In Deuteronomy 13:2 God makes it clear that Israel is special to Him: “You are a holy people to the Lord your God; and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for His own possession OUT OF (called out from among) ALL PEOPLES (Gentiles) ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH.” In Genesis 28:14 God tells Jacob (Israel) that his descendants will cover the earth and will be a blessing to all peoples of the world. The Counterfeit Church’s wishful thinking that God’s divorcement of Israel eliminated them as His repre- sentatives (light) to the world, coupled with His supposed choice of Gentiles to replace them as His light will be addressed in detail. One indication of His attitude toward Israel (all 12 tribes) is bought out by the fact that He made two covenants with Israel. He made no covenant with Gentiles.

The prophet Jeremiah was called by God to warn Israel of His impending wrath toward her. In 2:4-13 God said through him, “Hear the Word of the Lord, O House of Jacob and all the families of the House of Israel.” In verse 13 He says that they, whom He calls “My people,” had committed two sins: 1) they had rejected Him as their fountain of Truth by rejecting His “living waters” (Words), and 2) had created “cisterns” of their own (other sources of Truth/water) by choosing their own words over His. Today, man calls these self-made cisterns “the church” and his doctrines/water “the gospel” (Gal. 1:6-8). Over the following chapters God chastises and warns Israel of what He would do in His wrath if they did not repent and turn back to Him. They did not. God then promised them that He would one day call their rebellious descendants back to Himself. In Jeremiah 313:31-37 He told them what He would do for those who obeyed Him–He would make a New Covenant with them, but that it would be different from the covenant He had made with their fathers when He brought them out of Egyptian slavery. That covenant (the Ten Commandments) had been written in stone. His New Covenant, based on the same Ten Commandments, would be written in their hearts. Because they would obey that Law from their hearts, He would be their God and they would be His people. If, He said, heaven and earth could be measured, and if the sun, moon and stars failed to remain in their place, then His covenant with Israel could be broken and Israel could be cut off from being His people. To this day all heavenly bodies remain in place and heaven and earth still cannot be measured–ISRAEL CONTINUES TO BE GOD’S CHOSEN PEOPLE.

Some 30 years after the establishment of the New Covenant Church Paul asks: “Has God cast away His people? God forbid” (Rom. 11:1). God forbids man to even consider the possibility. As other New Testament Scriptures already presented prove, it was to globally-scattered Israel that Christ came and to whom He sent His apostles with a salvation message that would be preached throughout “all nations” until “the end of the world” (Mat. 28:19,20;24:14). Romans 9:4 reveals that only “… TO ISRAEL … belong the adoption (as sons of God), the (God’s) glory, the covenants (Old and New), the giving of the Law (Ten Commandments), the service (ministry) of God and the promises (of salvation, the Kingdom of God, New Jerusalem, access to the throne of Christ, rulership, etc.). But alas, Israel defied God and turned to the heathenism of the Gentiles. The sordid history of Israel’s rebellion and God’s repeated attempts to draw her back to Himself through His judges and priests are presented in graphic detail in the Old Testament. His attempts to keep Israel by His side failed–with one tiny exception.

Throughout the history of God’s people there has always been a few (Mat. 7:13,14) who remained true to Him in spite of persecution from the most religious around them. This persecution sometimes resulted in death (Heb. 11 and the Inquisition). Modern persecution (see the posting by that name) of God’s peo- ple (His “remnant”) is limited by civil law to acts and attitudes of rejection and ostracization. Today His “remnant” comprises the New Covenant Church as is brought out in Romans 9:23-29. (Remember that Paul wrote and spoke the same gospel Truth to all the churches–1 Cor. 4:17). Here he is telling the Church of Rome (part of the remnant) that they had been prepared “beforehand” for “glory.” In Romans 9:3,4 he reminds the church that the “glory” belongs to ISRAEL. In 23-29 he refers to “US” (ISRAELITES-the church) who had been called and prepared by God from among both “Jews” and “Gentiles” to receive that glory. The “Jews” were the tribes of Judah, Benjamin and Levi; the “Gentiles” were the other tribes as shown previously. Those Gentilized Israelites have been misidentified through- out most of church history. In 23-29 Paul identifies the “Gentiles” who had been “called” by quoting from the first two chapters of Hosea: “I will CALL them ‘My people’ who were not My people, and her ‘beloved’ who was not beloved. and it will come to pass in the place where it was said to THEM, ‘You are not My people,’ there they shall be CALLED ‘the sons of the living God'” (Hos. 1:10). “… and I will say to those who were not My people, ‘You are My people’ and they will say ‘You are my God'” (Hos. 2:23). Paul refers to “US” (Israel–God’s church) in this passage quoted from Hosea who wrote to and about Israel. Paul then makes certain that the church understands that he and Hosea were referring to ISRAEL when he states: “Isaiah ALSO (along with Hosea) cries out concerning ISRAEL: ‘though the number of the children of ISRAEL be as the sand of the sea, the remnant will be saved. As Isaiah said before ‘Unless the Lord of Sabaoth (the Sabbath) had left US a seed (remnant), WE (Israel) would have become like Sodom and WE would have been made like unto Gomorrah'” (Isa. 1:9;10:20-22;13:19). PAUL, HOSEA AND ISAIAH WERE ALL REFERRING TO THE SAME PEOPLE–ISRAEL–GOD’S PEOPLE THEN, NOW AND UNTO THE END OF THE WORLD. To be continued. L.J.