I’ve felt led to resume writing in more coherent ways. Starting is usually the hardest part of writing for me (finishing being a close second), so I thought I’d warm up the blog with something I already wrote to get the pistons rotating a bit.
This is a comment I made in a private forum in which someone asked how one would respond to this question:
“Why would God restore the land to Israel only to destroy the world and create and new heaven and Earth?”
My comment, lightly edited:
The basic answer? Because He promised He would.
The intervening 1000 years are quite relevant; that’s a long time. We could ask the similar question, “Why would God bring the Israelites into the Promised Land, only to kick them back out?” Time and events obviously make a difference.
I think a challenge here comes from our natural tendency to look at tribulational eschatology as a study of “The End,” when really it is just a study of “what’s next.” If we believe in a literal millennial reign of Christ, then the Tribulation is simply the next step in history, not the end of it. The disciples in the time of Jesus made the same error, believing that His coming was The End instead of merely the next step in God’s progressive plan for His people.
The church was a mystery to the Jews. It is highly likely that there are aspects of the Tribulation and the Millennial Kingdom that we have no idea about, even in time periods for which we have considerable prophetic documentation.
My personal theory is that each dispensation provides humanity a test in which we are provided a different economy under which to live. In each case God demonstrates his Grace, and people are offered an opportunity to trust Him by faith. And in each case humanity flunks the exam. A paradise in which there is only one regulation? Flunked. An anarchist-libertarian dreamworld? Flunked. A time period with some human government and an opportunity to freely choose God in ignorance of sin? Flunked. A time when God provides a comprehensive list of guidelines of life and worship, chooses a people to be his direct witness, sprinkled with direct prophetic revelation and miraculous events? Flunked. A time when all might receive salvation by faith through Christ without the deeds of the law? We’re flunking again. A time when God the Son Himself rules on Earth with a rod of iron and his saints right there to assist? The Bible tells us that will be flunked, too.
So God’s purpose, for his own glorification, hasn’t been fulfilled yet. And, by my theory (and it’s just my theory, not Bible doctrine) the Millennium has a particular purpose in God’s plan.
My .02 here only.
Notes from the North 