In the first century, the death of a carpenter from a backwater in the Middle East was the singular cause of God’s desertion of Judaism as his religion.
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;
Matthew 27:50-51
The Close of An Age
The finalization of the desertion of God as it pertains to Judiasm was finalized when Titus beseged and plundered Jerusalem, installing an idol on the temple mount. This was the fulfilled word of Jesus himself:
And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.
Luke 21:20
Thus began the age called “the time of the Gentiles” or the “age of the gentiles”.
And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
Luke 21:24
But note in Jesus’ close of the Jewish age of God’s work among men, and the opening of the Gentile age of God’s work among men, he promises the same in reverse.
He promises the Gentiles too would experience an end of an age wherein God dwelt among them and was their God.
He calls this the fulfilling of the “times of the gentiles.”
The Close of the Age of the Gentiles
Just as the Apostles asked Jesus what the sign of the destruction of the temple was:
As for these things which ye behold, the days will come, in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.
And they asked him, saying, Master, but when shall these things be? and what sign will there be when these things shall come to pass?
Luke 21:6-7
So Paul, a witness to the fall of Judaism gave signs for the destruction of Gentile Christendom:
Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them [judiasm] which fell, severity; but toward thee [gentiles], goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.
Romans 11:22
The close of the Gentile age would be preceeded by the disobedience of Paul’s warning in Romans 11.
Boast not:
Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.
Romans 11:18
Do not be arrogant:
Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear:
Romans 11:20
Continue in God’s goodness (obedience to the Word):
if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.
Romans 11:22
Do not be ignorant [to why Gentiles are accepted by God] nor conceited:
For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
Romans 11:25
Instead of humility, the Gentiles boast. Instead of fear, the Gentiles presume upon God. Instead of obedience, the smug Gentiles Christendom looks at church attendance as its circumcision. Instead of obedience, the Gentiles have empty religious duties. Instead of understanding, the Gentiles are blind, and filled with false confidence in their acceptance before God.
The exact state of Judiasm in the first century when God rent the curtain and departed from the temple is the state of Gentile Christendom today.
The Time of Mourning is Over
There was a season in which it was right to pitty the blindness of Churchianity, it’s empty rites and rituals which made its devotees no more holy, only more outwardly religious. Now is no longer that time.
The Jews of Jesus day could look proudly to the patriarchs, the prophets, the kings, and even recently the triumph of the Macabees as theirs. Theirs to be proud of, theirs to defiantly say, there is no God like ours and no religion like ours.
Today Gentiles can look back to the Patristics, the martyrs, the Reformers, the great preachers and the great statesmen, the great hymnwriters and missionaries. The men who made a difference for God in the world. Indeed, we can look back not too far from today and see many heroes only one generation removed.
But those who knew the Lord have almost all passed. We dwell in a generation like the Jews of Jesus day that is merely religious. Merely outwardly devoted to what God has spoken.
The time for mourning has passed for such a blatant rejection of God, and his Word. It is time for the close of the Gentile age.
It is time for God to remember his people. His people the Jews.
It is time for the “adulterous generation” to cease from trampling upon the holy place and it is time for the Jews to cry, “blessed is he who comes in the name of YHWH.”
I as a goyim, a gentile, am ready for an experience of Paul who saw his “kinsman according to the flesh” go their way. It’s not because I hate them, it’s because I love God more, and want to end the situation wherein:
The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy.
Matthew 22:8
The irony, like Judiasm of the First Century, is that God has told them beforehand through their bibles, but they cannot hear him.
S.D.G.