In Him, We Wait, Work, and Watch Part 1Prophecy Chat by Sharon L. Clemens

     I close every Prophecy Chat with the words "In Him We Wait, Work, and Watch." They are promise, comfort and motivation as we wait expectantly for the Lord's return. I chose this closing because teachers of Bible prophecy are often accused of waiting around for the Lord's return and not working for the kingdom. Just recently, I heard a pastor compare those waiting for the Lord's return with the complacent unbelievers in Amos 9:10. This accusation usually comes from those who believe that the kingdom is already here, and the church has been commissioned to convert the world to Christianity so the Lord can return. Although not all critics of dispensational teachers or prophecy students hold this view, many do, in varying degrees. Some are in the category of Kingdom Now or Dominion Theology, although they may not label themselves with those terms. Many who discredit the study of prophecy also believe in Replacement Theology--that the church has replaced Israel in God's plan and everything left in scripture is all about the Church or has already been fulfilled in the past.

     In order to be ready to give a defense for the hope I have of Christ's return [1 Peter 3:15], first for His bride at the Rapture, and then at the end of the Tribulation to establish His earthly Kingdom, I try to understand the opposition I receive through the eyes of their belief system. Those who believe the Kingdom is already here, and not just in the hearts of believers as I understand it, get very upset when Christians wait eagerly for the Rapture. They think waiting for the Rapture is preventing workers from bringing more of the saved into the Kingdom. It is hard to even begin to dismantle this wrong assumption because the basis of their thinking is so skewed. But I'm going to try by going through a few points to compare Dispensationalism [in grey] with Kingdom Now [in green] To save my typing fingers, I will call the two viewpoints "D" and "KN".

      * D believes that at Christ's first coming, the Kingdom was established in the hearts of believers through the in-dwelling Holy Spirit at the point of conversion. During the Church Age, the Kingdom of God is a spiritual kingdom to which all believers in Christ Jesus automatically belong [John 3:5-8]. Therefore Christ did not assume an earthly, LITERAL throne at that time. He will do so when He returns the second time. John 18:36 -- "Jesus answered, 'My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but NOW My kingdom is not from here.'" [emphasis mine] When the Lord returns, "He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS," Revelation 19:16. Christ will return to reign for a thousand years over a literal earthly kingdom [Rev. 20:4]. To summarize: A dispensationalist does NOT believe we are "in the Kingdom now" literally. We belong to the supernatural/spiritual Kingdom of God through our spiritual re-birth at the moment of conversion, but the literal earthly Kingdom is still future.
      * KN advocates, however, believe we are "in the Kingdom now," and that this is the fullest extent to which the Kingdom will manifest itself on the earth. In general, they believe Christ will return to "receive" the Kingdom from the Church, which has succeeded in Christianizing the world. KN advocates are involved in many ecumenical programs promoting "common ground," spiritual unification, and "peace" in order to foster this belief.
      * D believe that the next global unification in God's plan is not the Kingdom of God but the final kingdom of man under Antichrist. It is the final kingdom of the Times of the Gentiles [Luke 21:24; Daniel 2]. D believes in a literal, 1,000-year Kingdom [Rev. 20:7] with Christ ruling with a rod of iron [Ps. 2; Rev. 19:15] sitting on the throne of David [Amos 9:11; Zechariah 14]. Christ will return to possess His earthly Kingdom by destroying the kingdoms of man [Daniel 2]. The Church does not make possible the Kingdom; the Father establishes the Kingdom, through the Holy Spirit, and presents it to His anointed Son, the Christ--not the Church. The final supernatural call to the Kingdom is in the Tribulation by an angel of the Lord, Revelation 14:6. Psalm 2:6, 8 -- "Yet I [the LORD] have set My King [His Anointed/Christ] on My holy hill of Zion...Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for your inheritance and the ends of the earth for Your possession." Christ will possess the earth by taking it by force at His Second Coming [Zechariah 12 and 14; Revelation 14 and 19].
      * KN believes there will be no literally manifested earthly Kingdom. They see the plan of God as extending no further into the future than the Church Age and that the Church will bring in the Kingdom so that Christ can return and "receive it" from the victorious Bride.
      * D believes that although God's plan for national Israel has been set aside for a time, Israel will be "grafted" back into His focus after the Church Age ends [Romans 11]. The Church Age will end when Christ returns to take His Bride, the Church, home at the resurrection/rapture of the Church [John 14:1-4; 1 Thess. 4:16-18; 1 Cor. 15:51-58]. Then, the Lord will continue His work through national Israel during the Tribulation and return at the end of the seven years [Matt. 24; Rev. 19]. A study of Genesis 12 and 15 reveals that the covenant God made with Abraham and his descendants is an UNCONDITIONAL covenant that cannot be broken because it is based on God's word and His good name, not on Israel's obedience. It is everlasting. Therefore, the Lord will fulfill His promises to Abraham through Israel's testing and ultimate restoration and redemption during the Tribulation [Zechariah 12:10ff, 13]. The Lord does not accomplish this to glorify Israel, but to glorify Himself by keeping His promises. The church has NOT replaced Israel; God has a plan for both the Church and for national Israel and both will be fulfilled.
      * KN believes that the commission to win the world for Christ was first given to Abraham and his people, the Jews, but they failed for the most part. At the coming of Christ and His rejection by Israel, the Great Commission fell to the Church--along with the rest of God's plan. Because the Church consists of both Jew and Gentile, they take this as the fulfillment of God's Old Testament promises to Abraham that he would be a blessing to all nations. The literal fulfillment of God's covenant promises to Abraham are then ignored or dismissed because "the Jews broke the covenant." KN believes the Church has "replaced" Israel.
      * Dispensationalism, according to Fast Facts on Bible Prophecy from A to Z, by Thomas Ice and Timothy J. Demy, is the application of basic theological tests to scriptural interpretation. The three tests are: a consistent literal interpretation; a distinction between God's plan for Israel and the church; the glory of God in a multifaceted way is the goal of history. [p. 69] Using these tests, a dispensationalist interprets the book of the Revelation and all unfulfilled prophecy in the Old and New Testaments as yet FUTURE; God's promises to both the Church and Israel will be fulfilled; all is to the glory of God, not man.
      * KN advocates rarely deal with the book of the Revelation. It is not relevant to them because they do not take it literally. A-millennialists [most main-line churches who also fall in the vague Kingdom Now camp] believe The Revelation is merely a symbolic picture of spiritual warfare--good over evil. Those who do take it literally in this camp simply replace Israel with the Church, calling the Church "spiritual Israel." Again, this is not taking it completely literally. KN's timeline ends, for all intents and purposes, at Matthew 28 with the Great Commission to the Church. They see the rest of the Bible as an expansion of the Church's mission of bringing the world into the Kingdom. In what dispensationalists see as pride, KN does not teach Bible prophecy, seeing it as "waiting around for the Lord to return and not working." They excuse these exemptions of the prophetic Word and Israel because they see themselves as doing the great work of world evangelization.
      * According to an important test of dispensationalism, dispensationalists believe that when the Bible says Israel, it is Israel; when the Bible says the Church, it is the Church. The individual plans God has for both will be completely fulfilled in God's timing.
      * Although many in the KN camp believe the Lord will return, it is AFTER the battle between good and evil is already won by the victorious Church. All Christ has to do is return and receive the Kingdom from the Church. KN advocates have been known to tell those looking eagerly for the return of the Lord that they are inhibiting the Lord's return because the Lord cannot return until the world is "Christian."

     In Part II of "Wait, Work, and Watch," we come to the BOTTOM LINE of the differences between Kingdom Now and Dispensationalism. Is the Church going to evangelize the world? Are dispensationalists JUST waiting around for the Lord to return? And, are dispensationalists opposed to global revival? The answers to all these questions are approached through the Word of God--next time.

In Him We Wait, Work, and Watch,
Sharon

[Prophecy Chat is a weekly commentary of current events in light of Bible prophecy. Sharon L. Clemens is an evangelical, premillennial, dispensational teacher of eschatology. She can be reached for comment or questions by e-mail at farmgrove@verizon.net]