Posted on 09/19/2003 6:25:42 PM PDT by hope
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Omega Letter Christian Intelligence Digest |
Special Report: Are Today's Jews Really Ancient Israel?
Commentary on the News
Thursday, September 18, 2003
Jack Kinsella - Omega Letter Editor
Many times have I heard people say something like—“The Jews today don't have a drop of Abrahamic blood.” Or that, “The Jews have no racial or historical connection to the Bible and Palestine.” Some Christians explain who the Jews are, saying, “The Jews (or Israel) are people who missed (or rejected) the coming of the Messiah and thus were cast aside by God, and so now God deals with the Gentiles.”
Arab historian Jarid al-Kidwa told an Arab TV audience, "all the events surrounding Kings Saul, David and Rehoboam occurred in Yemen, and no Hebrew remnants were found in Israel, for a very simple reason--because they were never here."
Al-Kidwa said: "Most of the Khazars [a Turkish tribe that converted to Judaism in medieval times] are the Ashkenazic Jews who arrived in Palestine. As Allah is my witness, in my blood flows more of the Children of Israel and the ancient Hebrews than in the blood of Ariel Sharon and Benjamin Netanyahu."
According to the Israeli daily Ha'aretz, al- Kidwa also said: "The stories of the Torah and the Bible did not take place in the Land of Israel--they occurred in the Arabian Peninsula, primarily in Yemen. The identity of our father Ibrahim [Abraham] who is mentioned in the Koran is clear. From the Koran's description of him it arises that he lived in the southern Hejaz [Saudi Arabia], near Mecca."
Most of those who oppose Israel, and especially those Christians who think spiritual Israel is really the Church, include these and similar arguments to support their view. If true, it would bolster the Arab claim to all of Israel and renew global opposition to a ‘Jewish’ state under the old “Zionism is racism” argument.
If today’s Jews aren’t descended from Abraham, but are instead a mixed race of people whose only common connection is religion, then they are not a ‘nation’ in any identifiable sense. They are instead religious zealots who usurped a Biblical promise in order to steal land from the Arabs based on a fraudulent claim.
The Bible promised the land to the ‘seed of Abraham’ – the literal seed of Abraham, not the spiritual seed of Abraham. The spiritual seed of Abraham is the Church.
If modern-day Jews are not Abraham’s literal seed, but merely the descendents of Jewish converts and followers of Judaic tradition, then the Israeli claim to the Land of Israel is false.
Abraham’s blessing passed from Isaac to Jacob. “And give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy seed with thee; that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham.” (Genesis 28:4)
So clearly, if modern Israel isn’t the physical and literal seed of Abraham, then Israel’s claim to the Land of Promise is a fraud.
And our support of Israel on the grounds they are God’s Chosen is built on a lie.
The Bible says that in the last days, the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob would return to the ‘mountains of Israel, which have always been waste’(Ezekiel 38:8) and the nation of Israel would be reborn, ‘in a day’ -- (Isaiah 66:8).
According to Bible prophecy, during the reign of the antichrist, the Temple will be rebuilt and full Temple worship restored.
But, in order for Temple worship to resume, Jewish religious law requires it first be ritually cleansed. And the only way that the Temple area can be ritually restored is by the application of the ashes of a red heifer by an undefiled Cohanim priest.
Further complicating things, a Cohanim must meet strict bloodline requirements, including direct descendancy from Aaron, the brother of Moses.
So we have lots of problems here that must be solved before the Tribulation Period begins.
1. Ethnic Jews, and not merely religious Jews, qualify to inherit the Land of Promise, according to Scripture. If these are the last days, the Jews of Israel MUST be the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses.
2. To ritually cleanse the Temple, only an ethnic descendant of Aaron, brother of Moses, is qualified to perform the ceremony.
3. The Cohanim must not be ritually defiled himself.
The Bible says that the Jewish priesthood, the Cohanim, began 3000 years ago when God anointed Aaron, brother of Moses, to be Israel’s High Priest.
“And they shall be upon Aaron, and upon his sons, when they come in unto the tabernacle of the congregation, or when they come near unto the altar to minister in the holy place; that they bear not iniquity, and die: it shall be a statute for ever unto him and his seed after him. . . . .And thou shalt anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them, that they may minister unto me in the priest's office,” Exodus 28:43, 30:30).
The title of cohen is paternally inherited. Most Jewish men surnamed Cohen are also Cohanim, but so are many men with other surnames.
Recently, a genetic study of modern-day Cohanim has provided the first scientific evidence supporting the oral tradition of an ancient priestly lineage.
Karl Skorecki, a physician who studies the genetics of kidney disease at the Technion in Haifa, Israel, and colleagues in London and the United States realized that they could study the lineage of priests by looking at the Y chromosome, which only men carry.
Unlike all other chromosomes in our cells, the Y chromosome, which bears the male sex-determining gene, is passed essentially unchanged from father to son, barring rare mutations.
The researchers extracted DNA from cells scraped from the inner cheeks of 188 unrelated, self-identified Cohanim from Israel, North America, and Britain. They then looked for the presence or absence of a well-studied small stretch of DNA on the Y chromosome called yap, or “Y”.
If this hereditary tradition has been closely followed, the Y-chromosomes of the Cohanim today should bear some resemblance to one another because of their unbroken link back to a common ancestor, Aaron.
Genetic studies among Cohanim from all over the world say about 50 percent of Cohanim have that unusual set of genetic markers on their Y chromosome.
What is equally striking is that this genetic signature of the Cohanim is extremely rare outside of Jewish populations.
The Y chromosome also keeps track of time. Small mutations occur in the DNA being passed on, and these changes build up with each generation. Like the tick of a clock, the number of these mutations is a measure of time passed.
By looking at the differences between Y-chromosomes in the Cohanim, researchers can estimate roughly how many generations ago members of the priesthood had a common ancestor.
Remarkably, the evidence suggests the Cohanim chromosomes coalesce at a date that corresponds with the generation of Aaron.
This proves to a scientific certainty that the Jews of Israel are the physical descendants of the Promise.
And a group of rabbis is quietly seeking families of the Jewish priestly caste (Cohanim) who are willing to hand over their newborn sons for a special mission: to be raised in conditions of isolation and ritual purity in order to deal with the next red heifer, if and when she is found.
According to the organizers, sons of Cohanim raised in purity, under conditions stipulated by halacha, or Jewish law, are essential for the purification of those ritually defiled by the dead. Cohanim who are themselves ritually defiled, as already noted, cannot prepare the red heifer for burning or prepare her ashes for sprinkling on the ritually defiled among the People of Israel.
And the search for a ritually pure red heifer continues. One was believed to have been born in Israel last year, but was subsequently disqualified after it developed a blemish.
The Cohanim Gene proves that the nation ‘born in a day’ on May 14, 1948 is the hereditary nation of Israel whose rebirth Scripture says marks the birth of the generation that will see the return of Christ.
The nearness of the Tribulation is exemplified by the fact that there are qualified Cohanim being raised under ritually pure conditions to prepare them for the ritual cleansing of the Third Temple. There is an ongoing, worldwide search for a qualifying red heifer.
The Jews continue to wage war with the Palestinians over the future possession of the city of Jerusalem and ultimately, possession of the Temple Mount.
God’s Word will not return to Him void. He has spoken it, and it will come to pass.
The modern science of genetics disproves the physical element of the replacement theologian’s arguments, and the clear teaching of Scripture disproves the spiritual elements.
God is clearly not finished with the Jews. He has outlined His future plans for their national redemption in the pages of Scripture. The enemies of Israel are blind to the truth.
And the future is almost now.
Excerpted from the Omega Letter Daily Intelligence Digest, Vol: 24 Issue: 14
© http://www.omegaletter.com
You mean the way the United States, a mixed race of people whose only common connection is political, are not a 'nation' in any identifiable sense?
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Anyone who believes the historical or any other accuracy of the Koran on anything except intent to destroy the outside world is nuts.
What is an "Irishman"? The Vikings and the English did their "watering" of Irish "blood" but the culture and mentality remained. Same with American Blacks. Genetics will always take a back seat to culture.
It's amazing that Jews today can be traced through thousands of years to prove the promises of God!
Arab historian Jarid al-Kidwa is a liar.
. As Allah is my witness, in my blood flows more of the Children of Israel and the ancient Hebrews than in the blood of Ariel Sharon and Benjamin Netanyahu."
During the 2 millenia that the Jewish diaspora was resident in Europe and Asia it is almost certain that they have absorbed indoeuropean blood, and others as well. This does not change the fact that from the sacking of Jerusalem on a recognizable Jewish population has maintained its identity, as much as anything due to laws meant to marginalize them.
But whatever their precise blood line, the people who went into the camps in the forties weren't being exterminated for their Turkish roots, but for their adherence to the God of Abraham according to their ancient rites. And the people who survived those camps are the very ones who pushed their way into Palestine as refugees and settlers.
Why members of a religion that prides itself on its hospitality could not welcome the refugees from the death camps into their protection is a mystery we can explore another time.
The slaughter of these people as Jews establishes that, for the world and for the Jews themselves, they are Jews. To say otherwise is evil foolishness.
To be truthful, Abraham was born somewhere near Basra, and spent his life wandering what is now Iraq. But the Jews aren't claiming Iraq, just the sliver that is modern Israel.
And it is true that the Church had come to see itself as the inheritors of God's promises to the jews, since Israel had ceased to exist. And Anglo Saxons have long considered themselves to be, by some mysterious means, God's Chosen, and it is well embedded in the American psyche that we are somehow the Chosen. This peculiarity of American psychology, though, had the strange effect of wedding Americans to the defense of Israel, the "other" Chosen People. American soldiers opened up the death camps, and the effect on the American Church was profound. And the rebirth of Israel sent shock waves through the American Church. Why it didn't have the same effect on the European Church, I can't explain. But from the late forties on, the American Church has seen the defense of Israel as its unique mission.
And woe be unto any politician that doesn't take it into account, if he hopes to hold the evangelical vote. My German buddy once explained to me that Germans understood US support for Israel as resulting from the vast Jewish lobby. He didn't know what to think when I expained that the size of the Jewish vote here is miniscule compared to the evangelical vote, and it is the evangelicals here who are the most determined defenders of Israel.
I don't think he got it.
I have no doubt these people are descended from the same people who were in the Bible. Of course many names sound like they are descended from pawn shop owners such as Goldstein, Silver, Pearl, Pearlmutter etc.
My Grandfather's last Bible dated from 1948 (he died soon after). Throughout it he tabbed and underlined all the passages related to the rebirth of Israel and the promises of God relating to Israel. It is true that it had a very profound effect on the AMericxan Church.
I have that Bible today.
"According to Bible prophecy, during the reign of the antichrist, the Temple will be rebuilt and full Temple worship restored." Where does it say that? Or more directly, no where does the Bible in fact say the Temple will be rebuilt.
Daniel 9:27 says that approximately three and one-half years before the return of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Daniel 9:26 who is commonly identified as the Anti-Christ (probably correctly; perhaps the False Prophet) will cause termination of the sacrificial worship system.
Although many Christians argue that the sacrifical worship system will not be conducted until the Temple is reconstructed, thus infering that 9:27 is forecasting reconstruction, nothing in the Bible says so.
To the contrary, we would argue that the sacrifices were conducted in a tent from 1461 through 970 BC and that they could be conducted again, absent the Temple. Point is, Christians and others should not be misled to believe Temple reconstruction is an essential element of the Plan--Bible does not say it is.
Issiah Chapter 18 is a forecast of the return of an ensign to the Temple Mount from Ethiopia; there is a fair case that the Ark of the Covenant is in Ethiopia and its return, coupled with perfection of the purification incidents would provide a backdrop for resumption of the sacrifices on the Temple Mount without reconstruction of a building. "In that day I will raise up the tabernacle of David . . . . " Amos 9:11. It should be noted that the tabernacle of David in which the sacrifices were conducted prior to Construction of the first Temple has been found and although it is in poor repair, it could well be used.
Lots of Kohites around--God certainly knows who they are and can easily find one who is not defiled.
"So we have lots of problems here that must be solved before the Tribulation Period begins. 1. Ethnic Jews, and not merely religious Jews, qualify to inherit the Land of Promise, according to Scripture . . . . "
More nonsense. Where does it say that? Clearly Daniel 9:27 requires the sacrifical worship system to be in place but not for long and not in a Temple; and not in a land where identified Ethnic Jews are located. Although we see the claim for the ethnics who do inhabit the land who have a creditable claim that they are identifiable descendants of Abraham as providing a foundation for the religious worship system contemplated.
Further, nowhere does it say the tribulation does not start prior to resumption of the sacrifices (or the return of Isreal as a nation either for that matter). To the contrary, in the Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24), Jesus tells us what starts the tribulation period and we find nothing there about the the events of Daniel 9:27. What we do find (Matthew 24:5) is the first event of the tribulation period: The appearance of claiments to be Jesus Christ. We have already see that.
We need to be very very careful about engrafting these interpretative views onto God's Word. We need to study the events and facts as they develop and consider their implications in the context of God's Prophetic Program. The Pharisees in John 7:41-52 missed the main event in history because they had a view of the scriptural prophecieis that included a series of interpretative additions not found in the Word.
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