So, when Jesus told the disciples to pray "thy Kingdom come..." they were actually praying "may all of corporate Israel repent and receive you." Is that right?
Of course they were aware of the following prophecy which states that all of the house of Israel and all of the house of Judah would have their sins forgiven and be saved:
"Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah... And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more" (Jer.31:31,34).
If Jesus wanted all Israel to repent in order that his plan of initiating the Kingdom would be fulfilled, why did he teach in parables? Mark 4:11 says "To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God; but those who are outside get everything in parables." Jesus said some of the Jews listening to his message were OUTSIDE the Kingdom.
The kingdom had not yet been set up on the earth so no one was in that kingdom when the Lord Jesus walked the earth.
I'm curious of your interpretation of this verse:
"therefore I say to you, the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and be given to a nation producing the fruit of it."(Matt 21:43)
"Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit" (Mt.21:43).
The Lord was addressing the chief priests and Pharisees and when the kingdom will be set up on the earth then the Twelve will reign over the nation of Israel:
"And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel" (Mt.19:28).
Again, the Lord Jesus words in the Olivet Discourse were in answer to the disciples question about what will happen at "the end of the age" (Mt.24:3). And He said that at that time there will be a world wide harvest:
"He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this age. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear" (Mt. 13:37-43).
Here we can see that the Lord Jesus speaks of a harvest that will happen at the "end of the age", the "end of this age." He also makes it clear that the harvest will take place in the field, and He says that the
"field is the world" (kosmos).
Of course there has never been a world wide harvest where all the unrighteous were taken out of the world. But you say:
You think the harvest of Matthew 13 hasn't happened yet because it is a "worldwide" harvest.
I believe the Matthew 13 harvest is speaking of removing the wicked weed "pretenders" from God's Kingdom. At the same time, the true seed are preserved. This judgement was primarily focused on the unbelieving Jews to whom Jesus said the Kingdom would be taken from.
That does not explain why the Lord Jesus would speak of a harvest where the field in the
world (kosmos).
Well known preterist Gary Demar wrote this:
"The first rule of Bible interpretation is understanding a text in terms of its original setting and audience, always asking the question, "How would those who first picked up copies of the gospels and epistles have understood what they were reading?" (DeMar, Limited Geography and Bibical Interpretation).
How would those who first picked up copies of the gospels and epistles have understood what they were reading?
The Greek word translated "world" is
kosmos and it means
"the inhabitants of the earth, men, the human race...Mt. xiii. 38" (
Thayer's Greek English Lexicon).
Gary DeMar knows that the word
kosmos refers to the whole inhabited earth, as witnessed by his own words:
"Earlier in his letter to the Colossians, Paul describes how the gospel was 'constantly bearing fruit and increasing in all the world [kosmos]' (1:6). The faith of the Romans was 'being proclaimed throughout the whole world [kosmos]' (Rom. 1: 8), 'to all nations' (16:26)" [emphasis mine] (DeMar, Last Days Madness, 87-88).
According to him the word
kosmos has a "more global meaning" and refers to a "universal fulfillment not bound by geography or time":
"It's significant that Matthew uses oikoumene only in 24:14, while he uses kosmos, a word that can have a more global meaning, nine times. In fact, we read later in Matthew's gospel: 'Truly I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world [kosmos], what this woman has done shall also be spoken of in memory of her' (26:13). The Greek construction in the two verses is identical except that in 26:13 kosmos is used for 'world.' Matthew chooses oikoumene over kosmos because he wants to emphasize its local geographical fulfillment within the time frame of 'this generation' in contrast to a universal fulfillment not bound by geography or time as is the obvious case in 26:13" (DeMar, Limited Geography and Bibical Interpretation).
Gary DeMar's understanding of the meaning of the word
kosmos is the same meaning that those living in the first century would have put on that word. So they would understand that when the Lord Jesus spoke of the "field" to be harvested being the "world" (
kosmos) they would have also understood that at the "end of the age" that a harvest would come upon the whole inhabited earth.
Since that idea completely destroys the preterist position you just deny that the Lord Jesus was speaking of a world wide judgment and that the "field is the world."