October 25, 2026

The Return of Power for the Church’s Finest Hour

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.

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reggiekelly

December 24, 2021

Ye MUST Be Born Again

One thing I would say without looking at the whole superstructure, which time simply does not permit, is the really foreign thought that God is fishing for DNA in order to mediate His salvation. That someone named Kelly, for example, is saved, not strictly because of the drawing power of the Holy Spirit, and response of faith to God’s great, “whosoever will” extended to all nations without discrimination, but because my physical lineage has some surviving genetic element that can be traced back (or that can only be assumed on the basis of what I believe) to one of the supposedly lost ten tribes of Israel (see David Baron’s excellent little pamphlet by that title). That just doesn’t square with the mystery that Christ is revealed ‘in’ gentiles, without discrimination, and that gentiles of “every” tribe, tongue, and nation are equally made Abraham’s seed through faith alone. Such a thesis is suspicious from the start!

Yes, I believe and affirm that God preserves an ethnic distinction from among the natural branches precisely in order to demonstrate and set on public display His covenant word to Israel for the vindication of His sovereignty in divine election, and for the instruction of the nations and the fallen order of principalities and powers through what He has purposed to show through them. A preserved remnant from among the natural branches will indeed be born in a day (Isa 66:8; Zech 3:9) and gathered from all nations, never to be invaded again. That is sure and certain! Until then, they are made sufficiently distinguishable as a distinct ethnic race precisely in order to show in them the discipline of the covenant and to test the hearts of all nations concerning this blinded people who, though momentarily enemies of the gospel, are NONETHELESS BELOVED, and are to be so regarded, to the chagrin of those nations who have laid malicious, unfeeling hands on God’s afflicted in their pitiable ghetto condition, a presumption that will be much required in that day.

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reggiekelly

December 24, 2021

Crucial Distinctions Regarding the “Church”

I’ve always maintained that “this one and that one were born in her” (the heavenly Zion; Ps 87:3-7; Gal 4:16; Heb 12:22-23; Rev 12:1-2, 17; 19:7; 21:2, 9-10 with Jn 3:29). The Psalmist can’t conceive of any of the saved of the nations, regardless of geographical location, as being born (born again) outside of Zion. But which Zion? There is an heavenly and an earthly, but until the twain do meet in that coming day, they remain distinct, though never separate.

The gentiles have always been debtors to their Hebrew roots since God first separated Abraham and declared His electing love of Zion. All redemptive goals take us to the heavenly city of the saved of all nations, but on the way towards that ultimate, post-millennial goal, the line of sovereign election must pass through the Jerusalem which is now in bondage with her children. The covenant must be openly vindicated on this present earth by its ultimate realization in the salvation of “all Israel”, preserved in faithful obedience by the new heart of the New Covenant for a thousand years. Here, we take a comparatively rare view of Paul’s meaning, “and so all Israel shall be saved” (Ro 11:26).

We are intensely agreed that Paul is NOT speaking of the full ingathering of all of God’s elect, an attractive suggestion by supercessionists, if looked at only superficially. But rather, Paul is reiterating what all the prophets understood as the climax and final resolution of the covenant, as the prophets envisioned an all saved Jewish, nation empowered by the outpoured Holy Spirit, and controlled by a new heart and new spirit to abide in covenant faithfulness for a thousand years of open testimony to the nations.

(… Click below for more …)

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tomquinlan

September 2, 2021

Israel’s Hope: Our Hope [VIDEO]

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reggiekelly

November 22, 2020

Who Is the True Jew?

I fully agree that in Ro 2:26-29 Paul is putting the uncircumcised gentile who “keeps the righteousness of the law” (obviously regenerate) on an equal footing with a ‘true Jew’. A true Jew is a regenerate Jew. As in other debated passages of this kind, Paul is not necessarily redefining […]

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