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The Covenant: God's Relationship to Jews,

By: David Ben-Ariel
Israelites, and Gentiles
Art Braidic (a minister of the Sabbath keeping Church of God) and I have enjoyed a
Forgot Password? New biblical discussion about whether or not God's covenant with Judah is still active. I
User? trust others may glean something profitable from our fellowship. I start with his
intial response and add my comments:

"My conclusion is that God brought the Jews back to fulfill prophecy, not to re-
establish them as a nation permanently."
Home Based Business
Health & Fitness Thank you, Art, for prayerfully considering all this about Judah's return under Ezra
Arts & Entertainment and Nehemiah and taking the time to respond. May God bless our fellowship and
Loans inspire us all to a better understanding of this holy subject. Such discussions prove
Small Business true that "iron sharpens iron."
Alternative Medicine
Business God did indeed bring Judah back (but not all were willing to return just like today) to
Vehicles fulfill prophecy, but I must question if that was the only reason why did God not
Religion only send a scion of David (Zerubbabel), and a governor (Nehemiah), but a PRIEST
Internet Marketing to instruct the People in the Torah? Ezra had his Work cut out for him and did a
Weight Loss marvelous job (Ezra 7:10).
Pets
Beauty His NATIONAL CONGREGATION repented of their Sabbath breaking (Nehemiah
Marketing 13:17-22) and mixed marriages and entered into a COVENANT WITH GOD. We
Relationships have no record of the Gentilized Israelites ever repenting, even in part, or returning
and submitting to any biblical instruction (Ezra 10:1-3).
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Judah had sinned worse than Israel originally, but THEY REPENTED and were
brought back. Israel never repented and was never brought back. Some of Judah
remained repentant from THE RETURN to the time of Yeshua, the New Testament
Submit bearing them record:

The priestly parents of John the Baptist (Luke 1:6), Simon and Anna - two holy and
elderly witnesses and the Torah-observant Yosef and Miriam (Luke 2:25, 36-39).

And Yeshua said of the Gentiles and testified about the Jews:

John 4:22 22 You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for
salvation is of the Jews.

He couldn't say that about the Gentilized Israelites who had lost it all!

"The Old Testament was to have seven eras."

I know the Church of God teaches this and I have shared it with others, but the
Church of God isn't consistent when they reject the God-given authority of the
scribes and the Pharisees that Christ acknowledged on the matters of the sacred
calendar and responsibility to properly proclaim the holy days.
"Christ was to come from Judah. All this was fulfilled and then, God destroyed the
nation and scattered them exactly like He did their sister Israel."

God had already destroyed the former Judah and Jerusalem and scattered the Jews,
but many of them repented and returned (part of true national repentance is to return
to the Land, not just the Law). Those faithful Jews, the parents of John, the parents
of Yeshua, Simon, Anna, and others like them remained faithful and accepted the
Light that God had sent Judah and when the others rejected Him they were rejected.

But the physical and spiritual foundation of converted Jews continued without fail!
The early Church of God was entirely Jewish, as you know. That Jewish/biblical
foundation was most instrumental in the construction of the spiritual Temple that
includes Gentile converts into that holy Branch. Most of Judah were temporarily cut
off, just like the Gentilized Israelites, but SOME of them never were and continued
right on as pioneers of faith towards the "New Jerusalem!"

"Antiocus went through the land devastating it it and putting the abomination in the
temple. I submit that if these people were God's people, in a covenant with them,
then they would have not suffered so."

Isn't that a gospel of peace and prosperity? Don't true believers suffer persecution? If
God wasn't in covenant with Judah, why did Yeshua call the defiled and
CLEANSED Temple "My Father's House?" God sent Judah - still His covenant
people at that point - the Macabbees as in the days of the Judges, just as the Church
also teaches that Daniel prophesied of them as the "people who know their God and
do (military) exploits," and they formed part of the seven eras of the Old Testament.
Another traditional inconsistency!

"To me, after Christ's death, any relationship was completely over."

Yes, I agree that after the unwarranted hatred Yeshua experienced at the hands of His
brethren, like our father Joseph did earlier as a type, the Anointed One who came to
purify Judah's religion and correct their misunderstandings and rebuke idolatrous
traditions (which is why He spent so much time with the God-ordained Pharisees).
He warned Judah of the Temple's imminent destruction and their dispersion and they
rejected Him and His warning message and many of them paid for it with their lives,
God was through - for the most part - with collective Judah. However, as stated
above, God kept His Word to be the God of our fathers and our God to a remnant,
folks like the righteous I've mentioned whose kind made up the early Church.

"As Paul writes... Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the
body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from
the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God."

I do know your point, but to be technical, it's speaking of US being dead to sin (and
its penalty) and resurrected in Christ, able to now marry Righteousness - it doesn't
state that about Christ.

"So, in the marriage to Israel, God was married to Judah. Once He died, He was able
to remarry. He now is espoused to those He has called, and He will marry them at
His return."

I know and have also shared this Church of God teaching, but the Scriptures reveal
God saying to physical Israelites in these last days, God pleading with us to return to
Him as our Husband, that He never divorced us! Judah and Israel are still married to
God even if we've broken our part of the covenant relationship and God has
"SEPARATED" us from Him due to our unrepentant sins. But He wants us back!
(Isaiah 50:1, Jeremiah 3:14).

The Church of God, like the Prophets, ought to call our people back to the Law and
the Covenant that God made with our Fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (and
confirmed with our fathers at Mount Sinai) and wants to RENEW with us and
improve upon it by writing His Torah upon the tablets of our converted hearts and
minds, so help us God!

"I actually do not know what replacement theology is."

It is denying the spiritual importance of physical Israel to God forever, regardless of

our present sins that will soon be history.

"Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel,
which are of Israel, Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all
children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, They which are the children
of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are
counted for the seed."

All this is saying is that race alone isn't sufficient. That a physical Israelite must also
have a spiritual Israelite identity or they're nothing more than physically circumcised
spiritual Gentiles! And that physical Gentiles can be spiritual Israelites and join the
Body of converted Israelite believers: the remnant of physical Israel who isn't
blinded!

Rom 11:1 I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid.

Replacement theology would say it doesn't matter because spiritual Israel has
replaced any need for physical Israelites to be in a covenant relationship with God
and such a damnable heresy is dead wrong! Paul then stresses his PHYSICAL
TRIBAL IDENTITY - he didn't dismiss it as unimportant. God must always have at
least a chosen few physical Israelites to keep His Promise to our Fathers to be their
God and the God of their literal descendants.

"But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven
thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. Even so then at
this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.

So, there is a remnant according to grace, not race. Who is that remnant comprised
of?"

Not so! The very example Paul used were ALL ISRAELITE. Why speak of a
remnant except to refer to the relatively chosen few ISRAELITES who have not
gone astray or been blinded? The remnant pertains to physical Israelites who are
converted Israelites!

"What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath
obtained it, and the rest were blinded"

The election or remnant of physical ISRAELITES! Just like the vast majority of
Jews rejected Jesus but a remnant of physical Jews remained faithful and formed the
foundational Church of God in Jerusalem!

"Rom 11:16 For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be
holy, so are the branches. And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being
a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root
and fatness of the olive tree

While not the firstfruits, they are still holy because they are God's people."

It is converted physical Israelites who are the firstfruits, converted physical Israelites
who are the roots, a converted physical Israelite olive tree that converted Gentiles
can be grafted into! We are the Israelite Church of God, as Herbert W. Armstrong
taught, and it is counterfeit Christianity that is a Gentile Church that seeks to replace
physical Israelites in every way, physically and spiritually.

"For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should
be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the
fulness of the Gentiles be come in."
Blindness IN PART, a partial blindness among Jews and Israelites. I really don't
understand why God had to blind any of our people, maybe you know? Why couldn't
He just work with Gentiles and Israelites at the same time like He does in the
Church? Ancient Israel always accepted Gentile converts and they weren't at the
expense of any Israelites. I really don't understand this part of the mystery and pray
to grasp it better!

"And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the
Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto
them, when I shall take away their sins."

Back to physical Israel, showing their physical descent from Jacob-Israel remains
important to God despite "spiritual Israel." Again, it's because of the covenant that
God made with our Fathers. That's why the "Time of Jacob's Trouble" will be cut
short - mainly for the ethnic election, the physical Israelites' sakes! not the spiritual
Church of God alone.

Matthew 24:22

22 And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's
sake those days will be shortened.

Isaiah 1:9

9 Unless the LORD of hosts

Had left to us a very small remnant,

We would have become like Sodom,

We would have been made like Gomorrah.

Leviticus 26:44-45

44 Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them
away, nor shall I abhor them, to utterly destroy them and break My covenant with
them; for I am the LORD their God.

45 But for their sake I will remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I
brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God:
I am the LORD.'"

This GOOD NEWS is why the first chapter of Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and
Fall is gladly called "Survival Guaranteed!"

Rom 11:28 As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as
touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes.

Just like Elijah was opposed by most of his nation of Gentilized Israelites, and the
7,000 were the chosen few (COG - Cave of God), all physical Israelites, so most of
the nation of Judah rejected My God Yah in the flesh except for the chosen few
physical Israelites who became converted and were the Church of God in Judea! The
election, the ethnic elect, the Chosen People, will finally respond to our calling to
become a Kingdom of Priests, a Light to all Nations, so help us God! Hosanna in the
Highest!

"Rom 11: 30 For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy
upon all."

This is the mystery I wrote of above that I would like to understand better.

"As you stated, their time will come again, but I believe it is not now."
 I agree that the vast majority of Joes and Jews are presently blinded, but I believe
there are individuals with whom God is working, His Holy Spirit is WITH THEM
(not yet in them, like with His disciples originally), as part of the process of national
redemption, laying the groundwork, preparing the way, for when God chooses to call
us all again into a COVENANT RELATIONSHIP with Him, like Gershon Salomon
of the Temple Mount Faithful and other faithful Jews, exceptions, just like Simon
and Anna.

Even as Herbert W. Armstrong taught the children of Worldwide Church of God

members are SANCTIFIED (I Corinthians 7:14), so too are the children of Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob (Ezra 9:2). I believe this revelation needs to be better understood
and taught in the congregations.

"I love the Jewish people. I find them among the most bright, professional, and
talented people in the world."

I know you do. I never doubted it. I also know that Judah offers the best and the
worst in this world! We can either become "stars" (as the descendants of Abraham)
or so much "dirt" (grains of sand).

May God bless klal Yisrael (all Israel/12 Tribes) to fulfill our incredible NATIONAL
potential! (Isaiah 62:1-2, 6-7).

David Ben-Ariel is a Christian-Zionist writer in Ohio and author of Beyond

Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall. With a focus on the Middle East and Jerusalem, his
analytical articles help others improve their understanding of that troubled region.
http://beyondbabylon.blogspot.com
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