Messianic Perspectives

Dr. Gary Hedrick: Peter prophesied that in the last days scoffers will say, "Where is the promise of Christ's coming?" Is this prophecy being fulfilled in our generation? We'll talk about it today right here on Messianic Perspectives.

Liz Aiello: Shalom and welcome to Messianic Perspectives, a daily program where we look into the Scriptures from a distinctive first-century Jewish point of view. I'm Liz Aiello. Today we're talking about the promise of His coming with our Bible teacher, Dr. Gary Hedrick. I'll be back a little later with information about a special offer, so have your pencil and paper ready. Now with today's study, here is Dr. Gary Hedrick.

Dr. Gary Hedrick: Thank you. It's good to have you with us today, listening friend, as we continue our series on the promise of His coming. On the last program, we were talking about the fact that just prior to His passion and crucifixion, when His little band of disciples thought their mission had failed, and when they, as Jews, were struggling with this idea that He would have to die, as their darkest hours approached, Jesus comforted His disciples with the assurance that His death would not be the end. Not only would He conquer death and ascend back to heaven, but someday when the time was right, He would return to this earth. He said, "If I go, I will come again." That's His promise.

Now if you knew that you had 24 hours left in this world to spend with your loved ones, what do you think you'd be talking with them about? Would it be small talk, just to make conversation? I don't think so. I think you'd spend that time sharing with each other your deepest and most intimate thoughts. You'd be sharing the things that are closest to your heart.

And with that in mind, it's interesting to take note of what Jesus and His disciples discussed during His last few hours on this earth. After His resurrection and just before His ascension back to heaven, it says here in Acts chapter one that Jesus and His disciples discussed things pertaining to the kingdom of God. Then it says they met on a mountaintop and talked about two final things. First, the coming of the Holy Spirit, and second, the establishing of the kingdom. And it says in verse six, "When they therefore were come together, they asked of him saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?"

You see, His disciples were orthodox Jews. What was always foremost in the thoughts and hopes and dreams of every orthodox Jew? The coming of the Messiah and the establishment of the messianic kingdom. And it was especially uppermost in the thoughts of every Jew during the Second Temple period because they were under the rule of Rome. Israel was no longer a sovereign state. So His talmidim, His disciples, wanted to know if He was going to rally the Jewish people, organize His forces, and throw off the yoke of Roman bondage. "Wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?"

Now I want you to pay particular attention to His answer to their question because there are a lot of people today who apparently have never read this. They ask Him if it's time for the restoration of the kingdom, and listen to His answer in verse seven. It says, "And he said unto them, it is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power," or His own authority.

So the disciples ask Jesus when He's going to restore the kingdom to Israel, and Jesus responds by saying it's not for you to know when the kingdom will be restored. God the Father has His prophetic timetable that includes long sweeping periods of time as well as epochs or specific prophetic events, and each of those prophetic events will come to pass precisely on schedule.

Now why is this so important for us to understand? Because there is a growing list of movements in our day of people who say the kingdom will not be restored to Israel. Some of these movements include replacement theology, which says that the church has replaced Israel in God's plan. Another name is Kingdom Now theology, which says the church is the kingdom of God. And then there's Dominion theology or Covenant theology, both of which say essentially the same thing.

Many of the same views are shared by adherents to reconstructionism or theonomic post-millennialism. In England, you'll hear it called Restorationism. Now these are a lot of big words to describe a whole host of movements, and each of these movements has its own spokesman and its own doctrinal peculiarities, but the one teaching they all share is the idea that God is finished with Israel. They say the establishing of Israel in 1948 had no prophetic significance and has nothing to do with the promises of God.

They say that when Israel rejected the Messiah in the first century, God responded by rejecting them, and at that point, they say, God's promises to Israel were either nullified or transferred from Israel to the church. Now why is this so important? Well, it's important for many reasons. For one thing, this idea that the church has replaced Israel in the economy of God has been the basis for many anti-Semitic episodes in church history.

You hear a lot of people say how horrible the Inquisition was and the Crusades and the expulsion in 1492 when millions of Jews were either expelled from Spain or converted at the point of a sword or killed. But what no one wants to talk about is the theology that was behind those atrocities. It was replacement theology. The idea that the church is new Israel. The idea that the church has replaced Israel in God's economy.

Historically, that has been Catholic theology. That's one reason the Vatican to this day has never officially recognized the state of Israel. Did you know that? That's one reason the Vatican to this day has never formally apologized for its anti-Semitic acts throughout history, and why the Vatican to this day has never apologized for its role in the Holocaust in Nazi Germany.

A few months ago, I was involved in a debate on premillennialism, and one of the amillennialists said, "500 years ago, no one knew what premillennialism was. The historic position of the church has not been premillennial until recently." And you know what? He was absolutely right. It has only been in the last couple of hundred years or so that the premillennial position has been recovered from apostolic times.

So I said you're right. 500 years ago, premillennialism was largely unknown. At that time, Christendom was predominantly Roman Catholic, and Catholic theology is far from premillennial. That's why 500 years ago, the Inquisitors were torturing and murdering Jewish people who refused to convert to Catholicism. That's why 500 years ago, the Jews were expelled from Spain. The reasoning was that the church has replaced Israel and the Jews are apostates who are deserving of death.

You see, that's one reason this whole issue is so important. Wrong theology sooner or later always results in wrong actions. Let me say that again. Wrong theology sooner or later always results in wrong actions. In other words, what you believe always has an impact on what you do.

But let's not single out the Catholic Church. Martin Luther, the great Protestant reformer, at first loved the Jews, but became strongly anti-Semitic in the latter part of his life. Do you know why? Because it was such a source of frustration to him that he couldn't win the Jews to Christ. So what did he do? He changed his theology and decided that God had rejected the Jews. That points out the danger of tailoring your theology to fit your experience or your emotions.

So the disciples ask Jesus, they said, "Lord, when will the kingdom again be restored to Israel?" And he said it wasn't for them to know when the kingdom will be restored. So clearly the kingdom will be restored to Israel. It's not a question of if the kingdom will be restored, but when the kingdom will be restored. And that's when the second set of messianic prophecies will be fulfilled.

You see, you've got two sets of prophecies. The first set has to do with His incarnation and humiliation as the suffering servant of Isaiah 53. The second set of prophecies has to do with His coming in power and glory as the King Messiah. That first set of prophecies was fulfilled when Jesus came the first time. The second set of prophecies will be fulfilled when He comes the second time.

That's why He said, "If I go away, I will come again." He wanted them to know that not one single prophecy will go unfulfilled. Every jot and tittle that was written by the prophets must come to pass. Have you ever noticed that when you read in the Gospels about the final days before Jesus went to the cross, you find that He spoke more about His second coming than He did about His passion and His death?

Read the 24th and 25th chapters of Matthew, shortly before His crucifixion. Look at Mark chapters 11, 12, and 13 and Luke chapter 21. These are all major discourses that He gave prior to His crucifixion. And what are they about? His death? No, they're about His second coming. The primary thing Jesus seemed to think about and talk about during those final days of His earthly life was His future return and the events surrounding His second coming.

Before His crucifixion, the promise of Jesus Christ to His disciples was, "I am coming again." After the crucifixion, His promise to His disciples was, "I am coming again." The Gospels emphasize the promise of His coming. The Epistles talk about it. Peter and Paul both stressed it. John and Jude alluded to it. The entire last book of the Bible is occupied with the coming again of the Lord Jesus and the events surrounding that glorious event.

In the very first chapter of Revelation, John declares, "Behold, he cometh with clouds and every eye shall see him." Revelation 1:7. Then as if to seal the issue so that no one has an excuse to doubt the reality of His promise to return, the Bible ends with these words. Revelation 22:20, "He which testifieth these things saith, surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so come, Lord Jesus."

The last promise in the Bible, listen, the last promise in the Bible is that He is coming again. The last word of the Lord Jesus is, "I am coming again." The last prayer in the Bible is, "Even so come, Lord Jesus." Can anyone with an open Bible doubt the reality, the literalness, and the certainty of the second coming of Jesus? Well, we're out of time. We'll continue looking at the promise of His coming on the next program. Until then, this is Gary Hedrick saying God bless you, take care, bye-bye.

Liz Aiello: Thank you, Gary, and thank you, listening friend, for tuning in today. If you liked what you heard today, you will be pleased to know we've taken all of the programs in this series and placed them on one convenient CD entitled "The Promise of His Coming," and it's yours for a gift of just $6 or more to Messianic Perspectives. Just visit our secure online store at messianicspecialties.com to place your order.

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I'm Liz Aiello. Join us next time, won't you, as Dr. Gary Hedrick continues our series of studies on the promise of His coming, right here on Messianic Perspectives. Messianic Perspectives is sponsored by CJF Ministries of San Antonio, Texas, and is made possible on this station by the free-will contributions of our listeners in this area.