For it is the day of the LORD’s vengeance,
and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion. Isaiah 34:8
Unknowingly, the world is waiting for an impossible people (who is not impossible?; Mk 10:26-27) to come to “everlasting salvation” (Isa 45:17), “at once”, “in one day”, at “the set time” (Ps 102:13; Isa 59:20; 66:8; Eze 39:22; Zech 3:9; 12:10; Mt 23:39; Ro 11:26; Rev 1:7) by the same power that raised Jesus (Hos 6:1-2; 13:14; Eze 37:9).
This will be according to the same pattern and by the same miraculous intervention by which Jesus was revealed to Paul on the Damascus road, “when it pleased God” (Ps 102:13; 110:3 with Gal 1:15-16), and not a moment sooner!
The controversy of Zion, as most clearly pronounced in Ps 2, is the united defiance of what God has declared He is determined to do in the face of the most determined opposition, namely, to set My Son on MY holy hill of Zion to judge and rule the nations with a rod of iron.
Luke 10:18 (NKJV) And He said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.”
Without going too much into WHY Jesus said this, it has long intrigued me as to WHEN Jesus saw what He did here and how it fits in the chronology: And how it might be related to the events of Revelation 12. — Question from Eric H
I believe the evidence points in the direction that Jesus sees in the disciple’s jubilant report of success in casting out demons in His name, not only Satan’s present loss of power, but the sign and foretaste that by Jesus’ binding of the strongman (Mk 3:27), Satan’s ultimate downfall has already been set in irresistible motion. With this confirmation of success, Jesus promises yet further success in the future, even power “over all the power of the enemy” (Lk 10:17-20).
Later, when His hour was most immediately at hand, Jesus would say, “NOW is the judgment of this world; NOW shall the prince of this world be cast out” (Jn 12:13). With His proclamation from the cross, “it is finished” (Jn 19:30), and the resurrection as proof of the Father’s full acceptance of His blood as the sin offering (Isa 53:11; Ro 4:25), all that was necessary to set in motion the end of Satan’s tenure as the “god of this age” (2Cor 4:4) was NOW accomplished (“finished” / tetelestai).
The wound to the serpent’s head had been fatally inflicted (Gen 3:15) but the full conquest and subjugation of Satan’s influence would require two more decisive stages. Those being Christ’s return at the end of the unequaled tribulation (Mt 24:29-31; 2Thes 2:8; Rev 19:19-20) and the final and brief revolt at the end of the thousand years (compare Ps 110:1; Acts 2:34-35; 3:21; 1Cor 15:24-25; Heb 2:8-9; Rev 20:4-10 with Isa 24:22).
I think all of this has something to do with what scholars have called, “the already and the not yet”, referring to the mysterious tension between what has been both newly fulfilled and newly revealed versus what remains to be fulfilled in light of the ‘unexpected’ revelation of Messiah’s coming, departure, and return to Jerusalem. It is what Jesus called, “the mystery of the kingdom of God” (Mk 4:11), and Paul called, “the mystery of the gospel” (Ro 16:25-26; Eph 6:19 with 1Pet 1:11-12).
The revelation of the mystery made clear that the ultimate victory over Satan and the full bringing in of the kingdom on THIS present earth would be realized in stages.
Can a creature truly worship God as sovereign while reserving the right to condemn His choices whenever His mercy is distributed differently from what that creature considers fair? – text from Adam S.
Excepting the perennial “remnant according to the election of grace” (Ro 11:5), the prophets knew that despite regular appeals to turn and live, the nation would never “turn” (teshuvah), as a nation, until the future DOL when God Himself would turn them (“turn us and we shall be turned”; Ps 80:3; 85:4; Lam 5:21; Isa 63:17; Jer 31:18; Eze 20:33-44).
If history’s amazing confirmation of the inerrancy of prophetic revelation has taught us anything, it is that if the fulfillment of the promise were waiting on Israel’s compliance, it would be waiting forever. But God has DETERMINED the “set time” to favor Zion (Ps 102:13). He has not left the end to human cooperation, but with unalterable, unavoidable certainty (Dan 11:36), He has “determined” its nature and set the limits of its duration (Dan 7:25; 8:19; 9:24; 11:27, 35; 12:7; 2Thes 2:3, 6-8).
It is only by such an irrevocable divine determinism that every word of God can be guaranteed of certain fulfillment (Mt 5:18; 24:35). Obviously, something much more than mere foreknowledge working with the not so malleable nature of man is at play here.
What kind of righteousness have we been brought into in Christ? In this segment Reggie probes the nature of Israel’s righteousness “in That Day”, and… by extension… our righteousness now.
From a January 2016 GFW Saturday night Bible Study, this Session was on Isaiah 17.
Full Transcript below:
Tom, it would be an interesting exercise to go through the prophets. Of course, actually, not just the Old Testament, because the New Testament is very clear that Jerusalem is the special object of Antichrist’s hatred, the treading under foot for 42 months. So this is not some Old Testament thing that a bunch of, you know, hyper literalists are latching on to here.
But this is everywhere. This is everywhere you read about the Day of the Lord. Everywhere.
Not only when that name, that word is particularly used, and it’s close associated terms in that day and in those days, etc. And then often the things that will be accomplished at that day are mentioned that have fulfillment in no other time. I mean, I know there’s some partial fulfillment throughout history, but.
So all roads lead to the Day of the Lord. And I just want to give a little story. It had to do with something that John Piper wrote some years back, and Art gave it to me, and Art was impressed with it, and I somewhat was, too.
Art said, what do you think of this? In other words, is he right? My answer was yes and no. Well, that was tentative at the time. Right now it would be a resounding no.
But it was very appealing because it asked this question, does Israel, in their present unbelief on this side of new covenant righteousness, do they have, and he used this term, talk about a slippery term. I don’t suggest at all that he did it consciously, of course, but it’s a disarming term. The word is, and some of you all may have heard this, does Israel in their present state have a quote-unquote divine right to the land? Well, first of all, that’s disarming, because how can you at once speak of grace and right? You know, there is no right, yet, you know, God has put his whole big picture together around one nation.
“For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory.” — 2 Corinthians 3:11
What is the “end” here in mind? This has to be in reference to the law of Moses (as a means of justification!), not the law itself. Am I correct in stating this?
I think the law ends, not as instruction, or its divine use to drive the sinner to Christ, but as a killing letter ministering death.
That has ended by a death, His death, of course, but also our death to the law as an accusing power, threatening the conscience with all the thunderclaps and black terrors of Sinai.
This ministration of death ends with the ministration of the Spirit of liberty!
Until the Spirit comes, until He is given on the sole basis of the gift of faith in Christ’s perfected obedience under the law offered up in His atoning death, we are dead in our sins.
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Glory of the Story Podcast
Sam Parsons and Reggie Kelly recently worked on a Podcast called “The Glory of the Story”.
“The beauty of God’s work throughout history to glorify Christ
“Glory of the Story explores the beauty that God has invested in the outworking of his story throughout history. We talk about the end times, eschatology, Israel, election, grace and most importantly God’s glory.”
Weekly fellowship over the Word with the GFW crew on the ‘God’s Foretold Work’ YouTube Channel. We have gone LIVE on a couple Saturday nights per month at 7:30-7:45 PM EST to explore the “at hand” and “not yet” nature of the Kingdom of God as it relates to the mystery of Israel and the Church. Check the POSTS section of the YouTube Channel for details.
Videos from the 2020 and 2021 Convocations in Bemidji MN can be found on this YouTube Channel.
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