Why is this study important to me? I want scripture to be clear. In Sydney I want God to be most glorified in my life based upon my faithfulness to Scripture.
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The plain meaning of a text is always the preferred interpretation. There is never a reason to spiritualize, to allegorize, to try to explain a text away if the plain meaning is clear. Only if the context of a passage gives compelling reason to assume that the language is somehow symbolic or somehow spiritual should you ever look for any other than the obvious meaning. Where the plain sense of Scripture makes good sense, to seek any other sense is nonsense.
Jean Calvin himself states "The error of allegory has been the source of many evils; not only did it open the way for adulteration of the natural meaning of Scripture, but also set up boldness in allegorizing as the chief exegetical virtue.”
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Amillennialists believe there will be no future earthly kingdom, no future salvation of Israel and Christ will not physically reign on the earth. Christ will just come when it's time for him. The Church has replaced Israel for special privileges. The Church is the Kingdom that is prophesied.
Postmillennialists believe there will be some sort of kingdom on earth, not a literal 1000 years (which is not millennium which means a thousand). The kingdom will exist but Christ won't come until it's over. Christ will not physically reign on Earth.
Premillennialist: A one thousand-year reign of Christ on the earth, there will be the fulfilment of all God’s promises to Israel in the past given through the Abrahamic covenant, Davidic covenant, and new covenant. And all of God’s people, not just Israel, but all of God’s people through history, including the redeemed church and the redeemed in the time of the tribulation to come, will all enjoy the blessings of that glorious reign.
If this kingdom is described so clearly in the book of Revelation, along with the salvation of Israel necessarily since a 144,000 Jews in the future will preach the gospel, and since there will be a great awakening in the city of Jerusalem where the whole population will give glory to God as Revelation 11 describes it, if that is what Scripture says so clearly and if the promises of God are unilateral, unconditional and irrevocable, where do the different views come from?
Luke 20 is a story about Israel’s history. Israel is God’s vineyard. That is to say, God chose them to be His special people, to receive His revelation, to be stewards of the covenants and the Scriptures and all divine truth. And God put over them certain leaders, those leaders – the priests, even the kings, the elders – all of those who are responsible to bring leadership to that people with a view toward producing, or seeing produced in them, fruit unto righteousness, which then could be offered to God in an expression of worship and praise.
Some people look at Luke 20 and interpret that God will cancel his promises to Israel and give the Vineyard to others, which is the gentiles/church. This is a misreading. God said he will give his privileges to others, but who are the others? Matthew 21:43 in Jesus telling of the story, He says, “The kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation,” – or a people – “bringing forth the fruit of it.” So the vineyard is the kingdom of God. It is the sphere where God works. It is the sphere of God’s kingdom. It is the sphere in which God is working His salvation. And the first group of people who could be called God’s vineyard, or God’s kingdom, were the Jews. It was the Jews who were so privileged. Their leaders were false. Their leaders did not lead them into righteousness, they themselves were rebellious as well. So God will carve out a new people with new leaders, a new people with new leaders.
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What does scripture say?
The new leaders were being formed. The first generation of those new leaders is the apostles. They were given, as Matthew 16 says, the keys to the kingdom. They were given the gospel and the gospel truth to open the doors to salvation. The new stewards then are the apostles. The apostles are the new vinegrowers. Under their leadership the kingdom of God has moved from being predominantly Jewish to being predominantly Gentile. Acts 13:46 Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said, ‘It was necessary that the Word of God should be spoken to you first;” – because you were God’s original chosen nation – “since you repudiate it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. Clearly the Church now extends to the nations, this cannot be denied. The special privileges are no longer held by the Jews
So now we have to ask, is this permanent? Amillennialists and Postmillennialists will say yes. However scripture says no. Scripture says a transition has taken place. The leaders of Jerusalem aren't the leaders of God's vineyard no more. So is this permanent or temporary? Romans 11:25 says a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, when all who have been chosen, all who have been appointed unto eternal life. This partial hardening of Israel only happens until the Church is complete then all of Israel will be saved. In plain text, this is what scripture says. In verse 28 they are enemies for your sake. Because they rejected, the gospel came to us. But from the standpoint of God’s choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers, for the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. Paul tells us that God doesn't go back on His word "calling of God are irrevocable".
Zechariah 8:1, “Then the word of the Lord of hosts came, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, “I’m exceedingly jealous for Zion, I am jealous with great wrath for her. I’m angry jealous.” I will return to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, the mountain of the Lord of hosts will be called the Holy Mountain. Then in verse 20, “Peoples will come, nations will come, inhabitants of many cities will come.” This describes the kingdom; they’ll come from all over the world. “They’ll go to one another, saying, ‘Let us go at once to entreat the favor of the Lord, to seek the Lord of hosts; I will also go.’ So many peoples and mighty nations will come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem and entreat the favor of the Lord.” And finally in verse 23, “Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘In those days ten men from all the nations will hang on the garment of a Jew saying, “Let’s go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.”’ The text is clear, God will come back to Israel, save Israel, dwell in the presence of the people of Israel gathered in the kingdom. This is the future promise of God: unmistakable, unambiguous, and not really arguable from any text of Scripture.
Micah 4:1-2 And it will come about in the last days that the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains. It will be raised above the hills, and the people will stream into it. And many nations will come and say, ‘Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob, that He may teach us about His ways and that we may walk in His paths.’ For from Zion will go forth the law, even the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” Jerusalem again, the center of the kingdom of Christ over this whole earth, will be the source of truth; and from it will go the word of the Lord, and from it will go holiness; and He will rule with righteousness and peace over the whole earth.
The Holy Spirit is honored in the mighty work of regeneration of that final nation Israel, that final group of ethnic Jews who, according to Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 36 and 37, will be given the Holy Spirit. He is the glorious agent who empowers the final salvation of Israel and leads to the glory of the kingdom.
Is the Old Testament amillennial? No. Were the Jews who read the Torah amillennial? No. Was Jesus ammillennial? No. Where the apostles amillennial? No.
We cannot find replacement theology in the Old Testament. We cannot find Jesus or any New Testament writer preaching this either. There’s nothing that says that whatever God had once planned for Israel is permanently cancelled. Nothing says that. There’s nothing that cancels the future earthly reign of Jesus Christ in favour of some spiritual reign from heaven (which is was amillennials preach).
Amillennials believe that not all Israel is Israel. The Israel of God simply means genuine Jewish believers. And there are in the church many genuine Jewish believers. In fact, when the church began in Jerusalem and three thousand were saved. But even when the gospel was taken to the Gentile world they went, first of all, to the synagogue and preached the gospel to the Jews. So where did the amillennial and postmillennial beliefs come from? It was after the Bible was written.
In early Christian history the early church fathers preached Premillenialism. For example Papias who lived while John was still alive. Papias says there will be a millennium after the ressurection of the dead when the personal reign of Christ is established on Earth. The great historian Philip Schaff looked at Pre-nicene fathers (325AD and before) The most striking point in the eschatology of the Ante-Nicene Age is the prominent millenarianism; that is the belief of a visible reign of Christ in glory on earth with the risen saints for a thousand years before the general resurrection and the judgment. It is the widely-held opinion of distinguished teachers such as Barnabas, Papias, Justin, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Methodius, Lactantius etc. They couldn’t believe anything else because the Bible was clear: there would be a kingdom. Many Church fathers who interpreted scripture came to the same conclusion. Unless we change the meaning of Israel to mean something (which in scripture is simple and straight forward language) we cant have the Church replacing Israel. Other well respected Christians such as Justin Marture, Origen and even Augustine sought to replace Israel with the Church. This could be due to a growing resentment towards Jews since they rejected Jesus.
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Replacement theology has a damaging effect to Jewish evangelism.
If we were Amillenialists we would be in a dilemma. Why is this? Regarding the theology towards God's promises to Israel in the Old Testament Jews still hold onto the fact that God does not go back on His word. If we were to say that the Kingdom has already come through the Church. A Jew would reply "you mean to say the Messiah came and established His kingdom and this is it? This is the kingdom that God promised us? In what sense does righteousness prevail? In what sense does peace prevail in the world? Where is the son of David reigning on the throne? Where is truth and holiness? All the promises were given to us so where is the kingdom???? Jews are being killed every day, and hated, and Israel is under siege? What about God's promises? What about His covenants? Are you to say that the Old Testament isn't true? If God can't be trusted for His promises to Jews why should He be trusted regarding His promises to the Church? God does not ever go back on His word in the Old Testament. Therefore Jesus cannot be the Messiah because you claim he is God and yet he removes the Old Testament promises and covenants."
However if we were Premillenialists our argument would be much more reasonable.
They would ask, "If Jesus is your Messiah where is your Kingdom". We Premillenialists would refer to Zechariah 8. "The Kingdom is waiting for you to look at Jesus your Messiah and embrace him as your true Saviour. God has kept His Old Testament promises. Gentiles will want you to take them to the mountain of the Lord to hear the truth of Jesus. But you will never have that kingdom until you've embraced the King". This in comparison to the Amillenialists is much more reasonable.
We can even transfer them to Isaiah 53. He was wounded for your transgressions and bruised for your iniquities, and the chastisement producing your peace with God was placed on Him
