Kingdom Come

“In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” (Judges 17:6)

This same situation prevailed in the days of Jeremiah when the king and much of the ruling class was taken into captivity, the  the temple at Jerusalem was destroyed preventing the practice of the the Mosaic Law detailing regularly schedule sacrifices and rituals, and the greater percentage of Jews were scattered in foreign countries.

In this context, God’s announcement that “they shall teach no more every man…saying, Know the LORD” (Jeremiah 31:34) isn’t simply commentary on a previous religious practice, but a reprimant on the inevitable variation in knowledge, understanding and wisdom among the crowd of teachers resulting in false teachers, sects, and departures from the faith.

Failing a Levitical priesthood to serve the scattered Jews, self-propelled teachers / rabbis sprang up, developinng new interpretations of the Jewish laws and customs, new traditions collected in the Mishnah and Talmud, transforming biblical Judaism into the doctrine of the Pharisees which is so condemned in scripture. 

These continued to corrupt Mosaic law even after a remnant returned from Babylon, rebuilt the temple, and re-established the Levitical rites.

“And all Israel in the days of Zerubbabel, and in the days of Nehemiah…sanctified holy things unto the Levites; and the Levites sanctified them unto the children of Aaron…Thus cleansed I [Nehemiah] them from all strangers, and appointed the wards of the priests and the Levites, every one in his business;” (Nehemiah 12, 13:30)

“saith the LORD of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name…Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar…ye say, The table of the Lord is contemptible. And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person? saith the LORD of hosts…I have no pleasure in you, saith the LORD of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your hand.” (Malachi 1)

Once again, chastisement under the latest empire, the Greek Seleucids culminating in terrible persecution under the infamous Antiochus Epiphanes.

The priest Simon Maccabeus led a successful revolt against the Greeks, but when he achieved independence for the Jews he rewarded himself with the kingship, contrary to Jewish law establishing that the king would come from the tribe of Judah. It is therefore no surprise that Judaism was deeply corrupted by the politicization of spirituality.

Of the various religious factions that emerged under Hasmonean rule, three are of particular interest: the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes, as well as some political / militant movements such as the Zealots.

The Sadducees were the liberals, elitists who maintained the priestly prerogatives through temple rituals, while also ingratiating themselves with politics and high society by incorporating Hellenism. We can compare them to politically involved Christian denominations focused on a kingdom of God in this world providing power wealth and status. Jesus openly and repeatedly rebuked the doctrine of the Sadducees, calling them “wicked and adulterous” in their Greek humanism. A major tenant of the Sadducees was denying personal responsibility for sin, therefore also rejecting the doctrine of resurrection and thus the core concept of the gospel; Matthew 22:23) The Sadducees disappeared after the destruction of the Second Temple left them unemployed.

The Pharisees, on the other hand, were the fundamentalists. They taught that an after-life existed where God punished the wicked and rewarded the righteous and that a messiah would be born who would bring in an era of world peace. This sect developed during the Babylonian Exile and centered spiritual life on individual prayer and assembly in synagogues. Their focus on a personal righteous standing with God is what caused the Pharisees’ sect to survive not only the Babylonian but also the Roman diaspora into modern Judaism. Nicodemus, Gamaliel and even Paul came from the Pharisaic school of thought.

However, Phariseeism was notable for adding to God’s word. Perhaps extensive debate – another Greek synchretization – in these assemblies / congregations / churches is how they developed the idea that in addition to the Torah, or Written Law, God also gave an oral law, transmitted verbally, to Moses at Mount Sinai, and that the written laws in the Pentateuch are open to interpretation by spirit-led men, like Moses, which were codified and written down in the Talmud.

“Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples, Saying The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat…they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers…all their works they do for to be seen of men…and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi. But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren…he that is greatest among you shall be your servant...But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men:”(Mathew 23)

Well that’s a complete perversion of the purpose of the Law of Moses.

The Essenes were the school of John the Baptist, with its distinct message and disciples were in time absorbed by the movement headed by Jesus (John 1:35-37, Acts 19:3).

When Paul went after the disciples in Damascus, he searched for people “belonging to the Way” (Acts 9:2) which is obviously a designation of a particular sect. Jesus called himself the Way (John 14:6), but it isn’t clear whether he coined this epithet then and there, or whether he addressed the members of an existing sect called such by telling them that he was what they were after…

The “town” of Nazareth where Jesus was from was probably not a geographical location but a school of thought (the Nazarenes) having to do with the blessings of the Lord of Life being scattered among pagan nations…(Peter’s Great Sheet vision is a clear demonstration of that particular belief, which obviously is one of the main elements of the gospel message; (Acts 10:15)…

Since the discoveries at Qumran we know that the phrase “Sons of Light” was not a general title for virtuous men, but rather a military nickname for Israel (see the War Scroll). Jesus called these militant Sons of Light shrewd (Luke 16:8), and explained that he was the Light (John 8:12, 9:5) and that his followers are the real Sons of Light (John 12:36, 1 Thessalonians 5:5).

The movement around Jesus the Nazarene was not a entirely new thing but was largely grafted upon existing ideas which existed long before Jesus was born.

The fundamental New Testament assurance of eternal salvation is based on the Old Testament promises. There is no validity in the New without the Old.  The “new” testament / covenant is, by definition, a modification of a previous testament, therefore both granted by the same grantor to the same grantee.

“Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem unto the residue of the elders which were carried away captives, and to the priests, and to the prophets, and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon…I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end…[when unlike the Adams who hid from me in the Garden of Eden] YE shall seek ME, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart…

Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name: If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever. Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD.” (Jeremiah 29-31)

“Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the LORD, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant…he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi…that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old, and as in former years.” (Malachi 3-4)

“And as they departed, Jesus began to say unto the multitudes concerning John, What went ye out into the wilderness to see?…A prophet? yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet. For this is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he….For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come.” (Matthew 11:7-14)

John’s preaching was meaningful and accepted by the people only because it was based on previous scripture. I’ve rearranged the phrases in John’s record to demonstrate the match with Isaiah’s.

• “The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith,
  • And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God.
  • Behold! the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. “(John 1:29-34)
• “For unto us…
  • a Son / of God, Ruler is given by God: and the government shall be upon his shoulder…the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever…
  • But [first]…the chastisement of our peace was upon him…All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all…he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter…” (Isaiah 9:6-7, 53:1-7)

The Pharisees, fundamentalists steeped in the scriptures, would have been the first to understand, and believe, John’s announcement that “The kingdom of heaven is at hand!” And in fact there were “certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed.” (Act 15:5)

Especially Paul, considered the founder of Christianity.

“My manner of life from my youth, which was at the first among mine own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews; Which knew me from the beginning, if they would testify, that after the most straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee. And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God, unto our fathers: Unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come.” (Acts 26:3-7)