THE HOPE OF ISRAEL - The Preterist Archive

The Hope of Israel: What Is It? 225
Rev. 27 :16, etc.) it was given to know the mind of God
concerning real spiritual worship; and that he, "being
a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with
an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins according
to the flesh, He would raise up Christ to sit on his
throne" (Ac. 2 :30) was permitted to give in the tabernacle
pitched by him on Mount Zion, a wonderful foreshadowing
of the worship, by prayer, preaching and
song, which characterizes the gatherings of God's
people in this gospel dispensation.
The spiritual worship thus begun was not continued
in the reign of subsequent Kings ;
for a fearful decline
began in the days of Solomon and continued to the end
of the kingdom era. But Amos, in the days of Uzziah,
delivered that famous prophecy concerning the raising
up of the Tabernacle of David (Am. 9:11, 12), which
all the apostles, elders and people assembled at Jerusalem
accepted as decisive of the question whether the
Mosaic ritual was to be imposed upon Gentile converts
(Ac. 15:1-17). Citing the words of Amos, Mr. Smith
says it was
"A prophecy which clearly places before us the
services and spirit of
genius and character, religious
the tabernacle of David, as similar and precursor to
the Kingdom of Christ." And then, after quoting
Isaiah's prophecy (16:5) concerning "the Tabernacle
of David," he continues :
"These prophecies considerably enlarge our
field of vision with respect to the relation of
the tabernacle of David to the kingdom of
Christ. According to these, the Shekinah, resting
over the cherubim in the sanctuary of Mount
Zion, typified the reign of Christ in the Gospel
Church. In fact this is the true line of descent,