Submitted by: Glen144 | View Member Profile | View Other Posts
Created: 1/14/2010
Editor's Note: We allow our members to post articles expressing their beliefs and opinions.The views expressed in articles on this website may, or may not be, shared by us. -- The management.
Our Sabbath School class at Sligo offers an alternate focus to the quarterly, usually on an issue of current relevance, but last year one discussion featured a study of Mark 1:15:
“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.”
Each of these phrases may have a new and deeper meaning…
The time is fulfilled. Peter would say, “beloved, be not ignorant…one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack…the day of the Lord will come.” 2 Pet 3:8-10. Pioneers believed that the end-time apocalyptic period, “the day of the Lord,” would come after 6,000 years because God gives man six days to do all his work, Exodus 20:9.
Ussher’s Chronology supports 6,000 years as completed by 2000 AD, confirmed by Sir Isaac Newton’s chronology and also by science:
“May 5, 2000: The date that Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn [lined up] with the sun and moon—the first time in 6,000 years.” TIME Magazine, Jan 17, 2000.
That was ten years ago; why is it relevant now? Because of the context of the Bible’s solar system alignment. “The sun, moon and stars made obeisance” to Joseph. His brothers didn’t like his dreams and they sold him as a slave. But after seven good years, there were seven bad years when his brothers came and bowed to him like the stars in his dream. Since 2000, we had seven good years, but the seven bad years may have started in 2008.
Joel says, “The day of the LORD is at hand,” Joel 1:15. It comes after four generations:
“You tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.” Joel 1:3.
A generation is 40 years…
“Your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation,” Heb 3:9,10.
Four generations of Adventism (40 years x 4) is 160 years bringing us into the 21st century.
The kingdom of God is at hand. Christ said, “the kingdom of God is within you,” (Luke 17:21) but that’s not what the disciples were wanting when they asked,
“Will you at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” Acts 1:6.
Christ replied, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons,” a phrase from Daniel 2:21 referring to an external kingdom. And in the only other New Testament text where this phrase is found, Paul says,
“Of the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write unto you. For you know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction comes.” 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3.
Paul links the times and seasons to “the day of the Lord” that will come as a thief with sudden destruction, and he implies that we should know perfectly.
Paul would also remind us that when sudden destruction fell on the Egyptians, that God took His people to Sinai and a covenant relationship in which they became His kingdom…
“If you will…keep my covenant, then you shall be…unto me a kingdom,” Exodus 19:5,6.
Paul reflects on the Exodus:
“Brethren, I would not that you should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea… all these things happened unto them for ensamples [types, margin] and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.” 1 Corinthians 10:1,11.
Let’s look again at the Exodus, through the lens of Mark 1:15, “Repent,” and our pioneers who proclaimed a time of judgment in 1844.
“Repent.” Egypt also faced judgment. God said, “I will execute judgment,” Exodus 12:12.
Those who were living in repentance claimed the blood of a Sacrifice and showed it by putting blood on their doorposts. Judgment fell on living people and it brought “sudden destruction” for those who didn’t repent or use the blood. “All these things happened…for [types].”
As Adventists we see the Day of Atonement as when God investigates a record of our lives, but
• Passover is when judgment was executed, as in Egypt.
• Jericho fell in the context of unleavened bread, Joshua 5:11-13.
• Lot fed his guests unleavened bread, the only food mentioned in Genesis 19:3.
• Judgment fell on Christ at Passover. He prayed that the cup might pass [over] Him, but it fell on Him so that it might not fall on us.
We are thankful that Christ fulfilled the sacrificial law and instituted the Lord’s Supper in the place of the Passover lamb. But this does not necessarily mean doing away with it as an appointed time. It was to be “a statute forever throughout all your generations,” Lev 23:14.
Paul kept the Passover with Greek Christians at Philippi. He said they were “a shadow of things to come.” Col 2:17. This means they aren’t all fulfilled and judgment could come to us at Passover as suggested—“In the day of the Lord’s sacrifice [Passover], I will punish the princes and king’s children clothed in strange apparel,” Zeph 1:8. Ellen White quotes this text in the context of her earthquake vision at Loma Linda. She wrote, “It seemed that…Judgment day had come,” 9Testimonies, 93,95.
We forget that “Laodicea” means judging the people and we may have a false concept of it. Rather than being vindictive, God may simply be sorting His people by their responses to the process. He wants us hot or cold, not lukewarm. When the ancient church in Asia ended in an earthquake, most became cold as they focused on their loss and began rebuilding.
Christ said He would “knock.” Would we be ready to “open unto Him immediately” (Luke 12:36) if He should knock at Passover? Probably not if we weren’t celebrating the Lord’s Supper that evening which is what He did with His disciples in spite of impending calamity.
In contrast, there is great news for those whom Christ finds watching. Again from Mark 1:15—
“Believe the gospel…” The good news has been different for succeeding generations.
• In Noah’s time, the good news was salvation from a Flood.
• In Abraham’s time, the good news was some real estate.
• In Moses’ time, the good news meant deliverance from slavery.
• In Christ’s time, the gospel meant eternal life.
• For us, the good news is better still—ALL of the above—and more besides!
“He will make [us] ruler over all that He has,” Luke 12:44.
How is this so? Because the Bride of Christ shares His throne. “To Him that overcomes will I grant to sit with Me on My throne,” Rev 3:21.
In Luke 12:43, it’s for the servant who is “so doing,”--“watching…that when He comes and knocks, [we] may open unto Him immediately.” Luke 12:35-37. This includes “loins girded,”
a phrase also found at Passover in Egypt when God executed judgment. Exodus 12:11,12.
The messages of judgment and the Bridegroom went together in 1844, perhaps to show us their relationship to the calamity and subsequent covenant at Sinai. 1 Cor 10:1,11; GC 398.
The Feast of Unleavened Bread at Passover has imagery of union with Christ by communion.
The wedding parables also have imagery of union with Christ by marriage, and both occupied seven days in Scripture, Gen 29:27; Lev 23:6.
Christ did not fulfill the 7-day feast of unleavened bread when He died. He was dead in the grave on the first day when a “holy convocation” is specified, Lev 23:7. We should anticipate the possibility of an antitypical fulfillment as these superimpose at a Passover event sometime soon, but with an important modification explained in Part II.
Summary: The day of the Lord is at hand because prophetic time periods are fulfilled. “In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom” with those who covenant with Him as Israel did at Sinai. This is also how we marry the Bridegroom, as God later said, “I am married unto you,” Jer 3:14. Fresh insight is shown for watching at Passover when judgment was executed in Bible times. But I can hear the objections now, “time-setting.” You must read Part II.
