Following the deaths of the original apostles God turned His focus to the world’s heathen masses. Throughout their ministries a small number of Gentiles had been blessed with the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the centurion being a prime example. But by in large the ministry of the apostles, including Paul, was to the spiritual “Gentiles”–the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel who had adopted the heathen religions of their Gentile hosts. See White Fields and Replacement Theology. Let us now take a temporary journey back in Biblical history to see where the change of focus from Israelite heathen to Gentile heathen was prophesied to take place, and what part the converted Israelites living among them played in God’s plan for the Gentiles’ conversion.

In Isaiah 58:1-60:5 God speaks through the prophet to the Jews who had not yet been scattered among the Gentiles, warning them about their wickedness, hypocrisy and rejection of Him, and what would happen to those who returned to Him. Many times God had warned both Judah and Ephraim that He would send them into the heathen world because of their sins. Then, after many years, “the Redeemer” would visit the 12 scattered tribes in the form of Words spoken by those He would send to them (His apostles). “And the remnant of Jacob (Israel) shall be in the midst of many people (Gentiles) as dew from the Lord, as the showers on grass …. The remnant of Jacob shall be among Gentiles in the midst of many people” (Micah 5:7,8). Though millions of Israelites would be planted among the heathen Gentile nations, God prophesied that only a remnant of them–“one of a city, two of a family” (Jer. 3:14) would return to Him as a result of the ministry of those He would sent to them. The commission given to the remnant was to be A LIGHT TO THE GENTILES. Some of the Gentiles would come to their LIGHT when they saw the brightness of Israel’s (the remnant’s) glory (light) (Isa. 60:2-5). In Isaiah 14:1 we find God foretelling Israel’s future: “For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob (Israel), and will yet choose Israel and set them in their own land (the Promised Land), and strangers (Gentiles) will be joined to them and shall cling to the house of Jacob.”

To understand God’s play concerning Israel and the church, one must realize that the so-called Gentile nations, who today profess to be Christian, are populated by in large by the descendants of Jacob–Israelites. True Christians in those nations are those Israelites who have returned to their God in obedience to Him, along with those few Gentiles who have seen God’s LIGHT exhibited by them and have embraced it. OBEDIENCE TO GOD’S WORD IS THAT LIGHT–RIGHTEOUSNESS. God speaks to this in Isaiah 62:1,2: “For Zion’s (Israel’s) sake I will not hold My peace … until the righteousness of Zion goes forth as brightness (God’s light), and salvation goes forth as a (path-illuminating) lamp that burns, and the Gentiles shall see your (Israel’s) righteousness (light) and “… YOU (OBEDIENT ISRAELITES) WILL BE CALLED BY A NEW NAME (“CHRISTIANS”). YOU WILL BE A CROWN OF GLORY IN THE HAND OF THE LORD, AND A ROYAL DIADEM IN THE HAND OF YOUR GOD. GOD’S TRUE CHURCH IS THE REMNANT OF ISRAEL THAT HAS RETURNED TO THEIR GOD (GAL. 6:16). This tiny remnant is God’s light to both the Israelite and Gentile worlds to illuminate for them the Way to the Lord. Unfortunately, only a few–those who hunger and thirst for righteousness–recognize their light as coming from God and embrace it in order to learn His Truth. As was the case of the prophets and apostles, and even Christ Himself, God’s Way (light) is rejected by the religious masses in favor of Satan’s more socially acceptable ways that masquerade as God’s light. Anciently, Satan’s way took the form of whatever heathen group Israel became involved with; today his way is known as Catholicism/Protestantism, Islam, Hinduism, along with all of the hundreds of “isms” Satan has raised up throughout the religious world.

By the end of his ministry Paul had spent much of his life ministering to Israelites (spiritual “Gentiles”), and had failed to entice many of them to return to the Lord. In exasperation brought on by the rejection of God’s gospel by his fellow Israelites, he proclaimed: “Be it known to you that the salvation of God will (following his death) be sent unto the (biological) Gentiles, and they will hear it” (Acts 28:28). Due to the ministry of the apostles whom God had sent to the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel, and later to their Gentile hosts, the gospel is still being preached throughout the world. Billions of Gentiles have heard God’s Truth; a few have believed and obeyed it.

The foundation of God’s gospel–the Ten Commandment Law–has been preached among both Israelites and Gentiles since the 1930’s. Romans 2:12 tells us that all men will be judged by the Law that the Counterfeit Church has “nailed to the cross.” See God’s Royal Law. Only those Israelites and Gentiles who believe and obey it will be welcomed into the Kingdom of God. Many Law-rejecters, God tells us, will stand before Him at judgment believing that they are about to enter into paradise. Only a few, He warns, will make the cut (Mat. 7:22) due to having chosen Satan’s wide gate and broad path personified by Institutional Christianity instead of His strait gate and narrow path personified by His true church (Mat. 7:13,14). See Bait and Switch. To be continued. L.J.