Biblically Optimistic and Gospel-Based
"For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled." (Luke 21:22)
Posted on 12/31/2010 9:03:44 PM PST by topcat54
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Jesus told his listeners, “The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof” (Matt. 21:43). For many people, this verse provides the heart of “replacement theology”—the idea that the Christian Church has replaced the old physical nation of Israel as God’s chosen people and priestly nation (1 Pet. 2:9–10, et al).
Without requiring the use of the label “replacement,” this is essentially what the verse teaches. It does not mean that Jewish people can never again taste of God’s grace, it simply means that the Old Jewish way of God’s witness and work on earth—the Old Testament Temple ritual system—was being abolished. It was being abolished because it was never meant to be permanent, but only a symbol that pointed to the reality of Jesus Christ, the true Temple, the true Emanuel. Those Jews who rejected the true Temple and insisted on clinging to the Old Testament traditions were thereby committing idolatry just as grossly as any pagan ritual. The Kingdom had moved on to its greater fulfillment. Those who refused to embrace the fulfillment found themselves bereft of the true kingdom—it would be taken from them, and given to the disciples of the true and faithful people of God.
Jesus denounced the teachers of the Old tradition which led the way in opposing Him. These were the Pharisees, and Christ’s denunciation of them appears in Matthew 23 among other places. It extends to the whole of the physical city of Jerusalem of which they were representatives in disbelief. Jesus concluded with the prediction that Jerusalem would fall because she was responsible for “all the righteous blood shed upon earth” and that she was “the city that kills the prophets” (Matt. 23:35, 37).
Mystery Babylon
From this sweeping condemnation we can learn that the city called “Babylon” in Revelation 17 and 18 is not the Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar, but Jerusalem called Babylon because she had corrupted herself and become like that ancient pagan Empire:
The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet [colors of the chief priest and the Temple; Ex. 25–28; 38–39], and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations” (Rev. 17:4–5).
And how do we know this blasphemous Babylonian “mystery” whore is indeed Jerusalem? Because she is pronounced guilty of the exclusive crime which Jesus earlier pinned on Jerusalem:
And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.… Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, So will Babylon the great city be thrown down with violence, and will be found no more.… And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all who have been slain on earth (Rev. 17:6, 18:21, 24).
It is not possible that two cities can both be guilty of a crime of which only one party could be guilty—killing all the prophets and all who have been slain in the earth. Jesus clearly attributed this crime to Jerusalem in Matthew 23; so we must conclude that here in Revelation, “Babylon” is a “name of mystery” because it symbolizes what Jerusalem had become.
Thus, it is highly likely that when Peter wrote his first epistle from “Babylon” (1 Pet. 5:13), he was literally writing from Jerusalem, which he had by then already condemned “in these last times” (1 Pet. 1:20) as Babylon. Peter was, after all, an apostle to the Circumcision as Paul said (Gal. 2:7).
It was not uncommon practice in that window between Christ’s ascension and Jerusalem’s destruction that the New Testament writers symbolized Jerusalem with the names of the great enemies of God’s people down through the ages. Thus, Revelation speaks of “the great city” where the “Lord was crucified”—obviously Jerusalem—“that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt” (Rev. 11:8).
Some would complain that interpreting the Great Whore of Babylon of Revelation 17 as Jerusalem is anti-Semitic. This is ad hominem nonsense. Besides, how anti-Semitic was it of John! Calling Jerusalem “Sodom” and “Egypt” instead of praying for her peace as dispensationalists demand we do. The nerve of him.
Thus it is understandable when Paul compares the false teachers creeping in the church to Pharaoh’s magicians (2 Tim. 3:8–9). Likewise, Matthew 2 presents Jesus as the New Israel fleeing from the new Pharaoh who kills all the male babies. Except the roles are reversed: Jesus’ family has to flee into Egypt in order to avoid this new Pharaoh, who is Herod; and the children killed are not Egyptian, they are Jewish. Lesson: Old Israel has become like Egypt, the persecutor of God’s people, and she shall suffer the plague of Egypt, while Jesus is the true Israel.
Keep in mind, it was Herod who then ruled Jerusalem and who had rebuilt the Temple at which the Jews then sacrificed. Once Jesus appeared on the scene as the Final Sacrifice, the sacrifices at the Temple became idolatrous and pagan. It was then rejecting God to continue that system. It was, in fact, to commit the abomination of desolation, because it was an idolatrous sacrifice in the Temple which caused God’s presence to leave that House desolate. Indeed, God’s presence would forever leave that Temple to dwell in the New Temple, His People. This occurred on the day of Pentecost. Within a generation, the idolatrous, adulterous nation—the great whore temple in Jerusalem—suffered a final blow from God. It was destroyed into oblivion.
Thus it is further understandable that the inspired writers would refer to their persecutors and false brethren in their Church as “them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan” (Rev. 2:9).
Conclusion
Modern day Christians simply do not understand that when they demand the land of Israel for the Old Jewish people so that they may rebuild a Temple and resume sacrifices, they are praying for the rankest and vilest of idolatries to occur. God destroyed that temple for that very reason in AD 70. Why would he now change and desire it to be rebuilt?
You may think that since God did this once before, sending His people into exile with their temple destroyed behind them, then He will do the same again—have them return to rebuild the temple. But this time was different. This time the True Temple came as the rebuilt (resurrected) temple. This time there would be no bricks and mortar, stones cut out with hands. The Old Jewish people were not merely exiled from their kingdom someday to return. No. This time, the kingdom was taken from them and given to the true nation.
Christ created a new bride. Why would Christ desire to return to the whore he has cast aside and divorced when He has a pristine Bride descending from heaven, uncorrupted by idolatry? He didn’t. He left that whore riding her patron, the beast of Rome. And the great mother of harlots suffered the judgment of her whoredom. She was divorced and disinherited. The inheritance now belongs to the Bride.
"For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled." (Luke 21:22)
> This time, the kingdom was taken from them and given to
> the true nation.
You mean the Paleostinians?
That’s who gets the land if Israel is eradicated.
Besides, we still have the prophesies Rev 11-17 to be fulfulled.
The desire to have The Kingdom of God on Earth dies hard even as Jesus called it the Kingdom of the Heavens.
Looks painful, pulling such a large theology from one’s fanny.
Start with Zech. 14, then Ezek. 36-48. There are too many references to the land, places, boundaries, the temple, the city, nations, specifically named nations, and physical blessings for the nation of Israel.
Reformed theology has done the Christian world much good. Reformed eschatology, on the other hand, is brownies and dog poo in a blender.
“Mystery Babylon” is the revived Roman empire (EU) with which the catholic church will be part of in the future.
To say that it is Jerusalem risible.
To say that God has cast off the Jews (Jerusalem) goes against what is in the old and new testament. The Jews will be “grafted in” again at the beginning of the millenial kingdom.
Anyone who believes that God has made Himself a liar by breaking His promise to Abraham is deceived.
Rome was defeated and re-defeated several times and is now falling apart again (globalism). Just let it go. ;-)
uhmm...the Kingdom of Israel was divided into two houses, the House of Judah and the House of Israel. In Hosea, we are told Yahweh divorced the House of Israel but never are we told He divorced the House of Judah. These are the Jewish people today, the House of Judah.
History doesn’t shine a good light on your Biblical opinion.
> To be anti-Semitic is to be anti-G-d.
Amen.
Genesis 12:3
And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse
him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
Revelation 7:1-8 hasn’t happened yet.
1 And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.
2 And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea,
3 Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.
4 And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.
5 Of the tribe of Juda were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Reuben were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Gad were sealed twelve thousand.
6 Of the tribe of Aser were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Nepthalim were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Manasses were sealed twelve thousand.
7 Of the tribe of Simeon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Levi were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Issachar were sealed twelve thousand.
8 Of the tribe of Zabulon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Joseph were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Benjamin were sealed twelve thousand.
The other point about the Temple is that there is no prophecy for Herod’s temple to be rebuilt. Jesus said it would be destroyed and there is no prophecy where it is rebuilt.
The End-Times guys say that the prophecy about rebuilding that Temple is really a ‘double-reference’ prophecy from the Old Testament. And that is just hogwash. There are no prophecies in the history of Scripture that are intended to be multi-referenced. To have a multi-reference prophecy makes prophecy meaningless.
“The Jews will be “grafted in” again at the beginning of the millenial kingdom.”
How many Jews keep the law? Where’s the burned animal sacrifices today?
Context? I believe Jesus ,that Rabbi from Nazareth was teaching in the Temple and the Priests and Elders came to Him there- Verse 43 is understood in light of that context—and I believe refers to Isaiah 66:7-14. But as The apostle Paul taught the believers at Rome (11:) God hath not put away His people.(see v.1) and ‘If the first fruits be holy,the lump is also holy: if the root be holy ,so are the branches...(see v16 and c.) I cannot believe replacement theology in the notion that God has cast aside His chosen people.
Think biblically. “Kingdom” and “nation” do not equate to some dusty parcel of land.
Besides, we still have the prophesies Rev 11-17 to be fulfulled.
We do? Who told you that?
That's theory's been around since Hal Lindsey was still on his second wife and it make no more sense today than it did 40 years ago.
God has not cast off the Jewish people. Paul makes that quite clear in the book of Romans. They are being brought into the kingdom every day by faith in Jesus Christ, the faith of their father Abraham. These elect Jews along with their gentile brethren make up the true children of Abraham.
The NT makes clear the different between earthly Jerusalem and the heavenly Jerusalem.
for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children-- but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all. (Gal. 4)
None of those who believe in a so-called “replacement theology” teach that God has cast aside Jewish people. You are mistaken if you think otherwise.
Amen.
My G-d KEEPS His promises.
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