Ed Walsh
Puritan Board Senior
Good morning,
I have been reading through Rushdoony's commentaries on the Pentateuch with much profit these past few months. This morning I want to share the last few paragraphs of his take on Leviticus 9:1-24 - The Glory of the Lord. He makes some telling observations on the any-minute view of the return of Christ and the final judgment:
The great appearance of God’s glory is to come with Christ’s second advent. It follows thus that Christ’s return is also the Last Judgment. It is the full expression of both His covenant law and judgment and also of His grace and deliverance. It is an ugly fact that premillennialism has partially separated the return of Christ (the “rapture”) from the Last Judgment because the two are inseparable. The glory of God fully unveiled and revealed cannot be a secret event, nor a harmless one. Amos in his day saw the folly of antinomian expectations:
Gideon had better sense. When he saw, on a limited basis, the glory of the Lord, in the appearance of “the angel of the Lord,” he, knowing himself to be a sinner, feared that he would die (Judges 6:19–23). Jerusalem saw God the Son in His incarnation, rejected Him, and perished. Those who look to the “any moment” return of Christ in order to be raptured out of the world’s sin and grief are asking for their damnation. Christ’s Great Commission (Matt. 28:18–20) is a mandate for work, not escape.
I have been reading through Rushdoony's commentaries on the Pentateuch with much profit these past few months. This morning I want to share the last few paragraphs of his take on Leviticus 9:1-24 - The Glory of the Lord. He makes some telling observations on the any-minute view of the return of Christ and the final judgment:
The great appearance of God’s glory is to come with Christ’s second advent. It follows thus that Christ’s return is also the Last Judgment. It is the full expression of both His covenant law and judgment and also of His grace and deliverance. It is an ugly fact that premillennialism has partially separated the return of Christ (the “rapture”) from the Last Judgment because the two are inseparable. The glory of God fully unveiled and revealed cannot be a secret event, nor a harmless one. Amos in his day saw the folly of antinomian expectations:
18. Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD: to what end is it for you? The day of the LORD is darkness, and not light.
19. As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him.
20. Shall not the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light? Even very dark, and no brightness in it? (Amos 5:18–20)
19. As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him.
20. Shall not the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light? Even very dark, and no brightness in it? (Amos 5:18–20)
Gideon had better sense. When he saw, on a limited basis, the glory of the Lord, in the appearance of “the angel of the Lord,” he, knowing himself to be a sinner, feared that he would die (Judges 6:19–23). Jerusalem saw God the Son in His incarnation, rejected Him, and perished. Those who look to the “any moment” return of Christ in order to be raptured out of the world’s sin and grief are asking for their damnation. Christ’s Great Commission (Matt. 28:18–20) is a mandate for work, not escape.
Rushdoony, R. J. (2005). Commentaries on the Pentateuch: Leviticus (pp. 92–93). Vallecito, CA: Ross House Books.