This is so terribly misleading that I simply can't let it pass. The very use of the word is intended to cast me in a nefarious light, as if I am perhaps twirling my mustache and chortling with glee at my dupes. But I come to expect this from MM.
This post mistaken in its misuse of this Old Testament passage, using it divorced from context. Let us take a look at this wonderful passage, including one verse further down, Isa. 26:6-9. In this post I am just going to deal with this Isaiah passages that Steve merely tagged, not understanding the application of it:
And in this mountain shall the LORD of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.
And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations.
He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it.
And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the LORD; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.
The important question here is timing. When does this take place? We can either go to our preconceived notions, reading mechanically from the futurist play book, or we can just do a bit more of study in the Scriptures. When we do this we can see that the above passage refers to the time of the church, not some future time.
The passage links "veil" and "death". This is very similar to what we find in 2 Cor. 3:12-15
Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech:
And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished*:
But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ.
But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart.
Then we have this mention of "death" inverses 6- 7:
Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:
The Old Covenant is spoken of as a "ministration of death". It is also spoken of as a veil upon the hearts of the people. But the veil is taken away in Christ, as we read in verses 14-15.
The veil itself was typified by the Temple veil, which kept the worshipers of the Old Covenant from entering into the true center of inner worship, the Holy of Holies. The veil was torn away when Messiah's flesh was "torn", making way for this new of access to God, Matt.27:51; Heb. 10:20.
Why am I mentioning all this? Because the destruction of the veil in this Isaiah passage is the same as the taking away (or tearing) of the veil in those New Testament passages.
This is the new life we have in Christ now, not some supposed future consummation. This is the new heavens and the new earth. It is not that the old earth goes away in its outward form, it is that we now live in a new reality in Christ.
With this in mind, Paul alludes to Isaiah 25:8 in 1 Cor. 7:29-31:
But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none;
And they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not;
And they that use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away.
First of all we have Paul's Preteristic idea that "the times short". Poor inspired Apostle! He didn't have the benefit of the latest Thomas Ice scholarship or he wouldn't have blundered so.
Then,in closing, look at Isaiah 25:9. Once again, this is Christ opening up the new way through His death and resurrection, opening the way for new life in Him. Why go to the extravagance of seeing this as some future event when it fits so well with what you read in the New Testament?
