Full Text for New Testament Light on Old Testament "Millennialistic" Prophecies (Text)

82 N. T. LIGHT ON O. T. "MILLENNIALISTIC" PROPHECIES £t~ navra. ra 1[{}vYj, aQ~aflEvOL ano 'IEQou(ja.A~fl. (And He said to them: Thus it is written that Christ was to suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that there be preached in His name repentance for forgiveness of sin unto all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem). Unless Jesus was misunderstanding or deliberately misinterpreting the Scriptures, the Old Testa­ment after all bears definite witness to the New Testament dispensation of grace unto all nations. Yea, He even specifies that this is to begin at Jerusalem. Bernhard Weiss 1 calls this very aptly "das Messianische Summarium der alttestament­lichen Weissagung." And note that Jesus adds the command: VflEL~ WiQtUQE~ rovrrov (you are witnesses of these things). To this Kei12 remarks: "Auch von der Verkuendigung, die sie allerdings selbst vollziehen, koennen sie bezeugen, dass die­selbe nach der Weissagung der Schrift erfolge." No, the Apostles were not to be good millennialists. But where do we find the Old Testament foundation for the statement that the beginning of New Testament preaching is to be at Jerusalem? Is. 2: 2 ff. may well be one of the passages Jesus could have had in mind, for there it is definitely prophesied: "Out of Zion shall go forth the Law and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem." And now let us read the entire passage (Is. 2: 2-5): "And it shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow to it. And many people shall go and say: Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths; for out of Zion shall go forth the Law and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He shall judge among the nations and shall rebuke many people; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." Surely, Jesus' application of this passage, so often quoted by millennialists (as Blackstone in Jesus is Coming, p. 157),3 is highly embar-1 H. A. W. Meyer: Kritisch-exegetischer Kommentar ueber das N. T. 8. Auflage. Goettingen, 1892. In loco. 2 In loco. 3 Jesus is Coming. By W. E. B. Fleming H. Revell Co., N. Y. Chicago, 1908, 1916. N. T. LIGHT ON O. T. "MILLENNIALISTIC" PROPHECIES 83 rassing to these worthies, as it places the beginning of mil­lennialistic peace of the last days squarely into the days of the Apostles. To parry this conclusion, the millennialists will have to produce some other passage from the Prophets to which Jesus could have been referring. Even if their search were successful, this would only prove doubly embarrassing to them. In entire agreement with the above, we have Jesus' an­swer to the disciples' last question (in Acts 1: 6-8): Lord, wilt Thou at this time -i. e., the time of the giving of the Holy Ghost -restore again the Kingdom to Israel? Jesus answers their question in two parts. First, in regard to time, He an­swers: "Not yours it is to know times and seasons, which the Father set [determined, fixed] in His own power." Note, by using the plural, and that of both words (XQavo'Ut; and XaLQout;), the Savior shows He is speaking in general terms of all future times and seasons, without conceding the correctness of their assumption of a special time of earthly glory for Israel. This latter assumption He corrects in the second part of His answer. He introduces His words with the corrective aUa (but rather), quite contrary to your fond carnal notions of God's kingdom, the Old Testament prophecies of the restoration of the King­dom to Israel mean something entirely different. They require your receiving the Holy Ghost and, with Him, power to "be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria (the correlatives 1:£-'X.aL unite these first two mem­bers, while the following XUL adds an extension to Jesus' an­swer) and unto the end of the earth." That was Jesus' pro­gram for the setting up of His kingdom, among Jews first (in­cluding the mongrel Jews of Samaria) and then also among the Gentiles; not the Judaistic, materialistic dream which still cluttered their minds and still, after Pentecost and all these years of the New Testament dispensation, darkens the minds of millennialists everywhere. And after only ten days came Pentecost and the Spirit's light. Then what did Peter see? He saw the meaning not only of the Spirit's miracle, but of Joel's prophecy also. Note Acts 2: 16: This is what was spoken through the Prophet Joel. Peter, by inspiration of the Holy Ghost, clearly interprets the meaning of the Spirit, writing through Joel (3: 1-5; A. V.: 2: 28-32), as definitely prophesying this very happening at Pen­tecost. Now let us look a minute at Joel's words: "And it shall 84 N. T. LIGHT ON O. T. "MILLENNIALISTIC" PROPHECIES come to 'pass afterwards (l::l-'!i!~, literally, "after thus," i. e., after what was prophesied i~ th'e previous words) that I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh." After what should this happen? After the Lord would dwell in the midst of His people Israel (v.27) and they would enjoy the best of crops (v.21-26) and never be ashamed! This whole picture is un­derstood literally of the millennium by our opponents; Peter's dating of the following clearly places it before Pentecost and forces us to understand it spiritually, that is, as pertaining to the spiritual blessings God gave His people through the ac­tivity of His Son in their midst. The passage of Joel quoted by Peter ends with these words (v. 32): "And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall calIon the name of the Lord shall be delivered, for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant, whom the Lord shall call." Then, in the following verses, the return of Israel and the battle of Judah with the nations in the Valley of Jehoshaphat is placed in those very days (not "afterwards"). This is a favorite millennialistic stamping ground; but if the Spirit spoke truth through Joel and Peter, He is still with this "battle" in the New Testament time of grace ushered in by Pentecost -and all His words must be understood spir­itually. In confirmation of our interpretation of the words of Joel let us note the second time they are quoted in the New Testa­ment, by St. Paul in Rom. 10: 13. There the Apostle adduces the words in question to prove that God is rich in His grace to all, whether Jew or Greek, that call ('tov~ Em}(aAOU[lEvOU~, present participle, who then, as in all this time of grace, call) upon Him. He, too, certainly sees the words of Joel as being fulfilled 'in his day and not exclusively in the future. Next let us call James to our witness stand. He gives us light on the prophetic Scriptures at the Council of J eru­salem. His words (Acts 15: 13-18) are clear: "Men and brethren, hearken unto me. Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name. And to this agree the words of the Prophets, as it is written: After this I will return and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down, and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up, that the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles upon whom N. T. LIGHT ON O.T. ":MILLENNIALISTIC" PROPHECIES 85 My name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things. Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world." James, therefore, says: God knew what would happen in this our day, and so He had Amos write as he did at the end of his prophecy of the building up again of David's taber­nacle through the Gentiles seeking the Lord. Evidently, then, he interpreted the building up of David's fallen tabernacle in Amos 9 as a figurative way of speaking of the building of the Christian Church. And their "possessing the heathen" he interpreted as a figurative way of speaking of their being taken into that Church. And this was not merely James' private interpretation, but the Holy Spirit's. Otherwise he surely could not have written in the letter to the Gentiles (Acts 15: 28): "It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us." Before going on, let us note one single word James uses in particular. In verse 15 he said: "To this agree the words of the Prophets (wln:ql cru!l EAEEL), they (the Jews) also may now ob­tain mercy (LV(X 'XUL uln:oL VVV EAE1']{}WcnV). Note especially that vvv, which is unfortunately not found in the later manuscripts of the Bible and hence not in the King James Version, but which is found in the earliest and best manuscripts. Now is the time for them to obtain mercy, now is the acceptable time also for the Jews. No one should be deluded into inactivity in mercifully bringing the Gospel to the Jews by any thought of a possible special future dispensation for them. With this conception of the conversion of Israel agree also N. T. LIGHT ON O. T. "MILLENNIALISTIC" PROPHECIES 91 the tears of our Savior shed over Jerusalem (Luke 19: 42) and his lament in that connection: "Would that thou hadst known in this thy day!" That was the special day for Jeru­salem and all the Jews -before the fullness of the Gentiles began to come in -the acceptable day of the Lord, when the Lord visited His people (compare Is. 61: 1-7 with Luke 4: 17 ff) . Since that time, for the most part, the veil has been before their eyes (2 Cor. 3: 12-18), the veil which only faith in Christ could remove, faith of which Paul (Rom. 10: 17) writes: "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." As for the great bulk of the Jews, the Apostle's and hence God's verdict was a fateful echo of that pronounced upon the godless Amorites of old. In Gen. 15: 16 it was said of the Amorites, according to the Septuagint: ouJ"tw ava­J"tEnA~QwVlm at cl!laln(aL EWs 'tOll vvv (the sins of the Amorites have not yet been filled up until now). Compare this with Paul's words concerning the unbelieving Jews in 1 Thess. 2: 16: avan/I'YlQwcr(tL ulrt'wv LUs u!laQLLus na.VloLE (to fulfill their sins always). And he adds: "There has come already (Ecp{}ucrEV) upon them the wrath unto the end (Els LEAos)." No, Paul has no rosy millennialist delusions as to a special dispensation for the Jews of the latter days. So we could also summon Peter the Apostle to the cir­cumcision, and the writer to the Hebrews. Both, far from furnishing food to batten millennialist dispensational folly, offer more Old Testament prophecies which they interpret in a spiritual sense of God's New Testament Church. Especially striking is the use made of Jer. 31: 31-34 in Heb. 8: 6-13 and 10: 15-23; Hab. 2: 1-4 in Heb. 10: 36-39, as well as of Hosea 1 and 2 in 1 Pet. 2: 10. Snowden (op. cit., p.218) has put the case well: "Peter also spiritualized the Old Testament and buried the Jewish eschatology when he wrote: 'Ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light: which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God.''' Again: "The whole argument of the Epistle to the Hebrews is that the old dispensation is fulfilled in the new and has now vanished as 'a shadow of good things to come' (Heb. 10: 1)." The writer to the Hebrews certainly makes impossible any actual restoration of Jewish offerings 92 N.T.LIGHT ON O.T. "MILLENNIALISTIC" PROPHECIES for sin, as a literal interpretation of Ezekiel 40-48, especially 43: 19-20, demands, and as leading millennialists, such as West, Peters, Campbell Morgan, etc., insist will take place. "By one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sancti­fied. . .. Now, where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin," Heb. 10: 14, 18. The writer to the Hebrews, too, gives the Gospel, with its divine promises, as the only hope of the Jews (4: 1-3; 6: 18-19). Their only future glory lies in the "eternal inheritance" (9: 15) and not in any earthly superstate. Those who have that inheritance "are come unto Mount Sion and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem" (12: 22). Remarkable words these -describing, as they do, the Christian Church under unmistakable Old Testament figures! In line with this, the holy writer urges the believing Jews to "exhort one another daily, while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceit­fulness of sin, for we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end" (3: 13-14) . Truly, Peter was filled with the Holy Ghost when he bore witness before Cornelius of the Prophets and their message (Acts 10: 43): "To Him give all the Prophets witness that, through His name, whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins." Yes indeed, the Kingdom of God, pro­claimed by the Prophets of old, is not meat and drink (carnal), but righteousness and peace (spiritual). As Snowden very ably points out, thrice has the spirit of Judaism attacked the Christian Church: first in the time of the Apostles through the Judaizers, then in Romanism with its legalistic ceremonial and hierarchical tendencies, and finally in millennialism. "Premillennialism is a recrudescence of Judaism. It is Judaistic in its method of interpreting the Scriptures, in its views of the Kingdom, in its means of estab­lishing the Kingdom, and in its expectation of the restora­tion of the sacrifices after the second coming of Christ. This is indeed renouncing the logic of Paul and turning back again to the weak and beggarly rudiments and putting our necks again under the Mosaic yoke of bondage" (op. cit., p. 217). From this preserve us heavenly Father! Pekin, N. Y.