"To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed
of men, but chosen of God, and precious, Ye also, as lively
stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood,
to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus
Christ. Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture,
Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious:
and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. Unto
you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them
which be disobedient, the stone which the builders
disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, And a
stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them
which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also
they were appointed. But ye are a chosen generation, a royal
priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye
should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out
of darkness into his marvellous light: Which in time past
were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had
not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy."
1 Peter 2:4-10, KJV

As we've already seen, Jesus clearly stated that the Kingdom
would be taken from the unbelieving Jews who rejected Him,
and would be given to another more worthy nation; i.e., to a
nation of believers in Christ Jesus, who truly demonstrate
the fruits of repentance. Is there any additional Scriptural
evidence which mentions this transfer of power and spiritual
anointing and authority? There most certainly is; and it is
directly tied to the previous verses written by Peter. The
reason why Peter could write with such authority, is because
Jesus Himself gave Peter this authority, as becomes evident
by the following verses found in the Gospel of Matthew:

"And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the
Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him,
Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath
not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.
And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this
rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of
the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on
earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt
loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."
Matthew 16:16-19, KJV

In spite of his own shortcomings, (his cowardice, and his
own betrayal of Christ, for example), Peter firmly believed
that Jesus was the long-prophesied Messiah, the Christ, and
Jesus obviously recognized this quality in Peter. Thus, the
Lord chose Peter to lead the followers of the fledging First
Century Church, once He had returned to His Father in Heaven.
However, please realize that while the Lord gave Peter this
special blessing, this is a far cry from the Roman Catholic
doctrine which promotes the false belief that Peter was the
first Bishop of Rome, and thus, the first Pope. As you may
know, the Roman Catholic Church uses this false doctrine to
try to validate their supposed spiritual superiority, and
authority, over other Christian churches.

As I have pointed out before, while Jesus gave Peter certain
authority, the Gospels, as well as the Book of the Acts of
the Apostles, seem to indicate that Peter may not have fully
embraced it. These books suggest that leadership within the
First Century Church was shared by Peter, James and John, and
later by Paul as well. It's also important to realize that in
the previous verses, the Lord is referring to Himself when He
states "upon this rock I will build my church". I don't share
the opinion that Jesus is calling Peter the rock, even though
Jesus did name him Cephas, meaning "a rock". Peter seems to
confirm that Jesus was referring to Himself as the Rock, in
the verses I shared earlier, where Peter refers to Jesus as
the Cornerstone. The Apostle Paul likewise states:

"And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank
of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was
Christ."
1 Corinthians 10:4, KJV

So while Peter may have been nicknamed Cephas by Jesus, the
Lord is the only true Rock, as well as the only High Priest,
of our Christian faith.

But the main point that I wish for you to grasp, is that the
Jews did in fact lose the Kingdom, precisely as Jesus stated
that they would, as a result of their unbelief. Furthermore,
this Kingdom was given to a new spiritual nation, comprised
of believers in Jesus Christ. The birth of our new nation is
directly linked to the birth of the man child, Jesus Christ,
precisely as Isaiah had prophesied in the two Scriptures we
examined earlier. You may recall that Isaiah seems to convey
the idea that the birth of this nation would be accompanied
by a certain degree of surprise and astonishment. It would
be something unique and out of the ordinary.

Exactly when this new nation was born is a matter of personal
conjecture. Whether we establish it as the moment that Jesus
died on the Cross, or three days later when He rose from the
dead, one thing is absolutely certain: If we stop to examine
the events which transpired during that entire period, and
the things that were said by some of the participants, it is
obvious that there was plenty of surprise, astonishment, and
fear going around. Consider the following verses that we find
in Matthew chapter twenty-seven:

"Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded
up the ghost. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent
in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did
quake, and the rocks rent; And the graves were opened; and
many bodies of the saints which slept arose, And came out of
the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy
city, and appeared unto many. Now when the centurion, and
they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake,
and those things that were done, they feared greatly,
saying, Truly this was the Son of God."
Matthew 27:50-54, KJV

One problem with reading the Bible, is that sometimes it can
be difficult to recognize when time gaps exist between some
of the events. At first glance, one might erroneously assume
that the events described in the previous verses all occurred
shortly after Jesus died on the Cross; however, it seems to
me that a careful reading of the above verses indicates that
Matthew is describing things which occurred, not right after
Jesus died on the Cross, but rather three days later when He
miraculously rose from the dead.

In other words, contrary to what we see in certain Hollywood
movies, the centurion did not say "Truly this was the Son of
God" as he gazed upon Jesus dying on the Cross. The soldiers
were undoubtedly desensitized, having already witnessed many
such crucifixions of criminals. Jesus' Crucifixion was just
another one and a part of their job. Jesus did nothing while
hanging on the Cross, which would give the centurion reason
to make such a remark. However, the remark makes more sense
if we realize that it was said three days later when a great
earthquake occurred, and Jesus rose from the dead. When it
states that they were "watching Jesus", it doesn't mean that
they were watching Him die on the Cross; it means that they
were watching His grave, as they had been instructed to do
by the unbelieving Jewish Elders, who feared that the Lord
might actually rise from the dead, as we see here:

"Now the next day, that followed the day of the preparation,
the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate,
Saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he
was yet alive, After three days I will rise again. Command
therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third
day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away,
and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the
last error shall be worse than the first. Pilate said unto
them, Ye have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as ye
can. So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the
stone, and setting a watch."
Matthew 27:62-66, KJV

So consider the facts which surrounded the birth of this new
nation. We have a great earthquake which must have surprised
and unsettled a lot of people, and caused them to fear. We
can also easily imagine the shock and horror that the Jewish
religious leaders must have felt after having gone through a
great earthquake, and then discovering that the temple veil
had been fully ripped from top to bottom, possibly revealing
the Holy of Holies, which was the holiest part of the temple,
where the Ark of the Covenant had been formerly placed. Maybe
they realized that it was a sign from God, that their days as
the spiritual leaders of Israel were numbered. As we saw in
part two, Caiaphas certainly seemed aware of the danger. Then
we have these hardened soldiers witnessing the Resurrection
of Jesus Christ. Matthew tells us that "they feared greatly"
having been observers of these events. As if the Lord's own
Resurrection wasn't enough, it isn't difficult to imagine the
astonishment, shock and fear which must have permeated all of
Jerusalem, as her inhabitants found themselves being visited
by many of the Old Testament saints.

In light of these events, and the people's reactions to them,
it makes perfect sense that God would inspire Isaiah to write
"Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things?". By
comparison, in my opinion, the political events of 1948 don't
even come close in magnitude, and certainly do not warrant
this kind of a statement from the Prophet Isaiah.


Jeff Snyder, SysOp - Armageddon BBS  Visit us at endtimeprophecy.org port 23
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your Download Center 4 Mac BBS Software & Christian Files.  We Use Hermes II


--- Hermes Web Tosser 1.1