A Vision for Reformation

When I accepted the (third) call to become the pastor of Community Christian Church in 2013—which would later become Reformation Bible Church and then Reformation OPC—I arrived in town with a one-year, two-year, five-year, and ten-year plan outlined on a legal pad. The goals for year one were: (1) Build trust and relationships, and (2) Introduce the church to expository preaching. Six months after my arrival, the Lord began teaching us that a man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps (Prov. 16:9). The plans we had made would not be fulfilled in the way we had envisioned — we wondered at times in 2014-2016 if the church would even survive — but the Lord had something better for us, grander than anything we had imagined.

Strategic vision has been part of the ministry here for more than a decade. When those original drafts on a legal pad changed, new versions were created, and they have continued to be updated, discussed, prayed about, and perfected over time. The Lord has gathered, and continues to gather, men, women, and households at ROPC that have a kingdom mindset, that long to see gospel transformation in the community through godly families, Christ-honoring businesses, and biblically ordered ministries established and bearing fruit for the glory of God.

Three years ago I sent the elders an outline of this evolving strategic vision. These are simply my ideas, desires, and plans. This is not a document or vision that was adopted by the Session, but it has been the template for how some of us have thought about what the future may hold, if the Lord wills, for ROPC and the larger community in which we find ourselves.

I should say three other things about this vision. First, this is a plan for seeing the kingdom of God grow by biblical application and sanctification. It is not a political plan, per se, and it is not even a plan for what the church as the church would do. It is a model for how members of the church might extend and apply our theology of work and kingdom in tangible ways. Second, this is an hundred year plan, not one we expect to be fulfilled in 12 months. I pray regularly for the ministry of this church in the days of my great-great grandchildren. I expect Reformation Church to still be here proclaiming Christ and edifying the saints long after I am dead, and I pray they will be more faithful and more fruitful than we have been during my tenure. Third, this vision is limited and incomplete. However it turns out, it will not be exactly as we have envisioned. We must proceed humbly even though confidently and courageously. Wiser men will have better ideas for how to be fruitful, fill the city, and subdue it to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. This is only a starting point, and once the vision is caught, this version of it can be discarded like ideas sketched on a napkin. Let the Lord’s will be done.

(June 2021)

Brothers,

I want to outline part of the vision, hopes, and dreams I have for our congregation. We have referred to this plan from time to time, but I have never provided [the current Session] a comprehensive summary. This will only be a brief outline, but I hope it will be useful in evaluating the wisdom (or lack thereof) of what I would like to see us pursue. This may not be God’s will for our congregation, and that may be discovered, in part, by criticism and resistance from you. I am prepared to receive and accept such feedback. Our fundamental goal is to be faithful. Anything beyond that is God’s extraordinary goodness.

I desire to see ROPC grow in its vision, pursuit, and application of the supremacy, sufficiency, and sovereignty of Christ in every aspect of life. This starts with a faithful ministry of worship and preaching on the Lord’s Day, but it goes far beyond just that. I hope to see ROPC become the center of a new and ever-expanding Christian community, the hub from which households, ministries, businesses, neighborhoods, and new congregations arise and extend. I hope to see families choosing to move [here] so that they can attend ROPC and be part of a redeemed and vibrant community. I want to see families who move away from ROPC take the vision and energy of this congregation with them in order to build and grow like-minded churches and villages elsewhere.

What is necessary in terms of theological vision?

• A strong commitment to the Reformed faith: the sovereignty of God, the authority and sufficiency of Scripture, the sufficiency of Christ, and the efficacy of grace.
• A strong commitment to Reformed Catholicity, not to the OPC or any particular sectarian tradition.
• A strong commitment to traditional Christian households and gender roles and a willingness to irenically but unapologetically stand against evangelical feminism that has made significant inroads to the OPC and against the sexual perversion that has significant support in the PCA.
• A strong commitment to the primacy of the means of grace coupled with a confidence in and pursuit of the transformational implications of the Lordship of Christ for civil society. We don’t need a progressive, worldly, Sunday-only R2K Christianity. We need to think Christianly, build Christianly, trade Christianly, and be Christian in our worldly occupations.
• A strong commitment to liturgical, reverent, and enthusiastic worship, to an optimistic eschatology, and to a cheerful attitude in life and suffering grounded in a keen sense of God’s providence and promises.

What kinds of ministries and associated community structures might grow out of such a vision?

• A Classical Christian school that is unapologetically Christian, explicitly (though humbly) Reformed, and robustly Classical (i.e. students will learn Latin, Logic, Greek, Recitation, History and ignore the nonsense that wastes much of their time in most other schools).
• A Community Bible Academy where church members and those from the community can register to take classes during the week on Bible Literature, History, and Geography; Systematic Theology; Church History; Introductions to Greek, Hebrew, and Latin; and great works of Christian literature.
• A Ministerial Training Institute, whether in partnership with an existing seminary or not, where students with gifts may train for ordained ministry in the context of the local church, without incurring debt, while serving alongside and being shepherded by pastors and elders there.
• Satellite Bible classes for outreach and edification at locations throughout the east Valley.
• A Publishing House dedicated to producing books, literature, and curriculum from the ministry here.
• A Crisis Pregnancy Center with a gospel-focused ministry to expectant moms and young families.
• A Soup Kitchen/Homeless Ministry focused on sharing the gospel and connecting those seeking help with day-work, job-training, and housing so that they climb out of poverty through gleaning the fields.
• A Directory of Businesses and Services owned by church members which are eager to serve church members and with opportunities for employing covenant teenagers, new converts, and those the church or associated ministries are seeking to help.

Ideally, I would have an associate pastor and only preach once a week. I would focus roughly half my time each week on writing, the other half on sermon prep, visitation, and pastoral care. We would have a church office with administrative help. We might have a counseling center. We might do away with midweek classes such as we have currently and use the Community Bible Academy, satellite Bible classes, and morning prayer services at the church instead for midweek edification ministry.

Regarding… Sunday School, we would have eight types of classes, some of which could meet at other times as small groups or midweek classes. The eight types of classes would be regular Q&As with the pastor(s) and elders, discussion of assigned Bible reading using the method I implemented successfully in Mississippi and Georgia, deeper dive discussions of the sermons, the Bible Foundations curriculum, membership classes, leadership development classes, catechism classes, and special topics (e.g. marriage, parenting, etc.). These eight would not all run continuously and concurrently, but some of them (Q&A, Bible reading discussion, Bible Foundations, Catechism) would be scheduled every year.

This is only my vision. It is subject to your questioning, critique, and disapproval. It may be the Lord will not allow these things to happen. It is certainly not a typical OPC vision for the local church. The Lord may have something very different in store for us all. But this is the vision that began as sketches on a legal pad in 2013. It has grown and evolved in many ways since then. We pursued portions of it before without success. If it is the Lord’s will, it will happen when the time is right. But if we don’t know where we are going, we won’t know which road we are supposed to follow. I submit this brief outline for your review. May God give us clarity and confidence in pursuing and doing his will, whatever it may be.

As always, I welcome and solicit your questions, concerns, criticism, and input on my ministry here.

In His service,

Joel Ellis

Christianity is Not a Team-Sport

The Lord’s Day should not be like the pep rally before the big game in which each team gathers in their home gymnasium in order to stir themselves up to fight the rival high school. The Calvinist Cougars prepare to claw the Baptist Bears. The Anglican Eagles soar high above the Lutheran Llamas. The Greek Orthodox insist that all of the other teams are ineligible to play in the league, being schismatics, the Roman Catholics claim their head coach is actually the head coach for all the other teams too, and the Divided Methodists and Lesbyterians show their ecumenical solidarity by joint displays of biodegradable Pride flags while shaking paper, climate-friendly pom-poms.

The fact is, the current state of the Lord’s Church is a mess. The Westminster Confession’s description of “more or less visible” doesn’t tell half the story. When you see what is going on in the Name of Jesus in some of these “churches,” you begin to think maybe the orcs really did descend from elves, as impossible as that seems.

I shared an elevator with a Lutheran this week. It was obvious he was making a pastoral visit, though I suspect he was not actually a pastor but a deacon, staff member, or volunteer. He saw my shirt advertising the Ezra Institute and its mission of “Informing Faith, Reforming Culture.” I saw the large silver cross around his neck. When I asked which synod he was with, he replied his church belonged to the ELCA. If the Lutheran team is the Llamas, the ELCA would be the ones on the roster with neurological disease and equine herpes. (Who knew that llamas could have neurological disease and equine herpes virus? You’re welcome.)

It occurred to me that we were two ministers riding an elevator at Children’s Hospital who have a lot in common and almost nothing in common. Both of us, presumably, have been baptized in the Name of the Triune God; we are covenantally Christian. We identify with Christian symbols and ideas. We visit hospitals in order to minister to the sick and afflicted. But the things that separate us almost seem to nullify all of the above, and I don’t mean our differences on confessional subscription, predestination, and the nature of baptismal regeneration. I’m referring to our almost certain disagreements on things like: the nature of the Triune God, the deity of Christ and his historical resurrection, the authority and sufficiency of Scripture, the historicity of Bible narratives and miracles, the exclusivity of salvation, and the necessity of a biblical ethic. The ELCA, as a general rule, doesn’t affirm any of those things. In fact, in most cases, they explicitly and proudly deny them. I think it is safe to say that I have far more in common with Martin Luther than any Lutheran who remains affiliated today with the ELCA.

The conclusion many fundamentalists and evangelicals reach is that the baptized Lutheran on the elevator is not a Christian. But, of course, he is a Christian, and that is the problem. He has been united to Christ in baptism. The fact that a husband acts like a whore does not mean that he isn’t a husband. It’s worse than that. It would be better if he were not married. But he is. That makes his whoring even more egregious. Fornication outside of marriage is a sin. Fornication inside of and against marriage is an abomination. It would be better to be an unbaptized Hindu on the day of judgment than to be a baptized Christian who insists sodomy is a moral and social good.

The Israelites in the northern kingdom were not Canaanites. They were worse. They were Israelites who acted like Canaanites. They worshiped false gods, persecuted the prophets, and broke covenant with God in every imaginable way, and in a few that Yahweh said even he had not imagined (cf. Jer. 19:5; 32:35, in fairness this was said about Judah!). Eventually the Lord divorced his covenant-breaking people, but he did not utterly forsake them. On the contrary, the promise of the prophets, the hope of the covenant God had made, was that one day Israel would be resurrected and restored, not merely to political existence, but to spiritual and covenantal life with their Lord.

What is the destiny of Christ’s Church? At the moment, she seems to have developed a multiple personality disorder and an addiction to substance abuse and self-harm. Will she continue to divide and devour herself until the Bridegroom returns? Will he come back to find a bride clothed in righteous beauty, or will he bring papers to annul the marriage before the honeymoon is over? The answer, of course, will depend on your eschatology and view of several biblical passages. My purpose is not to exegete or argue those verses here. This is a Lord’s Day devotional, not a speech in a theological debate. But to ask the question is, in some ways, to answer it. Yes, the Church will be winnowed, purified by suffering and trials. No, not every person (or denomination) visibly connected to Christ will remain until the last day. Unfruitful and diseased branches will be cut off and burned. The Lord of the vineyard will clean up his garden and make it healthy and beautiful, and that is the point here.

My sanctification is incomplete. It is easy for me to look down on the mainline Lutherans. Who wants to be a llama anyway? But there are places in my heart that are in even worse shape than their communion, because I have less excuse for my lack of holiness. I belong to a church that teaches the Bible. I know better. The only catechizing some of our mainline brethren have received is from Pastor Wolf in his rainbow colored sheepskin coat. Will the Lord abandon me because of my lingering sinfulness? No, and he will not abandon his Bride either. She needs a new diet, a gym membership, and some strong antibiotics, but she still belongs to him, and he will not allow Rev. Wormtongue and Deacon Grishnakh to have her.

There should be no pride that we are Presbyterians (or Baptists, or fill in the blank) when we gather on the Lord’s Day. If anyone boasts, let him boast in the Lord. I  am grateful for my Reformed identity and heritage, unashamedly so. I am Reformed because I believe it is the best, most faithful, most biblical expression of the religion of Christ. I am happy to discuss, debate, and defend its basic convictions and distinctions as the correct interpretation of Scripture. But there is a big difference between being Reformed because we think it is biblical and being Reformed because we think it is cooler to be a Raptor than a member of the Pentecostal Peanuts team.

The scale of identity and priority ought to be Christian, Catholic, Protestant, Reformed, and so on. It should not start with our narrowest distinctives but our broadest ones. We should see ourselves, first and foremost, in relation to Christ as members of his Body. The mainline church down the street may be so compromised as to have lost their lampstand, and Pastor Jezebel is liable to be struck down at any moment, but the baptizands in the pews are still my brothers and sisters, and some of them will be redeemed and sanctified, just as the Lord still promises to do with me and with you.

I am Reformed, paedobaptist, presbyterian, postmillennial, and theonomic, but none of those are merit badges on my robe when we gather to worship. They are not the colors of my “team,” only conclusions I have reached as I continue to study Scripture. Some of those convictions may be wrong. Even if none of those are, it is inevitable that I am in error on something else I confidently believe. But I am not saved by having all of the right answers. I am not saved because I worship in the right church in the right way as I teach and believe the right things. We are saved by Christ and by his grace alone.

When the Church assembles on the Lord’s Day, she does not meet on opposite sides of the playing field, wearing different color jerseys and rooting for sectarian success on gameday. She stands before the Maker’s throne, clothed in white. Her skin is still marred, she’s limping badly, and there are a few tumors that will have to be removed. The Lord is not finished with her yet, but one day he will be, and then we will finally be able to see how beautiful she is and always was in God’s mind. That is the Body that gathers, the Body to which we are connected. That is the Church of the risen Christ and the living God: one, holy, catholic, and apostolic, forever. --JME

A Reminder on the Distinction between Common and Corporate Worship

Tomorrow is the Lord’s Day. I expected to be in Philadelphia last Sunday. Instead, I found myself sitting in my recliner with my Bible and hymnal and following along with the live stream as Dane led worship at ROPC. I’ve never liked missing corporate worship on the Lord’s Day. It puts me in a bad mood and dims considerably the experiential joy of the holy day. The deficiencies of my unsanctified attitude notwithstanding, even when absence is necessary, it is distressing, and that is as it should be. If COVID had not thrown us all for a bit of a loop initially, our Session probably never would have started live streaming our services. It was something we had done a long time ago, at an earlier stage of our congregation’s story, and none of us seemed particularly keen to return to the practice. But COVID did happen, and for better or worse, we turned on the live stream. It’s not the same as being in the assembly of saints, and it must not be treated as a substitute or adequate replacement for it. But when providentially hindered, the opportunity to participate in the songs, readings, and prayers, albeit from afar, is unquestionably a blessing.

Live streaming corporate worship is not ideal—and not just because I have a face for radio and a voice for silent film. It is problematic because while those in the assembly are engaged in corporate worship, those who are following along online are engaged in common worship. These two are not the same thing. They are both precious. They are both biblical. They should both be a regular part of every Christian’s life. But they are not the same. We engage in common worship when we sing the same songs, read the same scriptures, and pray the same prayers asynchronously with our brothers and sisters throughout the world. Those of us who are accustomed to using the Book of Common Prayer for daily worship will readily understand the distinction. Those of you who make a practice of reading-singing-chanting the psalms every month on the traditional schedule understand that millions of Christians are doing so around the world in the same twenty four hour period with you. When you pray the weekly collect, when you read the Bible according to the lectionary published in the bulletin, you are doing so in common with your brothers and sisters at ROPC (and elsewhere), but you are not doing it corporately, even if you have those texts and disciplines in common.

We need to understand both common worship and corporate worship and actively engage in both. Your “quiet time” or “daily devotions” are not supposed to be yours. We need less individualism in our daily prayers and a greater sense of the commonality, catholicity, and concurrence of the Body of Christ as she prays each day. We also need to understand why common worship can never be enough. We are not made, ultimately, to worship separately. We are designed and destined to be united to Christ and in him to one another, to all believers, to join our voices together around the throne of God as we sing Holy, Holy, Holy. The Lord’s Day gathering is penultimate and incomplete. We do not see the entire Body of Christ visibly in our assembly each week. But we see many saints gather, and our gathering together anticipates the greater gathering toward which we are aimed and to which we already belong. –JME

Meditation on the Church and Spiritual Conflict

I write a brief meditation for our church to us on Saturday evenings as we prepare for worship. This is the one for June 11, 2022.

The Lord’s Church can be thought of in different aspects. There is the invisible Church which consists of “the whole number of the elect, that have been, are, or shall be gathered into one, under Christ” (WCF 25.1) and also the visible Church which consists of “all those throughout the world that profess the true religion; and of their children” (WCF 25.2). We can also think of these two as being the Church considered eternally and eschatologically, on one hand, and the Church considered temporally and historically, one the other. This is because the invisible and visible are not two different churches but only two aspects of the same one Body of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We can also consider the Church from the standpoint of two locations, even if location isn’t the best word to use in this case. There is the Church in heaven and the Church on earth, the saints who have been glorified and are now with Christ awaiting the Judgment of the last day, and the saints who remain on the battlefield here below, waging war against the world, the flesh, and the Devil. These have been called the Church in Glory and the Church on Earth or the Church Triumphant and the Church Militant. Again we should emphasize, these are not two separate churches but two aspects of the one Body of our Lord.

I have never been to war, not as a soldier enlisted or commissioned in a national army. But every one of us who are blood-bought, baptized, Spirit-filled believers in Jesus have been elected, mustered, and deployed in the greatest battle in the history of the world. Every Christian is engaged in spiritual warfare. That Christ has won the ultimate victory does not change the reality that there is a Dragon hunting us every day (Rev. 12:10-17). The whole universe is embroiled in war, and the followers of Christ are active participants in the conflict. You may have thought when you gave your life to Jesus that you were settling the affairs of the afterlife. In fact, you were being awakened and summoned to the contest that will occupy you for the rest of your life, only ending when your body returns to the dust of the ground.

“The brave things in the old tales and songs, Mr. Frodo: adventures, as I used to call them. I used to think that they were things the wonderful folk of the stories went out and looked for, because they wanted them, because they were exciting and life was a bit dull, a kind of a sport, as you might say. But that’s not the way of it with the tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind. Folk seem to have been just landed in them, usually – their paths were laid that way, as you put it. But I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back, only they didn’t. And if they had, we shouldn’t know, because they’d have been forgotten.” –Sam Gamgee in The Two Towers

I will resist the urge to elaborate on Tolkien’s doctrine of divine sovereignty governing human moral agency. Suffice it to say this quote, and others, demonstrate that Brother Tolkien understood that God is not only in charge, he is in control. But the point here is that real adventures aren’t experiences people seek out. They don’t sign-up online or buy a Groupon for them. They simply find themselves there. And here you are, in the middle of one, even if you don’t know it, and if you don’t, you better figure it out.

We need to know who we are, whose we are, where we are, and what we are supposed to do during the time that we are here. We may be the Church visible and militant, but we belong to the Church invisible and triumphant. We are Christ’s Body on earth, but we are truly, spiritually, and eternally joined to Christ’s Body in glory. We are called to battle, to fight manfully and joyfully, until the sword cleaves to our hand and we fall, exhausted but victorious, even in death.

The Oracle at Delphi enjoined visitors: “Know Thyself,” and Calvin began his Institutes of the Christian Religion by affirming that “true and solid Wisdom, consists almost entirely of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves” (I.1.1). As we gather for worship on the Lord’s Day, we must come as those who know ourselves. We are sinners saved by grace alone, adopted sons and heirs of the Father, servants of a risen and glorious King, soldiers called to valor in the army of our Lord. –JME

An Optimistic Eschatology

This is a sermon manuscript written for Reformation OPC (AZ) to be preached on Sunday, May 30, 2021

Introduction

In this lesson I want to bind your conscience, not in an unbiblical way, but to bind it as it always should be bound: by what Scripture requires us to believe. Many people seem to think eschatology is an area of theology that is left entirely up to the individual. Believe whatever you like, because what the Bible says is so obscure as to be impossible for us to understand alike. You have your convictions, and I have mine, and that’s just the way it will have to be because we can’t expect any more unity than that.

Of course, orthodox Christians understand there are certain doctrinal minimums on which we all must agree. Jesus will return to the earth someday. He will raise the dead. There will be a day of judgment in which all men will answer to God. Those who trust in Christ will be saved and live forever in glory. The wicked will be cast into Hell to suffer eternal punishment. The Lord will judge the world with fire and a new heavens and earth will be established where God will dwell with his people forever. We might call these the eschatological minimums on which all Christians who are orthodox in their doctrine and faithful to Scripture agree.

Beyond these minimums, however, there seems to be almost no agreement. Will Jesus return prior to or after the thousand year reign? Will there be signs of his return? Will the thousand years actually be a thousand years, or is that merely a symbolic description of a long period? Will Jesus reign during the thousand years on earth or in heaven? To what extent will believers share in that thousand year reign? Will our participation be visible or invisible, physical or only spiritual? Will there be a Great Tribulation prior to that thousand years? Has such a Tribulation already taken place, or are we still waiting? Will the Church be on earth during the Tribulation? How many resurrections will there be? I would be happy to settle all of these questions for you. I believe all of them have answers in the Bible. But many people who agree the Bible gives clear answers would not agree with what I think the Scriptures clearly teach!

Herein lies the problem. We are not approaching Scripture neutrally. We cannot. There is no reason we should. We all have certain biases, certain presuppositions, that affect our reading and interpretation of God’s Word. For example, I believe the Bible is God’s Word, that it is inspired, infallible, and authoritative for faith and life. Those are presuppositions. I happen to think they are good presuppositions, valid conclusions with good evidence to support them. But I am not coming to the Bible as an unbiased and indifferent reader; neither are you. We have other presuppositions when we read eschatological texts. Besides the aforementioned eschatological minimums, many people also assume: the world is going to get worse and worse, the Church will have less and less influence, the Gospel will seem to lose its power to convert people, and finally things will get so bad that the Lord will either extract the Church in a sudden Rapture rescue mission or return in order to accomplish by fire what he could not accomplish by the Spirit’s Sword, i.e. subduing his enemies. This is what many people assume as they read Bible prophecy. This is the lens through which they read the Bible (and the news). And if you read prophetic texts with these assumptions, you will draw certain conclusions. That doesn’t mean these assumptions are wrong; it only means we need to be aware of what assumptions we have as we read Scripture and seek to be sure our assumptions are actually biblical, lest they cause us to misread what God has said.

In this lesson I have a small goal: I want to convince you that no matter your eschatological position, your perspective ought to be optimistic. This is not because I am, by nature, an optimist. I am not. But I do believe many Christians have a pessimistic (they might say realistic) bias when they read Bible prophecies, and I want to challenge and overthrow that view. To do that might require us to work through a dozen or more texts people think support a pessimistic eschatology, or I could set before you the more than a dozen texts that absolutely require us not to be pessimistic about the future of this world and the influence of the Gospel. But instead I am simply going to take you to one text, Isaiah 35, and try to show you why what is said in this passage (and so many others like it) actually requires us to be hopeful about the future, even if we don’t yet agree on everything that will happen in that future prior to Jesus’ return.

A Summary of Eschatological Perspectives

We’re using several big words--words some pastors say shouldn’t be used in the pulpit, but words that you will hear a lot at ROPC. I want to be sure you understand what these words mean as we begin.

Eschatology is the study of last things or the end. This includes things we mentioned before like the nature of the world before the Day of Judgment, the millennium, the return of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, and the eternal state (i.e. heaven and hell). We could say that eschatology concerns what the Bible tells us about the future, how this present world will come to an end and what will happen prior to its end until all the saints live in glory with Christ.

The millennium is the thousand years when Christian martyrs reign with Christ. Believers do not all agree on how many times or places the Bible refers to this thousand years, but it is only explicitly named as a thousand years in one passage, Revelation 20:4: And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. That’s the only verse in the Bible that tells us specifically about the millennium. Every other verse that refers to the millennium is disputed by someone.

Christians have various views of this thousand years and when Jesus will return in relation to it, and this gives us more terminology you need to understand. Premillennialists believe Jesus will return before (pre-) the thousand years. Postmillennialists believe Jesus will return after (post-) the thousand years. Amillennialists are a kind of postmillennialist. They believe Jesus will return after the thousand years. But they are called amillennialists because they believe the thousand years is symbolic of the Church Age, not a literal thousand years, and not necessarily of period of great triumph for the Gospel among the nations, but simply the period during which Christ reigns invisibly over his Church from the time of his ascension until his return prior to Judgment Day.

Terms are supposed to be helpful in understanding key ideas, but that’s not always the case. For example, amillennialism suggests there will not (a-) be a thousand year reign, but that is not what amillennialists believe. Furthermore, most postmillennialists agree that the thousand years is symbolic of the Church Age and not literally one thousand years. The difference between the two groups is primarily over how much influence the Gospel will have during that period between the ascension and Jesus’ return, and there is not even perfect agreement among postmillennialists (or amillennialists) on that. Instead of being helpful, these terms sometimes cause us to talk past each other. (I’m still waiting for an amillennial candidate for licensure to come through the Credentials Committee who can accurately describe postmillennialism.) We make assumptions about other positions that are not always true. There are even optimistic amillennialists, which historically would simply be known as postmillennialists, but because of assumptions about postmillennialism, those with a more optimistic bent feel the need to create another category. There are even Christians who simply adopt what they think is a more spiritual (or necessary) eschatological agnosticism. They don’t know what the Bible says about the future beyond a few minimums and they don’t seem to care. They are pan-millennialists because they simply assume it will all pan out in the end! We can do better than this. We ought to.

An Overview of Isaiah 35

We don’t have time to fully unpack Isaiah 35 in this lesson, nor is that our purpose. But I want to quickly survey the chapter and give you a sense of it so that you can see how it (and many other texts like it) ought to inform our overall eschatological perspective.

The preceding chapter describes the day of Yahweh’s vengeance. Specifically the passage identifies Edom as the target of God’s wrath (34:5-6), but the context makes it plain this prophecy is about God’s greater judgment of the world (34:2). This is not necessarily the final day on which God will judge the world, though it anticipates that, but it is a description of God’s judgment of the enemies of his people so that his saints will be vindicated and the cause of truth and the heavenly kingdom would be established (34:8).

Come near, you nations, to hear; And heed, you people! Let the earth hear, and all that is in it, The world and all things that come forth from it. For the indignation of the Lord is against all nations, And His fury against all their armies; He has utterly destroyed them, He has given them over to the slaughter. Also their slain shall be thrown out; Their stench shall rise from their corpses, And the mountains shall be melted with their blood. All the host of heaven shall be dissolved, And the heavens shall be rolled up like a scroll; All their host shall fall down As the leaf falls from the vine, And as fruit falling from a fig tree. “For My sword shall be bathed in heaven; Indeed it shall come down on Edom, And on the people of My curse, for judgment. The sword of the Lord is filled with blood, It is made overflowing with fatness, With the blood of lambs and goats, With the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, And a great slaughter in the land of Edom. The wild oxen shall come down with them, And the young bulls with the mighty bulls; Their land shall be soaked with blood, And their dust saturated with fatness.” For it is the day of the LORD’s vengeance, The year of recompense for the cause of Zion.

(Isaiah 34:1-8)

It is after this judgment that we see the blessing, fruitfulness, and glory described in chapter 35. The earth shall rejoice and blossom in the light of Yahweh’s glory (35:1-2). The blind will see, the deaf will hear, the lame will leap, the mute will sing, and the desert will be filled with streams (35:5-7). A highway of holiness will be established where no unclean or wicked person will be allowed to pass but where even a simple person (a fool) can travel safely without fear of beasts or bandits (35:8-9), and those whom God has redeemed will travel on that road all the way to Zion with songs of gladness and everlasting joy, and all their sorrow and sighing will be over (35:10).

Now when would this chapter be fulfilled? How you answer that question will depend on your eschatological presuppositions. If you are a premillennialist, you will read it one way; if you are a postmillennialist, you will read it another way; and if you are an amillennialist, you may read it in still another way. Conservative Christians say they believe in the clarity of Scripture, but when it comes to eschatology we seem to think that what the Bible says is so obscure that we will never be able to agree! Isaiah 35 isn’t going to settle anything in terms of the millennium, but it should have a major impact on our eschatological perspective.

This chapter is describing in vivid, poetic terms the blessing that the Messiah would bring to the world. We know this because of how Jesus describes his own ministry.

And when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said to Him, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.” (Matt. 11:2-6)

Jesus alludes to Isaiah 35 (and other passages like it) in telling the messengers of John this is what Isaiah was talking about. The ministry of Christ was bringing the renewal and glory which our text describes in poetic terms. At the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus announced: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37-38). Where did the Scripture prophesy this? Here in Isaiah 35: For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert (v.6).

What did Jesus accomplish by his life, death, and resurrection? What was the result of his ministry? The earth has been filled and is being renewed by the light of Yahweh’s glory (35:1-2). Those blinded by sin now see God in the person of Christ. The deaf hear the Gospel and believe. Those made lame by sin now leap with new strength and joy. Those whose voices were silenced now sing. The desert has been filled with streams as the Holy Spirit has been poured out upon the Church (35:5-7). A highway of holiness has been established, and the redeemed of God travel that road all the way to Zion with songs of gladness and everlasting joy (35:10). There are still many trials and sorrows which the Church must endure, but this is the spiritual reality actualized by the Gospel. This is life in the kingdom of God. This is the fruit of Christ’s work. We are not merely waiting for restoration and joy; we have it right now, and we have it because of the Lord.

Now in saying Isaiah 35 describes the blessings of Christ and the kingdom of God which began during the Lord’s earthly ministry does not mean that is the end of its fulfillment. Christ has begun to bring these blessings to the world, and they will continue to increase and abound until we finally reach the full consummation which Scripture promises in the eternal state. This is how John Calvin interpreted the passage, and we have good grounds for doing the same.

“The Lord began some kind of restoration when he brought his people out of Babylon; but that was only a slight foretaste, and, therefore, I have no hesitation in saying that this passage, as well as others of a similar kind, must refer to the kingdom of Christ; and in no other light could it be viewed, if we compare it to other prophecies. By ‘the kingdom of Christ,’ I mean not only that which is begun here, but that which shall be completed at the last day, which on that account is called ‘the day of renovation and restoration,’ (Acts 3:21;) because believers will never find perfect rest till that day arrive. And the reason why the prophets speak of the kingdom of Christ in such lofty terms is, that they look at that end when the true happiness of believers, shall be most fully restored.” --John Calvin, Commentary on Isaiah Vol. 3, s.v. 35:1

This is what we sometimes call the already, not yet aspect of eschatology. Already these blessings of redemption and renewal have come to the world, but not yet in the fullness we will one day see.

Applying an Isaiah 35 Paradigm to Eschatology

It does not matter what your eschatological position may be, Isaiah 35 is in your Bible, and it should make a (profound) difference in your eschatological perspective. I’m not concerned in this lesson what you believe about the thousand year reign or when Jesus will return in relation to it or what else we can expect to happen before and after that period. I want you to see that no matter what you think about those questions, Isaiah 35 (and many others) should change your perspective about where we are, where we’re headed, and what God is doing in the world right now.

If you assume the world is going to hell in a handbasket, then you will find many reasons on the news and social media to confirm your bias. Admittedly, the situation we find ourselves in is serious. We are not minimizing the hatred, hostility, violence, and embrace of totalitarian ideology that appears to be rising in the western world. Some people are watching the news and reading the tea leaves and think they are seeing the fulfillment of prophecy. Whatever is going on, we know it is ultimately under the supervision and sovereign providence of the Lord of heaven and earth.

But regardless of what any political party or government or tech platform may do, Isaiah 35 is still in your Bible, and it is still true. It might be that the earth is being removed, mountains are falling into the sea, the waters are roaring and troubled, the mountains are shaking and swelling (cf. Psa. 46:1-3), in other words, the peoples of the world are raging as the present age passes away and the strongholds of this present, evil world fall apart. But still it is true that there is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High. God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved; God shall help her, just at the break of dawn (Psa. 46:4-5). The (wicked) world may be falling apart, but the Church is traveling the highway of holiness, and the kingdom of glory is not falling apart but falling into place. This is our confidence and peace.

“God not only begins, but conducts to the end, the work of our salvation, that his grace in us may not be useless and unprofitable. As he opens up the way, so he paves it, and removes obstacles of every description, and is himself the leader during the whole journey. In short, he continues his grace towards us in such a manner that he at length brings it to perfection. And this ought to be applied to the whole course of our life. Here we walk as on a road, moving forward to that blessed inheritance. Satan presents numerous obstructions, and dangers surround us on every side; but the Lord, who goes before and leads us by the hand, will not leave us in the midst of the journey, but at length will perfectly finish what he has begun in us by his Spirit…. Yet the godly often suffer heavy distresses, and are not exempt from grief. This is undoubtedly true, but they are not overwhelmed; for they look straight towards God, by whose power they become victorious, just as if a person, elevated on a lofty mountain, looking at the sun, and enjoying his brightness, beheld others in a low valley, surrounded by clouds and darkness, whom that brightness could not reach.” --John Calvin

Pastoral Application: Stop Being Puddleglum

I hope you know who Puddleglum is. If you don’t, be sure to pick up a copy of The Silver Chair this week. It’s Book Four in The Chronicles of Narnia. (If your set has The Silver Chair as Book Six, be sure to fix the order.) Puddleglum is a Marshwiggle. He lived all alone in a marsh. He had “a long thin face with rather sunken cheeks, a tightly shut mouth, a sharp nose, and no beard.” He wore “a high, pointed hat like a steeple, with an enormously wide flat brim.” His “hair, if it could be called hair, which hung over [his] large ears was greeny-grey, and each lock was flat rather than round, so that they were like tiny reeds.” His “expression was solemn, [his] complexion muddy, and you could see at once that [he] took a serious view of life.” You get a sense of his character when he greets Jill and Scrubb the morning after they arrive at his wigwam.

“Good morning, Guests…. Though when I say good I don’t mean it won’t probably turn to rain or it might be snow, or fog, or thunder. You didn’t get any sleep at all, I dare say.” 

“Yes we did, though,” said Jill. “We had a lovely night.”

“Ah,” said the Marsh-wiggle, shaking his head. “I see you’re making the best of a bad job. That’s right. You’ve been well brought up, you have. You’ve learned to put a good face on things.”

When Jill and Scrubb ask Puddleglum if he can help them find Prince Rilian, he replies:

“Well, I don’t know that you’d call it help…. I don’t know that anyone can exactly help. It stands to reason we’re not likely to get very far on a journey to the North, not at this time of the year, with the winter coming on soon and all. And an early winter too, by the look of things. But you mustn’t let that make you downhearted. Very likely, what with enemies, and mountains, and rivers to cross, and losing our way, and next to nothing to eat, and sore feet, we’ll hardly notice the weather. And if we don’t get far enough to do any good, we may get far enough not to get back in a hurry.”

It’s hard to know whether Puddleglum was evaluating the likely success of the children’s quest or summarizing many Christians’ perspective on gospel ministry in the present age. The sad thing is that, like Puddleglum, many believers seem to think this sort of realism is more spiritual than the cheerfulness and hopefulness which Isaiah 35 might otherwise impart.

“Don’t you lose heart…. I’m coming, sure and certain. I’m not going to lose an opportunity like this. It will do me good. They all say--I mean, the other wiggles all say--that I’m too flighty; don’t take life seriously enough. If they’ve said it once, they’ve said it a thousand times. ‘Puddleglum,’ they’ve said, ‘you’re altogether too full of bobance and bounce and high spirits. You’ve got to learn that life isn’t all fricasseed frogs and eel pie. You want something to sober you down a bit. We’re only saying it for your own good, Puddleglum.’ That’s what they say. Now a job like this--a journey up north just as winter’s beginning, looking for a Prince that probably isn’t there, by way of a ruined city that no one has ever seen--will be just the thing. If that doesn’t steady a chap, I don’t know what will.”

It’s not spiritual to be like Brother Puddleglum. Our perspective ought not to be determined by the dangers we perceive or the probabilities of failure but, rather, by the promises of God. These promises are not only of future glory, as great as that will be. They are promises about our present experience, the life we live in the world right now. Scriptures commands us to have a cheerful, hopeful, optimistic perspective on eschatology.

Strengthen the weak hands,

And make firm the feeble knees.

Say to those who are fearful-hearted,

“Be strong, do not fear!

Behold, your God will come with vengeance,

With the recompense of God;

He will come and save you.” (Isaiah 35:3-4)

“Those that by faith are made citizens of the gospel Zion may go on their way rejoicing (Acts viii. 39); they shall sing in the ways of the Lord, and be still praising him. They rejoice in Christ Jesus, and the sorrows and signs of their convictions are made to flee away by the power of divine consolations. Those that mourn are blessed, for they shall be comforted…. Our joyful hopes and prospects of eternal life should swallow up both all the sorrows and all the joys of this present time.” --Matthew Henry, Commentary, s.v. Isaiah 35:10

Conclusion

We may disagree on the nature, location, and duration of the millennium. We may disagree on what Christ will do before and after that thousand year period. We may disagree on the extent to which the Gospel will influence, transform, and finally overcome all the kingdoms of this world. But what we ought not to disagree on is that the Gospel is and will have that effect. Judgment has begun, and though the peoples of the earth rage, their mountain fortresses are collapsing. In the end only the mountain of God will remain. The Lord has brought life and light, healing and hope, joy and fruitfulness to this sin-cursed world, and though we still live as pilgrims, we are traveling the highway of holiness that leads all the way to Zion. We need not fear any lions we meet along the way. We will not miss a turn or fail to reach our destination.

And the ransomed of the LORD shall return,

And come to Zion with singing,

With everlasting joy on their heads.

They shall obtain joy and gladness,

And sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

--JME