The days of the Messiah’s reign, Jeremiah 23:6

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The 4th of the 15 arguments by George Zeller against the idea that Christ now reigns upon the throne of David in this article was that Jesus will reign on earth, since the throne of David was on the earth at Jerusalem.

A royal priesthood

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In the 7th of his 15 arguments against the idea that Christ reigns upon the throne of David now, in this article, George Zeller raises the question of God’s perpetual covenant with the Levites. Taking this literally, Zeller argues that the prophecy requires the restoration of both David’s throne and the Levitical priesthood in a millennial temple. He wrote:

Is the promised land visible, or invisible?

A problem with Sir Anthony Buzzard’s interpretation of the land promise, which he interprets as meaning Abraham’s inheritance of the entire world, looms because of the prophecies of Ezekiel and Jeremiah about the people of Israel returning to their land. If the land of promise is extended to the whole visible earth, why would God’s people need to be gathered out of the nations where they were scattered, and return with weeping to Zion?

Is the promised land a symbol of paradise?

In his book “The Christ of the Covenants,” O. Palmer Robertson argues that the land promise to Abraham was meant to typify the traditional Christian hope of entering paradise. But the typology of Israel’s entry into the land of promise under the leadership of Joshua, and their conquest of the seven nations of the Canaanites dwelling there seems to discredit that interpretation. Similarly the return of the Jews after the exile in Babylon, to a province of the Persian kings, seems to have little in common with a future paradise. Robertson wrote: [1]

A watch in the night

In an article on Premillennialismat the Rapture Ready site, Daymond Duck lists three major views about how the Second Coming of Christ relates to the Millennium: (1) Premillennialism;  (2) Postmillenialism; and (3) Amillennialism.

Faith and the land promise

The Old Testament prophets foretold a return of Israel to the promised land, but little is said about it in the New Testament. Instead, the promises and prophecies about the land are reinterpreted.

The promised land is among the shadows and types of the Old Covenant. It represents the rest, and the truth, into which Jesus said the Spirit of Christ will guide the saints. [John 16:13]

Not recognizing that the land is a type having a spiritual significance, some have claimed that the land promises in the Old Testament about Israel possessing the land “forever” must be understood literally. They claim ethnic Jews have a right to land in Palestine, and justify the dispossessing of the Palestinian population of their farms and homes. There have even been some who have converted to Judaism, and a diet of Kosher food, and observing Jewish holy days and sabbaths!

Another group of Christians assumes that the land of Canaan has simply become obsolete. They believe that the land promises in the Old Testament were all fulfilled in the past. They can’t imagine how the land could again become significant. They discount the prophecies of a future restoration.

Does the church inherit Israel’s land promise?

In the New Testament the church is compared to Israel in the wilderness, in 1 Corinthians 10:1-12, and in Revelation 12:6, and 14, where the woman who flees to the wilderness represents the church in the present age. This wilderness implies she seeks a future “rest.”

The wilderness experience for the Israelites was a period of trial, and testing. Deuteronomy 8:2-3 says, “God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.”

In the New Testament, the wilderness in which the church finds herself is not a literal desert. And her destination is not the literal territory of Canaan. In Hebrews 11:16, the saints desire a “better country,” which indicates that the promised land the saints hope to enter is something other than the literal territory of Palestine.

New discoveries about Gehenna

The city of Jerusalem is one of the most prominent of all places mentioned in scripture, and in the New Testament, Jerusalem is the name of the church, and its location is heaven, not upon the earth. The various locations and landforms associated with the promised land are the setting for the revelations of God in scripture. These revelations include the gospel, and the promise and hope of the future resurrection.

Jeremiah’s extension of Jerusalem

Interpretations of Gehenna that appeal to events of 70 AD miss the significance of the prophecies of Jeremiah about the future of the valley of Hinnom, which say that it will become “holy unto the Lord.” This is easily understood, when Jesus’ references to Gehenna are seen in the context of a judgment, which those who are accounted unworthy to enter the kingdom of heaven and the holy city must endure.