Posted on 06/16/2014 8:44:24 PM PDT by Graybeard58
BALTIMORE (BP) -- Misunderstandings of God's plan for Israel abound among evangelicals, and correcting them is a key aspect of teaching biblical doctrine, Bruce Stokes said during the Southern Baptist Messianic Fellowship meeting in Baltimore.
"You have to keep Israel central to everything you do, or you're going to wander away from the text," Stokes, SBMF vice president and pastor of the DiscipleCenter in Anaheim Hills, Calif., said.
Joining Stokes as a speaker at the gathering was Michael Herts, SBMF missions development manager and founding leader of B'nai Avraham Messianic Fellowship in Hampton, Va. In a business session, the current officers were re-elected: Ric Worshill, president; Stokes, vice president and director of missions; and Herts, missions development manager.
The meeting theme of "Kingdom Purpose" encouraged Messianic Jews (Jews who follow Jesus as Messiah) to share the Gospel with Jewish people and others.
A common misconception in Christian theology is that the church replaces Israel as the people of God under the new covenant, Stokes said, a doctrine known as replacement theology. Instead, a series of covenants unfold in Scripture like a "blooming flower," he said, and ethnic Israel plays a role in all of the covenants -- from God's covenant with Noah to His covenants with Abraham, Moses and David and the new covenant.
Neither the theological system known as dispensationalism nor the system known as covenant theology accurately describes the unfolding covenants, Stokes said.
The covenants are "like a flower that's blooming, and the roots are that Noahic covenant," Stokes said June 7 at the Hilton Baltimore. "Then the Abrahamic gives expression, and then the Mosaic gives expression, then the Davidic. It just grows until they all bloom into fullness in the culmination of the age and then are superseded by the new covenant that brought them all together."
Another common misconception is that God saved His people by works under the old covenant but saves them by grace under the new covenant, Stokes said. He explained that both covenants involve salvation by grace followed by obedience as an expression of worship by grateful people.
"I don't understand where the idea of salvation through obedience to the law of Moses ever came from," Stokes said. "I can't find it in the text, but it's shot through Christianity big-time. It would be different if in Exodus, Moses walked in and said, 'Here are the commandments of God. If you'll obey them, I'll get you out of Egypt.' But he didn't. [God] got them out of Egypt by the blood of the lamb based on a promise He made to Abraham.... Then after delivering them, He said, 'Here's how I want you to live.'"
Yet another misconception among Christians is that there are 10 "lost tribes" of Israel -- the 10 northern tribes that were taken into captivity by the Assyrians, Stokes said.
The 10 northern tribes never made it home from Assyria and were dispersed among the nations. But biblical prophecy says all Israel will be part of God's Kingdom at the end of history, leading some to speculate that the "lost" tribes ended up in England, the U.S. and other locations.
Stokes said the tribes aren't really "lost" and members of each are among Jews today. He compared the Assyrian exile to a hypothetical scenario in which everyone in the states of California, Arizona and Nevada is carried off to captivity. Such a captivity would not eliminate Californians, Arizonans and Nevadans from America because "there are Californians, Arizonans and Nevadans all in the other states," Stokes said. He explained that similarly, there were members of the 10 northern tribes living in Judah.
"There are no 10 lost tribes," Stokes said.
From beginning to end, the Bible is the story of the holy God gathering His holy people in a holy land, Stokes said. Knowing that story line helps believers understand every book of the Bible and how Israel fits into it, he said
Illegal aliens claim they are morally legal too. Grafted INTO Israel, not the other way around. You want Jews to become Gentiles.
Answer St. Paul.
Those who wish to maintain a dual covenant, as well as being contrary to Scripture, confuse Israel with the Mosaic covenant. Israel existed before the Law of Moses. Indeed, the Law of Moses was a modification of the covenant that God already had with Israel. This covenant was again modified by God with the covenant with David. The final modification and fulfillment of the covenant was with Jesus Christ through whom both Jews and gentiles are called to salvation. Israel existed before the Law of Moses and continues to exist today in Jesus Christ after the Law of Moses.
So this is why you're so solicitous of the poor "oppressed" Arabs.
Some people have absolutely no Biblical sentimentalism whatsoever.
I have faith in Jesus Christ, the savior of Jews and gentiles alike, not sentimentalism.
But legal immigrants who go through the naturalization process become American citizens, whose citizenship is not inferior to those who were born citizens. Just like those who are baptized enter into the Church, and are not inferior to those who entered before them.
Consider Romans 11
17And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree; 18Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. 19Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in. 20Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: 21For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. 22Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. 23And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in again. 24For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own olive tree?How else to interpret this, than for it to mean that those who were baptized have been grafted into Israel? And who were the branches that were broken off of Israel, if not those Israelites who rejected Jesus?
Are you referring to the Pharisees that Jesus had so much to say about?
Not "disobedience", but failure to "bear fruit", a theme that runs throughout the Gospels. For example John 15 and Luke 13.
>> “Dispensationalism is a term that arose in church history to label certain Christians who believe a group of certain things that are taught in the Bible.” <<
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Sorry!
That is total falsehood.
What dispys believe is nowhere to be found in the Bible.
They invent an “age of Grace” that if it exists runs from Adam to the final resurrection unto death.
All are under Grace.
Dispys distort what grace is so that they can invent an instantaneous “eternal security” that belies every word of Yeshua and his apostles.
They also invent a “rapture” that is secret, and not dependent upon the requirements that are plainly stated by Yeshua and Paul for the First resurrection.
Ice mixes things in that are not even at issue to those that see through the Dispy hoax. This is obviously intended to confuse the reader.
>> Luther reinvented Paul by reinventing language and replacing Israel with a theological monstrosity called “the church.” <<
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That much I definitely agree with.
There is no ‘church’ to be found in the Bible. Yeshua spoke of his “assembly” to his disciples, which assembly is indiscernible except to God.
Paul did not continue keeping the “traditions” after he was called by Yeshua on the Damascus road. Yeshua completely demolished each and every one of those traditions during his 70 week ministry on Earth. Everything about them was a violation of the prohibition against adding or subtracting from Torah.
It was the false law of traditions of the Pharisees that Paul scorned in his epistles. It was the law that could not be borne, that each of the apostles denounced vigorously.
Read the “woes” that Yeshua declared to the scribes and pharisees in Matthew 23; they are comprehensive!
Each of Yeshua’s miracles was a deliberate demolition of one of the Pharisees’ Takanot.
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The “branches” that were broken off were broken off long before Yeshua was born.
The biggest was Dan, from whose lineage will come the “antichrist.”
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>> “Unfortunately, Replacement Theology is just simply full of holes in theology.” <<
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Yes, but that can be said of all “theology.”
Theology is in every case invented by men.
It is words that cannot be found in the scriptures, or they would never have had to be written down.
There is Religion/Theology, and there is the plain word of Yehova, and never can the two coexist.
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Some people have absolutely no Biblical sentimentalism whatsoever.
I have faith in Jesus Christ, the savior of Jews and gentiles alike, not sentimentalism.
Catholics and Orthodox have faith in J*sus because their churches tell them to. Fundamentalist Protestants have faith in J*sus because their bible tells them to. In both cases the sources of this faith is considered self-authorized, self-authenticating, and self-evidently true. In both cases they are wrong.
Of all the peoples and religions in the world, from the most ancient times down to today and for all time to come, only the Jews believe in the Torah because G-d told them to--directly, with no mediator or go-between.
Judaism was authorized by G-d. Other religions authorize their "gxds."
For what it's worth, I also disagree with the Vatican's double-talking endorsement of a "dual covenant." They don't really mean it (else they'd see the coming restoration of Biblical Israel as something to be welcomed as the Will of G-d); rather they use it as an excuse to promote religious relativism and indifference.
“A common misconception in Christian theology is that the church replaces Israel”I have never heard that line of preaching in a main stream Christian church
It's a common caricature.
For a recent (and ignored) thread on this: The Church and Israel in the New Testament.
Protestant churches I have attended do not preach this. I have no idea what Romans say.
By all means, you should read Paul's epistle to the Romans. It's foundational.
The following Scriptures help us to understand what God considers to be "Israel":
Careful. That kind of stuff can get you hissed at around here.
You want Jews to become Gentiles.
We want them to become Christians. Outside of Christ, there is no lasting good.
That’s okay. They did worse than that to the apostle Paul when he preached this same gospel.
Makes sense if you deny the divinity of Jesus. Otherwise, I believe in the Bible because God directly taught the apostles, who wrote letters and taught their successors. I don't believe in Jesus because a book tells me to. I believe in Jesus because I believe the Bible is an authentic (and authenticated) testament of those who God told to believe and teach.
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