Beginning with the creation of Adam, man has always dealt personally with the same God Who has had the same message for all men at all times.  The God that Adam and Eve spoke with face-to-fact is the same God that spoke face-to-face with Abraham and Jacob and the same God Who lived with, taught and led the 12 apostles.  This is the God Who speaks to His true saints today through the Holy Spirit and His written Word.  This God, called “the Word” by John in the first four verses of his gospel, came to earth as Jesus of Nazareth and established what is called the New Testament Church in Jerusalem in 31 A.D.  This church is in reality an extension of the “church in the wilderness” (of Sinai) which the Word led for 40 years after freeing her from Egyptian slavery (1 Cor. 10:1-4).  Read The God of the Old Testament.  The New Testament Church was founded on the teachings of the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament apostles, both of whom preached the Words of God.

Whether serving as the Old Testament God or as Jesus of Nazareth the Lord (“Almighty”) brought the same message to all men at all times: “OBEY MY WORDS.”  As was the case with the first man, His command remains universally ignored by all men today.  As a result, man has been universally cursed from Eden until the present.  And still he does not learn.  Man reacts to God’s warning “voices” (wars, diseases, natural disasters, etc.) by engaging in ever more rebellion against Him.

Beginning with Abraham, God (the Word Who became Jesus Christ) began to form a family who would serve as His light to the rest of the world by speaking, writing and living according to His rules of engagement, known as the Holy Bible.  Through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob He created the Israelite nation which He commissioned to be the “light of the Gentiles” (goiim–heathen)–Isaiah 42:6.  In Isaiah 60:3 it is prophesied that Gentiles would come to Israel’s light and join God’s chosen people and join them in obedience to God.

In John 8:12 Jesus identifies Himself as the “light of the world” whom the Father had sent to personally teach the Jews, a few of whom He would send to the other ten Israelite tribes scattered throughout the world, who would then teach the Gentiles among whom they lived.  His Words, if obeyed, would result in salvation for Israelites and Gentiles alike.  In Matthew 5:14 Jesus tells the disciples that they were to be a “light to the world like a city set on a hill.”

By the time of Christ’s arrival on the earth, ten of the tribes of Israel had been scattered throughout the world’s Gentile (heathen) nations for over 700 years where they had adopted their ways, including their religions.  In Matthew 5 Jesus was telling His disciples that they would carry His light/Word to those Israelites.  He made this commission official in Matthew 10:6 where He tells the apostles  to “… go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” and tell them what He (Jesus) had taught them.  He said in Matthew 15:24: “I came (to earth) only for the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”  Believing Israelites would then teach God’s Word (light) to the Gentiles.  While He was on earth Jesus was God’s light in human form (Jn. 8:12).  The apostles would also be His light in human form (Mat. 5:14) as they spoke and wrote the Words Jesus spoke to them and manifested in His daily life.  In this way the gospel of the Kingdom of God–the light/city on a hill–was taught in all areas of the Gentile (heathen) world.  Read Who and Where is Israel Today?  Key word–Today.  ANYONE WHO DOES NOT BELIEVE AND OBEY GOD’S WORD IS, IN HIS EYES, A GENTILE/HEATHEN.  This is brought out by the Apostle Paul who told the people in the church in Corinth that they “WERE (had been) Gentiles” in times past when they did not obey the Lord (1 Cor. 12:2).  By using the word “were,” Paul is reminding them that, upon belief in and obedience to the God of the Israelites, they had become SPIRITUAL ISRAELITES.  The Corinthians would always be biological Gentiles, BUT WOULD BECOME SPIRITUAL ISRAELITES BY OBEYING THE GOD OF THE ISRAELITES.  Nothing has changed.

Paul’s work among the Gentiles was an extension of the 12 apostles’ work among the Israelites Jesus had sent them to as recorded in Matthew 10:6-8, 16-18.  Jesus warned the apostles that their work among the Israelites would not be easy. He warned them that, because they would be telling the Israelites about Himself, they would be brought to trial by Jews in their synagogues.  He then revealed that Israelites would occupy dominant positions within in the nations where they had been scattered.  Notice that Jesus told the apostles that they would bear witness to the KINGS of those nations “AND to the Gentiles.”  This proves that within the Gentile nations in which the Israelites had settled, the Israelites would have attained the power to rule over the Gentiles.

In anticipation of His death, Jesus gave the apostles one last instruction relative to their travels into the rest of the world in search of Israelites.  In conjunction with His commission to take His gospel to them (Mat. 10:6), He told His apostles that “… this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in ALL THE WORLD as a witness unto ALL NATIONS, then the end will come” (Mat. 24:14).  This statement was given in response to a question asked by the apostles concerning the signs that would precede His return to earth at the time of the end (vs 3).

As we study the second application of God’s dual message to those who are called by His name, let us bear in mind that throughout the Old Testament He had warned the Israelites many times through many prophets that if they disobeyed His Words to them He would send upon them curses (His warning “voices”) such as war, defeat, enslavement, famine, disease, earthquakes, whirlwinds (tornados and hurricanes), etc.  This He did time after time as recorded in detail in the Old Testament.

In His Matthew 24 discourse Jesus is talking about His return to earth at THE END OF THE AGE–the time we are living in now–the second part of His dual message to salvation seeking man.  Read Signs of the End of the Age.  Key word–Signs.  Notice that Jesus is referring to Israelites, to whom His apostles were to go following His death (Mat. 10:6; 24:14).  They were to teach the 10 tribes of Israel scattered throughout the world the gospel of the Kingdom of God.  As I prove in the Who and Where is Israel Today? series, the descendants of those tribes comprise the majority of the populations of the world’s “Christian nations” today.  Initially, the Israelites who believed the apostles’ message and obeyed it.  Then liberals gained control and began teaching a perverted version of the Lord’s Word.  In the Apostle Paul’s letter to the churches he had established in Galatia (1:6-9) them about the PERVERTED GOSPEL they had embraced.  The church at Corinth was also under attack by Satan’s false prophets.  Paul told them that if someone came preaching “another Jesus” they would believe the false prophet and accept another savior (2 Cor. 11:4).  Which is exactly what happened, not only in Galatia and Corinth, but throughout the entire world.  TODAY CATHOLICS AND PROTESTANTS WORSHIP AND SERVE A FALSE MESSIAH AND A FALSE GOD PUT FORTH BY SATAN’S FALSE PROPHETS WHO PREACH A FALSE GOSPEL.  Those in the modern day church are like the Samaritan woman who told Jesus that she and the Samaritans worshiped His Father–the God of the Israelites.  His response was: “You do not know know what you worship” (Jn. 4:22) which, He said in Matthew15:9, was worshiping in vain because they did not obey His Words.  In reality, the true church of God is an Israelite institution.  In order for Gentiles to become part of the Body of Christ they must become spiritual Israelites–“the Israel of God” (Gal. 6:16).  L.J.