Pilgrims, a living temple being built up in Christ, those who shall neither worship in Samaria nor Jerusalem but in spirit and truth. This is the church, in many ways existing in a reconstituted ethical sphere as people of the tabernacle. What I mean by this is that the church is a people on a pilgrimage, a people united by covenant with God and one another and following as God leads them through and out of the wilderness (this present evil age). I find it very interesting that the ethical environment in which the church identifies herself is more akin to the mosaic and pre-temple era’s in Israel rather than period of the kings. It is quite a radical departure from a theocratic monarchy to a theocracy in truth.
I have begun to find this topic very interesting and hope to further explore the ethical nature of the church and her existence in this present evil age and how it seems that our particular view of eschatology, be it ammillenialism, postmillenialism, etc, is actually the offspring which is birthed by our Pauline, or general eschatology.