The eventual redemption of the Jews
and their continued, indisputable, ranking as the people with whom the God
of Israel's has entered into an eternal covenant, is clearly born out and
emphasized in the book to the Romans. It reaches a climax
in Romans 11:26 where the Lord unequivocally declared,
And so all Israel
will be saved, as it is written: "The deliverer will come from Zion; he will
turn godlessness away from Jacob.
There is a clear rationale concerning the salvation of the Jews (Israel)
in this statement, based on the fact that the Saviour of the world will come
from their part of the world. It implies that it will be rather ridiculous
if they would be excluded from the salvation he has on offer to the world
since he came from their ranks. It is a fulfillment of the wish
expressed in Psalms 14:7,
Oh, that
salvation for Israel would come out of Zion! When the LORD restores the fortunes
of his people, let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad.
That the Saviour will come from their
ranks is also reflected in John 4:22, You Samaritans worship what you
do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.
Difficult as it is to imagine today,
the time will come that the scenario that is envisioned in the following
scriptures, will come true:
Zechariah 8:23
This is what the LORD Almighty says: "In those days ten men from all languages
and nations will take firm hold of one Jew by the hem of his robe and say,
'Let us go with you, Because we have heard that God is with you.'"
| Isaiah 2:3 Many
peoples will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may
walk in his paths." The law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from
Jerusalem. |
 |
 Although Romans
11:26 has to do with the spiritual salvation of Israel, most of one hundred
cross references to it yielded by the Godspeed (NIV) computer program, have
to do with the
physical
restoration of
Israel. That the coming
of Yeshua had as much to do with Israel's spiritual salvation as it has with
their physical restoration is shown in Isaiah 49:8.9 & 12(Living
Bible):
The Lord says, "Your request (Yeshua's) has come at a favourable time, I
will keep you from premature harm and give you as a token and a pledge to
Israel, proof that I will reestablish the land of Israel and reassign it
to its own people again.....12 See, my people shall
RETURN from far away, from north and west and
south."
From this it is clear that this salvation
of "all of Israel" doesn't have anything to do with the church, which proves
that the church on its own cannot be called Israel. Secondly it shows that
God's priority
with Israel, at first, is their physical restoration (Note that
the same word is mostly used for
RETURN
& REPENT)
Whereas scripture doesn't really
connect
Gentiles
believers with the spiritual
salvation of Israel, it explicitly involves them in the RETURN of
the Jews to Israel, and the restoration of the land. The following
scriptures are examples of this:
Isaiah 49:22
This is what the Sovereign LORD says: "See, I will beckon to the Gentiles,
I will lift up my banner to the peoples; they will bring your sons in their
arms and carry your daughters on their shoulders.
Isaiah 60:10 "Foreigners will rebuild your walls, and their kings will serve
you. Though in anger I struck you, in favor I will show you compassion.
Isaiah 61:5 Aliens will shepherd your flocks; foreigners will work your fields
and vineyards.
Deuteronomy 6:11 Houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not
provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not
plant--then when you eat and are satisfied
| The last scripture even shows that
they are entitled to houses built in the land by others. |
|
Unfortunately, however, most Gentile
believers, including church leaders, are totally ignorant of the God of Israel's
agenda with Israel. The only interest and burden they have for Israel is
for the Jews to accept Jesus as their Messiah. They claim to have spiritual
input in their lives and ministries, but they don't know God's heart's cry
to re-establish himself on his Holy Mountain in Israel. Not keeping
abreast with developments in Israel, they are unable to form an estimate
of the time still left before the coming of the Messiah. They visit Israel,
and are mesmerised by evidence of the historical past they see and sense,
but events that still need to take place there mean nothing to them. This
is due to the dogma church members have been indoctrinated with that they
are the kingdom of God and that nothing else counts any longer - especially
not the Jews since God is finished with them; that their bodies are the temples
of God and that a physical temple isn't necessary any more. But they are
ignorant of God's desire to rule from his Holy mountain.They don't know about
the humiliation God has to endure while his holy hill in Jerusalem is being
desecrated by the mosques of a foreign god; that his people (Jews and
Christians) are not allowed to pray or read the bible on the Temple Mount;
that they want to divide his land?
It is it important to show
solidarity
with God in what is important to
him! No wonder Paul had to say
to Gentile believers,
"Do not be
arrogant, but be afraid!" This was said in the following
context:
Romans 11:19 You
will say then, "Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in. 20
Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith.
Do not be arrogant, but be afraid.
At this time, church leaders are stirring
up their members to be involved in the ingathering of the "GREAT" End-Time
HARVEST. It is mostly based on the following scriptures:
| Revelation 14:15
Then another angel came out of the temple and called in a loud voice to him
who was sitting on the cloud, "Take your sickle and reap, because the time
to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is ripe. |
|
| Joel
3:13 Swing the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, trample the grapes,
for the winepress is full and the vats overflow--so great is their
wickedness! |
It could very well be that what the
angel in Revelation 14:15 calls for, will be an execution of the prophecy
in Joel 13:3. The ingathering of the harvest in the end time will therefore
be of those who had been chosen for salvation, to spare them from God's judgment
of the world. But it does not specifically indicate that it is going to be
a big harvest. Contrary to that, a lot is said about apostasy in the
end-times:
Matthew
24:12 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold.
II Peter 3:3 First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers
will come, scoffing and following their own evil
desires.
It also needs to be pointed out that
there is a
TIME-frame
attached to a harvest from the Gentiles.
The promise in Romans 11:26 that "all
Israel will be saved", is preceded by the following warning to Gentiles in
verse 25,
I do not
want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be
conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number
of the Gentiles has come in.
End-time Bible teachers who realize
the relevance of Israel, perceive this turning point in history, when God
shifted his involvement from the salvation of the Gentiles to that of the
Jews, to be the time of the rebirth of the State of Israel in 1948. It is,
nevertheless, clear that this transition is effected over a period of time
since Jerusalem is still in part being trampled by the Gentiles, in line
with the prediction in
Luke 21:24,
.....Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the
Gentiles are fulfilled.
It must be noted, however, that this
transitional period will also be used to provoke the nations to become involved
in Jerusalem. Ironically, instrumental in this enticement is none other than
Yasser Arafat who is doing his best to get the nations to side with him against
Israel. What will eventually cause the nations to gather against her as they
did against Saddam Hussein during the Gulf War (although in smaller measure),
remains to be seen. Zechariah wrote about
it:
Zechariah 12:3 On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered
against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations.
All who try to move it will injure themselves. Zechariah 12:9 On that day
I will set out to destroy all the nations that attack
Jerusalem.
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