Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible

Narrator: The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals presents the timeless teaching of Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse.

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: It should be understood that the position which I take is about halfway between those who do not believe that there will be any earthly kingdom at all, and those who are called dispensationalists, and who so chop up the Bible that they even have different methods of salvation for different ages. The dispensationalists fail to understand that the church is the spiritual kingdom of God. And the no-kingdom people fail to see that the spiritual kingdom and the material kingdom are different.

Narrator: Over a half a century ago, the late Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse, then pastor of 10th Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, saw the need to spread God's Word beyond the hearing of his local congregation. He started the radio ministry, which has become known as Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible. The application of God's Word as taught by Dr. Barnhouse is as relevant today as when he first taught over the radio airwaves decades ago. The message we'll be featuring on today's edition of Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible is entitled, Christ's Future Kingdom on Earth, Part Two.

Throughout church history, there has been much discussion, debate, and disagreement about the nature and character of the Millennium and the future kingdom of Christ. Premillennialism, amillennialism, and postmillennialism are the three major theological schools of thought, offering very different perspectives on this issue. Join us as we search the scriptures to see what they teach about the future literal kingdom of Jesus Christ on Earth.

The scripture text for this edition of Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible, Romans chapter 14, we're looking at verse 17. Here again is Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse with a message entitled, Christ's Future Kingdom on Earth, Part Two.

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: Through the Lord Jesus Christ, we come unto Thee, our Father and our God, and in the Holy Spirit. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in me as it is in heaven. Make us honest enough to pray it in this way. For if Thy will is done in us, then we know that we will have pardon, peace, purity, power, hope, heaven, and above all, Thyself. Speak to our hearts in this hour. We ask it in the name and for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

We come now to the Bible teaching on the reestablishment of the kingdom of God on this Earth. It should be said very simply that there are three schools of thought about this matter. First, there are those who believe that there is no other kingdom except the church, and that the church is to expand until it gains divine domination over the whole world. This theory is generally known as postmillennialism. Post means after, as in the word postmortem, and millennial comes from the Latin root meaning 1,000 years.

The idea envisions the general betterment of human conditions until all sin has been banished and righteousness is enthroned in every heart. Personally, I do not think that there is any basis whatsoever for this theory, and it has lost ground greatly during the 20th century, under the impact of two World Wars, the rise of communism, and the menace of atomic destruction. This theory also holds that Satan is now bound, and that his power has been effectively overcome.

But as some have pointed out, if Satan is bound, who carries on his affairs? For there is much satanic activity, as anyone can see. Second, there is the A-Millennial position, which holds that there is to be no earthly kingdom. When the word A or ah is put in front of a word, it's the Greek form of saying no, as in atheist, a person who does not believe that there is any God at all, and the A-Millennial or ah-Millennial means that there is to be no earthly kingdom.

That all the promises which seem to indicate an earthly rule by Christ must be applied to the church. And again, in our opinion, of course, such an attempt to apply the kingdom promises to the church results in warping the word of God and twisting the scriptures until they have no meaning.

The third position, the pre-millennial, holds that there will be a literal kingdom of Christ on Earth, and that His coming will precede that kingdom, which will be established by the force of His might. One of my dear professors at Princeton, the man under whom I first undertook the study of Hebrew, was Dr. O. T. Allis. He has written a book called Prophecy and the Church, which is almost fantastic in its misconceptions of what we, who hold the third or pre-millennial position, mean. When we speak of the coming of the Lord to establish His kingdom.

In his introduction, he states that the answer to the problem of prophecy will determine, quote, whether the church shall offer the Jew salvation within her fold, or help him to obtain the kingdom, unquote. How many times have we said that while we sympathize with God's ancient people in their struggles throughout history? The one whom they need today is not Israel's Messiah, but the sinner's Savior. However, although we offer to the entire world, regardless of race or religion, the finality of salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ.

This does not contradict the fact that all the promises which God made to Israel are to be fulfilled. It is fantastic to think that they have been transferred to the church. In one sentence, Dr. Allis is quite correct. We who look for Christ to restore Israel and establish His kingdom on Earth, absolutely refuse to see in the present and future glories of the heavenly church the realization, the antitypical fulfillment, or the earthly and national promises to Israel.

Now, with this, I thoroughly agree. I not only refuse absolutely to use scripture in this way, but I think such use does violence to God's revelation. I'm indebted to Dr. John H. Kromminga, the President of the Calvin Theological Seminary of the Christian Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, for calling my attention to the two volumes written by his father, the late Professor D. H. Kromminga.

Professor Kromminga saw very clearly that both the post-millennial and the A-Millennial people are forced to believe that Satan is now bound. He realized as two World Wars swept over our generation, that Satan is very active and that the church is not going to triumph. He therefore returned to the belief that there is to be a millennium. He did not accept, nor do I, the concepts of the dispensationalists.

Kromminga says, quote, I trust it has become clear that there is room for such a conception of the Millennium in which neither the biblical doctrine of election and reprobation, of the antithesis is abandoned, nor the equally biblical doctrine of the one covenant of grace, which spans the whole of human history, from the fall to the judgment, and in which the successive historical periods are but so many steps in which God carries out His saving purpose and maintains His covenantal relationship to our race as a whole.

He said in his book, I ask my readers to try this version of the millennial hope by applying to it the test of the Word of God, and whether it must be accepted or rejected. Let all who are Christ's make bold to proclaim to our floundering world the message that our glorified Lord is coming with the clouds of Heaven as judge and Savior. And let our hearts, singly and jointly, take courage and rejoice in that glorious prospect.

Now, I thank God that this position has been so clearly stated by an outstanding reformed theologian. I would accept his conclusions and go on to show a little more fully the nature and function of the millennial kingdom, which the Lord Jesus Christ will establish upon this Earth.

Christ, at two different times, once before the crucifixion, and once after the resurrection, announced that there would be, in addition to His spiritual kingdom, a literal kingdom. In both instances, He made this clear because there were those who thought that He was then about to establish the earthly kingdom. In Luke, we read, He proceeded to tell a parable because He was near to Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately.

He said, therefore, a nobleman went into a far country to receive a kingdom and then return. He then followed this with the account of the nobleman who gave 10 pounds to his servants, so that they might put them out at interest and render an accounting to him upon his return. Clearly, Christ was announcing that He was the nobleman, that He was putting gifts into the hands of His servants, and that He was about to depart into the far country, but that He would return with the kingdom.

Again, after the resurrection, on the road to the Mount of Olives, where He was to stand at the moment of taking His departure to Heaven, the same problem presented itself. His disciples said, Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? If ever there was a moment when Christ had the opportunity of setting the kingdom question forever, this was it. It's absolutely incomprehensible that He would have allowed His disciples to go on in utter delusion, if the kingdom of David, the literal kingdom, was to be replaced in its entirety by the church.

But far from making any such statement, He answered in such a way that He confirmed, without reservation, the fact that there was to be a future kingdom, even as they anticipated. But He said they were not to be concerned about the dates. He told them, It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has fixed by His authority.

In other words, their idea of the future literal kingdom was correct, but the timing was in the hands of God. I do not propose to spend any time on the method by which the future kingdom will be established upon this Earth, beyond saying that it shall be brought down from Heaven at the return of the Lord Jesus Christ and forced upon our unregenerate and unrepentant civilizations.

The Lord will first raise from the dead all who are His own, and take the living redeemed, transforming both groups, those believers who died and those who remain alive at His coming. It's not pertinent to our present study to go into the details of this resurrection and transformation beyond the fact that the Bible says, this is the first resurrection. That verse also says, the rest of the dead did not come to life again until the thousand years were ended. Could anything be plainer?

The advocates of a no-kingdom school of biblical interpretation are forced to ignore such passages. Nor is it necessary to go into all the details which the Bible reveals to us concerning the conversion and restoration of Israel. One passage will be enough. We treated it at some length when we were studying the 11th of Romans. And there we read, lest you be wise in your own conceits, I want you to understand this mystery, brethren.

A hardening has come upon part of Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles come in, and so all Israel will be saved, as it is written, the deliverer will come from Zion. He will banish ungodliness from Jacob, and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins. As regards the Gospel, they are enemies of God for your sake.

But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable. Most certainly, it could not be said that we Gentiles, the uncircumcised dogs, are beloved by God for the sake of our forefathers. But those who are of the blood seed of Abraham are beloved by God because of His sure and unshakable promise, which He made to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, and which He confirmed to David.

The Bible teaches us that after the removal of all true believers in Christ at the Second Coming of our Lord, He will proceed to work the great miracle of regeneration in the life of every child of Abraham then living on Earth, so that there will not be one survivor of the ancient race who will not recognize Jesus Christ as Savior and Messiah and trust in Him. So, all Israel, living on the Earth at that time, shall be saved.

It is this remnant whom God will use as the nucleus of His earthly government when He establishes His kingdom in Jerusalem over all the nations of the Earth. Perhaps the most important element of God's kingdom on Earth is that it constitutes the final test of the human race. The basic doctrine of the Bible, without which no other doctrine is comprehensible, is that original sin caused the spiritual death of the entire human race.

The Bible teaches that the human race is totally depraved. We must understand that this does not mean that there is no good in members of the human race, but rather that there is no good in any man that can satisfy God. I repeat a simple illustration that I used in earlier studies, that man's character is like a canoe.

A canoe is a fine little craft for use on a pond in June, but if a man takes the canoe to an Atlantic port and attempts to cross the ocean to Europe, his canoe will not survive the hundredth wave. The canoe is a totally depraved boat when considered as a means of crossing the ocean. So it is with human character.

With a good character, a man can peddle along in our civilization without too much difficulty. He can land a good job, join a gentleman's club, be eligible as a son-in-law, and have various other benefits that make his life successful and respected from a human point of view. But if a man attempts to cross from Earth to Heaven by means of his character, his craft will be capsized before leaving the shores of Earth.

Character can take a man to hell, but it cannot take him to Heaven. The way to Heaven is by the blood of Jesus Christ. With this, God implants the life that makes it possible for a man to live the Christian life. With the exception of those who accept God's Word, man will not face the fact that there is no good in the human race that can satisfy God.

In spite of all the lessons of human history, the majority of the humanistic thinkers still believe in the improvability and some even in the perfectibility of man. It will take the conditions of the millennial kingdom to prove beyond question the total depravity of man. And this is just the factor that the no-kingdom people have never understood.

If God should bring the world to an end now and have a final judgment, at which all men would be brought together before Him for judgment, multitudes would be able to shake their fists at Him and complain that they never had a fair chance. There would be those who would say, as Adam dared to claim at his first judgment, that it was God's own gift that caused the difficulty.

The woman Thou gavest me. And some could say, it's not our fault. It's that devil whom You let roam over the world. He is responsible. One of the basic doctrines of the Bible is that man's sin, man's sin, was not instigated by the devil. It's true that Satan tempted Eve, but nowhere does scripture say that Satan tempted Adam.

In fact, the contrary is taught. In the New Testament, in 1 Timothy 2:14, it says, Adam was formed first and then Eve, and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. From that moment, all that has been wrong with the human race has come from man. In every conceivable test, except one, man has been a failure.

It has been demonstrated that man is not able to bring righteousness upon this Earth. No man has ever been able to maintain righteousness by following his conscience, for never has any man done this completely. Man has not been able to devise a system of laws sufficient to cope with the problem of evil. Man cannot bring peace on Earth.

Man has not been able to eradicate prostitution, drunkenness, bribery, graft, corruption, war, slavery, injustice, or any other evil. Education has not been able to bring righteousness. Science has not been able to bring righteousness. Diplomacy has not been able to bring righteousness. All history points to the fact that there is no hope for man in man.

But man still has one excuse. Man can still say that it's God's fault. Man can blame Satan. But during the millennial kingdom, this excuse will be removed, for the final test will be put to man. The Bible tells us that its very beginning, God will send forth one of His powerful messengers, vested with all the authority and might of the living God, and that He will seize the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan.

And will bind him for a thousand years and throw him in the pit and shut it and seal it over him that he shall deceive the nations no more till the thousand years are ended. It must be understood that every interpretation of Bible prophecy, except that which I am presenting here, is forced to pretend that Satan is bound at present.

And that he is not exercising the power that God originally vested in him. The epistle to the Ephesians shows us how false this idea is. For there we read in Ephesians 6:12, we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

But present conditions are to be changed. Satan is to be bound. Then for 1,000 years, the human race will have its chance to show what it can do on its own. If we take all the prophecies of the Bible, we can easily see the nature of this final test. Not only will Satan be bound, but man will live on a renewed Earth under perfect conditions.

As we saw in our last study, the curse will be removed from the Earth, and the wilderness and the desert place will blossom. The animal world will be changed. There will be no more carnage. The causes of human misery will be removed. Every man will have his own private property. The climate will be changed so that there will be a constant harvest of crops.

The Earth will support a vast population. For during that thousand years, there will be practically no death. Anyone who dies at the age of a hundred, we read, shall be considered a babe. And a man will die at that young age only because of punishment for rebellion. Righteousness will be enforced. Christ will rule with a rod of iron, and will dash His enemies to pieces as a potter's vessel.

There will be no war. There will be no exploitation of man by man. The Lord Jesus Christ will reign in Jerusalem, and every eye will see Him. There will be the saved of Israel, and many others will believe in Christ. But the vast majority will seethe and writhe under His righteous reign, and will long for some power that can throw off the yoke of Christ.

Just as they said when He was here on the Earth the first time, we will not have this man to reign over us. So they will desire to see His power broken. But there will be no force that can fulfill their longing. The Gospel will still be preached, and there may well be many who will be saved by grace through faith, plus nothing else. But the great population will hate Christ and refuse His grace.

At the end of the thousand years, Satan must be loosed for a little while. For we read, when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be loosed from his prison, and will come out to deceive the nations which are at the four corners of the Earth. Just as God has mighty angels that are named Michael and Gabriel, so Satan has two that are named Gog and Magog.

These had been active before, and they now come to their last activity. They go out to gather the nations to battle against Christ. Their number is as the sand of the sea. That line might well be the epitaph of the human race. They see Christ, and they hate Him. When they are given the opportunity, they choose Satan rather than the Lord Jesus.

The final proof of total depravity is evident. God's day of patience is ended. Fire comes down out of Heaven and devours them. The devil who had deceived them is cast into the lake of fire. God has been vindicated. His promises have been fulfilled. It is the moment for the world to come to its end, and to be replaced by the new heavens and the new Earth, in which there will be only righteousness.

At that moment, the Lord Jesus will give the earthly kingdom and all earthly rule back to the Father, as we read in 1 Corinthians 15. And the universal eternal kingdom, with no evil forever, will unfold to the glory of God. The Lord willing, in our next studies, we'll come back to see how the spiritual kingdom is working on this Earth today. And our God and Father, we pray Thee to bless, to use to Thine honor and glory the word that has gone forth through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Narrator: As we live for the Lord in this present church age, we can look forward to the establishment of the glorious future literal kingdom of Jesus Christ on Earth. We hope you've benefited from today's message entitled, Christ's Future Kingdom on Earth, Part Two. To listen to additional Bible teaching by Dr. Barnhouse via the internet, visit us online at alliancenet.org. An audio copy of today's teaching is available by calling us toll-free at 1-800-488-1888. Again, request, Christ's Future Kingdom on Earth, Part Two, or simply ask for message number R14-36.

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