Possessing The Holy Land, The Divine City
For two thousand years - since Jesus Christ's death and resurrection - the world has been standing at the brink of its own demise, according to the Christian prophets within their chosen denominations. Prediction after prediction has failed to bring to pass Jesus Christ's arrival and the world's end. Prominent Christian prophecy interpreters have provided dates (sometimes down to the specific day) to their eager followers when Jesus would return, or when the "final battle" of Armageddon would occur. Such leaders include Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Hal Lindsey, Jack Van Impe, Herbert W. Armstrong, Sun Myung Moon, The Jehovah's Witnesses and the list goes on. When they are wrong, the Christian world shrugs and awaits their next predictions with awe.
Generation after generation eagerly awaits the Savior's coming to snatch them from the world and the turmoil they see around them. An early prediction occurred by the Christian Montanus who claimed that Jesus would return in the year 200 to sets up the New Jerusalem in the small town of Pepuza in Phrygia. From that point forward, each generation has endured its very own failed prophets of Christianity.
This is understandable. The world always seems to be on a path to its own destruction according to the bloodlust and selfishness of human nature. Is it any wonder that people are scared? As of this paper's writing, gasoline prices continue to rise, Iran may or may not be developing nuclear weapons, Israel feels threatened by its Arab neighbors, while those Arab nations feel threatened by Israel. Jews are scared. Arabs are scared. Americans are scared. The world is scared. And we now have the capability, according to the proliferation of nuclear weapons to unleash our boiling human wrath on this planet effectively to eradicate it from the face of its solar system.
Christian Zionism
Among the masses, a growing faction in Christianity is emerging, eagerly throwing up their hands to share their take on this situation. They proudly call themselves Christian Zionists. The term springs forth from the term "Zionism." According to Wikipedia:
Zionism is an international political movement that originally supported the reestablishment of a homeland for the Jewish People in Palestine (Hebrew: Eretz Yisra'el, “the Land of Israel”), and continues primarily as support for the modern state of Israel.
Zionism support branches outward from widely varied motives. In fact, traditionally Zionism has its roots among ethnic Jewish people as they sought a homeland for themselves following the World War II Holocaust and its horrors. At that time, the threat of total eradication was very real for Jewish people and possessing a homeland nation was viewed as not only a safety net to preserve their culture and people, but to fulfill what they see as a God given right to the land in which they currently reside. Wikipedia defines Christian Zionism this way:
Christian Zionism or Restorationism, is a belief among some Christians that the return of the Jews to the Holy Land, and the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, is in accordance with Biblical prophecy. Some Christian Zionists also believe that the "ingathering" of Jews in Israel is a prerequisite for the Second Coming of Jesus. This belief is primarily, though not exclusively, associated with Christian Dispensationalism, mainly in English-speaking countries outside Europe. The idea that Christians should actively support a Jewish return to the Land of Israel, along with the parallel idea that the Jews ought to be encouraged to become Christian, as a means fulfilling a Biblical prophecy has been common in Protestant circles since the Reformation. The term Christian Zionism was popularized in the mid-twentieth century.
Christian Zionism has support among very prominent people in the pulpit and in Washington DC: John Hagee, Jerry Falwell, Alan Keyes, Congressman Tom Delay, and Pat Robertson to name a few. These people have influence in our government and have a specific agenda: to secure Israel for ethic Jewish people at whatever cost, even if it means nuclear war, which Christian Zionists point to as a natural and inevitable fulfillment of Biblical Prophecy.
Whether one supports Israel or not, can be largely a political matter, which this paper takes no stance on. But, the documentary called Rapture Ready by Max Blumenthal exposes a more sinister mentality present in some sections of the religious community. The more the interviewees talk, the more they progress from a concern for Jewish people into materializing the underlying principle behind their motives. They speak about how one reason they support Israel, is that "we have a common enemy" and that "we've got to fight the Muslim." We see how the one who "forces a peace treaty with the Arabs is the one we have to watch out for (the anti-Christ)" so that even peace itself is treated as anethema, Satan's work. We see how one member "looks forward to Armaggeddon and the cleansing of the earth."
What is to be cleansed, or who, and by what means? Make no mistake, the Jewish people and their welfare, for the sake of kindness and brotherly love alone, is not central to the Christian Zionist dedication to Israel. They want scripture fulfilled. And for scripture to be fulfilled as they interpret through the flesh, war is an ally. It is by physical war that the earth will be cleansed of unbelievers, Muslims in particular. Yet, this great and bloody war they see in Revelation, a book with many interpretations, cannot happen unless, first the Jewish people return to Israel. Their support of Israel is based, first and foremost, on a desire for this great war to occur, so that they can go to heaven and the earth can be . . . cleansed.
According to the the Washington Report, this is a major point among them: "That modern Israel is the catalyst for the countdown to the End Times (persecution, the Rapture, coming of the Antichrist, etc.), and that current political alignments will determine the future. A major contemporary belief is that the state of Israel (with financial backing from Christians) is destined to war with the pagan nations (Iraq, Iran, etc.), thus bringing about Armageddon, or the end of the world, and thus hasten the Second Coming of Jesus." (see article)
Concerned yet? You should be. This ought to concern you greatly. These men are able to whisper into the ears of our presidents! And it may be of little surprise to you that these Zionists are willing not only go to war to protect Israel, but to see this war-support as a COMMAND of God, that if Christians do not support war in favor of Israel, their very salvation may be at stake.
In this article, we will Scripturally examine:
- The correct method of prophecy interpretation according to the Scripture
- What "Israel" is, in Biblical terms
- God's promises to Abraham in the Bible concerning "land and blessing"
- How you, and anyone else, can inherit these promises to Abraham, through faith in Christ
- What it means to be "a chosen people" and a "holy nation" through faith in Christ
- Why these Scriptural truths make people so angry
How to Interpret Scripture (To Rightly Divide)
Before moving forward, this point must be utterly clear: no humanly devised method of Bible interpretation exists by which man may interpret Scripture apart from God's intervention. Look no further than the Lord's words for confirmation on that. When Peter had identified Jesus as the promised Messiah, the Lord said: "flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." (Matt 16:17). Do not unwisely assume that that "flesh and blood" may devise dependable formulas for uncovering the deep mysteries within the Scripture without the same Spiritual intervention. Those formulas are bound for failure because they fail to factor in the most important ingredient to understanding: God's intervention. We depend on the Lord to reveal His truths by His own Spirit, and without this, we unwittingly fall on the Sword in defeat.
Luke 24:44-45
And (Jesus) said unto (the disciples), These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures.
Christians have written book after book, each contributing their unique, point-by-point schematics to properly decipher this deep Book of God. However, do their assumptive requirements honor Him? Was it not Paul, a former well-read and experienced Pharisee, who helplessly proclaimed with joy: "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!" (Romans 11:33). Good grief! The Pharisees were Old Testament scholars! How could the Pharisees have such experience studying the Law, and yet be so blinded to what those Scriptures said about Jesus? Could it be that regardless of how much knowledge they had, God had not yet "opened their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures?"
The most famous Christian device to staying "on track" with God's Word is the fundamental principle of "context, context, context." What this device fails to acknowledge is the missing ingredient: the hand of God. The point here is not to slam contextual analysis, which can useful. But, without God "opening our understanding" first, no established rule-of-thumb can help us. In fact, ironically, the New Testament writers, when interpreting the Old Testament often violated this sacred Evangelical system of contextual observation.
The basis for the "context, context, context" guideline in Christianity is the near fitful need among them to refrain from "spiritualizing" the Bible. To spiritualize Scripture is among the highest crimes a seeker can commit, for fear that it trivializes the prophecies. They prop up regulation after regulation that the New Testament writers themselves fail to abide by. The apostles ALWAYS spiritualized the Law and the prophets, because they knew the high degree to which both testified about Jesus. In fact, to apply the Old Testament writings to Jesus DEMANDED spiritualizing the Scripture, which is why the Pharisees were so frustrated by the New Covenant evangel.
John the Baptist, having beheld Jesus, claimed, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." (John 1:29). How would the lamb-sacrificing Pharisees received that? Did they have room for spiritual discernment of the Law? That Jesus Christ is the "Lamb of God", sits easy with today's Christians, who count it elementary knowledge. Yet, they do not appreciate how deeply this understanding "spiritualizes" the Scriptures, particularly the Law, and why this so infuriated the Jewish people.
Such interpretive liberties were simply unacceptable by most deeply committed Jews, who thought it dangerous to lead people away from God's long-established method of atonement: the Law. They thought that the early Christians were "spiritualizing away" the sacrificial ordinances, and they were right. But for cleansing, the Jewish people insisted that the sacrifices be read literally and obeyed literally. How absurd these Christians were, to claim that the Law of Moses was no longer central to a right relationship with God, because the sacrifices only foreshadowed how they would kill their own Messiah! To their Jewish contemporaries, these Christians were threatening their religious and national identity.
What about context? When Christians disagree with an interpretation they
cry "foul play" that scriptures have been "taken out of
context." But, when in agreement with an interpretation, they freely
pull verses right and left to prove their own multi-point sermons. That
is called hypocrisy. While context is a valuable tool, remember that the
Bible establishes revelation comes FIRST by God, not first by observing
context. Are you prepared to witness how brazenly the New Testament
writers continued to violate context?
An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Get up," he said, "take (Jesus) and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him." So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, They stayed there until King Herod died. So the words the Lord had spoken through the prophet came true. He had said, "I chose to bring my son out of Egypt."
We are advised that Jesus came to "fulfill the
Law and the prophets." But, among all the words in the prophecies,
this is what Matthew spiritualizes:
The LORD continues,"When Israel was a young nation, I loved them. I chose to bring my son out of Egypt. But the more I called out to Israel, the further they went away from me. They brought sacrifices to the statues of the gods that were named after Baal. And they burned incense to them.
Let's obey the cardinal rule of "context, context,
context." What is this prophecy about? Israel, not Jesus. But, by regarding
context too narrowly, like the Pharisees, we would have missed it. Hidden
within Hosea was a prophecy about Jesus. So, where does Matthew get his
authority to rip one sentence out of that prophecy and apply it to the
Lord? He got his authority and understanding from God. The Pharisees scrutinized
the Law, Prophets and Psalms exhaustively, including the context, and
they DIDN'T HAVE A CLUE when the Messiah was standing before them. What
does that tell you? Man can memorize scriptures, can observe context,
but without God, he doesn't have a clue.
Then (Moses) say to Pharaoh, 'This is what the LORD says: Israel is my firstborn son, and I told you,
"Let my son go, so he may worship me." But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.'"
How is that for spiritualizing? God had something deeper in mind when referring to Israel in the singular/masculine tense rather than the plural. Who is God's firstborn Son? All together now: Jesus Christ! What would a Jewish religious leader have thought if a Christian told him that their very nation, their very identity, Israel, was a shadow of the man they just murdered?
Types and Shadows: “Not the Very Image”
Christ's identity, in the Old Testament, is foreshadowed yet cloaked in
"types and shadows," symbolic figures. These types exemplified
Christ without bearing his very nature in themselves. As stated, the most
universally accepted archetype for Jesus is the sacrificial lamb. Yet
those lambs had no power in themselves.
For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.Romans 5:14
Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come (Jesus Christ).
Even Adam represented Christ to come, who was also dissimilar to Christ in his disobedience. Like those sacrifices, and Adam himself, God typified his Son through the collective nation of Israel who observed those sacrifices, and to whom God pledged that Son. Speaking plainly, Israel itself was a "type and shadow" of Christ to come, without being in His "very image." Yet, divergent from Adam's, Israel's, and our own disobedience, Lord Jesus was yielding to His Father.
All earthy representations, or types, signify heavenly
fulfillment. Being earthly makes evident their lacking in Spiritual power.
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are FOOLISHNESS unto him: neither CAN he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
To understand that scripture is to grasp the method by which the New Testament writers interpreted the Old Testament. This scripture says:
1) We have received the gift of God's Spirit
2) The Spirit was given to teach us to "compare spiritual
things with spiritual" (which I will explain in a moment)
3) This is called "spiritual discernment"
4) Natural minded people cannot accept "spiritual discernment"
because it is foolishness to him
5) By spiritual discernment we can "know the things which
are freely given to us" by God
What are the "words which man's wisdom teaches?" Man teaches us to set our eyes on physical things, under the guise of proper literalism, while they hypocritically cherry-pick what they would spiritualize. The natural man prefers earthy discernment because they are also earthy, and they fear that spiritual things are less real than earthy things, which is where the term "spiritualize away" originates. Spiritual things are very real. But, the natural man rejects, and always has rejected, "spiritual discernment" because to him the sensory flesh is more satisfying and therefore more "real" to him.
We were given the Spirit "that we might know the things which
are freely given to us of God." This means that without spiritual
discernment, we cannot know what we have inherited. Christian Zionists
concern themselves with natural things (like physical land and physical
blessings) which are given to physical descendants of Abraham. But, we
will concern ourselves here with "things which are freely given TO
US."
It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
Now, to understand the "things which are freely given to us" we cannot, and we MUST NOT disregard our Lord's words:
1) the flesh profits nothing, and
2) the words He speaks are spirit and life. Jesus said, "I do nothing on my
own but speak just what the Father has taught me." (John 8:28).
The Father's words are also "spirit." Now, I am about to say
something that will make the "natural man" choke on his sandwich:
The World of God is spiritual. To understand what God's Word says, the
Holy Spirit teaches us to "spiritually discern" by comparing
Spiritual (words) with Spiritual (meaning). Let us begin.
The Royal Land Grant
Christian Zionists, who zealously wish to secure land for the state of Israel even at the cost of millions of lives understand that the land was promised to Israel. Naturally, these Christians also believe that donating money to Israel, securing that land for them, will usher in fulfillment of land to Israel but also prophecies regarding "the last days." Zionists consider "the land" to be a God-given right to the Jewish people. Famous Evangelical pastor John Hagee, who leads a 20,000 member church in Texas, states on his website:
"We support Israel because all other nations were created by an act of men, but Israel was created by an act of God! The Royal Land Grant that was given to Abraham and his seed through Isaac and Jacob with an everlasting and unconditional covenant."
That "royal land grant" is what the Christian
Zionists base their concerns and they facilitate Israel's war through
lobbying and money. John Hagee and his cohorts warn America against encouraging
Israel to concede a national identity to Palestinians within the land.
According to them, the Palestinian movement to establish a state there
is Satanic, and if America supports it, we risk God's wrath for giving
away His land. In a sermon, Mr Hagee said this:
I want those of you in the State Department and in government in Washington to hear this: If America does not stop pressuring Israel to give up land, I believe that God will bring this nation into judgment, because I believe what this book says. And if God brings this nation into judgment, He will very likely release the terrorists that you've already let get here through the ridiculous immigration policy you refuse to stop, and this nation is going to go through a bloodbath that you have permitted because of what you have done. You have disobeyed the law of God, and now, we as a nation are going to pay a price for that.
Remember, these men have an audience with our government leaders. This paper does not aim to validate or invalidate any nation's political advancement, whether Israel or Palestine. That is immaterial. But, if lingering peace cannot be achieved due to religious fear spread by the pulpit, shouldn't we carefully investigate their claims regarding Abraham's promises?
Genesis 12:7The LORD appeared to Abram at Shechem. He said, "I will give this land to your children after you." So Abram built an altar there to honor the LORD, who had appeared to him. Genesis 13:14, 16-17
The LORD said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, "Look around from where you are, to the north and south, to the east and west. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted. Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you."
We obviously do not require spiritual discernment
to understand these promises. We just need the world's "natural wisdom"
that man teaches. To grasp what God promised them, we only need to READ.
But, to know what God promised us, we need to DISCERN.
For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void.
Zionists do not comprehend that if "adherents
to the law" remain heirs to Abraham's promises, not only would
that nullify faith, it VOIDS THE PROMISE altogether! Paul resolved
that when he recognized that the promises to Abraham were not about temporal,
earthy things, as they had all expected, and as Zionists still do:
(God) redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, SO THAT by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.
Search the Old Testament. You will not see "the promise of the Spirit" literally pledged to Abraham even once. Are you able to submit to "spiritual discernment" to understand what God has freely given to you?
To the natural man, with his earthy discernment, this is foolishness. Land is land. That the "promise of the Spirit" was "the blessing given to Abraham" is the exact reason that adherents to the Law have no inheritance, regardless of their genetics. This is why the faith is nullified when we preach that unnecessary to be heirs to Abraham's promise. Do you not know that the Spirit comes ONLY by faith? This is why no inheritance exists outside Christ, and why the blessing to Abraham comes THROUGH Him.
Why do you suppose the Jewish people - who believed Jesus was the Messiah - were ultimately disillusioned, and betrayed him? Because according to "man's wisdom," they expected Jesus to fulfill their "royal land grant" by defeating Rome. When He stood captive in Jerusalem, they saw their power slipping away, so they cried out for his death. Yet, in killing their kinsman Jesus, they facilitated His Resurrection so that Christ could fulfill what carnal discernment had veiled in a mystery: the promise of the Spirit.
Among the best ways to determine a fad's validity, like Christian Zionism, is to compare their primary concerns with the Gospel. How often did the apostles admonish the church to protect the land for the Jewish people? NEVER. Not once. But if "supporting Israel" really is God's command to the church, why are the New Testament letters to them utterly devoid of the same passionate admonitions? Did the apostles miss what zionists get?
That is your first clue in knowing how far Christian Zionism strays from the pure Gospel message. The apostles simply weren't interested in championing the quest for land, so they never mentioned it. Why is Mr. Hagee's program so different from the New Testament? The difference is directly related to the chasm between carnal and spiritual discernment. Carnal discernment will ALWAYS cause you to stray, because that is NOT what the Holy Spirit teaches.
Regarding the "blessing of Abraham" the apostles always
pointed to "the promise of the Spirit." Look at at it again:
(God) redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, SO THAT by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.
This was the promise: Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you." (Genesis 13:17)
Can the natural man read about the "royal land grant" in Genesis
and see "the promise of the Spirit" in it? The Bible says no.
He will always conclude that spiritual discernment is foolishness, and
he cannot receive it. What does the "breadth of the land" have
to do with "the promise of the Spirit?"
Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice; Surely they shall not see the land which I swore unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it.
Watch how "the land" was spiritually discerned:
Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, 'They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.' As I swore in my wrath, 'They shall not enter my rest.'" Hebrews 3:16-18
For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient?
God swore: "they shall not enter into my rest." When did God mention "my rest" in the book of Numbers? Well never, if speaking literally. By Divine miracle, people reading these Scriptures will still not be able to receive them. They will still be unable to face the truth that when God spoke about "the land" he was speaking about "his rest."
The scripture reveals that God's promises to Abraham are about something
much bigger, much greater, and more powerful than a plot of land: His
own Spirit living within man. Paul claimed this a new revelation, a
great mystery concealed from ages past.
Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writingsby the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey him.
Can you see God's method in keeping this a closely guarded secret until Lord Jesus came to fulfill the promises? The carnal mind cannot receive the things of the spirit, and the mind which carnally discerns cannot grasp what is plainly written to them that spiritually discern. By "the prophetic writings," like the Psalms, the Christian apostles revealed the true meaning of the promises: "Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways: Unto whom I swore in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest." (Psalm 95:10).
The prophets testified about Jesus Christ! By inspiration of the
Spirit, David interpreted "the land" and revealed this secret
to the Jews hundreds of years before Jesus was born. But, the natural
man could not receive it.
Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
Jesus Christ is responsible for delivering the promises of Abraham to heirs who are, by faith, Abraham's seed. This level of "spiritualizing" is what garnered early Christians such persecution. According to Jewish Zionists, the "blessing given to Abraham" is the land. That is where they base their manifest destiny. Like them, Christian Zionists can only see that "royal land grant," that earth plot miles away. So doing, they will continually deny that if anyone absent of faith receives the promises of Abraham, "the promises are VOID," and faith is nullified, because a man's genetic make-up does not secure those promises as previously believed. Only faith secures the promise of Abraham, BECAUSE the promise was never about land in the first place, but about the Spirit.
Galatians 3:16,19
The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say "and to seeds," meaning many people, but "and to your seed," meaning one person, who is Christ. What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come.
Paul is bold here. He dares to say that the promises "spoken to Abraham and to his seed" did not allude to many people (seeds), as was believed, but Abraham's promise was actually to his ONE seed Jesus. Try getting a Christian Zionist to actually believe this scripture. The mystery is that the "seed" was always ONE man, not many, and this ONE seed is the lamb of God, and the promises of "land" (Spirit) are for Him to give to whoever is due for the inheritance. The seed is God's firstborn son, who Israel itself foreshadowed. Can you imagine how this message was received among Jews living in Jerusalem under the Law? It was received the same way Christian Zionists receive it today: truth rejected.
So, if the promises spoken to Abraham were spoken to one man, the very Christ,
they had put to death, how does anyone else inherit them?
You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Now we are getting somewhere. The promises were spoken to a seed, Jesus Christ. But, whoever has been baptized into his Spirit are in Christ, and therefore they are Abraham's seed like Him. Zionists hate this, but the Bible says what it says.
Abraham's Seed: The New Israelite
The problem with most interpretations regarding these ancient promises
results from "man's wisdom" concerning not only land, but fatherhood.
Man's natural wisdom is that a father/son relationship relies on a biological
connection, a lower earthy bond, like genetics. But God, according to
"spiritual discernment," does not declare fatherhood that way.
Here is how you can tell the difference between the children of God and the children of the devil. Those who don't do what is right do not belong to God. Those who don't love their brothers and sisters do not belong to him either. Mat 5:43-45
"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor. Hate your enemy.' But here is what I tell you. Love your enemies. Pray for those who hurt you. THEN you will be sons of your Father who is in heaven.
More "spiritualizing" according to the church standard. To be a son of God, and a brother to Christ, in spiritual terms, is not genetic, but is determined by following Christ's example. If being a son had to do with biology, John would have been blaspheming God, because he says that some people are children of the devil! We know that GOD physically creates everyone and everything, but John does not defer to this fact in defining God's family. By abandoning man's natural wisdom, and adopting "spiritual discernment" proscribed by the Bible, John demonstrates the true model of a parent/child relationship not related to physicality.
Remember God's words concerning Israel: 'This is what the LORD says: Israel is my firstborn son. (Exodus
4:22-23). If Israel is God's firstborn son,
and God's firstborn Son is Jesus Christ, then logic conclusively follows
that if anyone is in Christ that person is in Israel. That
is what Paul means in saying that "if ye be Christ's, then ye are
Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise."
And he (Abraham) is then also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also follow in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised. It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.
Israel is . . . Whatever God Says It Is
You can imagine how such scriptural "spiritualizing" would would be received by the Jews in those days. These so-called Christians had been infiltrating synagogues throughout the land with strange teachings. The very notion that a Gentile could be declared by God to be a Jew by the Spirit, was profane and grounds for whipping and stoning. Not only were these crackpots spiritualizing the law, but also fatherhood to include the Gentiles among Abraham's seed! In the Jews eyes, by claiming that fatherhood is spiritual, these blasphemous Christians were attempting to negate centuries-old traditions!
Regarding spiritual fatherhood, Jesus expressed
the critical difference between flesh and spirit through an intentional
contradiction. Speaking to Jews regarding their heritage in Abraham He
said this:
"I know that ye are Abraham's seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you." They answered and said unto him, "Abraham is our father." Jesus saith unto them, "IF YE WERE Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham."
Jesus acknowledges their lineage in Abraham, in one breath, only to deny it in the next breath by saying "If you were Abraham's children." Doing the "works of Abraham" has everything to do with being his seed. Jesus intentionally contradicted himself to emphasize the essence of "spiritual discernment." The Spiritual nullifies the carnal, because "flesh profiteth nothing."
John 6:49Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. John 6:32
Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you NOT that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.
Here again we see carnal things recognized, then disavowed. They DID eat manna. But, they DID NOT eat manna, not true manna, because they did not receive the "the true bread," which is the Spirit. They are Abraham's seed. They are NOT Abraham's seed, because they do not walk in faith like he did. The flesh consistently recognized, then repudiated.
Romans 9:2-3I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.
1 Corinthians 10:18
Behold Israel after the flesh: are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar?
Paul, like Jesus, acknowledged the flesh, and that his kinsmen where Jewish, but he takes careful attention to add "according to the flesh" knowing Jesus Christ's words: And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, "Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother." (Mat 12:49-50) Knowing well that "the flesh profits nothing," Paul also knew that his natural Jewish heritage was only "according to the flesh" and not according to the Spirit. He continues:
Romans 9:6-8It is not as though God's word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham's children. On the contrary, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned." In other words, it is not the natural children who are God's children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham's offspring.
Abraham had two children, Ishmael and Isaac. But, only through Isaac the were people "reckoned" by God to be Jews. He did not "reckon," or consider, Ishmael's children to be Abraham's seed, even though they could be genetically traced to him. Do you see the point Paul is making? Israel is defined by what God says it is, not by the working of the flesh, which profits nothing. Physical genetics alone NEVER determined Israel's composition with regard to Abraham's seed, but the added requirement (of being descended through Isaac) reveals God's authority in defining Israel as He sees fit at His appointed times. This is why Paul said: "nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham's children."
Being a Jew was always what God reckoned it to be, regardless of the flesh. To be a Jew, regarding the flesh, God set down two criteria: 1) you must be Abraham's seed, 2) the seed must be traced THROUGH ISAAC. If your physical line was not traced through Isaac, you were not "counted" as being descended from Abraham at all.
Genesis 22:2And (God) said (to Abraham), Take now thy son, THINE ONLY SON Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah Genesis 22:10-12
Then (Abraham) reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son (Isaac). But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!" "Here I am," he replied. "Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, YOUR ONLY SON."
As stated, according to the flesh, Abraham had two children, one Ishmael and the other Isaac. But, God "reckoned" that Abraham had only one son. Ishmael was conceived by Abraham and Sarah's choices. But, Isaac was a child of promise, born to Sarah by a miracle long after she was able to conceive. Isaac, therefore, symbolizes those in the faith, receiving "the promise of the Spirit," who are Abraham's children according God's election, not by fleshy genetics.
The Critical Difference Between Ishmael and Isaac
Abraham's wife, Sarah, was unable to conceive, so she told Abraham to create a child through Hagar, a slave woman. Hagar gave birth to Ishmael by Abraham. But, God declared to Sarah that someday she would indeed - by miracle - conceive another son. Through this "child of promise" God would establish His covenant with Abraham, and to his seed, Christ, and those who would be in Christ by faith.
If God points to a flock of birds and says "that is Israel," then that's Israel. If God concluded that physical Jews must be physically descended through Isaac, not Ishmael - even if Ishmael was also Abraham's son - so be it. Therefore, if God determines that Israel's descent through Abraham and Isaac is now a spiritual matter, regarding those who walk by faith, so be that as well. That is God's business, not yours.
Being an Israelite, physical or spiritual, was always God's choice. If not, a Jew could also be descended through Ishmael. Many people living in modern Israel today might believe themselves descended from Abraham. But, through which son are they descended, Ishmael or Isaac? How can they be certain? Can they verify their lineage through Isaac with pinpoint accuracy? In Old Testament times, to be a priest, a Jew had to prove genetic descent to Levi with genealogical records (Ezra 2:62, Neh 7:64). That's the trouble you must confront when closely respecting God's Word, yet in a carnal way. In contrast, today's Christian Zionists play fast-and-loose with the definition of a Jew by the flesh. To them, if someone claims Jewish descent, that's good enough for them.
Nehemiah 13:1-3On that day they read from the Book of Moses in the hearing of the people. And in it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly of God, for they did not meet the people of Israel with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them to curse them--yet our God turned the curse into a blessing. As soon as the people heard the law, they separated from Israel all those of foreign descent.
Christian Zionists claim such zeal for God's Word. Yet, as much as they assert their carnal interpretations, do they have any use for God's thorough commandments relating to the land they seek for Israel? Are they prepared to heed the entire Word, like the Israelites above, and urge Israel to expel "all those of foreign descent" from the land? What if Israel obeyed God by "separating from Israel" all the foreigners that live there today, Arabic, Italian, African, Spanish, half-Jewish? Would Christian Zionists support such action? Of course not, because while avowing to honor God with their lips, they also cultivate man's acceptance in the world. While they meddle in the explosive affairs of the Middle East, to impress God, they conveniently discard commands they find distasteful.
One essential anxiety among Christian Zionists is that if we believe that "the natural children are not God's children" then the promises have failed. Because the natural man rejects things which are "spiritually discerned" they therefore view spiritual fulfillment of God's promises as foolishness also, and therefore cannot receive it. Paul dealt with the SAME ASSUMPTION. This is why he tells the church "it is not as though the word of God has failed." Why not? Because "not all who are descended from Israel are Israel." That is the reason the promises have not failed, because GOD is the one who defines who Abraham's seed is, according to his authority. In other words, the promises have not failed because God has delivered those promises to the Israel of His chosen definition: those who are in His Son, the faithful, the inheritors.
This is not to say that God did not deliver physical promises to the Jewish people. We will see that He did. But, that is NOT the support Paul uses. That the promises have not failed Israel is because not all who are descended from Abraham are his children. The promises are INDEED being fulfilled, as God intended, just not the way carnal mind reasons they should have been. If the natural man cannot receive such "spiritual discernment" he will oppose this teaching and accuse those who teach it of calling God a liar.
But, Paul is heading that charge off at the pass by reminding natural-minded people that to "understand the things which are freely given to us" we must "compare spiritual" with "spiritual." Paul blueprints this distinction between physical and spiritual by contrasting "the natural children" with "children of the promise."
Rom 2:28For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.
Few Christians appreciate the gravity of Circumcision to Jewish identification. It wasn't just any old ordinance. God told Abraham that his children MUST be circumcised: "Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant." (Genesis 17:14). In fact, God was about to kill Moses because he was not circumcised (Exodus 4:24-26). Simply put, without circumcision, one was not a Jew in God's eyes.
But, Christian Zionists do not wish to be caught preaching Judaic Law as a means to maintain a right relationship with God as his chosen, so they simply throw out these criteria. Do you see how these militant hypocrites cherry-pick their favorite verses and shun the rest? Do you see how erratic they are and how their carnal interpretations promote sedition against Peace itself? If they are determined to commit money to advance Israel's land conquest, at the cost of human lives, and to urge the American government to resist conceding to the Palestinians, are they also prepared to carefully authenticate the real Jews according to the flesh? If not, in their zeal, they could be unwittingly administering God's land to non-Jews. That's playing with fire. But, they don't care about the fine points of God's Word, not when they have a flesh-idol in their heart to worship.
Here is the good news. A Jew must indeed be circumcised, as God said that all Abraham' children would be. But, it has nothing to do with the flesh. Here is the revolutionary message Paul brought, that earned him many beatings, stonings, and mockery: He is not a jew which is one outwardly, but inwardly. Not only that, a man must have the Holy Spirit to be a Jew! This is according to God's definition, if that counts for anything, which,of course, counts for everything. Mandatory circumcision is not outward in the flesh, but is revealed as a change-of-heart by the Spirit. No need to check lineage records, and no need for a medical examination to avoid accidentally giving God's land away to Gentiles. Israel is spiritual now.
Ishmael and Isaac: Flesh and Spirit
According to sound doctrine, those who receive the Spirit are birthed into the Holy Spirit, much like Isaac was born to Sarah. A Jew is not someone born by man, but is reborn by God, through faith in Jesus Christ. God judges Israel to be them who carry the Holy Spirit, because the Spirit is God's working, just as Isaac's birth was God's working, when Sarah was barren. Peter said: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, HE has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." (1 Peter 1:3)
Those who God has caused to be "born again" are just like Isaac. But Christian Zionists believe, contrary to the Bible, a Jewish person "according to the flesh" decides to have a child, that child is also a Jew regardless if God's requirement of circumcision....by the Holy Spirit. That is Ishmael. That is man's working, not God's working. When Paul specifically said that "a Jew" is someone with the Holy Spirit, he is disavowing the flesh as Christ did. With their false doctrine, they negate God's definitions and stick to their own.
Consider the Scripture:
Galatians 4:22-26For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman (Ishmael by Hagar) and the other by the free woman (Isaac through God's work in Sarah). His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise.
These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother.
Paul just gets bolder and bolder with his dangerous, so-called "spiritualizing." According to this scripture Hagar and Sarah are figurative examples which illustrate two covenants, an old one based on slavery, and a new one based in freedom from slavery. We have here:
1) Two sons, Ishmael by a slave woman (Hagar) and Isaac by a free woman (Sarah)
2) They represent two covenants, one covenant enslaves, the other covenant sets slaves free
3) Hagar represents the covenant from Mount Sinai (the Law), mother to those who follow it
4) Sarah represents the covenant of freedom, in Christ, and is mother to those who follow it
Paul's statements are counterintuitive to what Christian Zionism has confidence in. Since God determined that Jews are descended through Isaac by Sarah, Hagar is therefore mother to the Gentiles, by Ishmael. Yet, in Paul's incendiary statement, he asserts that the Jews, according to the flesh, living in Jerusalem and conforming to the Law, are not Sarah's children at all, but Hagar's children! This has nothing to do with their born flesh, which profits nothing. In other words, the father to the Gentiles, Hagar's son Ishmael, is father to anyone not under the second covenant, in Christ. And, physical genealogy being irrelevant, Isaac is father to anyone who is under that second covenant; the faithful are Sarah's children, not born through a man, but by God's achievement solely, just as Isaac was. This statement alone could have gotten Paul murdered in Jerusalem and elsewhere.
God subverted their prevailing definition, of who is "a Jew" and who is "in Israel," on His own authority, rejecting the old equation by concluding an appeal to the flesh to be an irrelevant factor, a non-factor. This unveiling effectively reversed what man had assumed for millennia, causing violent revolt against the truth, against the Apostles themselves. Plainly speaking, whoever receives the Holy Spirit, by faith in Christ, is a Jew, and whoever does NOT is a Gentile (whose mother is Hagar.) Consequently, to be a Jew, one must be transferred from Ishmael's lineage to Isaac's lineage. So, to be born in Isaac's manner, since since all living people have already been born flesh through an earthly father, one must miraculously, through a Spiritual Father, be reborn – or born again.
This is true notwithstanding fleshy genetic makeup, or genealogy, which has the power to seal nothing with God, because the flesh profits nothing…according to Christ. The flesh is a big goose egg, a big zero. In ancient past, man did not apprehend this, which is why when Christ said it, He lost many followers that day. Those who fix value and preeminence to the flesh will despise those who do not. Christ did not. Champions of the flesh hate spiritual things, so it is small wonder that Paul suffered persecution for his teaching. More on that in a moment.
This is why he said, "For, if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs (of Abraham's promises), faith is null and the promise is void." Securing God's promises to Abraham (this ill-conceived "land grant") for the modern state of Israel, is invalid support for pressuring them to resist the peace process there. Gentiles have no claim to Abraham's promises, and cannot secure them, and do not even comprehend what they really are. If one has no faith, to them the promises are void, and if they do, they inherit Christ not dirt, and that is much better. In that way, faith is NOT nullified in favor of automated flesh, because God shows no favoritism to it. What is happening in the Middle East is Gentiles slaughtering Gentiles, (men, women and children) for a scrap of earth. Israel's appointment, God's Israel, is to be a peacemaker, for blessed are they according to Christ.
In the above scripture, the "present
city of Jerusalem" is the very city that both Jews and Palestinians
are fighting to the death to possess. That is the brick-and-mortar city over which nuclear hostility is threatened by
every nation engrossed in the conflict. The bondwoman Hagar spiritually
abides there, because children of the flesh are born into to slavery of
the flesh. But "Jerusalem from above" is populated by them set
free from slavery to the flesh by the Holy Spirit. Would you like to know
what "Jerusalem from above" really is?
But YOU have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect.
What do Christian Zionists make of scriptures like that? This is not a future-tense promise, but something that carriers of the Holy Spirit have come to: the heavenly Jerusalem, the church of the firstborn. In every way, Mount Zion can be contrasted with Mount Sinai, including the fact that it is not a physical mountain. According to the previous verses in chapter 12: "You have not come to a mountain that can be touched" (Hebrews 12:19). According to the Bible, this intangible mountain and the "Jerusalem from above" has something to do with the "church of the firstborn" who come in "joyful assembly." Are you beginning to see how "spiritual discernment" has much to do with "knowing the things which are freely given to us by God?"
If you think Mount Zion and Jerusalem are earthly you will never understand the things which are freely given by the Spirit to born-again descendants of Abraham who are therefore "heirs according to the promise."
According to the Bible, to have "come to Mount Zion" and to "the heavenly Jerusalem" which is the "church of the firstborn" is to have "come to God." Christian Zionists ought to know, this being true, entry into Jerusalem comes by one gate: Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6). Nobody will ever enter Jerusalem but by Christ and nobody enters Christ but by faith. Where is Jerusalem located? Why, Israel of course! Do you remember what God says Israel is? Israel is my firstborn son. (Exodus 4:22). Heavenly Jerusalem is in Israel. The "church of the firstborn" is in Christ. Israel from above is in Christ.
In his vision, John saw the Christ's bride, "the church of the firstborn"
typified:
And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.
As Israel after the flesh, and her Christian Zionist
counterparts, battle the Arab nations to control the "Jerusalem that
now is in slavery with her children," God prepares a New Jerusalem
for those who are live in "the dwelling place of God." This
"Jerusalem from above who is our mother" is the heavenly Jerusalem
which no man may forcefully occupy. This precious city is given only to
the humble in spirit, the meek, and the oppressed.
After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— for we are members of his body. "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.
This beautiful Bride, this New Jerusalem, has inherited a City within an Israel built with God's hands. This city is a many-membered body, a New Jerusalem walking the earth, descendants from heaven because the Spirit is within them. This Jerusalem is a city of peace, and no man may conquer it, no man may seek its territory by anything but a humbled heart. This city, which will be glorified by God for the world to see in due time.
"He Teaches Against The People!"
Oh, but this angers the carnal mind! It is a bitter pill to swallow, so some Christians, who should uphold scriptural truth, will want to tear down those who do, because they despise the Word of God, even as they think they love it. They despise it, not emotionally, but by rejecting truths they determine to be uncomfortable. In doing so, they cast their lot with the early-day persecutors against peacemakers. It is a hard irony. Yet, it is prescribed:
John 15:18If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before [it hated] you.
Unfortunately, for simply teaching what the Bible says, Christian Zionists shamelessly and falsly accuse those who teach sound doctrine of anti-Semitism. They say that teaching that Israel is in the Spirit condemns the Jewish people. John Hagee dedicates his life to checking anti-Semitism, being widely known to falsely accuse his dissenters. At the very least, Christian Zionists warn that such a doctrine can lead to it. Any truth can lead to a negative place if misused or manipulated. Even Satan is known to mix the truth with lies. No big surprise that the Apostles and early Christians were similarly accused.
Act 21:27-28Some Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul at the temple. They stirred up the whole crowd and seized him, shouting, "Men of Israel, help us! This is the man who teaches all men everywhere against our people and our law and this place. And besides, he has brought Greeks into the temple area and defiled this holy place."
Paul's own people - according to the flesh - accused him of teaching "against the people." Christian Zionists make the same accusation. So
impressed they are by Christianity's "roots" in Judaism, these
trendy Evangelicals have become fervently driven to disprove what the
Bible proves. Why do you suppose that Paul's "kinsmen according to
the flesh" accused him of "teaching all men against the people,
their law and this place?" It's because Paul "spiritually discerned"
that "this place," meaning the temple and the land, was an earthly representation with a higher, spiritual meaning, and that to be a Jew
was inward according to the Spirit, not outward according to the flesh.
Now YOU, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. At that time the son born in the ordinary way persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now. But what does the Scripture say? "Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman's son." Therefore, brothers, WE ARE NOT children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.
To assert the Scripture to militant Christian Zionists, affirming that the "slave woman" represents natural Israel, and the "free woman" represents the "church of the firstborn," and that "the slave woman's son will not share in the inheritance with the free woman's son" naturally arouses persecution from the flesh-minded. Why? Because they align themselves with the flesh. To them Israel is earthy, Jerusalem is earthy, and what constitutes a Jew is earthly.
To deny their conclusively false doctrine is to "speak against the people" in their minds. So, they verbally persecute those who "spiritually discern," labeling them anti-Semitic, while collecting war money to clench material Jerusalem against the evil Palestinians, even costing innocent lives. What does Jesus think about a war-torn child dead in the earthly streets? Is that money well spent?
Anyone who affirms Scriptural truth will be accused of "teaching
against the people" and against "this place" meaning the
modern Israeli nation and its inhabitants. That is what Paul means when
he said "as he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that
was born after the spirit, even so it is now." This is what Paul
was referencing:
And (Isaac) grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian (Ishmael), whom she had borne to Abraham, LAUGHING.
So she said to Abraham, "Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac."
The natural child, born of the flesh, persecuted (mocked) the child that was born of the Spirit. How well certain Christians play the role of Ishmael today. How ironic. Because they align themselves with Israel of the flesh, kinsmen according to the flesh, and Jews which are outwardly, they easily slip into Ishmael's role and persecute those who "spiritually discern." This is why they mock, ridicule and deride "spiritual discernment." They have a role to play.
As it is, Paul directly confronted the evil of anti-Semitism, but not
by betraying the truths he established in Christ, that you have so far
witnessed. Read it for yourselves:
What Israel sought so earnestly it did not obtain, but the elect did. The others were hardened, as it is written: "God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes so that they could not see and ears so that they could not hear, to this very day.
If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, "Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in." Granted.
But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. For if God did not spare the NATURAL branches, he will not spare you either.
There is your answer to anti-Semitism. Paul did not fight that evil by reversing himself and claiming that the "natural branches" do constitute Israel, because they do not. Israel is in the Spirit, in the firstborn Son, and not of the flesh. Rather, to preach against racism, Paul simply said that if anyone "boasts against" the cut-off "natural branches" the boasters themselves will be cut off. Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. If that happens, and if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. (Rom 11:22-23).
Inheriting the Heavenly Land
Without belief, nobody may enter into God's
rest ("the land") which is the Spirit. Christian Zionists are
so inextricably aligned with flesh that they fight to the bone, sparing
no blood, seeking war for dirt. Why? Because they believe that such a
thing is promised by God as a "royal land grant." Do they not
read the Scripture?
All these people (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Noah etc) were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return.
Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
For all their zeal, do Zionists not realize that the
Biblical patriarchs were longing for a better country - a heavenly
one, which they died in faith having not received?! Whether they understood
this deep in their subconscious, or whether they grasped the symbolism
of the Holy Land, is not known, but they did desired something much better
than a plot of earth. They set their sights much higher than contemporary
Zionists. God has "prepared a city for them" and it has nothing
to do with the brick and mortar "Jerusalem that now is." The
city he has prepared for them is "Jerusalem from above" who
is our spiritual mother, "the church of the firstborn." That
is the true land grant, a much higher "land" which lives
within us.
These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.
The promises have to do with them being "made
perfect together with us." Being made perfect is what the promises
were for. When God veiled the "promise of the Spirit" within
the promise of physical land, God was promising his Son to us. Zionists
don't realize that because they set their affections on things of the
earth. When Jesus came, the Jews assumed He was there to deliver them
from Roman rule, so that they could control the physical land. Jesus was
not their for carnal things, but to deliver on Spiritual things. Being
sorely grieved by Christ's refusal to satisfy their craving for earth,
they murdered the Messiah. In so doing, Christ was able to fulfill Abraham's
promises to them who believe, by His resurrected Spirit.
But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
The wisdom of God is a mystery, a hidden wisdom. The
promises to Abraham appear to be in regard to physical things. That physical
things are "types and shadows" of higher things, is what veiled
the promises in a mystery. And if "the princes of this world"
would have known what the promises were, they would not have killed Jesus. But, had they not killed the Messiah, the promise of the Spirit through
Abraham would not be available to anyone. They thought that the Messiah
was sent to deliver an earthly payload promised to Israel.
Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
To enter into the Holy Place, we MUST pass "through the veil," which is "the flesh." To seek profit in earthy things, like genealogy, is to remain in darkness outside the Holy Place. Natural people seek after lower things. Spiritual people seek after higher things. This is a basic Biblical truth. So God, according to His plan, veiled the Spirit within in a promise pertaining to flesh, the earthy land. Physical lambs, physical alters, physical fire, physical tabernacles, physical priesthoods, physical waters, physical meats and drinks, physical land: these things are a veil, that when torn away reveal the Holy Spirit.
The Bible says that when Jesus died, the veil (the curtain) in the temple was ripped in two (Mat 27:51). When the flesh dies (like Christ's flesh died), when carnal discernment vanishes, when carnal lusts abate, then the veil is torn in two, for the Spirit to emerge.
Even Jesus Christ's own flesh is that veil! His body was ripped open on
the cross so that he may reveal what? His resurrected Spirit! When the
flesh is torn away in our minds, we can better see that Spirit. That is
why we pass THROUGH the veil to enter into the holiest place. The flesh
keeps us out, but when torn in two and put aside, we go deeper. Too many
Christians still lovingly gazing upon the veil without passing through
it, so they may know the Spirit and be given "spiritual discernment:"
And (we are) not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished: But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which veil is done away in Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:16-17
From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh (the VEIL), we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
Flesh mindedness is the "spirit of stupor" that God has placed over Ishmael's children. They are still waiting on God to deliver the goods so they can possess the land. God speaks in things regarding the earth to blind the flesh-minded. To read Scripture and see only the flesh, the carnal, the physical things of the earth is to read with a veil over your eyes, and to remain blind.
What was the promise in the Old Testament? The land. That's a veil. It is earthly; it is the flesh. But, in Christ the veil is removed, that we may understand the Spirit. In the New Testament, what is the promise? God's rest. Do you see the unfolding? Do you see why "we speak things in a mystery?" We carnal minded humans, who see only earthly things, do also LUST after earthly things. But, when the flesh is torn in two, like the veil in the temple, the Spirit is manifested.
2 Corinthians 3:13-14And (we are) not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished: But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which veil is done away in Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:16-17
From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh (the VEIL), we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
That is why, when flesh-centered Christians crack open the Old Testament to read God's promises of a "royal land grant" they cannot not see "the inheritance of the Spirit" in that promise. When you tell a Christian Zionist that "the land" we must enter into by faith actually represents "God's rest" in His own Spirit, they will mock and persecute you in their synagogues. They will accuse you of "speaking against the people" when really you are sharing good news. I assure you, many will take physical land as a more alluring, more tangible inheritance, because it can be discerned with our material senses, requiring no faith to inherit, only war. "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God." (Mat 5:7-9)
I assert to anyone who can receive it: We have known the promised Holy
Land after the flesh. Now, we no longer know it after the flesh, but the
Spirit. The Heavenly land the patriarchs sought without obtaining,
which the elect obtained, is what God had better in mind that "they
not be made perfect without us. Do not persist in the shadows of the veil
when reading the ancient words. By his Spirit, God has invalidated the
compulsion to fight and kill eachother over scraps of earth.
We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.
The Temple in the City of the Promised Land
When the Jewish people were given their own state in 1948, Christians
were beside themselves, concluding that this event ultimately fulfilled
God's promises to Abraham. However, centuries prior to 1948, God proclaimed
decisively that he had already fulfilled Abraham's promises in the flesh:
So Joshua took the entire land, just as the LORD had directed Moses, and he gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal divisions. Then the land had rest from war.
Joshua 21:43-45
So the Lord gave Israel all the land he had sworn to give their forefathers, and they took possession of it and settled there. The LORD gave them rest on every side, just as he had sworn to their forefathers. Not one of their enemies withstood them; the LORD handed all their enemies over to them. NOT ONE of all the Lord's good promises to the house of Israel failed; EVERY ONE was fulfilled.
All promises were fulfilled. Yet, according to Paul, the elders "died in faith without receiving the promises." How could this be, if God said He EVERY ONE without fail? If you can appreciate why Jesus told the Jews they had eaten manna from heaven, but they did NOT eat bread from heaven, you can then also grasp how God DID fulfill his promises, but also did NOT fulfill them. When the flesh-veil is abolished, that we can see spiritual things concealed within physical things, we begin to come into Truth. Even if the modern Israeli controls physical Jerusalem and physical land, and even if the world procures peace in the Middle East, that "the land has rest from war" the promises will remain unfulfilled as before. Abraham's promises will not be fulfilled to them until the people enter into the real city and the real land.
We see two lands: the first one, dirt and rocks. The next one, Spirit.
We see two Cities: the first Jerusalem, assembled by brick and mortar.
The new Jerusalem, an assembly in Christ. Still, a good city needs a temple
for God to place his throne and execute his reign and over the city and
the land. In the first land, Solomon raised a temple for God in the first
city, which was demolished by war. In the new Israel rests an invincible
New Jerusalem rescued from desolation in sin:
Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you? 2 Corinthians 6:16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 2 Corinthians 6:17-2
Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. Ephesians 2:18-22
For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
What power does the physical land and the physical city of physical Israel to achieve salvation from sin? Why do Christian Zionists throw themselves into carnal affairs of a carnal state in a carnal city in a carnal land? They are called to BE a city themselves within a land much higher. This "building," this New Jerusalem is being built, right under Ishmael's nose as his children all gnaw at eachother for crumbs, when the true feast is prepared.
Christian Zionists believe that God will rule from a temple in Jerusalem. They are absolutely right. But, this is to be done in a way veiled to them and their brothers and sisters in Ishmael.
Israel returns to the land
Not all Christian Zionists would contradict that Abraham's
promises have a spiritual fulfillment. We have witnessed in Scripture
how God veiled spiritual truths through earthy things, and how earthy
things veil the eyes of those who disdain spiritual discernment. While
some Christian Zionists, even militant ones, may find truth in these things,
they will still cling to the preconception that Israel, according to the
flesh, remain God's chosen people and that the Bible promises to return
them to the physical land to reign from Jerusalem. The truth will always
be that Israel is God's firstborn son, and whoever is in that Son is in
Israel.
What if he did that to show the riches of his glory to others? Those are the people he shows his mercy to. He had prepared them to receive his glory. We are those people. He has chosen us. We do not come only from the Jewish race. Many of us are not Jews. God says in Hosea, "I will call those who are not my people 'my people.' I will call the one who is not my loved one 'my loved one.'" He also says, "Once it was said to them, "You are not my people.' In that very place they will be called 'children of the living God.'"
Are you ready for more context-violating spiritualization
from Paul? Most Christians understand that Gentiles have been called into
a special relationship with God through faith. And, notably from scriptures
like that, they understand that the Old Testament declared that someday,
God would take Gentiles, who were "not a people" and would call
them "his people." What they might not have caught is the actual
context of Hosea that Paul is quoting. It might surprise you.
Through the prophet Hosea God expresses his anger at Israel's idolatry
likening Israel to an adulterous wife, labeling Israel as "she."
"Therefore I will take away my grain when it ripens, and my new wine when it is ready. I will take back my wool and my linen, intended to cover her (Israel's) nakedness.
So now I will expose her lewdness before the eyes of her lovers (their idols); no one will take her out of my hands. I will stop all her celebrations: her yearly festivals, her New Moons, her Sabbath days—all her appointed feasts. I will ruin her vines and her fig trees, which she said were her pay from her lovers; I will make them a thicket, and wild animals will devour them. I will punish her for the days she burned incense to the Baals; she decked herself with rings and jewelry, and went after her lovers, but me she forgot," declares the LORD.
This is the judgment against Israel which had "fornicated"
with her lovers, their idols. In His wrath, God equates Israel to a harlot.
He says: you are not my people,
and I am not your God. (Hosea 1:9). Remember
that, because God is not finished with Israel according to Hosea:
I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her. There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. There she will sing as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt. "In that day," declares the LORD, "you will call me 'my husband'; you will no longer call me 'my master.' I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips; no longer will their names be invoked.
I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the LORD. "In that day I will respond," declares the LORD— "I will respond to the skies, and they will respond to the earth; and the earth will respond to the grain, the new wine and oil, and they will respond to Jezreel. I will plant her for myself in the land; I will show my love to the one I called 'Not my loved one.' I will say to those called 'Not my people,' 'You are my people'; and they will say, 'You are my God.'"
In Romans 9, that is the same passage Paul applies to Gentiles, who God said were once "not My people" but have become "My people" by faith in Christ! What about context? About Gentiles, Hosea says nothing literally at all! God says to Israel in Hosea: "You are not my people, and I am not your God." But, in Hosea, when He brings Israel back, He says "I will say to those called 'not my people' 'you are my people.'" Why does Paul apply that to Gentiles? Because, In another form, no longer of the earth, Israel did return.
God returned Israel to his favor as a new creation in Christ. A Jew is not one outwardly, just like circumcision is not of the flesh. A Jew is one that is inwardly, by circumcision of the heart through the Spirit. In Hosea, God never said what form Israel would take when they became his people again. People just assumed it would be fulfilled according the flesh. Israel returned as "God's people" formed by both ethnic Jews and Gentiles in Christ, the firstborn Son.
The prophets all carried the same testimony from age to age:
I (God) will send fire ...I will send fire. I will send fire ... I will send fire ... I will send fire ... Seek the Lord and live, or he will sweep through the house of Joseph like a fire ... the Lord will smash the great house into pieces ... I will spare my people Israel no longer ...The time is ripe for my people Israel; I will spare them no longer ... Are not you Israelites the same to me as the Cushites ... I will destroy it from the face of the earth on that day I will restore David's fallen tent ... I will bring back my exiled people Israel. I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted. (NIV)
Watch how James interprets that prophecy about Israel in the New Testament:
Acts 15:13When they finished, James spoke up: "Brothers, listen to me. Simon has described to us how God at first showed his concern by taking from the Gentiles a people for himself. The words of the prophets are in agreement with this, as it is written: "'After this (ie sending fire) I will return and rebuild David's fallen tent. Its ruins I will rebuild, and I will restore it, that the remnant of men may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who bear my name, says the Lord, who does these things'
According to James, THE WORDS OF THE PROPHETS ARE IN AGREEMENT WITH THIS: God is rebuilding Israel, David's tent, in the Spirit with the Gentiles and a remnant of ethnic Jewish believers who are one in Christ. The Gentiles now bear His name, the name of Israel, which is Christ the firstborn son.
The words of the prophets all agree with this? Do you want more proof? He said to them, "This is what I (Jesus) told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms." (Luke 24:44)
Israel is the name of a nation, regardless of genetic biology. The name
Israel once referred to ethnic Israelites, but while we once knew Israel
after the flesh, we no longer know it after the flesh but after the Spirit.
In the body is no Jew or Gentile. If the flesh-veil has been taken from
your mind, you now see that "the flesh profits nothing." Israel
came back, but as a new creation in Christ!
He will bring you to the land that belonged to your fathers, and you will take possession of it. He will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live.
Not only did Israel return, but she is still being reformed, as God leads them deeper into the Holy Land by the Spirit. How does Paul get away from such spiritualizing?!
According to Hosea, when Israel returns, the earth "will respond
to the grain" and the "new wine." Jesus Christ called himself
"the bread of life" and addressed the new covenant as "new
wine." He is the grain and the wine that the new Israel responds
to, and rejoices within. In that day, according to the prophet, Israel
will call God "My husband." What does Christ's bride
call Him? What does the heavenly city of New Jerusalem who has been prepared
as a bride for her husband call themselves?
the LORD Almighty says: 'Here is the man whose name is the Branch (Jesus), and he will branch out from his place and build the temple of the LORD. It is he who will build the temple of the LORD, and he will be clothed with majesty and will sit and rule on his throne. And he will be a priest on his throne. And there will be harmony between the two.' Those who are far away will come and help to build the temple of the LORD, and you will know that the LORD Almighty has sent me to you. This will happen if you diligently obey the LORD your God."
These are a few of the scriptures that Zionists use to prove that Jesus will return to earthy Jerusalem, build an earthy temple, and rule in the earthy land. This is why they join the hard fight against the Arabs who claim Jerusalem for their capital and desire a place in the land for their nation. If that happens, according to Zionists, prophecy will fail because the temple must be rebuilt, so Jesus will have a place to rule from. That flesh-veil is so powerful, and so difficult to remove. That carnal mind of man! That is why God Himself must remove the scales, that flesh might fall from our eyes. Only when the flesh is ripped in half can we see the Spirit in the holiest place, living within us.
God said that he will "make his tabernacle with man." After everything we discussed about "the land" and "the temple" in "the city" what do you see in the above prophecy? Where will Jesus sit and rule? Where is the city? Where is the land? Know ye not that ye are the temple of God? Incidentally, God does say where He does NOT rule from: "the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands" (Acts 7:48).
If that is true, why are Christian Zionists waiting for Jesus to rule from a handmade temple in a physical city in a physical land when prophecy states that GOD Himself will build the temple. It says "In him, the building is joined together and rises, to become a holy temple to the Lord."
According to that Bible, He has been building His temple with his Spirit,
ever since Pentecost two-thousand years ago. But, the fulfillment is not
complete. That is why the Bible says that God is BUILDING the temple,
which we are. It says that we have been sealed with the Spirit until God
comes back to gather the possession Christ purchased through his death
(Rom
8:23,
Eph
1:13-14, 2
Cor 5:4-5).
And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which IS in heaven.
Ephesians 2:6-7
And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
How could Jesus say He was in Heaven as he stood on the earth? Because the Spirit of God was in heaven and in Christ, and Christ dwelled with His Father. In like manner, Jesus Christ is in heaven, and He is within us. That is what makes New Jerusalem, the Bride, a heavenly city even as it is being built as a temple in this earth.
God is in heaven. God is in his people. Therefore, we ARE seated in heavenly places, because Christ is in us, and He is in heaven seated on the throne. New Jerusalem is where Christ reigns. He does NOTHING without his body. Christ is the head, and the body follows him everywhere he goes.
A Holy Nation a Chosen People
Lest we forget, God's Word testifies to the truth as follows:
1) Israel is God's firstborn son
2) God's firstborn son is Jesus Christ
3) Jesus is the root, his followers are the branches
4) Jesus is the husband, his followers are the bride
5) The natural branches have been cut off the "Olive
Tree" and the Gentiles grafted on
6) Whoever is in Christ is therefore IN Israel which
is above and not of the earth.
7) If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's
seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Should we look for Christ to touch down on the Mount of Olives and reign from a physical temple in the physical land in the current state of Israel? Christians think Christ's plan is to set up a kingdom on earth in the form of a physical territory (brick and mortar) and populate it with those from Isreal's physical lineage.
Why do Zionists believe that? Because they read the scriptures assuming that the flesh profits a man to be genetically Jewish, and that the Holy Land is physical. Christ's words that "the flesh profiteth nothing" means nothing to them. I have repeated His words about the flesh throughout this paper, as it bears repeating. We humans defer to the flesh at any occasion, because that is our born composition. We do it naturally, so to speak.
However, I will declare this with confidence in the Scripture as a witness.
If ANY person is to EVER reign ANYWHERE with Christ, they must first be
IN CHRIST.
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, YOU WILL NOT see me again UNTIL you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'"
Christian Zionists will point to this statement in
the scripture: "As concerning
the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election,
they are beloved for the fathers' sakes. For the gifts and calling
of God are without repentance. " (Romans:11:28-29) They
do this to substantiate their common phrase according their carnal theology:
"God still has a special plan for the Jews." That is certain.
Ethnic Jewish people are beloved for God's sake. He has not abandoned
them.
For as you in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.
Ethnic Jewish people will indeed enter into Israel to claim the Holy Land, but through the mercy of Christ's own will they obtain it, according to Scripture. As Jesus said: "you will not see me again until you say 'blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'" Who preaches the Lord? Who else, but the body of Christ who walks in the Jerusalem from above? It is through Kingdom's ministry that people enter into the firstborn Son, Israel. God has used the "foolishness of preaching" to that end.
Here is the certainty that Scripture validates: all the prophets spoke
of a new Israel in Christ, and those prophecies also concerned ethnic
Jews too. That a Jew is not one outwardly according to the flesh, but
inwardly, is a Scriptural fact. But it is also true that some Jewish people
according to the flesh are also in Christ. And, someday this will be true
for all Israel:
I 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. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.
After the full number of Gentiles come in, all Israel
according to the flesh, will be saved having turned away from unbelief
and then will entire into their true inheritance, God's rest. THAT is
how Abraham's promises will be fulfilled to them. Until that day, only
those in Christ have entered into the Holy Land. We know this because
God set this standard of progressive revelation in the Bible:
The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. As was the earthly man, SO ARE THOSE who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, SO ALSO ARE THOSE who are of heaven.
Christian Zionists who place such value on the flesh as being the true sign of "God's chosen people" utterly violate this pattern in their theology. They say that the natural COEXISTS or even SUPERCEDES the spiritual. Their theology plays out this way: God's chosen people were ethnic Jewish people, then the church came, but eventually God will reign from physical Jerusalem with physical Jewish people.
Their interpretation: first the natural, then the spiritual, then
the natural.
The truth certified in scripture: first the natural, then the spiritual.
PERIOD.
This applies to Israel, which originated with "those who are of the earth," the fleshy incarnation, the outwardly signs. It ends in the Spiritual, the inward incarnation, the inward sign.
| Natural/Earthy/type & shadow | SpirituaL/Heavenly/spiritually discerned |
| Ishmael
/Isaac |
- Old Covenant/New
Covenant - Those who reject Christ/Those who are in Christ - Children who serve the flesh/Children who serve the Spirit |
| Hagar (bondwoman)/Sarah (freewoman) | - Children in bondage to Law/Children
free from the Law - Children in bondage to sin/Children freed from sin |
| Flesh circumcision | Circumcision of the heart by the Spirit |
| A Jew outwardly | A Jew inwardly |
| Jerusalem which now is | Jerusalem from above (the Bride) |
| The physical Mount Sinai | The intangible Mount Zion |
| Those who are of the earth | Those who are of heaven |
| The Holy Land | The Holy Spirit |
| Israel according to the flesh | God's firstborn Son, and all who are in Him |
It stands to reason that earthly things are helpless to convert the heart
in man. God, knowing this, patiently suffered the Israelites to struggle
with Him and defy Him, to ultimately unveil the higher power of the Spirit,
Now IF you obey me fully and keep my covenant, THEN out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites."
Deuteronomy 28:2
IF you obey the LORD your God, here are the blessings that will come to you and remain with you. The LORD your God will make you his holy people. He will set you apart for himself. He took an oath and promised to do that. He promised to do it if you would keep his commands and live exactly as he wants you to live.
That is a big "IF." In contrast, the covenant with Abraham regarding the blessings were not conditional this way. He brought Abraham out of his former land to see the land He would give to Abraham and his seed. God said "I WILL give this land to your children after you." (Gen 12:7). God made a promise to Abraham, an unconditional one, that Abraham's children would inherit the land, and it was not contingent upon anything Abraham had done, or would do.
As we have seen, in the Book of Joshua, God indeed already delivered on his promise regarding physical land, and he outright said so. The Bible says "So the Lord gave Israel all the land he had sworn to give their forefathers, and they took possession of it and settled there." But something was missing. Having been delivered from slavery in Egypt, having been fed physical water and manna in the desert, having been led successfully by God in battle to capture the land promised to them, God was not satisfied, and neither was Israel. Did they ever meet his condition for becoming a "kingdom of priests and a holy nation?"
Consider the prophets:
Exodus: "And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people" 32:8
Deuteronomy: "Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer." 10:17
2 Kings: "(Israel) rejected his decrees. They followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless." 17:15
Judges: "And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD,
and served Baalim" 2:11
Isaiah: "Ah, sinful nation (Israel), a people loaded with guilt,
a brood of evildoers" 1:4
Jeremiah: "They pour out drink offerings to other gods to provoke me to anger." 7:18
Lamentations: "Jerusalem has sinned greatly and so has become unclean." 1:8
Ezekiel: "they and their fathers have been in revolt against me to this very day." 2:3
Daniel: "All Israel has transgressed your law and turned away, refusing to
obey you." 9:10
Hosea: "I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel." 1:4
Joel: "The Mighty One is coming to destroy you." 1:4
Amos: "The people of Israel have sinned again and again. So I will punish them." 2:6
Micah: "you rulers of the house of Israel, who despise justice and distort all
that is right" 3:9
Zephaniah: "I will stretch out my hand against Judah and against all who
live in Jerusalem" 1:4
Haggai: "You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little...Because of my house, which remains a ruin" 1:9
Zechariah: "I will return to Jerusalem with mercy, and there my house will be rebuilt"
Malachi: "You are under a curse—the whole nation of you" 3:13 Malachi was the last prophet before Jesus Christ. Does it appear before you that the "natural branches" remained faithful to Israel's root, which is God? They never became a "holy nation" of priests, as they incessantly struggled with God, and constantly aroused His anger.
Take care, however. God's anger was not that of a confounded human.
God had a plan, having already known their rebellion before they rebelled.
So, throughout these prophecies God entwined a thread of hope: the promise
of a Holy One to come to restore the nation, and cleanse Israel. This
promised Messiah came to rebuild David's tent. The Bible refers to this
fulfillment as the promised "time
of reformation." (Hebrews 9:10). Anyone
who was faithful to this Messiah would be part of that new Israel.
For in Scripture it says: "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame." Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, "The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone," and, "A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall." They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.
Of course, we know the stone in Zion is Jesus Christ
spoken about by the prophet Isaiah (who is quoted above). But notice that
the ones who disobeyed were destined for it. The King James version says
"whereunto they were also appointed." This appointment, that
they should reject the Savior resulted in His death, and resurrection.
By their rejection, the foundation for a New Jerusalem, a new Israel,
would be birthed.
But YOU ARE a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 1Pe 2:10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
In this scripture, gone is the condition God set with Israel, that IF they were faithful he would create a holy nation with them. Christ has made them faithful with his Spirit, and no longer is Israel bound to the flesh. No longer being a Jew condition founded on the Law of Moses. Christ has come, who is the true Israel, and them who are in Him rejoice as one.
At last, after centuries of struggle, God delivers on his promise to Abraham's
seed. At last, God has called the Gentiles, through a remnant of Jews,
together in God, to fulfill a centuries old prophecy: He
will bring you to the land that belonged to your fathers, and you
will take possession of it. He will make you more prosperous and numerous
than your fathers. The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him
with all your heart and with all your soul, and live. (Deuteronomy 30:5-6)
They, both Jew and Gentile, entered into the true Holy Land, into the
Spirit, and a "chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
and a people belonging to God" was formed. God was not satisfied
with Israel because the physical miracles he did, did not change, or circumcise,
their hearts. So he began a new miracle, and inward one. In His wrath,
He said to Israel: "You are not my people." Then, in
due time, when Israel rejected the Messiah as they were appointed to do,
God sent out a remnant of Jewish apostles, and they brought Israel (the
Spirit) into the hearts of the Gentiles. In performing this miracle, God
said to the new Israel: "you were once not a people, now you are
my people.
Finally, by the Spirit through faith in Jesus Christ, God was able to
fulfill his oath, that if Israel (God's firstborn son) be faithful and
yielding, God would make Israel a holy nation. So it came to pass that
Jesus Christ was faithful. So, Lord Jesus became "the
firstborn among many bretheren" (Romans 8:29).
This process continues. The building grows as God conforms them, who were
not his people, into the image of his Son, so that when the building is
finished, in the ages to come:
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
Christian Zionism Philosophy As Applied In The Church
With the truth in mind respecting God's plan to refine and redefine Israel by birthing both Jews and Gentiles into Christ, let us complete this study by examining the extent to which church leaders are enforcing the zionist doctrine upon the congregation of believers.
Being a self-appointed spearhead of this Gospel-defacing crusade, let us examine John Hagee's claims regarding Israel. These are several points from his website which he thinks justifies a necessity for Christians to "bless" Israel with practical needs (like supporting their war) to remain in God's favor:
----------------
1) Genesis 12:3 "And I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee shall all nations of the earth be blessed." Point: God has promised to bless the man or nation that blesses the Chosen People. History has proven beyond reasonable doubt that the nations that have blessed the Jewish people have had the blessing of God; the nations that have cursed the Jewish people have experienced the curse of God.
2) St. Paul recorded in Romans 15:27 "For if the Gentiles have shared in their (the Jews) spiritual things, they are indebted to minister to them also in material things."
3) Jesus considered the Jewish people His family. Jesus said (Matthew 25:40) "Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren (the Jewish people… Gentiles were never called His brethren), ye have done it unto me.
4) Why did Jesus Christ go to the house of Cornelius in Capernaum and heal his servant, which was ready to die? What logic did the Jewish elders use with Jesus to convince Him to come into the house of a Gentile and perform a miracle? The logic they used is recorded in Luke 7:5; "For He loveth our nation, and He hath built us a synagogue." The message? This Gentile deserves the blessing of God because he loves our nation and has done something practical to bless the Jewish people.
----------------
With the above rationalizing, Hagee, and his contemporaries create an arena of fear surrounding your well-being. If a person knew nothing about Christianity, and they saw that theology, that person would think that to receive the Holy Spirit, requires a monetary donation to Israel of the flesh! Of course, these false teachers would deny this claim with their lips, but their doctrines affirm it. Let's take each point and make short work of it:
Point 1 (blessings and cursings?)
According to Hagee, to gain God's blessing,
the church must bless Israel according to God's promises to them Genesis
12. Actually, the first words in Genesis 12: "And
the Lord said unto Abram (later named "Abraham")...
The promises to follow are addressed to him: "And I will bless them that bless thee (Abraham) and curse him that curseth thee (Abraham); and in thee (Abraham) shall all nations of the earth be blessed." (Genesis 12:3).
If God's blessing depends on how much Christians bless Israel of the flesh, then show me this admonition in the New Testament. Wouldn't Paul, Peter, John, James diligently bolster that teaching for the church's sake? Where do we see ANYWHERE in their letters any admonition like those so tirelessly enforced by Hagee upon his adherents? Nowhere. But we do see this:
Galatians 6:10Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.
Apparently, Paul didn't get John Hagee's memo that Christians must "especially" bless his "kinsmen according to the flesh." According to him, Christians should be "especially" blessing the "household of faith." Curiously, since Hagee and other Christian Zionists dogmatically press the point, the apostles NEVER likewise admonish the church to bless Israel of the flesh. Paul taught that neither "Jew" or "circumcision" is outwardly according to the flesh, but by circumcision of the Spirit is one a Jew. The Bible teaches that the inheritance is found in Christ, and not outside Him. That is why the Bible says: "IF you be Christ's, THEN you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise." (Galatians 3:29). That's a big "if."
Point 2 (Gentiles indebted to Jews?)
Consider the outlying context of Romans 15:27, which Hagee points
to as proof that Gentiles must bless Israelis: "Now,
however, I am on my way to Jerusalem in the service of the saints
there. For Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to make a contribution
for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. For if the Gentiles
have shared in their (the Jews) spiritual things, they are indebted
to minister to them also in material things."
Could it be that the Christian "saints in Jerusalem" were Jewish in descent according to the flesh? Hagee only quotes the tail-end of that sentence. The book of Romans is addressed "to all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 1:7)."
Paul's point: according to the flesh, the "household of faith" is composed of both Gentiles and Jews who are "called to be saints" according to faith in Christ. The gentile saints, having received Spiritual blessings - resulting from the process God had dealt among Jewish people until Christ - ought to do good to all people, especially the household of faith; in this case, Gentiles should bless Jewish saints in Christ, by administering material blessings to them.
Point 3 (who are Christ's brothers?)
Hagee says: "Gentiles were never called His brethren."
In his earthly ministry - in the flesh - Jesus rarely spoke to a Gentile.
That is because the free gift of the Holy Spirit was to be offered to
the Jews first. Since Christ only spoke to Jews in his ministry, does
that mean all his teachings may ONLY be applied to Jewish people? How
far does that teaching go? Pointing to his disciples, Jesus said, "Here
are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of
my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother." (Mat
12:49-50).
For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
Eph 2:18-19
For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God;
Therefore when Jesus says: "Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me" we can spiritually discern - by comparing spiritual (words), to spiritual (meaning). If someone does something wrong to Christ's brothers, why are they doing it to Him? Because Christ's spiritual brothers...are...his...Body.
Point 4 (blessing Israel as a means to deserve Grace?)
Regarding Cornelius, Hagee says: "The message? This Gentile
deserves the blessing of God because he loves our nation and has done
something practical to bless the Jewish people." God is clear,
and I don't think I need to quote the scriptures, that the Holy Spirit
is a free gift, according to God's grace received by faith, and not
according to works. The reason Cornelius received God's favor was not
due to the practical blessings given to Jewish people. Hagee is missing
the point. It happened because "God gives grace to the humble and
resists the proud." That is the message we get from Cornelius'
experience.
The Apostle Paul was given grace after he was knocked off his horse, and after he showed humility to Christ. This lesson shows us that if God has ordained someone to be his servant, He will bring his chosen ones to a place of humility, then reveal His grace by giving them His Spirit. This is all God's working, according to election, not by works. Nobody can work to gain the Spirit, otherwise it isn't a free gift, but something earned. So, according to God's plan, He will bring them to humility himself, by any means necessary (even if apart from providing money to Israel), then provide the Spirit blessing.
Hagee stops just short of declaring that the Spirit will be withheld from people who do not "practically bless" Israel of the flesh. But, the implication is obvious. The Holy Spirit is free, and is freely given to anyone who has faith in Christ, according to the humble place God has brought them to. As the Scripture says: "It is the goodness of God that brings thee to repentance."