The "latter house" was Zerubbabel's temple - the second temple which was destroyed in AD 70. The glory of the "former house", the temple built under Solomon, would not surpass the glory of Zerubbabel's "latter house". That was because the incarnate Son of Man would appear in Zerubbabel's second temple, filling it with more glory than Solomon's "former house", the first temple, had ever had.
That would be at the end time. The reason why Zerubbabel's/Herod's Temple was left unto them desolate was because He was not in it.
We can't say that the Spirit never indwelt anyone in the OT. Remember Numbers 27:18, in which God describes Joshus as "a man in whom is the Spirit". The Spirit remaining in us forever under the New Covenant represents a continual pledge of our future bodily resurrection. We are given that Holy Spirit as a seal of the future redemption of our bodies which will be made incorruptible and immortal.
Joshua did not have the Spirit residing in him but as with prophets, priests and kings, and Mary, the Spirit overshadowed them but not indwelt. Atonement wasn't made yet and without the blood the Spirit could not dwell in a person as He does today post-Pentecost.
God actually made no difference between Jew and Gentiles in salvation.
If there was no difference or to be no difference, He would have made Covenant with Gentiles or at least mention in the Jeremian Covenant they were to be part of His Covenant with the House of Israel. But as we all know He didn't do that. They were not part of the Abrahamic and Mosaic Covenant to begin with nor received the sign of Covenant which is circumcision. Bunch of uncircumcised Philistines, David is famous in my eyes for saying!
With regard to the story regarding Cornelius the centurion in Acts 10, Peter told his fellow countrymen later that, God "put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith." We are saved in the same way "even as they" back under the Old Covenant -
That does not mean he was in the Covenant. As a matter of fact, Peter goes as far as Pentecost as "the beginning" and once the Holy Spirit came at the Feast of Harvests and 3000 Jews were saved and baptized into the Jewish Body of Christ the Mosaic Covenant was being replaced by the Jeremain Covenant, but only to those who were being saved. The Jews still served God under the Mosaic Covenant until these Jewish issues could be worked out. As a God Fearer, Cornelius was one step away from being a proselyte, which required circumcision. Being a proselyte, the Jews were allowed to be with them, eat with them, and otherwise treat them as a Jews for all intents and purposes since they were in effect Jews and no longer Gentile. Circumcision made quick work of that. But although Cornelius was devout and served God with almsgiving and fasting's his experience with the Holy Spirit did not bring him under the Mosaic Covenant because he wasn't circumcised, and circumcision is the sign of Covenant. Nor, as Gentile was, he part of the New Covenant because the New Covenant was between God and the House of Israel and not Gentiles.
"through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ", as Peter affirmed in Acts 15:8-11 . The elect looked forward in faith to the coming Messiah, as far back as God's promise to Eve that her Seed would crush the serpent's head. We today as elect look back in faith on a Messiah who fulfilled all those prophesies regarding Himself.
Agreed.
The nation of Israel only served as a microcosm of how God would confirm the covenant with His elect, which even in OT days included Gentile strangers who sojourned among the Israelite tribes, sharing an inheritance of the land along with the tribes of Israel (Ezekiel 46:22-23, Isaiah 56:6-7). God always designed His house to be a "house of prayer for all nations".
You have missed the message of this "mystery" revealed to the Apostles in the first century. God concluded both Jew and Gentile in unbelief that He could have mercy upon all.
22 In the four corners of the court there were courts joined of forty cubits long and thirty broad: these four corners were of one measure. 23 And there was a row of building round about in them, round about them four, and it was made with boiling places under the rows round about.
Eze 46:22–23.
Isaiah prophesied about the Kingdom established under Christ (King.)
6 Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the LORD,
To serve him, and to love the name of the LORD,
To be his servants,
Every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it,
And taketh hold of my covenant;
7 Even them will I bring to my holy mountain,
And make them joyful in my house of prayer:
Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar;
For mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people.
Is 56:6–7.
Since God had commanded Israel to "not mingle with the nations (Goyim = Gentiles) nor learn their ways this prophecy has to do with the end when Christ sit on His throne. But it still does not say Gentiles are part of the Abrahamic, Mosaic, or the New Covenant.
And since the command was for Israel to maintain their separation from Gentiles the "stranger" here can mean the descendants of Ishmael and Esau, who were children of Abraham and strangers to the covenant since the covenant went through Isaac and then Jacob.
Understand this, that you will not find God making covenant in the Law, the Psalms and the Prophets. It doesn't exist. So, if there is no covenant in the Jewish Scriptures in their Law, in their Psalms, and in their Prophets then the only conclusion is God is saving Gentiles without a covenant.
When the New Covenant began in Jerusalem 3000 Jews were saved and Christ began to build His Church which is a continuation of the Church in the desert at the time of the Tabernacle. Only then, although Israel was "called out" ["ekklesia"] of Egypt the "ekklesia" had another name: The Great Congregation. And it was populated by Jews. Over 3 million strong. And further, the New Covenant writings of Saul, Peter, James, and John, etc.,
discussed Messiah's effect upon their covenants, for as a baby Church and experiencing a "new thing" God was doing in the earth, the Jewish Christians who became saved and born again and indwelt by the Holy Spirit searched their Scriptures of Law, Psalms, and Prophets for understanding of what was going on with them in Israel. We do the same to understand this "so-great salvation." But God made no covenant with Gentiles. The covenant that is presently in effect is with the House of Israel, and the Church began with Jews, and for 4 decades everything that occurred in Israel with regard to the New Covenant was seen through the lens of Judaism, and the Jewish covenants, and the Jewish prophets. Even the writings were from Jewish Christians who wrote to Jewish Christians in Jewish churches in Corinth, Ephesus, the area around Galatia, and Philippi, etc. While their Temple stood everything was Jewish in nature. And why not? It was a Jewish Covenant with the House of Israel.
Gentiles were excluded from the New Covenant. They were excluded from the Abrahamic Covenant and the Mosaic Covenant. And when the Times of the Gentiles end - and it will end - God will turn His full attention back to Israel, removed their blindness, send two Jewish prophets who will address Israel from out of the Law, the Psalms, and the Prophets to show - as was done before - that this Jesus bar Joseph was truly Israel's Redeemer, Savior, Messiah, and King and then you'll see something never done before.
All Israel shall be saved.
Israel is the True Church, the True Bride betrothed to God and will be at the Marriage Supper through Covenant.
Gentiles will be there by invitation (Matt. 22.)
