The One New Man Study - The Theology Of Jew And Gentile - One In Messiah

Entire Study Recently  Updated January 2006

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Statement Of Faith

Lesson Nineteen:

Blessed To Be A Blessing: How We Can Bless The Jewish People

TEXT: Genesis 12:3
And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curses thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

        The United States has walked in enormous blessing and prosperity through the years as millions of Jewish people have found refuge on our shores. This will no longer be true when she turns her back on God's reestablished government of the Land. Some prophetic voices have already declared that past Presidents (BUSH Sr. Clinton, and even Bush Jr.) have brought judgment upon our nation by insisting on the very thing Joel warned would bring judgment upon us for - dividing up the land of Israel:

Joel 3:1-3  - For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, [2] I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land. [3] And they have cast lots for my people; and have given a boy for an harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink.

        In the early 1970s, under pressure from some of the surrounding Arab nations, Haile Selassie, head of the nation of Ethiopia, broke diplomatic relations with Israel. When his daughter heard the news, she went to her father to warn him of the consequences of his actions. Referring to Genesis 12:3 blessing on the house of Abraham, she implored him "My father, my king, you will bring disaster upon our family and upon our people!" Not many years later, on September 12, 1974 (one day after 9-11), Lt. Colonel Mengistu Haile Miriam, one of Africa's fiercest dictators, seized the reins of power in Ethiopia. Soon afterward Haile Selassie was dead, killed by the man who had engineered his downfall. This event was followed by nearly 20 more years of bloodshed. Selassie's daughter was right - whoever touches ISRAEL touches the "apple of God's eye." (Zech. 2:8)

Zech. 2:8
For thus saith the Lord of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.

        Egypt discovered this truth very early in Israel's history. Assyria and Babylon, after being used by God to punish Israel sank into oblivion and was wasted within month's after touching God's love. Spain's navy ruled the seas - until that country killed or expelled her Jewish population. There was a time when the sun never set on the British Empire. That was before Great Britain reneged on the Balfour Declaration. Germany was split in two following the Holocaust, and time has not written the final chapter on that story. The Communist governments of Eastern Europe crumbled after years of pogroms and persecution against God's favored son.

        Zechariah speaks of a time when all the nations of the world will wage war against this one tiny nation:

Zech. 14:2  - For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.

        Not long ago the United Nations Security Council came close to a foreshadowing of that ominous lineup of nations. The vote was taken to censure Israel for building in the "settlements" - biblical Judea and Samaria, the heart of the PROMISED LAND - was 17 votes FOR, 3 against. Only the United States and Micronesia voted with Israel. Dangerous politics but politics that take place on a regular basis. At the first writing of this study in 2000 we were beginning to se the first stages of the infitada or uprising by the Palestinian Authority against Israel. Since that time, tens of thousands of innocent Israelis have died from terrorist attacks sponsored by Hamas and other groups in the Palestinian areas of the West Bank. Now, in January 2006, Hamas has taken over the government and continues to refuse to recognize Israel as a state, vowing her destruction and wishing to have her "driven into the sea." Iran, Israel's neighbor to the east, along with Syria, her neighbor the north, have both vowed her destruction. Iran's leader just two weeks ago after the re-writing of these study lessons in 2006 stated Israel "should be wiped off the map."

        Many who read these statements and have studied these lessons concerning Israel and the Church may even now be wandering - what does this have to do with ME? What it has to do with you is this simple: though we may not have personally been responsible for the indignities suffered by our Jewish brothers and sisters through the years, there are steps we can take to reverse the injustices and actively BLESS the Jewish people. As Nita Johnson, a prophetess of the Lord once said, "no matter how much GOOD we may do now to bless the Jewish people, it will NEVER repay the evil that has been done to them over the centuries and millennia." And furthermore, and this is a VERY important point. Israel, yes, is backslidden and away from God right now as a nation. Most Jewish people are not even looking for a Messiah, but they are looking for peace. They would be willing to sell their souls to Satan for peace (which is what they will do under the reign of Antichrist in the not too distant future). But in spite of Israel's unbelief, God has a special place in His heart for this nation - NO MATTER WHAT. Does that mean that all Jewish people who die lost will go to heaven. Absolutely NOT. Those who die in unbelief - be them Jew or Gentile - will spend eternity in hell, a place of torment and separation from God. God does not will that ANY should perish - but we ALL must come the same way - through the BLOOD of the Lord Jesus Christ and FAITH in what He did for us at the Cross. We cannot tinker with the message of redemption, as some well-meaning, but incorrect televangelists are currently preaching when they say there are two different ways of salvation - one for the Jew and one for the Gentile. That is not scriptural and it will lead millions to hell if those listening ascribe to it.

        But for reasons known only to God, and that is fine with this writer for those reasons to be known to Him and not me, He LOVES ISRAEL and is keeping her in tact until SHE COMES BACK IN ONE DAY TO HER MESSIAH. There may be tremendous judgment ahead still for her, but neighbor hear this writer - DON'T MESS WITH ISRAEL! She is God's chosen nation, the Jewish people, His chosen race, and Jerusalem, His chosen city! They are truly a people, "near to His heart!"

Psalm 148:14
He also exalteth the horn of his people, the praise of all his saints; even of the children of Israel, a people near unto him. Praise ye the Lord.
 

        Here are some practical things we can do as New Testament, Jesus-loving Christians to assist and help the Jewish people in these last days prior to the rapture:

    1.  Ask the Lord to cleanse our hearts of every vestige of Anti-Semitism. This includes ethnic jokes, gossip and insinuation. A "funny" story or cynical remark will only encourage more discrimination against this persecuted family. Hatred for the Jews may be buried deeply in our souls from our past family heritage and amid the debris of generations of prejudice. We may not even be aware of its presence until we find ourselves joining in the derision. If God is not finished with Israel, if Israel is destined to accept her Messiah and usher in the future reign of Yeshuah, if the Church is an HEIR together with Israel rather than heir in place of Israel - and if we have believed to the contrary - we need to repent! Once our hearts are clean we then can put ourselves in the place of an intercessor - those who stand in the gap and carry the sins of others in confessional prayer and repentance. Like Daniel, we agonize:

Daniel 9:8  - O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.
 

    2. Become aware that the world's new's media is prejudiced against God's work and God's people. Only those who are God-followers can properly access history, politics and government. Everything in human history, every current event, is moving forward in His timing. We, therefore, will listen to news with greater discernment, always asking ourselves such questions as, "What is the real story behind this report? What is the Lord doing? How am I to be praying here? Is He expecting me to respond?"

    3. Seek ways to affirm Jewish people, to love them and bless them - whether or not they ever accept Jesus as Messiah. Jesus spoke of two commandments upon which hang ALL the Law and the Prophets - loving God and loving each other. Love is ACTIVE, not passive. We do not love those we ignore as Jesus so taught us in the parable of the Good Samaritan. Just because we have not participated in the Crusades or pogroms of past years does not excuse our passive disinterest in the recurring rise of Anti-Semitism throughout the world. If we are not actively righteous, we become passively wicked! We need to keep our tracts and words of "evangelism" in our pockets and in our mouths if we are not willing to truly SERVE the Jewish people with our hearts and lives.

    4. Prepare for future crises. Are we going to be willing to risk our lives to save Yeshua's brethren? What WILL the Gentile world do when the ground starts burning everywhere - even here in America - under the Jewish people's feet? Some people are building shelters - secret hideouts to house Jewish people in the coming persecution. Christians in Finland and the rest of Scandinavia have stored food and clothing, bought vehicles for transportation and made other preparations for the next great exodus of Israel's children coming from Russia still and the Eastern bloc countries of the former Soviet Union. The Jewish people called people like Oskar Schindler and Corrie ten Booms the "righteous Gentiles" of their generation. And while all the good deeds in the world will never substitute for saving faith in Yeshuah, if we brag about our standing with Jesus and turn a deaf ear and back to the cries of the Jewish people who will soon need our help unlike any time in their history then our faith is DEAD! I can't help but wander will there be any "righteous Gentiles" in our generation.

    5. Encourage and assist Jewish people to return to their ancestral inheritance. In Ezekiel's words there will not be "any left behind." That means the Christian world needs to do all it can to assist and help the Jewish people make ALIYAH to Israel. The western Church has been SO blessed. We have NO excuse NOT to help the Jewish people in these days. That's where our funds and monies need to be going. Sadly, the American church is closing its heart to God and putting its money in bigger buildings and edifices to man. The Jewish people's  support will come from God Himself, and hopefully, from her loyal friends who have a true heart for Yeshuah! As Tom Hess writes in his book, Let My People Go, "it is time for the Jewish people in America to break from the god of materialism and to take whatever wealth they have in America back to Israel as they did from Egypt and Babylon so long ago....It is time for the Jewish people to escape the daughter of Babylon before it is too late." If you are Jewish and are reading this - make aliyah soon! I heard one prophetic voice say recently that America will become so Anti-Semitic in the next 18 months that even Jews here in America will start suffering persecution like they have in Europe and other parts of the world. Win the struggle and ESCAPE the coming night and judgment here in America.

       6. Bless the Jews financially. Paul clearly states in Romans that if we as Gentiles have enjoyed the spiritual blessings as a result of our supernatural relationship to Israel, we then need to bless them with our NATURAL things and material blessings.

Romans 15:27  - It hath pleased them verily; and their debtors they are. For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things (The Jewish Olive Tree and Covenant!), their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things.

        We must make it a priority in these last days to take up the burden for the financial needs of the Jewish people and their community. As with any giving, we need to ask Yeshuah to open our eyes and help those who are truly laboring in Jerusalem to the needs of the Jewish people. The state of Israel is one of abject poverty in many areas. When we sow seeds into ministries there we are putting our funds in GOOD GROUND! We need to visit Israel and help her tourism industry if possible. Lisa and I are planning such a trip this year in 2006 for the first time.

        7. Establish prayer support groups to share in the ministry of those who are on the front lines of the battles. Their needs need to become OUR needs. Their JOYS need to become OUR JOYS. Their sorrows OUR SORROWS. Their friends OUR FRIENDS. And those who hurt them and are their enemies - need to be let known that we as the Gentiles are standing with Israel and if they are an enemy to Israel then they are our enemy too! We need to bear their burdens as Paul admonished us in Galatians 6:2. We are workers together with God as Paul told the Ephesians (2:10), participating in what the Lord initiates. The Lord has initiated this! He is not just the beginning though He is also the ending. And if we expect His full blessing and prophetic unction and anointing on us then we will make it our ending too. It will be our END-TIME focus and theology! Hear what the Spirit is SAYING to the CHURCH! In Yeshua's name.

Galatians 6:2  - Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

Ephes. 2:10  - For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

• Ruth And The Gentiles

        A new thing is happening IN and among the Church. We must see ourselves as Ruth - the non-Jew who has come to faith in Israel's redeemer. We have come from the famine. We have found bread in the house of our Kinsman Redeemer - Boaz (Yeshuah).  We are looking to eliminate the ways of the Moabites in order to restore the furnishings of Israel. We are committing ourselves not only to Jesus, Boaz and Ruth's promised Son, but to His relatives. We are welcoming again the customs of the family into which we've been adopted. We do not have to change our own culture to do so, but we can respect the culture of the family we've been adopted into without becoming offended and self-righteous! (AND I SAY THAT ALSO TO THE MESSIANIC JEWISH communities as well - we Gentiles are just as IN CHRIST as you even though we may not observe every single Jewish custom) Some of the Jewish customs have BIBLICAL roots, but not all! We need to be diligent to follow BIBLICAL instruction and wisdom in whatever we do - be lead of the HOLY SPIRIT and DO IT UNTO THE LORD as an act of worship and obedience.

         We have watched in the past as this family of ours (the Jewish race) has been persecuted and maligned. We have grieved with their pain. We must come to the place Ruth did to Naomi - YOUR PEOPLE SHALL BE MY PEOPLE, AND YOUR GOD SHALL BE MY GOD.

Ruth 1:15-18
And she said, Behold, thy sister in law is gone back unto her people, and unto her gods: return thou after thy sister in law. [16] And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: [17] Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me. [18] When she saw that she was stedfastly minded to go with her, then she left speaking unto her.

        Many of you are ready to make that decision, others are not. Either way, the decision has to be made and made quick. There is coming a time shortly when the only true friend the Jewish people will have are people who have Jesus Christ, Yeshua Ha'Maschiah, in their hearts and not just their minds. People whose love for Yeshuah is bigger than their prejudice and greed. People whose love for Yeshuah sees beyond the faults of His chosen people but sees them as He sees them - INTENSE PASSION and LOVE!

        Friend, that choice is laid out before YOU today and it is laid out before ME. The decision we make will either cause eternity to change or it will bring further judgment and darkness upon us! In the end it always comes down to us!

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Statement Of Faith