The Last Days of the Kingdom of the Carnal Israel
The Last Days of the Kingdom of the Carnal Israel
Writter: Evangelos D. Kepenes (July 30, 2021 10:30)
The prevailing view within the ancient and modern Christian confessions of faith about the last days of the world and the end of its history is a legacy of the eschatology of Persian Zoroastrianism and contradicts the biblical narrative.
The carnal Israel
The national identity of the descendants of Abram was given by God "I want to make you a great nation" and was proved by the written genealogies and was intertwined with their religious identity "Hear Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord".
The geographical boundaries of residence of the theocratic Jewish nation in the land where the Amorites lived before were given by God "I want to give this land to your seed". This land was described as "Holy Land" or "Land of Israel" or "land of the Lord" which was contaminated by its inhabitants "You shall not defile the land in which you live, in the midst of which I dwell, for I the LORD dwell in the midst of the people of Israel.”
Also said about carnal Israel "they poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood." (Num. 35:34; Ps. 106: 38)
At the request of the people, the first king of carnal Israel was appointed by the prophet Samuel, Benjamin Saul. During Saul's wicked reign, Samuel anointed David, son of Jesse of the tribe of Judah, to succeed him. David, was the greatest biblical figure about whom God said "I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will". (Acts 13:22)
The symbols that were the cohesive ties of the ethnic-religious identity of the Jews were the Old Testament with the vows and promises, Jerusalem with its earthly Temple and the rituals, the priests, the vessels and the carnal ordinances according to the elements of the world.
The Mosaic Law had age-related character with birth, adulthood and old age
“In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.” (Heb. 8:13)
The sayings of the prophets were fulfilled. The Levite priests ceased, and the earthly models of heaven were burned. (Mat. 3:15, 5:17, Acts 3:18, 13:3)
The Fathers and Prophets of the carnal Israel as well as Jesus and the Apostles prophesied of the last days of Israel's reign
“And Jacob called to his sons, and said, Assemble yourselves, that I may tell you [that] which shall befall you in the last days.” (Gen. 49:1 Webster)
“For I know that after my death ye will utterly corrupt [yourselves], and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will befall you in the latter days; because ye will do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger through the work of your hands”. (Lev. 31:29)
“… and said, I will turn away my face from them, and will show what shall happen to them in the last days; for it is a perverse generation, sons in whom is no faith.” (Deu. 32:20 LXX)
The Jewish apostle Peter begged the Israelites in his generation “And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this perverse generation.” (Acts 2:40)
Gabriel comforted Daniel, and interpreted the vision
“… O son of man; for the vision has to do with the time of the end. Now while he was talking to me, I went into a deep sleep with my face to the earth: but touching me, he put me on my feet where I had been. And he said, See, I will make clear to you what is to come in the later time of the wrath: for it has to do with the fixed time of the end.» (Dan. 8:17-19)
“Now I have come to give you knowledge of the fate of your people in the later days; for there is still a vision for the days.” (Dan. 10:14)
“Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place.” (Dan. 9:24)
The apostle James wrote to unrighteous, wealthy Jews before the destruction of Jerusalem “Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. you have laid up treasure in the last days. Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you.” (James 5:2-6)
The end /completion of the law, who brought wrath, is Christ and the end of the kingdom of carnal Israel is the Church of Christ which is His body
Jesus was foreknown before the foundation of the world and was manifest in the last days of the kingdom of carnal Israel and the pottency of the Mosaic Law and its types.
“who was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but was manifested at the end of the times for your sake, who through him are believers in God, which raised him from the dead, and gave him glory; so that your faith and hope might be in God.” (1Pet. 1:20-21 ERV)
The theocratic authority of Israel knew the Scriptures and feared the abolition of their privileges and the loss of their land and nation by the Romans.
“The chief priests therefore and the Pharisees gathered a council, and said, What do we? for this man doeth many signs. If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” (John 11:48).
The destruction of Jerusalem and its earthly Temple by the Romans was an action of God who fulfilled his wrath, which he had promised to the disobedients from Israel who were under the Law, for the blood of the Prophets, the blood of Jesus, the blood of Saints and the Apostles with which they watered the "Land of the Lord". (Rev. 16:6, 17:6, 18:24)
In the gospel of Matthew we read
“But he (Jesus) answered them, “You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” (Mat. 24:2)
“The king was angry, and he sent his troops (multinational force of the Roman army) and destroyed those murderers and burned their city (Jerusalem).” (Mat. 22:7)
Thus Ezekiel's prophecy was fulfilled
“The word of the LORD came to me: “And you, O son of man, thus says the Lord GOD to the land of israel: An end! the end has come upon the four corners of the land. Now the end is upon you, and I will send my anger upon you; I will judge you according to your ways, and I will punish you for all your abominations. And my eye will not spare you, nor will I have pity, but I will punish you for your ways, while your abominations are in your midst. Then you will know that I am the LORD.” (Ezek. 7:1-4)
Before this day of the end/fulfillment of the Law Elijah the Tishbite would come
«The oracle of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi ……. For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the LORD of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the LORD of hosts. Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.” (Mal. 1:1, 4:1-6)
“For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if ye are willing to receive it, this is Elijah, which is to come. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” (Mat. 11:13-15)
Conclusion
The completion / end of biblical Judaism and the last days of the reign of Abraham's biological descendants have been fulfilled, as the Jewish prophetic Bible and history attest.
The anticipation of the end of the natural world and its history is simply a fantastic theory rooted in Ancient Religion, which is never going to happen.
The "Christian Zionists" are followers of the theory of the Calabrian triadist, abbot and hermit, Joachim of Fiore (1145-1202) who was a forerunner of Dispensationalism. Being an intermediate between the ancient Gnosticism and the modern one, and believing that the coming of the Antichrist would happen in his generation, he invented three consecutive eras of the world's history, according to the persons of the Holy Trinity. The first era was the era of the Father or the law, the second era was the era of the Son or grace, and the third era was the era of the Holy Spirit, the new age. The fantasy of the three eras appears in various philosophical thoughts, as well as in the Marxist dialectic of the three stages - primitive communism, class society, and ultimate communism that will be the kingdom of freedom without a state.
The "Christian Zionists" who see present-day Israel as the regulator of the world history support the myths of rabbinic Judaism and secular geostrategic policies rather than biblical truths, denouncing God as a transgressor.
“For if I build up again those things which I destroyed, I prove myself a transgressor.” (Gal. 2:18)
Amen