Days of Vengeance - The Preterist Archive

CONCLUSION
New Jerusalem, the City of God (p. 63), and so now the
world is organized around the Church (p. 168). We
cannot have God for our Father if we do not have His
Church for our Mother (p. 188). The sanctification of
God’s people is carried on by means of the Church,
through her ministry and sacraments (pp. 123).
The Church ascended to heaven with Christ (p. 120),
and now “tabernacles” in heaven (pp. 132, 137), with
the saints and angels (pp. 147-148). A saint is one who
has sanctuary privileges; all Christians through the
Ascension have access to the sanctuary (p. 123).
Christians and angels are now on an equal level as
members of the heavenly Council (pp. 190-191): All
Christians are prophets, seeing God face-to-face (p.
156).
The Church is the definitive re-creation of the world,
the New Covenant (p. 133); she is the City on the Hill,
the Light of the world (p. 222). Salvation will flow out
from her gates to convert the world (p. 223). All
nations will stream into her with the fruits of their
culture (p. 222); indeed, rulers have the duty to support
the Church (p. 222). When states forsake their
responsibility and seek to destroy the Church instead,
such persecution is never merely “political”; it is always
religious (pp. 118-119). Satan’s persecution of the
Church is not a sign of his power; rather, he attacks the
Church precisely because Jesus Christ has already
defeated him (p. 133). Therefore, the Church will be
preserved through all her tribulations, and will
gloriously overcome all her opposition (p. 134). There
is therefore no excuse for failure: Christ condemns
churches that are ineffective (pp. 64-65).
The heavenly Temple, the archetype for Israel’s
Tabernacle and Temple (p. 71), has been inherited by
the Church (pp. 115-116). Since God’s will is to be
performed on earth as it is in heaven, angelic activity is
the pattern for our own (pp. 72, 220); in particular, the
angels correspond to the pastors/bishops of the Church,
and their judging/ruling activities are to be imitated by
their earthly counterparts (pp. 44-45, 100, 149, 150).
Worship
The New Covenant inevitably resulted in a New Song:
the New Covenant Liturgy (p. 80). (The anti-liturgical
bias is essentially pagan and Moslem in character, not
Biblical: pp. 23-24). The Christian day of worship, “the
Lord’s Day,” is the liturgical acting-out of the Day of the
Lord (p. 41); this is why the Book of Revelation has
historically set the pattern for the Church’s worship (p.
23). Biblical worship is corporate, responsorial, and
orderly: This requires a formal liturgy (pp. 75-76).
Every week, on the Lord’s Day, the worshiping Church
follows Christ in His Ascension to heaven (p. 70);
angels are present in our worship because the Church is
standing in the Court of heaven (p. 100). Everything
we do in worship has cosmic significance: According to
the Scriptural pattern, our public prayer should be
performed in a reverent physical posture (p. 96); and
even our simple Amen is regarded as a legal oath (p.
64). Because of the Ascension, all Christians are
prophets, members of God’s Advisory Council (p. 70).
The faithful Church prays imprecatory prayers against
her oppressors (p. 87), and God brings judgments on
the earth in response to the Church’s cries “for justice
(p. 101).
Worship must be centered on Jesus Christ. This means
the weekly celebration of the Eucharist, the heart of
Christian worship (pp.65-66, 189-190). The Eucharist
is the center of life, and should give “shape” to
everything else we do (p. 190).
Dominion
The Dominion Mandate, the task God assigned Adam,
will be fulfilled by the triumph of the Gospel
throughout the world (p. 202). Christians rule with
Christ in His Kingdom now, in this age (pp. 38, 40, 61,
201-204), and Christianity is destined to take over all
the kingdoms of the earth (p. 121). God has given His
people a “covenant grant” to take possession and
exercise dominion over His creation (p. 46). All
Christians are therefore commanded to overcome
opposition; and, in fact, all Christians are overcomers
(p. 51). Political power, however, does not come first;
the temptation to grasp it prematurely must be resisted
(p. 203). The Church is to take the initiative in
fighting against the forces of evil – she must attack, and
not merely defend – and she will be successful (pp. 130-
131). She must pray for, expect, and rejoice in her
enemies’ defeat (p. 183). God will give His Church
enough time to accomplish her assignment (p. 200).
The Conversion of the World
For the most part, the world is still pre-Christian, not
post-Christian (p. 36). Jesus Christ came to save the
world (pp. 94-95), and His Resurrection and Ascension
guarantee the triumph of the Gospel (p. 95). Christ is
destined to smite and conquer all nations by His Word
(pp. 191-195). His Cross, the Tree of Life, will heal all
nations (pp. 223-224), as the Feast of Tabernacles
symbolically sets forth (pp. 97-98). The overwhelming
majority of people will be saved (pp. 158-159), and
even Israel’s fall will eventually result in her conversion
(p. 159). The tendency in the New Covenant age is
judgment unto salvation (p. 121).
Salvation and the Christian Life
The “age of accountability” doctrine is a myth; all men
are accountable to God at every moment of their
existence (p. 61). From one perspective, the Book of
Life is a baptismal-roll, a Covenant record-book from
which apostates are erased (p. 61); from another
perspective, however, it is the membership roll of those
whom God has chosen from before the foundation of
the world (p. 138). The Bible teaches perseverance, not
“eternal security” (p. 40). Perseverance requires faith in
God’s righteous government of the world (p. 138).
The Bible does not teach salvation by works, but it does
teach damnation by works. We are justified by faith
alone; but true faith is never alone (pp. 210-211).
Wealth is a by-product of God’s Kingdom; the pursuit
of it apart from Christ is idolatry (p. 221). Christianity
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