"And hath made us kings (Greek a "kingdom") and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen." (Rev. 1:6 KJV)
"And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth." (Rev. 5:10 KJV)
What is it, in these verses, that has been fulfilled already? What has not been fulfilled?
When I was a Hardshell Baptist, I was confronted with the "anti" mentality of the PBs against Premillenialism and I was not ever able to understand this spirit of opposition. In order to oppose such ideas as of a future kingdom on earth, where the saints reign over it and upon it, the Amillenialist Hardshell had to give up a literal interpretation of prophetic scriptures and to "spiritualize" or "allegorize" bible statements about a new heaven and earth, and about the saints reigning upon it. They were forced to aver that this reign of saints upon the earth pertains to the here and now, and is what is experienced by those who enter "the one true church" (aka "Primitive Baptist"). Those in the Hardshell church are "reigning on the earth" now, and enjoying the promised kingdom of God, and the new heavens and the new earth, being now in the Millennium. Of course, in order to espouse these views, it requires that they make the Hardshell church the fulfillment of the prophecies about the kingdom of God on earth, and the reign of Christ and the saints on earth.
In the Hardshell church (and no where else) do we find the fulfillment of the prophecy "we shall reign of the earth"? How does "the new heavens and earth" become "the church of the present age"? That is truly handling the word of God in a deceitful and dishonest way! "Earth," "heaven," "1000 year reign," "kingdom of God," etc., all take on strange new definitions!
The problems with such a handling of the word of God are numerous and the false hermeneutics of such perverters of the word of God are easily refuted. Does the text in Revelation not put the reign of the saints on earth in the future? If the Hardshell view were correct, then the text would say "and we have reigned on the earth."
Further, "on the earth" does not mean "in the church." If one can make "earth" to mean the "church," then he can make the bible to mean anything!
Maybe it is me, but I just don't feel like I have been reigning on the earth over the past 62 years! Nor did I feel like I was reigning on the earth while in the Hardshell church. To make the promise about the future reign of the saints in the new heavens and earth to deal with "time salvation," or to the special joys that only Hardshells supposedly have, is to cheapen the great promise.
In my studies of Hardshell history I do not find this anti Premillenial mindset among the first Hardshells. Elder Sylvester Hassell certainly opposed this type of biblical interpretation.
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