The “New Jerusalem” is not just a spiritual city, it is a literal city. In Revelation Chapter 21, verses 1 and 2 John explains the vision given to him regarding the future here on earth.
1Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
Add to that the prophecy in Isaiah which states...
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.
Isaiah 9:6-7 (NIV)
And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.
—Isaiah 2:27 (KJV)
Jesus is supposed to reign and rule here on earth. That is the promise, that is the prophecy. It is after the Great Tribulation, Christ is supposed to return with all of those who accepted him as their savior to rule and reign on earth for 1,000 years (Revelation 20:4).
The New Jerusalem comes after (Rev. 21:1-2). Jesus will sit in the modern Jerusalem after he destroys the Antichrist by the brightness of his coming. After that thousand year reign, the Devil will be unleashed, causing people to sin, and people will sin. In other words, “here we go again.”
Jesus will sit in the temple, in the Modern city of Jerusalem during the thousand years. The New Jerusalem comes after the thousand years as is the order that occurs in Revelation. The thousand years is mentioned in Revelation as occurring before New Jerusalem is placed on earth.
The re-emergence of the state of Israel in 1948 set in motion a mandate for the beginning of the rest of the Old Testament prophecies to be fulfilled. The modern state of Israel perfectly fits the description of being a burdensome stone in the last days (Zechariah 12:3). The political alliance between Russia, China, and Iran align effectively regarding the war of Gog and Magog mentioned in the book of Ezekiel. There are too many proofs. Not only that, but the most influential Jewish, Christian ministers recognize Israel as the fulfillment of prophecy.
Every effective prophecy scholar and every well known prophecy minister shares this view as well. It is the view adopted by Hal Lindsey, Jack Van Impe, David Reagan, John Ankerberg, Jerry Falwell, Perry Stone, Tim LaHaye, Jerry Jenkins, Ed Hindson, John Hagee, and many others. It was even supported by the late John F. Walvoord, David Breese, Zola Levitt—an Orthadox Jew turned Christian, and so many others. It is even taught at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Liberty University, etc. Its truth is enduring and has endured for over 60 years and is continuing to endure.
“Replacement theology” which is the position you seem to express, is the belief that God replaced his old covenant with Israel and established it with the church. There are many holes in replacement theology. Some have even used it as a means to justify their antisemitic prejudices.
Calling me a “futurist”—which is a term I’ve never heard of prior to this debate gives the impression to others that I, and people like me are just another sect, another division of an unsettled debate. When you incorporate the Bible with actual common sense and reason, they all compliment each other. God is the writer of natural law, and as such natural law has to compliment the Bible. There is only one truth. There is only one God, and when he demonstrates his POWER, like the way he did Israel from 1948-today, it is easy (for me anyway) to see God’s plan for the end times come to pass.
I know why the modern state of Israel exists. He will use it to prove to the world that he exists. They are also a nation that will have to endure fierce hardships that will cause them to come to faith in Jesus Christ and adopt him as their Messiah. Just as it is in a play, the stage has to be set and prepared before the actors come on stage. The actors are on stage, and they are in the process of moving the story towards the climax, and of course after the climax comes the grand finale.
Spiritual as opposed to carnal. Earthly Jerusalem is the carnal city. The heavenly Jerusalem is spiritual (Gal. 4:25,26).
22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, 23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24 to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. (Heb. 12)The new Jerusalem presently exists and all believers in Jesus Christ are inhabitants. “But you have come …”.
The new Jerusalem does not come down to earth until after the Second Coming and general judgment of all men. Rev. 21 follows Rev. 20. There is nothing in the Bible about the new Jerusalem on earth prior to the eternal state of Rev. 21.
Jesus is supposed to reign and rule here on earth. That is the promise, that is the prophecy. It is after the Great Tribulation, Christ is supposed to return with all of those who accepted him as their savior to rule and reign on earth for 1,000 years (Revelation 20:4).
There is nothing in Rev. 20 about Jesus reigning on the earth during the 1000 years.
The re-emergence of the state of Israel in 1948 set in motion a mandate for the beginning of the rest of the Old Testament prophecies to be fulfilled.
Modern Israel is a “just-so story” of futurism. There is no biblical evidence that modern Israel fulfills any specific biblical prophecy. I have pointed out from the Bible how modern Israel cannot be the fulfillment of prophecy because it does not meet the criteria for biblical Israel. See post 27.
“Replacement theory” (as it is wrongly called) is simply a true application of the NT understanding of Israel and the Church, i.e., one continuous people of God from the old covenant to the new.
11 Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh--who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands-- 12 that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, 15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, 16 and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. 17 And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. 18 For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. 19 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone, 21 in whom the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. (Eph. 2)The NT tells us truly who are Abraham’s seed, those who have faith in the Messiah, Jesus Christ (Gal. 3:28,29).9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10 who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy. (1 Peter 2)
Some futurist dispensationalists, with their unbiblical, radical distinction between the Church and Israel, have created a boogeyman they call “replacement theology”. It’s mostly used to scare the followers of radical dispensationalism into thinking that the opposition are the new kids on the block. But it is false teachings of dispensationalism that are the new kids and have been opposed mostly from the day the idea was invented back in 1830.
I do not think I have ever said anything about the Church “replacing Israel”. What a silly notion considering that most of the early Church was made up of ethnic Jews. That Christ brought the gospel to the Jews, many of whom believed. That the apostles worked very hard to break down the wall that separated Jews and gentiles to, as Paul described it, create one new man. That Peter called the Church a “holy nation”, harkening back to God’s description of Israel. That we members of the Church inhabit the “new Jerusalem”. Only a dispensationalist would see this as “replacing Israel” since their view of Israel is quite defective.
We have witnessed God’s covenant faithfulness to Jewish people for the last 2000 years who have embraced Jesus Christ.
Meanwhile, futurist dispensationalists invent theories about modern Israel to fit with their own faulty reading of the Bible. The faults are often big enough to drive a truck through, but rather than deal with the defects, they are content to label their opponents as a way to divert the discussions from the flaws in their theory.
But this is the off-sounded trumpet of dispensationalism; anyone that does not agree with us on Israel vis-à-vis the Church is probably a closet anti-Semite. It’s what happens when you do not have the biblical facts on your side, you just invent boogeyman names to reference your opponent.
It’s a tactic born, not of fact or truth, but desperation. It’s like playing in the race card in politics.
Maybe you can help me out here. I’ve been having this discussion with friends about the origin of the premillennial/chiliast view that you have outlined above; vis. that Christ will reign physically on the earth during the “1000 years.” I have always believed that certain of the ancient Fathers, like Justin Martyr, held such a view. I was challenged to rethink this idea.
So I recently went back and reread Justin and I must admit that such premil ideas do not exactly exist in his writings. E.g.,
But I and others, who are right-minded Christians on all points, are assured that there will be a resurrection of the dead, and a thousand years in Jerusalem, which will then be built, adorned, and enlarged, [as] the prophets Ezekiel and Isaiah and others declare. (Dialogue with Trypho the Jew, Chapter LXXX)Do you have any direct quotes from any church Fathers before modern times that places Christ physically on the earth during the “1000 years?”Now we have understood that the expression used among these words, ‘According to the days of the tree [of life] shall be the days of my people; the works of their toil shall abound’ obscurely predicts a thousand years. For as Adam was told that in the day he ate of the tree he would die, we know that he did not complete a thousand years. We have perceived, moreover, that the expression, ‘The day of the Lord is as a thousand years,’ is connected with this subject. And further, there was a certain man with us, whose name was John, one of the apostles of Christ, who prophesied, by a revelation that was made to him, that those who believed in our Christ would dwell a thousand years in Jerusalem; and that thereafter the general, and, in short, the eternal resurrection and judgment of all men would likewise take place. Just as our Lord also said, ‘They shall neither marry nor be given in marriage, but shall be equal to the angels, the children of the God of the resurrection.’ (Dialogue, Chapter LXXXI)