For The Record
As the War-Of-Terror has escalated to Israel with the terror attacks by Hezbollah with Katuysha rockets fired from Lebanon, it is time to establish a certain position that may not have been made known from my previous writings. I completely support Israel as a sovereign nation and support the Jewish people as the distinct and "chosen" people of God. As goes the Jews, so goes the Gentiles. Abraham is the father of the Jewish race and Moses is the father of the Jewish nation and this dichotomy is completely intertwined with their future in the years to come.
As a Christian, as an Ambassador in Christ, it gives me the greatest pleasure to inform you that God's promises given to both Abraham and Moses concerning the Jewish/Israeli heritage is still extant, not extinct as some might have you believe. The first Christians were Jews. The first persecutors of Christians were Jews. As Christianity spread from Jerusalem and into Asia Minor and then on into the Roman Empire, the Gentiles would embrace Christianity and ultimately Gentiles themselves would come to persecute Christians. For nearly 2000 years now we have been in an era known as the Church Age in which Christianity has been the primary vehicle of evangilization throughout the world. This really should have been the Age of Israel but because they rejected their Messiah, that age has been put in a form of stasis if you will preserved for another time.
Salvation has always been predicated on the power of God to do all the work for you. The mechanics of salvation is based on one's non-meritorious act of faith in the Lord and that the Lord is Jesus Christ who is the only visible member of the Godhead. By acknowledging your allegiance to him through faith then God the Father can impute to your soul his own seal of approval, divine righteousness. This imputation of divine righteousness has always been the way of salvation since Adam and Eve. However, since the fall of Adam and Eve some 6000 years ago, man has taken upon himself the work of salvation by vainly and arrogantly creating his own version of divine righteousness, not by accepting the imputation from God but by substitution - he has returned the free gift of God and has declared his own self-righteousness as the basis of propitiation.
God therefore created a separate royal family to proclaim the way of the Lord. Israel was established for the glory of God and as God's human heralds proclaiming the necessity of repentance from sin and salvation in the Lord for an eternal heavenly relationship. And yet, slowly and over time Israel would come to neglect the Grace of God and wander away from their divine mission. The Apostle Paul writes:
1Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. 2For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. 3Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. 4Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes...
16But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our message?"[h] 17Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ. 18But I ask: Did they not hear? Of course they did: "Their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world."[i] 19Again I ask: Did Israel not understand? First, Moses says, "I will make you envious by those who are not a nation; I will make you angry by a nation that has no understanding."[j] 20And Isaiah boldly says, "I was found by those who did not seek me; I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me."[k] 21But concerning Israel he says, "All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people."[l] Romans 10
Does this mean because the Jews rejected Christ as their savior and king that God will not keep his promises to Israel? The Jewish reaction to God is no different than the Gentile reaction to God and thus Gentiles must not assume that they are better than the Jew nor has the Church replaced Israel or inherited their promises. The Apostle Paul continues:
1I ask then: Did God reject his people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. 2God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew. Don't you know what the Scripture says in the passage about ElijahÂhow he appealed to God against Israel: 3"Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me"[a]? 4And what was God's answer to him? "I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal."[b] 5So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. 6And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.[c] ...
25I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. 26And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written:"The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. 27And this is[f] my covenant with them when I take away their sins."[g]
28As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies on your account; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, 29for God's gifts and his call are irrevocable. 30Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, 31so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now[h] receive mercy as a result of God's mercy to you. 32For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all. Romans 11
Over time, God has created two distinct royal families united by the imputation of divine righteousness and connected to each other by Jesus Christ. The Age of the Church will come to a close and the Age of Israel will resume with the Second Advent of Christ. The Catholic Church nor the Mohammedan can claim the promises of God that are distinctly given to Israel. They are indeed irrevocable. The Church and the Jew therefore have a destiny they will share together and compliment each other in their own order as set forth by God.
May God continue to bless Israel.
As a Christian, as an Ambassador in Christ, it gives me the greatest pleasure to inform you that God's promises given to both Abraham and Moses concerning the Jewish/Israeli heritage is still extant, not extinct as some might have you believe. The first Christians were Jews. The first persecutors of Christians were Jews. As Christianity spread from Jerusalem and into Asia Minor and then on into the Roman Empire, the Gentiles would embrace Christianity and ultimately Gentiles themselves would come to persecute Christians. For nearly 2000 years now we have been in an era known as the Church Age in which Christianity has been the primary vehicle of evangilization throughout the world. This really should have been the Age of Israel but because they rejected their Messiah, that age has been put in a form of stasis if you will preserved for another time.
Salvation has always been predicated on the power of God to do all the work for you. The mechanics of salvation is based on one's non-meritorious act of faith in the Lord and that the Lord is Jesus Christ who is the only visible member of the Godhead. By acknowledging your allegiance to him through faith then God the Father can impute to your soul his own seal of approval, divine righteousness. This imputation of divine righteousness has always been the way of salvation since Adam and Eve. However, since the fall of Adam and Eve some 6000 years ago, man has taken upon himself the work of salvation by vainly and arrogantly creating his own version of divine righteousness, not by accepting the imputation from God but by substitution - he has returned the free gift of God and has declared his own self-righteousness as the basis of propitiation.
God therefore created a separate royal family to proclaim the way of the Lord. Israel was established for the glory of God and as God's human heralds proclaiming the necessity of repentance from sin and salvation in the Lord for an eternal heavenly relationship. And yet, slowly and over time Israel would come to neglect the Grace of God and wander away from their divine mission. The Apostle Paul writes:
1Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. 2For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. 3Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. 4Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes...
16But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our message?"[h] 17Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ. 18But I ask: Did they not hear? Of course they did: "Their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world."[i] 19Again I ask: Did Israel not understand? First, Moses says, "I will make you envious by those who are not a nation; I will make you angry by a nation that has no understanding."[j] 20And Isaiah boldly says, "I was found by those who did not seek me; I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me."[k] 21But concerning Israel he says, "All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people."[l] Romans 10
Does this mean because the Jews rejected Christ as their savior and king that God will not keep his promises to Israel? The Jewish reaction to God is no different than the Gentile reaction to God and thus Gentiles must not assume that they are better than the Jew nor has the Church replaced Israel or inherited their promises. The Apostle Paul continues:
1I ask then: Did God reject his people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. 2God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew. Don't you know what the Scripture says in the passage about ElijahÂhow he appealed to God against Israel: 3"Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me"[a]? 4And what was God's answer to him? "I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal."[b] 5So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. 6And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.[c] ...
25I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. 26And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written:"The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. 27And this is[f] my covenant with them when I take away their sins."[g]
28As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies on your account; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, 29for God's gifts and his call are irrevocable. 30Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, 31so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now[h] receive mercy as a result of God's mercy to you. 32For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all. Romans 11
Over time, God has created two distinct royal families united by the imputation of divine righteousness and connected to each other by Jesus Christ. The Age of the Church will come to a close and the Age of Israel will resume with the Second Advent of Christ. The Catholic Church nor the Mohammedan can claim the promises of God that are distinctly given to Israel. They are indeed irrevocable. The Church and the Jew therefore have a destiny they will share together and compliment each other in their own order as set forth by God.
May God continue to bless Israel.
posted by Bruce R. McConnell | 9:30 AM
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