THE
concept of the Messianic Era, also known as the Millennium, is totally Jewish
in origin, as we can see in the following quotes from Wikipedia:
|
Rav Richard 'Aharon' Chaimberlin |
The Talmud, Avoda
Zara folio 9a cites a teaching of the Acade-my of Elijah
that "the world will exist for six thou-sand years". Rashi (s.v ששת
אלפים שנים) comments on this: “The world
is decreed to last for six thousand years, as the days of the week; the seventh
day of the week is Shabbat, so too in the seventh millennium, there will be
tranquility in the world.”
In
his Sha'ar Hagmul, Ramban
writes that the sixth millennium will see the advent of the Messiah and the
seventh millennium will be the Shabbat of the 'World to Come', wherein the righteous will be
resurrected and rejoice.[1]
Ramban
further writes that the Scriptural verse, “And God blessed the seventh day and
sanctified it” (Gen. 2:3), refers to His blessing the World to Come which begins
at the seventh millennium.1
Ramban is from the Hebrew acronym for Rabbi Moshe ben
Nachman. He is also known as Nachmonides. Ramban took a much more
literal interpretation of Scripture than the Rambam (Maimonides),
who often preferred an allegorical interpretation of Scripture. Ramban was a
famous Talmudist and Kabbalist, as well as a Halachic authority. He was born in
Spain in 1194. He won a disputation against a Christian opponent, which
resulted in him being forced to flee Spain. He eventually reached Israel in
1267, where he spent his remaining years until his death in 1270.
Just from reading the first chapter of Genesis, he was able to
ascertain that there were ten dimensions. Four were knowable (length, width,
height, and time), and six were unknowable. Curiously, many modern physicist have come to the same conclusion almost a thousand
years later. Don't ask me to explain the other six dimensions. It's way beyond
my understanding.
www.myjewishlearning.com provides the following
information about him:
Nachmanides
was on very good terms with Christian notables, including King James I of
Aragon. In the famous disputation in Barcelona with the convert to Christianity,
Pablo Christiani, in the presence of the king, Nachmanides
emerged the victor and was rewarded by the king.
But
this victory aroused the ire of the Dominicans with the result that Nachmanides
... was forced to leave Spain for the land of Israel (called
"Palestine" back then), where he settled in Acre, compiling there his
great Commentary.
Although Rashi and Nachmonides were
often in disagreement with each other, they both were in agreement about the
seventh millennium as being the Messianic era.
The Jewish year 5780 (2019-2020 on the Gregorian Christian
calendar) tells us that we are 220 years away from the year 6000, which
presumably would be the beginning of the Millennium. The Jewish calendar begins
with the Creation account in the first chapter of Genesis. Therefore, according
to this reckoning, there are 5780 years since Creation.[2] That would leave us about
220 years away from the return of Yeshua and the beginning of the Millennium
and the Messianic Era. However:
God told Avram (Abraham) that his descendants would become
enslaved for 400 years (Genesis 15:13). We know that during the time that
Joseph was viceroy over Egypt that the Israelites lived in freedom. However, Exodus
1:8 tells us that "a new king arose over Egypt that did not know
Joseph." The new king (or pharaoh) enslaved the Israelites. Exodus
12:40-41 tells us that the Israelites were in Egypt for a total of 430 years,
so apparently they only had 30 years of freedom and
400 years of enslavement.
However, the average Passover Haggadah tells us that the
Israelites were in Egypt for only 210 years, per Rashi.[3] Rashi
was a great scholar. However, he earned his livelihood by making great wines. I
suspect that he was drinking too much of his fine wine when he came up with the
210 years in Egypt. I prefer to believe what the Bible says - 430 years.
According to some Rabbinic commentaries, there was a period of 220 years in
which the Israelites had descended into such low levels of sin and idolatry
that it was decided not to count those years. If we were to add those 220 years
to 5780 (the current year on the Jewish calendar), we come up with the year
6000!
Events That Must Take Place
Before the Return of Yeshua
I am not saying that Yeshua
is returning anytime soon. Other things must happen first. We read the
following from 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4:
1Now we beseech
you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, and by our
gathering together to Him ("Rapture"), 2that you not soon
shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter
as from us, as that the day of Messiah is at hand. 3Let no man
deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come
a falling away first, and that man of sin (the "anti-Messiah") be
revealed, the son of perdition, 4who opposes and exalts himself above
all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sits in the Temple
of God, displaying himself as being God.
Do you see the order?
Certain things must occur first before the return of Messiah Yeshua. The
"Rapture" (see also Mat. 24:29-31) will not occur until after the
anti-Christ enters the Temple proclaiming himself as being God. That also means
that the Temple must be rebuilt before the anti-Messiah makes his appearance.
Yes, Yeshua will return, after the above events take place. There
is a popular joke told by many Jewish emissaries to Christian audiences in
America:
The Messiah is reported by the press to be standing on the Mount
of Olives awaiting his triumphal entry onto Mount Moriah in Jerusalem. The
Israeli government, of course, is now in a dilemma. Is this the Messiah of the first
or second coming? So it is decided in Jerusalem to phone the police chief at
Ben Gurion International Airport in charge of passport control to drive
immediately to the Mount of Olives and ask the Messiah: "Excuse me, Sir,
but is this your first visit to Israel?" [4]
The First Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE.
The Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE. The Temple Institute in
Jerusalem is preparing for the rebuilt Temple. We have seen all of the priestly
garments as well as all of the Temple implements that they have produced. They
also have a rebuilt Temple menorah made out of 99 pounds of pure gold. The main
thing lacking is the rebuilt Beit HaMikdash (Temple), which will indeed be
built on the Temple Mount someday. Some time after that, the anti-Messiah will
make his appearance. Most Christians will not recognize this person as being
the anti-Messiah, because, according to the false teaching they received, they
believe that all of the Christians will be "raptured" out of here
before the anti-Messiah makes his appearance. When the Temple is rebuilt, you
can be sure that the days of Messiah will then soon be upon us. Who knows? This
could happen quite quickly, or perhaps decades into the future.
Many other things also had to happen before the return of
Yeshua, most of which has already happened, in perfect fulfillment of Bible
prophecy. There had to be a rebirth of the nation of Israel, along with the
return of Jews from around the world. Jerusalem would have to be the capital.
The Hebrew language would have to be restored as a living, spoken language.
However, thus far, the Temple has not been rebuilt. Have patience! It will
happen, according to the instructions given in Ezekiel 40-48.
It should not be surprising that the concept of a Messianic Era
lasting for a thousand years is also in the Newer Testament. After all, the NT
was also written by Jews! You can read about this Messianic Era in Revelation
20:1-7. Biblical Judaism and Biblical Christianity should be essentially the
same religion. Both faiths have an emphasis on charity, righteousness, prayer,
belief in the Bible, the coming of Messiah, and the afterlife. Regretfully,
both faiths have in many ways departed from biblical faith.
The
Messianic Era
as Described by Isaiah
Most of what we need to know about the Messianic Era is from the
Tanakh (OT). One of the most famous passages is Isaiah 2:2-4:
2And it shall come
to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD'S house shall be
established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills;
and all nations shall flow unto it. 3And many people shall go and
say, "Come, and let us go up to the mountain of יהוה , to the house of
the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his
paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the Torah ("Law"), and the word
of יהוה
from Jerusalem. 4And He shall judge among the nations, and shall
rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their
spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither
shall they learn war any more.
When Messiah returns, He
will be returning to Jerusalem. The anti-Semites who claim that the Jews are
planning on taking over the world got this one right, more or less. The Jewish
Messiah will set up his Kingdom, ruling over the entire world in righteousness
from Jerusalem! And God's holy Torah will go forth from Zion to all
nations! What would you expect? When Yeshua visited this planet 2000 years ago,
He told us that the Torah and the Prophets would not pass away in Matthew
5:17-19. After the Resurrection, He commanded his Talmidim (Disciples), saying,
"Go therefore and make disciples of all the goyim (nations),
immersing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all that I commanded you (Matthew
28:19-20)."
Jesus never converted to Christianity. He is not the son
of Joseph and Mary Christ! Yeshua was born a Jew, lived his life as a
Torah-observant Jew, died as a Torah-observant Jew, was resurrected as a
Torah-observant Jew, and is returning as a Torah-observant Jew. I doubt that
many Christians are prepared for this very Jewish Jesus returning to Planet
Earth. Yeshua's Talmidim were also ordered to teach "all that I commanded
you" (that includes Torah!) to the Gentiles.
Isaiah (66:7-16) wrote about this wondrous Messianic Era, yet in
the future:
7 Before she
(Israel) travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered
of a man child. 8 Who has heard
such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth
in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once? For as soon as Zion
travailed, she brought forth her children. 9 Shall I bring to
the birth, and not cause to bring forth? saith YHWH. Shall I cause to bring
forth, and shut the womb? saith your God.
10Rejoice with
Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all you that love her: rejoice for joy with
her, all you that mourn for her, 11that you may suck, and be satisfied
with the breasts of her consolations; that you may be delighted with her bountiful
bosom. 12For thus saith YHWH, Behold, I will extend peace to her
like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream: then shall
you suck, you shall be borne upon her sides, and be dandled upon her
knees. 13As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you; and
you shall be comforted in Jerusalem. 15And when you see this,
your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like an herb: and the
hand of YHWH shall be known toward his servants, and his indignation toward
his enemies.
15For, behold, the
LORD will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render
his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. 16For by
fire and by his sword will YHWH plead with all flesh: and the slain of YHWH
shall be many. 17They that sanctify themselves, and purify
themselves in the gardens behind one tree in the midst, eating swine's
flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together, saith
the LORD.
Verse 7 tells about the
travail of Israel, such as in the pain of childbirth. This is a reference to
the travail of the Jewish people in the Holocaust. And then Israel became a
nation in one day, 14 May 1948, as described in verses 8 and 9.
We then read about the tremendous success of Israel, and God's
anger against Israel's enemies, as well as the divine judgment against Israel's
enemies. Lastly, we see God's judgment on the Gentiles who "sanctify"
themselves and eat swine's flesh (and mice!). If you are in covenant
relationship with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, I would suggest cleaning
up your diet according to Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14.
Despite what Replacement theologians say, God has not rejected
Israel or the Jewish people. Romans 9:1-5 and 11:1-2 both confirm God's eternal
covenant with the Jewish people. Isaiah 49:14-21 also confirm God's eternal
love for Israel:
14But Zion said, YHWH has forsaken me, and my
Lord has forgotten me. 15Can a woman forget
her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb?
Yea, they may forget, yet I will not forget you. 16Behold, I have
engraved you upon the palms of my hands; your walls are
continually before me. 17Your children shall make haste; your
destroyers and they that made you waste shall depart from you. 18Lift
up your eyes round about, and behold: all these gather themselves together, and
come to you. As I live, saith YHWH, you shall surely put on all of them
as jewels, as with an ornament, and bind them on you, as a bride doeth.
19For your waste and your
desolate places, and the land of your destruction, shall even now be too narrow
by reason of the inhabitants, and they that swallowed you up shall be far away.
20The children of whom you were bereaved shall say again in your
ears, "The place is too narrow for me: make room for me that I may
dwell". 21Then you shall say in your heart, "Who has begotten
these for me, since I have been bereaved of my children, and am desolate, a
captive, and a wanderer? And who has reared these? Behold, I was left alone.
From where did these come?"
Verses 14-18 tell us of
God's enduring love for Israel and the Jewish people. Verses 19 to 21 tell us
of a resurrection of the martyred children of Israel coming back to life. I
take this very literally, much as I also believe in the actual resurrection of
Yeshua. In much the same way, most Orthodox rabbis believe in the Dry Bones
prophecy of Ezekiel 37:1-9 as being a genuine resurrection of Jews from across
the millennia. Christians generally interpret the "Dry Bones"
prophecy allegorically. They reinterpret the dry bones as Jews returning to the
land of Israel. Then life returns when the nation of Israel is reborn in 1948.
That's all well and nice. But I prefer a literal interpretation. As my old
friend Bill Lowe said decades ago, "When the plain text of Scripture makes
sense, seek no other sense."
These resurrected Jews that we read about in Isaiah 49 complain
that the land is too narrow. They ask that there may be more land for them to
dwell in. Today, the nation of Israel has grown much since the terrible
division of the land in 1947 by the United Nations. However, the Jews accepted
the crumbs, and were willing to accept the offer of a very tiny nation of
Israel. The Arab nations rejected the creation of a Jewish state of any size.
Israel declared her independence on 14 May 1948. There was a brief time of
celebration.
Then the Arabs launched a war of what was intended to be
genocidal destruction of the Jewish state the very next day, on 15 May 1948.
Not only did Israel win her war of independence; she also gained additional
territory. However, the most precious heart of the Land, the old city of Jerusalem,
was captured by the Jordanian army, including the Temple Mount and the Jewish
quarter of Jerusalem. Jews were either massacred or forced to flee with little
more than the clothes on their backs. 39 synagogues were destroyed or turned
into barns and latrines.
However, the Arab armies, far bigger and better equipped than
Israel, attacked Israel again in June 1967. This war was called the Six-Day
War, because it only lasted six days! Miraculously, Israel gained the entire
"West Bank" (Judea and Samaria) from the Jordanians, including the
city of Jerusalem. Israel also gained the Golan Heights (conquered with the
defeat of Syria), and the entire Sinai Peninsula (with the defeat of Egypt).
The Arabs demanded the return of all the territories that Israel won in what
was a war of self-defense. However, the Arab nations would not offer peace,
even if Israel returned all of these lands. The ultimate goal remained the des-truction of Israel. Since that time, Israel gave up the
entire Sinai Peninsula to Egypt in a peace treaty signed in 1979.
The land that was promised to the descendants of Abraham in
Genesis 15:18 included all of the land from the river (wadi?) of Egypt to the
Euphrates River. Today, Israel only inhabits a small portion of the total
inheritance promised to Abraham. When this Jewish resurrection takes place,
there will be need for additional land. Israel has never launched a war of aggression
against her Arab neighbors. However, I suspect that in the future, Arab armies
will again attack Israel with a war of aggression against her. But guess what?
Israel will win that war, and gain land, even as far away as the Euphrates
River, and obtain all the land that was promised to Abraham.