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February 21, 2003...Reworked October 29, 2006
"For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth." [Deuteronomy 14:2]
"For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth." [Deuteronomy 7:6]
Isaiah 11:11 through 12:6; Isaiah 27:1-13; Isaiah 29:22-24; Isaiah 33:20-24; Isaiah 41:9-20; Isaiah 48:9-11; Isaiah 49:8-26; Isaiah 52:1-12; Isaiah 54:1-17; Isaiah 65:8-9
Jeremiah 3:12-18; Jeremiah 4:27-28; Jeremiah 5:10, 18; Jeremiah 7:7. Note: In Jeremiah 7:29 we see that God only rejects "the generation of HIS wrath." HE does not reject all of the Jews...but a certain part...but not all! Jeremiah 10:16; Jeremiah 16:14-15; Jeremiah 23:3-8; Jeremiah 24:5-8. It is not the Nation of Israel that has been rejected! Jeremiah 25:15-33 tells us that all the current Gentile Governments have been rejected by God. The only National Government that moves from here into the next dispensation is the Nation of Israel. But the governmental entities of the Gentiles will fall and "rise no more," as they were.
Jeremiah 29:11-14; All of Jeremiah chapters 30 and 31; Jeremiah 32:37-42; Jeremiah 33:7-9, 15-26...especially verses 20-21, 23-26. Jeremiah 35 talks of the sub-family of Jews, named the Rechabites. It promises them in 35:19 that their clan shall go on "for ever." If this sub-clan of Jews has that promise, we know there shall be Jews as God's people for ever!
Jeremiah 46:28 promises the Jews that God will never make a full end of them, only correct them. But all the other nations will be ended by God! Jeremiah 50:4-5
Ezekiel 6:9; Ezekiel 11:16-20; Ezekiel 14:10-11, 22-23; Ezekiel 16:60-63; Ezekiel 20:34-44; Ezekiel 28:24-26; Ezekiel 34:22-31; The whole Chapter of Ezekiel 37 speaks of the dry bones of the Jewish people called back to life. Ezekiel 39:21-29.
Daniel 9:24; Daniel 12:1
Joel 3:20-21
Amos 9:11, 14, 15
St. Paul gives four Chapters of his letter to the Romans to destroying this wrong doctrine that the Jews are a lost cause. See below:Romans Chapters 8 through 11, but especially Romans 11:26 and following clearly tell us that "...all Israel shall be saved." Verse 27 says God is going to "...take away their [the Jews'] sins." And then the clincher in verse 29 says of the Jews and of all gifts and callings, "...the gifts and calling of God are without repentance." Paul puts a golden, Heavenly bullet in the heart of these wrong doctrines concerning the Jews. He tells us that God simply never, ever, ever takes away any calling that HE puts upon the Jews and any of HIS people. And so Romans 11:29 tells us that once the Jews became the Chosen People they were elected FOREVER to hold that calling!
The validity of the Jews as God's Chosen People, and the eternal longevity of their position in the scheme of things is so strong, Biblically, that it is hard to understand how these false teachings can even remain alive. It just proves how determined darkness is to smear the precious Old Testament people of God, and how much ignorance has crept into the Church of Jesus Christ.
There are a number of false teachings circulating throughout the Church of Jesus Christ concerning the Jews and the modern Nation of Israel. These non-biblical teachings remove all modern Jews from being the Chosen People of God. One view even claims that the Jews sinned and failed so completely that God has permanently and totally cast them off and that the protestant churches are now the new Israel. This family of varied teachings all claim, to one degree or another, that Jews are not the Chosen People anymore and are just another ethnic grouping.
Some holding these views claim that the Holy Land is of little modern significance. Some of the supporters of these doctrines teach that there will be no Millennium (thousand year rule of Jesus on Earth, as King of Kings and Lord of Lords). Some of these folks believe that there will be no escape of the true church prior to the Tribulation and that there will not be a tribulation period either. One of these groups goes so far as to say that the Book of Revelation was mistakenly included in the Bible and is really of very little value being just an extreme dream of Saint John. They resist preaching from that Book beyond Chapter three in their churches.
One of these deceptive beliefs, concerning the Jews, is British Israelism. Basically this belief declares that Anglo-Saxon, Caucasian peoples, with British ancestry are very probably the lost ten tribes of Israel. The lost Ten Tribes of the Northern Kingdom were carried off, removed from the Holy Land for their sin of idolatry and adultery against God. This sad event occurred more than 700 years before the coming of Jesus Christ.
This false doctrine tempts believers with British roots into a kind of ancestral pride. They get puffed up, believing themselves to have Jewish blood and to be direct descendents, of Abraham, a bit superior to other "run of the mill Gentile" Christians. I would like to show why that belief is probably mistaken based on the Bible itself.
It has always been reported that no one knows exactly where the Assyrians deported the ten tribes to. We do know that all, but a few Jews that survived the Assyrian invasions, were marched out of the areas around Samaria. Then the Assyrians marched other people from some other captured area into what was the Northern Kingdom.
This was one of the cruel tactics of the Assyrians. Often, when they captured a nation they took all it's people away and forced them into another land in an attempt to obliterate their culture for all time. It is reported that they sometimes even broke up families, forcing marriage partners to co-habit with mates of other nationalities. The power of this was that they could kill a culture and yet still have a large pool of peoples to work and support their massive empire without the worry that those people might rise up and rebel. It was a wickedly brilliant scheme.
In God's Word I have found many Scriptures that conclusively show, that these teachings, against the Jewish Nation and the Jewish people, who are the blood relatives of Jacob's 12 sons, that these teachings are an abomination. The Jews are still God's Chosen People, and we need to pray for them. Many of them will eventually receive Jesus Christ as their true Messiah, but not all. The Bible teaches that there will be a remnant of Jews who will do the final glorious will that God has ordained for His Chosen People. I hope you will check out the list of some of the Scriptures, above, that must be ignored IF you are one of those people who think the Jews are not still the Chosen People of God.
Now a Bible explanation as to why British Israelism is a deception.
In First Kings, chapter 14, several generations prior to the deportation of the ten tribes of Israel, God's prophet lays out the sentence that would befall the Northern Kingdom. The prophet's name was Ahijah. Every other prophecy that Ahijah gave came to pass in perfect detail. He predicted the very moment that the wicked King Jeroboam's baby would die. Though Ahijah was totally blind, in old age and unable to see the disguised visitor that stood before him, God tipped the prophet off in the supernatural! Jeroboam's disguised wife was told by the prophet who she was. He predicted that Jeroboam would be king of the ten tribes years before it happened. He predicted the violent deaths of many of Jeroboam's family. All these things came to pass in perfect detail.
Additionally, Ahijah prophesies to Jeroboam's wife what would befall the ten tribes, that her husband ruled over. Now this was generations before it happened. The sin of Jeroboam was so great that it set the ten tribes on a collision course with judgment. Hear what the prophet of God said:
"For the Lord shall smite Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water, and he shall root up Israel out of this good land, which he gave to their fathers, and shall scatter them beyond the river, because they have made their groves (idol worshiping areas, perhaps set up in orchards or stands of trees), provoking the Lord to anger." -- 1st Kings 14:15
The expression "...beyond the river..." is a reference to the Euphrates River. That great river has always been very significant. It is so significant because the Euphrates is the God given EASTERN boundary of the Holy Land.
The Jews have seldom ruled that far to the East. But God's Word states in Deuteronomy 11:24 "Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from THE RIVER, the river Euphrates, even unto the uttermost sea [Mediterranean Sea] shall your coast [or borders] be."
These facts, combined with the prophecy poured through Ahijah and the high degree of prophetic accuracy Ahijah was shown to move in, prove that we can strongly believe that Ahijah was correct about WHERE the ten tribes would be taken.
They were taken and dispersed ONLY to places "beyond the river," which could only be EAST of the Euphrates River! If that was the case, and I believe the Bible and the prophet Ahijah to be correct, then there is little chance that any of the ten tribes found their way to Europe and that any of them are ancestors of anyone with European ancestry! The prophet's revelation tells us that the Lost Ten Tribes probably ended up somewhere in what is now East Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Western Pakistan and/or Kazakhstan. The chances of any significant number of those lost tribes having relatives ending up in England is pretty remote, to say the least!!!
Recently I have heard that researchers have located a group of people living near Islamic areas of the old Soviet Union who have a religion very much like Judaism. It is believed that these people may be part of the lost ten tribes. That fits with the "beyond the river" phrase in the Prophet's Heavenly revelation.
All of the people that I have met, who believe and teach that the Jews and Israel are not important got their idea from some book they read...and it wasn't the Bible! Or if it was the Bible, then they got that idea because they didn't read all the Scriptures.
Believers must be reminded to center their reading on the Bible. Be careful of all those other "Christian" books!! There are "Christian" books that are very good and very helpful. But there are many, many, many so called "Christian books" that will mis-guide you, that have partial truths. You must be very careful! We need to see that the Bible is "light years" above all the writings of various Christian leaders and scholars!
As much as the scholars hate to admit it, the Bible, opened by the Holy Spirit, is more than sufficient to be the only textbook for Christians. God has designed it to speak to common people. In fact I'm convinced that common people understand the Bible more clearly than scholars. That is because God allows the egghead geniuses, and great intellects to figure the Bible out MORE on their own. But common, humble people God helps in supernatural ways to comprehend the depth of Scripture, if they will humbly ask HIM, and seek the aid of the Holy Spirit. I've found that great thinkers who study the Bible work under a handicap, at times.
I've noticed that when these folks who dismiss Israel explain their belief to me that the explanation is so complex that one must have quite and intellect in order to even grasp their explanation. Simple people who read the Bible always notice that the Jews are God's chosen people because that is the simple understanding of the massive Scriptures on the subject. Those who dismiss the Jews have to go into great explanations and call our attention to obscure bits and pieces of this and that. Frankly, after I listen to them for awhile I'm more confused than helped. But when I just read the Scripture I can't miss the fact that the modern Jewish Nation today is very much a part of God's Chosen people, even though they still have a veil over their eyes, as the Bible teaches. Just study the Bible and you will see...forget all those "conspiracy theory" style books that you find obscure "Christian" groups pushing. God gave us one book for a reason. God likes to keep HIS Word clear and simple so that all may understand.
Remember that the "Christian Book Industry" has been infiltrated by big secular business entities. Did you know that Zondervan is now the property of the same people who own the Fox Television Network?? Did you know that the "Word" Christian label is now the property of the Time-Warner Company? This makes me want to read my Bible more and other "Christian" books less! I am very unmotivated to run out and buy the latest "Christian" best sellers. I don't believe it is God's perfect will for "Christian" publishing companies to be owned by secular syndicates.
Further, I want to go so far as to say that the teaching that says, "Christians need to read widely," is not an idea that came from Heaven! I've heard some Christian educators teaching that Christians need to concentrate on reading the literature coming out of their denominational printing house. I have heard other Christian scholars saying that Christians need to read heavily in the Christian classics.
Christians need to read narrowly...they need to focus on the Word of God! God's Word is infinitely more than sufficient when we strongly seek the aid of the Holy Spirit as we read.
Christian denominations and organizations are very unwise when they heavily push books other than the Bible. These other books, by their very nature, are rehashed, recycled, and reworked left-overs skimmed from the Bible. Why must believers read second hand quotations from the Word more than they read the Word itself?? I'm seeing that I have spent more of my life reading secondary books, at times, than God's Word, which is the primary book. That kind of imbalanced reading is what spreads wrong doctrines and distorted teaching!
The bottom line for the denominations and religious organizations telling folks to read their literature bunches is keeping their organization alive, because they have vainly believed that God needs their movement. God needs their movement like I need a napkin at the dinner table. I need it for lunch, but I need a new napkin for dinner. Their movement is very dispensable. They should love their movement less and love God more! They should push massive reading of the Bible! When the people of a denomination love their movement so much that dispensing with the movement is simply NOT an option that God could command...they need to realize that they have become idol worshipers.
So, Christian be careful what you read and what you see!! Immerse yourself in the Holy Bible. Read it, and read it much...and don't ever feel guilty because you haven't read the latest Christian Book Store best seller!
Don't forget that Jewish people are chosen. They are not chosen because they are better or superior, but because God chose to choose them. This universe is God's sandbox...and HE is ultimately in charge, and gets to have it HIS way. HE is never wrong...but why HE does it the way HE does it, bottom line, is HIS business. HIS computer is WAY bigger than yours. Ants will never figure out why Microsoft stock made people into millionaires and you are even more unable to figure out the deep things of God. Just trust and obey. Remember God didn't call you to be like a chimp, a porpoise, or any other intelligent creature! HE calls us to be HIS sheep...and I can't think of a more stupid animal than a sheep. But sheep are always successful if they follow and obey their shepherd! So read God's book. It's made for we sheep. Let the Christian chimps, porpoises and whales write their books...but you read holes in your Bible! You'll be rewarded if you do.
clint
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