[Will there be literal shakings of both heaven and earth preceding the coming of the Lord? Proposition 147 of the “Theocratic Kingdom” published in 1952 by the Lutheran minister George N. H. Peters (1825 – 1909) gives us this reply: Yes.]
The student who has followed our argument will at once anticipate such a result, for the Kingdom, in its Theocratic aspect, with its design and connections (e.g. restored Jewish nation), cannot possibly be erected here on earth without a fearful commotion, the most terrible convulsions among the nations, in which nature itself is represented as partaking. The Millennial descriptions are introduced by this preparatory shaking, and every prophet, more or less, has portrayed its dreadful nature. It is sufficient to direct attention to two passages, which clearly announce it. Hag. 2:6, 7, “Thus saith the Lord of Hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earthy and the sea, and the dry land: and I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory,” etc. Heb. 12:26, 27, 28, “Whose (God’s) voice then (at Mt. Sinai) shook the earth: but now He hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. “Wherefore we receiving a Kingdom, which cannot he moved, let us” etc. Two facts locate the fulfilment of these passages in the future, viz., (1) that before and at the First Advent there was no such shaking, for universal peace (Kurtz’s Sac. His., p. 273) existed when Jesus came, and (2) that Paul in Hebrew speaks of this shaking, not as past, but as future.
Obs l. Unfortunately with the rejection of the doctrine of the Kingdom, many writers not knowing what else to do with the passages quoted, apply them to the First Advent, thus forsaking the Early Church view which understood them to refer to the future Advent. Notwithstanding this application, others who have but little sympathy with our doctrine still regard them as related to the future. Thus, e.g. Storr (Diss. on Kingdom of Heaven) affirms that this shaking of the heavens and earth is yet to be fulfilled, and suggests that the apostle in Heb 12:25 does not quote from Haggai, but from some saying of Christ’s uttered respecting the Kingdom of God (probably based on the prophet) and not recorded. Gildas (AD 540) renders Haggai as follows, “Thus, saith our Lord, I will once move the heaven, and earth, and sea, and dry land, and I will drive away the thrones of kings, and root out the power of the kings of the Gentiles, and I will chase away the chariots of those who mount upon them.” The reader will see that Gildas properly identifies Hag. 2:22 as explanatory of the other passage, and incorporates it, and thus, instead of applying the prophet’s language to an overthrow of the Jewish polity, etc. (as now so current, although the civil polity was overthrown at First Advent), assigns it to a complete downfall of Gentile domination, thus making it accord with numerous predictions. Augustine (City of God, B. 18, Ch. -35) says that Hag. 2:6 is partly fulfilled, but will only be fully accomplished “at His last Coming” (Gilfillan, in Christianity and our Era, adopts this double fulfilment.) Numerous opinions of this kind might be quoted, but these are sufficient to indicate now, in the light of prophecies which all admit are still future and pertain to the period of the Sec. Coming, it is impossible for some of those, who adopt the Church-Kingdom view, to confine these passages to the First Advent. Indeed, let any one dispassionately consider what really occurred at the First Advent, then what is here predicted, and finally what a shaking of the heavens and earth, of nations, etc., is still described as future, as e.g. under the last vial, Rev. 16:18-21; at the conflagration, 2 Pet. 3; at the time of the confederation, Key. 19; Joel, 3, etc., and it seems strange that believers in the Word should be so reluctant to acknowledge this shaking to be still future, when they freely locate the predictions mentioned, which include just such a shaking, at a time which is yet to come. The reason is apparent: the theory adopted respecting the Judgment and Judgment Day makes such an interpretation antagonistic to their expressed views, for they cannot reconcile with their theory the Coming of the Desire of all nations, the filling of the house with glory and making the glory of this latter house greater than that of the former, bestowing peace, etc. All these things are opposed to their notions of the ending of time, the winding up of sublunary things, etc., and hence, whether it fits or not, all these things must be engrafted in some way upon the First Advent. Our doctrine is not thus trammelled. The re-established Theocracy under David’s Son introduces the Desire of all nations, bestows peace and prosperity, brings a glory to the Davidic and Lord’s house transcendently greater than the world has ever yet witnessed. But this can never be realized without the most extraordinary revolutions, the most unprecedented changes and convulsions, which are characterized as “a shaking of the heavens and earth” Jesus (Matt. 24:29; Mark 13:25; Luke 21:26), in accord with the general tenor of prophecy, predicts that “the powers of the heavens shall be shaken” which is linked with “distress of nations” “mourning of the tribes of the earthy” “men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth” and “the Coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven.” The reader will notice that Barnes (Coin, loci) and many others, who, against a comparison of these predictions, apply this shaking to the Roman army destroying Jerusalem, etc., fully admit that it also refers to the period of the Second Advent. This shaking, too, as the connection shows, is for purposes of overthrow, utter destruction, and radical change; it is preliminary to the setting up of a Kingdom that cannot be moved, i.e. everlasting, ever-enduring. It is a shaking of Gentile domination (Hag. 2:21, 22) to its complete removal, making place for the incoming Kingdom of Jesus. It is a shaking similar to the shaking of the Babylonian heavens and earth mentioned by Isaiah (13:13). It is that shaking of the heavens and earth (Joel 3:16) preceding the dwelling again of God in Jerusalem and the Millennial glory. It is that terrible shaking of the earth described by the prophet (Isa. 2:19, 21), when the glory of the Lord’s Majesty shall appear. It includes that “great shaking in the land of Israel”, when God shall destroy the enemies and restore the Jewish nation to their own land, thus magnifying Himself in the eyes of many nations.
Obs. 2. One of the best dissertations on this subject is that given by Dr. Owen in a sermon. After refuting the interpretation of Rollocus, Piscator, etc. (who make earth the inhabitants and heaven the angels, which men and angels were shaken with amazement, etc., at events of First Advent and preaching of the Gospel), by showing that the shaking was not yet accomplished when the apostle spoke, that it must exceed all former shakings, and that the things shaken are removed; after rebutting the opinion of Junius and many Commentators (viz., that heaven and earth denote the material parts of the world, etc., and the shaking comprised the signs, prodigies, darkness, earthquake, opening of graves, etc., attending Christ’s birth and death) by similar objections, he then refers to the view of Paraeus, Grotius, etc., that this has reference to the dissolution of the heavens and earth at the last day, but argues that the things shaken are to be removed that the Kingdom of Jesus may be established, and pertinently inquires, taking such a sense as the ending of all sublunary things, what hindrance the material earth and heaven are to such an establishment, and concludes that the Kingdom will not be brought in until after the Sec. Advent or the judgment. He then enters into an interesting discussion, appealing to Hag. 2:6, 7, saying that “I will shake the heavens and the earth” and “I will shake all nations” is a pleonasm for 4 “will shake the heavens and the earth of all nations”—making the “heavens of the nations” the political heights and glory, forms of government, etc., while the nations’ earth is the multitude of their people, their strength and power, whereby the heavens are supported. Owen’s argument is materially confirmed; if we turn to the latter part of the chapter- in Haggai, and notice how the prophet explains by the parallelism how “the throne of Kingdoms will be overthrown” and “the strength of the Kingdoms of the heathen” will be “destroyed,” which finds an accurate correspondence in many prophecies as e.g. Ps. 2; Dan. 2:44; Rev. 11:13-18, etc., that describe the erection of the Messiah’s Kingdom to follow the fearful downfall of the Kings and Kingdoms of the earth, who are represented (as e.g. Rev. 19, etc.) as con-federated against the truth. In perfect agreement with the tenor of the old prophets, who describe the Gentile domination to come to an end (Prop. 164) and to give place to that covenanted Theocratic order which is everlasting, Paul most delicately (to avoid exciting unduly the hostility of the Roman Empire, under which the believers then lived) and yet effectively declares the result of this shaking, just as Daniel and all the prophets portray it, viz., “the removing of those things that are (marg. may be) shaken” (i.e. those Kingdoms), “as of things that are made” (i.e. temporarily allowed, or created), “that those things which cannot be shaken may remain” (i.e. the covenanted and oath-bound promises respecting the Kingdom now to be realized in the restored Theocratic arrangement under David’s Son), “wherefore, we receiving a Kingdom” (the same that is thus covenanted and which saints inherit), “which cannot be moved” (i.e. will never be thus shaken and destroyed like the others), “let us,” etc. It is hard to say which excites our greatest surprise and admiration, the remarkable nicety of Paul’s language, thus avoiding the prejudice (cruel and persecuting) of Gentile rulers, without in the least sacrificing truth; or the exceeding harmony, even in the minutest particulars, between him and men who spoke many centuries before him.
Obs. 3. But while fully endorsing this view, that the great, important meaning of such phraseology is the subversion, overturning, and destruction of Kingdoms, etc., yet this does not forbid our entertaining the firm belief that these things will be accompanied by physical marvels, earthquakes, etc., which shall cause “men’s hearts failing them for fear,” etc. Analogy, pointing to the plagues preluding the deliverance from Egypt, to the events connected with the birth and crucifixion of Jesus, should cause us to hold that when the most solemn crisis for the world comes, God will cause His Almighty energy to be displayed in an unusual manner in the material nature which is to be a participant in the glory following. God has hitherto thus condescended to warn and speak, and there is every reason to believe, that as the end of the age draws nigh and the stupendous issues dependent upon it approach, God will again plead with man in a startling, strange, supernatural manner. While it may be difficult, and even impossible (owing to this figurative use of language just designated), to tell in each individual case whether the fulfilment embraces a literal, physical, or moral, or civil, or political sign, yet such is the variety of expression, the attitude of man himself, the actual participation of the material heavens and earth (as will be shown in following propositions) in the changes then introduced, that the wisest and most profound students of the Word have unhesitatingly given their adhesion (see Prop. 174) to such a belief. Indeed, when the writer considers that this period is to be specially characterized by the denial of the supernatural by the worldly-wise, it seems eminently fitting and proper that such an exertion of power should be manifested, not only for the believing and prudent, not only for the admonition of the unthinking, but for the confounding of the crafty, who rely so much on nature.