The New Jerusalem
(Answers to Ezekiel 48:30-35)
Revelation 21:1-22:1
Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea.
Revelation 20:11-15
11 Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them.
Revelation 19:11-21
In many ways that 1st Generation of Christian Disciples served as examples for generations of Christians to follow, showing every generation "that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God," Acts 14:22. Though their generation was a fulfillment of prophecies, the lessons of it have direct application, lessons to teach, to all generations of Christians that followed, including ourselves. The Father of Jesus Christ is God of the Universe and God of the atom; of the macro & the micro. The effects of His epoch, prophecy-fulfillments can be seen in grand history and within the lives of common individuals. Here is a chart of how the prophecy+history lessons learned from the 30-70AD Tribulation can be applied your life today. "Jesus Christ: the same yesterday, today, and into the ages!" ~ Hebrews 13:8 and "God does not show favoritism, " Acts 10:34-35. What He did for that 1st Generation of Christians He is ready and willing to do for you today. And the trials they faced then can serve as a guide through the trials we face today.
More than one former "Full" Preterist has felt drawn to publically list me (at least briefly) as a "Former Preterist." That may be accurate, afterall, since I dropped the word "Preterist" a lot from my websites because of the negative associations the term has come to take on. ("ProphecyHistory.com" used to be "TulsaPreteristAssociation.com")
It is a good thing to keep our focus on the invisible Cause even as we study the visible Effects of divine acitvity within human history. And it is a good thing to emphasize that the prophetic promises delivered by historical fulfillments are still only obtained by one's faith in Christ. For example, I see resurrected-glorified Saints reigning over the affairs of men from the unseen realm in the stead of the Eph 6:12 principalities-powers since the time of Christ's circa 70AD Return. These are Saints, brothers in the faith who have gone on to the invisible glory, having been perfected through suffering, biological death, then judgment and resurrection-glorification. This is very ancient and catholic doctrine, (in the original sense), the very basis for belief in glorified saints who have been bestowed with powers and authorities over affairs of mortal men. Such has been one of the strongest, oldest, and most widely held conviction among all the doctrines of Christendom, LINK, and is confessed in the ancient creed, "We believe in the communion of the saints."
So, while I agree that God's movements in the unseen realm are to be the centerpiece of Man's attention, I also concede that God's unseen movements have very real impacts upon the seen realm. This is why observations of history do, indeed, still have some merit. Still, it takes faith to see the hand of God moving through our lives and, indeed, through the histories of the lives of men, nations & civilizations.
Even as Jesus would use parables to describe heavenly concepts with very earthly object lessons, God works through history, intervening in our physical reality, to give us confirmable evidence as to His invisible rule from the spiritual realm.
It is important not to lose our awareness of landmark, documentable, historic points of contact between God & Mankind, fulfillments of prophecy. If we forget the mooring points between the Bible and documentable reality - then all we have left is a story that makes us feel better. Whether the story is true or not, it is no longer objectively confirmable - we only have the subjective witness of an inner, personal feeling. Some may call that "faith", but faith is blessed and stimulated by the witness of reality, too, Romans 1:1-4 & Romans 1:19-20. This is also why many believed following the miracles of Jesus and His Apostles and the holy exploits Christ's servants through the centuries since. Faith is established upon all the information by which God has surrounded us.
But floating a story along by a mere inner feeling, without verifiable connections between inward beliefs and outward experiences, leaves us unprepared for the day when we don't feel so good. That's when our feel-good story loses support and comes crashing down like a popped hot-air balloon. and we cannot reason to ourselves or others why "the greatest story ever told" is any more worthy of belief than the confused stories of any of the Christless false religions.
This is why our individual daily obedience is so key to continued faith: we accumulate memories of connections between inner belief and outer experience that provide an unfailing foundation for our faith through all of life's storms.
Matthew 7:24-27
"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."
NIV
Likewise, the memory of prophecy-history connections is important. We remember that God is very much involved with Mankind, that He cares enough to intervene in our reality, that we are following something that is rooted deeply into reality and not just some cleverly designed fables. We are convinced that Jesus is the Truth: and that "truth" is just another way of saying "reality" even as "The Logos" can justifiable by translated "The Explanation (of Reality)." So, the Gospel is not just the greatest story ever told: no, the Gospel is far and away more than that. The Gospel is the single, best, most credible explanation of what's really going on that has ever been encountered, bar none. And any explanation of reality must interact credibly and frequently with reality, reality as we experience it, reality as men have recorded it diligently, painstakingly throughout the centuries.
That is why, I believe, God placed it upon my heart years ago to start drawing the connections between the Bible's prophecies and the Bible's own accounts of their historical fulfilments. Joseph's early dreams - Joseph later becoming Lord of Egypt & his brothers. The baker & wine taster's prophetic dreams - the fates of the wine taster & baker. Pharoah's prophetic dreams of good/bad cows - the historical reality of good/bad years. The prophetic promises of inheriting the Promised Land - the historic realities of Joshua's conquering & possessing the Promised Land. The prophecy that David would be king - the historic reality that David became king. The prophecies that the Jews would go into Babylon - the historic reality of the Exile. Malachi prophesying about the Elijah to come before the Lord - the historic reality of John the Baptist being that Elijah that was to come. The prophesies that the Messiah would be born Bethlehem - the historic reality that Jesus the Messiah was born in Bethlehem. Etc, etc, etc.... It seemed that God wanted me to pay careful attention to such connections as I would work my way through my One-Year Bible again and again as a prerequisite to ultimately gaining the ability to draw the connections between the New Testament's prophesies and their later, post-New Testament fulfillments. Perhaps certain blessings of understanding only come to those willing to do their homework. I hope to please the Lord with mine.
May the above be understood in a favorable light, not as an attempt to brag (about what, really?) but an attempt to explain my interest in the matter. It is my hope to show idealistic young people that their dreams of making the world a better place are not in vain, but rather, they are favored by God who is also working to make the world a better place, too. We have a brighter and brigher future ahead of us but it will take a stout optimism to overcome the giants we must face down with every generation. "The wicked flee at the sound of a leaf, but the righteous are bold as a lion." "Let us go up at once and take the land, for God has given it to us and we are well able to possess it!" Through faith in Christ born of a good understanding, we CAN conquer tomorrow for the benefit of our fellow men.
"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength and with all your mind."
Revelation 21:7
7 "He who overcomes shall inherit these things..."
NASB
1 John 5:4-5
4 For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
NIV
May God bless the readers & myself with the spirit of wisdom & revelation in the knowledge of Him through Christ Jesus our Teacher,
After the thousand years are expired, Satan is let loose again, and falls to his old trade of deceiving the nations again, ver. 8. Zohar hath this saying: "It is a tradition, that, in the day, when judgment is upon the world, and the Holy Blessed God sits upon the throne of judgment, then it is found that Satan that deceives high and low, he is found destroying the world, and taking away souls." When the Papacy began, then heathenism came over the world again, and Satan as loose and deceiving as ever: then idolatry, blindness, deluding oracularities and miracles as fresh and plenteous as before: from the rising of the gospel among the Gentiles these had been beaten down, and Satan fettered and imprisoned deeper and deeper every day: and though his agent, Rome, bestirred itself hard to hold up his kingdom, by the horrid persecutions it raised, yet still the gospel prevailed, and laid all flat. But when the Papacy came, then he was loose again; and his cheatings prevailed, and the world became again no better than heathen. And if you should take the thousand years fixedly and literally, and begin to count either from the beginning of the gospel in the preaching of John; or of Peter to Cornelius, the first inlet to the Gentiles; or of Paul and Barnabus their being sent among them,--the expiring of them will be in the very depth of Popery: especially begin them from the fall of Jerusalem, where the date of the Gentiles more peculiarly begins, and they will end upon the times of pope Hidebrand [1073AD] ; when if the devil were not let loose, when was he?
He calls the enemies of the church, especially antichrist, "Gog and Magog;' the title of the Syro-Grecian monarchy, the great persecutor. [Pliny mentions a place in Coelosyria, that retained the name Magog.] So that John, from old stories and copies of great troubles, trancribeth new, using known terms from Scripture, and from the Jews' language and notions, that he might better be understand. So that this chapter containeth a brief of all the times from the rising of the gospel among the Gentiles, to the end of the world, under these two suns,--first, the beating down of idolatry and heathenism in the earth, till the world was become Christian [70-1070AD Millennium] ; and then the Papacy arising doth heathenize it again [1073AD-->? Satan's Release]. The destruction of which is set down, ver. 9. by fire from heaven, in allusion to Sodom, or 2 Kings, i. 10. 12; and it is set close to the end of the world: the devil and the beast [imperial Rome], and the false prophet [papal Rome], are cast into the fire and brimstone, ver. 10; where John speaks so, as to show his method, which we have spoken of. "The devil was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are:"
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