Our Biblical Beliefs
INTRODUCTION
The Tents of Shem is so pro-Judaic that I need to assure the reader of my commitment to Biblical Christian Doctrine. Yet I have no commitment to traditional mainline Christian doctrine. The Scriptures everywhere explicitly teach that man-made, religious traditions corrupt faith in sound Biblical doctrines (Isaiah 29:13; Matthew 15:9; 1 Peter 1:18-19). Somone recently stated that my religious views were those of a “white, Anglo-Saxon”; such a statement rubs my fur the wrong way. First, sound biblical doctrine is not race-based, whatsoever! Also most white, Anglo-Saxons believe that the Church is God’s end-game, supposing that the Jewish nation of Israel has been eclipsed forever, while I definitely do not.
Let me share a personal anecdote. While visiting Jerusalem I was sharing with various Jews the wonderful future that was in store for their city and their country. I told them that they were very good at hospitality, but that they would need to up their game. Why? Because when their Messiah rules from His Temple all the nations of the world will go up to Jerusalem to worship Him (Zechariah 14:16-19). The looks I received from Jews were incredulous. “Is this some kind of new Christianity?” I was asked. “No,” I answered, “It’s always been there in the Holy Bible—contained in both Testaments; you just have to take it at face value.” That is something that Christendom hasn’t done for 1700 years. The following material is a good read and worth your time; it is not the usual tersely worded doctrinal statement. It’s more like a fireside chat. Get yourself a coffee and this is what I firmly believe…
…ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE
The Holy Bible is, exclusively, the very word (i.e.: message) of God (Ecclesiastes 12:11-12; Hebrews 1:1-2). It does not become the word of God when it “speaks to you” or you believe it. It would remain the message of God even if no-one believed: “Let God be true and every man a liar” (Romans 3:4). God does not need my faith to verify His truth.
God inspired patriarchs, prophets, priests, poets, theologians (Hebrews 1:1) and apostles of Yeshua (John 14:25-26; 16:12-15; 17:20) to write history, theology, biography, practical wisdom for living, and prophecy and guided their pens (quills?) by His Ruach (Spirit), so that what they wrote was His own message. All of these human authors were Jewish (with the possible exception of Luke; but he wrote as the companion of the Jewish Apostles Peter and Paul). The Scriptures of both Testaments, then, are a product of Jewish men of God. This is one more spiritual blessing that we Gentiles are indebted to the Jews for.
Since God cannot err, then neither can His message; therefore, The Holy Bible is inerrant (without error) in everything that it declares. The Holy Bible is not exhaustive; it does not declare all that God knows or does (Deuteronomy 29:29; John 20:30), but its contents are powerful to bring about all that God’s plans (Isaiah 55:10-11). It is sufficient to bring people to saving faith (John 20:31), to equip them for ministry (2 Timothy 3:16-17), to confidently know what God’s future agenda (Amos 3:7) and to mature them in their walk with God (Psalm 119:9, 11; 1 Peter 2:2) to such an extent that they can face God Himself with confidence someday (Hebrews 4:12-13; 1 John 4:4-18).
The Holy Bible should be read as normal literature. A huge part of correctly understanding its contents is to try to ascertain how its original readers would have understood it. For example, when the Hebrew prophets guaranteed a blessed, secure future for the Jewish nation in the Land of Israel, nobody hearing their message originally would have supposed: “Oh, the prophet is not talking about us Hebrews; he is talking about the future blessedness of an as-yet-unmentioned Church.” Such an understanding would have been absurd and contrary to the context in which such prophecies were given. Interpreting The Holy Bible inaccurately is dangerous to your soul; no other book can one twist to their own future destruction (2 Peter 3:15-16).
Consequently, The Holy Bible stands first in our list of doctrines, because every other true Jewish or Christian doctrine comes from its pages alone. Religious teaching that comes from outside its pages, is man-made, and by definition, erroneous and without Divine authority.
…ABOUT GOD
There is no predicate nominative definition of God. One cannot exhaustively say: “God is ______. All we can do, aided by His own self-revelation in the Scriptures, is list His attributes—an incomplete predicate adjective definition. But we must try to know Him better, for the better that we know Him the more that we will love Him and not misrepresent Him to others (i.e.: taking God’s name in vain). This list of God’s attributes usually is broken up into “natural” attributes and “moral” attributes. Natural attributes would include the following: (1) uncreated spiritual nature; (2) Triunity—Father, Son, Holy Spirit (three equal, yet distinct Persons—Matthew 28:19); (3) imminence; (4) transcendence; (5) omniscience; (6) omnipresence; (7) omnipotence; (8) eternality-without beginning or end; (9) infinity; (10) sovereignty; (11) immensity—fills the universe; (12) self-consciousness (Isaiah 43:10); and (13) self-revealing. God’s moral attributes include the following: (1) holiness; (2) love; (3) jealousy; (4) faithfulness; (5) truthfulness; (6) graciousness; (7) goodness; (8) patient; (9) merciful; and (10) forgiving. These Divine attributes are not relative, but absolute. That is, every Divine attribute is true about God always and all the time in conjunction with all His other attributes (Go ahead; try to understand that truth with your limited intellect.). Every person has the duty to seek out and find the truth about God (Acts 17:24-27).
…ABOUT JESUS CHRIST
The existence of a second Person in the unity of God is intimated very early in the primeval records of Genesis:
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our own image, after Our likeness.” …. So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him… (Genesis 1:26-27 NIV, emphasis mine).
Later, the Hebrew proverbs mock human arrogance with these teasers: “Who has established the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is his son’s name? Surely you know (Proverbs 30:4 NIV)! Nor does the existence of a second Person in the Godhead violate the orthodoxy of Israel’s national confession of God: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” (Deuteronomy 6:4). The word “one” in Hebrew is ehed. It has already been used by Moses in Genesis 2:24: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall be one (ehed) flesh.” Therefore, the Hebrew numeral “one” includes in its range the concept of unity; ehed is not restricted to the idea of being solitary. For the “one flesh” relationship of the original couple demonstratively included two people.
The Bible gives this second Person of the Trinity (I confess that “Trinity” is a theological word that is not found in the Bible; but it is true to, and explains the doctrine of God contained in the Bible.) the same Divine attributes of Yahweh (God) (Hebrews 1:2). He existed in eternity before the creation of the world as a peer with God (John 1:1-2). He is the Divine agent of creation (John 1:3), the Architect of the ages (Hebrews 1:2—the literal Greek for “world” is “ages”), and Sustainer of the universe (Hebrews 1:2). Although He had forever existed in eternity as God, Jesus also took on a human nature through the immaculate conception of a Jewish virgin, Mary (Genesis 3:15; Micah 5:2; Luke 1:26-37), in anticipation of the fulfilment of the future Davidic Kingdom. Fortunately, we do not have to understand something completely, to believe in its reality or truthfulness. This merging of Divine and human natures in one Person (called “The Hypostatic Union”) is beyond the capability of human intellect, as confessed by the greatest theologian of all time—the Apostle Paul:
And without controversy great is the mystery [Perhaps the word “secret” is a better translation; a secret that God has not revealed.] of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Preached among the Gentiles, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory (1 Timothy 3:16).
Born under the Mosaic Covenant (Galatians 4:4), Jesus perfectly fulfilled the Law (John 8:46), and was thus qualified to become the Passover Sacrifice (John 1:29, 36; Hebrews 7:26) for the sins of His people—and the world (1 Corinthians 5:7). His death was not accidental or suicidal, but deliberate (John 10:17-18) and substitutionary (2 Corinthians 5:21-22; 1 Peter 1:18). He orchestrated His own unlawful death at the hands of others to happen precisely on Passover and was raised from the dead on The Feast of Firstfruits. After His resurrection to immortality, He taught his disciples for 40 more days, and then ascended from the Earth to sit in Heaven on God’s throne until He returns to rescue Israel during “the time of Jacob’s trouble” (the Great Tribulation), and to sit on His throne in the Holy of Holies in Ezekiel’s Temple (Ezekiel 40-44), ruling over Israel in the promised revival of the Davidic Kingdom and accepting the pilgrimage worship of the entire Gentile world (Zechariah 14:16-21).
…ABOUT THE HOLY SPIRIT
God’s Ruach (Spirit) is the first Person of the Godhead mentioned in the Scriptures, where He is active in the creation of the world (Genesis 1:2). Throughout the biblical history of Israel, He would indwell (“fill”) people to give them Divine enablement for ministry (Exodus 35:30-35; Judges 14:6; 1 Samuel 16:13); this indwelling was symbolized by an anointing with oil by a servant of God. The indwelling of God’s Ruach could also be terminated (1 Samuel 16:14; Psalm 51:11).
God’s Ruach was active in the earthly ministry of Jesus the Messiah, beginning with His immaculate conception in a virgin (Matthew 1:20; Luke 2:35). The Spirit provided Divine public approval of Yeshua (Jesus) when he was baptized by John, descending on Jesus like a dove (Luke 3:21-22; all three members of the Godhead are mentioned in the incident.). Jesus conducted His ministry “in the power of the Spirit” (Luke 4:14). Jesus was the only man anointed with the Spirit of God without measure; consequently, all His teaching was approved by God (John 3:34). The Holy Spirit was intimately involved at the cross, enabling Jesus to be a sinless substitutionary sacrifice to God for sinners (Hebrews 9:14). The Holy Bible also credits the Holy Spirit for the resurrection of Jesus Christ to immortality (Romans 6:10; in actuality all three members demonstrate proof of Deity through their participation in the resurrection of Jesus, including the Father (Romans 8:11) and the Son (John 10:17-18).).
The Holy Spirit had an historical role in the inauguration of the New Covenant Assembly (Church), providing supernatural evidence that was in accordance with prophecies in the Old Covenant that the New Covenant had been inaugurated and filling all of the 120 disciples who were obediently waiting in the upper room (Lk 24:49) with Himself (Acts 2). Jesus had previously stated that it was to our advantage that He go away and return to His Father so that the Holy Spirit could take His place and indwell every believer (John 16:7).
Therefore today, in the physical absence of Yeshua, the Holy Spirit does the work on the ground, as it were, in the lives of each and every believer in the New Covenant community. He illuminates each heart to believe and place their trust in the cross of Christ for salvation and gives them a permanent anointing to understand the Scriptures (1 John 2:17). He spiritually baptizes each new person into that spiritual assembly upon their faith in Christ, and He Himself becomes the guarantee (seal) of God’s acceptance and future blessings in the resurrection. He is a Person and not a “force”. Evidence of His personality is seen in the fact that He can be lied to (Acts 5:3) and grieved (Ephesians 4:30). The activity of the Holy Spirit in the New Covenant Assembly, although invisibly carried out, is so much a part of the warp and woof of the Church, that when He is removed from the Earth, so is that Assembly in the Rapture (2 Thessalonians 2:1-7).
…ABOUT CREATION & THE WORLD
The most basic principle of biblical interpretation is to accept the passage at face value unless the literal meaning is nonsense. Our Savior and his Apostles took the primeval stories of Genesis at face value, confirming the earliest narratives about Creation (2 Peter 3:3); Adam & Eve (Matthew 19:3-5); Cain & Abel (1 John 3:11-12); as well as Noah and the Flood (Matthew 24:37-39; Hebrews 11:7; 2 Peter 2:5; 3:4). It behooves us, as the followers of Christ, to hold these same early records of mankind in the highest esteem as He did. They are instructive in that they are used as templates by Yeshua and the Apostles to give instructions for our current walk with God and for understanding future events.
The Holy Bible teaches that God made all of Creation in six literal days ex nihilo—out of nothing—and rested the seventh day (Genesis 1). This is confirmed later by none other than the audible voice of God from a fiery mountain thousands of years later (Exodus 20:11). If the many genealogies contained in the Scriptures can be trusted, then that initial Creation act took place not much more than 6,000 years ago.
The Five Ages of Planet Earth
The history of the planet since Creation can be divided into five ages, two of which are yet future (See “The Five Worlds of God” in the Appendix of The Tents of Shem (Vol I)). Each age has distinct characteristics that delineate it from the others.
The first age is the perfect world of Adam & Eve, that ended with the Fall. There was no sin, or death, or curse upon the planet. The biblical record intimates that God, likely in the Person of Jesus, had a face-to-face relationship with Adam & Eve. This age was prematurely ended when the serpent successfully tempted Adam and Eve before they could have any children.
The second age is the world between the Fall and the Flood. It was violent and mankind corrupted themselves so badly that God ended this age with a universal flood, saving only Noah and his wife, and three of their sons and their wives in a giant barge called the Ark.
The third age is our present world that extends from the Flood to The Great Tribulation (called “The Time of Jacob’s Trouble” by the Hebrew prophets). Our present age is divided chronologically and ethnically, into two primary periods: that of the Old Covenant and that of the New Covenant.
The final two ages have not yet happened. The next age after ours, the fourth age, is the Millennium or the revived Davidic Kingdom that is first promised in the Old Covenant. It will last for 1000 years and end with a brief rebellion that is quickly put down; thereafter the planet is cleansed by fire (2 Peter 3:6).
The fifth and final age is the New Heavens and New Earth that endures forever; sin, the curse, and the Fall have been permanently removed. A city, the New Jerusalem, comes down to Earth from heaven to be God’s permanent dwelling place with mankind. Unlike pagan cosmologies which are often cyclical (since the future is unavailable to them), the Biblical timeline of the world is linear with a definite beginning and a promised consummation. The happy ending is a Judeo-Christian construct. So, although the world was twisted by mankind’s rebellion, God is determined to redeem it and restore it to its original beneficent created order (Romans 8:18-25).
…ABOUT THE NATURE OF MANKIND
Mankind began in innocence in the Garden of Eden, created in the image of God to be the stewards of a perfect creation. Eve was deceived by Satan, in the guise of a serpent, to disobey God and Adam went along with it. Consequently, God graciously removed them from the Garden so they could not gain access to the Tree of Life, which presumably would harden them as sinners, forever unredeemable (Genesis 3:22-24). Instead of that hopeless fate, God promised that one day the woman’s seed would step on the head of the serpent, which would presumably restore the world to its perfect condition.
That primeval rebellion resulted in death twice over: First, mankind became separated from God, which is spiritual death. We also forfeited stewardship of the planet over to Satan, who is now the ruler of the planet (until Jesus Christ returns to dethrone him at His second coming). Second, we became subject to sickness and physical death, the separation of the body from the soul. The dire condition of mankind is called “total depravity”. This is not to say that we are as bad as we could be, but that we are as bad-off as we can be—sinners who face the certainty of eternal judgment with no ability to save ourselves (Ephesians 2:11-12). Thankfully, that is not the end of the story.
…ABOUT THE NEW COVENANT ASSEMBLY
Most of you who are Christians refer to the community of faith that believes in Jesus after Pentecost as “the Church”. Almost every Christian sect, denomination, or local church includes Jesus’ words from Matthew 16:16-20, “I will build My Church (italics mine).” That English translation funnels us into supposing that our predominantly Gentile Church is being pictured in Jesus’ head as He speaks.
Also, if we are members of Churches that hold to Reformed/Covenant theology, then we also suppose that our Church exhausts Christ’s vision, since God is done with Israel and we are the apogee of God’s redemptive agenda.
But there is a problem with most of our translations when it comes to this verse. The problem is that there is nothing in the context to translate the Greek noun, ekklesia, as “Church”. Ekklesia in the Jewish context is an assembly; historically, the believing assembly of Israel. When Jesus said “I will build My assembly” on the confession that He is the Messiah, the Son of the living God, His disciples are thinking of an assembly that is continuous with past Jewish assemblies. That is the historical and personal context that Jesus is speaking to and He does nothing to disabuse them of their presuppositions. Nor does He add any details about this ekklesia that would alter their expectations. In fact, it is anachronistic to read the New Testament Church into Christ’s statement. It needs to be admitted that supercessionist audience-bias informs the erroneous translation of ekklesia as “church” instead of “assembly”.
How do I know that the term “assembly” is a better translation. One clue is James’ sermon at the first Jerusalem council (Acts 15:13-17):
13 And after they had become silent, James answered, saying, “Men and brethren, listen to me: 14 Simon has declared how God at the first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name. 15 And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written:
16 ‘After this I will return
And will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down;
I will rebuild its ruins,
And I will set it up;
17 So that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord,
Even all the Gentiles who are called by My name,
Says the Lord who does all these things.’ [quotation of Amos 9:11-12]
His quotation from the Old Testament indicates that James is anticipating the revival of the Jewish nation to be God’s future assembly and redemptive agency. Nor is he wrong; in the Great Tribulation and beyond, the Jewish nation will again become the primary redemptive agency.
What then should we conclude about this “assembly” that Jesus will build? First, it will include all believers of the New Covenant age. The first iteration of this assembly then is that cohort of believers that were spiritually born at that first Pentecost after the resurrection of Jesus. This group, which we call “the Church”, is a parenthesis in God’s redemptive agenda. Yet we are God’s primary redemptive agency until we are removed from the planet, likely just prior to the Great Tribulation. There is a disjuncture from previous “assemblies” because the present assembly (or “Church”, if you wish) is distinct from Israel as indicated by Paul’s new tripartite division of mankind into Jews, Gentiles, and the Assembly (Church).
The second iteration of the assembly that Jesus promised to build is the new covenant believers of the Great Tribulation, which is otherwise called “the time of Jacob’s trouble”, “the day of the LORD”, and Daniel’s 70th week. With the Church removed, God initiates a new redemptive work, but with besieged Jews as his primary redemptive agency. Also, with the removal of the “Church”, the division of mankind again becomes bi-partite, as in the Old Covenant—Israel and the nations—and will remain so even into the final age of the earth.
The third iteration of the new covenant assembly that Jesus will build is the revived Jewish Kingdom of the Millennium, when all the Gentile nations will go up to Jerusalem to worship the Son of David. I believe that this is the “assembly” that the Hebrew prophets and James are anticipating.
The question is: What about the final age of the earth, the New Heavens and the New Earth? When Jesus looks down through the ages, is that age going to be considered the fourth and final iteration of His “assembly”? One could suppose not, because no redemption is necessary for these resurrected people who live beyond the reach of sin and death. Yet at the same time they remain people who have been redeemed by the work of Jesus Christ. They are thus the culmination of all the redeemed assemblies down through the ages.
…ABOUT ISRAEL
I am breathless as I contemplate what to say about Israel, about God’s beloved wife. Their relationship is anticipated the very first time God identifies with a man—“the LORD, the God of Shem” (Genesis 9:26). Shem’s tents become the spiritual refuge for the world (Gen 9:27). Thankfully, for the world, God extends His personal identification through Shem’s descendants to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He secures that relationship in unilateral covenants with them that rely only on Yahweh’s sacrifice and promise for their continuance (Genesis 12:1-3; 15:1-20; 17:1-14). Later, God expanded that committed covenant relationship to all of Jacob’s children and their future descendants (Exodus 2:23-25; Deuteronomy 7:6). God’s redemptive covenant commitments to mankind find their completion with Jacob’s offspring (Ephesians 2:11-12). His relationship with them is portrayed as a marriage (Amos 3:2), to an adulterous wife, to be sure (Hosea 3), but His fidelity to the Jewish nation is evidence of His holiness (Isaiah 50:1: 54:9-10). God’s estimation of Israel is according to the positional righteous that He provides for her (Numbers 24:1-9), and is not informed by her many sins (Numbers 23:21; Jeremiah 31:31-37).
Christian Medieval Antisemitism: The first time I saw such an illustration, I thought to myself, “Surely, this represents atypical doctrine of some small discredited and isolated sect.” Then I found many other pictures and statues of the same ilk. Believe or not, this illustration represents the replacement theology of Christendom since AD 315. Notice that heaven is setting a crown on the head of the Church, pictured holding the sacramental cup and riding a noble beast. The left hand of heaven is stabbing the Jewess through the head. She is usually presented as blindfolded (picturing Jewish ignorance), carrying the two tablets of the 10 commandments (often upside down), having Moses’ staff (usually broken, as here), and riding an ignoble beast. The illustrations (often in Bibles and songbooks) are used to teach largely illiterate congregations that the Jews are no longer the Chosen People of God. The persistence of Jewish distinctiveness for the last 2000 years, and, now, the revival of the Jewish nation of Israel; has been a severe miscalculation of replacement theology. It was supposed that since they had been cast aside by God, that the Jews would disappear like many other extinct cultures, or become absorbed into Christendom. Of course, neither has happened. The alternate view, advocated by Augustine, was that God wanted to keep the Jews dispersed, dispossessed, and humiliated, so that Christians could see what happens to people that God is not pleased with. Augustine twisted Psalm 59:11—which is about David’s enemies—to come up with that false doctrine that resulted in Jewish ghettoes and various other humiliations at the hands of those who say they love Christ.
Many people within Christendom wrongly suppose that the Jewish nation’s rejection of her own Messiah disqualifies her from being the Chosen People in the New Covenant age. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Apostle Paul continues to list their inalienable possessions that belong to them after the cross and in their unbelief (Romans 9:1-5). Their covenant possessions have not been forfeited and so the Jews have incredible spiritual advantages (Romans 3:1-4; 11:10-24). Those covenant possessions confer no personal blessings on any Jew who rejects Jesus Christ, but nevertheless, they remain Jewish possessions, even in unbelief. God will keep His covenant promises to the Jewish nation and He will always preserve a remnant of the Jewish nation that believes (Romans 9:27-29; 11:5).
For the sake of the Gentiles, God has kept the Jewish people from embracing their own Messiah (Romans 11:7-13). This Jewish unbelief has kept most of the Jews outside the New Covenant assembly, and resulted in the current tripartite division of mankind—Jew, Gentile, and the Assembly (Church). This distinction between Israel and the Church has resulted in the false belief that is held by both the Jewish synagogue and the Christian cathedral one cannot be both Jewish and a Christian. That either/or dichotomy is patently false as the lives of Jesus’ Apostles demonstrates, especially the assertions of the Apostle Paul (Romans 11:1-6); he identified himself as a Jewish follower of Jesus Christ. Also, this tripartite division of mankind will disappear after the Rapture of the Church, and revert to Israel and the nations.
This unique covenant relationship between God and the Hebrew nation is so desirous that it is coveted by Gentiles, including Gentiles in the Church. They attempt to discredit the Jewish nation by charging all their sins against them. But God knows all about Israel’s infidelities and knew just who they were when He chose them.
…ABOUT REDEMPTION
It is amazing how little one has to understand and believe to receive God’s forgiveness and personal acceptance; a child can comprehend the essentials of something as grand as salvation. One has only to admit that he/she is a sinner unable to do anything to save himself (Ephesians 2:8-9; Titus 3:5-7); the prequel that causes the humility that creates the understanding that he needs a Savior. One has to have also been taught enough biblical revelation to believe that Jesus Christ, through his substitutionary sacrifice on the cross, and resurrection (Rom 10:9-11), secured redemption for all who confess Him as their Savior, period. The personal result is nothing less than a stupendous life-change; you receive the very righteous of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). Positionally—before God—you will never ever be more righteous than the moment after you sincerely prayed the sinner’s prayer.
But there is so much more involved! Let me use a modern analogy. Salvation is a like starting a car; all that is required is the faith to turn the key (or press a button on an ultra-modern vehicle). For most people, this is done without any appreciation or understanding of all that went into making the ignition of that vehicle ignite the engine. There is also little or no understanding of the process under the hood or in the drivetrain of that vehicle that the driver has just initiated. Yet, good drivers don’t just turn the key and put the car in gear; they are also infatuated with the production and operating mechanisms of that vehicle. Such people are often referred to as “gear-heads”. They learn “defensive driving” techniques to protect their precious vehicle. They regularly do maintenance and wash their vehicle. When it comes to our redemption–how it came to be, the transformation that it caused, and the future it results in—we should all become theological gear-heads.
In relation to the contents of The Tents of Shem, the biggest lack in our understanding of redemption is just how Jewish it is. Salvation in the churches and cathedrals of Christendom has been divorced from its Jewish roots, even though those Jewish roots sustain us (Romans 11:18). Nor is the Jewishness of our faith limited to its historic roots. The Apostle Paul stated the Jewishness of our Christian walk in the present tense: “Remember then, that you do not support the root, but the root sustains you” (Romans 11:18, italics mine). Jesus stated the same truth as a timeless axiom: “Salvation is of [from] the Jews” (John 4:22). Many Christian theologians choke on that statement. I have read their commentaries; they attempt to restrict that clear statement in time or in scope. For more than 1700 years Christendom has attempted to sever Christianity from its Jewish roots; at the First Ecumenical Council of Nicea (AD 325), they even made it Church law that no Christian, be he Gentile or Jew, could observe Passover. Nevertheless, every spiritual blessing from God has been mediated through the Jewish nation and its covenants so there is nothing for us outside the tents of Shem except damnation. The Apostle could not have been any clearer:
11 Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands— 12 that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world (Ephesians 2:11-12).
There is the truth of redemption in black and white. The redemptive work of Jesus Christ was primarily for the purpose of redeeming the Jews, to provide atonement for the sins of His covenant people (“For the transgressions of My people He was stricken.”—Isaiah 53:8f, italics mine). One either participates somehow in the commonwealth of Israel and its covenants of promise or you are in an utterly hopeless situation—estranged from God. Yet I repeatedly encounter people who do not believe the heathen are really lost because they have not had the opportunity to hear the Gospel. As if God had a Divine obligation to us Gentiles! He doesn’t.
I believe in the sovereignty of God in all things, especially the choice of who gets saved. I don’t get into debates about whether God chooses those who are saved, or, instead, if a person is autonomous in making that decision for themself. The sovereignty of God in salvation is determined, not by who decides, but, even before that, by whom God chooses to reveals Himself to. Jesus stated that if the miracles that He had done in Israel had been done instead in the ancient Gentile city of Sodom, or in the ancient Phoenician cities of Tyre and Sidon (also Canaanite Gentiles), that they would have repented (Matthew 11:23-24; Luke 10:13). Put that in your pipe and smoke it till you understand the doctrine that is taught by the Messiah’s statement. The conclusion is that God chooses who He will reveal Himself to in redemption and He is not obligated to the Gentiles. Mankind chose to rebel against God in the beautiful Garden of Eden, of all places. So, what we are owed is judgment. Therefore, God is not wrong in letting people get what they deserve.
But as we consider the harsh truth of Ephesians 2:11-12, please notice the ray of hope that is found in text. The hopelessness and estrangement from God of the Gentiles who are being addressed in Ephesians is stated in the past tense! Hallelujah! Somehow their situation changed for the better. The next verse tells us what that was: “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ” (v. 13). Please understand that salvation for the Gentiles is not a new doctrine taught in the New Testament; the Apostle is actually dusting off an Old Testament prophecy. The work of Jesus Christ was far more deserving than to just achieve the salvation of the Jewish nation of Israel (Isaiah 49:5,6):
“And now the Lord says,
Who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant,
To bring Jacob back to Him,
So that Israel is gathered to Him
(For I shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord,
And My God shall be My strength),
6 Indeed He says,
‘It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant
To raise up the tribes of Jacob,
And to restore the preserved ones of Israel;
I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles,
That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ”
This direct quotation from God is simple and clear: The obligation of the Father is to His Son, that the Son reaps the commensurate harvest He deserves for His work on the Cross (Isaiah 53:10-11). His other obligation is to provide atonement for the sins of His covenant people, the Jews. But the salvation of Israel alone would undervalue Christ’s redemptive work—“It is too small a thing”. Because the Messiah earned more than just the redemption of Israel, God therefore extended the redemption that is in His Son’s blood to the Gentiles the world over.
Once again, we have been invited in the tents of Shem to benefit from his relationship with Yahweh. How do we enter and participate in those blessings? Are we required to become Jews? Not at all; the Apostles James and Paul are clear that God called us as Gentiles, so He accepts us as Gentiles (Romans 14:5-6; 1 Corinthians 7:17-20; Galatians 2:11-14). It certainly would have been simpler to impose one uniform standard of conduct in the Church, but God did not do that. He left Jews to be Jews and Gentiles to be Gentiles.
How then do we enter the tents of Shem and avail ourselves of Israel’s covenants? The answer is simple; by faith (Ephesians 2:8-9; Galatians 3:5-8). By faith in the work of Christ on our behalf we enter into the Abrahamic Covenant and become his spiritual children. That does not make Gentiles into Jews though or turn us into “Israel” as some Christians wrongly suppose. They have confused being the spiritual seed of Abraham with being the physical seed of Jacob. Only the physical seed of Jacob belong to Israel. But for Jews to become the spiritual seed of Abraham and be forgiven, they too need to place their faith in the Messiah who fulfills God’s covenants (Romans 11:23).
Our Obligations to Israel for Spiritually Blessing Us
So again, our redemption and every other spiritual blessing has a Jewish copyright. God has nothing for us outside the tents of Shem. To return to our vehicle analogy—the whole vehicle is made in Israel. All the idioms of the New Covenant—“Christ our Passover”, etc.—can only be understood and cherished by embracing their Old Testament origins. Our Gentile indebtedness to the Jews for their spiritual hospitality is so complete that the Apostle Paul obligates us to make practical applications, and bless the Jews:
25 But now I am going to Jerusalem to minister to the saints. 26 For it pleased those from Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints who are in Jerusalem. 27 It pleased them indeed, and they are their debtors. For if the Gentiles have been partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister to them in material things. 28 Therefore, when I have performed this and have sealed to them this fruit, I shall go by way of you to Spain. (Romans 15:25-28).
I like that: “sealed to them this fruit”. What fruit have I ensured that Jews received from me for the spiritual blessings that come through them? This work, The Tents of Shem is my offering to them.
Blessing the Jews physically is only part of God’s instructions to us regarding the nation of Israel. Gentiles have been commanded to rejoice over the atonement for both the people of Israel and the land of Israel:
“Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people; For He will avenge the blood of His servants, and render vengeance to His adversaries; He will provide atonement for His land and His people” (Deuteronomy 32:43).
This good news is proclaimed before Israel’s history has really even begun; they are still in the Sinai wilderness. But it does not end with personally rejoicing; we are to be God’s publicity department throughout the world, proclaiming of all things, God’s Zionist agenda:
“Hear the word of the LORD, O nations, And declare in the isles afar off, and say, ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him, And keep him as a shepherd does his flock.‘ 11For the LORD has redeemed Jacob, And ransomed him from the hand of one stronger than he. 12Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, Streaming to the goodness of the LORD — For wheat and new wine and oil, For the young of the flock and the herd; Their souls shall be like a well-watered garden, And they shall sorrow no more at all (Jeremiah 31:10-12, italics mine).
This mandate to publicly declare God’s Zionist goals is contained in Jeremiah’s proclamation of the coming New Covenant. The predominantly Gentile Church has already become the beneficiary of that covenant; this obligates us as participants to faithfully carry out the proclamation of God’s role in Israel’s Aliyah and Zionism.
Not only are we instructed in the Scriptures to rejoice over and publicly proclaim the return of the people of Israel to the land of Israel, but the Hebrew prophets declare that the Gentiles will facilitate that return:
“Then they [the Gentiles] shall bring all your brethren for an offering to the LORD out of all nations, on horses and in chariots and in litters, on mules and on camels, to My holy mountain Jerusalem,” says the LORD, “as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the LORD” (Isa 66:20).
Notice that the repatriation of the Jews by the Gentiles is compared favorably to an acceptable sacrifice. Thus, these returning Jews are considered holy and the Gentiles who are instrumental in blessing them are accepted as a Jew would be who was making an acceptable sacrifice to God.
What application can we make today in light of Moses’ command and Isaiah and Jeremiah’s prophecies? If we believe the Scriptures, then Christians should be the most pro-Jewish and pro-Zionist people on the face of the earth. We should be devoting our efforts, time, and money to helping Jewish people make Aliyah (“return”). And the motive is not because we want our countries to be Judenfrei,[1] for the presence of Jewish people have proven to bless any country. No, the motive is pure; we should mourn their absence as they depart from our shores while wanting and helping secure the best for them—the return to their God-given homeland—if they so wish. And whether or not Jews make Aliyah, we should be their staunchest friends and the most loyal of allies to Israel.
In Leon Morris’ historical fiction novel, Exodus, a Christian Gentile American female nurse with all the usual anti-Judaic biases, is dragged kicking and screaming (metaphorically speaking) into helping the Jews secure the Holy Land in the 1948-49 War of Independence. She wanted to return home to America but comes to the realization that her work in the kibbutz is more than just a job. She makes the following confession to a Sabra woman (native-born Jew): “I have learned that it is impossible to be a Christian without being a Jew in spirit” (p.475). Not bad. Yes, it is an historical fiction novel, but I think the statement represents the heartfelt opinion of the book’s author. The sentiment should also be true of those of us who have come to understand our indebtedness to the Jews for their role in Divine redemption.
…ABOUT SATAN
Satan was an exalted archangel of God until personal pride caused him to attempt to usurp God’s position in heaven with one third of the other angels. Having failed in that attempt, he instead led our most ancient ancestors, Adam and Eve, in a rebellion on Earth with more success. He removed Adam from being God’s steward of the earth and usurped Adam’s role, becoming the prince of the power of the air. Satan deceived them by promising that they would not die if they disobeyed God. The evil irony is that Satan now holds mankind captive through our fear of death (Hebrews 2:15). While the angel Gabriel is the spiritual being who watches over Israel, all the Gentile countries are ruled over by Satan’s minions.
Satan may have supposed that, with Adam & Eve’s rebellion, all their depraved descendants would be his to command. But he made a grave misjudgment; God promised that the Seed of the woman would step on Satan’s head (Genesis 3:15). Ever since that prophecy, women have wondered, “Will I be the mother of that special child?” That expectation came to be focused on the descendants of King David (Micah 5:2).
Satan is the enemy of both God and mankind. He is particularly anxious of any attempts to redeem mankind and wrest the world from his grasp. He tried to derail the promise of a Seed before the Flood through unnatural sexual liaisons between fallen angels and women, a perversion so extreme that God ended it with the Flood. Satan knows about as much about God’s plan of the ages as us, perhaps more, and he hates the idea that the Messiah will come to Earth, imprison him, and receive the worship of the world for 1000 years. Satan’s second overt act to control man was The Tower of Babel (The original Ziggurat) where he tried to institute universal worship for himself. God broke up that attempt by giving people different languages so that they could no longer work together and, hence, dispersed around the world as per His intentions after the Flood. The limitation of that solution was that the nations spread the worship of the heavens through Ziggurats all over the world. God had anticipated this and chose one man, Abraham, the descendant of Shem, to enter into a unilateral Divine covenant with (Gen 12-18). Satan tried to use Ishmael, the son of Abraham through his wife’s handmaid, to interfere with God’s plans to bless Abraham. The Ishmaelites have been the enemies of Israel ever since.
Satan’s interminable hatred of the Jews goes on and on. He knows that the Jewish nation is God’s agency in redemption. You should read all about the antagonism between Satan and Israel in Revelation chapter 12. My heart goes out to Jews who suppose that anti-Semitism is just your typical, garden variety bigotry. Most ethic prejudices arise from rubbing shoulders with other ethnic groups that you don’t understand; the motive is sociological. But the motive behind the persistence of anti-Semitism is spiritual in origin; Satan hates the Jews and inflames the hatred of the Gentiles that he controls against them. That hatred will boil over when the Antichrist breaks his covenant with the Jews halfway through the Great Tribulation and brings an end to sacrifices and offerings in their Temple in Jerusalem. Incited by Satanic hatred, the Gentile nations will ravage Israel and Jerusalem, but the Messiah’s timely return will violently ends the attempted genocide of future Israel. Satan the usurper will be deposed and interred in the Bottomless Pit and Jesus will begin His Messianic reign from His throne in the Holy of Holies. But God’s restoration of the planet does not end until He purges the planet with fire at the end of the Millennial Davidic Kingdom, makes the Fall a distant memory, and brings an end to sin and death. God will achieve His good plans for the planet, after all.
Satan’s antagonism towards Israel’s revival and the future Davidic Kingdom that is restored on Earth is perfectly understandable. The plan of God that involves the Jewish nation will end Satan’s tyranny on the earth and relegate him to eternal conscious torment in the bottomless pit and then, afterwards, in the Lake of Fire. In our secular cosmologies, Satan rules from hell. Nothing could be further from the truth. God rules over these places of judgment and Satan is tormented there forever.
Why would Christendom Espouse Satan’s Anti-Judaism?
But while I can understand Satan’s antagonism towards the Jews, one is at a loss to understand the same, or a similar antagonism of Christendom against the revival of the Jews and their nation. One of the reasons for this inexplicable anti-Judaism is that much of Christendom has an ethnic, instead of a Biblical and theological foundation. The bias against the Jews would thus have a sociological origin. Fallen mankind is selfish, including those who are within Christendom. The exaltation of Israel necessarily does result in the eclipsing of the Gentiles and our Church. The self-centeredness of people would quite naturally ignite religious Gentile xenophobia.
One example from the history of Great Britain will have to suffice: Sir Henry Finch, the legal advisor to King James I was arrested after the publication of his work, The World’s Greatest Restoration, which called for the return of the Jews to Eretz Israel in anticipation of their worldwide empire in which Gentile rulers would pay homage. Sir Henry was subsequently forced to recant of any portions that did not support the sovereignty of the British crown. But King James had no one but himself to blame. The broad distribution of the Holy Bible that he commissioned a decade earlier—the “King James Version”—in the language of his people was going to cause many an Englishman to rediscover the prophecies of the Scripture and come to the same conclusions as Sir Henry.
For certain, there are Christian sects who will never ever accept being eclipsed and have constructed spiritualized theological systems to protect their supposed permanence. But the consequences of such anti-Biblical anti-Judaism are actually negative. First, such anti-Semites, despite their religious history, are Satan’s pawns. Second, such Christians are not ready for God’s imminent plans to remove the Church. Third, the attempts to relegate Israel’s blessed future in the resurrection to the here and now of the Church twists the Scriptures and turns those ancient promises into pale, impermanent caricatures while emptying the resurrection of eternal content. Fourth, such Christian theologians have positioned themselves against the plethora of Divine covenant promises contained in the Scriptures, thus setting themselves up against God and calling Him a liar. I have literally read (more than once) in supercessionist literature that there are no promises in the Bible of a Jewish return to the Holy Land. Many of these statements were made before 1948.
You should read the conniptions of these same Christian theologians after “Palestine” became the Jewish Nation of Israel. I would agree with these men that the current Jewish state may not be the promised Aliyah that the Hebrew prophets envisioned. But then again, it may be; since for the first time in history more Jews live in Israel than in the diaspora. These anti-Judaic theologians accuse pro-Zionist Christians of caring more about the physical well-being of Jews than their spiritual well-being. That accusation is patently false. Pro-Zionist Christians encourage Jewish immigration because we understand from the Bible that Israel’s national revival chronologically follows the return of the Jews to their land; The Day of Atonement prophetically comes after The Day of Trumpets in the Jewish calendar.
…ABOUT THE FUTURE
Sadly, all too many Christians know nothing more about their future than “dying and going to heaven”. That simplistic synopsis, while true, is misleading. Our future involves far more and it is important for us to know it, else God would not have revealed it.
The Intermediate State
Heaven is not our home; it is God’s eternal abode. I like to refer to heaven as a depot, like a bus depot. We are present there in what is called “the intermediate state”, that state between death and our return to earth as immortals who will rule and reign with Jesus the Messiah in His future kingdom. Yes, it is real comfort that our believing loved ones have gone to heaven to be with Jesus. But they are there still awaiting resurrection and their rewards for faithful service; rewards that involve more service for God in their resurrected state when they return to earth. Those who are in heaven, ironically, eagerly anticipate coming back to earth. One would suppose that they would be content in heaven, but no. Even Jesus who now sits on His Father’s throne, anticipates the time when He will sit on His own throne in the Holy of Holies in a rebuilt Temple down here in Jerusalem (Revelation 3:21). The martyrs of the Great Tribulation are certainly not content to have made it to heaven; they earnestly petition God to get on with unfinished business on earth (Revelation 6:9,10). Their destiny is not in heaven.
All die. The unrighteous die and are interred in Hell while they wait for their post-millennial resurrection and sentencing at the Great White Throne Judgement, where they will be sentenced to live forever separated from God in The Lake of Fire.
The righteous die and are issued into the immediate presence of Jesus Christ and the Father (1 Thessalonians 4:17). The souls of those who are “dead in Christ” wait in heaven for the trumpet that will resurrect their mortal bodies and convert them into immortal bodies at the Rapture of the Church, when those who are alive in Christ will also receive immortality (2 Thessalonians 4:13-18). I believe it is at this time when we stand before The Judgement Seat of Christ, where rewards are dispensed for faithful service in the Church (Romans 14:10; 1 Corinthians 3:10-15; 2 Corinthians 5:9-11). We are not judged for our sins, because that judgment has passed; it was placed on Jesus at the cross.
Meanwhile Back on Earth
After the Church has been removed from Earth, God will begin a new redemptive work on the planet. At roughly the same time that the resurrection and the Rapture of the predominantly Gentile Church occurs (Romans 11:12, 15), God moves to cause the hearts of the final Jewish generation of our age to embrace Jesus as their Messiah (Isaiah 53; Zechariah 12:10-13). They will be God’s servants to proclaim the Gospel to ends of the earth (Revelation 7).
Sometime in the future, after the Church has been removed, the nation of Israel will make a treaty with the Antichrist (not that they will recognize him as such). This will signal the beginning of the end of our age; the 70th week of Daniel (Daniel 9:24-27). All will go well in Israel; they will continue to worship God in the Temple that they have rebuilt and will live in peace. But three and a half years into that peace treaty, the Antichrist will turn on the Jewish nation and severely persecute them (Matthew 24:15-21). He will put an end to the sacrifices and offerings in the Temple, and insist on universal worship for himself. This abomination goes on for 42 months (three and a half years). At that time the Antichrist will gather the military might of the nations to himself to oppose the return of the Messiah. The nation of Israel will be devastated and Jerusalem ravaged. But Messiah Jesus returns and effortlessly sweeps aside His adversaries. When He rescues Jerusalem, its surviving inhabitants shout the Messianic Psalm” “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD” (Matthew 23:39). The wicked are removed from the earth and the righteous remain to become the seed plot for Earth’s next age (Matthew 24:36-44; 25:31-46).
The Millennial Kingdom (also called “The Intermediate Kingdom”)
After the Great Tribulation all believers of all the ages that have gone before will return with Jesus the Messiah to rule and reign with Him in the Millennial Kingdom. Jesus’ own disciples will rule over the 12 tribes of Israel from this point onward (Mattthew 19:28). The inaugural time of the fourth age of this planet begins with the celebratory Marriage Supper of the Lamb and the building of Ezekiel’s prophesied Temple. The Gentile nations come annually to Jerusalem during the pilgrimage Feast of Tabernacles (Tents) to worship Messiah in His Temple (Zechariah 14:16-21). Peace and personal security reign on Earth for 1000 years until Satan is released from the bottomless pit. He deceives the nations into rebelling against Jerusalem but the rebellion is quashed immediately. Satan is forever removed into the Lake of Fire that was prepared beforehand for him and his rebellious angels (Matthew 5:41) and the earth itself is purified of all vestiges of sin and the curse by fire (2 Peter 3:7).
“World without End”
What follows is the fifth and final age of the planet—“The new heavens and the new earth”. The capital of the world is a city that has been prefabricated in heaven and then descends to earth—“the New Jerusalem”. The nation of Israel is permanently exalted and the Gentile rulers of the earth will bring their wealth into the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:24-26; as prophesied in Haggai 2:7). There is no Temple in this final age because redemption has been accomplished. Sin, rebellion, the curse and death have been permanently removed at the end of the Millennial Kingdom. Nothing that causes an abomination shall ever enter this age (Revelation 21: 27; 22:3). The Earth is permanently restored from the effects of the Fall. The evidence that all is now perfect is that God restores access to The Tree of Life.
[1] The German-language term that the Nazis applied to locales which had been rendered “free of Jews.”