ANSWER: These verses are Jesus' tremendous prophecy of the fate of Israel at his Second Coming. Scofield ignores it and teaches just the opposite elsewhere. These Scriptures show all the evil persons burning in hell fire and all the saved ones in the glory of God's kingdom. (cf. Lk 13:24-28 ) Scofield flatly denies this and the words of Mt 13:37-43. He says, No, the millennium comes next and the judgment pictured here is one thousand years later. In all these contradictions, he is contradicting him whom he calls Lord. "For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works." (Mt 16:27) The final day of judgment is at the end of this age--the end of all things of this fallen creation.

SCOFIELD note (SRB 1917, 1967)on Ro 11:1-6, last paragraph: "That the Christian now inherits the distinctive Jewish promises is not taught in Scripture. The Christian is of the heavenly seed of Abraham and partakes of the spiritual blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant, but Israel as a nation always has its own place, and is yet to have its greatest exaltation as the earthly people of God."

And SCOFIELD note (SRB 1917, 1967) on Ro 11:26, last paragraph: "According to the prophets, Israel regathered from all nations, restored to her own land and converted, is yet to have her greatest earthly exaltation and glory."

ANSWER: This is the millennium of the Pharisees, not of the Bible. It contradicts the plain prophecies of Jesus himself. Israel's only hope is Ro 11. Paul says they were cast away because of unbelief but verse 23 says, "If they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again." See lsrael's end as in Jer 23:39-40; 24:910; 29: l0-11 and Isa 65:1-15. Israel after the flesh is not an heir of God and never, ever will be. Israel is cast out. 1Co 15:50, "Flesh and blood cannot inherit." Gal 4:21-30 says. "Shall not be heir with...."

See also 2Th 1:6-10: "...And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and the glory of his power: when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe."

See also Lk 17:26-27; Mt 24:35-39: "As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it also be in the days of the Son of Man. They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all." Why not believe the Lord'? Oh, but that millennium.

See also Lk 17:29-30: "The same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed."

If the flood takes away all the unsaved in this one day, where does a millennium come in? Only those in the ark are saved. There are no others left. Scofield has no note on this. He cannot give an honest comment for it would ruin his teaching, such as in his note on Mt 3:2: "The prophetic aspect, the kingdom is to be set up after the return of the King in glory."

You cannot ignore any Scripture and pretend honesty in interpretation. Jesus has all power. What more could be given him? He is above all now. ( Mt 28:18: Eph 1:20-21 )

In Lk 19:11-27, Jesus teaches by parable, about his kingdom because the Jews supposed it should immediately appear. But, in verse 12, he taught them he must leave and go to a far country to receive his kingdom and after that return; but his citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, "We will not have this man to reign over us." Upon his return he would judge his servants and his enemies. The parable illustrated his judgments of his servants, good and bad. He said, "But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me." (v. 27.)

"Oh no," some would say. "We have a greater revelation. After he comes again he is crowned king and the kingdom is set up and those, who would not have him, now see him in his glory and believe in him and with him reign over the Gentiles for a thousand years."

Now, that is something indeed! Isn't it amazing what can be done by just a little art of interpretation?

Mt 13:47-50 gives the parable of the net cast into the sea, in which good and bad fish are drawn in and sorted. The bad are thrown away. "So shall it be at the end of the 'aion' age: the angels shall come forth and sever the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth." This is an ignored text, as some prefer to teach the opposite.

In Ps 110:1, Jehovah, the Father, says to the Son, David's Lord, "Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool." In 1Ch 29:23 we see David's throne: "Then Solomon sat on the throne of the Lord, i.e., of Jehovah as king instead of David his father." The same throne, not a make do, nor a special throne just for Jesus, but the throne of Jehovah in each case, and now Jesus sits upon it in heaven. It is God's throne and kingdom, and God has promised that Jesus would be there forever. (1Ch 17:14. ) The same throne at 1Ch 28:5; 29:23 and 2Sa 7:5, 16 is also called David's throne forever. So it is one eternal throne over one eternal kingdom of God and of Christ, which was shown on earth in type form as David's.

But David in Hebrew means, The Beloved, and is the name of Christ at Eph 1:6 and at several prophetic references, including Eze 34:23-24; 37:24-25; Isa 55:3-4: Ps 89. God has exalted Jesus to sit upon that throne forever. And Jesus took that throne at his Resurrection.

If it is "forever" then why does the Psalmist prophesy "till I make thine enemies thy footstool?" That is a set time, the time of the struggle with evil, the measure of this age with its gospel work and mercy For whosoever will. John in Rev 1:9 calls it "His kingdom and patience." Peter speaks of the time measure and its work in Ac 2:29-36; 3:20-21. It is 2Pe 3:8-10. David says in Ps 110:2. "Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies." It is now and it will end at his coming, for this session of his reign will bring every enemy into submission, and that from his heavenly throne, not after he comes back to earth, but definitely before. (1Co 15:24-26 and verses 50-54) The early church, the reformers, Calvin, Luther. Melancthon, Ridley, Arminius, Latimer, Whitefield, John and Charles Wesley and Spurgeon all saw this truth. Eph 1:19-23 shows the Scofield teaching utterly false. This is God's description of Christ's present exaltation, described again in Php 2:9-10 and 1Ti 6:15-16 and Mt 28:18.

SCOFIELD note (SRB 1917, 1967 ) on Dt 30:3: "It is important to see that the nation (Israel) has never as yet taken the land under the unconditional Abrahamic Covenant, nor has it ever possessed the whole land."

ANSWER: The conditional physical land promise to Moses and the nation, (Ex 3:8, 17; Lev 18:28 ) was completely fulfilled. (Jos 21:43,45 ) "And the Lord gave unto Israel all the hind which he sware to give unto their fathers; and they possessed it, and dwelt therein. There failed not ought of any good thing which the Lord had spoken unto the house of Israel, all came to pass."

The unconditional land promise to Abraham's SEED was a different promise. The Apostle Paul defined this different promise in Gal 3:16, saying God made promises to Abraham concerning Abraham's SEED that the promises were to the single descendant, Jesus Christ, in whom all the nations would be blessed, (Ge 22:17-18); the same to Isaac, (Ge 26:4 ) and to Jacob, (Ge 28:13-14.) Scofield very conveniently HAS NO EXPLANATORY NOTES on these Scriptures. Many modern Bible translations have furthered Scofield's Abrahamic Covenant error by changing SEED from the singular (Christ) to the plural "descendants" and thus have substituted the many physical descendants as heirs to the promises in place of the one true spiritual inheritor, Jesus Christ! This is a crucial error of immense import. Paul further develops the meaning of SEED to include all those who are one in the Body of Christ. (Gal 3:26-29; Ro 12:5.) The promises of the land and of multiplying the SEED are fulfilled forever in the saints of the Body of Christ who have, do now, and will occupy his Kingdom in this present age. (Heb 11:8-16. )

SCOFIELD note (SRB 1917, 1967 ) on Lev 23:24: "...these trumpets, always symbols of testimony, are connected with the regathering and repentance of Israel after the church, or pentecostal period is ended."

And SCOFIELD note (SRB 1917, 1967 ) on Lev 23:27, last lines: "Historically the fountain of Zec 13 was opened at the crucifixion, but rejected by the Jews of that and succeeding centuries. After the regathering of Israel the fountain will be efficaciously 'opened' to Israel."

ANSWER: Scofield speaks above as if he were God. But Lk 13:2528 says, "When once the master of the house has risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door saying, Lord, Lord open to us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence you are ... depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves shut out."

SCOFIELD note (SRB 1917, 1967) on Lk 13:28: HE HAS NO NOTE HERE. What could he say that would not contradict Jesus?

Jesus also gives the parable of the tares in the field that shall be destroyed first at his coming at the harvest at the end of the age: (Mt 13:37-43; 13:47-50) No second chance. The end of the age will bring every person to his eternal destiny.

Any doctrine that clearly contradicts a plain, clear statement of Scripture, be it prophecy or the words of Jesus, cannot be true, no matter how many Scriptures are quoted in an attempt to prove otherwise or that contradict Moses' statement in Ac 3:22-23: "Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me, him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you ... Every soul which will not hear that prophet shall be destroyed from among the people."

God said upon condition of your disobedience, "I will make Jerusalem a curse to all nations of the earth." (Jer 26:4-8 ) Those pinning their hopes on an earthly city will be cursed along with her. There is no salvation at all for the earthly city, as Gal 4:22-30 plainly teaches.

The book of Revelation is a book of signs and symbols; if a few verses in chapter 20 about a thousand year period contradict Jesus, Peter, Paul and Moses, something is wrong with the interpretation of the passage. Scofield is the arch heretic of all church history and his notes have influenced, and in some cases have controlled, a large portion of church thinking for this century.

These strong words may draw blood, but the Scripture warns, "Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood." (Jer 48:10 ) There is much good material in the Scofield 1917 notes, and more in the 1967 edition, but the old heresies are still there. No poison pill is all poison, only enough to kill you.

SCOFIELD note (SRB 1917, 1967 ) from Introduction to THE FOUR GOSPELS part 1: "...the mind should be freed from presuppositions, especially the notion that the Church is the true Israel."

ANSWER: Scofield asks you to free your mind from the truth of the biblical teaching of the Church and swallow his false teaching. Listen to Paul, (Ro 2:28-29 ): "For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men but of God." See also Ro 9:6b-8: "They are not all Israel which are of Israel. Neither because they are of the seed of Abraham, are they all children; but, in Isaac shall thy seed be called." That is, "They which are the children of the flesh, these are NOT the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted for the SEED." (cf. Hos 1: 10; Ro 9:24-26 )

G. Campbell Morgan, in 1943, two years before he passed to be with the Lord, wrote to a correspondent concerning the union of Israel and the church: "I am quite convinced that all the promises made to Israel are found, are finding and will find their perfect fulfillment in the church. It is true that in time past, in my expositions, I gave a definite place to Israel in the purposes of God. I have now come to the conviction, as I have just said, that it is the new and spiritual Israel that is intended." (Letter to Rev. H.F. Wright, New Brunswick, Victoria. From A New Heaven and a New Earth, Archibald Hughes, Presbyterian and Reformed Press, Box 185, Nutley, N.J.)

SCOFIELD note (SRB 1917, 1967) on Mt 28:18-20: The Great Commission. He gives a dissertation concerning the name of the Trinity, but nothing about the exalted authority of Christ or the command to go and teach all nations to observe whatever he commanded his disciples. Nothing about Christ backing them up and being with them all the days.

ANSWER: Then what do these notes amount to? They are an extensive diversion to turn your mind away from the real meaning of the passage, for Scofield is against these teachings having anything to do with the Church of Jesus Christ.

Look at the Great Commission: "And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." (Power here is Greek -- authority). "All authority is given unto me." ALL AUTHORITY. There is no other. "Go ye therefore, and teach (or disciple) all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and, lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world." Whatever he commanded his disciples, all nations were to be taught to keep and obey. Then he said that he would be with them to the end of the world. A literal rendering would be, "I am with you all the days, even unto to the end of the age."

This word has come to us, and Jesus has commanded us to keep all the commandments that he gave his disciples when he was with them. Shall we send back word to the Lord that we are not about to do so on the authority of Scofield?

SCOFIELD note (SRB 1917) on Introduction to 2 Corinthians: (This outrageous heresy has been removed from the 1967 Scofield Bible. However, millions of copies of the 1917 Bible are still being used around the world so I am including this note from p. 1230. )

"It is evident that the really dangerous sect in Corinth was that which said, 'And I of Christ."' He puts in parenthesis, (1Co 1: 12 ) and continues, "They rejected the new revelation through Paul of the doctrines of grace, grounding themselves, probably, on the kingdom teachings of our Lord as a minister of the circumcision, (Ro 15:8 ) seemingly oblivious that a new dispensation had been introduced by Christ's death. This made necessary a defense of the origin and extent of Paul's apostolic authority."

ANSWER: What made it necessary? Some people said, "I am of Christ," and they were wrong? Is PAUL the one who has the new revelation for this dispensation? This completely rejects all the teachings of Christ and acceptance of his death. Scofield says his teaching as a minister of the circumcision had been blotted out by his death. His teachings had been kingdom teachings, which according to Scofield, are postponed until his hypothetical millennium and they were oblivious to Paul's new revelation.

See 1Co 1:10-17. Paul says, "It is reported to me that every one of you is saying, I am of Paul. I am of Apollos and I of Cephas and I of Christ." Then, he points out it was not Paul or Cephas who died for them, but Christ. Paul, Apollos, Cephas are only those who helped, but Christ is the center. Then concluding, he says, "All things are yours, whether of Paul, or Cephas or life or death or things present or things to come, but all are yours and ye are Christ's and Christ is God's." (1Co 3:21-23.) Paul rebukes them for some things, but he never rebukes the ones who said, "I of Christ." In that you are right, you are of Christ.

Scofield is saying that Paul is the mediator of the new covenant. That the new dispensation begins with Paul. That he reveals the gospel. That Jesus was only teaching law. Scofield makes that clear in his notes (SRB 1917, 1967 ) on Mt 5:2-20 where he claims, when you look closely, that Jesus taught law and that it was not our privilege or duty to keep all his words. Here we have heresy of the first water. Jesus, over and over in his discourse to the disciples in the upper room, emphasizes the necessity of keeping his commandments because they are the will and Word of God. Scofield says, "No, put it all away."

This is major heresy. This is what Paul says to withdraw yourself from. Scofield takes the death of Christ as the turning point of the dispensation, whereas Jesus took the coming of John Baptist as the turning point. (Lk 16:16. Satan deceived Scofield. )

See Heb 2:1-4: "Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed, lest at any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward: How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will."

Where did the gospel begin? "...which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, [not by Paul, but by the Lord] and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him," --the twelve plus Paul, for Paul heard him also. The source of the gospel is not Paul, as Scofield teaches. The gospel of grace came by our Lord Jesus Christ. "The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." We all agree that anyone who gets saved gets saved by the grace of God, forgiveness of sins, and the regenerative work of God through the Holy Spirit, and only then. But when this has taken place, it will manifest itself in obedience. Note Heb 5:8-9: "Though he were a son, yet learned he obedience through the things which he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation, unto all them that obey him." Now that's clear. In 1Jn 2:4, we read: "He that saith I know him and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar and the truth is not in him."

SCOFIELD note (SRB 1917, 1967) on Mt 5:17: "Christ's relation to the law of Moses may be thus summarized: 1. Christ was made under the law. 2. He lived in perfect obedience to the law. 3. He was a minister of the law to the Jews, clearing it from rabbinical sophistries, enforcing it in all its pitiless severity upon those who professed to obey it."

ANSWER: "For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, for his commandments are not grievous." (1Jn 5:3. ) Even the Ten Commandments could not be called grievous, that a person should be true to God and not depart to idols. That was not grievous, or that one should honor God and not take his name in vain. Was that a painful commandment, or to honor his father and mother, to keep the Sabbath day of rest, to refrain from lying about his neighbor, or not to commit adultery, or not to covet things that were not his own? Are these things pitiless? Scofield speaks as if they are. He speaks of Christ as being a minister of the law to the Jews clearing it from rabbinical sophistries and enforcing it in all its "pitiless severity." My Bible says the law was added because of sin, but grace did much more abound, cf: Jn 8:1-11 I don't see anything pitiless about God dealings with the Jews. Certainly, there is none in the Sermon on the Mount.

SCOFIELD note (SRB 1917, 1967) on Jn 14:6: "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth and the life; no man cometh to the Father but by me." Scofield HAS NO NOTE on Jn 14:6.

ANSWER: Scofield denies Jn 14:6 elsewhere by teaching that Israel is still God's people, walking with the Father, but at Christ's Second Coming they will then accept Christ. See 1Jn 2:22-23, "Who is a liar but he who denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son. hath not the Father." See also 1Jn 4:1-6.

SCOFIELD note (SRB 1917 ) on Mt 13:47 last lines: "He sees the redeemed of all ages, but especially his hidden Israel, yet to be restored and blessed."

SCOFIELD notes (SRB 1917, 1967 ) on Rev 3:21 and 2Sa 7:16: These notes advocate that we are not to assume 'the throne of his father David,' is synonymous with 'my Father's throne,' or that the 'house of Jacob' is the Church composed of both Jew and Gentile. (cf. 1Ch 29:23: Ps 110:1; Ac 2:29-35 of the throne and 1Ch 17:14. )

ANSWER: See Lk 1:32-33. "He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end." One throne forever, all others are destroyed. Ac 3:22-23 describes the house of Jacob.

SCOFIELD note (SRB 1917); Ro 4:2-6: "Paul speaks of that which justifies man before God; faith alone, wholly apart from works."

ANSWER: False, for works of obedience are the fruit of faith, Jas 2:14-26; 1Co 9:25.

SCOFIELD note (SRB 1917, 1967); Ac 7:38: "Israel in the land is never called a Church (SRB 1917 )." "A better translation would be 'the congregation' (SRB 1967 )."

ANSWER: He is against the church being in the Old Testament; see 1Ch 28:8; 29:1,10, 20; Dt 23:1-8, Israel the Church of God, Ac 7:38. The Church in the wilderness -- ekklesia is Greek for Church. This appears over eighty times in the Old Testament. Qahal, Hebrew for Church, appears 133 times and is translated congregation. Edah, a synonym for Qahal, appears over 120 times. The Old Testament Church was a type of the New Testament Church. (Dt 23:1-8; Heb 9:7-10, 15, 23, cf. Ex 24:4-8 ) All are now New Testament. (Heb 12:22-24; Eph 2:11-22) Qahal equals Church in Salkinson's Hebrew New Testament. Congregation is not merely a better translation. It is synonymous with Church. It is the Church in the land.

SCOFIELD note (SRB 1917, 1967) on 1Co 14:1: "Tongues and the sign gifts are to cease, meantime they are to be used with restraint."

ANSWER: Scofield spins his prohibition to cease out of thin air. Nowhere do the Apostles, who gave us instructions for this age, call for a ceasing of the gifts of the Spirit. "Wherefore, brethren, covet to prophesy. and forbid not to speak with tongues." (1Co 14:39.)

God set the ministry gifts in the Church: apostles, prophets, gifts of healing, helps, governments and diversities of tongues. These gifts of the Spirit were to empower the Church to carry out the Great Commission.

Lennard Darbee makes a thought provoking comment in Tongues the Dynamite of God: "Unlike ancient Israel, the Church no longer kills the prophets, it simply ignores them, and it is not so much the neglect of the fruits, but rather the contempt of the gifts that hamstrings the Church of our day. Does God go to great length describing the gifts of the Spirit--of which he would not have us ignorant, line them up like ninepins and then with love for a bowling ball, do away with them? We are to desire spiritual gifts." (pp. 26-27.)

Three chapters, 1 Corinthians 12, 13 and 14, give instructions for the Church about the value and use of the gifts of the Spirit.

SCOFIELD: This note on Mt 5:2-12 (SRB 1917) was also removed from the 1967 Bible. "For these reasons, the Sermon on the Mount in its primary application gives neither the privilege nor the duty of the Church. These are found only in the Epistles." Scofield explains that these words mean very little to you. They are reserved for a future kingdom.

ANSWER: That is rank heresy! Jesus says you will not get into his kingdom unless you are busy keeping his words. 1Ti 6:3-5 says "If any man teach otherwise and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine according to godliness," (That, believe me, is the Sermon on the Mount). "He is proud, knowing nothing but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings. perverse disputings by men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth ... From such withdraw yourself." Scofield calls Jesus, "Our Lord," but says it is not your duty or privilege to keep his sayings.

Peter quotes Moses in Acts 3:22-23, as he has told the people of Israel, "to repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out ... For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me, him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. And it shall come to pass that every soul which will not hear that prophet shall be destroyed from among the people." Peter's preaching is quite different front Scofield's notes. Which one is the heretic?

A FINAL WORD



There are many more errors in the Scofield notes. He was untaught in the Scriptures before being converted. He was pushed forward and licensed to preach in three years. He pastored and traveled for the Missionary Society and was very busy for years. But in 1901, he told Gaebelein he was thinking of producing a reference Bible. In 1904, he made a trip to England (to the birthplace of John Darby's Dispensationalism) for research. In 1909, the Bible was put on the market with advertising puff extraordinaire. It was swallowed by the Evangelical world and many Bible schools.

It was an absolute impossibility for one man to do the study and research necessary to annotate a whole Bible in seven or eight years. He had to use other men's material and the notes indicate that he must have used work firm John Nelson Darby, James Brookes and J R. Graves whose beliefs were similarly close to the Plymouth Brethren.

We have his own statement in the letter he wrote to Gaebelein, "By all means follow your own views of prophetic analysis. I sit at your feet when it comes to prophecy and congratulate in advance the future readers of my Bible on having in their hands a safe, clear, sane guide through, what to most is a labyrinth." It is noticeable that he avoids notes on subjects where his personal life did not square with the Scriptures.

His followers have a picnic using the captivity promises of the prophets to bring Israel back to Palestine, "Now being fulfilled before your eyes." They ignore Isa 10:22-23; 65:1-15; Gal 4:21-30 and deny the words of Jesus, Mt 8:10-12; Lk 13:24-29; etc.

I love the Jewish people and deeply desire to see them accept Jesus as their Messiah and be born into his Kingdom, but I cannot go beyond Scripture in showing the future of antichrist Israel as a nation. I feel that this Dispensational teaching is giving them false hope and in holding to it they could lose everything as their ancestors did in A.D. 70.

Charles Gilbert Weston

DANIEL'S 70 WEEKS
by

CHARLES GILBERT WESTON

Taken from cassette tapes and notes from

The Weston Study Bible by EMMA MOORE WESTON



Daniel's mind was troubled and his soul shaken by what he read in the scrolls of Jeremiah the prophet. Jeremiah prophesied a return from their 70-year captivity in Babylon. That was good, but there were other terrible prophecies that he did not understand. God said that he would visit them to perform his good word toward them in causing them to return from all nations where he had driven them and give them "an expected end."

But Jeremiah saw two baskets of figs, some very good and some so bad that they could not be eaten. These represented people. God would give the good figs a heart to know him (Jer 24:7 ), and they would be his people and he would be their God for they would return to him with all their heart.

But the bad figs would be removed to all the kingdoms of the earth to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse in all the places where he would send them. Jeremiah took a bad vessel out and broke it before the elders of the people so it was beyond repair and told them that God would do just that to this people and city. (Jer 24:8. )

Daniel put on sackcloth and ashes and gave himself by prayer and fasting to seek God. In deep distress and repentance, he prayed.

"Then Gabriel was caused to fly swiftly and touched me about the time of the evening oblation and informed me. Now, Daniel I have come to give thee skill and understanding ... Now therefore understand the matter and consider the vision. I have come to show thee and give thee understanding." (Da 9:21-23) What matter? What vision? The vision that Jeremiah gave him of what was to take place when the Messiah would come.

"Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and the holy city to finish the transgression and to make an end of sin and to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousness and to seal up the hidden prophecy and to anoint the most Holy. From the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times." (Da 9:24-25) A day for a year is the proper method of interpretation for the time measure present here. In these verses the calculated days equal 483 years. In the first seven weeks of years (49 years) they had a job to do in rebuilding the city.

Who could ask for anything more specific? Now they can know when he is coming and have time to prepare. The scholars knew it was time for Messiah to come when the rumors went through the land that angels had announced his coming at the birth of Jesus.

They had thirty more years to wait before Jesus walked down to the Jordan to be baptized. As he went up out of the water, they saw a dove descend on him and a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son in whom I am well pleased." (Mt 3:17 ) This was the end of the 69th week, which fills the 483 years before Messiah should come. It is marked by the end of the time and by the special name, The Prince. The Father identified him as "David" (Strong's #1732): the Hebrew form of the English "the beloved." The literal Greek is, "This is my Son, the Beloved, that is the prophesied David:" (Ps 89:3 and 26-37: Isa 55:3-4; Jer 30:5-9; Eze 34:23; 37:24; Hos 3:5; Eph 1:6 and Col 1:13 ) God publicly identified and gave witness to Messiah-King explicitly as his elect Prince of David's line:

"After threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that should come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end shall be with a flood and to the end of the war desolations shall be determined." (Da 9:2427 ) ("The prince to come to destroy" is a parenthetical statement, for it does not fit into the things that were to be done in the 70th week. ) "He shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease and for the overspreading of abomination he shall make it desolate even until the consummation."

This 27th verse of Daniel 9 has been wrongly interpreted. "He shall confirm the covenant with many." Some say, "The Antichrist will make a treaty with the Israelis to bring peace in the Middle East. He breaks the covenant in the middle of the week and then we have the great tribulation." That isn't what it says. "He shall confirm the Covenant with many for ONE WEEK." Confirm means to prevail; it is a military word -- one side wins over the other side. He causes the Covenant to prevail for SEVEN years. What Covenant? "Well, the Antichrist comes and he makes the covenant." Where did they get the Antichrist? Jeremiah says nothing about an Antichrist. A New Covenant is to be made with Israel by Messiah, the Prince, and he forgives their sins and writes his word in their hearts. It is the New Covenant and it is Messiah who makes it.

All time and eternity hang upon this seven year Visitation. Seventy weeks of years (490 years) are determined to accomplish the six prophecies, not one of which was done in the sixty-nine weeks (483 years). All six prophecies are fulfilled in the 70th week. If the 70th week was postponed, then all awaits to be fulfilled. Then the 70 means nothing. And Calvary? And Pentecost?

See Da 9:24: One week of seven years contains fulfillment of the objectives stated:

1. "To finish the transgressions." Finish, kala (Strong's #3607 Heb) restrict, hold back, to restrain sin, starts with the work of John the Baptist. (Mal 4:5-6; Jn 1:23 )
2. "To make an end of sins." Chatham (Strong's #2856 Heb): seal up, fill up, referring to Mt 23:13-36; 1Th 2:15-16 and Ro 9:22-29. "The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." (Isa 53:6b )

3. "To make reconciliation for iniquity." Kaphar (Strong's #3722 Heb). See Jn 3:15-17; Ro 5:8-11; 2Co 5:17-21 and Heb 10:5-17; 7:18-19 and 8:6-13. Reconciliation as Eze 45:15, 17. "Christ died for us." (Ro 5:8b )

4. "To bring in everlasting righteousness." As Isa 51:5-8; Ro 3:2126; Php 3:7-11; 1Co 1:30 and Eph 2:1-10, "to declare his righteousness." (Ro 3:26 )

5. "To seal up the vision and prophecy." Chatham (Mt 5:17-18; Eph 1:9-13; 2Co 1:18-20; Col 1:12-23; 2:8-17; 1Jn 5:10-12; 4:16 and Gal 1:8-12)

6. "To anoint the most holy." After Mt 3:13-17 and Heb 2:9-10 came the anointing in Ac 2:22-36, v. 33. This is pictured in beautiful type in the anointing of Solomon (1Ki 1:32-40) with 1Ch 28:1 to 29:22-23. "Yet have I set [anointed] my king upon my holy hill of Zion." (Ps 2:6, Cf. Isa 28:16 with 1Pe 2:4-6; Ac 4:11; 13:32-39; Rev 2:26-27; Heb 12:22-28 and 1Ti 6:15-16 )

This week is the dawn of the Son of righteousness, (Jn 12:47-50; 8:12; lsa 59:20; Ac 3:22-26; Lk 19:41-44) and the focal point of the Covenants of promise, of typology and of prophecy, (Mt 5: 17-18; Ac 3:24; 26:22-23; 26:6-7; 1Pe 1:9-12; Col 2:9-17 and 1Co 10:1-11 ) This one week is the historical, chronological, moral and redemptive fulcrum of all the ages of the human race.

All events in Da 9:24 occurred in the seven years AFTER the 69th week with no break. Study Jeremiah chapters 29 to 31 where these events are foretold and about which Daniel inquired.

"He shall make the Covenant to prevail for one week." Gabriel was speaking of the prophecy of Jer 31:31-37, not just any, but "THE COVENANT," a new one with God's laws written in their hearts. He will forgive their iniquity and remember their sins no more. (Da 9:2127) Once the Messiah came, he was given one prophetic week of seven years to see it through.

At the end of the 69 weeks, God publicly identified Messiah, the Prince. (Mt 3:13-17) The 69 weeks (seven plus threescore and two) began in 457 B.C. with the decree of Artaxerses, (Ezra 7:11-13) and were fulfilled in A.D. 27, 483 years later. (cf. Lk 3:22-23.)

The New Covenant is to be confirmed for seven years. The seven years began in A.D. 27 and ended in A.D. 34, three and one half years of Christ's earthly ministry, then Calvary. Israel betrayed and crucified her King in the midst of the week. He was cut off, but not for himself. "For the transgression of my people was he stricken." (Isa 53:8c) Then there were three and one half years of Christ's ministry, exclusively to the Jews, from his throne by the Holy Spirit -- thus ending the 490 years.

Some teachers read the prophecies that were given during the captivity about their return, as if they should now be brought back to Israel. They take those promises and say, "You see, God said he is going to bring them back and they are coming back now." That is not the way to handle Scripture. You have to take the context and their point of view. God says that at the end of the captivity in Babylon is when the promises are to be fulfilled. Not in A.D. 20th century.

"I know the thoughts I think toward you, saith Jehovah. Then shall ye call upon me and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you, and ye shall seek me, and find me when ye shall search for me with all your heart. And I will be found of you, saith the Lord, and I will gather you from all the nations, and places where I have driven you, saith the Lord, and I will bring you again into the place where l caused you to be carried away captive." (Jer 29:11-14 ) The context shows he is talking about the Remnant who would serve him.

But from verses 17 to 19, the word to the ungodly majority is, "Behold, I will send upon them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and I will make them like vile figs that cannot be eaten they are so evil ... And I will deliver them to be removed to all the nations of the earth and will make them a curse and an astonishment and a hissing and a reproach among all the nations where they are driven: Because they have not harkened to my words, saith the Lord."

Two things are involved here. One -- the destruction of the apostate group, two -- Jacob's trouble. God offers them no hope whatever. The salvation of Jacob out of it. That's the Remnant which became the Church of Jesus Christ. The ones that sought and found the Lord. See Ro 9:21-29.

The great work of God in Christ Jesus in the seven-year Visitation, was when God in person came down from the ivory palaces into a world of woe, took upon him the form of a servant, humbled himself and became obedient unto death to bring the New Covenant for all mankind. It is the greatest thing that ever happened in time or eternity; nothing could be greater. That is the Covenant it is talking about. It is explaining Jeremiah and the vision and hope that he laid before the children of Israel upon their return to the land in order to be there to receive the Messiah at the end of the 69 weeks. In spite of the fact that he was meek and lowly and coming to his people offering salvation, peace, love and a now life, they would not receive him, but rejected, condemned and crucified him. The reception God got from mankind was beyond understanding. The prophet said he came to set judgment in the earth and bring light to the Gentiles. He would not fail or be discouraged until he had accomplished his mission and that agrees with the comment that he would cause the Covenant to prevail. It is a warfare with all hell set against God in the flesh to destroy him and try to break this plan of God for the salvation of mankind. In spite of everything the devil could do against him, he was not discouraged. He went all the way to Calvary and down to hell and took captivity captive and is seated at the right hand of God, having wrought eternal salvation for us. He purged our sins and became the mediator of the New Covenant. He had brought the Covenant -- a wonderful thing. The Messiah is mentioned in the 24th verse explicitly as fulfilling the law and as sealing up prophecy and as being anointed and bringing reconciliation for sins, salvation and everlasting righteousness.

"He shall confirm the Covenant with many." (v. 27.) Why not the whole nation? The nation as a whole rejected him and his Covenant. Yet he was able to make it prevail for seven years -- with many. What Jesus began to do and to teach took him as far as Calvary and the Resurrection. After that he poured out the Holy Spirit on the believers at Pentecost.

Then he ministered from his throne through his followers for three and a half years until Stephen was stoned, the church scattered, and the gospel was taken to the Gentiles. It was the fulfillment of Da 9:27. Christ confirmed the Covenant and caused the sacrifice and oblation to cease. (Heb. 10:1-14, esp. v. 9 ) "He taketh away the first that he may establish the second." The New Covenant could not be confirmed except by the taking away of the Old Mosaic Covenant. It had to be done by the crucifixion of the Messiah. He took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross in the midst of that week and that did away with the sacrifice and oblation. When the veil was rent in twain in the temple, the fulfillment was absolutely precise. It had to be done in that week after the introduction of the Messiah at the Jordan when God identified him for exactly who he was. He was to make the Covenant prevail for seven years and that he did precisely.

Some teachers put the fulfillment at the end of this age and then they go to Thessalonians and find the Antichrist and bring him back to Daniel 9. Isn't that marvelous? How can you break the 70th week off and put it at the end of this age when God fulfilled it then?

This idea was first suggested by Francisco Ribera, a Jesuit priest of Salamanca, who about A.D. 1585 published a commentary on Babylon and the antichrist that taught that Daniel's 70th week was in the future. Ribera put a big rubber band on the 70th week and extended it to the end of this age. His purpose was to counter the Protestant Reformation and to set aside the Protestant teaching of the time that the papacy was the antichrist. He put the first chapters of the Revelation in the first century. The rest he put in a three and one half year period at the end of time. A Jewish temple would be rebuilt by an antichrist who would deny Christ, pretend to be God and conquer the world. Imagination is a wonderful thing!

Clarence Larkin has admitted that the material he got for his prophetic charts came from Francisco Ribera. Thousands of sincere ministers have used these charts -- not dreaming where the facts presented came from or for what purpose they were intended. The damage Ribera did to the Christian church with this concocted teaching is beyond calculation!

The 70th week has to follow the 69th -- three and one half years until he was cut off, then the rest of the week he ministered through his servants from heaven. Judgment waited as God gave Israel time to repent. They had until A.D. 70 before God totally destroyed -- completely wiped out the people -- and made the country an uninhabited desolation for fifty years.

Titus, the prince of the people who would come (Romans), and his soldiers who were gathered out of all nations of the empire, destroyed Jerusalem and the people. He was doing the bidding of Christ. The Remnant that accepted Christ left the city in obedience to Mt 24:15-22 and Lk 20:21, and escaped safely, but wrath was poured upon Christ rejecting Israel. (1Th 2:14-16; Mt 23:32-36.) Wrath fell only upon the disobedient and it came upon them to the uttermost. (See the Destruction of Jerusalem in The Weston Study Bible appendix.)

All scholars agree that in Daniel the divine time measure is a day for a year. (Eze 4:6.) The 70 weeks began in 457 B.C. and concluded in A.D. 34. The prophecy has already been fulfilled.

THE REAL ISRAEL:

The Teaching of Romans 11

by

CHARLES GILBERT WESTON



Moses gave a great prophecy of Christ, one like himself who would give to Israel all of God's word. If any man would not hear that prophet, God would require it of him. Peter quotes it as in fulfillment in this age, "And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people." (Ac 3:22-23.) lsrael is the people from among whom they are to be destroyed. If the Apostles were here today, who would believe them?

The name Israel has several usages. To many, it has only one meaning. The first Bible usage is in Ge 32:24-29. Jacob was in a tight spot. He was on his way home with his wives, his children and his flocks -- a helpless little group moving along. His brother, Esau, who had sworn to kill him for cheating him, was coming to meet him with four hundred men. Jacob sent his family ahead, group by group, in a way calculated to soften Esau's heart. He stayed behind to pray and found himself wrestling with an angel of the Lord. As dawn came, the angel said, "Let me go."

Jacob said, "I will not let you go except you bless me."

The angel asked his name. Jacob told him his name, which means supplanter, one who supersedes another by trickery or treachery. The angel said, "Thy name shall no more be called Jacob, but Israel -- an overcomer, for as a prince thou hast power with God and with men and hast prevailed." The angel blest him there.

He had left Esau as Jacob, the cheat. He met him as Israel, a prince with God. Esau came peacefully, and they met as brothers. The angel of the Lord gave Jacob his own name. In Isa 49:3-4, Israel is the name of Christ, the one who overcame and purchased our salvation and brings us unto this experience to be called Israel, also to be overcomers.

Jacob's flesh descendants are called the children of Israel.

When the kingdom was divided the northern nation was called Israel; the southern nation was Judah.

The name Israel can also be applied to rank sinners. (Nu 25:6-14)

The godly Remnant within Israel was the true Israel. Elijah cried out to God that he alone was left serving God, and the Lord said, "l have seven thousand who have never bowed the knee to Baal." They were his true people who had resisted the temptation to bow to the idol and were overcomers. The rest had all failed. God had given them the name as something to live up to.

Apostate Israel is still called Israel even though they forfeited the right to use it. In Isaiah 1:2-4, the Lord grieves, "Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth ... I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil doers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they have gone away backward." He still calls them Israel showing them the terrible depths to which they have sunk. Their descendants crucified Christ.

God left a Remnant of true overcomers and a remnant of the apostate Israel. Some say, "You can't find that in the New Testament." Oh yes, you can. Look at John 7:19-20: "Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keepeth the law? Why go ye about to kill me? The people said, Thou hast a devil: who goeth about to kill thee?" See John 8:32, 41, 44a: "I know that ye are Abraham's seed: but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you. I speak that which I have seen with my Father: ye do that which ye have seen with your father. They said, Abraham is our father. Jesus said, If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham. But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham. Ye do the deeds of your father. They said, We be not born of fornication: we have one father, even God ... [Jesus said] Ye are of your father the devil and the lusts of your father ye will do."

There are two Israels mentioned. "Israel which followed after the law of righteousness hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but by the works of the law." (Ro 9:31-32.) Israel which followed after the law is the very opposite of the elect Remnant of grace. (Ro 11:5, 7-10) "Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it; and the rest were blinded." Ro 11:7, 16b, 17a. "If the root be holy, so are the branches, and if some of the branches be broken off...."

Natural branches were broken off and wild olives were grafted in. One must identify the broken branches as a group. "Well, because of unbelief they were broken off." (Ro 11:20.) The Israel of God is noted in Hosea: "In the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, ye are the sons of the living God." (Hos 1:10; 2:23.) "I say to them which were not my people, thou art my people, and they say, Thou art my God." The prophecies of Hosea identified by Paul show the true Israel is the Church at Ro 9:22-26. Notice Peter's use of Joel 2:32 as to where salvation is found: "In Zion and Jerusalem shall be deliverance ... and in the Remnant whom the Lord shall call."

Did the Remnant of Israel lose the name Israel by being true to God'? Not according to the prophets. (lsa 54:1-13; Gal 4:22-30; 6:16; with Ro 9:22-26.) "Ye in time past were not the people of God ... but now have obtained mercy ... are now THE people of God." Not A people. (1Pe 2:10a)

Is there any hope for the broken off branches? Yes, indeed. The hope they rejected in unbelief is still offered to whosoever will. If they will believe in that Rock of safety, a true foundation stone, (Isa 28:16 ); he who died for them, (Isa 53), he who came at the appointed time, (Da 9 ); then they will come out of carnal Israel into the salvation and glory and life of the Israel of God, into the living Body and Church of Christ that is New Covenant Israel.

The present and closing age of grace will soon make an end of this opportunity of salvation, and sadly many of Christ-rejecting Israel will have waited too long. (Mt 8:10-12; Lk 13:25-29 ) "There shall be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out." Does this sound like setting up a kingdom? But look at this verse: "So all Israel shall be saved." "Yes, look, which Israel is that?" The Bible is very explicit, that out of old Israel only a Remnant would be saved. (Isa 10:22-23; cf. 5:1-14; Ro 9:27; Mt 23:32-38 and 8:10-12. ) The same Old Testament tells of the "All Israel" that is saved. (Isa 45:17, 25) It is "in the Lord." Isaiah points out the one as descending into hell, the other "IN THE LORD." SAVED. Has the word of God been ineffective? The answer is NO. There are two Israels; the one foreknown of God before the foundation of the world is the one God has always been pointing to by promise, by typology, by prophecy, in song, poetry, prose, with its gates open by day and night for whosoever will. Let the weary and thirsty come and drink of eternal mercy, love and life. Amen. Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. (Gal 3:29)

But the prophet said the nation of Israel would be restored. That is true, read about it in Ezekiel 34. It tells of Christ coming to the lost sheep of the house of Israel in a great gathering, sifting and restoration. He gathers the wheat into his garner and the chaff goes into the fire. It was a great restoration, (Isa 53:6) and reformation. (Heb 8:613; 9:10-15; Mal 3: I-3, 16-18 and Jn 1: 11-13. ) The New Covenant was the charter of the restoration, because the nation was lost under the Old. (Jer 31:31-32; cf. Dt 28:15 ) But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of thy God to observe to do all his commandments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day, that all these curses shall come upon thee." Did you ever read these curses and terrible, awesome judgments in Dt 28? Even so, they broke his Old Covenant and they rejected the New. "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved." (Jer 8:20. ) Heart breaking words about Israel apart from Christ.

The proud Pharisees were well acquainted with the term all Israel. They were quite sure that it meant the natural descendants of Abraham through Jacob, that is, themselves. The warnings of Scripture were not for them. They had no need to be saved or born again. They had Abraham as their father. (Lk 3:7-9; Jn 8:39-48 ) The all Israel of lsa 45:25, "In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified." "All thy children shall be taught of the Lord," Isa 54:13 is the same as that in Ro 11:26-27. Pertaining to it Paul quotes Isa 59:20-21: "All Israel shall be saved." "There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. For this is my Covenant with them," and Paul paraphrases the obvious, "When I shall take away their sins." Isaiah is telling of what happened at the first coming of Christ. Peter preaching to the Jews in the temple declares the fulfillment of the same prophecy at Ac 3:25-26. Isaiah spoke of the new Israel upon whom God poured out his Holy Spirit and in whom Christ had planted God's word. (Cf. Isa 60:21 and 61:1-3. ) The Deliverer certainly cleansed New Covenant Israel of all sins for only thus could they be filled with God's Spirit.

When quoting, "The gifts and calling of God are without repentance," (Ro 11:29 ) some intonate this as a final dictum meaning, "even though they are enemies, God called Israel his people so they still are and cannot be lost." Actually, it would rather mean, If God called you, then make sure you work out your calling, for God will certainly have an accounting with you. But read 1Sa 2:30; Jer 18:1-12: "They said ... we will walk after our own devices," 19:1-11 and Ro 11:22. "Behold the goodness and severity of God: on them that fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, IF thou continue in his goodness, otherwise thou also shalt be cut off." These references should sober our thinking. See also Heb 2:1-3.

They are not all Israel who are of Israel. Neither are they Israel because they are children of Abraham for in Isaac shall thy seed be called. They of the promise are counted for the seed. If you are Christ's, then are you Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. In Christ all the families of the earth shall be blest. We are not children by a fluke, but we are heirs by immediate translation. The true Israel is not the type but the reality--the Church of Jesus Christ. They of the flesh do not serve God in Christ Jesus or obey his words.

Paul is talking to his Gentile brothers in Galatians, "Now we, brethren, as Isaac was are the children of promise." Isaac was the Covenant one. lshmael in despising Isaac was cast out of the fellowship. Paul gives teaching of Christ by type found in Ge 21:1-12; Gal 4:19-31. Two women, two sons, two Jerusalems, two peoples. Hagar and Ishmael represented carnal Israel; Sarah and Isaac represented Christians. Nevertheless, "Cast out the bondwoman and her son, (the Jews) the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman." Apostate Israel even though they crucified the Lord of Glory is still called Israel and in Isaiah 1:9-10, they are called Sodom and Gomorrah. But Isaiah says, "Though the number of them be as the sand of the sea a remnant shall be saved." (Isa 8:14; 28:16 )

The Church is also called Israel. (Hos 1:10; 2:23 ) Scofield declares these refer to flesh Israel being restored, but that is exactly opposite of the teaching of the Apostles Paul and Peter. Hosea speaks of rejection of carnal Israel, "Ye are not my people and I will not be your God." And in talking to the Gentiles they said "Ye were not a people but now are THE people of God." It is safer to believe the apostles than the Scofield notes. If the apostles interpret Hosea as we see they do, it may have even greater meaning than we have grasped. "In the place where it was said ye are not my people, there shall ye be called the children of God."

That the Church never appears in the prophets is a teaching that appears over and over in some Bible notes and is the basis for much teaching. They take the promises that God intended for the overcomers and apply them to flesh Israel. Those that follow on to know the Lord are Israel whether Jews or Gentiles. In the fulness of time, God would gather all in one. The early Church was entirely Jewish. "Remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh ... Ye were without Christ being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the Covenant of promise having no hope and without God in the world." (Eph 2:11) "But now, in Christ Jesus ye who were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ." (v. 13 )

The ultimate promise to Israel, "IF ye keep my Covenants ye shall be a special treasure unto me above all people ... Ye shall be a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation." (Mal 3:16-17 ) Under the old Mosaic Covenant no one could be a priest but Aaron and his family. When the priesthood was set aside, there came a change of the law. (Heb 7: 12 ) The order of Melchizedek's priesthood was forever. Jesus was from the tribe of Judah of which tribe Moses said nothing concerning priesthood. We, in Christ, have been made kings and priests unto God. (Rev 1:6 )

In the communion service, we have the words, "This is the New Covenant in my blood which was shed for you." We read in Hebrews that the blood of bulls and goats could not wash away sin, could not make them perfect so they could come to God. The way into the holiest was not yet made manifest because the blood of Jesus was not yet shed. It could not be fulfilled until the Old Covenant was taken away and the New Covenant brought in. Under the Old Covenant they could walk in God's favor, IF they walked in his Covenant. It did not bring cleansing from sin, make them new creatures, or kings and priests unto God. But it would keep them in the path that would lead to Jesus and his salvation blessings.

Exodus 19:1-8 is quoted in Jeremiah 7:23-26: "Obey my voice, keep my Covenant and I will be your God ... they hearkened not, but walked in the imagination of their evil heart. I sent prophets, they hearkened not. They did worse than their fathers. (v. 28.) This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of their God, nor receiveth correction: truth is perished and cut off from their mouth." Israel disobeyed God after he had given them mercy after mercy. At last, God said they would go into punishment. Jeremiah 7:33-34 was explicitly fulfilled as God poured out his wrath to the uttermost on Christ rejecting Israel in A.D. 70 in the destruction of Jerusalem.

Jeremiah had a vision of figs--some good and some bad. Some were delectable and the others so bad that they could not be eaten. (Jer 24 ) This is Israel--some very bad, some a godly Remnant. All the curses are aimed at the bad figs, the disobedient ones. Malachi had to deal with the apostate Israel. God is distressed with them, but "they that feared the Lord spake often one to another and a book of remembrance was written ... for them that feared the Lord and thought upon his name. They shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels, and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him." (Mal 3:16-17 )

God was looking for the time when he could gather together his Cegulah -- his special treasure -- his flock would be his children. (Mt 24, Isa 1:8-10) "He came unto his own and his own received him not, but as many as received him to them gave he the power to become sons of God even to them that believe on his name." (Jn 1:11-12) They were his Cegulah not because they were Abraham's seed or natural children of Israel, but they received Messiah and in him became a new creation. "He hath begotten us again to a lively hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ." (1Pe 1:3 )

They could now say to the churches scattered across Asia Minor and to us in our time (to Gentiles but was written to Jews): "Whom having not seen ye love, and though ye see him not, yet believing ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls." (1Pe 1:8-9 )

"Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold ... but by the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." (1Pe 1:18-19 ) "Being born again not of corruptible seed, but by the word of God which liveth and abideth forever." (1Pe 1:23 ) "Behold I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded ... Unto them which be disobedient a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense." (1Pe 2:6-8 ) "You also as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood to offer up sacrifice," (1Pe 2:5) He says unto them, "Ye are a chosen generation. a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people." (v. 9 )

Many Bible schools teach that the Church does not appear in the prophets and that the theme of the prophets is national Israel and all the glorious things spoken by them apply to the Israelis in the land now. That is exactly opposite to the apostles' teaching, contrary to the original apostles, the early Church and all the Reformers. Such teaching is false. (Ac 3:22-26) All the prophets spoke of these days.

Hear the details from the Scofield note on Eph 3: "In his (Paul's) writings alone we find the doctrines, position, walk and destiny of the church." The teaching that the prophets do not mention the church is a tremendous lie that has thrown a blanket of darkness over God's people and robbed them of the promises of God.

The born again new Israel was to be Israel and also Church, (1Pe 1:23-25 ) ecclesia--from Moses through the prophets. (Mt 16) Some think that when Jesus said, "Upon this rock I will build my church," that this was the first appearance of the word Church. It appears in Moses and Old Testament as prophecy of the people of God as a promise of the true people of God in the New Testament. They gave the Church the name qahal as it is God's true Israel. God divided his promises between the good Israel and the bad Israel. He says to the disobedient that all the curses of the law are their promises, that all the blessings are for the good Israel. God never refers to them as one block, but carefully distinguishes between the apostates and the obedient Israel including the Gentiles. In the apostles' teaching there is only one promise for the disobedient--****ation. The door of salvation is open to whosoever will. If a Jew receives Christ, he will be saved as will a Gentile. There is nothing that prevents a Jew from believing. There are Jews who love Jesus. I thank God for them. If Jews accept Jesus, they will be accepted of the Father. But the Scripture says, "Who is a liar but he that denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son ... HATH NOT THE FATHER." (1Jn 2:22-23a. )

But Scofield knows better. On page 922 SRB, "Israel is to be restored and forgiven, wife of Jehovah; the church the virgin wife of the Lamb. Israel is Jehovah's earthly wife and the church the Lamb's heavenly bride." (Cf. 1Co 6:9-11; Gal 2:15) So says Scofield!

Some kindhearted people object. "True they don't accept Jesus, but they have the Father." Not so! According to Jesus' own words in Jn 15:23, "He that hateth me hateth my Father also." We dare not go along with teachers that say that Israel loves God when the apostle says they have not the Spirit of God, neither do they love God. In Php 3:2, Paul warns to beware of Israel after the flesh that they are the enemies of Jesus. "Their minds are blinded because of false teaching and the veil upon their heart shall be taken away when they turn to the Lord." (2Co 3:14-16 )

What about the verse that says, "They shall look upon him whom they have pierced?" Then they get saved? That is another false doctrine. Matthew tells us what will happen to the ones who have not believed on the Lord up to the moment of his coming. (Mt 8:12) "The children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness and there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

(A note from Scofield on Ro 11, p. 1204, SRB.) "That the Christian church now inherits the distinctive Jewish promises is not taught in Scripture. The Christian is of the heavenly seed of Abraham and partakes of the spiritual blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant, but Israel as a nation always has its own place, and is yet to have its greatest exaltation as the earthly people of God."

What a distortion of the plain Scriptures that have just been cited. That is wishful thinking. God has no earthly people. (Jn 14:6; 1Co 1:29 and 15:45-50. ) "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God."

"Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you and to you who are troubled, rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power when (Lk 13:25-28 ) he shall come to be glorified in his saints and to be admired in all them that believe." (2Th 1:6-10 ) These are the ones who love him and have been waiting for him. The true Church enters into rest on the day the Lord destroys the wicked, when they receive the sentence of eternal death. He makes it plain that he comes pouring out judgment. The great judgment is the day of their destruction. See 1Th 4:13-17. "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works thereof shall be burned up." (2Pe 3:10 )

It was to the Church of Jesus Christ that the gospel was preached by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. "Surely the Lord will do nothing that he does not reveal his secret unto his servants the prophets." (Amos 3:7 )

Paul says in Ac 26:22, "I continue to this day witnessing to both small and great saying none other things than that spoken by Moses and the prophets." Everything about the Church is from the Old Testament and this is the burden of Paul's teaching. Isaiah 53 is about the head of the Church dying for his people. The Father has put Gentiles together with the commonwealth of Israel and made one new man in Christ Jesus. He did not make a Gentile Church. Salvation is of the Jews. "Fear not, little flock, it is the Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." He took the kingdom away from apostate Israel and so built the Church. Paul, quoting Joel, tells the glory of the Church in Acts 2 indicating that Christ is risen from the dead and is seated on the right hand of God fulfilling the Davidic Covenant which is detailed in Ps 110:1. He is seated to reign through this age of grace when good and evil struggle together. This age is the end of that struggle. It is described in Mt 13:37-43. There will be no more struggle between good and evil after the end of this age. Paul taught the same thing: 1Co 15:24-26 refers to Ps 110:1. Peter preached the same on Pentecost as fulfilled by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Paul preached on it in reference to the close of the age and that Christ will remain on that throne UNTIL every enemy is conquered and the last enemy is death. Only then will he leave his glorious heavenly throne to come down to gather the saints still alive, bringing those who had died in Christ with him to receive their Resurrection bodies. Peter quoting Joel 2:28-32 about the outpouring of the Spirit, stops in mid verse because the rest of it is obvious, "For whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered." (v. 32.) Paul quotes it in Ro 10:13.

If you had been in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, there would have been only one place you would have found salvation, in the 120 and their preaching of the kingdom of God which is a spiritual reality that no man can see or enter except he be born again. Except he is a new creature in Christ nothing else matters.

Joel predicts that marvelous scene and that initial voice of the gospel in the crowning of Jesus. Some say it will be fulfilled in the millennium, but Jesus said that at the end of THIS AGE he would send his angels and gather out all that offend and they shall be cast into the fire. No more of the wicked and righteous mingling together to the torment and oppression of God's people. It is the end of this age. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their father. "Angels in flaming fire take vengeance on them that obey not the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power when he shall come to be glorified in his saints and to be admired in all them that believe." "We enter into rest the day the Lord destroys the wicked when they receive the sentence of eternal death and flaming fire is poured out on them that obey not the gospel. Some say that we will be raptured away, but like a thief in the night he comes to destroy the wicked." (2Th 1:7-10 and 2Pe 3:10 )

The Greek says they shall in no wise escape, he will in no wise miss the redeemed and he will not miss the wicked ... all those will be destroyed. We have the wicked consumed with the brightness of his coming exactly as is described. There are no wicked left to go into a millennium, Mt 13:40-42, 49, 50. When he comes it is to save his own. If the Jews turn to the Lord they can be saved also. "There is none other name under heaven whereby we must be saved." (Ac 4:12) This is the only way to be saved or to shed the spirit of antichrist. It must be done NOW while the door is open and they can say, blessed be he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Christians do the Jews a great wrong when they suggest that they will have a second chance or that being fleshly children of Abraham can bring salvation. The Jewish people suffered the worst destruction ever brought upon any people in A.D. 70 because they refused to believe the Scriptures that plainly prophesied of the coming of the Messiah. They knew when he was to come because of Daniel 9, but since he did not meet their preconceived ideas of what they expected Messiah to be, they crucified him and suffered the loss of everything. All those who refuse to believe God's more sure word of prophecy concerning Christ's Second Coming, are headed for everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord when he shall come to be glorified in his saints.

Paul explains the reason for their blindness in 2Co 3:13-16: "And not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished: But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament; which veil is done away in Christ ... unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart. Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away."

Only the Holy Spirit can remove the veil. I love the Jewish people and pray that God may grant them this great mercy that they may behold Jesus, their Messiah, in time to be saved from eternal loss.

ORIGIN OF SCOFIELD HERESIES
by

EMMA MOORE WESTON




"No greater mischief can happen to a Christian people than to have God's word taken from them, or falsified, so that they no longer have it pure and clear. God grant that we and our descendants be not witnesses of such a calamity" (Martin Luther, Table Talk.)

The modern teaching of a secret rapture of the church, a seven-year tribulation, and a literal thousand-year reign of Christ on earth are not found in the Bible. More and more scholars have begun to doubt the validity of this teaching and have done research to uncover the facts. Their search has led them to libraries in England to the Plymouth Brethren, John N. Darby, Edward Irving, and to a fifteen-year-old orphan, Margaret MacDonald. Several Jesuit priests were also involved as well as Cyrus I. Scofield.

To date, this is the information that has come down to us. The first recorded history of a heretic writing and preaching the idea of a one thousand year reign of Christ on this earth was Cerinthus. He was contemporary in time and place with the Apostle John and was his enemy. The historian Eusebius wrote about him in his book Ecclesiastical History, A.D. 324.

The Protestants were calling the papacy the antichrist in the 16th century because of the millions of Protestant Christians being martyred. Hoping to take the heat off the Catholics, the Jesuit priests formulated doctrines calculated to counter the Reformation.

In 1585, Francisco Ribera published a prophetic commentary in which he put the first chapters of the Revelation in the first century and the rest off in the far distant future. He taught that the temple would be rebuilt in Jerusalem by an antichrist who would abolish Christianity, deny Christ, pretend to be God, and conquer the world. Ribera put a rubber band on Daniel's 70th week and stretched it to the end of time. This was the beginning of the futurist theory that is being taught today. There is no Scripture that warrants separating the 69th and 70th weeks of Daniel. He took Scriptures that have already been fulfilled and put them far off in the future.

S. R. Maitland, Librarian to the Archbishop of Canterbury, (about 1826) discovered Ribera's work and published it for general interest. Another Jesuit, Luis de Alcazar, put the fulfillment of prophecies of the Revelation in the past with his scheme now taught by preterists.

Another Jesuit, Emmanuel Lacunza, added his ideas in a book written in Spanish, but translated into English by Edward Irving and published in 1927. He suggested that the Second Coming of Jesus would be in two stages. Margaret Macdonald in Scotland also had a vision of the Second Coming being in two stages. Jesus would come first to catch some Christians in a secret rapture previous to the one Second Coming that the Church had believed in for centuries, and would return later with them. Copies of her vision were circulated in the area.

John N. Darby, of the Plymouth Brethren, and Edward Irving put all these ideas together and began to teach them as truth in the 1830's. The final form of the teaching ended up with a secret rapture, then a three and one-half or seven-year period of terrible tribulation under an antichrist, before Jesus would return with all his saints at his revelation to set up a thousand-year reign in Jerusalem. The temple would be rebuilt, animal sacrifices reinstituted and Christ would reign with the Jews for a millennium. However, the Greek words for rapture and revelation refer to the same event and are used interchangeably.

In 1994. Rev. John Bray obtained a copy of another book published in Pennsylvania in 1788 that teaches the same heresies. Its influence, if any, on the Brethren group is unknown. (His address is P.O. Box 90129, Lakeland, FL, 33804.)

In the last half of the past century, Darby made several trips to the United States and taught his new prophetic schemes in Bible conferences. It was accepted by many in the United States, among them Reverend James Brookes, who was sponsoring a new convert, a young man named Cyrus I. Scofield. Later on, all these ideas were incorporated in Scofield's notes and published in the Scofield Reference Bible in 1909. Millions of sincere Christians have accepted these ingenious theories as truth, knowing neither where they originated nor for what purpose they were intended. It has crippled the Church and the resultant date-setting has been disastrous. People need to know that the main differences in teaching on the Second Coming do not come from the Bible itself, but from these fabrications deliberately introduced to counter the Reformation and cause trouble. And have they ever! Added to this deception, the story of Scofield's life has been kept covered up because it would discredit, if not destroy, his teaching.

Dispensationalists call Jesus' coming as a thief in the night, when he comes for his saints, "the rapture" and the second stage when he returns with them "the revelation." However, Greek words for rapture and revelation refer to the same event and are used interchangeably. The Scriptures teach that, "Then shall that Wicked one be revealed whom the Lord shall consume with the Spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his parousia." If the brightness of his coming is to destroy the Wicked it can hardly be a secret known only to the saints. (2Th 2:8 ) How can the antichrist begin to flourish at the parousia if he dies then? (Refs. on parousia 2Co 10:10; Mt 24:3, 27, 37; 1Co 15:23; 16:17; 1Th 3:13; 4:15; 5:23; 2Th 2:1, 8, 9 and Ja 5:7,

The Reformers, Luther, Calvin and Knox, and the leaders of the Great Awakening, such as Wesley, Whitefield and Finney did not believe any of this teaching. However, the important issue is what did Jesus say about it? Absolutely nothing! He said, "My kingdom is not of this world." (Jn 18:36)The only way to get into his kingdom is to be born into it. It is a spiritual kingdom entered only by a spiritual new birth. (Jn 3:5)



What does the Apostle Paul say about it? Absolutely nothing!

What do the other Epistle writers say about it? Nothing!

What does the Apostles' Creed say about it? Nothing!



This centuries-old statement of the faith of the Church declares: "I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried. The third day he arose again from the dead, He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. From thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead."

Some teachers would have it read, "From thence he shall come to set up an earthly kingdom for a thousand years, and after that, he shall come to judge the quick and the dead."

The earthly kingdom doctrine was taught by the Pharisees. The Messiah would come, conquer their enemies and set up a literal kingdom. This is what the disciples had in mind when they asked Jesus, "Wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" They did not understand why Jesus did not set about doing it. They had no conception of a dying Messiah, a resurrection and another coming. They still did not understand his first coming. Their eyes were blinded by previous teaching. However, after Pentecost they never mention again this "doctrine of the Pharisees" that Jesus had warned them about.

The whole contrived millennial theory of a reign of Christ on earth depends on a literal and incorrect interpretation of one portion of Scripture, Rev. 20:1-7.

The word "millennium" is not in the Bible. This symbolical Scripture, Rev. 20:1-7, cannot all be taken literally. You cannot bind a spiritual being with a literal chain. Even if it did mean a literal thousand years, Jesus said, "In the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established." This Scripture is the only witness. It is dangerous to build a whole doctrine on one portion of Scripture, especially if it is not backed up by the Gospel writers.

In Psalm 50:10, it says, "Every beast of the forest is mine and the cattle on a thousand hills." Does that mean only a thousand? "God keeps covenant and mercy to a thousand generations." (Dt 7:9. ) Does his mercy stop there? Also see Ps 105:8. The thousand is not literal in any of these. Many scholars believe that it is a symbolical number representing the indefinite period between Jesus' first and second coming.

Did Jesus ever offer himself as a king or suggest in the faintest way that he was going to set up a literal kingdom? He said to Pilate, "My kingdom is not of this world." "When Jesus perceived that they would come to take him by force to make him king, he departed." His offer of the kingdom is the same he made to Nicodemus at the start of his ministry, "Ye must be born again." (Jn 3:3, 5,14,15 )This is the kingdom that he preached, (Mt 4:20; 9:35; 24:14 and Lk 12:32) and that Paul preached. (Ac 28:31; Col 1:13) Some say that the Jews refused this so Jesus had to postpone his kingdom. They try to fit Old Testament Scriptures about the kingdom into the thousand-year reign, but Jesus' kingdom in the New Testament is everlasting.

The Apostle Paul does not agree with this modern teaching 1Th 4:13-17) "Even so them which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him ...the dead in Christ shall rise first ... THEN we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air." The rapture and the revelation happen at the same coming. Compare 1Co 15:23-24: "Christ the firstfruits, after that those who are Christ's at his coming, then cometh the end ... when he delivers up the kingdom to God, even the Father, when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign until he hath put all enemies under his feet." From where does he reign? "Now this man, after he had offered one sacrifice of sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God. From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool." (Heb 10:12-13; Ps 110:1)There is no time for a seven-year tribulation or thousand-year reign after Jesus raises the dead. That is not what the Scripture says. Many people love the millennium theory and are not impressed when shown that there is no Scripture to support it. Instead they accept the teaching of Scofield and others who contradict the Lord Jesus himself.

Thousands of devout believers have become brainwashed by the constant repetition of this teaching by evangelists, pastors and scores of books on prophecy and now base their hopes on man-made theories.

A new look at what the Scripture actually says should settle the minds of those who are confused:

He is coming again, "If l go away, I will come again." (Jn 14:5 )
It will be as unexpected as a thief in the night. (1Th 5:2. )

It will not be secret. (Mt 24:26 )

It will be as impossible to hide as lightning. (Mt 24:27 )

It will be very noisy. There will be a shout, a voice, and a trump of God. (1Th 4: 16a-c.)

"The souls ... will God bring with him." (1Th 4:14b )

"And the dead in Christ shall rise first." (1Th 4: 6 )

"Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together ... to meet the Lord in the air." (1Th 4: 17 )

Then, not seven years later, he will take the resurrected dead and the living with him.



When will this be? When are the dead raised?



"I will raise him up at the LAST DAY." Jesus repeats this in Jn 6:40,44 and 54. On the last day, at the last trump, and in the twinkling of an eye (cf. 1Co 15:52 )

"The hour is coming in which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and come forth, they that have done Good unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done Evil unto the resurrection of ****ation." (Jn 5:28-29 ) (Jesus said that the good and bad are raised at the same time.)

In his note (SRB 1967) on Mt 25:32, Scofield states, "This judgment of individual Gentiles is to be distinguished from other judgments in Scripture, such as the judgment of the Church, the judgment of lsrael, and the judgment of the wicked after the millennium. The time of this judgment is 'when the Son of man shall come in his glory,' i.e., at the Second Coming of Christ after the tribulation."

But Paul said, "He hath appointed A DAY in which he shall judge the world." (Ac 17:31 ) "We shall ALL stand before the judgment seat of Christ." (Ro 14:10b. ) "It is appointed unto man once to die, but after this the judgment." (Heb 9:27 )

Now, I ask you, if all the dead -- good and bad -- are raised for judgment on the last day, where do you find all these different judgments, a seven-year tribulation or a thousand-year reign of Christ after the judgment? There are no more days after the last day. Only judgment awaits unbelievers after that. See Mt 13:38-42, 47-49.

The day Noah entered the ark the flood came and destroyed all who were outside. (Lk 17:26 )

"The same day Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed." (Lk 17:29-30 ) The Scofield notes could cost those who believe in them their eternal souls. There is no time to get ready if you miss the "rapture." There will be no second chance. Books are being written to tell those who miss the rapture what to do. God help these writers and open their eyes to the truth.

"All that are in the graves shall hear His voice." (Jn 5:28b, 29 ) When He comes the door will be shut as Noah's Ark was shut after Noah's family was inside and the Flood came and destroyed the ungodly. The ones who are ready are taken, the others are left -- for certain destruction.

Preachers describe a secret, silent coming of Jesus as a thief in the night when millions of people will disappear and huge headlines in the papers will tell of the frantic families whose loved ones are gone without a trace. Don't you believe it! Jesus warned against believing any report that He had come secretly for His coming would be visible as lightning. Paul tells us in 1Th 4:16 that the Lord will descend with a shout, the voice of the archangel and the trump of God. A very noisy time!

Peter didn't believe in a secret rapture or a literal reign of Jesus on earth. He wrote in 2Pe 3:10, "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night [unexpectedly] in the which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat, the earth and the works therein shall be burned up." Who will be left then to publish a paper or establish a kingdom? The day after this will never come, for this is the end of life as we know it. With this word of Peter's, the whole contrived doctrine goes up in smoke.

The teaching that a terrible tribulation period is coming, after this secret catching away of the church, keeps people in great fear. If this were true that the Lord would come after a seven-year tribulation the exact time of his coming would be known. Since the two comings idea came from the Scottish girl's vision and not from the Scripture, you can throw out the whole argument as to whether Jesus' coming will be pre-, mid- or post- this seven-year tribulation between the comings. It is sheer imagination. Jesus said that in the world we would have tribulation. Around the world many are suffering now for their faith. But Jesus explicitly said that there never would be a repeat of the wrath of God poured out in the destruction that was just ahead for Jerusalem and the people of that very generation to whom he was speaking. (Mt 24:21 ) "Thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, compass thee round ... lay thee even with the ground and thy children within thee ... because thou knewest not the time of thy Visitation." (Lk 19:43-44 ) He said to the women following him as he carried the cross, "Weep not for Me; weep for yourselves and your children." "This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled." "I will send them prophets and apostles and some ye shall slay and persecute; That the blood of all the prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world may be required of THIS generation. Verily I say unto you, it shall be required of THIS generation." They had murdered the prophets God sent and then brought their rebellion to a climax in crucifying His Son. Wrath came upon them to the uttermost. (Cf Mt 21:33-45 )

He told his followers that when they saw Jerusalem surrounded with armies, the people in Judea were to flee to the mountains. (Lk 21:20-21 ) AND THE CHRISTIANS DID! They fled to Pella in the Decapolis where King Agrippa opened to them a safe asylum. This great tribulation was for a certain city, people and nation and has been fulfilled. The country was left desolate and devoid of inhabitants for over fifty years. Everything was utterly wiped out --Israel ceased being a nation. It seemed God's intention that when the siege came, the city was packed with thousands of people who had come to celebrate Passover and were destroyed with the city. The people were killed, starved, crucified or sold into slavery, and the glorious temple and all it stood for utterly destroyed. No country or people ever endured the wrath and judgment that came upon Jerusalem. No wonder Jesus wept over the city. "This generation shall not pass until all shall be fulfilled." (Mt 24:34 )

"Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken," Mt 24:29. In commenting on this verse, Philip Mauro says, "Whatever may be the force of the word translated 'immediately,' it cannot be permitted to displace the tribulation foretold by Christ as coming and which did come in that generation and to remove it away off to the end of the age ... All we assert is that regardless of the nature and severity of afflictions which are yet to come, that particular "tribulation" the Lord spoke of as the "great tribulation" and as "the days of vengeance," (Mt 21:21; Lk 21:22, Mk 13:19 ) was the execution of divine judgment upon Daniel's people and the holy city for which God used the Roman armies under Titus in A.D. 70." (Mauro, The 70 Weeks and the Great Tribulation. pg. 272. )

Since the prophecies were literally fulfilled about the destruction of Jerusalem and the following verses were not fulfilled literally as some men assume, then there must be another interpretation of the prophecies. Such Old Testament symbols as "The sun shall be darkened, the moon shall not give her light, and the stars fall from heaven" were used over and over to describe the breakdown of governments and men in authority. Remember Joseph's dream? He saw the sun, moon and stars fall down before him. This was fulfilled later when his father and his brothers bowed before him in Egypt. The destruction of Jerusalem is shown by Joel 2:30-31, by wonders in heaven, darkening the sun and the moon turning to blood. So it seems to apply here concerning the final destruction and dissolution of the nation. The stars fell representing the downfall of the leaders.

The Jews and Jesus were familiar with the symbolic language used by the prophets. The heavenly bodies typified people. "For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light, the sun shall be darkened ... the moon shall not cause her light to shine." "I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place ... in the day of his fierce anger." (lsa 13:10,13 ) "The heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth from the vine" (lsa 34:4) This was a prophecy against ldumea. Also see Joel 2:30-31; Eze 32:7-8; Amos 8:9 and lsa 41:15-16. "Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill made low and the crooked be made straight" (Isa 40:4 ) was about the coming of John the Baptist. God is said to have "come down" in judgment many times in the Old Testament. Jesus uses the same kind of language in Jn 14:18, "I will come to you," and in 2Pe 1:16. These comings were not literal. The destruction of Jerusalem was to be swift as a vulture (Roman eagle) swoops down on a rotten carcass. The city was ripe for judgment. Can Mt 24:29 be literal, "Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken," any more than lsa 40:4 was literal and the mountains and valleys moved at the coming of John the Baptist?

Jesus told Caiaphas that he would see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven. (Mt 26:64 ) He was saying in symbolic language, "You will see my power manifested." It was seen in the earthquake at Golgotha, darkness during the crucifixion, the splitting of the veil in the temple when He died, and the utter destruction of Jerusalem. The sun set on their kingdom, and it went down in blood as the old system was wiped out. The Christians who escaped from the destruction must have felt that Jesus had truly "come down" in judgment, established his New Covenant, and proved his royal reign. (Ps 18:9 ) This fulfilled the prophecy, "There be some standing here which shall see the Son of man coming in His kingdom." (Mt 16:28)

Jesus said, "This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled." (Mt 24:34 ) If they were not fulfilled for those who look for them with preconceived ideas, there must be a different interpretation of the prophecies. Jesus predicted a time would elapse before his Second Coining for the Jews would be scattered in all nations and Jerusalem would be trodden down until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. The kingdom of heaven was like a man traveling to a far country, and alter a long time the Lord would return and reckon with his servants. (Mt 25:14-30 ) "Ye know not when the Master cometh." "There will be wars and rumors of wars, but the end is not yet." (Mk 13:7 ) No special signs of warning will be given, only he will come suddenly.

Many denominations have never accepted this prophecy teaching. Their members know nothing about the "Rapture of the church," two Second Comings or "the millennium" -- this "other gospel." But the ones who do teach it are extremely vocal.

The Apostle Paul says, "Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed" (Gal 1:8-9) Then in Acts 20:27, Paul said, "I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God." Paul's teaching of the "whole counsel of God" did not include two separate comings, an earthly reign for a thousand years or a rebuilt temple with animal sacrifices. (See Heb 8, 9 and 10, especially vv. 12, 13, 14 of ch. 10 ) "But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God; from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering, he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified."

It should not take a theologian to figure out that the church has been sold "another gospel" by teachers who support doctrines that Jesus warned against. Paul's curse is upon it. If the Lord has declared the full truth and things that are to come in the Bible, then all teaching and doctrines that are different from this is heresy, every one teaching it is a false prophet -- though perhaps unknowingly. Then the postponed earthly kingdom also must be classed with false theories and speculations of men.

Many follow Scofield only because that was their early training and is the source of their financial support. They have followed in the error of the rapturists not realizing that they are in error, but longing to serve the Lord. So God brings them to a place of usefulness. He does not honor the error, but the Lord has given freedom, and they must find the truth. Those that rise up against God in the vanity of their own minds and false doctrine and exalt their imagination above the Word of God, he will laugh to scorn. Now is coming the shaking; now is coming the loosing when the bands of deception are being loosed. Many leaders are seeing it, for it is happening now. Those that are in error would like to have the place of accepted and unchallenged teachers. They shall not have it. The Sword of the Lord is in this battle for truth, and it cannot be sheathed by man.

God put the ministry gifts in the church: apostles, prophets, teachers, miracles, gifts of healing, helps, governments, and diversities of tongues. (1Co 12:28) Scofield took it upon himself to remove them, SCOFIELD note (SRB 1917,1967) on 1Co 14:1-2, "Tongues and the sign gifts are to cease." Thus he takes the spiritual equipment that the Holy Spirit provided for Christians to carry on his work and leaves them sitting at a bus stop waiting for the Lord to snatch them out of the mess the world is in by a secret rapture. They forget that Jesus is to sit at the right hand of the Father until all enemies are put under his feet.

The very truth of the Bible has been destroyed. The alarm should have been sounded in 1909 when the boundaries were broken on all sides and the church accepted unscriptural teaching as truth.

We must take back our Bibles and return to apostolic foundations.

The Word is clear and specific. To put the 70th week off to the end of time takes the heart out of the gospel and makes a mockery of the Visitation of the Messiah who wrought our salvation in that one special week. It is time for all the church to search the Scriptures deeply, do some research on church history and re-think its positions on prophecy.

A long-needed Reformation has begun.

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