CHAPTER 7
OUR “NEW ISRAEL–CHURCH”
There is a considerable confusion concerning Israel as the chosen nation of God in the Old Testament, the new Israel of the New Testament (so called “Messianic Jews”) and the Church of the New Testament. This confusion is primarily due to the already mentioned unbridgeable gap between the rational and the spiritual understanding of any biblical issue and that includes this important issue, as well.
Very few Christians and even fewer Jews themselves understand that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob WERE NOT JEWS because they were circumcised in flesh! It is true that Abraham and every male child belonging to his house had to be circumcised in the flesh of their foreskin. But this circumcision was only a token of the covenant between God and Abraham (Gen. 17:10-13). It was an OUTWARD CIRCUMCISION AND DID NOT MAKE ANYONE A JEW! Jacob became the father of the twelve tribes of Israel in his twelve sons only after God changed his character – his heart and spirit – and then He changed his name Jacob to ISRAEL (Gen. 32:28). And Jacob called the name of that place Peniel for there he saw God face to face and his life was preserved (Gen. 32:30).
There are three basic reasons why the circumcision in the flesh does not make anyone a Jew:
a) Even strangers, which were not of Abraham’s seed, but were bought with money, had to be circumcised (Gen. 17:12), but they never became Jews by this operation in their flesh.
b) That particular covenant between God and Abraham was in Abraham’s flesh, not in his spirit (Gen. 17:13).
c) GOD says: “For 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 (=flesh);” (Rom. 2:28,29// Col. 3:10,11).
Considering the above facts, we can now say before the LORD that Abraham, Isaac and Israel became true Jews only when they were circumcised in their hearts – after God changed their spirit, their character through trials of their faith and obedience to Him. Based on this fact, we can now also say before the LORD, that many of the Old Testament Jews were never Jews in the eyes of the LORD though they were all circumcised in their flesh! Why? They were never circumcised in their heart not passing the tests of their faith and obedience toward God. They remained “Jewish” outwardly after their flesh, but not after their spirit.
In fact, the same applies to many Christians, who are born-again and baptized, yet, do not belong to Christ not having crucified their flesh, which means, not having their heart circumcised (Gal. 5:24). But once we have crucified our flesh we become “circumcised in our heart”, we belong to Christ and then we are also “Abraham’s seed” and heirs according to the promise (Gal. 3:29). What does it mean to be Abraham’s seed?
I MUST MAKE HERE THE MOST SHOCKING STATEMENT THAT YOU HAVE EVER READ IN YOUR ENTIRE CHRISTIAN OR JEWISH LIFETIME. THE TRUTH IS THE FOLLOWING:
ABRAHAM WAS NOT ONLY THE FIRST JEW FROM AMONG THE GENTILES OF THIS WORLD, BUT ALSO THE VERY FIRST CHRISTIAN**! HE WAS THE FIRST DISCIPLE OF CHRIST STARTING A SPIRITUAL ISRAEL, WHICH THE LORD LATER, AFTER HIS INCARNATION IN BETHLEHEM, RENAMED TO – THE CHURCH!
If you are truly shocked, it is absolutely expected of you! You don’t have to be an orthodox Jew to get a heart attack reading such statements. But I do ask you, please, keep reading (at least to p.102**), things will become quite clear, even logical, if we go on and do not lose our sanity.
You see, if we truly desire to see the light and answer the question of Israel and the Church in truth, we must see and discern the NATURAL–CARNAL from the SPIRITUAL as there is a very basic and HUGE difference between the two… just as there is a HUGE SPIRITUAL DIFFERENCE between the OLD andthe NEW TESTAMENT.
First, let me show you that the Lord had a very valid and compelling reason to rename Spiritual Israel to Church. His reason was simple: He foreknew that in the Church, the majority of members in His New Body will be former Gentiles and not former Jews. It was therefore fitting to give His New Body, New Wife a New Name – the Church. Please, keep reading and do not faint.
The Lord Jesus was a different being in the Old Testament than He is in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, He was born a Jew from a Jewish mother and had an earthly body. In the New Testament (which starts after His Resurrection!) He rose from the grave a NEW BEING with a glorified body having Eternal Life, which cannot die any more (Rev. 1:18). What is also very important is this truth:
AFTER HIS RESURRECTION, CHRIST IS NOT A JEW ANY MORE because the whole Old Israel died in Him together with all mankind and Old Creation! In the risen Christ there is a NEW CREATION and there is neither Jew nor Greek nor any other nationality, race or tribe, but all that believed are ONE IN HIM (Gal. 3:28// Col. 3:9-11).
If the Old Testament could have made us perfect new creatures, there would have been no need for any New Testament or of any Church! True? The original Old Israel would have sufficed as a spiritual vessel. The fact that there is a New Testament shows that the Old Testament could not do what only the New Testament could and can do! This also testifies to the most important fact of our Salvation, that CARNALITY could never do what only SPIRITUALITY can! Finally, God will never accept any carnality, only spirituality. Please, keep reading.
Now the Lord desires to tell us the following important spiritual facts concerning Jews and Jewishness:
1 – God is not a Jew, the Son of God (Word – Jn. 1:1) is not a Jew, and the Holy Spirit is not a Jew either.
2 – In the New Testament, a Messianic Jew does not exist! When a Greek (Gentile) believes, he becomes a believer, is redeemed and is no more Greek (Gentile). When a Jew believes, he becomes a believer, is redeemed and IS NO MORE JEW! We cannot mix the old creation with the new one; we cannot mix spiritual reality with carnal understanding. The Lord, before His death, was known to people and to His disciples after His flesh. But after His Resurrection, they did not know Him any more that way, but rather after His Spirit (2Cor. 5:16,17). There is therefore no difference between the Jew and the Gentile AFTER their redemption (Rom. 10:12// Gal. 3:27,28) and Christ is the END of the LAW for righteousness to every one that believed (Rom. 10:4). Do we begin to SEE and understand the above facts? Do we really?
Lest the “Messianic Jews” should be offended, I add the following. Christians should treat the Jews that believed as brethren and thank God for them. The fact that Jewishness with its traditions, feasts, rituals, laws, regulations, etc., is still in their blood and they practice it in their services should not be surprising. They will not see in spirit and become spiritual faster than the Gentiles that were redeemed and became Christians. Gentiles never had in their blood what Jews have had, and to get rid of it takes a lot of time, patience and the Lord’s Love and Grace. Well, it is the same for Christians except that these two groups of people will never understand each other in their unrenewed mind and thus appreciate their particular difficulties and sufferings! It requires spiritual understanding, patience and grace.
3 – It is true that “Salvation is of the Jews” (Jn. 4:22), but few people understand the spiritual background of this Scripture. “Salvation is of the Jews” is true only in the sense that the Saviour, Jesus the Man, was born from the Jewish nation, from a Jewish mother, who gave Him His earthly body, so, in His earthly body He was a Jew (Rom. 9:5). BUT in His Soul and Spirit, He was never Jewish since His Father was Heavenly and not Jewish!
Even considering His body only, the role of Jews in our Salvation ends right there, since after His Resurrection, His Jewish body was dissolved and He ceased to be a Jew also in His new glorified body. When He was executing the Salvation of mankind on His Cross, Jews had absolutely NOTHING to do with it. Christ died being abandoned and rejected by His Jewish nation. He secured the Salvation of men Alone while Jews gave Him away to Romans to be crucified. At that time, Jews were more interested in their earthly kingdom than in the Salvation of Gentiles, even to the point that they would have prevented their Salvation (Mt. 16:21-23), howbeit, without being conscious of it.
4 – The Lord God had chosen Israel to be His people, His nation, though He had chosen the most unbelieving, the most unfaithful and the most rebellious nation on the face of the earth! Now, why did God make such a choice? Had He chosen a meeker, more believing and faithful and obedient nation (maybe, like Slovaks?), He might have never shown to the world our depraved and devilish nature and how He is dealing with it and how He is saving us purely with His Grace and Love and Forgiveness, which we can never deserve or fathom.
But because of this God’s choice, Jews have become self-assured and proud and trusting that they are saved no matter how they live and behave. WRONG! God’s choice of Israel is NOT their Salvation, only Redemption! The Salvation is ONLY when man (Jew or Gentile) by his faith and free will chooses God’s Way of Salvation – through the Saviour – and not when God chooses man for His earthly purposes, who then walks on his own ways and fails God in every way. The Word, which says that “all Israel shall be saved” (Rom. 11:26a) does not mean what Jews would like it to mean. There is another Word of God which says “For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel” (Rom. 9:6b-8). How should we understand this seeming mystery? Maybe the easiest way is to come to the New Testament and realize that the same “seeming mystery” applies to the Church!
God could have said “The Church are My people and all Church shall be saved”, yet, there also applies the fact that “they are not all Christians that are of Christians” (1Jn. 2:17,19). In other words, not every redeemed and baptized person will be saved, but he that will go on unto perfection (Heb. 6:1-6), that will overcome (Rev. 3:5 + 21:7), that will find the narrow road (Mt. 7:14), that will fight a good fight of faith and lay hold of eternal life (1Tim. 6:12), that will follow Christ (Mt. 16:24-26), that will abide in Christ (Jn. 15:6), etc. And this applies also to Israel. ABRAHAM FOUND AND WALKED ON THE NARROW WAY, HE WAS DENYING HIMSELF AND TAKING UP HIS CROSS FOLLOWING THE LORD, HE FOUGHT A GOOD FIGHT OF FAITH AND LAID HOLD ON ETERNAL LIFE. He fulfilled all the above Words of God.
All the above Words thus apply to ALL BELIEVERS whether they were Gentiles or Jews before their redemption. We should therefore understand Rom. 11:26a as follows: “and all from Israel which, being redeemed, shall overcome, shall be saved.” There is only one rule for all believers whether they were Greeks (Gentiles) or Jews before their redemption. The Lord calls Himself “thy Redeemer” (Is. 54:5 – for the differences between redemption and salvation, see our two books quoted in the Foreword).
Today, there are yet three kinds of peoples on this earth: Jews, Gentiles and the Church of God (Christians), and we should offend none of them (1Cor. 10:32). But after the Last Judgment and in the New Jerusalem, there will only be the saved people written in the Book of Life and nobody else. Yet, there will be TWO kinds of saved people: The Bride of Christ (New Jerusalem – Rev. 21:9b,10) and the nations walking in Her light (Rev. 21:24). The Bride, the Wife of Christ, is perfect; the nations are not perfect! They were hurt by the second death (Rev. 2:11) and thus need healing provided by the leaves of the Tree of Life (Rev. 22:2b).
Another very important fact which is to be SEEN and understood concerning Israel is the following.
Principally, Abraham had NOT started carnal ISRAEL of the OLD Testament; he had started a spiritual ISRAEL! He had not started an earthly Israel, but a heavenly Israel – the future Church of the NEW Testament.
Perhaps the best way to start seeing and understanding these spiritual issues, especially concerning Israel and the Church, is to realize that Israel of the Old Testament was already chosen as the Wife of the Son of God – Jesus Christ, their Maker and Redeemer – since He was already their Husband before He was born in Bethlehem! (Is. 54:5// Col. 1:16-18// Rev. 3:14). The “church” in Col. 1:18 includes the New Spiritual Israel and the Lord continues to be Her Husband enlarging His Wife from among the Gentiles!
ABRAHAM, ISAAC AND JACOB–ISRAEL WERE THE TRUE FOREFATHERS OF THE SPIRITUAL ISRAEL, WHICH JESUS CHRIST STARTED TO BUILD AS HIS BODY – HIS WIFE – BEFORE HIS INCARNATION IN BETHLEHEM (Is. 54:5). AND THEN CONTINUED AFTER HIS INCARNATION (Mt. 16:18// Eph. 2:20) ADDING TO IT FROM THE GENTILES (Is. 54:3// Acts 26:16-18).
GOD REJECTED THE OLD CARNAL ISRAEL AND, AFTER REFUSING EVEN HIS SON–THEIR MESSIAH, HE SCATTERED THEM INTO ALL THE WORLD DESTROYING THEM THERE IN THE FIRES OF THE LAST 2,000 YEARS. THEY TOTALLY FAILED TO DO HIS WILL AND HIS PURPOSE IN CHOOSING THEM TO KNOW HIM AND REPRESENT HIM IN THIS WORLD.
HENCE, GOD DESTROYED THE OLD VESSEL, CARNAL ISRAEL, AND SENT HIS OWN SON TO FORM OUT OF THE OLD REJECTED VESSEL A NEW VESSEL BASED ON HIMSELF, WHICH VESSEL WOULD DO HIS WILL AND FULLY SATISFY HIS DESIRE. THE LORD CALLED THIS NEW VESSEL – THE CHURCH.
The Lord started to build this new vessel – the Church taking His Remnant, those that He foreknew and predestinated (Rom. 8:29), from the Israel of the Old Testament! (Is. 1:9// Rom. 9:27-29) Then He added 12 apostles, later another 120 disciples and later another 3,000 Jews on the day of Pentecost. So, the first church was fully “Jewish”! And later on, he sent his apostle Paul to bring in the Gentiles, as well. Hence, we conclude this by the following fact:
THE CHURCH IS THE SPIRITUAL ISRAEL OF THE OLD AND THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ALL SPIRITUAL BELIEVERS FROM GENTILES!
THE OLD CARNAL ISRAEL, WITH ALL ITS JEWISHNESS AND LAWS AND RITUALS, DIED WITH CHRIST FOR EVER TOGETHER WITH ALL THE UNCONVERTED AND UNBELIEVING GENTILES WITH ALL THEIR EVIL, PAGANISM AND WICKEDNESS.
Let us start SEEING and realizing that CHRIST DID NOT BEGIN IN BETHLEHEM, He is Eternal. What does it mean? It means that before His incarnation in Bethlehem and His visible ministry in the New Testament, we might see and understand very little concerning His spiritual works in the Old Testament. So, let us declare the following facts:
1) He was slain and ordained from the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8// 1Pet. 1:19,20) and we all were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:3,4). Hence…
2) He started to build His Body – His Wife from the foundation of the world and called it ISRAEL! (Is. 54:5). He did not start building His Body in Mathew 16:18, but in Genesis 12:1-3! He started with Abraham, not with Peter, and continued with Isaac, Jacob-Israel, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Caleb, Samuel, King David, Gideon, all the Prophets and other SPIRITUAL men of Israel.
3) The Heavenly Father brought His firstborn Son Jesus Christ to be killed on the hill of Golgotha so that He might save from the mankind such people, who would believe, LIVE BY FAITH (Hab. 2:4// Rom. 1:17// Gal. 3:11// Heb. 10:38) love and obey Him (1Cor. 16:22). THESE He will perfect and form into His Wife–His Body–New Jerusalem (Eph. 1:22,23// Rev. 21:9-27). But a similar thing happened in the physical world to represent the spiritual world, namely…
4) Father Abraham similarly brought his firstborn son, firstborn by promise not by flesh, to be killed on the hill of Moriah so that Abraham, his son Isaac and all their generations would believe, LIVE BY FAITH, love and obey God and thus accomplish the Will of God. And then there was a woman found called Rebecca, who also by faith came to Isaac and married him becoming his wife. And they had children, Esau and Jacob. The first one was rejected and hated by God and the second one was changed in heart and renamed to Israel and loved by God (Rom. 9:13// Heb. 12:16,17).
Hence, Abraham represented the Heavenly Father, Isaac represented His Son Jesus Christ, Rebecca represented the Church – Wife of Christ – New Jerusalem; Esau represented all those from Israel which were NOT of Israel (Rom. 9:6b); Jacob’s sons (except Joseph) represented the nations that will walk in the light of New Jerusalem (Rev. 21: 24).
To complete the picture of representation in the New Testament also, the following truth applies. Jacob-ISRAEL with Joseph and with all the truly spiritual Israelites and also with all the truly spiritual believers from Gentiles, represent:
– the “small Remnant” of the Israel-Church (Is. 1:9),
– the one undefiled dove (S.Sol. 6:9 + 8:5),
– the few that found and walked on the narrow way (Mt. 7:14),
– the one that shall be taken (Mt. 24:40,41),
– the virgins with oil (Mt. 25:1-12),
– the little flock (Lk. 12: 32),
– those that worked out their salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12b),
– those that cleansed themselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God (2Cor. 7:1),
– those counted worthy of the Kingdom of God which Kingdom and his righteousness they were seeking and finding (2Thes. 1:5// Mt. 6:33),
– those that, after redemption, continued unto their perfection (Heb. 6:1),
– those that were doing (living) the Word and not only hearing, reading, teaching or preaching it (Jam. 1:22),
– the one that the Lord loved and who kept the Word of His patience (Rev. 3:9-11),
– all Overcomers (Rev. 2:7,11,17,26 + 3:5,12, 21),
– the Manchild (Rev. 12:5), and finally, they represent
– the true Bride, the Lamb’s Wife (Rev. 21:9-21).
Here, the Lord desires to clear long-standing misunderstandings and controversies concerning the following definitions of His Bride from the above list:
4a) The “one” undefiled dove is not one woman; the “one” that shall be taken is not one person, the five wise virgins will not be five women just as the Bride of Christ is not one woman and the Manchild is not one man. All these definitions represent a corporate body of Overcomers, the Remnants from both Old and New Testaments.
Furthermore, the undefiled dove with all the queens and concubines, are all believers. All virgins, whether with or without oil are all believers. The “two” in the field and the “two” grinding at the mill are all believers since they do not know what hour their Lord does come (Mt. 24:42). And just as one virgin (with oil) shall be taken to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb and one (without oil) left on earth (Mt. 25:11, 12), so also one man (with oil) in the field shall be taken and the other (without oil) left on earth. Oil represents the fruit of the Spirit and every Overcomer has it. On page 196 of the book “Forbidden Knowledge” by D. A. Miller is a statement saying: “The ‘one taken’ of the Olivet discourse must of necessity be those living on earth who have taken the mark of the beast, as well as those who have refused to believe that Jesus was ever coming back. These will be taken away to judgment”. This is truly an outrageous statement showing the exact OPPOSITE OF THE TRUTH and thus able to deceive multitudes of readers. How is this possible? Theologians and scientific researchers that have no spiritual revelation can never arrive at the inner truth of God by using their logic and academic comparisons (see also page 31).
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To be continued next week in chapter 7 – part 2
brother Hanola
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