The House of Israel theology
This is an edited copy of a post from six years ago. It is lengthy, but hopefully flows.
D____,
Everyone is biased; it’s unavoidable. But, the best bet is
to be biased according to Christ’s inspiration. We trust the infallible word of God. We also believe Ellen White
was God’s prophet for these last days. We must live by every word that proceeds
from the mouth of God. “Believe in the Lord your God,
so shall ye be established; believe His prophets, so shall ye prosper.”
(2Chron. 20:20).
This study came from Bible Gateway and e-Sword, searching for every use of “house of
Israel.” The following texts indicate that the two houses of Israel and Judah
were recognized by the time of David’s day, but that the phrase, “house of
Israel” didn’t necessarily refer to only the nation exclusive of Judah and
Benjamin, that is, not always speaking of only the ten northern tribes. My
conclusions come from the following references and their contexts. Hopefully my basis is facts from scripture and not my biases.
Of the references that specified only the northern 10 tribes (sometimes
as the northern kingdom separate from the southern kingdom), I found “house of
Israel” to mean:
2 Sam. 12:8 (ten tribes) 1Ki. 20:31 (Ahab’s ten tribes)
Jer. 3:18 (ten tribes, and also
the church under Christ) Jer. 5:11 (ten tribes)
Jer. 11:10 (ten tribes) Jer. 11:17 (ten tribes)
Jer. 13:11 (ten tribes)
Jer. 31:27,31 (ten tribes, and
also the church under Christ)
Jer. 33:14 (ten tribes, and
also the church under Christ)
Jer. 48:13 (ten tribes) Hos.
1:4,6 (Jehu’s ten tribes via “Ephraim”) Hos. 5:1; 6:10; 11:12 (ten tribes)
Amos 5:1,6 (ten tribes via the
“house of Joseph”)
Amos 6 (ten tribes via “Samaria ”)
Amos 7:10 (ten tribes via “Bethel ,” and “the house
of Jeroboam”)
Zech. 8:13 (ten tribes)
Of the references specifying all 12 tribes, I found “house of Israel” to
mean:
Lev.22:18 (all 12 tribes) Num. 20:29 (all 12 tribes)
Josh. 21:45 (all 12 tribes) Ruth
4:11 (alluding
to all 12 tribes)
1 Sam. 7:2,3 (all 12 tribes) 2 Sam. 1:12 (all 12 tribes)
2 Sam. 6:5,15 (all 12 tribes, David
included)
2 Sam. 16:3 (all 12 tribes) Ps. 98:3 (all 12 tribes)
Ps. 115:12 (all 12 tribes) Ps. 135:19 (all 12 tribes)
Isa. 8:14 (all 12 tribes, “both the houses of Israel ”)
Isa. 14:3 (all 12 tribes, but primarily
Judah in Babylonian captivity)
Other various meanings for the “house
of Israel” were:
Ruth 4:11 (technically Reuben,
Simeon, Levi, Judah, Joseph, Benjamin)
Isa. 5:7 (Judah and Jerusalem )
Isa. 46:3 (survivors of the
Babylonian captivity, primarily the Jews)
Isa. 63:7 (ancient Israel and the
present tribe of Judah/Benjamin)
Jer. 2:4,28 (Judah )
Jer. 5:15 (Judah/Benjamin)
Jer. 9:26 (Judah and Jerusalem )
Jer. 10:1 (cities of Judah )
Jer. 18:6 (men of Judah , and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem )
Jer. 23:8 (a remnant of all 12
tribes)
Jer. 31:33 (remnant of all 12 tribes)
Eze. 3:1 (Judah/Benjamin in
captivity)
Eze.11:15 (inhabitants of
Jerusalem)
Eze.12:9,10 (prince in Jerusalem,
and Judah)(inhabitants of Jerusalem, and of the land of Israel)
Eze.45:8 (remnant of all 12 tribes)
Amos 9:9 (all 12 tribes? I’m not
sure)
Mic. 1:5 (Samaria
and Jerusalem )
Mic. 3:1(Zion ,
Jerusalem )
Acts 2:36 (the Jews)
Acts 7:42 (the Jews via the
Sanhedrin)
Heb. 8:8,10 (the church of Christ
This is the first definite reference to both houses
separately:
“And when Rehoboam was come to Jerusalem, he assembled all
the house of Judah, with the tribe of Benjamin, an hundred and fourscore
thousand chosen men, which were warriors, to fight against the house of Israel,
to bring the kingdom again to Rehoboam the son of Solomon.” (1Ki. 12:21).
The Lord here said He was married to both the houses of Israel:
“Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am
married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I
will bring you to Zion…. In those days the house of Judah shall walk with
the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north
to the land that I have given for an inheritance unto your fathers.” (Jer.
3:14,18).
Now let’s look at Matthew 10:5,6 and Matthew 15:21-29.
“These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not
into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye
not: but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of
Israel.” (Matt. 10:5,6). Remember that Jesus constantly spoke metaphorically and
figuratively. “All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude
in parables; and without a parable spake He not unto them.” (Matt.
13:34).
The above references are clear that the title, “house of Israel”, to
which Jesus referred in Matthew 10 was the Jews of Judea. Here, Christ was
inferring that the most righteous Jews were lost. And they were eventually cut
off. Wasn’t that His message to the murmuring “Pharisees and
scribes”? “I
say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that
repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no
repentance.”
(Luke 15:7). The righteous sheep didn’t need their Messiah.
Why would He begin His ministry far away when so many needed His help close
by? Or, if He stayed in the holy land but was to send His disciples to distant
lands, how could they face the overwhelming rejection without His encouraging
presence? Instead, He would keep them close to correct their mistakes and
encourage them while He was with them.
Beside, “judgment must begin at the house of God.” (1Pet.
4:17). Christ always commands, “Begin
at My sanctuary.” (Eze. 9:6). The Lord always start His work with those who
should know Him best. In the case of the world of His day, that was the Jews.
Jesus said, “Salvation is of the Jews.” (John 4:22). He would hold them the
most accountable, and the first to be tested and judged.
Another thing Jesus did was to interpret for us and to
fulfill the prophets messages to “both the houses of Israel” (Isa. 8:14). His
words, “Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall
fish them” (Jer. 16:16) sound like, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers
of men” (Matt. 4:19). By many metaphors throughout Old and New Testaments,
Jesus has used parables to communicate His will and plans. We need to lay the
New over the Old and see the beautiful consistency in the word of God. The
whole prophecy from Jeremiah follows.
“Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that it
shall no more be said, The Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel
out of the land of Egypt;
But, The Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel
from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither He had driven them:
and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers.
Behold, I will send
for many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them; and after will I
send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from
every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.
For Mine eyes are upon all their ways: they are not hid from
My face, neither is their iniquity hid from Mine eyes.
And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin
double; because they have defiled My land, they have filled Mine inheritance
with the carcases of their detestable and abominable things.
O Lord, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the
day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto Thee from the ends of the
earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and
things wherein there is no profit.
Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods?
Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them to know, I
will cause them to know Mine hand and My might; and they shall know that My
name is The LORD.” (Jer. 16:14-21).
But Jeremiah says all that were
taken captive to the north country would be brought back. That included all 12
tribes because when they were taken away, Assyrians and Babylonians marched “both
the houses of Israel” north out of their lands. But then Jeremiah mentions
Gentiles being fished. This forces Jeremiah’s prophecy to include the 10 tribes
of Israel into the Gentiles. Those Gentiles would be fished by Paul and other
apostles.
Nevertheless, while the apostles
were in training with Jesus He called His disciples to fish for men, but
starting with the Jews and anyone else living in Judea and Galilee. Even by the
time of His ascension He prevented them from travelling far from Palestine.
“And, behold, I send the promise of My Father upon you: but tarry ye in the
city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.” (Luke 24:49).
Not until Pentecost would they go
to the furthest points of the world. For the first time they realized the vast
scope that would encompass their missionary journeys.
“But ye shall receive power, after
that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in
Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of
the earth.” (Acts 1:8). “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them
to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you
always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” (Matt. 28:19,20).
“Then Jesus went thence, and
departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon.
And, behold, a woman of Canaan came
out of the same coasts, and cried unto Him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, Thou
son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.
But He answered her not a word. And
His disciples came and besought Him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth
after us.
But He answered and said, I am not
sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Then came she and worshipped Him,
saying, Lord, help me.
But He answered and said, It is not
meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs.
And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the
dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.
Then Jesus answered and said unto
her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her
daughter was made whole from that very hour.
And Jesus departed from thence, and
came nigh unto the sea of Galilee.” (Matt. 15:21-29).
Was this only a test of her
tenacity? Was He ignoring her because He was on a more important mission into
Europe, and her need was not His primary concern?
Or did He only go there because
this woman, an alien of the commonwealth of Israel, felt her dependence of the
God of heaven more than even His own disciples did? She had faith that saw help
from the God of the universe. His mission wasn’t only to the nation of Israel;
His kingdom was not of this world. The Lord was searching for every honest soul
sprinkled around His creation who was surrendering to God’s rebuke upon
idolatry and His curse upon self-indulgence.
Doesn’t the second option sound
like the caring Jesus who would die for His children? “But I tell you of a
truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was
shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the
land; but unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon,
unto a woman that was a widow.” (Luke 4:25,26). Jesus was repeating history by
acting as the antitype of His Old Testament types, seeking out all who, by
faith, were looking to heaven for help. After helping the Gentile woman Jesus
immediately came back to Galilee, leaving us the impression that His going to
the utmost border of ancient Israel was the furthest He ever went.
“He healeth the broken in heart,
and bindeth up their wounds.” (Ps. 147:3).
Jesus was also using this faithful woman, who He knew He
could depend on, to demonstrate to His hard-hearted disciples the eternal
kingdom that He was working so earnestly to set up. The disciples needed to see
a whole new paradigm in the plan of redemption. The plan did not involve
exalting Israel in the world, unless the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob would be faithful with God’s covenant and His plan for salvation to the
world. But, they refused to include mercy into their selfish agenda for world
control, and they were finally routed out of the holy land just like their
brethren in the ancient northern kingdom were routed out. For God is no
respecter of persons.
If Satan is going to use them and they allow themselves to
be used by him, God and His only begotten Prince will punish the group and save
only those who surrender to their punishment from heaven. That has been the
Godhead’s method consistently all through the ages.
“Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy
holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make
reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to
seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. …the Messiah the Prince…shall confirm the
covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week He shall cause
the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of
abominations He shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that
determined shall be poured upon the desolate.” (Dan. 9:24,27).
Daniel’s final message to Israel from heaven came after many
previous messages since the days of Moses. Jehovah has always saved the
faithful and destroyed the majority that are serving Satan.
“I will make Mine arrows drunk with blood, and My sword
shall devour flesh; and that with the blood of the slain and of the captives,
from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy. Rejoice, O ye nations, with His
people: for He will avenge the blood of His servants, and will render vengeance
to His adversaries, and will be merciful unto His land, and to His people.”
(Deut. 32:42,43).
When we read the whole song of Moses from verse 1-41 we see
that the enemy that the Lord would destroy were Israelites of every tribe—“His
people… Jacob” (vs. 9)—who “waxed fat, and kicked” and who “forsook God which
made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation” (vs. 15). “They
sacrificed [“His sons, and…His daughters”] unto devils…; to gods whom they knew
not, to new gods that came newly up” (vs. 17, cf Jer. 19:4,5).
For centuries He worked with Israel yet they didn’t care to
learn His ways. Finally He stopped sending prophets. But, then His silence led
them to act like He didn’t exist. “He said, I will hide My face from them, I
will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation,
children in whom is no faith.
They have moved Me to jealousy with that which is not God;
they have provoked Me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to
jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a
foolish nation.
For a fire is kindled in Mine anger, and shall burn unto the
lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the
foundations of the mountains.
I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend Mine arrows
upon them.
They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning
heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of beasts upon
them, with the poison of serpents of the dust.
The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy both the
young man and the virgin, the suckling also with the man of gray hairs.
I said, I would scatter them into corners, I would make the
remembrance of them to cease from among men.” (vs. 20-26). And after all that
only a very small remnant would live. That remnant became the apostolic church.
“For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies
themselves being judges.
For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of
Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter:
Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of
asps.
Is not this laid up in store with Me, and sealed up among My
treasures?
To Me belongeth vengeance, and recompence; their foot shall
slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things
that shall come upon them make haste.” (vs. 31-35).
Although Israel’s iniquity was “not yet full” (Gen. 15:16),
the Lord would do to those apostates just like He did to the Canaanites. The
land spued them out because they defiled it, “as it spued out the nations that
were before [them]” (Lev. 18:28). This warning from Moses they disregarded, and
their disregard ended in the Lord executing it.
“And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass
through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to
do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke Him to anger.
Therefore the LORD was
very angry with Israel, and removed them out of His sight: there was none
left but the tribe of Judah only.
Also Judah kept not the commandments of the LORD their God,
but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made.
And the LORD rejected
all the seed of Israel, and afflicted
them, and delivered them into the hand of spoilers, until He had cast them out of His sight.
For He rent Israel from the house of David; and they made
Jeroboam the son of Nebat king: and Jeroboam drave Israel from following the
LORD, and made them sin a great sin.
For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of
Jeroboam which he did; they departed not from them;
Until the LORD removed Israel out of His sight, as
He had said by all his servants the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of
their own land to Assyria unto this day.” (2Ki. 17:17-23).
Israel has ceased to be the holy people who carry the true
knowledge of God. But, Satan orchestrates the movement of nations, as he walks
up and down in the earth. He can use the Vatican to work her religio-politics
to restore the Israeli homeland in order to change the truth of the Bible for his
deceptions in the time of the end. But, we are the holy people. Protestant
Adventists are the “mighty and the holy people” (Dan. 8:24). If you and I are
sealed in the end then we will be among the 144,000 who preach the everlasting
gospel to the whole world for a witness to every nation before the end comes.
But we must be sanctified and sealed; otherwise we will be deluded and marked
for the beast’s work.
We are not safe in our doctrines and interpretations of
scripture unless we are “sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints”
(1Cor. 1:2). If we are not walking with strict obedience to the high standards
of the Spirit of Prophecy, then we will be caught up in the last days’ myriad
delusions from the father of lies. We can’t depart from the direction that Jesus
gave the Advent movement. To depart from the Advent movement and its prophet is
to depart from Jesus and to join with Satan and his growing, global movement.
“Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures,
The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the
corner: this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes? Therefore
say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a
nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. And whosoever shall fall on this Stone
shall be broken: but on whomsoever It shall fall, It will grind him to powder.”
(Matt. 21:42-44).
If we depart from our prophet, Jesus will fall on us like He
did ancient Israel, and grind us to powder. With the multitudes of
Protestantism our foot will “slide in due time: for the day of their calamity
is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste”.
“The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious,
longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands,
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity
of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the
third and to the fourth generation.” (Ex. 34:6,7).
“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a
new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers
in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt;
which My covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord:
But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the
house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put My Law in their
inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they
shall be My people.
And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and
every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know Me, from
the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive
their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jer. 31:31-34).
“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will perform
that good thing which I have promised unto the house of Israel and to the house
of Judah.
In those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch of
righteousness to grow up unto David; and He shall execute judgment and
righteousness in the land.
In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall
dwell safely: and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, The Lord our
righteousness.
For thus saith the Lord; David shall never want a man to sit
upon the throne of the house of Israel.” (Jer. 33:14-17).
This was fulfilled in the apostolic church. Christ was that
Branch of righteousness. (Isa. 11:1-9). Isaiah’s chapter 11 prophecy culminates
with this promise, “And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall
stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and His rest
shall be glorious.
And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall
set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people, which
shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush,
and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the
sea.
And He shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall
assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah
from the four corners of the earth.
The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries
of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not
vex Ephraim.
But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines
toward the west; they shall spoil them of the east together: they shall lay
their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them.
And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the
Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river,
and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dryshod.
And there shall be an highway for the remnant of His people,
which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he
came up out of the land of Egypt.” (vs. 10-16).
This great prophecy was the “exceeding great and precious
promises” that Peter said would make us partakers of the divine nature, “having
escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2Pet. 1:4). Isaiah
prophesied of the recipients of the Early Rain of the Holy Spirit who were
driven to the uttermost bounds of the globe, no multitude, nation, tongue, or
people could stop them from preaching that the Messiah had come.
In metaphorical language in order for them to comprehend, Isaiah
used the Assyrians, Egyptians, Amon and Moab to describe all the nations of the
Far East, Europe, and Africa who would hear the present truth from the
apostles.
Since then, Christ, the righteous Branch, the “son of
David,” has been sitting on David’s throne in Mt. Zion “in the heavens.” (Ps.
2:4). “So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, He was received up into
heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. And they went forth, and preached
every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs
following. Amen.” (Mark 16:19,20). “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit
with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father
in His throne.” (Rev. 3:21).
“For finding fault with them, He saith, Behold, the days
come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah:
Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers
in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt;
because they continued not in My covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the
Lord.
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of
Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put My laws into their mind,
and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be
to Me a people:
And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every
man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know Me, from the least
to the greatest.
For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their
sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
In that He saith, A new covenant, He hath made the first
old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.” (Heb.
8:8-13).
Do we dare expunge Paul’s inspired writings from the Holy
Scriptures because they don’t fit into the world’s conceptions of what the Bible
is trying to teach us?
“The scripture cannot be broken.” (John 10:35). If the
scripture cannot be broken, then we must reconcile the Old and New Testaments
and make them agree. To make them agree is to say that the revival under the
apostles, especially due to Paul, fulfilled the ancient promises to Israel.
“All shall know Me, from the least to the greatest.” In the church, “the Israel
of God” (Gal. 6:16), the Lord finally got what He had been waiting for from
2,000 years of Abraham’s descendants.
“The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries
of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not
vex Ephraim.” (Isa. 11:13). This was fulfilled in the early church.
“That at that time ye 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:
But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are
made nigh by the blood of Christ.
For He is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken
down the middle wall of partition between us.” (Eph. 2:12-14).
D____, I get the impression that you see me as a parrot for
old, worn out ideas from the Adventist forefathers, ideas that are “threadbare
and hoary with age” DA, p. 326. But, I have caught the vision that Jesus
inspired Mrs. White to lead us in, that the first, second, and third angels’
messages bring the whole Bible together for the guidance of His last movement
on earth. All that the Bible teaches, by laying Old Testament onto the New, and
vice versa, will give us the needed preparation for the great time of trouble
and the return of Christ in power and glory. We need all the warnings and
threats from scripture to warn us away from leaving the present truth given to Adventism.
“Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing
as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;
Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament;
not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth
life.
But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in
stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly
behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to
be done away:
How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather
glorious?
For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more
doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.
For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this
respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.” (2Cor. 3:5-10).
To launch out in another direction with a focus on earthly
Israel that causes you to criticize Paul and other Bible writers is to meet
with the shipwreck of your faith. To disallow the new greater themes that
extend beyond ancient Israel to a new heaven and a new earth, to entertain the
expectation of a new temple on earth when we are to look for a new earth that
no longer has a temple because God is the temple, is to reject the great finale
of the great controversy. It is to allow Satan to inspire minds to resist the
newest development of truth and to stubbornly remain in the previous way of
understanding God’s work.
The only old things to retain are the everlasting gospel and
primitive godliness.
“Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask
for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find
rest for your souls.” (Jer. 6:16).
“Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith,
charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. But
foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes. And
the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to
teach, patient.” (2Tim. 2:22-24).
“Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only
wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen. This charge I commit
unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee,
that thou by them mightest war a good warfare; holding faith, and a good
conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck: of
whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they
may learn not to blaspheme.” (1Tim. 1:17-20).
This is where the Jews failed by serving the corrupting god
of Baal, and ended up in captivity. Idolatry caused them to completely lose
their Hebrew religion and faith in the God of heaven, and later come out of
captivity filled with pagan concepts that changed their religion into
Babylonian Judaism. Later, when the Messiah came teaching only the Hebrew
scriptures, they couldn’t make sense of the truth He was speaking. Therefore,
upon rejecting Messiah Jesus and killing Him, God gave them over to Gnosticism.
Out of that came Kabala and the mystery religions that created Catholicism and
its continuous succession of mystical high priests and their continual offering
to Satan. Every other theology that departs from the apostolic and Reformation
gospel of justification and sanctification is not to be taken up or even to be touched.
It will destroy us. Eternal loss await everyone who disregards Christ’s command,
“Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy.” Satan as a roaring lion
pounces and devours them in an instant.
To insist on departing from God’s new developments of His
plan of redemption, such as the Jews did to their Messiah, clinging to strange
gods of theology which our Adventist fathers never knew, is to eventually be
cut off as the Jews were. We need to be constantly weeding out spurious ideas
from the system of truth that Jesus gave Adventism. Over the years many strange
concepts have come into Adventist thinking. By self-denial, prayer, and
comprehensive Bible study, these concepts need picking out and replacing with
whole-Bible truth. But, the effort must be to bring everything to align with
the original truths we were given. Satan is untiring in his use of new biblical
concepts. We see his purposes by his fruits. We can know that every idea that
leads away from present truth and inspires unbelief in any part of the Bible comes
straight from Satan’s workshop. New discoveries will come, but they all
strengthen the holy cause that God has obviously been blessing.
If we ever segregate godliness from theology it will be to
our ruin. We will end up with the Jews in some variant of Kabala and
Gnosticism. Disconnected from the mind of Christ, Satan is standing by ready to
weave his damning subtleties into our thinking.
“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times
some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and
doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared
with a hot iron.” (1Tim. 4:1,2).
“Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof:
from such turn away.
For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead
captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,
Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of
the truth.
Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also
resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.
But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be
manifest unto all men, as theirs also was.
But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life,
purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience,
Persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at
Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord
delivered me.
Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall
suffer persecution.
But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse,
deceiving, and being deceived.
But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and
hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them;
And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures,
which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in
Christ Jesus.
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is
profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all
good works.” (2Tim. 3:5-17).
Conviction of sin and repentance to Jesus, growing the
fruits of Christ’s Spirit, holiness, and godliness, are our safeguards from
deception. They will be a shield from all the temptations of the adversary, and
give us a love of the truth that we might stand through the end troubles and
confusion.
posted by David | 10:24 AM
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