Last week’s post (here) contained several questions a reader asked about inmillennialism. After reading them, another brother expressed his approval. He said, “he addresses a concern in his questions that I share deeply.” This post contains my answers to these important questions.
The reader arranged his questions into four groups. I have tried to discern a theme for each.
Missions
The first group of questions concerns the Christian missionary enterprise.
Q-1. “If the parousia of Christ did not occur till AD70, then in what sense did witnessing believers who were remote from Judea, for example in Rome, experience this?”
A-1. I want to use this question to mention an important element of inmillennialism. The parousia of Christ is not an event that “occurred” at a specific time. It is the “presence” of Christ with his churches during the messianic age.
Past correspondence with this reader shows he understands this point. Other readers may not, so I wanted to emphasize it here. We have justified this definition of parousia in a previous post (here).
I made a slight modification to this question and provided an answer in our last post (here). I discussed how remote Christians experienced the events that ended the Mosaic age. Those events completed the transition to the parousia. Christians across the Empire—especially those in Rome—experienced them in dramatic ways.
Q-2. “Were they somehow immediately or soon after, made aware of it?”
A-2. The events in question occurred between AD 64–70. The apostles wrote the New Testament before or just after this period began. They, therefore, make no mention of how soon remote Christians learned of the “great tribulation” (Matt 24:21) and the Temple’s fall (Matt 24:1–3).
Paul feared the Thessalonians might prematurely think these events had happened. He said, “Now concerning the coming (Gk. parousia) of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come” (2 Thess 2:1–2, ESV; emphasis added). He thought a letter might convince them the events had transpired.
So, truthful letters could have informed distant Christians about these events after AD 70. I know of no physical record of such letters, however.
Q-3. “And what difference would such awareness make to their commitment to making Christ known?”
A-3. We earlier wrote (here) about the three-part Christian mission. First, the early church preached Christ as “a witness unto all nations” (Matt 24:14). God was about to take the kingdom from apostate Israel and give it to a “holy nation” (Matt 21:43; 1 Pet 2:9). They completed this mission in their generation (Matt 24:34).
Second, the Christians “making Christ known” brought judgment on apostate Israel. It caused them “to fill up their sins alway: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost” (1 Thess 2:16). The apostles accomplished this mission, too, in their generation (Matt 23:34–36).
Third, they began “making Christ known” to “make disciples of all the nations” (Matt 28:19, NKJV ). This mission will last throughout the messianic age.
In “making Christ known,” the disciples often spoke of the events that would end the Mosaic age and establish the parousia. They said, for example, “in a very little while, the Coming One (Gk. ho erchomai) will come and not delay” (Heb 10:37, HCSB; emphasis added). They based such statements on Jesus’s promise in the Olivet Discourse. He had said they would “see the Son of man coming (Gk. erchomai)” (Matt 24:30) in their generation (Matt 24:34). The “coming” (Gk erchomai) of Christ would establish his “presence” (Gk parousia; Matt 24:1–3).
Near the end of Jesus’s generation, scoffers mocked such preaching. They said, “Where is the promise of his presence (Gk parousia)?” (2 Pet 3:4, YLT). If Jesus failed to come in his generation, it would prove the mockers right. This failure would have falsified the “gospel of the kingdom” as preached by the pre-AD 70 disciples. So, the events that established the parousia were of critical importance to them.
Modern atheists continue to scoff.1 Jesus said his “coming” (erchomai) would confirm his “presence” (parousia) in his generation (Matt 24:1–3, 27, 34, 37, 39). Atheists deny Christ’s return within that timeframe. They say Jesus was a false prophet because his predictions did not happen. Therefore, Jesus cannot be the Messiah.
But these events occurred! They provide compelling evidence for the truth of the Christian gospel. They confirm the preaching of disciples then and now.
Q-4. “Do we have any evidence of how they changed?”
A-4. I am uncertain about this question. Is the reader asking if a change in commitment to preach the gospel happened after AD 70? I know of no evidence that provides a definitive answer.
We know radical changes occurred in the Christian ministry soon after AD 70. But, “we have no specific information in the documents of post-apostolic Christianity to tell us how and by what steps the great revolution was brought about.”2 So, the relationship between these changes and the parousia is unclear.
Lifestyle
Q-5. “How does the awareness of the parousia affect the thousands of people who had received the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost and who then immediately began a supernaturally endowed lifestyle—which was clearly the new wine and the ‘rivers of living water’ referred to in the gospels, and still is with us today—how does this fit in with your thinking?”
A-5. God used events during the “last days” (Heb 1:2) of the Mosaic age to establish the parousia (presence) of Christ. In the messianic age, the Lord dwells with his people in an unprecedented way. Pentecost was necessary to establish this new relationship (Isa 44:3; Joel 2:28–29; Zech 12:10; Acts 2:17–18). The “new wine and the ‘rivers of living water’” began to flow in the “last days” of the Mosaic age (cp. Zech 2:9–10; 13:1).
These blessings continue unabated in the parousia (presence) of Christ (cp. Rev 22:1–2).3 Christ now dwells with his churches in the messianic age through the ministry of the Holy Spirit (John 14:28; 16:7). If Pentecost had not happened, there would be no parousia (presence) of Christ. He would not dwell with his people in the kingdom of God as he now does.
Presence of Christ
Q-6. “Most believers down the centuries believed from the pre-AD70 teaching of the apostles, that they had Jesus’ presence (and not absence) both within them and when 2 or 3 gather in his name? So what further blessing took place in AD70?”
A-6. In terms of personal experience, AD 70 did not change how Christians relate to God. As I said above, they possessed the blessings of Pentecost before AD 70. During this time, Christians “tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come” (Heb 6:5). The writer of Hebrews, according to Kenneth Wuest’s translation, says this messianic age was “about to come.”4 When it did, Christ’s parousia (presence) with his people continued.
From a corporate and covenantal standpoint, we can identify “further blessing . . . in AD 70” and beyond. After AD 70, Christians possessed the kingdom. They were receiving it in the “last days” of the Mosaic age (Heb 12:28). God completed the process of taking it from the apostate Jews and giving it to them (Matt 21:43) in AD 70.
The church also possessed fulfilled prophecy after AD 70. Jesus said, “these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled” (Luke 21:22). We will not pause here to consider the full meaning of the Lord’s words. The least we can say is that significant prophecies were fulfilled in his generation (Luke 21:32). Their fulfillment was a “further blessing” to the corporate body of Christ after AD 70.
The Kingdom during the “Last Days”
Q-7. “If the Messianic Age is identified with the Kingdom of God, and if Jesus announced its arrival when he started preaching the gospel, the ‘time being fulfilled’, and if he also commanded the apostles to announce to the people in the towns that ‘the kingdom has come to you’, then how does this fit in? Paul also taught the Kingdom of God.”
A-7. Our diagram of inmillennialism shows an “overlap” of the two ages. We can say the messianic age “invaded” the “last days” of the Mosaic age. This “invasion” created a 40-year transition period.
Before Christ came, the kingdom of God was entirely future. Passages like Dan 2:44 describe it this way.
After Christ began his ministry, he and the apostles spoke of the kingdom in two ways. Jesus said, “If I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you” (Matt 12:28; emphasis added). The kingdom was a present reality in their day.
Jesus also said, “When ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand” (Luke 21:31; emphasis added). The kingdom was future in some sense. But, it was a near future. Jesus added, “Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled” (Luke 21:32; emphasis added). The kingdom would come before some of them tasted death (Matt 16:27–28).
After AD 70, it is incorrect for us to say “the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.” We are not still “receiving” the kingdom (Heb 12:28). We have received it. The kingdom is now our present possession. The transitional events required to end the Mosaic age and start the messianic age are in our past.
Our possession of the kingdom does not mean Jesus has finished his kingdom work. The kingdom will grow to fill the whole earth (e.g., Dan 2:35, 44–45; Hab 2:14). Christ will reign in this kingdom until he defeats all his enemies. The resurrection will overcome death, the final enemy (1 Cor 15:24–26). The arrival of the kingdom occurred in our past. The completion of the kingdom’s work will occur in our future.
Conclusion
I am thankful for these questions. They show the reader’s desire to know the truths of God’s word. And, they give me an opportunity to clarify my understanding of prophecy.
Please let me know if I have misunderstood the questions, or if my answers have raised others.
Footnotes
- See our post Christians Should Apologize!
- Thomas M. Lindsay, The Church and Ministry in the Early Centuries (Minneapolis, MN: James Family, 1977), 217.
- This leaves unanswered the question of miraculous gifts. God’s presence with Israel continued after the 40-year Exodus transition period. The miraculous gifts that preserved them in the wilderness did not (e.g., Josh 5:12). Our post Miraculous Gifts makes the case this was true after the AD 30–70 transition to the messianic age, too.
- Kenneth S. Wuest, Expanded Translation of the Greek New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1961), 521.
2 comments
Well done. Much appreciated.
Thank you!