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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | Don't understand Revelation and 1 Cor 15 | 1 Cor 15:28 | biblicalman | 228279 | ||
Hi Searcher, Now let us look at the second of your quotations which you seem to think indicate a Temple in the end times. In Isaiah 2.3 we read, the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the highest of the mountains and will be raised above the hills. Now if we take that literally (and a literalist should do no other) then it means that the Temple will be built on a mountain raised higher than Mount Everest. Now I recognise that God could do that, but it would mean the nations flowing uphill for over 29,000 feet. Is that what the Spirit through the prophet was indicating? My view is that the Spirit, speaking to Old Testament people who had no conception of a heaven to which people go, (such beliefs were left to pagans and their gods), was indicating that the Temple would be exalted far above all. The New Testament equivalent is the heavenly Temple in Revelation. It was as a result of the coming of Jesus the first time that God exalted the living Temple of Jesus and of His people, (or don't you believe that God's people are literally the Temple of the Living God?) and that instruction went out of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, and that as a consequence peace spread throughout the world as a result of the Gospel under the reign of He Who is both judge and Saviour. Now if you do not believe that the Temple will be built in a mountain over 29,000 feet in height you have to deny the literalism. Then ANY interpretation is failing to be literal. |
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2 | Don't understand Revelation and 1 Cor 15 | 1 Cor 15:28 | biblicalman | 228285 | ||
Hi Seeker, With respect to your third quote Isaiah 60.14 we have to consider the context. Isaiah 60 opens with the words, ‘Arise, shine, for your light is come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you -- the Lord will arise upon you, and His glory will be seen upon you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.’ Isaiah leaves no doubt about what is in mind here. The One of Whom this is spoken is the One of Whom it was said, ‘The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light, those who dwell in the land of the shadow of death, on them has the light shone’ (Isaiah 9.2), in other words it refers to the coming Son of David (9.5-6). Matthew refers to the fulfilment of this when Jesus began to proclaim the Good News (Matthew 4.13-16). Now I take this literally. Do you? So Isaiah 60 begins with reference to the first coming of Jesus. Furthermore He is the Servant, the One Who is given to be, ‘a covenant of the people, a light to the Gentiles’ (Isaiah 42.6). And he says of Him in Isaiah 49.6, ‘Is it too light a thing that you should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel, I will also give you for a light to the Gentiles, that you may be My salvation to the ends of the earth.’ In other words He is to be a light to both Jews and Gentiles. And these words are also applied to the Apostles as they went out with the Gospel (Acts 13.47). Jesus Himself constantly emphasised that He was the light of the world, and that He had come to shine on Israel (John 1.4; 3.19-21; 8.12; 12.35-36, 46). So there can be no doubt that Isaiah has Jesus’ first coming in mind. But like all prophecy parts of it will be fulfilled at different times. The prophets saw the future, but not a timetable for the future. Thus Isaiah goes on to describe what will happen before the coming of Jesus. God’s people will return from exile bringing the wealth of the nations. This was fulfilled, firstly in the return of the exiles under Sheshbazzar and Zerubbabel, then in the time of Ezra, and then through the centuries as more and more exiles returned. The riches brought from the Gentiles are strongly emphasised (Ezra 1.6-11; 6.4-5; 7.15-18, 21-22), and some of those riches were to come from the revenues of the province of Beyond the River (Syria, Palestine, Transjordan) in other words from a variety of Gentiles, and it would be brought on camel and ass to Jerusalem. Similar riches would pour in during the successes of the Maccabees, and when Herod’s Temple was being built. Further riches poured in from the Gentiles when Paul made his collection and brought it to Jerusalem. Thus riches poured in from the Gentiles at different times. And in the building of the second Temple, which was twice as large as Solomon’s, and in the building of Herod’s Temple, the glory of Lebanon flooded into them, the fir tree, the pine and the box tree in order to beautify the place of God’s sanctuary (Isaiah 60.14). And of course the submission of the Gentiles was received when the true servants of the Messiah went out from Jerusalem with the message of the Gospel and the nations submitted to them as Messiah’s people, that is, as Israel. And in the first few years they would flock to Jerusalem and bring their treasures with them. Thus it is the Second Temple that is in mind here. Best wishes |
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