THE GOSPEL OF THE
KINGDOM
With an Examination of
DISPENSATIONALISM and the
"Scofield Bible"
By Philip
Mauro
Chapter 12: The Kingdom Of God Coming With Power
Three of the Gospels record a prophecy of Christ concerning His
Kingdom, which, by His express word, was to be fulfilled in the
lifetime of some who heard it. This is Mark's record of it:
"Verily I say unto you, that there be some of them that
stand here which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the
kingdom of God come with power" (Mark 9:1).
Matthew records the same prediction, but with a slight variation of
language, the time of the predicted event being stated thus: "Till they
see the Son of Man coming in His Kingdom" (Mat. 16:28). In Luke it
reads: "Till they see the kingdom of God" (Luke 9:27).
Have we then the authentic record of any event happening within that
generation that answers to this prediction? There were two happenings
that claim attention as we seek an answer to this question. Both those
happenings were of great importance in the accomplishment of God's
revealed purposes concerning His Kingdom, and both occurred within the
time so emphatically limited by our Lord's words.
Those two events were, first the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day
of Pentecost; and second, the destruction of Jerusalem and of the
Jewish nation by the Romans in A. D. 70. Each of these events may be
regarded, and without straining at all the meaning of the words, as a
coming of the Kingdom of God. And each, moreover, may be regarded, in
the light of Scripture, as a coming of that Kingdom with attendant
circumstances that answer to the phrase "with power"; circumstances
such as were absent during Christ's earthly ministry.
For the outpouring of the Holy Spirit was unquestionably a coming of
that Kingdom which the apostle Paul afterwards defined as
"Righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost" ( Rom. 14:17 ).
We recall, moreover, in regard to the phrase "With power," that our
Lord, in speaking to His disciples concerning the then approaching
advent of the Holy Ghost, had said, "Ye shall receive power" (Acts
1:8). Power was needed and was promised for the effective preaching of
that gospel whereby those who believe it are translated into the
Kingdom of God's dear Son" (Col. 1:12,13); that gospel which is "the
power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth" (Rom. 1:16).
The appalling destruction of the Jewish nation, their beautiful city
and their magnificent temples which unprecedented catastrophe was
described anticipatively by Christ Himself (Mat. XXIV, Mark Xlll, Luke
XXI) was likewise a most evident and impressive coming of the Son of
Man "in power." It was a coming in final judgment upon that nation; and
its awful details prefigure the final judgment of the world.
Unhappily the significance of that world-shaking event is greatly
minimized in the teaching of our day. And my conviction is that, unless
one sees the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans and the events
attending and consequent upon it in their true relation to the whole
scheme of God's dealings with the human race in its two divisions of
Jews and Gentiles, he will not be able to understand the general
purport of Bible prophecy.
Of the two events referred to above as possible fulfilments of our
Lord's prophecy, one occurred within a year of the time the prophecy
was uttered, whereas the other lay much farther in the future about
forty years. Nevertheless, some who were standing there, notably the
apostle John, lived to "see" that great work of divine "power" and
judgment, which Moses had foretold (Deut. 28:49-64), and the like of
which had not been "since the beginning of the world" (Mat. 24:2I).
After much deliberation upon the matter, my conclusion is that, if
choice must be made between those two events, it is the one later in
date -- that is, the annihilation of the Jewish nation, that being the
manifest taking away from them of the Kingdom of God (according to the
word of Christ recorded in Matthew 21:43 ) -- that our Lord had in view
when He uttered the prophecy we are considering. I will indicate, in
what follows, my main reasons for so thinking.
1. The words, "There be some standing here that shall not
taste of death" indicate that He had in contemplation an event that lay
at a considerable distance in the future relatively to the ordinary
duration of human life. His reference to the death of some then
standing by would hardly be appropriate with respect to an event that
was to happen within the space of a year.
2. But a stronger reason is found in our Lord's Olivet prophecy, which
is recorded by each of the three Gospel-writers who record the prophecy
spoken at Caesarea Philippi. For in Christ's Olivet prophecy, the
desolation of Judea, the siege of Jerusalem, the demolition of the
Temple, and the world-wide dispersion of the Jewish people, were
foretold in detail. Specially is it to be observed that our Lord made
use in that prophecy of expressions that are strikingly similar to
those used in the earlier prophecy. Thus, referring in the Olivet
prophecy to the approaching desolation of Judea and Jerusalem, He said,
"Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass until all these
things be fulfilled" (Mat. 24: 34). Manifestly the words I have
italicised are the exact equivalent of "There be some standing here
which shall not taste of death till--" Moreover, in each case we have
the emphatic introductory clause, "Verily I say unto you." Furthermore,
the preceding chapter records the judgment pronounced upon the leaders
of the nation, whereof the closing words are, "Verily I say unto you,
All these things shall come upon this generation" (Mat. 23:36). And
then follows His sore lament for Jerusalem, in which occur the words,
"Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. These correspondences
afford good reason for the belief that our Lord's prophecies at
Jerusalem were amplifications of the brief prediction spoken at
Caesarea Philippi.
3. But there is yet another reason in support of the view stated above;
and this reason I regard as conclusive. In foretelling those coming
"days of vengeance," in which "all things that were written" were to
"be fulfilled" (Luke 21:22), Christ gave His disciples a sign whereby
they should know that the predicted days of vengeance were come, so
that they might save themselves by flight; the sign being the
encircling of Jerusalem with armies (v. 20). And then, in order to
impress the lesson upon their minds, He spake a parable concerning the
figtree and all the trees, and said: "So likewise ye, when ye see these
things come to pass, know ye that the Kingdom of God is nigh at hand.
Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass till all be
fulfilled" (vv. 31,32). Thus we have Christ's own statement to the
effect that the destruction of Jerusalem and the scattering of the
nation was a coming of the Kingdom of God. And this He again coupled
with the affirmation that his prediction would be fulfilled before the
passing of that generation.
In studying the three accounts of our Lord's Olivet prophecy, the
student should observe that the period designated in Luke's account
"the days of vengeance," wherein there should be "great distress in the
land, and wrath upon this people," is the same period that Mark
designates "the days of affliction, such as was not from the beginning
of the creation unto this time" (Mark 13:I9 ) and that is designated by
Matthew the "great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of
the world to this time" (Mat. 24:2I). The context of the several
passages make it certain that one and the same period of unprecedented
calamity is referred to in the three passages.
Comparison should be made also with Daniel's prophecy. "And there shall
be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation: and
at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be
found written in the book" (Dan. 12:1). The close similarity between
the language of this prophecy and that of our Lord's Olivet prophecy
gives assurance that both refer to the same event. The words of the
angel to Daniel refer expressly to the Jewish nation ("the children of
thy people"). Those who were to be delivered in that time of
unparalleled distress--those "found written in the book" --were, of
course, the disciples of Christ, who took warning by their lord's
utterance, and fled for their lives when they saw His predicted sign.
Happy for them they did not have some of our modern expounders of
prophecy to instruct them as to the meaning of this prediction.
And particularly it should be observed, as fully confirming what is
said above touching both the place, and also the time of that season of
distress and tribulation, wherein all the prophecies of "wrath upon
this people" were to be fulfilled, that the locality is expressly
limited to JUDEA (Mat. 24:16), and that the time is expressly limited
to THE GENERATION THEN LIVING (id. 34).
THE IMMENSE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM
By pondering the Scriptures cited above the reader will be enabled to
perceive the truly immense significance of the execution of God's long
deferred, though oft threatened judgments and the pouring out of His
wrath upon that nation which He had chosen for Himself, and with which
He had dealt for a millennium and a half as He had never dealt with any
other. For this was the nation He had so marvellously delivered out of
Egypt; the nation to which He had given His holy law amidst the terrors
of Sinai; the nation He had brought into the land of promise, driving
out before them nations greater and mightier than they; to which He had
sent His prophets with warning and with promises; and to which, last of
all, He sent His only Son. And if one but calls to mind the many
prophecies, beginning with Deuteronomy 28:49-68, that pointed to and
were fulfilled in that stupendous event, (the destruction of Jerusalem)
he will surely realize something of its unique place and importance in
the scheme of God's dealings with mankind.
Finally, we have our Lord's own word for it that those were to be the
days of vengeance wherein all things that were written should be
fulfilled (Luke 22); and He was then speaking of a period that was to
come within that generation; a period of great distress in the land (of
Judea) and of great wrath upon that people. Hence the words "All things
that are written" can mean nothing less than the many predictions of
the prophets of Israel concerning the judgments that would be executed
upon them if they persisted in their disobedience and apostasy.
To this also the Apostle Paul manifestly had reference when, writing to
the Thessalonians, twenty-five to thirty years later, he said of the
Jews that they "both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and
have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all
men", because of all which, "the wrath is come upon them to the
uttermost" (1 Thess. 2:16).
THE DISCIPLES' TWO QUESTIONS
In view of all the foregoing, it seems clear that the first question
asked by the disciples of their Master ("When shall these things be?"
(Mat. 24: 3) had reference to the demolition of the temple, whereof He
had just spoken (v.2); and that the other question ("And what the sign
of Thy coming and of the end of the age?") had reference (a) to His
"coming" for the destruction of the temple, and (b) to "the end of" the
then elapsing Jewish age. For that coming judgment would be "the day of
the Lord" for that people. It was an event such as the prophets of
Israel might well have described in the very strongest terms, and
portrayed by means of the most impressive prophetic symbology.
THE TIMES OF THE GENTILES AND THEIR FULNESS
The destruction of Jerusalem marks not only the ending of the Jewish
nation but also the beginning of "the times of the Gentiles." It is
appropriate therefore to refer at this point to two expressions that
are familiar to all students of prophecy: "The times of the Gentiles,"
and "The fulness of the Gentiles." The first occurs in a prophecy of
Christ concerning the city of Jerusalem. The second is found in a
prophecy of Paul concerning the Jewish people.
Our Lord, after having foretold the world-wide dispersion of the Jews,
said:
"And Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the
Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled" (Luke. 21:24).
And Paul, after having set forth under the figure of an olive tree the
method of God's salvation for both Jews and Gentiles, said:
"I would not, brethren, that ye be ignorant of this
mystery, let ye be wise in your own conceits, that blindness in part is
happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in (Rom.
11:25).
The outstanding feature of each of these prophecies is that it
describes a condition that was to last, in the plain sight of all
mankind, throughout the entire era of the Gospel. The first puts a
conspicuous and agelong mark upon the city of Jerusalem. The other puts
an equally conspicuous and permanent mark upon the scattered Jewish
people.
My purpose is, in what follows, to show how, in the interest of
dispensationalism, the significance of these exceedingly important
Scriptures has been changed and the object for which they were given
has been in a large measure frustrated. For these are prophecies of
what was to be during this present age, and they are strictly limited
thereto; whereas they are commonly treated as prophecies of what is to
take place after this present age shall have come to an end. For our
Lord's word concerning Jerusalem is generally interpreted as a
prediction that, when the times of the Gentiles are ended, then
Jerusalem will be repossessed by the Jews and will become the capital
city of a revived Jewish nation. But in fact (and it ought not be
necessary to point this out) the passage says not a word and gives not
so much as a hint concerning what will happen to Jerusalem after the
times of the Gentiles shall have come to an end.
Similarly the passage in Romans XI is often presented--not as a
prophecy that was to be fulfilled throughout this gospel-dispensation,
but -- as a prediction that, after the work of the gospel shall have
been completed, then the Jewish people are to be saved nationally and
by a special salvation of earthly character, different from
gospel-salvation. The passage, however, not only says not a word
concerning a post-gospel salvation for the Jewish nation, but on the
contrary teaches plainly that there is but one "common salvation" (Jude
3) for all men, viz. that figured by the olive tree of this passage.
A TWOFOLD WITNESS TO THE AUTHENTICITY OF BIBLE PROPHECY
Let it be noted that the fulfilment of these prophecies demanded the
continued existence of both the city and the people, though sundered
the one from the other, to the very end of the gospel era; and it
demanded also that the city should be in the hands of strangers, and
the people should be in the lands of strangers, during all that great
stretch of time. Here then is a two-fold and a conclusive test of the
Divine authorship of the prophetic Scriptures. For if, in the course of
these "times of the Gentiles," either the city or the people had passed
out of existence, or if the city had come into Jewish hands again or
the Jewish people as a whole had changed their characteristic attitude
towards Christ and His gospel, the prophecies would have been falsified
and the entire New Testament discredited. On the other hand, seeing
that none but God could have declared how it would fare with the city
and people throughout this long age, these prophecies, by their
fulfilment, furnish an unimpeachable witness to their Divine
authorship, and hence to the Divine origin of the Book whereof they are
an integral part.
A CONTINUING FULFILMENT
What gives these prophecies their surpassing value as witnesses to the
Divine authorship of the Bible is the fact that they have the
extraordinary character of demanding a continuing fulfilment.
Prophecies which foretell the happening of a specific event--as the
destruction of Jerusalem are of no value at all as evidence until the
predicted event occurs. And then the full effect is felt only by the
generation living at the time. But these prophecies are of such a
nature as to bear witness to every successive generation; and not only
so, but are such that their testimony becomes more and more impressive
as the centuries roll on.
Moreover, the fulfilment stands prominently before the eyes of the
whole world. For Jerusalem is a conspicuous city; and so likewise as to
the Jewish race, they are everywhere; and wherever they are, they are
Jews, and known as such.
Therefore, God has made it possible by means of these two prophecies
alone, even if there were no other proofs available, for all honest
inquirers at all times throughout this gospel dispensation, to have
convincing proof of the Divine inspiration of the Holy Scriptures; and
particularly of the certainty of the predictive element therein.
"THIS IS JERUSALEM"
Special heed should be given to the fact that these prophecies relate
wholly and exclusively to this present age. Our Lord, in the Olivet
prophecy which we are considering as recorded in Luke's Gospel,
foretold that there should be "wrath upon this people," that they
should "fall by the edge of the sword," and "be led away captive into
all nations"; and finally that Jerusalem should "be trodden down of the
Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." And there His
prediction ends. But in all the modern expositions I ever heard or
read, the actual prediction of our Lord is virtually ignored, and He is
made to say that when the times of the Gentiles are ended, then the
Jews will be reconstituted as a nation, and will repossess their
ancient homeland, with Jerusalem as their capital city. Thus a prophecy
that is limited to a state of things which was to prevail during this
present age, is converted into a prediction of a supposed state of
things after the age shall have ended.
What our Lord took upon Himself to foretell in this prophecy is that
the storm of judgment soon to break upon Jerusalem would not blot it
out of existence, as Sodom and Gomorrah were obliterated,
notwithstanding that her sin was likened to that of the cities of the
plain (lsa. 1:10, and see Luke 10:12). Nor was it to be entirely
abandoned and fall into ruins like Babylon and Tyre. Prophecy had
previously declared concerning those famous cities (whose greatness and
prosperity seemed to guarantee their permanence) that the former should
become "heaps of rubbish," "a dwelling place for dragons," and be "no
more inhabited forever" (Jer. 50: 39; 51:37); and that the latter
should be scraped bare and become like the top of a rock, and a place
for the spreading of nets (Ezek. 26:4,5, 21; 27:36; 28:19). And even so
it was (and is) with those once mighty and flourishing cities.
Jerusalem, on the contrary, though for its crimes it merited a severer
punishment, was decreed to remain intact, but with a mark of Divine
retribution abiding upon it (for it was to be perpetually in the hands
of aliens), and thus was to serve as a conspicuous monument to the
truth of God's word. Had the prophecies concerning the above named
cities respectively been the products of mere human foresight, based
upon the probabilities of the several cases, their terms would have
been reversed, and the longer existence predicted of the Gentile cities.
As to what will befall Jerusalem after the times of the Gentiles are
ended, I observe: (1) The Lord did not see fit to speak of that in this
prophecy. This is a noteworthy fact; for had He meant to make known
that the Jews were to regain possession of their ancient city, He would
not have left the passage as it stands in the Bible. (2) Other
Scriptures, moreover, reveal clearly that when the work of the gospel
among the nations of the world is ended, the Lord will come again; that
He will then remove His own redeemed people from this doomed earth, and
will pour out the vials of exterminating wrath upon the rest. He
Himself has pointed to the destruction of the earth in the days of
Noah, and to that of Sodom in the days of Lot, as the typical
foreshadowings of the universal judgment to come; and in so doing He
laid emphasis upon the fact that the very day that Noah entered the ark
"the flood came and destroyed them all," and "the same day that Lot
went out of Sodom, it rained tire and brimstone from heaven and
destroyed them all" (Luke 17:27,29). It is certain therefore that when
"the times of the Gentiles" are ended, there will be no Jewish people
left on earth.
THE VAIL ON THEIR HEARTS
It was the Lord's decree from of old ( lsa. 6:9-12: Mat. I3:14) that
the people of Israel, because of their gross and long continued
wickedness and rebellion, should be blinded and hardened to the Word of
the Lord. The apostle Paul refers to their spiritually blinded state in
figurative terms, saying that the vail which Moses put over his face
now lies upon their hearts (2 Cor. 3:14,15). And here (Rom. XI) he adds
nothing to this but the fact that the predicted state of "blindness in
part" was to continue "until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in"
(v. 25). And there he leaves the subject. Again, however, as in the
case already noted, modern expositors interpret the Scripture in such
manner as to change its meaning in a material respect. For my
experience has been that, when this passage is cited, it is not for the
purpose of showing that the divinely imposed blindness of the natural
Israel was to continue until the work of the gospel among the Gentiles
should be completed; but for the purpose of lending support to the
doctrine that there is to be a special salvation for the Jewish people
(a salvation earthly in kind) after the day of gospel salvation is
ended. But the apostle's next words (Rom. 11:26) are--not "and then all
Israel shall be saved" (as it should read if this new teaching were
true) but--"And so all Israel shall be saved." To this deeply
interesting passage we will return in a subsequent chapter.
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