THE HOPE OF ISRAEL - The Preterist Archive

The Hope of Israel: What Is It? 219
with His precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish
and without spot, and have been born again of the
incorruptible seed of the word of God, as declared in
Chapter I, are, as "living stones/' being built up a
spiritual house, upon Jesus Christ, the "living Stone"
which the builders rejected, made in resurrection "the
head of the corner." And the apostle quotes in this
connection Isaiah 28:16, "Wherefore also it is contained
in the Scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief
corner stone, elect, precious; and he that believeth on
Him shall not be confounded."
This citation from Isaiah establishes two facts of
capital importance; first, that God's eternal habitation
is being built, not in the natural world, but in the spiritual
world ;
and second, that the "Zion" of prophecy,
which God has chosen as the place of His eternal abode,
is the heavenly Zion, to which we "are come" (Heb.
12:22). These two facts constitute strong evidence
confirmatory of the correctness of our explanation of
Acts 15:16. For the tabernacle that David built for
the ark was in Zion, the city of David; and inasmuch
as the name "Zion" designates a spiritual locality, the
place of God's eternal dwelling, it would naturally follow
that the expression "tabernacle of David" has also
a spiritual meaning. Furthermore, when God, by the
lips of His prophet, declares that He Himself will, in
a certain specified era, raise up again that which had
formerly been His temporary dwelling place, and when,
in that very era, we learn from His servants, Peter
and Paul, that He is actually building for Himself
an eternal dwelling place, the conclusion is wellnigh
irresistible that the building He is now raising up is
the one He said He would raise up in this present dispensation.