A Return to Types and Shadows in the Millennial Age?

The problem with the dispensational interpretation of the millennium has to do with how we are to understand the general flow of redemptive history. Throughout the Old Testament, Israel’s prophets foretell of the coming messianic age in terms of that prophet’s own particular time and place in the unfolding drama of redemptive history. What is especially germane to our present question is the fact that Israel’s prophets speak of the glorious messianic age yet to come in terms of the types and shadows associated with Old Testament messianic anticipation.

But Old Testament types and shadows are subsequently reinterpreted in the New Testament in the greater light of the dawn of the messianic age associated with Christ’s coming. This is why one of the major aspects of the eschatology of the New Testament era is that what was promised in the Old Testament has been fulfilled in Jesus Christ. The redemptive-historical pattern clearly moves from type and shadow to fulfillment and reality. Because this is the case, the New Testament writers anticipate the final consummation at our Lord’s return and not a return to an earthly rule of Jesus Christ understood in terms of Old Testament types and shadows which were destined to pass away. Read the rest HERE




See also The Presence of Evil in the Millennial Age