THE HOPE OF ISRAEL - The Preterist Archive

Thq Hope of Israel: What Is It? 257
thunder and rain in harvest season (when it never
occurs in Palestine), in order, as Samuel declared to
them, "that ye may perceive and see that your wickedness
is great which ye have done in the sight of the
Lord, in asking you a king" (1 Sam. 12:12-18). As
says Dr. Stafford:
"The king business, like the priest business,
belongs to the tutelage of the race. It is a thing
of the past, not of the future. And yet many
associate the golden age of the world with actual
kings [such as we are acquainted with] and
thrones and all the accompanying regalia and
paraphernalia. Imagine me, for example,
. . .
sitting on a literal throne somewhere, say on the
Mount of Olives! But every other Christian is
sitting on a little throne too. There would not
be room enough on the Mount of Olives, or indeed
in all Palestine, to plant our thrones.
There we all sit, with shining crowns, flourishing
our golden sceptres, and not a subject to black
our boots. I abdicate my throne right now."
SATAN BOUND AND LOOSED
In verses 1-3 John describes the coming down from
heaven of a mighty angel, who lays hold upon the Devil,
and binds him and casts him into the bottomless pit,
"till the thousand years should be fulfilled," after
which "he must be loosed a little
season"; and verse
7 says: "And when the thousand years are expired,
Satan shall be loosed out of his prison."
As Dr. Stanford says: "We must regard this as
either a complete or a partial depriving of Satan of his
power." And he goes on to say: