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To: trebb
The purpose of Ephesians is the bringing the two houses of Rm 11, the gentiles being the house of Gen 48:19, back together into one new man in and through Messiah. In restoring Israel back to one, then Israel would then again become the light to the nations, to the gentiles, that she was supposed to be because now with Messiah as the head, the body would walk and shine the Father's light just as the Son walks and shines the light of the Father. (Is 49:1-6; Ps 119:104-112)

In this, the words of Messiah are true when He said in Matthew 15, verse 24;

But He answered and said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

In John 10 Messiah said that other sheep He has that are not of that fold, that fold being the house of Judah that He was directly speaking to in the land of Judea.

Paul quotes the Prophets often and he didn't leave that custom of his out of Eph 2 when he, Paul, said;

17 And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near.

This is a direct quote from Isaiah 57:19, “I create the fruit of the lips: Peace, peace to him who is far off and to him who is near,” says YHVH, “And I will heal him.”

Paul oft refers us also back to Hosea who reveals that the lost sheep of Israel would become to look and act like the nations because of the false prophets that lead them.

Hosea 8:11 “Because Ephraim has made many altars for sin, they have become for him altars for sinning. 12 I have written for him the great things of My law, but they were considered a strange thing.

Many wanted to make the lost sheep be circumcised as a requirement for salvation, but circumcision has never been a requirement for salvation, but rather a sign of being a member of a covenant just as baptism is a sign of being a member of a covenant.

Paul states in Eph 2 that those who come to Messiah are not heirs of all the covenants of promise made with our fathers Abraham, Isaac & Israel (Jacob). And this is why Paul circumcised Timothy, because Timothy was called to teach and to teach, Timothy was convicted to be circumcised according to the covenant of promise he was now an heir to.

And that is the crux of the entire dialog of Acts 15, that one sect in verse 1 was teaching that circumcision was a requirement for salvation and the other sect, the believing sect in verse 5 was saying that it was a required as a sign of being a member of the covenant and body of Messiah. It was all cleared up in verse 21&22 when James said that these lost sheep, called gentiles, would hear Moses every Sabbath and in hearing they would come to understand and then do what Moses wrote, just as Messiah said would happen in Mt 23:1-3. This is called the ‘shema’ which is Dt 6:4-9 and which every Christian pastor is very familiar with. Shema means to hear and do, not just hear as to just hear is nothing because the fruit, our fruit we are to produce, is shown in the doing. Therefore, Messiah said,

Mt 7:20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them.

He is the vine, we are the branches and if He as obedient unto death, so too are we to be if He is truly in us and we in Him. The branches do not determine the fruit, it is the vine that determines the fruit and that vine's roots are the Word of God that feeds the vine which feeds the branches.

Faith is not a religion, faith is a walk of life and He set before us two paths, the Way of the Father (Ps 119:1) and the way of death (Prov 14:12, 16:25). The choice is ours, blessing and life or evil(lawlessness) and death. And His Way has always contained the connection to Messiah as the Son came to do in the flesh, that which had already been done from the beginning.

Rev 13:8 All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

Abraham knew the Lamb, Moses knew the Lamb. How is this if they had never known or seen the Lamb as Scripture tells us that they did?

John 8:56 Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.

Heb 11:24 By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, 25 choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, 26 esteeming the reproach of Messiah greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward.

Ex 33:18 And he said, “Please, show me Your glory.” 19 Then He said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the YHVH before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”

Rom 9:15 For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." John 1:18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.

John 3:13 “And no one has gone up into the heaven except He who came down from the heaven – the Son of Aḏam.

John 5:37 “And the Father who sent Me, He bore witness of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form.

Mat 11:27 “All have been handed over to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and he to whom the Son wishes to reveal Him.

Rom 9:15 For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion."

John 5:21 “For as the Father raises the dead and makes alive, even so the Son makes alive whom He wishes. 22 “For the Father judges no one, but has given all the judgment to the Son

Until one understands that it has been the Son all along, the Son who comes in the name of YHVH, then whether one be Jew or gentile, that one remains blind in part and lacks understanding of the plan and the promises of the Father given to us through the Son, the Word of God, the Voice of God.

Isa 8:14 He will be as a sanctuary, But a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense To both the houses of Israel,(see Rm 11 & Eph 2) as a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

18 posted on 06/16/2013 12:01:04 PM PDT by patlin ("Knowledge is a powerful source that is 2nd to none but God" ConstitutionallySpeaking 2011)
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To: patlin; metmom; CynicalBear; mitch5501

Wow...wow...You couldn’t be more wrong if you tried. The “purpose of Ephesians is the bringing the two houses of Rm 11, the gentiles being the house of Gen 48:19, back together into one new man in and through Messiah...” Since the one new man Paul speaks of is a MYSTERY, kept SECRET SINCE the world began, hid in God from the foundation of the world, and planned by Him from BEFORE the foundation of the world until revealed to the Apostle Paul, explain how, from the Scriptures, Gen. 48:19 brings Jew and Gentile “back together”...


19 posted on 06/16/2013 12:11:20 PM PDT by smvoice (Better Buck up, Buttercup. The wailing and gnashing are for an eternity..)
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