by Gerlinda

This lesson by the Bereans is usually very good. However, it was unknown to this writer, apparently, that Israel is the very people that Christ came to REDEEM. Here are His Words in Matthew 15:24 He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel."

Do you see the problem here? These Lost Tribes of Israel left the Land of Israel and mixed in with the nations. They are the very ones that sit in church pews today not even knowing that they are the Lost Sheep that Christ/Yahusha clearly said He came ONLY unto them. Or they are disgusted with the organized churches and do not darken their door-ways. Yes, an none-Israelite can be adopted into the fold and do make up a large part of the congregation.

But, what it does not say is that the Church/Assembly is made up of a Gentile people that need to be removed before God can deal with the Israelites (which is not the same as a Jew/Edomite.

In fact, when you do a deeper study, the word Gentile is describing the Lost Tribes of Israel. The other people grafted in were called the Nations.

Romans 11:24 (NIV) For if you were cut from a wild olive tree, and contrary to nature were grafted into one that is cultivated, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree! 25I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you will not be conceited: A hardening in part has come to Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove godlessness from Jacob.…

Paul is telling the Romans, in essence (paraphrased) NOT TO GO ABOUT PREACHING THAT YOU HAVE REPLACED THE ISRAELITES because you have not.

The real problem lies in the fact that most Christians don't even know the difference between an Israelite and a Jew. They just mull them together. Even the people in Israel are guilty of doing the same thing. Course most in the Land of Israel are Jews/Edomites.

There is a great difference. And Church, there are those among you who sit in the pews that are only, recently beginning to learn that once you were Lost but now you are Found. You are REDEEMED (meaning you once belonged) while the grafted in are Saved.

This is what the Word of God is teaching and not the Rapture version that has been put out by the Vatican in the 1800's that the Gentiles need to be taken out before God can deal with the Jews. What a mess on words.

Steven has put out the teachings by David J. Smith and others to help us understand who we are and if we belong to Christ/Yahusha, we are not Edomites/Jews but are either natural branches or grafted into Him, the Root.

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Hebrews 4:1-2
(1) Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. (2) For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.
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Consider these Israelites. They saw a multitude of miracles performed by God through His servant Moses and on occasion through Aaron. They experienced the water turn to blood and frogs hop all over the place. They experienced the eerie, penetrating darkness that pervaded all of Egypt. They experienced the division between Goshen and Egypt, and they knew God spared them from the remaining plagues.

They knew something was "working" in their lives. They could see it occurring when the flies were all over Egypt except in Goshen. They saw it happen through five other plagues. They experienced it again on Passover night when the firstborn of Egypt were killed, but the firstborn of Israel, shielded by the blood on their doorposts and lintels, were not. Did they not see that?

Did they not spoil the Egyptians? Did they not leave Egypt? Did not God part the Red Sea before their eyes and drown all the Egyptian army in its waters? Did they not eat manna supplied from heaven every day for forty years in the wilderness? Did they not see water flow like a river out of solid rock? Did they not see quail blown toward them so that they had all the meat they could eat?

They saw the glory of God descend on Mount Sinai. They felt the earth shake under their feet. They saw the pillar of fire and cloud. They saw the glory of God rest upon the Tabernacle when it was set up. Nevertheless, every single one of them, except for two men and their families, perished!

Is seeing believing?

The Israelites never really saw God in those works. What they physically saw did not produce the spiritual faith that enables one to see God, because, as these verses explain, the one whose eyes are opened must voluntarily respond. The Israelites never responded positively to God.

The Christian's responsibility is to respond to God's calling through acts of faith. The apostle reminds the Hebrews of the deadly seriousness of their situation. God's calling is not indiscriminately handed out to anyone who might happen to see or read. It is a personal invitation (John 6:44). God has addressed it specifically to us!

These verses also contain a warning: Since Israel did not enter into God's rest, someone else will, because God will fulfill His purpose. The Christian ought not to think that he will automatically enter it in Israel's place.


— John W. Ritenbaugh



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