Thread: When Christ Is not In Israel, the House Is Not Israel
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When Christ Is not In Israel, the House Is Not Israel
Posted : 15 Nov, 2013 09:56 AM
When Christ Is not In Israel, the House Is Not Israel
A way of looking at the change from old physical Israel to
spiritual Israel reborn in Christ is in Christ's teachings on the
light.
"And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a
flame: and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one
day;" Isaiah 10: 17
"The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that
dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light
shined." Isaiah 9: 2 This is quoted in Matthew 4: 16, "The people
which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the
region and shadow of death light is sprung up."
Christ, who was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matthew
15: 24), brought a great light to them because they were sitting in
darkness. Physical Israel was lost at that time. In fact, physical
Israel was not itself, without Christ, the light to the nations, or
Gentiles. Isaiah 10: 17 says the light of Israel shall be for a fire
and his Holy One for a flame, meaning Christ is the light in Israel.
But in the New Testament "Israel" is transformed.
When Christ was in physical Israel, it had his light. But at the time when
Christ was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matthew 15: 24),
Christ was no longer to be found in physical Israel. At the time Christ began his
ministry, he alone was the light to the world. Later those in him became the light of the
world. When Christ said in Matthew 23: 38, "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate, "
he was not in physical Israel. When Christ is not in Israel, that house is not Israel. When
Christ is in those who are in him, then they are Israel.
Revelation 18: 23 gives us the knowledge that Christ will, at some point, leave what was born again Israel. "And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived." When Christ is no longer in born again Israel, but is outside of it in the wilderness and in the Remnant of Israel, seen in Revelation 12: 17, then Revelation 18: 4 calls those who are his out of Babylon, which is the church after the falling away has gone on a while (II Thessalonians 2: 3-4). "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues."
The parable of the potter in Jeremiah 18: 4-6 says "
"And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the
potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the
potter to make it. Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the
LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine
hand, O house of Israel."
God the potter made one pot on his potter's wheel which was marred, or
flawed. So he took the same lump of clay and made it, Israel, into
another pot, which seemed good to the Lord the potter. He did not put
the old flawed pot on a shelf and then make a new pot to go alongside
of it as John Darby, C.I. Scofield, Lewis S. Chafer and so many others
following them have said.
What the parable of the potter shows is that God changed physical
Israel into a different Israel.
God did not replace physical Israel with some different group called
the Capital C Church. Notice that in the New Testament church,
translated from ekklesia, is not capitalized, indicating that church
is not a proper noun. A proper noun is something which is unique,
like an individual person or a country. If the meaning of the Greek
word ekklesia is maintained when it is translated as congregation as
Tyndale did, or as church in the Geneva Bible and in the King James
Version, then church is not a proper noun because it is not a unique
thing. Church, as a meeting, assembly or congregation is not a proper
noun because a meeting, assembly or congregation is not something
which can stand as a unique group as does Israel. For example, the
meeting of the local Democratic Party is not something equal to the
Democratic Party. The Party exists as a unique thing, but the
meetings of that Party are not the Party itself. The same is true for
church. Israel reborn in Christ is not equal to the meeting, assembly
or congregation in which Israel reborn in Christ and some who are not
the elect meet together. This is why church is not capitalized in scripture.
The church was really just a meeting of born again Israel which at some times in history and for some meetings had Christ the light in them. After the falling away the light of Christ is not in what is called the "church" (Revelation 18: 23.
When Christ Is not In Israel, the House Is Not Israel
Posted : 15 Nov, 2013 10:09 AM
When Christ was in physical Israel, he was the light that house gave to the world. But when Christ was sent to the house of Israel which was lost (Matthew 15: 24) he, the light, was not in it. Here are two of the texts which show that Christ alone was the light to the world and then those in him were the light.
"...I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." John 8: 12
Then in Matthew 5: 14-16 Christ says "Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."
Those in Christ have his light which they can shine into the darkness of the world - and into the darkness of Babylon, the II Timothy 3: 1-8 community which claims to be Christian but is following another Jesus and another Gospel. It has a form of godliness, but denies the power of it, does not come to the knowledge of the truth and resists the truth.
