godandnations

Israel

When you say that no Jew can enter heaven, I take it you mean no Jew by religion, rather than by nationality.

I agree with you that only Christians can enter heaven - whether they are Jewish (Jewish by ethnicity, not by religion) or Gentile.

Is the Christian Church the new Israel, you ask?

My understanding is that the Kingdom of God was promised first to the Jews, that is, to the natural descendants of Abraham.

But by-and-large Israel's national leaders rejected the Gospel, and hindered many of their own countrymen from entering the Kingdom.

Therefore Israel failed to receive the promised Kingdom, on a national level.

However, many Israelis who believed in Jesus and who received him did enter the Kingdom, on an individual basis.

Paul calls these individual Jews "the elect", the "true Jews", those who are Jews "inwardly" (that is, in heart) not merely by nationality, the true members of "Israel" rather than just Israelis by birth.

Israel as a geo-political nation was therefore cut off, like a gardener cutting-off a branch that fails to bear fruit.

Meanwhile, the Gospel of the Kingdom was sent predominantly to the unbelieving Gentiles - who heard and believed and who were allowed to partake of the salvation originally promised to the Jews.

The Gentiles were grafted-in, like a gardener grafting-in an unnatural branch, replacing the unfruitful, natural branch.

God's purpose was to provoke the natural seed of Israel to jealousy, when they see the Gentiles receiving THEIR blessings.

Therefore if an Israeli by birth now comes to the place of believing in Jesus, God is able to graft him in again, since he was, after all, the natural branch.

Gentiles are now not the only nations with a history of unbelief. Now the Jews also have an ancestry of unbelief. Therefore both Jews and Gentiles are classified as unbelievers - and therefore God can have mercy on both.

The Old Testament Prophets foretold all of this, saying that it was actually God's purpose, so that because of Israel's fall, He could have mercy on the Gentiles also, and then through the mercy showed on the Gentiles, He could then reach out to the Jews once again, now that they also, like the Gentiles, were concluded as unbelieving, and therefore in need of mercy also.

It therefore now makes no difference whether a person's ethnicity is Jewish or Gentile. The only way for either a Jewish person or a Gentile person to be saved is through repenting and receiving Jesus.

All that matters now is that the person has been born again and made a new creature in Christ Jesus, and that he or she has received the free gift of righteousness through Jesus alone.

Nothing else besides receiving Jesus has any merits towards righteousness and salvation.

Therefore not every Israeli is truly Israeli.

A true Jew is one who is a Jew in spirit, not by ancestry.

And Gentiles are also included into the Commonwealth of Israel, as far as heaven is concerned.

Therefore, one's natural ancestry becomes irrelevant.

The true Israel is LIMITED to mean only believers in Christ amongst the Jews, and EXTENDED to include all Gentile believers in Christ.

So I guess you're right - the true Israel of God can be described as the Christian Church.

Great to be part of it!

We are like a huge building, built by God, upon the foundation of the New Testament Apostles and the Old Testament Prophets, with Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone of the building, and all the ancient Patriarchs and all modern-day believers (Jew and Gentile) included in it - and then God Himself comes and dwells in the building forever. That's us!

Thankyou Jesus!

Judgment of the Nations

As for God using one nation to punish another nation, and then judging that nation for doing so - I think I see that principle again and again in Scripture.

Whenever Israel sinned irretrievably, God stirred up (or allowed) an enemy nation to attack them.

But then after that, God also judged that enemy nation for their sins - and their sins may have been worse than Israel's. Their sins may even have included a wrong motive for attacking Israel. But God allowed them to do it, to try to bring Israel to repentance, when there was no other remedy.

God would have been within His rights to punish the enemy nation earlier, since their sins may have been worse than Israel's. But if God chose to delay His judgment on that nation in order to use their attack against Israel as a means to hopefully bring Israel to repentance, then that is God's prerogative. His ultimate aim is always to show mercy.

The question is whether God uses the enemy nation in an ACTIVE, CAUSATIVE sense, or whether He simply allowed it in a PASSIVE, PERMISSIVE sense. I've been told that the Hebrew language has a permissive-verb tense that doesn't exist in the English language.

For example, the King James Version says that God hardened Pharaoh's heart. Apparently the Hebrew tense carries the meaning of God ALLOWING Pharaoh's heart to be hardened.

In another verse God says that He would place sicknesses on the disobedient. Apparently, the Hebrew tense means that God will ALLOW sickness to come upon the disobedient - not that God commissions it, but that it happens because, by their disobedience, they no longer qualify for God's special blessing.

So when God says that He will bring an enemy nation against Israel, it may not necessarily mean that God is the direct actor in the situation, but rather it is an unavoidable conflict because of Israel's sin and their failure to qualify for God's special protection. The enemy nation is therefore still accountable for their motives.

Some say that God neither acts nor intervenes in wars of the modern era - explaining that God gave jurisdiction over the world to Adam, then Adam handed it to Satan.

However, I think that the above principles may explain how God does get involved in modern wars - even if it is only an indirect involvement through the Laws He has put in place. Take the Iraq War for an example.

My feeling is that many Christians in Iraq prayed for a long time for God to remove their wicked leader. But Saddam's sins may not have reached the full quota to be worthy of judgment yet.

So first, God gave Saddam Hussein a warning. God allowed the first Gulf War, but allowed Saddam to stay in office.

Then God was patient with him for 40 years, and because he hadn't repented, his sins reached a full quota, and time was now up.

Perhaps there was another reason God delayed His judgment of Saddam - maybe God was using him to be a restraining force against the evil of Iran.

But in any case, the time for judgment came, and God looked for a way to overthrow Saddam. Now, how could God accomplish this? By stirring America up to attack Iraq.

But how could God stir America up? By stirring an enemy up to fly planes into the Pentagon, and into the Twin Towers.

But how can God be justified allowing that to happen to America? Do we need to look very far for a justification? How about 1,500,000 abortions each and every year?

God was also wanting to show a sign to America to warn them of the final judgment, in order to bring them to repentance, in order that He might show mercy on them. After the attack on the Twin Towers, Churches around America were full. And America moved-in and deposed Sadam Hussein.

Not that American servicemen are above judgment. Just because God used (or allowed) America to fulfil His bidding in regard to Saddam, does that put Americans above accountability in their actions towards Iraq? Of course not. Of course in their individual actions in Iraq each serviceman will still give account to God one day. Just because God uses an enemy nation doesn't automatically mean that nation's reasons for going to war are justified. God will still judge them if need be. In fact, just the fact that they have to go to war against someone whom God has destined for judgment, may be a measure of judgment against themselves as well, because it costs their own nation in terms of lives and finances to go to war as well.

Nevertheless, God achieves His purposes all around. Ever actor in the whole scenario was both a vessel being used by God, and also a subject of judgment at the same time - so that prayers all around could be answered.

The same can be said of the Taliban. The cruel 40-year rule of the Taliban in Afghanistan could be viewed as God's judgment on Afghanistan, which began when the last Christian Church in the nation was burnt down.

When God's prescribed term of judgment was expired, it was now time for God in His ever-new mercies to give the Afghanis some relief from their oppressive Government. By this time, Christians in Afghanistan were praying for the Taliban to be pulled down, because they also had suffered at the hands of the Taliban, let alone at the hands of their own countrymen 40 years earlier.

Perhaps there was another reason why God delayed the judgment of the Taliban for so long - God was merely using them to resist the wicked Communist invasion of Northern Afghanistan.

Notwithstanding, after 40 years were expired, God now wanted to answer His people's prayers, by removing the Taliban. How will He do it? By sending fire and brimstone from heaven? hailstones? I believe He did it by stirring up the United States. How? The Twin Towers. (And God had His own purposes for justifying that; and He achieved His purposes - American churches were full the next Sunday!)

They're my feelings on these matters. I don't think God is uninvolved in the cause-and-effect of world events, especially when Christians are praying.

There is a day of final judgment, but I think God also enacts many minor judgments throughout history.

I'm also open to correction if my view misrepresents God's heart in any way.