There is much confusion in the Christian church,concerning what exactly God promised us, as members of the Body of Christ.
You often hear God promised us prosperity, or healing, or..well, so many things, When those were the promises to Abraham and his descendants. Genesis 15 6Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness. 7He also said to him, “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.” 8But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?” 9So the Lord said to him, “Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.” 10Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half. 11Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away. 12As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. 13Then the Lord said to him, “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. 14But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. 15You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. 16In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.” 17When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. 18On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadie of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates— 19the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, 21Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebus Abraham was promised land and descendants. These are physical promises. Later,building on this, we hear of a Messiah.. a King of the line of David, to rule the whole world, Jerusalem as the jewel of the word, peace and safety for Jews. There is one other thing...Abraham had nothing to do with making this covenant. God put him to sleep! God made the promises, to Abraham, God, eternal, unchanging, holy. John the Baptist, Jesus and the disciples preached..the Kingdom, Repent and be born again, for the Kingdom is at hand.Peter was still teaching this at the end of his life..the Kingdom was imminent, though he also says Paul's preaching was scriptural.He was still preaching to Jews at he end of his life (so was John, That's a whole nother article) 1 Peter 2:12Conduct yourselves with such honor among the Gentiles that, though they slander you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us. 13Submit yourselves Peter states that the letters of Paul are scripture 2 Peter 3;15Consider also that our Lord’s patience brings salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom God gave him. 16He writes this way in all his letters, speaking in them about such matters. Some parts of his letters are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.… Peter was shown that Gentiles would be saved. He was resistant..to put it mildly. Acts 15 9“The voice spoke from heaven a second time, ‘Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.’ 10This happened three times, and then it was all pulled up to heaven again. But even he, I think never grasped what Paul was, this Apostle to the Gentiles.It didn;t fit with the belief in the Kingdom, the Jewish Kingdom. Citizens of heaven? Ambassadors for Christ? a people called out by God himself? Sealed by the Holy Spirit? As for Paul.. Acts 9;15 But the Lord said to him, "Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel. This is a total break with the Kingdom message. That this age of grace would last 2,000 years, even Paul did not know, God only shows His plan as we need. That God would bring salvation to any who believed , a free gift, something even the Jews had not had...this was impossible. Paul always went to the synagogue first, presenting the good news of Christ and Him Risen. there were combined churches and strictly Jew or Gentile churches, Jews had the Word, the Torah, for teaching (until the Apostles finally began to write down and send out their letters), Gentiles had no preconception of being special to God.It was, actually...perfect. So, Satan tempted Jesus, made sure he died..bringing about the resurrection, something he could not foresee,. and when the Jews stuck to their guns, by and large rejecting the resurrection of Jesus once it was clear he would not bring in the Kingdom at that moment, God proceeded with their second diaspora, and gave Paul the commission to seek out Gentiles, Abraham's descendants would be a light unto the Gentiles, no matter how they resisted. But the first thread, the first covenant, was never lost. The promises stand. In one generation we have seen Israel become a nation, Hebrew become a language again, and Jerusalem under Jewish control. And the world has gone crazy trying to harm , divide the land, control, or destroy Israel. Instead of jumping up and down in joy that God fulfills his promises, Christians have dismissed, joined movements against, and vilified Jews, the anti semitism runs deep.So we make the same mistake,wanting to be the only children of God, Jealous of our territory. How sad. Here is the thing, all the prophecy about the "end times" concerns..the Jews and Israel.The message that is preached, is the Kingdom, Not Grace.Once the time of wrath begins, the supernatural manifestations of God begin, just as Satan's do The whole thing is kicked off by a government and a man who make a covenant with Israel (interesting choice of words, covenant,) this will be with many nations actually, but it brings a type of peace to Israel, or as Jesus said. John 5:43 I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive. And seven years of filling up the judgements against all nations, and the final time of curses , and the remnant and the promise all come to pass, ending in,,the Kingdom . Who was Jesus speaking to? The Jews! Either we all are gone when this begins ( rapture), or we all die, and quickly in the Tribulation.the 144,000 are I think sent out to the Jews, Those gentiles, as rare as it was before the time of Jesus, who do accept Jesus as Lord and Savior and King, will also die, while the rest of the world will be ecstatically believing the promises of the Beast, ignoring the wrath of God,so sure they are finally free.... God put in a most perfect plan , to take and preserve himself a holy people, to rule over a perfect world. As well he called out a people, to rule in heaven. The timing of the removal of the church ( body of Christ) removal of the restrainer allowing the man of sin, the son of perdition to rise , and other details of the saved and the lost, are all in the hands of, the plans of God. Please consider your position with God today, Yes, Jewish people can come to Christ through grace, today, they do not have to wait for the Kingdom, There is no difference in Jew or Gentile, man or woman, in the body of Christ, Isn;t that impossibly Good News! Christian, repent, turn your face back to God, stop excusing sin, seek Him and Him only. The race is almost done... So having done all, at last, to stand... |
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