Let’s Take Israel First
In Jewish eschatology God promises to one day return and live among the Jews in Israel on planet Earth forever (Ezek.43:6). This will be accomplished at the outset of the Millennium following the re-dedication of the defiled temple (read ) and the topographical changes made to Earth by the earthquakes and other upheavals that characterize much of the last phase of the Great Tribulation. These “natural disasters” serve a dual purpose; to bring judgment upon the inhabitants of Earth who have rejected God, and to begin the Earth’s restoration to the condition it was in when Adam was given dominion over it. Its axis has to be righted, it’s rotation altered, and the time it takes to circumnavigate the Sun shortened. The water vapor canopy that deflects harmful ultra-violet rays and that collapsed during the Great Flood must be replaced to permit the long lives predicted for the Millennium (Isa. 65:17-25), and the mountains and sea floors that were altered to contain the floodwaters must be returned to their original form. The excess water not needed for the canopy will return to “the fountains of the deep” from whence it came.
The English translation of John’s comment that he sees a “new heaven and a new earth” (Rev. 21:1) is somewhat misleading. In the original language the word translated “new” actually refers to condition rather than age and means something closer to refreshed or renewed, and the word heaven refers to the firmament (atmosphere), the visible arch of the sky where the clouds move. This is consistent with both the Lord’s reference to “the renewal of all things” at the beginning of the Kingdom age (Matt. 19:28) and also the Old Testament view (Isaiah 65:17).
Once this is accomplished, God will finally take up residence among His people Israel, never to leave again. The Old Testament saints, those who died in faith of a coming redeemer who would expiate their sins, will come to life and join Him there fulfilling the promise He made to them repeatedly over the generations. From other studies we’ve done (read ), we know that before the cross the dead went to Sheol, the abode of the dead, sometimes called paradise or Abraham’s bosom, to await this redeemer. When Jesus died he went there and released them, taking them with Him into God’s presence (Matt. 27:52-53). Since in the time before the cross salvation for gentiles was only available through conversion to Judaism (John 4:21-24 & Acts 15:1), these Old Testament saints include both Jews and converted Gentiles.
What About The Church?
The Church, on the other hand, has always been promised that we would go to “heaven” to live with Jesus (John 14:1-3). This is fulfilled at the rapture when we who are alive join the resurrected dead in receiving our perfected bodies and populate New Jerusalem, which I believe is a low orbit satellite hovering in the proximity of Earth but not part of it (read ). Whether Jew or Gentile anyone who comes to faith between the cross and the Rapture automatically becomes a member of the Church and receives all the unique blessings accruing there from. At the moment of belief, they become part of nothing less than a new race of human, neither Jew nor Gentile, the only ones qualified for residence in New Jerusalem.
No comments:
Post a Comment