SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/27/2024 11:45 AM
My Worship Time
Focus: PT-2
“The Subjects”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
25:32a
Message of the verse: “And all the nations will be gathered before Him;”
II have mentioned in times past that when I run into
a long series of paragraphs in MacArthur’s commentaries that has no Scripture
references in it that I usually just quote what he has to say so that everyone
who the Lord brings to these Spiritual Diaries on my blogs will have a better
understanding of what the subject is about.
We have been talking about what the Bible has to say about a literal Millennial
Kingdom and that is what the subject will be about as we continue looking at
MacArthur’s quotes from his commentary.
“Those
who reject a literal Millennium must do one or more of three things. The first is to confuse Israel and the
church, taking the church to be a spiritualized form of the ancient nation of
Israel. In that case, the Old Testament
curses were for literal Israel, being already fulfilled, and the promises of
blessing to Israel would be fulfilled in the church, but in a spiritual, not
literal, way. That kind of divided,
inconsistent hermeneutics is unacceptable.
The second is to make present or past what is clearly future, assuming
that all the promises to the literal nation and people of Israel have already
been fulfilled, making the earthly kingdom unnecessary. The third is to arbitrarily spiritualize
certain Old Testament prophecies, taking the predicted places, events, or
persons as being merely symbols of spiritual ideas or truths instead of
physical and historical realities.” Now
let me just jump in here to give me a view as to why these people who believe
this nonsense are really trying to do.
From the time when the Lord began the children of Israel through Abraham
way back in Genesis chapter twelve there has been a battle and that battle goes
on today with even members of the church today.
People in the church who believe these things hate Israel, and yet they
think that church is pure. I got news
for them the church is not pure and probably has done some things that has
caused judgment upon it in a similar way that Israel brought upon
themselves. If one looks at the seven
church mentioned in Revelation chapters 3-4 they can see the sinfulness that
goes on in them. In my opinion these
churches are in historical order, that is the main church in the world will be
similar to the order of these churches in Revelation 3-4. Look for instance as to what the Lord has to
say about the last church, the church where He is not even welcome, and as you
read over this think about whether or not you think that is what is going on in
most churches today. “14 "To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The
Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, says
this: 15 ‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. 16
‘So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth. 17 ‘Because
you say, "I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of
nothing," and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor
and blind and naked, 18 I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so
that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself,
and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve
to anoint your eyes so that you may see. 19 ‘Those whom I love, I reprove and
discipline; therefore be zealous and repent. 20 ‘Behold, I stand at the door
and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him
and will dine with him, and he with Me. 21 ‘He who overcomes, I will grant to
him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My
Father on His throne. 22 ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says
to the churches’" Rev. 3:14-22).
Now we will go back to MacArthur’s quotations.
“In
the book just mentioned above (pp. 144-153) (in yesterday’s SD), Erich Sauer
suggested five compelling arguments for a literal and historical future
kingdom. First of all, such a kingdom
would be the only adequate confirmation of the truthfulness and reality of God’s
promises. Isaiah predicted that the
Messiah would establish an everlasting kingdom on the throne of David (Isa.
9:6-7). Paul declared that ‘the gifts
and the calling of God are irrevocable,’ referring specifically to His promises
to ancient Israel (Rom. 11:29). But
those promises were merely figurative, their fulfillments could never be
verified and would be meaningless. In
particular, the prophecies about the Messiah would have no clear meaning and
could never be verified. But Isaiah
himself declared that the Lord’s promises are more unshakable than the
mountains (Isa. 54:10) and Israel’s endurance as a nation will be as permanent
as the new heavens and the new earth that the Lord will one day create
(66:22). Jeremiah affirmed that God’s
covenant promises are more secure than the pattern of night following day (Jer.
33:20) and more stable than the courses of the sun, moon, and stars (31:35-36).”
Lord
willing we will continue to look at the rest of these points that we are
looking at today beginning with number two.
3/27/2024 12:20 PM
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