Is God Through With The Jew?

Title: Is God Through With The Jew?

Bible Book: Psalms 122 : 6

Author: Steve Wagers

Subject: Jews; Jewish People; God's People

Objective:

Introduction

The history of the nation of Israel and the Jewish people is an old as the foreknowledge of God Himself. God determined in eternity past to “elect” these people as His people, the people of God. It is a thread that runs straight through the eye of the needle of the Bible. However, as far as modern history goes, the nation of Israel reappeared at 6: 01 p.m., May 15, 1948. The news reached the desk of President Harry Truman who proclaimed:

“This government has been informed that a Jewish state has been proclaimed in Palestine, and recognition has been requested by the provisional government thereof. The United States recognizes the provisional government as the defacto authority of the New State of Israel.” [1]

Yet, 58 years later, Anti-Semitism is the blood that runs through the veins of Muslims, Islamic extremists, and even many Christians. However, the idea of a “Christian anti-Semite” is an oxymoron, and absolute contradiction in terms. Anti-Semitism is a synonym for “hated of the Jews.” Christian is a synonym for love. A person who claims to be a Christian anti-Semite is a person who is spiritually dead; whose hatred for God’s own people has strangled the neck of their faith.

Derek Prince writes, "Almost limitless understanding, ignorance and distortion have pervaded the church for many centuries concerning the identity of Israel, yet the statements in the Bible regarding Israel are so clear. Nevertheless, a Christian who has no particular love for the Jew and Israel is 'deficient' and 'incomplete.'

I want us to find an answer to the question, “Is God Through with the Jew.” In order to that, we must consider several things. First, when we consider the Jewish nation, we must examine:

I. A People SEVERELY DESPISED!

It is a miracle that Jewish people still exist today. After thousands of years of persecution, there should be none left. Their severe persecution fell at the hands of men like Pharaoh, Haman, leading up to people like Hitler, Hussein, Bin Laden, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, who is a modern day Haman from the book of Esther.

They have been severely despised in the area of:

A. DISPLACEMENT

When did the doctrine of hatred toward the Jewish people begin? How, that within 300 years, could the church inspired by a Jewish rabbi and his 12 Jewish disciples begin to kill Jews as a matter of protocol? It is traced all the way back to the year A. D. 70. Following the crucifixion, resurrection and ascension of Christ, for the most part, many Jewish and Gentile believers continued to worship together in harmony.

When Titus marched from Rome, in A. D. 70, he laid siege to the city of Jerusalem for months, crippling and eventually destroying the Holy City. Jerusalem was left in ruins, including the center of its faith, the Temple. The massive stones were crushed into rubble, leaving only a portion of the Western Wall, which became known to the Gentiles as the “Wailing Wall,” because of the deep mourning of the Jewish people at the loss of their Temple.

More than 1 million Jews died during the Roman siege of Jerusalem, most by starvation. The majority of the remaining 97,000 Jews were taken back to Rome, where many were crucified on Roman crosses while their wives and children were forced to watch. Some were martyred in stadium, and 70,000 of them were enslaved, and forced to build the Roman Colosseum. [2]

Many Gentiles, however, fled Jerusalem for the nearby city of Pella to escape the attack, while the Jews remained behind. The Jews saw the Gentile exodus as a betrayal, and a breach began that has never been repaired.

The displacement, or separation, of Jews and Gentiles became official early in the 4th century, when the emperor Constantine “Christianized” the Roman Empire.

In one swing of his pen, in one day, Constantine made Rome’s version of Christianity the official state religion. But, it was a religion of full idolatry because of pagan influence. It was known in history as the mother-child cut, and in ancient Israel as Baal worship, which was introduced by Jezebel.

The displacement, or as the Bible terms it the “diaspora” (scattering, dispersed) caused many from the 10 Northern tribes to be lost, a tragedy that has only begun to be resolved within the last few years.

With their displacement came also:

B. MISTREATMENT

What the Jews saw as Gentile betrayal and isolation created a wound that only deepened with the years of mistreatment at the hands of many of the early church fathers. Instead of driving the Jewish people to jealousy, the Church has simply driven them away.

Justin Martyr was one of the first to accuse the Jews of inciting to kill Christians.

Eusebius alleged that Jews engaged in ceremonial killing of Christian children each year at Purim.

St. John Chrysostom said that there could never be expiation for the Jews and that God had always hated them. He said that it was "incumbent on all Christians to hate the Jews, because they were assassins of Christ, and worshippers of the devil."

Jerome, translator of the Vulgate, sought to prove that Jews are incapable of understanding the Scriptures and that they should be "severely persecuted until they confess the "true faith."

Augustine said that the "true image of the Jew was Judas Iscariot, forever guilty and spiritually ignorant.” He declared that Jews, “for their own good and the good of society, must be relegated to the position of slaves.”

Thomas Aquinas picked up on Augustine's belief and demanded that Jews be called to "perpetual servitude." He believed that "because of their sin against Christ, the Jews rightly deserved death. Yet, as with Cain, “they are not to die...for they are doomed to wander the earth.”

The perfection of Christian hated of the Jews eventually gave birth to the Dark Ages and the Crusades. During the 1st Crusade to the Holy Land, in 1096, the crusading armies, called the Knights of the Cross, left a trail of Jewish blood across Europe. Within a 6-month period, more than 10,000 Jews were slaughtered, that equals up to 1/3 of the Jewish population of Germany and France.

The Crusaders herded Jews into the Great Synagogue in Jerusalem. When they were securely inside the locked doors, the synagogue was set of fire. The misguided Crusaders, with the lies of perverted sermons fresh in their ears, sang as they marched around the blaze, "Christ, We Adore Thee!"

The Fourth Lateran Council met in November 1215. It gave a formal declaration supporting the “oppressive, violent conduct of the Roman church toward the Jews in prior centuries.” The Council declared that all Jews must “wear the badge of shame,” out of concern that Christians and Jews would enter into sexual relationship. The Church fathers forced the Jews to wear distinctive clothing that would make them recognizable.

This was a practice continued by Hitler’s reign of terror when he forced the Jews to wear the “yellow badge,” a Star of David emblem, to make any Jewish person recognizable, thereby targeting them for abuse and execution.

When Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Thesis to the door of the Castle Church at Wittenburg, Germany on October 31, 1517, he was convinced that many Jewish people would eagerly follow this new brand of Christianity, and would join his attack on the Catholic Church. But, when the Jews did not join him, Luther turned on them with a vulgarity and vengeance that would eventually provide many suitable texts for Hitler’s program of extermination. Luther wrote, “What then shall we Christians do with this damned, rejected race of Jews? We must prayerfully and reverentially practice a merciful severity against them. Their synagogues should be set on fire, and whatever does not burn up should be covered, or spread over with dirty so that no one may ever be able to see a cinder stone of it. And this ought to be done for the honor of God, and of Christianity in order that God may see that we are Christians.”

Then came Adolf Hitler. In his hatred of the Jewish people, Hitler quoted the Bible, chapter and verse, to seek to justify his attack upon them. He wrote in Mein Kampf, "I am only continuing the work of the Church. Hence, today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the Almighty Creator; by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord." [3]

As a result, one-third of European Jews were choked to death on Zyklon B gas, a cyanide-based insecticide; many were slaughtered in open pits with their nude bodies piled in heaps.

Yet, their mistreatment continues even today. In an United Nations speech on June 3, 2007, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stated the Lebanese and Palestinian had pressed a “countdown button to bring an end to the Zionist regime.” He went on to say, “By God’s will, we will witness the extermination and destruction of this regime in the near future.” [4]

By the way, the reason that the book of Esther is so relative to today is because that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is our modern day Haman, out for the extermination of the Jewish people.

For thousands of years, they have been a people severely despised, even at the hands of Christians.

While they are a people severely despised, they are also:

II. A People SUPREMELY DESIRED!

Through their inhumane displacement and mistreatment, it is wonder that many Jews are still alive today. Yet, in Jeremiah 31: 35-36, God said, “as long as there is a sun and moon and stars, and the Heavens cannot be measured, the seed of Israel will remain.”

In other words, God loves Israel. They are the “apple of His eye.” They are a people supremely desired by God for 2 divine reasons. One, is because of:

A. The Covenant God GAVE

In Genesis 12: 3, God gave a covenant to Abraham. God’s covenant to Abraham was, “I will bless them that bless thee, I will curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.”

That is more than just a promise or a vow, IT IS A COVENANT! The Hebrew word for “covenant” is berith. It literally means, “A contract, a will, a testament, or a bond.”

A berith, or a covenant in Scripture can never be revoked, replaced, altered, or annulled. A new covenant can enhance an old covenant, but it can never replace it.

So, with the covenant God gave comes:

B. The Covenant God GUARANTEED

God gave His berith, His covenant to Abraham in Genesis 12, but He guaranteed that covenant in Genesis 15.

There are 3 types of covenant in the Bible. There is a salt covenant, which symbolizes preservation; God gave this covenant to David, in 2 Chron. 13: 5 regarding the throne of Israel.

There is a sandal covenant, which is identified in Ruth 4: 7-8, where Boaz “drew off his shoe” to buy a piece. A sandal covenant was a token given to guarantee a transaction.

But, the third type of covenant was a blood covenant. When 2 people wanted to close a deal they would sacrifices and divide them evenly on the left and the right. Then, the 2 parties would walk down through the midst of those sacrifices confirming, guaranteeing, or sealing their berith, or covenant with blood.

In Hebrews 6: 17, we’re told that once God gave His covenant to Abraham, He “confirmed it by an oath.” Then, we’re told that there are “two immutable things,” which make it “impossible for God to lie.” What are those 2 things? They are the God’s counsel and His covenant.

In verse 13, we read, “For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself.”

In Genesis 15, God told Abraham to take sacrifices and “divide them in the midst, and lay each piece one against another.” Then, as the sun was setting, a deep sleep came upon Abraham. While Abraham was sleeping, God came walking down through the midst of those sacrifices.

Why? God was guaranteeing the covenant He had made with Abraham by the means of blood. He “could swear by no greater,” so, “he sware by himself.”

It is a doubly-binding covenant, because by “two immutable things” He “confirmed it by an oath.” Romans 11: 29 tells us that, “For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.”

In other words, the berith, or covenant God gave and guaranteed with Abraham is irrevocable, irreplaceable and irreversible.

What is the covenant God guaranteed? “I will bless them that bless thee; I will curse him that curseth thee.” That covenant guarantees a marvelous blessing. “I will bless those that bless thee.” God guarantees an irreversible blessing to any country, continent, or commoner who blesses His people. God has blessed His people, and His people have blessed us.

Those who propagate “Replacement Theology” have no concept as to the irrevocable and irreplaceable covenant of God. Replacement Theology advocates that God is finished with Israel; hence church has replaced Israel and is now “spiritual Israel.”

However, Replacement Theology is not a new revelation, it is an old heresy. It is a destructive, divisive and damnable doctrine. The greatest disproving of Replacement Theology is found in Romans 9-11. These 3 chapters are a CODICIL. IN other words, they are a complete work within themselves. They stand alone, and represent God’s post-Calvary position on the Jewish people.

Many of those who believe in Replacement Theology claim that Romans 9-11 refers to the church’s election, rather than Israel’s election. However, Paul drops a bombshell on that thinking when he opens Romans 11: 1-2, “Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew.”

The covenant God guaranteed with Abraham cannot be revoked, reversed, or replaced. Why? Because when God replaces something, YOU NEVER HEAR FROM IT AGAIN! It is done. It is gone. It is finished forever.

Yet, on May 15, 1948 national Israel was reborn after nearly 2 millennia, sending a theological earthquake through the foundation of Replacement Theology.

If Replacement Theology is correct, then that means God has revoked, reversed and replaced the covenant He gave and guaranteed with Abraham. If God would revoke His covenant with Abraham, how can we be sure that God would not revoke the covenant He has made with us as believers?

While the church can draw certain parallels and applications from Israel, the church has not replaced Israel. The New Covenant teaches that the church, “spiritual Israel” and national Israel exist side by side, and neither replaces the other!

The covenant God gave and guaranteed to Abraham not only guarantees a marvelous blessing, but a miserable burden. God guarantees, “I will bless them that bless thee, I will curse him that curseth thee.”

In Matthew 25 we read of Christ’s 2nd coming to judge the nations of the world. However, this judgment is based upon ONE thing: those nations treatment/or mistreatment of the nation of Israel.

When He comes the 2nd time, Joel 3:2 describes it by saying that He, “Will gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehosophat, and will plead with them there for my people Israel…whom they have scattered among the nations and parted my land.”

Jesus will divide the nations as “sheep on his right hand and goats on his left hand.” He will remind the sheep nations, on his right hand, who clothed Him when He was naked, fed Him when He was hungry, gave Him drink when He was thirsty, visited Him when in prison, and took Him in as a stranger. Those nations will ask, “When did we do these things?” Jesus answers in Matthew 25: 40, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” The word “brethren” is the Greek word, adelphos. It literally means, “From the same womb.” It is a family term which speaks of those related through blood. In other words, Jesus is referring to His people, the Jewish people.

He will judge the nations based on how they treated, mistreated, neglected or defended His “brethren,” His people, the nation of Israel. Those that “blessed” Israel will go to “life eternal.” Those that “cursed” Israel will go to “everlasting punishment.” Why? Because God guaranteed His covenant with Abraham and guaranteed blessing to those who “bless thee,” and a burden to those who “curse thee.”

Today, like never before, the nation of Israel is constantly being pressured to give up, and divide their land to create a recognizable Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. World leaders believe that if this happens, it will create peace in the Middle East. However, the problem is that is not our land, or anyone else’s land to give away, give up or divide. It is a land reserved for the people of God. It is their Promised Land. It is the land which God guaranteed to them in His covenant.

When the beleaguered Jews returned to Jerusalem, from 70 years of Babylonian captivity, to rebuild their city, Nehemiah said to the other nations who had come to help the Jews, “The God of heaven, he will prosper us; therefore we his servants will arise and build: but ye have no portion, nor right, nor memorial, in Jerusalem.” (Nehemiah 2: 20) As a result, every single time that the United States has been involved in pressuring Israel to give up their land, unthinkable atrocities have occurred. For example, In his book, "God's Final Warning to America," John McTernan documents that when American has turned against Israel, we have suffered "warning judgments." He found hundreds of examples, many coming within 24 hours of the anti-Semitic action.

The 1st President Bush initiated his 1991 peace plan for the Middle East right after the 1st Gulf War. As part of that plan, he tried to pressure Israel to surrender land for peace. Is it just a coincidence that, despite enjoying historically high approval ratings after the Gulf War, Bush lost his to bid for reelection to Bill Clinton?