Posted on 09/21/2014 10:09:50 AM PDT by wmfights
Will Israel Continue as a Nation?
The point at issue. In previous discussion of the Abrahamic Covenant, it was shown that the term seed of Abraham had three distinct meanings as used in Scripture. It is used (1) of the natural seed of Abraham, limited in some contexts to the seed of Jacob or Israel; (2) it is used of the spiritual seed of Abraham within the natural seed—spiritual Israel; (3) it is used of those who are spiritual seed of Abraham but not natural descendants, i.e., Gentile believers. Premillenarians concede to amillenarians the existence of a spiritual seed of Abraham. The point at issue is that amillenarians insist that the Abrahamic Covenant is fulfilled only through the spiritual seed of Abraham and that therefore Israel racially and nationally has no covenant promises.
The meaning of the term “Seed of Abraham.” The usual amillennial position is stated by Albertus Pieters in these words: “Whenever we meet with the argument that God made certain promises to the Jewish race, the above facts are pertinent. God never made any promise to any race at all, as a race. All His promises were to the continuing covenanted community, without regard to its racial constituents or to the personal ancestry of the individuals in it. Hence no proof that those whom the world now calls ‘the Jews’ are descended from Abraham, if it could be supplied (which it can not), would be of any avail to prove that they are entitled to the fulfillment of any divine promise whatsoever. Those promises were made to the covenanted group called ‘The Seed of Abraham,’ and to that community they must be fulfilled. What is needed is that one shall bring forward proof of his membership in that group.”1 all families of the earth be blessed.” Nothing should be plainer than that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob understood the term seed as referring to their physical lineage. While blessing is promised those outside the seed of Abraham if they believe as godly Abraham believed, the particular promises of a great posterity, of possession of the land, and being the channel of blessing to Gentiles is never given to any except the physical seed. Again it should be made clear that God is not undertaking to fulfill the promise to all the physical seed of Abraham, but through some of them, chosen as the line of the seed. While the line of the seed culminates in Christ, who fulfills much of the promise of blessing to the Gentiles, it is clear that all the twelve tribes not only Judah, were considered the seed of Abraham and in particular the seed of Israel.
While Pieters’ presentation of the amillenarian position accomplishes about all that could be asked for that viewpoint, it must be rejected as lacking any positive proof. The arguments, however cogently presented, do not prove the point at issue. The Scriptural use of the term seed of Abraham while it justifies the concept of a spiritual seed does not exclude the promises to the physical seed. The amillenarian arguments beg the question by assuming what they are trying to prove. The fact is that Pieters and most amillenarians seem to avoid the real issues and in their discussion of the Abrahamic Covenant do not deal with that aspect that concerns the physical seed.
The concluding point of Pieters, that the Jews have no racial continuity, is an illustration of the extremes to which amillenarians are forced to go to sustain their position. Certainly the world today is bearing witness to the continuing physical strain of Jewish blood, however contaminated by marriage with Gentiles. The Jews themselves acknowledge this physical lineage. Practically all Biblical scholars who are conservative acknowledge it whether premillennial, postmillennial, or amillennial. Certainly the Scriptures continue the recognition of this people even after centuries of intermarriage with Gentiles. The Book of Revelation in its prophetic account of things future speaks of the twelve tribes being again identified by God. In modern history we have witnessed the creation of the political state of Israel in Palestine, the persecution of Jews as such in Europe, the continued teachings of orthodox Judaism as well as its reformed counterparts. Anyone in the face of such overwhelming evidence for recognition of the physical seed of Abraham in the world today who in effect denies them right and title to the name Israel is shutting his eyes to some very plain facts. One of the greatest of modern miracles has been the preservation of the identity of Israel as a race and nation, a fact which has been the stumbling stone for the amillennial denial of Israel’s future. To deny that Israel has a bona fide existence today is to ignore that which is plain to everyone else.
The term “Israel.” The millennial controversy over the meaning of the term seed of Abraham carries over into the term Israel. As a title given to Jacob, meaning prince of God, it has commonly been used to designate the physical descendants of Jacob. While amillenarians tend to deny that the seed of Abraham has any physical reference, as we have seen, they concede that the term Israel has some physical reference. The question at issue does not concern the Old Testament use of the term so much as it concerns the New Testament meaning of Israel.
Amillenarians characteristically do not agree among themselves on even the essentials of their theology, and their concept of Israel is a good illustration. The older and more familiar type of amillenarians, of which Calvin may be taken as a representative, holds that when Israel rejected Christ they lost their promises and that the New Testament church has become the inheritor of Israel’s covenants. The church of the New Testament, they hold, is Israel. Oswald Allis, for instance, is a staunch defender of Calvin’s viewpoint and goes so far as to label as extremists all who disagree with him on this point. He states: “Carrying to an almost unprecedented extreme that literalism which is characteristic of Millenarianism, they [the Brethren Movement] insisted that Israel must mean Israel, and that the kingdom promises in the Old Testament concern Israel and are to be fulfilled to Israel literally.”2 Allis is a little wild in this charge as will be made evident. The idea that Israel means Israel is not unprecedented, nor is it confined to the Brethren movement. It is held in its essentials by the postmillenarian Charles Hodge3 and by Professor William Hendriksen of Calvin Seminary, an avowed amillenarian.4 Allis seems unaware that he himself is the one out of step. The whole tendency of modern theology both conservative and liberal is toward the position of distinguishing rather than merging Biblical Judaism and Christianity.
The newer allennial approach to the meaning of the term Israel is to regard it as always being basically a reference to those physically Israel. They may regard them like Hendriksen as spiritual Israel or elect Israel down through the ages, or like the postmillenarian Charles Hodge as Israelites who become Christians—certainly one of the Biblical usages, but there is no longer much zeal to make the church the inheritor of all Israel’s promises.
There are a number of good reasons for this trend away from Calvin and his modern disciple Allis. Obviously the church does not fulfill in any literal way the great bulk of Israel’s promises which had to do with repossession of the land, Israel’s regathering, and a glorious kingdom on earth. It is much easier and more logical to seal off these promises as conditional and therefore no longer subject to fulfillment. This permits a more logical exposition of the passages without embarrassment by comparison with the history of the church. Further, Israel is promised curses as well as blessings under her covenants. To qualify for the blessings puts the church in a compromising position of being involved in Israel’s curses also. Modern amillennialism prefers to stand on New Testament rather than Old Testament promises. and privilege constantly in his epistles. He declares that their peculiar promises include the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, the promises, the fathers, and the privilege of being the people of whom Christ should come (Rom 9:4-5). Now, it is obvious that Paul is referring to Israel in unbelief when he refers to those who have these privileges, for he declares: “I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: who are Israelites…” (Rom 9:3-4). He declares that they even in unbelief “are Israelites,” and relates to them all the peculiar privileges of Israel. It is evident that the institution of the church did not rob Israel in the flesh of its peculiar place of privilege before God.
This declaration is given added weight by the fact that in Ephesians 2:12 Gentiles are expressly declared to have been excluded from the promises given to Israel: “That at that time ye [Gentiles] were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.” The passage goes on to state their privilege as Christians in the church. It is noteworthy that Paul does not say that the Gentiles came into these same Israelitish promises when they were converted; rather he pictures a work of God bringing Jew and Gentile into a new order entirely—”one new man” (Eph 2:15). It may be concluded without further argument that the distinction between natural Israel and Gentiles is continued after the institution of the church—Israel is still a genuine Israel, and the Gentiles continue to fulfill their part. While this fact of the Scripture is more or less admitted even by the amillennialist, the significance is not adequately realized. The continuance of Israel and Gentiles as such is a strong argument against either one being dispossessed of their own place. Israel is not reduced to the bankruptcy of the Gentiles—to become “strangers from the covenants of promises” (Eph 2:12), and the distinction between the two groups is maintained on the same sharp lines as before the church was instituted. the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fullness?” (Rom 11:12). In other words, if the blindness which has fallen upon Israel nationally during this present age was the occasion for great blessing for the Gentiles, the “fulness” of Israel will bring a richness of blessing which will be “much more.” Now, obviously, there can be no fullness of Israel if they have no future. Their fullness will come when the present condition of blindness is lifted.
He takes occasion to warn the Gentiles of their present privileges on the basis of this argument. In Romans 11:15 he refers again to the future blessing of Israel: “For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?” It is true that he speaks of Israel being broken off that the Gentiles might be grafted in (Rom 11:17-24), but he also speaks of the future ingrafting of Israel back into “their own olive tree” (Rom 11:24). This is contingent upon the “blindness” being lifted, and it is declared that the blindness will continue “until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in” (Rom 11:25). The use of the word until signifies not only that the period of Gentile blessing will end, but it also indicates that a future period of Israel’s ingrafting will follow. Samuel H. Wilkinson has brought this out: “If and when an ‘until’ sets a time-limit to any group of conditions, it makes the said group of conditions to be temporary not everlasting, to be preliminary not final. And the change, whatever it be, which is to occur when the time-limit is reached and passed, must surely refer to the same object as that which was submitted to the temporary conditions. With these two reasonable considerations in view, it will be found that all the time-limits described in the New Testament leave room for the full scope of Old Testament prophecy to become in due time realized.”6
The distinction between Israel outside of the church and the church itself, then, is a highly significant fact of Scripture. The Scriptures clearly state that Israel in unbelief is blinded, that this blinded condition is temporary not final, that the blindness will be lifted when the present period of Gentile blessing is concluded. The fulfillment of the covenants with Israel will follow, as Romans 11:26-32 indicates. Not only the fact of Israel’s continuance is revealed, but Israel’s present program and future blessings are specifically outlined in Romans eleven and other portions of Scripture which need not be discussed at this time.
Spiritual Israel and Gentile Christians contrasted. While the contrasts between Israel, Gentiles, and the church are severally important, the crux of the argument is the contrast between spiritual Israel, that is, those who have become Christians, and Gentile Christians. The twofold origin of Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians is obvious to all. In the attempt to disfranchise Israel of her promises, however, some amillenarians claim that the church, composed of both Gentiles and Jews, takes Israel’s place of blessing completely. It is pointed out that there has always been an inner circle of Israelites who were the “true Israel” and that these were the genuine inheritors of the promises, not the nation as a whole. It is the purpose of this discussion to inquire into only one phase of the problem—Is the church ever identified with true or spiritual Israel, that is, are Gentile Christians ever included in the designation Israel? The problem of whether the church actually inherits Israel’s promises and realizes them is reserved for later treatment.
Two principal passages are the foundation for the discussion. In Romans 9-11 the problem comes up repeatedly. In Romans 9:6 it is revealed: “For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel.” Those who have opposed a future for Israel find in this passage a proof-text for their theory that only a portion of Israel, that is, those who are “spiritual,” inherit the promises, and the rest are excluded from the promises. An examination of this passage, however, will reveal that the real contrast is not between those who inherit Abraham’s promises and those who do not. It is rather that the promises to Abraham are classified as belonging either to Israel according to the flesh or Israel which enters into the spiritual promises by faith—which are given also to Gentile believers (Gal 3:6-9, 14). It is not, therefore, a contrast between those who are excluded and those who are included, but rather a contrast between those who inherit only the national promises and those who inherit the spiritual promises. The line of national promises is narrowed to Isaac and his seed (Rom 9:7), and the line of spiritual promises is narrowed to those who believe. In the present age, Israel as a nation is blinded, which blindness will be lifted. As individuals, Israelites who believe belong to the election of grace (Rom 11:5-10). Both Israelites in the flesh (unbelievers) and Israelites who believe are genuine Israelites. They are sharply distinguished as to present blessings. Unbelieving Israelites are lost and blinded, while believing Israelites come into all the present blessings of the church. The distinction is always on the ground of whether or not they believe in Christ, not on whether they are true Israelites.
The second principal passage is found in Galatians 6:15-16, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.” It has been alleged on the basis of this passage that the church as such is specifically called the “Israel of God.” To this is opposed the fact that everywhere else in the Scriptures the term Israel is applied only to those who are the natural seed of Abraham and Isaac, never to Gentiles. If it can be sustained that in this passage the church is called Israel, it would, of course, be an argument for the identification of the church with Israel in the present age—though by no means conclusive, in the face of constant use of the term Israel in the Scriptures in reference to unbelieving Jews. An examination of Galatians 6:15-16, however, instead of proving any such identification is rather a specific instance where Jewish believers are distinguished from Gentile believers, and this by the very term Israel of God. Old Testament. It had always been limited to those who were genuine believers in the true God. Further, the “kingdom of God” is not to be identified with the millennial kingdom prophesied for Israel and the Gentile nations, though the millennial kingdom is an important manifestation and phase of the kingdom of God.
The declaration of Christ in this passage resolves itself into an affirmation that the unbelieving scribes and Pharisees would never be saved because of their rejection of the “son” of the “householder,” and that others would take their place. Gaebelein suggests that the “nation” which will take their place will be other Israelites: “The nation to whom the Lord promises the Kingdom is not the Church. The Church is called the Body of Christ, the Bride of Christ, the Habitation of God by the Spirit, the Lamb’s Wife, but never a nation. The nation is Israel still, but that believing remnant of the nation, living when the Lord comes.”7
The second major passage bearing on this problem is Romans 11:1-32. This chapter deals with the question whether God has cast off Israel. To this leading question Paul replies in positive terms, “God forbid.” His argument may be summarized as a denial of this question. God has not cast away His people. There has always been a remnant in every age true to God. The unbelief of the nation Israel has never caused God to cast off His people as a whole (Rom 11:3-4). There has always been a continuing program for Israel as witnessed in the present election of grace. Some Jews are being saved. While unbelieving Jews are blinded now, their present blindness will be lifted and replaced by sight and faith. When this glad day comes “all Israel shall be saved” (Rom 11:26), meaning a group or national deliverance in contrast to the individual salvation offered now. At that time God’s covenants with Israel will be fulfilled, for the gifts and calling of God are without repentance, sure and irrevocable. The whole tenor of the chapter is against either the idea that Israel has lost all future hope of fulfillment of their promises through cancellation or that the church has received these promises and Israel is disinherited.
On the basis of this brief study of terminology, the evidence has been examined and found to produce nothing indicating that the term Israel is ever used of Gentiles. Rather it is used of the godly remnant in all ages, Christian Jews, and the future national entity anticipated through the Scriptures. None of these usages support the amillennial contention that Israel has no national future. With this as a foundation, Israel’s precise promises relative to the land, her regathering and repossession of it, may be considered.
Dallas, Texas
(Series to be continued in the July-September Number, 1952)
This article was taken from the Theological Journal Library CD and posted with permission of Galaxie Software.
1 Albertus Pieters, The Seed of Abraham, pp. 19-20.
2 Oswald T. Allis, Prophecy and the Church, p. 218.
3 Charles Hodge, Commentary on Romans, p. 589.
4 William Hendriksen, And So All Israel Shall Be Saved, p. 33.
6 The Israel Promises and Their Fulfillment (London: John Bale, Sons & Danielsson, Ltd., 1936), p. 78.
7 A. C. Gaebelein, The Gospel of Matthew (New York: Our Hope, 1910), II, 138.
In the attempt to disfranchise Israel of her promises, however, some amillenarians claim that the church, composed of both Gentiles and Jews, takes Israel’s place of blessing completely. It is pointed out that there has always been an inner circle of Israelites who were the “true Israel” and that these were the genuine inheritors of the promises, not the nation as a whole.
“The nation to whom the Lord promises the Kingdom is not the Church. The Church is called the Body of Christ, the Bride of Christ, the Habitation of God by the Spirit, the Lamb’s Wife, but never a nation. The nation is Israel still, but that believing remnant of the nation, living when the Lord comes.”7
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“Will Israel Continue as a Nation?”
God has made it pretty clear in the Tanach (aka the Bible minus the Christian’s New Testament) that in the end of days Israel would be resurrected, thrive, build the third temple and survive it all with her borders stretching from the Nile to the Euphrates - with one condition.
THE PROPHECY OF MOSES
CONCERNING THE LATTER DAYS
23 “Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and make you a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, which the Lord thy God hath forbidden thee.
24 For the Lord thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.
25 When thou shalt beget children, and children’s children, and ye shall have remained long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, and shall do evil in the sight of the Lord thy God, to provoke him to anger:
26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto ye go over Jordan to possess it; ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed.
27 And the Lord shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither the Lord shall lead you. 28 And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.
29 But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.
30 When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the Lord thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice;
31 (For the Lord thy God is a merciful God;) He will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them.”
The kicker is that survival in the latter days requires Jews to follow and listen to God both in letter and Spirit. Encourage your fellow Jew to do so especially if they aren’t observant.
One God, One Torah, One People to lead the rest of humanity back to Him.
“The nation to whom the Lord promises the Kingdom is not the Church. The Church is called the Body of Christ, the Bride of Christ, the Habitation of God by the Spirit, the Lamb’s Wife, but never a nation. The nation is Israel still, but that believing remnant of the nation, living when the Lord comes.”7
__________
Matthew 21:43 therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be TAKEN AWAY FROM YOU and given to a NATION producing the fruit of it”
was this nation China? France? South Africa? Bolivia?
no, the “nation” is the Church.
1 Peter 2:9-10
but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, A HOLY NATION, God’s own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were no people, now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Jeremiah 31 tells us the Lord promised to make a new covenant with the house of Israel and Judah.
this new covenant was made when Jesus Christ was sacrificed on the cross for the sins of the world and the new covenant was ratified in his blood.
it is only through Jesus Christ and in His Body, that we are reconciled back to God.
so yes, we have One God and One Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.
“Jeremiah 31 tells us the Lord promised to make a new covenant with the house of Israel and Judah.”
The truth is it’s not really a new covenant, but simply revealing more of the Divine Plan set forth at the beginning of time. Remember God is perfect and makes no mistakes with anything including His Torah.
Psalm 19:7 “The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul.”
The word for “perfect” in this verse in the Hebrew is “temimah” that is an adjective that means faultless, whole or complete (temimut is the state of being tam, meaning unblemished or defect-free or blameless).
Plus, you can’t add on to it. Moses himself warns the people not to add on to the rules of the Torah. He says, “Don’t add on to the thing I am commanding you and don’t take away from it.” (Deut. 4:2)
“this new covenant was made when Jesus Christ was sacrificed on the cross for the sins of the world and the new covenant was ratified in his blood.”
God doesn’t do human sacrifice. Muslims and other assorted criminals do see human sacrifice/murder as a means of atonement. He rails against this from beginning to end.
“it is only through Jesus Christ and in His Body, that we are reconciled back to God.”
He doesn’t say that in the Torah nor did He through any of the Jewish Prophets.
T’shuvah (aka repentance aka circumcised heart) is what really brings us back to Him. No animal or human sacrifice can be used in place of that. In Psalm 51 is known within Judaism as the “Perek T’shuvah” or Chapter of Repentance. After King David was confronted with the truth of his crimes and the prospect of judgment, he returned to God for cleansing and forgiveness. David’s t’shuvah reveals that we also can return to God on the basis of His abundant compassion/mercy – His rachamim. Without God’s love we have no hope for the future.
“so yes, we have One God and One Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.”
There is no mediator between each human being and God because it is our soul that does the talking and God doesn’t have need for a mediator. Everyone can talk to Him without the need for a mediator 24/7/365. He hears everything we think and speak without us even realizing it. The relationship between man and God is direct, one-on-one. It is not proper to pray to anyone or anything else, nor is it permissible to pray through anyone else. And it will always be forbidden. It would be forbidden even if that thing or person had the ability to grant what you ask for.
I know what I say is harsh, but it is the truth.
Consider that the Jews have been prophetically reinstated in the land and have the military capability to retake the rest of the land they were promised in the Last Days.
The New Testament describes them as having been blinded to the Sonship of Christ, and yet many continue to worship the One true God, unlike any other non-Christian religions.
Many passages speak of the Twelve tribes in the later days and the Church cannot fulfill that physical representation of the Seed of Abraham, Issac and Jacob like the modern Jews who have been preserved by God's covenant with them.
As I see it, God will do all the work...
Rom 11:26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
The Deliverer will turn away all ungodliness from the Jews...
Your tag line says:
“Pubbies = national collectivists; Dems = international collectivists; We need a second party!”
And what is this other party, Libertarian? Considering your antichrist beliefs it would seem so...your anti-christianism should fit right in.
Religiously speaking, a strange lot the libertopians: an assortment of atheists, agnostics, deists, pantheists, antichrists, and what not...anything but conservative Christians, which most Pubbies are. Neither are they collectivists.
Socialists = collectivists.
“And what is this other party, Libertarian?”
I dub it the United States Independent Conservative Party.
“Considering your antichrist beliefs it would seem so...your anti-christianism should fit right in.”
Your deified, Jewish rabbi believed them. I guess that qualifies him as Satan’s little helper?
“Religiously speaking, a strange lot the libertopians: an assortment of atheists, agnostics, deists, pantheists, antichrists, and what not...anything but conservative Christians, which most Pubbies are. Neither are they collectivists.”
Why is the GOP at war with the Tea Party? Where did ObamaCare come from? Hint: ever heard of RomneyCare? If you turn off the boob tube and start studying the Pubbies you’ll find out they are as collectivist (aka Progressive, democratic, Socialist, Communist, etc.) as the Dems, but they have their own take on how they implement it.
Because they will finally recognize Jesus is the Messiah.
“I dub it the United States Independent Conservative Party.”
It’s got a nice ring to it, I must say... but, if you and your antichrist beliefs are its representative, I want nothing to do with it.
Like I said before the beliefs I have are straight outta Torah and is exactly the same thing your deified, Jewish rabbi believed when he walked this Earth.
The anti-Christ or false Messiah will declare himself to be God. The biggest lie of all in this universe is believing your or any other man can be God.
The original Jewish church knew all these arguments you use, and rejected all of them.
Matthew, one of the original 12 Jewish apostles, knew more about Jesus than you, he said he had no earthly father, meaning he was the Son of God. Matthew said this of him,
"And they shall call his name Immanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us," Matt. 1:23.
Sorry, Jack, you are just a Jack come lately, you live some 2000 years after the fact. I'll take what the Jewish apostle Matthew says about it over you.
It is not the truth and it is rude. Are you trying to provoke the Gentiles who have turned to God through Jesus so Jews have fewer allies and friends ? You should be ashamed of yourself. Have we not suffered enough for two thousand years ? Have you no children to lose ? DJ you care for no one ? Go tell your shul and rabbi what you're doing here.
I know what I say is harsh, but it is the truth.
______
not harsh at all, this is the religion forum.
the only one who can open anyone’s spiritual eyes is the Holy Spirit. I have always found it curious that the Jews are steeped in the Scriptures which are full of types and shadows pointing to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and His perfect atoning sacrifice on the Cross, yet the vast majority of Jews rejected Him when he walked the earth and the vast majority have rejected Him for 2,000 years.
I do have a question that I hope you are kind enough to answer.
what do you make of Paul the Apostle?
here he was a Pharisee of the Pharisees, steeped in the law and zealous to persecute the Christian sect, even taking part in the murder of Stephen, yet..........
something happened to him and he does a religious 180 and becomes the greatest Evangelist in history. clearly, he didn’t do it for riches, title, women or any other human ambition that usually drives men’s motives. in fact, he risked his own life many times and ultimately was beheaded for his Faith in Rome.
what do you think motivated him?
1. the spiritual nation is all God is concerned with. the writer of this article completely misses the point of Ephesians 2. v12 says the Gentiles were once “alienated from the commonwealth of Israel” and then in v19 it says they now are fellow citizens and members of the household of God. this “household of God”, the “commonwealth of Israel” is better known as The Church, or Body of Christ. in which, of course, there is neither Jew nor Greek.
2. “prophetically reinstated in the land”, I hear this a lot, where do you believe it states in the Scriptures this would happen?
3. “worship the One True God”... Jesus Christ is God Almighty, hopefully you agree with that. Are the majority of Jews in the country of Israel worshipping Jesus Christ?
if no, they are not worshipping the one true God.
no one comes to the Father except through Him.
4. God’s will is that all men come to faith in Jesus Christ and be saved, yet you state that the Jews have been “preserved” by some covenant you think He made with them. He did make a new covenant in His Son’s blood which they for the most part reject. Do you believe these Jews who have been “preserved” can be saved outside of Christ?
“Are you trying to provoke the Gentiles who have turned to God through Jesus so Jews have fewer allies and friends?”
Nope. Everyone needs a rabbi whether Jew, Christian, or other. He’s a great example of one who lived a Godly life both in letter and Spirit.
When the Messiah shows up and tells everyone he isn’t Muzzie and isn’t God what will the reaction be? A lot of Muzzies and Christians are going to be very upset.
Would you rather listen to lies? What I am saying is what any Orthodox Jew, Orthodox rabbi, and the Christian’s deified rabbi would say.
(shrugs shoulders)
[sigh!]
Hokay, I'll defer and desist in my criticism if you bring your rabbi (you do go to an orthodox or conservadox shul right ?) to this thread so we can discuss if it is appropriate for an observant Jew to come to this thread to poke Christians in the eye by insulting Jesus by writing Your deified, Jewish rabbi believed them. I guess that qualifies him as Satan’s little helper?
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