End Time Insights

The Gift of the Spirit is part of the New Covenant. It is the first fruits of the New Creation and the gathering of the nations . The history of Israel includes national sins that caused her expulsion from the Land of Canaan. God foresaw her failures and determined to institute a new covenant energized and characterized by His Spirit . It would include the salvation of the nations and culminate in the “ New Heavens and the New Earth .” With the outpouring of the Spirit on Pentecost, the Age of the Spirit commenced in earnest.

The history of Israel includes national sins that resulted in her expulsion from the Promised Land. However, God foresaw her failures and determined eons ago to institute a  New Covenant  that would be energized and characterized by His Spirit, and a people,  singular , that would include the Gentile nations. This covenant would culminate in the resurrection of the righteous dead and the arrival of the “ New Heavens and the New Earth .”

God has spoken His decisive and superior “ word ” in His son, and He did so “ upon the last of these days .” This refers to the end of the period epitomized by the Levitical code with its priesthood and repeated animal sacrifices, a system of worship centered in the Tabernacle and the later Jerusalem Temple. With the appointment of Jesus as the High Priest “ after the order of Melchizedek ,” a new and final era of salvation commenced.

With the outpouring of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, the blessings for all nations promised to Abraham commenced . The Apostle Paul calls the Gift of the Spirit the “ Promise of the Father ” which he links to the Abrahamic covenant. The promises to Abraham and “ his Seed ” find their fulfillment in the New Covenant inaugurated by the Death and Resurrection of Jesus. No longer are Gentile believers “ alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise .” By his shed blood, Christ has dismantled the “ middle wall of partition ” that once separated Jews and Gentiles.