To: Emile Vidrine who wrote (37039 ) 4/29/2004 12:51:08 PM From: Stan Read Replies (3) | Respond to of 39621 Emile, You continue to assume my position without asking me. Please don't do that. You've bypassed an examination of Acts 1:6,7 that I have asked for. For now, I'll defer to you. I hope you come back to the point of my original post.38: But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, `This is the heir; come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.' (a clear description of modern Talmudic Judaism today--the heirs of the antichrist Pharisees of Jesus's day.) I can grant that.43: Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing the fruits of it." (That nation was Christian people--the new Isael of God under the new covenant) That is not a bad answer but does not close the case. See below.45: When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. (These were the ancestors of modern Talmudic Judaism, the very nation you are trying to restore the kingdom to. Jesus founded the new Israel of God and you are attempting to return to the old carnal nation.) You are assuming a position I do not hold. I do not believe that such people as those who put our Lord to death would be the kind that Jesus would return and entrust the vineyard to. The Greek word for "nation" in verse 43 is "ethnos" and can be used for a people who are restored, not merely different or foreign. I believe the Scriptures teach that Israel must come to a place of national repentance and acknowledgment of their Messiah before they are placed in such a position. This is the ethnos who receive the kingdom. The parable therefore does not prove the church is substituted for national Israel. But Scripture teaches that Israel must come to faith as a nation, something they are far from as of today.