The fullness of time
Just pondering something.. with one of the recent Moriel newsletters that came, there was something about the first sacrificial Passover Lamb being sacrificed by Levitical priests who are in training for the coming third temple.
Now, I know that in Luke it says that the temple will be trodden down by Gentiles for a time and that many believe that this time ended in 1967. I think that there are obvious problems with that that Calvin from Midlands Bible College addressed.
Here is the verse in question…
Luk 21:24 They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.
Well, I was wondering something… what if the temple is rebuilt, and the sacrifices are started again, which for all intense purposes brings back the Old Covenant for the nation of Israel. Could this be when the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled/finished with?
If that is the case and if there was a dispensation of sorts of Gentiles being grafted in by Grace but then the Jews begin living under Law again then does that mean that God could execute severe judgement which will be the start of Jacobs trouble? Previous to the verse above it speaks about “Great Distress upon the earth and wrath against this people”
Luk 21:22-23 for these are days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written. Alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! For there will be great distress upon the earth and wrath against this people.
Interesting to read the words…for these are day of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written. What particular days was Jesus talking about here? Something that was written and needed to be completed in the future.
Now, Romans..
Rom 11:25 Lest you be wise in your own sight, I want you to understand this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.
The partial hardening is mentioned in Romans. So does this mean that those who have been hardened will be those who want to bring back the Old Testament Law? This Law is of course a shadow of Jesus who they have not recognised as Messiah yet. But interestingly there will be an outpouring of National repentance according to Zechariah, so they will see Messiah Y’shua as one they have peirced and there will be a day of repentance as God’s Spirit is poured out upon them…
Zec 12:10 “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.
This repentance comes about because every nation has gathered themselves against Israel, which perhaps is the way God is going to exact His judgement because they have put themselves under Old Testament law again; God is to fulfill what has been written. But not only are they cornered by every nation, they have now had time to live under law and are judged by it but now can see the shadow for what it is — a shadow of Yeshua the sacrificial Lamb of God -the only son — and so now they SEE and are no longer blinded by the shadow of the Law — and this is when they cry out and deliverance from the nations is given to them by Christ Himself. But previous to this, they had the temple and sacrifices with the anti-Christ set up and this abomination brings about the Wrath of God.
So, I am thinking that as they get closer to the legalism of the OT Law then that is when the time of Gentiles is coming to a close…
Does this make any sense???
As a side note and an interesting bit of reading
I will just link to a free e-book called “The Manasseh Effect” which speaks about the “Sins of Manasseh”. Although the author speaks about Luke 21:24 being fulfilled in 1967 the author makes a very strong case for pre-trib rapture, they make a good point about the “Sins of Menasseh” being a foreshadow of anti-Christ. Manasseh broke the second commandment when he did the following…
2Ki 21:7 And he set the graven image of Asherah, that he had made, in the house of which Jehovah said to David and to Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, will I put my name for ever;
According to this book the sins of Manasseh have not been totally satisfied by God yet. Yet from what I understand God will allow the Jews to go back to Law — Third Temple worship and sacrifices etcetera — He will then start to punish according to the law.
The punishment for breaking the second commandment, which Manasseh did, is as written in Exodus…
Exo 20:4-5 Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them, for I Jehovah thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation of them that hate me,
The book goes on to explain that any iniquities that are meted out by God are represented as a day for a year (read Numbers 14:34), and then speaks about Daniel 9 and the seventy weeks and the last week which is Jacobs trouble. This last weeks is to complete what God had promised to do because of the sins of Manasseh.
You may want to check this e-book out!
