06/10/2024
The demonic can't read the Bible. If you want to understand the Bible, you need the Spirit of God in you.
CHRISTIAN FAITH IS SPIRITUAL THROUGH THE HOLY SPIRIT OF GOD.
CHRISTIANS (FOLLOWERS OF THE MESSIAH JESUS CHRIST) ARE THE TRUE SPIRITUAL HOLY NATION OF ISRAEL THROUGH JESUS CHRIST AND THE JERUSALEM IS THE HEAVENLY CITY OF GOD.
FOUR THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT JEWS AND ISRAEL:
1) JEWS AND ISRAEL ARE NOT THE SAME THING.
2) TRUE ISRAELITES HAVE ALWAYS BEEN CONVERTS.
3) FOLLOWERS OF JESUS ARE THE TRUE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL.
4) THE NAMES OF THE 12 TRIBES CHANGED IN THE NEW TESTAMENT LIST OF TRIBES.
FOUR THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT JEWS AND ISRAEL:
Have you ever heard anyone say that God will Bless you pray for the Nation of Isreal?
It comes from the from a verse in the Old Testament, Genesis 12:3.
It's fine to pray for Israel, but only as long as you know what the real nation of Israel is.
This video is going to list four brief points that will help clear up any confusion you might have on this subject.
1) JEWS AND ISREAL ARE NOT THE SAME THING:
God promised Abraham that He would Bless his descendants...but not all of them. God chose to Bless Abraham's second son, Isaac...not Ishmael, his first son. Then God passed on this Blessing not through Isaac's firstborn son, Esau, but through his second born son, Jacob. God renamed Jacob, Israel, and then Israel had 12 sons. Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Zebulun, Issachar, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Joseph and Benjamin. These 12 sons became the fathers (or the Spiritual Patriarchs) of 12 Tribes. Those 12 Tribes together were called Israel's children (or the children of Isreal) in the Old Testament. One of those Tribes was named Judah, from which we get the words 'Judaism' and 'Jews'. The word 'Jew' is used almost exclusively in the New Testament when referring to the children of Israel because by that time 10 of the 12 tribes had ceased to exist. They were scattered all over the Earth. They had intermarried with non-descendants of Isreal, until there's now no way to identify them. The only Tribe (besides Judah) with identifiable descendants today is the Tribe of Benjamin who are also called Jews these days. So, while the Jews have largely descended from Israel they do not represent all of the descendants (or the children) of Isreal.
2) TRUE ISRAELITES HAVE ALWAYS BEEN CONVERTS:
Now, this one may surprise a few people. It never was essential that Israelites traced their lineage back to Abraham in order to be regarded as members of the 12 Tribes that are referred to as the children of Isreal. What mattered most was whether an individual had adopted the faith in God that Abraham had. Genesis 12:1, 15:6, 22,12. Technically, true Israelites were children of God more than children of Isreal. Romans 3:28-29, Galatians 3:6-9. This can be illustrated most effectively by looking at the wives of all the Patriarchs: Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, Leah, etc. Jewish Ancestry is traced through the Mother yet none of these women were literal descendants of either Abraham, Isaac or Jacob. They were all converts to the religion (or the Faith) of Abraham. They became children of Abraham through their faith in God. Even Orthodox Jews have some difficulty describing exactly what it means to be part of this historical nation. The term 'Children of Isreal' is a bit misleading because they're technically not matriarchal descendants of Isreal or Abraham. Also, as already pointed out, not all of Abraham's descendants qualified for the inheritance. Ishmael and Esau lost their inheritance...presumably through unbelief. From this we see that not all children of Abraham are children of Abraham and none of the children of Isreal are true descendants of Abraham. At best they may be descendants of Sarah or Rachel or one of the 12 wives of Jacob's son's. The term Judaism is also misleading because it refers to only one Tribe, Judah. What the nation actually stood for was Faith in God. So long as anyone had genuine faith in God they were Children of Isreal, or more correctly, children of Abraham. But anyone who did not have the faith of Abraham was not a true Israelite. So when Jesus (God's Son) came, and when he was rejected by the institution it brought to the surface what had been the case for quite some time. That is, that the nation whom everyone had presumed were the children of Isreal had really lost that faith in God, which God was looking for. They had become just another institutional religion held together by their status quo.
3) FOLLOWERS OF JESUS ARE THE TRUE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL:
All of the promises to Israel were according to Paul, fulfilled in Jesus. The Apostle Paul said that Abraham's first son, Ishmael, born of Abraham's slave wife had a kind of legal right to the Blessings because he was the oldest son. But God chose the second son, who was miraculously conceived. This illustrates God's right to step outside human understanding of the law, and make His own rules based on the sincere faith of various individuals. Paul compared these two sons (Ishmael and Isaac) with the Old Testament and the New Testament. "The wife who was a slave", he said, "is like the 10 Commandments which Moses received on Mount Sinai." She and her descendants are like the present City of Jerusalem. Now, comparing the Jews to Hagar and Ishmael was, of course, shocking and insulting to the Jews because they were not descendants of Ishmael, and they had become very self-righteous about that. But Paul was saying that the Jews were not better than the Arabs, so long as they refused to listen and obey the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob. The rejection of Jesus was the ultimate proof that they had left the faith. Then Paul addresses those Gentiles, and a handful of Jews who did receive Jesus, and he says: "Our Mother is the Heavenly City of Jerusalem." Galatians 4:26. The Heavenly City of Jerusalem is the invincible Kingdom of Heaven that Abraham left everything to find. The Bible says that Abraham looked for a City whose Builder and Maker was God. Hebrews 11:10. That is the Kingdom of Heaven. This inability to comprehend the Heavenly City and the Miraculous Ministry of Jesus has led to even Christians idolizing flesh Jews today, as though they are the true descendants of Abraham. Yet even according to Orthodox Jewish teaching, as just explained, they could not be true descendants of Abraham if they did not listen to and obey God. Paul says that we Gentile followers of Jesus have been miraculously born into Abraham's family, through faith in Jesus. Just as Isaac's birth was a miraculous one, the true Kingdom of God is a Supernatural Kingdom. And Paul finishes by saying (about the Jews of the day): "Get rid of the slave women and her son. The son of the Free women will receive everything." That's us Christians...the Free Ones.
4) THE NAMES OF THE 12 TRIBES HAVE CHANGED IN THE NEW TESTAMENT LIST OF TRIBES:
In the 7th chapter of the Revelation, God predicts that there will be 12 Tribes of faithful followers of Jesus in the last few years before Jesus returns. However, the names of the Tribes differ from those given in the Old Testament. The Tribe of Dan has been left out of the list and Joseph is given two Tribes: one for hiimself and one for his son, Manasseh. There are various theories as to why God described Spiritual Israel in this way but it does underline the fact that the 144,000 members of those 12 Tribes do not need to be literal descendants of the 12 or even the 11 sons of Jacob (or Israel). God will say who is in or who is out, and we need to be totally open to Him changing the rules if necessary in order to achieve His Supernatural Will. In the Apostle Jame's letter to the Christians of his day he addresses them as "the 12 Tribes which are scattered abroad" (James Chapter 1:1). In other words, James recognized the followers of Jesus as the true Spiritual descendants of Abraham and Jacob, not just the lost 10 Tribes, but all 12 Tribes. God miraculously rebuilt his Spiritual and Holy Nation. We need the faith to believe that too. We're no longer living in the Old Testament, we're part of the New Testament Kingdom of Heaven now but only insofar as we continue to walk in the obedience to God and Jesus. So, God miraculously recreated the 12 Tribes of Isreal...from stones, if you like. He can leave Dan out and He can graft Manasseh in, but regardless of what names He uses, what He really is looking for are people of faith...people who will follow the Lamb wherever He goes. Does that sound like the Jews of today? Goodness no!! It doesn't even sound like the church of today. Those 144,000 rare members of those 12 Tribes are people with real faith in God, the kind of faith that will follow Jesus to death if necessary, to attain that Kingdom. These 144,000 people may be alive on the Earth today just waiting for the day when God will make us into a visible army of 12 Tribes heralding the return of our Lord. If you want to be part of that army then find the teachings of Jesus in the first books of the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Read them, and pray that God will give you the courage to obey them even if no one else you know of is doing it. Your faith in what Jesus has said is what God is looking for. He says that He will forgive your sins on the basis of that faith. For by faith are you saved, thanks to God's amazing Grace. Your own faith in Jesus Christ
