Days of Vengeance - The Preterist Archive

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PUBLISHER’S PREFACE In contrast, the publication of Chilton’s two books on eschatology, along with Rushdoony’s far less exegetical book, Thy Kingdom Come (1970), in the early phases of the Christian Reconstruction movement places the foundational exegesis at the beginning, where it belongs. We now have the basic exegetical work behind us. Chilton’s first two eschatology books are seminal, not definitive. He and others will continue to build on their foundation. If they do not continue to build, then the movement is dead. Any movement that specializes in reprinting “classics” and does not produce path-breaking new material is dead. Our opponents will learn soon enough that this movement is not dead. We have just barely begun to publish. The point is, it is important to get the foundations laid early if you intend to reconstruct civilization. This is what the dispensationalists did not do, 1830-1966, perhaps because they never intended to change civilization. They intended only to escape from what they regarded as modern civilization’s more unsavory features, things such as liquor, cigarettes, movies, and social dancing. (I have often said that if antiabortionists were to spread the rumor that the local abortionist gives a glass of beer to each woman to calm her nerves after an abortion, half the fundamentalists in town would be on the picket lines in front of his office within a week.) Amillennialism Protestant amillennialists, who are primarily members of Dutch or Lutheran churches, or churches influenced by Continental European theology, have a far stronger academic tradition behind them. It stretches back to Augustine. Chilton draws from these amillennial traditions in explaining Biblical imagery. Nevertheless, Chilton has demonstrated that this imagery can be understood far better within a framework of historical Christian progress than within a framework that presumes increasing historical defeat at the hands of covenant-breakers. The fundamental message of Biblical eschatology is victory, in time and on earth (in history) – comprehensive victory, not simply a psychologically internal, “smile on our faces, joy in our hearts” sort of victory. In short, he makes effective use of their scholarly contributions, but he does not thereby become dependent on their underlying eschatological presuppositions. (Again, I have in mind a previously mentioned anonymous theologian, whose response to all this is easily predictable: lots more stony silence. Discretion is the better part of valor. He was thoroughly rebutted by another Reconstructionist on a related topic, so he is, understandably, a bit gun-shy.) The fact is, amillennialist churches are not noted for their evangelism programs. (Those that use the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church’s Evangelism Explosion materials are exceptions to this rule of thumb.) These churches are not out in the theological arena, challenging humanists or anyone else. Members see their churches as holding actions, as defensive fortresses, or as ports in the cultural storm. These churches are simply not on the offensive. They do not expect to achieve anything culturally. They also do not expect to see a wave of converts. They probably will not lose many people to Christian Reconstructionism any time soon. The slow erosion to liberalism and modernism and liberation theology will continue to plague them, as it has in the past, but there will be no major defections. There will also be no major victories. They will remain spiritual, defensive outposts in the midst of a turning point in world history. Historic Premillennialism There isn’t any historic (non-dispensational) premillennialism, institutionally speaking. Historic premillennialists are scattered in churches that are dominated either by dispensational premillennialists or amillennialists. Covenant Theological Seminary does exist, but its graduates get swallowed up ecclesiastically in churches that are eschatologically neutral officially, meaning churches run by amillennialists. Historic premillennialism has not been a separate theological force in this century. Conclusion David Chilton has provided us with a masterpiece. He has issued an epitaph: PESSIMILLENNIALISM 71 A.D. -1987 A.D. “WE PREACHED DEFEAT, AND GOT IT!” I am throwing down the gauntlet to the opponents of the Christian Reconstruction movement. I am challenging all comers, and I am doing it the smart way: “Let’s you and Chilton fight.” Furthermore, “Let’s you and Bahnsen fight.” If anyone wants to fight me, I will switch on my word processor and give him my best shot, but I am such a sweet and inoffensive fellow that I don’t expect that anyone will waste his time trying to beat me up. But someone in each of the rival pessimillennial camps had better start producing answers to what Christian Reconstructionists have already written. Specifically, someone had better be prepared to write a better commentary on Revelation than The Days of Vengeance. I am confident that nobody can. From this time on, there will be only three kinds of commentaries on the Book of Revelation: Those that try to extend Chilton’s Those that try to refute Chilton’s Those that pretend there isn’t Chilton’s Tyler, Texas December 17, 1986 14
INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION Author and Date Although the author’s identity has been much debated, there is really no reason to doubt that he was the same St. John who wrote the Fourth Gospel, as the virtually unanimous testimony of the early Church affirms. He identifies himself simply as “John” (1:1, 4,9; 21:2; 22:8), apparently assuming that he will be recognized by his first-century audience on the basis of his name alone; and he writes in an authoritative, “apostolic” style, not to individuals merely, but to the Church. Taking into account the Church’s highly organized government, which existed from its inception, it is unlikely that any but a recognized apostle could have written in this manner. 1 In addition, there are numerous points of resemblance between the Revelation and the Gospel of John. Even a cursory glance reveals several expressions (e.g. Lamb of God, Word, and witness) which are common only to the Gospel of John and the Revelation; no other New Testament writer uses these terms in the same way. 2 Austin Farrer 3 draws attention to a number of stylistic similarities between the Gospel and Revelation: Both books are arranged in series of “sevens”; 4 both are structured in terms of the Biblical/heavenly liturgy and festive calendar; and both books use numbers in a symbolic sense that transcends their literal significance (this is obvious in Revelation; cf. John 2:6, 19-20; 5:2, 5; 6:7, 9, 13; 8:57; 13:38; 19:14, 23; 21:11, 14, 15-17). There are several Biblical indications that St. John was a priest, and even came from the high priest’s family. 5 His name was probably common in that family (cf. Acts 4:6; contrast Luke 1:61). St. John himself tells us of his close relationship to the high priest: On account of this he was able, on an extremely sensitive occasion, to gain access into the high priest’s Court, using his influence with the guard to achieve entry for St. Peter as well (John 18:15-16). Moreover, numerous references in both the Gospel and Revelation reveal their author’s unusual familiarity with the details of Temple services. As Alfred Edersheim observed, “the other New Testament writers refer to them in their narratives, or else explain their types, in such language as any well-informed worshipper at Jerusalem might have employed. But John writes not like an ordinary Israelite. He has eyes and ears for details which others would have left unnoticed . . . “Indeed, the Apocalypse, as a whole, may be likened to the Temple services in its mingling of prophetic services with worship and praise. But it is specially remarkable, that the Temple-references with which the Book of Revelation abounds are generally to minutiae, which a writer who had not been as familiar with such details, as only personal contact and engagement with them could have rendered him, would scarcely have even noticed, certainly not employed as part of his imagery. They come in naturally, spontaneously, and so unexpectedly, that the reader is occasionally in danger of overlooking them altogether; and in language such as a professional man would employ, which would come to him from the previous exercise of his calling. Indeed, some of the most striking of these references could not have been understood at all without the professional treatises of the Rabbis on the Temple and its services. Only the studied minuteness of Rabbinical descriptions, derived from the tradition of eyewitnesses, does not leave the same impression as the unstudied illustrations of St. John.” 6 “It seems highly improbable that a book so full of liturgical allusions as the Book of Revelation – and these, many of them, not to great or important points, but to minutiae – could have been written by any other than a priest, and one who had at one time been in actual service in the Temple itself, and thus become so intimately conversant with its details, that they came to him naturally, as part of the imagery he employed.” 7 In this connection Edersheim brings up a point that is more important for our interpretation than the issue of Revelation’s human authorship (for ultimately [see 1:1] it is Jesus Christ’s Revelation). St. John’s intimate acquaintance with the minute details of Temple worship suggests that “the Book of Revelation and the Fourth Gospel must have been written before the Temple services had actually ceased.” 8 Although some scholars have uncritically accepted the statement of St. Irenaeus (A.D. 120-202) that the prophecy appeared “toward the end of Domitian’s reign” (i. e., around A.D. 96), 9 there is considerable room for doubt about his precise meaning (he may have meant that the Apostle John himself “was seen” by others). 10 The language of 1. Contrast this with the tone of St. Clement’s letter to the Corinthians. As J. B. Lightfoot says in his edition of The Apostolic Fathers (Vol. I, p. 352): “Authority indeed is claimed for the utterances of the letter in no faltering tone, but it is the authority of the brotherhood declaring the mind of Christ by the Spirit, not the authority of one man, whether bishop or pope.” Cited in John A. T. Robinson, Redating the New Testament (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1976), p. 328. 2. See William Hendriksen, More Than Conquerors: An Interpretation of the Book of Revelation (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1939), pp. 17ff., for a list of such similarities. For example, he cites John 7:37 and Rev. 22:17; John 10:18 and Rev. 2:27; John 20:12 and Rev. 3:4; John 1:1 and Rev. 19:13; John 1:29 and Rev. 5:6. 3. Austin Farrer, The Revelation of St. John the Divine (Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1964), pp. 41ff. 4. One minor example of this in John is 1:9-2:11, which follows a seven-day structure patterned after the creation week; see David Chilton, Paradise Restored: A Biblical Theology of Dominion (Ft. Worth, TX: Dominion Press, 1985), pp. 62f. 5. This is, to some extent, substantiated in the tradition recorded in Eusebius that as Bishop of Ephesus St. John “was a priest, and wore the sacerdotal plate”- i.e., the petalon, insignia of the high priest worn on the forehead (Ecclesiastical History, v.xxiv). It is likely, of course, that St. John and the other “ministers of the New Covenant” wore a distinctive “uniform” corresponding to their official status, and it is possible that their garments and “badge of office” were similar to those worn by the Israelite priesthood. 15
Page 1: But when you see Jerusalem surround
Page 4 and 5: Copyright @ 1987 by Dominion Press
Page 6 and 7: FOREWORD Foreword Readers of the Bo
Page 8 and 9: PUBLISHER’S PREFACE Publisher’s
Page 10 and 11: PUBLISHER’S PREFACE case for esch
Page 12 and 13: PUBLISHER’S PREFACE this book bec
Page 16 and 17: INTRODUCTION St. Irenaeus is somewh
Page 18 and 19: INTRODUCTION we must be saved” (A
Page 20 and 21: INTRODUCTION previous relationship
Page 22 and 23: INTRODUCTION You have lain down as
Page 24 and 25: INTRODUCTION are only elaborating a
Page 26 and 27: INTRODUCTION early churches had suc
Page 28 and 29: INTRODUCTION actions mean more than
Page 30 and 31: INTRODUCTION Some will complain tha
Page 32 and 33: INTRODUCTION Outline of Revelation
Page 34 and 35: 1:1-3 that must shortly take place.
Page 36 and 37: 1:4-6 accomplishment. We probably h
Page 38 and 39: 1:7-8 observe that a central aspect
Page 40 and 41: 1:9 14 And His head and His hair we
Page 42 and 43: 1:16 That all the peoples, nations,
Page 44 and 45: 1:20 things that must shortly take
Page 46 and 47: INTRODUCTION TO PART TWO Part Two H
Page 48 and 49: INTRODUCTION TO PART TWO The confli
Page 50 and 51: 2:4-6 endure evil men. . . . And yo
Page 52 and 53: 2:9-10 dead, and has come to life:
Page 54 and 55: 2:14-16 expression (none of which m
Page 56 and 57: 2:18-23 and leads my servants astra
Page 58 and 59: 2:26-29 end, to him I will give aut
Page 60 and 61: 3:4-6 church, or even against a nat
Page 62 and 63: 3:8-11 And I will clothe him with y
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3:14-16 sons disinherited and cast
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3:21-22 the elders of a church, and
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INTRODUCTION TO PART THREE The laws
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4:2-3 numerous names and descriptio
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4:5-8 superseded and transcended; t
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4:5-8 19) led Biblical writers to s
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5:1-4 family worship; it is radical
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5:5-7 St. John; and it seems as if
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5:8-10 have gained the victory for
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6:1-2 6 IN THE PATH OF THE WHITE HO
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6:3-4 forth conquering, and to conq
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6:9-10 And authority was given to h
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6:15-17 that Israel’s time has ru
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7:4-8 Though he flourishes among th
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7:4-8 they were listening to the Ap
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7:9 is presumably deliberate, for i
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7:10-14 inheriting the Kingdom (Mat
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7:15-17 They will not hunger or thi
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8:3-5 for that would be about the l
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8:6-7 rout the Midianites, in Judge
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8:12 13 And I looked, and I heard a
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9:13 The vegetation of the earth is
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9:20-21 lations advanced by some co
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9:20-21 men much more atheistical t
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10:2-4 beyond reasonable doubt that
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10:8-10 the Spirit at Pentecost was
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11:1-2 angelic priest measures the
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11:7 have the power to shut up the
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11:11-14 climax with the murder of
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11:16-18 month in the liturgical ye
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12:1-2 12 THE HOLY WAR The Book of
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12:1-2 birth to the Christ, to brin
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12:4 Daniel repeats the same idea i
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12:5-9 Chronologically, this explan
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12:12 And when we see the Lord warr
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12:17 for the action of Pharaoh, wh
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13:3-4 of the ten imperial province
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13:8-10 The Beast was given authori
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13:13-14 character and office (1 Co
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13:18 work throughout Revelation ar
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13:18 ✩ ✩✩ ✩★✩ ✩★
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14:1 14 THE KING ON MOUNT ZION St.
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14:6-7 have seen, the Church on ear
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14:9-13 understanding (Prov. 9:1-6)
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14:14-16 I may find them prompt; na
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14:19-20 And now, O inhabitants of
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their Chalices of wrath, one of the
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15:3-4 sacrifices; and the Glory of
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15:8 We should be reminded in this
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16:1-3 5 And I heard the Angel of t
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16:10-11 the heat of the sun by the
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16:15-16 established here, for the
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16:19 thereof, concerning which the
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17:1 17 THE FALSE BRIDE While some
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17:3 action throughout history in s
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17:8 Jerusalem’s whole history, i
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17:13-16 (v. 2), as the instruments
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18:1-2 priority over the kingdoms o
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18:6-8 His people to come out of Ba
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18:17-19 sanctuary two lampstands r
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18:20-21 They went down into the de
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19:1-2 19 THE FEASTS OF THE KINGDOM
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19:3-8 of vengeance, in order that
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19:10 Church admitted its members t
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19:12-15 Let the heavens be glad, a
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19:16-18 of wealth, or wasting dise
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20:1 20 THE MILLENNIUM AND THE JUDG
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20:1-3 Christ established His media
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20:1-3 The great fathers and teache
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20:4 The relationship between the p
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20:5-6 earth? The answer should be
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20:7-8 ministry; that was Satan’s
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20:9-10 St. John’s image for the
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20:12 redeemed with Thy precious bl
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21:1 21 THE NEW JERUSALEM The Bible
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21:1 Pet. 3:5-7; cf. the same analo
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21:3-5 will be established finally,
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21:9-11 The New Jerusalem (21:9-27)
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21:15-21 Covenant of Grace; the fac
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21:24-27 And deep darkness the peop
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22:3-4 Paradise is not, therefore,
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22:6-9 Final Warnings and Blessings
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22:17-21 unconquerable strength and
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CONCLUSION the pure Bride-City, is
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CONCLUSION does not exempt us from
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APPENDIX A it is reflected in “It
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APPENDIX A make him a pillar in the
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APPENDIX A and wine the night befor
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APPENDIX A Babylon, falsely priestl
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APPENDIX A B. CHRISTIAN WORSHIP 1.
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APPENDIX B been the defining mark o
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APPENDIX B The Bible teaches us tha
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APPENDIX C APPENDIX C Common Grace,
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APPENDIX C for all eternity because
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APPENDIX C better arrangement cultu
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APPENDIX C be destroyed. The two ex
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APPENDIX C universe. It is governed
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APPENDIX C completed, the world was
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APPENDIX C deceive the nations. The
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APPENDIX C creeds and theological u
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APPENDIX C coherence that at least
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APPENDIX C There is continuity in l
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Athanasius. On the Incarnation of t
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________. The Institutes of Biblica
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