"So all Israel will be saved..."
“...ALL Israel will be saved...” (Romans 11:26)
Sorry for the interruption in flow of messages (newsletters) on the
Bible subject of “Christian View of Life and Living” {if you have
not caught up on the previous 4 messages in the series, you can
do so at your convenience}, to make this important Bible
announcement about Israel because of the likelihood of Syria
breaking out into a “regional conflict” in the words of many
politicians who do not know or understand the Bible on how an
attack on Jerusalem by enemies of the world is going to wrap up
events on this old earth and usher in a new earth.
6-2: Some of the Syrian war news is good news in that an
attack on Israel would bring the Second Coming of Christ
with a new Jerusalem lowered down from heaven to replace
that ugly golden dome now on Mount Zion, and for those who
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, Jew or Gentile, after this
corresponding resurrection for the dead and gathering of
Christians to meet the Lord in the air, it is all going to be
good! {We labor in a sure hope with faith in God!}
1. “Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be
soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit by word or by
letter {or some kind of special extra-biblical revelation by the
fundamentalists} as if from us {as if from the Bible also}, as
though the day of Christ had come {day of Christ, or day of the
LORD and/or the Lord Jesus Christ are the favorite words
consistently in the Bible to describe what we are looking forward
to as Christians, while words like a “secret rapture” are
fundamentalists favorites; and I know right now Israel is being
bombarded with a lot of false prophets with those words and
concepts}.”
Listen, listen carefully and heed the words of the Bible--
“Let no man deceive you by any means {deception can come
even from a angel of light}, FOR THAT DAY WILL NOT COME
unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is
revealed, the son of perdition.” (II Thessalonians 2:1-2)
SPECIAL NOTE: Did you get that fundamentalists, those that try
to add to the Bible with special revelations like from Mary
MacDonald, those who have accepted the academic teachings of
men like Scofield, Brooks, Darby, and Irving, two things have to
happen before you can expect that One Day to happen which
includes the gathering of saints to meet the Lord in the air, live
ones and dead ones at the same time. How did these
fundamentalists go so far astray; because after recognizing so
many scriptures that teach like II Thessalonians 2:1-3 above, they
in a very lawyer-like fashion created the allusion that there are two
kinds of Bibles in the Bible, one for Jews and one for Christians,
and for different times; thus making God a variable instead of a
constant, and making their Bible the victim of isogesis {reading
meaning into the Bible} and special revelation. Through the years
since 1830, fundamentalists have come to treat the Scofield
Bible NOTES as if they were the most sacred parts of the Bible
Itself, but not so.
2. Notice the “so”, a method to conclude an extended argument
that Paul uses so often in his 14 letters of the New Testament. It
is a conclusion of the chapters in Romans before it to identify
exactly who Israel is; and I must say right up front, as labored in
previous passage in Romans before the SO conclusion of
Romans 11:26, also which will be covered at the conclusion of
this newsletter message, it is a new Israel of Jews and Gentiles,
just like Paul in the beginning of Romans, Romans 2:28,29
identifies a new kind of Jew which includes us as Christians
where “he is a Jew who is one inwardly”. Part of our collective
gospel pride as Christians and co-members of the kingdom of
Christ, alias of the new Israel and of the new God given concept
of the new Jews, is to look forward in the new nation on the new
earth and under the new King Lord Jesus Christ is to live and
dwell in the same new nation together as Jews and Gentiles.
After God lowers New Jerusalem down from heaven to Mount
Zion (Revelation 21:2), a river of living water will flow out from
under going east and west (Zechariah 14:8 & Ezekiel 47:1) with
good fishing (Ezekiel 47:10); and with a plain south of New
Jerusalem (Zechariah 14:10) where the tribes of the new Israel
will divide the land (Ezekiel 47:21), and some of us Gentiles
“strangers” will dwell there eternally with them, others from the
Gentile nations that survived that final battle of the LORD
(Zechariah 14:3) from across the new earth will come to
Jerusalem at least once a year to worship (Zechariah 14:16).
6-3: Before you can get to the Romans details of this new
earth with a new people of Jews and Gentiles ( Romans ),
you TAP through how two-thirds of the Jews a few days
after the crucifixion and ascension of Christ are “cut off and
die” (Zechariah 13:8) as it did happen in the first centuries A.
D. while one third with the apostles went through fire
(Zechariah 13:9); and then jump to the END of this old earth
time where this time one-half of Jerusalem is taken captive
and the other half saved, escaping through a new valley
created as the Mount of Olives is separated north and south.
1. The one new nation of Jews and Gentiles (Ephesians 2:14-22)
also demands a new definition of what it means to be a Jew
(Romans 2:25-29) in the eyes of God and according to His
Word, the Bible.
2. This one new nation of Jews and Gentiles for the new earth
was predicted long ago in Ezekiel 37:22, “I will make them one
nation in the land” (Ezekiel 37:22} to happen after Ezekiel 37:21
when Israel is brought back from among the nations.
a. Granted that this immediate reference of Ezekiel 37:22 is to re-
combine the divided nations of Judah and Israel into one nation;
but also remember that by the time of Christ and the Samaritans,
the northern kingdom of Israel where Syria now exists was
considered to be at least half Gentiles.
“...and I will make them one nation in the land, on the
mountains of Israel, and one king shall be king over them all;
they shall no longer be two nations, nor shall they ever be
divided into two kingdoms again.” (Ezekiel 37:22)
NOTE: Always look in any verse of passage like above for
the word “forever” or a phrasing like “nor shall they ever be
divided again”. It is a shame to have to run such good
thoughts by going after the fundamentalists with their false
concepts and non-biblical words like “a secret rapture”,
millennium, and dispensations; however where they have
their problem here, in spite of their hypocritical cries to be
literal, fail to just let the Bible literally say what it is saying in
Ezekiel 37:21 and 22, that is, that first God brings back the
Jews to Palestine--one big historical event of predictive
prophesy, but a big event that sits up even a bigger event.
b. Do not neglect in your literal study of the Bible that God
brought them back to the land of Palestine as you see them there
now, and with the support of many Christian nations like the US,
in order to: (1) set up old Jerusalem for the final world wide battle
of Armaggadeon with all nations participating {no small feat for
God within itself, but you see it building up now with Muslims
surrounding the still divided Jerusalem and the land, with Iran and
His ball ah, and North Korea--even Russia and China--involved in
the Syrian war: one might call it a world-wide coalition of those
who hate the Jews and desire their destruction, and the US with
them if not NATO}; (2) for Jacob to fight against all these nations,
but lose with one half of Jerusalem going into captivity; (3) with a
miraculous rescue of the Jews as Christ puts one foot north and
the other foot south of Mount Olives, making a valley for their
rescue off to the east with the salvation of one half of them; (4)
the LORD God through Christ fights against the nation, and as
the Lord Jesus Christ comes again to destroy the enemies with
the brightness of HIs image and the breath of his mouth, their
skin and eye sockets will dissolve in their locations on the battle
field, the same destruction of the earth with fervent heat that
Peter writes about.
6-4: Instead of just summarizing all this Bible above, albeit
with references, it is time to take some of the monumental
passages of the Bible and do exegesis, straightforward,
literal, and in the few words of the literal Bible. If you will take
time to note and without prejudice, you will see that
fundamentalists constantly make nothing but an emotional
argument with some extra-biblical, summarizing without
quotes and specific references and generally with the
Scofield NOTES, while at the same time they speak with a
forked tongue about being literal. First, let us start with a
simple exposition of Zechariah 13:7-9.
1. The Jews “strike” the LORD of Hosts own Shepherd, “My
Shepherd”, and He who controls this Universe according to a
plan smites the “little ones” of His former people of the Jewish
nation. God turns His hand against them because (1) they spite
the Shepherd which just happens to be His only begotten Son,
but also (2) because they scatter that one third of the new sheep
of His kingdom. (Zechariah 13:7)
2. What comes to pass in all the land of Palestine of the first and
second centuries is God’s own division of His people in the land,
much like He divided the good figs and bad figs of His own
people at the destruction of Jerusalem in Jeremiah: (1) two thirds
of the Jews will be cut off and die (13:8b), and (2) one third will be
left in the land but will go through fire--obviously the apostles and
other Christians of the dispersion. (13:9)
3. What happens as Christianity expands in the first two
centuries and beyond is that starting with the Jews and then by
way of their testimony expanding to the Gentiles throughout the
Roman world and beyond, God creates one new people of Jews
and Gentiles.
“I will bring the one-third through the fire, will refine them as
silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested. They will
call on My name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘This is
My people’; and each one will say, ‘The LORD is my God.’”
(Zechariah 13:9)
6-5: Another straightforward and simple exegesis that is
literal from Zechariah 14 on the famous Day of the LORD and
Lord consistent throughout the Old and New Testaments: a
long time after those first two centuries, say in the sight of
God like “a thousand years”.
1. “Behold the day of the LORD is coming”; and the guarantee is
not first of a new earth but of more persecution as the spoil of the
prosperity of the returned nation is divided in the midst of
Jerusalem. (14:1)
2. God “gathers all the nations to battle against Jerusalem”;
Jerusalem is taken, the houses rifled, and the women ravished,
with half the city going back into captivity with a process with
which they have become very familiar, but half of the city remains
(14:2)
3. The LORD God Himself fights with these nations like in real
battle, and through the Lord Jesus Christ as He stands on Mount
Olives and splits the north from the south to form a large valley
for the salvation of the remaining Jews in Jerusalem. (14:3,4)
4. The remnant of the Jews will flee through that new valley like
they fled from the earthquake as in the days of King Uzziah of
Judah. (14:5a)
5. Wow, are you ready for this--the real and only second coming
of the Lord Jesus Christ and the resurrection: “Thus the LORD
my God will come, and all the saints with Him.” (Zechariah 14:5b)
6. In that famous ONE day of the LORD and Lord the lights of
the universe will diminish, it is a day only known to the LORD
God, after the great attention of the world is gained with
diminished light, afterward, and then there will be a bright light in
the evening (14:6,7)
7. Living waters will flow out from under the New Jerusalem, east
and west, and all year long forever, winter and summer (14:8).
8. And the LORD God of the Universe shall be king over all the
earth with the Lord Jesus Christ turning over the kingdom to God
the Father, and Them with the previously withdrawn spirit from the
earth before the battle become more One than previously. (14:9)
“Then comes the end, when He {Christ} delivers the
kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule
and all authority and power. For He {Christ{ must reign till He
has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will
be destroyed is death. {Don’t expect a resurrection from
death until Jesus at the END destroys that last enemy of
death!}
“For ‘He put all things under His feet {a quote from Psalm 8:
6, and then in the nature of the ASPI version of the Bible, the
NT explains what was declared in the OT} But when He says
“all things are put under Him,” it is evident that He Who put
all things under Him is excepted. Now then all things are
made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be
subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be
all in all.” (I Corinthians 15:24-27)
And that my friends and brethren is the meaning of Zechariah 14:
9--
“And the LORD {LORD in capital letters refers to God the
Father, the LORD of hosts, and by the way the hosts refers to
Gentiles and Jews} shall be King over all the earth. In that
day it shall be--’The LORD is one, and His name is one.”
6-6: Beginnings of Judgment for the people of God, for good,
and the nations that came against Jerusalem for bad. You
see another aspect of this marvelous plan of God, for it is an
obviously just act on the part of this God the Universe to
return evil judgement on those that attack and destroy His
own people.
1. God’s own people--the remnant of the saved Jews from
Jerusalem, and saints that Jesus brought with Him during the
attack on the nations surrounding Jerusalem--will establish on a
new plain of the new earth south of Jerusalem. “No longer
{another equivalent like forever and ever} shall there be utter
destruction, but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited.” (Zechariah
14:10-11).
2. Follows a description in Zechariah 14:12-15 of the “PLAGUE”
with which the LORD “will strike all the people who fought against
Jerusalem”--
a. Their bodies will “dissolve” where they stand around
Jerusalem, the eyes in their sockets and the tongues in their
mouths. (14:12)
b. In that One day, there will be a great panic among all those
nations that came against Jerusalem {one way to identify who is
for the LORD and who is against Him}, so that they will fight
amongst themselves much like Muslim that hate Jerusalem fight
against Muslims today in Syria.
c. Jacob will fight at Jerusalem before it is taken captive, using
wealth of surrounding nations to purchase weapons and armor.
d. By the way in 14:14 more about the Plague on the camps of
the nations enemies that come against Jerusalem in that final
battle, so extensive shall be that fervent heat of which Peter and
Zechariah speak, that this plague will be so thorough in the camps
of the enemies that it will also come on their horses, mules,
camels, and donkeys, and all their cattle. We can legitimately
expect that at a minimum all those enemy camps in Palestine
surrounding Jerusalem, those that now seek the destruction of the
Jews of Jerusalem and captivity of the city, will be among the
victims in these surrounding camps.
6-7: The SO summary or conclusion in Romans 11:26--
Now, NOW we are ready to see who is the ALL Israel that will
be saved. Naturally we can start with the one-half of the
nation left in Jerusalem when Christ comes to rescue them
by making a valley east of Jerusalem. {ALL of Israel, much
larger than the nation of Israel itself--by the way did you know
that Syria is exactly where the northern kingdom of Israel
was located before their captivity--SO that do not thing of this
Israel of Romans as synonymous with the present nation of
Israel, for it is more like the southern kingdom of Judah, and
indeed in Zechariah, it is “Jacob”, not Israel that fights
against an earth ending attack on Jerusalem.
1. I know that some Bible interpreters like B. H. Carroll like to
number that company of saved Jews at the end as 144,000; but
that is more than likely to be a figurative and complete number of
12 times 12 times one thousand of all Jews saved from the time
of Christ to the last destruction of Jerusalem. Since we can
hardly read what is in the heart and mind of God, or claim that we
know even as Jesus Christ Himself did not know the exact time of
the Second Coming and END, it is impossible to stress the
matter of the exact number. Of course, then you have to add all
those heroes of faith of the OT mentioned in Hebrews 11, and
those that are not mentioned, which will make a very sizeable
host for the new earth.
2. Then add Paul and the other Apostles of the first century, also
the 3000 of the dispersion saved on the first day of Pentecost
after the Ascension; and of course all those Jews that Paul
preached to throughout the Roman Empire while mainly
preaching to the Gentiles {generally Paul went to the local
synagogue first}, where the other apostles went taking the Gospel
of Christ throughout the known world; then of course, you can not
forget the small number of Jews from the Roman Empire to
today throughout the world that have received the good news of
Jesus Christ. For example, Hyman Appleman, a converted
Christian Jew--an early evangelist of the SBC--was preaching
when at age 9 my profession of faith was made during a revival
meeting in Ira Peak’s church of Queensboro Baptist.
3. Finally with just a few verses from Romans to help us spell out
the “who of Israel” that will finally be saved.
6-8: Time and space demand that in this newsletter, we only
introduce with Paul and the Word of God in Romans, a
complete description of the New Israel of the new Jews; for
you will find that the particulars that lead to the SO
conclusion and summary, sort of like Paul’s “therefores”, is
within itself much of an outline of Romans. In the next of the
Gospel Pride in Romans series on the book of Romans {that
would be session #7}, the “SO Conclusion of Israel” will be
thoroughly discussed on what is just outlined here. {Or at
any point you can take up your Bibles and read it for
yourself!} Lets call this exegesis of Romans now on Israel,
the “NEW ISRAEL OUTLINE OF ROMANS”. Here we will
work backwards from Romans chapter 11, and in particular
from Romans 11:26--”And so all Israel will be saved, as it is
written...”
1. This SO outline should start with the quote about “so all Israel
will be saved”.
Read the quote in Isaiah 59:20 where it is actually “The
Redeemer will come to Zion” which is the same as the second
coming where the Lord Jesus Christ rescues Jacob, at least half
of them in Jerusalem, from attack as previously spelled out from
Zechariah.
“...as it is written: The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will
turn away ungodliness from Jacob; for this is my covenant with
them, when I take away their sins.” (Isaiah 59:20,21 and quoted
in Romans 11:26,27)
In fact, Isaiah 59, 60, etc are one of the great eschatological
passages of the Bible, and alone after an introduction in session
8, should be considered as another session on the book of
Romans, session #9. Right now, let us leave as we always strive
to do in those passages where fundamentalists strive to confuse
you with an extra-biblical concept of a millennium, while ignoring
the obvious eternity concepts and words of the Bible itself. Let
us call them the FOREVER OF ETERNITY CLUES! What are
they here: first of all like always in the Bible there is the
diminished lights just before the “great and notable one day of the
LORD and Lord”, “For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth”
of Isaiah 60:2; and secondly a good introduction to the Gentiles
as part of the New Israel under the New King Jesus, “The
Gentiles shall come to your light...” (Isaiah 60:3).
2. Since God made irrevocable and invariable promises to
Abraham and our other forefathers in the faith, Jews by birth are
both enemies of the Gospel and beloved for sake of the
promises to the forefathers (Romans 11:28,29), so that some
natural Jews will still have mercy (11:31).
3. Blindness in part has been ordained by God on natural Israel,
only until the time of the fullness of the Gentiles is complete (11:
25); that is a few from about the second century until now
continue to be saved, like Hyman Appleman, the southern baptist
evangelist preaching when I made a profession of faith, and then
at the END half of those natural Jews in Jerusalem will be
miraculous rescue by the second coming of Christ.
4. As a natural nation, Israel has stumbled but not completed
fallen as a natural nation; and part of the very reason that God
has brought us new Jews into the realm of salvation is to provoke
the original Jews to salvation (11:11)
5. Paul expressed during his lifetime a certain amount of
optimism that some of the natural Jews of natural Israel might be
saved, writing, “Brethren, my hearts desire and prayer to God for
Israel is that they may be saved.” (10:1) However, we do them
no favor when we accept as normal in the sight of God, their
majority unbelief in the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing of course as
with all in the world, Jews and Gentiles, only a few or minority of
any generation find the narrow road that leads to life eternal.
6. Long ago in the Old Testament times of Hosea, God had
already made and ordained the decision to make a new people of
new Jews of the new Israel. (9:24-26)
7. You see the makeup of the new Israel clarified in Romans 9:6.
NOTE: There is more, much more as part of the “New Israel of
Romans Outline”, and it is to be continued in more of the series
on Gospel Pride in Romans. Also in the predictions that Paul
quotes in Romans, very extensively, there will be more
considered for the “Forever” clues.
Sorry for the interruption in flow of messages (newsletters) on the
Bible subject of “Christian View of Life and Living” {if you have
not caught up on the previous 4 messages in the series, you can
do so at your convenience}, to make this important Bible
announcement about Israel because of the likelihood of Syria
breaking out into a “regional conflict” in the words of many
politicians who do not know or understand the Bible on how an
attack on Jerusalem by enemies of the world is going to wrap up
events on this old earth and usher in a new earth.
6-2: Some of the Syrian war news is good news in that an
attack on Israel would bring the Second Coming of Christ
with a new Jerusalem lowered down from heaven to replace
that ugly golden dome now on Mount Zion, and for those who
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, Jew or Gentile, after this
corresponding resurrection for the dead and gathering of
Christians to meet the Lord in the air, it is all going to be
good! {We labor in a sure hope with faith in God!}
1. “Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be
soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit by word or by
letter {or some kind of special extra-biblical revelation by the
fundamentalists} as if from us {as if from the Bible also}, as
though the day of Christ had come {day of Christ, or day of the
LORD and/or the Lord Jesus Christ are the favorite words
consistently in the Bible to describe what we are looking forward
to as Christians, while words like a “secret rapture” are
fundamentalists favorites; and I know right now Israel is being
bombarded with a lot of false prophets with those words and
concepts}.”
Listen, listen carefully and heed the words of the Bible--
“Let no man deceive you by any means {deception can come
even from a angel of light}, FOR THAT DAY WILL NOT COME
unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is
revealed, the son of perdition.” (II Thessalonians 2:1-2)
SPECIAL NOTE: Did you get that fundamentalists, those that try
to add to the Bible with special revelations like from Mary
MacDonald, those who have accepted the academic teachings of
men like Scofield, Brooks, Darby, and Irving, two things have to
happen before you can expect that One Day to happen which
includes the gathering of saints to meet the Lord in the air, live
ones and dead ones at the same time. How did these
fundamentalists go so far astray; because after recognizing so
many scriptures that teach like II Thessalonians 2:1-3 above, they
in a very lawyer-like fashion created the allusion that there are two
kinds of Bibles in the Bible, one for Jews and one for Christians,
and for different times; thus making God a variable instead of a
constant, and making their Bible the victim of isogesis {reading
meaning into the Bible} and special revelation. Through the years
since 1830, fundamentalists have come to treat the Scofield
Bible NOTES as if they were the most sacred parts of the Bible
Itself, but not so.
2. Notice the “so”, a method to conclude an extended argument
that Paul uses so often in his 14 letters of the New Testament. It
is a conclusion of the chapters in Romans before it to identify
exactly who Israel is; and I must say right up front, as labored in
previous passage in Romans before the SO conclusion of
Romans 11:26, also which will be covered at the conclusion of
this newsletter message, it is a new Israel of Jews and Gentiles,
just like Paul in the beginning of Romans, Romans 2:28,29
identifies a new kind of Jew which includes us as Christians
where “he is a Jew who is one inwardly”. Part of our collective
gospel pride as Christians and co-members of the kingdom of
Christ, alias of the new Israel and of the new God given concept
of the new Jews, is to look forward in the new nation on the new
earth and under the new King Lord Jesus Christ is to live and
dwell in the same new nation together as Jews and Gentiles.
After God lowers New Jerusalem down from heaven to Mount
Zion (Revelation 21:2), a river of living water will flow out from
under going east and west (Zechariah 14:8 & Ezekiel 47:1) with
good fishing (Ezekiel 47:10); and with a plain south of New
Jerusalem (Zechariah 14:10) where the tribes of the new Israel
will divide the land (Ezekiel 47:21), and some of us Gentiles
“strangers” will dwell there eternally with them, others from the
Gentile nations that survived that final battle of the LORD
(Zechariah 14:3) from across the new earth will come to
Jerusalem at least once a year to worship (Zechariah 14:16).
6-3: Before you can get to the Romans details of this new
earth with a new people of Jews and Gentiles ( Romans ),
you TAP through how two-thirds of the Jews a few days
after the crucifixion and ascension of Christ are “cut off and
die” (Zechariah 13:8) as it did happen in the first centuries A.
D. while one third with the apostles went through fire
(Zechariah 13:9); and then jump to the END of this old earth
time where this time one-half of Jerusalem is taken captive
and the other half saved, escaping through a new valley
created as the Mount of Olives is separated north and south.
1. The one new nation of Jews and Gentiles (Ephesians 2:14-22)
also demands a new definition of what it means to be a Jew
(Romans 2:25-29) in the eyes of God and according to His
Word, the Bible.
2. This one new nation of Jews and Gentiles for the new earth
was predicted long ago in Ezekiel 37:22, “I will make them one
nation in the land” (Ezekiel 37:22} to happen after Ezekiel 37:21
when Israel is brought back from among the nations.
a. Granted that this immediate reference of Ezekiel 37:22 is to re-
combine the divided nations of Judah and Israel into one nation;
but also remember that by the time of Christ and the Samaritans,
the northern kingdom of Israel where Syria now exists was
considered to be at least half Gentiles.
“...and I will make them one nation in the land, on the
mountains of Israel, and one king shall be king over them all;
they shall no longer be two nations, nor shall they ever be
divided into two kingdoms again.” (Ezekiel 37:22)
NOTE: Always look in any verse of passage like above for
the word “forever” or a phrasing like “nor shall they ever be
divided again”. It is a shame to have to run such good
thoughts by going after the fundamentalists with their false
concepts and non-biblical words like “a secret rapture”,
millennium, and dispensations; however where they have
their problem here, in spite of their hypocritical cries to be
literal, fail to just let the Bible literally say what it is saying in
Ezekiel 37:21 and 22, that is, that first God brings back the
Jews to Palestine--one big historical event of predictive
prophesy, but a big event that sits up even a bigger event.
b. Do not neglect in your literal study of the Bible that God
brought them back to the land of Palestine as you see them there
now, and with the support of many Christian nations like the US,
in order to: (1) set up old Jerusalem for the final world wide battle
of Armaggadeon with all nations participating {no small feat for
God within itself, but you see it building up now with Muslims
surrounding the still divided Jerusalem and the land, with Iran and
His ball ah, and North Korea--even Russia and China--involved in
the Syrian war: one might call it a world-wide coalition of those
who hate the Jews and desire their destruction, and the US with
them if not NATO}; (2) for Jacob to fight against all these nations,
but lose with one half of Jerusalem going into captivity; (3) with a
miraculous rescue of the Jews as Christ puts one foot north and
the other foot south of Mount Olives, making a valley for their
rescue off to the east with the salvation of one half of them; (4)
the LORD God through Christ fights against the nation, and as
the Lord Jesus Christ comes again to destroy the enemies with
the brightness of HIs image and the breath of his mouth, their
skin and eye sockets will dissolve in their locations on the battle
field, the same destruction of the earth with fervent heat that
Peter writes about.
6-4: Instead of just summarizing all this Bible above, albeit
with references, it is time to take some of the monumental
passages of the Bible and do exegesis, straightforward,
literal, and in the few words of the literal Bible. If you will take
time to note and without prejudice, you will see that
fundamentalists constantly make nothing but an emotional
argument with some extra-biblical, summarizing without
quotes and specific references and generally with the
Scofield NOTES, while at the same time they speak with a
forked tongue about being literal. First, let us start with a
simple exposition of Zechariah 13:7-9.
1. The Jews “strike” the LORD of Hosts own Shepherd, “My
Shepherd”, and He who controls this Universe according to a
plan smites the “little ones” of His former people of the Jewish
nation. God turns His hand against them because (1) they spite
the Shepherd which just happens to be His only begotten Son,
but also (2) because they scatter that one third of the new sheep
of His kingdom. (Zechariah 13:7)
2. What comes to pass in all the land of Palestine of the first and
second centuries is God’s own division of His people in the land,
much like He divided the good figs and bad figs of His own
people at the destruction of Jerusalem in Jeremiah: (1) two thirds
of the Jews will be cut off and die (13:8b), and (2) one third will be
left in the land but will go through fire--obviously the apostles and
other Christians of the dispersion. (13:9)
3. What happens as Christianity expands in the first two
centuries and beyond is that starting with the Jews and then by
way of their testimony expanding to the Gentiles throughout the
Roman world and beyond, God creates one new people of Jews
and Gentiles.
“I will bring the one-third through the fire, will refine them as
silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested. They will
call on My name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘This is
My people’; and each one will say, ‘The LORD is my God.’”
(Zechariah 13:9)
6-5: Another straightforward and simple exegesis that is
literal from Zechariah 14 on the famous Day of the LORD and
Lord consistent throughout the Old and New Testaments: a
long time after those first two centuries, say in the sight of
God like “a thousand years”.
1. “Behold the day of the LORD is coming”; and the guarantee is
not first of a new earth but of more persecution as the spoil of the
prosperity of the returned nation is divided in the midst of
Jerusalem. (14:1)
2. God “gathers all the nations to battle against Jerusalem”;
Jerusalem is taken, the houses rifled, and the women ravished,
with half the city going back into captivity with a process with
which they have become very familiar, but half of the city remains
(14:2)
3. The LORD God Himself fights with these nations like in real
battle, and through the Lord Jesus Christ as He stands on Mount
Olives and splits the north from the south to form a large valley
for the salvation of the remaining Jews in Jerusalem. (14:3,4)
4. The remnant of the Jews will flee through that new valley like
they fled from the earthquake as in the days of King Uzziah of
Judah. (14:5a)
5. Wow, are you ready for this--the real and only second coming
of the Lord Jesus Christ and the resurrection: “Thus the LORD
my God will come, and all the saints with Him.” (Zechariah 14:5b)
6. In that famous ONE day of the LORD and Lord the lights of
the universe will diminish, it is a day only known to the LORD
God, after the great attention of the world is gained with
diminished light, afterward, and then there will be a bright light in
the evening (14:6,7)
7. Living waters will flow out from under the New Jerusalem, east
and west, and all year long forever, winter and summer (14:8).
8. And the LORD God of the Universe shall be king over all the
earth with the Lord Jesus Christ turning over the kingdom to God
the Father, and Them with the previously withdrawn spirit from the
earth before the battle become more One than previously. (14:9)
“Then comes the end, when He {Christ} delivers the
kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule
and all authority and power. For He {Christ{ must reign till He
has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will
be destroyed is death. {Don’t expect a resurrection from
death until Jesus at the END destroys that last enemy of
death!}
“For ‘He put all things under His feet {a quote from Psalm 8:
6, and then in the nature of the ASPI version of the Bible, the
NT explains what was declared in the OT} But when He says
“all things are put under Him,” it is evident that He Who put
all things under Him is excepted. Now then all things are
made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be
subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be
all in all.” (I Corinthians 15:24-27)
And that my friends and brethren is the meaning of Zechariah 14:
9--
“And the LORD {LORD in capital letters refers to God the
Father, the LORD of hosts, and by the way the hosts refers to
Gentiles and Jews} shall be King over all the earth. In that
day it shall be--’The LORD is one, and His name is one.”
6-6: Beginnings of Judgment for the people of God, for good,
and the nations that came against Jerusalem for bad. You
see another aspect of this marvelous plan of God, for it is an
obviously just act on the part of this God the Universe to
return evil judgement on those that attack and destroy His
own people.
1. God’s own people--the remnant of the saved Jews from
Jerusalem, and saints that Jesus brought with Him during the
attack on the nations surrounding Jerusalem--will establish on a
new plain of the new earth south of Jerusalem. “No longer
{another equivalent like forever and ever} shall there be utter
destruction, but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited.” (Zechariah
14:10-11).
2. Follows a description in Zechariah 14:12-15 of the “PLAGUE”
with which the LORD “will strike all the people who fought against
Jerusalem”--
a. Their bodies will “dissolve” where they stand around
Jerusalem, the eyes in their sockets and the tongues in their
mouths. (14:12)
b. In that One day, there will be a great panic among all those
nations that came against Jerusalem {one way to identify who is
for the LORD and who is against Him}, so that they will fight
amongst themselves much like Muslim that hate Jerusalem fight
against Muslims today in Syria.
c. Jacob will fight at Jerusalem before it is taken captive, using
wealth of surrounding nations to purchase weapons and armor.
d. By the way in 14:14 more about the Plague on the camps of
the nations enemies that come against Jerusalem in that final
battle, so extensive shall be that fervent heat of which Peter and
Zechariah speak, that this plague will be so thorough in the camps
of the enemies that it will also come on their horses, mules,
camels, and donkeys, and all their cattle. We can legitimately
expect that at a minimum all those enemy camps in Palestine
surrounding Jerusalem, those that now seek the destruction of the
Jews of Jerusalem and captivity of the city, will be among the
victims in these surrounding camps.
6-7: The SO summary or conclusion in Romans 11:26--
Now, NOW we are ready to see who is the ALL Israel that will
be saved. Naturally we can start with the one-half of the
nation left in Jerusalem when Christ comes to rescue them
by making a valley east of Jerusalem. {ALL of Israel, much
larger than the nation of Israel itself--by the way did you know
that Syria is exactly where the northern kingdom of Israel
was located before their captivity--SO that do not thing of this
Israel of Romans as synonymous with the present nation of
Israel, for it is more like the southern kingdom of Judah, and
indeed in Zechariah, it is “Jacob”, not Israel that fights
against an earth ending attack on Jerusalem.
1. I know that some Bible interpreters like B. H. Carroll like to
number that company of saved Jews at the end as 144,000; but
that is more than likely to be a figurative and complete number of
12 times 12 times one thousand of all Jews saved from the time
of Christ to the last destruction of Jerusalem. Since we can
hardly read what is in the heart and mind of God, or claim that we
know even as Jesus Christ Himself did not know the exact time of
the Second Coming and END, it is impossible to stress the
matter of the exact number. Of course, then you have to add all
those heroes of faith of the OT mentioned in Hebrews 11, and
those that are not mentioned, which will make a very sizeable
host for the new earth.
2. Then add Paul and the other Apostles of the first century, also
the 3000 of the dispersion saved on the first day of Pentecost
after the Ascension; and of course all those Jews that Paul
preached to throughout the Roman Empire while mainly
preaching to the Gentiles {generally Paul went to the local
synagogue first}, where the other apostles went taking the Gospel
of Christ throughout the known world; then of course, you can not
forget the small number of Jews from the Roman Empire to
today throughout the world that have received the good news of
Jesus Christ. For example, Hyman Appleman, a converted
Christian Jew--an early evangelist of the SBC--was preaching
when at age 9 my profession of faith was made during a revival
meeting in Ira Peak’s church of Queensboro Baptist.
3. Finally with just a few verses from Romans to help us spell out
the “who of Israel” that will finally be saved.
6-8: Time and space demand that in this newsletter, we only
introduce with Paul and the Word of God in Romans, a
complete description of the New Israel of the new Jews; for
you will find that the particulars that lead to the SO
conclusion and summary, sort of like Paul’s “therefores”, is
within itself much of an outline of Romans. In the next of the
Gospel Pride in Romans series on the book of Romans {that
would be session #7}, the “SO Conclusion of Israel” will be
thoroughly discussed on what is just outlined here. {Or at
any point you can take up your Bibles and read it for
yourself!} Lets call this exegesis of Romans now on Israel,
the “NEW ISRAEL OUTLINE OF ROMANS”. Here we will
work backwards from Romans chapter 11, and in particular
from Romans 11:26--”And so all Israel will be saved, as it is
written...”
1. This SO outline should start with the quote about “so all Israel
will be saved”.
Read the quote in Isaiah 59:20 where it is actually “The
Redeemer will come to Zion” which is the same as the second
coming where the Lord Jesus Christ rescues Jacob, at least half
of them in Jerusalem, from attack as previously spelled out from
Zechariah.
“...as it is written: The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will
turn away ungodliness from Jacob; for this is my covenant with
them, when I take away their sins.” (Isaiah 59:20,21 and quoted
in Romans 11:26,27)
In fact, Isaiah 59, 60, etc are one of the great eschatological
passages of the Bible, and alone after an introduction in session
8, should be considered as another session on the book of
Romans, session #9. Right now, let us leave as we always strive
to do in those passages where fundamentalists strive to confuse
you with an extra-biblical concept of a millennium, while ignoring
the obvious eternity concepts and words of the Bible itself. Let
us call them the FOREVER OF ETERNITY CLUES! What are
they here: first of all like always in the Bible there is the
diminished lights just before the “great and notable one day of the
LORD and Lord”, “For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth”
of Isaiah 60:2; and secondly a good introduction to the Gentiles
as part of the New Israel under the New King Jesus, “The
Gentiles shall come to your light...” (Isaiah 60:3).
2. Since God made irrevocable and invariable promises to
Abraham and our other forefathers in the faith, Jews by birth are
both enemies of the Gospel and beloved for sake of the
promises to the forefathers (Romans 11:28,29), so that some
natural Jews will still have mercy (11:31).
3. Blindness in part has been ordained by God on natural Israel,
only until the time of the fullness of the Gentiles is complete (11:
25); that is a few from about the second century until now
continue to be saved, like Hyman Appleman, the southern baptist
evangelist preaching when I made a profession of faith, and then
at the END half of those natural Jews in Jerusalem will be
miraculous rescue by the second coming of Christ.
4. As a natural nation, Israel has stumbled but not completed
fallen as a natural nation; and part of the very reason that God
has brought us new Jews into the realm of salvation is to provoke
the original Jews to salvation (11:11)
5. Paul expressed during his lifetime a certain amount of
optimism that some of the natural Jews of natural Israel might be
saved, writing, “Brethren, my hearts desire and prayer to God for
Israel is that they may be saved.” (10:1) However, we do them
no favor when we accept as normal in the sight of God, their
majority unbelief in the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing of course as
with all in the world, Jews and Gentiles, only a few or minority of
any generation find the narrow road that leads to life eternal.
6. Long ago in the Old Testament times of Hosea, God had
already made and ordained the decision to make a new people of
new Jews of the new Israel. (9:24-26)
7. You see the makeup of the new Israel clarified in Romans 9:6.
NOTE: There is more, much more as part of the “New Israel of
Romans Outline”, and it is to be continued in more of the series
on Gospel Pride in Romans. Also in the predictions that Paul
quotes in Romans, very extensively, there will be more
considered for the “Forever” clues.
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