PREMILLENNIALISM (7)

The church (1)

Victor M. Eskew

 

          A premillennialist affirms two major thoughts regarding the church.  First, he affirms the church was not in the original plan of God.  Second, he asserts Israel and the church are both God’s people today, but God deals with the church one way and with Israel in a different manner.

          The premillennial view of the church stems from their concept of the kingdom promised to Israel in the Old Testament.  The premillennialist is convinced that the kingdom promised by the prophets to the Jews was a physical kingdom.  Jesus was supposed to have established this kingdom when He came to earth.  However, the Jews rejected the Christ and killed Him.  Thus, the kingdom was postponed.  The physical kingdom that elevates the Jews to a position of prominence will be established when Jesus returns to earth the second time, they tell us.

          The church was established as a temporary measure following the crucifixion of Jesus according to premillennial doctrine.  It has been called a “parenthetical measure,” a “stopgap,” and a “substitute arrangement” until the true kingdom arrives at Jesus’ coming.  Think about what this means.  Had the Jews accepted Jesus as the Messiah, and had the kingdom been established in the first century, Jesus would not have died on the cross of Calvary.  If Jesus had not been crucified, how would humanity have been saved from sin?  The writer of Hebrews is clear about two things.  First, the shedding of blood is essential for the remission of sins (Heb. 9:22).  Second, the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sins (Heb. 10:4).  Would Jesus have died another way?  If so, would His kingdom have been without a king while He was dead?  Too, what would this have said about the peaceable nature of the kingdom He was supposed to have established?  If He never died, how would redemption have been accomplished?  Did God have another way other than the sacrifice of the Lamb of God to save men from their transgressions?  If so, what was that plan?

          The reality is that the church was not a stopgap measure in the plan of God.  The church was a vital part of the eternal plan, closely linked to the execution of the Son of God.  Paul affirms this in Ephesians 3:8-11.  “Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ.  To the intent that now unto principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  There are three important things Paul reveals about the church in this text.  First, the church is “the fellowship of the mystery.”  Second, the church is the manifestation of “the manifold wisdom of God.”  Third, the church is part of “the eternal purpose” of God “which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

          Dear readers, the church was always in the mind of God.  When man sinned in the Garden of Eden, God initiated His plan to bring the church into existence (See Gen. 3:15).  He foretold of the church in prophecies and types in the Old Testament.  When Jesus died on the cross of Calvary, God was not taken by surprise.  Prophets like Isaiah told of the rejection and death of Jesus hundreds of years before they occurred.  “He is despised and rejected of men.”  (Isa. 53:3).  “But he was wounded for our transgresses, he was bruised for our iniquities…” (Isa. 53:5).  “Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief; when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin…” (Isa. 53:10).  “…by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities” (Isa. 53:11).  “…and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors” (Isa. 53:12).

          According to Paul, Jesus purchased the church with His blood that He shed on the cross.  When he addressed the elders of Ephesus at Miletus, he exhorted them, saying:  “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood” (Acts 20:28).  In Ephesians 5:22-33, Paul discusses the husband-and-wife relationship.  In Ephesians 5:23, Paul notes that the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church.  Then, the apostle says:  “…and he is the Saviour of the body.”  Listen to those words again:  “…and he is the Saviour of the body.”  The body is the church (Eph. 1:22-23; Col. 1:18).  If the body is the church, and if Jesus is the Savior of the body, then He is the Savior of the church.  This is in complete harmony with Paul’s previous statement in Acts 20:28.  Jesus saved the church when He shed His precious blood on the cross of Calvary.  One has said:  “The value of something is known by its purchase price.”  The purchase price of the church was the blood of Christ.  Thus, the church is of extreme value.  The Lord’s church is not some substitute arrangement in God’s plan.  It is God’s plan period!

          The Greek word for church is “ekkesia.”  This word literally means” the called out ones.”  The church is composed of those who have been called out of the world.  The call of God comes through the gospel (2 Thess. 2:14).  Individuals answer the call when they obey the gospel of Christ (1 Cor. 15:1-2).  Obedience to the gospel is what allows one to be cleansed of his sins by the precious blood of Christ (1 Pet. 1:22).  It is at that point he is purchased by God.  The Lord adds the saved individual to the church (Acts 2:47).  The gospel is for all men (Mark 16:15).  Jews, Gentiles, Romans, Scythians, Barbarians, bond, free, black, and white can all be redeemed by Jesus’ blood.  When they are purchased by the blood of Christ, they are united  in one body, the church (Eph. 2:13-17).  This is “the fellowship of the mystery.”  “That the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel” (Eph. 3:6).