Your post confuses earthly Jerusalem with Heavenly Zion. It assumes Christ must reign or minister in physical Jerusalem. Hebrews teaches that Christ's priesthood and kingship are exercised in the heavenly temple (Heb 8:1-5; 9:11-24).
Hebrews 9 is talking about Jesus on the cross. He was on Earth at this time. What He did on Earth is being expressed in terms of the Jewish sacrifical system. If you read Hebrews, it tells you that that is the way to understand it. It isn't prophecy. Consider the part in Hebrews that speaks of the blood being placed on the mercy seat in heaven. If you are going to take that literally, then you can join those who believe that angels/people were sitting at the foot of Jesus cross, catching his blood in vials/bowls (whatever they believe) so it can be taken to heaven to be literally sprinkled on a mercy seat. And yes, there are people who believe that. They also believe in the Holy Grail. The believe that it is Jesus blood LITERALLY that saves us.
- Jerusalem below = shadow
- Jerusalem above = reality (Heb 12:22).
Jewish sacrificial system shadow, Jesus death and atonement reality. The Jewish sacrificial system saved no one.
The question "How can He do this when Salem was in Jerusalem?" is mis-framed.
And here it is misstated. Jesus is of the seed of David, and of the line of Melchizedek, and will sit as King for both. He will be a High Priest King as Melchizeked was, and, as the seed of David, will be King of Israel. The whole face of Israel will become the Theocracy that was originally intended, with God's Son, of the seed of David, of the line of Melchizedek, on the throne.
You mix the Aaronic system with the Melchizedekian system. It imports Mosaic restriction into a discussion of a priesthood that explicitly predates and supersedes Moses (Heb 7:11-17). That is a category error.
There is a Mosaic restriction on kings being priests, which is how we know that this has to be Jesus. As part of the line of Melchizedek, He faces no restriction.
You tread the presence of sin as if it negates Christs kingship. Ps 110 and 1 Cor 15 explicitly teach the opposite. Christ reigns until all enemies are subdued. The existence of sin is not a contradiction to his reign. It is the context in which his current reign advances redemption until the consummation.
No, it just reflects Christ's kingship. A kingdom is the reflection of the ruler. Hence Earth is a hellish reflection of the Satanic realm. Full of sin. Full of death. It reflects it's ruler. Jesus is sitting at the right hand of the Father right? That is not the position of a King. It is a position of power, but the position of King is held by the Father in this setup. So sin is a contradiction to this being Christ's Kingdom, and not Satan's kingdom, and a reflection of the world system that God tells us not to be a part of, and to hate.
You assume the kingdom must be visible and political. Jesus rejects that model John 18:36. It is not located in territory or borders but in the redemptive rule of the risen King.
When did I say it had to be political. I mean, as a theocracy, sure, political. Visible? Absolutely. The disciples asked a question of Christ in matthew 24. What will be the sign of your coming? Understand, they didn't know Jesus was leaving. Not a clue. They were also thinking eschatology. Hence the final question, the signs of the complete end/consummation. (In the Greek, the term used basically means the end of everything. So past Jesus setting up His Kingdom, to the consummation of all. The closing out of this creation, and all of it passing away. That word for coming, the term in the Greek, is used to speak of king's making a royal visit. So what they were asking was, when will you be fully revealed as Messiah, and come in as King? What will the signs be?
God promised Abraham, PROMISED and sealed in a covenant he made with Abraham that his people would inherit all the land of Canaan. Did God forget? Is He simply not omniscient so He only thought it could happen, but now knows it cannot, so He will not do it? Consider that Israel has already been brought back from the dead. No one expected it. People were shocked. Those who were against it were writing that it would never happen, right up to the very day it did. A regathering... to judgment. There will be one more ingathering, but that will be before the millennial kingdom, and that will be for redemption/reconciliation between God and His people. (Israel, the covenant, etc. are part of the group of first things that doesn't pass away until Revelation 21. The first things being that which makes up the creation we live in. Right down to dying, crying, weeping, etc. All passed away.
You have misread Zechariah. Zech 6:12-13 predicts a priest-king. It points beyond the Aaronic system to the Messiah who unites the two roles. Your objection reversed the typology.
It is a Messianic prophecy speaking to who Jesus is/will be. However, it isn't part of the Aaron system because the throne is both the seat of David and Melchizedek. Melchizedek had nothing to do with the Aaronic system. Since Jesus is on the line of Melchizedek, that is where His right comes from. That is why it was cool, and a big deal to find out that Salem was Jerusalem. A nice basic, wrapped in a bow.
That statement confuses interpretive method with God's immutability.
His immutability refers to his being and character, not our interpretive approach to genre.
- Interpreting symbolic prophecy symbolically does not imply God changes.
- Interpreting historical narrative literally and apocalyptic imagery symbolically does not imply God changes.
- Hermeneutics does not alter God’s nature; it only recognizes how God chose to communicate.
A category error. It confuses how humans read various literary genres with the unchanging nature of God.
However, the above does not speak to the reading of various literary genres based on one's beliefs. Sure a literal interpretation can be connected to belief, however, it is literal, so the meaning is present and not "spiritualized" or "forced". The reason why the disciples were so clueless when Jesus was on Earth is because the rabbis and religious leaders held the messianic prophecies as "spiritualized". So the basically spiritualized away the suffering servant. They spiritualized all of those things onto the Messiah conqueror and ruler to come. It took Jesus 40 days to fix the disciples understanding. That not some simple misunderstanding. That is some serious issues in their understanding. After He resurrected, he spent those 40 days showing the disciples how all the prophecies pointed to Him. They way we look at them and literally understand them.
It assumes "spiritualizing" prophecy is arbitrary instead of genre specific. Reformed theology does not spiritualize prophecy at whim or universally. It distinguished historical narrative, poetry. apocalyptic symbolism, typology, prophetic telescoping etc. So, Reformed hermeneutics is not arbitrary spiritualization but a genre-sensitive reading of Scripture.
Spiritualizing is arbitrary. There is no way it cannot be. Unless there is a specific reason given to believe that, say, apocalyptic writing has not encased a LITERAL prophecy in imagery/figures/speech, see what is going on? It isn't a spiritualized prophecy. It's hidden in the writing. So, if one were to prophecy that a clown is going to give a speech at some important event, then when you see the guy everyone thinks is a clown giving a speech at some important event, there is the prophecy. Was it spiritualized? No. The person involved was changed to a clown then? No. It was used to hide the identity of the person. It doesn't change what they were going to do, does it?
The claim "if some prophecy is symbolic, all must be" is a false dichotomy. Your arguemt fails because: Literalism is not a measure of God's faithfulness.
- When God promised David an eternal throne, the fulfillment was not another human king but the risen Christ (Acts 2:30–36).
- When God promised a temple, the fulfillment was Christ’s body and the church (John 2:19–21; Eph 2:21).
These fulfillments are
more literal, not less—they are exact fulfillments of the typology God built into Israel’s history.
The fulfillment WAS another human king. Jesus came in the flesh. THAT is what makes it literal. See, you are spiritualizing it away already.
To insist on the Old Testament form rather than the New Testament substance is to invert the pattern of redemptive revelation.
No, I insist on a direct understanding an interpretation of prophecy. You do know that most of the millennial prophecies are in the Old Testament, right? However, they are rendered moot and dead by changing the prophecies in the New to be anything less than a continuation of the Old. The New Testament should be revealing what the fulfillment of the Old Testament will look like, not undoing it.
Your statemen misunderstand the nature of typology. Prophetic typology means:
- earlier forms (land, temple, throne, sacrifices)
- point forward to fuller realities in Christ.
This is not “spiritualizing” but Scripture interpreting Scripture.
That is a proper, literal interpretation of the prophecies in the Old Testament. Consider this. Peter considered the Pentecost to be a fulfillment of Joel and other passages in the Old Testament. However, when you read the prophecies in the Old testament and properly interpret them, it doesn't fit. Which basically means Peter alluded to a prophecy, but missed the point of the prophecy. Yes the Holy Spirit fell, but it wasn't in the midst of judgment. God wasn't judging the church. The same with John alluding to the prophecy in Zechariah about Israel looking upon Him whom they have pierced. This was simply pointing out that, hey guys, you know that prophecy that speaks of the One who was pierced... this is Him. Jesus is the Messiah to come. When you read the rest of the prophecy there, it is obvious that this was not the fulfillment of it. Why not? The passage as a whole speaks of the total redemption and salvation of Israel. Did that happen that day? No. Then that simply means that we are waiting for another time when this is what happens. (End of Revelation 19.)
Just because Revelation uses symbols, codes (perhaps), and figurative speech, does not mean that the events and prophecies presented are not as presented. Just figure out what the symbols stand for. Don't change the prophecy. For instance, one I like to bring up, the two witness in Jerusalem. That prophecy can be fulfilled (if all the pieces were in place) literally... today. (I mean no temple, no beast... that's what I mean by pieces in place). The one argument heard about it not happening is because it says that everyone in the whole world will see them and rejoice. Well, you have that power in the palm of your had if you are holding your phone. Tik Tok, Facebook, Youtube, What's App, etc. Totally possible. That people will be flying to and fro, gathering knowledge. Totally possible today. Those who literally interpret the prophecies only had to wait.
I forgot the most important question of all. The disciples asked Jesus "Will you now restore the Kingdom to Israel". Jesus didn't say no. He didn't say that it isn't going to happen. He didn't even say wrong question. He just said it isn't for them to know when. So Jesus answered their question DIRECTLY. They asked if it will be NOW, He answered and said it wasn't for them to know when. to know when about what? Jesus returning the Kingdom to Israel. Something Jesus says the Father Himself has established by His power. So when will Jesus be able to go to the disiples and answer "Yes"?
. Modern futurism denies this verse. Modern futurism redefines what Jesus said in 
