I'm trying to figure out what this underlying disagreement is, because on one hand it seems as if we agree (but I get the sense that you and Tree for Life are coming at us with burning torches - trying to sniff out heresies).
I've repeated a few times in this thread that I (personally) don't deny a future coming (that's recited in the creeds).....but I believe what the OP is trying to point out is that is a separate issue from the full Gospel message (right,
@Residential Bob ?). If Residential Bob doesn't see it that way, then I do. I believe there needs to be a distinction made between the "coming in power and glory" that's mentioned in the Bible to what people understand as a "second coming" that's physical (and future). He CAME in power already. His shekinah glory
has returned - just as the ancient Jews had been anticipating for years.
If a person sees the "goal" as "getting to heaven (which is what you're saying.....am I right, RLH?)......then they miss the prophecies of Jesus that WERE fulfilled (mainly the destruction of the temple and the removal of the human priests - handed over to our High Priest, Christ).
I think you're misunderstanding the story line - and main plot - in the New Testament. It's not (IMO) "let's get to heaven" - instead it's "God has brought His glory and His kingdom to earth". While the physical manifestation of a resurrection may be in the future - I don't believe that's what Jesus was teaching about.
I think the Gospel message includes the returned Christ. He is the high priest in the kingdom. His flesh was ripped open for its sake, so that God may fellowship with His creation on the earth again as He did in the Garden. In the church, God fellowships with man again, and through the church is glorified on the earth again. The Garden of Eden. The kingdom.
That is the work of the Messiah. Jesus united heaven and earth.
Everything I say, I’ve taken from the Scriptures.
The kingdom is here – the church – forever and ever. And what a glorious kingdom it is on the earth. Think about it.
Now occupying David’s throne, Jesus reigns over the house of Jacob. God fulfilled His promise and, as Paul quotes from the prophets, has given His son “the holy and sure blessings of David.” (
Acts 13:34) Jesus came to rebuild David’s tabernacle (
Acts 15:16-17), which is now a living tabernacle made of living stones. Peter affirms this inheritance, that God raised up one to sit on David’s throne. This promise was fulfilled at the resurrection of Jesus Christ (
Acts 2:29-33).
And in this new, living temple, the chosen of God are no longer bound to their futile ways. The Helper, the Holy Spirit, the Intercessor, imparts to them a new way of being human, a way that changes lives and subsequently the world. Christians do not face any particular city five times a day when they pray. They do not make pilgrimages to any temple or tabernacle. They keep no law books or record of wrongs. They worship the Lord when they please, day and night (
Rv 7:15).
Sure, individual congregations are hierarchical and self-governing; Paul in fact encourages spirit-led organization within local assemblies. But within the Christians’ kingdom at large, no hierarchy subjugates them, no taxing authority oppresses them, no regulatory body directs them, no central authority oversees them. Believers seek no single unifying leader to call teacher or father (
Mt 23:8-9), for they don’t need one. Their church’s decentralized leadership means that theirs is a living temple of which they are all the stones. They are all counted as priests, inspired by the Holy Spirit to a higher ethical standard, to live by the power of forgiveness and the spirit of truth. It is a temple without altar, ritual, or mandate. By design, the church is a temple of equals (
Mt 20:25-28).
The Christians’ kingdom is one in which they do not answer to any prince or emperor or anyone else wearing robes and passing decrees; only to their one king, the Lord Jesus Christ who reigns from heaven. Only to their one high priest, the veil that was torn asunder to open the way once and for all to paradise (
Heb 10:20), where God dwells with man on the earth, and then the second veil that ascends to heaven, that opens the Most Holy Place where man dwells with God forever. Their kingdom is a living temple made of living stones, of born-again believers who are the new Priesthood (
1 Pt 2:5). This is the real thing, not the copy that the brick-and-mortar temples of Solomon and Herod were (
Heb 9:23-24).
This is the Gospel.
