Israel is Not God's Nation 2

By Larry White
03/10

 

“They are not all Israel which are of Israel: Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, but In Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.” (Rom. 9:6-8)

    Paul was a Jew who had believed in Jesus as the Messiah and knew how Jesus fulfilled both the Law and the Prophets. He was dealing with the unbelief of his own countrymen who did not accept Jesus as the Christ. And he was dealing with the revelation that a fulfillment of the promises of God to his ancestors could only be accomplished in the spiritual realm.

The Issue

    Most people in modern denominations today do not think or believe like Paul. They hold to a belief that modern Israel in Palestine is God's chosen nation and that God will fulfill all his promises to their ancestors physically. This doctrine did not come from the scriptures. It is not only inconsistent with Judeo-Christian history, but is in flat contradiction to what Jesus, the Apostles and the Old Testament prophets taught concerning God's children and therefore a lie.
    News item:

    "Some 200 Christian leaders representing hundreds of thousands of Bible-believers from different nations filed into Israel's parliamentary building (the Knesset) Wednesday to ask for forgiveness for centuries of Christian anti-semitism.
    "The gathering organizer, Pastor David Dekker, said the Christians were "honored and very deeply humbled that the Knesset Christian Allies Caucus is here to receive such a special gathering, officially, and in Jerusalem, the capital of the holy land of Israel and the future capital for all of planet earth."
    "What a treasure you are in the sight of our God! You are His chosen -- the 'apple of His eye.'"
<http://web.israelinsider.com/Articles/Politics/11044.htm>

    It gets worse. So called Christian organizations have been infiltrated and subverted by this doctrine to do the bidding of the Zionist Ashkenazim (modern Israel) and are lobbying the US congress against the needs of the American people and for the desires of Israel thinking they are doing God's will.  <http://www.jewsonfirst.org/06bprint/cufi_print.html>

    I had an inquiry come into my website that asked, "Is it true that the Church of Christ is making a stand against Israel?  If so, wouldn't that mean [that] they're not Christians? Because Israel is Gods nation."

    I answered, "The churches of Christ, firstly, do not gather together like a denomination and decide what their doctrine is going to be. So there is no collective "stand" on any particular subject. What they all agree on in principle, is that what they practice and teach must come from the scriptures. 

    Secondly however, and to the point, present day "Israel" is not God's nation. The Zionists who are now over in Palestine, that think they will rule the world, are not even Israel. Israel as a nation ended when God destroyed them in the year AD 70."

  • They have no covenant with God which, is the main issue. Heb. 8
  • They have no temple or priesthood. No one is qualified. Heb. 7
  • They have no sacrifice before God and cannot worship or come near, even if for some reason they wanted to. Heb. 13:10
  • They have no Messiah. There was only one. Acts 7:52
  • They have no heritage or inheritance in the nation of Israel because that nation, like Edom and Moab before it, is no more. None can prove of whom he is the son, so they have no lineage.
  • Their only heritage is Isaiah 65:15.

        "You shall leave your name as a curse to my chosen;
        For the Lord God will slay you,
        And call his servants by another name."

Who are the chosen?

    The Israel of God from the first century onwards are Christians who are even now in the Kingdom of God, (Rom 2:28-29; Gal.6:16; Col.1:13). They are now the New man in Christ Jesus, a New creation with New life, from the New birth, and dwell in the New Jerusalem in the New heavens and the New earth. (Isa. 65:17-18; Heb. 12:22) They worship God in spirit and in truth. God does not recognize any other worship. (Jno.4:24) They partake of the Lord's Supper, New with Jesus in his father's kingdom. (Mt.26:29)

  • The kingdom of God is spiritual. You cannot point to it or walk into it.
  • The children of God are spiritual. They are no longer in the flesh.
  • The New Heavens and the New Earth are spiritual and have already come.
  • The morning star already appeared in the first century and the Day has already dawned. The darkness is past and the true light now shines. (1Jno. 2:8)

    Jehovah said that there will never be another born of Coniah, one of the last kings of Judah, to sit on a throne in Israel. (Jer.22:24-30) That reference is concerning the physical lineage of David. So Jesus cannot ever be a king sitting on a physical throne in Palestine. The Son of Man, the Messiah - Jesus, will never set foot on this earth again. The throne of David is in Heaven on which Jesus sat as King and it will never be on the earth. (Acts 2:33-36) "The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign forever and ever." (Rev. 11:15)

    We must try to stop thinking carnally in the flesh and come to Christ in the spirit, (2Cor 3:17). That is where Christians are. They do not recognize Zionists in present day Palestine as God's people, because God doesn't.

 Power over the clay

    Some might argue, "But how could God reject his covenant people, the Jews?"

    With the understanding that God is always faithful to his covenants, (Yea, let God be true but every man a liar. Rom. 3:3-4) Paul, in Rom 9, uses Egypt as an example.

    God raised up Pharaoh so that he might show his works in him and that his name should be spread over all of the earth.

    The same is true of ancient Israel. In history God raised up Israel for the purpose of revealing himself and his salvation through them. "You are my witnesses" (Isa 43:10; 44:8). Jehovah's witnesses are not the carnal cult members that come to your door. No, it is ancient Israel.

    However, Pharaoh was a hard-hearted, egotistical tyrant. But God used him anyway as a bad example and to further the knowledge among other nations of a real God who actually does something. God knew this beforehand and so used him.

    Likewise, ancient Israel was the most hard-hearted, stiff-necked people among the nations. The Jews had always been against God and his righteousness. They had always fought against his truth and then persecuted and killed those who were following him, (Acts 7:51-53).

The prophet Isaiah stands as a witness of their character forever.

Isa. 30:8-14
"Now go, write it before them on a tablet,
And note it on a scroll,
That it may be for time to come,
Forever and ever:
That this is a rebellious people,
Lying children,
Children who will not hear the law of Jehovah;
Who say to the seers, "Do not see,"
And to the prophets, "Do not prophesy to us right things;
Speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits.
Get out of the way,
Turn aside from the path,
Cause the Holy One of Israel
To cease from before us."

    But God used them anyway - he bore long with them and forgave them seventy times seven - and then forgave them on the cross as they crucified him. They were at once, both the worst and the best examples to the world.

    This is why God calls them spiritually, Sodom and Egypt in the book of Revelation. (Rev. 11:8)

    So we ask, how can God just use his people like that and then throw them away, or punish them for accomplishing his will for him? Paul responds, No, but who are you to contradict him? Then secondly, God did not throw away his people. His people are those who believe. What if God wanted to show mercy on those who believed by enduring those who did not? God endured the Jews for centuries so that the few who believed in Israel would be saved. 

“Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea,
The remnant will be saved.

    Paul himself was a believing Jew and so not rejected. The real chosen of God were all those who came to Christ Jesus. From Israel there were relatively few, just in the thousands. In Revelation, they are shown as the 144 thousand and therefore just a remnant of the whole. God saves those that believe, whether Jew or Gentile, bond or free, male or female. And so, all of spiritual Israel would be saved. (Rom. 11:26) God did not cast away his people.

Does that make us better than the ancient Jews?

(Rom. 3:9)
    "What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin."

(Rom. 11:32-36)
For God has shut up all men in disobedience, that he might have mercy on all.
    Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out!

“For who has known the mind of the Lord?
       Or who has become his counselor?”
 “Or who has first given to him
       And it shall be repaid to him?”

For of him and through him and to him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.

LW

Part One

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