Joshua and Judges: A recall to the Abrahamic Covenant - The errors of Amillennialism and Covenant Theology. Jos 5:1-3.

Title: Joshua and Judges: A recall to the Abrahamic Covenant - The errors of Amillennialism and Covenant Theology. JOS 5:1-3.   

 

Announcements / opening prayer:

 

 

JOS 5:1 Now it came about when all the kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan to the west, and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea, heard how the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan before the sons of Israel until they had crossed, that their hearts melted, and there was no spirit in them any longer [frozen with fear], because of the sons of Israel.

 

JOS 5:2 At that time the Lord said to Joshua, "Make for yourself flint knives and circumcise again the sons of Israel the second time."

 

JOS 5:3 So Joshua made himself flint knives and circumcised the sons of Israel at Gibeath-haaraloth.

 

LS Chafer, Systematic Theology, vol. 4, p. 310:

 

"Inability on the part of believers to comprehend the prophetic Scriptures may be traced almost without exception to some misunderstanding of an essential truth or to the failure to realize its practical force and value. In this respect, the majority who are unable to follow the great divine predictions are hindered primarily by their negligence in giving to the nation Israel the place and importance which God in His sovereignty has assigned to that nation. This dereliction is the cause of most of the confusion of mind relative to prophetic themes. The sovereign election of the one nation, Israel--sometimes styled “his elect” (cf. MAT 24:22, 24, 3 I)--is a revealed fact which the Gentile nations seem unable to realize. It is, however, the attitude of Gentile nations toward God’s elect nation which forms the basis on which the destiny of nations is determined (MAT 25:31-46) [GEN 12:1-3; mine]."

 

He continues to write:

"When it is once comprehended that God has an elect nation to whom He has made irrevocable covenants, which covenants are eternal in character, there will be a readiness of mind to follow the divine plan for this people through time and into eternity."

 

Amillennialism: Its most general character is that of denial of a literal reign of Christ upon the earth. Satan is conceived as bound at the first coming of Christ. The present age between the first and second comings is the fulfillment of the millennium.

 

Since the church will continue until the second coming, which to them is the end of the whole program, then the promises made to Abraham, his people, the nation Israel must all be fulfilled in the church. The Covenant believer, who is mostly an amillennialist sees only the offer of salvation through all the ages and delves no deeper into God's program for the Jew, Israel, the Gentile of the OT, and the church. Because his theology rests on one universal covenant, to which all others are subordinate, the institutional church started with Abraham and all that was promised to him is now being fulfilled in the church spiritually.

 

Its adherents are divided on whether the millennium is being fulfilled now on earth (Augustine) or whether it is being fulfilled by the saints in heaven (Kliefoth).

 

Augustine conceived the millennium to be the age between the first and second Advent of Christ and he thought it was a literal thousand years, though he seems to have not pressed that point too hard. His book City of God greatly influenced Christianity towards amillennialism, as well as other errors. After 1000 AD it could no longer be considered that the millennium, being the time between the first and second coming of Christ would be a literal thousand years so it was decided that it was an undetermined amount of time. In order to believe this you have to interpret Rev 20 in a completely non-literal way. 

 

It may be summed up in the idea that there will be no more millennium than there is now, and that the eternal state immediately follows the second  coming of Christ. [J. Walvoord, The Millennial Kingdom]

 

They do not deny a millennium, but they believe that the millennium exists now in this age, and so they deny a literal 1,000 year reign of Christ after His second coming. We are premillennialists, meaning we believe that Christ's second coming will occur before, or pre, His literal reign on the earth.

 

It should be noted that within the premillennialist camp there are some varying interpretations. Though in the minority many of them believe that Rev 6-19 to be fulfilled in human history, and so they deny the literal Tribulational period. Our belief, which is strictly dispensational, is the most popular in the twentieth century.

 

The camp of Amillennialists differ among themselves as to where this Millennium now is. Some believe it is now, on earth, in the church. Others believe it is in heaven. Each group applies Rev 20 to their respective beliefs.

 

REV 20:1 And I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand.

 

REV 20:2 And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years,

 

REV 20:3 and threw him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he should not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be released for a short time.

 

REV 20:4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of the testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark upon their forehead and upon their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

 

REV 20:5 The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection.

 

REV 20:6 Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years.

 

The Amillennialist interprets the first resurrection as the salvation or regeneration of believer and the second as the general physical resurrection of all.

 

REV 20:7 And when the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison,

 

REV 20:8 and will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war; the number of them is like the sand of the seashore.

 

REV 20:9 And they came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and fire came down from heaven and devoured them.

 

REV 20:10 And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

 

Amillennialist Buis: No other passage of scripture mentions such a thousand-year period. Obscure passages are to be interpreted in the light of less obscure passages. The entire book is one filled with symbolism; therefore any doctrine based on insisting upon a literal thousand-year period is building on a weak foundation.

 

Yet, "a thousand years" is mentioned six times in this passage, which is sufficient to establish the doctrine of a literal thousand year reign of Christ as scriptural.

 

The typical Roman Catholic interpretation of the Millennium is that it is the present age, in agreement with Augustine:

 

From the Catholic Encyclopedia:

 

The evangelical accounts clearly prove how fervently the Jews at the time of Christ expected an earthly Messianic kingdom, but the Saviour came to proclaim the spiritual kingdom of God for the deliverance of man from his sins and for his sanctification, a kingdom which actually began with His birth. There is no trace of chiliasm [belief in the literal thousand year reign] to be found in the Gospels or in the Epistles of St. Paul; everything moves in the spiritual and religious sphere; even the descriptions of the end of the world and of the last judgment bear this stamp. The victory over the symbolical beast (the enemy of God and of the saints) and over Antichrist, as well as the triumph of Christ and His saints, are described in the Apocalypse of St. John (Revelation 20-21), in pictures that resemble those of the Jewish apocalyptic writers, especially of Daniel and Henoch. Satan is chained in the abyss for a thousand years, the martyrs and the just rise from the dead and share in the priesthood and kingship of Christ. Though it is difficult to focus sharply the pictures used in the Apocalypse and the things expressed by them, yet there can be no doubt that the whole description refers to the spiritual combat between Christ and the Church on the one hand and the malignant powers of hell and the world on the other. Nevertheless, a large number of Christians of the post-Apostolic era, particularly in Asia Minor, yielded so far to Jewish apocalyptic as to put a literal meaning into these descriptions of St. John's Apocalypse; the result was that millenarianism spread and gained staunch advocates not only among the heretics but among the Catholic Christians as well.

 

In this article they hail Augustine as the great Doctor and acknowledge that Augustine believed in a literal thousand year Millennium at one time and that he lived in that time, the early fifth century. However, after the year 1000 AD, no one could hold to this view and so they state that the Millennium relates to the saints that are in heaven. Their Millennium accordingly runs from the death of Christ to His second coming.

 

The binding of Satan is considered to be partial, consisting in Christ's triumph over him, first in His temptations and later in every triumph which stems from Christ.

 

The first resurrection occurs when the Christian's soul is taken from earth to heaven at his death. The second resurrection relates to the resurrection of all men.

 

The amillennialist view is optimistic in viewing the church as moving triumphantly to victory although they concede that the world is getting worse.

 

They view the Beast as the Roman Empire and see the triumph of Christianity at the time of Constantine when Christianity became the official religion of the Empire. The overthrow of the Beast and False Prophet they see as the final breakup of the Roman world power and its ally, the pagan system of priestcraft and superstition.

 

And, again, it must be noted that these are general phrases of the most popular amillennialist theologians and that there are many varieties, but their common thread would be that there is no literal thousand year earthly reign of Christ and that the millennium is occurring in the present age. 

 

The postmillennialist regards the thousand year reign as being completed prior to the second  coming of Christ. It is similar to AM in certain respects, but views a literal Millennium as the final triumph of the gospel.

 

Most of them consider it to be still yet future and that a Millennium will be brought to this world by the success of the gospel and that this will last for one thousand years. After that is completed, then Christ will return.

 

This view was popular until the two world wars, which made them people not so optimistic. In our age, Amillennialism is the more popular view outside of premillennialism.

 

With the great variety of interpretations of Rev 20 with their corresponding influence on eschatology, the task of giving an exposition on this chapter is greatly complicated. The confusion, however, is dispelled if the events of this chapter are allowed to follow in their natural chronological sequence, with the return of Christ and the conquest of the beast and the false prophet serving as an introduction to the Millennium. Each event clearly depends on the completion of the one before it, which gives strong evidence for a chronological order.

 

The book of Revelation as a whole is not strictly chronological, as some chapters are parenthetical or summary in character, but chapters 19 and 20 constitute a unit and form one continued prophetic strain. It is folly to attempt to fit chapters 6-19 into the events of history, as has been seen in the many who have tried.

 

REV 20:1 And I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand.

 

REV 20:2 And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years,

 

REV 20:3 and threw him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he should not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be released for a short time.

 

The angel binds Satan and shuts him in the abyss for a thousand years. The language shows that Satan is rendered completely inactive. The Amillennialist has to concede that Satan is bound in such a way in this age, however uniform revelation in the New Testament shows this to be untrue and that Satan is a very active fallen angel, Eph 6 for example, and in fact it would seem that he is even more active now than he was before the church. Does he now prowl around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour? He is a deceiver, portraying himself as an angel of light (2Cor 11), and it would seem that deception in the world has only been on the increase throughout the history of the church. When he is bound by the angel, he can deceive the nations no more, until he is released at the end of the thousand years. This is literal and not symbolic, even though there is much in the book of Revelation that is symbolic.

 

God states what John could not see (chain, key, abyss …) in a vision; the time and the reason for incarcerating Satan.

 

The chain, the key, the sealing of the door could all be seen in the vision, but the reason and the time could not be seen, but would have to be told. In this God leaves no room for any other interpretation. Expositors are not free to inject their own preconceived ideas but must accept the plain statements and interpretations of the passage as given.

 

This will constitute one of the major features of Christ's righteous rule upon earth and in fact will make possible the peace and tranquility and absence of spiritual warfare predicted for the millennial kingdom. This is the earthly fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant.

 

The fact is that there will only be one period of time when Satan will not be allowed to deceive the earth, and that is the thousand year reign of Christ.

 

Through the ritual of circumcision, God is turning the hearts of the people of Israel to this unconditional promise to Abraham.

 

JER 23:5-6

"Behold, the days are coming," declares the Lord,

"When I shall raise up for David a righteous Branch;

And He will reign as king and act wisely

And do justice and righteousness in the land.

"In His days Judah will be saved,

And Israel will dwell securely;

And this is His name by which He will be called,

'The Lord our righteousness.'

 

This passage introduces, for the first time in scripture, the exact length of the mediatorial kingdom of Christ, and it is repeated six times.

 

Next, we have judgment and the resurrection of the tribulational saints.

 

REV 20:4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of the testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark upon their forehead and upon their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

 

The interpretation is complicated by the vagueness of who it is that sits on the thrones.

 

The most probably interpretation is that "they" refer to the twenty four elders who are said to reign on the earth in REV 5:10.

 

What specific judgment they give is not stated.

 

The context obviously marks these who are raised as tribulational saints and that their resurrection is bodily. The Amillennialist states that this resurrection is spiritual or of regeneration, but this cannot be true if they reign with Christ for a thousand years after having their heads cut off.

 

JOH 5:28-29

"Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.