Book Review: More than a Prophet by Philip Mauro

Mauro, Philip, More than a Prophet. Grace Abounding Ministries, Inc. 1919.

I was first introduced to Philip Mauro a few years ago when I became suspicious of the A-Millennial interpretation of the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24. In this perspective, Matthew 24 prophesied a future tribulation, though not like Dispensational tribulationism, nevertheless, it still portrayed a time of worldly persecution and earthly defeat for the Church. They (A-mils) argued that the Church won the spiritual battle, but it was never the intent that the Church would triumph on earth, rather she looked to another city.

I stumbled into a preterist site, which contained some dangerous ideas, but nevertheless, I thought it wise to look carefully through some of its articles. There were several articles by Mauro on Daniel and Matthew. Mauro was both insightful and a faithful exegete of the text. He dealt carefully with each passage without doing exegetical gymnastics with certain clear texts like Matthew 24. Since then, I have read through various portions of his commentary on Revelation: Of Things Which Soon Must Come to Pass published in 1933.

In this small book, “More than a Prophet,” Mauro answers objections from a unknown classical dispensationalists who argues vehemently for the postponement theory. The book reads like Paul’s discourse in Romans 9 with the unknown objector. The unknown writer argues the traditional case for Dispensational thinking that the kingdom was offered to the Jews, however the Jews did not embrace the kingdom and therefore the kingdom was postponed.

Mauro argues strongly that the kingdom was a spiritual kingdom. Since the kingdom was at hand, John the Baptist’s prophecy was fulfilled in the first century with the coming of Messiah. Messiah brought with him a spiritual kingdom offered to all who would repent of their sins. Mauro writes:

Therefore, in the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ, we have, as regards this present age, but one kingdom; and that is a kingdom which is entered only by the new birth. The boundaries of that kingdom are purely spiritual (pg. 48).

Mauro seeks to preserve the traditional A-Millennial position that the kingdom had only spiritual manifestations and not earthly. In attempting to correct the Dispensational error of a future earthly kingdom–during the 1,000 year reign of Christ after the Tribulation–Mauro commits the fallacy made by many by offering an unbiblical dualism.

In his defense of a spiritual kingdom, Mauro fails to underscore the consequences of regeneration to the earthly realm, thus separating Christ’s kingdom into a purely abstract expression. Mauro also fails to apply the same hermeneutic that he applied to the Olivet Discourse. In the Olivet Discourse, Mauro understood that the “coming in the clouds” was a strong Old Covenant imagery (Isa.19) indicating that the coming indicated judgment, physical judgment. In the same manner, the kingdom of peace that has come upon us is in our midst, not merely in our hearts, but spreading throughout all the earth for the glory of the King.

I do not recommend Philip Mauro book More than a Prophet unless you are interested in refuting traditional 19th century forms of argumentation. If this is the case, I can recommend better resources. Nevertheless, I strongly recommend his other works which can be easily accessed.