The Daily Word of Righteousness

Jerusalem, #12

Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. (Isaiah 1:4)

In the present hour the soul of Jerusalem is unconverted. It is filled with self-seeking, self-will, self-centeredness, just as is true of the soul of the unconverted human. Jerusalem on the earth is filled with "Jacob"—the guileful nature. It never can please the God of Heaven.

The Scriptures, both Old Testament and New Testament, teach that in the last days God will turn again to physical Israel.

In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel. And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem: When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning. (Isaiah 4:2-4)

Although directed at the nation of Israel, the above verse applies to every member of God's elect, whether Jewish or Gentile by race.

The Christian churches of our day are filled with sin and self-will. Divine judgment will serve as a baptism of fire that will separate a remnant from the worldly churches and then purify the remnant until it is a spotless bride for the Lamb.

Isaiah 4:2-4 is meant especially for the children of Israel and for physical Jerusalem. We praise God for the return of Jacob to the holy land. After Israel returns there must come a baptism of fire on the inhabitants of Jerusalem and a revelation of Christ to them that He is the Son of God and Lord of all.

There must come a restoration of the one Body of Christ before Jesus returns. The elect Jews and Gentiles were one Body in the beginning of the Church Age. The elect Jews and Gentiles shall be one Body at the conclusion of the Church Age.

There is but one Body. There is no such entity as a Jewish church or a Gentile church. These two labels are the creation of men who are not heeding what the Apostle Paul taught concerning the one new man (Ephesians 2:15). How can there be two Israels? Two Zions? Two olive trees?

There only is the one olive tree, and that tree is Christ.

For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own olive tree? (Romans 11:24)

To be continued.