the true Israel of God is Christ and his bride, the Church. any other sort of "israel" is the kingdom of the devil.
>> It is not. You are a liar. <<
i want you to tell us if you think Jesus Christ was a liar.
Israel is an empty vine, he bringeth forth fruit unto himself... --Hosea 10:1
I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. --John 15:1
did Jesus Christ declare himself to be the true Israel, while speaking of an "empty" or false israel or not?
it's abundantly clear that Christ was making reference to the prophet Hosea when he made this statement, for simply continue reading on in John chapter 15.
notice in Hosea he talks about "israel" the empty vine, bringing forth fruit unto himself.
after declaring himself to be the true vine in John 15:1, notice how the Christ the Lord goes on to explain the proper way to bring forth fruit.
I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. --John 15:1-5
Christ is explicitly clear. if you try to be a vine "israel" without abiding in Jesus Christ, you are bringing forth wild grapes unto yourself and are empty vine as described in Hosea chapter 10.
you are bringing forth wild grapes, not goodly fruit, as described in Isaiah chapter 5:
Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down: And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry. --Isaiah 5:1-7
now let's return to John 15 and pick up where we left off, to see if the result of Hosea 10 and Isaiah 5--that is, bringing forth wild fruit unto yourself--agrees with what the Lord said would happen to his vineyard.
If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. --John 15:6
And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down: And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. --Isaiah 5:5-6
the worthless vineyard that did not render proper fruit in his season is dried up and only good to be burned and cast in the fire.
Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country: And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise. But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son. But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him. When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen? they say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons. Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes? Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. --Matthew 21:33-43
those miserable wicked men the Jews killed their own prophets, and then killed the Son, the heir, Jesus Christ, wishing to gather the fruits of the vineyard for themselves.
as a result of these awful deeds, the kingdom of God was taken from the Jews and given to a new nation which renders proper fruit in their seasons. Christ explains how this new nation renders fruit to God in John 15. without abiding in Christ you can bring forth no fruit. the nation that does abide in Christ and renders fruit to the master of the vineyard is the spiritual house of Israel, the spiritual holy temple of the Lord i quoted in Ephesians chapter 2 a few posts back--the Church. |
