THE HOPE OF ISRAEL - The Preterist Archive

The Hope of Israel: What Is It?
Ill
It is quite possible to read into these words the idea
that there was to be, in some then future "times or
seasons," a restoration of earthly dominion to Israel.
In fact the writer himself having accepted these
modern "Jewish fables" (which have become so astonishingly
popular of late) held to that idea until he
could no longer close his eyes to the fact that, by placing
that interpretation upon the passage, he was making
it contradict the plain teaching of the entire New
Testament.
On the other hand it is not difficult to assign to the
words of our Lord, quoted above, a meaning that accords
perfectly with the Scriptures we have been examining;
and this, of course, is what we are bound to
do. A careful consideration and quiet pondering of
those words lead to the conclusion that here, as on
many other occasions, our Lord simply ignored what
was in the minds of His disciples (for His thoughts
were not their thoughts, neither were their ways His
ways). He might well have administered to them on
this occasion the same rebuke He had administered to
Peter, when that disciple spoke to Him under the influence
of the same Jewish expectation; to whom He
said, "Thou art an offence to Me; for thou savourest
not the things that be of God, but those that be of
But the course He now took was
men" (Mat. 16:23).
to disregard entirely the thought of their hearts, and
simply to impress upon them the fact that their allengrossing
occupation was to be that of bearing testimony
to His resurrection from the dead. It was to be
their supreme business to proclaim that mighty truth
of the gospel to the whole world; and for the accomplishment
of that great mission, power would be given