What’s Happening In Israel Isn’t About Jesus

What’s Happening In Israel Isn’t About Jesus May 16, 2018

Image: Pixabay

 

When American Televangelists like John Hagee and Robert Jeffress stand in Jerusalem and proclaim that Biblical prophecy is being fulfilled, it’s important to realize that there is no such Biblical prophecy being fulfilled.

None.

Every Old Testament prophecy about Israel returning to the land was fulfilled.

The final prophecy about the fate of Israel and the destruction of Jerusalem was spoken by Jesus and fulfilled in AD 70. There were no prophecies made after that time about any restoration of Jerusalem or rebuilding of the Temple.

On the contrary, there were dozens of prophecies and statements in the New Testament by Jesus and the Apostles about the new Temple of God being fulfilled in Christ, and subsequently by those who are in Christ.

The new Temple of God is us.

“As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” – 1 Peter 2:4-5

“Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?” 1 Cor 3:16

“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own.” 1 Cor 6:19

“What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” 2 Cor 6:16

“Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him, you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” – Eph 2:19-22

In fact, there IS one verse in Revelation about the fact that there is NO Temple whatsoever in Jerusalem:

And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And they city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and her gates will never be shut by day – and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” [Rev. 21:22-27]

So, we are the Temple of God, and at the same time, Christ is our Temple. These are not made by human hands but are made of flesh and bone. The Temple is made of living stones, not brick and mortar.

Jesus abides within us, and we abide within Him. We are the living Temple of the Holy Spirit where Christ lives, and Christ is the living Temple where all of us “live and move and have our being.”

What’s happening right now in Jerusalem, and in Palestine is sad, and tragic. It is totally man-made. God has nothing to do with the posturing, the nationalism, the violence, the genocide, or the fear-mongering.

American Christians have a choice: They can follow Dispensational doctrines cooked up by John Darby in 1830, or they can follow Christ.

Christ does not rejoice over the death of anyone. Christ does not celebrate the murder of innocents. Christ does not revel in the oppressive power of Empire.

In Christ’s Kingdom, everyone is loved. No one is excluded. Those national identities are meaningless. Everyone is simply a child of the Father and a brother or sister who deserves to be loved, fed, comforted, and embraced into the Family of God.

In Christ, there is no Jew or Gentile, Male or Female, Slave or Free. In Christ, we are all one people.

Jesus is not waiting for anything to happen in the Middle East. He has already accomplished everything necessary for everlasting peace. He has shown us how to love, and to forgive one another. He empowers us and inspires us to love God, and love others, in this same extravagant way.

“And I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. ” (Rev. 18:4-8)

As for me and my house, we will follow Jesus.

**

Keith Giles is the author of several books, including the forthcoming “Jesus Unbound: Liberating the Word of God From the Bible”, available July 4th, 2018.

He is also the author of the Amazon best-seller, “Jesus Untangled: Crucifying Our Politics To Pledge Allegiance To The Lamb”, and co-hosts the Heretic Happy Hour Podcast on iTunes and Podbean. He and his wife live in Orange, CA with their two sons.

Please, join me at one of these upcoming events:

*Jesus, the Bible and the Holy Spirit Conference with Jon Zens, Tom Atkinson, and Keith Giles, on May 18-20 in Seattle, WA. Register here>

*The Nonviolent Love of Christ: How Loving Our Enemies Saves The World, with Joshua Lawson and Keith Giles on Saturday, June 16 in Portsmouth Ohio. Register here>

*Crucifying Our Politics with Keith Giles on June 24 in Cleveland, OH. Register here>

BONUS: Unlock exclusive content including blog articles, short stories, music, podcasts, videos and more on my Patreon page.


Browse Our Archives