THE DESTINY OF NATIONS: Demystifying God's End-times Plan: Israel,the Church, and the Book of Revelation

By Joshua M Ngoma

 

 

THE DESTINY OF NATIONS

 

At this critical moment in history when the Bible has suffered the "wildest" imaginations or conspiracy theories, "inventions" and at worst fiction, THE DESTINY OF NATIONS is a timely publication that demystifies the end times based purely on biblical and historical evidence.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Joshua M Ngoma
• Release date: Mar 27, 2021
• ISBN: 9780578886862

Joshua M Ngoma

Joshua M Ngoma is a Rhema alumnus. He is the founder and President of TAMBALA Inc., a multi-purpose organization based in Chicago, USA.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

This book is written to show emphasis on God’s Kingdom, that it is here and at work now- a spiritual and universal Kingdom.

It is not a literal earthly or national kingdom confined to a particular geography.

This is also an attempt at demystifying the end times based purely on Biblical and historical evidence, rather than conspiracy or fiction.

My keen interest in eschatology was ignited during my Bible College days at Rhema South Africa, about 28 years ago.

Our lecturer for this subject, Rev. Gordon Simmonds, took a rare but life-changing chance by convincing the College Academic Board to teach a Postmillennial view alongside the Premillennial position, which is the default course outline.

The Postmillennial view ignited the Scriptures for me and I developed a keen interest in exploring this position, allowing the Bible to interpret itself predicated on the firm foundation, which is that the Word of God is our ultimate source of truth.

It has taken me over three years to write this book and thirty years of ministry and reflection on this subject matter.

There are already a lot of Christian books on eschatology and I can predict that my book will not be the last one.

For this reason, I was hesitant to write this book but I increasingly became convinced to do it when I saw that even well-meaning Church leaders, and the foreign policy of prominent governments around the world toward the Middle East, is based purely on the Premillennial view of interpreting what the future holds in God’s prophetic time clock.

The Church, in general, has become self-absolved in a gospel centered on meeting personal needs.

I hope that this book will rekindle the diminished interest in the larger picture of God’s plan and purpose for the ages and the establishment of His kingdom on earth.

The debates about God’s plan for the Ages and things that are yet to come in the end times are likely to continue in the universal Church until the Lord’s return.

In hindsight, the different interpretations that exist in the Christian community are understandable.

The subject matter of the end times and the literary genre of the prophecy of future things are both very difficult.

But we cannot push certain portions of the Bible aside or neglect passages that deal with things and events that are yet to happen.

¹⁶ All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, ¹⁷ that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17

The interpretive difficulties should not deter us but should, instead, call us to greater diligence and resolve in seeking their solution or understanding.

However, what we cannot do is to lift single verses out of context to justify dubious interpretations or what the word of God is not saying.

Therefore, the best way to interpret Scriptures is to allow the Scriptures to interpret themselves through a theological system.

A systematic interpretation of the word of God helps us organize biblical truth.

We may hold our definitive eschatological positions and vigorously defend them but the overarching belief that unites us as believers in Jesus Christ is that He will return.

Jesus encourages us not to strain out a gnat and swallow a camel! Matthew 23:24

St. Augustine also lived by the creed that, In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.

Pre-millennialists- they believe that Christ will return and resurrect Christians before (pre) the millennium.

This will be a literal 1000 years in which, Christ will physically reign in Jerusalem as an earthly political leader.

Amillennialists- they do not believe that there is and will be such a thing as a millennium rule of any kind.

They believe that the Millennium rule, including the First Resurrection in Revelation 20:4-6, is a description of the current reign of souls of those believers who have since died and are present with Christ in heaven.

Postmillennialists-believe that Millennium refers to the period between the First and Second Advents of Christ.

They believe that the Millennium is going on right now and Christians are reigning as kings on earth.

In every one of these positions, it is possible to find loose ends. However, suffice to say that the Biblical justification for premillennialism, dispensatonalism, and the pre-tribulation Rapture is very low.

There is not much Scriptural backing for premillenialism, making it the weakest position on end times.

The key feature of premillenialism is that Christ’s reign is a national kingdom on earth with a geographical location, in contrast to many portions of Scripture that depict God’s kingdom as spiritual.

Dispensationalists also believes that, in addition to a pre-tribulation Rapture, there will be an unveiling of the Antichrist after the Rapture of Church takes place.

While the raptured saints are in heaven, the Antichrist will supposedly establish his earthly kingdom.

But after three and half years of his reign, the Antichrist will break the covenant he made with the Jews and embark on vicious persecution of them.

Dispensationalists also believe that Christ will return seven years after the Rapture, right before the Jews are overtaken and destroyed.

Christ will then destroy and demolish the Antichrist and his followers, rescue the Jews and set up His earthly millennial kingdom.

Premillennialism also claims there will be two resurrections, one of the believers and another for unbelievers.

It separates the two events by a literal time frame of 1,000 years.

First, the use of 1,000 years or millennium in these passages is seen as symbolic and second, the Scriptures talk about one resurrection, in one breath, of both the believers and unbelievers. (Daniel 12:2, John 5:28, Acts 24:15)

Premillennialism also separates the Last Judgment from the Second Coming of Christ, but these two events cannot be dissected. (Matthew 16:27, Matthew 25:31-32)

This book is premised on establishing the postmillennial position as the most plausible from the Scriptures.

However, postmillennialism ought to exercise some cautious optimism by striking a balance between its support of the position that the vast majority of humanity will become believers of Christ and the reality that the road that leads to Christ ‘s eternal life is narrow and the price of daily carrying the cross is dire.

On the flip side, the Amillennialists can be overly pessimistic about the present condition of the world and whether the gospel has any chance of making an impact in such a world.

This book is characterized by these core beliefs:

• The Church is the spiritual Israel of God (Galatians 6:16) and there is a promised restoration of ethnic Israel (Acts 3, Romans 11)

• The millennium is the time between Christ’s ascension and His Second Coming.

• Therefore, because the millennium is now, Christ’s kingdom already exists and operational in reality today. Due to Christ’s victory in death and resurrection, He now rules through the believers by His Word and the Spirit of God. (Matthew 4:17, 5:3, 16:19, Mark 9:1, Luke 17:20-21)

• The Kingdom of God is not political or physical, but it is spiritual and redemptive. (Luke 17:20, John 3:3, John 18:36, 1 Thessalonians 2:12, Colossians 1:13)

• God’s Kingdom, like a mustard seed or leaven dough, is increasingly growing and the gospel is dispelling darkness. (Matthew 13:31-35) There is, however, no Scriptural justification that there will be a window or golden age where the vast majority of humanity will turn to Christ.

• The definitive defeat of Satan happened in Christ’s death and resurrection. The Church’s victory over Satan’s dominion has been incrementally progressive throughout history. This victory will finally be established on the Last Day of Christ’s return. Satan is bound in the sense that he cannot stop the spread of the gospel and he cannot touch one of God’s children without God allowing it. Even if Satan is definitively bound, evil growing together as tares alongside good seed, will continue until Christ ultimately destroys it at His Second Coming. (Revelation 20: 1-3. Matthew 13: 36-43)

• Apostle Paul wrote the mystery of iniquity which causes apostasy was already at work in his time. Therefore, the great apostasy cannot completely be viewed as a future event. (2 Thessalonians 2:7, 1 John 2:18, 22, 1 John 4:3)

• There will be a certain, literal, physical, and visible Second Coming of Jesus Christ. His Second Coming will mark the end of the age and the beginning of a future age after the resurrection of the dead and last judgment.

• John in his epistles talks about the antichrist and notes that there are many antichrists (1 John 2:18). In the Book of Revelation, the Beast and the False Prophet are referred to as antichrist. The apostle Paul also uses the phrase ‘the man of sin to refer to the antichrist". (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4)

• Christ will create a new heaven and new earth in perfect condition as the restoration of Paradise or Eden as it was originally intended. This eternal kingdom will endure forever and the saints of God will spend eternity with Christ in God’s glorious presence. (Revelation 20-21)

Dependent on which line of theological belief, the outcomes of what takes place in the future concerning the Kingdom of God on earth, the Church or Body of Christ on earth, and the ethnic nation of Israel will be radically varied.

Replacement Theology is the idea that the Church has replaced the ethnic Jewish nation in God’s redemption plan.

Fulfillment Theology is the idea that all promises to Israel have already been fulfilled in the person and redemptive work of Jesus Christ.

These are the two most common doctrinal positions and I have taken time to discuss both.

I have also endeavored to deal with the following questions:

Is Israel a vehicle or means, and not an end in itself, in God’s plan for the redemption of all mankind?

Has the Church displaced or replaced the ethnic nation of Israel in God’s plan of salvation?

Have the specific promises given to the nation of Israel been transferred to another group of people and in some way no longer apply to them?

Is the ingathering of the Jews from the diaspora and the establishment of the modern-day nation of Israel a fulfillment of prophecy?

If the modern state of Israel is in God’s prophetic time clock, then how is our understanding of end times affected?

Even if ethnic Israel, as a whole has rejected Jesus Christ, would God still not remain a faithful covenant keeper?

PART I

ISRAEL

⁶ And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy

nation.’ These are the words which you shall speak to

the children of Israel." Exodus 19:6

CHAPTER 1

ISRAEL - GOD’S COVENANT NATION

From inception, God preordained the redemption of mankind.

⁸ All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Revelation 13:8

When Adam and Eve failed and sinned against the law of life in the Garden of Eden, God reiterated the redemption plan for mankind by promising a Son who would bruise the head of the serpent, the Devil.

¹⁴ So the LORD God said to the serpent:

"Because you have done this,

You are cursed more than all cattle,

And more than every beast of the field;

On your belly you shall go,

And you shall eat dust

All the days of your life.

¹⁵ And I will put enmity

Between you and the woman,

And between your seed and her Seed;

He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel." Genesis 3:14-15

In God’s redemption plan, He sought out to establish an ethnic nation of people for the primary reason of providing a lineage or bloodline through which, a Messiah would be born and take up the human form to consummate His redemptive plan for all mankind.

⁵ Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, ⁷ but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. ⁸ And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Philippians 2:5-8

By a sovereign act, God chose Abram (also to be known as Abraham later) as the patriarch of a nation whose genealogy would provide the earthly lineage of the Messiah.

Abraham was a Chaldean out of the land of Ur, a group of people that did not know Yahweh but worshiped idols and other gods.

But God chose him from a heathen nation and set him on a journey to establish a lineage out of which, His redemptive plan would be fulfilled.

For this reason, Abraham left his homeland of Ur and journeyed to a new land of Canaan in the year 1900 B.C.

Now the LORD had said to Abram:

"Get out of your country,

From your family

And from your father’s house,

To a land that I will show you.

² I will make you a great nation;

I will bless you

And make your name great;

And you shall be a blessing.

³ I will bless those who bless you,

And I will curse him who curses you;

And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."

Genesis 12:1-3

⁶ And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel." Exodus 19:6

Abraham’s faith serves as an important backdrop for the redemption of God’s people throughout the Old and New Testaments and helps us to see more clearly the greatness of our salvation.

Abraham was called to leave his pagan ways behind and enter into a covenant relationship with a God he hardly knew anything about.

God declared the blessings that would come if Abraham trusted in His covenant promises.

These blessings included a good land, many descendants, a great name, and the privilege of being the lineage or bloodline through which all the families of the earth shall be blessed by Christ’s redemption.

The gravity of the decision Abraham made when God first called him out cannot be underestimated.

He had to leave everything that he knew behind, from a home where prosperity and sustenance were taken for granted.

He left his familiar environment and went to an unknown land where he would now trust in the providence of a God he was just getting to know and without relying on his plans or family ties.

⁸ By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. Hebrews 11:8

God’s first message to Abraham made it clear that He is faithful to accomplish all that He promises to those who trust Him.

He promised to make Abraham a great nation. He pledged to bless the patriarch and make his name great.

God said He would bless those who bless Abraham and curse those who curse him.

Abraham did nothing to deserve this; it was a sovereign act and choice by God and all he had to do was trust the Lord and demonstrate his faith through obedience to the divine summons.

God also promised Abraham’s descendants a land.

⁵ No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations. ⁶ I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. ⁷ And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. ⁸ Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God." Genesis 17:5-8

God made promises to Israel, an identifiable ethnic group of people of a recognizable background and general lineage.

These promises are based on God’s faithfulness and not Israel’s ethnic superiority or favoritism.

¹⁵ Brethren, I speak in the manner of men: Though it is only a man’s covenant, yet if it is confirmed, no one annuls or adds to it. ¹⁶ Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, And to seeds, as of many, but as of one, And to your Seed, who is Christ. ¹⁷ And this I say, that the law, which was four hundred and thirty years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect. ¹⁸ For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise. Galatians 3:15-18

These were unconditional promises, not dependent on Israel’s faithfulness. And if God were to deviate from fulfilling these promises, then He is a man that should lie and we cannot trust God’s promises. (Numbers 23:19).

³⁵ Thus says the LORD, Who gives the sun for a light by day, The ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night, Who disturbs the sea, And its waves roar (The LORD of hosts is His name):

³⁶ "If those ordinances depart From before Me, says the LORD, Then the seed of Israel shall also cease From being a nation before Me forever."

³⁷ Thus says the LORD:

"If heaven above can be measured, And the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel For all that they have done, says the LORD. Jeremiah 31:35-37

After enduring four hundred years of bondage under the Pharaoh, Moses was charged with the liberation of the Israelites out of Slavery.

In 1200 B.C. Moses led the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt back to their promised land of Canaan.

About seventy Jews entered Egypt with Joseph (Exodus 1:5) and four hundred and thirty years later, they multiplied to include six hundred thousand able-bodied military-age men, in addition to feeble men, women, and children (Exodus 12).

They still pressed on towards the vision of a promised land God had promised their patriarch, Abraham.

²² By faith Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the departure of the children of Israel, and gave instructions concerning his bones. ²³ By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king’s command. ²⁴ By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, ²⁵ choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, ²⁶ esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward. ²⁷ By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible. ²⁸ By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest he who destroyed the firstborn should touch them. ²⁹ By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, whereas the Egyptians, attempting to do so, were drowned. Hebrews 11:22-29

Moses received further covenant promises at Sinai. These Sinai covenant promises were conditional.

These covenants God entered with Moses were dependent on Israel’s faithfulness.

"Every commandment