The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed by Brenda Rivera of Orlando, Florida from the tape, GC 1301-O, titled "Bible Questions and Answers Part 17." A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE. ©1978. All Rights Reserved.
Question
My question is on amillenialism and premillennialism. I have studied Dr. McGee
for so many years and I found out that I was more of a Baptist than I was a
Christian, and I am a premillennialist. But the question is, when they refer to
the Scripture, and for instance in the parables or in 2 Peter, forgetting
Revelation a lot and then referring to Israel as the Church, reading that into
it, then they go into the amillenialist. I guess maybe I just want to hear you
talk a little about it.
Answer
Well sure, basically when we talk about millennium, do you know what we’re
talking about? Millennium is a Latin word that means 1000. There’s coming in the
future, says Revelation, a millennium. There will be a 1000 year reign of Christ
on the earth, you can’t deny that, it says so in the Bible. Right? I mean it
says it, it says it will be 1000 years, Christ will reign on the earth.
Now you can fiddle around with that and say “Well, it doesn’t mean 1000.” Or you could say, when God says, "I promise that I will restore Israel," you can say “No, it doesn’t mean Israel”. And you can say, "Well, there will be an earthly kingdom," “No, you see it doesn’t mean earthly” It means heavenly, earthly means heavenly there and over here Israel means the Church and over here 1000, well that means forever. Who told them that? See, again you’re right back to what we said about eternal security. You’re not going to find the amillenial view in the Scripture--you’ve got to read it into the Scripture. Has God cast away His people whom He foreknew? Absolutely not! Well, if He hasn’t cast away His people Israel whom He foreknew then he's got to have a plan for them.
So all we say is there’s coming a 1000-year kingdom, all right. Who is that kingdom promised to? Israel, the earthly kingdom. All throughout the Old Testament, the whole last half of the book of Isaiah, the whole last half. Daniel, the kingdom, the kingdom, the kingdom! Every Jew lived in the hope of the kingdom. When the Messiah came to the earth the disciples said to Him and asked, “Will you now set up the Kingdom? Is this the time?” And they believed it was a earthly, real, literal kingdom. I mean they were not amillenialists. You won’t find any amillenialists in the New Testament. They believed in a real earthly, literal Kingdom. And when the Bible said, “In like manner as you’ve seen Him go, He’ll come” and when the angels said that He went physically and He’ll come physically, He went from the earth and He’ll come to the earth. So there is a literal Kingdom, it says it’s 1000 years long, so we believe in a 1000 year millennial Kingdom.
Now, the question is this, is that a real kingdom? The amillenialists say,
"No, it’s a spiritual kingdom." They say it’s also not for Israel-- it’s for the
church. We are the new Israel, the Israel of God, and when Israel crucified the
Messiah, God set them aside and said that’s all for you. The church is the new
Israel, we are the true Jew. You got real problems in Romans 9, 10 and 11. What
are you going to do in Romans, where it says God has not cast away Israel? What
are you going to do when it says that the branches that were cut off, and the
Gentile church branches were grafted in, but someday those original branches
will be regrafted? What are you going to do? And what are you going to do in
Romans 9, when it says that Israel is now outside and the Gentiles are being
saved to provoke Israel to jealously so that they will be redeemed so that they
can be grafted back in. No, God is a future for the Jew, why else are they
around? So that’s premillennialism. That there will be a regathering of the
nation Israel prior to a 1000 year kingdom and they will reign with Christ. That
is premillennialism, now there is postmillennialism, which says we are already
in the millennium and it’s just going to get better and better and better until
finally the Lord just automatically takes over, it’s going to be so good, He'll
step in and we’ll hardly notice a difference. Now if you believe that I got a
bridge in Brooklyn that I would like to sell you!
Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur’s Questions and
Answers" by:
Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
Box 119
Columbus, New Jersey, USA, 08022
Our websites: www.biblebb.com and www.gospelgems.com
Email: tony@biblebb.com
Online since 1986