Puzzling to Me

 

 

Look out, my brother, my sister

For the return of Christ,

For the redeemed it will be great

For the unsaved, not so nice.

 

Yes, he is coming soon

To catch his bride away

And since these are the last days

It could be any day.

 

There’ll be a great tribulation

Of exactly seven years

And you will not want to be around

To experience such fear.

 

Immediately there after

There will be the millennium

In which Jesus will be the king

Ruling from Jerusalem.

 

 

A new temple will be built

And Jesus will rule with the Jews,

That this is the promise of God

Is the dispensationalist’s view.

 

I used to hold to this

But I have been forced to change,

A more in-depth reading of the Word

Shows me it is strange.

 

The first reason is the temple

That Jesus said would be destroyed,

However, that they must be another

Is an idea some employ.

 

Why revert to types and shadows

When the real has been fulfilled?

The knowledge that I am born again

Gives me an abounding thrill. 

 

As such, we are become lively stones

Built into the temple of Christ,

He himself is the cornerstone

And he alone does suffice.

 

Our bodies are his temple

If indeed we are of the born again,

To revert to a manmade temple

To me seems insane.

 

The second reason is the Jews:

Apparently, God is in their debt

Since he made a promise to them

And has not fulfilled it yet.

 

A promise made to Abraham

Relating to prosperity and land

And God is yet to fulfil either

In accordance with His plan.

 

Thus, a new temple must be built

And the Jews must indwell the land

As promised to the worthy patriarch

Whom we know is Abraham.

 

The promise was to Abraham

And to Abraham’s seed

That all the world would be blessed

Through the promised Holy Seed.

 

In Christ is the promised fulfilled

To the Jew first and the Greek

And this is still being fulfilled

Even as we speak. 

  

It is therefore puzzling to me

That we are yet about distinctions

When God, the faithful promiser,

Has made good our redemption.

 

Heirs and joint-heirs with Christ,

Already seated in Heavenly places

To enjoy here and now and all eternity

God’s manifold, abundant graces.

 

Stewart Russell © September 13, 2022