Does Spiritual Foreshadow Physical?

Recently, I’ve begun a series of studies that discusses the nature of Jesus’ Second Coming and what was to be established at that coming. I’ve shown that the Jews looked for the establishment of a Messianic kingdom that would destroy their enemies, and, in the context of the first century AD, rid them of the oppression of Rome. In other words, they looked for the Messiah to establish a physical kingdom on earth, in Jerusalem, ruling from a physical throne. Jesus totally, and emphatically rejected that idea (John 6:15), which, on its face, seems to disqualify the dispensational point of view that the offer of the Kingdom was postponed due to the Jews’ rejection of Jesus. However, Jesus rejected them, and their idea of a kingdom, before they rejected him (cf. John 12:34).

 

What Is the Nature of the Kingdom?

from Google Images

In a previous study[1] I mentioned that any futurist view of the coming of Christ is proved wrong, if, indeed, Jesus returned in 70 AD, as implied in the Parable of the Nobleman (Luke 19:11-27). Moreover, I also claimed that, if Jesus had intended to rule in a physical body, from a physical city (i.e. Jerusalem) on a physical throne, he could have done so in the first century AD, because multitudes of Jews wanted to put him there on several occasions (cf. John 6:15; 12:16-19). In other words, the Jews were ready to receive Jesus as their Messiah, if he had intended to reign in a physical body, on a physical throne, from physical Jerusalem! The fact is, they had always wanted a king such as this (cf. 1Samuel 8:5).