__________

“You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” 

-Jesus Christ-

Imagine the excitement it generated when Jesus caused the startling announcement to herald throughout the land: “The kingdom of the heavens has drawn near!”

It had been nearly 2,000 years since Jehovah had originally made the covenant with Abraham for the purpose of eventually producing a messianic seed for the blessing of all the nations. In spite of the apostles’ many unfounded expectations regarding the kingdom, on the occasion of Jesus’ baptism and anointing the kingdom of God really had drawn near.

Since no king of David’s lineage had sat upon Jehovah’s throne in Jerusalem since the Babylonian conquest five centuries earlier, it was especially poignant when Jesus entered Jerusalem seated upon an ass’ colt—hailed as the King of Israel. This was in fulfillment of Zechariah 9:9, which foretold: “Be very joyful, O daughter of Zion. Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem. Look! Your king himself comes to you. He is righteous, yes, saved; humble, and riding upon an ass, even upon a full-grown animal the son of a she-ass.”

While earthly Jerusalem was no longer the throne of the kingdom of Israel and Judah at that time, it was still the exclusive religious center for the worship of Jehovah God when Jesus Christ was on the earth. But even that would eventually change.

Jesus himself told a Samaritan woman of the coming change, saying to her: “The hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you people worship the Father.” The advent of the kingdom of God, which originally manifested itself in the form of Christ’s apostolic congregation, marked the beginning of the end for the temple-centered Jewish form of worship.

The writings of the apostle Paul, particularly his l