The Bible is clear when it says that the Kingdom of God is within His people. Jesus said that the Kingdom of God comes without observation. Luke 17:20
So when do humans “see” Jesus? We believe it is at the second resurrection; the first resurrection being immediately after we accept Jesus Christ’s death as our own and rise a new creation spiritually. Later, upon our physical demise, we must face our maker and give an account of what we have done with the life we were given.
So what do we make of the beginning of Revelation when Jesus says that every eye would see Him, followed by the Koine Greek word “καί” (kai) those who pierced Him. Here we have a word, καί (kai), translated as “even”, but it is an emphatic particle used freequently in a number of roles in the New Testament. Here it emphasises the fact that those who would be soon looking on the risen and returning Jesus Christ would be those who had rejected Him.
The “every eye” that would see Him are those who died in the Roman-Jewish war because they had rejected their own Messiah; particularly those who had pierced Him. Their judgment is now passed. The thrones were then set up for judgment and “soul sleep” ended in a general resurrection. Thereafter, those (trusting Jesus Christ) left alive, would also meet the Lord at the time of their physical death – they would pass from death to life. In no way did any believer rise before those who had been in soul sleep for the centuries prior to 70AD. This was explained by Paul to the Thessalonians. Also, those who reject Him after 70AD would pass to judgment as the judgment thrones were set up as Daniel 7:9 prophesied. They have remained set up since 70AD. They were set up because Jesus Christ was the only one found worthy to open the scroll of judgment. And in His mercy, the rebellious house was allowed the time of 40 years, i.e., the generation Jesus nominated and predicted.
While we cannot go past the authority of scripture itself, there are a couple of things that verify this “resurrection” of the righteous and unrighteous, that is, the general resurrection. People who have been brought back to life, whether on operating tables or other situations, frequently report having been out of their bodies for a time, rising up from the physical space “into the air”, or so it seems to the individuals experiencing this rising out of their dead bodies, prior to resuscitation.
The other indication is found when we consider the great many experiences reported online about those who have had out of the body experiences and either gone into heaven or a place of punishment. they report meeting deceased loved ones, acquaintance and others in heaven; or worse, seeing them in the place of punishment. How can there be deceased persons in heaven or post-mortem punishment if there has not already been a return of Christ with the judgment that is written to accompany His return. It is interesting to note that You Tuber Randy Kay tried unsuccessfully to answer a question about this matter. I see he is a sincere believer and dear brother, although I differ in that I have come to see the doctine he holds (dispensationalism) as ecclesially disempowering. He was asked how it could be that the general resurrection of the dead is future, while believers on his channel continually report seeing New Covenant folk in their heaven (encounters) in what they term NDEs (near death experiences – the people are attested medically as dead and then revived. Randy was unable to give an answer to this. My understanding of scripture answers this question. They are raised after the general resurrection, at the point of physical death when they have completed what we are here to do – reign with Christ.
I believe Jesus teaches that the Kingdom of God has been with us since Jesus walked the earth (Luke 17:21), that 70AD was indeed the return of our High Priest, Jesus Christ as the anti-type of the type in The Day of Atonement. Otherwise, how can we say that we are in tabernacles (the temple of HS) now? The festivals are types of the Life and Work of Christ. They occur in order when fulfilled just as there was an order to the Old Covenant practice.
As Daniel “saw” prophetically, the judgment thrones were put in place (suffering the death penalty of those who, in the “type” festival would die if they failed to turn up). Those faithful martyrs “under the altar” and those guilty of Rev 18:24 received justice, or in the case of the guilty, wrath. This is all well documented providentially for us in Josephus. This brought an end to soul sleep / Sheol, and it meant the resurrection of the just. They went to heaven prior to the living saints according to Paul in 1 Thessalonians. The context of Paul’s letter was in answer, as we contextually infer, to the believers there being concerned about those who had died previously missing out. When Paul writes about those who “are alive” and “remain”, there is no time frame given about their resurrection. It is assured that they too will rise, but not before the big /main event. But here is where I differ from RAndy Kay: I respectfully posit the possibility of this part of the second resurrection (the first being as per Eph 2:6 etc), that each of us has our eschaton and will rise out of this mortal body on the point of physical death – to either meet the Lord as His own child and others who have gone before – or – into a kolasis (corrective divine judgment).
Part 5
We may talk of the Holy Spirit’s power, but when we adhere to continual materialistic predictions and hoped for rapture and return, it will keep failing both us and any hope of sustained “revival”. It keeps people attending meetings and pays the wages, but this kind of unbiblical hope builds on fear of the world’s trends and does little for sustained restoration of Messiah’s reign.
To the contrary, while all this false “end times” focus, world watching and is going on, the weighty matters of faith in the world, love of neighbor are neglected. Instead of being saved, the world is often condemned and the mandate to have dominion in the earth isn’t recognised.
A recent survey of affiliation to the world’s religions indicates that the general trend, particularly in the west, is one of decline from Christianity. The figures are quite marked in favour of identification “as atheist, agnostic or ‘nothing in particular.’”
It is reported that there are, in some cases, 10 going out the back door for every new convert coming in the front. Sadly, the majority of people leaving the church are those who were brought up in Christian homes. This, in itself is very telling.
I suggest two trends here.
- Firstly, institutional churches have failed to continue the reformation that Luther sparked in the 16th Century. We are still very much in the Dark Ages of religiosity and under law due to the failure to correct even the most basic foundations of our faith. I speak of interpretative impositions made when state and church became one under the Roman state. I refer to Hebrews 6:1 which deals with the “judgment of the age” – eschatology. And this is foundational to understanding both the true mercy of God and His plan for a non-institutionalised relationship with humanity. This relationship is the best of liberty. But we need to undo centuries of religious thinking.
- Secondly, there are many who recognise that the church is still under some kind of bondage and so they leave the institution without leaving Jesus Christ or fellowship. These individuals, who are often in non-institutional home churches go below the radar of surveys. Nothing much “official” is known of their neighbour loving activities or their whereabouts. This is just as it should be according to Jesus in Matthew 6:1. They generally don’t sound a trumpet when they give alms.
Generally, the institution only goes a little way to salt the world. I say generally, because by and large we have done our best to feed the hungry, to clothe and shelter the needy. However, we have so often neglected to address the root cause of hunger. Only a few believers cast out the demons causing mental and physical disability that can be the cause of poverty homelessness, or greed and selfishness. We have so rarely taught of the power of God over sin and disaster in the here and now. Such power in righteous living, what Jesus calls His easy “yoke” (way of life) would bring more stability to the earth and its environmental factors / weather. We humans are meant to speak good things into being, to curse destruction and carry His Peace into the earth in real terms, not just rhetoric.
The key to continuing reformation isn’t more institutions. It certainly isn’t preaching about an evil world that believers need to escape from. Such rapture / millennium hopes are vain because they deny the truth of the kingdom as having come without (physical) observation in 70AD. This was in complete fulfilment in Christ’s Day of Atonement when those who will not come to salvation suffer death according to the law.
There is a growing body of people who “see” the fulfilment in the “Day of Atonement” clearly predicted as “shortly” coming upon the nascent ecclesia. But sadly, as I explore their teachings, I see they have neglected what 70AD means in terms of liberty and love. This is where I long to see ministries like prayer for healing and power come into alignment with the correct understanding of the Day of Atonement and vice-versa.
In my own understanding of the merciful Fatherly plan of God, I see it now. What a difference it is making to my life, love, joy and peace.
All of the law was fulfilled in Christ. And unless we believe His word that this was / and did, happen “shortly” within one generation (those standing in Jesus’ presence – Matt 16:27,28). To fail to believe Jesus’ words, even His final words of Revelation about coming “soon”, is to position oneself back between the shadows of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles. It is like being doomed to a half-life: half liberty and half law, which is no life to share. You may know liberty in Christ, but you will still share the poison of misapplied law.
All of the law has been fulfilled in Christ. That was why He had to “reappear” after presenting the life blood in the Holy of Holies. The Bible never mentions the term “second coming”, but rather, He returns as Rewarder, Avenger and Judge – and that was when the court was established. Prior to that there was just Sheol, aka, “soul sleep”. The word Sheol in the New Testament appears as Hades. Hades is not hell, but the place of the dead.
Daniel 7 predicts “the Day of Atonement” fulfilment. He speaks of that “Day of the Lord” – we see further in that passage the prophecy of Jesus’ ascension in the clouds to the Father (the Ancient of Days). No, this was not the rapture. “Coming in the clouds” upwards to the Father, the Ancient of Days, not downwards to earth to dis-establish His ecclesia. They have a job to do in the earth. That is the reestablishment of humanity’s dominion in the earth through Christ as Second Adam. That dominion is designed to be a simple absolute and not a half-life of struggle that has to be taught in a thousand sermons.
It affirmed the absolute nature of the new birth. We are not meant to live a half-life. We are not meant to be sinners and saints at the same time, but to align our mind, being transformed by the new nature spirit within. If we live the half-life with one foot in the grave and one in heaven, what sad depressed state will this dissociative mid find itself to be in.
The true believer in Christ lives in HIm, seated with Him. He or she is knitted to Christ inextricably. These passages confirm this “oneness” and heavenly realm dwelling:
“Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” 2 Cor 5:16 and 17
“My life is hidden in Christ.” Colossians 3:3
“But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.” 1 Corinthians 6:17
“and (He) raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 2:6
“Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.” 1 John 4:17
This new “heaven” that we now inhabit is not up in the clouds. Our habitation is in the spiritual realm of perfection with Christ. This is what the fulfilled Day of Atonement has achieved for all who choose to follow Christ. As in the OT type of the Day of Atonement, Jesus in “that day”, “went once for all” into the Holy Place, heaven. This was not the “heaven” that Ancient Israel envisioned. Their “Old Covenant” heaven was a shadow, albeit, the dwelling place of God on earth. It was the Holy of Holies inside the physical temple. But Jesus was not the shadow. He is the reality. Jesus went in reality then and not the type, for the spiritual realm is the greater reality. This ascension was the real Day of Atonement. It is over. And there is healing in the atonement – for the whole world. It’s a bulk deal. It’s the believer’s job to spread the wonderful news.
This Jesus was to “come again” just as He had left – to Jerusalem. Not to the Mount of Olives, for that Zechariah prophecy was about God removing from the temple at the time of judgment of the cross, resurrection and on to the destruction of the temple in 70AD. Zechariah 14 is the chapter of metaphors of the Messianic age which follows the judgment of carnal (material) Jerusalem. This passage could easily be said to contain a summary of the Roman-Jewish war, in three and a half years from 66AD to 70AD.
To deny what has come just because one may see no physical observation of Jesus in His new creation temple (us), is a lack of faith in the One who keeps His word about “the end of the age” / “the time of the end” having come in the disciples’ generation (40 years).
Sadly, people in modern times have failed to be saved and some turned to atheism, just because they read all the time markers in the gospels and epistles – and, under tutelage of misguided theology, they thought the Bible inconsistent, Christ’s words unfulfilled and /or its author a liar.
When so called “unbelievers” can see the truth in the Word and the lie in our teaching, then we can understand Matthew 25 – some who think they are saved are not; those who thought they didn’t know Jesus and His Word, were known by Him.
I have often heard preachers say that the apostles and early church believed in the immediacy of Christ’s return as promised. The apostles used Koine Greek words like “mello” which gives this sense of “about to happen”. But the modern preachers often say that the apostles were wrong. This is because, in the early centuries, carnal thinking (by institutionalisation through state control) entered the church and physical thinking overcame spiritual understanding of what had happened about the fulfilment of the Day of Atonement.
An example of the use of μέλλω (mellō) is used in Ephesians 1:18 where Paul speaks of the two ages which the New Testament consistently references. This is a great passage with application for the Ephesians of the sixth decade and for us post 70AD.
Sadly, it is often taught in such a way as to refer to the believer’s post-mortem hope / existence. This is not so. The reason the error is made again centres on the little Koine Greek word “aion”. Of itself, it carries no concept of “eternal”. It simply means an “age”. Starting at verse 18, we read,
“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the boundless greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and made Him head over all things to the church,which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”
It is important to remember that at the time of writing to the Ephesians, Paul states that Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father in heavenly places. Yet when we arrive at Chapter 2 verse 6, we notice that the believing Ephesians are “seated with Christ” in this same heavenly realm; yet their physical feet are on earth. Their spirits are one with Christ and that must mean that the heavenly realm is not a “pie in the sky when you die”, but that the Kingdom of God is a present reality, God in Christ abiding in us as His temple. (1 Corinthians 3:16;1 Cor 6:17).
The word translated “age” is αἰῶνι “aion”. Paul speaks of both the age they were living in and the “age to come”. This latter “age” is often thought of as “heaven”. Except heaven is not an age, but a spiritual realm beyond physical sight. These two ages are the ages before and after 70AD which Jesus also spoke of. Quite simply, both refer to the age Jesus Christ and the apostles lived in, where the temple sacrifices were still in operation. By the “age to come”, they meant the time after the destruction of the theocratic state with its temple sacrifices, festivals and the special nature of the land of Israel. All these things were utterly destroyed along with the remaining people and exportation. We can read detailed accounts of this in Flavius Josephus, the Wars of the Jews, which tie in with many Bible prophecies about the Roman-Jewish war 66-70AD.
It is what Daniel 12:7 predicted.
What is interesting about this passage in Ephesians is where Paul writes the age to come using the word, “mellō” which means “about to happen”. In other words, this wonderful inheritance and all that Paul describes for Jesus’ followers was not only theirs after Jesus’ going into heaven, but also in the near approaching “age to come”.
“Mello”, or in verse 21, μέλλοντι (mellonti) has a sense of immediacy. Elsewhere, Paul and Peter state and allude to a soon coming set of circumstances which would bring relief to the persecuted Christians. “Mellō” is “about to happen”, just as the word “mellō” is used by Luke in Acts 27:33 when dawn was“about to” break. It means an expectation of something happening very soon, even in relative terms.
Jesus also spoke of returning to earth in an earthly judgment. We read about this in Revelation 2:16, and more definitely in 3:11 where His coming “soon” uses ταχύ (tachu). It is also used for the rapidity of the arrival of the third “woe” in Rev 11:14. See also Matthew 23 where Jesus announces the “woes” prophesied on the Kings and rulers, who were the scribes, pharisees, the high priests and Jewish rulers. We showed this in Psalm 2, and Acts 4 in a previous post.
The book of Revelation closes with the same adverbial time stamp, ταχύ (tachu). But this time, it is written thrice in succession – Revelation 22:7, 12 and 20. Jesus said this in the first century AD, “Behold, I am coming soon!” And that three times. Was He mistaken? Did He return to judge Caiaphas, the High priest and the rest of the apostate nation in 70AD – in that generation of His? He had told Caiaphas, the High Priest to his face that this was going to happen at His trial. Josephus records that judgment that Jesus promised at His trial.
If these things are so, scholars argue, “Why didn’t every eye see Him?” Simply put, Jesus return as judge and resurrector of (Old Covenant saints) has been nearly as mistaken as His establishment of the Kingdom through crucifixion was by His contemporaries.
The “every eye” are those who were apostate in the promised land. That land which should have welcomed and heralded Him as King of all the Earth – or at least their promised land. They are the tribes of the land of Israel, not the kosmos – the operative word here is γῆς ( ges). It means a region of land. When the Bible refers to the whole known world, it uses different words.
Jesus as high priest was seen going into the heavenlies. The New Testament ends just prior to His soon predicted return. Thus, we see in Revelation, not the end of the earth; but that humanity is thereafter set in dominion over the earth, urging all to “come” with the Holy Spirit.
Rather than the end of the earth, we see the end of the Old Covenant age prophesied, and the inauguration of the New Covenant that happened at the Last Supper to the resurrection, now ratified with the dissolution of the Old. It happened “without observation”, Luke 17:20-21. The “eyes” that see Jesus at the high priestly return, are the “tribes” of ancient Israel who mourn at the realisation of what they have done. The punishment is fitting, but we only hear of the earthly punishment.
The high priest must return after the Festival of Trumpets bringing the justice the martyrs cry out for. Vengeance is the Lord’s. He did repay. He will repay also for those in the age to come (now). But Trumpets must go before the anti-type of the Day of Atonement. And the Festival of Tabernacles does not come into its fullness until that Day is done. The tabernacles, we read of in the final chapters of Revelation. Revelation doesn’t speak of heaven as separate from earth, but indwelling those who love the Lord on earth.
Today, preachers say the Feast of Tabernacles is fulfilled in Christ. Indeed, they claim seven of the festivals are already fulfilled in Christ. But the Bible assures us all must be fulfilled in Christ. This Day of Atonement Festival required all Israelites to attend. Indeed, Israelites thought of this as the most important festival; especially for the whole nation. This is because the salvation won by Christ was for “one new man” as encompassing the many. Individuals enter this “body”, but it is a body corporate that the life blood was presented to the Father in heaven for.
And it was the same “bulk handling”, if you will, with the ancient festival – Day of Atonement. Everyone had their sins “covered” in the annual event. It was a trying time because the High Priest whom Hebrews also describes had to offer an absolutely perfect sacrifice, year after year. No-one dared enter the Holy of Holies in a sin-state. Also any person who did not afflict his soul, was cut off from the people (Leviticus 23:29). That was his judgment – he hadn’t humbled himself / herself to receive the mercy of God and so, clinging to his own righteousness, he was judged imperfect and died. This is what happened to the “body” of the “man of lawlessness” (apostate Jerusalem, its rulers and people who followed them). They had persisted in unbelief despite the disciples’ preaching of 40 years after the cross.
But the man of lawlessness had to come to the fulness of time of one generation of its evil. And with the “end of the age” that Jesus had prophesied, particularly in Matthew 24, we understand the temple which was their only view of heaven (Holy of Holies where God had dwelt for them), the centre of all sacrifice and these festival “Days” or “Sabbaths” – all had to be destroyed because the majority of the people in Israel at that time refused to let them go. They favoured the shadow over Christ.
In the original and prophetic shadow and type of the Day of Atonement, can you imagine ancient Israel gathered outside in Jerusalem, waiting for the emergence of the High Priest – or the joy when the High Priest returned? They would hear the bells on the hem of His garment as he came forth. This is a picture of Jesus – not the at ascension – that was going into the “heavens” (Holy place) – but emerging again after the burnt offerings (shadows of the searing pain of the cross). And if one rejected Messiah, he or she became subject to the judgment on material / carnal Jerusalem and Israel; and most of the damage was searing pain and burning. It was a lake of fire and brimstone (but more of the meaning and purpose of tormenting brimstone and fire later).
That it was within the “generation” that Jesus repeatedly identified as the people with him, around him and of that time is verified also by the time markers in the gospels and epistles, including Revelation.
In Part 6 we will look at some of those “time markers” in the New Testament.
Of course people are going to struggle to believe in an unjust god who says he is merciful but delivers his children to everlasting conscious torment for failing to be in an institution that is man-made.
Of course faith comes from hearing God’s word. But it doesn’t come from hearing a Constantinian, Roman or Augustinian, and consequently a twisted word.
God has been grossly maligned by mis-translations in part of His his word. We need to learn to read without these half-life glasses on our faces.
