A Letter to the Consistory of Covenant Evangelical Reformed Church (CERC) in Singapore for Church Membership

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Dear Consistory of CERC,

It is my pleasure to express my desire to join CERC as a member as I believe it is a biblically sound church and a pleasant church to be in. I also strongly agree with the teachings of the PRCA, which is a big reason for me to want to be a member of CERC.

It is my responsibility to state: 1) what my eschatological view is, 2) the origin of my eschatological view, 3) what I am not and my point of agreement with CERC’s eschatological view, 4) my point of disagreement with CERC’s eschatological view, 5) a point of struggle in my eschatological view, and 6) a conclusion.

 

   1) What my eschatological view is

I am what I call as Covenantal, Pro-Israel Premillennial. It is famously held by the Bible-Presbyterians, which they combine Covenant theology and Pro-Israel Premillennialism, as distinct to a more common combination of Covenant Theology and Amillennialism.

 

In covenant theology, I believe that there is only one Covenant i.e. God’s Covenant of Grace for all the elect of God regardless of ethnicities and backgrounds and that salvation has always been by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone since the time of Adam. Through Covenant Theology, I also believe that there is only one people of God, the true spiritual Israel of God throughout the ages. Though the Bible tells us that there is only one people of God, God is pleased to make the church in two distinct forms: the church in a national form (as in the Old Testament age) and the church in a non-national form (as in the New Testament age). I am opposed to the distinction of Israel and the Church because it fails to emphasize the oneness of God’s people.

 

Pro-Israel Premillennialism states that God is not done yet with His prophetical plan with the church in a national form (i.e. the elect nation of Israel which mainly consists of the elect physical seed of Abraham) and He will use the 7-year Great Tribulation as a means to cause the nation of Israel to repent and acknowledge Jesus as their Messiah. Thereafter, He will restore them physically and spiritually in a promised land (from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates - Gen. 15:18) during a post-great-tribulation Millennial kingdom where Christ will rule as the King with His saints on Earth for a thousand years.

 

After 1,000 years, ultimately there will be the establishment of the New Heaven and New Earth where all the universal church will be gathered without any national and non-national distinction.

 

 

    2) The origin of my eschatological view

Pro-Israel Premillennialism is a variation of an old eschatological system commonly called as Chiliasm or Historic Premillennialism. This pre-dated John Nelson Darby’s 19th century heretical Dispensationalism.

 

According to https://archive.chosenpeople.com/christian-zionism-history/ , “Early church fathers like Justin Martyr (100–165 CE) envisioned the millennium (Revelation 20) in Jerusalem. He affirmed this truth despite believing the church replaced Israel in God’s plan. Irenaeus (c. 130–202 CE) foresaw the rebuilding of Jerusalem, anticipating a return of people “from all the nations” to the land, not solely the Jewish community. Tertullian (160–225 CE), in contrast, believed in the restoration of Jewish people to the land of Israel. These fathers held a common belief in an earthly millennium in which Israel plays a significant role. They may not have agreed on all the details, but they affirmed a distinct future for Israel.”

 

 

A New England Puritan by the name of Increase Mather (1639-1723) held a similar view (https://www.americanantiquarian.org/proceedings/44517596.pdf) : “In the 1690s while other Puritan exegetes were beginning to view the millennium and Judgment as a metaphorical prophecy, suggesting that the times were too corrupt to provide an appropriate setting for the spiritual peace and harmony suggested in the eschatological passages of scripture, Increase Mather held firmly to his belief that God would commence the last days with a restoration of Israel as a nation, both spiritually and temporally.

 

The reformed Baptist John Gill (1697-1771) in his commentary on Acts 1:6 states that (https://ccel.org/ccel/gill/doctrinal/doctrinal.viii.viii.html) : “Now though they had very obscure and carnal notions of the kingdom; yet Christ does not deny that there would be a kingdom hereafter he should enjoy, and which should be restored to Israel; only blames them for their curiosity in inquiring into the time of it (Matthew 27:7), and which shows that this kingdom will not be till Christ comes to judge the quick and dead, which time none knows but the Father only (Matthew 24:36), and exactly agrees with this passage.”


3) What I am not and my point of agreement with CERC’s eschatological view

I am against every form of Dispensationalism as invented by John Nelson Darby in the 19th century. I am not a dispensationalist in every sense of the word. Premillennialism is often equalized to Dispensationalism in the reformed circles because the Dispensationalists were integral in the restoration of Premillennialism in the 20th century, especially after World War 2. However, as stated in point 2, Premillennialism is an old eschatological system which pre-dated Dispensationalism and therefore had nothing to do with it in the first place. One can be a Premillennial without being a Dispensationalist.

 

I am against the classic dispensational division of the Bible into the dispensations of innocence, conscience, human or civil government, promise or patriarchal rule, law, grace, and millennial kingdom. In that division, the classical dispensationalists believe men were saved by the obedience of the law during the Old Testament time, which I am strongly against. I am also against their strong division of God’s people into two peoples: Israel and the Church. Salvation has always been by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone and there is only one covenant of grace of God for His elect, God’s one people, the true spiritual Israel of God.

 

I am also against every Hypo-Calvinistic teaching that the Dispensationalists often teach i.e. common grace, universal love of God, Christ dying for all men without exception in a certain sense, and well-meant offer of the Gospel. I call myself a High Calvinist as opposed to Hypo-Calvinist or Amyraldian. I am also strongly a Supralapsarian as opposed to Infralapsarian. In God’s Supralapsarian plan, God desires to glorify Himself in His decree of election and reprobation using means (the fall of man, the death and resurrection of Christ, etc) to fulfil that decree of election and reprobation. God makes no mistake in all that He does.

 

Another of my point of agreement with CERC is that all eschatological prophecies ultimately lead to the spiritually fulfilment in the New Heaven and New Earth where there will be no more national and non-national distinction of the church. This is what God promised to Abraham as stated by the book of Hebrews: Heb 11:8  By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. Heb 11:9  By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: Heb 11:10  For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Heb 11:11  Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. Heb 11:12  Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable. Heb 11:13  These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. 

 

4) My point of disagreement with CERC’s eschatological view

Though I believe that all eschatological prophecies will ultimately be spiritually fulfilled in the New Heaven and New Earth where there will be no more national and non-national distinction, many of these eschatological prophecies, I believe, will have an immediate fulfilment (before its ultimate, final fulfilment in the New Heaven and New Earth) in the physical and spiritual restoration of the church in a national form into the promised land. One example that I would like to give is Ezekiel 11:17-20 – “Eze 11:17  Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even gather you from the people, and assemble you out of the countries where ye have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel. Eze 11:18  And they shall come thither, and they shall take away all the detestable things thereof and all the abominations thereof from thence. Eze 11:19  And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh: Eze 11:20  That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God. 

 

I believe with all my heart with the CERC that Ezekiel 11:17-20 will be spiritually fulfilled in the New Heaven and New Earth for all the elect of God, the true spiritual Israel of God, without any national distinction. However, with a plain and literal hermeneutics, I cannot avoid but see that Ezekiel 11:17-20 is talking about the Diaspora (scattering) of the Israelites and their Aliyah (return) in the end times where the nation of Israel will be spiritually restored by God in a promised land. I believe that this will last for a thousand years before the establishment of the New heaven and New Earth which will never end.

 

There are many other similar passages. To give another example, Ezekiel 37 states the following about the nation of Israel: “Eze 37:21  And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land: Eze 37:22  And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all: Eze 37:23  Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwellingplaces, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God. Eze 37:24  And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them. Eze 37:25  And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children's children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever. Eze 37:26  Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. Eze 37:27  My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Eze 37:28  And the heathen shall know that I the LORD do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore.”

 

The concept of “forever” as stated in Ezekiel 37 is not that the restoration of the nation of Israel will be forever, but it has an idea of the ultimate fulfilment in the New Heaven and New Earth where all the elect will gather without any national distinction.

 

There are few reasons why I hold to this Covenantal, Pro-Israel Premillennialism:

-            Firstly, there are plenty of such prophetical Bible passages in the Scripture that I cannot, in my good conscience, ignore their potential immediate fulfilment before their ultimate fulfilment.

 

-            Secondly, while not denying their ultimately fulfilment in the New Heaven and New Earth, my hermeneutical rule is as David L. Cooper famously expressed: “when the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense; therefore, take every word at its primary, ordinary, usual, literal meaning unless the facts of the immediate context, studied in the light of related passages and axiomatic and fundamental truths, indicate clearly otherwise.”

 

-            Thirdly, God made a promise to the nation of Israel, and I believe that God in His covenantal faithfulness (i.e. He does not break promises, nor change His mind about those promises) will keep all His promises to them while also not forgetting their ultimate fulfilment in the New Heaven and New Earth.

 

-            Fourthly, by God’s providence, Israel was partially restored into their land in 1948. While this is an indefinite historical, extrabiblical evidence for Pro-Israel Premillennialism, this portion of God’s sovereign providence in history is something that I cannot ignore. What if it is really a sign that Ezekiel 11:17-20 and 37:21-28 are indeed to be taken literally – I thought to myself. Also, by God’s providence, they also won all the wars when the Arab countries tried to destroy them, e.g. 6-day war in 1967 and Yom Kippur war in 1973. This war victories reminds me of God’s promise that the nation of Israel will never be evicted out of their land ever again as expressed in Amos 9:14-15 (while not denying its ultimate fulfilment in the New heaven and New Earth):  “And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the LORD thy God.” 


5) A point of struggle in my eschatological view

I struggle with taking a literal reading of Ezekiel 40-47 because such hermeneutics would require me to think that the temple and ceremonies (which is commonly called types and shadows) be restored in the nation of Israel during the Millennium. In order to be consistent in my hermeneutics, I am still inclined to believe that Ezekiel 40-47 are to be taken literally, however with an openness to be proven wrong. I understand them as simply one of the identities of the nation of Israel in the Millennium. They do not save, but rather these ceremonies are to be a memorial for the Israelites to remember what Christ has done for them, which is similar to the Lord’s supper and water baptism.

 

6) A conclusion

While I understand the reasons for my Premillennialism, I am open to be proven wrong and willing to learn more about Amillennialism and to continuously examine my Premillennialism against the Scripture. I am always open to discussing this matter with the pastors. I also would like to make a promise that I will acquiesce if I am accepted as a member of CERC and will not spread my Premillennialism to the common members.

 

 

In Christ,

Jeffrey Setiawan


P.S. my membership of CERC officially approved and public confession faith was held on 22 February 2026

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