AD 70 & Sacrifices

Some ask about animal sacrifice, Jesus sacrifice and the Jews salvation & beliefs.  

Day in and day out since the Temple was built in Israel, they had a substitutionary sacrifice that slaughtered countless lambs. Their sins were transfered to the Lamb, the Lamb was slain on the alter of God; the Lamb was submissive to the owners will, it died, its blood was shed. 

The sacrifices of endless animals by the Jews in the Temple was only until The promised Messiah.

Why did animal sacrifices end? 

Jesus was God's Passover lamb, sacrificed for Mankind. God ended sacrifices, because the perfect sacrifice had been offered. All the previous sacrifices were just shadows and symbols for Israel to see the seriousness of their sin, and that the symbology of the sacrifice was it was taking their place, until the Messiah arrived. Isaiah 53. 

And as Jesus prophecied: in AD 70, the Romans destroyed the Jewish temple.  

Many of the religious leaders and the people became Christians and left the Temple for home Churches. 

Yet, the Jewush leaders and people who remained, Continued to sacrifice animals till God destroyed it completely. 

Israel had been a Roman colony for years. Israel was very difficult for the Roman Caesars to govern. Israel thought that since they were God’s “Chosen” People they could do as they pleased. God had other plans.  He used Caesar, who had enough of the Jews & sent General Titus to Jerusalem with three legions, approx. 18,000 troops. Titus recruited Rome’s colonial armies from the surrounding nations. Syria, Iran, Iraq etc. They invaded and were brutal. Many Jews swallowed their wealth, gold, silver, gems & jewelry. The invaders cut open the Jews while still alive, killing them and plundering the hidden wealth 

Many Jews fled/escaped. This “great escape” is known as the Diaspora, dispersing Jews any place they could get to. 

The rest not dead, were carried to africa, muslim nations, Rome (?)  

During/After Nazi war, in 1948 did  many Jewish people return to Israel. Most still live globally.

What do Jews believe today?

They believe that since God separated them specially from the world, created them a nation called Israel. 

The Bible is clear that the Jews are God's chosen people ( Genesis 12:2 ). They were chosen as a nation to receive instruction on Who God is and how to worship Him. Their mission was to embody this knowledge by obeying the laws God gave them and reveal God to other nations. 

They believe all Jews go to Heaven automatically. They do not believe in forgiveness of sin thru shed blood sacrifice...  tho that view is in opposition to the Old Testament, and against what God has said, promised and did in History (& recorded in Scripture) man's redemption. The OT tells of the Savior God would send to save mankind from their sins, the NT shows how God did it, and by whom. 

Lil bit longer answer to this one you can read: 

John wrote that “he who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life,” and that “no one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also” (1 John 5:12; 2:23).

Peter plainly stated to the Jewish Sanhedrin, the Jewish governing body, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Paul too made himself clear when his people rejected the message of the Messiah: “We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles” (Acts 13:46; this is basically how Acts ends; see Acts 28:16-31). That’s why Paul had “great sorrow and unceasing anguish” in his heart: so many of his people were not saved (see Romans 9:2), including those whom he said were “zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge” (Romans 10:2). In fact, it was for those very people that he prayed (see Romans 10:1), “Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness” (Romans 10:3).Paul, despite the religious zeal of the Jewish people, they failed to understand the gift of God’s righteousness and therefore “his heart’s desire and prayer to God for [them was] that they may be saved” (Romans 10:1)

Let me repeat: Even Jewish people who are zealous for God (Romans 10:2) and are pursuing a law of righteousness (9:31; 10:3) are in need of salvation through Yeshua. 

As for the notion that Jewish people can be saved by observing the Mosaic covenant, Paul wrote:

Now we know that whatever the Law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin (Romans 3:19-20). 

We are also told the Law was simply a Schoolmasrer to lead us to Christ.

All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.” Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, “The righteous will live by faith.” (Galatians 3:10-11). If one tries to be self righteous they will fail. No one is good, nor perfect (like God). No one keeps the Law. Scripture even says if we break the Law at one point, we are guilty of breaking the whole law. God sees our sins in thoughts, words and deeds, not just what we do. 

It is also important to remember that, in Jesus, God made a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah (see Jeremiah 31:31-34; Luke 22:19-20; Hebrews 8:7-12), and, “By calling this covenant ‘new,’ he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear” (Hebrews 8:13). So, Israel’s way to God is through the new covenant rather than the Mosaic covenant; God told them they must go through Jesus. A point made emphatically clear with the destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70, a destruction, that has lasted to this day. 

The new covenant really wasn't new, it was just a fulfillment of the old covenant- the Messiah would come and take away the sins if the world. But because the new had come, because salvation has come for all the world, it is new in that the Jews had looked forward towards the coming Messiah, and now the Messiah had come, and had accomplished the mission. And we must come to God thru Him. It is why God tore the veil in the Temple in two. No longer was man separated by God, but now is freely able to come to Him.  It is Jesus who ended the Sacrificial system, as He was God's chose Lamb. In fact Scripture tells us He was the Lamb chosen even before the foundation of the World. God knew all, planned all, and accomplished all. And will do so until the last day of humanity on Earth.

Jesus made it clear that not only was He God, but that He was the fulfillment of the Torah and Prophets (see Matthew 5:17-19), while the disciples recognized Him to be the one of whom Moses and the prophets spoke (see John 1:45; Acts 3:24-26). And they realized He was God.  After His resurrection, the Lord said to His disciples, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms” (Luke 24:44), commissioning them to preach “repentance and forgiveness of sins . . . in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem” (Luke 24:47).

All this means that Jesus is either the Messiah of the Jewish people or the Messiah of no people; He is either the Savior of everyone, Jew and Gentile alike, or the Savior of no one.

Are Jewish people going to be saved, even some?

Yes, during Jesus and the Apostles time, and the Apostles students (like an apprentic learning under a master) lifetimes many Jews came to Christ. During the Apostles missions travels/mission work spreading the gospel, Jews in surrounding areas got saved. Since then many Jews have ecome saved. Since the Reformers got the Bible into the hands of people who spread it globally, they had the ability to study it themselves wherever they lived. God even saved many During and just after the Nazi Holocaust era, and ever since. Today they are in Christian churches globally. And since 1960 some have joined a denomination called Messianic Jews. 

Scripture said that the gospel would be preached to the Jews first, then the Gentiles. That is because 1. The Messiah would come to earth thru the Jewish genealogy, and 2. because God formed Israel to be the ones holding the oracles of God, [and to show the nations around them that YHWH was the only true and living God].  And indeed the entire OT & NT was written by Jewish people (though God wrote the Bible: thru the Holy Spirit as he moved men to write it). 

Israel’s salvation matters dearly to the Lord, and to the extent that Christians share His heart for Israel and pray and intercede and share the gospel with them, reasoning with them thru Scripture and historical evidences. But ultimately God's love for them, as for all mankind, is revealed in the NT that when the Church age ends, the Rapture happens. Then, God will have 144,000 Jews go and be witnesses for Christ & many will be saved. Then after the tribulation, Christ returns and reigns 1,000 years during which the remaining people who will be saved, are saved. And mankind's history comes to an end. And Eternity begins.

And in this we have hope for the Jewish people. Many are being saved today, and many will in the future. 

Scripture tells us that Heaven is filled with people from every nation, tribe and language on earth. 

What about those who reject Jesus? 

I certianly hope they study the evidence and the OT.  “Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher.” C.S Lewis, Mere Christianity

Some points were made above on this (in the Lil longer answer). Verses included.

Anyone who denies that Christ has already come, and is fully God & have chosen to believe the (satanic) lie the Pharisees started 2000 years ago. If they do not repent and trust in Jesus before they die, they're condemned to eternal hell (as much as anyone else who denies and rejects Jesus Christ). Let's hope many are saved. 

How can I learn more about the Messiah in the Old Testament?  Here's helpful resources, in order. 

Messiah in OT

An Introduction to Christ in the Old Testament

https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/90-430/an-introduction-to-christ-in-the-old-testament

Abraham: The Old Testament Pattern of Saving Faith, Part 4  Romans 4:18–25

https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/80-349/~/about

Abraham--Justified by Faith, Part 1. Romans 4:1–3

https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/45-34/abrahamjustified-by-faith-part-1

More resources 

Why would God create us if some would end up in Hell? 

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 Dr. Herbert Opalek