Claim. Just as Joshua succeeded Moses and conquered Canaan substantially because Moses could enter only in spirit, Christ at the Second Advent will succeed Jesus and complete the third worldwide course substantially because Jesus has been restoring Canaan only as a worldwide spiritual realm.
Elaboration. dp-3-the-providence-of-restoration-under-the-leadership-of-jesus §3.3.2 makes the Joshua-Second-Advent parallel explicit and load-bearing. The structural equivalence operates on three points:
- Position-equivalence: Moses could enter Canaan only in spirit (his physical body remained outside) — analogous, jesus established the worldwide spiritual realm but not the substantial Kingdom of Heaven on earth. Christ at the Second Advent occupies Joshua’s position.
- Substantial completion: Joshua walked the third national course as a substantial course and actually conquered the promised land — Christ at the Second Advent will complete the third worldwide course substantially and build the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.
- Must come in the flesh: “unless the returning Christ comes in the flesh, as Jesus did, he cannot inherit Jesus’ mission, much less fulfill the purpose of the providence of restoration.” Joshua succeeded Moses as a flesh-and-blood man; Christ at the Second Advent must be born on earth in the flesh.
The Second Advent may face the same Cain-Abel dynamics. If forerunners (Christians as Second Israel; specific JtB-equivalent figures) fail to complete their responsibility, Christ at the Second Advent will have to “lower himself to assume the role of John the Baptist” and pay analogous indemnity, just as Jesus had to fast forty days. If Christians reject him, he will elect a Third Israel.
However arduous the path, Christ at the Second Advent “will not die without fulfilling the providence” — because the third attempt is structurally guaranteed to succeed (the providence began with Adam, prolonged through Jesus, bears fruit at the Second Advent), and democratic-society conditions will prevent the death-by-heresy-trial that crucified Jesus.