Ezekiel’s Temple

 

On the sites forum there is an on going topic called Ezekiel's temple. In that category I recently had a discussion about Ezekiel’s temple with a Jewish convert named Boomer who stated the flowing. G-d does not do away with covenants! If so He would be consider a covenant breaker.

 

John Silverton

The Temple according to Ezekiel’s dream, with the hugely tall entrance porch.

On the sites mane forum there is an on going topic called Ezekiel's temple. In that category I recently had a discussion about Ezekiel’s temple with a Jewish convert named Boomer who stated the flowing?  G-d does not do away with covenants! If so He would be consider a covenant breaker.  Boomer also went on to say that Ezekiel’s future Temple is used to teach God's people the difference between the holy and the profane; cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean; judge in a dispute according to God's ordinances. More on this in a later article.

In order to understand how God removed the Old Covenant we must first understand with whom did God make the New Covenant. God made the Covenant of the Law with the Jews. Everyone knows that, Christians and non Christians alike. However whom did God make the New Covenant??? Many Premillennialists and other futurists pride themselves in answering "the Church," or Christians (a theological cop out in this case) failing to discern the source, or root, of our salvation. Listen to the writer of Hebrews as he speaks to the first century Jewish saints.

Because finding fault with them, He says: "Behold, the days coming,’ says the LORD, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt..... (Hebrews 8:8-9a)

These verses come from the prophet Jeremiah in chapter 31:31, f. They speak of the New Covenant we now enjoy. Here’s the same truth as told by another prophet of God. "Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them, and it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; I will establish them and multiply them, and I will set My sanctuary in their midst forevermore. My tabernacle also shall be with them; indeed I will be their God, and they shall be My people." (Ezekiel 37:26-27)

Whit whom did God make the New Covenant??? The house of Israel and with the house of Judah. The Tree bears the branches the branches do not bear the tree. Salvation is of the Jews. The verses above show that was God’s intent from ancient times. Everything we have as Christians, we have because we the gentiles were later grafted into the Jewish olive tree. I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles; (Isaiah 42:6)

And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth. (Isaiah 49:6) By presenting Scripture in such a way, as to allow It to speak for Itself, one honestly cannot deny that the Old Covenant had an end. When God speaks of a new [covenant or agreement], He makes the first one obsolete (out of use). And what is obsolete (out of use and annulled because of age) is ripe for disappearance and to be dispensed with altogether. (Hebrews 8:13 Amplified Bible)

To understand how this could be possible, there are three very important Biblical truths that must be established. First, that the years from the cross to the desolation of Jerusalem in the A.D. 70s were the "last days"; Third, that the Old Covenant was still in place until the time of the "Parousia"; and Fourth, that redemption/salvation for all believers (alive or "asleep") was still promised (hoped for) in the post-resurrection New Testament era, and had not yet been realized.

It is stated time and again that the New Testament was written in the final years of the "world that then was," otherwise known as the Old Covenant or Old Testament era (Heb. 1:2). This period of the "last days", or "end of the age," saw its fulfillment at the Parousia of Christ Matt. 13:39 and the consummation of the New Covenant. "The time is coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers

when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them," declares the LORD. "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the LORD. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest," declares the LORD. "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more." Jeremiah 31:31-34 (New International Version)

Notice Yeshua said that He was like a husband to them," tho they broke His covenant, verse 32. They were the covenant breaker therefore God hands were free to make another Because finding fault with them, He says: "Behold, the days coming,’ says the LORD, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt..... (Hebrews 8:8-9a)

It was then that the Old Covenant system, with all its accouterments, that was passing away. Peter specifies the range of this period, commonly called the "last days," in his sermon in Acts 2:16-21. He declares that, in fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel, they were in the "last days," which would see the various charismatic manifestations (tongues, visions, prophecy, signs), until the 'day of the lord' (v.20), when they would cease. The churches of the apostolic period were living in the "last days" or "age," of the Old Covenant.

Note that the principle distinction between Realized Eschatology and all other "systems" of doctrine, in regards to the "last days," is the position that Christ's return was to be at the end of the Old Covenant age, and not at the supposed end of the New Covenant age.

Scripture demands that there was a "time of the end" of the first century "Old Covenant." It was then that the faithful believers who had not turned away from Christ (who believed not that He had delayed His coming) were ushered into the kingdom that Christ went to prepare for them. He came again, and received them unto Himself, so that where He was, they could be also. Teaching that this has not happened yet creates some very severe doctrinal consequences.

  as of 9-2006