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Eschatology review online
By Ron McRay
May 3, 2002
Tom Gorey says:
Premillennial Futurists maintain that the Messianic prophecy of Zechariah
14 must be fulfilled (only)
by the bodily return of Christ to Jerusalem. The key verse of this
prophecy says: "On that day his
[the Lord's] feet
will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of
Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley,
with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south"
(Zechariah 14:4; New International
Version). But does this
prophecy necessitate the physical presence of Christ to be fulfilled?
The prophet Micah uses virtually identical prophetic
language to describe God's judgment -- by means of the Assyrian army --
against Samaria and Israel in the 8th century B.C.:
"Look! The Lord is coming from his dwelling place; he
comes down and treads the high places of the earth. The mountains
melt beneath him and the valleys split apart, like wax before the fire,
like water rushing down a slope"
(Micah 1:3-4; emphasis added).
Thus Micah's prophecy describes an apparent physical descent of God,
along with the phenomena of mountains melting and valleys splitting, yet
that prophecy was fulfilled in Micah's lifetime when the Assyrians
destroyed Samaria and took Israel captive in 722-721 B.C., as the
evangelical NIV Study Bible notes.
So therefore, a physical descent of Christ to earth is not required to
fulfill Zechariah 14. And given the fact that Jesus prophesied that the
Son of Man would come before his disciples finished evangelizing the
cities of Israel (Matthew 10:23),
and that some of his disciples would
"not taste death" before
the Son of Man had come in his kingdom
(Matthew 16:28), one should
look for an event that fulfills the Messianic prophecy of Zechariah 14
within the timeframe of Jesus' own generation, which he said would
"not pass away until all these things have
happened"
(Matthew 24:34).
The destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 meets the prophetic requirements
of Zechariah 14, so there is no basis for seeking a future fulfillment of
this prophecy. Rome's military action against Jerusalem in A.D. 70
fulfilled Christ's own prophecy of divine judgment against the city and
Temple: "They
[Israel's enemies] will not
leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of
God's coming to you" in
Jesus' Messianic ministry (Luke 19:44).
Jerry Bernard says:
The Book of Zechariah...is like some unique masterpiece of music, with
simpler movements in the first part, followed by a final, riotous
rhapsody, with crashing chords and lightning runs and sudden alternations
between major and minor, and a triumphant finale in chapter fourteen. Yet
both, in the earlier movements
(chapters 1-8) and in the
later (chapters 9-14)
we hear the same recurrent key-note all the way through--Jehovah is
"jealous for Zion."
The Pulpit Commentary remarks on Chapter 9:13,
"Nothing but inspiration could have enabled
Zechariah and Daniel to foresee the rise of the Macedonian dynasty, and
the struggle between the Jews and the Syro-Grecian power in Maccabean
times, which is here announced."
What then shall we say about those passages in Zechariah which look right
into the Messiah's coming to His public entry into Jerusalem in lowly
dignity, riding on an ass; to His being
"wounded" in the house of
His own kinsmen; to the "smiting of the
Shepherd and the scattering of the flock;"
to the preservation of the "remnant;"
to the "mourning"
for Him, as they "look on Him whom they
pierced." Yes, what shall
we say to all this? Is it not a marvel of inspiration? Oh what perfect
words from God through Zechariah.
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