robert derrick
Well-Known Member
In Matthew 28:19-20 Christ instructs His disciples: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the age [Gr. or aion].”
Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
Which is after the thousand years are expired, and Gog and Magog are devoured from off the earth.
2 Peter 3 will be fulfilled at some time afterward, whether before or during or after this world flees from the face of God.
It will at least be before the new heaven and earth is created, and the old world is passed away.
Usual mantra inn scholar-speak. Nothing new here.Jesus, here, outlines the great commission and then gives His disciples a pledge that He will be with them until it is fulfilled at the end of the age. The Lord has promised that He would be faithful to His Church right up until the end. He would not leave or forsake His people. The presence and help of Christ with His people are carefully connected to the spread of the Gospel in this age. That partnership is shown to last until the end. He is here now with His people to use their weak efforts in the great commission for the extension of His kingdom. And He uses their voice and their feet for His glory.
We should carefully note that the conclusion of the evangelisation of the nations is identified with the end of this current age. This perfectly correlates with the teaching of the parables. The conclusion of the spread of the Gospel to “all nations” sees the collective judging of “all nations” immediately following. Christ gives no promise of His assistance, favour or empowerment after this, as some would try and suggest. In fact, there is no hope given to the godly after the ark door is finally closed at His return.
It is clear to see, the presence and help of Christ with His people are carefully connected to the spread of the Gospel in this age. That partnership is shown to last until the end of this age. He is here now with his people to use their puny efforts in the great commission for the extension of his kingdom. And He uses their voice and their feet for His glory.
Would Preterists really argue that our Lord was only with His people up until AD70? Such a proposition is ridiculous! Every fair-minded Bible student knows, this promise relates to Christ’s faithfulness right up until His glorious return.
Johnathan Menn explains: “The responsibility of the Great Commission - to teach a nurse lost souls – was commensurate with that era preceding “the end of the world [age]” (Matthew 28:18–20). If “the end of the world [age]” occurred in AD70 then the Lord’s commission is valid no longer. This conclusion of course, is absurd” (Biblical Eschatology).
The second coming brings a close to the day of salvation. A sign of the end is the preaching of the Gospel message in the whole world.
Jesus makes clear (and unambiguously) in Matthew 24:14: “this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end (or telos) come.”
This couldn’t be clearer! Now is man's only hope of salvation. The whole wider redemptive history of mankind is encompassed between Adam and the second coming of the second Adam. The period that we are currently in today is the day of grace (the day of salvation). Jesus is not coming again as Savior but as Judge. Premils and Preterists do not believe that “the end” refers to the end. The phrase “the end” here refers to the conclusion or the completion.
2 Peter 3:3-13 shows the following happening at “His coming” (parousia):
1. The heavens shall pass away / perish with a great noise.
2. The elements shall be ‘loosed by being set on fire’,
3. The earth shall be ‘burned up utterly / consumed wholly.
4. The works that are within the earth shall be ‘burned up utterly / consumed wholly.
No one could surely deny the climatic detail that attends the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 3:14-15 then concludes: “Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless. And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation.”
Many Bible students seem to miss the fact that there is a termination point to the offer of salvation. 2 Peter 3:3-15 confirms that that will happen on the day of Christ’s return. Men must therefore be saved before the end or they will be destroyed. This fits tidily with Christ’s likening of this impending fiery day with Noah and Lot’s judgments. Scripture limits the offer of “salvation” to this side of the second coming. Once that great merciful ingathering has been completed God will then call time on this arrangement and call time on the wicked. His plan of salvation will then over.
Phillip Mauro puts it well in his book The Hope of Israel: “Manifestly, if this present day of salvation were to be followed by a day of glory, peace and prosperity for the earth, a day in which the entire Jewish nation and other nations as well, are to be saved, there would be no long suffering and mercy in prolonging the Saviour's absence; but just the reverse. The apostle's reason for the delay is valid only if the return of the Lord is to usher in the day of judgment, and if it coincides with ‘the coming of the day of God’.”
According to the repeated teaching of the New Testament, salvation is strictly limited to this Gospel period. We must recognize (as in Noah’s day), the longsuffering of God mentioned is carefully linked to the continued salvation of souls; the termination of God’s longsuffering sees the termination of the Gospel opportunity and consequently the salvation of souls. This occurs at the moment Christ unexpectedly comes to rescue His saints and destroys this present world along with the wicked. Christ’s Advent in glory is constantly depicted as the termination point for the wicked and their evil schemes. Speaking to the wicked, we learn, it is “after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.” It is only the repentant soul that escapes the fiery destruction that falls at the end. The rest – those that possess an impenitent heart – are destroyed. This again demolishes another Premillennial theory, that of numerous and widespread salvation throughout the whole period of a supposed post-Second coming millennium.
Because there is nowhere in Rev 20 that teaches that the millennium will be a perfect pristine paradise of peace and harmony. That is an invention of your yours that you add unto the sacred text. Please show it there if I am wrong.
Some people just like hearing themselves talk, and seeing what they write. It's the habit of pseudo-scholars.
O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called:
The last great beast will be given a big mouth. He'll no doubt be a very great scholar. He'll also be fulfilling prophecy of the Symbol Man's Bible, and make fire come down from heaven.