THE HOPE OF ISRAEL - The Preterist Archive

The Hope of Israel: What Is It? 115
any difficulty; and the unhappy consequence is that
many prophecies which were fulfilled at the first coming
of Christ, or are being fulfilled in this age of the
gospel, and many Scriptures, such as the Sermon on
the Mount, which apply directly to the saints of this
dispensation, are wrenched out of their proper place,
and are relegated to a distant future, much to the loss
enjoys to the circumstance that its method is
of the people of God and to the dislocation of the Scripture
as a whole.
The "postponement" system doubtless owes the popularity
it
both safe and easy. It is safe because, when a fulfilment
of prophecy is relegated to the Millennium, it
cannot be conclusively refuted until the time comes.
All
date-setting schemes owe their measure of popularity
to the same fact. It is easy because it relieves
the Bible student of the trouble of searching for the
meaning and application of difficult passages.
But, coming to the special case in hand, which is
illustrative of many others, we are bold to say, and
undertake herein to show, that there are insurmountable
objections to the view that Ezekiel's temple is for
Millennial times.
To begin with, there is no proof that, even if Israel
does indeed occupy the land of Canaan again as an
earthly nation, they will restore the ancient system of
temple-worship, either according to the plan shown
to and described by Ezekiel, or according to any other
plan. On the contrary, we maintain that the Scriptures
plainly forbid that supposition. For it was by
God's own hand that the ancient system of worship
was abolished and obliterated; and the obliteration
thereof was for reasons so closely connected with the
redeeming work of the Lord Jesus Christ, that to re-