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Notes From 'The Ante-Nicene Fathers Volume I'
p34 Polycarp ChVII, "For whosoever does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is antichrist…"
p164 Justin Martyr Ch's V-VI, refutes the Roman charge that Christians are atheists
p166 Justin Ch XIII, note his expression of the Trinity
p173-180 Justin explains how Jesus fulfilled many OT prophecies, concerning his birth, sufferings, death and resurrection.
p180, ch LII, Justin says that at the second coming, "he shall raise the bodies of all men who have lived and shall clothe those of the worthy with immortality, and shall send those of the wicked, endued with eternal sensibility, into everlasting fire with the wicked devils" - no mention of a first and second resurrection.
p180, ch LII, "Since…all things which have already happened had been predicted by the prophets before they came to pass, we must necessarily believe also that those things which are in like manner predicted, but are yet to come to pass, shall certainly happen".
p180, ch LIII, Justin quotes Isaiah 54:1, "Rejoice O barren…" seeing it as prophecy that there will be more believers among the Gentiles than among the Jews.
p181-182 Justin argues that devils continue to deceive mankind by putting forth heretical doctrines to divert people from the truth about God.
p190, Ch V, Justin explains that demons are the offspring of fallen angels with human women.
p203, Ch XVII, Justin blames the Jews for all the persecutions levelled against Christians because they spread lies about Christianity among the nations.
p210, ch XXXII, Justin on Daniel 7 and Psalm 110, explaining that there are two advents, and says of Antichrist "and he whom Daniel foretells would have dominion for a time, and times and an half, is even already at the door, about to speak blasphemous and daring things against the Most High".
p211, chXXXIII, interprets Ps110. As a priest in the order of Melchizedek, Messiah is a priest of the uncircumcised, but also blesses the circumcised who believe and seek him.
p211, chXXXIV, attributes Ps72 to Jesus, not just Solomon. As such, this is a psalm about Christ's millennial reign.
p212, chXXXVI, attributes ps24 to Jesus. He understands it to have been fulfilled when Christ ascended on high after his resurrection.
p34 Polycarp ChVII, "For whosoever does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is antichrist…"
p164 Justin Martyr Ch's V-VI, refutes the Roman charge that Christians are atheists
p166 Justin Ch XIII, note his expression of the Trinity
p173-180 Justin explains how Jesus fulfilled many OT prophecies, concerning his birth, sufferings, death and resurrection.
p180, ch LII, Justin says that at the second coming, "he shall raise the bodies of all men who have lived and shall clothe those of the worthy with immortality, and shall send those of the wicked, endued with eternal sensibility, into everlasting fire with the wicked devils" - no mention of a first and second resurrection.
p180, ch LII, "Since…all things which have already happened had been predicted by the prophets before they came to pass, we must necessarily believe also that those things which are in like manner predicted, but are yet to come to pass, shall certainly happen".
p180, ch LIII, Justin quotes Isaiah 54:1, "Rejoice O barren…" seeing it as prophecy that there will be more believers among the Gentiles than among the Jews.
p181-182 Justin argues that devils continue to deceive mankind by putting forth heretical doctrines to divert people from the truth about God.
p190, Ch V, Justin explains that demons are the offspring of fallen angels with human women.
p203, Ch XVII, Justin blames the Jews for all the persecutions levelled against Christians because they spread lies about Christianity among the nations.
p210, ch XXXII, Justin on Daniel 7 and Psalm 110, explaining that there are two advents, and says of Antichrist "and he whom Daniel foretells would have dominion for a time, and times and an half, is even already at the door, about to speak blasphemous and daring things against the Most High".
p211, chXXXIII, interprets Ps110. As a priest in the order of Melchizedek, Messiah is a priest of the uncircumcised, but also blesses the circumcised who believe and seek him.
p211, chXXXIV, attributes Ps72 to Jesus, not just Solomon. As such, this is a psalm about Christ's millennial reign.
p212, chXXXVI, attributes ps24 to Jesus. He understands it to have been fulfilled when Christ ascended on high after his resurrection.
Notes From 'The Ante-Nicene Fathers Volume III'
p563 About the restrainer in 2 Thess 2:4 - Tertullian says, "What obstacle is there but the Roman state, the falling away of which, by being scattered into ten kingdoms, shall introduce Antichrist upon (its own ruins)?"
p563 About the restrainer in 2 Thess 2:4 - Tertullian says, "What obstacle is there but the Roman state, the falling away of which, by being scattered into ten kingdoms, shall introduce Antichrist upon (its own ruins)?"
City of God by St Augustine
p597 StA interprets Galations 4:21-5:1, with Sarah representing the New Covenant and the heavenly city, and Hagar representing the Old Covenant and earthly Jerusalem. See also p693.
p683-684 Augustine speaks about the Great Tribulation 'which is to be expected in the future under the power of the Antichrist…'
p685 In the Abrahamic land covenant, StA says of the river of Egypt, 'We can see this does not mean the great river of Egypt, the Nile, but from the small river which divides Egypt from Palestine…'
p687-688 In the promise of all the land of Canaan for an 'eternal' possession, StA understands the Greek word 'aionios' to mean 'until the end of this age'.
p694 StA comments on Romans 9:8, that it is the children of promise that are counted as Abraham's descendants, not the children born according to the flesh.
p694-695 Sacrifice of Isaac as a 'type' of Christ's sacrifice
p698 StA interprets Genesis 5:23, of Jacob and Esau, 'The elder will be servant to the younger', saying 'hardly any of our people has taken it to mean anything else but that the older people of the Jews was destined to serve the younger people, the Christians'….'And what can this meaning be except a prophecy which is now being clearly fulfilled in the Jews and the Christians?' - Me: StA looked for correlation between biblical prophecies and current events.
p701 To StA the bible is full of hidden meanings, 'If all the details that are so pregnant with hidden meanings of great importance were closely sifted, the results would fill many volumes. But a limit has to be set to this work to keep it to a reasonable size, and this compels us to hurry on to other topics'.
p703 In the story of Jacob's ladder (Gen 28:10-19), the stone which Jacob anointed with oil represents Christ the anointed one who is the true gateway to heaven (John 1:47-51).
p703 'We are not told that Jacob tried to get any other women but the one, nor that he had intercourse with any except with a view to procreation'. Me: StA saw enjoyment of sex as lust, and that sex was only lawful for a Christian with a view to procreation.
p706 StA interprets Jacob's prophecy over Judah (Gen 49:8-12), as pointing to Jesus, including his death and resurrection.
p709 Moses gave Israel the Law, but it was Joshua (whose name in Greek is Jesus) who led them into the promised land.
p712-13 StA understood the land promise of the Abrahamic covenant to have been fulfilled in the time of David and Solomon, 'whose dominion extended over the whole area mentioned in the promise. For they subdued all those peoples and made them tributary nations'.
p713-15 StA explains that some OT prophecies related to the historical earthly Jerusalem, some to the heavenly Jerusalem, and some to both.
p715-724 StA exegetes Hannah's hymn of praise, seeing it as a prophetic picture of unbelieving Israel being humbled and the spiritually poor being exalted in Christ and his Church.
p719 Significance of the number 7: '…for by that number the perfection of the universal Church is symbolised. This is the reason why the apostle John writes to seven churches; it is his way of showing that he is writing to the entirety of the one Church'.
P724-728 StA exegetes 1 Sam 2:27-36, the words of the prophet to Eli. Although God had promised the Aaronic priesthood would last forever, he changes his mind. He then prophesies the end of the Aaronic priesthood and the raising up of the Christian one instead.
p727 Speaking of Jewish Christians, StA says, '…in the time of the Apostles very many of that race believed; and even now there is not a complete absence of believers from among them, though they are few and far between'.
p729 The Aaronic priesthood and the Jewish kingdom were said to have been established forever, but no longer exist. StA sees them as shadows or prefigurements of the Christian priesthood and of the heavenly kingdom. The promised eternity must be interpreted as applying to what they foreshadowed, not to the shadows themselves.
p731 In 1 Sam 15:27-28, Samuel tells Saul that God has torn the kingdom away from him and given it to a better man. StA sees this transference of the kingdom to the line of David as a shadow of the kingdom later being taken from unbelieving Israel and given to Christ, whose kingdom is a spiritual one.
p734-736 In 2 Samuel 7:8-16, StA sees Jesus, not Solomon, as the true fulfilment of God's promises to David about his son who would build God a house.
p736-739 Psalm 89:1-37 affirm God's everlasting commitment to the Davidic covenant. In stark contrast, verses 38-51describe an apparent lapse when God becomes angry with David's line and appears to have rejected his covenant with him. StA sees the Davidic covenant fulfilled in Christ and heavenly Jerusalem, but earthly Jerusalem is rejected.
p739 StA believes the Jews will be restored to faith, '…and 'the end' is to be understood as the last time, when even that nation is destined to believe in Christ Jesus'.
p742 'These words are eminently suitable for the whole people of God who belong to the Heavenly Jerusalem, whether among those who were hidden in the time of the old covenant, before the revelation of the new, or among those who, after its revelation, are clearly manifested as belonging to Christ'.
p743 StA quotes 2 Samuel 7:10 which says, "Then I shall establish a place for my people Israel, and I shall set them there and they will dwell by themselves, and shall be disturbed no more. And the son of wickedness will not continue to humiliate them as he has done from the start…" StA comments, 'Anyone who hopes for so great a blessing in this world and on this earth has the wisdom of a fool. Can anyone really imagine that this blessing was fully granted in the peace of Solomon's reign?'…p744 'That place, then, which is promised as a dwelling of such peace and security is eternal, and is reserved for eternal beings in 'the mother, the Jerusalem which is free''.
p747 Commenting on Psalm 45:10-17, StA says, 'This queen is Sion, in the spiritual sense. The name Sion means 'contemplation'; for she contemplates the great blessing of the age to come, since all her striving is directed to that end. She is also Jerusalem…Her enemy is Babylon, the city of the Devil, whose name means 'confusion'. However, this queen among the nations is set free from that Babylon by rebirth, and passes over from the worst to the best of kings, that is, from the Devil to Christ…Those who are Israelites by physical descent and not by faith, are part of that godless city; they are also enemies of this great king himself, and of his queen'. Me: So StA saw Babylon as unbelieving Israel.
p749 Commenting on Psalm 110, StA says, 'That Christ is at the right hand of the Father is matter of belief, not of sight; and it is not yet obvious that his enemies are put under his feet. But this is what is happening, and it will be obvious in the end'.
p795 Commenting on Hosea 1:10, StA says, 'And because the people of the Gentile nations themselves are spiritually among the children of Abraham and for that reason are correctly called Israel, he therefore goes on to say, 'And the sons of Judah and the sons of Israel will be assembled in one place and they will appoint for themselves one head and they shall ascend from the earth'. Me: So he equates the Gentile church with Israel. However he then goes on to say, 'Again, the same prophet testifies that the Israelites by physical descent who now refuse to believe in Christ will afterwards believe, that is their sons will believe', and he quotes Hosea 3:4 and Amos 9:11 as proof.
p799 Commenting on Obadiah's prophecy about Edom, StA says, 'Mount Sion signifies Judaea…whereas Mount Esau is Edom, by which is signified the Church of the Gentiles…'. Me: But surely Obadiah is a prophecy about the Jews exacting judgment against Edom, eg. v18, 'The descendants of Jacob will be a fire, and the descendants of Joseph a flame. The descendants of Esau will be like stubble…'.
p800-804 StA interprets Habakkuk 3 allegorically in relation to Christ's first coming and the subsequent spread of the Gospel, not as a second-coming passage, even though verse 4 is clearly the background for Matthew 24:27 (the lightning).
p806 'Of these Daniel specified the time when Christ was destined to come and to suffer, by giving the number of years that were to intervene'.
p812 StA gives his reasons for not accepting the book of Enoch, etc
p815 'For could we rely on a better chronicler of the past than one who also foretold the future as we now see it happening before our eyes?'
p826, StA sees the beginning of Herod's reign as a sign that it was time for Messiah to come, based on Genesis 49:10, in that Herod was Israel's first foreign king, so the sceptre had departed from Judah.
p830 StA saw the fulfilment of OT prophecy in Christ as the best way of convincing intelligent people to believe.
p830 Haggai 2:9 said during the building of the 2nd temple, "The future splendor of this temple will be greater than that of former times,…and in this place I will give peace". StA argues that Haggai's prophecy is fulfilled in that the 2nd temple symbolised the NT temple built of living stones, whose glory is greater than that of Solomon's temple.
p832 'Then was fulfilled the prophecy: 'Out of Sion the law will go forth, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem'' (Isaiah 2:3). StA sees this as the basis for Christ's words in Luke 24:47 and Acts 1:7.
p833 'The Devil, however, seeing that the temples of demons were being abandoned, and that the human race was hastening to take the name of the Mediator who sets men free, stirred up heretics to oppose Christian doctrine…' Me: So StA sees the Devil as still taking an active role of deception in the present age.
p837 Referring to the final persecution under Antichrist, StA says, 'On the other hand it is no less rash to assert that there are to be other persecutions by kings, apart from that final persecution about which no Christian has any doubt'. Me: So at the time of StA, Christians were in agreement that Antichrist's persecution was still future.
p838 'That last persecution, to be sure, which will be inflicted by Antichrist, will be extinguished by Jesus himself, present in person. For the scripture says that 'he will kill him with the breath of his mouth and annihilate him by the splendour of his coming'.' StA goes to to explain why it is fruitless to try to predict the timing of the second coming, quoting Acts 1:6 'It is not for you to know the times which the Father has reserved for his own control'.
p840 StA quotes Psalm 72:8 'He will have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river as far as the ends of the earth'. He understands the river as a reference to Jesus' baptism in the Jordan, and that this is a picture of the spread of his kingdom in this present age.
p864 'However, not even the saints and the faithful worshippers of the one true and supreme God enjoy exemption from the deceptions of demons and from their multifarious temptations'.
p886-7 StA's comments about certain heresies could equally be made about the lies of Islam.
p892 StA sees the City of God and the City of Babylon as intermingled in this present age, and that we benefit from her peace, as pilgrims in her midst, just as Jeremiah told the OT Jews to seek the peace of Babylon 'because in her peace is your peace' (Jeremiah 29:7)
p895 'Now it is a belief held by the whole Church of the true God, in private confession and also in public profession, that Christ is to come from heaven to judge both the living and the dead, and this is what we call the Last Day, the day of divine judgement'.
p898 'However, when we reach that judgment of God, the time of which is in a special sense called the Day of Judgment and sometimes the Day of the Lord, then it will become plain that God's judgments are perfectly just…' Me: StA saw the Day of Lord as a future event, not something that happened in AD70.
p989-9 StA comments on Ecclesiastes, and Solomon's conclusion in 12:13-14, 'Fear God and keep his commandments, because this is the whole man; for God will bring up for judgement every action in this world, wherever any has been disregarded, whether good or evil'.
p899-900 Introducing the Day of Judgement, StA says, 'The New Testament will be quoted first, and then the Old will be brought in to confirm its evidence'. He then explains his reasons for this priority.
p901 StA explains the universality implied by the number 12, as the product of 3 and 4, whose sum is 7.
p902 StA acknowledges that he finds some passages about the Day of Judgment ambiguous, and is unsure whether they refer to God's judgments in the present age, to his judgments in AD70, or to his judgments at the end of the age.
p902 StA refers to his letter to Hesychius, entitled 'On the End of the Word' - See 'Letters of St Augustine', 199.
p903-6 StA understands the first resurrection to be spiritual and to occur at conversion; and the second resurrection to be of the body and to occur at the end of the age.
p906-10 StA describes premillennialism, how he used to believe it, but his reasons for subsequently rejecting it. And he explains his understanding of the binding of Satan so that he cannot deceive the Church/nations.
p911 'And so the Devil is bound throughout the whole period embraced by the Apocalypse, that is, from the first coming of Christ to the end of the world, which will be Christ's second coming…' Me: This suggests that StA understood Revelation to be interpreted from a historicist perspective.
p911 'But the Devil will be unloosened when the 'short time' comes; for we are told that he is going to rage with all his strength, and with the strength of his supporters for three years and six months'.
p910-14 StA explains his understanding of the binding of Satan in Rev20, and of him being loosed for a short time.
p911 'What are we, to be sure, in comparison with the saints and believers of the future, seeing that so mighty an adversary will be let loose against them, whereas we have the greatest peril in our struggle with him although he is bound?' Me: This shows that StA expected the saints to pass through and endure the Great Tribulation.
p912 StA sees the binding of Satan as an ongoing process during the interadvental age.
p912 StA understands the Abyss in which Satan is bound to be the dark depths of the hearts of those who hate the Christians.
p914-18 StA understands that the saints are reigning now with Christ, in this present age, for they have already partaken of the first resurrection by believing in Christ.
p918-9 StA argues that the first resurrection is of the soul, and the second is the bodily resurrection.
p919-20 StA argues that Gog and Magog represent nations in the four corners of the earth, not specific nations of barbarians.
p920-21 StA argues that the fire which consumes Gog and Magog is the zeal of the Church.
p921-23 StA argues Satan is unbound first, the final persecution involving Gog and Magog then lasts for the final 3 1/2 years of the 1000 yrs, but the saints continue to reign with Christ until the end of the 1000 yrs.
p923 'Then the Devil, their seducer, was flung into the lake of fire and sulphur, into which the beast and the false prophet had been cast'….'The correct interpretation of 'the beast' is the ungodly city itself; while its 'false prophet' stands either for Antichrist, or for that 'image', that is that pretence, about which I spoke (earlier)'.
p924 'For after the judgment has been accomplished this heaven and this earth will, of course, cease to be, when a new heaven and a new earth will come into being. For it is by a transformation of the physical universe, not by its annihilation, that this world will pass away… It is then the outward form, not the substance, that passes'.
p925-7 The meaning of the dead given up by the sea, and by Death and Hades.
p927 'then the form of this world will pass away in a blazing up of the fires of the world, just as the Deluge was caused by the overflowing of the waters of the world'.
p928 StA interprets 'there is no longer any sea' as an allegory for the rough weather and storms of this age.
p932 Commenting on 2 Thess 2:1-12, StA says, ' No-one can doubt that Paul is here speaking of Antichrist, telling us that the day of judgment (which he calls the Day of the Lord) will not come without the prior coming of a figure whom he calls the Apostate, meaning of course, an apostate from the Lord God'.
p933 Commenting on 2 Thess 2:7 and what is holding back the man of lawlessness, StA says, 'I admit that the meaning of this completely escapes me. For all that, I shall not refrain from mentioning some guesses at the meaning which I have been able to hear or read'. He goes on to refute a theory that the secret power of lawlessness is a reference to Nero, and that Nero is due to come back as the Antichrist. But he is supportive of the idea that the restrainer is the Roman Imperial power.
p935-8 Resurrection and rapture in 1 Thess 4:13-17. StA comments, 'The Apostle's words show with the utmost clarity that there will be a resurrection of the dead when Christ comes; and assuredly the purpose of his coming will be to judge the living and the dead'.
p938-43 StA on Isaiah 66: 'For metaphorical and literal expressions are intermingled, in the prophetic manner, so that a sober attentiveness may arrive at the spiritual meaning by a painstaking effort which is both useful and salutary; whereas the indolence of the flesh and the slowness of an uninstructed and untrained mind is content with the superficial literal meaning and thinks that no inner meaning is to be sought'.
p945 Commenting on the fourth beast and the eleventh horn, StA says, 'Yet anyone who reads the passage in Daniel, even if half-asleep, cannot conceivably doubt that the reign of Antichrist is to be endured, if only for a brief space fo time, with its bitter savagery against the Church, until by the final judgment of God the saints receive their everlasting kingdom'.
p951-55 Comments on Malachi 3:1-6, especially 'Then they will offer to the Lord sacrifices in righteousness, and the sacrifice of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord…'
p957 Speaking of Elijah coming, according to Malachi 4:5, StA affirms a possible literal fulfilment 'since there is good reason for the belief that he is still alive; for he was carried up from the world of men in a fiery chariot'. StA understands that he will lead the Jews to faith in Jesus.
p963 StA suggests a timeline of events: 'Elijah the Tishbite will come; Jews will accept the faith; Antichrist will persecute; Christ will judge; the dead will rise again; the good and the evil will be separated; the earth will be destroyed in the flames and then will be renewed. All these events, we must believe, will come about; but in what way, and in what order they will come, actual experience will then teach us with a finality surpassing anything our human understanding is now capable of attaining. However, I consider that these events are destined to come about in the order I have given'.
p993-4 StA explains how God's grace works for each stage of life in the elect, from small children who are baptised, to older children, to adolescents and to adults.
p597 StA interprets Galations 4:21-5:1, with Sarah representing the New Covenant and the heavenly city, and Hagar representing the Old Covenant and earthly Jerusalem. See also p693.
p683-684 Augustine speaks about the Great Tribulation 'which is to be expected in the future under the power of the Antichrist…'
p685 In the Abrahamic land covenant, StA says of the river of Egypt, 'We can see this does not mean the great river of Egypt, the Nile, but from the small river which divides Egypt from Palestine…'
p687-688 In the promise of all the land of Canaan for an 'eternal' possession, StA understands the Greek word 'aionios' to mean 'until the end of this age'.
p694 StA comments on Romans 9:8, that it is the children of promise that are counted as Abraham's descendants, not the children born according to the flesh.
p694-695 Sacrifice of Isaac as a 'type' of Christ's sacrifice
p698 StA interprets Genesis 5:23, of Jacob and Esau, 'The elder will be servant to the younger', saying 'hardly any of our people has taken it to mean anything else but that the older people of the Jews was destined to serve the younger people, the Christians'….'And what can this meaning be except a prophecy which is now being clearly fulfilled in the Jews and the Christians?' - Me: StA looked for correlation between biblical prophecies and current events.
p701 To StA the bible is full of hidden meanings, 'If all the details that are so pregnant with hidden meanings of great importance were closely sifted, the results would fill many volumes. But a limit has to be set to this work to keep it to a reasonable size, and this compels us to hurry on to other topics'.
p703 In the story of Jacob's ladder (Gen 28:10-19), the stone which Jacob anointed with oil represents Christ the anointed one who is the true gateway to heaven (John 1:47-51).
p703 'We are not told that Jacob tried to get any other women but the one, nor that he had intercourse with any except with a view to procreation'. Me: StA saw enjoyment of sex as lust, and that sex was only lawful for a Christian with a view to procreation.
p706 StA interprets Jacob's prophecy over Judah (Gen 49:8-12), as pointing to Jesus, including his death and resurrection.
p709 Moses gave Israel the Law, but it was Joshua (whose name in Greek is Jesus) who led them into the promised land.
p712-13 StA understood the land promise of the Abrahamic covenant to have been fulfilled in the time of David and Solomon, 'whose dominion extended over the whole area mentioned in the promise. For they subdued all those peoples and made them tributary nations'.
p713-15 StA explains that some OT prophecies related to the historical earthly Jerusalem, some to the heavenly Jerusalem, and some to both.
p715-724 StA exegetes Hannah's hymn of praise, seeing it as a prophetic picture of unbelieving Israel being humbled and the spiritually poor being exalted in Christ and his Church.
p719 Significance of the number 7: '…for by that number the perfection of the universal Church is symbolised. This is the reason why the apostle John writes to seven churches; it is his way of showing that he is writing to the entirety of the one Church'.
P724-728 StA exegetes 1 Sam 2:27-36, the words of the prophet to Eli. Although God had promised the Aaronic priesthood would last forever, he changes his mind. He then prophesies the end of the Aaronic priesthood and the raising up of the Christian one instead.
p727 Speaking of Jewish Christians, StA says, '…in the time of the Apostles very many of that race believed; and even now there is not a complete absence of believers from among them, though they are few and far between'.
p729 The Aaronic priesthood and the Jewish kingdom were said to have been established forever, but no longer exist. StA sees them as shadows or prefigurements of the Christian priesthood and of the heavenly kingdom. The promised eternity must be interpreted as applying to what they foreshadowed, not to the shadows themselves.
p731 In 1 Sam 15:27-28, Samuel tells Saul that God has torn the kingdom away from him and given it to a better man. StA sees this transference of the kingdom to the line of David as a shadow of the kingdom later being taken from unbelieving Israel and given to Christ, whose kingdom is a spiritual one.
p734-736 In 2 Samuel 7:8-16, StA sees Jesus, not Solomon, as the true fulfilment of God's promises to David about his son who would build God a house.
p736-739 Psalm 89:1-37 affirm God's everlasting commitment to the Davidic covenant. In stark contrast, verses 38-51describe an apparent lapse when God becomes angry with David's line and appears to have rejected his covenant with him. StA sees the Davidic covenant fulfilled in Christ and heavenly Jerusalem, but earthly Jerusalem is rejected.
p739 StA believes the Jews will be restored to faith, '…and 'the end' is to be understood as the last time, when even that nation is destined to believe in Christ Jesus'.
p742 'These words are eminently suitable for the whole people of God who belong to the Heavenly Jerusalem, whether among those who were hidden in the time of the old covenant, before the revelation of the new, or among those who, after its revelation, are clearly manifested as belonging to Christ'.
p743 StA quotes 2 Samuel 7:10 which says, "Then I shall establish a place for my people Israel, and I shall set them there and they will dwell by themselves, and shall be disturbed no more. And the son of wickedness will not continue to humiliate them as he has done from the start…" StA comments, 'Anyone who hopes for so great a blessing in this world and on this earth has the wisdom of a fool. Can anyone really imagine that this blessing was fully granted in the peace of Solomon's reign?'…p744 'That place, then, which is promised as a dwelling of such peace and security is eternal, and is reserved for eternal beings in 'the mother, the Jerusalem which is free''.
p747 Commenting on Psalm 45:10-17, StA says, 'This queen is Sion, in the spiritual sense. The name Sion means 'contemplation'; for she contemplates the great blessing of the age to come, since all her striving is directed to that end. She is also Jerusalem…Her enemy is Babylon, the city of the Devil, whose name means 'confusion'. However, this queen among the nations is set free from that Babylon by rebirth, and passes over from the worst to the best of kings, that is, from the Devil to Christ…Those who are Israelites by physical descent and not by faith, are part of that godless city; they are also enemies of this great king himself, and of his queen'. Me: So StA saw Babylon as unbelieving Israel.
p749 Commenting on Psalm 110, StA says, 'That Christ is at the right hand of the Father is matter of belief, not of sight; and it is not yet obvious that his enemies are put under his feet. But this is what is happening, and it will be obvious in the end'.
p795 Commenting on Hosea 1:10, StA says, 'And because the people of the Gentile nations themselves are spiritually among the children of Abraham and for that reason are correctly called Israel, he therefore goes on to say, 'And the sons of Judah and the sons of Israel will be assembled in one place and they will appoint for themselves one head and they shall ascend from the earth'. Me: So he equates the Gentile church with Israel. However he then goes on to say, 'Again, the same prophet testifies that the Israelites by physical descent who now refuse to believe in Christ will afterwards believe, that is their sons will believe', and he quotes Hosea 3:4 and Amos 9:11 as proof.
p799 Commenting on Obadiah's prophecy about Edom, StA says, 'Mount Sion signifies Judaea…whereas Mount Esau is Edom, by which is signified the Church of the Gentiles…'. Me: But surely Obadiah is a prophecy about the Jews exacting judgment against Edom, eg. v18, 'The descendants of Jacob will be a fire, and the descendants of Joseph a flame. The descendants of Esau will be like stubble…'.
p800-804 StA interprets Habakkuk 3 allegorically in relation to Christ's first coming and the subsequent spread of the Gospel, not as a second-coming passage, even though verse 4 is clearly the background for Matthew 24:27 (the lightning).
p806 'Of these Daniel specified the time when Christ was destined to come and to suffer, by giving the number of years that were to intervene'.
p812 StA gives his reasons for not accepting the book of Enoch, etc
p815 'For could we rely on a better chronicler of the past than one who also foretold the future as we now see it happening before our eyes?'
p826, StA sees the beginning of Herod's reign as a sign that it was time for Messiah to come, based on Genesis 49:10, in that Herod was Israel's first foreign king, so the sceptre had departed from Judah.
p830 StA saw the fulfilment of OT prophecy in Christ as the best way of convincing intelligent people to believe.
p830 Haggai 2:9 said during the building of the 2nd temple, "The future splendor of this temple will be greater than that of former times,…and in this place I will give peace". StA argues that Haggai's prophecy is fulfilled in that the 2nd temple symbolised the NT temple built of living stones, whose glory is greater than that of Solomon's temple.
p832 'Then was fulfilled the prophecy: 'Out of Sion the law will go forth, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem'' (Isaiah 2:3). StA sees this as the basis for Christ's words in Luke 24:47 and Acts 1:7.
p833 'The Devil, however, seeing that the temples of demons were being abandoned, and that the human race was hastening to take the name of the Mediator who sets men free, stirred up heretics to oppose Christian doctrine…' Me: So StA sees the Devil as still taking an active role of deception in the present age.
p837 Referring to the final persecution under Antichrist, StA says, 'On the other hand it is no less rash to assert that there are to be other persecutions by kings, apart from that final persecution about which no Christian has any doubt'. Me: So at the time of StA, Christians were in agreement that Antichrist's persecution was still future.
p838 'That last persecution, to be sure, which will be inflicted by Antichrist, will be extinguished by Jesus himself, present in person. For the scripture says that 'he will kill him with the breath of his mouth and annihilate him by the splendour of his coming'.' StA goes to to explain why it is fruitless to try to predict the timing of the second coming, quoting Acts 1:6 'It is not for you to know the times which the Father has reserved for his own control'.
p840 StA quotes Psalm 72:8 'He will have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river as far as the ends of the earth'. He understands the river as a reference to Jesus' baptism in the Jordan, and that this is a picture of the spread of his kingdom in this present age.
p864 'However, not even the saints and the faithful worshippers of the one true and supreme God enjoy exemption from the deceptions of demons and from their multifarious temptations'.
p886-7 StA's comments about certain heresies could equally be made about the lies of Islam.
p892 StA sees the City of God and the City of Babylon as intermingled in this present age, and that we benefit from her peace, as pilgrims in her midst, just as Jeremiah told the OT Jews to seek the peace of Babylon 'because in her peace is your peace' (Jeremiah 29:7)
p895 'Now it is a belief held by the whole Church of the true God, in private confession and also in public profession, that Christ is to come from heaven to judge both the living and the dead, and this is what we call the Last Day, the day of divine judgement'.
p898 'However, when we reach that judgment of God, the time of which is in a special sense called the Day of Judgment and sometimes the Day of the Lord, then it will become plain that God's judgments are perfectly just…' Me: StA saw the Day of Lord as a future event, not something that happened in AD70.
p989-9 StA comments on Ecclesiastes, and Solomon's conclusion in 12:13-14, 'Fear God and keep his commandments, because this is the whole man; for God will bring up for judgement every action in this world, wherever any has been disregarded, whether good or evil'.
p899-900 Introducing the Day of Judgement, StA says, 'The New Testament will be quoted first, and then the Old will be brought in to confirm its evidence'. He then explains his reasons for this priority.
p901 StA explains the universality implied by the number 12, as the product of 3 and 4, whose sum is 7.
p902 StA acknowledges that he finds some passages about the Day of Judgment ambiguous, and is unsure whether they refer to God's judgments in the present age, to his judgments in AD70, or to his judgments at the end of the age.
p902 StA refers to his letter to Hesychius, entitled 'On the End of the Word' - See 'Letters of St Augustine', 199.
p903-6 StA understands the first resurrection to be spiritual and to occur at conversion; and the second resurrection to be of the body and to occur at the end of the age.
p906-10 StA describes premillennialism, how he used to believe it, but his reasons for subsequently rejecting it. And he explains his understanding of the binding of Satan so that he cannot deceive the Church/nations.
p911 'And so the Devil is bound throughout the whole period embraced by the Apocalypse, that is, from the first coming of Christ to the end of the world, which will be Christ's second coming…' Me: This suggests that StA understood Revelation to be interpreted from a historicist perspective.
p911 'But the Devil will be unloosened when the 'short time' comes; for we are told that he is going to rage with all his strength, and with the strength of his supporters for three years and six months'.
p910-14 StA explains his understanding of the binding of Satan in Rev20, and of him being loosed for a short time.
p911 'What are we, to be sure, in comparison with the saints and believers of the future, seeing that so mighty an adversary will be let loose against them, whereas we have the greatest peril in our struggle with him although he is bound?' Me: This shows that StA expected the saints to pass through and endure the Great Tribulation.
p912 StA sees the binding of Satan as an ongoing process during the interadvental age.
p912 StA understands the Abyss in which Satan is bound to be the dark depths of the hearts of those who hate the Christians.
p914-18 StA understands that the saints are reigning now with Christ, in this present age, for they have already partaken of the first resurrection by believing in Christ.
p918-9 StA argues that the first resurrection is of the soul, and the second is the bodily resurrection.
p919-20 StA argues that Gog and Magog represent nations in the four corners of the earth, not specific nations of barbarians.
p920-21 StA argues that the fire which consumes Gog and Magog is the zeal of the Church.
p921-23 StA argues Satan is unbound first, the final persecution involving Gog and Magog then lasts for the final 3 1/2 years of the 1000 yrs, but the saints continue to reign with Christ until the end of the 1000 yrs.
p923 'Then the Devil, their seducer, was flung into the lake of fire and sulphur, into which the beast and the false prophet had been cast'….'The correct interpretation of 'the beast' is the ungodly city itself; while its 'false prophet' stands either for Antichrist, or for that 'image', that is that pretence, about which I spoke (earlier)'.
p924 'For after the judgment has been accomplished this heaven and this earth will, of course, cease to be, when a new heaven and a new earth will come into being. For it is by a transformation of the physical universe, not by its annihilation, that this world will pass away… It is then the outward form, not the substance, that passes'.
p925-7 The meaning of the dead given up by the sea, and by Death and Hades.
p927 'then the form of this world will pass away in a blazing up of the fires of the world, just as the Deluge was caused by the overflowing of the waters of the world'.
p928 StA interprets 'there is no longer any sea' as an allegory for the rough weather and storms of this age.
p932 Commenting on 2 Thess 2:1-12, StA says, ' No-one can doubt that Paul is here speaking of Antichrist, telling us that the day of judgment (which he calls the Day of the Lord) will not come without the prior coming of a figure whom he calls the Apostate, meaning of course, an apostate from the Lord God'.
p933 Commenting on 2 Thess 2:7 and what is holding back the man of lawlessness, StA says, 'I admit that the meaning of this completely escapes me. For all that, I shall not refrain from mentioning some guesses at the meaning which I have been able to hear or read'. He goes on to refute a theory that the secret power of lawlessness is a reference to Nero, and that Nero is due to come back as the Antichrist. But he is supportive of the idea that the restrainer is the Roman Imperial power.
p935-8 Resurrection and rapture in 1 Thess 4:13-17. StA comments, 'The Apostle's words show with the utmost clarity that there will be a resurrection of the dead when Christ comes; and assuredly the purpose of his coming will be to judge the living and the dead'.
p938-43 StA on Isaiah 66: 'For metaphorical and literal expressions are intermingled, in the prophetic manner, so that a sober attentiveness may arrive at the spiritual meaning by a painstaking effort which is both useful and salutary; whereas the indolence of the flesh and the slowness of an uninstructed and untrained mind is content with the superficial literal meaning and thinks that no inner meaning is to be sought'.
p945 Commenting on the fourth beast and the eleventh horn, StA says, 'Yet anyone who reads the passage in Daniel, even if half-asleep, cannot conceivably doubt that the reign of Antichrist is to be endured, if only for a brief space fo time, with its bitter savagery against the Church, until by the final judgment of God the saints receive their everlasting kingdom'.
p951-55 Comments on Malachi 3:1-6, especially 'Then they will offer to the Lord sacrifices in righteousness, and the sacrifice of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord…'
p957 Speaking of Elijah coming, according to Malachi 4:5, StA affirms a possible literal fulfilment 'since there is good reason for the belief that he is still alive; for he was carried up from the world of men in a fiery chariot'. StA understands that he will lead the Jews to faith in Jesus.
p963 StA suggests a timeline of events: 'Elijah the Tishbite will come; Jews will accept the faith; Antichrist will persecute; Christ will judge; the dead will rise again; the good and the evil will be separated; the earth will be destroyed in the flames and then will be renewed. All these events, we must believe, will come about; but in what way, and in what order they will come, actual experience will then teach us with a finality surpassing anything our human understanding is now capable of attaining. However, I consider that these events are destined to come about in the order I have given'.
p993-4 StA explains how God's grace works for each stage of life in the elect, from small children who are baptised, to older children, to adolescents and to adults.
Notes from 'A Case for Amillennialism' by Kim Riddlebarger:
p97-99: The Two-Age Model, 'this age' and 'the age to come'. How can 'this age' be the Millennium when Satan is 'the god of this age' (2 Corinthians 4:4). The primary characteristic of the Millennium according to Rev 20:1-3 is that Satan is bound and cannot deceive the nations. The continued work of Satan is the critical flaw in amillennialism.
Aspects of Dispensationalism that I disagree with:
p115: I don't distinguish between 'kingdom of heaven' and 'kingdom of God'. To me they are synonymous. The 'kingdom of God' is a present reality awaiting its full consummation at the second coming. It is not just the millennial kingdom.
p117: I don't believe that the kingdom was postponed by Israel's rejection of Jesus. The Church was always part of God's plan.
p118: Dispensationalists believe that God has different redemptive purposes for Israel and the Church. My reading of the NT is that the Church is seen primarily as a Jewish movement which has opened its doors to welcome Gentiles (Acts 10, Gal 3:28).
p122b: Kim associates Satan falling like lighting from heaven (Luke 10:18) with Satan being bound (Rev 20) and with the restrainer (2 Thess 2:7). Also see p150. But this is inconsistent with his statements on p125 (see below).
p123: Jesus' miracles, his preaching to the poor, and his forgiving of sins demonstrated that the kingdom of God had come (at least provisionally), not that it was merely offered and then postponed. Me: The continuation of these after Jesus' death shows that the kingdom remained. Jesus did not take it back to heaven with him. P127b: "Dispensationalism, and its understanding of the postponed kingdom, flies directly in the face of the New Testament's teaching about the present reality of the kingdom".
p125m: the advance of the kingdom guarantees conflict with the forces of evil. "The Christian hope is that one day the kingdom will be consummated and all evil will be crushed by the lamb". This is inconsistent with Kim's earlier assumption that Satan has been bound.
p126m: What does 1 Cor 15:50 mean, "…Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God"? Does this conflict with the idea of mortals and immortals in the Millennium?
p129: Amillennialists understand the first resurrection (Rev 20:6) to be spiritual (John 5:24, Eph 2:5-6, Col 2:12-13; 3:1), affecting our inner beings, hearts and minds (2 Cor 4:16, Rom 12:2, Eph 3:16) and that the bodily resurrection occurs at the end of the age (Millennial). Me: But is not our spiritual resurrection the downpayment guaranteeing our physical resurrection (Ephesians 1:13-14)?
p132-137: Rebuttal of Dispensationalism.
p132: Kim argues for continuity between OT Israel and the Church. In the Septuagint, Ekklesia is used to translate the Hebrew 'qahal' which described Israel's OT assembly. Consequently, the Church is not a plan B or parenthetical stage in God's plan as seen by Dispensationalists.
p138b: Kim says, "…even in the face of present and rampant evil'. P139b: This present age is evil (Gal 1:4) and is dominated by those whose minds are blinded by Satan, the god of this age (2 Cor 4:4). Me: How then can Satan be bound?
p138-143: Rebuttal of Postmillennialism
p140b: Describing the last days, Paul says 'evil men and imposters will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived' (2 Tim 3:12-13). Me: Think Islam and Mohammed for example. The last days is the entire interadvental age, not just the end of this age and a short period of apostasy.
p142t: Amillennialists expect a militant church, participating in the suffering of Christ and awaiting rescue at the second coming. Postmillennialists expect a triumphant church at peace for centuries, followed by a short period of apostasy before Christ's coming.
p142m: The church triumphs by suffering with Christ, not by taking dominion over the world and controlling its political institutions, economic resources and cultural establishments.
p160-164: Kim: Both Daniel and Jesus portray a single resurrection of both the righteous and unrighteous (Dan 12:1-4, John 5:28-29), not two resurrections a thousand years apart. Me: But when Paul describes the pre-rapture resurrection he says it is for those 'in Christ' (1 Thess 4:16).
p162: Paul's description of the rapture includes a loud command, the voice of the archangel, and the trumpet trumpet call of God (1 Thess 4:14-17). It is anything but 'secret'!
p164: The final judgment of both the righteous and unrighteous occur at the same time, after the resurrection on the last day, without any thousand year gap. Me: At the second coming, Jesus judges and destroys the unrighteous living, except for a few survivors. The judgment of the unrighteous dead awaits the end of the millennium.
p166: Kim concludes that the resurrection (of righteous and unrighteous), the judgment, and cosmic renewal (2 Peter 3:3-15, Romans 8:19-21) are concomitant events, eliminating the possibility of a millennium between them. Me: The NT Apostles wrote without the benefit of Revelation - each of these mountain peaks appear together, but Revelation reveals the valley between them.
p:167-169: Kim addresses the tension between Christ's sudden unexpected return and signs that precede it.
p169-173: Kim refutes the idea of a secret rapture
p:171b-173: Kim explains NT usage of the terms 'apokalypsis', 'epiphaneia', and 'parousia', showing that they are used interchangeably to describe both the rapture and second coming - his point being that the rapture and second coming are different aspects of a single event, not events separated by the Tribulation.
p178-184: Kim interprets Daniel 9:24-27
p178b: Daniel's seventy weeks is based on the sabbath years of Leviticus 25:1-4. The 490 years represent ten periods of Jubilee, ushering in the ultimate jubilee of the age to come. Me: Yes, I didn't know this
p180: the decree to rebuild Jerusalem (Dan 9:25) - Kim interprets this as the decree of Cyrus (2 Chron 36:21, Isaiah 44:28), not that of Artaxerxes.
p182-184: Kim interprets the second half of the 70th week as symbolic of the entire period of the church in the wilderness of Gentile nations, with reference to Rev 12:14. As such he argues against a gap after the 69th week. The flaw in this is that the first 69 weeks were fulfilled in 483 literal years, so why should the 70th week be symbolic?
p188-190: Olivet discourse - three schools of thought.
p190t: 3rd view - not either-or but both-and.
p185-206: The Olivet Discourse
p191b-192t "The signs … would not only herald God's judgment on apostate Israel but would also characterise the entire period of time between the pronouncement of the covenant woes and Israel's being cut off and the end of the age…These signs were not given to us so that well intentioned Bible-prophecy experts can correlate current events to the immediate coming of Christ…". Me: Then why did Jesus rebuke the Pharisees for not recognising the signs of his coming?
p192m: Zealots making messianic claims - Acts 5:36-37; 21:38. Also see p195t.
p195-200 Destruction of the temple. Good consideration of historical and futurist fulfillments.
p195: Note reference to 1 Kings 9:6-7, God's warning to Solomon about the temple
p196: Good explanation of the abomination of desolation.
p200: Good rebuttal of preterism.
p200b-206: Christ's return. Kim overlooks the significance of 'immediately' in Matt24:29, and misses the fact that there must be an end-time tribulation and fall of Jerusalem.
p201b: Kim connects Matt24:29-31 with Isaiah 13:9-11, showing that the cosmic signs must be universal, and could not have been satisfied by the events of AD70 - good point.
p237-240: Kim explains what he understands by Satan being bound during this present age. He sees the abyss as one of the spheres within which Satan operates, and that he has been restricted to this realm through Christ's first coming. Me: The key question is whether or not Satan is still able to deceive the nations - what about Islam, for example?
p240-249: Kim explains Rev20:4-6. He understands the first resurrection to mean what Christians experience at conversion and when they die (John 5:24-25, Eph 2:5-6, Col 2:12). And the second resurrection is the bodily resurrection at the end of the age. He also insists that that during the thousand year reign, they reign in heaven, not on the earth. He therefore attributes the saints reigning on the earth in Rev5:10 to a description of the eternal age, not of the millennium.
p249-252 Rev20:7-10
p249: Kim sees this as particularly problematic for premillennialism. Because he understands the general resurrection to occur at Christ's coming, he cannot see who then populates millennial earth, and how people could fall when Satan is released near the end of the millennium. He says, 'The presence of evil in the millennial age is a problem from which all forms of premillennialism cannot escape'.
p251b: Kim says, "If judgment day and the second advent occur at the same time, all forms of premillennialism collapse". Me: The judgment at Christ's second coming is a judgment of the Church, as in the parable of the net. The general judgment is the great white throne judgment which awaits the end of the millennium.
p274-280: Kim summarises what he sees as the problems with Pre-Millennialism
p274-277: Kim sees the idea of an end-of-millennium rebellion as 'a second fall' because he cannot accept the idea of millennial earth being populated by both mortals and immortals.
p279: Jesus is already seated at God's right hand in heaven. Yes, but this does not mean he will not also one day rule on earth as envisioned in the OT.
p282-285: Kim challenges post-millennial preterism.
p285-287: Kim re-addresses objections to amillennialism, including spiritualisation of prophecy, binding of Satan, and the Nation of Israel and Abrahamic covenant. Especially see p285b-286t. Me: Satan is still at large deceiving the nations, Jesus has not yet crushed the head of the serpent's seed, and Satan has not yet been cast down - he is still the accuser.
p286m: Note that in 1939 Berkhof used the perceived impossibility of Israel being reformed as a nation as a proof against dispensationalism. In 1948 he had to eat his words.
p97-99: The Two-Age Model, 'this age' and 'the age to come'. How can 'this age' be the Millennium when Satan is 'the god of this age' (2 Corinthians 4:4). The primary characteristic of the Millennium according to Rev 20:1-3 is that Satan is bound and cannot deceive the nations. The continued work of Satan is the critical flaw in amillennialism.
Aspects of Dispensationalism that I disagree with:
p115: I don't distinguish between 'kingdom of heaven' and 'kingdom of God'. To me they are synonymous. The 'kingdom of God' is a present reality awaiting its full consummation at the second coming. It is not just the millennial kingdom.
p117: I don't believe that the kingdom was postponed by Israel's rejection of Jesus. The Church was always part of God's plan.
p118: Dispensationalists believe that God has different redemptive purposes for Israel and the Church. My reading of the NT is that the Church is seen primarily as a Jewish movement which has opened its doors to welcome Gentiles (Acts 10, Gal 3:28).
p122b: Kim associates Satan falling like lighting from heaven (Luke 10:18) with Satan being bound (Rev 20) and with the restrainer (2 Thess 2:7). Also see p150. But this is inconsistent with his statements on p125 (see below).
p123: Jesus' miracles, his preaching to the poor, and his forgiving of sins demonstrated that the kingdom of God had come (at least provisionally), not that it was merely offered and then postponed. Me: The continuation of these after Jesus' death shows that the kingdom remained. Jesus did not take it back to heaven with him. P127b: "Dispensationalism, and its understanding of the postponed kingdom, flies directly in the face of the New Testament's teaching about the present reality of the kingdom".
p125m: the advance of the kingdom guarantees conflict with the forces of evil. "The Christian hope is that one day the kingdom will be consummated and all evil will be crushed by the lamb". This is inconsistent with Kim's earlier assumption that Satan has been bound.
p126m: What does 1 Cor 15:50 mean, "…Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God"? Does this conflict with the idea of mortals and immortals in the Millennium?
p129: Amillennialists understand the first resurrection (Rev 20:6) to be spiritual (John 5:24, Eph 2:5-6, Col 2:12-13; 3:1), affecting our inner beings, hearts and minds (2 Cor 4:16, Rom 12:2, Eph 3:16) and that the bodily resurrection occurs at the end of the age (Millennial). Me: But is not our spiritual resurrection the downpayment guaranteeing our physical resurrection (Ephesians 1:13-14)?
p132-137: Rebuttal of Dispensationalism.
p132: Kim argues for continuity between OT Israel and the Church. In the Septuagint, Ekklesia is used to translate the Hebrew 'qahal' which described Israel's OT assembly. Consequently, the Church is not a plan B or parenthetical stage in God's plan as seen by Dispensationalists.
p138b: Kim says, "…even in the face of present and rampant evil'. P139b: This present age is evil (Gal 1:4) and is dominated by those whose minds are blinded by Satan, the god of this age (2 Cor 4:4). Me: How then can Satan be bound?
p138-143: Rebuttal of Postmillennialism
p140b: Describing the last days, Paul says 'evil men and imposters will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived' (2 Tim 3:12-13). Me: Think Islam and Mohammed for example. The last days is the entire interadvental age, not just the end of this age and a short period of apostasy.
p142t: Amillennialists expect a militant church, participating in the suffering of Christ and awaiting rescue at the second coming. Postmillennialists expect a triumphant church at peace for centuries, followed by a short period of apostasy before Christ's coming.
p142m: The church triumphs by suffering with Christ, not by taking dominion over the world and controlling its political institutions, economic resources and cultural establishments.
p160-164: Kim: Both Daniel and Jesus portray a single resurrection of both the righteous and unrighteous (Dan 12:1-4, John 5:28-29), not two resurrections a thousand years apart. Me: But when Paul describes the pre-rapture resurrection he says it is for those 'in Christ' (1 Thess 4:16).
p162: Paul's description of the rapture includes a loud command, the voice of the archangel, and the trumpet trumpet call of God (1 Thess 4:14-17). It is anything but 'secret'!
p164: The final judgment of both the righteous and unrighteous occur at the same time, after the resurrection on the last day, without any thousand year gap. Me: At the second coming, Jesus judges and destroys the unrighteous living, except for a few survivors. The judgment of the unrighteous dead awaits the end of the millennium.
p166: Kim concludes that the resurrection (of righteous and unrighteous), the judgment, and cosmic renewal (2 Peter 3:3-15, Romans 8:19-21) are concomitant events, eliminating the possibility of a millennium between them. Me: The NT Apostles wrote without the benefit of Revelation - each of these mountain peaks appear together, but Revelation reveals the valley between them.
p:167-169: Kim addresses the tension between Christ's sudden unexpected return and signs that precede it.
p169-173: Kim refutes the idea of a secret rapture
p:171b-173: Kim explains NT usage of the terms 'apokalypsis', 'epiphaneia', and 'parousia', showing that they are used interchangeably to describe both the rapture and second coming - his point being that the rapture and second coming are different aspects of a single event, not events separated by the Tribulation.
p178-184: Kim interprets Daniel 9:24-27
p178b: Daniel's seventy weeks is based on the sabbath years of Leviticus 25:1-4. The 490 years represent ten periods of Jubilee, ushering in the ultimate jubilee of the age to come. Me: Yes, I didn't know this
p180: the decree to rebuild Jerusalem (Dan 9:25) - Kim interprets this as the decree of Cyrus (2 Chron 36:21, Isaiah 44:28), not that of Artaxerxes.
p182-184: Kim interprets the second half of the 70th week as symbolic of the entire period of the church in the wilderness of Gentile nations, with reference to Rev 12:14. As such he argues against a gap after the 69th week. The flaw in this is that the first 69 weeks were fulfilled in 483 literal years, so why should the 70th week be symbolic?
p188-190: Olivet discourse - three schools of thought.
p190t: 3rd view - not either-or but both-and.
p185-206: The Olivet Discourse
p191b-192t "The signs … would not only herald God's judgment on apostate Israel but would also characterise the entire period of time between the pronouncement of the covenant woes and Israel's being cut off and the end of the age…These signs were not given to us so that well intentioned Bible-prophecy experts can correlate current events to the immediate coming of Christ…". Me: Then why did Jesus rebuke the Pharisees for not recognising the signs of his coming?
p192m: Zealots making messianic claims - Acts 5:36-37; 21:38. Also see p195t.
p195-200 Destruction of the temple. Good consideration of historical and futurist fulfillments.
p195: Note reference to 1 Kings 9:6-7, God's warning to Solomon about the temple
p196: Good explanation of the abomination of desolation.
p200: Good rebuttal of preterism.
p200b-206: Christ's return. Kim overlooks the significance of 'immediately' in Matt24:29, and misses the fact that there must be an end-time tribulation and fall of Jerusalem.
p201b: Kim connects Matt24:29-31 with Isaiah 13:9-11, showing that the cosmic signs must be universal, and could not have been satisfied by the events of AD70 - good point.
p237-240: Kim explains what he understands by Satan being bound during this present age. He sees the abyss as one of the spheres within which Satan operates, and that he has been restricted to this realm through Christ's first coming. Me: The key question is whether or not Satan is still able to deceive the nations - what about Islam, for example?
p240-249: Kim explains Rev20:4-6. He understands the first resurrection to mean what Christians experience at conversion and when they die (John 5:24-25, Eph 2:5-6, Col 2:12). And the second resurrection is the bodily resurrection at the end of the age. He also insists that that during the thousand year reign, they reign in heaven, not on the earth. He therefore attributes the saints reigning on the earth in Rev5:10 to a description of the eternal age, not of the millennium.
p249-252 Rev20:7-10
p249: Kim sees this as particularly problematic for premillennialism. Because he understands the general resurrection to occur at Christ's coming, he cannot see who then populates millennial earth, and how people could fall when Satan is released near the end of the millennium. He says, 'The presence of evil in the millennial age is a problem from which all forms of premillennialism cannot escape'.
p251b: Kim says, "If judgment day and the second advent occur at the same time, all forms of premillennialism collapse". Me: The judgment at Christ's second coming is a judgment of the Church, as in the parable of the net. The general judgment is the great white throne judgment which awaits the end of the millennium.
p274-280: Kim summarises what he sees as the problems with Pre-Millennialism
p274-277: Kim sees the idea of an end-of-millennium rebellion as 'a second fall' because he cannot accept the idea of millennial earth being populated by both mortals and immortals.
p279: Jesus is already seated at God's right hand in heaven. Yes, but this does not mean he will not also one day rule on earth as envisioned in the OT.
p282-285: Kim challenges post-millennial preterism.
p285-287: Kim re-addresses objections to amillennialism, including spiritualisation of prophecy, binding of Satan, and the Nation of Israel and Abrahamic covenant. Especially see p285b-286t. Me: Satan is still at large deceiving the nations, Jesus has not yet crushed the head of the serpent's seed, and Satan has not yet been cast down - he is still the accuser.
p286m: Note that in 1939 Berkhof used the perceived impossibility of Israel being reformed as a nation as a proof against dispensationalism. In 1948 he had to eat his words.
Notes on 'Seventy Weeks' by Robert Caringola
p10 The 1,260 days and the day-year theory
p20 Interprets Rev 11:13, "Just then a major earthquake took place and a tenth of the city collapsed; seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven". He understands the earthquake to be a political shaking that took place in 1579, and that the 'seven thousand people' represent seven provinces in the Netherlands that broke away from Rome.
p25-30 RC explains how two Jesuits came up with the futurist and preterist interpretations.
p37-42 The Little Horn of Daniel 7
p39 The bear in Daniel 7 is Medo-Persia. The three ribs in its mouth are Lydia, Babylon and Egypt.
p39-42 RC sees Western Rome as the fourth empire, which divided into ten parts after the fall of Rome in 476. He sees the eleventh horn as the rise of the Papacy. Between 533 and 752, three of the original 10 were uprooted by the Papacy (these were the Vandals, the Ostrogoths, and the Lombards)
p43-45 RC Interprets Rev17:8-12, Rome being the city on seven hills, the seven kings being seven types of Roman rulers, namely 1) kings, 2) consuls, 3) dictators, 4) decemvirs, 5) military tribunes, 6) military emperors (Caesars), 7) despotic emperors. He then interprets the 8th as the Papacy.
p47 RC sees the fall of Rome Pagan in 476 as its fatal head wound, and its replacement by Rome Papal as its apparent resurrection.
p47-48 RC sees the Roman Empire as the restrainer than holds back the Antichrist in 2 Thess 2:5-7
p50-52 'The Temple and the Man of Sin'. Interpreting 2 Thess 2:4, RC identifies the man of sin as the Pope, and he takes his seat in the 'naos' (spiritual temple - ie. Church) and claims to be God. He explains the difference between 'hieron', meaning the literal temple building, and 'naos', meaning the spiritual temple of spirit-filled believers.
p.51 RC quotes Pope Boniface VIII who claimed to be equal to God in papal Bull of 1303 known as Unam Sanctum.
p53-54 The day-year theory, and Bishop Thomas Newton's prediction in 1754 that the Jews would regain control of Jerusalem and the temple mount in 1967, based on Daniel 8:13-14. Newton took 334 BC as the starting point when Alexander invaded Asia. Adding 2,300 years took him to 1967.
p89 RC includes a list of people who have predicted dates for the second coming.
p89-92 RC describes the emergence of the pre-trib Rapture idea, starting with a book published in about 1791 by a Jesuit priest named Emmanuel Lacunza. According to RC, Lacunza proposed that 'the shout, the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God will occur much before his arrival'. An English translation of Lacunza's book by a Scottish preacher, Rev Edward Irving, was published in London in 1827, and he presented Lacunza's ideas at a series of prophecy seminars held in March 1830. In the same year, a fifteen-year old girl from Port Glasgow in Scotland named Margaret MacDonald claimed she had received a series of visions about a pre-tribulational rapture. John Nelson Darby, who had been ordained in the Church of England in 1825, was acquainted with Edward Irving and visited Margaret MacDonald. He adopted the idea of a pre-trib rapture, broke away from the Church of England, and joined the Brethren Church in Ireland. In 1833 Darby presented the pre-trib rapture at their annual prophecy conference. His ideas received a mixed reception, and he founded an offshoot of the Brethren Church known as the Plymouth Brethren. Darby made a series of seven visits to the USA and popularised his ideas there. In time, his ideas influenced a Congregational minister named Cyrus Scofield, who incorporated Darby's ideas into the 1909 Scofield Reference Bible.
p93-95 RC refutes the pre-trib secret rapture idea:
1) the parable of the wheat and the tares teaches that the wicked will be removed first, not the righteous, and that the harvest is at the end of the world (Matthew 13:39), not seven years beforehand
2) Martha spoke of 'the resurrection at the last day' (John 11:24).
3) Antichrist will persecute the saints (Daniel 7:25). How can this be if they have been raptured?
p99-101 RC teaches that the kingdom of God must be established on the Earth, not just be a spiritual heavenly reality.
p103-105 RC teaches 'The Growth Principle', based on the stone growing into a mountain in Daniel 2. He also sees the parables of the mustard seed and of the yeast as teaching this. He seems to expect that the Gospel will ultimately triumph.
p107-109 RC focusses on Psalm 110:1 and Acts 3:21, that Jesus has been seated at God's right hand and must remain in heaven until his enemies are made his footstool.
p115-122 (Appendix) RC quotes various protestants from the 16th to early 17 century who identified the Pope as the Antichrist or Man of Sin.
p10 The 1,260 days and the day-year theory
p20 Interprets Rev 11:13, "Just then a major earthquake took place and a tenth of the city collapsed; seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven". He understands the earthquake to be a political shaking that took place in 1579, and that the 'seven thousand people' represent seven provinces in the Netherlands that broke away from Rome.
p25-30 RC explains how two Jesuits came up with the futurist and preterist interpretations.
p37-42 The Little Horn of Daniel 7
p39 The bear in Daniel 7 is Medo-Persia. The three ribs in its mouth are Lydia, Babylon and Egypt.
p39-42 RC sees Western Rome as the fourth empire, which divided into ten parts after the fall of Rome in 476. He sees the eleventh horn as the rise of the Papacy. Between 533 and 752, three of the original 10 were uprooted by the Papacy (these were the Vandals, the Ostrogoths, and the Lombards)
p43-45 RC Interprets Rev17:8-12, Rome being the city on seven hills, the seven kings being seven types of Roman rulers, namely 1) kings, 2) consuls, 3) dictators, 4) decemvirs, 5) military tribunes, 6) military emperors (Caesars), 7) despotic emperors. He then interprets the 8th as the Papacy.
p47 RC sees the fall of Rome Pagan in 476 as its fatal head wound, and its replacement by Rome Papal as its apparent resurrection.
p47-48 RC sees the Roman Empire as the restrainer than holds back the Antichrist in 2 Thess 2:5-7
p50-52 'The Temple and the Man of Sin'. Interpreting 2 Thess 2:4, RC identifies the man of sin as the Pope, and he takes his seat in the 'naos' (spiritual temple - ie. Church) and claims to be God. He explains the difference between 'hieron', meaning the literal temple building, and 'naos', meaning the spiritual temple of spirit-filled believers.
p.51 RC quotes Pope Boniface VIII who claimed to be equal to God in papal Bull of 1303 known as Unam Sanctum.
p53-54 The day-year theory, and Bishop Thomas Newton's prediction in 1754 that the Jews would regain control of Jerusalem and the temple mount in 1967, based on Daniel 8:13-14. Newton took 334 BC as the starting point when Alexander invaded Asia. Adding 2,300 years took him to 1967.
p89 RC includes a list of people who have predicted dates for the second coming.
p89-92 RC describes the emergence of the pre-trib Rapture idea, starting with a book published in about 1791 by a Jesuit priest named Emmanuel Lacunza. According to RC, Lacunza proposed that 'the shout, the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God will occur much before his arrival'. An English translation of Lacunza's book by a Scottish preacher, Rev Edward Irving, was published in London in 1827, and he presented Lacunza's ideas at a series of prophecy seminars held in March 1830. In the same year, a fifteen-year old girl from Port Glasgow in Scotland named Margaret MacDonald claimed she had received a series of visions about a pre-tribulational rapture. John Nelson Darby, who had been ordained in the Church of England in 1825, was acquainted with Edward Irving and visited Margaret MacDonald. He adopted the idea of a pre-trib rapture, broke away from the Church of England, and joined the Brethren Church in Ireland. In 1833 Darby presented the pre-trib rapture at their annual prophecy conference. His ideas received a mixed reception, and he founded an offshoot of the Brethren Church known as the Plymouth Brethren. Darby made a series of seven visits to the USA and popularised his ideas there. In time, his ideas influenced a Congregational minister named Cyrus Scofield, who incorporated Darby's ideas into the 1909 Scofield Reference Bible.
p93-95 RC refutes the pre-trib secret rapture idea:
1) the parable of the wheat and the tares teaches that the wicked will be removed first, not the righteous, and that the harvest is at the end of the world (Matthew 13:39), not seven years beforehand
2) Martha spoke of 'the resurrection at the last day' (John 11:24).
3) Antichrist will persecute the saints (Daniel 7:25). How can this be if they have been raptured?
p99-101 RC teaches that the kingdom of God must be established on the Earth, not just be a spiritual heavenly reality.
p103-105 RC teaches 'The Growth Principle', based on the stone growing into a mountain in Daniel 2. He also sees the parables of the mustard seed and of the yeast as teaching this. He seems to expect that the Gospel will ultimately triumph.
p107-109 RC focusses on Psalm 110:1 and Acts 3:21, that Jesus has been seated at God's right hand and must remain in heaven until his enemies are made his footstool.
p115-122 (Appendix) RC quotes various protestants from the 16th to early 17 century who identified the Pope as the Antichrist or Man of Sin.
Notes from Bethlehem Star by Rick Larson
Jesus was crucified on Preparation Day before Passover (John 19:14) which was 14 Nissan in the Hebrew Calendar. We also know that it was a Friday (Luke 23:54, John 19:31). Tacitus records that Pilate was governor of Judea from 26 to 36 AD. Looking at which day of the week that 14 Nissan fell on (using rosettacalendar.com) reveals the following results:
26 AD - Friday
27 AD - Wednesday
28 AD - Monday
29 AD - Saturday
30 AD - Wednesday
31 AD - Monday
32 AD - Monday
33 AD - Friday
34 AD - Monday
35 AD - Monday
36 AD - Friday
This pinpoints Christ's crucifixion to 14 Nissan 3793, which was 3 April 33 AD in the Roman (Julian) Calendar.
Jesus was crucified on Preparation Day before Passover (John 19:14) which was 14 Nissan in the Hebrew Calendar. We also know that it was a Friday (Luke 23:54, John 19:31). Tacitus records that Pilate was governor of Judea from 26 to 36 AD. Looking at which day of the week that 14 Nissan fell on (using rosettacalendar.com) reveals the following results:
26 AD - Friday
27 AD - Wednesday
28 AD - Monday
29 AD - Saturday
30 AD - Wednesday
31 AD - Monday
32 AD - Monday
33 AD - Friday
34 AD - Monday
35 AD - Monday
36 AD - Friday
This pinpoints Christ's crucifixion to 14 Nissan 3793, which was 3 April 33 AD in the Roman (Julian) Calendar.
Notes from End Time Delusions by Steve Wohlberg
p35 Based on Revelation 16:15-16, SW argues that Jesus' coming like a thief must happen at Armageddon, not before it.
p40 The day-year principle, "Seventy weeks = 490 days. A day in prophecy represents a year (see Numbers 14:34 and Ezekiel 4:6)"
p60 SW points out from 2 Thess 2:1-3 that Antichrist must come first, contrary to the Dispensationalist belief that the Rapture comes first
p64 SW lists verses that speak of the great falling away / apostasy.
p67-69 Judas as a type of Antichrist, the 'son of perdition' (John 17:12 / 2 Thess 2:3). SW uses this to argue that Antichrist will rise up from within the Church, just as Judas was one of the trusted twelve apostles. Me: In reality John 17:12 calls Judas the 'son of destruction' (Greek: 'apoleia'), whereas 2 Thess 2:3 calls Antichrist the 'man of sin' (Greek: 'hamartia').
p72 SW argues that the 'man of sin' (2 Thess 2:3), need not be a single individual, but can be a series of sinful people. He compares this with the 'man of God' (2 Tim 3:17), and the 'minister of God' (Romans 13:4).
p73 SW points out that in 2 Thess 2:4 when the man of sin takes his seat in God's temple, he uses the Greek word 'naos', the same word he used in 1 Cor 3:16 and Eph 2:21 to tell the Church that they were the 'temple' of God. As such, SW argues that Antichrist must assume a place of authority within the Church, not within a rebuilt Jewish temple. And if the Jews were to rebuild their temple, it would be a rejection of Christ as their sacrifice, and not something that Paul would refer to as the temple of God.
p78-79 The restrainer - SW quotes Tertullian (155-240 AD), Chrysostom, and Augustine as suggesting the restrainer was the Roman state.
p87-93 SW presents his case that the Papacy is the Antichrist
p95-99 SW explains how the day-theory relates to the 70 weeks of Daniel 9, and also to the 1,260 days which he understands as 1,260 years. He identifies the 1.260 years as starting in 538 AD when the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian issued a decree that made the Bishop of Rome head of all the churches of western Europe. He sees the 1,260 years ending in 1798 when Napoleon overthrew the Papacy and took Pope Pius VI to France as his prisoner.
p101-104 SW sees the healing of the fatal wound as the restoration of Papal power and influence.
p105-110 In 1 John 4:2-3 and 2 John 7, the Antichrist is defined as someone who denies that Jesus has come in the flesh. SW explains the significance of Jesus taking on sinful flesh, yet without sinning, and how by doing so he became our high priest through whom we have direct access to God. SW explains how the Roman Catholic doctrine of Mary's Immaculate Conception denies this, and redirects access to God through Mary and through the priests.
p111-123 SW gives an overview of historicism, futurism and preterism
p125-132 SW traces the rise of Dispensationalism, and likens it to a virus that infects Protestant Christianity.
p133-137 SW describes the forefathers of the Reformation from the 1300's, John Wycliffe, John Huss, and Jerome of Prague, and their martyrdoms.
p35 Based on Revelation 16:15-16, SW argues that Jesus' coming like a thief must happen at Armageddon, not before it.
p40 The day-year principle, "Seventy weeks = 490 days. A day in prophecy represents a year (see Numbers 14:34 and Ezekiel 4:6)"
p60 SW points out from 2 Thess 2:1-3 that Antichrist must come first, contrary to the Dispensationalist belief that the Rapture comes first
p64 SW lists verses that speak of the great falling away / apostasy.
p67-69 Judas as a type of Antichrist, the 'son of perdition' (John 17:12 / 2 Thess 2:3). SW uses this to argue that Antichrist will rise up from within the Church, just as Judas was one of the trusted twelve apostles. Me: In reality John 17:12 calls Judas the 'son of destruction' (Greek: 'apoleia'), whereas 2 Thess 2:3 calls Antichrist the 'man of sin' (Greek: 'hamartia').
p72 SW argues that the 'man of sin' (2 Thess 2:3), need not be a single individual, but can be a series of sinful people. He compares this with the 'man of God' (2 Tim 3:17), and the 'minister of God' (Romans 13:4).
p73 SW points out that in 2 Thess 2:4 when the man of sin takes his seat in God's temple, he uses the Greek word 'naos', the same word he used in 1 Cor 3:16 and Eph 2:21 to tell the Church that they were the 'temple' of God. As such, SW argues that Antichrist must assume a place of authority within the Church, not within a rebuilt Jewish temple. And if the Jews were to rebuild their temple, it would be a rejection of Christ as their sacrifice, and not something that Paul would refer to as the temple of God.
p78-79 The restrainer - SW quotes Tertullian (155-240 AD), Chrysostom, and Augustine as suggesting the restrainer was the Roman state.
p87-93 SW presents his case that the Papacy is the Antichrist
p95-99 SW explains how the day-theory relates to the 70 weeks of Daniel 9, and also to the 1,260 days which he understands as 1,260 years. He identifies the 1.260 years as starting in 538 AD when the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian issued a decree that made the Bishop of Rome head of all the churches of western Europe. He sees the 1,260 years ending in 1798 when Napoleon overthrew the Papacy and took Pope Pius VI to France as his prisoner.
p101-104 SW sees the healing of the fatal wound as the restoration of Papal power and influence.
p105-110 In 1 John 4:2-3 and 2 John 7, the Antichrist is defined as someone who denies that Jesus has come in the flesh. SW explains the significance of Jesus taking on sinful flesh, yet without sinning, and how by doing so he became our high priest through whom we have direct access to God. SW explains how the Roman Catholic doctrine of Mary's Immaculate Conception denies this, and redirects access to God through Mary and through the priests.
p111-123 SW gives an overview of historicism, futurism and preterism
p125-132 SW traces the rise of Dispensationalism, and likens it to a virus that infects Protestant Christianity.
p133-137 SW describes the forefathers of the Reformation from the 1300's, John Wycliffe, John Huss, and Jerome of Prague, and their martyrdoms.
Civilian Casualty Ratios in modern wars
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_casualty_ratio
Ratios shown are Civilian:Combatant and Civilian as a % of the total casualties.
Mexican Revolutioni 1910-20 = 1:1 (50%)
WWI = 1.4:1 (59%)
WWII = Between 1.5:1 and 2:1 (60 - 67%)
Korean War = 3:1 (75%)
Vietnam War = Between 1:1 and 2:1 (50 - 67%)
1982 Lebanon War = 6:1 (86%)
Chechen Wars = 7.6:1 (88%)
NATO in Yugoslavia = 4:1 (80%)
Afghanistan War 2001-2015 = 0.4:1 (29%)
US drone strikes in Pakistan 2004-2018 = 0.2:1 (16%)
Battle of Mosul (Global Coalition against Islamic State) = Between 0.7:1 and 1.5:1 (42 - 60%)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_casualty_ratio
Ratios shown are Civilian:Combatant and Civilian as a % of the total casualties.
Mexican Revolutioni 1910-20 = 1:1 (50%)
WWI = 1.4:1 (59%)
WWII = Between 1.5:1 and 2:1 (60 - 67%)
Korean War = 3:1 (75%)
Vietnam War = Between 1:1 and 2:1 (50 - 67%)
1982 Lebanon War = 6:1 (86%)
Chechen Wars = 7.6:1 (88%)
NATO in Yugoslavia = 4:1 (80%)
Afghanistan War 2001-2015 = 0.4:1 (29%)
US drone strikes in Pakistan 2004-2018 = 0.2:1 (16%)
Battle of Mosul (Global Coalition against Islamic State) = Between 0.7:1 and 1.5:1 (42 - 60%)
Notes from Whose Land? presented by Colonel Richard Kemp.
See website and Youtube Channel
1. Foundations of Palestine:
Israel was renamed Palestine by Emperor Hadrian after the Bar Kokhba revolt. Jews were then barred from entering Jerusalem for the next two centuries. Hebron had a continuous Jewish presence after the return from Babylon until 1929 when the British expelled them. There were also thriving Jewish communities in Tiberias, and in Safad in Galilee. By the middle ages, there was a Jewish community again in Jerusalem, and many were massacred by the crusaders.
2. Ottoman rule
Suleiman the Magnificent rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem in the 16th century. In the 1840's, Britain built a consulate in Jerusalem, at Christchurch inside the Jaffa gate, primarily to offer support and protection to the Jews, who by then were the largest ethnic group in Jerusalem.
Total population in Palestine: In 1800 = 200k, 1830 = 250k, 1905 = 500k, WWI = 600k, 1922 = 673k
In the 1840's, population of Jerusalem was 4k Jews, 3k Mulsims, 2.5k Christians, all living within the city walls. In 1863 there were 8k Jews out of a total 15k population.
3. The Zionist movement and the Balfour declaration
In 1880's pogroms of Russian Jews caused the start of an influx of Jews into Palestine. Increased antisemitism in Europe saw the birth of the Zionist movement, led by Theodor Herzl in 1894, and the First Zionist Congress held in Basel, Switzerland in 1897. In the early 20th century, an Arab nationalist movement began to emerge against the Ottoman Empire. In 1914, the Ottomans sided with Austro-Hungary and Germany against the Allies. England and France then began to consider how the Ottoman Empire would be divided in the event of its defeat, and how this might relate to the Zionist and Arab nationalist movements. In 1915, Sir Henry McMahon, high commissioner in Egypt, entered into correspondence with Sharif Hussein of Mecca. McMahon stated that he did not intend to give Palestine to the Arabs and that Hussein understood this. In 1916, the Sykes-Picot agreement was made between the British, the French, and the Russians. On 31 October 1917, British and Australian forces won their first victory in Palestine at the battle of Beesheba. On 2 November, Balfour signed his letter to Lord Rothchild. On 11 December 1917, General Allenby took Jerusalem. On 31 October 1918, the Ottoman Empire surrendered to the Allies.
4. The Paris Peace Conference and the League of Nations
The Balfour declaration had the support of the Allies. Also, on 3 January 1919, Chaim Weizmann met with Emir Faisal, son on Sharif Hussein of Mecca, and signed an agreement of mutual understanding. On 6 February 1919, at the Paris Peace Conference, when Faisal presented his claims for an independent Arab state, he left Palestine out, saying that it should be left to an international commission to administer. On 27 February, when Weizman presented his claim for a Zionist state, he asked for the whole area west of the Jordan, and for the areas east of the Jordan that had been the territory of the eastern tribes of Israel (5:18), but bounded by the Hejaz railway which ran north to south and was important to Muslims attending pilgrimage to Mecca. The Supreme Council of the Paris Peace Conference adjourned its decision on allocation of land until formation of the League of Nations. Until this point in history, it was normal that if a country conquered territory in a legitimate war, it had the right to annex and rule that land. However, President Woodrow Wilson was strongly opposed to colonialism. He believed that WWI should bring an end to colonialism and instead see self-determination in conquered territories. The mandate system was a compromise between the Allies and America. Ian Christian Smutz was part of the war cabinet that agreed the Balfour declaration in 1917, and he was one of the founders of the League of Nations and co-authors of its covenant. The Mandate system originated from article 22 of the covenant of the League of Nations, which gave the mandatory powers a sacred trust of civilisation to administer a people or nation to a situation where they would be capable of both self-determination and self-government.
5. The San Remo Resolution, 25 April 1920
Presentation by Dr Jaques Gauther, international human rights lawyer, whose doctoral thesis was on the legal status of East Jerusalem. It was at San Remo that the Allied leaders gathered to make binding agreements about who would get what from the former Ottoman Empire. They had already heard claims of both the Zionists and the Arabs at the Paris Peace Conference. Interview with Prof Avi Bell, Prof of Law at San Diego uni law school. San Remo legally recognised the rights of people to have self-determination. The Jews were chosen as the beneficiaries of a trust or mandate for Palestine (now Israel and Jordan) administered by Britain. The Arabs were chosen as the beneficiaries of a mandate for Mesopotamia (now Iraq), administered by Britain, and of Syria and Lebanon administered by the French. The San Remo delegation was made up of 5 nations, Britain, France, Italy, Japan, and the United States. The British delegation was led by PM David Lloyd George. (Comments by Dr Alan Baker, international lawyer and author of the Levy Report). San Remo turned the Balfour Declaration into a legal international commitment. On the question of what the boundaries of the Jewish homeland in Palestine should be, Lloyd George referred to map 34 by geographer George Adam Smith which showed the territory of Israel in the time of David and Solomon, and argued that the Jews should be given the same territory in order to recognise their historic rights. The San Remo Resolution was later unanimously endorsed by all 51 countries of the League of Nations. Chaim Weizman, who later became the first President of Israel, wrote about San Remo, "That recognition of our rights in Palestine is embodied in the Treaty with Turkey, and has become part of international law. This is the most momentous political event in the whole history of our movement, and it is perhaps, no exaggeration to say in the whole history of our people since the exile." The Zionist Organisation of America wrote, "The San Remo decision of the Supreme Council of the Peace Conference crowns the British Declaration by enacting it as part of the law of the nations of the world. Upon Great Britain has been conferred that mandate which gives to it and to its people the high privilege of translating the promise of the British Declaration into high fulfilment". Minute 12 of the War Cabinet meeting of 31st October 1917 records Lord Balfour’s intentions as follows. “As to the meaning of the words ‘National Home,’ to which the Zionists attach so much importance, he understood it to mean some sort of British, American, or other protectorate, under which full facilities would be given to the Jews ‘to work out their own salvation’ and to build up, by means of education, agriculture and industry a real centre of national culture and focus of national life. It did not necessarily involve the early establishment of an independent Jewish state, which was a matter of gradual development in accordance with the ordinary laws of political evolution.” Another British document states, "The High Contracting Parties agree that Syria and Mesopotamia shall, in accordance with the fourth paragraph of Article 22, Part 1 (Covenant of the League of Nations), be provisionally recognised as independent states, subject to the rendering of administrative advice and assistance by a mandatory until such time as they are able to stand alone. The boundaries of the said states will be determined, and the selection of the Mandatories made, by the Principal Allied Powers."
See website and Youtube Channel
1. Foundations of Palestine:
Israel was renamed Palestine by Emperor Hadrian after the Bar Kokhba revolt. Jews were then barred from entering Jerusalem for the next two centuries. Hebron had a continuous Jewish presence after the return from Babylon until 1929 when the British expelled them. There were also thriving Jewish communities in Tiberias, and in Safad in Galilee. By the middle ages, there was a Jewish community again in Jerusalem, and many were massacred by the crusaders.
2. Ottoman rule
Suleiman the Magnificent rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem in the 16th century. In the 1840's, Britain built a consulate in Jerusalem, at Christchurch inside the Jaffa gate, primarily to offer support and protection to the Jews, who by then were the largest ethnic group in Jerusalem.
Total population in Palestine: In 1800 = 200k, 1830 = 250k, 1905 = 500k, WWI = 600k, 1922 = 673k
In the 1840's, population of Jerusalem was 4k Jews, 3k Mulsims, 2.5k Christians, all living within the city walls. In 1863 there were 8k Jews out of a total 15k population.
3. The Zionist movement and the Balfour declaration
In 1880's pogroms of Russian Jews caused the start of an influx of Jews into Palestine. Increased antisemitism in Europe saw the birth of the Zionist movement, led by Theodor Herzl in 1894, and the First Zionist Congress held in Basel, Switzerland in 1897. In the early 20th century, an Arab nationalist movement began to emerge against the Ottoman Empire. In 1914, the Ottomans sided with Austro-Hungary and Germany against the Allies. England and France then began to consider how the Ottoman Empire would be divided in the event of its defeat, and how this might relate to the Zionist and Arab nationalist movements. In 1915, Sir Henry McMahon, high commissioner in Egypt, entered into correspondence with Sharif Hussein of Mecca. McMahon stated that he did not intend to give Palestine to the Arabs and that Hussein understood this. In 1916, the Sykes-Picot agreement was made between the British, the French, and the Russians. On 31 October 1917, British and Australian forces won their first victory in Palestine at the battle of Beesheba. On 2 November, Balfour signed his letter to Lord Rothchild. On 11 December 1917, General Allenby took Jerusalem. On 31 October 1918, the Ottoman Empire surrendered to the Allies.
4. The Paris Peace Conference and the League of Nations
The Balfour declaration had the support of the Allies. Also, on 3 January 1919, Chaim Weizmann met with Emir Faisal, son on Sharif Hussein of Mecca, and signed an agreement of mutual understanding. On 6 February 1919, at the Paris Peace Conference, when Faisal presented his claims for an independent Arab state, he left Palestine out, saying that it should be left to an international commission to administer. On 27 February, when Weizman presented his claim for a Zionist state, he asked for the whole area west of the Jordan, and for the areas east of the Jordan that had been the territory of the eastern tribes of Israel (5:18), but bounded by the Hejaz railway which ran north to south and was important to Muslims attending pilgrimage to Mecca. The Supreme Council of the Paris Peace Conference adjourned its decision on allocation of land until formation of the League of Nations. Until this point in history, it was normal that if a country conquered territory in a legitimate war, it had the right to annex and rule that land. However, President Woodrow Wilson was strongly opposed to colonialism. He believed that WWI should bring an end to colonialism and instead see self-determination in conquered territories. The mandate system was a compromise between the Allies and America. Ian Christian Smutz was part of the war cabinet that agreed the Balfour declaration in 1917, and he was one of the founders of the League of Nations and co-authors of its covenant. The Mandate system originated from article 22 of the covenant of the League of Nations, which gave the mandatory powers a sacred trust of civilisation to administer a people or nation to a situation where they would be capable of both self-determination and self-government.
5. The San Remo Resolution, 25 April 1920
Presentation by Dr Jaques Gauther, international human rights lawyer, whose doctoral thesis was on the legal status of East Jerusalem. It was at San Remo that the Allied leaders gathered to make binding agreements about who would get what from the former Ottoman Empire. They had already heard claims of both the Zionists and the Arabs at the Paris Peace Conference. Interview with Prof Avi Bell, Prof of Law at San Diego uni law school. San Remo legally recognised the rights of people to have self-determination. The Jews were chosen as the beneficiaries of a trust or mandate for Palestine (now Israel and Jordan) administered by Britain. The Arabs were chosen as the beneficiaries of a mandate for Mesopotamia (now Iraq), administered by Britain, and of Syria and Lebanon administered by the French. The San Remo delegation was made up of 5 nations, Britain, France, Italy, Japan, and the United States. The British delegation was led by PM David Lloyd George. (Comments by Dr Alan Baker, international lawyer and author of the Levy Report). San Remo turned the Balfour Declaration into a legal international commitment. On the question of what the boundaries of the Jewish homeland in Palestine should be, Lloyd George referred to map 34 by geographer George Adam Smith which showed the territory of Israel in the time of David and Solomon, and argued that the Jews should be given the same territory in order to recognise their historic rights. The San Remo Resolution was later unanimously endorsed by all 51 countries of the League of Nations. Chaim Weizman, who later became the first President of Israel, wrote about San Remo, "That recognition of our rights in Palestine is embodied in the Treaty with Turkey, and has become part of international law. This is the most momentous political event in the whole history of our movement, and it is perhaps, no exaggeration to say in the whole history of our people since the exile." The Zionist Organisation of America wrote, "The San Remo decision of the Supreme Council of the Peace Conference crowns the British Declaration by enacting it as part of the law of the nations of the world. Upon Great Britain has been conferred that mandate which gives to it and to its people the high privilege of translating the promise of the British Declaration into high fulfilment". Minute 12 of the War Cabinet meeting of 31st October 1917 records Lord Balfour’s intentions as follows. “As to the meaning of the words ‘National Home,’ to which the Zionists attach so much importance, he understood it to mean some sort of British, American, or other protectorate, under which full facilities would be given to the Jews ‘to work out their own salvation’ and to build up, by means of education, agriculture and industry a real centre of national culture and focus of national life. It did not necessarily involve the early establishment of an independent Jewish state, which was a matter of gradual development in accordance with the ordinary laws of political evolution.” Another British document states, "The High Contracting Parties agree that Syria and Mesopotamia shall, in accordance with the fourth paragraph of Article 22, Part 1 (Covenant of the League of Nations), be provisionally recognised as independent states, subject to the rendering of administrative advice and assistance by a mandatory until such time as they are able to stand alone. The boundaries of the said states will be determined, and the selection of the Mandatories made, by the Principal Allied Powers."
6. The role of Winston Churchill in the mandates
In 1921, Churchill was made Colonial Secretary, which gave him the responsibility of implementing the mandates in the former Ottoman Empire. Churchill was a friend of Chaim Weizman, and a supporter of the Zionist cause. However, after the Cairo Peace Conference in March 1921, Churchill was under pressure to fulfil the aspirations of Hussein's sons, Faisal and Abdullah. After the British withdrawal from Syria in November 1919, Faisal had been proclaimed king of the Arab Kingdom of Syria, but on 25 July 1920 he was forced to step down by the French. Churchill decided to divide Palestine down the Jordan River, creating the Kingdom of Jordan, which he gave to Abdullah. This meant that 77% of what would otherwise have become the British Mandate for Palestine was given to the Arabs for Arab settlement exclusively. Chaim Weizman was angry that Churchill did this without consulting the Zionists. This division was approved by the League of Nations in September 1922. In 1923, the League of Nations formally ratified the terms of the British Mandate for Palestine. See map of Palestine under the British Mandate. It means that the Arabs have already been given an Arab state in Palestine.
The 1922 White Paper, often attributed to Churchill, was actually drafted by colonial office official, John Shuckburgh, together with the first High Commissioner to Palestine, Sir Herbert Samuel.
In 1921, Churchill was made Colonial Secretary, which gave him the responsibility of implementing the mandates in the former Ottoman Empire. Churchill was a friend of Chaim Weizman, and a supporter of the Zionist cause. However, after the Cairo Peace Conference in March 1921, Churchill was under pressure to fulfil the aspirations of Hussein's sons, Faisal and Abdullah. After the British withdrawal from Syria in November 1919, Faisal had been proclaimed king of the Arab Kingdom of Syria, but on 25 July 1920 he was forced to step down by the French. Churchill decided to divide Palestine down the Jordan River, creating the Kingdom of Jordan, which he gave to Abdullah. This meant that 77% of what would otherwise have become the British Mandate for Palestine was given to the Arabs for Arab settlement exclusively. Chaim Weizman was angry that Churchill did this without consulting the Zionists. This division was approved by the League of Nations in September 1922. In 1923, the League of Nations formally ratified the terms of the British Mandate for Palestine. See map of Palestine under the British Mandate. It means that the Arabs have already been given an Arab state in Palestine.
The 1922 White Paper, often attributed to Churchill, was actually drafted by colonial office official, John Shuckburgh, together with the first High Commissioner to Palestine, Sir Herbert Samuel.