I'm going to be editing this considerably as it was geared for a forum larded with anti-Zionist punitive supersessionists. In that forum had flatly declared to a newbie Christian: "The Jewish people know the Father but not the Son.".
I think it is sad and tragic to see a Christian assigning - even in a single sentence - who Jews do or do not know or what Jews do or do not believe, particularly in answer to a babe in Christ.
How many mediators have there been between man and God?
1Ti 2:5 For [there is] one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
Jhn 17:5 And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
Hbr 9:26 For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
What was Jesus suffering from, from the foundation of the world, if not the burden of sin of mankind?
Psalms 95:1 O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us
make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.I would suggest that Old Testament Jews knew the Son and sang praises to Him (and continue to sing praises to Him), they
just didn't know they knew the Son.Some Jews may remain sovereignly blinded by God to this day:
Rom 11:8 (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;)
unto this day.
That was penned decades after the cross.
Rom 11:25 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.
("
until the full number of the Gentiles come in")
Unless someone believes that the full number of Gentiles has already been brought to the Lord - even as millions of Muslims are coming to Christ in Africa alone - how can a Christian proclaim that the spirit of slumber has been lifted from the eyes and ears of those Jews whom God chose to blind to the Gospel?
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.
As you browse this forum there is no shortage of conspicuous examples of what seems to happen in folks hearts, who have gone down the road of proclaiming God's ways and judgments, including assigning beliefs and attributes to Jews as a monolithic group - whether they a reprobate Hollywood movie producer, or one who worships our God YHWH through our Old Testament scriptures and whose life revolves around their temple and faith-based community.
Rom 11:33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable [are] his judgments, and his ways past finding out!
http://www.israelinbibleprophecy.com/spirit_of_slumber.htm“Hence I observe these things, first that the restauration of the Jewish nation so much spoken of by the old Prophets respects not the few Jews who were converted in the Apostles days, but the dispersed nation of the unbelieving Jews to be converted in the end when the fullness of the Gentiles shall enter, that is when the Gospel (upon the fall of Babylon) shall begin to be preached to all nations. Secondly that the prophecies of Isaiah described above by being here cited by the Apostle is limited to respect the time of the future conversion and restitution of the Jewish Nation, and thirdly that
the humour which has long reigned among the Christians of boasting our selves against the Jews, and insulting over them for their not believing, is reprehended by the Apostle for high –mindedness and self-conceipt, and much more is our using them despightfully, Pharisaicall and impiousâ€
http://www.modernzionism.com/Prophesies indicate that God returned Jews to their land even in unbelief:
KJV Ezekiel 36:19 And I scattered them among the heathen, and they were dispersed through the countries: according to their way and according to their doings I judged them. 20 And when they entered unto the heathen, whither they went, they profaned my holy name, when they said to them, These [are] the people of the LORD, and are gone forth out of his land. 21 But I had pity for mine holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen, whither they went. 22 Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; I do not [this] for your sakes, O house of Israel, but
for mine holy name's sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went. 23 And
I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them;
and the heathen shall know that I [am] the LORD, saith the Lord GOD, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. 24
For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. 25
Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. 26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do [them]. 28 And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.
That God did it for the sake of His holy name is certainly enough of a reason for me as I view the stunning fulfillment of prophecy. With Jews developing that land over the last two centuries, from the total desolation visited upon it by 1200 years of Islam, to becoming one of the most productive and vibrant and technologically advanced economies in the world, with invention and innovation through which the whole world has benefited. The freedom of Israeli Jews, Christians, non-Muslim Arabs and Muslims, continues to be protected in those portions of Israel that remain under the protection of the democracy of the Israeli Jewish State. Unlike where Christians are being subjugated to Muslims in Gaza after Godless international anti-Zionist secular powers compelled the Israelis to abandon Gaza, and the protections Christians had formerly enjoyed there.
All mainstream Christians are expecting the resurrection of the dead and the return of Christ to earth for final judgment. Even return to the Holy Land.
Let's ponder another reason YHWH may have restored His people to their land, with even some of His faithful still blinded to the Gospel.
Holy Spirit led Christians are commanded to love our neighbors, love our enemies, turn the other cheek and such, through the Gospel.
Not exactly the same for Jews walking in the Spirit of God, with an eye for an eye and such, bearing in mind that a faithful Jew would not call Jesus accursed.
1Cr 12:3 Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and [that] no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.
The same people that God used to bring his wrath onto the Canaanites after giving them 400 years to repent from such as ritualistic prostitution, bestiality and sacrifice of children to idols.
Now for the sake of God's holy name is enough of a reason for me to recognize the stunning reality of the return of Jews to their land, while that tiny little strip of land has become the geopolitical focus of the whole world. But it makes me wonder if there may not be more than one reason YHWH restored His people to their land - with some secular Jews and even some of His chosen still blinded to the Gospel.
Zechariah 12:9 And it shall come to pass in that day, [that] I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. 10 And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for [his] only [son], and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for [his] firstborn.
http://www.israelinbibleprophecy.com/What do formerly Christian lands in that area look like today?
Hagia Sophia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Sophia
Let alone what's going on in Europe:
http://www.christianeschatology.com/falling_away_apostasy.htm#apostasy_in_europeA near unanimity of residents in John's "whole world"
are compelled to DISbelieve the crucifixion of Christ, DENY the Son of God and REJECT His shed blood AS ARTICLES OF FAITH in the false prophet Muhammad. Prostrating themselves toward the Quraish pagan's black stone idol in Mecca five times a day, while praying in the vain repetitions of the heathen", in the names of the Arabian pagan deity "Allah" and His "messenger" Muhammad.
http://www.petewaldo.com/hajj_umrah.htmWhen a Muslim comes into relationship with Jesus Christ they are subject to the death penalty for "apostasy". Even in Canada by this guy's own mother:
http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=DLDWGGNXMost everywhere we find murder, mayhem and misery perpetrated around the world today, we find the hand of the followers of the false prophet Muhammad, one of the most consummate - and conveniently self-admitted - terrorists in the history of mankind. His followers obediently doing as Muhammad did, and commanded his followers to do.
http://www.petewaldo.com/jihad.htmAs I said I am not going to support this through scripture so I am not trying to turn a "ponder" into a doctrine, but I wonder if God might have restored His people to their land in blindness to the Gospel so they could defend it, to preclude what happened to the Christian lands in John's "whole world" from happening to His landing spot and the remnant of Jews and Christians there.
