Year: 2023

On one extreme, some believe both Israel and the church have different redemptive programs. That is, the NT church does not include OT believers. On the other, some believe the church has replaced Israel. Going by the whole counsel of the Word of God, both beliefs are found wanting.

I believe the confusion is due to lack of distinction between national Israel and true Israel. In Rom 11:1-5, Paul explained the distinction and called the true Israel as the remnant. Paul emphatically stated that God did not reject His people and he was definitely referring to national Israel for he said of himself having descended from Abraham from the tribe of Benjamin.

(Rom 11:1-5. I ask then: Did God reject his people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. ² God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew. Don’t you know what Scripture says in the passage about Elijah—how he appealed to God against Israel: ³ “Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me”^[a]? ⁴ And what was God’s answer to him? “I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” ⁵ So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace.)

The vine tree was not replaced but only the non believing branches were removed and new branches grafted. Neither were there 2 trees growing together. On the day of Pentecost, the true Israel became the NT church and organic continuity continues till today.

Rom 11:11 clearly stated that national Israel has not fallen beyond recovery. (¹¹ Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. ¹² But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their FULL inclusion bring!)

Anticipating that the grafted branches (the church) will be arrogant and consider themselves superior to the broken branches (national Israel), Rom 11:17-21 warns against such arrogance.

The present hardening of national Israel is not permanent. It will be over when the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. There will be a future restoration and they will become part of the true Israel.

(Rom 11:25-27. ²⁵ I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, ²⁶ and in this way all Israel will be saved. As it is written: “The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.²⁷ And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.”)

In Rom 11:25-27, Paul was clearly talking about the future salvation of national Israel after the hardening is over. And our Lord Jesus will turn godlessness away from Jacob (Israel). For He will reign over the house of Jacob forever as stated in Luke 1:32-33.https://www.monergism.com/noted-theologians-history-who-believed-future-conversion-nationalethnic-israel

Postscript :

The following link gives the comments of notable theologians in history who believed in a future conversion of national / ethnic Israel.

https://www.monergism.com/noted-theologians-history-who-believed-future-conversion-nationalethnic-israel

Good Angels

The book, Angels, by David Pawson gave a quick gist of the knowledge of angels and demons existing today.  Following is my summary of the main points from that book.

Scripture teaches that angels are a distinct different order of beings and are created by God too.  They are not mediators between God and men, but they were frequently featured in Scripture carrying out the orders of God.  They are spirits and do not have bodies of flesh but they have the power to appear as bodies.  They are far superior than people in strength, intelligence and knowledge.  They belong to heaven and not earth.  They are probably numerous in the universe because in Scripture, they were mentioned as myriads upon myriads, ten thousand times ten thousand, and hosts.  They do have titles, ranks, grades and names.  There are archangels, cherubim, seraphim, principalities and powers.

When Jesus our Lord warned, “Beware of what you do with these little children. Their angels behold the face of my Father in heaven.”, he was saying that what we do is known to angels and will therefore be reported to God.  They are around us when we worship.  When one person believes in Christ, they know and all rejoice in heaven.

The Ministry Of The Angels

1. Protection.   They protect against danger and terror.  Eg. When the Syrians surrounded Elisha,  there was another circle of God’s chariots.  The angels touched the eyes of the Syrians and they could not see.
2. Provision.  They can provide for us.  Eg. Hagar and Elijah were fed when there was nothing to eat in the wilderness.  After our Lord was tempted and was hungry, the angels ministered to Him.
3. Punishment.  They can carry out the Lord’s judgments such as the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
4. Deliverance.  Eg. Peter was delivered out of jail. 
5. Guidance.  Eg. Cornelius was told by an angel to send for Peter.
6. Comfort.  When Paul was on his way to face Caesar on the long and dangerous sea voyage, an angel comforted him that he would get to see Caesar.

Bad Angels Or Demons

We learn from Scripture that both the angels and the fallen angels or demons are in the heavenly places and they all have free will too.  We learn that one third of these angels set themselves up against God led by one anointed cherub nearest to the throne of God.  Evil started with this rebellion. He has five titles namely Satan, Abaddon (Apollyon in Greek meaning destroyer), Beelzebub, Belial and Lucifer.  He is described in terms of animals and likened to a serpent, dragon and a roaring lion. He is a slanderer, tempter, deceiver, accuser, tormentor, murderer and destroyer.  Presently, he is ruling the world and that is the reason why the world is in such a fallen mess today.  He is described also as the prince of the power of the air and god of this world.  His kingdom in the world is a kingdom of disobedience, darkness and disease. He is constantly trying his best to destroy the kingdom of God. He will sow tares among the wheat in the Kingdom of God. He will masquerade as an angel of light and his minions can also masquerade as apostles of Christ and servants of righteousness in the kingdom of God to preach heresy. He will tempt us always with the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life as he had done before with our first parents. We read of much demonic activity, especially of demon possession. Today, we tend to dismiss demon possession mentioned in the gospels as mental disease, epilepsy or insanity. But according to David Lawson, the symptoms are quite different :

1. Supernatural strength. A demon possessed person may take many men to hold him or her down.
2. Clairvoyance. Knowledge of other people that is quite impossible to know except by supernatural revelation.
3. An ability use voices that are quite different from the person’s own voice.
4. A profound antagonism to the name of Jesus.
5. A wild reaction to prayer such that the possessed person will go berserk when prayer is offered.

St Paul had ever been to the third heaven. (The third heaven refers to the place where God dwells.)  He wrote in the third person in 2 Cor 12:2-4,“I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows. And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows—was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that NO ONE IS PERMITTED TO TELL.”  While he was there in heaven, he saw and heard things which he could not describe and was forbidden to relate.  Scripture made it clear in 2 Cor 12:4 that NO ONE IS PERMITTED TO TELL of such experience.

Only 6 persons in Scripture had visions of heaven but not near death experiences – Isaiah, Ezekiel, Micaiah, Paul, John and Stephen. And possibly three wrote about the glory of God and their own fear in the presence of God. And all those who were brought back to life by our Lord Jesus or Paul did not have their post mortem experience mentioned in Scripture. Moments after our Lord died, many dead saints came out of their tombs and went into the city and appeared to many. Neither were their post mortem experience mentioned in Scripture.

Alex Malarkey was six years old when a car crash put him in a coma for two months, during which time he said he went to heaven and visited angels. The resulting memoir, co-authored with his father, was a best-seller.  But five years after its publication in 2015, Alex says he made the whole thing up, NPR reports. “I did not die. I did not go to Heaven,” he wrote in an open letter to Christian books retailers. “I said I went to heaven because I thought it would get me attention.” The story was believable because it was related by a 6 year old boy whom hardly anyone would suspect he could have the guile to invent such a story to get attention. If a young boy could do that, surely there would be many charlatans today doing so for money and fame whose heaven visitation stories could not be verified by anyone, except himself or herself. 

While in prison in 1943, Dr Dietrich Bonhoeffer meditated on the question why the German people – in spite of their education, culture, and intellectual achievements – had fallen so far from reason and morality. he concluded the people had been afflicted with collective stupidity. He was not flippant when he used this term stupidity to describe actually a sociological problem rather than a psychological one, and a human defect rather than a intellectual one. The atrocities during World War 2 had shown him that perfectly intelligent people could be rendered stupid under the pressure of political power and propaganda. That is, they could be rendered incapable of critical reasoning.

He continued to expound that stupidity is even more dangerous than wickedness. Evil can be protested against, exposed and prevented by force. But against stupidity, there is no defense. Facts that contradict one’s prejudice simply don’t need to be believed, and when they are inescapable, they can simply be brushed aside as meaningless or isolated cases. The advice is not to convince the stupid with reason, it is pointless and dangerous. It is a fact that stupid people are stubborn and when one is dealing with them personally, it seems that catchphrases and slogans have taken possession of them like under a spell. That is blindness which Scripture often mentioned.

We can also see this blindness and stupidity in the religious sphere. Despite the clear error of false teaching such as false Christology and the shamanistic practices of the NAR movement, yet we see millions following them without any critical reasoning.

https://petermcculloughmd.substack.com/p/on-stupidity