“All the Books of the Prophets and the Law of Moses told what was going
to happen up to the time of John.” (Matt. 11:13, CEV)
We have spent quite a few teachings discussing the extensive sixteenth characteristic of the spirit of Zerubbabel’s working in the Body of Christ. This concerns God’s restoration process of all created things, to bring everything to a point of being unfailing (Heb. 12:26-29), or in other words: eternity. Broadly speaking this corporate mantle shakes the heavens and earth. We also looked at three theories concerning the thousand year reign of peace.
In the previous teaching we also pointed out how the Charismatic perspective argues that the thousand year reign of peace will take place at the end of the church era.
The theologian prof. Johan Malan outlines the following markers of this so-called thousand year reign of peace within the Charismatic view, on his website http://www.bibleguidance.co.za/. It is a very good summary of many leading books on the subject, for instance John F. Walvoord’s The Millennial Kingdom: A Basic Text in Premillennial Theology and J. Dwight Pentecost’s Things to Come: A Study in Biblical Eschatology:
- God will reign on earth in the Person of Jesus Christ. A theocratic world government will thus be established (Luke 1:31-33; Rev. 19:15; Isa. 11:5-16).
- The throne of Christ will be in Jerusalem (Zech. 8: 22; Isa. 2:2-3; 24:23).
- His government will be marked by righteousness (Isa. 1:26-27; Jer. 23:5-6).
- There will be peace. Nations will no longer be taught to wage war (Isa. 2:4; Mic. 5:4).
- Satan will be bound so that he cannot seduce the nations (Rev. 20:1-4).
- Saved Israel will find their joy in the Lord, and will evangelise the entire world (Isa. 12:3-6, 27:6, 40:9).
- Through their evangelisation they will bring forth fruit in the world (Isa. 27:6), and the Lord will be honoured (Isa. 28:5).
- The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea (Hab. 2:14).
- There will be no illness: “And the inhabitant will not say, ‘I am sick’” (Isa. 33:24).
- People will live to be very old. A man of a 100 will be considered a child (Isa. 65:20-23).
- Nature, which is subjected to nothingness through the fall, will partially be restored. The entire creation will wait with anticipation for the revelation of the children of God (Rom. 8:19-22; Isa. 41:18-20).
- It will be a time of economic prosperity. When it is time to plant, the previous harvest would not yet have been concluded (Isa. 55:13, Amos 9:13-14; Joel 3:18).
- There will be a completely developed, economically prosperous community serving the needs of the King’s servants (Isa. 65:21-23).
- The animal kingdom will be harmonious. The lion will lie with the lamb and eat grass, as God will make a new covenant with the animals and fish of the sea (Isa.11:6-9, 65:25; Hos. 2:17).
We are not going to deal with these assumptions one by one, but first make a few observations concerning this in the light of previous revelations:
- The observant reader will immediately notice that many of the Scriptural “proofs” that are presented above, come from the Old Testament. The entire Old Testament is mainly a record of God’s covenant relationship with Israel, and as such does not have any applicability to anyone outside of that specific covenant. Although the entire Scripture, including the Old Testament, is offered to us in the new covenant and is “profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (2 Tim. 3:16), there are particular, and clear conditions for use that need to be considered. It cannot be presented, in an ipso facto fashion, as Scriptural motivation for New Testament believers, as they are in a completely different covenant with God than anyone in the old covenant.
- 11:13 is an important key in this matter: “For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.” The CEV-translation makes it even more clear: “All the Books of the Prophets and the Law of Moses told what was going to happen up to the time of John.” This means all the Old Testament prophecies were fulfilled by the time of John the Baptist! In Acts 3:22-24 Peter explains it as follows: “For Moses truly said to the fathers, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear in all things, whatever He says to you. And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that Prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.’ Yes, and all the prophets, from Samuel and those who follow, as many as have spoken, have also foretold these days.”
- Paul makes it very clear in 1 Cor. 15:50 – “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption”. When Jesus has then made this so unequivocally clear, that “the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21), and we are still living in broken bodies – “always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus” (2 Cor. 4:10), despite the kingdom coming (Matt. 6:10). This asks a completely different view then of what (will) happen on the physical earth, and with believers who, despite brokenness, illness and death are already living the eternal life (John 17:3).
- Jesus is no longer a visible Person – he is a “life-giving spirit” (1 Cor. 15:45) that can only be worshiped and served in spirit (John 4:23-24). If every eye can see Him with His parousia (Rev. 1:7), His appearance, 1 John 3:2 spells out: “we know that when He is revealed … for we shall see Him as He is,” this is as Spirit!
- In Acts 1:6 the political expectations of the Jews in terms of Jesus are spelled out, namely whether He will again establish the kingdom of Israel as counter to Roman domination. In John 18:33 Pilate asks Him if He will take up the position as king of the Jews (which was pertinently promised to David – Jer. 33:17, and along with that: Jesus is from the direct genealogy of king David – Matt. 1:6). His answer to this is specifically very negative: “Jesus answered, ‘My Kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. If it were, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish leaders. But my Kingdom is not of this world.’” (NLT). Thus Christ will not reign in the flesh, as the Person of Jesus Christ, on earth. In Prov. 8:15-16 God’s blueprint for earthly government is presented: “By me kings reign, and rulers decree justice. By me princes rule, and nobles, all the judges of the earth.” His rule is thus explicitly carried over to the Body of Christ, as they are “kings and priests to our God and … shall reign on the earth”.
- The throne of God is in heaven (Matt. 5:34), and this is where Jesus sits next to the Father (Heb. 12:2). The Bride is after all already there in the spiritual dimension, since they have bee “raised … up together, and … sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6). The symbolic new Jerusalem, which is not a physical city, but a group of believers named the Bride (Rev. 21:9-10), descend from the spiritual realm to the physical realm (Rev. 21:2-3), with God in their midst: “Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.’” This is clearly not just one, single event, but a progressive shift from the one realm to the other, from one way of thinking to another way of thinking, from a carnal nature to a spiritual nature, from one state of existence to another. 1 Cor. 15:47-49 literally comes into being: “The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.” On the new earth “the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it” (Rev. 22:3) – this new earth will however primarily be the believer who is a new creation in Christ – “old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Cor. 5:17). The kingdom thus comes WITHIN you, says Jesus (Luke 17:21).
- The concept that Satan will be bound for a thousand years (Rev. 20:2) cannot possibly be interpreted within a physical framework of time, as, according to Heb. 2:14, Jesus already dealt with Satan at the cross. A completely new understanding of this demonic realm in the lives of believers is thus absolutely necessary.
- The lion laying with the lamb, eating grass, is clearly not a physical reality, but Biblical imagery. The verse is part of the pericope in Isa. 11, which concerns the characteristic nature of the Messiah, Jesus, and how His death, being rising from the dead, and life in the spirit thereafter will start changing the order of the world. There is no “new covenant” with the animals and fish of the sea – Albert Barnes’s Notes on the Bible makes it clear: “Together the words express, that God would withhold the power of all enemies, visible or invisible; worldly or spiritual. Each also may denote some separate form or character of the enemy.” We know that “dust shall be the serpent’s food” (Isa. 65:25) was part of the curse of the snake from the beginning, in Gen. 3:14.
There is so much mythologising and traditions of this thousand year reign of peace. In the following teaching we will look at the Biblical interpretation of this completely misunderstood concept.
- Selah: Realise the importance of reading and interpreting the Bible in context.
- Read: 1 Sam. 21-29.
- Memorise: 1 Sam. 24:10.
