For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earth quakes, in divers places. All these are the begin ning of sorrows.” This is the prophetic picture of this age which our Lord Jesus Himself presents. Introduced by His coming with the promise of peace, it resulted in the Cross instead, and the return of the Prince of Peace to heaven without bringing peace on earth. So we are led to ask the question once again, “Were the angels mistaken about ‘peace on earth’ ?” The answer lies in the correct dispensa- tional, prophetic interpretation of the words of our Lord Jesus. To be sure the angels said, “peace on earth,” but it could only come upon the con dition of acceptance of the Prince o f Peace by the nation to whom He was sent. When the Lord Jesus Christ came, He offered the Kingdom upon the condition of repentance. Had they received Him this way, He would have brought in the age of peace immediately. According to God’s eternal, foreknown plan, however, this could not be at this time. The angels were not mistaken. Their words will find fulfill ment, when this same Jesus who died on the Cross shall come again in power and great glory, at the end of this age. Then shall the “nations beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks” (Isaiah 2 :4 ). Then it will be that they “ shall learn war no more.” God had a plan (an unrevealed mystery) based on His perfect foreknowledge and designed from eter nity. God was not taken by surprise. In hundreds of prophetic statements, He had foretold all these things. The rejection of Israel during this age, their wandering among the nations, and their regathering at the end time, are all clearly, un mistakably predicted. A lso included in God’s plan was not only the Kingdom nation of Israel, but also the mystery of the Church, the Body and Bride of Christ. Jesus said, “And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring.” These consti tuted the Body of Christ, the Church, which, dur ing Israel’s rejection, would be called out. This was the mystery hidden in the Old Testament, not made “known in other ages.” To redeem this Church as well as Israel, the Lord Jesus Christ must go to the Cross and shed His blood for their redemption. He must die if they were to be saved.
This death only could be accomplished by the re jection of the Messiah by His own people when He came the first time. It was all according to God’s plan which we, with our finite minds, cannot grasp. We raise a thousand questions. What if the nation o f Israel had accepted His offer? Would the Cross then have been by-passed? If the nation had received the Saviour, would He then have immediately set up the Kingdom of Peace? These are foolish and ignorant questions because of our limited under standing. They are problems only in our finite minds* God knew all of this beforehand, and the rejection and the Cross were all a part of His eternal plan. Before the Kingdom can come in, the Church must first be gathered out from among the Gen tiles, and so God’s covenant nation is set aside until the Church, the Body of Christ, is completed. Paul tells us in Romans 11:25 that, . . blind ness in part is happened to Israel, UNTIL the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.” By the rejection of the Christ by Israel, the way for the salvation of the Gentiles was made possible by the death and the resurrection of our Lord. When this Body, the Church, is complete, the Messiah will come back. Israel will be re deemed and regathered, and the glorious millen nial Kingdom of Peace set up in fulfillment of the words o f the angels, “ Peace on earth, good will toward men.” What a glorious future awaits the redeemed nation of Israel. Concerning this Paul says, “Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, . . . how much more their fulness? For if the casting away of them (Israel) be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?” Soon the Prince of Peace will return the sec ond time, and then shall the world know abiding, lasting and never-ending peace. Until then, “wars and desolations are determined upon the earth.” There can be peace for the individual, however, even though there can be no peace among the na tions during this dispensation, for where Jesus is, there truly is peace. While there is no peace on earth among the nations, there is and can be peace in the heart of every believer. As the war clouds loom, the nations raging in commotion, the shadow of atomic destruction deepening about us, we can have peace within our hearts in the midst of the storm. Perfect peace and relief from fear come to those who trust the rejected Prince of Peace, for He is our peace. You too can have peace, because when you trust Him, you know your sins are forgiven, peace because you know that all things work together for good to them that love God; peace because we know that soon He is coming again to bring universal peace to this old, war-torn world.
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DECEMBER, 1965
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