WE SING \u201cJOY TO THE WORLD!\u201d
Many religious leaders dissuade their followers from singing Isaac
Watts\u2019 hymn Joy to the world! We here do not speak of atheists or men of
other \u201cworld religions\u201d avowedly opposed to the Lord Jesus Christ (e.g.,
Judaism): Their objection to such a hymn is understandable. Rather, we
here speak of men professing to be Christians!
What is their objection to this hymn? Lines such as the following:
Joy to world! the Lord is come! \/ Let earth receive her King \u2026
Joy to the earth! the Savior reigns! \u2026
He rules the world with truth and grace .\u2026
They object to Christ being presently praised as King ruling over His
kingdom!
I reject every reason they may give for their objection, whether it be
on the grounds of their Chiliasm, Millennialism (whether
Pre-\/Post-\/Pan-\/Non-), Dispensationalism, Zionism, Darbyism,
Scofieldism, Atheism or any other ism!
The Lord Jesus Christ was not thwarted by unbelievers in His purpose to
establish His kingdom and reign as King over it. He did not have to
resort to \u201cPlan B\u201d (as some call it) because unbelievers would not let
Him fulfill \u201cPlan A\u201d. He was not lifted up on a cross because
unbelievers would not let Him ascend to His throne. He did not
inaugurate some \u201cParenthetical Church Age\u201d because of His failure to
inaugurate His \u201cMillennial Kingdom Age\u201d. He is not presently in heaven
as a king in exile \u2013 like pitiful Napoleon on Elba \u2013 because His
citizens will not permit Him to rule and reign over them. He is not
waiting for those who rejected Him to finally permit Him to return and
be their king. Furthermore, it was never His intention to offer to
unbelieving Jews the earthly, worldly, carnal, physical kingdom for
which they lusted. And if He waits until men of their \u201cfreewill\u201d accept
Him as king and let Him establish His kingdom, He never will be king
over a kingdom.
Neither did He come the first time to be a prophet, then return to
heaven to be a priest, intending to be a king when He comes to earth the
second time. His mediatorial offices cannot be divided in such a
fashion. He came to earth to be Prophet and Priest and King \u2013 and all
three He was and is!
Jesus Christ was prophesied to be King in the Old Testament (e.g.,
Isaiah 9:6f), with the promise that in His incarnation He would be \u201cupon
the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it
with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever\u201d (cp.
Jeremiah 33:15-21). In His incarnation He was announced as King (Luke
1:26-33; fulfilling 2 Samuel 7:12f), sought and worshipped as King
(Matthew 2:1f, 11), manifested as King (Matthew 12:28f; cp. Revelation
20:1-3), presented as King (Matthew 21:1-5; fulfilling Zechariah 9:9),
and empowered as King (Matthew 28:18). In His exaltation He was
enthroned as King at God\u2019s right hand (Acts 2:29-36). God therefore
assures Christ His Son, \u201cYour throne, O God, is forever and ever; a
scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom\u201d (Hebrews 1:8).
And believers in Him have been by God delivered from the Satanic power
of darkness and translated into the kingdom of Jehovah\u2019s dear Son
(Colossians 1:13)!
Let others object \u2013 if they must \u2013 to Christ\u2019s present and everlasting
Kingship and Kingdom. Let them say \u2013 if they are such rebels \u2013 \u201cWe will
not have this man to reign over us\u201d (Luke 19:14).
But believers in the Lord and Savior Jesus have ceased their rebellion
against Him and bowed to Him as King of King and Lord of Lords, and been
graciously received into His kingdom, and joyfully sing \u2026
Joy to world! the Lord is come! \/ Let earth receive her King \u2026
Joy to the earth! the Savior reigns! \u2026
He rules the world with truth and grace .\u2026
And we exultingly sing that song all through the year, not with mere
lip-service at Christmastide only.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2013 Daniel E. Parks<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WE SING \u201cJOY TO THE WORLD!\u201d Many religious leaders dissuade their followers from singing Isaac Watts\u2019 hymn Joy to the world! We here do not speak of atheists or men of other \u201cworld religions\u201d avowedly opposed to the Lord Jesus Christ (e.g., Judaism): Their objection to such a hymn is understandable. Rather, we here speak of men professing to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89,68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-daniel-parks","category-christ-his-person-and-excellencies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5255"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5256,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5255\/revisions\/5256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}