New Creation (2Cor 5:17, Gal 6:15)
New Covenant (Matt 26:28, Mark 14:24, Luke 22:20, 1Cor 11:25, Heb 8:8, 12:24)
New Constitution (Eph 2:15, 4:24, Col 3:10)
New Character (Rev 2:17)
New Course (Heb 10:20)
New Communication (Mark 16:17)
New Commandment (John 13:34, 1John 2:8)
New Chorus (Rev 5:9, 14:3)
New City (Rev 3:12, 21:2)
New Cosmos (2Pet 3:13, Rev 21:1)

1Pet 2:12 Day of Visitation
2Pet 1:19 Day of Virtue
2Pet 2:8 Day of Vexation
2Pet 2:9,3:7 Day of Verdict
2Pet 2:13 Day of Villainy
2Pet 3:10 Day of Vengeance
2Pet 3:12 Day of Victory

This marks the 1000th post of this blog.  The author didn't think this blog can go this far.  He is grateful to the Lord for spiritual insights to the Word of God.  Many brethren, preachers and writers have directly or indirectly contributed to the posts, for which the author is thankful. A hearty "thank you" to all readers for your visits, responses and encouraging comments.

The eternal state from the perspective of the apostles
Paul - Eternal Rule (1Cor 15:24)
Peter - Eternal Righteousness (2Pet 3:13)
John - Eternal Residence (Rev 21:3)

"And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.  And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.  And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.  But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.  And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea." Rev 20:1-8

Millennium, a period of thousand years.  It is a time of
Restraint - "laid hold on ... bound him ... cast him ...  shut him up"
Rightness - "deceive the nations no more"
Reward - "they lived and reigned with Christ "
Resurrection - "This is the first resurrection"
Reign - "shall reign with Him"
Rebellion - "shall go out to deceive the nations"

Garden of Eden (Gen 2:9) - Appearance of Sin
Garden of Gethsemane (John 18:1) - Atrocity of Sin
Garden Tomb (John 19:41) - Annulling of Sin
Watered Garden (Isa 58:11) - Antidote of Sin
Garden of Eternity (Rev 22:2) - Absence of Sin

A widely held view has been that God did it because He was concerned for the health and hygiene of His people. In those far-off primitive days, so the argument goes, when people had no scientific understanding of germs and viruses, and no refrigeration to stop meat going bad, God forbade the eating of certain animals, birds, and fish, to protect His people from the poison that those creatures could easily carry.

Why did God originally forbid Israel certain foods?  The answer is: to teach them certain lessons by introducing the categories of ceremonial cleanness and uncleanness.

Leave aside for the moment these food laws. Israel as a nation was separated out from the other nations to enjoy a special relationship with God and to carry a special role among the nations. As Balaam put it, “I see people who live apart and do not consider themselves one of the nations” (Num. 23:9). As God explained to them at Sinai: “...out of all nations you will be My treasured possession. Although the whole earth is Mine, you will be for Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Ex. 19:5-6). In accordance with this special role, therefore, they were commanded naturally enough to keep themselves pure from the moral and spiritual uncleanness that so polluted the Gentile nations. Listing and prohibiting the sexual immoralities, the religious idolatries, the commercial dishonesties, the infanticide, demonism, and incest prevalent among the Canaanite nations, God explained:

Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled. Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants...And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you (Lev. 18:24-28).

These, then, were moral and spiritual prohibitions. But to reinforce them, God added laws providing for ceremonial cleanness:

You must therefore make a distinction between clean and unclean animals and between unclean and clean birds. Do not defile yourselves by any animal or bird or anything that moves along the ground—those which I have set apart as unclean for you. You are to be holy to Me [or, to be My holy ones] because I, the Lord, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be My own (Lev. 20:25-26).

These ceremonial and ritual laws would have both a positive and a negative effect. Positively, they reinforced in Israel’s thinking that as a nation they were separated to the Lord; specially set apart for Him. However morally and spiritually clean the members of another nation might have been, they did not have the role that Israel as a nation had. Israel’s role, as a kingdom of priests, was special, indeed unique. The ceremonial separation from certain kinds of food which other nations ate reinforced and underlined the fact that they were in a special sense separated to the Lord, especially “holy” in a ritualistic way.

Negatively, these food laws had an immediate practical effect: they made social mixing with Gentile nations difficult, since Israelites could not eat Gentile food. This would not only reinforce the fact that Israel was a special nation, but also act as a constant reminder that Israel was to avoid the moral and spiritual uncleanness of the Gentiles.

Now of course not all Gentiles were as corrupt and filthy as the Canaanites. But here too was a problem: many Gentiles were guilty of corrupt habits. How could Israel therefore be protected from their influence? The way God used was to build a wall between Israel and all Gentiles. Just as a parent will do with a child: not all men are child-molesters, but enough of them are to make it a wise and sensible thing for parents to do, to forbid their young children to take candy or money or car-rides from any man they don’t know.

And the analogy holds good for a further point. Parents may forbid their early-teenage daughter from going to certain sleazy parts of a city. They do so, not because they think their daughter is essentially better than other girls, but rather because they know that their daughter is essentially no better than others. She has the same human nature as others. She too could be corrupted as others have been. A good apple put among bad ones does not improve the bad ones: they corrupt it.

Israel under the law, says Paul, was like a child (Gal. 4:1-3); and God treated them appropriately. He put a wall of ceremonial food laws around them to remind them that they were a people separated to God, and to protect them as far as possible from Gentile pollution. The need for, and the importance of, that wall can be seen from their history: when they disregarded the wall, they generally became as corrupt as the other nations.

Taken from the book True to the Faith, by David Gooding

Ps 2:1-3 Raging of the Nations
Ps 2:4-6 Reaction of God
Ps 2:7-9 Response from the Son
Ps 2:10-12 Recommendation of the Holy Spirit

Ps 1 - Humanity of Christ - His moral glory
Ps 2 - Deity of Christ - His millennial glory

Read The Voices in Psalm 2.