My personal and some what randomly put together thoughts, on the coming kingdom and it’s process of filling the whole earth.
The law of the leper
Leprosy a type/shadow of sin.
Lev:13.
46 “He shall remain unclean all the days during which he has the infection; he is unclean. He shall live alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp.”
It is commonly excepted, that the skin
disease of leprosy through out the bible serves the reader with a vivid picture of how sin reigns as a disease in our flesh. Rom 7:18. It was often viewed that a person suffering from leprosy was outwardly manifesting spiritual defilement through sin. During the o/c under Torah teaching, such a diseased soul would be forced into isolation / or cast outside the camp.The effected person would have to run out of the camp shouting unclean. It was a humiliating disease, that caused shame,pain and total loneliness, were one would be cut of from family, friends and God. This forced isolation, as unpleasant as it was -was in the interest of Gods People so that the disease didn’t spread. Although the leper was outside the camp, It was the duty of the priest/s to go to them and assess wether the disease had spread or a healing process started :—-
2 “Thus shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing. Now he shall be brought to the priest, 3and the priest shall go out to the outside of the camp. Thus the priest shall look, and if the infection of leprosy has been healed in the leper,”
If ithe disease was still active and a further spread to the garment. it was to be cleansed with fire to aid in healing.
2 “So he shall burn the garment, whether the warp or the woof, in wool or in linen, or any article of leather in which the mark occurs, for it is a leprous malignancy; it shall be burned in the fire.
If a complete healing had taken place entrance back into the camp was permitted to fulfil the requirements Leading to the eighth day cleansing.
8The one to be cleansed shall then wash his clothes and shave off all his hair and bathe in water and be clean. Now afterward, he may enter the camp, but he shall stay outside his tent for seven days
Is this where Christ got his understanding and language from ?
Matt 8:12.
12 But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” + Matt 22:13,25:30.
Christ often spoke about casting that unready,unprofitable,unfaithful servant into outer darkness when he comes in judgment, to bring in his kingdom reign, here on earth. Matt 24:50-51. Christ also recognised that it was better to cast off a sinning / diseased part of your fleshly body into the fire, Rather than letting the disease spread to your whole body and being cast into the fire whole Mark 9:43-48.
Did Christ go to Gehenna fire/ outer darkness for us ?
Hebrews 13: 11-12.
11 “For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned outside the camp12 Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate”
Some O/c animal sacrifices were burnt outside the camp = a shadow of Christ being burnt in Gehenna fire outside the city gate. Christ became our escape goat by carrying our sins which he bore in his flesh [1 Peter 2:24] outside the camp. There he was truly abandoned by God In outer darkness / outside the City’s gate. Matt 27:46 + Mark 15:33. Christ became that leper for us by sacrificing Himself, in order to save us to the uttermost. Heb 7: 25-26 + Heb 9:26.
Torah under grace.
1 Corinthians 5
Apostle Paul, who knew the Torah inside and out, I believe drew on this example,
also when dealing with a sinning member with in the congregation / camp. Paul tells them to deliver such a person to Satan, expelling the one from the congregation, removing them to outside the camp/ congregation, so that their flesh may be destroyed [ie] a shadow of the leper’s garments being burned, so such persons Outer sinful actions that defile them will be burned, so that the person may possibly be saved in the day of the lord [ie] when he [christ] comes into his kingdom,and be spared the harsher judgments to come Matt 21:44. There was now to be no more death outside the camp, only refinement. Paul was fully aware that a little leaven, leaveneth the whole lump. As leprosy would have spread through the whole camp, so to could wilful sin trough the ecclesia / camp of God.
Saved from being lost to Gehenna fire.
Matt 10:28
killing a [body] dose not make sense.The word for kill here is APOKTENIO which is often rendered DESTROY [ie] feed it to the lions, burn it up or simply perish back to the ground. [ie] you couldn’t kill Adam before the breath of life entered him into him but you could [destroy] his lifeless body. So the word [destroy] is a better rendering than the wording [kill] The word for body is [soma] it is either a corpse / which was a similar state to which Adam was before the breath of life / or a living body after the breath of life had entered him. When Adam had the breath of life imparted to him, he [became]’a living Soul. Note he wasn’t [given] an immortal soul. Man cannot kill the [pusche] rendered soul…pusche means the breath of life, the VITAL FORCE which animates the body and shows itself in breathing, in either human or animal.When one dies your breath of life/spirit leaves you and returns to God Eccl 12:7 and your body is either destroyed at death or perishes back to dust after death. Man cannot kill the [pusche] this remains with God untouched, ready to be reunited with the body at the resserection were man becomes a living soul once again like Lazurs did at his physical resurrection.
But we are to fear the one who has the power to destroy both soul and body [ie] the complete you in being / mind and heart in Gehenna fire/ which burned outside the city walls. The word here for destroy is APOLLUMI, which is often rendered lose [ie] to LOSE you both soul and body in Gehenna [ie] the complete you, if not found in the book of life at the end of the second resurrection. At Jhon 17:12… Jesus talking about his disciples, used the same word APPOLLUMI = to lose, Christ says I have [lost] none that you have given me, except for Judas. I believe the whole point Christ was making to his disciples, was to not fear man who can just kill, because you know you will pass from death to life With immediate blessings at the first resurrection. But rather fear him who can lose you in body and being to Gehenna aka [The lake of fire]. Although a terrifying prospect for those judged to go there, It isn’t some mindless act of God. God through Christ will Bring back [All] who are [apollumi] = lost =Luke 15 parables, including the believer who falls away [ie] the prodigal son, who wilfully lost himself.
The second resurrection
It is clear that the second resurrection Will bring back to life every person who has ever lived, Both good and bad alike Dan 12:3, Jhon 5:29, Matt 25:46. Such people will be judged for all they have done good or bad, 2 cor 5:10. For those not found in the book of life, they are cast into the lake of fire, which is the second death, Rev 20:14. Now it is assumed that all these people cast into the lake of fire are already immortal beings. Immortality Is a gift from God through Christ only to those that believe and have already died the twice prior to the second resurrection. So it would suggest to me that these cast aways are mortal beings even at there resurrection, many resurrections through out Gods word brought back to Life mortal beings to a mortal existence. After all one is to receive the judgment and recompense for what they did in their earthly body’s 2 cor 5:10. So it would be fitting to assume their judgment and their punishment be carried out in their earthly body, the same body they committed there offences without repenting.
First resurrection/a kingdom of priests.
And the ever lasting Gospel. Rev14:6.
I’m toying with the Idea, that it is those in the first resurrection, who will be the ones given immortality for their faithfulness. Such ones will rule with Christ, as a kingdom of priests and to help bring in the fullness of his Gods kingdom reign Rev 1:6, Rev 20:4 + Luke 19:17. It might just be those chosen priests, who will go outside the city gates of the N/J to minister/ or preach the everlasting gospel,to those leper’s in Rev 21:8 who are to be refined in the lake of fire a k a Gehenna fire [out side the city’s gate / camp] Maybe for all others outside of the N/J, they will eat again from the tree of life, when they repent, which will eventually bring salvation and healing to the nations. Rev 22:2.
I don’t believe that christ’s saving of the lost ends in this life. Christ went to Gehenna, to bring life to [all] and to save those from Gehenna fire Weather through the kinder or harsher judgments.—Judgment starts now, in this present age for the house of God 1 pet 4:17, as uncomfortable and unpleasant this ongoing judgment process may be in this life for the believer, it is the lesser of the two types of judgment Christ will deliver Matt 21:44. Falling onto the stone is a kinder judgment in this age for the believer, than the coming age/ judgment, were the stone will fall upon the wicked in a much harsher judgment [ie] symbolically being stoned outside the camp without death being its finality.* On the other hand the believer who overcomes, such a one will not be hurt by the second death Rev 2:11.
Corrective punishment/banishment.
As the Rotherham’s emphasised bible correctly translates Matt 25:46. “ and these shall go away into age - abiding correction, but the righteous into age-abiding life.The way I’m seeing it is God will withdraw himself from mankind Who are cast out like leper’s.The blessings of God will disappear and lawlessness will reign in full, those who have been judged with few stripes I believe will be closer to the N/J and it’s light and those who have been judged with many stripes will be further away in the deepest darkness 2 peter 2:17.’ May be this is were those who know the way in this life and reject it will be [ie] their end is worse than their beginning 2 peter 2:20. Those who never knew the way will be closer to the advancing kingdom.Their lot of anguish will be a shorter space of time Luke 12.47. with a less harsher reality.
The kingdom process for U/R.
Dan 2:35 + Matt 13:31-32
the stone that strikes the nations BECAME a great mountain and filled the WHOLE earth, The mustard seed starts of tiny, but BECOMES the largest tree in the field.
This shows that the earth will not be changed instantly, it will be a gradual process, but will eventually fill the WHOLE earth. How dose it start of tiny and yet fill the whole earth,when only a handful of people are supposedly saved and enter Gods new creation through his son. well I believe a refining process of the leper out side the camp / N/J is how it might well grow slowly to fill all the earth. As and when persons are refined and brought to repentance and confess Christ as Lord then the kingdom will expand untill it eventually fills the whole earth. Those closet to the N/J will be grasping at the extended blessing of the advancing kingdom, and those further away will be grasping even more desperately when the kingdom blessings reach them. Christ must reign UNTILL he has put all his enemies under his feet, Then ALL will be made alive in Christ, no more lepers / no more refining/ no more corrective punishment in outer darkness etc…For all would have received their eighth day cleansing / circumcision of the heart Rom 2:29. God will be all in all even the son will be subjected back to the father.1 Corinthians 15:24-28.
Finer points.
How many times do persons just breeze over the finer statements/ teachings of the parables, you will be the LEAST IN the kingdom, the FIRST will be LAST and the LAST will be FIRST, Tax collectors and harlots will go into the kingdom AHEAD of you, not INSTEAD of you !!!
Compared to E/T or annihilationism,
Maybe this is the shadow of the good things to come through Christ.
