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I've noticed that throughout Scripture, God will discipline His children, and we will frequently interpret that discipine from the perspective of receiving it as being His wrath. On the contrary, many unbelievers receive His mercy in a seemingly disproportionate fashion to our blessings if one is looking at purely worldly and fleshly perspectives.

In His policy of grace, He nearly always warns those He is about to destroy or heavily discipline. That merciful and graceful method of warning always affords the degenerate believer an opportunity to return to Him.

We frequently associate the endtimes tribulation on the Jewish nation and identify that nation with today's Israel. However, frequently God's recorded discipline of Israel is focused upon those who were believers rather than disbelieving people in Israel.

Since now is the Age of Grace, and time of the Gentiles surrounding Israel, IMHO, Gentile nations will probably make many of the same blunders as did Israel throughout the Old Testament, as a testimony to the angels of unfinished business regarding the old sin nature, and as a predecessor of a time when Satan is unbound for but a short time and later cast into the bottomless pit.

In all of this, I don't see the import of an unbelieving Israel, as much as the grace and discipline of a believing Israel. Likewise, Gentiles are still discernible from the Jews from their Abrahamic heritage.

I suspect the doctrines of justification, regeneration, redemption, propitiation, repentence, reconciliation, and spirituality all play a major role not only in the times of Gentiles, but in displaying to humans and angelic beings alike, His plan, perfect justice and perfect righteouness in His past decisions and even more future plans for all eternity.

My intuition is that many of the aspects of Prophecy which are frequently associated with worldly perspectives are beeter understood from spritual perspecives, BUT that spiritual perspective is also quite literal in a physical and soulish sense. I believe most of our problems with Prophecy is due to slipping back into our scarred thinking from the old man, rather than remaining in faith with Him in all things and allowing Him to guide us accordingly.

GB