The millennialists have a great weakness in their theory. It is a fundamental premise of their doctrine that lets them down. That premise is that the Jews' rejection of Christ caused the timetable God had decreed to be altered. He set aside His plans to establish that kingdom and substituted the church in its place. But that premise cannot be true in the light of John 6:15. That passage says, "Jesus therefore perceiving that they were about to come and take him by force, to make him king, withdrew again into the mountain himself alone."

The people were ready then to take Jesus by force into Jerusalem and there, at the Passover feast, make Him their king. But Jesus rejected them. The millennialists have it turned around. But if their idea is even remotely true, why did Jesus reject this opportunity? A companion text tells us that Jesus had been speaking about the "kingdom of God" (Luke 9:11). The evident reason He rejected the pressure of these Jews is because He did not intend to reign over some literal, earthly kingdom in Jerusalem. (Read John 18:36).

What kind of a king did those Jews intend to make out of Christ? Exactly the same kind the premillennialists think Christ will be. The next time you hear some premillennialists say that Jesus would not set up His kingdom because the Jews rejected Him, remember that these Jews would have done the very thing premillennialists say will happen in the future. Don't be misled.

Guardian of Truth XXVII: 6, p. 204
April 7, 1983