The Future of Israel- Part 2

  I realized, soon after deciding to name this  series "The Future of Israel" that I was going to have to spend a fair amount of time  discussing their past.  In Part 1, I barely scratched the surface of the promise of the land God gave to Abraham and tried to make the case that the land grant promise is still on the books just waiting for  a generation of Abrahams descendants to  claim it. I think prophecy  speaks plainly about that as-yet unrevealed generation, and to reassign that promise to  a group of people not descended from Abraham Isaac and Jacob is to commit a fundamental error.
  It clear from the Bible that  while the  land grant is unconditional, possession of the land is not and is predicated upon obedience. If they obey, they can live there, if they disobey God will expel them, and once they've decided  to obey, he will regather them.Over and over again the cycle of expulsion and regathering is played out in Israel's past, with the latest expulsion happening in  AD 70.  I intend to show from scripture that this cycle will repeat itself at least once more in the future. But let's look at the particulars of Gods promises in this area of regathering.
The Regathering

   In Deuteronomy 28 and 29, God lays out the particular provisional of  living in the land.  in Deutreonomy 30, he continues on saying "And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath driven thee.  And shalt return unto the LORD thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul; That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee.  If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the LORD thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee:   And the LORD thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed , and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good , and multiply thee above thy fathers. And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live."

  It behooves us to examine this passage very closely. Though this passage  is partially fulfilled in the  various expulsions in Israels past, a careful reading  shows that  the past expulsions didn't completely fulfill the promise.  God is speaking  of a generation of Abrahamic descendants who, after having rejected God would be driven out of the land and  into multiple "nations", not just Egypt, or not just Babylon or not just Chaldea. Lest any  " replacement theologian" tries to insert himself into that promise, the text states that the land they were being  removed from  is the one promised to their "fathers"  Abraham, Isaac and Jacob  God states that upon their obedience he would bring them back. Nehemiah claims that promise in Nehemiah 1, and God certainly honored the spirit of that promise with the rebuilding of Jerusalem. However the passage doesn't promise just  regathering; the passage promises  a seemingly permanent change in the very heart of the people.  The nation returned from captivity, but their heart did not change with the proof being their subsequent relapses into idolatry. God promises them they will love him someday, and I submit to you that love has not  yet happened.  Furthermore, as of the time of this writing, God has not multiplied them above their fathers.  This promise sits  there in your Bible, only partially fulfilled at best.

  That promise is restated in various places in the Bible. For example, Jeremiah 29:14 says "And I will be found of you, saith the LORD: and I will turn away your captivity  , and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the LORD; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive"  To put it bluntly, that promise cannot possibly be  twisted to  somehow include a New Testament saved Gentile. we were captives of sin, not captives of the Assyrians. The turning away of our captivity has already been accomplished according to John 8:36 and we have no land that we were taken captive from to be returned to.  But the Bible doesn't stop there. In Jeremiah 31, it says "Hear the word of the LORD, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say , He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock.For the LORD hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he."  In the previous  9 verses of that chapter, God refers to Israel  or Jacob by name at least  half a dozen times, and mentions specific  geographic  features in the land as reference points.  There is no intellectually honest way that a man could make that promise apply to anyone else, and certainly no way   it could include  saved Gentiles from every nation under earth adopted into the family of God by faith in the Son of God. Things that are different are not the same.

  But wait, there's more. Jeremiah 32 is written in the midst of the approach of Nebuchadnezzars army, and it says "Behold, I will gather them out of all countries, whither I have driven them in mine anger, and in my fury, and in great wrath; and I will bring them again unto this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely: And they shall be my people, and I will be their God: And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them: And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good ; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me." Over and over again , God refers to "them" and "they".  He speaks of a group of people that are leaving the land that Jeremiah is standing on  and whose children will be returned to that same place, but with a changed heart and with an everlasting covenant, never to leave again.  I would challenge the 'replacement theology' crowd to explain how that passage could possibly  apply to the church of the living God.

  Ezekiel 11 says "Therefore say , Thus saith the Lord GOD; Although I have cast them far off among the heathen, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come . Therefore say , Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even gather you from the people, and assemble you out of the countries where ye have been scattered , and I will give you the land of Israel. And they shall come thither, and they shall take away all the detestable things thereof and all the abominations thereof from thence. And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh: That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God."  I am  well aware that for  decades, preachers have misapplied this passage, particularly in regards the "stony heart"  but I beseech you, brethren to take the  verse as it lies in its context and explain to me exactly when  God cast out his church among the heathen.  When were we scattered among the countries  and why  on earth would he give us the land of Israel instead of giving it to the people it was actually promised to?

  Jeremiah 23 says "And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase "  That verse remains unfulfilled, and.when it finally does happen , God promises in  Isaiah 43, "Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west;  I will say to the north, Give up ; and to the south, Keep not back : bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth;" This will be  Israels permanent state according to Isaiah 54 which  says "For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with   everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer" God promises to regather the "outcasts of Israel" in  Isaiah 56 and in Isaiah 60 announces "Lift up thine eyes round about, and see : all they gather themselves together , they come to thee: thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side"

  Look carefully at Ezekiel 36 which reads "Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name's sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went ."  Read the rest of the chapter and honestly ask yourself how a saved  New testament Christian, who was made clean not by water, but  by the blood of Christ and who has the Holy Spirit indwelling him right now as we speak, would have any need for anything promised in that  passage?  Are we supposed to believe that God gave us an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled so that we can  spend our eternity tending fruit trees and  rebuilding abandoned houses?  Do yourself a favor and count, in Ezekiel 36 alone how many times God refers to Israel or Jacob and then consider the very real possibility that God meant "Israel"  and "Jacob".  Jump ahead one chapter to Ezekiel 37 and read "And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all: Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwellingplaces, wherein they have sinned , and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God.  And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd : they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them. And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt ; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children's children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever."  The two nations are obviously Israel and Judah, and  only a dishonest man or a Biblical novice could make it mean anything different than what it says.

  Hosea 8 says " Israel is swallowed up : now shall they be among the Gentiles as a vessel wherein is no pleasure. For they are gone up to Assyria, a wild ass alone by himself: Ephraim hath hired lovers.  Yea, though they have hired among the nations, now will I gather them, and they shall sorrow a little for the burden of the king of princes."  This regathering is spelled out in Joel 2 and Micah 2. Its mentioned in Micah 4, 5 and 7  and Zephaniah chapters 2, 3 and 10. Psalm 147  refers to it as well as Isaiah 16, 27, 56, Zephaniah 2, 3, and 8 all mention it.  Frankly, I am at a loss as to how a man without an agenda could miss the  very specific nature of these unfulfilled  promises, and I marvel at the pretzel logic that somehow lands them on the shoulders of the church of the living God.

  Having  pummeled the dead horse for some time now, the next logical question is when does this  great promised regathering happen? The sequence of events is laid out in Isaiah 11, which says "  And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD; And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.   And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed ; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.  And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.  And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek : and his rest shall be glorious. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left , from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.  And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth."  The timetable is clear; Isaiah is prophesying the events of Rev 19 and 20 and it is  equally clear that one of the many events surrounding the  return of Jesus Christ is the return of Jacob from the nations of the world to the land promised to their fathers.

  Stay tuned for Part 3 where we will cover  the sequence of events and  world conditions that prompt this great regathering. 

 

 

 

 

 

  

The Future of Israel-Part 1

"For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance." Romans 11:29

  There is a currently a growing  resurgence of an old heresy, which goes something like this: God is done with Israel as a nation, and all promises he made to them have  been bequeathed to the church.  Some call this 'replacement theology', or 'continuance covenants' or 'kingdom dominion' depending on what flavor of this philosophy you  encounter. I call it  sloppy handling of the scriptures.The fact is that Israel  has several promises on the books that are still unfulfilled and are unconditional , the bulk of which nobody else  qualifies for.  The only way you can make these very specific  promises apply to anyone else is to ignore the particular provisions of them. Time would fail  us to look at them all (after all God did give you a Bible)  and many of them intertwine but we will take a look at a few.
The Land
   In what is probably the second best promise in the Bible, God promises to Abraham and  his descendants a  piece of   land in Genesis 12:7, which says "And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said , Unto thy seed will I give this land.."  This land is given to Abram unconditionally, there is nothing he can do to  earn it and nothing he can do to lose it.  The promise is repeated in Gen 13:5 as "For all the land which thou seest , to thee will I give it , and to thy seed for ever." Once again, it's unconditional. The borders of the land are spelled out in Genesis 15 and in Genesis 17:8 God spells it out in black and white that it is an "everlasting possession".  In case there was any question about which seed gets the land, God tells Jacob in Genesis 35:12 "And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it , and to thy seed after thee will I give the land." It's not enough to be related to Abraham, like Ishmael was. To qualify for this land you have to be related to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  When Joseph is in the dungeon of Egypt, he even refers to it as "the land of the Hebrews" in Genesis 40:15, and Israel promises his family in Genesis 48:21 that God will return them to "the land of your fathers". Joseph's deathbed testimony is that "I die : and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob"  God makes it plain that this covenant is with a group in Exodus 6:4 which says  "And I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers" 
  From this very cursory examination of the foundation, we can easily deduce that  unless you are descended from those three men, you have no promise from God regarding that piece of property.  Being merely a spiritual child of Abraham through faith (Gal 3:7 among other places) is not enough just like being a physical child of  Abraham via Ishmael wasn't enough.  But if you are descended from those three men, God has sworn  to you and your family a piece of land, unconditionally.  
  But its not enough to  have the land if God doesn't allow you to live there, and while owning the land is condition-free, living there has a pretty steep price.  God warns them going in
"Wherefore ye shall do my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; and ye shall dwell in the land in safety. And the land shall yield her fruit, and ye shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety."  God spend whole chapters in  the Bible laying out this dynamic; obedience in the land brings blessings, disobeying brings   hard times and eventually expulsion. God is willing to  cast them out for as many generations as it takes to get obedience and then that obedient generation will be allowed to return to the land God promised to their fathers.   
  Repeatedly in the Old Testament this cycle  of rebellion, expulsion, repentance and restoration is played out. but it's imperative to understand that even while they are expelled from the land, the land still belongs to them.  Lev 26:20-38 says "And your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits. And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins  I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children , and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number ; and your high ways shall be desolate . And if ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me:Then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins.And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant: and when ye are gathered together within your cities, I will send the pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy .
  And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat , and not be satisfied .And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me;
Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat.   And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you. And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation , and I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours.   And I will bring the land into desolation : and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it. And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste. Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate , and ye be in your enemies ' land; even then shall the land rest , and enjoy her sabbaths.  As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest ; because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it. And upon them that are left alive of you I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies ; and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee , as fleeing from a sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth .And they shall fall one upon another, as it were before a sword, when none pursueth : and ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies . And ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up ."

   Keep this in mind; God wants them to live there, even though they don't deserve it according to Deut 9:6.  Because of this desire, regardless of the reason for the expulsion, or the length of time  of the expulsion, God leaves the door open for His people to repent and do the things necessary to return to the land that He promised. Meanwhile it would just sit there, sometimes desolate and  sometimes inhabited by their enemies while they toiled away in Babylon or slaved away in Chaldea or spun their wheels amongst  the Gentile nations.  This is the history of  the children of Israel.

  But this article isn't about  Israel's past, it's about Israel's future. So the question at hand is, will this ever happen? Will there ever be a generation of Abrahams descendants who see the complete fulfillment of God's promises?

  In order to lay the groundwork to properly answer that question, we have to put some more   pieces of the puzzle together.  Stay tuned for part 2.

 

 

 

 

 

Pre-Trib: The Matthew 24 Crowd

  In Job 19:25-27, Job makes a series of really remarkable statements about the future.  He claims to know that his Redeemer lives and not only is he alive, but Job expects to see him standing upon the earth at some future date.  Job expects to see him even if Job dies before the arrival of this ‘latter day’.  Even if the natural course of decay happens, Job has full confidence that he will see God, not as ‘Job the Friendly ghost’, but with eyes of flesh. Job is expecting a resurrected body of some sort.

  Moving forward a few centuries, we have the Redeemer standing upon the earth and in John 11, his friend Lazarus dies.  Lazarus’s heartbroken sister approaches Jesus and confesses, when asked, that despite her sorrow she understands that one day, the “last day” her brother’s dead body will once again live in a resurrected form.  Jesus tells her in John 11:25 that he is the resurrection she is expecting.  He had clarified just a few chapters earlier in John 5 that there would actually be two resurrections; the resurrection of life and the resurrection of damnation.  All of mankind from Adam onward will be resurrected from the grave as part of one of these two resurrections.

  We see, through prophecy, these resurrections being carried out in Revelation 20. Everybody that is part of the first resurrection has eternal life; everybody in the second resurrection has eternal damnation.  With this as a guide, you can look at any resurrection earlier in the bible and know which resurrection that you’re seeing purely by where the resurrected end up.

  The business of preparing men for the first resurrection is compared to a harvest in scripture in Mathew9, John 4 and Luke 10, among other places. Any harvest has 3 parts to it; the first fruits, the main harvest, and the gleanings.  When you plant a crop, regardless of what the fruit is, some of the fruit comes ready early, and is picked early. These are the first fruits.  The bulk of the fruit comes ready all at once in a main harvest, and a small amount isn’t ready until later as gleanings.  The entire crop isn’t ready at the same time, so it’s not harvested all at the same time, but it is all fruit, and it is all considered part of the same harvest.  The same is true of the resurrection.

  That brings us to Matthew 24, an oft-disputed passage of scripture.  We could dwell on the peculiarly Jewish tone to the passage.  We could ponder the similarities and differences between the events of Matthew 24, 1 Corinthians 15 and 1 Thessalonians 4. We could wonder at the fate of the servant at the end of the passage.   These are all interesting things to discuss, but I want to zero in on two very basic questions.  One of these questions is easy to answer; the other requires a bit more thought.

  In Matthew 24, a group of people are gathered from off the earth unto God.  The first question is; which resurrection is this? Obviously these folks aren’t slated for damnation, so this is the first resurrection.  The second question is; which part ?  Are we seeing the first fruits, the harvest or the gleanings?

  If this group are the first fruits, then  there must needs be  two other groups that leave after them.  But this Matthew 24 crowd appears to leave so late in the timeline of God’s dealing with mankind that there isn’t time (or scriptural support) for two more groups to leave.  By the  middle of Matthew 24 Jesus Christ is already at least visible from the earth on his way to the events of Revelation 19:11.  In addition to that, there are a group of saints  that already  qualify as the first fruits according to 1 Corinthians 15. These saints are mentioned in Matthew 27 and arise immediately after the resurrection of Jesus.  Because of this, the Matthew 24 crowd disqualifies themselves as the first fruits, and only two possibilities remain; harvest and gleanings.

  They might be the main harvest, which would include everyone who is ‘dead in Christ’.  This is a  pretty large crowd by comparison.  This main harvest would certainly appear to be a ‘great multitude which no man could number’ and they certainly seem to share many of the qualities of the  souls in Revelation 7:9, but before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s consider this.  If they are the main harvest, then one more group of resurrected saved human beings leave after them.  When does this happen?  If Matthew 24 is the main harvest or the rapture of the church, when do the gleanings leave?  There simply isn't time  for anybody else to leave before the  clock runs out, so to speak.

  It seems inescapable to me that the group in Matthew 24 are the last group of humans to be gathered unto God, and that makes them the gleanings.  Carrying this to its inevitable conclusion, if the Mathew 27 crowd are the first fruits, and the Matthew 24 crowd is both the church AND the gleanings, that leaves an interesting hole right there in the middle. Can we expect one more group to leave before us? Who are these people in the main harvest if it’s not us, and when can we expect them to leave?

  I submit to you that the Matthew 24 crowd is the gleanings.  Furthermore they cannot be the gleanings AND the church.  Since they leave at the end of the tribulation, the main harvest, or church has to leave sometime between March 21st 2014 and the return of Jesus Christ to rule and reign.  That is one of many reasons that I believe the church leaves before  the beginning , or at the  very least, before the end of the time of Jacob’s trouble.