Days of Vengeance - The Preterist Archive

INTRODUCTION TO PART THREE
3:10), and becoming more and more conformed to His
image (Rom. 8:29-30), we are kings with Him now, in
this age. He has given us legal title to all things (cf.
Rom. 8:32; 1 Cor. 3:21-22), and on this basis we are to
exercise dominion under His lordship in every area of
life. Amillennialists, however, while professing to
believe in the existence of Christ’s present Kingdom,
often characteristically deny its practical relevance to
this world. For example, Dr. Meredith G. Kline’s
brilliant study Images of the Spirit has an excellent
chapter on “A Prophetic Model of the Image of God,”
in which he shows how the restoration of God’s image
to the Church through Christ means that “all the
Lord’s people are prophets” (cf. Num. 11:29; Acts 2:17-
18). 24 Kline also has a superb chapter on “A Priestly
Model of the Image of God,” a fascinating exposition of
the priesthood of all believers in the image of Christ,
our definitive High Priest. 25 But Christ is Prophet,
Priest, and King – yet, significantly, Kline neglected to
write an essay on “A Kingly Model of the Image of
God.” But if Christians image Christ in His role of
Prophet and Priest, they are kings as well, in the image
of the King. That is precisely the burden of the verses
under discussion: The Lord Jesus Christ shares His
conquest and enthronement with His people. Because
He overcame and sat down with the Father on His
Throne, He now summons us to enjoy regal dominion
with Him, inheriting all things.
24. Kline, Images of the Spirit, pp. 57-96. 25. Ibid., pp. 35-56.
Part Three
ETHICAL STIPULATIONS:
THE SEVEN SEALS
(Revelation 4-7)
Introduction
The third section of the covenantal treaty (cf. Deut.
5:1-26:19) 1 declared the way of Covenant life required
of the vassals, the laws of citizenship in the Kingdom.
As St. Paul declared, all men “live and move and exist”
in God (Acts 17:28); He is the Foundation of our very
being. This means that our relationship to Him is at the
center of our existence, of our actions and thinking in
every area of life. And central to this relationship is His
Sanctuary, where His subjects come to worship Him
before His Throne. Thus the major concern of the
Stipulations section is the thorough consecration of the
people to God, with special importance placed on the
establishment of one central Sanctuary:
You shall seek the Lord at the place which the Lord your
God shall choose from all your tribes to establish His
name there for His dwelling, and there you shall come.
(Deut. 12:5; cf. all of ch. 12)
As Meredith Kline observes, “The centralization
requirement must . . . be understood in terms of
Deuteronomy’s nature as a suzerainty treaty. Such
treaties prohibited the vassal to engage in any
independent diplomacy with a foreign power other
than the covenant suzerain. In particular, the vassal
must not pay tribute to any other lord.” 2 The centrality
of the Sanctuary helped to underscore the fact that it
was an image of the Sanctuary in heaven (Ex. 25:9, 40;
26:30; Num. 8:4; Acts 7:44; Heb. 8:5; 9:23).
This is also the emphasis of the Stipulations section of
Revelation. The passage opens with St. John’s
ascension to God’s Throneroom, and this provides the
central vantage point for the prophecy as a whole: All
things are seen in relation to the Throne. The
judgments that are bound on earth were first bound in
heaven. 3
Obviously, an important aspect of the Stipulations
section in Deuteronomy is the Law itself, the sign of
God’s covenantal lordship. Moses takes great care
repeatedly to remind Israel of the Covenant at Sinai,
with the Ten Commandments engraved on the tablets
of stone (Deut. 5, 9-10). Similarly, this section of
Revelation (ch. 5) deals with a Covenant document
that, like the original stone tablets, is written on both
front and back.
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