[…] Leave it to me to write some pretty ambiguous things on the fly like that. I should be more careful to read over what I write before releasing it. No, I’m at no variance at all with Bickle or Art or any other “historic” premill (as distinguished from the pre-tribulational pre mill) on the time of the rapture and resurrection of the church at the ‘last trumpet’. I share that view exactly. I am also at one with all premillennialists that recognize that there will be millennial saints in their natural bodies after Christ’s return. Israel receives the grace of repentance and the pouring out of the Spirit AT the point of Christ’s return (the ‘day of the Lord’ Isa 27:13; 59:21; 66:8; Ezek 39:22-29; Zech 12:10; Mt 23:39; 24:29; Acts 2:20; 3:21; 1Thes 5:4). This is the same time that the living church is translated into glorified immortality (compare 1Cor 15:50-54 with Isa 25:8; 27:13). In other words, the same age transitioning, revelational event that translates and raptures us at the time of His appearing, becomes a transforming revelation of mercy to the surviving remnant of Israel. That’s why they go apart to mourn, while we take our place with Christ and the rest of the “spirits of just men made perfect” in positions of rule. However, I believe that like the angels, the perfected spirits of the glorified redeemed are unseen to the natural eyes of the inhabitants of the millennial earth. That’s my view, as this alone makes sense of any literal reading of many things that scripture shows to be happening at the same time. […]
When was the book of Revelation written?
[…] I’ve never studied the matter closely, probably because I can’t see where it would make a lot of difference. Sure, it’s a ‘make or break’ for preterism. They absolutely MUST defend the early date with all their might, and you know the power of a subjective interest. But that is only because they are content with a hodge podge of inconsistent exegesis. For example, if we make Nero the Beast, then how can we NOT make him Paul’s man of sin, which is obviously Daniel’s ‘willful king’ (11:36) ‘little horn’ (7:21) and beast (7:11)? Since this figure is clearly destroyed at no time short of Christ’s return (whether mystically or literally conceived), then you have a real problem, because Nero meets his ‘apocalyptic’ demise quite some time before Jerusalem is destroyed by Titus, (the other so-called return of Christ in ‘mystical’ apocalyptic judgment) some years later. So what’s wrong with this picture? Exegetically everything! The Beast is slain and the millennium of the martyred souls is believed to begin with the death of the Nero, the Beast, some years before the siege and fall of Jerusalem. It’s silly. In the real world of biblical exegesis, the brief tenure of the Beast’s career coincides with the final desolations of Jerusalem as perfectly concurrent . So early dating John’s Apocalypse assists nothing for the preterist’s cause. I have no problem with an earlier date, because I have no problem that the book might have had a very beneficial early circulation, bracing both Roman Christians in the north of the empire and Jewish Christians in the south for two very horrific but distinct periods of tribulation, both having much of the essence of the final tribulation that closes this age with the “actual’ return of Christ. […]
True Prophetic Authority
[…] The exercise of true prophetic authority assumes a depth of priestly identification. Thus it is that only one that has been processed through tribulation to become priestly (reflected in a brokenness of identification with human weakness) can be entrusted with true prophetic authority, which is far more than accurate preaching or even accurate prediction. Such authority comes by being “in touch” with God as God, which puts one in touch with man as man. This is why the prophets of the OT and the apostles of the NT were not only faithful to ” root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down …” But also to build, and to plant. The first four belongs to the office of the law, and the last two belongs to the ministry of the gospel. A true gospel in balance with the whole counsel of God is hard to come by, just as true apostles and prophets are hard to come by. It seems to me that our only safe hope to recognize and distinguish the true from the false, is to deeply and truly know the Lord. This means we are personally exercised in the laws and patterns of His ways in our own lives. Otherwise, even our estimation and evaluation of what would count as “fruits” will be just as faulty as our knowledge of God. So, once again, the burden is on the priesthood of every believer. […]
Defining the “Apostolic”
Dear Reggie, Is it possible to pass on to me a concise plain speaking explanation of the word APOSTOLIC without losing too much of its meaning. Bless you. Shalom. The definitive paradigm for true apostleship is Isaiah (ch 6). The dynamics are all there. You will see it in the […]
Observing the Sabbath
[…] Paul makes this a matter of liberty and personal conscience, not to be judged by another. So you are free to use your Shabbat blessing as you choose, as a sweet offering to the Lord, and as refreshment to your soul, your family, and as many as are inclined to observe with you. It is unto the Lord that you regard the day; and He is honored by what’s in your heart. After all, the day was not made for its own sake, but for you. However, mark well that IF we were still under the law as a binding administration, this would not be so. It would then be a very particular matter indeed, and no part of all the appurtenances of Sabbath observance could be left undone without spoiling the whole. […]
The Deeper Conversion of the Converted
[…] Although knowing and appreciating Art’s meaning in that title, I used to tell him that it might have been more accurately entitled “FEW saved and even fewer converted,” that is, converted in the sense that Peter was ‘turned’ after the great blow to his presumption. I wrote an article entitled “the deeper conversion of the converted,” in which I showed the evidence that Peter was indeed regenerate (the common meaning attached to the word ‘converted’), but was not as yet completely ‘turned’ (broken and emptied of self-reliance) in the sense that Jesus uses the word in that instance. […]
In The Year That King Uzziah Died…
[…] I think what we’re reaching for here is to try to find something of the pattern or dynamic in Isaiah’s transforming vision from which all else followed. Is there a key? What manner of preliminary grace or deep dealings prepares the soil for such a divine in-breaking?
In traveling with Art and interacting with him over the Isa 6 message, I pointed out the significant analogy of Isaiah’s experience with Israel’s apocalyptic revelation when “they shall LOOK upon Me whom they have pierced” (Zech 12:10; Mt 23:39). This is, of course, the great day of the Lord when the Deliverer comes out of Zion to accomplish Israel’s final redemption. But there is more to this than the mere visible return of Christ. We must not neglect why this event has such a different effect on the beleaguered remnant than same event will have on the demonically driven nations. It is the element of gracious revelation; “the Spirit of grace and supplication.” Otherwise, the vision of the returning Lamb would be unbearable, as in the case of the mark bearing ‘earth dwellers’. […]
Provoking Israel to Jealousy
[…] It is not scriptural to expect that the church of the last tribulation will attain to a stature that will so eclipse the earliest church as to provoke the Jew to jealousy in a way never accomplished through the apostles themselves. No, rather, it is as you suggest. There will always be the mixed reaction, and I believe until the end, the response will be predominantly negative, more often anger than emulation. Though, of course, there will always be “some,” but ‘only’ some that will be moved to the kind of jealousy that leads to salvation, but even this will often, perhaps most often, follow an initial reaction of hostility.
I especially appreciated how you put it: “the entire group could not have been anything but provoked just by the mere preaching of gospel of grace that demolishes religious self-righteousness and extends mercy to them who are ‘no people'”. That’s the point. But NOT only Israel’s salvation at the end of tribulation, but the purification and maturation of the church through tribulation (Dan 12:10; Acts 14:22) is all part of God’s strategy to vindicate His name and glory in both as inextricable aspects of the eschatological vindication of the Word concerning both. […]
Apocalyptic Evangelism
[…] Yes, there was a body of writings and notes in preparation for what was to be a seven module series on the concept of apocalyptic evangelism, which basically aimed at equipping believers with a framework of reference and understanding that, appealing to such themes as covenant and prophecy, would raise Jewish awareness of the great issues of divine contention, expecting that this would count as seed that would have its greater working and witness in the face of growing world antiSemitism, making increasing sense of the prophetic warning of the approaching time of Jacob’s trouble and the divine contention that this represents, hence the name, “Apocalyptic Evangelism.”
It was not so much aimed at accomplishing a more immediate decision for Christ, as in Jews for Jesus, but to engage Jewish thought and consideration concerning the great issues of their own professed faith in Moses and the prophets, and this can only be done by a believer who understands the covenant context that creates the divinely intended tension that is only resolved from the stand point of the ‘revealed secret’ of the gospel. Thus it wasn’t intended as a how to manual, but only to provoke serious reflection on our own faith AS it is brought into confrontation with the formidable Jew in his ‘otherwise minded’ view of scriptural authority and interpretation. It was to review ways to press the covenant background of Israel’s exilic sufferings and the age-long hiding of God’s face on Jewish consideration. […]
Where is the tribe of Dan in Rev. 7?
[…] Could it be that this is a clue that the sealed remnant represents a heavenly spiritual corporate entity/ or company that anticipates, as first-fruits, not only the literal gathering of Israel at Christ’s return, but the perfection in love of an overcoming church that “loves not its life unto death according to Rev 12? That is, this is the first fruits of covenant fulfillment, not only of millennial Israel, but also, and even more particularly, this is the eschatological forerunners of the glorious church of Christ as it is about to be perfected through the sufferings of the final test (Rev 3:10). These are free from sensual entanglements, as Samson the Danite was not, and these are free from idolatry, as the tribe that was particularly prone to idolatry was not, and these are vigilant and set for the defense of the gospel, not as Dan that was slack and negligent concerning its duty to participate in the defense of their brethren. They were not their brother’s keeper. But these, in complete contrast of the compromised tribe of Dan, are perfect in their love and faithful unto death. Though hunted, persecuted, even killed, paradoxically, not a hair of their head will perish. They are sealed; already ascended far above the access of principalities and powers, because their faith has found an unshakable resting place. I take this in complete keeping with the eschatological birthing of the man-child (Rev 12), a key to which is Paul’s remark concerning the relationship of travail to the “formation of Christ” in his wavering believers. See what I mean? These are those in whom Christ has been formed to such a degree as to manifest Him in the flesh through their faith and love unto death. […]
