Читать книгу Christian Zionism ... Enraptured Around a Golden Calf - Abraham A. van Kempen - Страница 26

Jesus' parable of the vineyard is direct and to the point, focusing on Israel's failure to produce fruit (Luke 20: 9-19; Matthew 20: 1-5; 21:28-41; Mark 12: 1-12). Israel today is as much of a failed state as 2000 years ago when Jesus, their Son of Man, God in the flesh has offered to release the Israelites from bondage of 1) the Law of Moses, 2) ancestry with self-proclaimed and prideful pedigree and 3) their claim as the sole Chosen People of God, taking their chosenness for granted, with neither good works or faith.⁸

The gospel is a radical message for the Jews of Jesus' generation. John states in the Prologue to his Gospel, the majority of the Jewish Christians in the early church do not receive this good news of the kingdom as ‘good news' (John 1: 11). The truths of the gospel of the kingdom of God are spiritual. There is no longer a need for the earthly temple order of worship in Judaism. God's rule and reign are now in the hearts of his people (John 4: 21-24). Heavenly realities are not earthly realities; they are two different categories of truth. In no way is a supposed earthly reality of a future Jewish kingdom superior, then and now.⁹

The unfathomable Good News, its full meaning, daze the apostles and the early Jewish Christians. Their expectation from Judaism is that the Messiah will establish a Jewish political kingdom. Jesus, however, has come as God in the flesh to announce the presence of a universal spiritual kingdom. The "good news of the kingdom of God" that Jesus proclaims is not about a political, Jewish earthly kingdom like David's and Solomon's kingdoms. It is a spiritual kingdom of the heart that provides a unique spirituality for worship in Spirit (John 4: 23-24; I Peter 2: 1-10). It is a kingdom of the unprecedented power of the Holy Spirit in Christians.¹⁰

The good news of the ‘new spirituality' that Jesus heralds provokes consternation in the early Jewish (Christian) church; it involves an intense struggle to harmonize their Jewish identity and tradition with the universal, spiritual gospel of the kingdom of God. They repudiate Jesus as the fulfillment of the ancient promises of God. The clash between the Christian ‘Judaizers’¹¹ and the Christian Gentiles lasts until the end of the first century.

Jesus' gospel of the kingdom of God is a "divine surprise" (Habakkuk 1: 5), a mystery hidden for ages, now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings (Romans 16: 25-26; I Peter 1: 10; I Corinthians. 2: 6-10). It comes in an unexpected form¹², and it exceeds the expectations of everyone. Neither the prophets of old nor the apostles fully understand the new spirituality inherent to the gospel of the kingdom of God (Luke 10: 24; I Peter 1: 10-12).

None anticipate anything like it.