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Hello all,

In continuing with the 24 reasons, today we will look at reasons 9,10,12 and 13. I am leaving out reason 11 and will deal with it alone at another time. I need to research it and really look into the historical perspectives of it. Therefore, I will give myself time to do that before adding it at the end of this study. Just wanted to alert the reader that we skip from reason 10 to 12. This is and will be the only editing I have done to this study, and it will be addressed at a later time. Thanks!!



Why the Millennial Doctrine Is Not Biblical (Part 3)

By Albert J. Kempin

Reason Number Nine

Millennialism Turns the Stream of Spiritual Development Backwards

The order of development according to the divine scheme is from the natural to the spiritual, from the earthly to the heavenly, from types and shadows to the substance. However, millennial teachers would reverse the biblical order.

They turn from the heavenly Jerusalem to earthly Jerusalem. As stated before, the whole millennial theory centers in a restoration of Jerusalem as the center of a Christocracy. Their argument rests upon a misconception of Isaiah 11:11, which reads: “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.”

The common interpretation of this verse by millennialists is that this second effort on the part of the Lord to recover His people will take place at the second coming of Christ. However, two things must be borne in mind.

First, remember that Isaiah 11 is a glowing description of the gospel dispensation made possible by the coming of the One who is described prophetically as “a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch.” The Spirit of the Lord was to rest upon him and he would “judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.” A great transformation was to be wrought in the lives of people who are symbolized by a wolf, a lamb, leopard, kid, cow, bear, lion and ox.

Through the righteousness of Christ, the fierce, the merciless, the vain, the devourer would be so changed that only love would prompt their actions and love would help otherwise incompatible people to dwell together in holy, tranquil concord.

This does not apply to some future age in which the animals themselves shall have their natures changed; it applies only to beast-like people who through salvation are made new creatures in Christ Jesus. The animals as such will always be just what God made them to be. Man is the creature for which Christ died.

The second thing to remember about Isaiah 11:11 is that the burden of the prophet in particular concerned the welfare and salvation of the Gentiles. This can be seen from the fact that the prophetic declaration takes in even the isles of the sea–not only the mainland. The Gentiles were the other portion of the human family which was to be a recipient of God’s mercy through Jesus Christ. They are described as “the remnant of his people.” That this was so can be proved by reading Acts 15:17 in which James says “that the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles.”

Those who accept the proffered salvation become, with the saved Jews, a people taken out of the world for His name. In behalf of the Gentile world, God “set” his mighty hand (Isaiah 11:11) in two mighty deliverances–the first when he commanded Noah to build the ark (which was a type of the second deliverance through Him who today is the ark of our salvation), the second when Jesus went to the cross to become sin for us. It was then that the whole world was included in God’s salvation.

If someone would like to apply this passage in Isaiah to the Jews, then a better interpretation can be found for it than the millennial interpretation. Instead of making that second deliverance still future, we can show that this deliverance has been taking place since the birth of Jesus. The first deliverance of the Jews took place when God with a strong hand led the children of Israel out of Egyptian bondage. The second deliverance of the Hebrews was included in the sacrifice of Christ. Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, pointed to it when he said, “That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life” (Luke 1:74-75).

Millennial teachers turn from the spiritual temple back to the earthly, literal temple at Jerusalem. The actual restoration of the temple in Jerusalem at some future time is included in the program of the millennial teachers. Such say that when this happens all the people will turn again to Jerusalem as in ancient days.
But the world has come up through the kindergarten state of types and shadows. God’s will is that the Christian go from glory to glory. Since Jesus came into the world, the old temple built out of wood and stone has given way to a universal temple built out of redeemed men and women. Peter said, “Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house” (1 Peter 2:5). The writer to the Hebrews describes the New Testament temple as “the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man” (Hebrews 8:2). This temple is “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone” (Ephesians 2:20).

James revealed this spiritual progression which goes from the temporal to the spiritual by summing up the council at Jerusalem as follows: “After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up” (Acts 15:16). This was all based upon the fact that the Gentiles were accepting Christ. God was building the eternal temple against which the gates of hell would not prevail. That temple would never be supplanted by another. To go back to a literal temple in an earthly city would be like turning the clock of time backward to the pre-Christian era.

Millennial teachers turn from spiritual sacrifices back to animal sacrifices. With the supposed re-establishment of the Palestinian Jerusalem and the restoration of the Jewish temple, we are told that the ancient sacrifices of animals will be resumed. Such teachers turn deliberately from the blood of Christ, which alone can cleanse from sin, and point us back to the blood of bulls and goats for the remission of sins. That is going backwards! That is truth in reverse! Is it not terrible to what extremities the world is driven to uphold its theories?

The Christian is no longer to come before God with the blood of some animal or bird; he is “to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5). The Christian is urged to “offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. But to do good, and to communicate, forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased” (Hebrews 13:15-16). And, God will not be pleased with any other kind of sacrifices.

Millennial teachers would reinstate the Aaronic priesthood. This naturally follows in the wake of their carnal teaching. If the city of Jerusalem with its temple is to be restored, then we must create a priesthood to perpetuate the duties of that temple. This is what these men and women do; they turn away from Jesus Christ as the High Priest and from the New Testament priesthood and go back to the Old Testament regime with its vested priests and carnal ordinances.

Jesus is our High Priest who abides forever. He will always be the Lamb of God, slain from before the foundation of the world. Like Melchizedek, he is a priest forever. Our Lord’s priesthood is unchangeable. Every believer in Christ is made a priest in this dispensation so that he may freely enter the presence of God to offer up his sacrifices. “Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9). Daniel said that this kingdom of priests would never be supplanted by another people: “The kingdom shall not be left to other people” (Daniel 2:44). To this agree the words of the Revelator. “Unto him that loved us…and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen” (Revelation 1:6).


Reason Number Ten

The Millennial Theory Mutilates the Word of God

Most of us have either read about or have heard some teacher who parcels out the sayings of our Lord according to his theory. For example, some millennial teachers put off the fulfillment of certain portions of the Sermon on the Mount until the millennium begins; this passage is for the “church age” and that passage is for the “kingdom age,” etc. Prophecies which, like Isaiah 11, 35, 60, 65; Ezekiel 37-40; Daniel 2, 7, 9, portray the first advent of our Lord are used to describe the second coming of Jesus.

Victory over sin and the devil is put off until the millennium and a defeatist attitude is adopted for the present. However, a careful reading of both the Old and New Testaments will show that Jesus was to usher in glorious rest and peace through the gospel. These blessings are set forth as obtainable right now.


Reason Number Twelve

It Invents a Fanciful Rapture

According to this supposed secret coming of Christ to snatch away His bride (the church), the world will be unaware of the fact that Christ has come. Teachers of the millennium give free play to their imagination when they speak of this fanciful rapture. They wax eloquent in describing how saved loved ones will suddenly be snatched away to leave business, school, social and family life paralyzed. This is all due to a misconception of Matthew 24:40-42. This passage teaches one thing, if it teaches anything—namely, that when Jesus comes there will be a final separation between the saved and the unsaved. It does not teach a secret rapture.

It is true that the world of sinners will be taken by surprise because they are in darkness. Our Lord’s coming will overtake such persons as a thief in the night. Christ will come when they least expect Him. But, Paul says the Christian will not be surprised like that: “Ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief” (1 Thessalonians 5:4). The Christian is looking for the Lord and will be ready to welcome Christ when He does come.

Paul points out the fact that at one and the same time Jesus will come “in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.” At the same time Jesus “shall come to be glorified in his saints” (2 Thessalonians 1:7-10). Let the reader notice every word of that passage.

At one and the same time our Lord will punish with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord those who know not God and have not obeyed the gospel, and he will be also glorified in his saints. That is why John said, “Behold he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him” (Revelation 1:7).

Our dear brethren who teach a secret rapture wrest 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17 to suit their position. They seek to relate this passage with Matthew 24:40-42 and say the saints will be snatched away from this earth for about seven years, while a supposed tribulation period scourges the world. Then, after that excursion into the clouds, the saints, with the Lord, will return to the earth, which supposedly has been cleansed by the tribulation fires, to reign for one thousand years.

A careful reading of the passage in Thessalonians will reveal that Paul was writing to Christians who were troubled about the future welfare of the church. The apostle is not addressing himself to the unsaved, wicked people. He says to Christians, that when the Lord returns in His second advent there will be saints living on the earth ready to meet their Lord. These living saints shall be “changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump.” Those who are alive at Christ’s second coming will not enter into the presence of the Lord before the saints who have died are raised. So, “the dead in Christ will rise first, and then we the living, who survive, will be caught up along with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air”. The King James Version adds, “And so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

Only in that sense can the word “rapture” be used. That meeting with Christ and with our loved ones will indeed be a rapturous experience.


Reason Number Thirteen

The Millennial Doctrine Breaks the Continuity of Daniel’s Seventy Weeks

This time prophecy is found in Daniel 9:24-27. Every impartial scholar construes and interprets these weeks as seventy consecutive weeks. Millennial teachers, however, in order to make room for the rapture and the supposed coming tribulation, say that the first sixty-nine weeks are consecutive, but the seventieth is detached from the sixty-ninth and held off until the millennium is set up. In other words, such teachers admit that this time prophecy takes us up to Christ’s first advent with the sixty- nine weeks, and then “the church age” intervenes, covering something like two thousand years. After that the seventieth week meets its fulfillment.

This is like telling a man who sets out on a journey of seventy miles that he will find the first sixty-nine miles consecutive miles, but after the sixty-ninth mile he will find a sign telling him that the seventieth, or last mile, is two thousand miles away. Such interpretation is ridiculous. Those seventy weeks are to be interpreted as seventy consecutive weeks which take us from the command to rebuild Jerusalem to the destruction of the Jewish State.

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I know these are some major issues that were covered here, and it is astounding to me how deep false teaching has gone into the Holy Word of God, and for how long!! Jesus's first warning about the latter times, meaning after the Cross, was not to be deceived by false teachers and not to look for Him anywhere outside of ourselves. Our all knowing Savior showing us that He knows what is happening to His people, in this world, at this time. We must worry about this much more than worrying about what is happening in the world, as this world will pass away. We must worry about our eternal salvation, and making sure that we are His, and standing in His Kingdom, when He comes.

JESUS IS ALL AND EVERYTHING!!!

Patti C.
Reasons 14-17 next time

bump for those following this study....posted yesterday....


God Bless

Steven