In the days of Noah (Mt. 24:37), the people that were drowned were believers; Christ would have never preached to pagans after His crucifixion when He went to hell (prison) and preached to those that were disobedient in the days of Noah (1Pet. 3:18-20+4:6). One part of those drowned came from the blessed seed of Seth and the other part from the cursed seed of Cain. But Cain also believed and talked with God face to face (Gen. 4:11-16). Yet, only eight people from all mankind were Overcomers, the rest were NOT! These were the First Remnant (for more details, see pages 234-248 of “The Tragedy and Glory of Believers[9]”).
In the days of Lot (Lk. 17:28), the people that were destroyed were NOT believers. While the Flood represents the Tribulation, the fires of Sodom and Gomorrah represent the seven vials of the wrath of God (Rev. 16:1-17). Since believers are not appointed unto His wrath (1Thes. 5:9), Lot, his wife and two daughters, though they were wicked and selfish and thus NOT Overcomers, were saved because they were believers, Lot being called “righteous” (2Pet. 2:7,8).
4b) Manchild is not Jesus Christ alone, it is a corporate body of Overcomers Jesus Christ being the firstborn of the Manchild, Who overcame the world (Jn. 16:33). Christ was caught up unto God and to His Throne long before John wrote Rev. 12:5. Also, the “Woman”, the mother of the Manchild, is the Church with the spiritual meaning of Israel-Church described above and misunderstood by believers. She has been travailing in birth since Abraham (her detailed description is beyond the scope of this book).
4c) The Bride, the Lamb’s Wife is NOT the sum of all believers because She is Perfect having the Glory of God (Rev. 21:9-11). The majority of believers are the nations of them that are saved, whether they be from Jews or from Gentiles, that shall walk and live in Her light (Rev. 21:24) They are NOT perfect since they need the leaves of the Tree of Life for their healing (Rev. 22:2b// Rev. 2:11).
5) Now, why are we “Abraham’s seed” when we are Christ’s? (Gal. 3:29) Why not Abel’s seed or Enoch’s seed or Noah’s seed? They also walked by faith (Heb. 11:4,5,7), did they not? The answer is that NO SINFUL MAN on this planet was tested with the kind of faith as Abraham was. And he demonstrated it because Christ, the Son of God, had worked it into him ever since he obeyed His voice and went out not knowing where he was going and until he took the knife to kill Isaac, his only beloved son, on the altar to offer him to God! No man that ever lived exhibited such unfathomable faith and obedience to God, and no man was tempted by God, but Abraham (Gen. 22:1// Jam. 1:13).
When we thus live by faith and obey God, we are “Abraham’s seed” and we belong to Christ – we are true Christians – because Christ did the same thing. Well, I do not believe that we need more facts from the Old or New Testament to be able to declare the following: Every true believer who lived by faith, and not by flesh, belongs to Christ whether he lived in the Old or the New Testament. I know that the disciples were called “Christians” first in Antioch (Acts 11:26b), but a “Christian” is IN FACT anyone who lives by faith whose Author and Finisher is Christ (Heb. 12:2) whether he lives in the Old or New Testament! Christ and His faith is the same in both Testaments. In THIS sense, ABRAHAM was the first JEW and also the first CHRISTIAN**. Now, do you see, admit or even believe this “unbelievable” fact having read the above spiritual truths?
Hence, ABRAHAM, ISAAC AND JACOB–ISRAEL WERE THE FOREFATHERS OF THE TRUE SPIRITUAL ISRAEL and all their generations were supposed to follow them in faith and obedience to God. But, with most of Israel, it never happened. And every important man of Israel chosen by God for His Purposes was a typical example of these two facts – either he was on the SPIRITUAL SIDE or the CARNAL SIDE of Israel.
Let us briefly consider two well known representatives of these two fundamentally unbridgeable sides of Israel, two Kings of Israel – Saul and David.
King Saul was a CARNAL king from beginning to end; he never had a heart after the Lord, never changed in his spirit and never satisfied God and His Will. He was proud, arrogant, impatient, self-willed, without faith and lost the anointing, which he received from God at the beginning of his kingship by the hand of Samuel the prophet (1Sam. 15:1). Of course, God knew that Saul will be disobedient to His voice and commandments; yet, He called Samuel to anoint him to show that man may lose God’s anointing, power, authority and even his kingdom due to his disobedience to the Lord.
King David was a SPIRITUAL king and the opposite of King Saul. He was a man after the Lord’s heart and was chosen to assume the kingship of Israel after Saul (1Sam. 13:14// Acts 13:21,22). By faith he slew Goliath whom Saul and all his army feared to fight and destroy. And all those years afterward, he learned the most difficult lessons of faith and patience. These two virtues are the most precious and important virtues in all true Overcomers as they are acquired in prolonged sufferings and testing by the Lord and without which no one can serve the Lord truly and efficiently. It is written that Satan shall “wear out the saints of the most High” (Dan. 7:25) especially toward the end of the world. Now, Overcomers shall “wear out Satan through their faith and patience”! That is also how the Lord Jesus overcame Satan, who has no patience and no faith. And that is how David succeeded over Saul learning faith and patience through the things he had to suffer all those forty years. “Forty” is the time of testing.
Read Hebrews chapter 11 and see that all the men of God that served Him in truth and according to His Will, served Him BY FAITH and PATIENCE: By faith Abel, by faith Enoch, by faith Noah, by faith Abraham, by faith Isaac, by faith Jacob, by faith Joseph, by faith Moses, by faith Rahab (the harlot!), by faith Gideon, Barak, Samson, David, Samuel and all the prophets (Heb. 11:4-8,20-23,31,32, etc.). And these all have also learned and exhibited much more than a human patience in their trials and tests by God.
Now, faith cannot be given to and reside in human sinful nature, it can only be given to our new nature, the pure conscience of the New Man (1Tim. 3:9), since faith is a spiritual substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen with physical eyes, but with spiritual eyes (Heb. 11:1).
All these above men of God were supposed to form a spiritual Israel, but the children of the old Israel refused to be formed into spiritual people and live by faith and that is why Israel failed the main Purpose of God for which they were called. Four times the Lord commanded believers saying: “The just shall live by faith” (Hab. 2:4// Rom. 1:17// Gal. 3:11// Heb. 10:38). Most of the Church of the New Testament also failed to live by faith starting after the Early Church.
Probably every true born-again Christian knows from the Bible that the Tribulation period of 7 years (Daniel’s 70th week – Dan. 9:24-27) is also known as Jacob’s trouble (Jer. 30:7). Why not Israel’s trouble? Do we know why? And do we know the difference? And in the same verse, the Lord is promising to Jacob that “…he shall be saved out of it.” In Jer. 30:10, the Lord calls Jacob “His servant, who should not fear”, and in verse 11 the Lord says: “For I am with thee… to SAVE THEE;” The Lord talks here to carnal Israel.
Jacob and his carnal children needed salvation even though they were redeemed by being chosen by God as His people. One part of the process of his salvation is clearly alluded to toward the end of Jer. 30:11 where the Lord promises that He will not make a full end of Jacob, but He will correct him in a (necessary) measure and will not leave him altogether unpunished! The Lord had wounded him grievously and chastised him for the multitude of his iniquities and sins (Jer. 30:14), which were increased. Jacob and his carnal offspring in the Old Testament belonged to the same category as the Christians in the New Testament called “workers of iniquity”, whom the Lord did not know and sent them away to the outer darkness (Mt. 7:21-23 +8:12). These were born-again believers, redeemed but unsaved as yet, not circumcised in their spirit and heart.
The last example concerning the SPIRITUAL AND CARNAL ISRAEL may be very well illustrated by the 12 sons of Jacob. They all were CARNAL – except Joseph! He was SPIRITUAL. What was the result? Those “bastardly brothers” of Joseph sold him to be a slave in Egypt. Then in Egypt, he ended up in jail, as Potiphar’s wife falsely accused him. And soon thereafter, the Lord brought him to the throne of Egypt with all his power being only second to that of the Pharaoh. And through him, the Lord saved Israel and Egypt (and possibly the world) from perishing in the ensuing famine… including his “bastardly brothers”! Do we see here the true fruit and consequences of carnality and spirituality? I hope we do. This same fact applies today.
We conclude this paragraph by saying that Jacob and his offspring were CARNAL ISRAEL and were like unto the CARNAL CHURCH in the New Testament. But just as with carnal Christians, the carnal Israel is promised by the Lord that He will restore them and heal them – though not all of them. But the Lord also promised that they shall not be few, they shall not be small (Jer. 30:17,19). And this Remnant, which shall thus become a SPIRITUAL ISRAEL, shall be His people and God shall be their God (verse 22). And then, in the last two verses (Jer. 30:23,24), the fierce anger of the Lord shall fall on the heads of the wicked and shall not return and we shall consider it in the latter days – which is, NOW. And that is exactly what we are doing.
Therefore, if we read the Old Testament with the right spiritual discernment whereby we distinguish the old carnal Israel represented by Jacob from the new spiritual Israel represented by Israel and “his seed”, which is also the seed of Abraham and Isaac (Rom. 4:11-13,16 + 9:6-8// Gal. 3:16// Heb. 2:16), then we will get the true picture and understanding of the TWO ISRAELS existing side by side unto this very day. And this also applies to the TWO CHURCHES existing side by side unto this very day – the CARNAL and the SPIRITUAL.
I would also recommend reading and pondering the whole chapter 11 of the Book of Romans in this light, which the Lord is giving to us in the above paragraphs. This is the only way to correctly understand and see that…
Both the SPIRITUAL ISRAEL and the SPIRITUAL CHURCH ARE MADE ONE! (Eph. 2:14-20).
The carnal Israel of both Testaments and the carnal Church of the New Testament are the redeemed of God, but He had never united them in any sense.
And just as the seed of Jacob, the carnal children of Israel, needed the necessary measure of correction and punishment and chastisement for the multitude of their iniquity and sins (Jer. 30:11,14), so do the carnal believers of the Church of Jesus Christ need the same thing – the workers of iniquity (Mt. 7:21-23), the unprofitable servants (Mt. 25:29,30), the (rebellious) children of the kingdom (Mt. 8:12), believers with no wedding garment (robe of righteousness) (Mt. 22:11-14), the virgins without oil whom the Lord does not know and to whom the door to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb and the Kingdom of Heaven is closed (Mt. 25:10-12).
Before we conclude this part of chapter 7, let me say two more important facts about Israel and the true Church as follows:
1) Since the old vessel of the carnal Israel failed its vocation, its calling in the Purposes of the Will of God, the Father sent His Son to form a new vessel which He called the Church – the same people of God called out of mankind as was Israel. The Church has been based on the Rock of the truth that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God (Mt. 16:18// 1Cor. 10:1-4).
We may thus say that in the New Testament dispensation, the Church, the new vessel, had replaced Israel, the old vessel. Its original calling and all the Purposes of God and all the Will of God were now transferred to and placed upon the Church, and all the history of Israel must now be, as it were, reproduced and the new vessel reshaped into the Church, in a spiritual way.
Whatever, in the Old Testament Israel, was spiritually acceptable to the Lord was retained and reused in this new vessel – the Church. Every spiritual soul of Israel, dead or alive, was retained and included into the Church. Some fragments from the life of the old Israel were brought into the life of the Church in a spiritual way or as admonitions for Christians (ex: 1Cor. 10:1-33// 1Pet. 2:5,9, etc.).
Perhaps nowhere is this comparison of the old and the new more apparent and more used than in the letter to Hebrews where Apostle Paul warns the Church again not to repeat what God hated and rejected in the old Israel. Now, I believe that Apostle Paul wrote this letter to Hebrews as I see no other man more qualified in spiritual knowledge and wisdom for this huge task. So, not only the spiritual souls from Israel, but also the physical facts of the old Israel that had a spiritual meaning and fulfilment in the Church, had been transferred to the Church. Nothing that was useful in the old vessel was wasted, but every part was reused and reshaped into its spiritual counterpart.
2) The true Israel-Church is a spiritual thing! You can not look at it and see it in any material or intellectual sense. You cannot tell a true believer by outer signs. If a man goes to the building with a cross on the roof or with the Star of David on the front facade, it does not mean that he is a believer. Outwardly, he may be said to be a Christian or a Jew, respectively, but not necessarily a true believer.
Of course, nobody would go to a synagogue and say: “Behold, the Church of Jesus Christ”. You might be stoned. Similarly, no Jew would walk into a church and say “Behold, the Israel of God”. He would be considered a psychiatric case. So, you cannot judge by the people in flesh gathering in some physical buildings. Then, how do we recognize the true Israel–Church? It is Christ and His Life in people that makes them the true Israel–Church. These people could have been Gentiles or Jews before Christ was born in their spirit!
I would like to conclude this point and the whole chapter 7 with a tricky question. We know that the Church is composed only of such believers which were “born-again” by the Holy Spirit. We also know that “Except a man be born-again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God” (Jn. 3:3).
May I then ask the following question: Has Israel been “born-again”? Since most, if not all, of the Church may believe that Israel was never born by the Holy Spirit, only the Church, then I have to ask you another question: How is it then that “many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the Kingdom of Heaven” (Mt. 8:11)? How did these three “guys” get into the Kingdom of Heaven not being born by the Spirit of God? Can you answer this? Can you really?
I will leave the true answer to your own research. But your true answer should prove that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob-Israel were not only the first true Jews, but also the first true “Christians”, members of the Church of Christ the Lord – and thus not only our own forefathers, but also our BRETHREN! How you are going to prove it, I do not know, but there are few more facts that I desire to bring before you, if for nothing else, than perhaps just to ponder.
a) Abraham had a lunch with God under a tree in front of his tent! (Gen. 18:1-8) Do you know of any born-again Christian in the history of the entire Church of Jesus Christ who had a “lunch with God” in his garden? And that happened before the grand test of faith with Abraham to offer Isaac to God. Would Almighty God come down to the earth and have a lunch with His Friend (Jam. 2:23) who would not even be redeemed and thus born by His Spirit? Really?
b) The house of Jacob and all the remnant of the house of Israel were born by God (Is. 46:3)! Anything born by God is born by His Holy Spirit since He is the Life of God and apart from the Holy Spirit, there is no life. God testifies that Israel was redeemed by being born from above in a similar way as New Testament Christians have been.
c) The Lord was Israel’s Husband long before He introduced Himself to the Church as Her Bridegroom (Is. 54:5 // Mt. 25:1-12)! But Israel failed to be a faithful wife to her Maker-Husband. So now, the Lord has been waiting for the Israel-Church as His New Bride and Wife hoping for Her love and faithfulness. Why “hoping”? Well, even at His next (third) coming as the Bridegroom, He will still not know “half of His potential Bride” (Mt. 25:1,2,11, 12)! True?
d) Israel was called to be the light of the Gentiles – the future Christians (Is. 42:6b,7). Israel was promised that “their seed shall inherit Gentiles” (Is. 54:3), which means, gain possession of the future Christian nations. This same promise was fulfilled by the Lord Himself sending Apostle Paul to Gentiles (Acts 26:16-18).
So, how do you view the Old and the New Israel and the Church in this light from the Lord? Can your eye SEE and your heart UNDERSTAND what your physical eye and your natural mind cannot? But the truth of the Lord above does not depend on whether you see and understand it or not. That Truth stands and you may apprehend it only one way – by believing it. And if you believe it without seeing it, you shall be very much blessed (Jn. 20:29).
I will now conclude this chapter 7 with one absolutely fundamental and extremely important matter. I believe that if you read this chapter with open eyes and an open heart, you must have received at least a contour of a new picture, which you never had before. In this new light you must have seen the spiritual reality of Israel and the Church through the eyes of God. It also must have shown you that there is a definite need to replace what have hitherto been your longstanding understanding, belief and conviction about all the important matters of Israel and the Church according to the doctrines of “clever” men.
Furthermore, and even much more importantly, there is a definite need to replace what have hitherto been your longstanding, perhaps, even “final” understanding, belief or conviction about your standing, status and future destiny in the eyes of God and discard what you were taught or preached to by men who themselves did not see and understand. So, the most important matter for you is this.
When you believed in your heart and confessed your faith as per the Word of God (Rom. 10:9-10), you were redeemed. And when you were also baptized, you were told that you should just praise the Lord and wait for His coming because you are now the member of His Church, which is His Body (Eph. 1:20-23). Considering this Word of God, this is TRUE. Furthermore, as a member of His Church, you were told that you are now also His Bride and Wife and your destiny in Heaven is sure and confirmed. This is NOT TRUE! You never questioned these facts because they are logical and more than acceptable to your soul and alluded to by a number of verses in the Scripture. And the men, who taught you or preached to you these things, may have been very sincere, honest, knowledgeable and renowned preachers. BUT…
Even what seems logical and perfectly acceptable for our soul in the Scripture, may not be the Truth of God at all! Why? Because any verse from the Bible must be confirmed and in a complete harmony with the rest of the Bible wherever the same matter is dealt with. Hence, verses from the Book of Genesis may have their confirmation in the Book of Revelation. Apparently, no preacher is doing this. He may choose 2-3 verses from some letter of Apostle Paul and build on them his doctrine and then he preaches it to others being only led by his logic. His chosen verses may not harmonize with the other Books of the Scripture or may be completely contradictory to them. Hence, what may seem absolutely logical in one Book of the Bible, and he would bet his life on it, may not be true in another Book of the Bible, in fact, it may be completely contradictory to it and make his doctrine false and deceiving. Conclusion?
OUR HUMAN LOGIC HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE SPIRITUAL AND LIVING TRUTH OF GOD!
Would you be willing to pause and ponder this simple but extremely important fact? If not, then you might as well give this book to the first beggar on the street as it was a waste of time for you to read it. And if yes, then ponder this:
You may be a born-again baptized Christian, a member of the Church, and NOT be the Bride and Wife of Christ, that is, you may NOT be the New and Holy Jerusalem! You might be one in those multitudes of saved nations who will bring into that Holy City their glory and honour (Rev. 21:26). You could be a king of the earth and bring your own glory into the City. But none of you will have the Glory of God or the light unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal! (Rev. 21:11) You will be allowed into this City because you will not defile anything, you will not work abomination or make any lie, but you will be there chiefly and ONLY because your name has remained written in the Lamb’s Book of Life (Rev. 21:27// Rev. 3:5)! So, you will be an Overcomer (Rev. 21:7), but NOT A PERFECT OVERCOMER. You might get in by the “SKIN OF YOUR TEETH” (1Pet. 4:18), because, should you belong to the very next verse (Rev. 21:8), you would never get into the New Jerusalem, but would end up in the lake of fire and brimstone for ever – just because you never overcame, or rather, refused to overcome, fear or unbelief or lying or idolatry or other such “virtues of your flesh”. Do you SEE this?
Are you now willing to ponder these above “minor issues” in your Christian life? Do you truly believe that Christ would marry a fearful believer? Fear cannot dwell together with faith and love, in fact, perfect love, which the Bride will have for Her Lord, “casteth out fear: because fear has torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love” (1Jn. 4:18). Or would Christ marry a believer that would not believe His Voice, His Word or His true servant? The heart of unbelief is EVIL and, again, we do not talk about pagans, but born-again baptized believers, brethren, who are able to depart from the living God (Heb. 3:12)! Or would Christ marry a liar? Or an idolater? What do you think?
Not only that Christ would never marry such people, but He would never even allow them into the New Jerusalem, but would judge them as worthy of the lake of fire and brimstone, which is the second death (Rev. 20:12-15)! You see, they kept refusing to overcome even these above evil things and, so, their names were blotted out of the Book of Life by their Saviour Himself (Rev. 3:5)! True?
How many of you would truly desire to remain proud, inaccessible, fearful, idolaters, liars, workers of iniquity or abomination, self-assured or foolish? Or will you rather come before Christ on your knees and beg Him for His Grace and for your survival? From the very beginning of the world, IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN OUR CHOICE… of our own destiny, which will be eternal, it will have no end and it will be impossible to ever change it… see the next chapter.
(Note: To understand the next chapter and the truth that God does not decide our destiny, we must also understand the question of God’s “predestination”. For this truth, please, see our book “The Tragedy and Glory of Believers”, pages 213, 214)
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To be continued next week in chapter 8 – part 1
brother Hanola
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