Friday, October 20, 2023
As a nation, Israel is harshly anti-Christ, steeped in Orthodox Judaism, not ignorant of Christ yet hating Him, making Israel’s unbelief all the more wicked. Muslims also, with knowledge, deny God’s Son. Both Israel and Palestine serve the devil. Period! Yet, many Christians can’t discern this because they are blinded by Dispensational Theology (DT) which tells them to “pick a side”, Israel, though Israel is just as wicked as any unbelieving nation. This should not be, for there are Jews, and then there are true Jews, and true Christians should discern the difference. DT does not discern that difference because it would destroy DT and its false ear-tickling pre-trib rapture lie. That believers are falsely taught to “pick the side” of unbelieving wicked Israel is shameful!
Again, there are Jews, and then there are real Jews. The former are physical Jews, “circumcised on the eight day” (Gen. 21:4 and Lev. 12:3) (men), trying to earn the favor of God by observing the Old Testament Law. God did once say to Israel, “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special people to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exo. 19:5–6). But they repeatedly rebelled under that Law and were ultimately “given a certificate of divorce” (Jer. 3:8), by God, confirmed in that they were “cut off” (Rom. 11:22) from God for rejecting Christ. But as God said, “if they do not continue in unbelief, [they] will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again” (Rom. 11:23). But today, Jews of Judaism continue in their hate of Christ. The biblical truth is that unbelieving Jews are not the Jews of God. And what’s so bad is that many Christians, ever since the middle of the 19th Century, have been led by false teachers who teach Christians to falsely believe that Jews of Judaism are still God’s “chosen people”!
Once more, there are Jews, and then there are real Jews. The latter are from every nation, tribe and tongue; anyone who is born again by true faith in God’s only Son, Jesus Christ. “For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God” (Rom. 2:28–29). For this very reason God said of those born again by true faith in Christ: “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy” (1 Peter 2:9–10). Since God called Abram, “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Rom. 11:29). God’s call upon any and all who will by grace through faith believe has never been rescinded. And he or she who responds to God by grace through faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ for salvation, are in fact the true Jews of God. The unbelieving world doesn’t know that. Dispensational Christians don’t know that. But increasingly now, true Jews are being hated even more than the unbelieving Jews.
Unbelieving Jews of national Israel are no more the “chosen people” of God than are any other unbelieving heathen peoples from any other nation. That’s an important truth that sets apart the believing true Jews of God who in tribulation time to come will see God’s true Jews persecuted in measures not seen before in the history of this world. God clearly said “in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God” (Gal. 6:15–16). But DT has destroyed that truth as it has deceptively segregated groups of people from one alleged dispensation to another, with each group being dealt with differently by God in Christ; each group being resurrected and raptured by God at varying times during the cruel end-times.
By the heresy of John Nelson Darby’s 1830 Dispensational teachings, countless millions of ignorant believers have been taken captive by the ear-tickling false promise that God raptures present-day believers before those of other dispensations of time. If that were true, God would be guilty of favoritism and partiality. But we know that there is no favoritism or partiality with God, Luke 20:21, Acts 10:34, Rom. 2:11 and Gal. 2:6. The Holy Spirit said “There is one body [not multiple] and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all” (Eph. 4:4–6). It is imperative that you let no one deceive you as warned by Jesus at Matt. 24:4.
True Jews, true Christians, are “the Israel of God” (Gal. 6:16), and not the unbelieving Jews of national Israel today. As part of his end-time tribulation plan, Satan is trying to destroy both the unbelieving Jews of national Israel and the land of Israel, because he knows the land of Israel is the eternal possession of God’s true Jews, those born of God by grace through faith in Christ. As the seven-year rule of Antichrist commences, the world will be viciously united against true Jews of God, and the coming “mark of the beast” (Rev. 13:16) will be the catalyst of demarcation that separates true Jews of God from the unbelieving, false and pretentious. Knowing the difference between true Jews of God by faith in Christ, from those who are not, will make you free indeed.
True Jews, true Christians, hear the Words, teachings and testimony of Jesus Christ, and take them to heart. True believers personalize the testimony of Jesus and don’t look for ways to make any portion of His Word apply only to others while excluding themselves. But that’s the heretical practice of DT – falsely declaring that Antichrist’s seven-year tribulation pertains to unbelieving Jews of Israel while excluding post-Calvary believers from it by being raptured. Thus, those who so believe and teach effectively reject Christ’s resurrection rapture teachings, they further reject out of hand nearly all of The Revelation of Jesus Christ. And that explains why little to none of The Revelation of Jesus Christ has been taught in the organized church for the past forty years; the belief being that, why study something, why teach something, why preach something, that doesn’t even apply! Organized Dispensational churches live under self-induced deceptions.
Jesus said “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). Do you believe His testimony applies to you? Because if you do you cannot say that His Olivet Discourse doesn’t apply to you but it does to others. Hear the Lord: “Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, if you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31–32). By this we know that DT does not abide in Christ’s Word, but abides rather in its own ear-tickling beliefs and traditions of men “making the word of God of no account through your traditions which you have handed down. And many such things you do” (Mark 7:13). I urge you in the love of Christ, make it your ambition to equip yourself and your loved ones in the testimony of Jesus and forsake traditions of men making God’s word of no account. You will never regret it. Loving God and fellowman is what the Holy Spirit meant when He said, “Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us…[therefore] be reconciled to God” (2 Cor. 5:20).
Marlin J. Yoder
