“And so all Israel will be saved,as it is written:
The Deliverer will come out of Zion,
And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;” (Rom. 11:26)

“Following our recent meeting, I gathered the below. Feel free to add to these lists.” – Maor S.

Verses about All Israel saved in the day of the Lord after the GT being the remnant that survived the Sword of the Covenant:

Isa.4:3 (“For those of Israel who have escaped”) also see Isa. 66:19
Isa. 10:20-21 (“such as have escaped…”)
Isa.11:11 (“to recover the remnant of His people who are left”)
Isa. 26:1-2 (“In that day…the righteous nation…”)
Isa. 27:12-13
Isa. 30:26 (“…seven days….binds up the bruise of His people…”)
Isa. 32:15 (“Until the Spirit is poured…”)
Isa. 41:8
Isa. 44:3
Isa. 45:17, 25 (“But Israel shall be saved by the Lord…”)
Isa. 53:6 (“All we like sheep…[All the Jewish people who are left will say this])
Isa. 54:7-10,13 (“For a mere moment…”)
Isa. 59:20-21
Isa.60:15-16,21 (“also your people shall all be righteous…”)
Isa. 61:1-11.
Isa. 65:23
Isa. 66:8
Jer. 30:22 (“you shall be My people…”)
Jer. 31:1-2 (“all the families of Israel ” “survived the sword”)
Jer. 31:33-34 (“for they all shall know Me…)
Jer. 32:37-42
Eze. 20:40-44 (“…there all the house of Israel, all of them in the land, shall serve Me;”)
Eze. 28:24-26
Eze. 34:25 (“I will make a covenant of peace with them”)
Eze. 36:33 (“Thus says the Lord GOD: “On the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will also enable you to dwell in the cities, and the ruins shall be rebuilt.”)
Eze. 37:23-25 (“Then they shall be My people, and I will be their God”)
Eze. 39:22-29 (“‘And I will not hide My face from them anymore; for I shall have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel,’ says the Lord GOD.”)
Hos. 1:10 (“…you are the sons of the living God”)
Hos. 3:5 (“Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the LORD their God and David their king. They shall fear the LORD and His goodness in the latter days.”)
Hos. 14:4-7 (“I will heal their backsliding…”)
Joe. 2:18-19
Joe.3:16
Mic. 7:18-20
Zeph. 3:12-20
Zech.8:7-8
Zech. 10:6-12
Zech. 12:10 + Rev.1:7
Psa. 14:7 (“salvation of Israel “)
Dan. 2:44 (“…and the kingdom shall not be left to other people;”)
Dan. 12:1-2 (“…And at that time your people shall be delivered, Every one who is found written in the book…”)

All Israel never to depart after the everlasting righteousness of the everlasting covenant is realized:

Isa. 59:20-21
Jer. 31:34
Jer.32:40
Eze. 36:27 – They will be persevered in holiness

Verses related to the Hiding of the Face theme:

Deut. 31:17-28
Deut. 32:20
Job 13:24
Job 34:29
Isa. 8:17
Isa. 45:15
Isa. 54:8
Isa. 57:17
Isa. 59:2,9
Isa. 64:7
Jer. 33:5
Ezek. 39:23,24,29
Psa. 10:1
Psa. 13:1
Psa. 30:7
Psa. 44:24
Psa. 89:46

Blessings,

Maor

The post All Israel Shall Be Saved (Podcast and List of Scriptures) – [AUDIO] appeared first on Mystery of Israel.

How is it possible that all Israel will be saved and yet people will be going into the millennial reign of Christ without being transformed and having new bodies?

Will all Israel that’s a part of the church be transformed into heavenly bodies?

How will there be people going into the millennium without heavenly bodies?

It doesn’t make sense to me

What makes sense matters, but the first question of paramount concern is what does the text SAY?!

Secondly, what is the evidence for how the biblical writers expected to be understood? Were they correct in how they understood their own prophecies? Or was there a deeper, allegorical meaning that eluded their limited understanding?

Was their interpretation of what Yahweh spoke merely a reflection of a “primitive, nationalistic, time bound” understanding that would someday be replaced by a different interpretation that could not have been understood or recognized by the prophets or their contemporaries? That’s the hermeneutical question in debate.

After establishing the plain person’s plain reading of plain language, we can then begin to look for light as to how certain antinomies (difficulties / paradoxes) can be reconciled WITHOUT violence to the original author’s intention.

The very meaning of the millennium is at stake here. Why should God make such a point of ending the age around the “controversy of Zion”, a conflict that is destined to draw all nations into an insoluble, inescapable dilemma over the Land and people of Israel that sets off the final world conflict? (Isa 34:8; Zech 12:2-3).

It will be a kind of valley of decision designed to test hearts, primarily over the issue of the nature of saving grace and the ‘kind’ of righteousness (not one’s own but the Lord’s alone) that can stand in the judgment.

In other words, why should God be so determined on saving an elect remnant of ethnic Jews (“natural branches”) unless it is to set the wayward nation of an irrevocable divine election forth as the statement and demonstration of His free and sovereign prerogative to change and qualify them for a final and secure inheritance of the Land by predestined grace.

He has set them at the center of the nations, that He might show in them for a thousand years of public demonstration, the power of His ability to choose whom He will, and quicken whom He will (Mt 11:27; Jn 5:21; Ro 9:18) at the “set time” of His choosing (Ps 102:13; 110:3; Isa 30:18; Gal 1:15-16), and thus finally and forever preserve, not only them but each and everyone of their children after them in abiding holiness, never again to depart (Isa 59:20-21; Jer 32:40, et al.).

Why? What’s He out to prove? What’s His point?

The design is to press upon the consciousness of the nations God’s faithfulness to His immutable covenant word that most of the world doesn’t even know exists, as multitudes are even now being preconditioned to despise and dismiss this word by the events that are swiftly hurling us to the time of final reckoning.

That covenant (called synonymously “new” / and “everlasting”) is not fully complete or satisfied (in all its original terms) until there is not a living Jew on the post-tribulation earth that is not born again and preserved in the “everlasting salvation” of the “everlasting righteousness” of Christ throughout the entirety of the millennial interim as an all holy nation, “never again” to depart (Isa 45:17, 25; 59:20-21; 60:21; Jer 31:34; 32:37-41, Dan 9:24, with so many more that could be listed ).

This uniformity of a completely saved and eternally preserved Jewish population at peace in their own, covenanted Land is the goal of the covenant, since only then will the long blinded Jewish nation have their spiritual eyes opened. A coming day when the blind shall see, and those who always before resisted the Spirit opposer shall learn doctrine is promised all throughout Moses and the prophets (compare Deut 29:4 with Deut 4:25-31; 30:1-6; Isa 29:18, 24; Acts 7:51).

Only when, not a mere remnant, but “all” the people are righteous (Isa 60:21; Jer 31:34), with an eternal righteousness not their own (Isa 45:24; 54:17; Jer 23:5-6; Dan 9:24), can they fulfill the covenant conditions and thus keep the Land forever in abiding peace and security.

This will be possible because the tendency to backslide and come back under the curses of the covenant will be forever cured by the everlasting righteousness of the everlasting covenant. No more will the righteous remnant suffer the sins and exile of the larger apostate nation, since all will be preserved in new covenant righteousness forever, “world without end” (Isa 45:17).

It is one thing for God to bring the Jews into the Land, but a radical transformation is required for them to be assured of permanent security in the Land. This is the very thing the everlasting / new covenant guarantees. From this, it is clear to see why the prophets understood that nothing short of a climactic, apocalyptic day of the Lord could ever bring about such a radical and permanent change in the whole of the nation.

More specifically, not all the nation but only the remnant who escaped death in order to arrive at that ultimately transformative day (Ps 102:13; 110:3; Isa 66:8; Eze 39:22; Zech 3:9; 12:10; 13:8-9; Mt 23:39; Acts 3:21; Ro 11:26; Rev 1:7) .

This is why, not only a remnant, but the entirety of the nation must “all” know Him (Jer 31:34; Eze 39:22, 28-29) in order for them to be able to keep the Land forever, as promised in the plain language of the covenant. As I like to say, “in order for the Jews to inherit the Land forever, they must have a righteousness that is forever”.

This righteousness, which is the Lord’s own righteousness alone (Isa 45:24-25; 54:7; Jer 23:5-6), must extend, not only to a remnant, but the whole of the nation and all the children born to them in future generations, lest the tendency to backslide send them back under the curses of the broken covenant.

This “everlasting righteousness”, which is none their own, but the Lord’s alone, is that righteousness that was perfected in the Son and imputed to the believer whose faith is counted for righteousness. This righteousness, once imputed, is invariably made manifest by the gift and fruits of the enlivening Holy Spirit.

Of course, all of this applies now to every true-born believer of this age and the assurance of eternal inheritance in the age to come (both the millennium and the new heavens and earth), but God intended an earthly demonstration of His ability to accomplish this divine, self assigned “mission impossible” here, on this earth with the Jewish people, here, at the scene of the crime, so to speak, in the presence of a helplessly bound enemy (Satan).

It was necessary that this grace be exhibited and put on display by weak, natural jars of clay, supernaturally upheld in holiness by the gift of the Holy Spirit and nothing of human power.

Manifestly, God has set this interim period as the demonstration of His ability, not only “to graft them in again” but to keep them in, forever!. This requires an interim that is a glorious advance on the present age, yet short of the final, ultimate perfection that follows the millennium.

This newly and suddenly saved remnant of penitent survivors (like Paul’s sudden arrest on the Damascus road) will enter the millennium in their natural bodies and be assisted back to their Land by surviving gentiles compare Isa 14:2; 40:22; 60:9; 66:20; Zech 8:23). Manifestly, these survivors from among the nations did not take the mark, but were also not yet born again (not yet “in Christ”) at the time of the last trump, when Jesus was revealed from heaven (Isa 26:12-13 with Mt 24:29-31; 1Cor 15:52).

Many scriptures speak of this sudden salvation of the surviving remnant of penitent Jewish survivors at the Lord’s post-trib return (Ps 102:13; 110:3; Isa 59:17-21; 66:8; Jer 30:6-7; Eze 39:22, 28-29; Zech 3:9; 12:10; Mt 23:39; Acts 3:21; Ro 11:26; with Rev 1:7) with the result that now, an all saved Jewish population will never again backslide and fall back under covenant judgment, but “all”, from the least to the greatest will know the Lord (Isa 59:21; Jer 31:34; 32:40; Eze 37:25; 39:22). THIS is the OT context behind Paul’s statement, “and so all Israel shall be saved”.

This sudden national salvation of a surviving remnant is everywhere shown to take place at the post-tribulational day of the Lord. It’s purpose is the open and public vindication of “My covenant with THEM (natural branches) when I shall (future) take away THEIR (the irrevocably elect and no less beloved enemy’s) sin …”

Several scriptures show very definitely that the time Paul has in view is the post-trib day of the Lord, which the NT obviously equates with Christ’s return. When Jesus arrives in glory, the dead in Christ, together with all those alive in Christ at the time, will be changed in an instant, immediately translated into glorified immortality.

At the same time (“in one day”; Ps 102:13; 110:3; Isa 66:8; Zech 3:9; Eze 39:22; Mt 23:39; Ro 11:26; Rev 1:7) ; a surviving remnant of Jews, having just been brought to the end of their power (Deut 32:36; Dan 12:7), “look upon their pierced Messiah”, and immediately go apart to weep in deepest contrition, as when Joseph revealed himself to his estranged brethren (compare Gen. 45 with Mic 5:3-4; Zech 12:10; Mat 23:39; Rev 1:7). After the great purgation of tribulation judgment, the newly saved Jewish remnant (Eze 20:33-40; Amos 9:9-10) goes into the millennium in natural, albeit Spirit filled bodies (Eze 39:22, 28-29).

Now, with it established that the scripture is very clear that a surviving remnant will make up the newly born nation, entering the post-tribulational kingdom in natural bodies, returning by every natural means of transport back to the Land to build and plant, raise families, and witness to the nations, the question is naturally raised, “what will be the relationship of those who enter the millennial kingdom in their natural bodies and those who have been translated at the rapture?”

When taken together, the cumulative evidence of scripture creates what can be called a “necessary inference”. I believe the puzzle is only solved, with due respect to all that the scripture says, by recognizing what I like to call, a “dimensional divide”.

The mystery of the rapture is not a mystery as to its time. That is no mystery (compare Hos 13:14; Isa 25:7-8; 27:12-13; Mt 24:29-31 with 1Cor 15:5-54 ). The mystery has to do with a ‘dimensional divide’ between those who will be putting on resurrected bodies with capacities that are like the angels and like the Lord in His post-resurrection appearances for the purpose of spiritual rule, (as for example, ruling over 5 or 10 cities), but in a realm of existence, not any less on earth, but not immediately visible to saved and unsaved mortals in the millennium (compare Mt 19:28; 22:30; Lk 19:17:18; 1Cor 13:12).

There is so much more that can help clarify and harmonize, but the greatest problem (other than failure to fully depend on the Spirit for the mercy of illumination) is lack of OT literacy on the popular level, and on the scholarly level, the tendency to embrace of a set of a-priori presuppositions that seeks to harmonize the testaments by a radical method of reinterpretation and spiritualization. It’s a great, historic deficiency in the church due to centuries of neglect of the OT and artificial, unsatisfactory solutions that fail to convincingly harmonize the testaments.

Second point implicit in your question is the relationship of the body to national Israel:

To be clear, Israel can only be saved as it becomes the body of Christ by the transforming, regenerating revelation of Christ. If they are alive to God, they are “in Christ”, and thus part of His body sharing in the unity of the Spirit, equally with all saints, whether Jew or Gentile.

1 Corinthians 6:17
But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.

In the natural order, there is a necessary and crucial distinction between Israel and the church, just as between male and female. But there is no distinction at all in the unity of the one new man, that is all who know the Lord, whether in times past, in this age, or the millennial age to come.

This unity of the Spirit in the God-Man is not a new truth, but an old truth that has come to full light in the revelation of the mystery. (Remember this: something that is newly revealed, or has come to much greater light, does not mean that it did not exist before, just as the revelation of Jesus has brought much clearer light on the triune nature of the Godhead. Yet no one would say that such new revelation created something that did not exist before).

In distinguishable contrast from the one new man of the Spirit, natural Israel and the supernatural preservation of Jewish identity throughout the generations, belongs to a corporate election that does not guarantee the salvation of any individual in the set apart nation. Instead, precisely because of the covenant mandate, belonging to the Jewish race commends the covenant breaker to a “double” discipline, as foretold in scripture and witnessed throughout history.

So when Israel comes to faith on that day, they will be no less the living body of Christ, albeit with a unique and special calling, role, and stewardship to be lived out openly in the presence of the nations throughout the millennium.

Thus, the millennium exists primarily for this open covenant vindication and demonstration of every word and aspect of His everlasting covenant, to be lived out in literal detail before the nations and also the onlooking principalities and powers. This will show show for a thousand years of open, fully visible demonstration that God was indeed able, not only to bring the people He first brought out of Egypt back into the Land, but now, because of an “everlasting righteousness” (namely, the righteousness of the Son), eternally secure to one and all, they will abide, preserved in holiness and peace in the Land, within the originally specified borders of the promise.

We are led then to infer, most necessarily on the basis of 1Cor 15:50-52, that all who come to faith during the millennium, with any who die in the Lord during the millennium, will be raised with their new body at the end of the millennium when the great transition to the new heavens and earth follows the final rebellion.

If that explanation does not fully satisfy every question, it is also to be considered that there is a mystery about time in the realm of the Spirit as it intersects with natural historical time. In any event, lingering questions must not be permitted to impose on the clarity of what the text plainly ‘SAYS’.

May the kind Shepherd, “come alongside”, and cause our hearts to burn within us, as He opens to us the Scriptures.

Reggie

The post What Kind of Bodies Will Israel Have in the Millennium? appeared first on Mystery of Israel.

From the 2022 God’s Foretold Work: The Everlasting Gospel Convocation. The audio has been cleaned up compared to the LIVE version.

The post The Purpose of the Millennium [VIDEO] appeared first on Mystery of Israel.

I would like to know if the restored Kingdom of Israel is the millennial Kingdom. And what is the connection between the antichrist and Islam? Do you believe he will come from there?

To answer your second question first, I have believed the Antichrist would arise from among 10 Arab / Muslim nations since the Yom Kippur War when the Lord revealed to me that the ten kings would be Arab / Muslim, obsessed with a militant hatred of what Daniel will call, “the holy covenant” (Dan 11:28, 30). The general territory from whence the Antichrist takes his rise to power is very clearly denoted in Dan 8:9.

He rises from somewhere within the expanse of territory that was under the Seleucid dynasty of the second century B.C. At its height, this would have reached from Damascus to Babylon. This makes it hard to pinpoint the location exactly, but it does limit the general region of his rise, as it rules out the greater part of the world. This will depend, of course, on a defense of my strongly held position that the ‘little horn’ of Dan 8:9 is none other than the “little horn” of Dan 7:8. Surprisingly, many, perhaps most of the commentaries take the position that the ‘little horn’ of Dan 7:8 is NOT the same person as the ‘little horn’ of Dan 8:9. Therefore, the clue of Dan 8:9 is very largely dismissed from having any future significance.

There are reasons why the list of aggressor nations in Ezk 38:5-6 are not exactly the same as those mentioned in Ps 83. That’s another discussion; but I have always believed that the 10 neighboring nations mentioned in Ps 83 are the very nations that will align with the Antichrist, albeit with the backing of other greater powers to the north.

It is an off topic note, but should we return to this discussion, it is important to note that Ps 83’s mention of the “Hagarenes” does NOT refer to Egypt (see Wikipedia). Egypt is conspicuous for its absence in the list of nations mentioned in Eze 38:5-6. Isa 19 shows why. This is because Egypt is savaged by the Antichrist shortly after he invades Israel.

I believe that Edom, Moab, and Ammon (united today as modern Jordan) “escape out of his (Antichrist’s) hand” (Dan 11:41) because they are sympathetic with his conquest of Israel and he favors them for their profoundly antisemitic, pro-Antichrist sentiment. I infer this on the basis of such scripture as Eze 35:15; 35:5, 10; 36:2-7; Obadiah; Mal 1:4. This is the “ancient hatred” that has boiled in the bosom of Esau since time immemorial.

Now for your first question. The answer is most certainly! The millennial kingdom is the restoration of the Davidic kingdom but now flourishing in the totality of the covenant promises made concerning a particular people and a particular Land. According to the language of the oft reiterated covenant promises, the destiny of the people and the Land are inseparable. God has a point to prove and He will openly vindicate His covenant word concerning Israel, as real ethnic Jews (“natural branches”) in the sight of all nations.

God is going to set forth this astonishing miracle of history on empirical, public display, as the ultimate public demonstration and embodiment of His covenant word, answering forever the great question first put by the Serpent, “hath God really said?” That’s what the cosmic war is all about, the veracity and power of God’s Word, most particularly His purpose “according to election” (Ro 9:11).

He will show His power to bring in, finally and forever, the very nation He first called out of Egypt. He will answer the question that Israel’s historical predicament so eloquently asks. How will a people of such proven inability ever sufficiently keep the requirements of covenant holiness in such a way as to finally realize lasting and secure residence and blessing in the Land?

How will God who first called them out of Egypt and gave them the Land cause them to abide in lasting peace, with no invader ever again threatening? (2Sam 7:10; Amos 9:15, and many more).

It is one thing to bring them in. It is quite another to keep them there! How will such a nation with such a history ever be secure in their own Land as an “everlasting” inheritance, particularly if they are yet in natural bodies as the scripture makes plain? The answer, of course, is the “everlasting righteousness” of the New Covenant (Isa 45:17, 25; 59:21; Jer 31:31-34; 32:40; Dan 9:24).

When this will be established, not only with a remnant, but with “all Israel” (the whole of the nation), then will Israel lie down in safety, none making them afraid again forever. Then will His covenant “with THEM” be satisfied of all its specific promises and implications.

When will He do this?

When the Deliverer comes out of Zion to end the times of the Gentiles (Isa 59:20-21; Dan 12:1-2; Zech 3:9; 12:10 Mat 23:39; Lk 21:24; Acts 3:21; Ro 11:25-26).

For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.

This can only happen at the “set time” (Gen 17:21; 21:2; Ps 102:13; Dan 11:27, 35).

Psalms 102:13

Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion:
for the time to favour her, yea, theset time, is come.

This appointed time is everywhere shown to be the great day of the Lord, often described as “that day”. It is the day of great transition between this ‘present evil age’ and the millennial day of the thousand years. It is the time when “the mystery of God is finished” with His return at the last trumpet (Isa 27:13; Mt 24:31; 1Cor 15:52; Rev 10:7; 11:15-18).

Why will He do this?

There are two main reasons that are inseparably related:

The first is stated in Romans 11:27

For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.

The second is stated in 11:28-29, as further drawing out the implications of the great foundational purpose set down in Ro 9:11, 16, 18.

As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.

Romans 9:11

(For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of Him who calls)

Romans 9:16, 18

So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. … Therefore He has mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom He will He hardens.

So covenant election is why God has loved, appointed, preserved, and yes, predestined Israel. They are His means of demonstrating that His salvation is conducted along the lines of an eternal purpose that is not based on works, but upon His sovereign prerogative to choose on a wholly independent basis. This, since only on this basis can the promise be made “sure to all the seed”. And since only in this way is the glory for the fulfillment of all the requirements and conditions of salvation God’s alone through grace alone.

He MUST fulfill His covenant with them on a basis that brings no credit at all to them, but all the glory to His special initiative in grace towards them in particular (Eze 36:22, 32),

Now here’s an exercise I highly recommend.

Go through the Old Testament. Look for every reference that speaks of the climax of the covenant with Israel, that great time of ultimate transition between their constant exposure to covenant discipline and the great reversal that redeems and exalts this blinded, profoundly chastened people once and for all. Invariably this will always be the day of the Lord, whether or not that specific term is used.

It is always found as the climax of an unparalleled time of affliction and distress, called by Moses, the prophets, and Jesus, the great “tribulation”, a time like no other, ending in the day like no other. This is very simple and plain.

Now do this: see the conditions that prevail before this time and mark how radically Israel’s experience on this earth changes after this time. Observe all the radically transformed conditions that are described in such notable detail. Now ask yourself. How can words be preserved of their original intent and meaning and all of this be transferred, either to a present mystical experience in the Spirit or to the new heavens and earth of final, imperishable perfection? It just can’t be done!

No, quite clearly, if plain, non-figurative language means anything, these unprecedented, never before fulfilled conditions are realized on this present earth. And this, of course, demands an intermediate period between this age and the final perfection, the very millennium of which John gives the duration.

But even before a definite duration was revealed, it would have been clear to anyone that these post-tribulational conditions can only be fulfilled on this earth, in the presence of abiding imperfections that point on to yet another stage of even greater change.

The question is, where and when are all of these highly descriptive details of prophecy and promise to be fulfilled? Is this in a mystical realm?, or a new heavens and earth of ultimate, final perfection? The question answers itself.

Just note what a massive volume of scripture is devoted to Israel’s restoration. Where and when do such conditions prevail that have never before existed? Unless we are willing to discount the plain meaning of plain words, these yet imperfect conditions prevail on this earth AFTER the great and notable day of the Lord.

This simple observation of the radical ‘line of demarcation’ between what lies BEFORE the DOL and what follows AFTER will go far towards keeping the interpreter on course. It will establish, to some real degree, the soundness of one’s hermeneutic (method of interpretation), as the only sensible means of demonstrating the credible harmony of the whole of scripture in what I am fond of calling, “the glory of the story.”

In His great grace, Reggie

The post The Antichrist, the Millennium and the Kingdom appeared first on Mystery of Israel.

I’m very interested in the overall impression that you will get while there [in Israel]. One thing is for sure, like you said, “So much going on in the Spirit that is so intense over here.”

Just like when a child of God is out of order and God will lead that one into some test of adversity to cure them of their presumption, I see the spirit of Islam, raised up like a Pharaoh to send a prodigal son running back into the Father’s arms to receive, in great brokenness, a new heart and spirit.

In the meantime, I see divine tenderness in bringing them back again into their own Land with great tokens of blessing of ‘common grace’. This is a milestone of immense significance, and for that reason so much the greater reason to soberly listen to their own prophets. Why? Well, of course that they might attain to the revelation of the righteousness of God, but also because for 18 centuries, there has been no Jewish nation, particularly one that has only recently returned “after the desolation of many generations” (Isa 61:4; Eze 38:8). Even beyond the explicit references to the return, this is what all the prophets presuppose as the necessary setting “in the Land” for God’s final pleading with His people in their greatest and final crisis. Only since the modern return from “the desolations of many generations” has the stage been set for the far greater and complete return that comes only after the tribulation when the Spirit is poured out on the surviving remnant (Isa 66:8; Zech 12:10; Eze 39:22, 28-29).

So while return to the Land is indeed a miraculous modern fulfillment of prophecy, the presence of an implacable enemy, still possessed of what Ezekiel calls, “the old hatred” (Eze 25:25) and “the everlasting hated” (Eze 35:5), should be sober reminder that though they are back home, they are not yet “home free”. But this is not the first time this situation has existed for Israel. Consider: When the Jews returned from Babylon, there was “a little reviving” (Ezra 9:8-9) . Notwithstanding, the prophets of the return, anticipating the inevitable drift back into apostasy, would continue to speak of the inexorable approach of an ultimate day of the Lord that would be preceded by an unequaled time of trouble, not only for Israel but the whole world. Nevertheless, according to Daniel’s prophecy, Israel’s deliverance would not come before the end of the 70 weeks. This would mean that for nearly 5 centuries the Jews would be back in their Land, but because of the partiality of their repentance, the nation would continue to reel under the cycles of persecution and occupation of successive kingdoms. Still, then as now, there would be extended periods of what we might call, ‘common grace’, which is the grace that God has on the poor, benighted condition of the natural man, as space for repentance is granted in divine patience, pity and love.

But where Israel is concerned especially, God cannot forever settle for this middle ground of in the Land, out of the Land, but never able to realize lasting security or guaranteed permanence in the Land apart from the promised righteousness of the everlasting covenant. As much as everything in our nature would like to avoid that day (Jer 30:6-7), it must come, because it is only an entirely regenerate nation that can fulfill the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants, as necessary for the kingdom of God to come on earth, and this cannot happen apart from “the bringing in of the everlasting righteousness”, not only for a remnant, but for the entirety of the nation (Isa 4:3; 45:17, 25; 54:13; 59:21; 60:21; Jer 31:34, et al.). That’s the part that so few are really seeing. God’s going for broke here. Can He pull this off? “Has God really said?” Can He, without going to a more ‘compliant’ people, take the same people He first brought out, and not only bring them in, but keep them in the Land forever, without further threat of covenant jeopardy surrendering them again and again to the will of their enemies?

This is the great test God has appointed for Himself, as He has chosen to bind up His Name and covenant oath with making good on this miracle promise, which is nothing less miraculous than Isaac’s or the Savior’s own miraculous birth (compare Gen 17:21; 21:2 with Ps 102:13; Isa 66:8). This is the great question that the millennium is given to settle openly and forever, in public vindication of the everlasting covenant, as it pertains to Israel in particular (the “scandal of particularity”).

What will make this so remarkable and manifestly miraculous is that this will be the experience of a nation that is NOT yet physically raised to glorified immortality, but newly born, filled with the Spirit, albeit still in their natural bodies. The uniform salvation of every Jewish survivor and every child ever born thereafter to Jewish parentage, will be a burning bush of standing witness to the nations of sovereign, electing grace, simply because while there will be great, unprecedented salvation and evangelistic outreach to the nations, in only one Land and among only one people will there be uniform salvation from the least to the greatest, so that not one of mature age need ever be taught to know the Lord, since they will ‘all’ know Him (Isa 4:3; 45:17, 25; 54:13; 59:21; 60:21; 66:22; Jer 31:34; 32:38-40; Eze 20:40; 37:25; 39:22, 28-29, et al).

This marvel of the uniform salvation of a remnant of penitent Jewish survivors of the last tribulation, together with their progeny that will be born to the them in the millennial age, all kept from departing from the new heart and new spirit of the everlasting covenant, is precisely what Paul meant when speaking of the salvation of ‘all Israel’ when the Deliverer comes out of Zion (note how Paul is conflating Isa 27:9; 59:20; Joel 3:16; Jer 31:34). The time made plain by the context is clearly the post-tribulational day of the Lord.

If this divinely ordained demonstration did not require flesh and blood embodiment on this earth, it is hard to see why a millennium would be required after the Lord’s return, which is exactly why so many cannot conceive of an earthly millennial interim beyond this age but before the final perfection. Yet, a volume of prophetic detail throughout the prophets would become superfluous without a place for fulfillment somewhere beyond this age, yet clearly incompatible with what is described of the final perfection of Rev 21-22.

This oversight an inattention to detail explains why many do not see the scriptural imperative of an abiding and unfulfilled aspect of the everlasting covenant that yet pertains to THEM (i.e., the natural branches). God yet has a cosmic point that He is determined to make through the Jew. What is that point? It is the very purpose for which Jacob was first set apart. It is “SO THAT the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of Him who calls” (irrevocably). The Jew exists as distinct, and very importantly visibly distinct, not only to preserve the holy oracles and give the world Jesus (and then to have no further purpose?), but they are miraculously preserved, against all odds, as distinct among the nations, that through them, by real embodiment of real, preserved ethnic identity, God might make this very point, and send it home for a thousand years of open, public witness.

The cumulative evidence leads to the conclusion that God has decreed that His free prerogative to choose as He will choose will have a physical embodiment on this earth for a thousand years before moving to the final, post-millennial perfection of new heavens and new earth. This will be the open, visible vindication of the everlasting covenant, as it pertains particularly to the natural branches. All indications are that God is very jealous for this. It is something that has been in His heart since the setting apart of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, which is to say, the God who elects.

Still, there will be pockets of contempt and envy against Israel’s election, until the earth has become full again of covenant haters, election despisers, showing that even under the most compelling and auspicious conditions, the wicked are unwilling to behold the majesty of the Lord.

“Let favour be shewed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly and will not behold the majesty of the Lord. Lord, when thy hand is lifted up, they will not see, but they shall see and be ashamed for their envy at the people; yea, the fire of thine enemies shall devour them” (Isa 26:10-11).

Another point I wanted to make is that NEVER before have such a number of often overlooked details of prophecy existed in such perfect alignment, some that have only fallen into place the last few years. Not only can Jesus NOT come until the man of sin is first revealed, but preterists and amillennialists alike should be apprised that only now, for the first time, the right enemies are in the right place for the fulfillment of prophecies that have never realized final and complete fulfillment, respecting all details, until now. Not Rome, but Gog and Magog and the distinct nations listed in Eze 38:5-6.

For example, neither Antiochus IV or Titus qualified as a ‘little horn’ (a small power in its origin; Dan 7:8; 8:8-9). The early church fathers would caution against associating any of the Caesars with the final beast in the absence of the ten kings. Yet, the ten kingdoms mentioned in Ps 83 include the very territories that are ranged against Israel now, who harbor to this day “the everlasting hatred” that the scripture depicts as alive and well at the time of the day of the Lord and Israel’s ultimate deliverance for kingdom glory (Obad; Eze 35-36, et al.). It is these nations in particular that all the prophets show to be participants in the final siege upon Israel that brings the great day of the Lord in all its finality. It is Lebanon, Edom (modern Jordan), Assyria (modern Iraq), Persia (modern Iran) and so on we could go. As in ages past, Israel’s modern enemies inhabit the same neighborhood that is currently brimming with what Ezekiel calls, “the everlasting hatred” (Eze 25:15; 35:5).

In only the last few years, even less, the nations that prophecy shows to be belligerents against Israel are turning from an only recent posture of friendship to open hostility. We see this with Turkey, the Togarmah of Eze 38. Conversely, other nations mentioned in prophecy as NOT opposing Israel in the final conflict, but instead being threatened and overrun by the Antichrist, have only very recently moved in the opposite direction. For example, the book of Ezekiel is most prolific in its mention of Egypt. Yet, when we come to the list of nations that are led by the principality, Gog, against the Land of Israel, Egypt is significant for its non-mention. How far this seemed from probable only a short while ago when the radical Muslim brotherhood Morsi government was leading Egypt towards absolute, obsessive belligerence against Israel. Not only so, but Egypt is particularly described in Dan 11:42 and in Isa 19 as being a special object of Antichrist rage, very possibly for a policy of moderation towards Israel. Note too that Egypt is overrun in Dan 11:42 only AFTER the abomination has been placed in Dan 11:31, showing this to be AFTER the middle of the week, making clear that Egypt was NOT one of the ten aggressors confederated with the Antichrist in his initial invasion of Israel.

Another compelling instance is Saudi Arabia (biblical Sheba and Dedan). Mutual regional strategic and economic interests have brought these onetime bitter enemies into just the kind of common cause that makes the Antichrist invasion of Israel an occasion for Saudi consternation (see Eze 38:13). Not only are the Saudis not supportive of the Antichrist invasion of Israel; they are threatened by it. All of these developments are very recent, but necessary to fulfill many often-overlooked details of prophecy.

Thus, we can say that whereas there are moderate Arab nations that will support the peace arrangement that the Antichrist disrupts in the middle of the week. It is incorrect to suppose that ‘all’ nations go against Israel. They do not! It is the Antichrist with his ten that break the peace and flood the Land of Israel with overwhelming forces. The onlooking nations, unable to repulse his advance (Dan 11:31 with Rev 13:4) are aghast and imperiled. They will be impotent to resist (Dan 11:31 with Rev 13:4). Dissenting nations will soon come under great pressure to capitulate to his demands. Evidently, he does not have complete military control over all the nations, certainly not at ‘the end’ (see Dan 11:40-45), but is able to use his strategic advantage over the flow of vital resources to exert control over the nations through economic sanctions. Besides the sweeping power of unrestrained deception, his chokehold on the world’s economy appears to be a primary means to manipulate compliance with his demands.

The hearts of men will be ultimately tested as to whether they will bow to his demands, and we may be sure that part of the price to escape economic strangulation will be the handing over of the Jews.

All’s to say, these conditions have never existed until now. These developments are remarkably new. So what does this mean for where we are at the moment? How long will the present status quo hold? When we look at the scriptures and the modern situation since Israel’s remarkable return and achievement of statehood, one does not get the impression that the tribulation is that far removed from Israel’s preliminary return in unbelief, coupled with great prosperity and beautification of the Land.

I mentioned that this beautification and prosperity of the Land comes “after many generations of desolation”. Think about it. When has this prophecy been fulfilled in the past? Is it the 70 years of captivity prophesied by Jeremiah? That was only ONE generation. Could it have been fulfilled anytime BEFORE Rome’s destruction of the temple when the Jews populated and tilled the Land all throughout the 490 years of Daniel’s 70 week prophecy? No, the only period long enough to account for this prophecy is the period since 70 A.D., especially since 132 A.D. It is only since then that the Land lay barren and untilled until the 19th century. Now observe: In Eze 38:8, the Antichrist invasion of the Land comes AFTER the Land has been for “many days … a continual waste”. This again refers to the long exile that answers to none other than the Roman exile since final Jewish eviction in 132 A.D. But while no definite time is given for how long the Jews will be in the Land and greatly prospering before the Antichrist invasion, it is hard to take the impression that the time can be very long from this preliminary regathering in unbelief to their ultimate regeneration and complete return when the face of God is no longer hidden and the Spirit poured out (Eze 39:22, 28-29).

It is also significant that this is AFTER the desolation of ‘many generations’ but BEFORE the brief desolation of the last 3 1/2 years. Joel describes the day of the Lord as coming to a land that is Edenic BEFORE it is attacked and turned into a “desolate wilderness” (Joel 2:3). This is exactly the condition of the Land that Ezekiel describes as existing just before the attack of Gog (Eze 38:12-13).
“Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand; A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations. A fire devours before them; and behind them a flame burns: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them” (Joel 2:1-3)

Upon the Lord’s return, the Land will be returned to its Edenic beauty during the millennium (Eze 36:35), but this is not to be confused with its pre-day of the Lord condition described by Joel and Ezekiel that is brought into ruin by the ravaging hordes of the Antichrist.

So we’ve come full circle. Jerusalem is again a cup of trembling, as the prophet says she must be just before her final deliverance and glory. It is the controversy of Zion again, only this time is the last time, because unlike former destructions and desolations, the players declared in the ‘fine print’ of prophecy are now, for the first time, even within the last few years, all now aligned in place. All that remains is a peace arrangement that provides for required recognition of Israel’s right to exist, and access for Jews to restore their ancient ritual and temple. This brings the really big question that has recently moved me to tears. What will THIS take and what will it cost?

As Dalton recently posted, and as confirmed by a friend that used to work within the intelligence community, all the other wars have been little wars compared to the big one that is presently building on the northern border. The missiles currently being stock-piled by Iran’s proxies, and now well concealed within Russian protected Syria, are not for self defense but for the day of strategic opportunity to destroy Israel, nothing less.

Knowing that the next US administration may not be so supportive, Israel may well decide to take preemptive action. It has long been my expectation that the changes required in the region to fulfill the final necessary requirements of prophecy will not come by any natural process of diplomacy. Nothing short of war, one that may well threaten Israel’s survival, could account for the kind of changes necessary to fulfill prophecy. Only a seismic re-balance and re-configuration of the whole political landscape could ever change the political deadlock that preserve the present status quo. Yes, it is a war that Israel will win but at what cost?

So how soon? How close are we? Note first that Israel has been in and out of the Land more than once since Jeremiah gave his prophecy concerning their final salvation at the end of the time of Jacob’s trouble (Jer 30:7 with Dan 12:1-2; Mt 24:21). What’s to say that after this return Israel may not dwell in the Land as a prosperous nation for many, many years yet to come? Well, no one text ‘says’ that Israel is only back in the Land a very little while before the great tribulation. However, ‘if’ the case is well enough made that the two days of Hos 5:15-6:2 are indeed symbolic, not of an indefinite short period of time (as most commentators) but as two definite millennia, to be reckoned from the Lord’s ascension. And ‘if’ the recent developments mentioned above are indeed preparation for the kind of conditions that will exist just before the Antichrist’s invasion, then we are looking at a short period of time for such seismic changes to take place.

When the prophecies are closely investigated, it seems clear that nothing on the present horizon, short of a regional, if not world war, could conceivably account for the kind of shift that would induce the Arab world to make the kinds of concessions that prophecy requires. Think about it. The Antichrist hates the covenant. He agrees to the peace only because it is expedient for the moment. From its very inception, he immediately begins to plot against the very covenant he confirms (Dan 11:23-31). This is the man who will bring the world of radical Islam with him in his attack on Jerusalem. Unless there was some unprecedented inducement, would such a man consent to a peace that he so deeply opposes?

It seems clear that the one who will be leader of the ten-nation confederacy that descends upon Israel would never countenance such a peace plan, particularly one that must necessarily include provisions for Jewish control of at least some part of the temple mount, unless Israel had attained an overwhelming advantage in the negotiations. It is this kind of advantage that I believe will come to Israel only after another war, sufficient to reshape the balance of power throughout the region and to profoundly revise opinion over how peace can be secured.

This will be particularly true if Israel’s survival is once more threatened by its attempts to accommodate outside pressure. It will produce in the Israeli’s another resolute ‘never again’ posture towards world opinion, as the moderate nations enter into a new phase of negotiations only after another bitter lesson of tragic cost. Of course, this will be the beginning of the end, precisely when things finally look hopeful after so many years of seemingly impossible deadlock and impasse. It will be mankind’s ultimate Babel of humanistic imagination that peace on earth can be attained short of kingdom righteousness, with an all saved Israel at its center.

The post Israel Today and Everlasting Security in the Land appeared first on Mystery of Israel.

Ezek.38 and 39 is on the spot now.
I can see that is about what happens in the end of the tribulation.
But 38 is little confusing; is this in the end of millennium?
What are your thoughts about that?

Because of its parallel in essence and character, I believe the Spirit is applying to the end of the millennium, by way of analogy, only ‘some’ aspects of the battle that even John would have certainly understood to be fulfilled primarily at “the great day of God Almighty” (compare Eze 39:8 with Rev 16:14-17; and Eze 39:4, 17-20 with Rev 19:17-18). So much of the detail simply cannot be made to fit with the post-millennial destruction of Gog and Magog, which I believe is being used as a type and symbol for a post-millennial reiteration of what has taken place before the millennium, but with important differences.

For one thing, the seven months burying of the dead, and seven years burning of weaponry (Eze 39:10, 12-14) does not fit with the sudden termination of the millennium and immediate revelation and descent of the perfected city of God (Rev 19:9-21:2). But perhaps most telling of all is that the Israel that Gog attacks in Eze 38-39 does not yet know the Lord; whereas the Israel that is threatened (but not successfully invaded), at the end of the millennium have known Him a thousand years.

By divine design, we are piecing together a mystery that requires utmost caution and careful attention to detail, and certainly a trembling dependency on the Spirit’s merciful help. Because of Revelation’s post-millennial application of some aspects of the Gog Magog phenomenon, and because Eze 36 that precedes the vision is clearly millennial, as Eze 37 also ends in millennial glory, and not least because some of the language of security in the Land is so strikingly similar to it’s use elsewhere in the prophets, many interpreters conclude that the security of Eze 38:8, 11, 14; 39:26 is the final security of millennial promise.

This can be very misleading, because the security of Eze 38 & 39 is disrupted by the northern invader BEFORE the great day of God Almighty (compare Eze 39:9 with Rev 16:14-17), before Armageddon (Eze 39:4, 17-20 with Rev 19:17-18), and therefore before the surviving remnant of Israel comes to faith and lasting security in the Land, a security that though momentarily threatened, will “never again” be successfully disrupted (2Sam 7:10; Isa 54:14-17; Rev 20:9). Note that in context, the famous ‘no weapon that is formed against you will prosper” is a promise to millennial Israel. In contrast to God bringing the nations down at the time of Antichrist, the millennial promise is clear that the gathering of the nations at the end of the millennium is NOT by God’s hand (in the sense of judgment upon His own people). “Behold, they shall gather together, but NOT by Me …” (Isa 54:15).

No, the security described of pre-tribulational, pre-millennial Israel in Eze 38 is NOT the security of millennial righteousness, because it is not UNTIL Gog’s destruction (the Antichrist according to Eze 38:17) that all Israel (the surviving remnant) will know the Lord “from that day and forward” (Eze 39:22, 28-29). What day? Manifestly, the day of the Lord (compare Eze 39:8, 13 with Rev 16:14-17). On the contrary, this is the false peace of Dan 8:25; 11:23; 1Thes 5:3, and the “covenant with death and hell” of Isa 28:15, 18. It is the delusive false security that will prevail during the first half of Daniel’s 70th week. A correct translation of Eze 39:26 confirms that this is a peace that was sinfully abused and presumed upon, a situation hardly characteristic of redeemed Israel. “After that they have borne their shame, and all their trespasses whereby they have trespassed against me, WHEN they dwelt safely in their land, and none made them afraid.

It may well be that when the false peace comes, many jubilant Jews will presume that this is perhaps the beginning of the covenant promise of security in the Land. This will be answered by warnings from the remnant that no peace can last that is based on human agreements and trust in man (Isa 28:14-18 with Rev 11:2; note the eschatological ‘treading down’ of Jerusalem). Those of understanding will protest the vain presumption that lasting security in the Land can never be realized apart form the promised “everlasting righteousness” of God (Isa 45:17, 25; Jer 32:40; Dan 9:24), which righteousness can brook no mixture with the righteousness of man. This is God’s ancient controversy with His people come to its climax, and the presumption of security in Eze 38 is the prelude to the deepest shaking of that presumption that Israel has ever experienced.

What will it mean when, against all odds, what has been so long in coming is here at last, only to be so quickly and suddenly stripped away? (see Isa 63:18; 64:10-12). It is beyond conception the depths of anguish and shock that Israel will feel when lifted so high to be plunged so low, as the great landmarks of the covenant, so long awaited, and so recently restored, are destroyed once again before their eyes. It is then that the great gap between supply and demand will be closed, as the Lord will have His saints prepared to explain these things to an amazed and shattered people (Deut 32:36; Dan 11:33; 12:7).

Only amid such shaking, and in the full light of prophecy, can Israel begin to consider what (with man) has been impossible till now. “In the latter days you will consider it” (compare Isa 42:23-25 with Jer 23:20). It is the fruit of that long awaited consideration that will be life from the dead and exponential blessing to the nations.

O come, O come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear

The post The Timing of Ezekiel 38 and 39 appeared first on Mystery of Israel.

The Underground Episode 43: Discussing Premillennialism with Reggie Kelly from Joel Richardson on Vimeo.

The post Thoughts on the Timing of the Lord’s Return (with Joel Richardson) – [VIDEO] appeared first on Mystery of Israel.

I’m wondering if you could solve a mystery for me. Ezekiel 39.26 translates “dwell” in the past tense while NASB (and most newer translations) translate it in the present tense as below:

26 After they have borne their shame, and all their unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to Me, when they dwelt safely in their own land and no one made them afraid. (Ezekiel 39:26 NKJV)

26 “They will forget their disgrace and all their treachery which they perpetrated against Me, when they live securely on their own land with no one to make them afraid. (Ezekiel 39:26 NASB95)

I would assume a manuscript issue, but I have not found one yet. Why is the tense of the translated word different here? Is the Hebrew ambiguous or is there another translation decision being made. Curiously the NET notes don’t mention any need of a translation decision in this verse.

How do you handle this particular verse in your Ezekiel 38-39 exegesis or do you even address it?

This is a very important inquiry. I’ve often referred to Eze 39:26 as making a crucial distinction that is very instructive, depending only somewhat on how the passage should best be translated. The question basically reduces to this: Does the safe dwelling of Eze 39:26 refer to the security that will exist during the millennium (Eze 34:25-28), or does it look back to conditions that existed sometime in the nation’s past (1Kings 4:25), or even more particularly to the days just preceding the great tribulation (Isa 28:15, 18; Eze 38:8, 11, 14; Dan 8:25; 9:27; 11:23-24; 1Thes 5:3), i.e., the false security under the Antichrist?

“They will bear their shame for all their unfaithful acts against me, when they live securely on their land with no one to make them afraid” (NET Bible). That is a very poor translation in light of the context. The NASB95 is indeed better, but the context demands a relishing of a glory that comes only AFTER they have borne the shame of acts done during a time of security that is clearly before the day of the Lord.  The translation is best that reflects consistency between the security described in Eze 39:26 and the security described in Eze 38:8, 11, 14. Manifestly, this is a security that exists sometime BEFORE Israel’s national regeneration at the day of the Lord (Eze 39:8, 22-29).

It is important to note that in Eze 38 & 39, Israel’s promised salvation follows immediately upon the destruction of Gog (Eze 39:4). This is particularly clear from Eze 39:4, 8, 22-29. This stands in marked contrast to the post millennial fulfillment described in Rev 20:7-10, since there, Israel has already existed as a redeemed nation for a thousand years.

Since Israel cannot be dwelling securely anytime after the abomination of desolation that starts the 3 1/2 year period of unequaled tribulation, it becomes very plain that the security and prosperity of Eze 38:8, 11, 14; 39:26 must have existed BEFORE the 3 1/2 years of tribulation that ends in the Day of the Lord. Whether this temporal security is speaking of times of relative security in Israel’s past, or the false security that will distinguish the first 3 1/2 years of false peace under Antichrist, is another question. I would lean towards the latter, because the setting and context would suggest that Israel is dwelling securely in what appears an unprecedented material prosperity at the time the Antichrist descends upon a falsely secure Israel. I do not see Gog as an exact synonym for the Antichrist, but the principality of Satan that will become incarnate in the Antichrist, animating him in his obsession to seize the Holy Land (Eze 38:17). He is the the ‘chief prince’ over the gentile world (Eze 38:2, 17) in the same way that Michael, his angelic counterpart, stands as a “chief prince” over the children of Israel (Dan 10:13; 12:1 with Rev 12:7-14).

Fundamental to the eschatology of both testaments is the recognition that the present age is separated from the golden age of covenant promise by a time of unequaled tribulation ending in the climactic day of the Lord. The question then is, on which side of the tribulation do we find the safe dwelling of Eze 38:8, 11, 14; 39:26? Those who put Eze 38-39 at the end of the millennium make much of the fact that the language of dwelling safely or ‘lying down in safety’ is phraseology that is distinctive of the eschatology of the covenant. That is true. However, if the safe dwelling of Eze 39:26 is consistent with the security described Eze 38:8, 11, 14, we must conclude that it is before Israel’s national regeneration, and therefore, before the tribulation for all the reasons that demonstrate a premillennial fulfillment of the war of Gog and Magog, as necessarily distinguished from its post-millennial replication.

Since the return from exile in Eze 38:8 is clearly pre-tribulational, the translation should properly reflect Israel’s past abuse of the covenant gift of safety in the Land. Unlike millennial safety that will be based on the righteousness of the New Covenant, the safety of Eze 38:8, 11, 14; 39:26 has become the occasion for the apostasy to reach its height of expression. That is the paradox. The language of covenant blessing is used to describe conditions that will prevail BEFORE. the national redemption. Ironically, however, it is these very conditions that become the greater occasion for the full manifestation of the nation’s defection, resulting in the judgement of the tribulation. Although the language of safe dwelling is certainly used in many of the prophetic promises of the age to come, it is also not uncommon that the prophets would raise a cry of warning during times of peace and plenty, precisely because the long suffering of God was being tested through misappropriation of the blessing.

Therefore, the safe dwelling and prosperity described in Eze 38:8, 11-14; 39:26 can only have reference to a provisional and probationary security that can be lost through sin, particularly the sin of presumption, in this case a presumption that has come to its height under a false sense of security. It is humanism’s tower of Babel, and tragically, the elect and beloved nation has imbibed that spirit. This is what must come down. This is the spirit of presumption that will be utterly shattered for a final time by “the chastisement of a cruel one” (Deut 32:36 with Jer 30:14; Dan 12:7).

In marked contrast to this tenuous and short-lived peace, the security of millennial promise is guaranteed of eternal continuance. This is because the nation’s chronic tendency to backslide has been forever cured by the coming in of an ‘everlasting righteousness’ (Jer 32:40; Dan 9:24). At that time, the promise of an everlasting righteousness will include, not only a remnant, as in times past, but each and every living survivor of a fully penitent Israel (Isa 4:3; 45:17, 25; 60:21; Jer 31:34; Eze 20:40; 39:28-29; Zeph 3:13). This gracious preservation in the Land does not end with the first or second generation of Jewish survivors, but extends to every child that will be born to Jewish parentage throughout the thousand years of open demonstration and vindication of His covenant with THEM (Isa 54:13; 59:21; 66:22; Jer 31:34; Ro 11:27).

Throughout Israel’s history, times of tranquility and prosperity were particularly conducive of compromise and the loss of covenant vigilance. In some ways, such favorable conditions find out the disposition of the heart even more than crisis. Will such undeserved grace be credited to natural causes? Even worse, will the blessing be seen as reward for a righteousness of the flesh that is presumed to be acceptable? This is the repeated prophetic indictment against the pride of presumption. Ultimate deception is at hand when the outward tokens of covenant mercy are interpreted as divine approval of a righteousness that is NOT the righteousness of God in Messiah. This is the kind of presumption that will not know when it has entered into a covenant with death and hell, as ultimately embodied in the Antichrist (Isa 28:15, 18; Dan 8:25; 9:27; 11:23).

Notice that this security appears to follow a recent return to the Land (Eze 38:8). Is this the return from Babylon or the modern return? Certainly it cannot be the return from Babylon since the events of Eze 38-39 did not soon follow, certainly not in the form of the everlasting redemption that must immediately follow upon the destruction of Gog on the mountains of Israel (Eze 39:4, 8, 22-29). Clearly then, the peace in view in these chapters is one that we must look for before the tribulation, before Gog’s destruction at the day of the Lord (Eze 39:4, 8). And if Eze 39:26 is to be interpreted in harmony with the earlier references to safe dwelling in Eze 38:8, 11, 14, this time of security was the very time that the nation’s offenses increased to the point of ultimate chastisement. From other scriptures we learn that this consummate offense concerns a deadly league with the Antichrist, a league that is broken by the desecration of the holy place in the middle of the week (Dan 9:27; 12:11; Mt 24:15-22; Rev 11:2).

Read this way, Eze 39:26 (compare also Eze 20:43-44) implies that the shame that is past is for sins that reached the threshold of judgment during a time in the past WHEN Israel “dwelt safely and none made them afraid.” Few times since the return from Babylon, and almost no time since the re-establishment of the modern state of Israel, has the Jewish people dwelt in the kind of security that seems implicit in Eze 38:8, 11, 14.

If we are correct in our view that Eze 38:8 is a reference to the modern return, then we can only suppose that the security of Eze 38:8, 11, 14; 39:26 concludes in the deadly league with the Antichrist, called by Isaiah, “your covenant with death and hell” (Isa 28:15, 18; Dan 8:25; 11:23). To interpret this security as a fulfillment of covenant promise (as many will) will be the ultimate illusion, since it will overflow in disaster just 3 1/2 years after it begins (Dan 9:27; 12:7, 11; Rev 11:2).

The prophets would warn continually of the perilous tendency to interpret temporal blessing (‘common grace’) as a seal of divine approval. This illusion will especially abound during the time of the false peace. It is not essentially new. This eschatological climax is in keeping with a pattern seen all throughout Israel’s history. Times of prosperity were often the times of greatest apostasy, threatening of imminent judgment through the agency of invading foreign powers.

Until the everlasting salvation of the New Covenant, any momentary security must be seen as fragile. In fact, Israel’s continued vulnerability to distress and calamity points ever onward to the need for something more absolute and eternal, namely, an “everlasting righteousness” based on better promises, even the promises of the ‘everlasting covenant’ that guarantees an all righteous nation, able to inherit the Land forever, without further threat of lapse and judgment under the conditional covenant.

Such probationary blessing is gracious and not based on Israel’s righteousness (Deut 9:5-6; Ro 9:11). It is the misuse and misinterpretation of His blessing that tests His longsuffering and brings judgment. In the case of the secular, the security refered to in Eze 38:8, 11, 14; 39:26 may be credited to the self-determination of a nation that has raised itself up out of the ashes of the Holocaust with the bold declaration, ‘never again.’  In the case of the pious, the conditions of security may be credited as reward for a kind of righteousness that, according to NT witness, is ‘not according to knowledge,’ (also the presumption of self-determination).

[Note: ‘Torah observance,’ when trusted apart from the righteousness of God in Messiah, is not in its essence too far removed from Islam’s doctrine of ‘submission.’ Both are ultimately works that must be equally rejected by the God whose standard is Jesus and the righteousness of the Spirit through faith in Messiah’s atoning blood.]

It is profoundly to be considered why it is that Israel’s greatest tribulation comes, not when the nation is weak and beleaguered  but when it is strong, at the pinnacle of success, not only exhibiting a coveted national prosperity, but unprecedented religious success (as evident from the re-annexation of the temple with restored sanctuary and sacrifice (Isa 63:18; 64:10-11; Dan 11:31; 12:11; Mt 24:15; 2Thes 2:4). This success will come at the price of a peace league with the Antichrist (Isa 28:15, 18; Dan 8:25; 9:27; 11:23; 1Thes 5:3). It is this very presumption that sells a confident Israel into the final discipline of Jacob’s trouble.

Eze 39:8 compared with Rev 16:17 is absolutely decisive of a premillennial fulfillment at the “great day of God Almighty.” It is “this day,” i.e., the day of Gog’s destruction (Eze 39:8) that ends in Israel’s national regeneration (Eze 39:8, 22-29 with Isa 66:8; Zech 3:9; 12:10; Mt 23:29). In contrast, the abiding security of post-millennial Israel is never more than momentarily threatened by the post-millennial gathering of Gog and Magog. That invasion ends almost as soon as it begins with the fiery dissolution of the present heaven and earth. [Notice how the new heavens and earth are distinguished from the first by the absence of the oceans; “there was no more sea” (Rev 21:1)]. In marked contrast, the post-tribulational destruction of Gog is followed by 7 months of burial and 7 years of burning the weapons to cleanse the Land (Eze 39:9-16), hardly conditions that are compatible with the new heavens and earth of the final perfection.

When a translation is ‘TECHNICALLY’ capable of going either way, context and theological considerations can sometimes decide decisively which translation should be preferred. I believe this is one such instance. For example, the difference of translation between the NKJV and the NASB on Eze 39:26 will naturally reflect the translation team’s most considered interpretation of the larger context. That is virtually unavoidable, simply because translation is not an exact science. I am not a linguist, but a little study of the work of exegetes will expose one to instances where an ‘optional’ reading will be weighed against the larger context, because both are ‘technically’ legitimate in terms of pure linguistics, but only one answers best to the evident intention of the author. When it happens that a translation could legitimately go either way in terms of pure linguistics, this does not mean that the meaning is up for grabs, not if the theological implications of the larger context makes the translator’s choice between options decisive enough, which is what I think we have here.

This passage underscores the great difficulty in distinguishing the order of the modern return, leaving many to assume that the battle of Gog does little more than momentarily threaten Israel’s security, when, in fact, the invasion of Gog begins the 42 months of desolation and persecution that ends in nothing short of the day of the Lord and Israel’s final deliverance at the end of the tribulation (Eze 39:8, 22 with Dan 12:1). This is why we keep pressing the point that God very well intends that we are searching out a mystery where things are not so ‘automatic’ merely on the exegetical and translational level. While the truth will never violate the guidelines provided by a faithfully translated text, arriving at the truth is never automatic to right translation and exegesis alone. We are taught of God that whether by the miracle of revelation or the mercy of illumination, the truth of scripture is uniquely designed to elude the pride of human self reliance.

Even manuscript authority enters into the question, and that too becomes a faith decision. Not so much in the NT, but in the OT, I have found time and again that in close translational questions, the Masoretic tradition comes down most often on the right side of crucial theological considerations. But even within the boundaries of the best evidence and most faithful transmission, there is sometimes a window of latitude whereby a text can be legitimately translated and still show a bias of theological proclivity in the decision. A perfect example is the way that Jews, within the bounds of respected ‘technical’ legitimacy, can translate a text in such a way as to obscure its implications for the rejected and suffering Messiah. You’ll see this as you engage their translation of passages that that make the case for Jesus. It’s not always so easy. That is why the case is best made from the cumulative evidence (line upon line, here a little and there a little).

One final thought: I believe that the security of Eze 39:26, in keeping with 38:8, 11, 14 is instructive of a natural tendency to interpret peace and plenty, even the temporal mercies of divine long suffering and kindness, as a sign of divine acceptance. We see this in Eze 38 & 39. Here Israel has returned from an age long exile (Eze 38:8). This is exactly where we are today. The modern return is a token of covenant favor and promise, much like the return from Babylon. But like that return, the modern return is NOT to final felicity and permanent safe dwelling. Why? Because the great tribulation and the great and notable day of the Lord are still ahead. Until the end of the unequaled tribulation, Israel remains under the threat of covenant discipline (Lev 26; Deut 28-32).

This is what the post-exilic  prophet, Zechariah, understood (Zech 13:8-9; 14:1-2). With Daniel and the other prophets of the post-exilic period, his prophecy demonstrates his understanding that the current return from Babylon falls short of the promise. That is why Zechariah will speak of yet another return that will follow a yet coming day of the Lord that will see another time of desolation and captivity (Zech 2:11-12; 8:7-8, 22-23; 10:8-10; 13:8-9; 14:1-2). This is no less the case with the modern return. Again, it is the axiom of OT eschatology that the ‘everlasting righteousness’ of the ‘everlasting covenant’ does not come for the nation ‘until’ AFTER a last great and final crisis of ultimate travail and tribulation. Until then, Israel remains in a state of covenant jeopardy, under the discipline of the conditional covenant.

We have precisely the same state of affairs in Jeremiah’s vision of Jacob’s trouble. Even after the people have returned from exile at the end of the 70 years, a further tribulation of unequaled divine severity is seen as lying still ahead (Jer 30:6-7). Even after the sacrifice and sanctuary will have been restored, Daniel sees another desecration and destruction by the hand of Antichrist at the end of the 70th seven. Who could have conceived that before this there would be a desecration by the Syrian tyrant in the 2nd century B.C and another by Pompey in 63 B.C., all before the final destruction of the temple by the Romans in 70 A.D. And now, because of the clear language of the prophecy, we look for another temple and sacrifice that will again be stopped, and the holy place in the temple violated by the Antichrist of the final persecution.

In all of these scenarios, whether from the short exile of 70 years, or the long exile after the Roman destruction, Israel is back in the Land, but NOT to final felicity. The Jewish restoration is indeed in specific fulfillment of the promise made to the Fathers (Jer 30:3). It is NOT, however, the final blessing of peaceful continuance for the simple reason that the full blessing of the covenant cannot be established apart from the ‘everlasting righteousness’ of the ‘everlasting covenant,’ (Jer 32:40; Dan 9:24).

Though the church has received the eschatological blessing as ‘earnest’ and ‘first-fruits,’ it is not fully established with ‘all Israel’ until the promised deliverance at the day of the Lord, which concludes the unequaled tribulation (Jer 30:7; Dan 12:1). This is exactly what Daniel’s prophecy is given to show. Only with the destruction of the Antichrist at the end of the 70th seven, will peace in the Land be secure forever, because of a righteousness that is forever. Until then, i.e., until the apocalyptic repentance and regeneration of the nation in one day at the tribulation’s end (Isa 66:8; Eze 39:29 and others), the presumption of security is just that, presumption.

Eze 39:26 teaches the lesson that we see at the end of the millennium, that even under the most auspicious circumstance and conditions, the unregenerate heart is unable to behold the majesty of the Lord (Isa 26:10). Even when God has granted the miracle of the modern return, the unregenerate heart is unable to steward the gift in faithfulness. This is why abiding security in the Land has always depended on more than a righteous remnant. It has waited for the salvation of ‘all Israel,’ since only an abiding faithfulness, not only of the few, but of the nation as a whole can guarantee everlasting continuance.

The nature of the flesh is such that apart from regeneration, peace and plenty invariably tends towards the neglect of God, but if we have correctly interpreted the book of Daniel and the Lord’s Olivet prophecy as future, something more may be in view here. Not only Daniel, but Isaiah’s prophecy anticipates the presence of sanctuary and sacrifice when the Antichrist invades Israel (Isa 63:18; 64:10-11; Dan 12:11) to start the 42 months of Jerusalem’s final desolation (Rev 11:2). This, like the modern return, will be manifestly against all odds. Such unprecedented prosperity and security will surely be interpreted by many as sure and certain evidence of divine vindication and approval. But what if the security that is required for the return of Israel’s holy institutions and landmarks is the result of a peace arrangement with the Antichrist, a ‘covenant with death and hell,’ as ultimate statement of human self reliance? But trust in the Antichrist is just the statement of the nation’s historic trust in itself, and is no different in essence than many other forms of unbelieving confidence in the flesh.

The sudden and unexpected collapse of such a peace with an overflowing flood of destruction by an implacable occupier will be an ultimate revelation of God’s age enduring controversy with His people (Lev 26:25; Mic 6:2). That controversy centers on the ground and source of righteousness whether it be of God or of man, admitting of no mixture. Think about it. The miraculous return from exile followed at long last by the restoration of the ancient landmarks of sacrifice and temple will doubtless be interpreted as an ultimate evidence of divine approval and vindication of a religious zeal that unknowingly substitutes itself for the righteousness of God in Messiah’s atoning blood.

According to the radical and ultimately offensive claims of NT revelation, this righteousness cannot be understood or received apart from the miracle of regeneration (Mt 11:27; Jn 14:17; 1Cor 2:14; Eph 6:19). It is a ‘revealed’ righteousness (Ro 1:17). Although entirely foretold (Acts 26:22; 1Pet 1:11), it existed as a mystery in the writings of the prophets until its appointed time of revelation (1Cor 2:7-8; Ro 16:25-27; Eph 6:19). It remains a mystery wherever the veil remains over the heart (2Cor 3:14-16).

God must severely contend until the revelation of this righteousness has conquered finally and forever the nation’s inveterate humanism, whether secular or religious. It is this deep, resilient, and humanly inescapable confidence in the flesh that the last betrayal will shatter ultimately and forever. The veil now shattered gives way to the revelation and return of their long rejected Joseph, Messiah and Lord (Deut 32:36; Dan 12:7; Mic 5:3-4; Zech 12:10; Mt 23:39; Rev 1:7). Only such a glory decreed could ever account for the lengths to which God will go to bring this people to Himself in such a way that they will never again depart. It is this vision of unspeakable divine glory, together with the knowledge of the cost and rarity of true salvation, that will save us from being offended at the necessary death that precedes resurrection and the suffering that must precede the glory. To know that pattern for ourselves is to know it for Israel.

The law and the prophets point towards this ‘apocalyptic’ (unveiled) righteousness that alone perfectly satisfies and fulfills the law. Any other kind is doomed to disappointment and rejection precisely because it falls ‘short of the glory of the glory of God.’ Though an ultimate offense to natural reason, this divine insistence on spiritual regeneration appears to be the logic of Jesus’ reprimand of Nicodemus, i.e., if a nation is spiritually dead until it is born or raised by the Spirit (Isa 66:8; Eze 36:25; 37:13-14), can it be any different for the individual? (Jn 3:9) Individual salvation under the New Covenant was conceived in terms of the pattern of Israel’s salvation in the coming day of the Lord.

Such a radical transformation assumes a radical death. The betrayal of Antichrist will be an ultimate death blow, not only to the pride of secular humanism, but much more importantly to religious humanism. In that day Israel will learn that the betrayal of the Antichrist is only the betrayal that Israel has always been to its own peace through trust in man. And who, except for the grace of God, is able to escape that fatal tendency? The Antichrist is trusted only because man is trusted. God will have the nation to see that the betrayal of the Antichrist is nothing but their own self-betrayal through confidence in themselves. (Jer 17:5)

If we cannot see ourselves in Israel’s position. If we are not made to cry out, “who is sufficient?” Then we are not being searched and tried by these dread tendencies common to all flesh. That is the point that God makes through Israel. God does not intend a church that can distance itself from Israel in its own estimation, but that sees itself in the mirror of the beloved and privileged nation and and trembles lest it fall after the same example of unbelief. Israel is the saving object lesson of history, not because they are worse than any other nation. God forbid! But because, as David said, “man at his best state is altogether vanity” (Ps 39:5).

It is fitting that the Antichrist is able to come into his place through the confidence of human self trust. The pride of presumption has been the bane of history. It was opened the curse at the beginning and will be broken at the end through the final and unequaled tribulation. In order for mankind to learn the lesson, the elect nation must learn it first and foremost. In the logic of God’s exposure of that most subtle of all lies, it is necessary that Israel’s covenant with death will not be a league between the Antichrist and Israel at its irreligious worst, but at its religious best. It was so when Jesus was rejected and it will be so again when the nation through natural self reliance will betray itself into the hands of the Antichrist.  Anyone who believes that they would do differently in the same circumstance, except for the grace of God, is woefully self-deceived and candidate for the same (Mt 23:30-31). That is why the whole world will be caught by the same trap (Isa 8:14-15; 34:8; Zech 12:2-3; Lk 2:34-35; 2Thes 29-11).

(Note: With Joel Richardson I am very certain that an exegesis of Eze 38-39, particularly in light of the order of Daniel, leaves no room to dissociate Gog from the Antichrist. Duly considered, in the larger context of prophecy, Eze 38:17 is absolutely decisive that Gog and Antichrist are one). Let me know your thoughts on this when time permits.

Reggie

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The ten kings are clearly contemporaries with the final “little horn” who emerges among the ten horns of the last beast kingdom. [Note: This ‘little horn’ (Dan 7:8; 8:9) is the self exalting prince that takes away the regular sacrifice in Dan 8:11; 9:27; 11:31; 12:11 (Compare also Mt 24:15). He is also the “willful king” (Dan 11:36-37) whom Paul calls the ‘Man of Sin’ in 2Thes 2:3-4. A comparison of the language of Dan 11:36-37 with 2Thes 2:3-4 puts beyond question that Paul has in mind the same individual that commits the desolating sacrilege in the temple of God (‘holy place’) in Jerusalem that starts the great tribulation spoken of by Jeremiah in Jer 30:7, by Daniel in Dan 12:1, and referenced again by Jesus in Mt 24:21. Without question, this great and unequaled tribulation must be future, as it begins with a specific and well described signal event (Dan 11:31; 12:11; Mt 24:15; 2Thes 2:4) and ends in nothing short of Jesus’ personal return in glory (Mt 24:29-31) and the resurrection of the righteous (Dan 12:1-2, 13).]

Therefore, since the ten toes on the feet of the metallic image in Dan 2:41-42 so obviously correspond to the ten horns of the last beast mentioned in Dan 7:24 and Rev 17:12, it can hardly be denied that the kingdom of Dan 2:44 and Dan 7:27 is ‘set up’ only AFTER the destruction of the final beast, as any fair comparison of Dan 7:11, 26-27 with Rev 19:20; 20:4-6 will show. The apocalyptic symbolism of Daniel and Revelation does not obscure the order of events. On the contrary, the time and order of the principal events could hardly be more clear. Manifestly, the thousand years of Christ’s reign ‘on the earth’ (Rev 5:10) cannot begin until the ‘first resurrection,’ and the first resurrection is identified as ‘first’ in specific connection with those saints in particular that were beheaded by the last beast of the last persecution. (compare Rev 6:10-11; 20:4-6).

This is why the denial of a future millennial reign of Christ usually goes hand in hand with a denial of a personal Antichrist and a future tribulation of unequaled severity (Dan 12:1; Mt 24:21). The amillennial system of interpretation can ill afford to grant literal and future fulfillment to the prophecies concerning Antichrist and a future great tribulation, since this would force recognition of a special divine dealing and covenanted future for the nation of Israel.

It is hardly to be denied that Paul sees a particular individual (the ‘Man of Sin’) as present on the scene when Christ returns to destroy him (2Thes 2:3, 8). He had not yet come at the time of Paul’s writing, but Paul fully expects the Thessalonians to be able to recognize him by an appalling act of self-exaltation in the temple of God at Jerusalem (2Thes 2:4 with Mt 24:15; Dan 11:31, 12:11).

This ultimate scene of covenant defiance was clearly predicted by Daniel (Dan 11:31; 12:11). Although this kind of desecration has had parallels in Israel’s past (e.g., Antiochus IV, Pompey), it is to this prophecy in particular that Jesus directs  His disciples’ attention, instructing them to “read and understand” what Daniel had said concerning this pivotal sign (Mt 24:15).

That Paul’s ‘Man of Sin’ and John’s ‘beast’ is not a reference to some ubiquitous system or principle of evil, or succession of persons, but a particular ruler that dominates the world at the time of the end is made clear when we compare the use and application of Daniel’s prophecy in Jesus (Mt 24:15, 21 with Dan 11:31; 12:1-2, 11), Paul (2Thes 2:4 with Dan 11:36-37), and Revelation (Rev 13:5, 7; 19:20 with Dan 7:11, 21, 25; 12:7).

The surrounding context of the passages from Daniel that are specifically referenced in the NT show clearly that this “coming prince” (Dan 9:26) is a ruler that rises out of one of the four divisions of Alexander’s kingdom (Dan 8:9). Before his attack on Israel (Dan 11:31), he is depicted as engaged in political strategies and military conquests throughout the region (Dan 11:23-30). Even after Israel has been overwhelmed, he continues to attack other nations and is attacked in return (Dan 11:40-45). In view of such clear and specific language, it becomes absurd to deny that the Antichrist is a definite single individual.

Regardless of the particulars, this much is clear and irrefutable: The age cannot end until this well identified and recognizable ruler is present (2Thes 2:3-5), since he comes to his appointed end by nothing less than the Word of Christ at His personal appearance in glory (Isa 11:4; 2Thes 2:8; Rev 19:15, 20-21). After his destruction, the saints possess the kingdom of God on this present earth and reign with Christ for a thousand years (Dan 7:21-22, 26-27; Rev 20:4).

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Clearly, the kingdom that is in view in Daniel’s prophecy does not prevail upon the earth until AFTER the destruction of the Antichrist. Only with the final removal of all false rule do the saints possess the kingdom “under the whole heaven.” This is shown by a comparison of Dan 7:11, with Dan 7:18, 21-22, 27. However, a closer look at the scripture will show that the kingdom that is “set up” upon earth “in the days of these kings” (compare Dan 2:44; 7:24 with Rev 17:12) is the same kingdom that was first awarded to the Son of Man upon His coronation when He ascended in clouds to take His seat at the Father’s right hand (Acts 2:34-36; Heb 12:2; Rev 3:21).

Dan 7:13 says, “I saw in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him. And there was given Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom that all people, nations, and languages, should serve Him: His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.”

The Son of Man’s coming ‘to’ the Ancient of Days to be ‘brought near’ before Him (the Ancient of Days), would seem to be speaking, not of Jesus’ return, but of His victorious ascent to the right hand of God in heaven. Yet, we see Jesus applying the same language of the cloud-coming Son of Man to His return after the tribulation (Mt 24:30; Rev 1:7; 14:14). From this we see that the same One who ascended with clouds to receive the kingdom, returns with clouds (Mt 24:30; Mk 14:62; 1Thes 4:17; Acts 1:9-11; Rev 1:7) to enforce the power of His heavenly victory upon the earth with the destruction of the Antichrist (Dan 7:13; 2Thes 2:8; Rev 19:20).

Interestingly, the Son of Man is brought near to the Ancient of Days in Dan 7:13, but in Dan 7:22 it is the Ancient of Days that ‘comes’ to consume and destroy the dominion of the persecuting beast (i.e., the ‘little horn’ of Dan 7:8, 11, 20-21). Notice that the judgement is said to be ‘set’ (Dan 7:9-10, 26) at the same time that the beast is destroyed and his dominion ‘taken way’ (Dan 7:11 with Dan 7:26). Equally significant, this is the beast that is destroyed at the end of a final 3 1/2 year period of unequaled persecution (Dan 7:25; 9:27; 12:1, 7, 11).

Since the period separating two distinct advents of the Messiah was not clearly discernible until after the revelation of the gospel, we can see  in hindsight that Daniel’s vision is inclusive of the whole sweep of God’s triumph through Christ, extending from the coronation of Jesus at the time of His glorious ascent, to His return in clouds after the tribulation to destroy the Antichrist, raise the righteous, and deliver the surviving remnant of Israel (Dan 12:1-2).

Part of the puzzle of Dan 7:9-10 is the remarkable similarity of language that is used in Daniel and again in Revelation to describe distinct judgments that are a thousand years apart. In Daniel, the judgment is ‘set’  and the ‘books are opened’ when the Ancient of Days comes to destroy the Antichrist (Dan 7:11, 21-22), whereas in Rev 20:12, the books are opened at the end of the thousand years.

Either we are to understand that the books are opened twice, or, more likely, Daniel is viewing the full sweep of divine judgment without distinguishing between the first and second resurrections, since the fate of those that will be raised at the second resurrection is already sealed at the time of the Lord’s return. It is a common feature of OT prophecy to blend into a single scene events that later revelation will show to be separated by a great span of time.

We find a key to this mystery by comparing the language of Dan 7 and Rev 20 with what we find in the twenty fourth chapter of Isaiah. In Dan 7:9, the thrones of the mighty are cast down in association with the destruction of the last beast (Dan 7:11, 21-22, 26-27). The language is fascinatingly similar to what we find in Isa 24:21: “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.”

The time in view is clearly the post-tribulational day of the Lord, as the entire context of Isa 24 makes abundantly clear, but notice that the judgment that is visited at this time upon the wicked does not appear to be entirely final. Look closely at Isa 24:22, and you can see a cryptic allusion to the time that John’s later Revelation will show to be the thousand years between the first and second resurrections. “And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited.”

In this light, the judgment scenes of Daniel and Revelation can be seen as comprehensive of the full sweep of divine judgment that bounds both ends of the millennium. The imagery is that of a courtroom where the judge sits to pronounce the decisive verdict. But from the standpoint of Christ’s finished work, the verdict has already been passed for the believer who has “passed ‘already’ from death to life” (Jn 5:24).

The believer is depicted as ‘now’ (past tense) ascended and sit down with Christ in heavenly places (Eph 1:3, 20-22; 2:6; Col 3:1). This is already. Not yet is the promise that the overcoming believer will be exalted to sit with Christ in His throne, even as He overcame to sit down with His Father on His throne (Rev 3:21). Of course, this high station of an already secured inheritance must be vindicated in time by the life that overcomes and is not overcome. That life is Christ’s life in the believer (Col 1:27). “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with Him in glory” (Col 3:4).

The language of being ‘set down’ speaks of Christ’s finished work and victorious triumph over all enemies (Heb 1:3; 2:8; 10:12-13; 12:2; 1Cor 15:24-27). This implies that it was at the ascension that the Son of Man came to the Ancient of Days (Dan 7:13 with Acts 1:9-11). By the sweet smell of His perfect obedience, He was ‘brought near’ to be enthroned at the Father’s right hand (Rev 3:21).

His triumphal ascension over all principality and power (Acts 2:34-36; Eph 1:20-21; Rev 12:5) has secured the heavenly victory by which His saints will quite literally “possess the kingdom under the whole heaven” when He returns with clouds (Mt 24:29-30; 26:64; Acts 1:9-11; 1Thes 4:17; Rev 1:7). Since “all judgment has been committed to the Son” (Mat 28:18; Jn 5:22; 1Cor 15:24), the judgement of the Ancient of Days is no less the judgment of the returning Son of Man.

Note also the remarkable statement in Dan 7:12. After the destruction of the beast in Dan 7:11, mention is made of “the rest of the beasts.” (Should we understand these to be the 10 kings that unite with the Antichrist in Dan 7:24; Rev 17:12? Or is the reference to the four beast kingdoms of Dan 7:3, 17?). In any event, at the time the beast is destroyed in Dan 7:11; Rev 19:20, the “rests of the beasts” have their dominion stripped away at the same time (Dan 7:11-12, 26), but here is what I want us to notice: “their lives are prolonged for a season and a time” (Dan 7:12).

Whatever we make of this, it is certain that there are nations that survive the return of Christ and the destruction of the beast. These are not translated with the church, but go into the millennium in natural bodies. That not all nations are always willingly compliant with the rule of heaven is shown in the reference that Messiah will rule the nations with a rod of iron.

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