Israel In Prophecy: Vol 2
Christ is the reason we are now at peace. He made us Jews and you who are not Jews one people. We were separated by a wall of hate that stood between us, but Christ broke down that wall. By giving his own body, Christ ended the law with its many commands and rules. His purpose was to make the two groups become one in him. By doing this he would make peace. Through the cross Christ ended the hate between the two groups. And after they became one body, he wanted to bring them both back to God. He did this with his death on the cross. Christ came and brought the message of peace to you non-Jews who were far away from God. And he brought that message of peace to those who were near to God. Yes, through Christ we all have the right to come to the Father in one Spirit. So now you non-Jewish people are not visitors or strangers, but you are citizens together with God’s holy people. You belong to God’s family. (Eph 2:14-19)
Paul’s theology of Old Testament history is determined by his faith experience with the risen and glorified Christ Jesus.
In other words the full sense of The Old Testament Scriptures and types can only be properly understood by believers today from the position of faith in Christ. From the position of the cross in our lived experience. (Gal 6:14, Eph 2:13, Rev 12:10-11)
There is one great central truth to be kept ever before the mind in the searching of the Scriptures–Christ and Him crucified. Every other truth is invested with influence and power corresponding to its relation to this theme. The soul palsied by sin can be endowed with life only through the work wrought out upon the cross by the Author of our salvation. {FLB 50.2}
This is why Paul says in Gal 6:14 “God for I’d that I glory save in the cross of Jesus Christ my Lord.”
As Paul declared of his then Jewish contemporaries:
But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart. Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away.
Paul was clear in several ways, and he revealed in Scripture how that literal nation of Israel is not going to be complete without many others from other countries and cultures. 2 Corinthians 3:14-16 (KJV)This is why the Bible always talks about “every nation, kindred,tongue,and people when it talks about “the everlasting gospel.” (Rev 14:6-7,Rev 5:9, Acts 3:25,Mat 24:14, Dan 7:14,Psalms 67:2, Gen 22:18)
Paul stated in Rom 9:6
” its not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel:” (Rom 9:6)
Many Christians adhere to an Israel Theology in the form of a rigid, inflexible system, closed to new information or more accurate facts. Presenting us all with a major puzzle. Such are stoically insting on a hardened view regarding their tortuous dichotomy of Israel and the church. They insist on their version of a “Biblical” classification that they say is made up of two opposing parts. (dichotomy) In this type of world view regarding Israel, the Church, and Bible prophecy, the Church really, can only hope for Heaven. While Israel, can only hope, apparently, for “Palestine” as their respective eternal inheritance. Yet the Bible says
If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most miserable. (1 Cor 15:9)
Stand With Israel adherents provide no hope for the future life, as they clamor about with their dogmatic, sometimes very militant tortuous views on Israel in Bible Prophecy. It is easy to support their views by scripture alone. But not when they take just one or two texts in isolation from the rest of the Bible. “The rest of The Bible” tells us quite a different story as we have already seen above. Jesus Himself always taught that
And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. (Mat 24:14)
Jesus said that before he returns, the Good News about the Kingdom (the message of salvation) would be preached throughout the world. Not just to the literal nation of Israel. The Bible is clear when it says
“every nation, kindred, tongue, and people.”
THAT my friends includes both Palestinians and literal Israel, Gentiles and everyone in between.
This was the disciples’ mission—and it is ours today. Jesus talked about the end times and final judgment to show his followers the urgency of spreading the Good News of salvation to everyone. All countries. All kingdoms. Every language. No one will be left out according to the everlasting gospel! Jesus said that before he returns, the Good News about the Kingdom (the message of salvation) would be preached throughout the world. This was the disciples’ mission—and it is ours today. Jesus talked about the end times and final judgment to show us all today the urgency of spreading the Good News of salvation to everyone who receives Jesus. (John 1:12)
In Scripture we are told how Jeremiah had related what God promised Israel. Israel was and is promised “a new covenant” whereby each Israelite would be able to know Jesus personally, through the forgiveness of sins. (Jer 31:31-34) The cross was central to ancient Israel as well. (Gen 3:15, Isa 45:24-25, Gal 6:14, Eph 2:13). God did/does state one main condition for this promise. You see, in The Old Covenant, so called, God gave the ten commandments, and the people responded by sayin “all that you have said Lord, we will do.” (Exodus 19:8) But when the people utterly failed to keep their promise, God put into play “a better promise” (Heb 8:6) That “better promise is found in Jeremiah:
But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. (Jer 31:33)
The people, in trying to promise something they could not deliver, showed how they had serious “I” trouble. They wanted to be like God by trying to do what God would have to do. God’s reply was to direct them to the promise that he Himself would write His law on our hearts. This is the very gospel blessing that Jesus offers to both Jew and Gentile. Through the cross, the resurrection, and and His exaltation as The King Of Israel. (Acts 5:31). All. “Every nation, kindred, tongue, and people,” are welcome to partake of this “precious promise.” (2 Pet 1:3-4)
Today, Christians around the world look for a “better promise” than any literal country here on earth:
All these great people continued living with faith until they died. They did not get the things God promised his people. But they were happy just to see those promises coming far in the future. They accepted the fact that they were like visitors and strangers here on earth. When people accept something like that, they show they are waiting for a country that will be their own. If they were thinking about the country they had left, they could have gone back. But they were waiting for a better country—a heavenly country. So God is not ashamed to be called their God. And he has prepared a city for them. (Heb 11:13-16, ERV)