RE>>How do you keep up with all the scriptural gymnastics?<<
Paul spent time teaching what I have just tried to teach you.
I know, Alan - that you likely think you know it all but...
Jesus addressed the attitude that "If Jew - then saved" when
He said this:
Matthew 3:9 And think not to say within yourselves,
We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you,
that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.
Being a SON of Abraham and a part of the Elect Nation Earthly
does not equal
Being a Son of God and a part of the Elect Nation Heavenly.
This is not "gymnastics" on my part - it is important.
If it was not important that Paul would not have taken so much time
to explain and PROVE AT LENGTH this reality.
Now maybe none of that fits you Universalism but too bad.
Look:
3 For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ
for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:
Kinsmen according to the flesh meant "sons of Abraham" carnal.
6 ¶ Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect.
For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel:
They are not all Israel ( spiritual and sons of the promise)
which are of Israel ( Israel carnal - the whole elect nation)
7 Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they
all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called.
Alan - if they are the seed of Abraham then they are most
certainly "children" Abraham's children ( carnal ) but
Paul say's they are not all children - He means they are
not all children of the promise - children of faith.
What do you think Paul is teaching in these verse if not
what I am saying?
Paul is making a clear distinction between the "carnal pattern" and the "spiritual reality"
8 That is, They which are the children of the flesh,
these are not the children of God:
but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.
Paul teaches that you can be a "Son of Abraham" and
a part of the Holy Nation (earthly) without being a
"Son of God" and a part of that "Holy Priesthood and Nation"
1 Peter 2:9 But ye are a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people;
that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath
called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:
This nation was the heavenly Israel!
2 Corinthians 5:1 For we know that if our earthly house
of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of
God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
Gymnastics? I think not. |
