Bully's Blog

There’s a great deal of confusion concerning the place of modern Jews in God’s economy. This stems from a misunderstanding of what occurred in the first century, which is difficult to interpret if we ignore previous occurrences of the same pattern. Dispensationalists cherrypick Old Testament verses and rip them out of their historical contexts to maintain that there is a separate plan for the Jews. But even many Conservatives who understand rightly that the Old Covenant is in fact over, believe that God is still joining Jew and Gentile into one body.

Titus steps over the High Priest into the Most Holy Place.

AD30 or AD70?

One of the biggest criticisms of preterism is its focus on the events of AD70; the destruction of Herod’s Temple is made the centre of the faith, rather than the cross. This is certainly true in some cases, but the emphasis on AD70 is perhaps a timely overcompensation for the neglect of this crucial, foundational era in Christian history. Over-emphasised AD70 might be, but it is long past due.

Most Christians are ignorant of the horrors of the Roman siege. Focus on the cross, we are told. Yet the slaughter of millions of Jews across the empire was the direct outcome of the cross. AD70 was the Day of Atonement that corresponded to the Passover of AD30. One always leads to the other, and there are plenty of precedents to this in the Old Testament.

Mind the Gap

The issue is the overlap. God always begins new worship before the destruction of the old. He always sends Joseph into Egypt before the end of Jacob’s tent. He sends Daniel to convert Nebuchadnezzar before Jerusalem is destroyed. David was anointed with Spirit-oil before Saul was abandoned to and executed by Gentiles.

The Spirit-anointing of the new worship is the beginning of the end for the old. Paul was in the middle of these two events. Christ as Joseph/Daniel was already at the right hand of the power, but the old tent/Temple was still around, still claiming authority.

In that He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. (Hebrews 8:13)

And it did. This is the basic message of the book of Hebrews. It is not for us today. We know that Jesus is better! There is no competitition. Since AD70, Jews have always been at the mercy of Christians.

“How true is the claim of post-New Covenant Judaism? It is not true at all. The true sons of Abraham, and of the Biblical Jews, are those who accept the New Covenant. The true owners of the promised land are those who moved into the New Covenant with Jesus, and who set aside Passover and synagogue for something better. At the Holocaust (A.D. 70), God removed the “Jews” from His land, and gave legal title to it to those who would be loyal to Him. (Notice that Modern Jews occupy the land of Palestine only because the Christian West supplies them with money, arms, technology, and legal treaties. The Promised Land belongs to the sons of Abraham — Christians — and the only reason Modern Jews are there today is because Christians let them be.)” [1]

Romans 9-11 is about provoking Jews to attract them from the dying kingdom of Greater Saul to the new kingdom of Greater David. It has nothing to do with modern Jews. The Jew-Gentile distinction ended with the Temple.

“Paul’s whole argument in Romans 11 is that the entrance of gentiles into the Kingdom will provoke the Jews to jealousy. This was possible in the first century, but it is not possible now. The reason it is not possible now is that Christians do not have what Modern Jews want. The minds of Modern Jews are set by their traditions, not by the Old Testament. In order for them to be jealous, they would have to perceive that Christians have the Kingdom they expect to inherit. This was true of first century Jews, but it is not true of Modern Jews. Talmudic Jews are looking for a completely different kind of kingdom.” [1]

From the ministry of Christ to the end of Judaism was a harvest, all part of the one process. This is what Paul is talking about. This is the basis for the command in Hebrews to keep meeting together with Gentiles as they saw the Day approaching. It was a continual reinforcement by Christian Jews of the New Covenant wine and oil in the face of Herod’s mouldy Showbread. We forget that when Hebrews was written, the blood of bulls and goats was still being offered. Jesus’ death constructed a new Temple. The massacre of saints filled it. The first century church looked forward to Jesus’ feet (new bronze pillars) tearing the Old Covenant apart at the “landing” [2] of this new Temple.

“But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.”

Apostolic Ministry

So, did the church begin at Pentecost or at the destruction of the Temple? The answer is that the church began at Pentecost and obviously continues today. However, the apostolic church began at Pentecost and ended at the Roman siege. The New Jerusalem was not just founded on the blood of Christ, but also on the blood of the apostles. If someone claims to have an apostolic ministry, 1) they should have been martyred 2 millennia ago, and 2) they should only be preaching to second-Temple Jews and Gentiles within the bounds of the oikoumene, the territory claimed for God in the book of Daniel. [3]

The exact same process is in the pattern laid down in Adam-to-Noah. Enoch preaches (as Christ) and ascends as firstfruits. Men draw near to God, but many (the Judaisers) use it as an opportunity to compromise (Genesis 6). Noah (as the apostles) preaches and the clean and unclean animals (Jews and Gentiles) submit to him. The ark lands on a mountain and, well, we know the rest of the story. Daniel saw it this way too:

“And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself; and the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood, and till the end of the war desolations are determined.”

It was certainly as it was in the days of Noah, animals and all. God made a “short work” of the harvest, and all Israel was saved. The Jew-Gentile body was finished in AD70, and even celebrated at a Marriage Supper—while the birds of the air cleaned the world of the Jew-Gentile Herodian carcass.

Only One Bride

The only body remaining was the body of Christ, Jesus and a Jew-Gentile church. Under the Old Covenant, Gentile believers were not required to join the priestly nation. The world was deliberately divided until the coming of the Messiah, the process of which was completed with the end of the worship that was centralised on earth.

Judaism was torn in two, like the High Priest’s robe. But the church was united in worship in heaven. The mystery of the gospel was fulfilled. Then Greater Adam and Greater Eve were finally united over a garden covered in the blood of the old Adam, the apostate High Priest. The “Abrahamic Rift” was closed, forever.

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[1]  I highly recommend James Jordan’s essay: The Future of Israel Re-Examined.
[2] See Landing Gear.
[3] See Four Winds.