Posted on 04/26/2010 5:13:57 PM PDT by kindred
My inadequate knowledge of prophecy tells me that Israel is at the vortex of the chaos that will ensue...
Those wiser and more knowledgable than I are welcome to correct me if I am wrong.
Where is any nation but Israel in prophecy?
Nowhere unless you consider the land of Magog to be Russia.
Its all about Israel.
.
bttt
I think America is just judged by whether or not we support Israel in the pinch or not. My reading of the Bible looks as though we didn't come to their aid. The same question could be "where is Australia, China, Africa, ect" in end time prophesy? We are the most powerfull nation on Earth at the moment, but will we act, will we continue in power, ect? We could be the most power full country on Earth, but what good is that if we stand by and watch Israel call for help and do nothing?
Yes, the Roman Empire seems to cover most of us as a blanket. That is probably what hangs some people up. they are trying to make distinctions that don’t exist WRT God’s plans.
Our current impostor-in-chief will likely diminish our ultimate significance. (not that Bush did a particularly exemplary job WRT Israel)
God Bless and good post. J.S.
America is mentioned in prophecy. They are first prophesied about when Jacob prophecies over Joseph’s sons in Genesis 48:19,20 The one thing most people miss is there were two kingdoms, a Jewish kingdom, and a “gentile” Israelite kingdom that was exiled and eventually formed into these nations Jacob prophesied about.
Prophecy questions about Israel for dispensationalists:
Could the dispensational distinctive of separation between Israel and the church be incorrect? On the Jewish Day of Pentecost in Acts 2, if you asked Peter and the disciples if they were part of Israel or the Church, what would they say? Wouldnt they say they were both? Dont Romans 11 and Hebrews 8 show that the gentiles were grafted in as the Israel of God, rather the Jews maintaining a separate line of salvation? Doesnt Galatians 3:14 further identify the nature of the blessing that would come to all the other nations in addition to Israel through Christ? Doesnt Galatians 3:6-8 and Galatians 3:29 tell us that believers are the spiritual descendants of Abraham?
If God has two different plans for Jews and Gentiles, why does Paul say there isnt any more distinction (Romans 10:12; Galatians 3:28; Colossians 3:11)?
Isnt the gospel the salvation for everyone who believesboth Jew and Gentile (Romans 1:16)?
If Israel and the Christian church are two different groups of people who have two separate covenants, and the hope of Israel is the resurrection (Acts 23:6, 24:14-15, 26:6-8), why is it taught that Christians will experience any type of resurrection, being that it is only for Israel (http://bible.org/article/contemporary-interpretative-problems-%E2%80%94-resurrection-israel)?
Dont the following passages further confirm that the New Israel (New Jerusalem) does not mean a literal restored nation of Israel: Matthew 21:43; Romans 2:28-29, 9:6, 10:12; Galatians 6:15-16; Philippians 3:3; Colossians 3:11; Hebrews 8:8, 8:13; 1 Peter 2:9-10; Revelation 21:2? In 1 Peter 2:9-10 isnt Peter applying Old Testament terms for Israel to the church, asserting the continuity between Old Testament Israel and the New Testament churchrepresenting them as one people of God? Isnt it a reasonable interpretation that Revelation 12:2 is speaking about a heavenly Jerusalem (see Hebrews 12:22-23)?
Are there any references in the Bible to the temple being built a third time? If there is going to be a rebuilt Jewish temple in the future, why does Scripture say God does not dwell in temples made with hand anymore (Acts 7:48, 17:24)?
Dont all the New Testament texts comparing Israel to a fig tree point to Jerusalems destruction rather than its restoration?
Werent the Jews as a nation rejected (Matthew 8:8-13, 21:33-46, 22:1-4, 23:31-39; John 8:37-47; Romans 9:30-10:4; Romans 11:7)?
Wasnt the Israel of God (Galatians 6:15-16) given to the those individuals, either Jew or Gentile, who believe (Matthew 3:9; Romans 2:28-29; Galatians 3:28-29, 4:24-31; Hebrews 8:13, 12:12-24; 1 Peter 2:5-10; Revelation 3:9)?
Why would Jesus kingdom be set up in earthly Jerusalem, even though Paul said earthly Jerusalem was bondage and the old covenant (Galatians 4:24-25)?
When the Jews rejected Jesus werent their branches broken off and the Gentiles grafted in (Romans 9:6-8, 11:11-24) along with a remnant of Jews (Romans 11:5)?
Doesnt the New Testament (Ephesians 2:20-22; 1 Peter 2:4-8) explain that while the physical temple is about to be destroyed, it is being replaced by the church with Christ as the cornerstone and Christians as the living stones?
Is there anywhere in the New Testament that explicitly supports the land promises made to Israel are yet to be fulfilled?
Doesnt the distinctive of the separation between Israel and the church inevitably teach that there are two paths to salvationlaw for Jews and grace for everyone else? Didnt C. I. Scofield himself say; As a dispensation, grace begins with the death and resurrection of Christ... The point of testing is no longer legal obedience as the condition of salvation, but acceptance or rejection of Christ... (Scofield Reference Bible, page 1115). Doesnt the labeling of the current dispensation as the Age of Grace at the very least confuse the issue of justification? Arent both law and grace (gospel) present in both the Old Testament and New Testament? Isnt the notion that God saved Old Testament Jews by law, but now saves New Testament Christians by grace unbiblical (Romans 4, 5)? Didnt God preach the gospel beforehand to Abraham (Galatians 3:8)? Doesnt Paul in Galatians 3 clearly state that no man is justified by the law, and quotes the Old Testament to prove it? On the other hand, arent there plenty of statements in the New Testament about obeying the law (Matthew 5:19; Matthew 7:16-20; Matthew 13:36-43; Matthew 25:31-46; Romans 3:31; James 2:10-17)?
When Jesus says in John 14:6 that no man comes to the Father but him, doesnt Jesus mean what he says? No man would include Jew or Gentile, doesnt it?
Do you believe that two-thirds of Israelis will be slaughtered in a Holocaust II (Zechariah 13:7-9, or John Walvoords book Israel in Prophecy)? If so, how can you call yourself pro-Israel? When you pray for Jesus to come soon or the imminent rapture, arent you preaching or even asking for a near term slaughter of the Jews? Isnt this teaching based almost entirely on one verseZechariah 13:8yet the New Testament places the previous verse (13:7) squarely in the time of Christ? Isnt it true that there is no prediction in the book of Revelation about the annihilation of two-thirds of all Jews living in Israel by the Antichrist?
If we are in the New Covenant era, which scripture says is forever, why would God go back to a temple system of the Old Covenant which Paul called bondage (Galatians 4)?
If God was going to go back to animal sacrifices for sin in a future millennium, does that mean Christ died in vain (Galatians 2:21)?
If the promises to Israel are forever and unconditional, why does God say it is conditional in Deuteronomy 28?
Why can Jesus earthly kingdom be set up in earthly Jerusalem, when Jesus himself said the hour was coming when worshipping God would NOT be in Jerusalem (John 4:21)?
Why would Jesus kingdom be set up in earthly Jerusalem, knowing Jesus condemned their city several times (Matthew 21-Matthew 25)?
How can the millennial kingdom of God be of the Jews when Jesus himself said that he took the kingdom away from them and gave it to the gentiles who produce the fruits (Matthew 21:43)? If Jesus took the kingdom from the Jews and gave it to the gentiles, why is there no scripture to show another transfer back to the Jews?
You do realize that the notion of “the Rapture” is a 19th century heresy, a bizarre innovation based on a sentimental failure to understand that the martyrs who imitate Christ in His sufferings are the glory of the Church, don’t you?
The Scriptures adduced to support the idea have always been held by the Church, East and West, to describe the experience of the faithful remnant of Christians at the time of the general resurrection, after all of the events described in the Book of Daniel’s apocalyptic sections and the Apocalypse of St. John leading up to the Last Judgment have taken place, including the reign of Antichrist.
“America is mentioned in prophecy.”
You have to twist scripture really hard to believe that.
It’s not twisting. Jacob prophecied in Gen 48 and 49 what would happen to his sons at the end of this age. This is repeated by Moses in Deut. 33.
Israel was divided on purpose, during the reign of Rehoboam. They were called the “two sisters”, “Favor and Union”, one of them was the faithful son the other the prodigal son. But clearly they were destined to be different peoples.
The key here is the Jews never became the light to the gentiles, so someone else had to fill that role. So when you read the entire book of Hosea, you realize that the House of Israel was divorced but would reform as an entity. Ezekiel 4:5 said that the 10 tribes would bear the price of their sin for 390 years. The Jews still had 40 years left on their 70 years in Babylon. Bottom line in Hosea 1:10 ...the 10 tribes would become a huge multitude. Even Josephus confirms this.. saying they were a huge multitude beyond the Euphrates River.
The fundamental problem is our history books never teach many of these things, because secularist hate things that have to do with God...so: about the Parthian Empire... they weren’t Persians or Babylonians. They were Scythians, who migrated back down into Persia and took over a portion of the Greek Empire. The Parthian Empire began at the Euphrates and ended at the Indus River. They fought 11 wars with Rome, and only lost one. 27 years before the birth of Christ, they wiped Mark Anthony’s army. The Magi(wise men)were part of the elite of this Parthian Empire. The Parthians were Israelites from the 10 Tribes.
when the Parthian Empire fell in 220 AD, millions of people poured through the Caucus Mountains into Europe. They would eventually be known as Goths, Vandals, Alans and others. The Greeks called these migrating people Caucasians. Most western Europeans descend from these migrating “barbarian tribes”.
Just because something isn’t familiar doesn’t make it wrong. There is a lot of strong evidence to this...
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