Two questions must be answered in order to understand God’s will concerning mankind.  First question: what people comprise His true church in this age?  The answer is found in the writings of the apostles who established His New Testament church throughout the earth.  The second question concerns to and for whom did the Word, who became Jesus of Nazareth, come to earth bearing His Father’s gospel?  The answer is found in the same place.  As the following will show, the answer is not what salvation seekers have been taught for many generations as the evolving god stayed true to his modus operandi.

As did all of the Lord’s hand-picked, thoroughly taught, anointed and Spirit-led apostles (sent ones), the Apostle Peter wrote to the church whom he identified as “strangers” (Israelites) who had been “scattered” throughout the earth who were God’s “elect” according to the “foreknowledge (choice) of God,” who had been “sanctified” (set aside for holy use) by Him, who had the “inheritance” of salvation, who were “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people” whom He had begotten “again” (1 Pet. 1:1-5; 2:5,9/ Exo. 19:5,6) and whom God called His “inheritance” (Deut. 9:26,29).  The Apostle James wrote to the world-wide church, which he identified as “the 12 tribes of Israel scattered abroad” (1:1).  In verse 18 he reminded those Israelites that Jesus Christ had begotten them as the firstfruits (church–Jam. 1:18/ Rev. 14:4) of God’s creation who held “the faith of Jesus Christ” (2:1).  The Apostle Paul’s letter to the Hebrew Christians identified them as the House of Judah and the House of Israel (3:1; 8:8-12).  But did not Jesus come to save the Gentiles? to be their Savior? to establish a Gentile church?

In Matthew 15:24 He answers that question: “I was sent ONLY to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.”  In this case He was referring to the 12 tribes as a whole.  The Old Testament prophets are described as “Holy men of old who spoke (and wrote) as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Pet. 1:21).  These holy men told the Israelites about the Redeemer Whom God would send to THEM (Isa. 43:14).  Speaking through Isaiah, God prophesied that His Messiah would reconcile the two houses of Israel back together and the reconciled house back to Himself (11:11,12) a “second time.”  The first reconciliation of the nation to Himself took place when He brought them out of Egyptian slavery.  The second time would be when He would call them to Himself “from the four corners (directions) of the earth” (Isa 11:12/ Mat. 28:19,20).  Matthew (2:6) calls Jesus “God’s Ruler” “Who will shepherd My people ISRAEL.”  In Acts 5:31; 13:23,24 we find that God “raised up a Savior” Who would offer “repentance and forgiveness of sins to all ISRAEL.”  God sent His Word (Jesus–Jn. 1:1-4,14) “to the children of ISRAEL” (Acts 10:36).  Jesus came to “save His people (Israel–Lk. 2:32) from their sins” (Mat. 1:21).  In spite of these New Testament declarations by both Jesus and His apostles, that which calls itself the New Testament Church insists on believing and obeying their evolving god–“the god of this world”–Satan (2 Cor. 4:4) who has convinced her that Jesus lied when He said: “Salvation is of the Jews.”  The Jews make up a tiny percentage of Israelites who are “as the sand of the sea” and “the stars of heaven” in number.  The Jews hold the key to salvation–the Ten Commandment Law.  Their problem is that they reject the Writer of those commandments–the Word Who became Jesus of Nazareth.  The church’s problem is that they also reject His commandments, and therefore “despise” both Father  and  Son (Lk. 10:16).  As James 2:10 tells us, to break one commandment (#4) is to break the entire Law.  However, those were the words of the god who has evolved the Law out of existence.  Let us look at another of his evolutionary changes.

Paul noted that he and the other apostles had been given the “ministry of reconciliation” by which God would reconcile (bring back together) the two houses of Israel (2 Cor. 5:18-20), then reconcile them back to Himself “again” (Eze. 37/ Rom. 11:23).  The reconciliation of Israel back to God was noted by Jesus when He told the Jews in John 10:16: “I have (already possess) other sheep that are not of this (Jewish) fold, them (the 10 tribes) I must bring (back to the Father) also.”  He was compelled to do this because, “the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable” (Rom. 11:29).  God had early on chosen the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to be His “light to the Gentiles” (Isa. 42:6).  This calling is irrevocable.  Isaiah noted in 10:17 that Israel would be “as fire” and God’s Holy One (Jesus) would “be for a flame” to bring His chosen people back to Him.  He also noted that only a remnant (small part) of Israel would come to His fire (light) before the end of the age.  In verses 19-22 He notes that only a “few in number” would learn to depend on the Lord Who had defeated them (by having them defeated by Assyria and Babylon and scattered throughout the earth).  Even though Israel’s numbers would be “as the sand of the sea” and “the stars of heaven,” only a remnant would return to Him in this age.  This remnant, today numbering only a few thousand world-wide, comprise God’s true church which is rejected, loathed and despised by the whole of Catholicism/Protestantism.  As Jesus told Paul, when he (Paul) persecuted the church, he was persecuting Jesus Himself.  Jesus said in Luke 10:16 that when anyone rejects His Words and their speaker, that person “despises” both Christ and the Father.  As God said, those “despisers” (Acts 13:41/ 2 Tim. 3:3-5) will “perish.”  He describes despisers as those who refuse to believe what His ministers tell them.  These are the super-religious who “have a form of godliness, but deny the power (to overcome Satan) thereof.”  These are those who call themselves “Sinners Saved By Grace.”   L.J.