the Covenant Future: A Defense Of Postmillennialism Series

INTRODUCTION - Hymns of the victory of the gospel:

JESUS SHALL REIGN WHERE’ER THE SUN

DOES HIS SUCCESSIVE JOURNEY’S RUN;

HIS KINGDOM STRETCH FROM SHORE TO SHORE,

TILL MOONS SHALL WAX AND WANE NO MORE,

FOR HIM SHALL ENDLESS PRAYER BE MADE,

AND PRAISES THRONG TO CROWN HIS HEAD;

HIS NAME, LIKE SWEET PERFUME, SHALL RISE

WITH EVERY MORNING SACRIFICE.

PEOPLE AND REALMS OF EVERY TONGUE

DWELL ON HIS LOVE WITH SWEETEST SONG;

AND INFANT VOICES SHALL PROCLAIM

THEIR EARLY BLESSINGS ON HIS NAME.

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JOY TO THE WORLD! THE LORD IS COME!

LET EARTH RECEIVE HER KING;

LET EV’RY HEART PREPARE HIM ROOM,

AND HEAV’N AND NATURE SING,

AND HEAV’N AND NATURE SING,

AND HEAV’N AND HEAV’N AND NATURE SING.

JOY TO THE EARTH! THE SAVIOR REIGNS!

LET MEN THEIR SONGS EMPLOY;

WHILE FIELDS AND FLOODS,

ROCKS, HILLS AND PLAINS

REPEAT THE SOUNDING JOY,

REPEAT THE SOUNDING JOY,

REPEAT, REPEAT THE SOUNDING JOY.

HE RULES THE WORLD WITH TRUTH AND GRACE,

AND MAKES THE NATIONS PROVE

THE GLORIES OF HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS

AND WONDERS OF HIS LOVE,

AND WONDERS OF HIS LOVE,

AND WONDERS, WONDERS OF HIS LOVE.

FAR AS THE CURSE IS FOUND,

CROWN HIM WITH MANY CROWNS, THE LAMB UPON HIS THRONE:

HARK, HOW THE HEAVENLY ANTHEM DROWNS ALL MUSIC, BUT ITS OWN!

AWAKE MY SOUL AND SING OF HIM WHO DIED FOR THEE,

AND HAIL HIM AS THY MATCHLESS KING THROUGH ALL ETERNITY.

CROWN HIM THE LORD OF PEACE; WHOSE POW’R A SCEPTER SWAYS

FROM POLE TO POLE, THAT WARS MAY CEASE, ABSORBED IN PRAYER AND PRAISE:

HIS REIGN SHALL KNOW NO END; AND ROUND HIS PIERCED FEET

FAIR FLOWERS OF PARADISE EXTEND THEIR FRAGRANCE EVER SWEET.

Matthew Bridges, 1851

HAIL TO THE LORD’S ANOINTED, GREAT DAVID’S GREATER SON! HAIL, IN THE TIME APPOINTED, HIS REIGN ON EARTH BEGUN! . . . O’ER EV’RY FOE VICTORIOUS, HE ON HIS THRONE SHALL REST, FROM AGE TO AGE MORE GLORIOUS, ALL BLESSING AND ALL BLESSED; THE TIDE OF TIME SHALL NEVER HIS COVENANT REMOVE; HIS NAME SHALL STAND FOREVER THAT NAME TO US IS LOVE. James Montgomery 1821

TO US A CHILD OF HOPE IS BORN, TO US A SON IS GIV’N, HIM SHALL THE TRIBES OF EARTH OBEY, HIM ALL THE HOSTS OF HEAV’N;

HIS POW’R, INCREASING, STILL SHALL SPREAD, HIS REIGN NO END SHALL KNOW; JUSTICE SHALL GUARD HIS THRONE ABOVE, AND PEACE ABOUND BELOW;

HIS NAME DIVINE, ABOVE ALL NAMES, HIS GLORY ALL SHALL TELL; ALL NATIONS WORSHIP AT HIS THRONE HE IS IMMANUEL. John Morison, 1781

Remember those powerful words of Scripture in Handel’s, Hallelujah Chorus:

“The Kingdom of this world, has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ and He shall reign forever.”

Why should the devil have all the good music? Postmillennialists do not have to ask this about other eschatological options ... Now of course there is some church music which reflects the dispensational view too: “I Wish We’d All Been Ready” (a good theme song to a movie, 88 Reasons Why Christ is Coming in 1988)

I believe and hope to defend that Christ’s kingdom is victorious in the gospel age because He promised his covenantal mercies will extend to a thousand generations.

MILLENNIAL POSITIONS - GETTING OUR POSITION FROM THE BIBLE

We are under obligation to answer these questions from an exegesis of specific texts if there be such texts that specifically address these issues. If we wish to settle the first significant question, we must find a passage which addresses the Messianic reign of Jesus in connection with His coming with a temporal or chronological sequence addressed. We should we be looking for a passage that specifically and explicitly sets out a sequence of events which include both the reign of Christ and His coming. Where is such a passages? Not the Olivet discourse, His reign is not addressed. Not 1Th 4:13-18, there’s no reference to His Reign. Not Rev 19-20. There are no temporal adverbs like “after that” or “then,” marking a sequence of events.

The only passage that states a chronological relationship between the coming and reign of Christ is 1Co 15:22ff: “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming, then comes the end, when He delivers up the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death.. . . 51 Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, "DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory. 55 "O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?" ” (1Co 15:22-26, 51-55)