Our Creator will require many of the laws of the First Kingdom Age (The Law of Moses) to be taught and policed by His son and the immortalized saints during the Millennial Kingdom. The prophecies are clear, repeated and quite detailed. Temple worship, animal sacrifices, harvest feast weeks participation, Sabbath observance and circumcision will all be required. Similar to the first Kingdom Law application there will be serious consequences for non-compliance. Drought and plague are threatened to those who do not attend the annual Feast of Tabernacles (Zech 14:16-19). Anyone who is uncircumcised in either flesh or heart will be prevented from entering the temple (Ezek 44:9). There are certainly some new modifications in the temple design, the altar dimensions, sacrificial ritual order and component measures. However the four blood altar offerings and the two bloodless altar offerings (grain and wine) will certainly be restored for this restored Kingdom. As the king-priests serving under Christ the immortalized saints will be responsible for educating and judging in these matters. Even Christ will be offering burnt offerings and sin offerings outside that fourth temple in the divine plan (Ezek 45:17,22).
“… for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.” (Rev. 5:9-10).
“Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years” (Rev 20:6).
Since there can be no serious consideration of the ‘if’ question, we should focus our attention to the ‘why’ question. As the enlightened community, it is our privilege and responsibility to pursue the various divinely provided educational avenues for a more comprehensive understanding of our Creator’s righteousness. The appreciation for His right-ness throughout the full range of His eternal truths and principles constitutes the glory that will fill the earth as the waters cover the sea. If we don’t pursue that righteousness now, both intellectually and behaviorally, how can we have any confidence we will be invited to experience that divine righteousness creation to the complete absence of any contradictions to that right-ness, when Yahweh will be all in all?
The Law delivery and redelivery
There are two separate but complimentary answers to why the divine laws of the First Kingdom Age, originally delivered through Moses, will be re-delivered by Christ. Moses came down from the Mount with those Kingdom laws after spending 40 days with God to receive that Law, during which he neither ate nor drank (Deut 9:9). Those 40 days followed the 50 days between the day after that first Passover in Egypt to the day Moses ascended the mount to receive those Kingdom Laws. In similar fashion Jesus will descend from heaven (also without having any need to eat or drink) in about 2,000 years (40 x 50) after his antitypical Passover. These are the same 40 and 50 days repeated between the Feast of Unleavened Bread (when Jesus was immortalized) and Pentecost (when the 120 were awarded the Holy Spirit, the “earnest” of the promise of immortality). Jesus appeared over a 40 day period within those divinely appointed 50 days between the second day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the first day of the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost). We constitute the third transitional generation, paralleling those two previous generations when Kingdom Law was imposed and then temporarily eliminated. Our generation will serve as the transition generation progressing from the educational laws and rituals of the Ecclesial Age into the Restored Kingdom Age. This approximate 2,000 year shadow projection between the first and second immortalization events is validated by other divinely hidden shadows reserved exclusively for those with seeing eyes and hearing ears.
Hosea defines two resurrections in the divine plan as being both after two days (2 divine days of 1,000 years) as well as on the third day (Hos 6:1-3). This indicates the two immortalization events planned for the beginning and end of that third divine day following the precedent setting immortalization of our savior. Another reference to this 2,000 year wait from the first to the second immortalization event would be when Yahweh commanded the enlightened community to wait about 2,000 cubits back when the ark was carried into the Jordan waters to reverse the water flow from a life to death progression all the way back to the city of Adam (Josh 3). The enlightened community has waited almost 2,000 years since the antitypical Christ ark experienced the antitypical life to death reversal. There are other complimentary shadows in divine communications framing this same substance that is hidden from the many while being revealed to the few, in order to give more to those who have while simultaneously taking away from those who have not (Matt 13:10-15).
Educational value and complete fulfillment
The two basic reasons why the laws and rituals of the original Kingdom will be restored along with the Millennial Kingdom are:
- There is a significant educational value to these laws defining both validations and contradictions of our Creator’s righteousness.
- There is a remaining measure of fulfillment to these laws that must be realized.
Sabbath observance will not be eliminated until the Sabbath Kingdom of a rest from sin and its effects has ended. The educational value in circumcision will continue until all flesh is cut off in the 8th divine day, following the conclusion of the Millennial Kingdom. The ark Noah built did not just save eight people. There were countless animals in that ark of salvation. Jesus must extend the salvation he achieved, not simply to mankind, but to all of creation, so making peace.
The law was certainly incomplete. Although there were some shadows of grace, that was not the educational theme of the Law. Kingdom Law did not surrender to the laws and rituals of the Ecclesial Age because those previous laws were somehow illegitimatized by grace. Judgment and grace are partners in the terms of our Creator’s righteousness. This is the foundational lesson in baptism, demonstrated in the baptism and testimony of our Messiah. He comforted a concerned John by explaining: “Suffer it to be so now, for thus it become us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matt 3:15). The baptism of Jesus certainly had absolutely nothing to do with sin forgiveness. It was all about validation of God’s righteousness. In fact baptism declares the full alpha to omega range of Yahweh’s righteousness which is specifically why Jesus said his baptism projected “all” righteousness. We voluntarily descend into our baptismal grave to express our agreement that sin deserves death, that Yahweh’s Edenic judgment was right in demanding death for sin. We rise out of that water grave to demonstrate our Creator’s rightness in extending renewed life on the basis of grace. This does not contradict the rightness of His judgment of death for sin. Judgment and grace are not contradictions, but harmonize perfectly in our heavenly Father. If we favor either judgment or grace to the exclusion of the other, we are contradicting the divine pattern, which is not a safe policy.
The Law scholar apostle, appointed to the Gentiles
Saul of Tarsus was addressed by Jesus Christ, so that this exceptional Mosaic Law scholar could be appointed as the Apostle to the Gentiles. Although Peter used one of the keys of the kingdom given him by Jesus to offer salvation to the Gentiles at the house of Cornelius, Jesus wanted a Law scholar to preach to the Gentiles and structure their ecclesias. We can listen to this Law scholar as he defines the foundation educational purpose of those Kingdom laws that were eliminated with the Kingdom and will be restored along with the Kingdom.
“Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin” (Rom 3:20).
“Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound” (Rom 5:20).
“For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death…. I would not have known sin except through the law” (Rom 7:5,7 NKJV).
Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. Was then that which is good made death unto me? By no means. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful ( Rom 7:13).
Paul repeatedly emphasizes that the primary educational purpose to the laws of the Kingdom of God was to define sin. If we try to understand sin outside the framework of that divinely assigned textbook our determinations will be highly suspect, if not dangerously incomplete. We need to understand why there were six sin offering procedures for sin for which repentance was required, and why there were also six sin offerings required even when there was no guilt assigned and no repentance demanded. We should be asking if these two categories of sin offerings have any relationship to the six exterior surfaces and the six interior surfaces of the Ark of the Covenant that were covered in gold. Interestingly those six guilt-free sin offerings parallel the nature of the six altar offering categories. There were four flesh and blood altar offerings (burnt, peace, sin, trespass) and two bloodless altar offerings (grain & drink… bread and wine). Correspondingly there were four guilt-free sin offerings for people and two for inanimate objects. The four guilt free sin offerings for people were:
- Death defilement from touching the dead (Numb 19:9,17).
- An unclean condition (Lev 15:15).
- Leprosy (Lev 14:19-20).
- Birthing a child (Lev 12:6-8).
The two guilt free sin offerings from which no repentance could possibly be expected were:
- The dedication of the bronze altar of burnt offering (Exod 29:36-37).
- The entire Tabernacle and its contents annually on the Day of Atonement (Lev 16:18,33).
The blood and flesh nature of the first four sin offerings as opposed to the bloodless nature of the last two sin offerings parallels the structure of the six altar offering categories of the four flesh and blood offerings (burnt, peace, sin and trespass) and the two blood free altar offerings (bread/grain/flour and wine)
The key question is WHY
We need to understand why each of those six sin offerings that required no repentance for any law transgression were each performed in order to achieve an atonement. We should be asking why there were bloodless atonement rituals, such as the fine flour for the atonement of the poorest Israelite (Lev 5:11-13) and the census tax (Exod 30:15-16). These procedures each achieved an atonement without any blood application. How do we blend that observation into the blood-based atonement rituals? Since the immortalized saints will serve Christ as king-priests in the restored Kingdom of God, those of us who are invited to inherit this Kingdom will be assigned to teach and police these Kingdom Laws. We certainly do not live under these laws in the current Ecclesial Age. However, that observation does not deny the educational value of these laws and rituals. The divinely orchestrated restoration of these laws and rituals proves that inherent significant value, unless we are actually willing to question the wisdom of our Creator. Just as the temporary laws and rituals of the Ecclesial Age define the grace and imputed righteousness features of our Creator’s eternal righteousness, so the soon to be restored laws of the Kingdom of God define the divine right-ness of the principles of judgment and personally projecting God’s righteousness in our words and deeds (our individual ‘works’ generated by a living faith).
The sons of men, among whom we live and work, endlessly promote education as the key to a successful vocation. Applying our Messiah’s advice to be wise as serpents but harmless as doves, we may want to pursue that wisdom. Shouldn’t we be educationally preparing for a 1,000 year appointment as the priests that will teach and enforce the laws and rituals of the Kingdom Age that all provide insights into the eternal righteousness of our Creator? How will we answer the son of God if he asks why we thought so little of this prospective job that we didn’t energetically prepare to be the educators, judges and enforcers of these divine laws and rituals?
Answers to the ‘why’ questions promoted in this consideration can be found in Bro. Roberts book “The Law of Moses” as well as a long series of articles entitled Vocational Training for An Immortal Priesthood. This series can be found at this web link: http://www.spiritsword.net /vocational-training-for-an-immortalpriesthood/.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One