Study – Grow – Know

Israel: God’s Chosen Nation Yesterday and Into the Millennium

November 16, 2016 at 7:17 PM 2 comments

I’m constantly amazed at how people today – especially those who claim the name Christian – are so quick to condemn the Jews of Israel. It’s not so much that they simply condemn them, but they also castigate people like me who believe the Scriptures teach that one day, God will pull His final remnant from Jews living during the last seven years of this age and those Jews who survive the Tribulation will go into and fulfill the promises first given to Abraham (Genesis 12, 15 & 17), regarding inhabiting all the Land that God originally set aside for Israel.

Because I believe that God actually has a plan yet to be fulfilled with some Jewish individuals who will represent Israel in its final form during the coming Millennial Kingdom over which our Lord Jesus will physically reign, I am told point-blank that I am blind and wrong. I am told I should stop teaching that the Jews are God’s chosen people.

The reality is that the Jews were and are God’s chosen people…as a nation. The Jews of today who do not know Jesus are no different from the Jews during Moses’ day, who never exhibited faith in Jehovah. Then they were corrupt, stubborn, blind, evil, lawless, cheaters, idolators, and worse! Yet, God took them, created a nation of them, blessed them and from that chosen nation, brought the Deliverer into the world. If one reads the Old Testament carefully, it is very clear that most Jews who were part of the nation of Israel were not dedicated to God at all. They merely wanted a free ride out of Egypt, but when things got tough, how quickly they wanted to go back!

Paul comments on this in Romans 10 and also in 11:1-10. Is it any wonder that the nation was constantly in and out of favor with God and often on the receiving end of His judgment and wrath? The Jews in general have a notoriously stubborn streak in them that refuses to bow to Jehovah, which is why God said through Isaiah, “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men” (Isaiah 29:13; ESV). The same situation exists today for most Jews whether in or out of Israel.

However, within that originally formed nation was a remnant of believers and the only reason some were spared from destruction is because they were the remnant. Look how often Israel was overcome by neighboring nations because of their propensity to disobey God, flagrantly worship idols, and essentially live like pagans. Consider how many times it seemed as though only one or two Jews were alive who continued to serve God, while all the others ignored Him. Yet, in spite of all these things, God continued to bless the nation and some individual Jews within that nation. It is the exact same thing today.

The arguments used to try to correct what some believe is my error concerning Israel and Jews are given by people who are often Jewish themselves and who have also received salvation in Jesus. I am very grateful for their conversion from the dead faith of Judaism to the truth of Christianity. Like all other people who receive Jesus as Savior, they have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness to God’s wonderful Kingdom of Light (Colossians 1:13). However, they seem to have not one ounce of care or concern for other Jews who remain in Satan’s camp! Those Jews also need Jesus and who better to tell them of their need except fellow Jews who have become Christians? Yet, all they can do is complain that the “Jews” living in Israel today are “fake” Jews. What does that have to do with anything? Are they in need of salvation or not?

The method of salvation for everyone – regardless of whether they are Jewish or Gentile, male or female, slave or free – is perpetually the same. All must come to a saving knowledge of Jesus and understand that it is by faith alone in Christ alone that one gains salvation. It is not by works or anything a person can do (Ephesians 2:8-10). It is through faith and that faith must rest only in the ever Faithful One, Jesus Himself. A person who comes to realize this and confesses their need for Jesus as Savior receives eternal life (Romans 10:9-10), regardless of ethnicity or gender.

Salvation has always been available by faith alone (Hebrews 11), because without faith, it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6).

Salvation, from the start, has never been through the sacrificial system or rituals associated with the nation of Israel. God revealed these things to Moses so that the Israelites (a people who were to be a light to all nations, but failed miserably and continue to fail today), would come to recognize that in the coming Messiah, the law would be fulfilled and He would bear the iniquity of all (Isaiah 53:6). Those who believe that and place their faith in Him, receive full forgiveness for their sin and become new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17).

There is only one salvation and that salvation is received only one way; that is through faith.

Anyone alive today who dies without having placed their faith in Jesus for salvation, dies in their sin and sorrowfully will spend eternity apart from God in what we learn is called the Lake of Fire (Revelation 19:20; 20:14). This applies to all people, whether Jewish, Gentile, male, female, slave, or free.

Yet, the conundrum at least for some is when they read my articles or hear my audio messages talking about how God still has a plan for Israel. They become confused because they think that I am teaching that if a person is alive today and Jewish, then they get special treatment simply because they are Jewish. I am teaching no such thing! There is no special treatment for anyone apart from their faith that is placed directly in Jesus, whether Jewish or Gentile.

All Jews who are alive today and who die without acknowledging Jesus as God the Son and fail to receive the salvation that is available in Him only, die in their sin. It doesn’t matter if that Jewish person is the Prime Minister of Israel or the lowliest servant of that country. The same need that exists for Gentiles also exists for Jews. All people – regardless of heritage – need Jesus.

What I find fascinating as well is how many today (both Gentile Christians and Jewish Christians), are so quick to condemn the Jews of Israel today and the nation itself. They try to direct my attention to Wikipedia and other sources on the ‘Net to prove just how bad and corrupt the Jewish leadership of Israel is and they wonder why I cannot see that. Yet, these same individuals have nothing bad to say and no condemnation for the Muslims who spend their days planning attacks against Jews and Christians. For many, the fault lies solely with the Jews of Israel and no one else. That is not the way God sees it.

The reality does not change. Any Jewish person today (like any Gentile person), who fails to surrender their lives to Jesus in exchange for the salvation that only He provides is on the road to hell. Make no mistake about that. When each person is born into this life, they are on their way to hell. Only through being awakened to the fact that they need salvation and realize the only One who can grant it is Jesus, will they have opportunity to be saved from hell and then only by placing their faith in the completed work of Jesus. This applies to Jews and it applies to Gentiles, period.

This world is moving very quickly (in my estimation), to the coming Tribulation. I’m not sure how things will play out with a Trump Administration, but I cannot imagine it making a difference. Things will unroll as God’s plans and timing decrees. Before this world knows it, the Tribulation will be upon us. Between now and then, millions of individuals will come to the end of their lives here on earth (and millions more during those seven years!). Those who have trusted Jesus for salvation (whether Jew or Gentile), will immediately be found in His Presence (2 Corinthians 5:8), upon their deaths. Those who have not trusted Jesus in this life for salvation, will wake to a horrible fate, after this life. I shudder.

However, when the Tribulation begins (Daniel 9:27) following the covenant that the coming man of sin (2 Thessalonians 2) contrives between the leaders of Israel and the surrounding Arab nations, many Jews will come to believe that their day has finally come. This is in spite of everything we learn about these last days in the Old Testament that outlines the plans God has for the nation that He created. The Jews are not paying attention to the very words of God in their own Scriptures!

Remember please, God has always dealt with Israel as one body. Individual Jews have come and gone and those who have never trusted Jesus as Savior do not join Him in Paradise in the next life. However, the nation of Israel as an entity and the Land that God first promised to Abraham remains.

During the coming Tribulation period, God will deal with Israel mano-a-mano and from the Jews living during those seven years, He will cull from them His final remnant. It will be this final remnant that will endure through God’s grace, protection, and strength (Revelation 12:13-17), and live to physically enter into the Millennial Kingdom because it will be during the time of the Tribulation that they will come to learn the truth about their Messiah, Jesus. They, like millions before them (Jews and Gentiles), will finally have their blinders removed by God Himself (Romans 11), will see the truth and embrace Jesus as Savior. They will, therefore, become Jewish Christians through the new birth, or being born again (John 3).

When I speak of supporting Israel, I’m speaking of supporting God’s plan for Israel. I am very well aware that the Jewish leaders of today in Israel are not Christians. For the most part, they are not even orthodox Jews (which cannot save them anyway). They are social or political Jews only. Yet, at the same time, I also firmly believe that God is using these individuals to “hold the place” for the Jews who will be called out as part of God’s final remnant that will make up the final faithful Jews of Israel.

Individuals living now who are Jewish and Christian are part of Christ’s Body, the Church, just as all Gentiles who become Christians are as well. Jews who become Christian are not part of Israel. Only those Jews living during the Tribulation period who receive salvation through Christ at that time will become part of the final remnant of the nation of Israel.

People ask me how I can support the nation of Israel? I ask them how they can support Muslims who worship Allah, who is a false god? Where is their condemnation for Islam? Why are they simply angry with Jews? I understand that Jews are often very stiff-necked and stubborn (I’ve had some very interesting conversations with orthodox Jews that didn’t necessarily end well because of their molten anger toward Christians). Yet, none of that matters because God has His plan that is continuing behind the scenes and when the timing is right, it will come to fruition.

During the Tribulation period, I also believe the Bible teaches that another Jewish Temple will be built and into this temple the Antichrist will waltz where he will do a repeat of what Antiochus Epiphanes IV did in 168 BC, by desecrating that temple. Just because the Jews are allowed (somehow) to build another temple on the Temple Mount, does that mean God approves of it or accepts their sacrifices? Not at all. So why would God allow this to happen?

God allows it to happen because it literally brings Satan out into the open! 2 Thessalonians 2:4 tells us how that will happen.

He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.

In order for the Antichrist to do what Paul says he will do, there must be another temple. It will be Satan declaring through his spiritual son – the Antichrist – that he is GOD. God allows this because the entire world will see it and since that open act of public defiance will be seen by the entire world, it gives God the opportunity to “dethrone” Satan just as publicly when Jesus returns.

It is this act though perpetrated by Antichrist that also warns Jews living at that time that they’ve been had. You can read more about this in the Olivet Discourse of Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21. This is why there, Jesus warns that they should pray their betrayal (by the Antichrist) does not happen in the winter, etc., because they will need to run to the hills. There, the Lord will protect them from Antichrist and Antichrist will then turn his attention to those Gentiles who have become Christians during this same period of time (Revelation 12).

All people living today – whether Jewish or Gentile – are in the same boat if they are not saved. That boat is heading toward hell and in order to avoid hell, each person on that boat must get off of it and that can only be done by exercising faith in the finished work of Jesus. There is no other way.

But should Christians support Israel? We should absolutely support what God is doing and will continue to do in Israel. It is coming to a head and by God’s grace, He will pull many Jews from the path they are on and those will become part of the final remnant that will make up Israel during the Millennial Kingdom. God’s covenantal promises will come to fruition.

I’m really tired of the anti-Semitism that not only exists today, but is growing in seemingly immeasurable numbers within the Christian community. It is all based on a false understanding of what the Bible teaches, in my opinion. There is never any room to hate Jews and I find it fascinating when Jews who have become Christians seem to harbor a hatred for other Jews and it’s bad enough when Christians do that. These folks clearly do not understand what Paul is talking about in Romans 9 – 11, but they certainly think they do. They exhibit no love for unsaved Jews, they extend no olive branch to them, nor do they seem to care that these people need Jesus. All they care about is that they are somehow “fake” Jews. Regardless of whether or not they are fake Jews, they absolutely without doubt need Jesus!

If you disagree with me, then I would strongly suggest you spend some time studying Romans chapters 9 – 11 and especially the end of Romans 11. The outline there is very simple yet stark. It is eye-opening and speaks of God’s future plan for Israel as a nation.

Israel was a nation created by God, unlike any other nation before or since (including America). Jews were specifically created to form that nation of Israel and essentially became God’s chosen people. Simply because the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is behind us does not negate their chosen stature. God has a plan for what will become the final remnant that will inhabit the Land originally promised to Abraham. In fact, the coming final remnant will be the first and only group making up the nation of Israel who will actually enjoy all the Land and the Lord Himself will be there – ruling with a rod of iron – to ensure that happens.

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