Eschatology

This is the ninth in a short series of posts dealing with the proper interpretation of Old Testament Kingdom Prophecy (OTKP). If you’re new to this subject (or to my blog), you’ll want to read the essay with which I introduced the series (just click here).

My goal in these eschatological adventures is two-fold.

First, I want to open up something of the Christ-centered truth and beauty of OTKP to my brothers and sisters in the Lord.

Secondly, I want to reason a little with my premillennial brethren. In particular, I want to make the case that we all will best understand, enjoy, and profit from OTKP when we see that its true sphere of fulfillment is: 1) Christ, 2) the New Covenant he instituted by his blood, 3) the two-staged spiritual Kingdom he has already introduced (and will soon consummate), and, 4) the New Covenant community he is creating out of elect Jews and Gentiles: the Church.

In short, I would like my premillennial brothers to reconsider the amillennial approach to the interpretation of OTKP.

Since the end of the age will soon be upon us, it is important that we stand together as much as possible. Seeing eye to eye on eschatology would definitely help. These essays—and the book in progress from which they are extracted—represent my best effort at contributing to that worthy goal.

Since the prophetic texts I deal with are quite long, I have not reproduced them here. You will need to bring an open Bible to each blog. My hope and prayer is that you will enjoy them all

The Holy City Shall Be Built

Jeremiah 30-33 contains a great many OT prophecies of the Kingdom, strung together like the pearls of a beautiful necklace. Owing to its concrete historical imagery, this one is especially difficult. Is it amenable to a spiritual, New Covenant interpretation, or must we look for a literal fulfillment in a future millennium?

The Problem in a Nutshell

On the one hand, we can see from verse 40 that this is indeed an OTKP. God is clearly speaking of his eschatological City, a City that will not be plucked up or overthrown any more forever. In other words, according to the New Covenant Hermeneutic, he is actually speaking of the Church.

On the other hand, because this prophecy specifically mentions a number of geographical landmarks familiar to the Jews of Jeremiah’s day, it hardly seems possible that God could be referring to the Church; that he must instead be predicting a latter day restoration of physical Jerusalem, perhaps along the lines anticipated by premillenarians.

This is the ninth in a short series of posts dealing with the proper interpretation of Old Testament Kingdom Prophecy (OTKP). If you’re new to this subject (or to my blog), you’ll want to read the essay with which I introduced the series (just click here).

My goal in these eschatological adventures is two-fold.

First, I want to open up something of the Christ-centered truth and beauty of OTKP to my brothers and sisters in the Lord.

Secondly, I want to reason a little with my premillennial brethren. In particular, I want to make the case that we all will best understand, enjoy, and profit from OTKP when we see that its true sphere of fulfillment is: 1) Christ, 2) the New Covenant he instituted by his blood, 3) the two-staged spiritual Kingdom he has already introduced (and will soon consummate), and, 4) the New Covenant community he is creating out of elect Jews and Gentiles: the Church.

In short, I would like my premillennial brothers to reconsider the amillennial approach to the interpretation of OTKP.

Since the end of the age will soon be upon us, it is important that we stand together as much as possible. Seeing eye to eye on eschatology would definitely help. These essays—and the book in progress from which they are extracted—represent my best effort at contributing to that worthy goal.

The Righteous Branch of David

The book of Jeremiah contains a great many OT Kingdom prophecies, most of which appear in chapters 30-33. (1) The prophecy before us gives the gist of them all. And since this is a great favorite among our premillennarian brethren, we have all the more reason to examine it briefly here.

Wicked Shepherds to be Removed

In verses 1-2, the great theme of prophecy emerges: The Shepherd(s) of LORD. Here, God begins by warning of coming judgment against Israel’s faithless leaders, both temporal and spiritual. Because of their failure properly to shepherd God’s flock, the sheep will soon be scattered among the nations, and they themselves will be punished (Ezek. 34:1f).

Righteous Shepherds to Come

In verses 3-4, God offers the faithful Israelites hope, promising that he will surely gather a remnant of his flock out of all the countries where he has driven them. In that Day, he will give them godly shepherds, and make them fearless and fruitful in the Promised Land.

Since it is written that they shall fear no more, we know that the reference here is to the ingathering of eschatological “Israel” (v. 4). With the help of the NCH, we can see how this OTKP will be fulfilled.

On the one hand, it will be fulfilled among elect Jews who, in the last days, will turn to Christ, and so inherit all the blessings of the Kingdom. On the other hand, it will also be fulfilled among elect Gentiles, for they too will turn to Christ.

Both people groups are “remnants,” some from Israel, but all from Adam’s fallen race. Both, because of sin, have gone into exile—some from Palestine, but all from Eden. And both, because of God’s sovereign grace, will be gathered into Christ for eternal life in their eschatological Homeland.

This is the eighth in a short series of posts dealing with the proper interpretation of Old Testament Kingdom Prophecy (OTKP). If you’re new to this subject (or to my blog), you’ll want to read the essay with which I introduced the series (just click here).

My goal in these eschatological adventures is two-fold.

First, I want to open up something of the Christ-centered truth and beauty of OTKP to my brothers and sisters in the Lord.

Secondly, I want to reason a little with my premillennial brethren. In particular, I want to make the case that we all will best understand, enjoy, and profit from OTKP when we see that its true sphere of fulfillment is: 1) Christ, 2) the New Covenant he instituted by his blood, 3) the two-staged spiritual Kingdom he has already introduced (and will soon consummate), and, 4) the New Covenant community he is creating out of elect Jews and Gentiles: the Church.

In short, I would like my premillennial brothers to reconsider the amillennial approach to the interpretation of OTKP.

Since the end of the age will soon be upon us, it is important that we stand together as much as possible. Seeing eye to eye on eschatology would definitely help. These essays—and the book in progress from which they are extracted—represent my best effort at contributing to that worthy goal.

A Nation Born in a Day (Isaiah 66)

This is one of the most difficult—and hotly contested—chapters in the entire OT prophetic canon. Not surprisingly, it has therefore proven a fertile field for speculation, especially among our Dispensational brethren, some of whom find here OT predictions of the birth of the modern Israeli state, Jewish evangelism during the (seven year) Tribulation era, a premillennial regathering of Jews to Palestine, and living conditions in the millennial era itself.

Granted, this is a complex and opaque chapter. But is it possible that there is a simpler understanding, one that not only accords with NT eschatology, but also speaks with more power and comfort to Christians? I believe there is, and that the New Covenant Hermeneutic will enable us to see it clearly and savor it richly.

Contrasting Destinies

By way of introduction, we do well to observe that this chapter continues a theme sounded in Isaiah 65: the contrasting destinies of the faithful remnant vs. the apostate multitude. In Isaiah’s day, the former, a minority in Israel, had suffered rejection, mockery, and persecution at the hands of the latter, even as the nation as a whole had grown ripe for judgment (28:9-22, 66:5).

In chapters 65-66, God therefore encourages his saints with rich promises of ultimate justice: Those who forsook the LORD will perish, but those who sought him, mourning for Jerusalem’s deep degradation, will live to see the day when he not only bestows eternal glory upon the City of God, but also brings the Gentiles themselves into her blessed precincts (Isaiah 65:10-11, 13-16, 66:10-11; Luke 6:20-26).

This is the seventh in a short series of posts dealing with the proper interpretation of Old Testament Kingdom Prophecy (OTKP). If you’re new to this subject (or to my blog), you will want to read the essay with which I introduced the series (just click here).

My goal in this eschatological adventure is two-fold.

First, I want to open up something of the Christ-centered truth and beauty of OTKP to my brothers and sisters in the Lord.

Secondly, I want to reason a little with my premillennial brethren. In particular, I want to make the case that we all will best understand, enjoy, and profit from OTKP when we see that its true sphere of fulfillment is: 1) Christ, 2) the New Covenant he instituted by his blood, 3) the two-staged spiritual Kingdom he has already introduced (and will soon consummate), and, 4) the New Covenant community he is creating out of elect Jews and Gentiles: the Church.

In short, I would like my premillennial brothers to reconsider the amillennial approach to the interpretation of OTKP.

Since the end of the age will soon be upon us, it is important that we stand together as much as possible. Seeing eye to eye on eschatology would definitely help. These essays—and the book in progress from which they are extracted—represent my best effort at contributing to that worthy goal.

Since the prophetic texts I deal with are quite long, I have not reproduced them here. You will need to bring an open Bible to each blog. My hope and prayer is that you will enjoy them all.

______________

Arise and Shine (Isaiah 60)

This stunningly beautiful prophecy of Jerusalem’s latter-day glory is held by premillennarians to be a photograph of life in the Kingdom Age; an age when, for one thousand years, Israel will be the head and not the tail among the nations. However, simply to read the text itself is to see immediately that this interpretation—and the prophetic literalism that underlies it—is impossible.

Consider some of the problems involved.

First, it requires a resurrection of such extinct nations or regions as Midian, Ephah, Sheba, Kedar, Nebaioth, and Tarshish (vv. 6-9). Similarly, it also requires an implausible return to ancient modes of transportation, such as ships and camels (vv. 6, 9).

Secondly, it repeatedly represents Jerusalem as the eternal habitation of God and his people: Its gates will be open continually (v. 11), it will be an everlasting pride (v. 15), it will have the LORD as an everlasting light (20), and its citizens will possess the land forever (21).

Thirdly, it conflicts with NT teaching on the eternal obsolescence of the ceremonial Law, declaring that the rams of Nebaioth will go up with acceptance (as bloody sacrifices) on God’s altar (v. 7).

Fourthly, it is filled with passages that loudly proclaim its symbolic character, passages that are meant to nudge us towards a typological, rather than a literal, interpretation of the whole prophecy (vv. 2, 3, 17, 18, 18).

And finally, its closing verses clearly envision the City of God as being situated, not in a millennial world, but in the New Heavens and the New Earth (vv. 19-22, 2 Peter 3).

We conclude, then, that Isaiah cannot possibly be speaking here of a temporary millennial kingdom. Commentator Derek Kidner therefore captures the true sense of the prophecy when he writes:

These glowing, exultant chapters (60-62) depict blessings that transcend the old order, and even, in places, the Christian era itself; but the language is that of the OT ordinances and of the literal Jerusalem. It will (therefore) need translating into terms of “the Jerusalem above” (Heb. 12:22) . . . Here the return of dispersed Israelites to Jerusalem is made the model of a far greater movement, the world-wide inflow of converts into the Church; and the vision repeatedly looks beyond this to the end, to the state of ultimate glory.

In so speaking, Kidner shows himself to be under the rule of the NCH. In other words, he sees Isaiah using covenantally conditioned language and imagery to speak “mysteriously” of both stages of the eschatological Kingdom introduced by Christ and the New Covenant.

A closer look at our text abundantly vindicates his approach, and also help us to see just how richly Isaiah speaks to the hearts of Christians everywhere, whether Jew or Gentile.

This is the sixth in a short series of posts dealing with the proper interpretation of Old Testament Kingdom Prophecy (OTKP). If you’re new to this subject (or to my blog), you will want to read the essay with which I introduced the series (just click here).

My goal in this eschatological adventure is two-fold.

First, I want to open up something of the Christ-centered truth and beauty of OTKP to my brothers and sisters in the Lord.

Secondly, I want to reason a little with my premillennial brethren. In particular, I want to make the case that we all will best understand, enjoy, and profit from OTKP when we see that its true sphere of fulfillment is: 1) Christ, 2) the New Covenant he instituted by his blood, 3) the two-staged spiritual Kingdom he has already introduced (and will soon consummate), and, 4) the New Covenant community he is creating out of elect Jews and Gentiles: the Church.

In short, I would like my premillennial brothers to reconsider the amillennial approach to the interpretation of OTKP.

Since the end of the age will soon be upon us, it is important that we stand together as much as possible. Seeing eye to eye on eschatology would definitely help. These essays—and the book in progress from which they are extracted—represent my best effort at contributing to that worthy goal.

Since the prophetic texts I deal with are quite long, I have not reproduced them here. You will need to bring an open Bible to each blog. My hope and prayer is that you will enjoy them all.

Prisoners in the Dungeon — Isaiah 24:21-23

(21) On that day, the LORD will punish (lit., visit) the host of the high ones on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth. (22) And they will be gathered together as prisoners are gathered in a pit (or, dungeon), and will be shut up in a prison. And after many days they will be punished (or, visited). (23) Then the moon will be confounded, and the sun ashamed, for the LORD of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem; and his glory will be before his elders.

——————

This short but challenging OTKP appears in the midst a long section of Isaiah devoted to the end-time judgments of God (24:1-27:13). In the verses immediately preceding our text, the prophet has spoken of the final destruction of the earth (vv. 17-20). Then, as the telltale phrase “In that Day” indicates, a new prophecy begins, a prophecy that only three verses later brings the entire chapter to a close (24:21-23).

Many premillennial interpreters find here an OT adumbration of the millennium of Revelation 20. In verse 21 they see the binding of Satan (and his demonic hosts) at Christ’s return (Rev. 20:2). In verse 22a they see Satan’s one thousand year incarceration in the abyss. And in the “visitation” of verse 22b they see his postmillennial release (Rev. 20:3, 7), followed shortly thereafter by his final destruction in the lake of fire (Rev. 20:10). Reading verse 23 literally, they assert that Isaiah concludes by depicting the glory of Christ’s earthly reign on literal Mt. Zion and in literal Jerusalem; his reign in a supernaturally transformed (but as yet unperfected) Palestine.

There are, however, some serious problems with this interpretation.