What did he preach about the Kingdom? And by what he taught, and using the rest of the Bible, what was the Jewish expectation of Messiah's Kingdom? Daniel's prophesies for example on the "time of the end"....how do these fit in with what Jesus and his apostles taught?Jesus said that the reason he had come was to preach the kingdom of God, and so he has.
For example, he had told his disciples that some there would not taste death until they saw the kingdom of God come with power. After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John to a high mountain and was transfigured before them. His raiment became shining, exceedingly white as snow, and there appeared to them Elijah and Moses who spoke with Jesus of his decease he was to accomplish in Jerusalem.
What those three men were witness to was an exhibition of the kingdom of God when it comes in power.
I agree with you that this was the promise fulfilled where he said that some among his disciples would see him in his Kingdom glory. But what was the transfiguration? Was it a real event or was it a vision?
Were Moses and Elijah really present?
Moses had died and was buried. He was therefore raised from the dead. Elijah was translated and made immortal in the twinkling of an eye when he was taken up to heaven. Jesus was transfigured to appear as he will when the kingdom of God comes in power.
Now this is where I believe the story starts to come apart. Moses was dead in his grave (as was Elijah) and John wrote that no one had ascended to heaven before Jesus. (John 3:13) That means that Elijah did not die and go to heaven at all.....in fact there is evidence that he was merely relocated. This is shown by the fact that Elisha (his successor) does not hold any period of mourning for his master. A number of years after his spectacular exit in the windstorm, Elijah is still alive and active as a prophet, this time to the king of Judah. Because of the wicked course taken by King Jehoram of Judah, Elijah writes him a letter expressing Jehovah’s condemnation, which is fulfilled shortly thereafter. (2 Chronicles 21:12-15)
The purpose of Jesus' spiritual resurrection was to return to his Father in the form that he had before he was born as a human. (He had sacrificed his human body so he did not take it back) All mankind were to 'sleep' in death until Christ was installed as King of God's Kingdom, then there would be the sign that he gave his apostles in Matthew 24:3-14 and his anointed ones would be raised first to take up their station in heaven.
And only after all earthly governments were "crushed" out of existence at Armageddon, and replaced with God's Kingdom rulership, was there to be a physical resurrection of their subjects, both pre-Christian and those who faithfully followed Christ until their death. (Daniel 2:44; John 5:28-29)
None of the pre-Christian servants of God were taken into the new covenant.....that was not inaugurated until Passover night of 33CE. Only those taken into that covenant would join Christ in heaven as "kings and priests" (Revelation 20:6) These alone are parties to the covenant...the rest of us are beneficiaries......we have much to look forward to during the time of their rulership.
As John 3:13 says...
"Moreover, no man has ascended into heaven but the one who descended from heaven, the Son of man."
So, no one experienced a spiritual resurrection before Christ offered his life. The transfiguration occurred before his death.
If Moses was truly resurrected in physical form, as the apostles witnessed, where is he now? Those who were promised a physical resurrection will live on earth. So either way, your proposition does not fit scripture.
In Hebrews 11:13, Paul speaks of the pre-Christian men and women of faith and says...
13 In faith all of these died, although they did not receive the fulfillment of the promises; but they saw them from a distance and welcomed them and publicly declared that they were strangers and temporary residents in the land."
They knew that a better world was coming and saw themselves as aliens and temporary residents of this world. God's anointed one would guarantee that the promises about the Kingdom would be realized.....but none of them entertained a hope of going to heaven. That is something only Christ's disciples were offered....and all of the first Christians were Jews, fulfilling God's covenant with Abraham. Every part of scripture was written by Jews....but people of all nations would benefit from the Kingdom's rulership, as God had promised Abraham.
After giving the natural Jews every opportunity to become disciples of his son, God turned his attention to the Gentile nations to gather from them "a people for his name". (Acts 15:14) The congregations made up of both Jewish and Gentile Christians Paul called "the Israel of God". (Galatians 6:16) This is spiritual Israel.
Paul taught the same things as Jesus showed. Paul says that the faithful in Christ will be raised from the dead first, as Moses was.
Moses was not raised from the dead...the transfiguration was a vision, shared by the three apostles. (Matthew 17:9) Jesus was the only real person in it. He was the anointed King of God's Kingdom and Moses represented the Law whilst Elijah represented the Prophets. It was very symbolic. Jesus existed from the glorious scene but no one else did.
That includes ALL the faithful who have ever lived. And then the living faithful will be taken up and changed to be immortal in the twinkling of an eye, as Elijah was. They will all meet in the air.
Well, as I understand it, Christ gave a sign of his "presence" (parousia) in Matthew 24:3-14 because it was not a visible event......and he also spoke about his "coming", which was to be a visible event, so we believe these are two separate events. No one saw the coronation of Christ in heaven except the prophet Daniel which he recorded about two thousand years before it even happened. (Daniel 7:13-14) His coming in Kingdom power was to take place "in the midst of his enemies" (Psalm 110:1-2) and the various features of the sign needed time to play out.
We are deep into the "last days" of the present system, having experienced all the features of the sign....we await the finale`. As part of the sign, Jesus said he would be "with" his disciples in the greatest preaching campaign in the history of mankind. The entire inhabited earth would receive a witness. (Matthew 24:14; Matthew 28:19-20) This requires a large, dedicated army of preachers.
That represents the immortal kingdom of God which will come down from heaven.
Revelation 21:2-4 is a description of the Kingdom's coming to serve redeemed humanity.
" I also saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God and prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 With that I heard a loud voice from the throne say: “Look! The tent of God is with mankind, and he will reside with them, and they will be his people. And God himself will be with them. 4 And he will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore. The former things have passed away.”
God's rulership in the capable hands of his son and fellow heirs will bring the benefits of the Kingdom to all those who have suffered on this earth....but only if they search for God and obey his directives before it is too late.
"Just like the days of Noah" Jesus said...and here we are. (Matthew 24:37-39) What is the comparison?
Sometime after all the faithful in Christ have been made immortal by being raised from the dead or translated from among the living, there will be a development of believers in Jerusalem who will suffer persecution under the red dragon king. They will suffer because they refuse to worship the beast and his image.
This is again a bit muddled.
In his Revelation John saw two distinct groups benefiting from Christ's sacrifice.
Revelation 7:4...
"And I heard the number of those who were sealed, 144,000, sealed out of every tribe of the sons of Israel."
This is spiritual Israel, "the Israel of God" not natural Israel who lost their place because of rejecting their Messiah. (Matthew 23:37-39)
After seeing the 144,000 standing on heavenly Mt Zion with the Lamb, Revelation 7:9-10; 13-14 says...
"After this I saw, and look! a great crowd, which no man was able to number, out of all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, dressed in white robes; and there were palm branches in their hands. 10 And they keep shouting with a loud voice, saying: “Salvation we owe to our God, who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb.”. . . .In response one of the elders said to me: “These who are dressed in the white robes, who are they and where did they come from?” 14 So right away I said to him: “My lord, you are the one who knows.” And he said to me: “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."
So two groups receive salvation from God and the Lamb. The first group is numbered and who are in heaven....the second group are not. They are survivors of the great tribulation....which occurs at the very end of these last days on earth. (Matthew 24:21)
Those mortal men, the 144,000, will be the beginning of the kingdom of God to be established on earth after Jesus and his immortal saints have executed God's judgments upon His people and the nations.
The 144,000 are granted immortality but they are no longer humans...they have been transformed into spirit beings in order to rule with Christ in his Kingdom. Jesus will never be human again unless it is in materialized form as he was after his resurrection.
The immortal saints will be as the angels of God who operate behind the scenes. The mortal men(Jews) will be the visible kingdom by whom the restitution of all things will occur.
The immortal saints will be co-rulers with Jesus yes....the subjects of the kingdom will be the faithful followers of Jesus from all races nations and languages.....There is no need for any nationality anymore because all of earth's inhabitants will be one race as they were meant to be in the beginning....the human race...all of them serving one God and being of one religion.
In the big picture as I see it....Jesus came to buy back what Adam lost for his children. He paid for us with his own life, guaranteeing that everlasting life on earth, which was God's purpose in the beginning, will be accomplished at the end.