One way to be sure of the application of a particular scripture in the Hebrew Scriptures is when a writer from the Greek Scriptures quotes a text and then makes an application. For instance, notice Peter’s quote from Psalms in Acts 4:25-27 – …”Why did the Gentiles rage and the peoples plot futile things? The kings of the earth took their stand and the rulers assembled together against the Lord and against His Messiah”. For, in fact, in this city both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, assembled together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed.

Now where did Peter quote from? From Psalms 2:1,2. Since Peter was under inspiration we can be assured that Ps. 2:1,2 had its fulfillment there in the first century. Notice another example in Acts 13:33 – God has fulfilled this for us, their children, by raising up Jesus, as it is written in the second Psalm: “You are My Son; today I have become Your Father”

Where did Paul quote from? From Psalms 2:7. Paul applies this verse to the first century, to Jesus’ resurrection. Now notice Psalm 2:6 – I have consecrated My king on Zion, My holy mountain.

Since it would appear that from the inspired applications of Peter and Paul that Ps 2 was fulfilled in the first century, we can conclude that Ps. 2:6 , the enthronement of Jesus, was also fulfilled in the first century. Notice how Jesus in Rev 2:26,27 also cites from Ps. 2 this time vs. 8,9 – The one who is victorious and keeps My works to the end: I will give him authority over the nations “and he will shepherd them with an iron scepter; he will shatter them like pottery” just as I have received this from My Father.

This scripture clearly indicates that at the time Rev. was written Jesus had already received authority as king to rule the nations with an iron rod.

Read one of the most quoted scriptures in the bible in Ps. 110:1-4  –  This is the declaration of the Lord to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I make Your enemies Your footstool”. The Lord will extend You mighty scepter from Zion. Rule over Your surrounding enemies. Your people will volunteer on Your day of battle. In holy splendor, from the womb of the dawn, the dew of Your youth belongs to you. The Lord has sworn an oath and will not take it back: “Forever, You are a priest like Melchizedek”.

Clearly this scripture is fulfilled when Jesus receives kingdom power. There are many texts that quote these verses or allude to them. Notice a couple Rev. 3:21 – The victor: I will give him the right to sit with Me on My throne, just as I also won the victory and sat down with My Father on His throne.

Again Jesus here clearly indicates that at the time Rev. was written he had sat upon his throne at God’s right hand. Now notice Hebrews 10:12,13 – But this man, after offering one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God. He is now waiting until His enemies are made His footstool.

Clearly Ps. 110 was fulfilled in the first century. Jesus had sat down at the right hand of God to begin his rule while waiting for all his enemies to be subjugated. Jesus does not have to wait to rule after ascending to heaven, he rules while waiting for his enemies to be made into a footstool. Notice how 1 Cor. 15:25,26 makes this clear – For He must reign until He puts all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be abolished is death.

Paul makes it clear that upon Jesus arrival in heaven, he rules while waiting for the subjugation of his enemies. He doesn’t wait until they are subjugated to begin ruling. (see also Acts 2:32-36 ; Acts 7:56 )

Now read how Paul quotes from Ps 110:4 in Heb 5:5,6 – In the same way, the Messiah did not exalt Himself to become a high priest, but the One who said to Him, You are My Son; today I have become Your Father, also said in another passage, You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.

Paul in chap. 4,5 of Hebrews lets us know that Jesus was serving as High Priest during the first century and shows Ps. 110:4 began to be fulfilled then. As we know Melchizedek was a priest-king. Would this comparison make sense if Jesus at that time was serving as priest but had to wait some 1900 yrs or more to become king?

Many other texts let us know that since Jesus resurrection he has kingly power. For instance read 1 Peter 3:22 – Now that He has gone into heaven, He is at God’s right hand with angels, authorities, and powers subject to Him.

If Jesus in the first century had angels, authorities, and powers subject to him, it would seem to indicate he has kingly power. Now let us read Ephesians 1:20-22 – He demonstrated this power in the Messiah by raising Him from the dead and seating Him at His right hand in the heavens- far above every ruler and authority, power and dominion, and every title given, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put everything under His feet and appointed Him as head over everything for the church.

Does this text not indicate clearly the awesome, kingly power entrusted to Jesus? Consider Rev. 1:5 – and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth.

Yes at the time this was written Jesus was considered to be the ruler of the kings of the earth. In other words, a king. Jesus lets his disciples know in Matt. 28:18 – All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.

If this was true at that time, how much more authority could he receive as king? All these texts would seem to indicate that Jesus received kingdom power when he ascended to heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.

We read of Jesus’ ascension in Acts 1:9 – After He had said this, He was taken up as they were watching, and a cloud took Him out of their sight.

Now let us read of Jesus enthronement in Dan. 7:13, 14 which says in part – …and I saw One like a Son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was escorted before Him. He was given authority to rule …

Daniel was seeing this vision as if he were in the heavens (Dan 7:16), he sees a son of man arriving to the heavens. From where?  Being described as a son of man it would be logical to assume he was arriving from earth. I think the evidence points to this enthronement happening upon Jesus return to heaven. This is another way of seeing that 1914 is an unimportant year. Jesus was not enthroned in that year, he had already been ruling for almost 2 thousand years. This also means that all the prophecies supposedly fulfilled in 1918/1919 were not fulfilled at that time.

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9 Comments on Inspired applications and Jesus’ enthonement

  1. Amos says:

    Another excellent article Andrew, keep up the good work brother.

    These very truths that you’ve mentioned were such a blessing for myself, when I came to this same conclusion following my own personal study & research. How could it be any different, than our Lord having FULL power following His enthronement just prior to Pentecost?

    I think that even the scripture at Matt.28:18, is enough for us to understand this, but with all the other verses, there can be no doubt at all.

    Remember also the account of the stoning of Stephen at Acts 7:55,56; “But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, 56 and said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God.”

    This leads to another question….”When was satan cast out of heaven?” Was it during the first century? I believe that it could have been during the 10 days following Jesus ascention, & prior to Pentecost. I cannot see how it could be sometime within the last 100 years or so.

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    • andrew says:

      Hi Amos,
      Although it is impossible to know for sure, I think Satan still has not been cast out of the heavens. Rev 12:12 says he descends with great fury because he has a short time. It is possible that the short time here referred to are the 3 1/2 years of the Great Tribulation. During this time of great suffering for christians Satan will be expressing his full rage. In my opinion when Satan is cast down that will signal the beginning of the Great Tribulation.

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  2. Jon says:

    I agree. It will be known and felt worldwide, not just in certain locations. Every living creature will know he has been cast.

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  3. Jon says:

    But I fear it is decades and decades from now. None of us will be here to notice.

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  4. Amos says:

    Thank’s bros. Andrew & Jon.

    You are probably both right. There are several ways of looking at some topics, & I’ve probably been looking at this one the wrong way. I believe there are two ways concerning this, satan’s ousting from heaven, was either in the first century, as I stated earlier, OR is yet future.
    I’ve been to-ing & fro-ing on this for some time. The points that favour the first century, is the dire persecutions on the early church following Pentecost, this continued right through Gospel Age, with some really intense persecutions during the middle ages (inquisition etc) & early/mid reformation. It was these facts that influenced me to think this way. BTW, the protestants also inflicted their own form of persecutions on the minorities in addition to the papacy’s efforts.

    As to the whole world feeling the effects of the GT, I am of the view that it is “primarily” the living saints that will be the target of the adversary. It is also my view that when the GT gets to a certain stage, that the anointed will then be given Divine protection. Remember too, that the living in the Lord will be changed at His return, so their safety is taken care of. How else could the scriptures be fulfilled & indeed also be truthfull, if ALL the anointed died before or during the GT?

    Another BTW, while I think that we have a while to get to this point, (without setting dates), I am of the opinion that it is now much closer than most of us think….not decades away. Myself & another brother have done a very intense study of the “Jubilee cycles”, & what appears to be the next Jubilee, is rather close, so it remains to be seen if this has any significance to the Lord’s return or not, followed by Armageddon.
    As I’m not into setting dates, it’s a matter of seeing what the future holds, & being ready ourselves for His return.

    Just a few more thoughts.

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  5. Jolly Roger says:

    A good article and interesting. Your courage in approaching one of the most elusive subjects is laudable. The elusive subject I refer to is: time. To assume that the “arrow of time”, which has been such a perplexing aspect of our universe, has as grand a hold on the spiritual world is problematic at best, and to assume that what occurs in heaven can be traced to a specific moment in our history may be more than we can reasonably do. Can you assure me that since the 1881 or so years that elapsed for humankind since Jesus ascended into heaven until 1914, that the moment wasn’t the same instant in Heaven?

    Jesus never hid his kingship. Pilate asked Jesus a direct question, “Are you a king?” which Jesus did not deny; however, Jesus did qualify his kingship by stating that his kingdom “was not of this world”, having stressed many times previously who the current “ruler of this world” really was. The point of 1914, as far as my frazzeled mind can remember, was not when Jesus received his kingship, but the point at which Heaven had been cleared of Satan and his demons, and Jesus presence AS king was once again felt on the Earth.

    When I think about the sequence of events that had to occur in Heaven since Jesus return there, I see a military action, whereupon the Sons of the Original Serpent and the Original Serpent are routed. ( To give a human equate, think of the map of Europe in 1942, and how much belonged to the Nazi regime, and what the map looked like in May, 1945. For all intents and purposes, the Nazi regime had been reduced to the city of Berlin – and since 1914, the Earth has been the city of Berlin. )

    To say that 1914 was not an important or definitive year is to ignore history. Curiously enough, if you study the roots of WW1, you have to start in 1880, with the rise of the Hohenzollern and a national pride in Germany that demanded an equal share of the world and an aging British Empire that could see the writing on the wall. The human side of 1914 had been building for over a quarter of a century, and the differences in the world pre and post 1914 are night and day, and they occurred instantaneously. – “Woe to the Earth and those who reside upon it.” – Certainly the effect was much more profound than any effect felt in 33CE.

    I am not quite sure exactly what prophecies you refer to when you say “all the prophecies supposedly fulfilled in 1918/1919” weren’t. As far as 1914 fitting or not fitting in with the 606BCE/7 weeks of years/a year for a day thingy, to me that is of little consequence, as I have taken enough math classes to know that in spite of all it’s precision, mathematics allows the same thing to described in literally an infinite number of ways. When Jesus’ followers asked him when the end of the system was going to occur, Jesus did not reply, “Do the math!”, he told them to look at the what was going on around them.

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    • andrew says:

      The current JW teaching is that Jesus was enthroned in 1914. The main 1918/1919 supposedly fulfilled in that time would be the naming of the Faithful and Discreet Slave over all the master’s belongings.
      There are many others: The birth of a new nation, Babylon the Great fell, the weeds and the wheat began to be separated, to name a few.

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      • Jolly Roger says:

        Your use of the word “current” is an accurate caveat, and it kind of reminds me of that Stephen Wright joke: “You know, the New Testament is really old. Maybe they should start calling it ‘The Most Recent Testament’.”

        You are indisputably correct in your statement that there is a lot of linkage concerning 1914/1918-1919 time slot in Christian religion in general and WTS in particular. Sometimes I wonder if the GB highlight this so much because it’s one of their few time/date-based predictions that managed to end up in the ballpark. However, the “enthronement” is only a single aspect of the entire phenomenon. Now, whether the accuracy of being able to say Jesus was enthroned in Heaven as “King” on such-and-such an Earthly date is even possible is going to always be fraught with discussion points as long as we are limited by this system of things.

        It is much like asking why the area of a circle cannot be absolutely described in terms of the area of a square? After all, they are both finite objects, but we keep coming up with this endless number called Pi when we try to express the ratio between the two. (Gosh, I hope this isn’t sounding silly, ’cause I’m really serious here. This is one reason that I enjoy coming to sites like this, as you can imagine the reception that such a statement as “the Bible spoke of the relativity of time long before Albert Einstein ‘discovered’ it” would garner among a group of average JW publishers.)

        There are certain parts of the Bible where spiritual creatures express time as a linear, human function – a notable example: Dan 10:13, where the Angel apologizes for being late because he had been held up for 3 weeks by the “prince of Persia”. (hmmm, interesting name, if only they could make a movie…) But this entire incident brings up a load of new questions: How long is “21 days” to a spirit creature? Did he translate his delay time to human terms? The same Angel later says, “And now I shall go back to fight with the prince of Persia. When I am going forth, look! also the prince of Greece is coming.” – this sure sounds like some sort of war going on, but how does that fit with the Rev 12:7 – “And war broke out in Heaven…”? If the two wars are related (or, in fact, descriptions of the same “war”) where does that put the “Pregnant Woman” mentioned in Rev12:1 and her child? This pregnant woman/heavenly organization existed in 500BCE? She sure was pregnant for a long time then. And what about her child, could this child really be the Christ, Jesus? And on and on.

        As the GB has learned the hard way, it isn’t wise to try to configure Biblical time frames into a stopwatch precise human time frame, lest you find yourself stupidly standing in an empty pasture on Miller’s farm with no where to go and no money to get there. Interestingly, Kurt Vonnegut made a somewhat comical but nonetheless accurate discussion of time and how the perception of it’s “arrow” can cause a confusion of motivations, in his book “Slaughterhouse 5” thru the use of the space-alien race called the Tralfamadorians.

        Again, to me, the seeming inaccuracy of the when of Jesus’ “Enthronement” in no way negates the validity or severity of the other aspects of the 1914/1918-1919 point in human history. At worst, it is like discounting Pi as accurate because someone believes that the digit in the 35th place of the decimal should be a 7 and not a 1. Gosh darn it, it hurts me to say this, but as long as I am in this current system of things I am going to have accept that somethings just cannot be expressed or understood perfectly. Hmmm, I wonder if that’s what that “faith” thing is all about? Oh, well, just saying.

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  6. Jon says:

    http://www.tangotango.org.uk/

    this whole site deals with the jubilee dates

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