Hudsonville Protestant
Reformed Church
5101 Beechtree
Hudsonville, Michigan 49426
Services: 9:30 a.m. and 6:00 p.m.
Homepage on Internet: http://www.prca.org
Vol. 9, No. 7
Christ’s Words Shall Never Pass
Away (4)
A
New Heaven and a New Earth (2)
The Role
of Israel (3)
Christ’s Words Shall Never Pass
Away (4)
Christ’s
promise that His "words shall not pass away" (Matt. 24:35) includes not only the
preservation of the OT (see earlier issue) but also the rejection of the Apocrypha as
uninspired. The Apocrypha, which includes I and II Maccabees and additions to Daniel and
Esther, etc., was not reckoned part of the OT canon by the Jews, as is evident, for
example, in the writings of Josephus, a Jew of the first century AD. This is particularly
significant, for "unto [the Jews] were committed the oracles of God" (Rom. 3:2).
Thus Christ and His apostles do not quote the Apocrypha.
The
Apocryphal books were written later than the OT and even then not in Hebrew as the OT
books. Moreover, some of the Apocryphal books disclaim inspiration or teach false
doctrines such as free will, prayers for the dead or the worship of angels. Thus the true
church understood that the Apocrypha was not God-breathed. Jerome, a fifth century
church father, made this point in his Latin translation of the Bible. The Westminster
Confession declares that the Apocrypha is "not ... of divine inspiration"
for it merely consists of "human writings" (1.3; cf. Belgic Confession
6). The false church of Rome, however, in its Council of Trent (1546) calls down an
"anathema" upon those who do not receive the Apocrypha as "canonical and
sacred."
Not
only the OT (which does not contain the Apocrypha) but also the NT has been specially
preserved by God through the centuries. In the early days of the NT church, the 27
God-breathed NT books were recognized and grouped together. Uninspired materials, such as
the Didache and the Shepherd of Hermas, were set aside. From the original
autographs good copies were made. These were then copied, and so on. The original
manuscripts in Greece, Turkey, Israel, Rome, etc., (and faithful copies of them) served as
controls or checks upon the new copies that were made. Believing scribes labored in the
consciousness that God threatened plagues upon those who add to or take away from
God’s Word (Rev. 22:18-19). The invention of the printing press in the middle of the
fifteenth century ensured wider availability of God’s inspired and preserved Word.
The
number of NT manuscripts possessed today far outweighs those of any ancient book. For the History
of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides (c.460-c.400 BC) we have eight manuscripts. The
works of Sophocles (an older Greek contemporary of Thucydides) are only found in one
manuscript written 1400 years after his death! On the other hand, there are about 7,000
manuscripts containing all or part of the NT. Christ is faithful; His Word has not passed
away and will not pass away. Rev. Angus Stewart
A New Heaven and a New Earth (2)
A questioner submitted a text (Rev. 21:1-5) and asked, "In the light of Scripture, what are we to understand by the term "a new heaven and a new earth?"
Last time, we described briefly the history that takes place in heaven and on earth since the time of the original creation. From that brief sketch it became apparent that enormous changes took place in God’s creation both through the fall and the flood.
When man fell into sin, God was not caught by surprise. We must not conceive of the fall as outside the purpose and plan of God. It was not the case that God determined to glorify Himself through the first Paradise and the first Adam. Nor is it possible that Adam, by his fall, spoiled the purpose of God so that God, watching the events which transpired at the time of Eve’s temptation stood by helplessly, and, when Adam and Eve succumbed to temptation, wrung His hands and tossed about for some way to salvage a bad situation—until He finally conceived of Christ as a means of restoration. Such reasoning obliterates the greatness of God in His sovereign works in the world.
Rather, from the very outset of the work of creation God determined to glorify Himself in the highest possible way through Jesus Christ, His own Son, by means of the salvation of all the creation in the blood of the cross. The original creation was the stage on which would be enacted the age-long drama of sin and grace, the fall and redemption through Christ. God’s purpose is fully realized in the salvation of the elect angels and men in Christ, and the redemption of the entire earthly and heavenly creation through the blood of the cross.
When Christ comes again at the end of time, Christ will purge this present world with fire (II Peter 3:10-13) and create a new heaven and a new earth that He will give to His elect people and angels as an everlasting inheritance.
The new earth will be new for the following reasons.
It will be new because from it will be forever banished sin, the curse and death. Because sin and the curse shall be forever removed, it will be filled with the glory of God and reflect God’s glory through Christ who redeemed it.
It will be a new earth because it will not be a mere restoration of the original Paradise, but it will be far more glorious than the original Paradise could possibly have been.
It will be a new earth because in it Adam will not be head, but our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, the One of whom Adam was only a type.
It will be a new earth because it will be made one in glorious unity with heaven itself. Revelation 21:1-5 speaks of the new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven. From the moment of creation to the second coming of Christ, heaven and earth were separated by the different structures of each: the earth was material and heaven spiritual. But heaven was always the reality, and the earth was the shadow of it. Now the barrier between the two is broken down through Christ’s cross and heaven and earth become one. The earthly is made heavenly; the material is made spiritual; the things here below become one with the things which are above by a transformation that lifts them to the highest level possible.
But God will, through Christ, create a new heaven also. How is heaven new? This is a little more difficult to describe partly because Scripture does not tell us much about heaven, and partly because we who are of the earth earthy cannot understand heavenly things. But some things we do know.
Heaven will be new because Christ becomes the head of the angelic world and the heavenly creation, as well as the head of His church and the earthly creation. Heaven has a new head, eternally ordained by God.
Heaven will be new because, although God’s people are now there, they are there without their bodies, which await the coming of Christ to be raised. Heaven will be more wonderful when the saints are there in soul and body.
Heaven will be new because all God’s people will be there. When Abel came to heaven, he was alone—except for the angels. Gradually the number of those in heaven grew, but the church in heaven was not and is not complete. So much does this detract from the full blessedness of heaven that the saints under the altar cry out, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled" (Rev. 6:10-11).
Heaven will be new because it will take up into itself and be united with the glorified and redeemed earthly creation so that both parts of the creation are now one, forever and ever, world without end.
Then all things shall be accomplished as God determined them. The Lord Jesus Christ, crowned with glory and honor, shall be head over all in the name of the Triune God. With Him shall be His own elect bride, His beloved church washed in His blood and clothed in the white garments of His righteousness. They shall reign with Him in heavenly perfection. Under the elect shall be the angels who shall continue as the ministers of the elect (Heb.1:14). And to that elect bride of Christ shall be given the whole glorified and redeemed heaven and earth as their possession to enjoy and over which to rule with Christ to the glory of God. All shall be one in Christ, and God shall be all in all. A new heaven and a new earth! That is the object of our hope and longing.
Press on in the truth, weary pilgrim, for
at the end of your wearisome journey lies the celestial city in which you shall dwell with
Christ and God forever.
Prof. Herman Hanko
Most premillennialists and all dispensationalists apply the predictions of the OT prophets to ethnic Israel that they believe is to be restored spiritually in a future earthly millennium. One way to evaluate their system is to examine OT prophecies concerning Israel that are interpreted and applied by the Holy Spirit in the NT. Last time we considered Amos 9:11-15 and its explanation in Acts 15:13-18. This time we turn to the great promise of Jeremiah 31: "[31] Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: [32] Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord: [33] But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. [34] ... and I will remember their sin no more."
With whom is the "new covenant" to be made when "the days come" (31)? It is to be made "with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah" (31, 33), that is, with those whose "fathers" God brought "out of the land of Egypt" (32). Thus, interpreting Jeremiah 31:31-34 literally and without reference to any other part of Scripture, the new covenant is to be made with national Israel and Judah (a "house" [31] and "people" [33]), the descendants of those whom God redeemed from Egypt. No mention is made of the Gentiles or a catholic church at all.
However, Jeremiah 31:31-34 is understood by the NT writers very differently. The citations in Hebrews 8:8-12 and 10:16-17, in their contexts, teach us that the new covenant is established upon the sacrifice and intercession of Jesus Christ, the heavenly high priest after the order of Melchizedek. Thus the Holy Spirit declares, "Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation" (9:28). Can this be restricted just to ethnic Jews? Moreover, though the writer to the Hebrews has much to say about the new covenant and its relationship to Christ’s blood and His heavenly priesthood and kingship, he has nothing to say about any future earthly millennium for the physical descendents of Jacob.
When He instituted the Lord’s Supper,
Christ had Jeremiah 31 in His mind: "this is my blood of the new testament
[covenant], which is shed for many" (Matt. 26:28; Mark 14:24; Luke 22:20).
Christ’s new covenant blood redeemed His people from "every kindred, and tongue,
and people, and nation" (Rev. 5:9). Thus Paul tells the largely Gentile church in
Corinth that at the Lord’s Table they drink "the new testament [covenant] in
[Christ’s] blood" (I Cor. 11:25). Clearly, "Israel" and
"Judah" in Jeremiah 31 refer to the catholic church of the NT redeemed in
Christ, and not merely ethnic Jews either in our days or in a future millennium.
Rev. Angus Stewart