The Influence Of The Old Testament On The Kingdom Of God During The Second Temple

History of God’s Own Kingdom

How did the od testament influence the kingdom of god during the second tempe?

The Holy Bible is divided into the Old Testament and the New Testament. Both of these holy books contain descriptions and literature about the Kingdom of God. It is to be noted that the New Testament is based on the messages provided in the Old Testament. Therefore, one needs to study both of them thoroughly in order to understand the concept of the Kingdom of God. A thorough interpretation of the Kingdom of God will show that, the planning which the Lord had for his kingdom dates back many centuries from the time of creation during the primitive times till the creation during the recent times (Tate, 2013). The prediction contained in the Old Testament shows the building up of a new kingdom on earth which will come into existence some day with the help of Jesus Christ. There Christ is referred to as the second Adam. It is Him who is entrusted with the duty to accomplish all the agreements of the sacred Scriptures (Pring, 2015).

All of us on this beautiful earth live each day of our lives in fear and worries. But, the world is so wonderful that we should spend our lives happily and with no reason to be afraid of. We are today immensely blessed with all the scientific advancements in technology. Today we fly across from one country to another in a matter of hours, owing to the unprecedented development in science and technology (Tuckett, 2014). We have automobiles connecting cities in matter of hours. Today electrical power has replaced the candles of the olden days. In this technological age of revelation, we are still not actually happy and contended from deep within. There are evils in the society which are chasing us day in and day out. We cannot escape from them. They are slowly engulfing our soul and our very own existence (Pfoh, 2013).

The ancient scholars dreamt of a perfect society, in which there will be no hatred and no ill feelings between the human beings. The society would be based on pure and love and trust. But, this was not possible in reality as men were not able to rid themselves of greed and lust. Every one of them were looking up towards the skies and praying hard for someone to listen to their woes. They were desperately waiting for a savior to come down on earth and save the human kind from destruction.  It was time for the arrival of Jesus, the savior of mankind. He was considered to be God’s own son. He was the guiding star for the people. The various preaching of Jesus showed people how to arrive at the Kingdom of God. (Myers, 2012).

They were made to believe that good time had come and it was their turn to receive their share of happiness. But, it would not come free. Human beings would have to undergo an inner change of being and drain out all the negative vibes that used to clog his mind through ages. The famous words from Jesus Christ can never be forgotten by us. It says ‘Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’ Just before breathing his last, Christ assured his disciples that he would share with them the joy and the association of the Kingdom of God. Jesus promised his beloved followers that he would return on this earth one day to bring back the lost glory of the earth once again (Malan, 2014).

The Impact of Old Testament on the New Testament

It is mention worthy, that the Christian Churches have different opinions and understanding of the Kingdom of God. We do not have any answer as to when this Kingdom of God will actually come into being. Many scholars like Adolf von Harnack, described the Kingdom as being more subjective (UreÃ, 2015). He tried to interpret it in terms of spirit of the human beings and their connection to God. Scholars like him believed that the Kingdom of God was the inner power of the human soul. Another interpretation thought of it as having an absolute value or character, which has made its journey towards time and space in the very personality of Jesus (Macaskill, 2014).

A few of the other scholars believed that the message of Kingdom of God brought with it an apocalyptic angle to the earth. It would happen with the help of a supernatural activity of the Almighty. It was time for history to get erased and beginning of a new era. The Kingdom was totally a subject matter of the future and it was one which was supernaturally motivated. Some other sections of the scholars believe that the Kingdom is nothing but the Church itself. They believed that it was the Church which was meant to spread the sacred Gospel all over the world. In this way, the Kingdom of God was also spreading its wings all over the globe (Louy, 2014).

The Bible is a consolidated book of the Christians. However, there are some differences between the two. They might be treated as complementing each other. The Old Testament can be termed as the very foundation of the holy Bible. The New Testament builds itself on that foundation but has some additional messages in it. The Old Testament lays down the several principles which are found in the New Testament in more illustrated manner. The several divinations contained in the Old Testament are given form in the New. The Old Testament discusses about the several aspects of the human race in general while the New Testament talks about a person as an individual. What the Old Testament depicts can be described the anger of God against the sinners, whereas the New Testament talks about how graceful and forgiving God can be towards those people who commit sins (Hjelm, 2013).

The several prophecies mentioned in the Old Testament which talked about the appearance of Jesus on this earth in details, lacked a bit of clarity which was made clear in the New Testament. We can discuss about the incident where prophet Isaiah talked about the demise of the Messiah. He also talked about the making of the Kingdom of the Messiah. But there was no concrete idea about the fact that there was the gap of thousands of years in between the suffering and the making of the Kingdom. In the New Testament, we come to know about the fact that the Messiah or savoir would have dual appearances on this earth. In one of them He would suffer and expire, whereas in the other, He would create His Kingdom of God, where there would be peace, love and harmony and no evil would be present to harm the inner being of the human race (Emerson, 2014).

 The several principles, which came into existence in the Old Testament, were made all the more clear and detailed in the New Testament. We come to know from the Book of Hebrews, where Jesus was considered to be the real High Priest and in what ways one of His sacrifices replaced the others He made, which were nothing but the anticipations of the things which would occur in future. Like, the Passover Lamb in the Old Testament gave rise to the Lamb of God according to the New Testament. It might be said that the Old Testament created the laws. The clarifications of such laws were made in the New Testament which showed the necessity of deliverance and did not ever intend to be the ways to salvation (Hjelm, 2013).

In the Old Testament we come across the incident where Adam lost his paradise. The New Testament tells the story about how the second Adam, in the form of Jesus, was able to get back the lost paradise. According to the Old Testament, a sinful activity would have separated man from God. However, in the New Testament we come across the several ways in which that broken relationship with God could be mended. It was predicted about the life of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament the life of Jesus was stored in the Gospel and the Epistles discuss about his life and how the common man should follow what He had preached and everything good that He did (Emerson, 2014).

In short, it might be said that the Old Testament built the very foundation for the savior or The Messiah to arrive on this earth in order to sacrifice himself for the various sinful acts that the people had committed. The New Testament describes the priesthood of Christ and then shows us his various doings and how the common man should comprehend it and try to follow him (Wyatt, 2014). The motive of both the Testaments is to disclose the ever so holy, compassionate and virtuous God who would condemn the sinful acts of the humans, but also gives the sinners a chance to change them through lamenting and sacrifices. Both the Testaments actually depict the fact that God is ever present around us and how we can come close to him through extreme trust, loyalty and honesty (Dietrich, 2014).

The Kingdom of God was the one which was ruled by Jesus. The foundation of such a kingdom laid on the notion that a sacred God lived among sacred people in a sacred land. The above factor nearly renders it impossible to revive Israel in Palestine in 1948, which would have fulfilled the predictions of the Old Testament in relation to the land which Israel was inheriting. The Holy Bible contained so many prophecies which could not fail. If Arab countries were successful in pushing away Israel towards the sea and thereby put an end to their regime on the land as it was promised to the descendants of Abraham (Chapman, 2014). But God also promised to return Israel its lost glory as per the sacred Scriptures. They would have fond a safe refuge in Jesus. They would be converted into Christianity and their soul and spirits would be cleaned. They would have to follow what Jesus orders them to do. However, modern Israel does not have the following characteristics.

As per, the Old Testament, the Kingdom of the Messiah would be that of monarchy. Jesus was to be considered as at the apex of the Government (Billings, 2014). He would be the supreme leader who would take care of all the divinations. It was promised by Jesus, that his followers would hold prominent roles in his kingdom. This is a real proof of the political significance that the Kingdom had. The structure was nicely designed to form a perfect political Government. The people with good heart, who wanted to emulate the learning preached by Jesus would surely have place in his kingdom. The hierarchy could be described in a form which can be best described by a pyramid. Thus it is seen that Christ’s Kingdom of God was influenced both geographically and politically. Gradually, the Jews and others were being influenced by the preaching of Jesus. His aura began to permeate to the different layers of the society and culture. The distressed people belonging to other religions were also being motivated and inspired by the preaching of Jesus (Anderson, 2012).

Fig.1: It depicts the hierarchy of the Messiah Government under Jesus

(Source: biblebelievers.org.au, 2015)

Conclusions

Both the Old and New Testaments give ample importance to the ushering in of the Kingdom of Gods. The planning for this Kingdom was being developed by the Lord since time unfathomable. But the Almighty promised that the Kingdom will be completely built according to His plans one day. It would be the dream country for every human on earth. He had made only one plan for the set up of the Kingdom. There was no alternative plan developed by Him. Jesus said that if the common man did not understand the essence of the Kingdom as mentioned in the Bible and believe that one day such a Kingdom of dreams could be built, then the Lord’s prayers would go unanswered and there would be malice for the entire human race. We, the human race, are the descendants of the first Adam. Hence it is not possible for us to establish this Kingdom. So, it was Jesus who could have set up such a Kingdom with exemplary leadership and inspiration.

References

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Billings, A. (2014). Julie Gittoes, Brutus Green and James Heard, Generous Ecclesiology: Church, World and the Kingdom of God; Harald Hegstad, The Real Church: An Ecclesiology of the Visible. Theology, 117(4), pp.295-297.

Chapman, D. (2014). Book Review: Fresh Expressions of Church and the Kingdom of God, edited by Graham Cray, Ian Mobsby, Aaron Kennedy. Ecclesiology, 10(3), pp.403-405.

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Emerson, M. (2014). Book Review: The Kingdom of God as Liturgical Empire: A Theological Commentary on 1-2 Chronicles. Biblical Theology Bulletin: Journal of Bible and Culture, 44(3), pp.175-175.

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Malan, G. (2014). The kingdom of God: Utopian or existential?. HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies, 70(3).

Myers, T. (2012). Tracing a Theology of the Kingdom of God in William Carey's Enquiry: A Case Study in Complex Mission Motivation as Component of "Missionary Spirituality". Missiology: An International Review, 40(1), pp.37-47.

Pfoh, E. (2013). Rhythms of Time: Reconnecting Palestine’s Past. Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament, 27(2), pp.296-299.

Pring, R. (2015). The teacher as high priest and usherer in of the Kingdom of God. Power and Education, 7(1), pp.19-28.

Tate, J. (2013). Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14. Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology, 68(1), pp.66-68.

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