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I was in Old Jerusalem a few years back on my way to the Temple Mount, when I met an older Christian couple also headed that direction. We struck up a conversation and I told them I was most interested in seeing the Eastern/Golden Gate. They said, “Yes, the gate that Jesus is going to come through when He comes again.” Their local guide nodding in recognition of this belief, thinking herself that the Jewish Messiah is expected to do the same. I said to them, “Well, actually the verse that this belief is based on was forward-looking at the time it was penned by Ezekiel, some 2,600 years ago, but is past-tense to us now.” They asked, “What?!” I said, “Yes! Let me explain.” The belief that Jesus is going to come through that gate is based on several verses in Ezekiel 43. They read in part as follows: Then he led me [Ezekiel] to the gate, the gate facing toward the east; and behold, the glory of the God of Israel was coming from the way of the east. And His voice was like the sound of many waters; and the earth shone with His glory… And the glory of the Lord came into the house by the way of the gate facing toward the east. Ezekiel 43:1-4 They said, “Yes. So what?” I said, “Well, yes, Christians think that this verse is referring to Christ, when He is going to come again, but they are mistaken. The verse has a specific time stamp on it. It couldn’t possibly be fulfilled in our lifetime. The Eastern Gate has been closed off.” They said, “Yes. So what? Jesus is documented to have walked through walls before. This fulfillment of prophecy would simply be more of the same.” I said, “No. You don’t understand. The verse has a time stamp on it that makes it impossible to fulfill today. I didn’t say Jesus couldn’t walk through a wall if He wanted to.” They asked, “What time stamp?” I said, “A chapter later, Ezekiel 44 reads as follows:” Then He brought me back by the way of the outer gate of the sanctuary, which faces the east; and it was shut. The LORD said to me, “This gate shall be shut; it shall not be opened, and no one shall enter by it, for the LORD God of Israel has entered by it; therefore it shall be shut.” Ezekiel 44:1-2 They said, “We don’t see a time stamp.” I said, “You should! You are Christians, right? Well, you believe that Jesus was God in the flesh, right? Well, Jesus came through that gate many times when He was here on earth. It’s the gate leading to the Mount of Olives, and it was His custom to spend the night on that mountain and then go to the Temple in the mornings (John 8:1-2). In particular, He is documented as having entered the gate on Palm Sunday, the week before His crucifixion (Matthew 21:1-13). My point is, if Jesus was God in the flesh, as Christians say they believe, then God Almighty has already entered that gate and Ezekiel 43 has already been fulfilled. And more so, Ezekiel 44 was fulfilled when Muslims closed off the gate 500 years ago in order to keep any Jewish Messiah figure from entering through the gate. Sadly for them, they were 1,500 years too late. Jesus, i.e., God in the flesh, already went through the gate. And now that the gate is closed, Ezekiel 44 is also totally fulfilled since it reads, “This gate shall be shut; it shall not be opened, and no one shall enter by it, for the Lord God of Israel has entered by it; therefore it shall be shut.” “Wow!” They said. “So, it is an already fulfilled prophecy…” Yes and a secret is hidden and revealed all at once.
All three of the monotheistic religions have missed the fulfillment of this prophecy. The Jews still expect it to happen; Christians still expect it to happen and Muslims went to the trouble of walling off the Eastern Gate in expectation of it still happening. God is much bigger than any of the religions claiming to speak for Him.
In that conversation, I focused on the Ezekiel passages. Jews will undoubtedly argue that I am leaving out a key passage in their belief that the Messiah is to come through the Eastern gate. Psalm 24 mentions the coming of the King of glory. See for yourself below. But I contend that this passage too is not forward looking for us, but that Jesus, if He was in fact God in the flesh, fulfilled the expectations of these verses also.
Lift up your heads, O gates, and be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in! Who is the King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O gates, and lift them up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in! Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, He is the King of glory. Psalm 24:7-10 (NASB)
This passage is not referring back to the Eastern Gate as the Jews suppose. Why? Because it mentions “gates”, not “gate.” In Old Jerusalem, there were nine gates through which to enter the city. Today there are only eight, as mentioned, the Eastern Gate was permanently closed five hundred years ago. There were three gated entrances for both the northern and southern entrances to the city, two entrances for the east and one for the west. At the time of Christ, all nine gates were open. When David penned the 24th psalm a thousand years before Christ, he prophesied that the LORD, God Himself, was going to go through the gates. And his prophecy is not that the LORD would enter through only one gate, but several of the gates. This is interesting on several accounts. First, how did David imagine the LORD entering these gates? Did he envision God pouring through the gates in the form of a cloud? Did he envision God coming in the form of a man? Did he actually envision the LORD God entering at all, or was he simply caught up in his own poetry, carried away by the rapture of his song? Whether or not David truly saw the future is questionable; what is unquestionable is that Jesus would have entered many of these gates throughout His life. If Jesus was God in the flesh as we have been suggesting, then this psalm of praise from King David was actually fulfilled in a literal fashion, by God in the flesh, Jesus Christ, and not coming into Jerusalem once, through merely one gate, but coming into Jerusalem multiple times through multiple gates. The Gospels document Jesus traveling to Jerusalem from other localities multiple times. Jesus walks on water and quiets a storm in the Sea of Galilee (Matthew 8:24-27), which is to the north of Jerusalem. He turns water into wine at Cana (John 2:1) and heals two men with demons in Gadara (Matthew 8:28-33), which are both north of Jerusalem. When He traveled from these and the other multiple places to the north of Jerusalem during His ministry, Jesus would have undoubtedly come through one of the northern gates of Jerusalem. And knowing the deliberateness with which He fulfilled prophecies, He probably chose the “Flowers Gate” one time, the “Damascus Gate” another time, and the “New Gate” yet other times. Bethlehem and Egypt are both to the south and west of Jerusalem, so it is likely that when Mary and Joseph took infant Jesus to Jerusalem in order to offer the required sacrifice, or if they observed Passover with Him during their flight to Egypt (Luke 2:21-24; Luke 2:41), Jesus would have entered Jerusalem through the western and/or southern gates. His favorite gate, though, would have been the Eastern Gate, as it was His custom to stay in Bethany with friends (John 12:1) and to camp out on the Mount of Olives (Luke 21:37-38; Luke 22:39), both being to the east of Jerusalem. So here we have a simple song of King David, and it turns out that if Jesus was God in the flesh, then it was fulfilled in a most literal fashion. Lift up your head oh ye gates, that the King of glory may come in. Who is the King of glory? The LORD God almighty, i.e., Jesus, the Christ, He is the King of glory. Many in the church view Psalm 24 as a Messianic psalm, relating to the time when Jesus returns in all His glory to rule the earth from Jerusalem. But I contend that Jesus fulfills the sum total of the Jewish law and prophets and Psalms. Here we have passages from a prophet and a Psalm, both at the time of their writing, pointing to a time in the future when God Himself would enter our time/space continuum and make Himself known to us by doing what was said of Him. In one instance, He would walk through the Eastern Gate and that gate in particular would be shut after Him. In another instance, the scripture states that God Himself would come through the various gates of Jerusalem. In both instances, Jesus, while alive here on earth, performed both actions. This fulfillment of Messianic expectations should prick the Christian into questioning a second and redundant fulfillment of prophecy. Why is it that God would put it into writing that He would do certain things when He miraculously manifested Himself in the flesh, only to require Himself to do those very things twice because fulfilling it once wasn’t enough?
All three of the monotheistic religions have missed the fulfillment of this prophecy. The Jews still expect it to happen; Christians still expect it to happen and Muslims went to the trouble of walling off the Eastern Gate in expectation of it still happening. God is much bigger than any of the religions claiming to speak for Him.
In that conversation, I focused on the Ezekiel passages. Jews will undoubtedly argue that I am leaving out a key passage in their belief that the Messiah is to come through the Eastern gate. Psalm 24 mentions the coming of the King of glory. See for yourself below. But I contend that this passage too is not forward looking for us, but that Jesus, if He was in fact God in the flesh, fulfilled the expectations of these verses also.
Lift up your heads, O gates, and be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in! Who is the King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O gates, and lift them up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in! Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, He is the King of glory. Psalm 24:7-10 (NASB)
This passage is not referring back to the Eastern Gate as the Jews suppose. Why? Because it mentions “gates”, not “gate.” In Old Jerusalem, there were nine gates through which to enter the city. Today there are only eight, as mentioned, the Eastern Gate was permanently closed five hundred years ago. There were three gated entrances for both the northern and southern entrances to the city, two entrances for the east and one for the west. At the time of Christ, all nine gates were open. When David penned the 24th psalm a thousand years before Christ, he prophesied that the LORD, God Himself, was going to go through the gates. And his prophecy is not that the LORD would enter through only one gate, but several of the gates. This is interesting on several accounts. First, how did David imagine the LORD entering these gates? Did he envision God pouring through the gates in the form of a cloud? Did he envision God coming in the form of a man? Did he actually envision the LORD God entering at all, or was he simply caught up in his own poetry, carried away by the rapture of his song? Whether or not David truly saw the future is questionable; what is unquestionable is that Jesus would have entered many of these gates throughout His life. If Jesus was God in the flesh as we have been suggesting, then this psalm of praise from King David was actually fulfilled in a literal fashion, by God in the flesh, Jesus Christ, and not coming into Jerusalem once, through merely one gate, but coming into Jerusalem multiple times through multiple gates. The Gospels document Jesus traveling to Jerusalem from other localities multiple times. Jesus walks on water and quiets a storm in the Sea of Galilee (Matthew 8:24-27), which is to the north of Jerusalem. He turns water into wine at Cana (John 2:1) and heals two men with demons in Gadara (Matthew 8:28-33), which are both north of Jerusalem. When He traveled from these and the other multiple places to the north of Jerusalem during His ministry, Jesus would have undoubtedly come through one of the northern gates of Jerusalem. And knowing the deliberateness with which He fulfilled prophecies, He probably chose the “Flowers Gate” one time, the “Damascus Gate” another time, and the “New Gate” yet other times. Bethlehem and Egypt are both to the south and west of Jerusalem, so it is likely that when Mary and Joseph took infant Jesus to Jerusalem in order to offer the required sacrifice, or if they observed Passover with Him during their flight to Egypt (Luke 2:21-24; Luke 2:41), Jesus would have entered Jerusalem through the western and/or southern gates. His favorite gate, though, would have been the Eastern Gate, as it was His custom to stay in Bethany with friends (John 12:1) and to camp out on the Mount of Olives (Luke 21:37-38; Luke 22:39), both being to the east of Jerusalem. So here we have a simple song of King David, and it turns out that if Jesus was God in the flesh, then it was fulfilled in a most literal fashion. Lift up your head oh ye gates, that the King of glory may come in. Who is the King of glory? The LORD God almighty, i.e., Jesus, the Christ, He is the King of glory. Many in the church view Psalm 24 as a Messianic psalm, relating to the time when Jesus returns in all His glory to rule the earth from Jerusalem. But I contend that Jesus fulfills the sum total of the Jewish law and prophets and Psalms. Here we have passages from a prophet and a Psalm, both at the time of their writing, pointing to a time in the future when God Himself would enter our time/space continuum and make Himself known to us by doing what was said of Him. In one instance, He would walk through the Eastern Gate and that gate in particular would be shut after Him. In another instance, the scripture states that God Himself would come through the various gates of Jerusalem. In both instances, Jesus, while alive here on earth, performed both actions. This fulfillment of Messianic expectations should prick the Christian into questioning a second and redundant fulfillment of prophecy. Why is it that God would put it into writing that He would do certain things when He miraculously manifested Himself in the flesh, only to require Himself to do those very things twice because fulfilling it once wasn’t enough?
