Grave Confusion About The Two Kingdoms

In my last post I promised to discuss why Lutherans—and millions of other Christians—are very wary of the way some widely read Bible interpreters use and confuse symbols, especially numbers in the Bible. This is why we approach Gematria and Keballah with great caution.

I refer you again to the 1989 Missouri Synod theologians' study of the end times for personal study. Here is a shortened list of the basic principles of interpretation (hermeneutics) they emphasize. In earlier postings I already emphasized the importance of seeing that most prophecy is poetry, with characteristic figures of speech and word pictures. I also emphasized the importance of remembering that the prophets spoke first to their original hearers in terms they could understand. Here now are six more principles.

1. An organic unity exists within and between the Old and New Testaments. We presuppose that God is the One Author of all Scripture. Remember earlier comments about how God's Word validates itself. 
2. This is also to say that the Scriptures themselves interpret  all prophecy. Symbols, word pictures and numbers are interpreted by Scripture passages that speak in plain, simple language about the same things. Where they are silent, we will remain silent as well. 
3. The material principle must ever be kept central. That means that the entire Scripture, Old and New Testaments, is about Christ. Their singular purpose is to lead men to turn from sin to faith in Christ. 
4. Christ is the New Israel, Israel reduced to one. Christ is the promised seed of Abraham in whom all nations are blessed. 
5. Old Testament prophecy is often typical or typological in nature. This is especially true when dealing with eschatological (end time) themes. A type is a person, institution, or event which prefigures and foreshadows a new and greater reality (the antitype). The antitype historically and theologically corresponds to, elucidates, fulfills, and eschatologically completes the type. The antitype is no mere repetition of the type but is always greater than its prefigurement.
6. Certain prophetic events in the near and in the distant future are telescoped into one picture, like how mountain peaks seen from a distance look much closer than they really are. 

F. F. Bruce pulled it all together as he wrote, 

"In Jesus the promise is confirmed, the covenant is renewed, the prophecies are fulfilled, the law is vindicated, salvation is brought near, sacred history has reached its climax the perfect sacrifice has been offered and accepted, the great priest over the household of God has taken his seat at God's right hand, the Prophet like Moses has been raised up, the Son of David reigns, the kingdom of God has been inaugurated, the Son of Man has received dominion from the Ancient of Days, the Servant of the Lord, having been smitten to death for his people's transgression and borne the sin of many, has accomplished the divine purpose, has seen the light after the travail of his soul and is now exalted and extolled and made very high" (The New Testament Development of Old Testament Themes, p. 21).

A word about type - antitype centered in and fulfilled in Christ. This is especially important as it relates to Israel of the Old Testament and the New Israel. Here many modern teachers create great anxiety and doubt by confusing the Law and the Gospel. By so doing they confuse the two Kingdoms over which Christ rules and how He rules over them. The Lutheran Defense of the Augsburg Confession, Article XVI, makes it very clear that Christ's true kingdom is spiritual; it is the knowledge of God in the heart, the fear of God and faith, the beginning of eternal righteousness and eternal life. In that spiritual kingdom he governs by His Word and by preaching. This is usually referred to as the kingdom of Christ's right hand.

He has another kingdom over which He rules. It is usually called the kingdom of Christ's left hand. It refers to the political, outward power exercised by civil government. Paul and others write of this.

"Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. . ." (Romans 13:1-7).

Old Testament Israel was a secular kingdom, a political entity. Christ as the LORD of the Old Testament (Philippians 2:1-11) ruled over it by the outward means of laws and rules. The Old Testament  rulers and kings of Israel were His instruments. By laws and promises, courts, armies and war, they preserved order, promoted prosperity and protected the people from their enemies.

Within that secular state Christ also ruled over His spiritual kingdom, His kingdom of true believers, by means of His Word.  In many different ways His prophets warned the people to turn from their godless and disobedient ways and put their faith and trust in their true LORD. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit they always spoke of the Gospel and God's forgiveness. They frequently foretold Christ's coming in human flesh to rescue and redeem all mankind. The prophet Isaiah, for instance, spoke of those good tidings, this Good News, as he wrote about the Suffering Servant who would be cruelly beaten and disfigured even as he took upon Himself the pain and bore the suffering and affliction we have all deserved (Isaiah 52:7-53:12).

The Apostles clearly understood this. Matthew, for example, tells about the Holy Family fleeing into exile in Egypt in this manner:

So he (Joseph) got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, ¹⁵ where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son” (Matthew 2:15-16 and Hosea 11:1).

So Matthew makes it clear throughout his Gospel that Jesus is the New Israel, the Son of God, called out of Egypt again. In Christ a new, spiritual kingdom has begun. As Jesus stood accused before Pilate, representative of the secular, Roman authority, He openly acknowledged that he was the king of the Jews, the king of the New Israel. This was, however, a radically different type of kingdom (Matthew 27:11-14; John 18:28-19:16).

We could go into great detail about these matters. Suffice to say that so much of the confusion about the restoration of the secular state of Israel, conflict in the Middle East, the supposed promise of the rebuilding of the temple, the 1,000 year or millennial kingdom, etc. is all tangled up because of the confusion of these two kingdoms. More on that another day. For now, don't worry about trying to untangle everything that our LORD Jesus has planned, who or what is the antichrist, when Jesus will return and so forth. Much of that He has kept to Himself.

It is enough to know that He rose on the third day and is coming again to take His children to be with Him in glory (Romans 8:14-30). Be that today, in the year 2012 or 100 years from now, we who believe in Him are safe and secure.

More on this another day.