MORNING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/27/2026
10:16 AM
I continue this morning to quote
from John MacArthur’s commentary intitled “Excursus: Why Every Self-respecting
Calvinist Must Be a Premillennialist.”
“So when God gave unilateral,
unconditional-as-primary-cause, sovereign, gracious promises to an elect
people, they are guaranteed by divine faithfulness to be fulfilled like all His
salvation work. And when God says such covenant promises are irrevocable, we
cannot, with impunity for any seemingly convenient idea or assumption, say
these are void. Why”
“Someone may say, “Well, what about
Israel’s apostasy? Doesn’t that cancel
the promises? Doesn’t Israel’s apostasy cancel the promises?” But doe we understand that the New covenant
promises given in Jeremiah and Ezekiel were given to Israel at the time when
they were under divine judgment for apostasy.
They weren’t given to them when all was well and they were living and flourishing
in obedience to God. They were so
apostate, they were out of their land and then the covenant was given to
them. And God was saying, “Don’t get the
idea that what’s going on by way of apostasy changes My promises.”
“Someone else may say, “Well wait a
minute, didn’t they reject their Lord and Messiah? That did it.
They rejected Him. They killed
Jesus,” That’s in the plan. One of the wacky ideas of old-line
dispensationalism is that Jesus came and offered a kingdom; and because the
Jews didn’t accept it and killed Him, He went to the church and came up with plan
B.
“The cross is not plan B. What is Zechariah 12:10 saying when it
declares, “They look on Him whom they have pierced” (see Psalm 22 and Isaiah
53)? It’s in the main plan. And then 13:1 says, “In that day a
fountain will be opened for the house of David.” Israel will be saved. The New covenant will be fulfilled. Keep reading into chapter 14: “The Lord
will be king over all the earth” (v. 9). There is no other way to interpret
Zechariah 12-14.
“So is the Old Testament
amillennial? No. Were the Jews in Jesus’ say amillennial? No.
Emile Schure’s helpful Study of Jewish Eschatology in the Day of Jesus, published
in 1880 by T. &T. Clarke in Edinburgh (a new edition of it was published by
Hendrickson Publishing in 1998), does a great job of studying the Jewish
messianic, eschatological mind-set at the time of Jesus. They believed the Messiah was coming,
preceded by a time of trouble. They
believed that before Messiah, Elijah the prophet would come. They believed that when Messiah came, He would
be the personal Son of David. He would
have special powers to set up His kingdom, and all Abrahamic and Davidic
covenant promises would be fulfilled.
They also believed that Israel would repent and be saved at the coming
of Messiah. They believed the kingdom
would be established in Israel, with Jerusalem at the center, and would extend
across the world. All people would
worship the Messiah. There would be no
war, only gladness and health. They
believed in a reinstituted temple worship; and the fulfillment of the covenants
included the renovation of the world, a general resurrection, final judgment,
and after that the eternal state. That’s
Jewish pre-New Testament eschatology.
“That’s what Zacharias, the priestly
father of John the Baptist, believed.
Read Zacharias’s great Benedictus in Luke 1:67 to the end of the
chapter. And what is he saying? Every single phrase comes from an Old
Testament text on the Abrahamic covenant, The Davidic covenant, or the New covenant—every
single one of them. He knew what was
happening. The covenants were to be
fulfilled.”
Zacharias’s Prophecy
67 And his father
Zacharias awas
filled with the Holy Spirit, and bprophesied,
saying:
68 “aBlessed be the
Lord God of Israel,
For He has visited us and
accomplished bredemption
for His people,
69 And has raised up
a ahorn
of salvation for us
In the house of David bHis
servant—
70 aAs
He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets bfrom
of old—
71 1aSalvation bfrom
our enemies,
And from the hand of all who
hate us;
72 aTo
show mercy toward our fathers,
bAnd
to remember His holy covenant,
73 aThe
oath which He swore to Abraham our father,
74 To grant us that we,
being rescued from the hand of our enemies,
Might serve Him without fear,
75 aIn
holiness and righteousness before Him all our days.
76 “And you, child, will
be called the aprophet
of bthe
Most High;
For you will go on cbefore
the Lord to dprepare
His ways;
77 To give to His
people the knowledge of salvation
1By athe
forgiveness of their sins,
78 Because of the tender
mercy of our God,
With which athe
Sunrise from on high will visit us,
79 aTo
shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death,
To guide our feet into the bway
of peace.”
“ Was Jesus an amillennialists? Acts 1 is the first postresurrection account “about
all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when He was taken up to
heaven, after He had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He
had chosen’ (vv. 1-2). There’s
election again.
“So He had spent time before His
ascension with the apostles. Now verse 3
says, “To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many
convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days.” Literally, “appearing to them over
forty days.” It must have been
intense. Can we imagine the level of
teaching a resurrected Jesus would give His own over a forty-day period? What kind of a seminary education would that
be? And what was He talking about?—“speaking
of the things concerning the kingdom of God.
“For forty days He
talks about the kingdom of God.
This is His moment. If Jesus is
an amillennialist, this is where He has to tell them. The Jews’ apostasy—that’s a given. The rejection of the Messiah, that’s a given. The execution of the Messiah, that’s a
given. This is the perfect place for
Jesus to launch amillennialism.
“Verse 6 says, “So when they had
come together, they were asking Him, saying, ‘Lord, is it at this time You are restoring
the kingdom to Israel?’” Now what
did He say? “ Where did you get such a
stupid idea? Where did you ever come up
with that concept? Haven’t you been
listening for forty days? I’m an
amillennialist. What a bizarre thought,
that I’m going to restore the kingdom to Israel? Ou don’t listen.” This is it.
If Jesus is amillennialist, this is His moment. He’s going to say, “No, the church is the new
Israel.”
“The disciples ask if this is the
time the Father is going to restore apokathistano (according to Jewish
sources, a technical eschatological term for the end time). They were using a term that was a part of
their eschatology. “Is this the end time when You are restoring the kingdom to
Israel?’ Forty days of instruction on
the kingdom and they knew one thing for sure:
the kingdom for Israel was still coming.
And all they wanted to know was, When?
That’s all.
“He said to them, “It is not for
you to know times or epochs’”(v. 7a). We
can’t know timing. He didn’t say. “Wait,
wait, wait. There isn’t going to be a
kingdom.” He said, “It’s not for you
to know times and epochs [seasons’.”
“By the way, “which the Father
has fixed by His own authority” (v. 7b).
There’s that sovereign election again. It’s sovereign. The disciples knew that when they asked, “Lord,
is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom?’ (v. 6). They knew it was a divine work to do
it. This was a perfect opportunity for
Jesus to straighten things out.”
Spiritual
Meaning for my Life today: It is great for me to understand
what MacArthur writes in this section, although I knew some of these things
before it is really great for me to get this refresher course on these very
important Scriptures.
My Seps
of Faith for Today: I trust the Lord to continue to
give me revival in my heart as the things that are now going on in my life are
difficult now.
3/27/2026
11:32 AM
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