The Importance of the Jew in God's Overall Plan

The Importance of the Jew in God's Overall Plan

Jack A. Albert

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Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2013 Jack A. Albert

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KJV

King James Version

Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the Holy Bible, King James Version, Cambridge, 1769.

NIV

New International Version

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House.

NASB

New American Standard Bible

Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible, Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

NKJV

New King James Version

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from The New King James Version / Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville : Thomas Nelson Publishers., Copyright 1982. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

NRSV

New Revised Standard Version

Scripture quotations marked NRSV are taken from The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version / Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Nashville : Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

TLB

The Living Bible

Scripture quotations marked TLB or The Living Bible are taken from The Living Bible [computer file] / Kenneth N. Taylor. electronic ed. Wheaton : Tyndale House, 1997, c1971 by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The Hebrew and Greek Dictionary is extracted from Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible Copyright 1980, 1986, and assigned to World Bible Publishers, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Table of Contents

Preface

Ch. 1. What Is The Gospel?

Ch. 2. In Christ All Shall Be Made Alive

Ch. 3. What Is Our Real Destiny?

Ch. 4. Blessed Hope

Ch. 5. What Is The Church

Ch. 6. Most From Israel

Ch. 7. Proclaiming The Whole Gospel

Ch. 8. Is Jesus God

Ch. 9. Baptism

Ch. 10. The True Jew and God's Overall Plan

Ch. 11. A Short Message To Believing Gentiles

Ch. 12. To Sum Up

Preface

(2 Tim 2:15 KJV) Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

As far as Biblical academia is concerned, I haven't any Bible school background. What I'm presenting here is from my own personal study of the Holy Scriptures through many years, along with, in the far past, studying the Scriptures with a few of my brethren in Christ, and also much prayer. The reader should always check the Scriptures to see if what I've written here is in accordance with God's Holy Word.

At one time it was very helpful to know Hebrew and Greek, but today there are so many translations that one can use them to get the true sense of what is being said. Along with, more importantly, God's Son, through God's Holy Spirit, is always there for one who truly looks to God for understanding:

(James 1:5-8 NIV) If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. {6} But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. {7} That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; {8} he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.

Bible schools are good if they are teaching only truth, but if they are teaching something that is in error, it will be perpetuated. It is very difficult for a student to go against what is taught - the student must answer the test questions according to what the Bible school teaches. I have had no such restrictions, only a constant looking to God, through His Son, in prayer asking Him to correct me where I'm in error.

Why have I written this book? Isn't there enough books written about Christianity? The majority of my Gentile brethren in Christ don't know the importance of God's chosen people in His overall plan. Which makes me ask: Is Christianity a separate belief from true Judaism? It has become that, but should it be?

The answer should be no. Why? One of true Judaism's main prophecies is that of the coming Messiah. The Greek to English word for Messiah is Christ, and that's where the word Christian came from. So a belief in Christ is a belief in the Jewish Messiah.

(It is very possible that the neighbors of the first Gentile believers in Antioch heard them proclaiming and talking about the Jewish Christ and called them Christians, meaning, followers of the Jewish Christ/Messiah. Strong:5546. Christianos, khris-tee-an-os'; from G5547; a Christian, i.e. follower of Christ:—Christian).

The gospel to the Gentiles is the same gospel that was sent to the Jews. Do I have any Scriptures to back that up? Consider what the Apostle Paul said:

(Gal 2:7-8 NIV) On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, just as Peter had been to the Jews. {8} For God, who was at work in the ministry of Peter as an apostle to the Jews, was also at work in my ministry as an apostle to the Gentiles.

How then did it become separate from true Judaism? I believe the answer is in how the gospel was changed.

Some of the things I've written here you may not find elsewhere. I hope there are others that believe as I do in most or all of them. In all the 80 years God has blessed me with, I haven't come across them.

Since I'm writing this mainly for the enlightenment of my Gentile brethren in Christ, many times I'll use Jesus, which is taken from the Greek Iesous, and also Christ, which is taken from the Greek Christos. I'll also use Yeshua and Messiah or both, such as, Jesus/Yeshua and Christ/Messiah or such like

Some chapters will be short. I could have added them as subtitles in larger chapters, but I decided not to do that. I did it mainly for emphasis and ease of reading.

I believe that a false doctrine can cause other false doctrines, and also effect doctrines that are not false. It is, and always has been, my prayer to God that He would protect me from presenting false doctrines. It is for that reason that I emphasize the verse quoted above. I pray that I will not be ashamed when I stand before God for having written this book. One such doctrine, if presented falsely, is the doctrine of death. I have written much about it because it has caused other false doctrines, and has had an effect on doctrines that are not false.

You will find some redundancy of my writing in different chapters, because some things are worth repeating for emphasis. These beliefs are, as stated above, from my own personal study of the Holy Scriptures. They are not from any church, or congregation, or any denomination. Some churches or denominations may contain some of them (or be similar to some of them), but that is not where I got them.

The reader is exhorted to look to God in prayer, and study the Scriptures to see if these things are true. I pray that God will correct me wherever I am in error, and protect others who read this book from any such errors. It is my desire, and only my desire, that God's truth is proclaimed in all its fullness. And may it be to the glory of God through His Son Jesus/Yeshua.

2012

Chapter One

What Is The Gospel?

(Mat 24:14 NIV) And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

A while back in my reading of different posts on the newsgroup alt.messianic, I came across a post where Josh Moss said: IMO what is in competition here is, 'what is the gospel.' An interesting observation! Just what is the Gospel?

The word gospel comes from the Old English god-spell meaning good tidings or goodnews. The Greek word used in the NT is euaggelion which means good message or good tidings.

The Gospel that Jesus proclaimed (and had His disciples proclaim) wasn't what most believers say the gospel is today, because He hadn't died to pay for our sins yet. What He and His disciples proclaimed was the good news about the Kingdom of God. He was the anointed King of that Kingdom - anointed not with oil, but with God's Holy Spirit (of which oil only typified). He is the promised Messiah or Christ.

It is the Kingdom that was promised to Israel, the Kingdom that would bring peace and blessing to Israel. Israel will someday be the top nation of the world, and their Messiah will be King, not only over them, but over all nations. (Daniel 7:14) He will be King of kings and Lord of lords. That surely is good news! Also good news because Israel will be a righteous nation with God's laws written in their hearts and minds, and their Messiah will be a just and holy King that will be incapable of doing wrong.

Was Paul's gospel (good news) completely different? No. It is a very important part of the same gospel. How so? Paul's gospel not only includes the good news about the Kingdom of God, but also a clear message of how one can be alive and worthy to enter that Kingdom. The future Kingdom where God will rule through His Son would mean nothing to one who isn't there to enjoy it. So Paul's main message was about the righteousness that is required to save one (by resurrection if needed) unto that Kingdom. And that righteousness is obtainable only through repentance and faith in Jesus.

To Paul was revealed things about the Messiah that had never been revealed before. He called it the mystery, the mystery of Christ. In this knowledge is revealed God's method of saving us from what we all justly deserve - death. Also, in it is revealed how any of us can be accepted as worthy to live in the promised Kingdom and remain righteous. Not only was Jesus the promised Christ/King, but also He became the very means of getting into the Kingdom and of obtaining that righteous standard that God requires.

What has happened is that the entire gospel has become the good news of salvation from death through faith in Jesus, and the kingdom of God is no longer seen as the kingdom promised to Israel, but as Heaven. In doing so, the Jewishness of the gospel has been lost. Granted, salvation from death through faith in God's Messiah is the most important part of the gospel*, but in order to understand God's overall plan one must recognize both as being of great importance. In reality they are different aspects of the gospel that should be proclaimed today.

*Without salvation from death, it wouldn't make any difference whether the destiny of the saved was the Kingdom here on earth or Heaven.

Why didn't Paul put more of an emphasis on the kingdom promised to Israel if it is an important part of the gospel? He didn't have to. During his lifetime it was understood that one was saved unto the future kingdom of the Messiah/Christ. It is because the word Christ came to lose its primary meaning that the kingdom part of the gospel was lost. It should never have been possible to separate the word Christ from the kingdom promised to Israel, because He is the Christ or Messiah or King of that Kingdom. But that is what happened. Paul used the term Christ over and over again in his letters (in the KJV, 391 times; 404 with Hebrews - I believe Paul wrote Hebrews).

Since Paul was sent by God to be the Apostle to the Gentiles he used the most common language of the Gentiles to write his letters. So he used the Greek Christos, which in our English translations is Christ.

Jesus taught His disciples to pray: Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. (Mat 6:10 KJV) It should be clear from this that the Kingdom Jesus referred to will be here on earth, not in Heaven. In reality it will be Heaven on earth since God will be ruling here on earth through His Son - which guarantees that His will is being done here on earth.

I said in the Preface: I believe that a false doctrine can cause other false doctrines, and also effect doctrines that are not false. This is one of those cases:

A big factor that played a part in changing the gospel to salvation unto Heaven is the doctrine that one doesn't really die when