SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/28/2024 11:23 AM
My Worship Time
Focus: PT-3
“The Subjects”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
25:32a
Message of the verse: “And all the nations will be gathered before Him;”
In today’s SD I want to continue to quote from John
MacArthur’s commentary, as he is writing about a book that Erich Sauer wrote,
who is a German theologian. Sauer
suggests five compelling arguments for a literal and historical future kingdom,
and in the last SD we looked at the first one and will continue to look at
these beginning with the second argument.
“Second an earthly millennial kingdom is the only
explanation of the end times that corresponds to Jesus’ teaching in the
gospels. For example, His promise to the
apostles that one day they would ‘sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve
tribes of Israel’ (Matt. 19:28) would be meaningless apart from a literal,
historical restoration of Israel.
“Third, and earthly millennial kingdom is the only
consistent interpretation of Messianic prophecy. It is obvious from the gospel records that a
great many of those prophecies were literally fulfilled during Jesus’ live-time. He was born in Bethlehem, just as Micah
predicted (5:2). He rode into Jerusalem
on a donkey, was betrayed for thirty pieces of silvers, and was pierced in the
side, just as Zechariah predicted (9:9; 11:12; 12:10). His hands and feet were literally pierced,
precisely as the psalmist predicted (22:16; cf. 16:10), and He literally died,
was buried, and was resurrected just as Isaiah predicted (53:8-12).
“Those fulfillments were so obviously literal that no one
suggests the predictions of them were merely symbolic or spiritual truths. Yet many other equally specific and detailed
predictions about the Messiah, such as His establishing an eternal throne over
the kingdom of David, were just as obviously not fulfilled during Jesus’ earthly ministry. Therefore, to reject the idea of a literal
Millennium is to maintain that some of the Old Testament prophecies were
literal and some were not. And to take that position is to assume arbitrarily
that all prophecies not literally fulfilled by New Testament times are to be
spiritualized.
“At the time they were written, Old Testament predictions
obviously pertained to the future. By
logic or authority, then, does one take some of their fulfillments to be
literal and others to be only figurative?
“Fourth, an earthly, visible kingdom is the best possible
way for Jesus Christ to demonstrate that He is the supreme ruler over His
creation. How else could He prove
Himself to be King of kings and Lord of lords?
How could He verify that His rulership is superior to that of all other
monarchs if He had no opportunity to rule an earthly kingdom? How better could He prove Himself to be the
supremely just King than by personally meting out justice to His subjects? How better could He prove Himself to be the
infinitely merciful Lord than by personally showing mercy on His subjects? To do those things He would have to have an
earthly kingdom, because in heaven there is no need either for justice or for
mercy.
“Could it be that, besides the brief time between the creation of Adam and the Fall, the world will know no dominion but Satan’s. Could it be that God will literally destroy but not literally restore this vast creation, all of which longs to ‘be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God’ and in that longing ‘groans and suffers the pains of childbirth’ (Rom. 8:21-22)?
“The perfect millennial kingdom will testify through
all eternity that Jesus Christ is the supreme sovereign, who alone can bring
absolute harmony and peace to a world even while it is still infected by sin.
“Fifth, an earthly millennial kingdom is the only and
necessary bridge from human history to eternal glory. Paul declares that in the end Christ will
deliver ‘up the kingdom to God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and
all authority and power’ and that ‘He must
reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet’ (1 Cor. 15:24-25,
emphasis added). What other kingdom could
Christ deliver to His Father but an earthly kingdom? The Father already possesses the kingdom of
heaven. The Millennium could not refer
to the church as a spiritualized form of the kingdom, because the kingdom that Christ
will deliver to the Father will include His subjected enemies, of which there
are none in the redeemed church. And it
will be a kingdom over which Christ exercises total authority, which could not
apply to any kingdom the world has known thus far, including the ancient
theocracy of Israel during its most faithful days.
“The thousand-year reign of Christ can only refer to a
literal, earthly kingdom that Jesus Christ could present to the Father in the
way Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 15.
It is the kingdom of a literal earth, which righteousness for a literal
one thousand years. And at the end of
that time, after Satan is released for a brief period and then permanently
defeated and cast into the lake of fire, Christ will present that earthly
kingdom to His heavenly Father.”
I
am very happy to quote what was written in John MacArthur’s commentary on this
subject. Now remember “When the plain
sense of Scripture makes sense, seek no other sense.” Example is from these verses in Revelation
chapter 20: Re 20:2
And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and
Satan, and bound him for a thousand
years;
Re 20:3 and he threw
him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that
he would not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; after these
things he must be released for a short time.
Re 20:4 Then I saw
thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw
the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus
and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or
his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand;
and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
Re 20:5 The rest of the dead did not
come to life until the thousand
years were completed.
This is the first resurrection. Re 20:6
Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection;
over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and
of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years.
Re 20:7 When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be
released from his prison”
3/28/2024 12:17 PM
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