Dear Reggie, As we seek to understand the prophecy in Daniel regarding the career of Antichrist and where it begins, I continue to get questions about the transition between Ch. 11:21 and 23 and why we are not giving any of this to fulfillment by Antiochus IV Epiphanes. We speak […]
Basic Outline of the Last “Seven”
Reggie, Rather than a final work could you at least send a rough outline. What starts the 3.5 years, what happens in the middle, then at the end of 7 years. You can refine later, but I need something to start with. I am traditional futurist in the basic outline […]
Does the Church Bring in the Kingdom?
Do you believe, as is being taught in many charismatic circles, that the Church is going to bring about the kingdom reign with Jesus’ return? There are many that think that it is the church that is going to bring in the Kingdom on this earth, so that God’s glory […]
The Mystery of the Gospel
[…] Before its revelation, the mystery of an anonymous suffering servant (let alone two distinct comings) would only raise such questions as those put by the Ethiopian eunuch, “Of whom does the prophet speak? Of himself or some other man?” Therefore, the church is foolish and perverse to exalt itself over Israel, imputing to the Jew a special stubbornness for not seeing what was plainer than the nose on their face. This is a self righteous presumption that understands nothing of what confronted Israel. It is the same perverse superficiality that prevails in the church’s facile comparison of itself with the stereotype of the Pharisee. When it is seen what the Pharisee actually represented in the context of that generation, a discerning believer would not exalt or glory over them, but cry out, “who is sufficient?!”, But that’s another subject, though not unrelated.
Since Pentecost, the mystery has been openly revealed and made universally available, albeit only in the sense of its outward form. It still takes a miracle of mercy and grace to truly apprehend it in terms of its glorious implications. In this sense, it remains, by its very nature, elusive to pride, even in its revealed form. It was hidden for a twofold purpose: 1). It is hidden so that when it is seen, we may know that it is mercy indeed, and nothing of ourselves that has made us to differ from Israel, or anyone for that matter. […]
Recommended Reading: Spurgeon’s Morning & Evening
[…] I would like to commend to you the somewhat less famed, but equally valuable devotional by C.H. Spurgeon, “Morning and Evening,” as also his magisterial “The Treasury of David,” a devotional commentary on the Psalms.
Chambers was saved under Spurgeon’s preaching. For years, I used to tell Art, “Chambers ought ye to have done, but not to leave Spurgeon undone.” When once he was introduced to Spurgeon’s writings, it was love at first bite. After that, at many a morning prayer time, something from Spurgeon had stirred a new exhortation. He used to always speak of his envy of Spurgeon’s unique grasp and ability to communicate the “sweetness” of Jesus. […]
The Heart of Apocalyptic Evangelism
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But Doc, here’s the question I want to run by you: What wise use should we who know the prophetic scriptures be making of these current trends that are moving in precisely the direction that prophecy said they would? I’m talking about evangelism, what Art liked to call, “apocalyptic evangelism”. Art compared ‘apocalyptic evangelism’ to the idea of a “delayed reaction bomb”. The seed of the powerful evidence of prophecy is sewn in confidence that it will be soon verified by the deepening crisis that will conform to the pattern that prophecy declares.
We might call it, “pre-evangelism”, particularly in the case of Jews who will not at first receive the Word, but will have later occasion to reflect on what was shown to them from the prophetic scriptures. Of course, the same holds true for anyone, but the church will not come to its appointed fullness independently of its calling to Israel, since the Jew represents the church’s most formidable challenge, and forces believers to do their homework. God knows that when we go to the Jew first, our faith will be tested and deepened. […]
Michael’s Middle of the Week Victory in Heaven
[…] Michael’s middle of the week victory in heaven, and the affect this will have, not only in the realm of the mystery of iniquity (incarnation of Satan), but also in the realm of the believer’s inward life, is a topic close to my heart. Basically, it is nothing that is not already true and available in the gospel, but I am fully convinced that the church will be straightened to a corporate fullness that will be particularly constrained by the events of the last seven years. (see a piece I wrote some while back called, “Where God is Taking the Church”, posted on our website.)
I take the view that the church (true church or godly remnant) will know with absolute certainty when the seven years has begun. Perhaps even before the door of the seven years has shut tightly behind us, I believe there will be an increased corporate earnestness and urgency of travail and intercession among many, analogous to Daniel’s intercessory self abasement. I believe Michael’s authority to evict Satan at the set time is bound to the church’s travail, which comes in response, not only to the time, but to the revelation of the Spirit concerning what is at stake. […]
Why Amillennialism or Why No Millennium?
[…] To be “in Christ” is to be “in Israel”. To belong to Christ is to belong to Israel. To be born into Christ is to be grafted into the Israel of God, the Israel of the new creation. En-grafted gentiles are equal heirs of Israel’s covenants of promise, since the covenants and promises were not made with any other people. The seed of faith, the children of Abraham, the circumcision of the Spirit etc. are one regenerate people of God, whom Paul calls, “the election” (Ro 11:7). This is the “holy nation” to whom Jesus said the kingdom would be given (Mt 21:43; 1Pet 2:9). It is the Israel of the new creation, which must extend to the regeneration of an elect number of the natural branches at the coming day of the Lord in fulfillment of the demands of the covenant (Ro 11:26-27). “The election” must at length include a surviving third of Israel, when the nation will be born in a day (Isa 66:8; Zech 3:9; 13:8-9). […]
The Eschatology of the Everlasting Covenant
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The eschatology of the covenant is implicit in many of the statements of Moses. For example, at the threshold of entering the land, Moses declares his pessimism concerning Israel’s ability to continue in the Land. “For I know that after my death ye will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will befall you in the latter days” (Deut 31:29). Moses puts his finger on the one thing needful, the ‘without which not’ of all covenant inheritance, namely, the necessity for a new heart. “Yet the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day. (Deut 29:4).
This would be remedied by the gift of the new heart promised in Deut 30:1-6. Apart from a new creation, the intractable condition of the natural heart virtually dooms the nation to the perpetual curse of judgment and exile. Therefore, Deut 30:6 anticipates the coming in of a New Covenant, which is God’s pre-determined purpose to create a new heart that will enable the Jews to inherit the Land forever. “And the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers. And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that you may live” (Deut 30:5-6). […]
Acts 2:17 and Israel in the End Time
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Until then, the gospel reveals that power and salvation of that “still coming” DAY has come in unexpected advance of THAT DAY through the revelation of the secret hidden in other ages (Ro 16:25-26; Eph 6:19; 1Pet 1:11). But according to Paul, this present fulfillment of the covenant through the revelation of the mystery of the gospel and gift of the Spirit cannot stop short of the grafting of the natural branches back into their own place. Paul does not present their return as a generous divine initiative tacked on at the end of the age for good measure. No, it is a covenant necessity demanded by the specific language of the covenant, (Ro 11:26-29), which would only be established with the larger nation at the post-tribulational day of the Lord. That is the eschatology of the OT, which the revelation of the mystery modifies, but does NOT erase. The day of the Lord will bring all that the literal reading of scripture said it will bring.
So I see Peter as saying “this is that,” but this is NOT “all” of that. It is indeed the Spirit promised to Israel in association with the well known day of the Lord. The promise of that day has arrived. It is here. But the day itself, and the full balance that remains to be fulfilled at that time remains for a post-tribulational future. Nothing about that has changed. The powers of the age to come have indeed broken decisively into this present evil prior to and apart from the kind of outward transformation expected in association with the day of the Lord. This, however, does nothing to change all that Scripture promises will come to the broken and penitent remnant that will look upon Him whom they pierced (Zech 12:10), when “that generation” will say with one voice, “blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Mt 23:39). Hallelujah!
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