"Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made"
Seed is allot different than Faith (Accepting Jesus)
Today, some people are teaching that the nation Israel no longer has a part in God's plan; that it is the church who is Israel, a "spiritual" Israel. But such doctrine directly conflicts with God's unconditional promise to Abraham, and makes Him out to be a liar. In the epistle to the Romans, it almost seems as if the apostle Paul anticipated this error:
No faith mentioned below more SEED
Romans 11:1, 2, 25-29
1 I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying, 25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
Above the separation of Jew and Gentile.
26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: 27 For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. 28 As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes. 29 For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. (KJV)
The Jews seem to be your enemy Emile, but sorry God still loves them.
The writer of Hebrews added:
Heb. 6:13-19
13 For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, 14 Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. 15 And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. 16 For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. 17 Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: 18 That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: 19 Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; (KJV)
Heb. 11:8, 9
8 By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. 9 By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: (KJV)
Usually, in order to explain away such obvious and plainly-word truth, advocates of this teaching say that we should not follow a literal and common-sense approach to exegesis of Scripture. Instead, they promote the "spiritualizing" or "allegorizing" method of interpretation. But this is wrong for two basic reasons:
1. Since God is not the author of confusion (I Cor. 14:33), the Bible should be read and interpreted in the exact same manner as any other book! Give a plain, literal interpretation to a passage unless the context very clearly indicates otherwise or a literal interpretation does not make any sense whatsoever. To do otherwise makes it possible to argue a question mark after every statement in the Bible! Under such circumstances, how could God even hold man accountable on Judgment Day? If one was totally consistent in his epistemology, how could he even communicate intelligibly or function in reality following such guidelines?
2. The Bible is full of examples where the sensical literal mode of interpretation is followed. For instance, hundreds of Old Testament prophecies were fulfilled literally, (11) thus establishing a definite precedent in which to emulate. Jesus chided the generation of His day for their failure to recognize the prophetic signs of the time (Matt. 16:1-14); a primary reason for this failure was their refusal to interpret literally the prophecies concerning His First Coming, more than 300 specific predictions which Jesus fulfilled with His life, death and resurrection. (12) Therefore, I think wisdom and intellectual honesty mandate that we avoid such error when interpreting prophecies concerning His Second Coming.
However, God's covenant with Israel repeating the promises made to Abraham are conditioned on complete obedience to Him:
Deut. 29:1
1 These are the words of the covenant, which the LORD commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, beside the covenant which he made with them in Horeb. (KJV)
Deut. 30:1-20
1 And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath driven thee, 2 And shalt return unto the LORD thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul; 3 That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee. 4 If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the LORD thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee: 5 And the LORD thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers. 6 And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live. 7 And the LORD thy God will put all these curses upon thine enemies, and on them that hate thee, which persecuted thee.
The above sure sounds like Jews returning to Israel to me :-)
which thy fathers possessed
The above doesn't sound like all that have faith to me. Fathers goes back to the race issue.
8 And thou shalt return and obey the voice of the LORD, and do all his commandments which I command thee this day. 9 And the LORD thy God will make thee plenteous in every work of thine hand, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy land, for good: for the LORD will again rejoice over thee for good, as he rejoiced over thy fathers: 10 If thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the law, and if thou turn unto the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul. 11 For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. 12 It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? 13 Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? 14 But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it. 15 See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil;
16 In that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it. 17 But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; 18 I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it. 19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: 20 That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them. (KJV)
He sure has blessed the land for Israel was nothing but rock and sand when the Jews first occupied it.
A study of Jewish history will show that everytime the Jews slid into religious apostasy they were punished. Twice they were even dispersed from their homeland, Palestine! And since for the last several centuries the Jews (as a nation) have NOT been obedient to God, the promise of THE COVENANT has NOT been in effect!
But God is going to force the Jews into complete and total obedience in accordance with the terms of their ancient covenant. This certainly will not be an easy matter when you consider the history of the Jews' rebellious nature. Such a drastic change in attitude on the part of the Jews will necessitate a very earth-shattering experience!
Alan |
