Multitudes in the Valley of Decisional Regeneration

Years ago my wife and I visited a Baptist church in Del Rio, Texas. It brought back memories for both of us. Not good memories. We had both spent years in Baptist churches - she grew up in them. What we had heard that day were examples of much of the faulty theology we both had been exposed to. What the preacher did - an older man who should have known better – is get out his eisegetical tongs and pluck out little micro-verses to justify his points. The church was gearing up for a "revival" so, in preparation, it was high cherry-picking season.

Joel and Joshua wrested from context

"Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision…", Joel 3:14a

I honestly forget now if he even finished the verse. However, he mainly just thumped on the phrase above and admonished his hearers,

"Many of you will find yourselves in the valley of decision....You have a decision to make."

The decision from this pastor, of course, was whether to choose a personal relation with Christ, or having had done that, to “make him Lord".

But the verse does not mean that at all. This decision is a judicial one, one of judgment. And - most importantly - it is entirely God's decision. This verse is not at all about what we ought to do. It is about what God forewarned His covenant people that He will do in the Day of the Lord. And this all played out, as we Preterists know, in the Parousia of the first century.

But none of this was on this pastor’s mind, quickly moving on to his next proof-text, Joshua 24:15,

"Choose you this day whom you will serve...."

The key word being "choose". And, not being of any use for him, he left out the inconvenient rest of the verse about “the gods of the Amorites”. Obviously there needed to have been an explanation of the reason and the background for Joshua's charge to the Israelites, many who were already in a backsliding state.


It amazes and saddens me how often, out of all the wonderful truths that can be gleaned out of this book of Joshua, mainly two texts are gingerly excised out of it to make forced applications. They will use this verse of Joshua 24:15 as a flying buttress to hold up the castle-in-the-sky of decisional regenerationalism.

Few churches of this sort present a sermon from, say, Joshua 21:43- 45:

"So the Lord gave to Israel all the land of which he had sworn to give to their fathers, and they took possession of it and dwelt in it. The Lord gave them rest all around, according to all that He had sworn to their fathers. And not a man of all their enemies stood against them; the Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand. Not a word failed of any good thing which the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass."

This passage is further corroborated with Joshua 23:14- 15.


So why are these verses not often preached, not often highlighted in many modern Bibles? Because they shoot down the whole concept of the "God is not through with Israel" Millennial Jewish Kingdom.

According to this neglected passage, the Jews were getting no more real estate. What God had promised them God had given them. "Not a word failed" of that promise. The warning of Joshua (and of God), sadly, also came into effect. The very thing the Jews were warned about came true to them. Those warnings, according to Zechariah 1:6, "overtook" the Jewish people.

Instead of only focusing on the time statements (“this generation”) or the importance of audience relevance we need to also take away from futurists these passages that they have been so indoctrinated in. We do this by patiently clarifying the respective contexts of each of their pet proof-texts, as well as providing cross-references.

We need to search out and understand where the actual disconnect is in the mind of the futurist and focus on those areas, rather than resorting to points and proofs for which they are not ready. Only after we effectively deal with their doubts and “But what about?”s can they really appreciate what happened in AD 66-70. And – more importantly – gain richer understanding of the Atonement and the New Covenant.