THE HOPE OF ISRAEL - The Preterist Archive

The Hope of Israel: What Is It? 17
"that which remaineth," that is, abideth eternally
(v. 11).
From this Scripture alone it is evident (and the
same truth is set forth at greater length in Gal. 4 :21-
31 and Hebrews Chapters VIII-X) that all future
promises of glory and blessing for Israel and Zion must
belong to the true Israel and the heavenly Zion. And,
in this very passage, we are admonished to "look not
at the things which are seen, but at the things which
are not seen" (4:18) ;
which admonition, however, is
habitually disregarded in the interpretation of prophecies
relating to these very subjects.
We ask the reader specially to note that in the above
quoted passage, the apostle speaks of the old covenant
as "that which is done away" (v. 11), "that which is
abolished" (v. 13). This shows that the old covenant,
under which the earthly nation of Israel had been constituted,
was already, in Paul's day, a thing of the past.
Evidently then our difficulty in understanding
prophecies of the class referred to above is due to our
lack of faith and our spiritual dullness. For, in respect
to the things which are not seen, faith takes the place
of sight; for faith has to do solely with things not
visible to the natural eye ;
and hope likewise, for "hope
that is seen is not hope" (Rom. 8 :24)
. Wherefore it is
written that, "faith is the substance of things hoped
for, the evidence of things not seen"; and "through
faith we understand" (Heb. 11:1, 3).
Hence, to understand the prophecies it is necessary,
and vitally necessary, that we believe the revelations of
the New Testament ;
that we accept as "literally" true
that there is now, at this present time, a realm of spiritual
realities, into which our risen Lord is actually entered,
and we in Him; that "the substance of things