The Daily Word of Righteousness

The Three Separations of the Royal Priesthood, #5

For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; (Ephesians 2:14,15)

Satan's purpose in creating a separation between Israel and the Church (which is confusion in itself in that true Israel and the Church are identical) is to prevent the Kingdom of God from coming to the earth. Of course Satan cannot prevent the spiritual Jerusalem from descending from Heaven but he hopes to accomplish something of value to himself by introducing confusion into Christian thinking.

Some are teaching that the new Jerusalem, of the last two chapters of the Book of Revelation, the royal priesthood that will govern the nations of the earth, represents physical Israel. To maintain that the new Jerusalem is physical Israel creates enormous problems of interpretation.

If the new Jerusalem consists of the physical Jews, then the Throne of God and the Lamb will dwell among physical Israel (Revelation 22:3) while the so-called "Gentile Church" is in Heaven without God or the Lamb. This is unscriptural and undesirable, but it is the inevitable conclusion of what is being taught in many instances.

If, however, one believes that the new Jerusalem is the glorified Christian Church, the Wife of the Lamb, the eternal Temple of God, the Body of Christ, the eternal priesthood, he is able to find much support for his position in both the Old and New Testaments.

If the new Jerusalem is the glorified Christian Church, then there is one Kingdom, one Son of David who rules with His saints from Jerusalem, one Israel consisting of all who are part of Christ, and the destiny of the Christian Church is described in Isaiah, Chapters 60 and 61. The Church, the Kingdom of God. is born from above and will come down from Heaven in the last days. This is the new Jerusalem. The sixtieth chapter of Isaiah and the twenty-first chapter of Revelation are speaking of the nations of saved people of the earth serving the new Jerusalem.

The coming of the nations of the earth to Christ through the members of the Christian Church (as taught in John 17: 21-23) is described in the sixtieth chapter of the Book of Isaiah:

Then thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles [nations] shall come unto thee. (Isaiah 60:5)

First Peter 2:12 speaks of God's royal priests living a godly life among the nations, and of their godliness being the means by which the nations, will glorify God in the "day of visitation." It is clear from the context that Peter is speaking of us who are Christians being the royal priesthood of God.

We Christians are the holy city, the Lamb's Wife, the new Jerusalem—the city that will rule the nations of the earth forever. We are the true Israel.

To be continued.