term as popular
among heathens as it was foreign to the Jews, among whom Jesus was to
remain the Messiah, only that he became also the Metathron. This
explained to Jewish mystics the possibility of the second advent, and
gave a metaphysical foundation to the resurrection doctrine. The kingdom
of heaven, or the theocracy, was another unintelligible idea to the
heathen. Israel's laws and form of government were as odious and decried
among the pagans as the hostility to that people was fierce and
implacable. Paul made thereof a theological kingdom of heaven, when all
the dead shall resurrect in spiritual bodies, and the living shall be
changed accordingly, together with this earth and all that is thereon;
and declared all the laws of Israel abrogated, so that only the spirit
thereof, the precepts and not the laws, should be obligatory in the new
state of society.

The sins and wickedness of the world are forgiven to all who believe in
the Son, and whose flesh is crucified with him, to resurrect with him in
purity; for he died a vicarious atonement for all. He was the last
sacrifice, to blot out the sins of all who have faith in him.

The Crucified One did not resurrect merely in the spirit, of which the
heathens could not form a satisfactory conception, because the
immortality of the soul was by no means a general belief among them, and
their gods were no spirits; he resurrected in his very body, and was
caught up to heaven, to sit or stand there at God's right hand, to come
down again in proper time. "Here, then, is your tangible proof of
immortality," he said to the heathens. "Like the Crucified One, all of
you will resurrect from the dead, or be changed on the day of judgment."
This was plain language to heathens, who knew that but lately Caesar had
been caught up to heaven as Romulus was before him, and asked no
questions as to how a human body can rise in the atmosphere and become
incorruptible; none as to what means above or below, up or down, as to
where God is and where he is not, where his right hand, where before and
where behind him; or as to whether the world is full of his glory. No
such questions were asked, and there was the ocular demonstration of
immortality, tangible and intelligible to the grossest intellect.

The Jewish nationality and the Jewish law are at their end, and the
world is the heir to that covenant and to the blessing of God by Abraham
and his seed. With the new covenant the old one ceases