[PhilipFreneau]

>>>Nothing you write can undo what Jesus said to the Jews who did not believe in him at that point in their lives.<<<

>>>I know that ye are Abraham's seed;<<<

>>>He said it. That settles it. The Jews are Abraham's seed. He will judge every person, not by what they say, but by what they do.<<<

LOL! Okay, that settles it!

How do we resolve statements like these?

"For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect:" (Rom 4:13-14 KJV)

"Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed." (Gal 3:7-8 KJV)

"For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." (Gal 3:26-29 KJV)

Philip

[af_vet_1981]

How do we resolve statements like these?

1. By not being a preterist, not looking to re-form into yet another new denomination, sect, cult, or heresy out of so many thousands of previous ones. Besides, all the good names are already taken. If you were a Catholic, and just to see an Orthodox approach, I would point you to
   The Catechism provides us with a general order of events at the End [CCC 673-677]. Chronologically they are,
   1. the full number of the Gentiles come into the Church
   2. the "full inclusion of the Jews in the Messiah's salvation, in the wake of the full number of the Gentiles" (#2 will follow quickly on, in the wake of, #1)
   3. a final trial of the Church "in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth." The supreme deception is that of the Antichrist.
   4. Christ's victory over this final unleashing of evil through a cosmic upheaval of this passing world and the Last Judgment.

   As Cardinal Ratzinger recently pointed out (in the context of the message of Fátima), we are not at the end of the world. In fact, the Second Coming (understood as the physical return of Christ) cannot occur until the full number of the Gentiles are converted, followed by "all Israel."

2. By believing Jesus, Peter, and Paul; there are Jews in every generation who are the seed of Abraham and to whom the covenants apply; some are broken off, yet the seed will continue until the end (not 70 CE/AD) when all Israel shall be saved.

   I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.