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“Thy Kingdom Come”,
.
Every
Christmas we are reminded that Gabriel promised Mary that her son was destined
to sit on the Throne of David (which did not exist during the days of His
ministry). It is yet to be fulfilled. Jesus taught us to pray specifically for
it: "Thy Kingdom come..." A literal rule of Christ on the Throne of
David on the Planet Earth - the thousand-year reign, from which the Millennium
takes its label, is detailed in numerous passages including Revelation 20,
Isaiah 65, and Ezekiel 40-48, among others. It is not heaven - neither is it
the "new earth." Death in the Millennium will be for unbelievers
only.
by Chuck Missler
While there are many different, yet
defendable, views regarding many aspects of end-time prophecies, this basic
divergence - denying a literal Millennium - is particularly dangerous in that
it would appear to be an attack on the very character of God!
It does violence to His numerous and
explicit promises and commitments that pervade both the Old and New Testaments.
The Old Testament is replete with
commitments for a literal Messiah ultimately ruling the world through Israel
from His throne in Jerusalem.
The ancient rabbinical aspirations were
dominated by it.
In fact, this obsession obscured their
recognizing the Messiah when He made His initial appearance.
There are at least 318 references in
216 chapters of the New Testament and 23 of its 27 books give prominence to the
event.
The early church looked longingly for
His promised return as their "Blessed Hope" to rid their
desperate world of its evil rulers.
How and where did this skepticism known
as "Amillennialism" begin?
Origen
Pious, popular, and persuasive, Origen
stands out as one of the great figures of the 3rd century church. Even at the
age of 18, he stood out spectacularly well as a teacher in Alexandria.
(In misguided obedience to Matthew
19:12, he emasculated himself, which he later regretted.)
Later, as a prolific writer based in
Caesarea, his De Principiis systematically laid out Christian
doctrine in terms of Hellenic thinking and set the pattern for most subsequent
theological thought for many years.
His numerous sermons and commentaries,
however, tragically also established an extreme pattern of allegorizing
Scripture, which was to strongly influence Augustine in subsequent years.
Augustine
Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo (A.D.
354-430), was one of the most influential leaders of the Western church, living
during the turbulent days of the disintegration of the Roman Empire.
He lived a sensuous, dissolute life,
but following a dramatic conversion he experienced a total change of character.
In 391 he was ordained as a priest in
North Africa and four years later was elevated to the Bishop of Hippo.
He embarked on a writing career and his
extensive doctrinal writings deeply affected the Medieval Roman Catholic
Church.
Augustine's most elaborate
writing, The City of God, was written as the Empire lay crumbling
under a siege by half-civilized tribes.
It portrayed the Church as a new civic
order in the midst of the ruins of the Roman Empire.
Augustine died while the Vandals were
besieging the very gates of Hippo in A.D. 430.
Although his writings effectively
defeated a number of heresies emerging in those turbulent times, the
allegorizing influences of Origen left an amillennial eschatology in
their wake.
As the Church had increasingly become
an instrument of the state, it wasn't politically expedient to look toward a
literal return of Christ to rid the world of its evil rulers!
The allegorical reposturing of those
passages was more "politically correct." (This reminds me of the
saying among the data processing profession: "If you torture the data long
enough, it will confess to anything!")
The Reformation Shortfall
A thousand years later, under the
influences of Martin Luther and others, the Reformation brought an intensive
return to the authority of the Scriptures which, in turn, resulted in the
subsequent reform in soteriology (the study of salvation) with its emphasis on
salvation by faith alone.
Many were willingly burned at the stake
for their commitment to a Biblical perspective.
However, one of the unfortunate
shortcomings of the Reformation was that it failed to also reexamine the
eschatology of the Medieval Church in the light of Scripture.
Thus, the allegorizing alchemy of
Origen, institutionalized by Augustine, left a denial of the Millennium that
still continues to pervade the doctrines of most Protestant denominations
today.
From Augustine to Auschwitz
One of the derivative aspects of an
amillennial perspective is that it denies Israel's future role in God's plans.
This also leads to a "replacement
theology" in which the Church is viewed as replacing Israel in God's
program for mankind.
In addition to forcing an
allegorization of many key passages of Scripture, this also led to the tragedy
of the Holocaust in Europe.
The responsibility for the six million
Jews who were systematically murdered in the concentration camps has to include
the silent pulpits who had embraced this heretical eschatology and its
attendant anti-Semitism.
Reality of the Millennium
For anyone who takes the Bible
seriously, the numerous explicit commitments of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob that the Messiah would literally rule from Zion cannot be ignored or
explained away.
God's explicit and unconditional
commitment of the land of Israel to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
is the very issue that is being challenged by the world today!
And, the resurgence of amillennialism,
and its attendant doctrines, are again setting the stage for the next holocaust.
Every Christmas we are reminded that
Gabriel promised Mary that her son was destined to sit on the Throne of David
(which did not exist during the days of His ministry).
It is yet to be fulfilled.
In fact, He taught us to pray specifically for it: "Thy
Kingdom come...."
What does that mean?
The thousand-year reign, from which the
Millennium takes its label, is detailed in numerous passages including
Revelation 20, Isaiah 65, and Ezekiel 40-48, among others.
Ezekiel's detailed tour of the
Millennial Temple virtually defies any skeptic's attempt to treat it
allegorically (see diagram).
Encompassing a Temple area 50 miles on
a side, substantially to the north of Jerusalem, as a source of a river that
flows toward both the Mediterranean to the west and the Dead Sea to the east,
Ezekiel's description implies a total change of topography, which is explicit
in the Scripture.
However, the more we learn about the
Millennium, the more questions it raises.
It is not heaven: it is clearly
distinctive in contrast to the eternal state which follows (Revelation 21).
It will be characterized by a limited
amount of evil, which Christ will judge perfectly and immediately.
Neither is it the "new
earth" that God will yet create; for therein righteousness
dwells, which is something not true of the Millennium.
Millennium Paradoxes
As an example of some of the ostensible
paradoxes of the Millennium is the strange question of death.
Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum, a dear friend
and highly respected Messianic scholar, suggests that death in the Millennium
will be for unbelievers only.
Nowhere in the Bible does it speak of a
resurrection of Millennial saints. This may be why the resurrection of the
tribulation saints is said to complete the "first resurrection"
(Revelation 20:4-6).
Unbelief would thus be among the
Gentiles only, and therefore, death would exist only among the Gentiles.
[Jeremiah 31:35-37 refutes
"Reconstructionism" and similar heresies.]
Another strange issue is the prominence
of sacrifices in the Millennium. It would seem that they are memorials after
the fact, just as the sacrifices in the Old Testament were memorials in
advance.
A Time to Study
As recent events have so dramatically
emphasized to all of us, it is, indeed, a time to reexamine our perspectives,
and to acknowledge in our personal priorities that history
includes some shocking "non-linearities": even our most cherished
presumptions are subject to cataclysmic challenges!
It is time to refresh our understanding
from the bedrock of Scripture and to recognize the urgency of the times.
I believe we are rapidly being
plunged into a period of time about which the Bible says more than it
does about any other period of time in history - including the time
that Jesus walked the shores of Galilee and climbed the mountains of Judea!
Are you ready?
Maranatha!
Dr. Chuck
Missler, is an internationally known author, is among the best-known Bible
expositors in the world, and was a prominent speaker on the subject of
Bible prophecy and is featured on many Christian radio and television stations
worldwide. He is well known for his Biblical studies including most
notably Learn the
Bible in 24 Hours, The Book of Revelation(link is
external), The Book of Genesis(link is
external), and The Book of Daniel(link is external), as well as his topical studies Return of the
Nephilim(link is external) and
his Angels(link is external) series.
Chuck
and his late wife Nancy Missler founded Koinonia
House in 1973. Chuck passed away
in May, 2018.
http://www.khouse.org/articles/2002/395/
