Restoration – Acts 3:21
There are many variations of the teaching on Restoration. Some are more
extreme than others. In general the teaching says that Jesus will return to
earth after "all things that the prophets have said have been fulfilled
". This means that the Kingdom of God will grow and increase in its
influence to the degree that the whole world will be filled with the
knowledge of the glory of God. Things will be so good for the Kingdom that
nations will come to it to find answers to the questions of life. At this
point Christ will look on the earth and see what is happening and say,
"all has been restored, I now can return". The church will say,
"come Lord Jesus" and He will come.
There are a few key New Testament verses that people use to back up their
thinking. Many other scriptures are found in the Old Testament. The Old
Testament verses are interpreted with the understanding that all verses once
relating to Israel, Jerusalem, mountain of God, and Zion should now be
interpreted as relating to the church. For example, Micah 4:2 reads,
"Many nations will come and say, come, let us go up to the mountain of
the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways so
that we can walk in His path…" Restoration thinking interprets the
mountain of the Lord and the house of God as the church in God’s Kingdom.
Therefore before Jesus returns nations will come to the church for council.
Personally I cannot interpret the Old Testament this way. If the Old
Testament prophets are speaking to and about Israel, those words are for
them, not for the church. In the Micah 4:2 verse, where God is speaking
about the house of Jacob, I don’t think we can apply that to the church.
We cannot substitute the word church every time we see the word Israel,
Jerusalem, or mountain of the Lord, or any other like word or phase.
Even if we could make this substitution, we should ask, when will this
take place? At what moment in history will the nations run to the mountain
of God? When will all things be restored?
Much could be said about what and why Restorationists believe. They tend
to be Covenant Theologians and not Dispensationalist. They tend to be
au-mill in their end time thinking. They believe that Israel has no real
significant role to play in end times events. More could be said about all
of that. What I simply want to do in this article is to point out a few
reasons why I do not believe in restoration as described in my first
paragraph.
Acts 3:21 is the key New Testament verse that is used for the Restoration
Doctrine. It reads, "He (Jesus) must remain in Heaven until the time
comes for God to restore everything, as He promised long ago through His
holy prophets." (NIV)
This scripture is a foundational verse in the Restoration teaching. This
verse is supposed to tell us when Jesus will return in light of restoration.
Restoration thinking says that Jesus will remain in Heaven "until all
things are restored". Look closely at what this verse says. It says,
"Jesus must remain in Heaven until the time comes for God to restore
everything".
What is this verse really saying? Is it saying that Jesus will remain in
Heaven until all things are restored? No, it says that He will remain in
Heaven "until the time comes for God to restore all
things". At that time Jesus will return. It is pretty clear that Jesus
will return when God decides to restore all things. It appears to me that
Jesus’ return will launch the restoration of all things. This verse does
not say that everything will be restored before Jesus returns. T
If this is the pivotal New Testament verse, and if it is interpreted
incorrectly, how can the doctrinal structure that is built on this verse be
correct?