Early bird gets the worm, we got to hear a lecture from Phil Roberts!

Liberals took a low view of the historical accuracy of Chronicles. (Called it ‘P’ source)
W.F. Albright, renowned archaeologist & theological liberal forced a reconsideration.
Not only liberals, LXX title is, “The things left omitted, left over.”
Matthew Henry, many think “of all the books of holy scripture we could do w/o its these.”
Thankfully he went on to argue why we shouldn’t.

Phil Roberts wrote his Master’s Thesis on this subject in 1973. (Trying to get it published)

Why do we say Chron comes after Samuel/Kings?
Last event in Kings Jehoiachin (560)
Last even in Chronicles the return from captivity. (539)
1 Chron 3:17-24 mentions at least two generations after Zerubabbel
Chronicles was probably written c. 400 BC, last OT book, could use all the other books.
Therefore, he incorporates all of the OT canon to foreshadow the coming messiah.

Did the author of Chronicles know Samuel/Kings? Yes
1 Chon 11:3 David is anointed king (cf 1 Sam 16)
1 Chron 10:15 “His word spoken through Ahijah the Shilonite (cf. 1 Kings 11:29-40)
2 Chron 32:31-32 some would include 2 Kings 20:12-19

Why the genealogies of 1 Chron 1-9
2:3-4:23 Judah- After the division of the Kingdom, Judah will be the focus.
6:1-8:1 Levi or Levites are mentioned 4 times in Samuel & Kings.
In Chronicles Levi 15 times, Levites/Levite 94 times. Sam/Kg 112 times Chron 111 times
Moving of the ark: 2 Sam 6 no mention of Levites, in 1 Ch 13, 15-16 many references.
Some tribes are dismissed in one verse.
Hezekiah 2 Kg 18-20 priests once but not the Levites
2 Chronicles 29-31 mentions the priests 24 times & the Levites 21 times
Only two familes traced from patriarchs to the exile David (3:1-24) & Aaron (6:1-15)
8:1-40 Benjamin: After the division of the kingdom
Benjamin 14 times in Chronicles 3 times in Samuel/Kings

Saul in Chronicles
Dismissed quickly in Chronicles… so we’ll do the same.
The LORD is specifically said to put Saul to death (2:3; 13:10; 2 Chron 13:20; 22:7)
“For the author the Kingdom begins with David” P. Roberts (23)

Things Chronicles omits from the account of David
David fleeing from Saul (1 Sam 16-2 Sam 1) & related events
Conflict with Ishbosheth (2 Sam 2-4)
David’s kindess to Mephibosheth (2 Sam 9)
David’s sin w/ Bathsheba & its accompanying disasters (2 Sam 11-20) beyond David.
Putting the seven descendents of Saul to death (2 Sam 21:1-14)
David rescued by Sbishai in battle (2 Sam 21:15-17)
The Song of David (2 Sam 22)
Words of David (2 Sam 23:1-7)
Abishag (1 Kg 1:1-4)
David’s Charge to Solomon about Abner & Shemei (1 Kg 2:1-12)

But we are used to this b/c of our treatment of the synoptic gospels.

Why would these things be omitted?
The author writes real history, but also a selective history.
The purpose of his selection: is to inspire hope in a future glorious descendant for the throne.
He is interested more in a theological symbol than a tidy historical picture. (V. Hamilton)
Therefore the passages about David that don’t fit a ‘glorious’ picture are left out.
First event after Saul’s death, ‘All Israel’ comes to make David king.
1 King 11: Shepherd (2) My people (2) Prince (2) Covenant (3) King (3)
Note: Ezek 37: shepherd (24) my people (27) prince (25) covenant (26) king (24)
What Ezekiel does by prophecy, Chron does by historical typology.
1 Chron 11:1; 12 All Israel gathers to make him king (Ezek 37:15-28)
1 Chron 12:38-40 Foreshadows Messianic Banquet (Lk 13:29; Rev 19:7-9)

The order is changed intentionally:
Samuel records David’s family, victory over Philistines, & the moving of the ark.
Chronicles records moving the ark, family, victory over Philistines, & then ark completed.
Why the different order? To emphasize David’s concern for the worship of God & temple.

Battles of David
1 Chronicles records almost every battle of David as King (14:8-17; 18, 19, 20)
20:4-8 duplicates 2 Sam 21:18-22 but one battle is missing:
Why omit 21:15-17? B/c David was almost killed.
Chronicler chooses to dwell on the legitimately glorious aspects of David’s reign.
Psm 2, 110 present the same picture. In part of Psm 89 we see it again.
A King who is victorious over all of his foes. The Messiah will be victorious over foes.
The Chronicler wrote an idealized history of the past to provide a picture of the future.

Kings shows how they ended up in captivity.
Chronicler tries to lift them up w/ a brighter picture.

Long Phil Roberts quote:
“They needed to be reminded of the glorious destiny that had been promised to them.
They needed to have their eyes turned towards a brighter hope.”

Promises to David 2 Sam 7 & 1 Chron 17 (Thoughts from Phil Roberts)
2 Sam 7;1 “the Lord had given him rest…”
These two references to rest in 2 Sam 7 are omitted in 1 Chron 17
Rest is t/o Josh, Judges, King… Chronicles rest is for Solomon’s time.
David’s victories foreshadows the Messiah’s; Solomon’s time foreshadows Messiah’s people.
(Isaiah 2:2-4; 9:6-7; Micah 4:1-4; Zech 9:9-10)

Why are some things in Chronicles but omitted in Samuel/Kings?
1 Chron 21:26 Fire consumes David’s sacrifice (2 Chr 7:1-3)
Shows God’s acceptance of the temple (Lev 9:22-24)
1 Chon 22-29 does not have a parallel:
While David does not actually build it, he does much preparation. (22:2-5; 29:1-9)
David organizes who will work there: priests, musicians, gatekeepers
Davidic King will unite the house of David & the house of Aaron
Throne & Temple (Jer 33:14-26; Zech 4; 6:12-13)
Remember only the families of David & Aaron are traced from patriarchs to exile.
“The latter prophets found themselves entering more & more of their hope around the temple itself.” Roberts, 122 (Ezek 37:24-28; 40-48; Hag 2:1-9)
“Samuel-Kings was looking back in penitence; Chronicles was looking forward in hope.” Roberts, 102

(Rapidly Covered):
Solomon’s wisdom & wealth, perhaps, forms a chiasmus.
Links between David & Solomon in Chronicles
Differences in Treatment of Solomon

“Truly He is good, His lovingkindness is everlasting”
1 Chron 16:34; 2 Ch 5:13; 7:3; 20:21; Ezra 3:11
Lovingkindness is sometimes used as a technical term for the Davidic covenant.
Psm 89 speicically 19-37 stresses this same concept repeatedly.
Where is His lovingkindness? Chronicles answers that it is everlasting.

The OT has repeated accounts of failure.

Was Kingship a Bad Deal?
Failed attempts in Judges: Gideon & Abimelech
Israel’s demand for a king in 1 Sam 8
Do these texts show that kingship should be seen in a bad light?

OT examples of Kingship:
Adam, rulership over the earth (Gen 1:26)
Made in the image of God & God is the great king.
Abraham (Gen 17:16) Jacob (Gen 35:11) Judah (Gen 49:10)
Moses gives the design for Kingship Deut 17:14-20

Deut 17: God’s Design
God’s choice (15), Hebrew (15), Not greedy w/ horses, wives, riches (16)
(Greed=idolatry) “Or else his heart will turn away”
He shall write for himself a copy of the law (18) Have we tried this?
(King Jesus came & He was The Word in the flesh)
Kingship does not deny divine authority: The Word was authority.

So was Kingship inherently wicked?
Adam & Eve tried to become their own Gods. (It was God’s land, we are only stewards.)
Israel, in 1 Sam 8, desired a king of their choosing, they desired to be God. Cf. Psm 2
1 Sam 8 also indicates a lack of faith, they wanted a King defending them, not God.
They desired to be ‘like the nations,’ they wanted to be pagan.
Compare Dt 17’s desires with their desires in 1 Sam 8:
Pagan’s oppress & gain power; God desires righteousness & justice.
And unfortunately from Saul & Solomon on… they repeatedly look pagan.

Pagan Kings vs Gods Kings
Appointed by others or self-appointed Appointed by God, through prophecy
Autocrats, answer to no one (Zimri?) Always answers to God
Authority even in religion (Jeroboam?) No explicit authority except to be an example
Viewed as divine, not just a symbol Not divine, but represents God
Job: Increase the Kingdom Job: Deal justly

The Ultimate King
In Israel, David sets a standard not met until exceeded by the Messiah
Note the contrasts between Saul & David in Samuel.
Saul tried to break from God’s authority,
David slipped up & sought to be brought back under it.

Why did the Kings fail?
Didn’t fear God or respect His word
Tried to separate their Kingship from God to be autonomous rulers
(Look closely at Absalom, look at Jezebel’s words to Ahab)
Any reforms initiated by good kings needed to start w/ this fundamental understanding.
Think about David’s charge to Solomon, 1 Kings 2:3-4
Great promise given to Jeroboam, 1 Kings 11; They just don’t listen.

Kings & Reform:
Asa (2 Chron 14-15) 14:2-5; 15:12 He turns late in life
Jehoshaphat (2 Chron 17) Created a teaching commission, but allies w/ Ahab (Attaliah!)
*Jehoiada (2 Chron 23) In control of Joash from infancy. Great restoration of covenant.
He is given a Kings burial, but then Joash turns to idolatry, it only takes a generation.
Hezekiah (2 Chron 29-31) Another great restoration, 31:20
Josiah (2 Chron 34) They find the book of the law! v21ff “Great is the wrath of God”

Common Elements of Reform:
Focus on Word of God & God’s authority
Restoration of Worship; Restoration of Priesthood & its Functions
Restoration of Feast Days; Purging of Sin, urging purity, holiness

Need for Modern Reform:
Why we fail today: we try to be our own autonomous rulers, disrespecting God & authority.
We become guilty of our own idolatry. Ignoring the word of God.
Every generation must continue, it is ongoing.

Following God’s Design
Can Dt 17 inform us today?
We are chosen by God to be a royal people.
We are His people, in covenant with Him
We are to shun covetousness, wordliness, & materialism.

A ‘Restoration Movement’
Like some museum piece, to be displayed & dusted off? (Looked at)
No such thing as one restoration movement, ever at any time in history.
Precisely b/c of what we see in the Kings, each generation struggles.
Don’t tell our children to look at the movement, restore your individual self!

Dangerous Illustration
Article by Michael Patton “Scandal of the Evangelical Mind”
We have become scared to teach. We love being ‘accepted’ by the world.
Renew you commitment to God & His covenant with you
Never act autonomously—without God’s word
YHWH is King forever & ever. Ps 10:16

Repeated theme in the OT trusting Egypt or trusting in military assistance from others
Jer 42:13-19 ‘the sword you fear will overtake you.’ During Babylonian threat (36:6-9)
Isa 30:1-3; 31:1-3 ‘the protection of Pharaoh will turn to your shame’ during Assyrian threat ↑

But this problem occurred long before the prophets came along.
Beginning: Egypt in the Life of Abraham Gen 12:10; 13:10; 16:1-3
By itself, these instances seem inconsequential.
In each Egypt seems fruitful, but God’s promise seems barren.
Furthermore, in each instance the choice is disastrous.

The lesson in Genesis:
1) Lesson for Abraham: He needed to learn to look at the apparent weakness of God’s promise over the apparent strength of Egypt (Ge 17:18; 21:10-12; 22:1-2)
2) Lessons for Isaac & Jacob: Ge 26:1-3; God tells Isaac to stop thinking about Egypt & stay in the Promised Land. Jacob has learned the lesson & during the famine in his time, Gen 46:1-4, he sought God’s blessing before going down to Egypt.
3) We need to seek God’s counsel in everything we do.

The Next Generation: Is it any wonder they didn’t really want Moses to take them out of Egypt.
Num 11:4-6, 18-20; 14:3; 20:5; 21:5; Dt 17:16 ‘Never go that way again!’

Today’s Option:
We face our own ‘Egyptian Option’
1) We turn to the strength of ‘Egypt’ to help out in our weakness.
We often hear, ‘God helps those who help themselves’
That is not actually in The Word, & anytime people in scripture help themselves, its bad.
Illus: Did God let Israel build boats to cross the Red Sea?
We need to turn to God for help, God helps those who trust in His promises.
All of us have the common problem: sin, none of us have the cure except Him.

2) We can be tempted to turn to ‘Egypt’ when the promises of God seem less alluring.
We too often put our trust in tangible things, physical objects, flesh objects.
Ge 23 Abraham buys land & buries Sarah in the Promised Land
Despite the fact that it doesn’t look like God’s promises are going to come true.

Jer 8:21-22 A figurative wound, that which destroys the spiritual health of God’s people.
It is incurable, (like: cancer, HIV, Parkinson’s) Captivity, literal. NO freedom.
Being put in the hospital & being told you’ll never go home.

3 Things To Remember:
1) Wounds are often self inflicted, caused by our own actions.
Jer 8:11-12 They say peace, but there wasn’t really peace.
2) Wounds unattended, become incurable. (They didn’t listen to the prophets)
Illus: When we refuse to get a colonoscopy.
3) Once it has gone this far, even a good doctor can’t cure some wounds.

God is living w/ a group of people who still claim to believe in God.
Great illustration of why mechanic’s aren’t paid what a heart surgeon is paid.

It wasn’t just Israel that was afflicted.
Jer 8:21 As God’s prophet, Jeremiah was also afflicted Jer 15:15, 18
10:18-19 Even God is hurt as well!

Jer 30:12-13 All the prophets could do was preach doom to them.
v14 All your lovers have forgotten you. They had prostituted themselves.

History of the Wound:
2 Kings 21 The Four Sins That Did Them In:
(1) Idolatry; whoredom/adultery (2) Immorality; natural outcome of idolatry (act of worship!)
(3) Injustice; King Manasseh (4) Indifference; v9 ‘they did not listen’
v11 More wicked than the nations in the land before Israel entered in!
v12-15 “B/c they have done evil in my sight since the day they came out of Egypt, I will do this.”

(Jer 30:15) God will do justice & (Jer 30:17) God will do the impossible
v18 I will have compassion/mercy on My house, the tent of Judah.

Today: We’re wounded, God is looking at us in the ER, ‘Your sins are killing you.’
‘Your disease will kill you, it is incurable… but through His wounds, He will heal you.’
“By His stripes you shall be healed.” –Peter

We need to accept the diagnosis: We have sin. Incurable, but God offers a new science.
We need to spread the word of this remarkable cure. Don’t just stop the bleeding, take the cure!
We need to return for regular checkups with our doctor. Give Him the glory!

(Brother Longstreth’s Masters Degree focused on eschatology.)
Purpose of Lecture: To educate & fairly present this viewpoint while raising some questions on it.
There is not one ‘standardized’ view that can represent EVERYONE, so we won’t get into all the details & debate all the merits involved with this particular discussion.

What Is Eschatology? “Last things”
“The destiny of the individual & the destiny of history” –ISBE definition
We tend to not focus on the ‘individual’ aspect of this.

“Eschatological” Passages can be taken many ways:
Futurist View: the text has some future fulfillment.
Preterist View: the text has already been fulfilled.
Inaugurated: the text has some partial fulfillment.
Many of the texts are not straightforward, one approach does not fit ALL the texts.

However, the Realized Eschatology approach simplifies it all believing all the texts have been fulfilled.
Yet keep in mind some are partial preterist rather than full preterist or consistent preterist.
Not everyone who uses Realized Eschatology holds the ‘AD70’ or ‘Max King’ doctrine.

What does this mean?
It does not mean they don’t believe in eternal rewards after life.
It does not mean they believe the world will continue forever.
Be careful not to make assumptions about the view & really believe in a straw man.

‘The Second Coming’ of Jesus:
Occurred in AD70 & had both a physical & spiritual purpose fulfilling the promises of His coming.
The Resurrection: Occurred then as well, ‘The Body of Christ’ (church) resurrected.
Now when we die, we go straight to heaven b/c the Hadean realm was ended then.
The Judgment: Not only was Israel Judged, but (see above) so were souls.
The End of Age: the Jewish Age.
The Destruction of the World: the world of the NT, the Jewish world.
The “End”: Jesus handed the Jewish nation over to God.
The Age to Come: The Christian age, we do not keep it going by procreation, but conversion.

These are not orthodox traditional views. Momentum began in 19th-20th century.

Why Realized Eschatology?
Temporal statements of the N.T. Jesus’ return was imminent
Destruction of Jerusalem does play a key role in the NT (Mt 24 & Lk 21)
“All things that were written may be fulfilled.”
The ‘nearness’ of the Lord: Php 4:5 James 5:7-8
The ‘end’ is near: 1 Pet 4:7,17; Rom 13:11; 16:20; Heb 10:25
The Book of Revelation: ‘shortly come to pass’
J. Stuart Russell, The Parousia, 1 Cor 15 will be ‘changed’ in a moment

Realized Eschatology:
Stresses the importance of the destruction of Jerusalem in AD70
The paramount event of history. The ending of one covenant & God’s relationship to begin another
The ‘traditional’ view doesn’t adequately deal w/ time references in the NT.
The ‘traditional’ view erroneously endorses ‘double fulfillment’ of passages.

Possible Fallacies:
Allowing one aspect of the biblical text to force our conclusions & force those onto all texts.
Failure to appreciate references to ‘long journey’ ‘long delay’ ‘the falling away’ etc.
It is sometimes said that it removes all obstacles & difficulties, but not completely.
Many difficult questions for the view were raised at the end too fast for me to catch them all.

Most Importantly:
It seems to place far more emphasis on Destruction of Jerusalem
Than on the death, burial, resurrection & Pentecost.
The purpose of the Messiah seems to be to punish Israel, not save mankind.
Does all this really matter?
Our hope in Christ, the nature of His Kingdom, could be crucially altered.
Please e-mail me with any questions or comments you may have: longstrethj@floidacollege.edu


From Coulter: As one who has read & discussed this view from the perspective of often appreciating what Realized Eschatology brings to the table, this was a great intro & overview. It was extremely fair & open-minded yet still presenting difficult questions for a complete Realized Eschatology view.