The Daily Word of Righteousness

Israel—Spirit and Flesh, #10

And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more. (Acts 20:25)

Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him. (Acts 28:31)

The Hebrew Prophets, John the Baptist, the Lord Jesus, and the Apostles of the Lamb preached the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. What is it that has removed the original Gospel of the Kingdom from the understanding, faith, and hope of God's people? What is it that has changed the coming of Christ in His Kingdom into an escape to the spirit realm?

It is the teaching that the Kingdom of God is for the Jews, while the Christian Church, the Body of Christ is to be carried off to Heaven to an obscure destiny—a destiny not found in the Hebrews Prophets. This is the fallacy that has changed the Gospel of Christ from the hope of deliverance for the prisoners of the earth into a totally unscriptural exodus into the spirit realm.

If the present Christian doctrines were the truth of God, then physical death would be the friend and not the enemy of the saint (I Corinthians 15:26). Our goal would be a peaceful death, not a triumphant resurrection.

The enemy, Satan, has managed to corrupt the Christian Gospel until there is little relationship between belief in Christ and righteous behavior. The ability of the enemy has been underestimated. While the believers are looking for a flight into Heaven to escape the Antichrist, the Antichrist has managed to rob them of their ability to serve God in righteousness, holiness, and obedience.

The whole purpose of the creation of the Christian Church is to bring the practice of righteousness into the earth. Establishing God's will in the earth can come to pass only as a righteous Church is formed. When a righteous Church has been formed, then the Lord Jesus will return, bringing His Church with Him, and establish righteousness on the earth.

Now we can understand why Satan strives so intently to drive a wedge between the Jews and the Gentiles, leaving the Gentiles with the unscriptural idea that they are to be carried into the spirit realm to live forever. Not only are they to be carried to mansions to live forever, all they need to do to get there is to make a profession of belief in the Lord Jesus. There is no fundamental need for them to become a new creation of righteous behavior. If this indeed is the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, then righteousness and justice will never come to the earth. The Hebrew Prophets will have spoken in vain.

He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment [establish justice] in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law. (Isaiah 42:4)

Let it be decided once for all time: there is only one Kingdom of God, of Heaven. The Kingdom was preached at the beginning of the Christian Era. The Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached also at the conclusion of the Christian Era (Matthew 24:14), but not by Jews who have not been born again of the Spirit of God. It will be the Spirit-filled saints of God, both Jewish and Gentile, who will bear the tremendous testimony of the last days.

Would God wait until the most desperate, the most oppressive hour of earth's history, and then bear witness to the nations through physical Jews who do not have the Holy Spirit to help them? This is what is being taught today by many—perhaps the majority—of the Christian preachers and teachers.

To be continued.