82 N. T. LIGHT ON O. T. "MILLENNIALISTIC" PROPHECIES £ t ~ navra. ra 1[{}vYj, a Q ~ a f l E v O L ano ' I E Q o u ( j a . A ~ f l . (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: V f l E L ~ W i Q t U Q E ~ 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 ( ' t o v ~ E m } ( a A O U [ l E v O U ~ , 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