Discourse 1112 – Is Jesus at work to fulfill his promises in Israel?

Is Jesus at work to fulfill his promises in Israel? / Commentary Elisheva. Damkani, 00, 2013-08-08

The establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, was NOT God’s fetching of Israel home! / Hannelore Weitzel, 00, 2013-08-08

Statement by Moishe Arye Friedmann, Chief Rabbi of the Orthodox Jewish congregation, Vienna / M.A. Friedmann, oo 2002-07-13

The actual promise of Jesus for Israel and all correctly believing Christians of this world.

Lamentation over Zion

The pseudo-Christian betrayal of the Israelites      –    Part 1  Discourse 111

Christians defend the Gospel against the "Friends of Israel"      –    Part 3  Discourse 1113

The teaching of the Messianic Jews – the Analysis.      –    Part 4  Discourse 1114

God’s covenants, by Jacob Damkani.      –    Discourse 1111

The Jewish Anti-Defamation League rewrites the New Testament.      –    Discourse 1014

(Texts in a black frame are quotations from visitors to this site or from other authors.)

Thank you for your commentary, which relates to Part 1 of this Discourse (Discourse 111), and for your interesting remarks.

You write at the start of your commentary as follows:

"It is  good that you do study the bible but when it comes to God truth I must say that you need to see God’s love, faithfulness and power to keep His everlasting covenant which was established with Israel and that He forever will keep His promises to them."

Yes, I have been studying the Bible now for more than 40 years, and for that very reason my interpretation is always unconditionally derived from the statements of the Bible, and this scriptural conformity can be checked at any time in the light of the biblical references cited in the text.

Based on these decades of experience, I feel entitled to point out to you that you are committing a fundamental mistake when you write "that you need to see God’s love, faithfulness and power to keep His everlasting covenant which was established with Israel (…)". This covenant had been broken two thousand years ago and here you are clearly trying to attribute to God the guilt for the dissolution of this Old Covenant.  

But it was not God, it was Israel who broke this covenant two thousand years ago, when they denied that Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God, despised him (Lk 10:16) and had him put to death (Mt 26:63-68), and they continue to abuse and hate him to the present day as an impostor and blasphemer (Jn 15:23).

But along with all these misdemeanors, they not only rejected the Son but the Father as well (1Jn 2:23) – and precisely this was the reason why God dissolved this Old Covenant which he had made with their fathers and which they had failed to observe (Jer 31:31-33). That new covenant which God promises here, in Jer 31,31, to conclude with Israel is the same New Covenant which the Son of God established two thousand years ago with his blood on the cross (Lk 22:19-20).

If you study all these biblical passages in detail, you will be compelled, from any objective point of view, to the realization that for two thousand years Israel has been God-less. (If you have problems understanding this, please let me know – I will be happy to point out further indications based on more biblical passages.)

Now in what concerns the love of God – don’t let pseudo-Christian preachers tell you stuff about God’s love being "infinite" and "unconditional". If God were to love the human race infinitely and unconditionally, he would have forgiven all our sins with this infinite and unconditional love (love without end, and lacking all conditions), and Jesus Christ would not have had to die on the cross. But then God would also have had to forgive a Hitler, a Stalin or a Mao (along with all the other mass murderers of this world) all of their crimes without reserve (infinitely), and without any repentance or conversion on their part (unconditionally), and there wouldn’t have been any need of hell at all.

But that just is not the case. God loves human beings but he does not love them either infinitely or unconditionally. Our God is a God of absolute righteousness (Ps 89:15), and for every contravention of his commands – for every sin – he insists on punishment. And because this punishment would be (second) death for human beings and God loves humanity, he sacrificed his son for us on the cross as a vicarious sacrifice, so that anyone who accepts this redeeming sacrifice will not have to die. God loves all those human beings who convert to his Son and accept his vicarious sacrifice for their sins. And they can also count on the love and on the faithfulness of the Father. No one else can!

(See also Excursus 08: "The second death.")

You then write:

"Did you ever come to realize that the stumbling of Israel over the stone which the Lord laid in Zion has to do with God’s intention to bless the world? You need to recognize the reality that even through Israel’s disobedience salvation has come to the Gentiles how much more their acceptance…! (Romans 11:15) If you have not seen yet that God is at work to turn them back to Himself (Zechariah 13:9) "

Here I agree with you completely, as well as with Paul in Rom 11,15, when he writes: "For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?" In Paul’s original text we can also recognize that Israel has not merely "stumbled"; on the contrary, Paul writes himself that Israel’s "rejection" is the reconciliation of the world. So God has rejected Israel, and thereby dissolved the Old Covenant.

Nonetheless I must at this point correct the false interpretation of this text which you advance. You present it in such a way as to suggest that the reason why Israel was rejected was so that God could save the world. Allow me to observe that God would not have needed Israel’s disobedience for this – he could also have saved the world without reference to Israel at all, if that had been his will.

Israel had the free choice to accept or reject the Son of God. And to accuse God of foul play, as you do here, by suggesting that God compelled Israel to put his Son to death in order to save the world, comes to the same thing as the earlier attempt to ascribe to God the guilt for the dissolution of the Old Covenant.

In your next argument you make the incorrect assumption that I have been misguided by some kind of "church".

"If you have allowed the church to misguide you in believing that Israel is just another nation and that God is done away with them, how do you explain Jeremiah 31:35-37 or Psalm 89:30-37, and how can you overlook Matthew 23:39 "

I am a Christian who believes in the Bible – and just from that we can see that there is no church any longer on earth today that could claim to meet this standard. My faith is biblical and well founded. And of course I agree that Israel is God’s chosen people. But what you here once again overlook is the fact that Israel – as you yourself point out in quoting Rom 11:15 – was rejected by God two thousand years ago.

All Israelites, then, up to the present day who have not decided for faith in our Lord Jesus Christ have died in their sins and will go to hell (Jn 8:24). But our God is an absolutely just God, and so too all Israelites – even if they have been rejected by God – have the same possibility of salvation as all other sinful human beings have: through faith in the redeeming sacrifice of the Son of God for the sins of all human beings (including the Jews!). Anyone who believes this is saved. Anyone who does not believe it, is damned. Whether Jew or non-Jew.

But now to consider the biblical passages you quote (for which, incidentally, I am very grateful – there are few commentators who offer biblical references):

If this fixed order departs From before Me, then the offspring of Israel also will cease from being a nation before Me forever.

Jer 31,35 Thus says the LORD, Who gives the sun for light by day And the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar; The LORD of hosts is His name: 31,36 "If this fixed order departs From before Me," declares the LORD, "Then the offspring of Israel also will cease From being a nation before Me forever." 31,37 Thus says the LORD, "If the heavens above can be measured And the foundations of the earth searched out below, Then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel For all that they have done," declares the LORD. Jer 31,35-37;

In the more than 200 documents on my website you will not find a single statement to the effect that Israel is no longer a nation. Israel has been rejected and God-less for two thousand years, but it continues to be a nation – and in the Millennium, in the Thousand Years Kingdom of Peace of our Lord Jesus Christ, a remnant of Israel will convert and come to believe in the Son of God (Isa 10:21-22).

Only when they welcome the Son with the words "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord" (Mt 23:38-39) the nation of Israel will enter into the New Covenant, which has been waiting for them for all of two thousand years, and their Father will accept them again and they will again be the People of God. But remember: There is still a long time until then, and all Jews – and that will be millions – who have not come to faith in Jesus Christ by then will die without forgiveness of sins and go to damnation!

And it is just this time in the future – the Millennium – to which all these prophecies of the Gathering of Israel to its homeland by the Lord their God refer – not the events brought about in 1948 by Theodor Herzl’s Zionists (Zech 8:1-8). And this gathering intended by God will then not be associated with the expulsion and extermination of the resident population, but – in accordance with God’s prophecies – it will happen without war, without weapons, without murder or killing (Hos 1:7; Mic 2:12-13).

Some brothers and sisters in Christ have recognized this problem, and write with great concern on the subject:

(Texts in a black frame are quotations from visitors to this site or from other authors.)

(See also Chapter 09: "The return home of the redeemed.")

(See also Chapter 10: "The Millennium")

I am extremely grateful to Mrs. Damkani for referring to Psalm 89:30-37! The psalmist speaks here of David, the anointed of God, and so of his people Israel. And while the part of the text you quote relates to the distant future – the Millennial Kingdom – we find in the passage immediately following some prophecies of God referring to the last two thousand years of Israel’s history.

But You have cast off and rejected, You have been full of wrath against Your anointed.

Ps 89,38 But You have cast off and rejected, You have been full of wrath against Your anointed. 89,39 You have spurned the covenant of Your servant; You have profaned his crown in the dust. 89,40 You have broken down all his walls; You have brought his strongholds to ruin. 89,41 All who pass along the way plunder him; He has become a reproach to his neighbors. 89,42 You have exalted the right hand of his adversaries; You have made all his enemies rejoice. 89,43 You also turn back the edge of his sword And have not made him stand in battle. 89,44 You have made his splendor to cease And cast his throne to the ground. 89,45 You have shortened the days of his youth; You have covered him with shame. Selah. Ps 89,38-45;

Here the prophet speaks of God’s dealings with Israel (David) and here we recognize the rejection of Israel by God (verse 39), the dissolution of the Old Covenant (verse 39), the annihilation of Jerusalem and the Temple by the Romans in the year 70 (verses 40-42), the subsequent Jewish Wars against the Romans (verse 43) and finally in the year 135 AD (Bar-Kochba’s rebellion),  the expulsion of Israel from its homeland and the sufferings of the Diaspora, with pogroms and the holocaust in our own times (verses 44-45).

As for Matthew 23,39, I have already shown earlier that this text refers to the "remnant" of Israel who will convert in the Millennium (Isa 10:21-22).

Elisheva Damkani then goes on to write:

"Can you not see Jesus promising Israel that they will call on Him in the end, can you not see that He is at work, bringing His own promise alive in Israel, whom God restored back in their Land of Promised as dry bones but moving upon the believers from the nations to fulfill their commission in provoking Israel to jealousy and thus come to faith in their own Messiah, the only way to God, can you not see Romans 11:1? "

You are quite correct in quoting Mt 23,39 – "Can you not see Jesus promising Israel that they will call on Him in the end" – and "in the end" here means really at the end, in the last kingdom of this world before the end of the world, in the Millennium and not already in our own day!

This false interpretation of the prophecies, whereby people try to anticipate these promises to Israel by referring them to our own times, has been disseminated particularly widely by the "Israel movement" in the Christian congregations and by Zionists in Israel – the former because of their ignorance of the Bible, and the latter out of political calculation.

(See also Discourse 1013: "Report from the camp of the "Israel movement".")

On the Zionist side, they try to pretend to the Christian world that Israel is still the true people of God and so deserves to have all honor and support from the nations. In the Christian congregations – including the Messianic Jews – people fall victim to this trick and positively worship today’s God-less Israel and the Jews and support it (particularly in the USA and in Germany) financially and morally, in some cases even ignoring regulations of worldwide application.

Thus Israel pressured the USA to halt the production of atomic weapons in Iran, and put out the threat that otherwise Israel itself would attack the country and annihilate its weapon making facilities with bombs. This even though Israel itself already has 400 nuclear warheads, which it has produced – with the knowledge and tacit consent of the UNO community of nations – just as illegally as we now see being done in Iran.

We then find it stated in the above commentary: "Can you not see Jesus... that He is at work... in Israel?" In assessing this statement I am now assuming, as is only fair, that this is not Zionist propaganda but is purely and simply attributable to the naivety of some brethren, who act with many good intentions but without any great knowledge of the biblical and global political background.

For this is exactly the message which the Antichrist too will put about – the Antichrist (1Jn 2:22-23) – Greek Anti-Christos, Hebrew maschiach / Anti-Messiah – who, as we know, will come to the Israelites as the Anti-Messiah not in the name of God but in the name of Satan (Jn 5:43). He will deny both God an his son Jesus Christ and claim that he himself is the true Messiah and has himself already brought about the "Gathering" of Israel in 1948, and that he has now come to fulfill the old prophecies and make Israel with violence and brutality the "chief of nations", in other words a world power (Jer 31:7-8).

In Israel, and in the world in general, people will then fail to recognize – as they fail to recognize today – that this prophecy refers to the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, and his global dominion in the Thousand Years Kingdom of Peace, the Millennium. People will admire the supposed "Messiah" in Israel, and in the Christian congregations too he will be celebrated and worshipped as the "Son of God" who has come again before the Great Tribulation, as many preachers still regrettably and incorrectly teach today.

With prisoners of all nations (Christian?) he will rebuild the Temple bigger and more beautiful as ever before and assert that this is the fulfilling of the prophecies in Zech 6:12-15. He will take his seat in the Temple and claim that he is God (2Thess 2:3-4; Dan 11:36; Rev 13:6-8). In Israel and in the countries he rules he will introduce the Mosaic religion as the state religion (synagogue of Satan, Rev 2:9; 3:9) and perhaps he will even ban the New Testament.

The former Christian congregations will perhaps change their name and transform themselves into "Messianic" congregations, while the true Christians remaining will be persecuted and taken in concentration camps because they still call themselves by the name of their Lord (Mt 10:17, 22; 23:33-34).

This or something like it is the way this greatest deceit of all times will happen, and with that the great apostasy from the living God of the Bible is accomplished and the way paved on earth for the Great Tribulation before the Second Coming of our Lord (2Thes 2:1-3).

But if we read the statement of Jacob Damkani, the Messianic Jew from Israel in one of his teaching letters:

"Here in Israel the missionary word is a very evil word. If you tell the religious that you are a missionary, they will kill you!"

it gives the impression, that for Christians in Israel this time has already begun.

(See also Table 19: "The persecution of the Christians in the Last Days.")

A further error is then to be found in the above commentary immediately following, when it is written: "Israel (…) whom God restored back in their Land of Promised". As is generally known, it was not God who "restored Israel back", it was Theodor Herzl and his Zionists, who – as once on Horeb with the Golden Calf – again could not wait for the time chosen by God and so "gathered" themselves.

With the "dry bones" the commentator then refers to, she is evidently thinking of Eze 37:1-14. In Jewish circles and those of the "Friends of Israel", this text is interpreted symbolically as a basis for the assertion that these dry "bones" are the Israel of today, and the coming to life of these bones symbolizes the recovery of strength by Israel in the present day.

In fact this interpretation leaves the biblical context of these statements out of account. In Eze 37,9 God speaks to Ezekiel about these dry bones: "(…) Then He said to me, "Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, "Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they come to life."".

So these are in no way the Israelis of our own times who have died a natural death and have not been put to death on account of their faith. This text is not symbolic, but requires to be interpreted absolutely literally: these are the slain of the people of Israel from the past, who are here reawakened to life by God and rise up from their graves(!) (Eze 37:12).

And this point of view finds further confirmation in the verse Eze 37,11, where God explains to Ezekiel: "Then He said to me, ‘Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel’". But the "house of Israel" here consists, then, of all those Israelites who have adhered to the commandments of their God in their lifetime. For that very reason many of them were killed by their own kings, and then later on by governments and the mob in the countries of the Diaspora, and of course in the Nazi concentration camps.

In order to understand correctly the statement by Paul in Rom 11,1, quoted by the commentator here as a proof – "I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be!" – we must also look at his explanations in the passage immediately following:

"I have kept for Myself seven thousand me who have not bowed the knee to Baal."

Rom 11,1 I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. 11,2 God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? 11,3 "Lord, they have killed Your prophets, they have torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they are seeking my life." 11,4 But what is the divine response to him? "I have kept for Myself seven thousand me who have not bowed the knee to Baal." Rom 11, 2- 4;

The source of Paul’s reference here is the complaint of Elijah (1Ki 19:14.18), who complained to God about the people of Israel of his time. Israel had abandoned its covenant with God, torn down God’s altars and killed the prophets of God with the sword. Now he, Elijah, is the only one left, and they are seeking his life as well.

And God then says to Elijah in 1Ki 19,18: "Yet I will leave 7,000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him." And it is just that which Paul is taking as a reference to his own times – and it still has validity to the present day:

In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God’s gracious choice.

Rom 11,4 But what is the divine response to him? "I have kept for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal." 11,5 In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God’s gracious choice. 11,6 But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace. 11,7 What then? What Israel is seeking, it has not obtained, but those who were chosen obtained it, and the rest were hardened; 11,8 just as it is written, "God gave them spirit of stupor, eyes to see not and ears to hear not, down to this very day." 11,9 And David says, "Let their table become a snare and a trap, and a stumbling block and a retribution to them. Rom 11, 5-10;

So God has not rejected Israel in its entirety – as a nation – , because he has left a remnant of its seed. This remnant consists in those Israelites from all tribes of Israel who will convert to their God again in the Millennium, follow the Son of God as their Messiah and come to the Sabbath rest given them by God (Heb 4:9-10). These are the "natural branches" which will again be grafted back onto their own olive tree (Rom 11,24).

The rest of the people, however – from that time to the present and until the Millennium if they did not convert to Jesus Christ – remain unconverted, have no forgiveness of their sins (Jn 8:24) and so are going to damnation. And this too is confirmed by Paul, shortly before his statements from Romans quoted above, when he cites Isaiah (Isa 10:22):

"Though the number of the sons of Israel be like the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that will be saved" 

Rom 9,27 Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, "Though the number of the sons of Israel be like the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that will be saved; 9,28 For the LORD will execute His word in the earth, thoroughly and quickly." 9,29 And just as Isaiah foretold, "Unless the LORD of Sabaoth had left to us a posterity, we would have become like Sodom, and would have resembled Gomorrah." Rom 9,27-29;

So it is this posterity foreknown (Rom 8;29), chosen (book of life) and left by God in his omniscience at Paul’s time who Paul is referring to here (Rom 11,4-5), when he writes in Rom 11,1: "I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be!". This posterity, however, will only be born in the future, when the Last Days are over and the Thousand Years Kingdom of Peace of our Lord Jesus Christ begins.

(See also Discourse 69: "Predestination and the chosen.")

None the less it remains a fact that the seed of this future remnant must be present in many Israelite families since two thousand years. The children and children’s children of these Jewish men and women will – and indeed must – survive the Last Days, so that this seed will be able to fulfill the promise in accordance with the will of God.

At the same time it would probably be a mistake to assume that these Jews would be found in the state of Israel of today. Since this election by God referred to above in Rom 11,4-5 must, after all, be detectable in these people in some way, in my opinion the bearers of this divine promise are those Jews who stood out by refusing to immigrate to the recently established state of Israel – the "Baal" of modern times – in the year 1948.

They are the Orthodox Jews true to their faith all over the world who have remained in the Diaspora because they know from their scriptures that the return to their homeland intended by God will only be possible after the coming of the Messiah, as the following statement of Chief Rabbi Moishe Arie Friedmann, of the Orthodox Jews true to their faith in Vienna, confirms:

(Texts in a black frame are quotations from visitors to this site or from other authors.)

So much for the correct understanding of Rom 11,1 ff. And here it emerges that in the interpretation of these biblical texts it is necessary to study them in much greater depth than some brethren imagine. This is the reason for the existence of so many false teachings, based on citation of just a part of the text – like Rom 11,1, for instance – out of context, without taking the big picture into account, and then building on this a whole edifice of faith.

Finally our commentator writes as follows:

"The disciples still had to start preaching in Jerusalem, Paul always went to the synagogue first and he wrote: "For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery – so that you will not be wise in your own estimation – that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in;…" Romans 11:25 ."

And this is evidently meant as a justification of the preaching principle of the Messianic Jews – "to the Jews first" (Rom 1:16; 2:10) – and the consequent evangelization of the Jews exclusively. Now the reason why the disciples started their preaching in Jerusalem, and were not even supposed to go to Samaria, may be found in what the Lord says in Mt 10,5-6:

Do not go in the way of the Gentiles, but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

Mt 10,5 These twelve Jesus sent out after instructing them: "Do not go in the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans; 10,6 but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Mt 10, 5- 6;

Here we recognize that Jesus was given the task by the Father of first offering salvation to the Jews. This is likewise confirmed by the encounter of the Lord with the Canaanite woman, the text of which – like Peter’s sermon in Acts 3:26 – leaves absolutely no doubt of this fact:

But He answered and said, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."

Mt 15,21 Jesus went away from there, and withdrew into the district of Tyre and Sidon. 15,22 And a Canaanite woman from that region came out and began to cry out, saying, "Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is cruelly demon-possessed." 15,23 But He did not answer her a word. And His disciples came and implored Him, saying, "Send her away, because she keeps shouting at us." 15,24 But He answered and said, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." 15,25 But she came and began to bow down before Him, saying, "Lord, help me!" 15,26 And He answered and said, "It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs." 15,27 But she said, "Yes, Lord; but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table." 15,28 Then Jesus said to her, "O woman, your faith is great; it shall be done for you as you wish." And her daughter was healed at once. Mt 15,21-28;

But when it then became clear that Satan had more followers in Israel than God, and the Jews rejected the Son of God and accused him of being Beelzebub ("ruler of demons", Mt 12:24), the Father changed his instructions. From this point in time until today, the Great Commission applies "even to the remotest part of the earth", (Acts 1:6-8).

"Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you."

Mt 21,28 "But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go work today in the vineyard.’ 21,29 And he answered, ‘I will not’ but afterward he regretted it and went. 21,30 "The man came to the second and said the same thing; and he answered, ‘I will, sir’ but he did not go. 21,31 "Which of the two did the will of his father?" They said, "The first." Jesus said to them, "Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you." Mt 21,28-31;

"It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first."

Acts 13,44 The next Sabbath nearly the whole city assembled to hear the word of the Lord. 13,45 But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began contradicting the things spoken by Paul, and were blaspheming. 13,46 Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said, "It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first; since you repudiate it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles". Acts 13,44-46;

So in fact there is no biblical commission to preach the gospel "to the Jews first". In view of our advanced, and increasingly specific understanding of the Last Days, however, the state of Israel above all (that is to say, the Zionists) will come to play a crucially important part in terms of power politics.

(See also Discourse 101: "The "Israel movement" in the Christian congregations" – Christian Evangelical Zionism)

Since as a result conversion will not be a possibility for many Israelites, it does seem advisable in fact to preach the gospel to the Jews as a top priority and without restriction, so as to make conversion possible for those few who are still open to the suggestion.

The Bible says, admittedly, that a remnant of the people of Israel will only be converted in the Millennium. But God wishes all human beings – including the Israelis of today – to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1Tim 2:3-4).

And so God grants in his grace that even in our own times, while the full number of the nations has not yet come in, a few Israelites will convert to Jesus Christ as their Messiah and Savior. As the commentator puts it above, completely correctly:

"the only way to God. ".

(See also Discourse 111: "As a Jew I turned my life over to Jesus Christ." /  David Libbre USA)

One last matter I would like to clear up. At the end of the commentary we find it written: "As you clearly said God gives us the freedom to make our own choices. It looks like you made up your mind…".

This is a complete misunderstanding! God gives us the freedom to decide for or against faith in his Son. This is something nobody can do for us, we must decide quite personally and on our own responsibility.

But we do not by any means have the choice of believing whatever we want. That would be the approach favored by this world: everyone does what he wants and then reinterprets the laws in such a way that he is in the right. – No, the faith of a Christian is exclusively tied to the Word of God, the Bible. If a Christian opinion can be fully and entirely justified on the basis on the Bible, then it is biblically true and everyone would be well advised to take it as a guideline.

But many Christians today do not think it is worth the trouble to check their opinion in the light of what the Bible tells us. They simply take on board everything that others jabber at them, and then jabber the same nonsense without examination.

And yes – I have made up my mind. But not by lining up the private views of a variety of pastors, preachers and lecturers, but rather on the basis of more than 40 years of biblical study, and after the checking and counterchecking of many parallel passages and thematically relevant biblical texts (see also the Tables on my website).

The sentiment in the last sentence – "preaching the Gospel with all our strength – to the Jew first" – is of course one that I can only agree with. Even though the Jews, two thousand years ago, were the first to have the gospel preached to them, and at the time they declined and rejected it as they declined and rejected our Lord Jesus Christ. But in so doing they also lost the Father (1Jn 2:23) and have been since then – like all other peoples (not citizens!) of this world – a God-less people.

(See also Discourse 1042: "Are all governments of the world ordained by God?")

But as we have demonstrated above, the basis for the proclamation of the gospel in Israel is not Rom 11,1 or "the Jew first" and so false, unbiblical adulation of the Jews of today, because Israel has been spared rejection only in a part of its future descendants – the remnant. But as it is the will of God that all human beings should come to the knowledge of the truth (1Tim 2:3-4), we may be confident that even among the Israelis of today there are still some who will accept this grace of God and be converted. And that, and that alone, is the biblical basis for the Christian evangelization of the Jewish people – just like all other peoples.

Now as we may infer from the reports of Jacob Damkani, the proclamation of the gospel in Israel is an unbelievably difficult and laborious mission, and I wish him and his wife Elisheva the blessing of our Lord in this work and every success.

(See also Discourse 1016: "The Foundation of the State of Israel in 1948 prophesied in the Old Testament!" / Jacob Damkani: the story of Joseph)

The actual promise of Jesus for Israel and all correctly biblical Christians of this world.

In the following parable the landowner stands for God the Father, and the son is Our Lord Jesus Christ. The vineyard is the people of Israel. The vine-growers are the regents, the kings and high priests in Israel. The slaves are the prophets of God, the last of whom was John the Baptist. The fruit is the belief of the people in the God of the Bible.

The kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people, producing the fruit of it.

Mt 21,33 "Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard and put a wall around it and dug a wine press in it, and built a tower, and rented it out to vine-growers and went on a journey. 21,34 When the harvest time approached, he sent his slaves to the vine-growers to receive his produce. 21,35 The vine-growers took his slaves and beat one, and killed another, and stoned a third. 21,36 Again he sent another group of slaves larger than the first; and they did the same thing to them.

21,37 But afterward he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 21,38 But when the vine-growers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’ 21,39 They took him, and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

21,40 Therefore when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine-growers?" 21,41 They said to Him, "He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and will rent out the vineyard to other vine-growers who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons." 21,42 Jesus said to them, "Did you never read in the Scriptures, ‘The stone which the builders rejected, this became the chief corner stone; Those came about from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?

21,43 Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people, producing the fruit of it. 21,44 And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust."

21,45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His parables, they understood that He was speaking about them. 21,46 When they sought to seize Him, they feared the people, because they considered Him to be a prophet. Mt 21,33-46;

(See also Discourse 1015: "Shema Yisrael ‒ Hear, O ISRAEL: the judgment of God on his people.")

LAMENTATION OVER ZION.

The pseudo-Christian betrayal of the Israelites      –    Part 1  Discourse 111

Christians defend the Gospel against the "Friends of Israel"      –    Part 3  Discourse 1113

The teaching of the Messianic Jews – the Analysis.      –    Part 4  Discourse 1114

God’s covenants, by Jacob Damkani.      –    Discourse 1111

The Jewish Anti-Defamation League rewrites the New Testament.      –    Discourse 1014