Dating And Interpreting The Contents of  the Gospels and The Apocalypse (Revelation)

Second, overlooking its original author and audience. In a quest for “relevance,” commentators of the historicist and futurist schools seem to forget that John addressed Revelation to real, historical churches (Rev. 1:4, 11) about pressing and dire problems that he and they faced in the first century (Rev. 1:9 and chapters 2-3). In doing so a most fundamental rule of hermeneutics is breached. Two hermeneutics texts may be cited to illustrate the importance of this principle 

Berkhof’s helpful study, Principles of Biblical Interpretation, teaches that hermeneutics “is properly accomplished only by the readers’transposing themselves into the time and spirit of the author.”

Mickelsen’s widely used Interpreting the Bible notes: “Simply stated,the task of interpreters of the bible is to find out the meaning of a statement (command, question) for the author and for the first hearers or readers, and thereupon to transmit that meaning to modernreaders.”

Needless to say, removing the setting of the book twenty or more centuries into the future is not conducive to a correct apprehension of its interpretation.

Third, misconstrual of its original intent. Revelation has two fundamental purposes relative to ‘its original hearers. In the first place, it was designed to steel the first century Church against the gathering storm of persecution, which was reaching an unnerving crescendo of theretofore unknown proportions and intensity. A new and major feature of that persecution- was the entrance of imperial Rome onto the scene. The first historical persecution of the Church by imperial Rome was by Nero Caesar from A.D. 64 to A.D. 68.

In the second place, it was to brace the Church for a major and fimdamental re-orientation in the course of redemptive history, are-orientation necessitating the destruction of Jerusalem (the center not only of Old Covenant Israel, but of Apostolic Christianity [cp.Acts 1 :8; 2: lK; 15:2] and the Temple [cp. Matt. 24:1-34 with Rev.11]).

This matter of intent necessitates a corollary hermeneutical principle to that in point 2 above: “One of the basic principles of sound interpretation is that a later interpreter must find out what the author of an earlier writing was trying to convey to those who first read his words.”GG Both the recognition of the parties (author and recipients of the letter) and the purpose of a written document are essential tothe proper grasp of the message. BeckWith has well-stated the matter:

“For the understanding of the Revelation of John it is essential to put one’s self as far as possible, into the world of its author and of those to whom it was first addressed. Its meaning must be sought for in the light thrown upon it by the condition and circumstances of its readers,by the author’s inspired purpose, and those current beliefs and traditions that . . . influenced the fashion which his visions themselves took.”.

Below is a link to the source of the excerpt  above.

http://www.entrewave.com/freebooks/docs/a_pdfs/kgbj.pdf

Another link below to the reference

1987_chilton_days-of-vengeance

Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, was martyred around 180 A.D. He was a student of Polycarp, the long-lived disciple of St. John himself. Extant quotes of Irenaeus’ writings include quotes from Matthew, Mark, Luke, Acts, I Corinthians, I Peter, Hebrews and Titus (By the time of Irenaeus the Gospels had clearly been around a good while, and all four were well known and recognized among Christians.).

Ignatius (70-110 A.D.) quoted from Matthew, John, Acts, Romans, I Corinthians, Ephesians, Phillipians, Galatians, Colossians, James, I and II Thessalonians, I and II Timothy, and I Peter.

Barnabas quoted from the N.T. around 70 A.D., Hermas 95 A.D., and Tatian 170 A.D.

Clement of Alexandria, who lived 150-212 A.D., quoted from all but three books of the NT.

Justin Martyr, in 133 A.D., quoted from the Gospels, Acts, Revelation, and both Pauline and the other epistles. (McDowell, pp. 51-52). (History and the Bible

All the New Testament books were written before A.D. 100 (About 70 years after the death of Jesus)
”…. in letters written between A.D. 95 and 110, three early church fathers – Clement, Ignatius and Polycarp – quoted passages out of 25 of the 27 books in the New Testament.{00} Only the short books of Jude and 2 John were not referenced, but they certainly had been written.  (Jude had written his short letter by this time, because, being Jesus’ half brother, he was almost certainly dead by A.D. 100; and 2 John had been written because it came before 3 John, which was one of the 25 books quoted.)Since Clement was in Rome and Ignatius and Polycarp were hundreds of miles away in Smyrna, the original New Testament documents had to have been written significantly earlier; otherwise they could not have circulated across the ancient world by that time.  Therefore, it is safe to say that all of the New Testament was written by A.D. 100.

But that’s just the latest that they could have been written.  Most were written much earlier. How much earlier? Most, if not all, before 70.
 

Most if not all of these books were written before A.D. 70 (about 40 years after the death of Jesus)
Imagine this.  You are devout Jew in the 1st Century.  The center of your national, economic, and religious life is Jerusalem, and especially the temple.  It has been that way in your nation, your family, and almost every Jews family for a thousand years, ever since Solomon built the first temple. Most of the newest temple, constructed by King Herod, was completed when you were a child, but portions of it are still under construction and have been since 19 B.C. For your entire life you have attended services and brought sacrifices there to atone for the sins you’ve committed against God. Why? Because you and your country men consider this temple the earthly dwelling place of the God of ^{the universe, the maker of Heaven and Earth, the very Deity, whose name is so holy you dare not utter it.} 

As a young man you begin following a Jew named Jesus who claims to be the long awaited Messiah predicted in your Scriptures.  He performs miracles, teaches profound truths, and scolds and befuddles the priests in charge of the temple. Incredibly, he predicts his own death and resurrection.  He also predicts that the temple itself will be destroyed before your generation passes away (Mark 13:2, 30).

Jesus is convicted of blasphemy by your temple priests and is crucified on the eve of the Passover, one of your holiest holidays. He’s buried in a Jewish tomb, but three days later you and his other followers see Jesus alive just as he predicted.  You touch him, eat with him, and he continues to perform miracles, the last being his ascension into heaven.  Forty years later your temple is destroyed just as Jesus had predicted along with the entire city and thousands of your countrymen.

Question: If you and your fellow followers write accounts of Jesus after the temple and city were destroyed in A.D. 70, aren’t you at least going to mention that unprecedented national, human, economic, and religious tragedy somewhere in your writings, especially this risen Jesus had predicted it?  Of course!  Well, here’s the problem for those who say the New Testament was written after 70. There’s absolutely no mention of the fulfillment of this predicted tragedy anywhere in the New Testament documents.  This means most, if not all, of the documents must have been written prior to 70.

Some may object, “That’s an argument from silence, and that doesn’t prove anything.” But in fact it is not an argument from silence, for the New Testament documents speak of Jerusalem and the temple, or activities associated with them, as if they were still intact at the time of the writings.{0} But even if this were an argument from silence that doesn’t mean it’s wrong. Consider these modern parallels. If a former aboard the USS Arizona wrote a book related to the history of that ship, and the book ends with no mention of the ship  being sunk and 1177 of it’s sailors being killed at Pearl Harbour, do you have any doubt that the book must have been written prior to December 7^{th 1941? Or, if a former tenant of the World Trade Center wrote a book related to the history of those buildings, and the book ends with the towers still standing, there’s absolutely no mention of the Towers being destroyed and nearly three thousand people being murdered by Muslim terrorists, do you have any doubt that the book must have been written prior to September 11th 2001? Of course not.}

Well, the disaster in A.D. 70 in terms of lives, property, and national scope, was many magnitudes greater than Pearl Harbour and 9/11. It marked the end of such terrible war that Josephus, who himself surrendered to the Romans in 67, called it the “greatest” war of all time.{1} The Jews didn’t lose just one ship or a couple of prominent buildings; they lost their entire country, their capital city, and their temple, which had been the center of their religious, political, and economic life for the last thousand years. In addition, tens of thousands of their country men were dead and hundreds of the villages burned to the ground.

So if we could expect tragedy such as Pearl Harbour to be mentioned in the relevant writings of today, we certainly should expect the events of A.D. 70 to be cited somewhere in the New Testament (especially since the events were predicted by Jesus). But since the New Testament does not mention these events anywhere and suggests that Jerusalem and the temple are still intact, we can conclude reasonably that most, if not all, of the New Testament documents must have been written prior to 70

How much earlier?
 

Many New Testament books were composed before A.D. 62 (about 30 years after the death of Jesus)  

Imagine this: You’re a first century medical doctor who was embarked on a research project to record the events of the early church. This research will require you to interview eye witnesses of the early church and to travel with the Apostle Paul as he visits new churches across the ancient world. You record prominent events in the life of the church such as the early work of John and Peter, as well as the martyrdom of Stephen and James (the brother of John). IN Paul’s life you record everything from sermons, beatings, and trials to shipwrecks and imprisonments. You also record his theological summit with Peter and James, who is Jesus’ brother and the leader of the church in Jerusalem.

As you described many of these events, your narrative is so filled with details that every informed reader will know that either you must have access to eyewitness, testimony or you are an eyewitness yourself. For e.g., as you follow Paul on his travels you shift from using the pronoun “they” to “we”, and you correctly record their names of local politicians, local slang, local weather patterns, local topography, local business practices; you even record the right depth of water about a quarter mile off Malta as your ship is about to run aground in a storm! In fact, you record at least 84 such details in the last half of your narrative.

Question: Since you obviously find it important to record all of the minor details, if your main subject, the apostle Paul, was executed at the hands of the Roman emperor Nero, do you think you would record it? Or, If Jesus’ brother, the leader of the church in Jerusalem, was killed at the hands of the Sanhedrin, the same Jewish body that sentenced Jesus to die, do you think you would record it? Of Course! And if you failed to record such momentous events, we would rightly assume that you wrote your narrative before their deaths. 

This is the situation we find in the New Testament. Luke, the medical doctor, meticulously records all kinds of details in Acts, which chronicles the early church (a listing of 84 historically confirmed details in the next chapter). Luke records the deaths of two Christian martyrs (Stephen and James the brother of John), but his account ends with two of its primary leaders (Paul, and James the brother of Jesus) still living.  Acts ends abruptly with Paul under house arrest in Rome, and there’s no mention of James having died. We know from Clement of Rome, writing in the late first century, and from other early church fathers, that Paul was executed during the reign of Neo, which ended in A.D. 68.{2} And we know from Josephus that James was killed in 62. So we can conclude, beyond reasonable doubt that the book of Acts was written before 62.

If you’re still not convinced, consider this modern parallel: suppose someone wrote a book recording the events surrounding the main figures of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s. The book begins with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and includes the Civil Rights legislation of 1964, the marches and protests of Martin Luther King Jr, including his arrest and imprisonment, and his great “I have a dream” speech on the mall in Washington D.C. 

Question: If the book ends with of Martin Luther King Jr , the very leader of the movement, still alive, when would you conclude the book was written? Obviously before his assassination in April of 1968. This is the same situation we have with Luke’s narrative. His book ends with the main leaders still alive, which means it was written no later than 62. (Classical scholar and historian Colin Hemer gives thirteen additional reasons why Acts was written by 62.) {3}.

If Acts was written by 62, then the Gospel of Luke was written before that. How do we know? Because Luke reminds the original recipient of Acts, Theophilus (who was probably an important Roman official), that he had written to him earlier. The first verse of Acts says, “in my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began t do and to teach..” The ‘former book” must be the Gospel of Luke, because Luke addresses that to Theophilus as well (Luke 1:1-4, see citation below).

How much earlier is Luke? It would seem reasonable to place Luke at or before A.D. 60. Why? Because 62 is the latest Acts was written, and there had to be some time between Luke’s first writing to Theophilus and his second. If Acts is no later than 62 (and quite possibly earlier), then Luke is realistically 60 or before.

This date also makes sense in light of Paul’s quotation of Luke’s gospel. Writing sometime between A.D. 62-65. Paul quotes from Luke 10:7 and calls it ‘scripture’ (1Timothy 5:18). Therefore, Luke’s gospel must have been in circulation long enough before that time in order for both Paul and Timothy to know its contents & regard it as scripture. (By the way, this was no minor claim for Paul to make. In effect, he was making the bold assertion that Luke’s gospel was just as inspired as the Holy Jewish Bible. The Old Testament he treasured so much!)

If Luke was written by A.D. 60, then Mark must have been written in the mid-to-late 50’s if not earlier. Why question because Luke says that he got his facts by checking with eyewitness sources:

Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seems also good to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things that you have been taught. (Luke 1-4)

Most scholars believe Mark’s gospel was one of those eye witness sources. And if those Dead Sea Scrolls fragments we mentioned above are really from A.D. 50-70, then certainly Mark is earlier. But even if Mark isn’t before Luke, the very fact that we know beyond reasonable doubt that Luke is before 62 and probably before 60 means that we have meticulously recorded eye witness testimony written between 25 or 30 years of Jesus death, burial, and resurrection. This is far too early to be legendary. It also means that the eyewitness sources go back even earlier. How much earlier?

Some New Testament Book’s Were Penned In The 40s And 50s A.D., With Sources From The 30s (Only The A Few Years  After The Death Of Jesus)  

As certain as we are about the date of Luke’s records, there is no doubt from anyone, including the most liberal of scholars, that Paul wrote his first letter to the church at Corinth (which is in modern day Greece) sometime between 55 and 56. In this letter, Paul speaks about moral problems in the church, and then proceeds to discuss controversies about tongues, prophecies, and the Lord Supper. This, of course, demonstrates that the church in Corinth was experiencing some kind of miraculous activity and was already observing the Lord’s Supper with in 25 years of the Resurrection.

But the most significant aspect of this letter is that it contains the earliest and most authenticated testimony of the Resurrection itself. In the fifteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians, Paul writes down testimony he received from others and the testimony that was authenticated when Christ appeared to him:

For I delivered to you what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas (Peter), then the twelve. After that He appeared to more that five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remand until now, but some have fallen asleep; then He appeared to James, then to all of the apostles; and last of all, as it were to one untimely born, He appeared to me also (1 Cor. 15:3-8, NASB).

Where did Paul get what he ‘received’? He probably received from Peter and James when he visited them in Jerusalem three years after his conversion (Gal. 1:18). Why is this important? Because, as Gary Habermas points out, most scholars (even liberals) believe that this testimony was part of an early creed that dates right back to the Resurrection itself, eighteen months to eight years after, but some say even earlier. {4} There is no possible way that such testimony could describe a legend, because it goes right back to the time and place of the event itself. {5} If there was ever a place that a legendary Resurrection could not occur it was Jerusalem, because the Jews and the Romans were all too eager to squash Christianity and could have easily done so by parading Jesus’ body around the city.

More over, notice that Paul cites fourteen eyewitnesses whose names are known: the twelve apostles, James, and Peter himself (“Cephas” is the Aramaic for Peter), and then references an appearance to more than 500 others at one time. Included in those groups was one skeptic, James, and one outright enemy, Paul himself. By naming so many people who could verify what Paul was saying, he was, in effect, challenging his Corinthian readers to check him out. Bible scholar William Lillie puts it this way:

What gives a special authority to the list as historical evidence is the reference to most of the five hundred brethren being still alive. St. Paul says, in effect: “If you don’t believe me, you can ask them.” Such a statement in an admittedly genuine letter written within 30 years of the event is almost as strong evidence as one could hope to get for something that happened nearly two thousand years ago. {6}

If the Resurrection had not occurred, why would Paul give such a list of supposed eyewitnesses? He would have immediately lost all credibility with his Corinthian readers by lying so blatantly.

In addition to 1 Corinthians, there are numerous other New Testament documents that were written in the 50s or earlier. Galatians (A.D. 48), 1 Thessalonians (50-54), and Romans (57-58) are all in this category. In fact (and we know we may be going out on a limb here!) all of Paul’s works had to have been written before he died, which was sometime in the mid-60s.

But it’s not just conservative scholars who believe these early dates. Even some radical critics, such as atheist John A. T. Robinson, admit the New Testament documents were written early. Known for his role in launching the “Death of God” movement, Robinson wrote a revolutionary book titled Redating the New Testament, in which he posited that most New Testament books, including all four Gospels, were written sometime between A.D. 40 and 65.

The great and once-liberal archaeologist William F. Albright, after seeing how well the New Testament fit with the archaeological and historical data, wrote, “We can already say emphatically that there is no longer any solid basis for dating any book of the New Testament after about A.D. 80.” {7} Elsewhere Albright said, “In my opinion, every book of the New Testament was written by a baptized Jew between the 40s and the 80s of the first century (very probably sometime between about A.D. 50 and 75).” {8}

So we know beyond a reasonable doubt that most if not all the New Testament documents are early. But skeptics have a couple of objections.
 

SKEPTIC’S ADVOCATE

The Documents Are Not Early Enough

Some skeptics may think that a 15- to 40-year gap between the life of Christ and the writings about him is too wide for the testimony to be reliable. But they are mistaken.

Think about events that occurred 15 to 40 years ago. When historians write about those events, we don’t say, “Oh, that’s impossible! No one can remember events from that long ago! Such skepticism is clearly unwarranted. Historians today write accurately about events in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s by consulting their own memories, those of other eyewitnesses, and any written sources from the time.

This process is the same one the New Testament writers used to record their documents. Like a good reporter, Luke interviewed eyewitnesses.{9} And as we’ll see in the next chapter, some New Testament writers were eyewitnesses themselves. They could remember 15- to 40-year-old events quite easily, just as you can. Why can you remember certain events vividly from 15 to 40 years ago and (if you’re old enough) even further back? You may be able to remember certain events because they made a great emotional impact on you. (In fact, those of us who are “over the hill” can remember some events from 30 years ago better than those from 30 minutes ago!)

Where were you and what were you doing when President Kennedy was assassinated? When the Challenger exploded? When the second plane hit the tower? Why can you remember those events so well? Because they made a deep emotional impact on you. Since an event like the Resurrection certainly would have made a deep emotional impact on the New Testament writers and the other eyewitnesses they may have consulted, it’s easy to see why the history of Jesus could be easily recalled many years later, especially in a culture with an established reliance on oral testimony (more on this below).

Furthermore, if the major works of the New Testament are eyewitness accounts written within two generations of the events, then they are not likely to be legend. Why? Because historical research indicates that a myth cannot begin to crowd out historical facts while the eyewitnesses are still alive. For this reason, Roman historian A. N. Sherwin-White calls the mythological view of the New Testament “unbelievable”. {10} William Lane Craig writes, “The tests show that even two generations is too short to allow legendary tendencies to wipe out the hard core of historical fact.” {11} Inside of those two generation, eyewitnesses are still around to correct the errors of historical revisionists.

We are seeing this tendency right now with regard to the Holocaust. In early twenty-first century, we’ve begun to see some people claim that the Holocaust never happened. Why are the revisionists trying this now? Because most of the eyewitnesses have now died. Fortunately, since we have written eyewitness testimony from the Holocaust, the revisionists are not successful in passing off their lies as the truth. The same holds true for the New Testament. If the New Testament was written within 60 years of the events it records, it is highly unlikely those events could be legendary. And as we have seen, all of the New Testament documents were written within 60 years of the events, and many much earlier.
 

Why Not Earlier?

At this point the skeptic may say, “Okay, fine. The New Testament is early, but it’s not as early as I would expect. Why didn’t they write down their testimony earlier? If I saw what they said they saw, I wouldn’t wait 15 or 20 years to write it down.” There are a number of possible reasons for the wait.

First, since the New Testament writers were living in a culture where the vast majority of people were illiterate, there was no initial need or utility in writing it down. A first-century people in Palestine, by necessity, developed strong memories in order to remember and pass on information. Craig writes,

•  
  In an oral culture like that of first-century Palestine the ability to memorize and retain large tracts of oral tradition was a highly prized and highly developed skill. From the earliest age children in the home, elementary school, and the synagogue were taught to memorize faithfully sacred traditions. The disciples would have exercised similar care with the teachings of Jesus.{12} 

In such an oral culture, facts about Jesus may have been put into a memorable form. There’s good evidence for this. Gary Habermas has identified forty one short sections of the New Testament that appear to be creeds, compact sayings that could easily be remembered and that were probably passed along orally before they were put into writing (one of these creeds we’ve already mentioned. I Cor. 15: 3-8.) {13}

Second, since some of the New Testament writers may have had high hopes that Jesus was going to come backing their lifetime, they saw no immediate need to write it down. But as they aged, perhaps they thought it wise to put their observations down on Papyrus.

Third, as Christianity spread all over the ancient world, writing became the most efficient means to communicate with the rapidly expanding church. In other words, time and distance forced the New Testament writers to write it down.

On the other hand, there may not have been a gap for at least one Gospel. If those fragments from the Dead Sea Scrolls are really from Mark (and they most likely are), then that Gospel might have been written in the 30s. Why? Because the fragments are of copies, not of the original. If we have copies from the 50s, then the original must have been earlier.{14}

Moreover, many scholars believe there actually were written sources that predate the Gospels. In fact, Luke, in the first four verses of his Gospel, says that he checked with other sources, though some of these may have been earlier Gospels (e.g., Matthew and Mark).{15} Was one of his sources Mark’s Gospel? We don’t know for sure. It certainly seems like Luke is speaking of several other written sources, because he says, “Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us…” (Luke 1:1). Luke may have referenced Mark’s Gospel and other written testimonies including public court records from Jesus’ trial.

In the end, it doesn’t really matter whether or not there were written sources that predate the New Testament. Nor does it matter if Mark was written in the 30s A.D. Why? Because the documents we do know about are early enough and contain early source material. As we’ll see in the next chapter, many if not all of the New Testament documents were written by eyewitnesses or their contemporaries within 15 to 40 years of Jesus, and some contain oral or other written testimony that goes back to the Resurrection itself. In other words, the real issue isn’t so much the date of writings, but the date of the sources used in the writings. 

Why Not More?

Skeptics may ask, “If Jesus actually did rise from the dead, shouldn’t there be more written about Him than there is?” In response, we actually have more testimony that we might expect, and certainly more than enough to establish beyond a reasonable doubt what happened. As we have seen, Jesus is referenced by far more authors than the Roman emperor at the time (Jesus’ 43 authors to Tiberius’s 10 to 150 years of their lives). Nine of those authors were eyewitnesses or contemporaries of the events, and they wrote 27 documents, the majority of which mention or imply the Resurrection. That’s more than enough to establish historicity.

For those who still think there should have been even more written about Jesus, New Testament scholar Craig Blomberg offers four reasons why that’s not a reasonable expectation: 1) the humble beginnings of Christianity; 2) the remote location of Palestine on the eastern frontiers of the Roman Empire; 3) the small percentage of the works of ancient Graeco-Roman historian that have survived (this could be due to loss, decay, destruction, or all of the above); and 4) the lack of attention paid by surviving historical documents to Jewish figures in general.{16}

Nevertheless, some skeptics still think there should be testimony from some of the 500 people who allegedly saw the risen Christ. Skeptic Farrell Till is one of them. During a debate on the Resurrection that I (Norm) had with him in 1994, Till demanded, “Trot out one of those 500 witnesses or give us something that they wrote, and we will accept that as reliable proof or evidence.”{17}

This is an unreasonable expectation, for a number of reasons.

 First, as we have already pointed out, first-century Palestine was an oral culture. Most people were illiterate and remembered and passed on information orally.Second, how many of those predominately illiterate eyewitnesses would have written something even if they could write? Even today, with a much higher literacy rate and all the conveniences of modern writing and research tools, how many people do you know who have written a book or even an article on any subject? How many do you know who have written a book or article on a contemporary historical event, even a significant event like 9/11? Probably not many, and certainly fewer than one out of 500. (Has Farrell Till ever written an article on a major historical event he witnessed?)Third, even if some of those 500 average people did write down what they saw, why would skeptics expect their testimony to survive for 2,000 years? The New Testament survives intact because of the thousands of manuscripts copied by scribes for a growing church over the centuries. Historical works from the major ancient historians such as Josephus, Tacitus, and Pliny survive in just a handful of copies, and those copies are hundreds of years from the originals. Why do the skeptics think anything is going to be written, much less survive, from an ancient group of illiterate Galilean peasants?{18}Finally, we do know the names of many of the 500, and their testimony is written down in the New Testament. They include Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter, Paul, and James – plus nine who are named elsewhere as apostles (Matthew 10 and Acts 1).

So we shouldn’t expect more testimony than what we have about Jesus. And what we do have is more than enough to establish historicity.

Below is A Pdf link of  the original with the References

http___www.inplainsite.org_html_dating_the_nt

Fear mongering is often found today in Christan circles, fear of a one world Religion, fear of the Illuminati, fear of the secret socities and the supposed power they hold over the common man. Fear of a modernised electronic banking system using implanted silicon chips in their clients. These fears extend to being left behind when the imminent rapture finally arives and the great tribulation of the dispensational quacks leaves them at the mercy of a global antichrist’s meglomania. The latest is the 2012 scenario based upon a supposed translation of an ancient mayan stone calendar. Some Christians spend their lives on studying cults, prophecies,secret socities as a claim to knowing their common enemies.

My question to them is “Why dont you find out who you are first“?

Ephesians 1:18/19 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us–ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.

The Apostle Paul wants your mind to be renewed into grasping  your postion in Christ and the Authority and  Power you hold in the victory of Christ.

4 ¶ Ephesians 2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

The first point he wants to establish in the readers mind is that God Absolutely Loves you.

Joh 3:16  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

The second point Paul wants you to grasp is the power you wield:

Joh 1:12  But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

The Third Point is whre you should be operating From;

Heb 12:22 But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.

The Book of Revelation is laid out in exactly the same manner, First the letters to the seven churches followed by John the Apostle being Caught up into the Throne Room Of God.

Re 1:11 Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches

Re 4:1  After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter

Paul wants us to occupy our position in Christ , In that we were raised up with Christ and endured with the power of God.
!. Christ is sitting in The Throne Room of God with your Spirit alongside him.
2. You Should be exercising your Authority from and in the Throne Room.

Mt 28:18  And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

Christs assertion of his Authority is that it extends to him , firstly from Heaven, secondly it is exercised and demonstrated on earth.

Paul insists that we put on Christ.    Ro 13:14 But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ,

Paul wrote these letters after Christ’s Ascension into Heaven, It is the Risen, Ascended, Enthroned and  Glorified Christ that you should be clothing yourself with.

1Co 12:12  For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.

Today we have a New Song of Eternal Victory and Glory  to Sing :

I am sitting in the Glory ,sitting in the Glory, sitting in the Glory of the Lord

I am singing in the Glory, singing in the Glory .Singing in the Glory of the Lord

I am Standing in the Glory, Standing in the Glory, Standing in the Glory of the Lord

I am Living in the Glory ,Living in the Glory, Living in the Glory of the Lord

Eph 4:23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

When one is young in the Lord , and we set out to read the scriptures, our understanding is often clouded through a limited knowledge of the metaphors used by the scribes.

Sometimes others add to this confusion. 

Mt 3:10 And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

The verse above at first glance can be quite perplexing to the modern man when reading the King James Version. I personally have heard many differing interpretations of it. What do you understand by this or have heard others tell you? 

1. What is meant by the use of an axe?

2. What is meant by the root?

3. What are the trees John the baptist is speaking of?

4. What is meant by good fruit?

5. What is meant by hewn down?

6. Finally what fire is John the Baptist speaking off?

 Prophetic use of language is found in the prophets who brought a message of impending judgement upon apostate Israel. It is always in a historical contextual setting, and these words were spoken to the populace in a specific time frame: circ. Ad 26. It’s relevance today is to teach us the fear of the Lord as they were fulfilled to the letter.  

Isaiah 10:5/15 ¶ O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation.  I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few.  For he saith, Are not my princes altogether kings?   Is not Calno as Carchemish? is not Hamath as Arpad? is not Samaria as Damascus?   As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idols, and whose graven images did excel them of Jerusalem and of Samaria;  Shall I not, as I have done unto Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols?   Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks.

For he saith, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I am prudent: and I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man:  And my hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people: and as one gathereth eggs that are left, have I gathered all the earth; and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped.

Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it were no wood.

In the Above example in Isaiah we see the King of Assyria being called the Axe in the Hand of Lord.

Jeremiah 51:11 Make bright the arrows; gather the shields: the LORD hath raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes: for his device is against Babylon, to destroy it; because it is the vengeance of the LORD, the vengeance of his temple.

Jer 51:20 Thou art my battle axe and weapons of war: for with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms;

In this Example above we find the Medes and Persians being declared as the Lords Battle Axe.

The Lord had used the Assyrians (as his Battle Axe) against against the divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah. After the Assyrians had taken Israel into captivity (the Lost 10 tribes) , he turned the Assyrians back when the King o f Judah ,Hezekiah repented.

Later in their History Nebuchadnezzar invaded the Kingdom of Judah and took the remaining descendants to Babylon (the seventy year Babylonian Captivity ). Babylon fell to Cyrus the Persian and Darius the Mede who became the Lords Battle Axe.

Da 5:30 /31 In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain, And Darius the Median took the kingdom, being about threescore and two years old.

1. The Axe is an invasion by a foreign power . The Roman Empire was the invader in John the Baptist’s life. Mt 3:10 And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees . John’s use of words places it in his generation.

Mal 4:1 For, behold, 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, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

 John was reiterating that what was spoken of him by Malachi. He was the Levite messenger spoken of. 

Mal 2:7 For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts. 

Mal 3:1 Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.

There is a reason for this digression , because some have made the claim that they are Elijah and have led many astray in my generation. Modern Dispensationalist’s are prone to this type of error. Single verse eschatology that ignores the contextual historical setting of the prophets leads to this type of error

Mal 4:5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:

 Firstly John was a Descendant of the Priestly family of Levi the Son of Jacob, born to Zacharias and Elisabeth.

Luke 1:5 ¶ There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth.

 Christ confirms this by calling John Elijah(Hebrew). Elias (Greek equivalent)and the messenger of Malachi

 Mt 17:10/12 And his disciples asked him, saying, Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things. But I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them.

 Mt 11:8 /11 But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? behold, they that wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet. For this is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

 There were two anointed ones in the scriptures namely the King and The High Priest. (Note: read Zechariah)

 John as the Levite Prophet/High Priest who would Anoint the true King of Judah and Israel.

 Christ’s descent through Mary the Cousin of Elisabeth the granddaughter of Aaron the first High Priest under the Law of Moses, unites these two offices in one person, when he was baptised by John.

 Mathew 3:14/17 But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him. And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

 Heb 7:1 For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him;

Heb 6:20 Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.

 With this understanding we have a historical backdrop to the events in the Gospels and the ability to refute any pretender to these titles. Also we begin to understand why Herod ordered the murder of the infants, and why John was beheaded.

 Mt 3:10 And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

 John’s words of fire were an apocalyptic message to those who understood what he was saying. It is none other than the overthrow of status-quo in power at that time.

 Herod the Great who had obtained the Kingdom through his allegiance to Rome , as an Idumean he was a descendant of Esau and did not have the lineage to support his claims. Secondly the Herod’s gave the High Priest title to men of their own choosing, some even bought it. (see Josephus)

 Mal 1:2/3 I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob, And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.

 2. The Root is the source of the lineage contained in the family tree. No descendants and pretenders will be able to follow them.

Jer 49:10 But I have made Esau bare, I have uncovered his secret places, and he shall not be able to hide himself: his seed is spoiled, and his brethren, and his neighbours, and he is not.

 Now we come to the trees themselves and how they are linked to these apocalyptic words of fire from John.

 Lu 13:18/19 Then said he, Unto what is the kingdom of God like? and whereunto shall I resemble it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast into his garden; and it grew, and waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it.

 Eze 31:18 To whom art thou thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? yet shalt thou be brought down with the trees of Eden unto the nether parts of the earth: thou shalt lie in the midst of the uncircumcised with them that be slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord GOD.

3. Trees are the Kingdoms that rule over nations. They are the dynasties in power over the populace.

 Mt 3:10 And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

 John has proclaimed the demise of the dynasty of Herod’s and the various leadership groups namely the priesthood, the Pharisees and the Sadducees and their scribes and teachers.

 Every time the kings of Israel and Judah went astray and became idolatrous , the Lord would send a prophet who would proclaim their demise.

 Jer 27:8 And it shall come to pass, that the nation and kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, saith the LORD, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand.

 4. The bearing of good fruit is staying true to the Lord God of Abraham , Isaac and Jacob and obeying his commands. Apostasy leads to Judgment.

 Mt 3:10 And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. 

Mt 23:23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.

 To conclude it is evident that the words of Christ and of John were fulfilled during the lifespans of that apostate generation. The Herod’s lost their kingdom and the Pharisees and the Sadducees saw the words being fulfilled forty years after Christ ascended into Heaven . The Romans Invaded Judea and the Temple was burnt to the ground , the populace were scattered and many were sold into slavery. Today Israel has neither a King, a Temple or a High-priesthood. The Body of Christ has a high priest , the Heavenly Jerusalem and an Eternal King of Kings sitting at the Right hand of the Father.

Mr 8:38 Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

Mt 23:36 Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.

Lamentations 5:1/19 ¶ Remember, O LORD, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach. Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens. We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows. We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us. Our necks are under persecution: we labour, and have no rest. We have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread. Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities. Servants have ruled over us: there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand. We gat our bread with the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness. Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine. They ravished the women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of Judah. Princes are hanged up by their hand: the faces of elders were not honoured. They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood. The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their musick. The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning. The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned! ¶ For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim. Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it. Thou, O LORD, remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to generation.

Luke 13:34/35 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate: and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

Luke 19:41/44 ¶ And when he was come near, he beheld the city (jerusalem), and wept over it, Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.

 5. The apocalyptic fall of Israel’s Capital city and it being demolished was the hewing down of the Nation.

Mt 3:10 And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

The infant church fled to the mountains having heeded Christ’s words and those of John the Baptist. 

Lu 21:20 /24 And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto. For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.

Mr 13:14 But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not, (let him that readeth understand,) then let them that be in Judaea flee to the mountains:etcetera

Mt 22:7 But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.

 Jerusalem was burnt to the ground by the Romans and was purged by fire.

 6. Fire is used of the purging and cleansing of the land.

 Mt 3:10 And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

 Mt 24:28 For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.

 Verse 28. For wheresoever the carcass is , the dead carcass. The Jewish nation, which was morally and judicially dead.

 There will the eagles The Roman armies, called so partly from their strength and fierceness, and partly from the figure of these animals which was always wrought on their ensigns, or even in brass, placed on the tops of their ensign-staves. It is remarkable that the Roman fury pursued these wretched men wheresoever they were found. They were a dead carcass doomed to be devoured; and the Roman eagles were the commissioned devourers. See the pitiful account in Josephus, WAR, b. vii. c. 2, 3, 6, 9, 10, and 11. (from Adam Clarkes Comentary)

The Jewish War-Book VI

 CONTAINING THE INTERVAL OF ABOUT ONE MONTH. FROM THE GREAT EXTREMITY TO WHICH THE JEWS WERE REDUCED TO THE TAKING OF JERUSALEM BY TITUS.

 CHAPTER 1.

 The miseries of the Jews increase—The Romans make an assault on the tower of Antonia. 70 AD

(1) Thus did the miseries of Jerusalem grow worse and worse every day, and the seditious were still more irritated by the calamities they were under, even while the famine preyed upon themselves, after it had preyed upon the people. (2) And, indeed, the multitude of carcasses that lay in heaps one upon another was a horrible sight, and produced a pestilential stench, which was a hinderance to those who would make sallies out of the city and fight the enemy: but as those were to go in battle array who had been already used to ten thousand murders, and must tread upon those dead bodies as they marched along, (3) so were not they terrified, nor did they pity men as they marched over them; nor did they deem this affront offered to the deceased to be any ill omen to themselves; (4) but as they had their right hands already polluted with the murders of their own countrymen, and in that condition ran out to fight with foreigners, they seem to me to have cast a reproach upon God himself, as if he were too slow in punishing them; for the war was not now gone on with as if they had any hope of victory; for they gloried after a brutish manner in that despair of deliverance they were already in. (5) And now the Romans, although they were greatly distressed in getting together their materials, raised their banks in twenty-one days, after they had cut down all the trees that were in the country that adjoined to the city, and that for about twelve miles all around, as I have already related. (6) And truly, the very view itself of the country was a melancholy thing; for those places which were before adorned with trees and pleasant gardens, were now become a desolate country all over, and its trees were all cut down: (7) nor could any foreigner that had formerly seen Judea and the most beautiful suburbs of the city, and now saw it as a desert, but lament and mourn sadly at so great a change; (8) for the war had laid all the signs of beauty quite waste: nor, if anyone that had known the place before had come suddenly to it now, would he have known it again; but though he were at the city itself, yet would he have inquired for it notwithstanding.

Mt 3:10 And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. 

Malachi 4:1 ¶ For, behold, 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, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

 The proof a true prophet of God is the fulfillment of his message. Today so many false prophets who have no understanding of the historical and contextual setting of the gospels proclaim that these words of Christ and the prophets are still to be fulfilled.

 Mt 5:17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

Below   is  a link  to the   Document in  pdf  format  which you can save and distribute

 Figures of Speech found in the Scriptures.

I have undertaken this work, to promote the Glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and his Covenant with those of mankind who have placed their God given faith in him.

During my many sojourns amongst various denominations there were truths I learnt and falsehoods that were being propagated as divinely inspired. It is important for one to discern truth and hold to it, and equally important to be able to recognise error and refute it. Our only safeguard in this matter is the divinely inspired cannon of the scripture. But even that alone is not enough for there are many counterfeit Christian cults who use the scripture to ensnare the ignorant. Only God by the inspiration of Holy Spirit can guide us into the truth contained in the divine scriptures. Now in order to see that we are following the correct path and are not being deluded by a counterfeit spirit, we need to confirm our steps by reading the writings of those who have gone before us, and examine the truth’s they held to.

One of the problems we encounter on the way is that men can be extremely credible, and due to our limited knowledge of the scripture, they may earn our trust and acceptance, and yet still bring us into the bondage of plausible falsehoods. This they normally do by stringing isolated bits of scripture to produce a mosaic of uncorroborated myths. The pathway out of this is Context, and always and only Context. Every passage must be examined in the light of its setting and context. To do otherwise would be to misquote Christ and place another meaning upon his words. Some portions of scripture are extremely difficult to believe, and require the abandoning of your will and some of your cherished notions. In order to build knowledge of the scripture, one must focus on Christ for he is the only foundation of our faith. Secondly we must learn to recognise what God is doing in the passages, so often we look for what we must do, or think it is ourselves that the passage refers to. I have heard acclaimed preachers make such notorious mistakes like saying someone in the scripture made the wrong decision, when re-examining their assertion you discover that had they done so we would never have received the Gospel, for Israel would have perished had Joseph decided not to tell anyone about his dreams, as they recommend to their hearers. This is because they champion human sovereignty in matters of faith, instead of God’s sovereignty in saving the elect. They Champion mans will instead of God’s will. They Champion works instead of Grace.

So now we come to the contents of this book and its purpose. Its purpose is to discount some very popular preached notions of the seventieth week of Daniel, and the covenant in its midst. I once was under the sway of these notions and some of their falsehoods I cherished and was thoroughly deluded by them. You the reader may be in the same spot on your Journey with Christ and are still holding to these erroneous views. Please read my treatise for I am not condemning you but attempting to lead you into a greater understanding of this very important subject, for at its heart is priceless Gem that will establish you and ground you in the truth that is in Christ Jesus. It will also set you free of those who seek to make merchandise of you. I spent much money on books about the end times, which I later discovered to be mere myth because the foundational structure was erroneous. This has not happened overnight and it has taken twenty years on this journey of faith and looking behind I can now see through this specific delusion. I hope this work will help you to get there quicker than I did. If you begin reading this work please finish it, for if you do not finish plowing through it you will glean no harvest from it. Should you put it aside I trust that God will one day lead you back to it when you have sufficient grasp of the scriptures to stomach it.

This book is dedicated to the Elect of God to Glorify Christ and the Covenant he laid his life down to confirm.

Yours in Christ

David Harry Hume

21st Day of January 2002.

Note this is Excerpt from  a work I undertook a few years ago, Below is the Link to the complete document in Adobe pdf format .

Jerusalem and the Messiah

1Co 13:12  For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

I must add this comment  that during following years after writing this treatise , some of  my formely held views of Eschatology changed from a futurist position to a preterist position of  fullfilment in the first century AD. Their is a video on this site by Kenneth Gentry on audience relevance and one should view this to grasp the reason why!  Use the video tag to find it.

 

I have created an excerpt from this on his conclusions on the chronology of the scriptures. It makes intresting reading for those intrested in the differing views of Chronology.

The original was published in the 1830′s and contains Profane History and Bible History.  The Author was obviously a very learned man from the contents . For he reconciles the differing cultures of antiquity’s history to the scripture in vary lengthy detailed section .

He also has an understanding of  the use of the Hebrew Alphabet to denote large numbers.

Their are some surprises within its contents , that to some will be highly controversial.

 If you want the entire document then copy  the heading of this  post to paste and search in google as they scanned and digitized the book (511 pages).

Below is a link to my excerpt.

Historical Chronology_ by_ William_ Hales

NB If  you dont have a high speed broadband connection the download may take some time.

John 6:15 “When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed”

 I. CONTEXT OF THE REIGN

 The term “thousand years” should be understood as an apocalyptic reference to the throne of Christ as King over temporal Israel in its last days.  The period in question point to the 40 year period between the cross and the end of that nation with the destruction of its capital (Jerusalem) in A.D.70.   Christ’s reign started at the resurrection, we are explicitly told in Scripture (Acts 2:29-31).  This statement, then, effectively ends the discussion of the beginning of a temporal reign in the future, in my opinion.   From a broader perspective, forty years was the length of the reigns of all three kings of the undivided Israel – and Christ was and is the final king of Israel.  In addition, a reign of a thousand years was seen in common Roman parlance as bespeaking supremacy and invincibility (the Nazis later seized upon this “thousand year” imagery with their talk of the “Third Reich”).

 The 40 years from AD30-70 were the years in which Jesus reigned over Israel (and the nations) with a rod of iron – iron symbolizing the Roman armies/nation. Acts 2:29-31 states that Christ was raised to sit on the throne of David.  I Corinthians 15:25 infers that Jesus was presently reigning. Hebrews 12:2 states that Christ is set down at the right hand of God’s throne.  In Revelation, he claims to possess the keys of hell and death – all images of conquest.  My opinion is that without the background of the reigns of the kings of undivided Israel, the apocalyptic term thousand years will be misapplied. One thing that seems apparent — Revelation being the book of symbols it is –  that “thousand years” is a numerical symbol not meant to imply one thousand annuals.

 The teaching of a temporal, earthly millennial reign of Christ is based upon the beliefs that:

 1. The promises to Jewish nation after the flesh are still unfulfilled

2. The promises of an everlasting land of possession relate to the temporal land of Palestine

3. That the “Israel of God” in Galatians 6:15-16 is to be identified with the modern Israeli state. 

The origin of the “earthly thousand year reign of Jesus” is traced by fourth-century historian Eusebius, who declares in Ecclesiastical History, Book III, Chapter XXXIX:

“This same historian (Papias) also gives other accounts, which he says he adds as received by him from unwritten tradition, likewise certain strange parables of our Lord, and of His doctrine and some other matters rather too fabulous. In these he says there would be a certain millennium after the resurrection, and that there would be a corporeal reign of Christ on this very earth; which things he appears to have imagined, as if they were authorized by the apostolic narrations, not understanding correctly those matters which they propounded mystically in their representations. For he was very limited in his comprehension, as is evident from his discourses; yet he was the cause why most of the ecclesiastical writers, urging the antiquity of man, were carried away by a similar opinion; as, for instance, Irenaeus, or any other that adopted such sentiments.”

II. IDENTIFYING ISRAEL

     When Christ proclaimed to the Jews in Matthew 21 that ‘the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof,’ He was emphasizing that whatever Amos 3:2 relationship between God and temporal Israel was no longer effective.  The fall of Jerusalem and the temple 40 years after proved it, as well.   Since that time, communion with God is not based upon a national basis, but solely upon a personal relationship with Christ through circumcision of the heart. This is abundantly confirmed throughout the New Testament and Old, even in Deuteronomy 4, where God foretells the nation’s desolation, declaring, “I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto ye go over Jordan to possess it; ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed” (v. 26).

     Christ was authorized to declare the change of this contractual relationship, because “to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ” (Gal. 3:16). Christ is the heir of the promises, and the only way to become a ‘joint-heir with Christ’ (Rom. 8:17) of this same promise, Jew or Gentile, is by being “born of  the Spirit”. Romans 9:8 clarifies this by declaring that “they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.” In other words, there is no kingdom for the Israelites after the flesh post-AD70.   To put it another way, all promises to the nation of Israel after the flesh were fulfilled (cf. Josh. 21:43-45; I Ki. 8:56), and all others were only redeemable in Jesus Christ, the “heir of all things” (Heb. 1:2).

     Therefore, when we see any promises given to O.T. Israel, in this case the promise of an everlasting possession of land (Gen. 15:7; 17:8), we know that they were either completely fulfilled, or they were initially promised to Jesus Christ (Gal. 3:8,16), therefore, they are only redeemable in Jesus Christ, and specifically through the body thereof (Eph 2:16-22, 2 Cor. 1:20).

     Knowing that the Everlasting Covenant promises are eternal in Christ, any promises within that covenant are eternal and not temporal. The land of rest, as promised in the initial discussion with Abraham, is none other that the eternal kingdom of God, and the rest within the redemption of the New Covenant, as Hebrews 3 and 4 share.

Hebrews 4:3 “For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world

Hebrews 4:10 “For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.”

      (Incidentally, this is the only way to properly answer the Seventh-day Adventist, who rightly declares that the Sabbath was never “moved” to Sunday. We see, rather, that the rest (“sabbatismos”) promised here is redemptive life in Jesus Christ; therefore, our Sabbath is eternal!) 

      Therefore, any attempt to teach that the eternal promises in Christ are fulfilled in the temporal realm is an unfortunate lack of spiritual sight regarding God’s plan of redemption.  As always, one must examine how Scriptures are to be interpreted.  Oftentimes, the method of interpretation (hermeneutic) chosen will determine the outcome.   We will miss the true message if we do not apply the spiritual hermeneutic exalted in the Scriptures (cf. John 3:6; II Cor 4:18; Gal 4:24) For more information on this rest, please read “The Forty Years in Biblical Typology.”

      Revelation 20 refers to a specific life and reign with Christ, which period is identified as being “thousands” of years. So, to be able to answer every question regarding a physical, temporal reign of Christ on the earth, regardless of the length, we must determine what the Kingdom of Christ is, and what relationship it has to the thousand year period of which is spoken in Revelation, chapter twenty.

 III. “In The Days Of These Kings”

      The first matters of importance are relative to determining the ‘what’ and the ‘when’ of the establishment of the Kingdom of Christ. The common belief, albeit mistaken, is that the ‘temporal millennial kingdom’ is that which is spoken of by Daniel the prophet, in chapter two (v. 44). The kingdom in this prophecy is described as being established by God which, unlike all others, would never be destroyed (or cease), but, rather, would break in pieces all other kingdoms. That kingdom was said to be established in the times of the kingdoms that led up to the day of Christ (Dan 2:44). It is clear that the iron kingdom (v. 40), which directly preceded the establishment of the everlasting kingdom, was the Roman empire. This fact enables us to understand when the kingdom was going to be established, as Daniel told the king that “in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed.” The important fact in this is, of course, that the Roman empire is no longer in existence, demanding that the establishment of the kingdom as being a historical event. Not being deterred by Biblical facts, many attempt to maneuver around this by teaching that this kingdom can still be temporally established in the future day of a ‘Revived Roman Empire’ kingdom (does anyone else sense their desperation?). As we shall see, there is absolutely no scriptural evidence to support this claim.

 IV. “A Kingdom Which Shall Never Be Destroyed”

      Concerning the ‘what’ of the kingdom, the same prophecy contains Daniel telling the king that the prophetic kingdom has its own eternal King, who is identified as being a ‘stone’ that breaks in pieces all other kingdoms. This Stone is, obviously, none other than Jesus Christ himself, who is the King of kings, and the King of the eternal kingdom of God. Christ even identifies himself as the ‘stone’ (Matthew 21:42-44; Mark 12:10; Luke 20:17-18), and the Apostles do as well (Acts 4:11-12; Eph. 2:20; I Peter 2:6-8). This clearly shows that, whenever this kingdom was founded, it was to be established by Jesus Christ.

      If all reference to this kingdom ended here, we might be left in confusion with doubts as to the nature of the kingdom, as were the Jews. Looking at the light afforded by the New Testament Scriptures, however, we can point to the time of its establishment, ending all doubt. Luke 1:31-33, containing the pronouncement of the angel to Mary, concerning her son, reads,

 ”behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.”

      This is the very same prophecy as that given by Daniel. Jesus Christ is the King establishing this everlasting kingdom, sitting upon the throne of David (Acts 2:29-31) forever (not simply 1000 years). When questioned as to whether he was a king, Christ answered Pilate, saying , “To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world” (John 18:37-38). Christ confirmed that He would receive His kingdom upon the completion of His ministry of reconciliation, when He told those gathered around Him, that, “Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power” (Mark 9:1; Matt. 16:28).

     Another conclusive confirmation of this fact is seen in Acts 2:29-31, in which it is stated by Peter that God ‘would raise up Christ to sit upon [David's] throne’. Therefore, the fulfillment of the prophecies of the angel and Daniel was found upon the resurrection of Christ.

      Christ, in parable, further explained these matters, attempting to open the spiritual eyes of the Jews, and end all confusion in regards to the kingdom. In Luke 19:11, “he added and spake a parable, because he was nigh unto Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear.” Christ Himself, to clarify the issue of whether or not He would reign on earth, millennial kingdom or otherwise, explained to them in a parable, saying, “therefore, A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return.” This alone shows that Christ is not waiting until a future millennium to receive His kingdom, he will receive His kingdom, and then return! Continuing with the parable, Jesus says in verse 15, “and it came to pass that when he was returned, having received the kingdom…” Therefore, we see that the kingdom has already been given to Jesus Christ prior to His second coming, which is the day of the Lord. This is just as He said in Matthew 16:28, declaring, in a more broad version on Mark 9:1,

 ”Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom” (See also Matt. 26:64; 24:31,31,34; Mark 8:38; Rev. 1:7).

      Christ removes any need for a future period to accomplish this. Jesus established his ‘stone kingdom’, and reigns as King, with “all authority” of a King, as he proclaimed in Matthew 28:18. Many take this truth, however, and pervert it in order to teach that the Kingdom of God is a temporal kingdom which will overtake the world’s kingdoms in a physical sense. They, as well as the others, are mistaken as to the nature of the everlasting kingdom. We have addressed the issue of Who the King is, and when the kingdom was established, but in order to understand what the kingdom is, we must understand its realm.

 V. “Flesh And Blood Cannot Inherit”

      Paul wrote in I Cor. 15:50 that “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God”. This is consistent with Christ’s teachings in John 18:36, that “[His] kingdom is not of this world”. We know also that the land of promise of the everlasting covenant is not a temporal plot of land, but, rather, eternal in Jesus Christ (Heb. 4:1-11; 11:13-16). Therefore, knowing that the realm of the kingdom is eternal- a possession that is not of this world, which fulfills the eternal promises given to Christ and the temporal promises given to Abraham, we can use Scripture to clearly identify its realm.

      In terms of the everlasting promise made to Christ and Abraham (Gal. 3:16) concerning this land, we can identify the realm through the eternal purposes of Christ. II Samuel 7 contains the promise of God to David that his seed would establish the kingdom and build a house for the Lord God (Jesus Christ). It is described as being a house in an everlasting kingdom.. but where will it be? The Old Testament identifies this everlasting possession as being Canaan and Jerusalem (See How are the O.T. Prophecies to be Interpreted?) it is true, but it is not the land of today, for we know that it will, as will all temporal things, eventually pass. Besides this, Abraham was not waiting for a temporal kingdom, but “he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Heb. 11:10). Even more conclusively, Hebrews 11:13-16 declares that the land of promise which all the Old Testament saints sought was not of this earth, but “a better country, that is an heavenly.” They understood that God “hath prepared for them a city.”

      That eternal land is identified specifically in the New Testament as being the heavenly Jerusalem which, as we saw in the book of Hebrews was the better country the saints desired (Heb. 11:13,16). The promise of the everlasting possession of this land, just as every other promise to God’s people, can only be received through new birth in Jesus Christ (Rom. 413-18; 8:14-17; 9:6-8; Eph. 1:10-12, etc.).

      The land is the new Jerusalem, and upon resurrection, that is, being born again, we become fellow-citizens (Eph 1:19-21) with the ‘saints in light’, and joint-heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:14-17), seated in heavenly places (Eph 2:6), even though the tabernacles of our bodies are still on earth. This heavenly city (Heb. 11:10,16) is the Kingdom of God and Christ (Eph. 5:5), which Christ said he went to prepare (John 15). This land has been populated with the saints ever since Christ opened it doors at the completion of the Old Covenant (Matt. 25:31-34). In fact, it is the souls of these saints who “reign with Christ during the thousand years”, in that kingdom, with its capital city, the New Jerusalem, which is “the mother of us all (who believe)” (Gal 4:26).

     Revelation 20:4 speaks of the reign of the “souls” of the saints in this city as being upon the first resurrection, leading many to imply that the Bible teaches two different resurrections, but this first resurrection is simply the circumcision of the heart- and passing from death unto life (John 5:24; Eph 2:1,4-6; etc.), even though we retain this body of our tabernacle. Over these the “second death hath no power” (Rev. 20:6), who have become “kings and priests unto God, and his Father” (Rev. 1:6). Ephesians 2:3-6 clearly shows that by His having “quickened us together with Christ”, we have been resurrected, and “passed from death unto life” (John 5:21-24; Colossians 2:12-13). And so, the reign of the ‘first resurrection’, in the city of God is upon being born again.  F.W. Farrar makes a point that St. Paul may have been held particularly in mind as being one of those “beheaded” for the gospel.

      In regards to Revelation chapter twenty, the reign with Christ during the ‘thousand years,’ though of the same substance of our being priest and kings (Rev. 1:5), is in reference to a specific period of reign. I Cor. 15:25 describes this reign as being “till he hath put all enemies under his feet.” The souls reign with Christ during this period, and that the rest of the dead lived not again until that period was finished. And, knowing that the resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked will occur at the ‘last day’ of the Old Covenant (John 5:29; 6:37-44; 11:24; 12:48), Revelation chapter twenty, regardless of a seeming numerical contradiction, is referring to the ‘time of provocation’, from A.D. 30 to A.D. 70 (Heb. 3:7-4:10).

 A/The Thousand Years

     Though Futurist Christian writers are happy to identify a number of passages that refer to the day/year principle revealed in Bible prophecy,  it seems like none have tried to apply any such principles to this passage, demanding instead that the phrase “thousand years” be taken as literal years.  There are a number of ways to approach this passage from a less rigid way, though. 

     First of all, it must be considered that the day/year principle of Daniel’s Seventy Weeks is applicable here, as well.  For instance, perhaps this passage is talking about 1000 days – which is roughly three years.  This three-year imagery is very consistent with other references in the preceding chapters, as well as will many other “three-year” references throughout the Bible.

      There is certainly the sense in which the number ‘one thousand’ is used as a numerologically figurative instrument in the Bible. This should be no surprise to those acquainted with the language of the Bible, knowing the number of times it is used as such, in both the Old Testament and New. In fact, God rarely uses real time factors in making any prophetic declaration. A day becomes a year, as well as a time, etc., and it is up to the heart of the reader to understand (I Cor 15:46). When Jesus Christ ‘owns the cattle on a thousand hills’ (Psalm 50:10), that does not mean that He owns not that on the thousand and first.   It also does not necessarily mean “thousands and thousand.”

 ”I believe the postmills correctly interpret “a thousand” in Ps. 50:10, but that they infer an erroneous standard from that interpretation.  I think what we should infer from Ps. 50:10 is not that “a thousand” always signifies “many thousands,” but that “a thousand” signifies “all” (of something), “fulness.” – Dave Green, YG 14 Dec, PretCosmos

     Isaiah 60:21-22 adds “Thy people shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified. A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation: I the Lord will hasten it in his time.” (See also Gen. 24:60; Ex. 20:6; 34:7; Lev. 26:8; Num. 1:16; Deut. 1:11; 5:10; 7:9; 32:30; 33:2; Josh. 23:10; Jud. 15:15-16; 1 Sam. 18:7; 1 Chr. 12:14; 16:15; Job 9:3; 33:23; Ps. 3:6; 84:10; 90:4; 91:7; 105:8; Ecc. 6:6; 7:28; Song 4:4; 5:10; Is. 30:17; 60:22; Matt. 18:24; 1 Cor. 4:15; 14:19; 2 Pet. 3:8; Jude 1:14; Rev. 21:16 – A few have specific numerical value, but that the number ‘thousand’ was chosen makes the same point).

 The term “thousand years” must be understood as an apocalyptic reference to the throne of Christ as King over Israel.  This fact directly points to the 40 year period between the cross and the destruction of the temple in A.D.70.     Christ’s reign started at the resurrection, we know for one thing (acts 2:29-31), which effectively ends the temporal kingdom discussion, in my opinion.    From a broader perspective, forty years was the length of the reign of all three kings of the undivided Israel – and Christ was the final king of Israel.  In addition, a reign of a thousand years was seen in common Roman parlance as bespeaking invincibility.

    The 40 years from AD30-70 were the years in which Jesus reigned over Israel (and the nations) with a rod of iron – iron also symbolizing the Roman armies/nation. Acts 2:29-31 states that Christ was raised to sit on the throne of David.  I Corinthians 15:25 infers that Jesus was presently reigning. Hebrews 12:2 states that Christ is set down at the right hand of God’s throne.  In Revelation, he claims to possess the keys of hell and death – all images of conquest.  My opinion is that without the background of the reigns of the kings of Israel, the apocalyptic term thousand years will be misapplied. One thing that seems apparent — Revelation being the book of symbols it is –  that “thousand years” means anything but one thousand annuals.

    Even though these arguments are forceful, it can be helpful to dig a little deeper.   For a different look at the issue, we should pursue the etymology of the word which is translated ‘thousand’ in this chapter of Revelation. There are nine different Greek words translated “thousand” in the New Testament alone, so our understanding of this particular word, and its morphology, are vital to understand the shade of meaning intended. Strong’s number 5507 is ‘chilioi’, specifically determined by its etymology, origins of which are declared as being a ‘plural of uncertain affinity’ translated ‘a thousand’ in Revelation 20, as well as II Peter 3:8. This is to be kept distinct from the word (5505) chilias, which is consistently used in reference to the literal numerical value of “one thousand.” Chilioi is unique, and to be held distinct from chilias, in that its plurality is not derived from any known numeric value, but, rather, is a singularly unique word, in its usage of the word “thousand.” This distinction is seen in the difference between these two words. Chilias is a noun and chilioi is an adjective. As an adjective, the word is more descriptive and therefore more suitable for a figurative use. This is very helpful, as we look at the oft-abused passage in II Peter 3, which uses the very same word in its description of the unknown relationship between God’s “time” and ours. Certainly not to be taken literally, II Peter 3:8 reads,

 2Pe 3:8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand <5507> years, and a thousand <5507> years as one day.

Chilioi intended to be taken like Shibah/Shabuwa?

      To demand a “literal” determination upon 5507 chilioi is not based upon an understanding of this singularly distinct Greek word, nor the intended usage thereof as an adjective.  The purpose for the usage of this word seems like the perpetuation of a common tactic in prophetic scriptures: use words that are odd or unique to emphasize certain aspects of prophecy.  The usage of chilioi may be seen, then, like the interpretation of “weeks” in Daniel 9.  Collin Sandler pointed out that “the word used for “weeks” is actually TWO words in the original text: shibah and shabuwa.”

 ”In his book “Daniel, Key to Prophetic Revelation,” John Walvoord cites Edward Young’s “The Prophecy Of Daniel”, which noted that Daniel used: “the masculine plural instead of the usual feminine plural. No clear explanation is given except that Young feels ‘it was for the deliberate purpose of calling attention to the fact that the word sevens is employed in an unusual sense.’” This word is found only FIVE times in the O.T., all in the 9th chapter of Daniel, twice in verse 24, twice in verse 25, and once in verse 26. Interestingly, Daniel’s verse 27 uses “shabuwa” (Strong’s 7620).”

 ”However, if you examine a J.P. Green interlinear, you should find FIVE instances of the Hebrew word “shibiym” (“Strong’s” 7657), and TWO instance of “shabuwa”.  According to “Strong’s”, “shibiym” is described as a “multiple [plurl] of 7651″, which is the word “sheba” in feminine gender and “shibah” in masculine gender. ”

 Other Considerations

      There are a couple of distinct aspects to the reign of Christ, in my opinion.  The first is the Old Covenantal reign over Israel — as the last King in the nation’s history.  And there is the eternal aspect of Christ’s everlasting kingdom reign.  Many temporal and spiritual specifics of the reign which Futurists unite into a single “millennial” period can actually be better understood by seeing this distinction .

 If we are looking to find a time-frame for the Revelation 20 events, I believe we will find them in AD30-AD70. The reason for only 40 years has much to do with the 40 years of wilderness wandering in the Exodus. Another reason for this period is Biblical evidence. In Acts 2:29-31 Peter said Christ was raised to sit on the throne of David. This begins the reign of the Kingdom at AD30. I Corinthians 15 confirms that Christ currently reigns, and places the end point of this special covenantal reign at the destruction of the temple (“enemies under his feet”). Hebrews 8:13 places the end of the Old Covenant shortly in the future, as well.

 The reign of Christ endures beyond the Old Covenant, though. This was a special Covenantal-promise given to Israel that Christ would be raised to sit upon the throne of David… a national throne ; however, there is the NEW Covenant reign of Christ which is a never-ending dominion.

 The verses which many use to speak of the blessedness of this reign (see Isaiah 66, et al) place them as being temporal blessings in a temporal land. The New Covenant reality, though, is that these are untold billions of spiritual blessings in the kingdom and (for our sake) in the lives of its ambassadors to the temporal realm. It is a spiritual land, king, throne, dominion, populace, temple, etc., etc.

 This view places all of the glory at the feet of Jesus Christ as a currently victorious sovereign. He needs nothing more to prove His divinity, nor his dominion over all the kings of the earth, and the fullness thereof, etc.

 This is the stone kingdom of Daniel, which was to be set up “in the days of these kings.” This is none other than the Temple of Ezekiel 47, which pours out an ever-increasing stream of the river of life. This is the mustard seed, which grows to cover the earth and provide lodging for all the birds of the air.  This is revealed in countless other Biblical types, pictures, and shadows.

 In short, ALL prophecy pointed to this current period of gospel dominion – world without end!

 Conclusion

      Having shown that the kingdom of God was established after Christ’s first advent (Luke 19:11-15; Acts 2:29-31; Mark 9:1; Matt. 16:28; Mark 8:38), and that its realm is in the heavenlies (Gal. 4:26; Heb. 11:13-16), and that Christ is its anointed King (Rev. 1:9, etc.), sitting upon the throne of David (Luke 1:31-33; Acts 2:29-31), we can also see many other reasons why there can be no future temporal reign of Christ.

      Concerning the reign of Christ, He is to reign from the midst of his temple during this period (2 Sam 7:13, etc.), and anybody who knows their Bible must concede that there will never again be a temple of God built by the hands of man (Rev. 21:22). Christ is reigning from His temple AT THIS TIME (Rev. 21:3; II Cor. 6:16), now that all enemies have become His footstool of Christ, and shall reign throughout eternity.

      In summation, with the fact that there are no unfulfilled promises to the nation of Israel ‘after the flesh’, the land of promise is not temporal, the kingdom is not temporal, the king is not temporal, all being eternally spiritual, and that Christ’s throne is an eternal throne, there cannot be a temporal reign of Christ, regardless of its duration. Besides this, one must realize that Christ’s glory is only revealed in the eternal realm. Some try to claim that the millennial realm will be temporal and spiritual, but these are the same people say that this realm will be occupied by both glorified bodies, and temporal bodies of flesh. All of the shadows of the Old Testament simply typified the eternal fulfillments under the New Covenant. Many have pointed this out, but Calvin, answering the question of why the chialists fall into this ‘horrendum dictu delirium’ (!), does so in an especially fine way, writing:

 ”For when we apply to it the measure of our own understanding, what can we conceive that is not gross and earthly? So it happens that like beasts our senses attract us to what appeals to our flesh, and we grasp at what is at hand. So we see that the Chialists (i.e. those who believed that Christ would reign on earth for a thousand years) fell into a like error.” Jesus intended “… to banish from the disciples’ minds a false impression regarding the earthly kingdom: for that, as He points out in a few words, consists of the preaching of the Gospel. They have no cause therefore to dream of wealth, luxury, power in the world or any other earthly thing when they hear that Christ is reigning when He subdues the world to Himself by the preaching of the Gospel. It follows from this that His reign is spiritual and not after the pattern of this world.”

- Comm. on Acts 1:8 (Torrance, VI, 32).

      We must realize that, on top of all the Biblical declarations by Christ and others, Christ’s glory and kingdom cascades beyond a temporal period (of only relative peace, by the way) into the great beyond of His eternal throne and realm, with all honor and glory going, not to the creation, but to the eternal creator forever.

( Click on image to Enlarge)

John 16:13  Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come.

Providential guidance and our direction throughout our lives will be imparted to us through the agency of the Comforter. His purpose is to establish the Kingdom of Heaven in us and through us.

Romans 9:11  (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;)

He is called the “Spirit of Truth” for he bears witness to the truth that is discovered through what has already been spoken and recorded for posterity in the scripture. In that the scripture comes alive through the illumination of the Comforter.

Ga 3:29  And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Our inheritance is based upon the promises made to Abraham, one of the Prominent Patriarchs found in the New Testament letters to the Churches.

Ephesians 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

Through the mediation of the Comforter, the New Covenant (Testament) scriptures reveal the Fathers Eternal purposes with his elect. In the letters what was once only the domain of the descendants of Jacob is now open and available to every tribe and tongue on this planet.

Romans 15:9  And that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy; as it is written, For this cause I will confess to thee among the Gentiles, and sing unto thy name.

Romans 15:16  That I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost.

Ephesians 3:6  That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:

Our future destiny is revealed, that just as Christ was resurrected, so to the Church (the elect) shall follow Christ through death, burial and resurrection followed by an ascension into the Kingdom of Heaven.

 Romans 6:5  For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:

1 Corinthians 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

1 Timothy 3:16  And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.

Colossians 1:27  To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

The Comforter reveals the ongoing fulfillment of the promises made to Abraham.

Genesis 26:4  And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;

Galatians 3:16  Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. 

1 Corinthians 12:12  For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.

1 Corinthians 12:13  For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.

The Church becomes the Corporate Body of Christ.  Christ has become as the Stars of Heaven, Just as we discover millions of stars in the universe, so to it is the purpose of God to multiply the Church Daily.

The One (Christ) becomes many and the many are one in the care and comfort of the Spirit of Truth.

Acts 11:26  And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.

Romans 15:4  For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

Excerpt By F F  Bruce

When the Persian king Cyrus brought the Babylonian Empire to an end in 539 B.C., he authorized a body of Jewish displaced persons to return to their home in Judæa, from which they had been deported by Nebuchadnezzar two generations previously, and to rebuild their national shrine in Jerusalem. After some years the temple was rebuilt, and its services were carried out anew by the members of the old priestly families, at whose head stood Jeshua, a scion of the house of Zadok, which had occupied the chief priesthood in the former temple since its  dedication by King Solomon about 960 B.C. down to its destruction by the Babylonians in 587. But, while the ancient chief-priestly family was restored to its sacred office, the royal house of David, which also returned from exile, was not restored to the kingship.

The new Jewish community was organized as a temple-state, consisting of Jerusalem and a few miles around. At the head of the state was the high priest, who controlled internal Jewish affairs; the wider interests of the Persian Empire were the responsibility of the civil governor of Judea,who was appointed by the crown. When, after two hundred years, the Persian Empire was in its turn brought to an end by Alexander the Great, no material change took place in the Jewish constitution. They had a Macedonian governor over them instead of one appointed by the Persian king; they had to pay taxes to a Macedonian court instead of to the Persian court; they were exposed to the powerful influence of Hellenistic culture. But the high priests of the house of  Zadok remained as before at the head of the Jewish temple-state. So matters continued under the domination of the Ptolemy’s, who inherited Alexander’s empire in Egypt and retained Palestine under their control until 198 B.C. When in that year they lost Palestine to the rival dynasty of the Seleucids, who had succeeded to Alexander’s heritage in the greater part of Asia, the transition was smooth so far as Judaea was concerned. To be sure, the increasing tendency to follow western ways caused grave concern to the more conservatively minded Jews, but they had no complaint against the Gentile government, which guaranteed the temple constitution and granted the utmost liberty in the practice of the Jewish religion.

For a variety of reasons a change came about with the accession of Antiochus IV (Epiphanes)t o the Seleucid throne in 175 B.C. Early in his reign he interfered with the Zadokite  succession to the high priesthood; later he tried to prohibit the Jewish religion altogether. This led to a national and religious rising, as a result of which Judaea ultimately secured complete political independence. The leaders of this rising, the priestly family of the Hasmoneans, became the ruling dynasty in the independent state, and assumed the high priesthood in addition to the chief civil and military power. From 142 to 63 B.C. the Jews preserved their hardly won independence under the Hasmoneans, but in the latter year they lost it to the Romans, who reorganized all the territory west of the Euphrates as part of their empire. But the Romans left a Hasmonean high priest in charge of the internal affairs of Judæa for over twenty years. In 40 B.C., however, the political situation in western Asia caused them to nominate one Herod as king of the Jews, and Herod ruled Palestine from 37 to 4 B.C. in the interests of Rome.

His son Archelaus, who succeeded him in Judæa, was deposed by the Roman Emperor in A.D. 6, and for the next sixty years Judæa was governed by procurators appointed by the Emperor, except for three years (A.D.41-44) when a grandson of Herod, Agrippa 1, reigned over Judæa as king. From the beginning of Herod’s reign the high priests, who were henceforth appointed by Herod and his descendants, or else by Roman governors, counted for less and less, although by virtue of their office they continued to preside over the Sanhedrin, the supreme court of the Jewish nation.

Misrule by Roman procurators, combined with an increasing intolerance of Gentile control on the part of Jewish nationalists, led to the Jewish revolt of A.D. 66 and the destruction of the city and temple of Jerusalem by the Roman forces in A.D. 70. With the fall of the temple, the last vestiges of the temple constitution, together with the high-priestly office, came to an end. Judæa was placed under firmer military control than before. But in A.D. 132 a new revolt broke out, and the independence of Judæa was pro-claimed under a messianic claimant who is commonly known as Bar-Kokhba. After three years of guerrilla fighting this rising was crushed. Jerusalem was rebuilt by the Romans as a completely Gentile city, and a new chapter opened in the history of the Holy Land.

This sketch of Israel’s political fortunes under the Persians, Greeks and Romans may provide a framework within which we may get our bearings more easily when we consider the situation which produced the Dead Sea Scrolls.

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