Let’s examine a few points here….
It is not I who have have condemned “Israel” as a nation….it is God himself through Jesus‘ teachings.
Matt 23 is a good example of where the religious leaders led the people….with the result that they cursed themselves and their own children, in their desire to have Jesus executed as a despised blasphemer!
Matt 27:24-25…KJV..
”When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it.
25 Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.”
Who told them that Jesus was a blasphemer? Why did they believe those religious leaders? For the same reason that people today follow their religious leaders…..they believe them. God will not interfere with our free willed choices.
Believing something or in someone, doesn’t make it the truth. We have to prove things to ourselves….and we can only do that by careful study.
God will hold the Jewish people to account for their statement above. History shows that fleshly Jews have never known God’s blessing in their time since Christ’s murder and even in the intervening hundreds of years between the time of their last prophet Malachi, and the time of Jesus Christ. Why? Because as Jesus said…..
“37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!
38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
39 For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” (Matt 23:37-39)
Are you going to hold your breath waiting for natural Israel to suddenly repent of their crimes? To repent in asking foreign nations to support their bloodshed? (Isa 1:15) They don’t want to.
Repentance has to come from the heart, and the only “natural Jews” who merit salvation are the prophesied “remnant” from that nation who came to Christ and abandoned the false religion, practiced by their corrupt leadership.(Matt 15:7-9)
Their worship, Jesus said, was invalidated by what they taught…man-made doctrines and traditions, much like Christendom, who followed in their footsteps. History repeats because people don’t learn the lessons from the past. Israel never did either.
To what “new light” has your leadership led you? As far as I can see you have not progressed in your understanding of anything since Russell’s death. If the light on the path has not “grown brighter” with the approaching “day of Jehovah”, now so near at hand, then that does not bode well for you. (Prov 4:18)
Ah yes, “replacement theology”….did God “replace” disobedient natural “Israel” with another “Israel”?
The Scriptures tell us that he did.
Rom 2:28-29….
”For he is not a Jew who is one on the outside, nor is circumcision something on the outside, on the flesh. 29 But he is a Jew who is one on the inside, and his circumcision is that of the heart by spirit and not by a written code. That person’s praise comes from God, not from people.”
God chose a new nation to serve him as disciples of his son. This was spiritual “Israel” who were made up of both natural Jews and gentile believers in Jesus….Paul called them
“the Israel of God” (Gal 6:16) ….sons by “adoption” rather than by birth. (Matt 3:7-10) God can raise up sons of Abraham from the stones if he needed to.
Rom 9:6-8…Paul wrote….
”However, it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who descend from Israel are really “Israel.” 7 Neither are they all children because they are Abraham’s offspring; rather, “What will be called your offspring will be through Isaac.” 8 That is, the children in the flesh are not really the children of God, but the children by the promise are counted as the offspring.”
There it is…..deny it if you wish.
If you think natural Israel as they are today, have anything to do with the God of Jesus Christ, you are sadly mistaken. That fleshly (political) nation is lost, but individuals from that nation are welcomed when they accept Jesus as Messiah…let’s hope many more do.
Yes, all spiritual “Israel” will be saved, as they alone will rule in the Kingdom of God as “kings and priests”.(Rev 20:6) This was the original promise to fleshly Israel (Ex 19:4-6) but they disqualified themselves by their disobedience….that promise was conditional and they lost it through their own conduct.
Again, yes, support….but for spiritual “Israel”….we see from Jesus‘ judging “the sheep from the goats”, what is the criteria upon which they are judged? Read Matt 25:31-46, and see for yourself that it is the assistance given to Christ’s “brothers”, (which came to be both Jewish and gentiles Christians) who gain the “sheep” God’s favor….OTOH, the “goats” have not bothered to support any of Christ’s brothers because they do not recognize them as such.
Who then were Christ’s “brothers” back in the first century? And who are those who support them in these last days? Why would anyone support what the nation of Israel is doing right now? Bombing and killing innocent women and children without God’s sanction or support….relying on foreign nations to supply their weapons and backing. If God was backing Israel, no other power would be necessay to attain them victory.
Look back in history and see the truth of the statement…”If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Rom 8:28-31)
You are sadly mistaken….lost in old and dim light from the past, so that there is no progression into the future….I do not believe that things will turn out as you imagine. Who replaced Russell? He was the spokesman for a whole group, but he was not the leader. He was part of a body…a governing body of redeemed people at that time.
