Hebrews and Eschatology

The whole book of Hebrews was written to Jewish believers in Christ who were thinking about/considering the possibility of returning to Judaism. The writer’s purpose was to persuade these believers to stay with Jesus. He (or she) wrote that Jesus was better than Moses and better than the angels.

He then spent a great deal of time expositing why the priesthood of Jesus after the order of Melchizedek was better than the Levitical priesthood. In Chapters 7, 8, 9, and 10, the writer explicitly compares the priesthood of Jesus and its superiority to the Levitical priesthood. He emphasizes that animal sacrifices never cured the sin problem. They only covered it up. He says the priests in Jerusalem have to stand and continually offer sacrifices, first for themselves and their sin and then for the sins of the people. The Day of Atonement just pushed back the sin for another year. By contrast Jesus offered himself once for all and sat down at the right hand of the Father, because His work was finished forever.

Hebrews 10:1-18 sort of sums it all up, but you should read chapters 7-10 to get the full devastating (for the Jewish religion) comparison. In addition, I Cor. 13:10 says that when the perfect has come into the world that the partial will be done away with. Jesus was the perfect high priest and less than forty years after His death and resurrection, the partial symbols of the Levitical priesthood were done away with.

All I am saying is that it doesn’t make sense to me for God to rely on rebuilding the Temple in Jerusalem as part of His plan for the end and for the millenial kingdom. Why would He revert to the partial and imperfect that was supposed to illustrate and point to the perfect Lamb of God that was slain for all sin for all time? Doesn’t make sense to me.

If the Temple does get rebuilt, it will be men doing it for their own purposes. Obviously, that move will tbe part of God’s perfect plan, just like Joseph getting sold into slavery, Eli’s sons ignoring their father’s warnings, the nation of Israel chasing after other Gods and the crucifixion itself. See for example, Gen 50:19-20; Exodus 7:3-5; I Sam. 2:25; II Sam 17:14; Romans 9:15-23; and I Peter 2:9.

I am just saying there is room for doubt in our eschatology. It bothers me when people are so completely certain about uncertain things. The Pharisees knew the Old Testament backwards and forwards and based on their view of prophecy were 100% certain that Jesus was not the Messiah.

Just sayin’.

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