50 Years Building His Kingdom - Far Eastern Bible College

Life
Bible-Presbyterian
Church
Page 82
time including the thousand years following
the visible, personal and premillennial
return of Christ), wherein he will judge the
world in righteousness by Jesus Christ, to
whom all power and judgment is given of
the Father” (words in italics were added to
the original WCF by the general synod of
the Bible Presbyterian Church, USA). For
reasons why we hold to premillennialism,
and not postmillennialism and
amillennialism, please refer
to my article, “Three Views
on the Millennium:
Which” in The Burning
Bush 5 (1999): 65-72. See
also “Premillennialism” by
Rev. Charles Seet, in The
Burning Bush 3 (1997): 97-
106.
Now there are two
branches of premillennialism:
the so-called historic,
and the dispensational. Historic
premillennialism like
dispensational premillennialism
teaches that Christ
will return before the millennium.
However, they
differ significantly in their understanding
of Israel’s place in God’s plan of salvation.
Historic premillennialism adopts the same
postmillennial and amillennial view that
God has forsaken national Israel and replaced
her with the Church. Dispensational
premillennialism, on the other hand, says
that although God is working actively in
and through the Church today, He still has
a salvific plan for national Israel, and will
fulfil all His covenant promises to Israel
as found in the Scriptures. The B-P Church
takes this latter view.
Why do we take a dispensational
rather than a historic premillennial view
It is because of our understanding of Reformed
theology. Reformed theology emphasises
the sovereignty of God in world
history, and the faithfulness of God in fulfilling
His covenant promises. Our God is
a covenant-keeping God. His covenantal
promises to Abraham and to David cannot
be broken (Jer 33:19-26). Despite Israel’s
disobedience, God remains faithful. He will
“Reformed theology
emphasises the
sovereignty of God
in world history, and
the faithfulness of
God in fulfilling His
covenant promises.
Our God is a
covenant-keeping
God.”
keep His Word (Deut 7:9). Time and time
again in the Old Testament, Israel sinned
against God by worshipping idols. God
punished Israel but never forsook her. Although
He consigned them to captivity in
Babylon in 587 BC (2 Kgs 25, 2 Chr 36:17-
20), consider how He preserved Israel
through Daniel, Esther, and Nehemiah during
this time. True to His promise, the Lord
released them from captivity 70 years later
under Cyrus—the Persian
King (2 Chr 36:21-23, Isa
44:28, 45:1, Jer 29:10).
The failure of Israel is
seen also in her rejection of
Jesus Christ—the promised
Messiah (Gen 3:15, Deut
18:15, Isa 7:14, 9:6, Jer
23:5, Zech 3:8, 6:12). The
Jews in crucifying their
Messiah said, “His blood be
on us, and on our children”
(Matt 27:25). God eventually
punished the nation
when the Roman army led
by Titus destroyed Jerusalem
in AD 70. The Jews
were driven out of their
land, and dispersed to all parts of the world.
Since that time, they have suffered much
persecution especially in the Jewish holocaust
of World War II. God no doubt punished
Israel, but did He forsake her No,
He did not. God had promised in Isa 11:11-
12 that He would gather them back into
their land a second time from all parts of
the world. This promise began to see fulfilment
on May 14, 1948 when Israel returned
to Palestine, and became a fullfledged
nation again. Israel will no longer
be displaced from the land God had given
her (Isa 11:13).
Although Israel today is still
unconverted, her eyes will be opened when
Jesus returns. Israel will finally acknowledge
Jesus as the Messiah. To
postmillennialists, amillennialists, and historic
premillennialists who dismiss Israel
from God’s plan of salvation, the Apostle
Paul has these words, “For I would not,
brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this
mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own