Originally published in "The Lord's Coming Herald & Wesleyan Bible Prophecy Advocate," February, 2010
The Legacy Of Daniel Steele Lives On
Christ as the covenant-maker of Daniel 9:27 gives us a lot of material for constructing a very different understanding of end-time Bible prophecy than what most people realize. Obviously, it means that we have a completely different view of Daniel's seventh week. Here are some of the implications of this very different view point.
The seventieth week of Daniel 9:27 has to do with the new age of redemption--the messianic age--that began with the first advent of Jesus Christ. The central confessional aspect of historic biblical Christianity, friends, is that the Messiah appeared on earth two-thousand years ago, and established, at that time, God's messianic kingdom of redemption among men.
Such is TECHNICALLY what one must believe in order to be a true biblical Christian in the first place! To deny this central reality, friends, is to be in denial of the very core of the whole Christian system! Has the Messiah already appeared, or has he not yet appeared, and if he has indeed once appeared on earth in time, did that appearance fulfill what God intended, or did it not?
Was salvation made complete for all mankind at the first advent of Christ, or does something else need to be added to save the world now?
Wesleyan-Arminians do not have the dilemma over free moral agency that classic Calvinism has. We understand that God has indeed given mankind the right to choose, and that salvation, while it is now full and complete for us in this life, will not necessarily be accepted by everyone, because God, in the sovereign mysery of his divine providence, respects men's choices. Thus, people who die without believing in Jesus are lost, and there is no difference between the Jews and the Gentiles.
God has NOT foreordained the Jews to be saved apart from Christ, and Christ has already appeared among them, and for them, now two-thousand years ago. So how can we excuse (as some modern evangelicals do) present rejection by the Jews of Jesus as their messiah? Is Jesus really the Jews' messiah, or has the living Christ of the Bible not become their messiah yet? The answer to this question must be yea or nay, friends, for we cannot split the person, or office, of Jesus Christ himself in this regard.
The Biblical answer, friends, is that Jesus never changes (Heb. 13:8). He was, and still is, the messiah of the Jews. So then, who has to do the changing, Jesus or the Jews? And what prevents the Jews from changing their attitude toward the living Jesus at any time now?
Good question to ask the dispensational premillennialists! Daniel Steele would be proud of you for being so honest with Wesleyan Arminian theology, and with the Bible!
And while you're at it, friends, you might ask them what they think is God's revealed will for the Jews in this dispensation (see Rom. 10:1; I Tim. 2:4; II Pet. 3:9).
Finally, ask your dispensational pastor to show you from Scripture where anyone will ever get saved after the second coming of Jesus Christ. I think the late estate of Daniel Steele may still have a $1,000 reward out on that one! If they don't, rest assured, I do.
Don't expect dspensationalists to give you any clear answers. When it comes to understanding the biblical truth about the second coming of Jesus Christ, these folks are just as befuddled as the next. Pick their brains a little, and you soon find that out. Why, then, should one be prejudiced over manifest ignorance--how smart is that? Steele's Answers can still do us all a world of good!
Related Article Links
Why Daniel Steele So Strongly Opposed Dispensationalism
Daniel's 70th Week: The New Age Of Redemption