Part II: The Source of the Problem in the Mid East
by Charles E Carlson

Usually I don’t know enough about the history or the facts to comment on any of the many conspiracy theories that come my way. This one is the exception. I dignify it with an answer only for your sake.

The author is interested to make a conspiratorial connection between dispensationalism and Zionism, as “the source of the problem in the Mid East.” It is a pure flight of fantasy!

Pre tribulational Dispensationalism is a comparatively recent branch of a much larger tree. It is only one form of premillennialism, which has a much longer history. Most of the early church fathers can be quoted to show clearly that they were premillennial, literalistic, and futuristic in their reading of prophecy. The allegorical approach to prophecy, basic to all forms of replacement theology, came much later with Origen and Augustine and has since dominated both Catholicism and Protestantism, but not without many great lights all through church history that continued to hold the plain reading of the prophetic scriptures.

There is one note of ‘half truth’ in this writer’s wild claims. Historically, wherever the scripture has been interpreted literally, there has been a favorable disposition towards the Jew. I believe this owes to one thing in particular. Any plain reading of Scripture gives the strong impression that though God is sometimes especially angry with this people, a closer look will reveal that this special anger is related to a special love, so that regardless how one understands the precise nature of divine election, one gets the impression that whatever it is, the Jew is God’s special witness to it. The Jew represents God’s divine right to choose as He will choose, which is precisely what is being so deeply tested and exposed through the issue of the Jew historically, as will be especially apparent in the coming “controversy of Zion” (Isa 34:8; Zech 12:2-3).

It is true that there was a measure of indirect instrumentality on the part of some ministers of millennial belief in the formation of British policy towards Palestine. W.E. Blackstone, who wrote the influential, “Jesus is Coming” in 1878, was one that took special pains to dissuade Theodore Herzl’s supporters from seeking to establish a national Jewish homeland in Uganda. Contrary to the implications of this writer’s claims, the secular “Zionists” would have been content with anything anywhere, provided it could give safe haven and respite for what Jews were continuing to suffer throughout the nations.

Although Blackstone’s faith led him to be ‘pro active’, his interests in the return of the Jews to the Land had nothing to do with any conspiracy between dispensationalists and the nefarious “Zionist” world planners of popular conspiracy myth.

The ancient prayer, “Next Year in Jerusalem,” had nothing to do with a dispensationalist or Zionist conspiracy, unless we want to say that there has been a Zionist conspiracy ever since the Jews were dispersed by the Romans. And yes, as a people of high and privileged calling, their sin was great and their judgment great, but who among these boasters can claim the higher moral ground? They need to grapple with Paul’s question: “Who has made you to differ?” God said He would bring them back, and Blackstone believed it. He saw no contradiction in being an activist towards its achievement. If love of the Jew and identification with them in their sufferings (as Jeremiah and all the prophets) makes one a Zionist, then God is a Zionist!

For centuries, the general view of premillennial writers (not only dispensationalists) is that before the Lord returns, the Jew would meet his greatest divine discipline and judgment in the land itself. In other words, the consensus view has always been a great tribulation in the Land before Christ’s return. This meant (as Blackstone and many others have written), that either with the help of the nations, or somehow under their own power, the Jews must be gathered back to the Land, while still in unbelief (see Zeph 2:1-2). That is just so basic.

Why then should the great revival and restoration of premillennial prophetic truth to the church in the mid to late 1800’s be considered part of a sinister plot to induce the nations to flood hapless Palestine with ambitious Jews (who had plenty of homes elsewhere)? Well, has anyone considered divine providence?

Historically, premillennialists (that’s me) have recognized (as anyone accepting the plain, forthright interpretation of scripture) that the Jews had to be once more in the land, dwelling as a distinct nation (Dan 12:1) BEFORE the great judgment of Jacob’s trouble, i.e., the great tribulation (Jer 30:7; Dan 12:1 with Mt 24:21). There was nothing conspiratorial about the initiatives of Blackstone and others in trying to gain support for a national Jewish homeland in Palestine rather than Uganda.

Premillennialists in general, and NOT only the dispensationalist variety, have always tended to be scorned as “Jew lovers.” Blame it on our “wooden literalism.” I would point out that the precious Ten Boom family, as also many of the Christians that suffered most in your own nation for their fatal association with Jews were millennial in their reading of scripture. That view of scripture quite naturally warms the heart towards the Jew. That is why, in that day, the Ten Booms and many others will hear, “when you did unto one of the least of these my brethren, you did it unto me.”

Millennial believers saw that though the Jew was momentarily the enemy of the gospel, it is “FOR OUR SAKES.” In other words, there is more at work here than good guys and bad guys. Although an enemy, they are none the less BELOVED FOR THE FATHER’S SAKES. That’s election! That’s grace! The Jew is the BELOVED enemy. “The Jew in the midst” has always been a touchstone of divine testing for the nations. The issue of the Jew finds out the true church from the false. It always has and it will again. I can give you a “thus saith the Lord” on that!!

So, yes, there is a connection between millennial faith and the modern state, one that I see as entirely appropriate. I thank God for Blackstone’s faith in the literal fulfillment of prophecy. I passionately oppose his pretribulational view of the rapture, but you should see the wonderful chapter in his book on the restoration of Israel. Just the sheer volume of scripture cited and written out was worth the price of the book. For one to read such a volume of scripture so clearly saying the same thing in every place becomes much more than a question of hermeneutics, it becomes the issue of “has God really said?”

It may be questioned how ‘pro active’ Christians should be in politics or the shaping of public policy, but Blackstone was acting according to conscience. Schofield came much later and his reference Bible has about as much to do with Zionism as the proverbial man in the moon. Naturally, Schofield’s literalism would incline him towards enthusiasm concerning Israel’s return to the Land, as it did many in the English speaking world.

Rather than blame a sinisterly contrived conspiracy, why don’t we see what an amazing providence must be at work to account for how such a small handful of millennial believers (a comparatively rare view among Christians at the time) played such a significant role in British foreign policy. Still, none of this would have been sufficient cause apart from the Holocaust. What an irony: Hitler’s effort to save the world from the Jews became the catalyst for the greater curse of a Jewish state that moves the world closer to its date with Armageddon; an Armageddon that will be blamed on Jews and Christian fundamentalists.

Ironically, after the Holocaust, the open spectacle of a relentless history of anti-Semitism prevailed for a brief moment to soften international sentiment towards Jews just long enough to allow the votes for the birth of Israel. So it appears that the conspiracy just kept helping itself along towards the gigantic mistake of Israel.

Oh, if only the world wasn’t plagued with Israel and the master plan of the sinister Zionist! But the Devil didn’t give us the Jew, God did, and He’s very interested in our attitude and response. Will we curse or will we bless? That is the question.

Of course, it will be objected that we’re not to bless unbelieving Jews who do not have the faith of Abraham. This moralistic response reveals an ignorance of the nature of corporate election. Even if unsaved, the Jewish people belong to an elect corporate entity, a nation of special discipline and destiny. Israel remains God’s national son, as a host of scriptures shows. Nothing has changed or canceled that status.

Though individual persons perish without Christ, the nation as a corporate entity remains elect and precious in His sight. Even in its unbelief, God waits for the return of His national son like a Father waits for his erring child. Not only is His covenant incomplete without them; His heart cannot be satisfied until they are one. They are the vessel that it has pleased Him to fill publicly and openly in the eyes of all nations, and He will not be defeated by their unbelief. The Jew is God’s “mission impossible” to the praise of the glory of His grace. Furthermore, the church needs to know that the Jews don’t exist just as a hard case for God to show His glory. He loves what He has chosen! The church that does not have God’s heart for Israel is not the church!

The church has always defined itself over against Israel, but the early church saw themselves as a kind of corporate prophet Jeremiah, the prophetic remnant (the ‘maskilim’) within the nation travailing in priestly and prophetic ministry until the nation is turned through what was expected as the imminent judgments of Jacob’s trouble. That is why, for Paul the futurist, Israel’s return and national regeneration will mean resurrection life from the dead, not only for them but for us. Only through their return is the mystery of God finished and Satan bound (Rev 10:7).

There is a mystery here that God has deliberately hidden. Though not without support from scripture, it must be intuited by the Spirit; it will not be attained by confidence in the intellect, which is nothing more than “confidence in the flesh.” God has chosen to elude any self reliant approach to His truth. The whole thing is a divine set up to test and expose hearts.

Those who do not understand the special divine election of Israel do not understand the nature of election, or the nature of the covenant. Whether it be Calvinist or Arminian, any view of election that is not centered in God’s corporate election of Israel, in full light of ‘the eschatology of the covenant’, is a view that threatens to distort our view of God’s very heart and nature.

What you sent here for my review and response is a travesty that preys upon people’s credulity and ignorance of the facts. “It’s a joke.” But the anti-Semitic venom behind it is no joke. I wish Art could have lived to see the days that we’re about to see. Fasten your seat belts, church, we’re going for a ride! There will be martyrs that fall over this kind of artful “connecting of the dots.”

It’s amazing how much Jewish blood has been spilled through the heresies of the church. We are not dealing here merely with how facts and half truths can be artfully pieced together to create a deceptive illusion; this is spiritual wickedness in high places. These people are getting help, folks! I hope you can see that.

This is a perfect example of the artful manipulation of history. Our Internet surfing brothers and sisters had better do a heart check, before spending all their time tracking down and sorting through all the vast amounts of information in Cyberspace. There is only one question we are obligated to answer. It is: “What says the Scripture?” This is more than a debate about hermeneutics; it is the ancient question, “Has God really said.” There may be a lot of ‘nice’, sophisticated, well meaning people asking ‘reasonable’ questions, making ‘reasonable’ points, but behind that disarming surface, is a fierce spiritual war of cunning spirits preparing for the kill. Ask the Jews concerning articulate speeches that end with a knock on the door.

Your friend in the fray, Reggie

The post Regarding “The Source of the Problem in the Middle East” appeared first on Mystery of Israel.

Dear Reggie, Thanks for your heart for the Jews and for the longing in your heart to stand with them in the future. I believe it will be very necessary to prepare the church for the coming events. To have a look on the “other side,” I am going to send you this site [of Stephen Sizer]. I was in contact with him and I did read his books, I suggest to you to read his presentations and you also can download the books and read them. It is important, I believe. What I did find out in the past is one thing: there will not be another Holy Covenant; this is not possible, but what I believe is that the Jews will try to build a temple by their hands and this will be the point where God will let the enemy in. But nevertheless, the christians / Church will come to that point to stand with them and preach to them and love them! That’s true and there will be no rapture as the dispensationalists are teaching. Reggie, please read this. I believe it is very important. And then please let us pray for a coming to Germany! Blessings and in HIS hands

Dear sister, I’m aware of Sizer and Webber and a number of others who are having great impact on the evangelical world. Not only is their critique of modern dispensationalism compelling, they bring sophisticated arguments against the prophetic significance of the modern state of Israel. They are the exegetical “big guns” behind the new trend of “Zionism bashing,” which is becoming increasingly prevalent among many evangelicals. It is the beginning of a turning tide of opinion and sentiment. The errors of one untenable extreme are used to drive many into another error far worse than the first.

We are dealing here with mystery divinely ordained to test hearts. There is error and extremes on both sides. It will take great grace to escape error to one side or the other.

It just happens that yesterday I was in a store called “Half Price Books” here in Texas and came across Sizer’s book and bought it. So I see your email as providential. I will give it a thorough examination. I can only imagine the difficulty that this has made for you. I believe it will take a miracle to escape the coming deception.

As to the question of “another” holy covenant, I would say this: There has only ever been one holy covenant. It was made with the Jews and the Jews alone. We have been “grafted in among them” to partake of their covenants and promises through the Jewish Messiah. That covenant still stands with Israel, despite their unbelief, as witnessed by the abiding curse for its non- fulfillment.

Through its fulfillment in Christ, the first covenant becomes the ‘second’ and ‘everlasting’ covenant spoken of in the prophets. In a way of speaking the second covenant is the first covenant fulfilled. The flesh can no longer abort the promise, since all the requirements of the first covenant are fulfilled in Christ’s atonement and in the believer through the Spirit. The fulfilled covenant can no longer curse but only bless the doer, which is Christ both for the believer, and in the believer.

This cancels nothing of the righteousness that all the prophets said would come to the penitent remnant at the end of Jacob’s trouble. Although the everlasting covenant of an ‘everlasting righteousness’ has been extended through the gospel to all nations, still, Israel remains “under” the conditional side of the covenant, and hence under its abiding curse, until the veil is taken away.

So the “everlasting covenant” is essentially “the covenant of regeneration.” The saints and prophets, such as Jeremiah and David, were no strangers to the circumcision of the heart and the law in the heart, but the promise of the new heart anticipated the time when, not a mere remnant, but “all” the surviving remnant of Israel would be irrevocably righteous forever (Isa 54:13; 59:21; 60:21; Jer 31:34; 32:40; Zeph 3:13), and so inherit the Land forever, without the abiding threat of further exile through Israel’s habitual tendency to back slide.

Through the mystery of the gospel, this grace (the salvation of the coming day) has appeared to all men in unexpected advance of THAT DAY. This is the revelation of the one new man through the mystery of Christ in you (even you gentiles), but this takes nothing from the promise that the gospel will yet be revealed to the beleaguered remnant at the end of Jacob’s trouble. That will be the time of the “restitution of all things spoken by all the prophets since the world began.” To conceive of that restoration as NOT including God’s covenant promise to ‘post-tribulational Israel would have been unthinkable, as it surely was to Paul. Instead, the church, for the larger part, continues to “boast against the branches” to this day, even while Jerusalem trembles (Isa 34:8; Zech 12:2), threatening the “literal” fulfillment of all unfulfilled prophecy that has been denied for most of church history.

So despite Jewish unbelief concerning Christ, the covenant places and institutions are still divinely regarded as “holy”. Therefore, when we speak of the rage of the Antichrist against the “holy covenant” (Dan 11:28, 30), we are speaking of Satan’s hatred of Jewish election and right to the Land on the basis of divine predestination. We are NOT suggesting that Jewish worship counts for anything apart from faith in Christ. Manifestly, it does not. Otherwise, their worship would be acceptable. That it is NOT acceptable is shown by the fact that Israel’s greatest discipline and judgment comes at the very time their religious self assurance is reaching its heights.

Still, the presumption of the nations under Antichrist is none the less counted as the ultimate effrontery against the God of the covenant, since when the nations “come down” to ‘divide’ and ‘part’ the land (Joel 3:2; Dan 11:39), God’s fury comes up in His face (Ezek 38:18). With this act of consummate effrontery, the nations have crossed the final boundary of divine patience (Isa 24:5). This is significant to observe.

The issue of the Land will test every heart. Not because the Land is anything in and of itself, but because it concerns what God has spoken, and therefore raises the question of divine election, particularly since the Jews that are in the Land are not yet obedient to God through faith in the Messiah’s blood. Why then should unbelieving Jews be entitled to the Land any more than the Palestinians or any other people? The answer is that God has given the Land unconditionally apart from works on the basis of future grace. This exposes each person’s view of the nature of grace, which is precisely the point of divine testing.

Therefore, Jewish unbelief does not make void the ordinances of God. The sacrifice and the ‘holy place’ is holy, not in the sense of efficacy for atonement, but in the sense of ‘set apart’ according to divine institution. However, all such ordinances of the law avail nothing for those who wait on ‘that altar’ (Heb 13:10) with unbelieving hands.

Although these things are difficult, so much depends on taking to heart the Lord’s clear command to go to Daniel and “understand” (Mt 24:15). Jesus prescribes this as the only safe-guard against the unparalleled deception. “Be on guard. Behold, I have foretold you all things” (Mk 13:23).

Your friend in Christ, Reggie

Followup:

Reggie,
I have made some comments and raised some questions. They are in blue italics. You can share with others as you feel lead. In Christ’s Name

Dear sister, I’m aware of Sizer and Webber and a number of others who are having great impact on the evangelical world. Not only is their critique of modern dispensationalism compelling, they bring sophisticated arguments against the prophetic significance of the modern state of Israel. They are the exegetical “big guns” behind the new trend of “Zionism bashing,” which is becoming increasingly prevalent among many evangelicals. It is the beginning of a turning tide of opinion and sentiment. The errors of one untenable extreme are used to drive many into another error far worse than the first.

We are dealing here with mystery divinely ordained to test hearts. There is error and extremes on both sides. It will take great grace to escape error to one side or the other.

It just happens that yesterday I was in a store called “Half Price Books” here in Texas and came across Sizer’s book and bought it. So I see your email as providential. I will give it a thorough examination. I can only imagine the difficulty that this has made for you. I believe it will take a miracle to escape the coming deception. (Is this what Solomon in Eccl. was warning us not to do, even if they are half priced, and use and rely on the one & only book)?

I appreciate your point, and your heart here, but since we’ve had a little exchange over this before, let me explain my thought on this. The books and web sites that were recommended to my attention are some that were put in the hands of these people by friends. It is often only afterwards that these false teachers are found out and exposed. Francis Schaffer once said, “Christian apologetics is an enterprise of compassion.” We are told to instruct those that oppose themselves in patient hope that God will give repentance and recovery to the truth. There is hope of that here, because I took the time to learn a little (not exhaustively) about the opposing view, simply because the scripture also tells us that to answer a matter before it is heard is a shame and a folly (somewhere in Proverbs). Paul tells us heresies must come so that the “approved” may be manifest (2Tim 2:15). It also says, “the righteous studies to answer”. Now I know that doesn’t mean study many books, but it does mean to look for ways to help people that have been infected with dangerous lies that do injury to the cause of Christ. So I take pains only for their sake to know what has troubled them. I’m secure in what God has shown me, but not so secure that I don’t try to give due hearing to brothers like you who God puts in my way. I’m not trying to master all the issues. Each has their part and calling. My only concern is to know a little of what is directly opposing some of the things that I see as particularly menacing to the church. I can’t cover all the bases. My part extends no further than what God has entrusted in the area of my own sense of stewardship and responsibility. I’m certainly no debater. In fact, I’m terrible at that, but these gainsayers must be answered. I’m only trying to be a servant to whosoever will before God answers these foul spirits (that’s what’s behind these doctrines of demons) in a terrible and final way.

As to the question of “another” holy covenant, I would say this: There has only ever been one holy covenant. It was made with the Jews and the Jews alone. We have been “grafted in among them” to partake of their covenants and promises through the Jewish Messiah. That covenant still stands with Israel, despite their unbelief, as witnessed by the abiding curse for its non- fulfillment.

Through its fulfillment in Christ, the first covenant becomes the ‘second’ and ‘everlasting’ covenant spoken of in the prophets. In a way of speaking the second covenant is the first covenant fulfilled. (Question -Is this proper wording? I believe I under stand your point. There will be a New Covenant with the house of Israel & Judah).

Agreed. But the new covenant and the everlasting covenant of Old Testament promise doesn’t just come into existence at the future day of the Lord. The book of Hebrews shows that its origins reach back into eternity past in the eternal counsel of the Godhead. I believe it has always stood with those who had the new heart and spirit. That didn’t begin at Pentecost. Paul understood that the promise takes in all the seed of the Spirit (“the remnant according to the election of grace”) who went before and looks on ahead to the day when “all Israel” will be righteous in the Land, so that every Jewish survivor of the last tribulation, and all the children born to them thereafter, will ever again fail of the everlasting righteousness promised in the NC (compare Dan 9:24 with Jer 31:34; 32:40). The promise of eternal inheritance can never be guaranteed of secure continuance until every Jew living on earth at that time (“from least to the greatest”) will know Him. It will be end of covenant jeopardy, because the fear of God will be “put” in every Jewish heart, so that the back sliding heart of unbelief has been permanently replaced with a heart of flesh. Manifestly, something has been broken that stays broken until the time of the second resurrection.

The flesh can no longer abort the promise, since all the requirements of the first covenant are fulfilled in Christ’s atonement and in the believer through the Spirit. The fulfilled covenant can no longer curse but only bless the doer, which is Christ both for the believer, and in the believer. (But is it still a curse to the nonbeliever and the false prophets)?

Agreed. The flesh (not the body) remains ‘under’ the law. The motions of the flesh still reap the fruits of the curse..

This cancels nothing of the righteousness that all the prophets said would come to the penitent remnant at the end of Jacob’s trouble. Although the everlasting covenant of an ‘everlasting righteousness’ has been extended through the gospel to all nations, still, Israel remains “under” the conditional side of the covenant, and hence under its abiding curse, until the veil is taken away. (And that will be when Jer 31:31 , Eze 37:26 & Hebrews 8:1-13 will be completed.)

That’s right.

So the “everlasting covenant” is essentially “the covenant of regeneration.” The saints and prophets, such as Jeremiah and David, were no strangers to the circumcision of the heart and the law in the heart, but the promise of the new heart anticipated the time when, not a mere remnant, but “all” the surviving remnant of Israel would be irrevocably righteous forever (Isa 54:13; 59:21; 60:21; Jer 31:34; 32:40; Zeph 3:13), and so inherit the Land forever, without the abiding threat of further exile through Israel’s habitual tendency to back slide.

Through the mystery of the gospel, this grace (the salvation of the coming day) has appeared to all men in unexpected advance of THAT DAY. This is the revelation of the one new man through the mystery of Christ in you (even you gentiles), but this takes nothing from the promise that the gospel will yet be revealed to the beleaguered remnant at the end of Jacob’s trouble. (this is the point of Jer 31:31 & Eze 37:26). That will be the time of the “restitution of all things spoken by all the prophets since the world began.” To conceive of that restoration as NOT including God’s covenant promise to ‘post-tribulational Israel would have been unthinkable, as it surely was to Paul. Instead, the church, for the larger part, continues to “boast against the branches” to this day, (and this is why the rebellion of the church and the falling away) even while Jerusalem trembles (Isa 34:8; Zech 12:2), threatening the “literal” fulfillment of all unfulfilled prophecy that has been denied for most of church history. (Have the False Prophets done their job well!?)

I especially appreciate your ability to see the relationship between the church’s arrogance against the branches and the great falling away. There’s a connection. This what the coming “controversy of Zion” is all about. The church has already paid, and will pay a yet more terrific price for its carelessness of Paul’s warning in Ro 11:25. However, I want to add that if we see better than another, this owes to nothing in us more than others. While there is sufficient clarity in scripture to make our ignorance of the truth reprehensible from the standpoint of divine claim and justice, still, any ability to see what God has also deliberately hidden from the wisdom of this age, is all of grace and nothing of ourselves. The only One who has made any to differ is God (1Cor 4:7). This keeps us from the pride that stands in judgment from the standpoint of our humanity. It is only mercy that the elect are not taken away with the same deception that comes to the ‘earth dwellers’, since it is only grace that we are counted worthy to escape the same.

So despite Jewish unbelief concerning Christ, the covenant places and institutions are still divinely regarded as “holy”. Therefore, when we speak of the rage of the Antichrist (antichrists) against the “holy covenant” (Dan 11:28, 30), we are speaking of Satan’s hatred of Jewish election and right to the Land on the basis of divine predestination. We are NOT suggesting that Jewish worship counts for anything apart from faith in Christ. Manifestly, it does not. Otherwise, their worship would be acceptable. That it is NOT acceptable is shown by the fact that Israel’s greatest discipline and judgment comes at the very time their religious self assurance is reaching its heights.

Still, the presumption of the nations under Antichrist (False Prophet) is none the less counted as the ultimate effrontery against the God of the covenant, since when the nations (here is your antichrists) “come down” to ‘divide’ and ‘part’ the land (Joel 3:2; Dan 11:39), God’s fury comes up in His face (Ezek 38:18). With this act of consummate effrontery, the nations have crossed the final boundary of divine patience (Isa 24:5). This is significant to observe. (Is this the valley of– decision, Jehoshaphat, Hinnom, Hamon Gog, vision, & of slaughter)?

Yes, to all of the above. This is the final preparation for “the great day of God almighty” spoken of in Rev 16:14. It is the day of the Lord, which culminates at Jerusalem and the surrounding region that answers to the names you mention here. I also know a little of your burden that people not think of the coming Antichrist as only one individual. While I believe that only one individual is the final embodiment of the mystery of iniquity (Paul’s “man of sin”) by means of a death and resurrection that accomplishes the full manifestation of Satan in the flesh, I also recognize that there is another of equal satanic power and authority called the false prophet, and that all the natural “children of wrath” that pass on into final reprobation, are of that same spirit and mystery (many antichrists), which has been at work since the beginning, and which, since the advent of Jesus, takes the form of the denial of His full deity. Therefore, when I use the term Antichrist, I’m most often using it as shorthand for a far more extensive subject.

The issue of the Land will test every heart. Not because the Land is anything in and of itself, but because it concerns what God has spoken, and therefore raises the question of divine election, particularly since the Jews that are in the Land are not yet obedient to God through faith in the Messiah’s blood. Why then should unbelieving Jews be entitled to the Land any more than the Palestinians or any other people? The answer is that God has given the Land unconditionally apart from works on the basis of future grace. This exposes each person’s view of the nature of grace, which is precisely the point of divine testing.

Therefore, Jewish unbelief does not make void the ordinances of God. The sacrifice and the ‘holy place’ is holy, not in the sense of efficacy for atonement, but in the sense of ‘set apart’ according to divine institution. However, all such ordinances of the law avail nothing for those who wait on ‘that altar’ (Heb 13:10) with unbelieving hands.

Although these things are difficult, so much depends on taking to heart the Lord’s clear command to go to Daniel and “understand” (Mt 24:15). Jesus prescribes this as the only safe-guard against the unparalleled deception. “Be on guard. Stay away from those False Prophets with itchy ear and the garbage they write, (Eccles. 12:12) Behold, I have foretold you all things” (Mk 13:23). And part of this understanding in Daniel includes 12:11-13. It is going to be rough on the remaining Church / Christians, especially for a few days.

I’d like to know more of what you have in mind here concerning the extension of days? I have my tentative view and I know of others whose view are not so tentative. There is one more point that I seldom see made, and that is this: Whatever the meaning, it is clear from this that Daniel understood these days to be quite literal. This is overlooked by those who want to spiritualize everything that gets in the way of their presuppositions.

In brotherly love, Reggie

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