For John truly baptized with water; but ye
shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. When they therefore
were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this
time restore again the kingdom to Israel? 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. (Acts 1:5-7)
MILLENNIALIST
ARGUMENT:
“Doesn’t this passage imply a future
earthly millennium?”
(I)
Prof. Herman C.
Hanko
[Source:
Covenant
Reformed Fellowship News, vol. 3, no. 16, pp. 3-4]
[This
text] really [refers] to something different (though related) …
[The]
context informs us that this is a question which the disciples asked the Lord
on the Mount of Olivet when they were there with the Lord at the time He
ascended into heaven.
It
is an interesting passage because it reveals that the disciples were still
thinking to themselves that the Lord had come to establish an earthly kingdom.
They were the millennialists of that day.
That
they had thought in terms of an earthly kingdom throughout Jesus’ earthly
ministry is clear from the gospel records. Everywhere they show evidence of
their thinking in terms of a kingdom which Jesus had come to establish in
Palestine by driving out the Romans and restoring to Israel the glories of the
kingdom of David and Solomon. And everywhere the Lord makes clear that this
conception is wrong.
In
the days of Israel’s life in Canaan, the saints very clearly understood,
beginning with Abraham, that Canaan was only a picture of heaven. It was during
the 400 years between Malachi and John the Baptist when the Maccabees ruled in
the land that the people began to think in terms of an earthly kingdom. That notion
persisted among the Jews and persists among many today.
Jesus
repeatedly made clear, as he does here in Acts 1:7-8, that they are dead wrong.
However, it was not until the Spirit was poured out that the disciples finally
understood. After Pentecost, there is never any mention again of an earthly
kingdom. The disciples now knew it was heavenly.
---------------------------------------------
(II)
More to come! (DV)
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