Hi Steve,
Good to here from you again. Yes, I am still thinking of an answer for you about Hebrews that will help you understand that your views on this subject are mostly in opposition to the Christian teachings of the Church for the last two thousand years. I went through the entire book of Hebrew's and many other Old Testament prophecies that you were attempting to apply to modern Judaism and showed you clearly where Jesus had fulfilled them and you basically avoided them and came back with a few verses here and there to make your point--at least these were my feelings at the time. So I decided it was best to let it cool until we have both have the courage to take things in the full context of the Word of God and the teachings of the Holy Spirit inspired Church of the last two thousand years. The views of the early Jewish Apostles in the Word of God, the Apostles immediate disciples, and the views of the continuous Church are necessary and ndespensable if a Christian is to arrive at a correct understanding of his faith and Christian doctrines. Novelties and new interpretations that go contrary to two thousand years of Holy Spirit inspire Church teachings, can be very harmful to our spiritual lives.
Susie's name is still on the frige and me and my wife pray for her and your family from time to time. May the Lord complete the word that He has begun in your life and may your whole family become servants of Christ. Emile
Now to the subject at hand.
The writings and thoughts of the early Christians leaders, who had been trained and choosen by the Apostles and disciples themselves, must be weighed heavily when trying to understand these issues. the Dispensationalist views that you put forward are a novely and an invention of the last century and are not found in the early Christain Church. The dispensationalist views that you put forward remove Jesus and His Church as the focus of salvation history and put antichrist modern Judaism at the center.
CHAPTER CIX Justin Martyr (110--150 A.D.)
Christians Are The Holy People Promised to Abraham.
Then I said again, "Would you suppose, sirs, that we could ever have understood these
matters in the
Scriptures, if we had not received grace to discern by the will of Him whose pleasure it
was? in order
that the saying of Moses(10) might come to pass, 'They provoked me with strange
[gods], they
provoked me to anger with their abominations. They sacrificed to demons whom they
knew not; new
gods that came newly up, whom their fathers knew not. Thou hast forsaken God that
begat thee, and
forgotten God that brought thee up. And the Lord saw, and was jealous, and was
provoked to anger
by reason of the rage of His sons and daughters: and He said, I will turn My face away
from them,
and I will show what shall come on them at the last; for it is a very froward generation,
children in
whom is no faith. They have moved Me to jealousy with that which is not God, they
have provoked
Me to anger with their idols; and I will move them to jealousy with that which is not a
nation, I will
provoke them to anger with a foolish people. For a fire is kindled from Mine anger, and
it shall burn
to Hades. It shall consume the earth and her increase, and set on fire the foundations of
the
mountains; I will heap mischief on them.'(11) And after that Righteous One was put to
death, we
flourished as another people, and shot forth as new and prosperous corn; as the
prophets said, 'And
many nations shall betake themselves to the Lord in that day for a people: and they shall
dwell in the
midst of all the earth.'(12) But we are not only a people, but also a holy people, as we
have shown
already.(1) 'And they shall call them the holy people, redeemed by the Lord.'(2)
Therefore we are
not a people to be despised, nor a barbarous race, nor such as the Carian and Phrygian
nations; but
God has even chosen us and He has become manifest to those who asked not after
Him. 'Behold, I
am God,' He says, 'to the nation which called not on My name.'(3) For this is that nation
which God
of old promised to Abraham, when He declared that He would make him a father of
many nations;
not meaning, however, the Arabians, or Egyptians, or Idumaeans, since Ishmael became
the father of
a mighty nation, and so did Esau; and there is now a great multitude of Ammonites.
Noah, moreover,
was the father of Abraham, and in fact of all men; and others were the progenitors of
others. What
larger measure of grace, then, did Christ bestow on Abraham? This, namely, that He
called him with
His voice by the like calling, telling him to quit the land wherein he dwelt. And He has
called all of us
by that voice, and we have left already the way of living in which we used to spend our
days, passing
our time in evil after the fashions of the other inhabitants of the earth; and along with
Abraham we
shall inherit the holy land, when we shall receive the inheritance for an endless eternity,
being children
of Abraham through the like faith. For as he believed the voice of God, and it was
imputed to him for
righteousness, in like manner we having believed God's voice spoken by the apostles of
Christ, and
promulgated to us by the prophets, have renounced even to death all the things of the
world.
Accordingly, He promises to him a nation of similar faith, God-fearing, righteous, and
delighting the
Father; but it is not you, 'in whom is no faith.'
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