christ sits on the right hand of God until God works in believing people in such a way as to submit to Christ all His enemies. This process begins in this age, but will also require the age to come for its completion.

Paul also finds in the distinctive position and hope of the Church. Our life is in Christ; we are where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God (). In our conduct on earth we must seek to manifest our life from on high, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God ().

Besides this basic Messianic text expressing the present work of Christ, one may find many other Old Testament Messianic verses which also apply to the Church age. The word church, quoted in , and brethren, used there, and also by Christ of the disciples, after His Resurrection, originate in a Messianic Psalm (22:22 LXX). Although the Old Testament does not speak of Messiah's church as His “body”, it may be that Paul, in speaking of Christ as “Head”, was thinking of the typology of David as head of the Gentiles in .

Hebrews also may use another Davidic prophecy to describe the Church. It is said that we are Christ's house (). God's house is first mentioned in this passage in relation to Moses' faithfulness in the house of God (). However, the author also states that Christ both created this house (3) and is placed over it as Son (6). Unless the author speaks without Old Testament authority, something which he very seldom does, we should be able to find an Old Testament source of this teaching. It may be suggested that it is , the most Messianic statement of the promise made to David. There it is said that a son of David will build a house for God, that He will be a Son of God, and that God will settle Him forever in His (God's) house. All this corresponds perfectly to the teaching of Hebrews. There the Son Who is over the house of God is proved to be greater than Moses in the same way as, further on, Christ's priesthood is shown to be superior to Aaron's, by using another Messianic passage (). The author adds that we who persevere in the faith constitute that house.

At the council of Jerusalem, James used a prophecy about the restoration of the house of David to speak of the present calling out of a people from among the Gentiles (). His use of the prophecy (, LXX) was not just an allusion which loosely compared the salvation of Gentiles in this age with that foreseen for the millennium: the calling out of a people for God's name (14) was fulfilled by the Name being invoked in the baptism of the first Gentiles (); the house of David (represented by Christ) was thus shown to possess them.

Another great stream of Church teaching flows from the Messianic texts which say: “The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner” () and, “Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation” (). That once-rejected stone is now laid as foundation, and the construction begun upon it is that of the Church ().

There is some controversy as to whether the “head stone of the corner” in the first instance speaks of the foundation or of the summit of the construction. We feel that the New Testament use of this expression has to do with the foundation: Peter taught that the said stone had already become the head of the corner (); it is difficult to conceive of Christ being integrated into the Church as the last stone to be added!

Paul's widespread use of the word “edification” may therefore ultimately be attributable to prophecies of the Messiah, our Foundation Stone, on whom the building is being built. One of the figures of the Church, that of a temple or building under construction, may be derived from it; both Paul and Peter use this figure: ; .

In the Book of the Revelation, the features of the glorious vision of Christ of chapter one relate mostly to the seven churches of chapters 2 and 3. The “keys of hell and death” (1:18) or the “key of David” which He possesses have to do with the present age, for in virtue of the keys He sets before a Church an open door which no man can shut (3:7-8). Here is an involvement of Davidic power in the present age (cf. ).

It has been seen that Davidic prophecies of the Old Testament apply in the present age without requiring that either Christ or the Church be seen as reigning as yet. The Church, like her Head in heaven, has not yet begun to reign (); like her Master, she must suffer before she reigns (); He delays His reign over the nations until she can reign with Him.

Christ's Coming at God's Right Hand

The Second Coming of Christ is not a descent from the right hand of God to sit on a throne on earth. speaks of Christ sitting on the right hand of God and coming; indicates that, when He appears, He will be seen at the right hand of God in glory, and we with Him. Not even when He is revealed to destroy the army of “the Beast” is it said that He will descend to earth: “I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse ... and the armies in heaven followed him”; “The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven ... in flaming fire” (; , ).

Paul used the expression “the day of Christ”, or similar expressions, to refer specifically to the future meeting of Jesus Christ with His Church (; ; , ; ). These expressions have no exact OT equivalent, but their association of the word “day” with the Messianic word “Christ” suggests that they may have their origin in those Psalms which speak of a certain “day” of the victory of the Messiah and His people over their enemies. It is when the Messiah sits at the right hand of God and His people is willing that “the day of his power” and “the day of his [the Lord Messiah's] wrath” arrives. This, and the similar Psalms previously mentioned, would then be further instances of the use of Old Testament Messianic passages to speak of the coming day of victory for Christ and the Church. The “day of Christ” does not involve His leaving God's throne to live on earth, for in His “day” of wrath is manifested while He sits on God's right hand.

Christ's Temporary Reign at God's Right Hand

is also paraphrased by Paul to speak of the reign of Christ which will follow His Coming: “He must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet” (). Further on, in verse 28, he speaks of this reign ending when the Son is subjected to the Father. It is evident that, for Paul, the temporary and transitional nature of this reign may be deduced from the word “until” in the Psalm.

The temporary reign follows the Coming of Christ to resurrect the Church (22-24); it must therefore be the equivalent of the millennium. All other New Testament references to Christ's “reign” also situate it after His Second Coming and not before (; ; , ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; , ). Since it is said that He must reign until all enemies are made His footstool, death being the last of His many enemies to be destroyed, we see that the millennium is a period of progressive submission of all things to Christ, and not a static period. It continues the gradual increase of Christ's Lordship begun in the Church in the preceding period; it continues it until the whole creation is submitted at the end of the millennium. At that time the purpose of all history is finally realized and all things are at last brought back to God. The final submission of all things brings the metamorphosis of the creation, so that death and bondage to corruption no longer exist in the universe.

Some have thought, on the contrary, that the conquering of death as the last enemy () is the resurrection of believers at the Second Coming, and that therefore the time when all enemies are being subjected to Christ must be uniquely the present age. Thus they see no millennium. This, however, glosses over the three different stages of resurrection required in the raising of “every man in his own order”; the three stages are indicated by three words: “firstfruits”, “afterwards” and “then”. Death is conquered first in Christ, afterwards in the Church at His Coming, and then destroyed in the entire universe at the end of His transitional reign. The cosmic conquest of corruption comes last ( cf. ) and must be differentiated from the victory which God “giveth us” believers ().

Christ therefore sits at the right hand of God both in the Church age and in the millennium. In confirmation of this double implementation of , we find, in (NIV), two distinct ages in which Christ sits at the right hand of God: “at his right hand ... not only in the present age, but also in the one to come”. The objection that “the age which is to come” is the final eternal age which cannot be divided into separate ages, does not agree with the words of Paul in this same Epistle: he speaks of “the ages to come” (). His exegesis of the Old Testament, which distinguished a temporary reign of the Messiah, was not unusual: Edersheim attests the “the days of the Messiah” were to precede the eternal age in the eschatology of the Jews (The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, vol. 2, p. 435).

If we wrongly suppose that the end of the reign spoken of in verse 25 corresponds with the resurrection of dead believers, it would follow that the Church has no part in Christ's heavenly reign. Yet reigning with Christ is an essential part of the hope of persecuted Christians.

It may be wondered how Paul could have seen two distinct ages in Christ's heavenly enthronement in . If his understanding of the application of this verse belonged to a general tradition shared also by the Epistle to the Hebrews, we may find an explanation. The latter Epistle (5:5-6), equates the enthronement in this Psalm with God's declaration in , “Thou art my Son, today I have begotten thee”. But in the second Psalm the day of the Son's wrath has not yet come: the hostile kings are first warned to be instructed and kiss the Son, lest his wrath be kindled (vss. 10-12). In these Psalms, therefore, the exaltation of God's king leads to a period of warning and then a period of wrath. The former period corresponds to the present age. We are given orders to warn kings.

Figure 6 represents Paul's use of in .

In order to understand more clearly that the Church is to reign, it is necessary to distinguish between the future kingdom of Christ, which we will receive with Him in order to rule over men (, ; , ; ; , ), the perfect eternal kingdom of God, into which all the saved enter as subjects rather than rulers (; ; ), and the providential kingdom of God which exists at all times, in all ages ().

Davidic Reigning in the Revelation

In the Book of Revelation even the titles of Christ manifest Him as the One Who will reign in power over the earth: “the Prince of the kings of the earth” (1:5), “the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David "(5:5), “King of kings and Lord of lords” (19:16).

is used of the future reign of Christ and the Church (2:26-27; 12:5; 19:15). The original words of the Psalm in the KJV are: “Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron”. Other words are used, however, instead of the word “break”, both in these three allusions in the Revelation and in the Septuagint and Peshitta versions: “thou shalt rule” or “thou shalt shepherd”. The context in would favor the latter meanings, since the nations can hardly become Messiah's inheritance and possession if they are completely destroyed; Christ as “King of kings” will reign over kings.

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Figure 6

The use of the nondestructive meaning “rule” is chosen by the New Testament, but it ill suits the Amil hypothesis, whose adherents would rather have Christ destroy the nations than rule over them in a millennium.

Since this ruling is “with a rod of iron”, it can take place neither now, in the age of grace, nor in the perfect eternal reign. Where may it take place, if not in a millennium?

Christ's Eternal Reign

There is, of course, an eternal reign of Christ on the throne of David. As the prototypical man He will then submit Himself to the Father in order to dwell eternally among men. Believers from this age will reign forever with Him (); they are the eternal seed of David and of Levi, kings and priests as innumerable as the sand (; ; ). Christ Himself is seen, not as above men at God's right hand, but as “with them”, dwelling on the new earth, (21:3); this latter verse may contain an allusion to the “Emmanuel” promised to the house of David in , especially if we accept the lesson “God with them shall be their God” (Bible de Jerusalem).

Dispensational Haste to Put the Crown Before the Cross

As we evaluate the prophetic positions in relation to this theme, we may remember that proof has been given that Jesus came first in order to suffer and be rejected as the Davidic Messiah, not to reign. There is no reason, therefore, to accept the D. suggestion that His rejection by Israel involved a postponement of the political or millennial form of the kingdom which He was supposedly previously seeking to bring. A millennium without a fountain to purify sin would not have been a joyful time of peace between God and man ()! The Lion of the tribe of Judah had to be manifested after the Lamb of God, slain to redeem men from all nations (, ; ).

Dispensational Denial of Davidic Fulfillment Now

Since many Davidic prophecies apply to Christ's present work in the Church, according to the New Testament writers, this age cannot be severed from Old Testament Messiahship: the Church is an integral and foundational part of what the son of David was to construct.

The Church's growth is preparatory to the age to come and resembles it, constituting the commencement of the work of subjection of all things to the enthroned Lord which that age will complete. It is therefore an essential step in God's progressive program, and not an unrelated parenthesis.

Dispensational Haste for David's Earthly Throne

Christ will indeed sit on David's earthly throne. D. theology situates that reign in the millennium. All biblical teaching about such a reign, however, declares that it will be eternal, not transitional. , however, links a future transitional reign of Christ with His sitting at God's right hand. Christ's present sitting at God's right hand is not called His “reign” in the New Testament. His reign from there must therefore come in the millennium; it is to be distinguished from His eternal reign on earth. His temporary reign on God's throne must precede His eternal reign on David's earthly throne. Nathan's promise to David concerned an eternal throne.

Amillennial Haste to Make Christ Reign Now

Since, at the present time, Christ is characterized as Lord and Savior — working in grace, but not as a king, judging, smiting, dashing in pieces and reigning — this age cannot be the millennium, even though Christ is now seated at God's right hand. When His reign comes in power He will not reign there alone, but with us, as the Total Christ, finally subjecting all things to God.

Christ is now persecuted in the persons of His people, not reigning (). When Rehoboam's tax collector was stoned to death, that king realized that he did not reign over Israel. Believers in Christ are now likewise rejected; if their King were reigning He would have to protect His ambassadors from all harm and insult.

Amillennial Refusal to Israel of What God Promised Them

Christ's birth was celebrated by Zacharias as destined to lead to the deliverance of Israel from its enemies and to earthly security for them to serve God “without fear ... all the days of our life” (Luke 2:74-75). The Amil position does not have any place for such a reign, when the Jewish people will serve God, delivered from all enemies, and as yet live lives of limited duration on this earth.

Postmillennial Lack of Haste for Christ's Coming

If the age of world peace must come before the Parousia, then the latter event is still very far away, judging by past history and present world conditions. Postmils are resigned to this long-term hope. It is evident that the New Testament writers had a more optimistic point of view. Paul hoped to be among those caught up by the Rapture ().

The only two passages in the New Testament which speak about a reign of Christ of limited duration over the world situate that reign after a resurrection of believers (; ). Christ will therefore come before the millennium.

The Unifying Theme of Prophecy

In this chapter it has been shown that both Christ and the Church are involved in bringing about what is promised in the Davidic prophecies: thus far they are both rejected; their future heavenly reign to submit all God's enemies will be followed by their joint earthly reign for eternity. All prophetic periods are therefore linked to the Total Christ.

Chapter Eight

The Day of Jehovah

The importance of the king's office was definitely downgraded by the prophets who wrote in the period when the twelve tribes were divided into a Northern and a Southern kingdom. God's messengers were more concerned about preparing His people for the coming day of His wrath, and preached the need of repentance.

In Israel, the Northern Kingdom, the Prophet Elijah called Israel back to Jehovah; Amos warned them to prepare to meet their God (); Hosea announced that Israel's king would be cut off “as the foam upon the water” and that the people would say: “Even if we had a king, what could he do for us?” (, ). Yet Amos and Hosea did say that God would bring about a future revival of Davidic authority; this message was still needed in the Northern Kingdom, which had abandoned the Davidic dynasty (; ).

Obadiah and Joel, however, writing to the Southern Kingdom of Judah, made no allusion to the coming Davidic Messiah, but rather announced that “the day of Jehovah” was at hand. According to one chronology, the Book of Obadiah is the first book of prophetic oracles; if this is so, then it was the first to speak of that “day”. In any case, the shortness of the Book makes it a convenient introduction to the subject.

Obadiah announced “the day of Jehovah” as a punishment on Edom, which had betrayed its “brother” Judah, in the day when foreigners had entered his gates. In most of the many occurrences of the word “day” in the Book of Obadiah, a time of calamity and distress (8, 11-14) caused by wicked men is connoted. “The day of Jehovah” manifests the resultant anger of Jehovah: as the Edomites had their day of wickedness and Judah had its day of suffering, so Jehovah will have His day to punish the oppressors of His people. But that “day” was announced at the same time as imminent for “all the nations”, who were to be treated as they had treated Zion (15-16). They were to “drink continually” of the punishment which they had inflicted on Judah and “be as though they had not been”.

On the other hand, salvation would be at Zion in that day, bringing holiness, victory over their enemies, the return of their captive armies and the repossession of their inheritance, with other territories added (17-21). It was to the captives of that very generation that the promise of repatriation was given: to “this host of the children of Israel” and “the captivity of Jerusalem which is in Sepharad” (20). Finally, Zion's deliverers were to judge Edom in Jehovah's kingdom (21).

The Prophet Joel's description of the day of Jehovah expands that of Obadiah and even quotes from it ( cf. ). Joel prefaces his account of the judgment of all the nations by a description of a local judgment soon to come on Judah in the form of an invasion of locusts; both judgments are called “the day of Jehovah”.

Before speaking of the final day of Jehovah, he promises an effusion of God's Spirit on all His people and the coming of signs and wonders in heaven and earth announcing the day (; ). As in Obadiah, the day of Jehovah is seen as near (3:14). Joel explains in greater detail the judgment of the nations. God will gather them into “the valley of Jehoshaphat” and “the valley of decision” (3:2, 12, 14); Jehovah Himself will “sit to judge the heathen round about” and to defend His people, and afterwards will dwell in His holy mountain (3:12, 17).

That day will result in salvation, not only for Jerusalem but also for all the remnant whom Jehovah shall call and who shall call upon His name (2:32). The regathered captives will be raised up out of places even as far away as Greece (3:1, 6-7).

From that day on Jehovah will dwell in Jerusalem and she shall be holy; “the mountains shall drop down new wine, the hills shall flow with milk ... and a fountain shall come forth out of the house of the Lord” (3:17-18).

The expression “the day of Jehovah” (“the day of the LORD” in the KJV), as used by these two prophets, is seen as a day when Jehovah will be present to punish an inhabited land. No restriction is made in the application of the term: great catastrophes sent by God, whether immediate and local or apparently more universal and final, are united under the same designation. The coming of judgment on the nations in general will, however, also be accompanied by God's action to save His own people, who have sought Him, from that punishment.

The prophecy of Amos confirms this meaning. Amos blames the inhabitants of the apostate Northern Kingdom for their attitude toward that day: illogically, they desired it. Yet it was not to be day for them, but darkness, because of their sin (5:18-20). The verse preceding this statement contains a threat of Jehovah: “I will pass through thee”. This reminds us of the last plague of Egypt, when the angel of death passed through the land. Also, in , the future judgment of Israel is compared to what happened to both Egypt and Sodom; it is in view of that judgment that the Prophet says: “Prepare to meet thy God, 0 Israel”.

As the “day” was a local catastrophe in Obadaiah (against Edom) and in Joel (by the locusts), so also Amos, in speaking of the day of Jehovah, foretold a historical calamity which later came upon the kingdom of Israel — the Assyrian invasion. In fact, this was the only destruction of “the day of Jehovah” which that kingdom experienced, since the Assyrians destroyed it and led its people captive (Amos 6:27; 7:14; 9:8-10). Then Israel “met God” in judgment. Nevertheless, Amos' descriptions help us to see what the term “the day of Jehovah” means. In the context of the Book of Amos, that day was to be a day of judgment on the land; yet those who were faithful to God were to be spared, as had been the case in the Egyptian plagues and at Sodom (9:8, 14-15).

The general features of prophecies of the day of Jehovah, as in Obadiah, Joel and Amos, are repeated in later prophetic books, with additions and variations. Other prophets spoke of coming national calamities like the fall of Assyria, Babylon and even Jerusalem, as “the day of Jehovah”. Often, in declaring these judgments, the prophets also went on to describe more universal and final features which can only be attributed to “the day of Jehovah” of the last days, when God's eternal kingdom will come.

The Day of the Lord in the New Testament

Jesus did not use the expression “the day of the Lord”, but rather spoke of “the day”, “the days” or “the coming” of the Son of Man; He asserted, in this way, that He Himself would be the Lord Who would judge in that day.

Paul uses the expression twice, Peter calls it “the day of the Lord” and “the day of God”, while the Revelation speaks of “the great day of his wrath” and “that great day of God Almighty” (; , NIV; , ; ; ).

I. Temporal Problems Concerning the Day of Jehovah

Throughout many of the Old Testament prophecies of the day of Jehovah the same refrain reappears: “the day of Jehovah is near” (; , etc.). In New Testament announcements of the Coming of the Lord or His kingdom the same general theme of imminence is found, couched in varied terminology: “the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (; ; ); “the time is short” (); “yet a little while” (); “Behold I come quickly (, ); “at hand” (; ).

Other similar statements of imminency seem a little less pressing: “waiting for” (; ); “looking for” (; ; ; ); “ready to be revealed in the last time” (; ); “ye see the day approaching” (); “it is the last time” (); “Behold the judge standeth before the door” (). Yet in view of the millennia which have passed by since these warnings were uttered, some explanation of the delay seems desirable.

The same explanations may not apply to all the warnings of the nearness of the Lord's Coming. The suggested explanations which follow may help, depending on their applicability to each case.

1. It may help to note that the warning of imminence by a prophet is not always considered by the prophet himself to be applicable to the generation which he is addressing. For instance, we read, in ; “their calamity is at hand”; and yet all the “song” of that chapter was given for “the latter days” (). Thus, in some cases, the prophet, in his feeling for the people, may project himself into the future time, seeing the judgment imminent for the generation he envisages.

2. The great moral impulsion of the prophets required them to present the judgment as being as near as possible, in order to more effectively lead the people to repent. The relativity of time has been discovered by modern man; Peter had already said that one day is with God as a thousand years and vice versa. While God's warnings of impending judgment work to hasten men's repentance, their salvation is so important to Him that He has delayed the time of His threatened definitive judgment (; cf. , NIV). Men should not complain!

3. The delay in God's intervention, in the Old Testament, often brought from the hearts of men of God the agonizing question: “How long 0 Lord?” (; ; ; ). Our Lord likewise predicted that times would come when His disciples would desire that day and would not see it (; ).

4. It was also an insistent note of the Lord's teaching and of that of His Apostles that the exact time of the Coming was unknown to men, like the coming of a thief (, ; ; ; ; ). The facts of promised delay and indeterminate time must be fully weighed in the definition of imminence.

5. It is a standard feature of the prophecies that, although the time of judgment is not exactly announced, it is presumed to concern the generation which the prophets address. This feature is found in Davidic Messianic prophecies as well: for example, prophecies given in the time of the Assyrian oppression promised that the Messiah would deliver from the Assyrians (, ; ). We now know that it will not be the Assyrians as such who will be judged by Christ's Coming. However, the truth of the future deliverance of God's people from its enemies, whomever they may then be, remains intact; the ever-living quality of God's Word () requires a typical use of these prophecies which sees the equivalent of “Assyrians” in our times. God could not name the very enemies which His people will have in the last days without making the prophecy unintelligible to its first hearers.

6. In some cases the nearness of God's kingdom or Coming may be represented as spatial (as “at the door") rather than temporal. Spatial nearness conveys the idea that Christ is “ready” to come, and therefore may come soon if He so chooses, and will come rapidly in His time (cf. ).

7. This thought leads on to the consideration that it may be some aspect or particular manifestation of the Presence of the Lord which is near, and which thus joins with and guarantees the full implementation of His promised Coming. We have seen that “the day of Jehovah” in the Old Testament was often a temporal judgment which merged in with the description of final judgment. A New Testament example of this same warning procedure may be seen in the message of John the Baptist. He said that the kingdom of heaven was at hand, and that the Coming One was in their midst, who would baptize them with the Spirit, gather the wheat and burn the chaff. He did not know that the Spirit would be given in a few years' time, but that the fire of judgment would come only after a long time of sowing and maturing of the harvest, as the parables of Jesus later taught. Thus one aspect of the imminent kingdom was near, but the other part was far in the future.

Only rarely in the texts does the nearness of the Lord have to do with death; death is not His Coming but introduces a short period before His Coming (, ).

Another temporal problem with regard to the day of Jehovah is the determination of its duration. From what has already been said about the coming of the “day” in stages, it seems probable that the main event itself may also cover a certain period of time and not be instantaneous. Since it is always represented as taking place on earth, as well as in the heavens, it cannot possess a timeless quality. The various historical catastrophes which were called “the day of Jehovah” all took place over a certain period of time. In the final day men will have time to react at its coming, to go into the caves of the earth, etc. (). A number of successive events in that day may be seen in .

In the New Testament Jesus gave it a certain duration in speaking of “the days of the Son of man” (, ).

If the Book of Revelation proceeds chronologically, as we will argue, then the day of the Lord must stretch over a certain period of time, for we find its coming mentioned in 6:17 and hear of it later as the final battle of that great day draws near in 16:14; one of the plagues of that time is said to last five months (9:10). The following plague also has its own hour, day, month and year (9:15); the day of the Lord is not a vague timeless spiritual truth.

More precision with regard to the chronological problems of Christ's coming will be sought when we undertake the study of the prophetic themes of Daniel and of the Revelation.

II. Anticipations of that Day in Christ's Earthly Life

As previously stated, some events taking place before the last days are early actualizations of the coming day of Jehovah. Was there any such anticipation of it in the life of Christ?

The kingdom of God, which was associated with the day of the Lord (), was not only imminent during the time of Christ's ministry, but was also manifested as already present in His person, by His power over the demons (). The kingdom already suffered violence by men (). When Christ told the Pharisees that the kingdom was within them or among them, He probably meant that it was already accessible to them (). The 70 preachers were to tell those who rejected them that it had come near to them (). Their ministry caused Jesus to see Satan's fall ().

The transfiguration may be another anticipation of the Coming of the Lord or of His kingdom (; , ).

The sufferings of Jesus were another anticipation of the day of Jehovah; in view of the teaching about their substitutionary nature we may consider that, for those who are thereby pardoned, that day of judgment has already taken place. This is hinted at in the Gospels themselves: Jesus speaks of having to undergo a baptism and initiate a fire (; ) — we must remember that the baptism of Noah's world and the fire of Sodom are constant figures of God's coming judgment in both the Old Testament and the New. The figure of a “cup”, which Christ applied to His sufferings (; , ), is likewise used for the day of Jehovah (; , , ; ). The figure of “drinking” to represent judgment was present as early as Obadiah's prophecy (16). At Calvary there took place the judgment of the world and the casting out of Satan ().

The signs accompanying the death and resurrection of Christ which made visible to inhabitants of Jerusalem the greatness of the occasion () may also have been given to indicate that the salvation of the day of the Lord was being representatively enacted by the resurrection of Christ and of some Old Testament saints.

III. Conversion Before the Day of Jehovah

The prophets who announced the coming of the day of Jehovah preached the necessity of conversion in preparation for that day. In the case of the day of destruction which was to be caused by the locusts, Joel called upon the people to turn to the Lord with all their heart in order that mercy might be shown them (). The well-known passage of and , the verse it quotes, contain many elements of conversion which are related to the final “great day of Jehovah”. We must enumerate them and seek to show how they are related to that day.

1. The passage begins with the promise of the pouring out of God's Spirit. The question arises as to the intended order, in the passage, of the gift of the Spirit and the day of the Lord; this problem finds contrary answers in the teaching of the different prophetic schools. Was the Spirit to be given to prepare Israel in advance for the day of Jehovah, or was this gift to be given them after that day of judgment had arrived? In the former case the prophecy could apply to our times; in the latter it would primarily concern the Jews rather than the Church. As usual, we will seek to validate both applications, as parts of the same progressive work of God. Let us consider first the fulfillment in the Church.

It is not stated exactly when the promised Spirit was to come, whether before, during or after the day of Jehovah. Its place in the passage, before the mention of the “great day”, makes one assume that the effusion of the Spirit was to precede the “day”. This is confirmed by the general tendency of the prophets to call for a preparation for the coming day, and also by the expressly stated place of the succeeding item, “before the great and terrible day of the Lord”.

When we come to the New Testament there is not the slightest doubt that the Lord and His Apostles Peter and Paul taught that this “promise of the Father” had been destined for the followers of Christ (; ; , ; ; ). All the initial elect group received the Spirit together, whatever their status or sex, in fulfillment of the universality of the promise. A later, largely Gentile, local church was said by Paul to have been enriched in all gifts of utterance and knowledge in confirmation of the testimony of Christ (); these latter two sorts of spiritual enrichment may correspond to the prophesying and the visions promised by Joel.

The terms of the promise do, however, call for a wider application for the people of Israel than that seen on the day of Pentecost and following. The words “all flesh” and “your sons and daughters” must be combined and applied to them nationally. The numerous Old Testament promises of the salvation of all Israel necessitate it; other promises of the gift of the Spirit to Israel are situated in a future ideal time of the renewing of nature () or of Israel's full regathering to its land ().

The Church's participation in the Spirit, therefore, should be considered as a “tasting of the powers of the age to come” (), not by a special concession, but with the honor that James gives us as “firstfruits of his creatures” (1:18). Paul also speaks of Christians having received the “firstfruits of the Spirit”. In one context at least, the firstfruits of which he speaks may be considered “first” in relation to the future deliverance of the whole world from corruption by the life-giving Spirit (, ).

2. The passage in Joel contains also a second aspect of conversion which is now exemplified in the Church: the invoking of the name of Jehovah: “Whosoever calls upon the name of the LORD will be saved” (2:32). Here too the question arises as to whether the invoking is meant to be before or after the advent of the day of the Lord.

The result of calling upon the Name will be salvation (32). That salvation is defined by the context as salvation from wrath in the day of Jehovah. But does that mean that only those who wait until the day of wrath to call upon the Lord will be saved? The thought is ridiculous. Men must call upon God before wrath overtakes them.

New Testament preaching declared that the time had come to call upon the Lord Jesus in order to be saved from the day of wrath. is quoted both by Peter and Paul to show the present need of calling on His name. Peter quotes the verse in telling the Jews to invoke Him as Lord in baptism (, , cf. ); Paul uses it to show that the word “whosever” means either Jew or Gentile, and that the Gospel must be preached to both so they may call upon Christ for salvation ().

The verse was so basic and so frequently applied to Christ in the early Church that Christians were designated as “those that call upon this name” (, ; ; ). Stephen died “invoking the Lord” Jesus (, Darby, note).

3. Another term in this verse which was so much used by Christians that it became a technical term among them is the word “call”, in “the remnant whom the Lord shall call”. Although Peter did not quote the last part of in his Pentecost sermon, yet he applied it to all believers when he said: “the promise is ... to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call” (). From that time on, the various forms of the word for “call” were increasingly used in the Church to speak of those called by God to holiness and to salvation (; ; , , ; , ; ; , etc.), of their calling (1 Thess. 1:11; ; ; , etc.) and of God as the One Who called them (; ; ; ; , etc.). It is by the Gospel that men are called (); it is interesting to note that the LXX Greek Version, used by the Apostles, translates, instead of “remnant”, “the evangelized ones” called by the Lord (, LXX).

The distinguishing quality of the saved Jerusalem is to be holiness (; ), and at the present time it is to holiness that we are called (, etc.).

Although there will be another, future instance of the calling, in the Jewish remnant of , the 144,000 who will be sealed in the coming of the day of wrath, that calling will differ from the first national calling of Israel out of Egypt. It will concern only a remnant, “whosoever invokes” from the human point of view and “the called” from the perspective of divine election, exactly as is the case today ().

4. To continue the proof of the profuse New Testament application of and to the time before the day of the Lord, let us notice that it was at Zion that men were to “call on the name of the Lord” Jesus Christ and be saved, and that, in fact, it happened first at Jerusalem. Jesus said all must happen “beginning at Jerusalem” (, ; ); that necessity, even in the age of grace, arose in part from the prophecies which had said that it was there that salvation would come.

5. Let us mention, as a final New Testament realization of the promise of , the present experience of salvation. Although the primary sense of the words “salvation” and “saved”, in this Old Testament context, have to do with future salvation from the day of wrath, yet salvation is already present, by the promised Spirit, whenever the name of Christ is invoked. The Lord “added to the church those who were saved” (). Peter appealed to a physical healing by the name of Jesus as a proof of the fact that salvation is obtained exclusively through Him (). Paul said: “We are saved in hope” (). There is throughout this age a salvation which is described by the Apostles as already obtained and operative (; ; ), although at other times they speak of salvation as reserved for us at the future day of Christ (; ; ).

IV. Convulsions in Heaven and Earth Before That Day

Joel tells of wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, fire, pillars of smoke, the sun being turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the day of Jehovah (). He adds further on that the stars shall withdraw their shining, the Lord shall roar out of Zion and the heavens and the earth shall shake (, ). Other prophets tell of the host of heaven being dissolved and the heavens being rolled together as a scroll (), the shaking of the heavens and the earth (), and the earth removing out of its place ().

What exactly do these words describe? Some of these cosmic convulsions are ascribed to times now past, heralding the fall of historic kingdoms. They seem therefore, at times, to be meant to represent great changes in world government by the figure of changes in the physical constitution of the heavens and the earth (, , , , ). The sun is not known to have been literally darkened when Babylon fell to the Medes.

The Book of Daniel gives an angelic connotation to the falling of stars. The “little horn”, representing Antiochus Epiphanes, “waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground” (). This seems to refer to a hidden conflict of angelic powers such as is seen also in -22. In , when “the Ancient of days” came, “thrones were cast down” before He sat. God casts down the evil angelic powers governing the world, and His kingdom replaces them. This verb “to cast down” is used of Daniel being cast into the den and his friends into the fiery furnace; it does not seem, therefore, to speak of “setting up” thrones, as in some translations.

The prophets do not say that the shaking of the earth will cause it to disappear: Haggai indicates rather that it will cause kingdoms to fall and the riches of all nations to come to Jerusalem (, ).

Although Matthew's Gospel tells of the sun and moon being darkened and the stars falling, Luke speaks of “signs in” the sun, moon and stars, which would indicate that these heavenly bodies are not destroyed (; ). The synoptic Gospels all say that the powers of heaven will be shaken; this could refer partly to evil spiritual powers.

Dissolution in the Day of the Lord in Second Peter

Does Second Peter teach that the Lord will burn up all things when He comes? The amillennial position has been confirmed throughout the centuries by the belief that it does: there can be no millennium if the earth is to be annihilated when Christ comes.

In chapter three of this Book Peter is not just repeating Jesus' promise to return; he has in mind the Old Testament warnings of the coming day of the Lord. That is shown both by his use of that very expression (3:10), never used by Jesus, and by his reference to “the fathers” (3:4), a term used only of Old Testament ancestors, since whose time that day had been awaited. Did Peter believe that the prophets described that day as the complete annihilation of the world, contrarily to what we have concluded from their descriptions of “the day of Jehovah"?

Although one cannot pretend to know exactly what will happen in that day, let us review other New Testament prophecies of cosmic destiny, before examining Peter's drastic description: “... the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up” ().

According to , Peter expected “the restitution of all things” rather than their destruction. Paul said that God will eventually gather together all things in one and reconcile all things to Himself (; ); Hebrews teaches that “the habitable world which is to come” is to be subjected (, Darby); Revelation repeats in different ways the truth that the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord, not that they will cease to exist when He comes.

We have said enough to justify the search for a meaning in the third chapter of Second Peter other than the complete destruction of the earth. D.s, however, also usually see it as the complete annihilation of matter, and fit it into their scheme by making the “day of the Lord” include the millennium, at the end of which the present earth will be destroyed. This seems, however, to overlook the meaning of the word “day” as judgment, not as a reign of peace, and to posit a remoteness of the day inconsistent with the phrase: “looking for ... the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved” (), and with the brief summary of Peter elsewhere: “the end of all things is at hand” (). In verses 5 and 6 of chapter three, Peter states that the world that existed before the flood “perished”. We know, however, that what he calls “the heavens and the earth which are now” are of the same substance as those which “perished”. Evidently the passing away of a world does not necessitate the annihilation of its matter. It is an order or system (“kosmos” v. 6) which is to perish, as Paul indicates by the words “the fashion of this world passeth away” (). Verse seven indicates that the purpose of the fire is the judgment of wicked men.

Verse 10 says that the heavens shall pass away with a rushing noise, and verse 12 tells us that the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved. Peter's way of expressing it may be influenced by the figurative language of the Septuagint of , according to which all the powers of the heavens shall melt. How can we envisage the sun and stars, the gaseous envelope of the earth or the emptiness of space as melting? No doubt we should prefer a figurative or spiritual meaning, or understand it as describing the subjective experience of those who will go into the presence of God (cf. ).

Verse 10 says that “the elements shall melt with fervent heat”. One should not be so influenced by modern physics as to think of these elements as composed of minute fissionable underlying entities. The word is used in to speak of aquatic and terrestrial creatures as well as of fire and water, two of the elements of the ancient Greeks. Paul uses the word in connection with “days, months, times and years” (, ). From these usages it appears that the word indicates the diverse separate components of time or space, considered in their outward aspect rather than in their inner essence. The aspect of all things will be revolutionized by Christ's time of wrath and manifestation of Himself to the men of the world.

Verse 10 says next, according to the KJV, that the earth and its works “shall be burned up”. The more probable Greek text, used in many other translations, says rather “shall be disclosed” or “shall be found”. The lesson used by the KJV may have been preserved by amil scribes who understood the passage to speak of annihilation and not of uncovering or discovery. But the thought of the disclosure of our true state by the Coming is that of Peter in verse 14, where he exhorts the readers to “be found” in peace at the Coming, and also in . Will not the sudden light of that “day” cause our true spiritual state to be discovered?

has many of the same signs of the day of Jehovah, including the falling of the stars and the rolling up of the heavens like a scroll. Further on, the fall of the stars of heaven is associated with the casting down to the earth of the angels of Satan (, ); the rolling up of the heavens seems to mean the unveiling to men of heavenly realities, since they seek to hide themselves from the face of God who sits on the throne (). The Book goes on to describe the earth as still existing.

It can also be shown from the second chapter of Second Peter (2:3b-9) that the author did not believe that the imminent judgment of the wicked in the day of the Lord, of which the flood was a picture, was equivalent to the final judgment.

The meaning of these verses is fixed by , which shows that Peter is speaking of an imminent judgment of the wicked which has been in preparation for a long time, as is the case in chapter three. He illustrates and explains it by three other judgments which have taken place in the past: the fate of the angels who sinned was to be cast into a dark prison, there to be reserved until the judgment; the old world of Noah was not spared, the world of the ungodly being destroyed by a flood; the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were turned to ashes.

The last two cases, those of Noah and Lot, involve the salvation of the elect in the time of the judgment of the wicked. They are so used in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. This use seems to be a general catechetical tradition in the Apostolic church. We recall that even the Prophet Amos used Sodom to illustrate what the day of Jehovah would be like and that the last chapter of Second Peter used the flood for the same purpose.

Therefore, when verse nine says that “the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation” (NAS), the word “temptation”, which is in the singular in the Greek, does not refer to the trials of life. It rather speaks of what John calls “the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth”, out of which those who keep the word of Christ's patience will be kept (); “one shall be taken (from judgment) and another left”, as the Gospels say, in similarly comparing that time to the time of Lot and Noah.

Therefore, here also, it is when Christ comes again that God will “reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished”. Wicked men are then to be reserved in prison for the last judgment, according to verse nine, as wicked angels were, according to verse four (cf. , ). The day of the Lord is not therefore the final day of judgment for the dead. Chapter three, in fact, does not tell us what will happen eternally to the ungodly after the dissolution of their world; although the righteous “look for new heavens and a new earth” (), the exact time of their profiting from that promise is not specified. Peter elsewhere indicated that the earthly dwelling place will not be the prior inheritance to be received, for we await an inheritance which is now reserved for us in heaven ().

We therefore conclude that in Second Peter the day of the Lord is not the final judgment of all the dead. This Epistle does not oblige us to modify the simple meaning of the words of the Book of Revelation which speak of an earth which shall successively experience the signs of the day of wrath, a series of plagues, a later appearance of the “Lord of Lords” at the battle of Armageddon and a millennial reign of Christ, and only after that will pass away from before the face of the One Who sits on the great white throne to judge all the dead.

V. The Day of Wrath of the Lamb

Jesus Christ is the person of the Trinity who will manifest God's wrath and proceed to judge the inhabited earth. From His first to His last sermon in Matthew, Jesus declares that it is He who will judge mankind (7:21-23; 25:13).

By His ascension He was declared Lord (), and thus it is He Who will accomplish what Joel announced, that Jehovah, who saves those who call on His name and gives them His Spirit, will also judge the world in the day of Jehovah.

Paul preached that God will judge the habitable earth by Jesus Christ (, Darby). He wrote that in the day of the Lord, which will bring sudden destruction on men, Christ will be revealed from heaven taking vengeance on them that obey not the Gospel (; ).

The Book of Revelation speaks of the coming day as manifesting the wrath of the Lamb () upon the inhabitants of the earth.

The New Testament takes up many Old Testament expressions related to Jehovah's action in His coming day and applies them to Christ. He will sit to judge the nations gathered around Him (, : ). He will come with a flame of fire (; ) and will fight against the nations, treading them down in His anger in robes covered with blood (; , ; ).

In the description of the Coming of “the Ancient of days” in , we should also see the Son, since the figure of “one like a son a man” which appears before Him is explained by the angel as “the people of the saints” and not as an individual.

VI. The Principles of Judgment in That Day

In the Prophets there is a progressive revelation with regard to the subjects of judgment in the day of the Lord. Obadiah and Joel speak of all the Gentile nations being judged. Amos adds the apostate Northern Kingdom of Israel to the list of nations to be destroyed. Zephaniah announces the coming of the day of wrath for the kingdom of Judah as well. Many of the prophets warn that only a remnant of Judah will be spared (; ; , etc.). Those Jews that forsake the Lord will be slain and He will call His servants by another name (); when all the preliminary realizations of that day in Old Testament times were past, Malachi still announced that “the day cometh that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts” (4:1). Only those Jews who fear the Lord will be spared (3:16-18; 4:2). At this point the progressive revelation is ripe for the extension of the promise of salvation to all who fear the Lord, even to Gentiles.

The first principle, mentioned by Obadiah, by which judgment will operate upon all nations, is equal retribution: “as Thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee” (15). In the Book of Joel it is said that the nations which sold Israelites into distant captivity will suffer that same fate (3:6-8, cf. , KJV). It may be noted that this criterion of judgment, that of treating men as they have thought it permissible to treat others, does not depend for its justice on a knowledge of the written law of God.

It is further explained that the suffering of the oppressors of Israel is to resemble the suffering which they have inflicted upon Israel (). Isaiah calls that day “the day of my redeemed” because God is avenging His people ().

The principle of the equivalent retribution of the wicked for their mistreatment of the saints is frequently seen in New Testament prophetic passages as well (; ; ; ). The rich man who was willing to abandon Lazarus to continually suffer hunger, without a crumb from his table, will be left forever without a drop of water to cool his tongue ().

Paradoxically, the Edomites will drink of this suffering continually, and yet they shall be as though they had not been (). Joel says that Egypt and Edom will be desolate (). Yet Amos speaks of the remnant of Edom being called by the Lord's name (). These differences call for a distinction between literal and figurative language.

Do we find elsewhere any Old Testament descriptions of the wicked being punished “continually'? An intimation of non-terrestrial punishment is found in the first biblical prophecy of the judgment of Israel and the nations: the fire of God's anger shall “burn unto the lowest hell” ( cf. ). The most evident statement of it is in , “some shall awake to everlasting contempt”. Isaiah sees God's presence as the fire: “Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings” (33:14, cf. ). He further says that the inhabitants of the new earth (or of the new Jerusalem: ) will go forth and look on those bodies of the wicked, whose worm never dies and whose fire is never quenched (66:22-24). Our Lord took His description of Gehenna from this latter passage (). Since there was already a Gehenna outside Jerusalem, this is evidently a new kind of Gehenna outside the new Jerusalem which God is to create. The worm and the fire are not those which can now destroy men's bodies, since they continue forever.

A somewhat different figurative way of representing eternal punishment is found in . Here it is the land of Edom, not dead bodies, which burns eternally, becoming pitch and sulphur; a desolate land whose smoke goes up forever and which is inhabited by unclean birds. Since Judah is to inherit Edom (), and since the New Testament uses these expressions as a description of the lake of fire (), we are not to imagine an eternal source of sulphurous pollution on earth (cf. ). Even the unclean birds represent spiritual entities, since puts them with “every foul spirit”. Sodom and Gomorrah also, as an example for men, prefigure eternal fire (). The eternal yet dynamic desolation of the land no doubt speaks of the eternally useless survival of the lost. The wicked will be destroyed from the earth, but not from the universe.

Yet the earthly sphere of judgments on the nations in the day of the Lord described in the Old Testament is not to be entirely transmuted to a completely extra-terrestrial judgment day for lost souls. There will be day of judgment of the earth and also an eternal judgment of the dead. Although the New Testament distinguishes the two clearly, the Old Testament often mingles them, or by its figurative language does not allow exact definitions. As in the time of the flood, the earth will be implicated in the judgments which come on man, who is its master.

The parabolic teaching of Jesus often gives the impression that He spoke only of a non-terrestrial judgment, introducing men to an eternity either in heaven or in hell. He did major on the eternal fate of men, but He also assumed that what the Old Testament said about the earth would be fulfilled. The disciples, “in the regeneration”, were to sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes (); He alluded to the vultures which would gather to the corpses of those left (at Armageddon) instead of being taken at His Coming (, cf. ); He spoke of the things which are to come upon the earth, from which those who are counted worthy will escape (, ); He told of the time of all the tribes of the earth mourning at His appearance, without, however, saying what was to happen after that (). All these things indicate a sphere of judgment on the earth when He comes.

Paul briefly speaks of men not escaping the day of the Lord which shall come upon them as travail upon a woman with child (). He assumes that the Christians know about these things from the Old Testament ().

Nevertheless, the full revelation of the earthly dimension of Christ's Coming is only found in the Book of the Revelation; it occupies most of the Book.

VII. Salvation at Zion

It is time to consider the nature of the salvation in the great day of wrath of Jehovah, in its primary sense, for those who await it.

First of all, let us be well assured that the prophets spoke of our salvation (, ). Even the first prophetic message, that of Obadiah, spoke of our salvation (17); for Joel, by quoting Obadiah (), identified it with the salvation of which he himself spoke; then Peter and Paul quoted that same verse from Joel to speak of the salvation now offered. They, as well as John, defined our salvation as deliverance in the day of the wrath of the Lord (; ; ; , ; ; , cf. ).

Although this salvation is for us, it must also be for the generation to whom Obadiah and Joel announced it. There is only one way in which they may enjoy it with us, and that is by their resurrection. Do the literal words of the prophets involve the need of a miraculous resurrection?

The most literal reading of some of these prophecies precludes a naturalistic fulfillment. Historically, the captives of Joel's and Obadiah's time were not physically brought back to their land from Greece and Sepharad and made to possess the mount of Esau and the plain of the Philistines. They will, however, literally be “raised” (), when the kingdom will be the Lord's, so that on the glorified earth they may have an equivalent or greater inheritance. Understood in this supernatural way, which addresses literally that generation, the prophecy can also be extended to all who are exiles for God (cf. ; , ).

Isaiah and Daniel also reinforce the view that only by resurrection may the force of all the statements in the prophecies be maintained (; ; ). This truth rejoins what we have said about the work of “the Seed of the woman” and “the Seed of Abraham”. The former generations, the original recipients of the promise, may only truly have part in the promised regathering of Israel if it is Jesus Christ who will supernaturally go and get them (“fetch” them: ).

If this salvation, promised by the prophets, means resurrection for the dead, how does it apply to believers who will still be living when the Lord comes? We maintain that for them the Old Testament Scriptures will be fulfilled by rapture and the transformation of their bodies.

It is not that the Old Testament expressly taught the rapture of believers, although it is involved in our participation in the Total Christ exalted to sit at the right hand of God and coming on the clouds of heaven (; ). However, the New Testament appropriates for us the salvation spoken of in the Greek Old Testament and uses it to speak of what will be ours at the rapture.

The possibility of seeing such a glorious dimension in the salvation of the Old Testament does not appear so fantastic if we recognize that, in , being “saved” (1) is the simultaneous counterpart for the living of what “awaking from the dust” (2) is for the dead; the same two transformations are also found side by side in the New Testament: ; ; . Daniel was explaining the full meaning of the salvation already promised by earlier prophets, and the New Testament so explains Daniel.

The rapture of the Church was not first taught by Paul, nor was it mentioned by Jesus only in . The Gospels are full of it. It is found in the words “gather his wheat into the garner”, “many shall come from the east and the west”, “he that endureth to the end shall be saved”, “gathered the good into vessels”, “they shall gather together his elect from the four winds”, “as ... the day that Noah entered”, “one shall be taken”, “he putteth in the sickle”, “Lot went out of Sodom”, “he commanded these servants to be called unto him”, “your redemption draweth nigh”, “accounted worthy to escape all these things” (; ; ; ; ; , ; ; ; ; , ). By no stretch of the imagination may all this Christian teaching be reserved for the regathering of Jews to Palestine.

Verses of the Epistles which use the word “salvation” for what happens at the Rapture have been given. Our sudden arrival, as a group, in heaven, is twice saluted by the use of the word “salvation” in the Book of Revelation (7:10; 12:5, 10).

The final salvation in the New Testament sometimes perpetuates also the Old Testament aspect of being a deliverance by the Lord from enemies, (, , , , etc. c.f. ; ; ).

VIII. Will All Who Are Not Raptured Be Destroyed?

The premillennial position depends upon the possibility of some men being left on earth to perpetuate life after the rapture of the Church and the destruction of God's enemies in the day of the Lord.

There is no difficulty in finding support for such a survival in the prophecies of the Old Testament and in the Book of Revelation. It must be frankly admitted, however, that neither the Gospels nor the Epistles seem to explain how there could be survivors left after the day of the Lord, individuals who are neither raptured nor destroyed from the earth. They speak of only two classes of people in that day, those eternally saved or lost.

This silence, however, has little positive force, since the apostolic writers do not deny or change the meaning of Old Testament passages which tell of nations continuing to exist on earth after the day of Jehovah (; , , , etc.), and since New Testament evangelistic and pastoral concerns did not call for any teaching on the subject. It did concern the purpose of the Book of Revelation, which comforted the martyrs by showing what the fruit of their sufferings would be afterwards, for the earth.

Nevertheless, there are some evidences, both in the Gospels and the Epistles, of a continuing human community on earth after the day of the Lord. Our Lord spoke mainly by parables, which cannot give a very complete idea of doctrine, since they are limited by the figures employed and are concerned only with particular limited principles of human action and recompense. There is, however, one parable which mentions not only the good and bad servants of Christ, and His enemies who do not want Him to rule over them and are destroyed, but also speaks of cities existing afterwards, over which the good servants will reign (). Yet it is not good to lean greatly on parables, either for or against a doctrine. The parables of Christ are principally concerned with eternal issues now, which are infinitely more important to us than what happens on earth when we are taken up from it, and apply to all Christian generations without exception.

There is not much non-parabolic teaching of Christ to investigate, since He said almost nothing in His eschatological discourses about what would happen on earth after His Coming. Yet He did allude to a future conversion of Jerusalem (). Many Jews of Palestine may find mercy after His Coming because they will not have previously known the evidence that Jesus is their Messiah: Jesus said that His disciples will not have finished [evangelizing] the cities of Israel before He comes ().

Coming to the testimony of the Epistles, one may refer back to our treatment of chapter 11 of Romans and chapter 15 of First Corinthians, which speak respectively of a second, more extensive blessing of the world and a future rule of Christ to submit all enemies. Paul also expected Christians to reign over and judge the world with Christ, which requires that there be people on earth over which to rule (; ; ).

The question may be asked, “How this can be, since the saints go to heaven and the wicked are destroyed from the earth?” It is necessary to enter the realm of conjecture to reply. The following suggestions may be helpful:

1. The destruction of the day of the Lord is never complete, whether in its Old Testament manifestations (the destruction of the Jewish state or Babylon) or in the Book of Revelation; “Few men will be left” (), but for the elect's sake the days will be shortened (); a small number will suffice to fill the earth again by multiplication. The millennium is, in a sense, a prolonged judgment of the earth (cf. ), since Christ then judges till He has finished subjecting His enemies (), and judgment is then exercised by the saints (; ; ).

2. The gathering of the most rebellious men to the cause of the antichrist and to the battle of Armageddon may leave some behind who are unwilling to participate with them. The meek will inherit the earth. It is said in that it will be those who received not the love of the truth who will follow and believe the man of sin, and that this delusion will be given to such in order that they might be condemned. It seems therefore that God does not close the door of mercy to others, even to wicked men, unless they commit the unpardonable sin or receive the invincible delusion of antichrist. The promise of being able to call upon the Lord for salvation remains even in the day of the Lord on the earth (). As strange as it may seem, there is said to be a message of good news for those who live on earth during God's judgments, and who have not yet learned to adore Him (). The full and final judgment of men will come only after death () at the end of the millennium ().

When Christ comes there may be many who are seeking the Lord, but who have not yet found. The Gospel will have been preached to all nations, but not sufficiently for salvation to all individuals. The object of the preaching of the Gospel to all nations before the end is not to permit God in justice to end all life on earth, but to raise up a testimony to all language groups, so that all who remain may glorify Christ, when He comes, for what He has done in His saints (; ; ). This may also be the meaning of Paul in , “That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ”. In saying we are “first” in trusting Christ, Paul may be putting us before the “all things” of verse 10 which will be gathered together in Him “in the dispensation of the fullness of times”; then He “shall arise to rule over the Gentiles; in him shall the Gentiles trust, and his rest shall be glorious” (, LXX).

3. There will be seven years, or at least three and one half years, of the day of the Lord, during which a new generation which has not rejected Christ may come to an age, or a state, of responsibility and submit to Him at the sight of His judgments in the earth (; ; ). “The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee” (). As the children of the unbelieving generation which perished in the wilderness survived and inherited the promised land, so children of the last Christ-rejecting generation may arise numerous enough after seven years to people the world again.

Despite its difficulties, this conception of the end times gives more leeway for the rise of a millennial people on earth than does the post-tribulation rapture viewpoint. In that view, any Jews or others who are converted during the “tribulation” could not conceivably remain on earth, but must be raptured with the Church.

Even to the end of the millennium not all the inhabitants of the earth will truly serve God from the heart, as is proved by the final revolt of many. Therefore it is not certain that all who enter the millennium will be truly regenerated. What is important about the millennium, in preparing nations of men for eternal bliss, is that there will be no more ignorance (), neglect, tyrants, priestcraft or scandals which may, as in the present age, needlessly cause many to perish (; ; ).

IX. The Warring and Judging by the Saints

The warring and judging attributed to the saved in the prophecies of the day of Jehovah are more satisfactorily applied to the resurrected and glorified saints than to earthly Israel, (, ; , etc., cf. ; ). The glorified members of Christ cannot thereby be tainted by sin. The Messiah is to destroy the weapons of war, even of His people, on earth (; ). The instruments of spiritual conquest to establish Jehovah's kingdom on earth will be the transformed persons of repentant Israelites, not their armed forces (; ; ; ; ). Christian principles must endure.

X. The Kingdom of Jehovah

Following the destruction of His enemies, God will dwell with His people (, ; , , ), and the world kingdom will be His (; ; ; ). During the millennium we presume that His indwelling will be by His Spirit, Who will remove the veil from the eyes of all men ().

This kingdom of God was initiated in the person of Christ, came next in His Church and will lastly be manifested on earth so that God's will may there be done as in heaven. The purpose of the millennial kingdom of Christ will be to progressively install the kingdom of God on earth.

Dispensational Alienation of the Words of the Prophets

We have seen that is so basic to the Acts and the Epistles that it might be called the charter of the Church. It underlies the Apostolic teaching of such subjects as the “calling” by the “Gospel” of “whosoever” “calls upon the Lord” Jesus Christ to receive “the Spirit” and “salvation” both now and “in the day of the Lord”; we may be sure that the Apostles used no such hermeneutics as do those who prefer to always apply this passage to Israel. It follows that similar Old Testament passages, whether describing what takes place before or during the day of the Lord, may receive a fully authorized application to us and our hope of Christ's Coming.

In the last chapter preserved from his pen, the Apostle Peter asked Christians to recall “the words of the holy prophets” concerning the day of the Lord, in which “we, according to his promise” have hope. Will strict D.s please note their loss of the Church's own highly recommended source of hope and edification by attributing it entirely to a future remnant of Israel?

Although it is well to seek the literal interpretation of Old Testament promises where possible, yet, since only Christ fulfills what the Old Testament prophets promised, all must be in harmony with what was once for all revealed in Him: otherwise there must be two different Christs!

The prophets warned men to prepare for “the day of Jehovah” as perceived in the future; they therefore spoke to all who live before that day more than to those who will live during it.

Amillennialism Stops Short of What Was Promised

Let Amils not err in thinking that, since Old Testament prophecies of salvation have begun to be, or will be eternally, accomplished in the Church, God thus limits all His promises. A close examination of the original promises nearly always shows that they have an earthly scope and a setting which the Church alone does not sufficiently embody. There is no reason to think that because there is now a partial accomplishment there will not be a full one. On the contrary, the partial accomplishment is a sign that the full realization is on the way. The Old Testament prophecies of the day of the Lord teach that the earth will survive through that time and men will learn to glorify God afterward.

The Postmillennial Victory Without God's “Day”

From the time of the most basic prophetic message, “the day of the Jehovah”, God's impending coming in judgment always preceded the kingdom (, ); the postmillennial thought that men already have all the resources necessary to establish the kingdom is therefore presumptuous. The grace which we now have does not suffice: we must wait for the grace which will be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ ().

Since the Coming of the Lord is described as “near”, we cannot confidently expect that it will be put off to permit an age of peace of one thousand years. Although the Coming has been delayed, God has always offered the blessed hope and possibility of personally meeting Him in the person of Christ, without experiencing death.

Chapter Nine

The Servant of Jehovah

Chapters 1 to 39 of Isaiah bring us along to the time of Hezekiah, king of Judah. They contain many promises of the coming of Jehovah to save His people. In some cases it is a question of God coming to save them from the invading Assyrians (14:24-27; 30:27-33; 31:4-8). This happened when the angel of Jehovah smote the Assyrian army in answer to Hezekiah's prayer (37:22-38).

Nevertheless, the effect of this deliverance by God was not permanent. Because of Hezekiah's pride () and his son Manasseh's murders and abominations (), Jehovah announced by His prophets that He would hand Judah into captivity to the Babylonians (cf. ).

The latter part of Isaiah presupposes this captivity and speaks of other times as well. Sometimes the nation is seen in its own country, and in other chapters it is seen returning from Babylon or from all the countries of the world. In fact, these chapters are like a sampling of all that was to happen in history, leading to eternity. The OT never offers a mere millennial blessing.

The people are to experience “an everlasting salvation”, “everlasting joy”, “everlasting kindness”, “an everlasting covenant”, “an everlasting sign”, “an everlasting name” and “an everlasting light” (45:17; 51:11; 54:8; 55:3, 13; 56:5; 60:19-20; 61:7-8). Chapters 40 through 66 do not recount in order the events to come, but give a series of messages of comfort. There will be a proclamation of good things to come to Israel (40:1-2, 9-11; 52:7, 15; 53:1; 61:1-3; 62:11-12), in which the “servant of Jehovah” will have a major part.

Who Is the Servant of Jehovah?

In chapters 40 through 53 of Isaiah “the Servant of Jehovah” is seen to be the one whom God has chosen as His agent to accomplish His great eternal plan. There has been much controversy about the identity of this “servant”. Is he a race, an individual or an elect group? If we accept everything that Isaiah says about him, we are obliged to admit that he is understood to be, successively, all three of these.

Israel, the Blind Servant of Jehovah

The “servant” is first of all a race: “But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend” (41:8). They were chosen as witnesses, to “know and believe” God (43:10). But in fact Israel was blind and deaf: “Who is blind but my servant? Or deaf, as my messenger that I sent?” (42:19). They did not lay it to heart when God gave them for a spoil because they had sinned against Him (42:24-25).

The Righteous Servant of Jehovah

Because the people of Israel failed to function as His servant, God calls on them to behold His chosen Servant, in whom His soul delights (42:1-4). Even distant peoples are called upon to listen to the Servant in whom God will be glorified (49:1-7). He does not rebel when God calls on Him to give His back to the smiters (50:5-11); He is Jehovah's righteous Servant who justifies many by bearing their iniquities (52:13-15; 53:1-12).

Although this righteous Servant once is called by the name of Israel (49:3), he never is given the name of Jacob, the supplanter. He is not identical with the people, for he is given for a covenant of the people (42:6; 49:8), to bring Jacob back again to God (49:5-6). Israel will, however, at first reject and despise Him (49:4-5, 7; 50:6; 53:1-3).

Nor is the righteous Servant just an elect group within Israel. He is described as an individual: He was named from his mother's womb (49:1); the prophet speaks of His ears, cheeks, hair, face and back (50:6-7); He is a man of sorrows (53:3), a Lamb for the slaughter (53:7); He goes from prison and judgment, He is cut off out of the land of the living, He makes his grave with the wicked and is with the rich man in his death (53:7-8).

The Prolonging of the Servant's Life

In spite of the rejection of the Servant by His people, and His death, which is clearly stated to occur (53:8, 12), He will succeed in setting judgment in the earth (42:1, 4). How will this be done? To answer that question let us examine the various types of relevant data.

After statements of the work that the Servant will do (42:1-3; 49:1-2), God speaks to Him, promising to strengthen Him to complete the task and further defining it (42:5-7; 49:6-12; 51:15-16). It is very difficult to distinguish contextually between these promises and the encouragements which are given to Israel in general; and yet the Servant is not the people as a whole, for God twice says “I will ... give thee for a covenant of the people” (42:6; 49:8). So it seems that Jehovah is calling additional members of His people to participate in the calling of His Servant: “Who among you will give ear to this? Who will harken and hear for the time to come ()?”

In it is said that the Servant will be exalted and be very high. And yet the following verses, as far as the end of chapter 53, speak of His sufferings and death. The passage ends by mentioning the rewards that He will receive because of making His soul an offering for sin: “He shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. He shall see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied ... Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong” (53:10-12).

It must be admitted, therefore, that not only does the Servant's own life continue after His death and His person receives an elevation, but also there is to be a people sharing His lot, called “his seed”. It would seem that they are the “many” whom He justifies by bearing their iniquities, who carry on the work which will prosper in His hands and with whom He divides the spoil. We could say that the Servant's life is “prolonged” in them and that they with Him form a corporate servant, to carry on and finish the worldwide task of the righteous Servant, after He completes His personal witness and the atonement accomplished solely by His death.

The Work of the Corporate Servant

Although the Servant of Jehovah is to have a ministry so extensive that it cannot be limited to that of a single individual, yet it is difficult to determine at what point in time His work as an individual is replaced by that of “his seed”. It must certainly be after He “makes his soul an offering for sin” and “justifies many”. Let us consider the dimensions of the total work of Jehovah, which will prosper in the Servant's hands through His “seed”.

This work has a dimension towards the people of Israel: besides being made a covenant for the people, as we have seen, the (corporate) servant will open their blind eyes and liberate them (42:7), raise up the tribes of Jacob, restore the preserved of Israel (49:6), cause to inherit their desolate heritages (49:8) and say unto Zion: “Thou art my people” (51:16).

The work must also extend to the whole world: the (corporate) servant will set judgment in the earth and the isles shall wait for his law (42:4); he will be given for a light to the Gentiles (42:6) and to be God's salvation to the end of the earth (49:6); he will be a servant of rulers (not a king), but his testimony shall be to kings and princes, who shall see, arise and worship (49:7) and shut their mouths (52:15). He shall even “plant the heavens and lay the foundations of the earth” (51:16).

We conclude that the (corporate) servant is not an end in himself but, as the word “servant” implies, is called to accomplish a task. His work brings others to God, both Israel and the nations, and extends even over all the earth: “to establish the earth” (49:8).

Chapters 54 to 66 of Isaiah never speak of the “servant of Jehovah” in the singular. At one place (61:1-4), an anonymous preacher of good tidings tells of his work of binding up broken hearts. This personage is not called “the Servant of Jehovah”. We prefer to think of him, in the absence of identification, as defining the earthly aspect of the ministry of “the Son of man” in the teaching of Jesus ().

There is, however, another place, in the Book of Daniel, which has an allusion to Isaiah's prophecy of the servant of Jehovah (12:3). The glorified ones here are those who will have done the same work which attributes to the righteous servant: they shine in the resurrection for having by their wisdom made many righteous. They do not, however, share in the atoning work, but only in the teaching ministry which applies it.

Jesus as God's Servant in the New Testament

The Gospels present Jesus Christ as the true Servant of the Lord in the prophecy of Simeon (), the heavenly voice at His baptism (), and John's description of Him as “the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world” (1:29). Matthew twice describes His ministry by the use of prophecies of the servant of Jehovah (8:16-17; 12:16-21). Jesus Himself defined His work as that of a servant (; ; ), and His death was a fulfillment of ().

Peter announced Jesus' glorification as that of the Servant of God (, cf. , LXX), and Philip similarly identified Him in explaining His death to the eunuch (.). The Epistles of Paul, Peter and to the Hebrews leave no doubt that Jesus is the suffering Servant, Whose vicarious death saves those who believe (; ; ; ; , ; ; ; ; ).

Christians in the Role of the Suffering Servant

Christians are seen as participating in the servant role first of all by imitating their Master (; ; ). They are the messengers who make His good news known (; , , cf. ). Paul invites them to appropriate for themselves the promise of help given by God to His servant (, cf. ).

Jesus never preached to the Gentiles as the servant was to do. It was Paul's life which was first seen as the transmission of the servant's evangelistic role, in suffering with Christ and bringing light to the Gentiles (; ; ; ; ; ; , ; ; ). He encourages the believers to follow his example in this (; , , ).

A Cosmic Work of the Servant as the Church

We have seen that the corporate servant of Jehovah of the Old Testament does not constitute in himself the final end of God's program. He exists to serve and not to be served, and therefore he is not himself the final work of God. He must set justice in the earth. Does the New Testament Church contribute to a work which will take effect posterior to her own numeric completion, or is she herself God's final work?

The work of the Church in gaining men for Christ and thus completing her own number is certainly seen as essential in the New Testament. Nonetheless, the work of Christians is not to evangelize only. They must first of all glorify God by their savor of brotherly love, unity and good works, that men may see and that the world may know (; ; , ). The message of the servant of Jehovah was to be announced before rulers; that was ordained to be so in the New Testament as well: ; ; ; ; . The need of a testimony to rulers surely has something to do with their rule, as well as with their individual salvation.

Even though the world will not be convinced by the testimony of believers until the Lord visits it at His Coming (cf. ), yet that witness will not be in vain; all nations must receive the testimony before the end (; ).

The corporate servant was also to be given as a covenant to the people of Israel. The full salvation of Israel, which we have seen in and 31 to be a consequence of the coming in of the fullness of the Gentiles, would correspond to this work of the servant. The 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel, who alone can learn the song of the heavenly multitude (), will be the firstfruits of our work as defined in , “that thou shouldst be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob”.

Figure 7 shows the three stages of restoration of the universe using the data of the Servant of Jehovah in Isaiah, chapters 40 to 53.

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Figure 7

Dispensational Slighting of His Advent as a Servant

The thought that Christ came first to Israel only as a Davidic king fails to give weight to prophecies of the Servant of Jehovah. If predictions of His suffering and of His eternal reign were both to come to pass, then the suffering had to logically come first. He could not be an eternal king first and suffer afterwards!

John, the herald of His coming, used no Davidic prophecies to describe Him, but did call Him the Lamb of God. Since the Gospel of Matthew, which sets forth Jesus as the rightful King of the Jews, nevertheless speaks of Him first as Savior from sin () and twice defines His ministry by prophecies of the suffering Servant, it is clear that Christ did not come first of all to reign politically, nor was His providing of a ransom for many a substitute program, brought in because of the postponement of His kingdom. His humiliation as Jehovah's Servant was to be the cause of His glory (; ). Because He took the form of a servant, every knee shall bow to Him ().

Similarly, since the Old Testament taught that there would be an elect group which would perpetuate in its world mission the ministry and suffering of the Righteous Servant, it was impossible that the Messianic reign should come before that also took place. The Church had to suffer before reigning with Christ. Her ministry is a prolonging of Christ's, and cannot be considered as interrupting God's former program by inserting an unrelated project. As the (corporate) servant she was foreseen in the Old Testament, although the presence of Gentile members in the body was not revealed. No Old Testament prophecies better characterize the present age than those of the corporate suffering Servant of Jehovah.

Dispensational Disjunction of Church and Kingdom

If the end of the Church age is conceived as the end of a parenthesis, it then has no causal relation with events of the next age. In that case there will have to be some other people raised up to fulfill Isaiah's statements that the (corporate) Servant will be given as a covenant for the (Jewish) people, to open their blind eyes and liberate them, to raise up the tribes of Jacob and restore the preserved of Israel, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages and to say to Zion: “Thou art my people”. An attitude of pessimism based on the theory that every dispensation ends in failure is excluded by seeing the Church as prolonging and expanding the presence in the world of the Servant who “shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth” ().

The Expectation of Amillennialism

The Amil doctrine gives still less place to these prophecies of progressive triumph on earth. The Church in this view has no redemptive service to render to a future age, for she alone is the end in view.

The Expectation of Postmillennialism

In the Postmil view, not only will the testimony of the Church prevail to bring a millennium, but she herself will continue on earth until she actually sees it happen, enjoying all the earthly glory and fruits of it. She will cease therefore to resemble the suffering Servant and will achieve popularity among all men; the word “Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you” () will become false. The servants will be greater than their Master, for although men did not listen to Him they will listen to them. This is manifestly contrary to Christ's warnings, given to her specifically for the latter days preceding His Coming.

The Key to the Unity of the Prophecies

The teaching of the (corporate) Servant of Jehovah adds another confirmation of the centrality of the theme of the Total Christ in the prophetic Scriptures. This suffering servant aspect of the Total Christ defines the specific character of the life of Christ and of the present age.

Chapter Ten

The New Covenant

On the verge of the Babylonian captivity of Judah, the Prophet Jeremiah announced that God would make a new covenant with His people (). The Babylonian captivity brought a radical end to the old state of affairs in order to prepare the Jews to admit the need of a completely new and more effective initiative by God Himself. He was obliged to pluck up and break down the people before planting them and building them again (). Jeremiah's contemporary, Ezekiel, saw this truth in a vision of dispersed Israel as a field of dry bones, which the Spirit of God could and would bring back to life (37:11-14). Only by the complete passing away of the old things could the new things come, of which Isaiah had spoken (42:9; 43:18-19).

After the Babylonian epoch, the limited return of the Jews to their land under the Persian Empire did not constitute the resurrection of the people which the prophets had announced. The complete and final chastisement for sins, which would give them perfect peace with God and make many righteous, was not the captivity of Judah and the destruction of the Jewish state. Rather, as Isaiah had said, it was the vicarious suffering and death of the righteous Servant of Jehovah.

Therefore let us enquire of the prophets: In what would that newness which was promised consist? Jeremiah defines it as a “new covenant”, and one which God said would be “not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt” (31:32). The newness is not in relation to the covenant made with the Patriarchs: that covenant, assuring the perpetuity and the blessing of the seed of Israel, is seen by Jeremiah, in the same chapter, to be forever valid (31:1, 31, 35-37). It was rather the covenant of Sinai which was to be replaced.

Since we have already considered the transitory nature of the covenant of Sinai, we may now concentrate on the prophetic description of the new covenant which was to replace it. It will be concluded that the new covenant which is now enjoyed by the Church incorporates its new features, but that the prophets saw further than the Church, to a regime the dimensions of which require a further age of salvation for the people of Israel.

The Nature of the New Covenant

First of all, one must insist that the promised new covenant was to be really and radically “new”. It does not follow, because men have always been accepted by God because of their faith, that the same basic covenant must always have been in force throughout the ages. Some have thought that, since the fault under the old covenant was with the people (), there was no need to alter God's part of the old covenant: man only needed to do better, under the same conditions. This is to ignore the insurmountable problem of man's sinful nature, also revealed by Jeremiah (2:22; 5:23; 6:7; 7:25-26; 13:23; 17:1, 9). Therefore the things which God must do under the new covenant are much greater than under the old; He Himself must be the One who will secure and guarantee it, so that it will not fail because of man's sin, as did the old covenant. Although God had already done great things for Israel before giving the first covenant, bringing them out of the land of bondage and being a husband to them, yet the failure of the people to keep the covenant was seen by Jeremiah as irremediable from their side: only from God's side was an everlasting covenant possible, by God Himself undertaking to do everything. It will be noticed that the clauses of the new covenant are introduced by the words “I will” or “they shall”, by which God gives His commitment to make the covenant effective and secure.

He says that He will put His law in their hearts. That means nothing less than a regeneration which brings a permanent disposition to obey God and an undying passion for His righteousness. It is expressed in the following words of the prophets: “I will give them a heart to know me ... they shall return unto me with their whole heart” (); “I will not turn away from them to do them good but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me” (); “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh” (); and, “they shall all know me” ().

The covenant includes a permanent forgiveness of sins: “I will remember their sin no more” (); “I will pardon them whom I reserve” (; ). It is thus an everlasting covenant (; ; ; ; ).

It must not be thought that the law which was to be written in their hearts was to be identical with the law given by Moses. God's new message would come by another prophet, like Moses, and a righteous servant, who was to be given as a covenant to the people, and for whose law the isles also were to wait (, , ). The terms of a covenant written for a regenerated people could not be identical with the formulation of a law for rebels whose hearts were blinded (cf. ).

Whereas the Ten Commandments were addressed to the nation as such, the promise of a new covenant, although it was eventually to be made with all Israel and Judah, is prefaced by a clause which declares that individual responsibility, not parental or national sin, will determine who will die: “Every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge” ( cf. ). Even though the time will come when all those of Israel who remain will be righteous, rebels will die and not enter this covenant, as is implied also by the words, “I will pardon them whom I reserve” ().

The unity of the recipients of the new covenant will be secured by the inward change which will unite them: “I will give them one heart and one way” ().

All these features are found in the new covenant which we now enjoy, except that we live in a time when judgment does not immediately fall on those who choose to reject God's provision.

The Extent of the New Covenant

The promise of a new covenant with “the house of Israel and the house of Judah” is only one among many Old Testament prophecies which speak of the future salvation of Israel as a race. Although the royal and priestly functions, first offered to Israel, have been given to the Church, it does not follow that Israel can no longer receive its promised national salvation. Far from the nation's sin requiring it to forfeit all God's promises, the contrary causality is sometimes declared: some good promises are actually due to Israel's sin, because God must vindicate in Israel His name, which they dishonored (). The promise of a new covenant, to be made one day with the race of Israel, is not contingent.

Among the promises which Jeremiah and Ezekiel associate with the new covenant are those which speak of their return to their own land ( etc.). In fact, the prophet addresses the land itself as being included in the promise (). Jerusalem and the other cities will be restored (, ); evil beasts will no longer trouble them (), but flocks of sheep will abound (). The land will be fruitful (; ). The population will increase ().

It is not directly stated that other nations, as such, will participate in the new covenant. Ezekiel, however, has an interesting comparison. He tells Jerusalem that she has been so sinful that if God restores her, as He will, He will be obliged, in fairness, to restore Samaria and even Sodom at the same time (). The difficulty of envisaging the restoration of Sodom should warn us against a too slavishly literal interpretation of this prophecy: no doubt Ezekiel means that in justice God will be obliged to save notorious apostates, Gentiles and sinners if He is to save such rebels as the people of Jerusalem. The prophet adds that Samaria and Sodom will be given to Jerusalem “for daughters, but not by thy covenant” (). The covenant from which they will be excluded is not the new covenant, but the covenant with the city of Jerusalem by which God chose it as His earthly center of worship (): the sanctifying of Jerusalem as the holy city is to be perpetuated even in the millennium (). The words “not by thy covenant” could not refer to the covenant made with all Israel, for ancestors of the people of Samaria had a part in that covenant. It was their covenant too.

Ezekiel's Temple

We have noted in chapter six that an exact translation of says, “my tabernacle shall be over them”, and that this promise concerns a time when the typical ordinances will have given place to the eternal realities which they signified. The preceding verse says: “I will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore”. Does this verse manifest a contrary hope and refer to a material temple? The last vision of Ezekiel (chs. 40-48) might seem to prove that it does. We must therefore examine these chapters.

It seems that there are many physical difficulties in the way of accepting as practicable the vision of a temple to be constructed. The changes brought about after so many centuries also confirm the impossibility of its literal observation.

The greatest difficulty, however, and the only one which we will now consider, is that these plans are irreconcilable with what the prophets, including Ezekiel himself, tell us about the new covenant. The basic blessings of the new covenant are that the people under it are pardoned forever so as to need no further atoning sacrifices (cf. ) and renewed so as to have the permanent disposition to obey God. Thus they no longer need be separated from Him. In the plans of chapters 40 to 48 of Ezekiel, however, even the prince is seen as still having his evil natural heart, and for that reason it is necessary to give him a large territory to divide among his sons, to prevent him from evicting his subjects from their properties with violence, as former kings had done (). Whereas, according to Isaiah, the priesthood was to be given to all the people (), and even to some Gentiles (), in not even all the sons of Aaron could be priests, but only the clan of Zadok. The people, instead of being able to draw near to God as priests in virtue of a permanent pardon and the possession of the Spirit of God, are still further separated from Him than they had been by Solomon's temple. The wall of the outer court is as thick as it is high, and the temple wall has the same thickness; free spaces are multiplied to keep the sinful people from approaching the holy God (; ; ).

Instead of being pardoned by the Servant of Jehovah, offered as a sin offering, as Isaiah had foreseen, the people in this plan still need expiation by animal sacrifices (, etc.).

It appears that the reason that this plan was given was to shut up impenitent Israel in an accentuated legal regime in order to make them recognize their sinfulness, to enable them to accept salvation. That this vision does not yet set out God's complete plan of salvation may also be suggested by the fact that, of the four faces of the cherubim in chapter ten, only the first two are engraved in this temple (): the ox and the eagle, sometimes taken to indicate Christ's sacrifice and His exaltation, are absent.

The “city” is not called Jerusalem, and it is separated from the temple. This means that the temple, the city or both of them will not be on the site of Jerusalem. This may be why the Prophet Zechariah, announcing that God will dwell in Jerusalem, twice states that Jerusalem will remain in the same place (12:6; 14:10), seemingly disowning Ezekiel's plan.

Why then was this plan given? The prophet says that its purpose was to make the people ashamed of their past sins committed in the land of Israel (). It was revealed for rebels (44:6). The protective structure of the holy places was meant to remind them of how they had polluted their former temple (44:5-8). In other words, this was the kind of restrictive organization and worship, isolated from God's presence, which would be necessary if God were again to tolerate dwelling in the midst of such a sinful people. God told Ezekiel that “if” the captive Jews to whom he made known the vision were by it made ashamed of their past sins and repented, then he was to write down the vision for them to put it into practice (43:7-11). It was not a vision to be implemented in the far distant future, as was the preceding prophecy of Gog and Magog (38:8), but for “now” (43:9). They did not repent; this vision was given in the exact middle of the Babylonian captivity, and only at the end of it did Daniel and a few others seek with all their hearts the realization of the promises of God.

It is not to be denied that many features of chapters 40 through 48, especially toward the end of the vision, resemble those of the final chapters of the Book of Revelation. Nevertheless there are many contrasting features. This is in accord with the principle previously suggested: that what God offers by law, but cannot give on legal principles because of man's inveterate disobedience, He may then freely give by grace, but in a glorious non-literal manner surpassing the former offer and befitting an action due only to Himself, and for His glory.

In The New Testament

The New Testament, by its very name, declares that the new covenant has now come. Christ offered the covenant with the cup of the Communion () which is for all the Church, including its Gentile members.

We maintain that, although Jeremiah's new covenant was promised to Israel, it is the same covenant which was given to the Church. Another instance of Jesus taking a promise which concerned the salvation of all Israel and applying it to all who come to Himself is when He said: “It is written in the prophets, and they shall all be taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me” (, cf. ).

The Epistle to the Hebrews makes clear that the new covenant could only come by Christ's death and by His mediation ( to 10:25). Christ's death provides the redemption which was awaited by those who were called under the old covenant ().

Paul ministered using the Old Testament promises of the new covenant, but not using the Ten Commandments “according to the letter” (). The latter were not the center of his Evangel; he associates them with the old covenant which has passed away, along with the veil which it left on hearts; believers are now transformed by the vision of the glory of God in Christ and serve in the liberty of the Spirit (). As is the case here, wherever the tables of stone or the voice of God's spoken words on Sinai (which conveyed the Ten Commandments) are specifically referred to in the New Testament, they are associated with the old covenant which has been superseded (; ).

The Decalogue represented the whole old covenant, even being called “the covenant” (). The Sabbath law in it does not bind us (); it too symbolized the covenant, being called a covenant and a sign (). Ezekiel excludes it from the commandments which are of an intrinsic moral nature, inherent in eternal life (, cf. ). Laws of the Decalogue, like those of all the old law, undergo an adaptation “not according to the letter” when used under the new covenant. For example, Paul says that the reward of honoring parents is long life on earth, not in the promised land ().

The eventual application of the new covenant to Israel as a nation is supported by Paul's reference to a future covenant with them, found in the context in which he treats Israel's final salvation (). Paul's Epistles therefore contain two distinct applications of the Old Testament promises of a future covenant. His application of the Old Testament promise to the Church must be complemented by an application to Israel in the coming kingdom on earth.

The Book of Revelation expresses the final extent and glory of the promised newness, when God says, “Behold, I make all things new.” (21:5).

The Disuse of These Promises in Dispensationalism

The New Testament use of prophecies of the new covenant for the Church cannot be denied by D.s, although it annuls their principles. The mention of God's law being put into hearts may seem to suggest that the present use of such prophecies incongruously perpetuates the Mosaic law under grace; not only is this thought false, as has been shown, but it tends to weaken the moral efficiency of the message of grace. Preaching the covenant of God to write His law on men's hearts might help avoid the danger of an antinomian and superficial Gospel. Sin is defined by law () and we are saved from sin. There are commandments of Christ and there is a “law of Christ"!

D.s are correct in seeing this age as a radically new order, and so rejecting ordinances of days, months, times, years, priests, sacrifices, Sabbaths, altars and all other “weak and beggarly elements” (). One must distinguish between old ethnic Israel and the Church.

They do not correctly establish, however, our relationship to the Old Testament predictions of the new order. Jesus, Paul and the author of Hebrews applied naturally to Christians the Old Testament prophecy of the new covenant, so let us not disdain to do so.

The Radical Newness of the New Covenant and Amillennialism

Covenant Amillennialism does not sufficiently recognize the newness of the new covenant. Organizing all moral teaching by the Decalogue and in the atmosphere of Sinai, instead of upon the new covenant promulgated in the person, work and teaching of Jesus Christ and by Apostolic doctrine, may also be a false and less fruitful orientation of good material.

Dispensational Expectation of the Return of the Old Covenant

What poor apologists for the Gospel we will be to Orthodox Jews if we are obliged to admit to them that they are right, not only in teaching that their Scriptures do not predict the coming of the present Christian order, but also that when the Messiah comes He will restore the old Judaism with its temple and sacrifices and laws. Let us rather explain their Messiah's coming kingdom without the absurdity of admitting that the legalistic and ceremonial system against which we now preach will finally prevail.

Amillennial Lack of Hope of this World Becoming New

Since Covenant Amillennialism minimizes the radical change and the newness expressed in Jeremiah's promise of a new covenant, now brought about by the gift of the Spirit at Pentecost, it is not surprising that it considers illogical the expectation of the transformation of the whole world in history.

If it is the slavish literalism of much millennial teaching which renders it incredible to them, we hope that they will be able to credit the possibility of a future expansion of the same power and the same new covenant as now exists in the Church. This is to be brought about by the intervention and the glorious revelation of Christ in history at His Coming, and the consequent removal of the veil from the hearts of the nations.

A Problem for Postmillennialists

We submit that, in the postmil model of the coming of the millennium by the growth of the Church, there can never be a covenant with all Israel such as is found in . That situation requires the removal of the Church and a new start, through national Israel, in a new age.

Chapter Eleven

Daniel's Kingdom of the Suffering Saints

The Book of Daniel is sometimes called “apocalyptic” rather than “prophetic”. It pictures the end times as being far in the future rather than imminent; its message is “sealed” to the prophet's contemporaries and meant for saints of the last days (12:4). Therefore it contains very few exhortations, and does not make the future kingdom contingent on the response of men to the prophet's message; man can do nothing, but God will miraculously intervene in the last days on a universal scale, introducing His faithful people into a supernatural sphere.

The reason for these characteristics may be partly understood by the life situation of Daniel, as seen in his Book. He and his friends had been led into captivity by a powerful empire which only God could cause to fall. Since they were functionaries of this empire, they were interested in the whole world and not just in the Jewish people, which they had preceded into captivity in their youth, and with which they appear to have partially lost contact. Their main problem was to remain faithful to God in a pagan milieu, under a despotic and idolatrous government. The prospect of living and dying in captivity, and of being persecuted for their God, made the problem of personal resurrection and reward more important to them than that of a future national restoration. The concern for the restoration of Jerusalem, such as seen in other prophets, is found only in the ninth chapter. For that reason we will treat that chapter separately, reserving it for study as the next theme.

On examining the chapters other than the ninth, one notes that they do not speak of God as Jehovah, the covenant God of Israel. They are composed both of narrative and predictive parts. There is a common message in both: God rules the world, and is well able to remove or subdue its wicked rulers and to deliver His faithful followers, and even to give them power in governing. In the narrative parts these saints are Daniel and his three friends; in the predictive passages the faithful Jews are more than once called “the saints”, or the holy people (, , , ; ; ).

We suggest that this people of saints be carefully distinguished from Daniel's people as a whole. They are the saints in Israel who are faithful in persecution, and whose names are written in the book (). A time is indeed coming, as the other prophets predicted and as chapter nine states, when Jerusalem and all the Jewish people will be purified. But by far the greater part of the book is concerned, not with the future conversion of the sinful people as a whole, but with the righteous who were to live before that day, the faithful remnant under the Gentile empires, their sufferings and deliverances, and their future resurrection to reign over the peoples of the earth after the destruction by God of the last Gentile empire.

This persecuted pioneering group is of special interest to us as Christians, since, as will be shown in this chapter, we have been added to their number and will reign with them and with Christ. Those of them who lived in the periods of the first three Gentile empires of chapters two and seven were Old Testament saints. It will be demonstrated that the saints of the time of the fourth, or Roman Empire, are mainly New Testament saints. Despite all the conclusions of this work about the superior privileges given since Christ, it must be admitted that eventually both will together form in heaven but one group of saints which will reign with Him.

There are several preliminary observations to be made about the bearing of the political situation in Daniel's time on the interpretation of his prophecies:

1. We are no longer in the times when a Davidic king reigns over Israel, but rather when one pagan king or another, with his people, reigns over the nations of the world. This applies both to the kingdoms of the Babylonian and Medo-Persian peoples in Daniel's lifetime and to the two subsequent Gentile world empires in the prophetic portions of the book.

2. This leads to another observation, which is that in this situation the king and the ruling people or kingdom are spoken of interchangeably. For instance, in , the head of the statue in the vision is a king, Nebuchadnezzar, but the next part of the body, signifying the following period, is said to represent a kingdom rather than a king. In 2:44 it is peoples, rather than kings, who are mentioned as possessing kingdoms. Even the toes or the horns in the visions, representing the divisions of the empires, may stand for kings (2:44; 7:24; 8:9, 23) or kingdoms (8:22).

3. The same identification of kings with kingdoms, leading to interchangeable interpretations of their symbols, is found with regard to the final world kingdom which will be established by God. It is the kingdom of a ruling people (7:27). Only once in the book does a vision clearly identify an individual ruler who represents God (“Messiah the Prince”, 9:25), and, as seen there, he does not yet rule. It is understood that he will rule, but in Daniel the emphasis is rather on the final reign of the holy people. They are to reign over the nations of the world as did the Babylonian and later peoples. It was understood in ancient times that a people was one with its leader. Such is also the case here, but the text speaks very little of Christ in particular.

Daniel does not describe the coming kingdom as the kingdom of Jehovah, but rather as another kingdom that the God of heaven sets up (2:44). That is not the equivalent of “the kingdom of heaven”, for it is to the saints that God gives the rule (7:27), as is confirmed by the fact that it shall not be left to “another” people. So, in chapter seven, even the kingdom symbolized by “a son of man” (7:13-14) is interpreted by the angel to be the kingdom of the saints (7:15-18) rather than of an individual ruler. It is elsewhere in the prophetic writings, in such verses as , rather than in Daniel, that one finds the beginning of the prophets' teaching that the reign by God Himself will come. In Daniel's perspective the kingdom of God was otherwise understood. It was the reign of His providence, which existed already and had always existed (4:3, 17, 25, 32, 34).

The traditional and most satisfactory interpretation of the four parts of the statue of chapter two, and the four beasts of chapter seven, is that they represent, in order, the Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Hellenistic and Roman Empires. The Hellenistic empires get special treatment in chapters eight and eleven.

The Saints are Prepared for Their Kingdom

The saints who are seen to finally receive the eternal kingdom (7:27) are those who are previously prepared for it under the four empires. They are represented by Daniel and his three friends in the Babylonian period; Daniel is tested and prospers also in the Persian period (6:28). He is told that he will “rest and stand in his lot at the end of the days” (12:13).

In the Hellenistic period we read of the holy and wise people which remains faithful during the persecutions by “a little horn” representing Antiochus Epiphanes (8:24; 11:32-35); at the same time we learn of other Jews who compromise with paganism and forsake the holy covenant (11:30, 32) or who “cleave” to the righteous “with flatteries” (11:34). The wise are rewarded in the end times by their resurrection and shine as the stars for ever and ever (12:2-3). Chapter eleven seems to omit reference to the Roman period and leads on immediately to the resurrection in chapter twelve, giving thus a needed emphasis to the reward of the saints of the Hellenistic period. The “end” which is spoken of in 11:40 may be considered to be “the latter time of their [Hellenistic] kingdom” (8:23), assimilated to the end of the Roman period.

In the fourth, or Roman, period, in chapter seven, the saints are still more grievously persecuted by a king who is called “a little horn” (7:8). This king must be distinguished from the other “little horn”, which represents Antiochus Epiphanes (8:9): each belongs to a different empire, represented by a different beast, having a different number of horns. The saints of this last period are also rewarded with an eternal worldwide kingdom (7:18).

The Nature of the Kingdom of the Saints

The final kingdom of which Daniel speaks is not simply that of another earthly people which conquers the world; it is indeed composed of men who reign over the kingdoms of the world, but they do so supernaturally, by the intervention of God, from a heavenly position and eternally. Let us examine the visions of Daniel on that point.

In chapter two the final kingdom is compared to a “stone cut out of the mountain without hands” (2:44-45). That comparison indicates its supernatural origin, as set up by the God of heaven. This is also shown by its power to suddenly pulverize the kingdoms of the earth, and by its eternal duration (2:34-35).

In chapter seven “the people of the saints of the most High” (7:27), which is to reign, is symbolized by “one like a son of man”, just as four beasts represent the four previous empires. This is the explicit original explanation: it was given by the angel specifically in response to the question of Daniel as to “the truth of all this” (7:16-18). It is in accord with our previous conclusion that “the Ancient of days” is primarily Jesus Christ rather than the Father, leaving the symbolic figure, “one like a son of man”, to represent His people.

Notice therefore how the saints are represented when they are about to reign: they come on the clouds of heaven, they stand before the throne of “the Ancient of days” in the presence of the thousands of angels who minister to Him (7:9-10, 13). It is given to them to exercise judgment over the earth and then to reign eternally (7:22). The fact that the word “saint” sometimes is applied to angels as well as to men in Daniel (4:13, 17, 23), suits, rather than contradicts, our conclusion that the saints of earth become a heavenly people. The saints suffer first on earth before reigning, however (7:21, 25). Jesus Christ is, in fact, as man, their prototype in the suffering and in the reigning, but He is not spoken of separately in this vision and its explanation.

As to the heavenly nature of the saints in the twelfth chapter, it is proved by their being a resurrected people and by their description as shining like the brightness of the firmament and as the stars, forever and ever (12:2-3). Daniel himself is to be raised and have a part, not with the earthly, but with the heavenly reigning people, here called those of his own people that are found written in the book (12:13, 1).

Contrarily to that interpretation, it is held by many that Daniel's people, which will be “delivered”, as stated in 12:1, are those Jews who survive the great tribulation and who will subsequently live normal human lives on earth. The following considerations may be opposed to that explanation:

1. The people saved from the distress mentioned in verse one are the survivors to the end, on earth, of the same faithful people whose deceased members are raised at that time, according to verse two. Together they will shine as the stars forever.

2. Daniel's people which is to be saved is to be composed of “every one that shall be found written in the book”. Being “found” surely speaks of the scrutiny to determine eternal destiny, subsequent to natural life upon the earth. The Book of Life is opened only for that judgment. In verse one they are seen entering this final salvation without their death taking place. Although the rapture, as such, is not mentioned, it is interesting to note that the Septuagint discerningly says here that the people “will be raised aloft” instead of “will be saved” (as in Theodotian's version). Daniel's meaning is no doubt in accord with Paul's observation that flesh and blood are not able to inherit the kingdom of God.

3. We have argued, in the chapter on the day of Jehovah, that these two groups of Daniel twelve are those found in both and , one group raptured and the other raised from the dead. The “voice of the archangel” () corresponds to “Michael ... the great prince” (); the “sudden destruction ... as travail upon a woman with child” () corresponds to “a time of trouble such as never was” ().

Daniel did not, of course, know that added to the members of his own people written in the book, would be a larger group of Gentiles. That constituted the unexplained aspect of the mystery, later revealed to the Apostles (). But in Daniel we are prepared for it: since Jewish saints will reign by righteousness and not by race, the way is prepared for justified Gentiles to qualify. The Gentile provenance of most of the holy people may also be symbolized by the “mountain” from which a stone is cut without hands (2:45), and which may represent “the kingdom of men” (4:17).

The Suffering of Saints Under the Roman Empire

The seventh chapter represents the Roman Empire as a terrible nondescript beast which has ten horns (7:7, 19). At a later stage another “little horn” sprouts, displacing three horns and having eyes and a blasphemous mouth (7:8, 20, 24, 25). According to the principles already discussed, this horn may be considered either as a king or a kingdom.

One feature of this vision, which is often found in other visions of the Scriptures, is that, when the divine explanation is given, additional details are added which were not prefigured in the vision itself. One of these details is that the little horn will make war with the saints, prevail against them and wear them out (7:21, 25).

The cutting off of an Anointed One, found in 9:26, is another prophecy of the suffering of the righteous under the Roman Empire: “And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself” (literally “and nothing for him").

Daniel's Reign of the Saints Alluded to in the Gospels

The Gospels naturally emphasize the office of Jesus as the One who will merit, and first personally receive, the kingdom from the Father; they also, however, give evidence that believers receive the kingdom from Christ, in accord with Daniel.

With regard to the use of the second chapter of Daniel, there is no doubt that Jesus taught that He was Himself the “stone” of which the prophecy spoke: “this stone ... on whomsoever it shall fall it shall grind him to powder” (, cf. ); our Lord was speaking of His Second Coming as Judge and not of His First Coming as Savior. His Church will then be with Him, but we do not have here any intimation that His people will have a part in the action of grinding to powder.

Another obvious connection of the Gospels with the prophecies of Daniel is Jesus' use of the expression “the Son of man” to speak of Himself. Yet, although he chose that expression of to be His usual self-designation, it must not be thought that every time it is used there is an allusion to Daniel. The most certain of such allusions are His declarations that He would come on the clouds of heaven

(; ). This proves that Jesus identified Himself with Daniel's “Son of man”. There may have been a preliminary fulfillment of by Christ in when “he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight”.

There are, however, other passages in the Gospels in which Jesus seems to identify Himself rather with “the Ancient of days”, before whom the “one like a son of man” appears in Daniel. This identifies Jesus as God, and one should not be dissuaded of this identification by the usage Jesus makes in these verses of His title “the Son of man”.

When our Lord speaks of coming in His glory to sit upon “the throne of his glory” () “and all the holy angels with him”, this is much more in accord with the description of “the Ancient of days” in Daniel than it is with the “one like a son of man”. The latter was “brought” before the Judge, did not come with angels and was not said to sit upon a glorious throne, although he did passively receive dominion, glory and reign.

Another verse in which Jesus describes His future Coming in terms of the coming of “the Ancient of days”, although in it He again uses the term “the Son of man” to identify Himself, is , “Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man”. To see the Book of Daniel as the source of this scene is more satisfactory than seeing Jesus here stretched out as Jacob's ladder upon which angels are going up and down. The word “upon” may be translated as “toward” (from the two directions). At , Young's literal translation reads: “... a thousand thousands do serve Him and a myriad of myriads do rise up ....” Both the verse in John and that in Daniel would then speak of two groups of angels, one descending and the other arising to serve Him. Many other verses which speak of the angels accompanying Jesus at His glorious Coming are better accounted for if He is identified with “the Ancient of days” rather than with Daniel's “Son of man”.

If Jesus claimed the role of the “Ancient of days”, then His people would be represented by the “one like a son of man” brought before Him. This seems to be the meaning of : “that ye may be accounted worthy ... to stand before the Son of man”.

To sum up, two sorts of fulfillment of are found in the Gospels; in some passages Jesus is the “Son of man” who comes on the clouds of heaven to receive the kingdom from the Father; in other passages Jesus is the “Ancient of days” and it is His Church which comes before Him to receive the kingdom.

At this point a long-standing problem finds a solution: Why did Jesus, from the beginning of His ministry, and later His Apostles, assume without explanation that believers have a heavenly calling and will receive a heavenly reward (, ; ; ; , etc.)? Is not that a radically new teaching which would have needed some explanation? Since it is assumed without question, no doubt it was already known through the Old Testament. Most Old Testament prophecies speak of the kingdom coming on the earth and not in heaven, however. How could Jesus have assumed that His disciples knew of this heavenly hope, if not from the Book of Daniel, where the saints come on clouds into God's presence to receive a kingdom and where they that are wise shine as the brightness of the stars forever?

The Gospels and the Suffering Saints of Daniel

When Jesus said, “it is written of the Son of man, that he must suffer many things, and be set at nought” (), He may have been thinking of the people of which Daniel wrote, which was persecuted by the “little horn” of the Roman Empire, and picturing Himself as its prototype (, , ). His being “set at nought” is described also in : “Messiah shall be cut off and shall have nothing”.

However, here again, the application of the same Old Testament words to His disciples is not far removed. Jesus completed the prediction of His own sufferings by a call to His disciples to take up their cross as well ().

The Apostolic Use of Daniel to Speak of the Church

Although there seems to be no unmistakable allusion in his Epistles to the stone cut out from the mountain without hands which pulverized the statue, Paul may have had it in mind when he wrote: “God hath chosen the foolish things of the world ... things which are not, to bring to nought things that are” ().

He could have no other biblical source than the description of the stone which “became a great mountain and filled the whole earth” () when he said that Christ ascended up far above all heavens, “that he might fill all things” (). The Church must in that case, in Paul's mind, have been the first sphere to experience that filling, since she is “the fullness of him that filleth all in all” (). The concept of the fullness of Christ in the Church, frequent in Ephesians, is then traceable to Daniel. Christ, Who must fill all things, gives men as gifts to the Church in order to bring her to the fullness of unity, faith, knowledge and Christlikeness (). When her fullness is complete she will, at Christ's Coming, appear with Him () to confound the wisdom of this world and bring to nought the things which are. Christ's kingdom will then grow to fill the whole earth. The elect of this age are now being reconciled to God; eventually all things will share in that reconciliation (-20).

“The Ancient of days”, who gives a kingdom to “one like a son of man”, corresponds in Paul's teaching to Christ, before whom the Church will appear. He says that Christ will appear as God: “the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (, NIV); phenomena of Old Testament theophanies will accompany His Coming (). Likewise, when he says: “we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air” () and speaks of all the saints coming with Christ (; ), he seems to allude to “one like a son of man”, representing the saints, who comes on clouds before the Ancient of days in Daniel.

This brings us to the use of the word “saints” which we find so often in the seventh chapter of Daniel (, , , , ) and in the Epistles of Paul, Jude and to the Hebrews and in the Revelation. Although the faithful are called saints in many passages of the Old Testament, there is scarcely another Old Testament chapter which so clearly uses the term in an eschatological sense of men who go to heaven.

When Paul says to the Corinthians: “Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world be judged by you ...” (), he is certainly reminding them of : “judgment was given to the saints of the most High”. It was the comparison of these two verses which first convinced the present writer that Daniel's prophecies pointed to the Church and not to some Jewish tribulation remnant. The Corinthians should have known, as should we, that present day believers belong to the people of Daniel's saints. As Paul says elsewhere, we are “fellow citizens with the saints” () and “may be able to comprehend with all saints” ().

When Paul said that Gentiles have been made worthy to be partakers of the future “inheritance of the saints in light” (), he was explaining the recently revealed mystery of Gentile participation (). But the promised inheritance itself, and the terms used to describe it, were not first made known by him. They are found in Daniel: the inheritance is the same Greek word as the lot which Daniel was to receive at the end of the days (12:13, LXX); the saints were often mentioned by Daniel, as we have seen. Being in that light has its equivalent in Daniel's description of “shining as the brightness of the firmament and as the stars” (12:3).

New Testament writers use the description of the resurrection to everlasting life in to speak of the resurrection of Christ as well as of our resurrection. They do this by speaking of His resurrection as first (), the firstfruits (), or of Christ Himself as the Firstborn from the dead (). This again is in accord with the principle of double applications to prince and to people in Daniel.

Daniel and the Apostles Show Need for Saints to Suffer

The necessity, based on God's revealed plan, for those who are united to Christ to suffer, is voiced both by Peter (; ; ; ) and Paul (; ; ; ; ). Writing to the Thessalonians, Paul uses language which makes it probable that the necessity of suffering derives from the prophecies, when he says: “... these afflictions: for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto” (). The probability that he was appealing to Daniel's prophecies is strengthened by the observation that many other elements of his teaching to the Thessalonians come from the Book of Daniel.

Daniel's Words to Us Diverted by Dispensationalism

To sum up, we have seen that, contrarily to the D. principle, New Testament writers appeal to verses from Daniel's prophecies in teaching Christians of their role; therefore the Church and its destiny is not foreign to the Book of Daniel. The Church age takes place entirely within the times of the fourth empire, which is seen in Daniel.

The Book of Daniel may have been given so as to better indicate the full eternal import of previous prophetic writings, which at first glance may seem to speak only of a corruptible earthly inheritance.

The inclusion of both the Old Testament saints and the Church in the same heavenly people, spoken of by Daniel, might seem to negate the conception of the Church as a new people, which we professed to hold in common with D.s. However, since it is in heaven that both receive the same kingdom, according to Daniel, that does not prevent a difference in the degree of grace on earth, given in distinct ages. The Maccabees did not fight for God in the same way as does the Church!

Amillennial Spiritualizing of the Blow of the Stone

Amils commonly conceive of the stone striking the statue in the second chapter of Daniel as indicating that the first advent and death of Christ gradually established a spiritual kingdom in the world. This sets aside the whole point of the vision, which is that the kingdoms of this world must be destroyed in order that God may replace them with an eternal kingdom. Although teaches that the first three kingdoms continue to exist for a time after the judgment, the previous verse makes it clear that such was not to be the lot of the Roman Empire. Yet the Roman Empire lasted long after the first Coming of Christ, and may still be considered to exist.

It may appear at first glance that there is no place for the doctrine of a millennium in Daniel's prophecies, since the kingdom which comes in them is an everlasting kingdom. This everlasting kingdom begins, however, with a transitory phase: the stone which has destroyed the statue becomes a mountain and fills the earth in chapter two; three of the beasts are spared for a time in the kingdom in chapter seven; in chapter nine the restraining of iniquity is achieved only in Daniel's people at Jerusalem at the end of the 70 weeks, leaving a work to be done afterward to extend it to the whole world.

The Postmillennial Expectation

The violence of the kingdom's coming in Daniel two, in which the Church is present with Christ, (Daniel speaks of a kingdom, not a king, which strikes the image), precludes the idea that He can reign over the world uniquely by the effects of His first coming as a Savior, meek and lowly of heart.

The Postmil position connects the age of our suffering for Christ with the age of the full triumph of His kingdom; Daniel clearly separates the two. Postmils could learn from Daniel that the worldwide reign of saints is heavenly and supernatural in nature and will be initiated only by the Coming of Christ, “the Ancient of days”.

The Total Christ

It has been shown that, in Daniel, the stone of chapter two, the “one like a son of man” of chapter seven, and the salvation and resurrection of chapter twelve all involve ostensibly a people rather than an individual Christ, although all these things applied, first of all, to Jesus Christ. This again adds weight to our thesis that the Total Christ is the key concept of the Bible; the New Testament often uses the same verse at one time to speak of Christ and at another to speak of His people. In Daniel's perspective the people includes the ruler; in the New Testament perspective there can be no people without the prior coming and work of the divine prototype and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Chapter Twelve

When Shall Jerusalem Have Eternal Righteousness?

The uniqueness of the ninth chapter of Daniel calls for its separate treatment. The book as a whole speaks of kingdoms which rule over the nations of the world; the ninth chapter reveals in advance the Jewish part of the history of Jerusalem, leading to its final conversion. For that reason chapter nine is the only one in which the name Jehovah is found, the covenant name which was revealed to Israel.

Whereas most of the prophecies of the book lead finally to the eternal, universal reign of the faithful few, the ninth chapter reveals the sins, apostasy, punishments and final conversion of the nation as a whole and of its capital city. At that time Jerusalem will experience the reality prefigured by its day of atonement and will be anointed with the Spirit of God.

The predicted history of Jewish Jerusalem described in this chapter has another distinctive characteristic: its times are exactly measured. Therefore the vision has been called the backbone of all prophecy.

Although Daniel nine differs in subject from the other chapters of Daniel, it is closely linked with the other Books of the Prophets. Daniel's query and prayer were elicited by reading “books”, and especially by the prediction of Jeremiah concerning the 70-year duration of the desolation of Jerusalem (9:2); the program for Jerusalem which Gabriel revealed to Daniel had as one of its purposes to seal the truth of what former prophecies and visions had declared (9:24). A comparison with the teaching of other Prophets is therefore useful in order to correctly interpret the prophecy of the seventy “weeks”.

Daniel's scriptural study of the duration of the captivity took place at the end of the 70-year period of the domination of Babylon; therefore he was led to fervently pray for the restoration of Jerusalem to God's favor. God showed him that the true deliverance of Israel would take, not seventy years, but seven times seventy years to be accomplished. Let us examine in detail the program which was shown him by Gabriel (9:24-27).

... Seventy Weeks Are Determined ...

All are agreed that these “weeks” are composed of years rather than days. There is a difference of opinion as to what kind of years are meant, whether those of our present calendar, years of twelve lunar months, or years of 360 days, such as we find in the flood account, in ; and in some ancient civilizations. We opt for the latter and refer the reader to chapter VI of the book of H.W. Hoehner: Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ for one of the most probable chronologies of the passage.

... Upon Thy People ...

The people spoken of was Daniel's sinful people as a whole, whose rebellion he had just confessed in his prayer, and who were in exile because of their sins.

... And Upon Thy Holy City ...

What particularly interested Daniel was the fate of Jerusalem, as can be seen from the number of times that the city is mentioned in his prayer (9:2, 12, 16, 18-20). Jeremiah had said that if Israel repented, it would become the source of salvation for the world (; ; ).

... To Finish the Transgression ...

God's first stated purpose for the “seventy weeks” was to bring an end to the disobedience of His people in Jerusalem. The infinitive “to finish” is an intensive form of the Hebrew verb which elsewhere is translated “to forbid, to keep back, to refrain, to retain”. It cannot speak of what was accomplished judicially at the cross; it has to do with the changing of conduct.

... To Make an End of Sins ...

Jeremiah had said that, after the fall of Babylon, the iniquity of Israel would be sought for, and that there would be none (). Daniel is now instructed that it will be after the seventy sevens of years that Israel will receive the new covenant, under which God will pardon them, cleanse them from all sin and write His law in their hearts (; ).

... To Make Reconciliation for Iniquity ...

We know that this atonement was to be based upon what Christ did by His death; nevertheless, as was the case at the great typical day of atonement held at the seventh month, the people had to sincerely repent and rest from their own works in order to experience God's pardon (). Only when the people will have accepted the sacrifice for sin of the Servant of Jehovah will this reconciliation come to them.

... To Bring in Everlasting Righteousness ...

This is the righteousness of the new covenant, which is everlasting: “I will make an everlasting covenant with them ... they shall not depart from me” ().

... To Seal the Vision and Prophecy ...

All the promises of salvation in Jeremiah and in the other prophetic books will be sealed or confirmed by their accomplishment in that day. God will not renege on His promises or abandon the people chosen in Abraham their ancestor.

... To Anoint the Most Holy ...

Some have thought that the “holy of holies” which is to be anointed is that of a reconstructed material Jewish temple in Jerusalem. That cannot be, for the following reasons:

1. This anointing must take place immediately at the close of the “seventy weeks”; since that time is said to end with a complete desolation, no material temple could immediately exist and be anointed at its end, without adding to the period the time of its construction. A nation, however, can and will be born in a day (), and anointed with God's Spirit.

2. Jeremiah had already said that Jerusalem itself, and not the ark in the holy place, would be the throne of Jehovah to which all nations would come (3:16-17). Not just a temple, but all Jerusalem, and even the valleys surrounding it, were to be made holy according to other prophecies (; ).

3. The consecration of the material temple had another chronology: it took place about 516 B.C., 70 years after its former destruction by the Babylonians (; ), and long before the “seventy weeks” even began.

... Know Therefore and Understand ...

This exhortation of Gabriel is repeated by our Lord in His Olivet discourse (); we have also the promise of that the wise will understand, to prevent us from despairing of coming to a true understanding of these things.

... From the Decree to Restore and Build Jerusalem ...

What was the word which went forth, from which the seven times seventy years are to be measured? Was it the commandment of Cyrus that the temple should be built, promulgated in 539 B.C., the year of Daniel's prayer ()? Was it the decree of Darius in 515 B.C. that the construction be allowed to continue () or the sending of Ezra to beautify the temple, by Artaxerxes in the latter's seventh year? None of these possibilities fit all the facts so well as does the view that the word was that which was given to Nehemiah by Artaxerxes in 445 B.C. (, ), for:

1. The first three decrees mentioned do not bring us, after 7 and 42 sevens of years, to the triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem in 33 A.D., which was the only time when our Lord accepted a public acclamation as its Messiah, the Prince.

2. The word from Artaxerxes to Nehemiah was the only one which specifically concerned the reconstruction of the city of Jerusalem, rather than of the temple, as requires. Although there is a prediction () that Cyrus would say to Jerusalem that she should be built, yet in the absence of any record of such words of Cyrus the latter's part in the decree may come about by proxy, effected by his empire or by his successor Artaxerxes. Or it may be God Who is still speaking in verse 28, saying the city will be built, as in the preceding verses.

3. The 490 years were decreed “upon” Jerusalem, so they concern the time when she existed as a city, not the time before she was to be rebuilt. They lead, not to her rebuilding, but to her conversion. Her wall was in fact rebuilt in the same year that Nehemiah received the permission of Artaxerxes, in only 52 days (). Only in view of the certainty of that reconstruction could she be considered as a city, upon which the 490 years were to be measured. Before that, in the time of Darius, she was not spoken of as being inhabited. Zechariah, living in Darius' reign, looked back to the time “when Jerusalem was inhabited” as if such was not the case in his time (). Even after the construction of the wall by Nehemiah “the people were few therein, and the houses were not builded” (); the people in the country round about drew lots so that one in ten would go and live there. It was no pleasure to live in that desolate enclosure, so the people blessed those who offered voluntarily to do so ().

4. It has been contrarily asserted that, since the temple was rebuilt under Darius, the city and its wall must have been rebuilt as well. Evidence of a recent breaking up of the wall in Nehemiah's time is advanced to prove that it had been rebuilt by the authority of Cyrus' decree and then broken down (). It is true that previously, in the reign of Artaxerxes, some of the Jews had started to rebuild the city; however, no imperial permission could be appealed to for this, as had been done for the temple, and so it could not succeed (). That was why the walls had been recently broken down.

5. The prophecies of Jeremiah had described the 70 years of captivity as a time when the nations would serve Babylon, and had never defined at what time the subsequent predicted events would happen to Jerusalem (; ). The blessings which were to follow that liberation were, in fact, to be spread out through all history until the end (; ; ). There was no necessity that Jerusalem should be built at once to fulfill Jeremiah's prophecy, for the time of the reconstruction of the temple was not linked to Jeremiah's seventy years. It happened about 516 B.C., 70 years after the destruction, but not 70 years after the beginning of the domination of Babylon ().

Since the predicted decree for the rebuilding of Jerusalem was that of Artaxerxes' twentieth year, there was a period of about 94 years (539-445 B.C.) between the time of the prayer of Daniel and the beginning of the “seventy weeks”. The themes of the Prophets of this last period of the Old Testament will occupy the next chapter.

Since Daniel's seventy weeks began when the temple had already been rebuilt, the construction of a material temple at Jerusalem could not have had any importance in God's plan revealed to Daniel. Only its destruction was mentioned to him.

... Unto Messiah the Prince ...

This is the only evidence in Daniel of the hope of a Davidic, royal Messiah. Daniel did, however, know that such a Messiah would come (). As already stated, this coming took place at the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem (cf. ).

... Shall Be Seven Weeks and Sixty-Two Weeks ...

This traditional punctuation adds the 49 years to the 434 years to measure the time until Messiah's appearance. The division of the time in two may be for symbolic reasons. The “seven weeks”, or 49 years, do not seem to define the time of the construction of the city; they may lead to the completion of the Old Testament canon, but that date is unknown. The mention of the reconstruction at the end of the verse, however, gave the assurance that the city would be rebuilt despite the difficulties.

... The Street Shall Be Built Again and the Wall ...

The word here translated “wall” is not so translated elsewhere. It speaks of a trench or a pointed or sharp object. However, no other meaning appears more feasible here than “wall” or “rampart”.

... And After Sixty-Two Weeks ...

Verse 26 is peculiar in this prophecy because it seems to predict times which are not counted in the seventy sevens of years: verse 25 speaks of the end of the 69 “weeks” and verse 27 speaks of the beginning of the seventieth. It is not indicated how much time would be necessary after Messiah's coming to accomplish the three events mentioned in it: the cutting off of a Messiah, who would have nothing, the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple, and the wars which were to continue until the end. History reveals that more than nineteen centuries have passed. We will grapple with this key issue as we proceed.

... Shall Messiah Be Cut Off, and Shall Have Nothing ...

These words, from Darby's translation, well express Jesus' rejection by Jerusalem as a whole. “Shall have nothing” may be translated: “shall have no one”; yet it is not strictly true that death deprived Jesus of a following. He rose again and His disciples began to increase in number in the city. It was not until the end of that generation that persecution and flight finally removed them from Jerusalem. The time of fulfillment of this phrase extends therefore to the next event, the destruction of the city.

We would like to suggest that the “Messiah” who was cut off may include Jesus and His followers. If so, then we have another application of our thesis of the centrality of the conception of the Total Christ in Old Testament prophecy. The following considerations may be advanced in favor of that possibility.

1. The word for “Messiah” or “Anointed One” did not, in the Old Testament, have the technical sense of “Christ” which it now has. Since there were different kinds of “Anointed ones”, the Anointed in verse 26 is not necessarily identical with the “Anointed, the Prince” of verse 25, any more than is the destroying prince of verse 26.

2. Verse 26 reads, “an Anointed One shall be cut off”, and not, “the Anointed One shall be cut off”. There is no definite article before the word “Messiah”, as might have been found if it referred only to “Messiah the Prince”, who is mentioned in the previous verse.

3. Since kings and their own nations who reign with them over the other nations are interchangeable in the symbolism of Daniel's visions, may not the “Anointed” of verse 26 include not only “Messiah, the Prince” of verse 25 but also his true people?

4. The words which say literally: “and no one for him” did not immediately become true in history if the Anointed is Jesus alone, as already stated.

5. It is natural to expect Daniel to maintain here his habitual interest in the elect people rather than in their leader, as is seen in chapters two, seven and twelve.

6. It has been noted in the chapter on the Servant of Jehovah that repeats the vocabulary of and thus presents the faithful people as that Servant. For Isaiah too, the anointed and suffering “Servant of Jehovah”, the slave of the kings of the earth (42:1; 49:6-8) was sometimes a people rather than an individual. Why should not Daniel therefore speak of a suffering anointed group here in Jerusalem as well? If the Messiah of had been said to atone for sins, we would have had to consider him to be Christ alone, but such is not the case.

Although this idea of a corporate “Messiah” in 9:26 adds weight to our thesis, is not at all essential to it.

When we seek the New Testament application of this verse, there is no certain quotation to guide us. Nevertheless, the uniform conception of the New Testament is that Christ is united to His people and that His people's sufferings are His. Jesus spoke of the coming persecution of His envoys to the Jews and linked it to the destruction of the city ().

The “Anointed one” who was cut off was, of course, first of all Jesus. If one follows our suggestion that it also includes His Jewish disciples in Palestine, that helps explain some things. For one, there is an explanation of the historical delay of about a generation before the destruction of Jerusalem, while this group of disciples is called, anointed by God's Spirit and scattered by persecution. One of the last martyrs at Jerusalem was James, the brother of Jesus.

Another reason that a generation was not permitted to completely pass away before the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. was no doubt the mercy of God, prolonging the offer of pardon to His chosen people.

... The People of the Prince that Shall Come Shall Destroy ...

It is the (Roman) people, rather than their ruler, which is said to effect the destruction of the city and the sanctuary. The same people continues as the subject of the verb in verse 27, although its ruler is, as always, understood to be in control.

... And Unto the End, War, the Desolations Determined ...

This translation, by Darby, may indicate the coming of further desolations and wars before the end of the age. How may we explain the long wait, during almost two millennia, for the coming of the last seven years spoken of in the prophecy?

First of all, since Jewish-controlled Jerusalem no longer existed, the time that was said to be calculated over her was no longer counted.

This unmeasured time also served to make the coming of the end-times an object of imminent hope for all generations of the Church and to take away a basis for any to reason, like the evil servant, that the Lord would delay His coming.

Then also, a still greater and secret act of mercy of God, the incorporation of men from all nations into the Messiah, was sufficiently important in the purpose of His love to cause a much longer delay. This delay was revealed in parabolic form by our Lord: His parables of the mysteries of the kingdom in unfolded its essential function: the giving of the Word of God to the whole world, which was the field to be sown and the dough to be leavened. He also gave the parable of a king who, after destroying the city of those who would not come to the marriage of his son, sent his servants a second time to gather in all kinds of guests to fill the wedding hall (). By this further extension of time, the mystery dimension of the Total Christ, including men from all nations of the world, was made possible.

Although is not quoted in the New Testament, it describes the course of all this age in relation to the Jews of Jerusalem. The Olivet discourse of Jesus is largely an expanded version of it. He spoke of this age as a time when His disciples, anointed by the Spirit to testify to kings, would be hated of all nations, some being killed because of His name; when Jerusalem would be destroyed and the dispersion of Israel would follow, and when there would be wars between kingdoms and nations.

... He Shall Confirm A Covenant With Many for One Week ...

In verse 27, the situation at Jerusalem at the beginning of the seventieth week must be presumed to follow on from verse 26. The Roman power is still in control and the temple is destroyed. Rome then confirms a covenant with its collaborators from among the Jews, who have by then become numerous at Jerusalem.

What is meant by this Roman people or prince confirming a covenant with many for one week? A contrast is surely being made with verse 26, in which God's Anointed was cut off and did not get any support from the Jewish people. The people which would not receive Jesus when He came in His Father's name will receive another who comes in his own name (). As Daniel predicted that many Jews would apostatize in Maccabean times (, ), so would it be in Roman times. Because the two verses, 26 and 27, set in opposition the Christ and the Roman prince, it is probable that the latter is the one whom John later called “antichrist” ().

It must be noted therefore that there are in verses 26 and 27 two distinct desolations or two distinct great tribulations. The first of these verses speaks of the desolation of Jerusalem by the Romans as the result of the Jews rejecting Christ and His representatives. In the second, not Jews only are involved: the Roman power makes a covenant with many of them and this leads to the greatest abomination of all. The judgment of God is finally poured out, not only on the apostate Jews, but specifically on the desolator, the Roman power. The final desolation may then be largely worldwide and centered on Rome (cf. to 18:24).

A close comparison of the three Olivet discourses of the synoptic Gospels shows that Jesus was describing the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans rather than the destruction of the Roman power by God. We should not confuse the judgment and the persecution by the Romans with the judgment of the Romans. Jesus warned His disciples they would see many false messiahs and false prophets, but did not speak explicitly of the unique political Roman antichrist.

All those things of which He spoke were to happen in His own generation (). Jesus cannot have been speaking of our generation, as many teach, for when He similarly speaks of “this generation” in , and in other texts, it is clear that He is speaking of His own generation. The desolation of which He speaks in is the same which He says that His generation will behold (). The abomination in the holy place which signaled the coming of the desolating armies and the need of the Christians of Judaea to flee to the mountains may have been the entry of Menahem into the temple. He was a leader of the Zealots and came in royal attire as a messiah. A greater abomination will take place in the 42 months of the antichrist's power. Jesus only briefly alluded to this period as the day which would come upon the whole earth as a snare, all the events of which the faithful would be worthy to escape (); His own followers would be “taken” and others would be “left” to suffer in that time, until finally the vultures would be gathered together to consume the corpses ().

The “one week”, or seven years, is not a time set by the victorious Roman power. It would have no inclination to limit the time of its domination over a conquered people. They are rather the seven years which are needed to complete the plan of God to bring in everlasting righteousness at the end of “seventy weeks”.

... For Half of the Week ...

We read next that “for half of the week he shall cause sacrifice and offering to cease” (RSV). The translation used says “for half of”, instead of “in the midst of”, as found in the KJV. The word “half” is the most frequent translation of the Hebrew word, which elsewhere in the KJV is translated 105 times as “half” and only eight times as “the midst”. If, for half of the week, worship is to be suppressed, the question arises as to whether it will be for the first or second half. Contrarily to what is commonly held, the antichrist's time of triumph seems to us inevitably to take place in the first half, in order to leave time for the predicted desolating of his empire in the last.

Will the Church Go Through the Reign of Antichrist?

The seventh chapter of Daniel gives more explanations about these three and one half years. In 7:25 they are called “a time and times and the dividing of time”, when a “little horn” will succeed in his lawless purposes.

Before this period is mentioned we read that the “little horn” will make war against the saints, prevail against them and wear them out (7:21, 25). Is it during the three and one half years that he will be persecuting and wearing them out, or will he wear them out previously, so as to be free to act during that time? Will they go through the antichrist's reign?

It has been shown that these saints cannot be dissociated from the Church, since Paul speaks of the Corinthian Christians as being of their number (; ). If Daniel's “saints” are to go through antichrist's triumphant reign, then so will the last generation of Christians.

Before trying to resolve this problem, let us more closely define the role of the characters involved. The king represented by the little horn which subdues three of the ten horns (7:8, 20-25) cannot be the ruler of the whole empire: he is “little”, is among the other horns, and came up after them. Since kingdoms and kings are interchangeable in Daniel, the fourth beast itself is a king, the supreme king ruling over the whole Roman Empire, and the little horn is another, having his small domain.

This distinction between the two men is in accord with the Book of Revelation, where a Beast and a false prophet are seen (, etc.). Since the “little horn” in Daniel thinks to change times and laws, he is probably a Jew, ruling over a Jewish state which arises last and conquers three other states (7:25, 8). This little horn, not first of all the (Roman) beast, makes war with the saints and prevails against them (7:21); but it is because of his blasphemy that the whole empire is finally destroyed (7:11).

We have previously concluded that 7:9 speaks of Christ, coming visibly as the Ancient of days and casting down the thrones of the evil angels; He is not sitting on a throne on the surface of the earth. The earth beneath may still contain His actively defiant enemies.

In 7:21-22 we are told that the little horn prevailed against the saints only “until the Ancient of days came and judgment was given to the saints”. The giving of judgment to them may be what was signified, in the original night vision, by the words: “The court was seated” (7:10, NIV). Evil angelic rulers are to be removed and Christians are to take their place as judges by the Coming of Christ.

We are now closing in on the question: Do the three and one half years of verse 25 take place before the Coming of Christ to give salvation and judgment to the saints, or after it? If they take place before it, then the saints go through the antichrist's reign; if they take place afterwards, then the Church, Daniel's people of saints of Roman times, will not be on earth during that period of his imposition of lawlessness. In the latter eventuality antichrist may indeed, for an indefinite period before Christ's Coming, “make war with the saints and prevail against them” and “wear out the saints”. Yet when Christ appears their oppression will end.

The following considerations lead us to believe that the “saints” will be removed by the Coming of the Lord before the 42-month period, and will not live through it on earth:

1. Since it is said that the “times and laws” are “given into his hand” during the 42-month period, his victory seems so complete that his war with the saints must have been won and ended before that time begins.

2. In the order of events at the Coming, in the original vision, there is a brief continuation of the blasphemy of the Horn after the Ancient of Days comes and the heavenly court is seated: “I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake: I beheld even till ...” (7:11, cf. ). In the angelic explanation there is also a time mentioned after the giving of judgment to the saints: “judgment was given to the saints of the most High; and the time came ...” (7:22). Theodotian's version of the latter words may be translated: “the time came on”. This limited time mentioned in the vision could correspond to the time, times and half time of the explanation; so that limited time follows the Coming.

3. Verses 13 and 14 speak of a separate night vision, when the Lord gives an eternal kingdom to a people symbolized as “one like a son of man”; this gift of a kingdom to the saints comes after the Coming of the Lord, the seating of court, the last blasphemies of the horn, and the judgment and destruction of the beast. If the two visions follow one another chronologically, then these verses speak of their reception of the eternal kingdom after the beast is destroyed, and not of their rapture. Their rapture must take place when the court is said to sit.

4. In verse 25 it may be the “times and laws” only, and not the previously mentioned “saints”, which are delivered into the hand of the “little horn” during “a time and times and the dividing of time”. It is only with regard to changing the times and laws that we read that the Horn “thinks”; the writer then goes on to say whether its projects concerning these times and laws succeed, and for how long; but he is no longer speaking about its wearing out of the saints. Darby's French translation shows, by the feminine gender of the word for “they”, that he believed that only the times and the law, and not the saints, were said to be delivered over to the “little horn” for the 42 months. Darby so translated it in spite of the fact that he thought the Jewish saints in Daniel would go through the “tribulation” under the beast.

5. If it be insisted that the similar words in the Book of the Revelation: “It was given him to make war with the saints and to overcome them” () apply to the 42 months of the Beast and teach that Christians will then be on earth, it may be remarked that these words are lacking in good and varied manuscripts. They may have been supplied from Daniel. If they are authentic, the said overcoming of the saints could still be before the beginning of the 42 months and not at its end.

6. The passing of a ruinous period on earth after the court of the saints sits is also implied by the words: “But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end” (7:26).

7. It will only be because the little horn will have prevailed against the saints (7:21), will have worn them out (7:25), or “shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people” (12:7), that he will be able to reign unhindered for 42 months. On this view the slaughter of saints will be cut short by the rapture of all who remain; when all are removed the antichrist will have freedom to act unhindered for 42 months. This complete freedom for evil to act will in itself be part of the judgment which will come on the earth (), but which the saints will escape.

8. This agrees with Paul's teaching that someone or something must be “taken out of the way” or “be out of the midst” before the man of sin may be revealed “in his time” (). Why look elsewhere than to Daniel, to which Paul was evidently looking, to find out who it is that hinders and is to be removed? Paul did not say who it was, because he had already told the Thessalonians, and also because his teaching came from the Old Testament, which was available to them.

The only opponent of the antichrist in Daniel is “the people of the saints”, not the Roman government, as many have thought; the Roman kingdom is not taken away until the end, when Christ destroys it. It is the last great evil power, so it cannot be what hinders the coming of the supreme form of that power! In it is the Roman people or its king that makes a firm alliance with the many apostates of Daniel's people which lasts seven years.

The reason that Paul spoke rather mysteriously of what hinders this “mystery of iniquity” is not because he feared that the Roman power might intercept his letter and understand it, but because the hinderer of “the mystery of iniquity” was also a mystery, a contrary tendency, “the mystery of godliness” (). Neither “mystery” was, as yet, clearly defined, but believers were subtly warned to understand the Scriptures and belong to the latter, not to the former. Both tendencies were at work in the professing church (cf. ; ); they were not as yet, however, finally developed and delimited. Paul was warning the Christians, but not identifying the true saints among the professing Christians.

9. The “time of trouble, such as never was”, mentioned in , which we have identified with the day of Jehovah, would include these three and a half years of the supreme power of satanic rulers on earth. In this verse, as in the twelfth chapter of Revelation, the archangel Michael is active. Since it is said in that he acts in favor of Daniel's people who are written in the Book, the time of trouble which he initiates can hardly be a time when this people is given into antichrist's hands on earth; the verse says rather that they are then delivered. Since Michael is also involved when the man child of is caught up to heaven, before the 42 months, it appears that this child represents the Church and that the Church therefore escapes this time. This fits other passages as well: it is when the archangel sounds his trumpet that the dead in Christ are raised and the living raptured (; ). With regard to we take therefore a “pre-tribulation rapture” position.

The words in , which speak of the heavenly signs of Christ's Coming “immediately after the tribulation of those days”, give difficulty to the pre-tribulation position we are taking. But is the same “tribulation” in view?

Our Lord speaks of the whole age, especially towards its end, as a great tribulation for Christians: the Greek word for “tribulation” is found in , in a paragraph which speaks of Christians being put to death.

The main description of tribulation in the discourse is, however, that of the destruction of Jerusalem. The three synoptic Gospels, especially Luke, make it clear that this unequaled time of tribulation concerns the Jews and Jerusalem. That was what the disciples had asked our Lord to explain. It does not appear so close to the end of the age in Luke's account, which allows time for the Jews to be carried away captive among all nations in the times of the Gentiles, before the return of Christ. Matthew has a tendency to greatly compress the expression of time. Jesus may have been speaking of the Coming as imminent because no predicted event was to intervene between the destruction of Jerusalem and the Parousia. However, He elsewhere tells a parable of a continued period of evangelization after the destruction of Jerusalem ().

The tribulation which is coming on the nations of all the world will come only after the fearful signs of Christ's Coming appear, according to . Jesus promises His faithful disciples that they will escape all the things which will come to pass in the world's time of trial ().

The place of the Rapture in the Book of Revelation will be discussed in the chapter on that book. Let us now return to , the time of the rule of antichrist.

... He Shall Cause the Sacrifice and the Oblation to Cease ...

The prophecy had said, in verse 26, that the temple was destroyed. No reconstruction of it is mentioned. Therefore the sacrifice and offering which is to be stopped for 42 months is not said to be that of the temple; the policy of the antichrist will be to forbid all worship of God. His firm covenant with many Jews will be to abolish worship, not to permit it. He will only be able to impose his will for 42 months, however. After that time his kingdom will begin to fall and the public worship of God will recommence on earth, but not in a temple made by man's hands. We may see it resumed at Jerusalem as a new song in .

... And For the Overspreading of Abominations ...

God does not readily or willingly bring judgment on the world. It will require this extreme, united, defiant manifestation of wickedness to consummate the judgment of the last Gentile empire. Daniel's “many” apostate kinsmen will also perish with the antichrist (cf. ).

... He Shall Make it Desolate, Even Until the Consummation ...

The abomination of the antichrist is what causes the desolation. This process of judgment and desolation also takes a period of time, culminating in the battle of Armageddon. This would explain the function of the last three and one half years of the seventieth “week”. Those who situate the unhindered reign of the Beast in the last 42 months leave no period during which his power may be weakened and destroyed, as is seen under the seven last plagues of the Revelation. The period of His supreme power cannot correspond to that of his destruction.

... And that Determined Shall be Poured Upon the Desolate ...

The end of the seventy weeks is described as a “pouring out” both here and in . Instead of “the desolate” we may translate “the desolator”. He and his henchmen are destroyed at the battle of Armageddon. Then all the blessing mentioned in finally comes to Jerusalem.

Let us sum up and apply these principles. Their basic premise is the futuristic explanation of Daniel's seventieth week. This interpretation is found as early in history as Irenaeus and the commentary of Hippolytus, and in our time is presupposed in both the pre-tribulation and the post-tribulation theories of the time of Christ's return.

The 42-month reign of antichrist has been envisaged as happening in the first part of the seventieth week and not the last. We have agreed with D.s that the Church will be raptured or delivered from the period of the antichrist's power, but we have done so by a completely different exegesis of Daniel. His prophecies have been taken as inclusive of the Church, and not exclusive, as in Darby's system.

Dispensational Misuse of the Vision of the Seventy Weeks

The D. misuse of this prophecy is to situate in the unmeasured period of regime which contrasts with Israel's hope and reveals for the first time a people which is governed only by its own distinctive revelation, given principally to Paul. In thus extracting from Christianity certain principles of the Old Testament and the Gospels, an imperfect picture of what the Church should be is sometimes obtained. The tendency is to make contrasts with Israel's hope rather than to seek to discover our unity with it.

Some doctrinal and practical implications to which this method has sometimes led are the following: repentance is not a condition of salvation; no law now governs the Christian's conduct; the saints' perseverance to the end is not a necessary part of their eternal security; we may leave to the 144,000 tribulation Jews the final evangelization of all nations; the Christian, as a citizen of heaven, although he should submit to earthly authorities should not be one of them or work with them; his proper work, being heavenly, does not include perfecting the earth by the use of his intelligence; this age is now ending with the ruin of all Christian corporate testimony; the time of the Coming of Christ is not linked in any way with the perfecting of the Church and the finishing of her task on earth.

Darby's view of the Church on earth as the heavenly part of the total kingdom of God, contrasted with millennial Israel, the earthly part, cannot depict the Church as a foretaste or prototype of the age to come on earth; we are properly out of our place on earth; we do not illustrate to the world what its conversion will bring, since that future age is distinct, the earthly part of the total kingdom.

On the contrary, we hold that both the Church and the saved of the millennium will successively go through the two stages of a similar earthly responsibility and a similar glorified state. The Church and saved Israel are not in a parallel arrangement but in series.

A distinct system of doctrine and practice may thus be traced to the hypothesis of the parenthesis, which in turn is founded mainly on an interpretation of Daniel's seventy “weeks”. The ninth chapter of Daniel is, however, a flimsy support for such a vast weight and so radical a revamping of traditional Christian teaching. Even verse 26 of chapter nine of Daniel contradicts the main thesis of the theory, since it is not silent about the present age, which is its exclusive subject.

The Dispensational Expectation of a Jewish Temple

Understanding literally does not oblige us to posit the building of a temple at Jerusalem to offer the bloody sacrifices commanded by Moses; such a scenario is very unlikely. Whatever the “temple of God” may be in which the man of sin will sit (), in our view he will not covenant with the Jews in his period of supreme power and blasphemy at the beginning of Daniel's seventieth week to have one built which is conformed to the Old Testament law. At that time his Jewish ally, the “little horn”, will prevail rather “to change times and laws” (). The Book of Revelation speaks of the demand that men worship the statue of the Beast, but does not speak of a temple for him.

It may be that the “temple” will be associated with apostate Christendom rather than with Judaism, or perhaps with an apostate union of both. The “mystery of iniquity”, which was to lead to the man of sin, had started in Paul's time among professing Christians. Paul said to a local Church: “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God ... If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy” ().

We may be certain, in any case, that the temple of the millennium will be an antitypical spiritual temple and not the Old Testament typical one. For there will be a Christian millennium, when Christ, who never changes, will be fulfilling all types and prophecies and putting all things under His feet.

The Anointed People and Covenant Amillennialism

In seeing both Jesus and the Church in the Anointed one of , we only continue the bivalent exegesis which New Testament authors used of many other Old Testament prophecies. Since Jesus is unique, the Church which is united to Him is unique and new. There is therefore an important distinction to make between the saints on earth before and after the first advent of Christ. Covenant Amillennialism tends to obliterate this vital distinction and thus diminish the responsibilities and privileges proper to Christians.

The Amillennial Terminus of the Seventy Weeks at the Cross

It has been shown that the seventy-weeks period, even though it produces “reconciliation for iniquity”, cannot be equated with the time up to the Crucifixion, as amillennial calculations try to make out. They take the ceasing of sacrifices and oblations in verse 27 to be that which was caused by Christ's unique sacrifice. Yet that ceasing of sacrifice lasts only half of the “week”.

The end of Daniel's “seventieth week”, which is meant to be the realization of all true Jewish aspirations, has no meaning if it comes three and one half years after the death of Christ. In the New Testament nothing in particular is recorded as happening at that time. One explanation, that the conversion of the first Gentiles in is what is meant, does not do justice to the finality and the Jewishness of , and to the necessity for this prophecy to culminate in a kingdom in this world visible to all, as do the prophecies of chapters two, seven and twelve.

Postmillennial Optimism and Daniel's Seventy Weeks

Nothing could be more clear in Daniel's prophecy of the seventy weeks than that there is no hope for peace in Jerusalem, let alone in the world, before the antichrist comes and is destroyed. Messiah the prince, mentioned in verse 25, cannot be identified with the later prince of verses 26 and 27, who causes the abomination of desolation. The schedule for the coming of righteousness to earth has to lead through antichrist's abominations and his destruction.

The Key to Prophecy: The Three Anointed Ones

Our prophetic position may be summarized by our view of Daniel's prophecy of the seventy weeks. In it there are seen three anointings, that of the Anointed Prince, that of an Anointed who is cut of, and that of the final Anointed Holy of Holies. The last is the objective of the two others. We have proposed to see in the three Anointed ones first Jesus Christ, then Christ united to the (Jewish) Church, and finally converted Jerusalem. The key to God's plan is therefore again seen to be the Total Christ.

The three anointings, that of Christ, the Jerusalem Church and the converted earthly Jerusalem, correspond to three stages in the plan of God; they inaugurate three distinct, progressive steps in the coming of God's kingdom to earth, as it is in heaven. After the anointing of Jerusalem, at the end of the “seventy weeks”, the kingdom will spread out to the whole world.

Chapter Thirteen

Restoration Begun and Completed

The Books of Ezra, Esther and Nehemiah give the history of the last historical period whose prophetic themes remain for us to trace into the New Testament. Four Persian kings were used by God during this period to preserve and restore the Jews. Cyrus ordained the rebuilding of the temple (), Darius assured its completion () and Artaxerxes arranged its beautification by Ezra (). The latter king also permitted the construction of Jerusalem's walls by Nehemiah in his twentieth year. In the Book of Esther, king Ahasuerus saved the Jews of his empire from destruction; but this dispersed people seemed satisfied to remain in exile throughout the world.

The minimal restoration of Israel to its former land and worship provided an environment for the first Coming of the Messiah, and was accompanied by the ministry of three prophets whose predictions apply to both the first and second advents of Christ: Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi.

Preparing for the First Coming of Christ

At a time when the completion of the temple had long been delayed, Haggai and Zechariah spoke in the name of the Lord to Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah, to Joshua the high priest and to those who had returned from Babylon with them (; ). They encouraged the people to recommence their work by assuring them that the temple and the city of Jerusalem would be visited and indwelt by Jehovah Himself. Malachi made the same promise later, perhaps in the time of Nehemiah.

We have already examined a number of Old Testament texts which speak of Jehovah's presence in the day of Jehovah, in which the predominant idea is that of God's coming as Judge. Prophecies of another kind speak of God coming as Shepherd of His people: ; ; ; ; ; . These resemble the post-exilic messages which we are about to examine, inasmuch as they have at least a preliminary application to the first advent of the Divine Christ.

The Lord said by Haggai: “I will fill this house with glory ... the glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former ... and in this place will I give peace” (2:7, 9). Zechariah prophesied that Jehovah would come to Jerusalem: “Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls ... for I, saith the LORD, will be unto her a wall of fire round about and will be the glory in the midst of her” (2:4-5); Malachi said that the Lord would be preceded by a messenger and would come to His temple (3:1-5; 4:5-6).

In a very unusual passage of Zechariah, Jehovah announces that He will come to Jerusalem, but says also that it will be Jehovah of hosts who sends Him: “Lo, I come, and will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the LORD ... and thou shalt know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto thee.” (2:10-11, cf. also ).

There are even more astonishing passages in Zechariah which represent Jehovah as being mistreated by His people. In 11:3-13 Jehovah, the Shepherd, replaces the bad shepherds, but is then Himself abhorred and evaluated as worth only thirty pieces of silver. In 12:10 Jehovah says: “They shall look on me whom they have pierced”.

Since the invisible God cannot be physically pierced, the latter passage must envisage the piercing as carried out on a man who represents the person of God. In the eleventh chapter, it is Zechariah himself who represents, first God, and then the evil shepherd, but this representation is of a dramatical sort. A more intimate joining of God and a man is found in 13:7, where we read: “Awake, 0 sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered”. , which tells of the humble and righteous King who will ride into Jerusalem on an ass, does not specify whether a Davidic Messiah or the Divine King is meant.

One may well ask: What kind of man must he be who is the “fellow” of Jehovah and whose piercing is the piercing of Jehovah? And how can Jehovah be sent by Jehovah? Only when we come to the New Testament can these questions be satisfactorily answered.

The mainly Hellenistic period between the Old Testament and the New, when the prophets were silent, is predicted in some detail in the prophecies of Daniel (8:5-27; 11:3-45), up to the end of the time of Antiochus IV. Some students believe that jumps over the remaining time of the Grecian and Roman Empires to speak of the antichrist. It seems better to see it rather as recapitulating some events of the life of Antiochus, predicting his blasphemous claims to be “Theos Epiphanes”, God manifest, but only typically revealing in him the antichrist.

Accomplishment in the Gospels

The Gospels reveal to us, in Jesus, Jehovah coming as a shepherd to save His people. Even the name “Jesus” indicates the person of Jehovah and His action of saving; it is evident from that this name does not mean that it is the Father who saves, but that it is Jesus Himself: as Jehovah, “He shall save his people from their sins”. By both His first and second advents Christ saves: by the first He saves from sin and at the second He saves from all the consequences of sin. Since states that there is no savior but Jehovah, one may conclude that Jesus shares His Father's name of Jehovah.

It is Jehovah's path that John the Baptist is described as preparing in the Gospels ( etc.; cf. ; ; ). The works which the Baptist ascribed to Christ are divine works: giving God's Spirit, gathering the elect to the heavenly granary and burning the wicked in unquenchable fire ( cf. ).

Later, when John's faith wavered, Jesus called his attention to His divine works of healing, those attributed by Isaiah to Jehovah who was to come (; ).

It is in the Gospel of John that we find the most unmistakable testimony that Jesus was the promised Jehovah who was to come. He was the Word Who was with God and Who was God and Who, literally, “tabernacled” among us (, ); that was an allusion to Jehovah's promise to dwell with His people in a tabernacle ( cf. , ). The frequent visits of Jesus to the temple recorded by John accomplished the promise of God's coming into His temple. In chapter two He cleansed the temple as a refiner's fire, as predicted by . In chapter five, He taught that God was His own Father and that therefore He could imitate all the works of the Almighty, which included healing, giving spiritual life, raising the dead and judging all men. He said that He was sent by His Father, which reminds us of Jehovah who was to be sent by Jehovah (). In chapter ten our Lord taught that He was that Good Shepherd who proves that He is in the Father and the Father in Him by His power to lay down His life and to take it again and to do the works of the Father. In chapter seventeen He says that the Father's name has been given to Him (, NIV).

Yet, as Zechariah had also predicted, in Jesus' person Jehovah was rejected and evaluated at thirty pieces of silver (), was pierced () and was the smitten Shepherd (). Although He brought Jehovah's peace to the temple, as Haggai had predicted, Jerusalem did not know, in that day, the time of its visitation and the things which belonged to its peace; Christ announced therefore its complete destruction ().

The Restoration of all Things

The civil and religious restoration of Israel which first began with the decree of Cyrus, king of Persia, was halted and reversed by the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. The divine indwelling of Jerusalem and the temple did not become a permanent reality. Was the promised restoration never to take place? Would the rejection of the divine Messiah by the people as a whole forever prevent it? We know, from the ninth chapter of Daniel, that even greater abominations of apostasy would not stop the bringing of eternal righteousness to Jerusalem. Nothing can prevent God from accomplishing what He has planned and promised, the “restitution of all things” ().

Since the last seven years of Daniel's “seventy weeks” are to end with the anointing of Jerusalem as the holy of holies, it is to be expected that in those last seven years, in spite of apostasy and punitive judgments, the process of restoration should also begin. When we compare the messages of the post-exilic prophets with the Book of the Revelation we find, in fact, that many of the symbols of restoration of the former are also found in the latter. This confirms the existence of a plan to restore Israel and the nations to God after the Church age. Apocalyptic judgments will fall on the old incorrigible generation, but a new generation will be prepared during this time by God, as in the time of the Exodus.

Let us therefore look for the repetition of restoration themes of Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi in the Book of the Revelation; in that way we will be able to see that the end of the age will not only be a time of judgment for human civilization, but also the beginning of the restoration to humanity as a whole of all the good things originally given by God but lost by Adam's sin.

The Seven-Fold Spirit of God

In chapter four of Zechariah, the prophet has a vision of a lampstand with seven lamps. This is explained to him as representing the Spirit of God, by whose power Zerubbabel would be enabled to complete the reconstruction of the temple. Since the two olive trees, or branches, which stood by the lampstand, were said to be “the two anointed ones that stand by the Lord of the whole earth” (), it seems that the Spirit of God is also the One who is meant in the title: “the Lord of the whole earth”.

speaks of the coming of God's servant, the Branch, and compares Him to a stone, upon which God will engrave seven eyes. Immediately it is stated that Jehovah will remove the iniquity of the land in one day, and assure to them the enjoyment of their friends and fruitful gardens.

We may conclude from all this that God's coming Servant was to possess the seven-fold or perfect Spirit of God; the latter's Lordship extended to the whole earth and by His agency all the people of the land would suddenly be purified to enjoy their heritage on earth. This restoration goes farther than what was achieved either in the time of the last prophets or in the time of Jesus Christ and the Apostles.

In the Book of Revelation, when we find these symbols of the Spirit mentioned again in speaking of the last times, we may conclude that the promised restoration is then to be consummated. The Trinitarian benediction in speaks of the Holy Spirit as the seven Spirits which are before God's throne. This could not refer to seven angels, since the “seven Spirits” are mentioned between the Father and the Son and bless us in the same way as do the two other persons of the Trinity. Also, the seven Spirits are distinguished from the seven angels (seven stars) of the churches in 3:1. In the vision of chapter 1:10-20, the seven lampstands, among which Christ walks, are seven representative churches; since, in 4:5, the Holy Spirit is represented as “seven lamps of fire burning before the throne”, we may conclude that the Spirit is the light burning in the churches' lamps. In 5:6, the triumphant Lamb's “seven horns and seven eyes ... are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth”.

The points to be established by these comparisons are as follows:

1. The seven-fold or perfect Spirit of God manifests His light by the churches, under the surveillance of Christ who walks in their midst;

2. The same Spirit, represented by the seven horns and seven eyes of the Lamb (manifesting His full power and full knowledge), is to work in all the earth, as its Lord, to implement Christ's mandate to receive all dominion, as seen in chapter five.

3. This could not lead to less than what Zechariah had foreseen: righteousness, quietness, fruitfulness and friendship on earth for Israel and for all the world. The day of wrath, soon to issue from the Lamb's opening of the seals, will not therefore be uniquely a day of wrath and recompense for the past, but also a preparation of the future age of righteousness on earth. The Spirit of God will not be removed from earth, nor will His work of wooing men end when Christ appears. This is also made evident by , (cf. ), where it is said that the Spirit of grace and supplication will be poured on those who look on Jehovah, whom they have pierced.

Kings and Priests

The Trinitarian benediction of the Book of Revelation also comes through Christ, as King and Priest (). Although those two titles are not used of Him in it, they are implied, since He is the Prince of the kings of the earth and delivers us from our sins; it is because He possesses these functions that He can share them with us, as is seen in the following verse. This combination of functions is found in Zechariah: the man whose name is the branch will build the temple of the Lord and will be a priest upon His throne (6:12-13).

In Revelation the kings and priests, created by Christ, will minister in the heavenly temple (7:15). Since the work of the branch, as King and Priest, was said to be restoration, so we may suppose that the kings and priests who reign with Christ also will have a work of restoration to do as the representatives in heaven of men on earth.

The Four Horsemen

The four horsemen of , the riders of the different colored horses in and the chariots with differing horses in no doubt all represent the same thing: “they whom the LORD hath sent to walk to and fro through the earth” or “the four spirits of the heavens which go forth from standing before the LORD”. The rider on the white horse in cannot therefore be the antichrist, although the conquests which he causes may include the latter's.

What is the function of these horsemen? In Zechariah, when they came back, reporting that the earth was at rest, the angel of the Lord became concerned that God was not having mercy on Jerusalem (1:11-12). God had recently promised by Haggai to shake the heavens and the earth and overthrow the throne of kingdoms so that tribute would be brought to the temple at Jerusalem by the nations (2:6-9, 21-22), and this was not happening. Similarly, in the Revelation, the four horsemen prepare the way for the coming kingdom of Christ by causing upheavals of various sorts, such as those predicted in the Olivet discourse of Jesus.

The Four Symbolic Men

The four Jews most responsible for the restoration of the temple and its worship were Zerubbabel, Joshua, Haggai and Zechariah (). Zechariah told Joshua that he and his companions were “men symbolic of things to come” (, NIV). They were the symbols of those future men who will be responsible for the true and final restoration of Israel. Joshua, the high priest, and Zerubbabel, the Davidic governor, symbolized the royal and the priestly offices of Christ and His Church. What about the two prophets?

The Two Anointed Ones

It astonishes the present writer that so many commentators see Joshua and Zerubbabel, rather than the two prophets, as “the two olive trees” or “the two anointed ones that stand by the Lord of the whole earth” (, ). Surely it was the prophets who stood near to the Lord, like Elijah who said: “As the Lord liveth, before whom I stand...”

In any case, in , “the two olive trees and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth” are called witnesses and prophets, not priests or governors. And since they serve for 42 months and are then killed and raised at Jerusalem, causing the remnant to praise God, we may find in them another restorative work of God preparing Israel for the earthly kingdom, despite the surrounding abominations.

These witnesses, by the miracles of sending fire on enemies and preventing rain, remind us of the promise of the coming of an Elijah (). Jesus indicated that there would be a future fulfillment of Malachi's prophecy when He said: “Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things” (). In the former apostate kingdom of Israel, Elijah did not succeed in restoring all things, and it was perhaps to indicate the temporary incompleteness of his work of restoration that he was carried up to heaven without dying. But neither did John the Baptist restore all things: he only succeeded in completing the fate which was planned for Elijah by Jezebel (; ).

The plagues operated by the two witnesses would suggest that one was also meant to resemble Moses. We have no promise of a second coming of Moses, unless it be the prophecy of the coming of a prophet like Moses in , a prediction usually applied to Christ. But double applications of the prophecies are seen in the Bible, and since there is no passage, not even , which categorically states that Jesus was the promised prophet like Moses, God may intend to use the passage of Deuteronomy to give credibility among the Jews to one of the two future witnesses. Each then will be seen as announced in advance by the Old Testament.

If the new Moses brings a covenant to Israel, as did the first, it will certainly be the new covenant in Jesus Christ. The two post-exilic prophets were only “men symbolic of things to come”; the two prophets symbolized by them will speak of the real thing!

The Welcoming of Christ at Zion

When Jesus came to Jerusalem, fulfilling , He spoke of a future day when He would again enter it, and Jerusalem would say: “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” (). Is there any trace of this return to Jerusalem in the Book of the Revelation? Is the Book interested in the literal Jerusalem?

When it describes two witnesses prophesying in the place where their Lord was crucified, the Book is not teaching abstract spiritual principles! The real city is meant, since their dead bodies will lie in that spiritual Sodom (). That same city will experience an earthquake killing seven thousand and causing the others to give glory to God (). If the 42 months which then end are identical with the 42 months of the Beast's absolute ascendancy, then , which follows the account of the Beast's reign, would coincide in time with the glorifying of God by Jerusalem's remnant in 11:13.

Why should not we therefore see the Mount Zion of as that real city which Jesus Himself honored as “Jerusalem ... the city of the great King” ()? The 144,000 could be either “the remnant” of , or be supplementary to it, if they were already converted. In any case, Christ, the Lamb, is seen with them at Jerusalem.

We have already maintained that Jesus has already appeared to the earth in His glory before this time, as described in 1:7 and 6:12-17, and that He will later appear again in heaven on a white horse, making war with the Beast (19:11-16), continuing after that to reign at the right hand of God () and not from an earthly throne. He seems, however, to be present here physically at Jerusalem with the 144,000.

The restoration of a worshiping remnant at Jerusalem at the middle of Daniel's seventieth week does not mean that Jerusalem is already consecrated as the holy of holies on earth. That can happen only after the seven vials of God's anger and the battle of Armageddon will have destroyed the Beast's worldwide kingdom. Zechariah and Revelation, as well as other Old Testament prophets, join in testifying that God will go forth and fight against the nations and then will reign over all the earth (, ; ; ). Then all nations shall come and worship before Him, as is stated both in and .

Implications to Dispensationalism of Restoration Themes

Do these restoration themes in Revelation call for any major modification of the D. position? The symbols of the seven-fold Spirit of God, by whom Christ is to work to bring about His reign, would certainly indicate that God's Spirit will not be removed from earth when the Church is caught up, as is often taught. The identification of the Spirit who is present with the Churches as the same seven-fold Lord of the whole earth warns us not to isolate the present work of the Church from a supposedly contrasting future earthly kingdom.

Amillennial Overlooking of Progressive Restoration

The revelation of the Holy Spirit as the Lord of the whole earth, working on earth amidst judgments in the end times in order to effect restoration, naturally has implications also for the Amil rejection of a coming historical earthly kingdom. In the Amil hypothesis, the function of the cosmic convulsions accompanying the Coming of Christ is only punitive and destructive; but John's use of the symbols of the return from Babylon would indicate that they will also be corrective and restorative.

Chapter Fourteen

Conclusions

The examination in this book of the main Old Testament prophetic themes, in the general order of their historical appearance and development, has shown that four of them have already had a fulfillment in the earthly career, death, resurrection and heavenly enthronement of Jesus Christ.

God's Agent is Pictured in Four Main Roles

This synthesis of the roles in one Person is rendered very remarkable by the fact that some roles under which the Old Testament perceived the Coming One scarcely seemed compatible: how could a simple man be also God, or a king be a servant? It is not surprising that Judaism sometimes expected two Messiahs.

Yet the uniting of these roles in one person might have been predicted from the Old Testament itself, if men had dared to believe and harmonize what is said. The work which the Son of man, the King, the Divine Envoy and the Righteous Servant of Jehovah were all predicted to do in the end times was identical, and so had to be done by the same person, as seen by the following table:

Table 2

HE COMES

AS MAN

AS KING

AS GOD

AS SERVANT

A Branch

By the Spirit

Despised

Wounded

Raised

Exalted

Reigning

Submits All

Satan Fed Dust

Notes

Some of the texts in the first column (AS MAN) simply tell of coming experiences promised to God's people, but which could only take place after first being accomplished in the Messiah as “the Son of man”.

may be literally translated: “Thy dead live — My dead body they rise” (Young's Lit. T.). This obscure statement may, however, mean that God's people are as sure to rise as if they were God's own dead body.

God's Agent is Also a People

Many of the Messianic titles apply just as well or better to a people than to an individual. This has been established with regard to the following terms: the seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham, the seed or the house of David, one like (symbolized as) a son of man, the Servant of Jehovah. The promise of the coming of the Spirit of God also relates to the people of God, since He dwells in them.

God's Agent Was to Act on Behalf of Others

The people united with its Leader, which was to be God's agent, was not to be the final end in itself. It would be sent by God for the good of all humanity, to bring mankind and the whole creation back to God. This is the import of many of its titles and descriptions: a source of blessing for all nations, firstborn son, a royal priesthood, a peculiar people, the Servant of Jehovah, a kingdom over the nations, etc.

Three Groups and Three Periods

It is seen therefore that the one humanity, in the process of glorification, was to be manifested in three distinct successive stages, and thus arranged in three eternal ranks: the Messiah, the Cause of all; His associated suffering and ruling people; and the rest of men. In the Book of the Revelation these three, who will finally dwell together in unity on a new and glorified earth, are spoken of as the Lamb, the Bride or New Jerusalem and the nations of the saved.

Each of these three divisions of humanity runs its own career separately and successively, terminating in each case in a glorified existence. The Messiah had to come first because without Him there could be no Messianic people and no salvation for the world. The three successive careers are the life of Christ, the Church age and the millennium; the three final transformations take place respectively at the ascension of Christ, the rapture of the Church and the victory over death in all the universe. Both Paul and John teach that after the resurrection of Christ, as firstfruits, there will be two other resurrections.

Before Christ, faithful Israelites received grace to partially prefigure the coming Savior, but their integral participation in Him by their glorification is reserved for the Second Coming of Christ. Believers in this age, in contrast with them, are already considered as seated in heavenly places in Christ.

The Old Testament does not always distinguish clearly between the Messiah and His people or between the Church and the saved nations of the millennium. The New Testament sometimes uses Old Testament verses to teach about one of these which, strictly interpreted in their original context, apply to another of them. This is understandable in view of the basic unity of all three humanities. The overlapping of these stages in the Old Testament prophecies constituted part of the mystery, which only the New Testament writers could explain.

Because of the sin of Israel, and of humanity in general, each of the three successive careers of humanity was destined to pass through rejection by unbelieving men. First, Christ had to die for the sins of all. Next, the Church will end its collective career on earth with many members being martyred; finally, those who will be encompassed by the armies of Gog and Magog at the end of the millennium will be the last persecuted group. All prevail by God's intervention at the end and are delivered and transformed to inherit finally the glory of the new heavens and new earth. At the last stage of resurrection death will be banished even from the material creation.

It was predicted that Israel as a whole would reject its Messiah and that only an elect group would become the Messianic people. There is, however, a new dimension of the Messianic people which was only faintly hinted at in the Old Testament: because the main body of the Jews rejected Christ, the innumerable royal priesthood had to come from all nations. It was predicted in the Old Testament that elect Israel would rule over all the converted nations of the world; it was not clearly seen that this ruling people would itself be supplemented by men from all nations; in Daniel the revelation was clearly given that it would begin its rule after its glorification and not in the flesh.

Gentiles and Israelites could be united in one body only because both enter a new covenant, which is not like that of Sinai. God makes of both one new man, slaying the enmity between them by the cross, which annuls the provisional coercive code which separated them. They will reign together not only from a heavenly situation in the millennium, but also eternally on the new earth. The Jews and the nations converted in the millennium by the true Church's former example will also be one in Christ in the eternal covenant.

Thus the concept of a “Messianic people” or “Total Christ” contains implicitly the whole outline of this prophetic position, since it relates the Church to the Messiah and also considers her as the agent used by the Messiah to finally bless all nations and all creation.

The present system of interpretation may seem to some to diminish the role and glory of Christ by associating with Him a people, in the Total Christ. However the Apostle Paul gloried in preaching, not only the historic Christ, but also the indwelling Christ: “the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (). All the glory must go to Him, as George Fox testified when men asked, concerning his teaching of the indwelling Christ, “Are you then the Christ?” He replied: “No, I am nothing and Christ is everything”.

As a result of the causality, the interrelation and the continuity between the Messiah, the Messianic people and the millennial nations finally to be saved, one cannot speak of parenthesis in the plan of God. We receive a kingdom which has been prepared ever since the foundation of the world (), not one which has been mysteriously interjected.

In figure 8, our complete representation of God's plan of the ages, it is seen by the descending line before the cross that a smaller and smaller group remained faithful to God, until finally Christ alone, at the cross, died for all.

Under the ascending line it is seen that all who have part in the death of Christ, in increasing numbers, experience a renewed humanity and are finally glorified (the arrows): first Christ, then the Church, then the saved nations of the millennium.

After the last judgment, in the eternal state, God reigns over all and is all in all. To Him all the new humanity is submitted, under Christ, the Son of David, and then under the saints who rule with Him, in a renewed creation.

We have now completed our synthesis of the Old Testament prophetic themes based on their interpretation in the New Testament. There will be no similar treatment of new themes arising in the New Testament. This is because, as we have insisted all along, the New Testament is completely based on the Old Testament, and the main prophetic themes of the former are comprehended in those of the latter. We have treated the main prophetic passages of the New Testament in studying the development of the themes of the Old Testament. Our omission of a separate treatment of New Testament themes is therefore deliberate, and made to prove our point, the unity of the prophetic Scriptures.

That is not to say that there is no new prophetic terminology or no more detailed explanations in the New Testament. Such terms as “the kingdom of heaven”, “the Coming (Parousia)” of Christ and even the title “Christ” itself, as belonging to only one individual, are very rare in the Old Testament, if found at all. Nevertheless these New Testament terms describe Old Testament prophetic themes.

Man in God's Plan

A basic principle of Bible prophecy is that God sticks to His original plan, laid down in , to use man to submit all things to Himself on earth. After the fall of man into sin, that purpose had to await the miraculous birth of a sinless Man for the vital restoration of all humanity to be resumed.

Christ, after reconciling mankind to God in Himself by His death, sat down on the right hand of God; all God's restorative work, from that time on, had to be done in and by men, by the intercession of Christ and the work of the Spirit.

📷

Figure 8

Therefore Christ will not appear in glory until His work is sufficiently perfected in the first group of men, the Church. His Coming is also called the Revelation and the Appearing, because it reveals the heavenly and spiritual glory already existing in Christ and the Church. We cannot, however, know in advance the required degree of the Church's fullness and thus pin-point the time of Christ's Coming.

It is as man Himself that Christ will raise and glorify all men. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead; it is by the working whereby He is able, as man at God's right hand, to subdue all things to Himself, that He will fashion our body as His glorious body.

In the millennium which will follow, Christ and the Church, both sitting at the right hand of God, will work together through men in all the world, prevailing progressively, until all Christ's enemies are destroyed, the mass of saved mankind is at last made immortal and the whole creation is delivered from bondage to corruption. As incredible as it may seem, it is the manifestation of the sons of God, and not just of the Son of God, which will deliver the creation from corruptibility. The final judgment of all the lost will be committed to Christ, because He is the Son of man.

There will thus be no partial regression from Christianity to Old Testament Judaism during the day of the Lord, commonly called “the great tribulation”, or in the millennium, but rather a progressive submission to Christ's teaching and will by all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

Although delays and reverses have taken place, and will occur, it will nevertheless be by men as responsible creatures, including the Son of Man, and through Him, that God will do all His work.

The end of each age is a preparation for the following age. In history and in God's revelation an intercalated age, without relation to what precedes and follows, such as posited by a certain Dispensationalism, is unknown and impossible.

Our way of treating prophecy, as a number of separate themes, has not permitted the development of a detailed consecutive plan of what the future holds. Such a plan is found in the Book of Revelation, which treats especially the transition periods between the Church age and eternity. Our last chapter will therefore use that book as a consecutive summary of the last things, as this author understands them, integrating into it additional material already used, from all the Bible.

Chapter Fifteen

The Unfolding End Times in the Revelation

This exercise will mainly be to simply explain and correlate prophecies in the stated order of accomplishment of the Book of Revelation.

The simple meanings and explanations are usually the best. This is proved by the blessing promised to all the ordinary members of the Churches who heard the reading of the Book of Revelation and who kept its teachings (). The promise also shows that the whole book must be understood in a way which makes it relevant to the believers of the early Church. We may believe, however, that it is still more relevant and applicable in our times.

The events of the book seem to come, generally speaking, in chronological order. Even the various visions of the 42 months are linked at significant places to the unfolding of events, although each recapitulates the same period of time. There seems to be a sequence of seven seals, seven trumpets and seven vials of judgment. Some Amils believe that these are recapitulations of the same thing, and that even the thousand year reign of chapter 20 recapitulates the age of the Church. This is difficult to accept for the following reasons:

1. The seventh in the series of seals and of trumpets seems to have no content of its own, but corresponds to the following series.

2. The second, third and fourth in the successions of trumpets and vials correspond in the area of judgment, but cannot be harmonized in its extent. Under the second trumpet one third of the sea becomes blood, while under the second vial all the sea becomes blood; under the third trumpet one third of the rivers become blood while under the third vial all the rivers become blood; under the fourth trumpet one third of the sun becomes darkened while under the fourth vial the contrary effect takes place and the sunlight increases and burns men. These contrasting pictures cannot be explained as meaning the same things.

3. Each series speaks unmistakably of an increasing severity of judgment (cf. , , ).

4. The seven vials are twice called the seven “last” plagues which complete God's judgment upon the earth (; ).

The Introduction ()

These verses state that the main object of the book is to reveal Jesus Christ Himself in a fuller way. He is the King who will soon act to establish His kingdom on earth and reward His suffering servants. If He is mentioned last in the triple benediction (4-7), it is so that He may be described in more detail. All His qualities here described lead to His Second Coming and future earthly reign. As “the faithful witness” His testimony continues in that of all His servants; the world will not be able to finally resist it. As “the first begotten of the dead” His resurrection will lead to further resurrections; as “the prince of the kings of the earth” He will reign over all nations on the earth; His work of loosing men from sin by His blood and making them a kingdom of priests fits them to reign with Him (cf. 5:9-10).

The Vision of Christ and the Seven Churches ()

The vision of Christ shows Him in the character in which He was walking among seven churches, represented by seven candlesticks.

The present author sees no evidence for the theory that these seven Churches of Asia represent seven consecutive periods of Church history. The Churches are placed before the possibility of Christ coming to them, in some cases to exercise temporal judgments on them, but in more than one case, at His advent.

Christ's letters, dictated for the seven Churches, are more than a discussion of present ecclesiastical affairs; they too contain predictions, warning of what will happen both to the true overcomers and to false disciples. The Son of man, with eyes like a flame of fire, must first cause judgment to come to the house of God (), before judging those living on the earth and then the dead (). John has already stated that those who are truly born of God overcome the world (). But their Lord makes use of chastisement and solemn exhortations to keep them ().

It is apparent from these seven letters that both local Churches and individuals in them may apostatize, cease to be lights in the world (2:5, 14-15, 20-23; 3:1, 16). The Book of Daniel had taught that there would be apostasy among the Jews; chapters two and three of the Revelation have much to say about unfaithfulness among Church members. It is striking to consider that, even from its first pages, the New Testament warns of the danger of unfaithfulness and hypocrisy among both religious Jews and the followers of Jesus. The warnings against apostasy in the letters to the seven Churches are paralleled by many New Testament passages warning of this danger, especially toward the end of the age (; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ). In , John wrote about this antichristian tendency among some who once professed Christianity, but in the latter part of the Revelation he speaks rather of Babylon and the two “Beasts”, which seem to have non-Christian origins.

The Lamb's Right to Reign (4:1 – 5:14)

John's call to come up to heaven and see what will next take place cannot be the rapture of the Church, as some maintain. The rapture and the resurrection, at Christ's Coming, form the glorious, all-important climax of hope for the saints of all previous ages, and could not be symbolized by such a comparatively insignificant event.

It is also said, in favor of situating the rapture in this chapter, that the twenty-four elders represent the Church in heaven, since they present in heaven the new song of the redeemed (5:8-10). However, the four living creatures also present this song; they are cherubim, as in chapter one and ten of Ezekiel, angelic beings, and not themselves redeemed men. There is therefore no necessity that the twenty-four elders, with whom they act in concert, be men rather than angelic rulers. They may, in heaven, act on behalf of men who are on earth, presenting the incense of their prayers and their praise. Since, individually and together, they have roles to play later in the book, they are living spirits, not symbols. If John himself, who sees them, is one of the Apostles, they can hardly include the twelve Apostles, representing the Church.

Although, in the first verse of chapter four, John is told that he will see what will happen “after these things”, that expression, found first in 1:19, does not necessarily signal the coming of a time after the cessation of all Church activity on earth. It may simply speak of things after the things of the revelation which John had so far seen. The words “after these things” are used also in other places in the book.

When, then, does this heavenly scene take place? The answer to that question may depend on the date of the Book of the Revelation. Without taking the time to discuss the question in detail, we would suggest that John writes in the time soon after the death of the emperor Nero, who in that case would be the one spoken of as the fifth “king”, who was fallen, but who would appear again as the eighth, the persecuting antichrist of the last days (17:10-11). For a modern advocacy of the dating of the Revelation, as well as of all the New Testament books, before the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD, see the book “Redating the New Testament” by John A. T. Robinson.

The scene represented in chapters four and five is in heaven, and is not said to be marked by an earthly event. In speaking of the opening of the first seal, we will emit an opinion which would situate the accomplishment of this vision of heavenly events before the destruction of Jerusalem. If it took place then, it follows that the words are literally true which said that John was to see “that which must shortly come to pass” (1:1). The mention of men from all nations, already redeemed and made kings and priests, prevents our considering the scene as taking place at Christ's ascension.

The scene of the Lamb taking the scroll is equivalent to the nobleman who, after going to a far country to receive a kingdom, finally receives authority over it ().

We may take it as God's commissioning of Christ to bring about His kingdom in the world, since the abominations of the Jerusalem of John's time have doomed it, and prevented it from being any longer a source of blessing to all nations.

The song of the men redeemed from among all nations in 5:9-10 may be taken as partly anticipative, although Paul had already said that the Gospel had brought forth fruit in all the world (, cf. ). The Lamb is worthy to reign because of His redemption of men from among all nations and tongues. Thus the coming of Christ's kingdom will follow the ethnic fullness of the Church, which is to be brought about by the full proclamation of the Gospel ().

It has been suggested in a previous chapter that this concept of fullness is an extension of the thought of , where the stone representing Christ became a mountain and “filled” the whole earth. Although this “mountain” properly belongs to the millennium, Paul, in Ephesians, also used the thought of filling up to speak of the development of the Church, in knowledge, unity and conformity to Christ, by the Spirit. Christ's filling of all things begins in the Church (; ).

The Revelation also indicates that a manifold maturity of the Church must be manifested, in God's plan (cf. , ). Beside the ethnic fullness there must be a fullness of suffering (6:11), an accumulation of prayers (5:8; 8:3) and a preparation of the Bride of the Lamb by righteous acts (19:8 NIV). The Church must spiritually conquer, in God's order, for the kingdom to come. There must also come a ripeness of the world for judgment (14:15, 18; ).

The Seven Seals, Seven Trumpets and Seven Vials

The opening of the first six seals roughly parallels events of the Olivet discourse of Jesus. Both passages lead on to the last part of the Church age. The seven trumpets and the seven vials, on the other hand, take place after the coming of “the great day of his wrath” (6:17). Thus we may conveniently put the trumpets in the first half and the vials in the last half of Daniel's seventieth “week”. This is confirmed as the approximate time scale when we note that the plague of one of the trumpets lasts five months (9:5). It is much easier to divide the last seven years of Daniel's prophecy of weeks into two series of plagues than into three. This, of course, proves nothing; we must not oversimplify. However, the prophecies of Revelation are remarkably self-consistent and precise. Perhaps they will be more complicated in their accomplishment, as were, for example, the 70 years of captivity spoken of by Jeremiah, which may be calculated from different beginnings. In the meantime, we are thankful for simple summaries.

If the seals prepare for the coming of Christ in the present age and the trumpets and vials take place in Daniel's seventieth seven-year period, then the time of the two periods may seem too disproportionate. However, the age of grace is never measured in Scripture and is often represented as short.

The position to be developed here is that the time of the absolute power of antichrist occupies the first 42 months of the last seven years, which is also the time of the seven trumpets. In the last part of the “seventieth week” his kingdom will be in process of destruction by the plagues of the seven vials.

The Four Horsemen (6:1-8)

By comparison with the first and sixth chapters of Zechariah, the four horsemen are recognized as being angelic overseers of the earth. They are angels, not of flaming judgment, but of government, using the normal tendencies of men and nature to prepare for the rule of Christ. The first of them, on a white horse, is therefore neither Christ nor antichrist, as has been thought. We must maintain a parallelism between the four horsemen: none of them are men who live on earth. Nor may Christ be put on the same plane as three lesser beings. The four conditions which the four horsemen bring about are respectively: conquest, war, famine and death.

Assuming that John wrote shortly after Nero's time, the conquest under the first horseman which would be relevant to John's Jewish readers would be the fall of Jerusalem. The Jewish war was in progress and, by the conquering horseman, Christ was warning anxious Jewish Christians in the dispersion that rebellious Jerusalem would soon be reconquered by the Romans (cf. ; ). The fall of Jerusalem had been spoken of as a pivotally important future act of God, parabolically in and 22:7, and in the Olivet discourse and by Stephen ().

Who but the Roman Beast could be the conqueror sent by the first horseman? In John's time it was conquering as an empire, yet at the end of the age this passage will be still more relevant, by the greater conquests of the antichrist (13:4).

The turbulent conditions existing under these four horsemen apply increasingly in all the Church age, and are pictured also in and . They may be interpreted as God's shaking of kingdoms in order to replace them by His own kingdom ().

The Souls Under the Altar (6:9-11)

These are the martyrs of the Church, whose number must be completed by the addition of those of killed, perhaps by order of the personal antichrist, in the end times of this age (, ; ; ; ).

The Day of God Arrives (6:12-17)

Preceded by the cosmic convulsions, the day of the Lord now comes, revealing His terrible face of wrath by the unveiling of heaven. Other texts describing this day are , ; and , among many. It may seem incredible that, after such a terrible manifestation of Christ, the opposition of man could still exist and even increase. But John's book is also a revelation of the incredible diabolic depths to which mankind can but descend when it rejects Christ.

The whole scene under the sixth seal and the two following visions parallels . If, in , we should translate “tribes of the land” rather than “tribes of the earth”, then we may see a parallel with the 144,000 of chapter seven (cf. 1:7, ). The great multitude seen in heaven in chapter seven is the Church gathered together, as in .

The 144,000 Sealed Israelites (7:1-8)

The fact that this small remnant is so emphatically identified with the twelve tribes of Israel, in the same chapter where a great multitude from all nations is seen, indicates contrast, and should exclude the thought that the same group is meant in both cases. These Israelites are unquestionably on earth, not in heaven as is the great multitude. The tribulation of the latter group has ended; the tribulation of the former is just beginning: their sealing functions to preserve them during earthly judgments, as is seen by 9:3-4 (cf. ). The four angels who are temporarily stopped from hurting the earth and the sea in 7:2-3 are those who will soon do that very damage in 8:7-12.

The Arrival Above of the Innumerable Multitude (7:9-17)

This is the only place in the Revelation which has a verb stating clearly the rapture, or the passage from earth to heaven, of a people; the great multitude, which John had heard of but had not seen in heaven before, suddenly arrives: it “came out” of the great tribulation. This is the (physical) “salvation” from “the day of wrath” on earth, which the prophets promised to the saints of the Old Testament and which the Church awaits (; ; ; ; ; ; ; , , ; , ; , ; ; ; , ; ; , , ; ; , ; ; ; ; ; ). Their great tribulation, which they have just finished enduring on earth, from which they come, must be distinguished from the day of the Lamb's wrath, from which they thus are saved.

The great multitude is of the Church, not of “tribulation saints” saved after the Church's departure. They are in heaven and the day of wrath has just begun. Those converted after the Church's rapture will stay on earth into the millennium, if not martyred; they would not be seen in heaven, even if this scene anticipates a later period.

Four Angels Hurt the Earth and the Sea (8:1-12)

Now that Christ has appeared as judge, and the part of the Church which was still on earth has been taken up, and a remnant of Israel has been sealed, and the prayers of the saints have been offered, judgment comes on earth under the seventh seal and the seven trumpets.

Since the judgments of God are progressive, only a third of nature and of men on earth is now smitten. It may be wondered how the antichrist may at this time be exercising his universal reign in the midst of such judgments. The difficulty is much greater, however, to place his absolute reign later, during the time of the seven vials of full judgment, many of which are directed specifically against his empire. We may compare these judgments to the ten plagues of Egypt, which did not break the resistance of Pharaoh until the end. Antichrist's power is exercised over the nations, but cannot prevent the judgments on the earth.

The first four trumpets cause the smiting of the environment of men, who have not appreciated the God Who gave them these things.

The Three Woes and the Two Witnesses (9:1 – 11:19)

In the time of the fifth trumpet or the first woe, the demons which had been chased by Christianity return with seven times as many others, to torment men on the earth (cf. ).

Under the sixth trumpet it is the righteous angels which slay the third part of men. The army described in 9:16-19 is an army of angels rather than of men, “his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance” (cf. ).

The vision of the strong angel with the little book (10:1-11) is linked to 11:14-19 by a common subject: the explanation of the significance of the time of the seventh trumpet. Since that trumpet ends both the time of the seven trumpets and that of the 42 months of the two witnesses and the treading down of the holy city (11:1-13), we are encouraged in thinking that these periods are identical. It may be that the sixth trumpet is particularly directed against the power of Rome's empire. This is suggested by the loosing of the angels of destruction at the river Euphrates, the eastern border of the empire, from which invasions often came.

The little book in the hand of the mighty angel is the book of the Prophets, as we see from 10:7. In the time of the seventh trumpet, God's kingdom will begin on earth, as predicted by the prophets and sworn to by the angel. The angel says “There will be no more delay”, not “There will be no more time”. This is evidently the best translation, since John must prophesy of many other things yet to arrive.

In the symbolism of 11:1-2, the temple with its worshipers which is mentioned could not be a temple at Jerusalem, since its court is given to the Gentiles, who tread down that city. It is not a temple to be built, but one which already exists in heaven. How could pagans tread down the court of a man-made temple for 42 months and still leave men to worship inside in peace all that time? The worshippers in the temple are the raptured Church.

Uniformly elsewhere in John's Book, the temple is in heaven. The court of the temple, which had the altar, would thus be figurative also, and could represent the earth, where sacrifices take place (cf. 6:9) and where purification must be made before entering the heavenly temple. The Gentiles will control Jerusalem and all the earth for this period of 42 months.

The two prophets have a founding and restoring ministry, like Moses and Elijah (11:5-6) or like Haggai and Zechariah (11:4, cf. ). It might be thought that their witness during 42 months takes place before the fullest rule of the Beast, since it is said that “the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall ... kill them” (11:7). However, the time of their witness seems to be identical with that of the treading down of Jerusalem by those of the nations who see them prophesying (11:2-3, 9-10); this treading down of Jerusalem must be contemporaneous with the 42 months of the Beast's worldwide power, for otherwise he would not have the power over Jerusalem during his time of supreme ascendancy, which seems incongruous.

Nevertheless, even when he is the strongest, the Beast, with the nations of the earth which tread down Jerusalem, will not be able to prevent the witnessing there of God's two prophets, except when their testimony is completed. He that has the key of David will open for them a door of utterance that none can shut.

When the third woe, or the seventh trumpet, comes, all that happens is that we hear voices. This is because the seventh trumpet heralds all the judgments to follow, as did the opening of the seventh seal, and has no particular content of its own. It is not equivalent to “the last trump” of , which will have already sounded for the gathering together of all the redeemed. The last eschatological trumpet would be out of place between the judgments of the trumpets and the vials: it would have to be at one extreme or the other of the day of wrath; it is to be among the signs which announce that day, although not mentioned among those signs in .

Why then, if the rapture has already taken place, is the judgment and reward of the righteous dead mentioned in the worship of the 24 elders at this time, according to 11:16-18? It is because the elders are worshiping God for what He has already done up until that time. Their praise is a summary of chapters five to eleven. God, through Christ, taking His great power to reign, is seen in chapter five; the anger of the nations is seen in the first five seals and the wrath of God in the sixth. The judgment and reward of the righteous dead is equivalent to 7:9-17: there a multitude of worldwide origin is raptured out of tribulation, while here are commemorated the faithful from all centuries who are resurrected and rewarded at that same time. The destroying of those who have destroyed the earth is seen under the trumpets of chapters eight and nine.

The Woman, the Man Child and the Dragon (12:1-17)

In this chapter and the following, the 42 months of 11:2-3 (cf. ; ; ) are recapitulated and further explained.

There is no difficulty with the identity of the dragon, but there have been differences of opinion about who the woman and the man-child represent.

We may exclude the idea that the woman is the virgin Mary. The events of verses 13 to 17 could have no application to her. Other ideas are that she is the people of Israel or the Christian Church.

If she is the Church, then who is her man-child, who is caught up to heaven? We would countenance elitism if we thought that only a more worthy part of the Church will be raptured. If it is Christ, then how can one say that the Church brought forth Christ rather than that Christ founded the Church? Those who think that Old Testament saints were part of the Church will reply that Christ sprang from the Church through them. But then we might just as well say that the woman clothed with heavenly bodies is indeed Israel (cf. ).

If then the woman is Israel, who is her “man-child"? The person of Christ fits many of the details of the vision: Satan sought to have Him killed at His birth; He will rule the nations with a rod of iron; He was caught up to the throne of God.

It seems strange, however, that Christ would have been pictured as caught up to heaven immediately after His birth, with no mention of His life, death and resurrection. And how can His ascension to heaven be associated with the flight of Israel to the desert for 1260 days, a time period which is in the future when John writes? Since the woman represents a group of people, why would not her “man-child” do so also?

Sometimes the passages in the Revelation give their own explanations of the symbolism, which passes unperceived by some expositors. In the case before us a voice from heaven tells us what the vision means: “Now is come salvation ... for the accuser of our brethren is cast down ... They overcame him” (). The man-child represents a group, “our brethren”. Their lives were in danger like that of the man-child, since we read that “they loved not their lives unto the death”; they experience salvation and overcome the destroyer, as the man-child did by his rapture. They are in heaven, since the explanation of their case is prefaced by the cry, “Now is come salvation ... “; thus all in heaven are called upon to rejoice, and woe is pronounced on the inhabitants of the earth.

Who composes this group of “brethren"? We believe that we have here another picture of the rapture of the members of the true Church who are left on earth until the Coming of the Lord. The chapter therefore teaches the following truths:

1. The Church springs from the people of Israel (cf. );

2. The Church was persecuted by Satan from her beginning;

3. She will rule all nations with a rod of iron ();

4. She will overcome Satan ();

5. She will be caught up to God ();

6. She will share the throne of God with Christ ();

7. The completion of her testimony on earth and her rapture will coincide with the action of the archangel Michael in casting down wicked spirit rulers (; ; ).

We have therefore in this chapter another indication of the centrality in the Bible of the concept of the Total or Corporate Christ; the Church here is seen sharing with Christ His Israelite origin, His victory over Satan through suffering, His ascension and His reign.

The latter part of the chapter addresses the question of what happens on earth after Satan is cast down.

Before considering it, we would make the observation that this chapter illustrates the manner in which the kingdom of God expands, from above to below and by assimilation of successively submitted realms into God's glory. Daniel stated that the kingdom would be like a stone which would grow to be a mountain and fill the earth; Paul located the place of beginning of this filling process in Christ's ascension “far above all heavens, that he might fill all things” (). Satan and his angels at first then remained “in heavenly places” (). But in this chapter we see the Church, which had spiritual access to these heavenly places to combat Satan, physically transported there while Satan is at the same time cast out. Thus another lower level of the universe is purified and becomes Christ's kingdom and another group of glorified men enters it. Satan, however, still has a little time to work on earth. His confinement and intensified work there is a “woe”, a part of the judgment of God on the wicked inhabitants of earth.

The flight from Satan of the woman representing elect Israel, presumably a flight from Jerusalem (), accords with the statement of 11:2 that Jerusalem is to be trodden down by the Gentiles. The 42 months seem therefore to be the same period in both cases, as is the 42 months of the prevailing of the Beast in chapter thirteen.

The Time of the Power of the Beast (ch. 13)

As was the case of the beasts in Daniel, the Beast of Revelation may represent either the supreme king or his empire. The latter sense is seen, for instance, in chapter 17, where the Beast is said to have seven horns which are the first seven Roman emperors. When the expression refers to an individual, it designates that last Roman ruler who reproduces Nero by his persecution of Christians and who consequently is pictured as having gone to the abyss and reappeared, or as having been wounded and healed.

To review what other books of the Bible have already said about this Beast, let us remember that, as the last Gentile empire, it is represented by the legs of iron and the feet and toes of iron and clay of Nebuchadnezzar's dream in and as the terrible fourth beast of , .

The ninth chapter of Daniel also shows this antichrist as a Roman prince or people who will destroy Jerusalem (9:26) and who later will maintain a covenant with many (apostate Jews) for seven years, although he will be able to completely stop true worship at Jerusalem only for the first half of this period. The apostate Jews, since they are allied with him, will have part in the extreme apostasy, which will make desolate.

This leads us to consider the abomination of desolation, mentioned by our Lord (; ). The parallel verse in would lead us to fix the time spoken of by Jesus as the siege of Jerusalem of 66-70 A.D. Luke did not mention the abomination itself, as he would not have been understood by his Gentile readers.

The abomination which gave the signal to Jewish Christians to flee Jerusalem may be taken to be the entry into the temple of the false zealot messiah, Manahem, in royal attire.

Jesus refers us to “Daniel the Prophet” for the understanding of His words “the abomination of desolation”. These words apply to two different situations in Daniel, in both Hellenistic and Roman times. Antiochus' desecration of the temple (, ) shows the kind of abomination which the Lord gave as a signal to His disciples to flee Judea.

Although Jesus seems to be speaking of 66-70 A.D. in describing the times of “the abomination of desolation”, there may be a sense in which His words are meant to be relevant also for the last days of this age: Mark used the neuter word “it” for the abomination, which would apply better to a statue than to a man; Luke put the necessity of flight in an eschatological context which could apply to Gentile Christians when the antichrist begins to persecute them and which has no overt reference to Jerusalem (). The situation of 66-70 A.D. may thus typify the antichrist's time. As Jerusalem was judged for rejecting Christ in 70 A.D., so the world will at last be judged for rejecting Him.

As Jesus said to His disciples “ye shall see” the abomination, so believers of the last days may see the man of sin. This appears from Daniel's description of the war which he will make on the saints (), whom we have previously shown to be Church saints. It is also a necessary conclusion from certain passages of the Revelation, since one must insist on seeing this book to be relevant to Christians (e.g. 13:10, 18; 15:2).

The objection will be made that believers should look for Christ, not the antichrist, and that such a teaching will destroy the imminence of our hope. Yet, as with many other predictions of conditions before Christ comes, we need to allow for tension between two possibilities. If Christ should come today, then it would be in Nero's persecution only that believers will have suffered under the personal antichrist. (The letters of the name “Neron Caesar” total 666 in Hebrew.) If Christ tarries longer, then the last Christian generation may expect to experience a more universal persecution under the one who is like a Nero coming up from the pit.

However, when it is the continuous empire of Rome which is meant as the Beast, then an innumerable multitude of Christians, including the Thessalonians (; ), will have so suffered, under the pagan empire, and under the “Christian” empire which succeeded it.

Coming now to Paul's treatment of this subject in chapter two of Second Thessalonians, it is clear that, if the true believers form the mysterious hinderer which Paul says must be taken out of the midst before the man of sin can be revealed in his time, then the Church will not go through his 42 months of universal power.

From this point of view certain suppositions must be made about the meaning of words in this chapter. It requires that two stages be mentioned in the “revealing” of the man of sin.

The first revealing would be that which is said to precede the day of the Lord, at which day we will be gathered together to Him (vss. 1-3); in this preliminary time Christians will hinder him and he will persecute them. Secondly, when we, who hinder, are removed, antichrist will be revealed “in his time” (verse 6); this would refer to the time of three and one half years spoken of in and 9:27, the time of his unhindered exercise of power. Before that measured time the saints will have been removed, whether by death, martyrdom or rapture.

This understanding of the text also requires that the “coming” associated with our gathering to Him in verse one precede by a certain time the last act attributed to “the brightness of the coming” of the Lord in verse eight, His consuming of the man of sin.

Admittedly, this is a less simple explanation of the text than is the post-tribulation interpretation, which does, however, have more trouble explaining convincingly what it is which hinders. Our apology for it is above all founded on the more detailed and extended picture of the day of the Lord given us in the Book of the Revelation. In it the day of His wrath comes in chapter six and, much later, “the battle of that great day of God Almighty” is prepared (16:14), in which the Beast finally will be destroyed (19:19-20). On these two separate occasions the heavens are opened (6:14; 19:11). If we take another of the meanings of the Greek word for the “coming” of Christ, i.e. that of His continued “presence”, whether visible or invisible (cf. the “day of the Lord” in the Old Testament), it is not necessary to say that these are two separate Second “Comings”. At His Second Coming He effects different acts, as did He did at His first.

The war of antichrist with the non-conforming Church saints ends when the period of 42 months of 13:5 begins. We maintain that the first half of the verse of , which reproduces , was not originally in the text of Revelation. The best and most ancient manuscripts omit it, as do three ancient versions; although it is found in the Latin versions, its absence in both the Latin and Armenian versions of Irenaeus takes us back to a more ancient Western witness, one who professed to have known Polycarp, a disciple of John. The Book of Revelation looks at the last conflict from the spiritual side, more than from the physical. From that point of view the saints overcome, and are not overcome by the Beast as in Daniel (; ).

There will, of course, be another, smaller, pious remnant raised up and protected in its time (; ; ; ). But the Church, the firstborn spiritual offspring which issued from the people of Israel (cf. ) will have been caught up to God's throne (12:5). They are “those who dwell in heaven” whom the Beast will insult (13:6). The second beast of 13:11-17 is later called the false prophet. He is probably the “little horn” of the seventh chapter of Daniel.

The New Song Again on Earth (14:1-5)

With chapter fourteen we come to an important turning point, after the time of 42 months mentioned in chapters 11, 12 and 13. We are now in the last half of the seventieth week of Daniel's prophecy. The Beast's weakened kingdom still seems to exist; but in reality, in these days of the seventh trumpet which are now beginning, there is to be no more delay in the accomplishment of God's plan (10:7), for “the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ” (11:15). Both a destructive and a constructive tendency now work simultaneously: the last plagues are poured out on the Beast's kingdom, which will be progressively destroyed; but at the same time an everlasting Gospel is preached to men on earth, who still therefore have hope, unless they have received the mark of the Beast (14:6-7, 9-13).

The 144,000 Israelites have been sealed on earth (7:1-8), preserved on earth (9:4) during the time of the seven trumpets or the antichrist's predominance, and now they are seen with Christ on Mount Zion on the earth.

It is at this place only that the Revelation speaks of Christ setting foot again on earth. According to He will come in the same way as He went up, and according to , He will come from heaven as the Christ Who has been appointed for Israel at the time of the restitution of all things. This is no doubt a temporary resurrection appearance, as before He ascended in , for we see Him again in heaven in .

It may be thought, of course, that this mount Zion is not on earth but rather in heaven. It is necessary, therefore, to consider the reasons for believing that here Christ and the 144,000 are on earth.

This is one passage which will be greatly influenced by our presuppositions. If, with most Amils, we consider the 144,000 and the great multitude of chapter seven as both belonging to the Church, we will not think that Mount Zion here is composed of Jews at the literal Jerusalem. Nor, if we believe with D.s that the greatest power of the Beast will be manifested in the last half of Daniel's seventieth “week”, will we envisage Mount Zion on the earth under the control of Christ at this stage in the Revelation. There is, of course, the possibility of saying that this scene anticipates the millennium; but we have previously rejected a non-chronological view of the book. In a sense, however, the scene may be considered as the beginning, on a small scale, of the reign of Christ on earth, as Satan's kingdom crumbles. The King is on mount Zion and the nations will soon be gathered against Him, as in Psalm two. The following arguments favor an earthly Zion at this place:

1. John, by saying “I looked, and behold” seems to indicate that what he sees is something new and startling: the presence of Christ in heaven is not new, but His sudden presence here on earth would certainly be startling. Christ had said that He would one day be joyfully received by Jerusalem (); there is no other passage of Revelation which may speak of it. The importance of His publicly reentering Jerusalem may explain why, in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, Jesus names Galilee rather than Jerusalem as the place where He will officially appear after His resurrection. Only at the end of the age will He make a public resurrection appearance at Jerusalem.

2. The use of the name “mount Sion” instead of that of “Jerusalem” is surely significant. The Psalmist thus spoke of the city which was founded on God. It was to the place of this name that the first of the writing prophets, quoted also by Joel, promised salvation in the day of the Lord (; ).

3. The literal city is mentioned both before and after this passage, so that there is no incongruity in imagining it here (11:2, 8, 13; 20:9). Also, the scenery used to portray heaven in this Book does not include Zion, or even Jerusalem: although there is a “new Jerusalem”, the Bride, she is pictured as coming down “from heaven” and she is “new” and distinguishable from Zion below. But we may add that, even if Zion here is to be taken spiritually, as in , this is no argument against an earthly location of the 144,000, for, we, who it says “are come unto Mount Sion”, are still on earth.

4. The place from which the woman, representing Israel, was chased for forty-two months in 12:6, 13-14, when the nations trod Jerusalem under foot (11:2), was presumably Jerusalem, where Christ was crucified (11:8); why should not then these Jews be found back there at the close of that period of exile?

5. John “heard a voice from heaven” (2); he seems himself therefore to have been on earth when he saw the 144,000. The harpists are heard, but not seen as in 15:2. The voice which he hears is indeed a heavenly sound, resembling the voice of the innumerable crowd from all nations (cf. 7:10; 19:1, 6); but it does not first proceed from the 144,000. They, uniquely among men on earth, learn the song of the redeemed, heard from heaven (3). Israel is moved to jealousy by a people which is not a people (). Through our mercy they obtain mercy (). Thus the Church in the heavenly temple begins its priestly work of inspiring men on earth and establishing God's kingdom.

6. This Jewish remnant has also a work yet to do on earth. They are the “servants of our God” (7:3). They are called “the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb”; this presupposes that others will follow them. Paul used this term to speak of his first converts in certain places (; ). They are, up to this point, distinguished from the others who are not yet converted. But the word “firstfruits” indicates that others will be raised up who will resemble them in nature, since the firstfruits are of the same nature as the harvest, though especially honored. If Israel's fall was the riches of the world, how much more will be their reintegration ()? The nations of the earth will soon all come and worship God (15:4).

7. Their virginity, figurative no doubt, is described in the present tense: “they are virgins”; nor would that have to be stated if they were in heaven.

The fact that the Lamb is described as neither coming to Zion nor going from it may seem to speak for a heavenly locale; but all the movements in Revelation take place thus “immediately” (4:2).

It may be objected that if this is the Second Coming of Christ to earth, it is not described as glorious and accompanied by angels, as elsewhere. But we have held that the glorious Coming is not a Coming to the surface of the earth among men, but a supernatural appearance from heaven of Christ as God, as in 6:16 and 1:7. There is something different here.

It may seem that, since this remnant is redeemed “from the earth” and “from among men”, it is therefore not among men on earth (3, 4). However, redemption operates a separation spiritually, not physically. They were different from other men, who could not yet learn the new song.

Seven Other Angels (14:6-20)

These seven angels do not advance the action of the judgments as do those of the trumpets and the vials. Their function is only to announce what is the nature of the last part of the day of wrath which has arrived, not to bring it to pass. Even the two with sickles do symbolic reaping rather than bring about by themselves the harvesting of the world.

We learn from the angels that judgment of men on earth is in progress, that Babylon has fallen, that the Beast's worshipers will be forever tormented, whereas the dead in Christ will rest. Each of the two reaping angels has another angel which tells him what to do. The reapers therefore would hardly represent the Lord. The double description of the harvest of impenitent men, as that of grain as well as of grapes, reminds us that the crucified Lord, Whom they rejected, is also represented by bread and wine.

The Seven Vials of Wrath (15:1 – 16:21)

The fifteenth chapter prepares for the introduction of the final set of acts of judgment, which will bring the kingdom on earth. The seven angels with the vials of the seven last plagues are seen bringing forth irresistible wrath from the terrible holiness and glory of the temple of God in heaven.

As these things are being prepared, we see those who have vanquished the Beast standing on the fiery lake of glass before God. These seem more likely to be those of the Church who offered the last open opposition to antichrist than the hidden faithful Jewish remnant which had survived: that night on earth is characteristically a time “when no man can work” ( cf. ). If the latter are now killed, they do, however, have a special promise of blessed rest (14:13).

The differences between the judgment which comes on the inhabited earth (cf. , Darby) and the final judgment which awaits the dead are well illustrated at this point. The earthly judgments are celebrated by song in heaven. That is not only because all past injustices are being rightly punished, but because the worship of God by all nations is now to be established on earth. The saints address God as “King of the nations” (15:3, NAS). An everlasting Gospel has been proclaimed in the midst of judgment (14:6). The last judgment of the dead leads rather to everlasting punishment of the lost.

In chapter sixteen, after the six bowls are poured out, the seventh does not become a further series, as previously was the case with the seals and the trumpets. Since the sixth vial gathers together the nations, and we see them at Armageddon, the seventh may be contemporaneous with that battle, in which the enemies of God are destroyed.

Verse 15 makes these judgments applicable to readers of the Revelation at the end of the present age, who will not escape these things if they do not watch and keep their garments.

The Fall of Mystery Babylon (17:1 – 19:4)

There is no need to suppose that there are two distinct Babylons in these two chapters, even though the fall of Babylon is mentioned at different points in the prophetic history. Since she is destroyed by “the ten horns” of the beast (17:16), she must, however, be distinct from them and it, and be destroyed before them. Her center is at Rome (17:9, 18), but she can be described as a religion only in a very wide sense, which includes the worship of self, pleasure and riches. Like the Scribes and Pharisees of a previous age, she is the chief party responsible for the shed blood of all the saints.

The Lamb's Marriage (19:5-10)

This joyful and glorious event is not the rapture, although it presupposes that the rapture has taken place. The Lord will have given the task of judgment to His saints at His Coming for them, and soon after that the kingdom will be given them (; ; ). Between these two functions will be the marriage feast of the Lamb, to which hearers of this book are called (19:9).

The Battle of Armageddon (19:11 – 20:3)

The battle of Armageddon is a battle of earth against heaven. John sees heaven opened, and although the rider on the white horse must be advancing, since heaven's armies follow Him, it is not said that Christ comes down to earth. He sits at God's right hand till all enemies are put under His feet (). “God rides upon the heavens and sends out his mighty voice” (, ).

Although the “armies” with Him may include angels, they must also include the saints (17:14). In the latter verse they are “they that are with him”; in the Book of Revelation the angels usually are sent by Christ, but the saints accompany Him. This appearance of Christ cannot be identical with that of , since the marriage of the Lamb has already taken place.

The purpose of this battle is not to completely destroy the nations, but to rule over them with a rod of iron. John indicates that fact by choosing a translation of which says “rule” and not “break”.

All the enemies of God are eliminated, however, including Satan. The Beast and the false prophet are cast alive into the lake of fire. This shows that they are real persons and that they will endure eternal torments; they are later seen to still be there after 1000 years (20:10).

The slain kings and the armies of earth do not yet go into that eternal punishment, but are reserved for it (20:11-15; , ). Many other wicked men have previously been killed during this day of wrath, including the devotees of Babylon the great, destroyed by the ten “horns” of the Beast (17:16). The justice of their damnation is evidenced by their impenitence until the very end (16:21). The fact that those slain do not yet go to the final judgment and to eternal fire shows that history has not yet run its course. Their just retribution can only be given when all the influence of their wickedness until the end of history has been added up.

The feast of the vultures on their flesh was predicted in and alluded to by Jesus on one of the rare occasions when He spoke of an event which was to happen on earth subsequently to His Coming ().

The enemies of Christ are gathered together by the delusion created by lying miracles (19:20; 16:14), permitted by God for this very purpose: to separate God's enemies from the meek who are to inherit the millennial earth. It is not said here that they gather against Jerusalem, although many passages of the Old Testament say so (, etc.).

Those who survive the battle of Armageddon are not all truly converted; they offer homage to God because of all His judgments in the earth (15:4); men of non-Roman empires are mentioned in as benefiting from this temporary respite from judgment.

We do not believe that the separation of men by Armageddon, operated by the delusion of Satan's miracles, is the same separation as that of the judgment of nations which is seen in . Those who enter the millennial kingdom do not necessarily enter the eternal kingdom; they do not “possess”, as kings reigning from heaven, the kingdom prepared for them. Those of the Church of the firstborn will, who will have previously heard Christ say “Come ye blessed”.

Satan's confinement to the bottomless pit is part of Christ's victory at the battle of Armageddon. The tempter was one of the three prime movers of that revolt (16:13-14) and his fate had to be stated in order to complete the record. This demonstrates that Satan's thousand-year incarceration is not a recapitulation of the Church age, as some amils have maintained. For this reason we have included the first three verses of chapter 20 with the battle of Armageddon.

The 1000 Years Reign (20:4-9)

In this book considerable emphasis has been laid on the millennium in the treatment of prophetic themes. Our plan is now to examine the teaching about it which is before us in the Revelation and then to investigate its place in all the Scriptures and in the plan of God for the salvation of the world.

Some Amils have said that the three verses which are before us do not speak of what happens on earth, and that therefore the millennium may be contemporaneous with the age of grace of earth, a completely heavenly reign of the souls of deceased Christians. But since the souls are said to have experienced resurrection, we must not force this passage into a previous dispensation.

One may agree that the thrones mentioned in verse four are in heaven; their reign, however, is exercised over the earth. Verse three states that the nations which were deceived will be so no longer; but they are to be on earth for 1000 years, since they will still be at “the four quarters of the earth” after that time (8). Those who sit on the thrones certainly reign over them during that time. It is interesting to note that the passage twice speaks of those who will reign with Christ for one thousand years rather than telling of Christ, Himself, reigning. Christ's coming reign over the earth was so evident that its reality did not need to be stated.

There is here, admittedly, no detailed description of what will happen on earth during the millennium. Christians will not be on earth at that time, so such details are irrelevant to their hope. Since all saints of previous generations will then reign with Christ (6), there would be a shortage of room at Jerusalem for so many thrones, if the thrones were on earth.

It may appear from verse four that the resurrection of Christians takes place here rather than at the inception of the day of wrath after the sixth seal, as we have maintained. John only says, however, that he saw those who sat on thrones; their resurrection must have taken place previously. No doubt those who were beheaded were also previously raised at the same time. The resurrection of the beheaded ones comes to be mentioned here to explain how they too could reign after being beheaded. The victors over the Beast had previously been seen in heaven (15:2), the dead saints had already received their reward (11:18), and a great multitude of the redeemed had suddenly appeared in heaven to escape from their tribulation on earth (7:9-10, 14).

What will the millennium be from the point of view of these saved saints in heaven? All that they will do will be “with Christ”; they will share in His joy and recompense during the thousand years. They will exercise “judgment": there will be a progressive work for them to do during the millennium, for evil will still exist and will have to be judged. They will “reign” or exercise power over the earth. They will also be “priests": this will involve a work of intercession exercised in the temple of God in heaven (7:15) on behalf of men. Since they too have been redeemed from among all nations, they will be eminently fitted to intercede for all nations.

The Doctrine of the Millennium

The source of the doctrine of a temporary and transitional reign of Christ to submit all His enemies has been traced back to the Psalms. The Messiah must rule over the nations for a time “with a rod of iron” (); He must reign at the right hand of God “until” all enemies are put under His feet (), for God must put all things under the feet of the Son of Man (; ). It is to man, not to angels, that “the habitable world which is to come” must be put in subjection (, Darby). What is done by the agency of man is not done in an instant.

It seems, therefore, that the millennium will not be an ideal static state, but rather a progressive process. The Messiah's kingdom will gradually increase (; ) as the nations learn righteousness (). The salvation of the earth will be like the salvation of the individual convert. First comes conversion, which resembles the submission of the earth to the Lordship of Christ at the beginning of the millennium; then comes a process of sanctification, of crucifixion of the flesh, equivalent to the judging which believers will exercise over the nations during the 1000 years; finally come the complete elimination of the believer's sinful nature and his glorification, which have as cosmic counterpart the exposure and eradication of rebellion among the nations () and God's making all things new ().

The millennium is “the dispensation of the fullness of times” () in which God will gather together in one “all things” in Christ; Christ must grow and “fill all things” (; ; ). Because of the shed blood of Christ “all things” must be “reconciled” again to God, and not simply be destroyed after their ruin by rebellious men, as the Amils seem to hold (). There are to be “times of restitution of all things” (). The millennium is not the final reward of earthly Israel but the time in which the purpose of the created universe is being achieved. All things “in earth” as well as in heaven and hell must bow the knee to Christ ().

A Christian Millennium

The great error of D.s with regard to the millennium is to believe that it will to some extent go back to the shadows, types and elements of bondage of the Mosaic Law, instead of leading to the submission of the world to the Word of Christ. Although they are very emphatic that law and grace cannot be mixed in this age, they do not seem to have the same conviction with regard to the next.

Our Lord said clearly that His words would never pass away till heaven and earth should pass (). Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today and forever (). In Him there is neither Jew nor Greek, but all are one. The millennium also will exist to gather together all things in one in Him. It will not be a Jewish millennium any more than this is now a Jewish age of grace. The Jew will then first receive the kingdom promised to him, but after that the mercy of God will extend it equally to the nations as is now the case on a smaller scale (, ; ). The law made nothing perfect, but the better hope will ().

If we taste of the power of the age to come and are the firstborn and the firstfruits of all God's creatures (; ; ), then what follows will be modeled after us. The 144,000 will learn our song and will in turn be the firstfruits of the redeemed nations in all the earth ().

Mosaic ceremonies and laws which are found in the Prophets' descriptions of the coming kingdom will in that day be seen as types and images of realized spiritual realities, as is the case in this age. Both types and prophecies pointed to the future and must be fulfilled together. Since no Old Testament ordinances will remain, it will probably be those of the New Testament which will manifest public worship in the millennium (see appendix).

Whatever civil structure there will need to be for world government will not be completely in the hands of Jews. Even David brought Philistines who had joined him at Gath into his army.

There is no reason to doubt that the science of man will also be used to bring about ideal conditions, since that also springs from the mandate which man received at the beginning ().

The last revolt of the nations, caused by the release of Satan at the end of the millennium, will serve to bring into the open the hidden enmity of the hearts of those who have been feigning obedience (). Thus the last three enemies of Christ will be destroyed: unregenerate hearts, Satan and death.

A Great White Throne (20:11-15)

All the wicked dead will be resurrected for the last judgment, along with the righteous who will not have had part in the first resurrection. The words “whosoever was not found” seem to indicate that many righteous dead will be among those raised. These could be those who died in the faith during the antichrist's reign and the millennium. All nature will be delivered from corruption, including mortal men on earth who have not taken part in the final revolt (; ).

A New Heaven and Earth (21:1 – 22:6)

Is the new earth a completely new creation, or is it the present earth made over? The question is an academic one and the answer may best be given by comparing our new resurrection body with our present mortal body. Is the one the continuation of the other? Certain verses speak of the new body as the old body raised (); others speak of the new body as if reserved in heaven for us to put on (). Since the new earth and the new body replace a former earth and body, they are considered as their continuation: some passages speak of the earth passing away (; ; ; ), while others speak of it as eternal (; ; ; ). There is an element of continuation and an even greater element of newness.

Appendix:

What Ordinances Will be Practiced in the Millennium?

If there is to be a “Christian millennium”, and if all the ordinances of the old covenant are typical and are forever fulfilled and done away with, what kind of ordinances will manifest public loyalty and worship in the millennium? Will Christian ordinances also be practiced in that age?

Let us approach the problem by answering the question: “Are the Christian ordinances foreseen in the Old Testament, which speaks both to this age and to the millennium?” Without being too dogmatic about this, it seems that if the millennium is fully Christian, it will perpetuate the Christian ordinances.

Let us first consider baptism. In his Pentecost sermon, Peter preached salvation to his Jewish hearers, using . The Ascension was the proof that the Lord, whose Name one must invoke for salvation, was none other than Jesus (). Peter therefore preached that the Lord's Name, which was to be invoked in baptism, was that of the Lord Jesus (; ).

It is true that Joel had not said that the Lord's Name was to be invoked along with an immersion in water; nevertheless, the use of water is only one aspect of baptism, the more important part of it in these passages being the invocation of the Name of the Lord by the person being baptized (cf. , Darby) who has previously believed ().

In another unusual Old Testament verse, it appears that the Name is also to be invoked upon those nations who become Jehovah's people. Since the verb is passive in this case, it is understood that someone else does the invoking upon them of the Name. says: “that they (the house of David) may possess ... all the nations on whom My name is called”. James quotes this verse in , applying it to the Gentiles who had been baptized by Peter in the Name of the Lord, and who became “a people for His name” (). In (Darby) the writer, who is probably the same James, alludes again, no doubt, both to baptism and to the text in Amos, when he speaks of “the excellent name which has been called upon you”. Jesus was the representative of the “house of David” who was to possess the nations. He is also Jehovah, Whose Name, which is that also of the Father and the Holy Spirit, is used in the discipling of all nations; there is no reason to limit the baptism of all nations in to the age of grace, in which the universal authority of Christ is not yet accepted by whole nations.

There is no such clear authorization of the principle of the Lord's Supper in the Old Testament. However, even D. principles would not exclude its observation during the millennium, since it was instituted during the earthly life of our Lord, before the “Church parenthesis”; in fact, some have even gone so far as to say that the only proof we have that it is for us is that it was revealed independently to the Apostle Paul! A better reasoning would be to say that, since the cup is the new covenant in Christ's blood, its celebration will be suitable in the age when the new covenant will be made with the house of Judah, as well as in this dispensation.

The early Church saw it in : “For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same My name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto My name, and a pure offering”. This usage of the Old Testament passage may be justified, inasmuch as we “bless” the cup of blessing () and thus through Christ we offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips which make confession to His name (). We are not authorized to consider the material communion bread and wine as being in themselves a sacrifice. But again, the spiritual essence of the sacrament is in accord with an Old Testament prophecy, the use of which in this way may go back to apostolic times.

There is a third institution of the new covenant which may have roots in the Old Testament and consequently an applicability to the millennium. It seems very probable that the early Christians used to consecrate the first day of the week in order to rejoice together in the resurrected Lord: “The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner. This is the LORD'S doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it” (cf. ). Thus it was called “the Lord's day”.

However, the belief in the perpetuation of the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper in the millennium is best justified by the fact that they are commanded by our Lord's own words, which shall remain till earth and heaven pass away (). The commandments of Jesus Christ are the “commandments of God” to be kept after the Rapture of the Church (; ; ; ).

Understanding the Unity of Prophecy_

Introduction

Contents

Chapter One

The Problem

I. Historical Premillennialism

II. Amillennialism

III. Postmillennialism

IV. Dispensationalism

The Task of this Book

A Glimpse of Our Final Conclusion

Chapter Two

The Presuppositions of a Christian Eschatology

I. The Gradual Definition and Accomplishment of Prophecy

II. The Old Testament Must First Speak for Itself

III. The NT Writers Correctly Explained the OT

Chapter Three

A False Principle of Interpretation

Alleged Proofs of a Parenthesis

Chapter Four

The Promised Man: “The Seed of the Woman”

Man's Predicted Future Confirmed in the Old Testament

The Themes of in the New Testament

Paul's Doctrine

Which Eschatological Plan Best Fits These Data?

The Church Must Win the Battle on the Earthly Scene

The Earth Will Share the Victory When Christ Comes

The Search for the Unifying Theme of Prophecy

Chapter Five

The Promises to Abraham and His Seed

Was the Abrahamic Covenant Unconditional?

The Promises to Abraham Fulfilled in the Old Testament

The New Testament Relates the Blessing of Abraham to the Eternal State

Jesus Christ Was the Mediating “Seed of Abraham”

Those Who Receive Abraham's Blessing through Christ

When Does Christ Give the Blessing of Abraham?

The Dispensational Denial That We Are True Israel

Amillennial Identifying of Israel and the Israel of God

Postmillennial Joining of Present and Kingdom Ages

Dispensational Linking of Mosaic and Millennial Ages

Postmil and Amil Refusal of a Rapture in History

The Unifying Theme of Prophecy

Chapter Six

The Eschatology of the Mosaic Covenants

Titles Which Indicate the Future

The Promise of a Prophet Like Moses

Future Blessings and Curses

The Future Seen in Types

The Mosaic Ceremonies Will be Abolished

Jesus Seen in the Mosaic Eschatology

The Teaching of Paul

Israel Provoked to Jealousy for its Salvation and the World's

Saved Israel Will Not be Under the Law

The Epistle to the Hebrews and the Epistles of Peter

The Writings of John

Dispensationalism and Our Claim to the Promises

To Whom Does Christ's Teaching First Apply?

Table 1: WITNESSES THAT JESUS TAUGHT FOR THE CHURCH

This Age Prepares For the Next

God's Literal Promise of Restoration for Israel

Amillennial Limiting of the Full Scope of Old Testament Promises

Postmillennial Hope Without the “Blessed Hope”

Chapter Seven

The Davidic Messiah

Jesus's Earthly Life and David's Throne

His Ascension Did Not Bring His Reign

His Present Work is Tied to Davidic Prophecies

Christ's Coming at God's Right Hand

Christ's Temporary Reign at God's Right Hand

Davidic Reigning in the Revelation

Christ's Eternal Reign

Dispensational Haste to Put the Crown Before the Cross

Dispensational Denial of Davidic Fulfillment Now

Dispensational Haste for David's Earthly Throne

Amillennial Haste to Make Christ Reign Now

Amillennial Refusal to Israel of What God Promised Them

Postmillennial Lack of Haste for Christ's Coming

The Unifying Theme of Prophecy

Chapter Eight

The Day of Jehovah