The Daily Word of Righteousness

The Judaic-Christian Salvation, #2

God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; (Hebrews 1:1,2)

We are using the term religion to indicate a set of beliefs and practices that people have developed and in which they engage, often with the goal of obtaining bliss in the next world.

How can we refer to the majestic acts of Israel's Lord as a religion? Were the plagues on Egypt a religion? Was the parting of the Red Sea a religion? Did Sinai quake as men practiced a religion? Indeed not! These were revelations of the Almighty God to all mankind, given to and through the Israelites as God's chosen saints (holy ones).

The same is true of Christianity. Was the Lord Jesus the founder of a religion or is He the God of Sinai? Is Jesus the Creator of Heaven and earth who lives today and walks and talks with His elect? Or was he the founder of a religion who was crucified because people could not understand him?

Is the risen Christ coming again in bone and flesh in His Kingdom? Or is He a symbol that dedicated people employ to support their religious values?

Both the Old Testament and the New Testament speak of one Lord dealing with one olive tree, one elect, to bring about one end—the rule of God in the earth. There only is one Israel, one elect of God. The old covenant was made with Israel and the new covenant is made with Israel.

Any doctrine that points toward a kingdom and a goal of redemption under the new covenant that is different from the Kingdom and goal of the old covenant is not of the God of Heaven. It is of man. Neither is there any such entity as a Gentile Church destined to live forever in Heaven. There only is the one Church, one Kingdom of God, one Body of Christ, one new Jerusalem.

The new covenant. The new covenant, the Christian covenant, can be made only with God's Israel.

Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: (Hebrews 8:9,10)

The only manner in which a Gentile can attain membership in God's elect, can participate in the new covenant, is by being grafted on Israel, on the one true olive tree. This so clearly is scriptural that we will not keep stressing the point.

To be continued.