Diminishing the Work of Christ on the Cross
The false prophet is defined in Matthew 24: 4-5, as one who says that Christ came in the flesh, but he, the false prophet, teaches doctrines that are different from and opposed to the doctrines of Christ. These doctrines which diminish the work of Christ by false prophets are the anti-thesis, or in Greek the αντιθεσεις, which Paul says in I Timothy 6: 20-21 is falsely called knowledge and that it should be avoided.
There are many specific prophecies in the Old Testament about the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. And although Jeremiah 18: 1-6 does not mention him (it mentions God),in following Isaiah 28: 10, we should put the Old Testament prophecies on the coming of Christ together with Jeremiah 18: 4-6, that God was to remake Old Covenant Israel, and understand that Jesus Christ was to remake Old Covenant Israel.
"But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy." I Peter 2: 9-10
Deuteronomy 7: 6 says "For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth."
In Chapters one and two of I Peter, Peter is talking about Christians. When Peter quotes Deuteronomy 7: 6 he is saying that in Christ - being reborn in Christ - Christians are now that chosen and holy people, special to God.
In addition, I Peter 2: 10 implies these Christians in the past were not a people of God who had obtained mercy, but have now obtained mercy. He is talking about Christians who were not Israelites, who were not of the physical seed from Abraham. Acts 10, the beginning of the call of the Gentiles into God's people, was the fulfillment of Hosea 2: 23, that God was to bring some of the Gentiles into his elect people.
But majority theology of the ekklesia, from John Darby, C.I. Scofield and Lewis S. Chafer does not recognize II Kings 21: 13, Isaiah 29: 16, Jeremiah 18: 1-6 and added to these Hosea 2: 23 - that Old Covenant Israel was changed by God, and non-Israelites were brought in. Jesus Christ himself made that change from the flesh to the spiritual, from the kata sarka, according to he flesh, in I Corinthians 10: 18 to the spiritual house of I Peter 2: 5.
Christians in Christ became part of God's Israel, but not of Old Covenant Israel. Gentiles in faith were brought close to the commonwealth of Israel in Ephesians 2: 13, that is, they became part of remade Israel. In Ephesians 2: 11-19, Paul says the Gentiles (ethnos, peoples, nations) were in the past alienated from Israel, but by the blood of Christ are now made close. They are made close to Israel, that is, they become part of Israel, which has been changed by Christ.
"Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people." Luke 1: 68 Romans 10: 12 and Galatians 3: 28 say that in Christ there is now no difference in the elect by physical bloodline, so that by his people Luke 1: 68 means all those who in faith are Christ's regardless of their physical DNA.
This refusal by the dominant evangelical church theology to recognize that God has one people, not two, is a fundamental reason why that theology is another Gospel and its followers have another Jesus. That God has one people now is shown clearly in John 10: 16, in Ephesians 4: 4,and in Romans 12:4-5 - and Hebrews 10: 9 says "He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second." II Corinthians 3: 7 and 3: 11 also say the Old Covenant was done away with.
The Talmudic rabbis interpret Isaiah 53 to mean that the "he" in that chapter is not Jesus Christ, but the people of Old Covenant Israel - which replaces Christ with Israel of the flesh. To some extent the dominant church theology also replaces Christ with Old Covenant Israel, no matter if they say they are not doing that.
When there is so much emphasis on Old Covenant Israel, and to some extent it replaces Jesus Christ as the main focus, then the work of Christ on the Cross is diminished for those buying into doctrines of the supremacy of Old Covenant Israel of the flesh.
"Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many,; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ......For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. 27.For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. 29. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." Galatians 3: 16, 26-29
Just as there is no more temple in which God resides, no more animal sacrifice, no more feast days which people of God must observe and no more literal circumcision to be done, there is no more Old Covenant Israel of the flesh by descent from Abraham. The shadow of a physical seed - from God's man, Abraham - was fulfilled in the spiritual substance which is Christ Jesus. That which is entirely physical as shadows (Hebrews 10: 1, Colossians 2: 16-17) pointing to the spiritual substance which was to come - Christ - was done away with when the New Covenant replaced the Old Covenant (Hebrews 10: 9) - at the Cross.
Literal or physical circumcision, as it turned out, was a shadow pointing to the metaphoric "circumcision of he heart."
"And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live." Deuteronomy 30: 6
"Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings." Jeremiah 4: 1-2, 4.
To insist that the shadows of the Old Covenant were not fulfilled in Christ is to diminish the work of Christ on the Cross.
Being the spiritual seed from Abraham in Galatians 3: 29 means that when you belong to Christ, you too are the spiritual seed of Abraham, which is also the spiritual seed of God. "That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted for the seed." Romans 9: 8
And in the remnant of Romans 11: 1-5 Christ fulfilled the promise that he would redeem the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matthew 15: 24). In Romans 11: 1-5 Paul starts by saying that God did not cast away his people. Then he begins talking about the remnant of Israel by quoting I Kings 19: 10 14 18. In I Kings 19: 9-10 Elijah says to God that "...they have thrown down thy alters and slain the prophets...and I even I,only am left..."
But God answers in I Kings 19: 18, "Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed down unto Baal..." This is the remnant of Israel, and Paul's point is that at times when Israel was in apostasy, God preserved a remnant with which to begin all over again with his people Israel.
Then, in Romans 11: 5 Paul says "Even so at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace." Paul is stating the principle of the remnant, and clearly implying that Christ fulfilled his mission to redeem the lost sheep of the house of Israel in this remnant of Old Covenant Israel he chose to begin his people Israel all over again as those reborn in Christ.
There is a big difference spiritually between that remnant of Israel which accepted Christ and that multitude of Old Covenant Israel which rejected Christ and continued in that rejection as Talmudic Judaism. It is that multitude, and not the remnant, which the dominant evangelical church theology raises up as Israel.
In addition, by insisting that "all Israel" in Romans 11: 25-26 must mean the multitude of Old Covenant Israel who shall be saved, the dominant theology diminishes the work of Christ on the Cross - by not being able to save all of Old Covenant Israel. But Christ fulfilled his mission in saving the remnant of Old Covenant Israel he chose to save. Paul explains the remnant of Old Covenant Israel who were saved in Romans 11; 1-5.
John Darby said that the "Church has sought to settle itself here, but it has no place on the
earth... [Though] making a most constructive parenthesis, it forms no
part of the regular order of God's earthly plans, but is merely an
interruption of them to give a fuller character and meaning to
them..."
John. N. Darby, 'The Character of Office in The Present Dispensation'
Collected Writings., Eccl. I, Vol. I, p. 94.
"Them" are all physical Israel. The church, for Darby exists to "give
fuller character and meaning to all physical Israel." Darby thought that the purpose of the
Christian church, the ekklesia as a meeting, assembly or congregation
of Israel reborn in Christ, the Israel of God, made into The Body of
Christ like the Catholic capital C Church, was to honor all physical
Israel of the Old Covenant, which the New Testament says was done away with.
The evangelical Church, which Francis Schaeffer called "The Great Evangelical Disaster" in the title of his last book,is in this theology, a temporary people of God, a "pause," Darby called the "parenthesis" in God's "real" plan, which is for the people of Old Covenant Israel defined by their physical DNA, their blood line from Abraham.
The Capital C Church as the "parenthesis" people, who are not of Abraham's physical bloodline, in a way admits that within its theological system of doctrines that Christ failed in his mission to redeem the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matthew 15: 24). He had to put off salving all Israel, All Old Covenant Israel, the multitude, to some time later, maybe during the tribulation.
"Israel is an eternal nation, heir to an eternal land, with an eternal kingdom, on which David rules from an eternal throne so that in eternity, '...never the twain, Israel and church, shall meet." Lewis S. Chafer, Systematic Theology (Dallas, Dallas Seminary Press, 1975), Vol. 4. pp. 315-323.
Exodus 4: 22-23, Hosea 11: 1 and Matthew 2: 15 all point to Christ alone as being the one seed to whom the Abrahamic promises were made, which is confirmed in Galatians 3:16. Again, what is said in Exodus 4: 22-23 Hosea 11: 1, and Matthew 2: 15 is subtle, at one point Christ is Israel. "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ."
The false prophet is defined in Matthew 24: 4-5, as one who says that Christ came in the flesh, but he, the false prophet, teaches doctrines that are different from and opposed to the doctrines of Christ. These doctrines which diminish the work of Christ by false prophets are the anti-thesis, or in Greek the αντιθεσεις, which Paul says in I Timothy 6: 20-21 is falsely called knowledge and that it should be avoided.
There are many specific prophecies in the Old Testament about the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. And although Jeremiah 18: 1-6 does not mention him (it mentions God),in following Isaiah 28: 10, we should put the Old Testament prophecies on the coming of Christ together with Jeremiah 18: 4-6, that God was to remake Old Covenant Israel, and understand that Jesus Christ was to remake Old Covenant Israel.
"But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy." I Peter 2: 9-10
Deuteronomy 7: 6 says "For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth."
In Chapters one and two of I Peter, Peter is talking about Christians. When Peter quotes Deuteronomy 7: 6 he is saying that in Christ - being reborn in Christ - Christians are now that chosen and holy people, special to God.
In addition, I Peter 2: 10 implies these Christians in the past were not a people of God who had obtained mercy, but have now obtained mercy. He is talking about Christians who were not Israelites, who were not of the physical seed from Abraham. Acts 10, the beginning of the call of the Gentiles into God's people, was the fulfillment of Hosea 2: 23, that God was to bring some of the Gentiles into his elect people.
But majority theology of the ekklesia, from John Darby, C.I. Scofield and Lewis S. Chafer does not recognize II Kings 21: 13, Isaiah 29: 16, Jeremiah 18: 1-6 and added to these Hosea 2: 23 - that Old Covenant Israel was changed by God, and non-Israelites were brought in. Jesus Christ himself made that change from the flesh to the spiritual, from the kata sarka, according to he flesh, in I Corinthians 10: 18 to the spiritual house of I Peter 2: 5.
Christians in Christ became part of God's Israel, but not of Old Covenant Israel. Gentiles in faith were brought close to the commonwealth of Israel in Ephesians 2: 13, that is, they became part of remade Israel. In Ephesians 2: 11-19, Paul says the Gentiles (ethnos, peoples, nations) were in the past alienated from Israel, but by the blood of Christ are now made close. They are made close to Israel, that is, they become part of Israel, which has been changed by Christ.
"Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people." Luke 1: 68 Romans 10: 12 and Galatians 3: 28 say that in Christ there is now no difference in the elect by physical bloodline, so that by his people Luke 1: 68 means all those who in faith are Christ's regardless of their physical DNA.
This refusal by the dominant evangelical church theology to recognize that God has one people, not two, is a fundamental reason why that theology is another Gospel and its followers have another Jesus. That God has one people now is shown clearly in John 10: 16, in Ephesians 4: 4,and in Romans 12:4-5 - and Hebrews 10: 9 says "He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second." II Corinthians 3: 7 and 3: 11 also say the Old Covenant was done away with.
The Talmudic rabbis interpret Isaiah 53 to mean that the "he" in that chapter is not Jesus Christ, but the people of Old Covenant Israel - which replaces Christ with Israel of the flesh. To some extent the dominant church theology also replaces Christ with Old Covenant Israel, no matter if they say they are not doing that.
When there is so much emphasis on Old Covenant Israel, and to some extent it replaces Jesus Christ as the main focus, then the work of Christ on the Cross is diminished for those buying into doctrines of the supremacy of Old Covenant Israel of the flesh.
"Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many,; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ......For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. 27.For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. 29. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." Galatians 3: 16, 26-29
Just as there is no more temple in which God resides, no more animal sacrifice, no more feast days which people of God must observe and no more literal circumcision to be done, there is no more Old Covenant Israel of the flesh by descent from Abraham. The shadow of a physical seed - from God's man, Abraham - was fulfilled in the spiritual substance which is Christ Jesus. That which is entirely physical as shadows (Hebrews 10: 1, Colossians 2: 16-17) pointing to the spiritual substance which was to come - Christ - was done away with when the New Covenant replaced the Old Covenant (Hebrews 10: 9) - at the Cross.
Literal or physical circumcision, as it turned out, was a shadow pointing to the metaphoric "circumcision of he heart."
"And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live." Deuteronomy 30: 6
"Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings." Jeremiah 4: 1-2, 4.
To insist that the shadows of the Old Covenant were not fulfilled in Christ is to diminish the work of Christ on the Cross.
Being the spiritual seed from Abraham in Galatians 3: 29 means that when you belong to Christ, you too are the spiritual seed of Abraham, which is also the spiritual seed of God. "That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted for the seed." Romans 9: 8
And in the remnant of Romans 11: 1-5 Christ fulfilled the promise that he would redeem the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matthew 15: 24). In Romans 11: 1-5 Paul starts by saying that God did not cast away his people. Then he begins talking about the remnant of Israel by quoting I Kings 19: 10 14 18. In I Kings 19: 9-10 Elijah says to God that "...they have thrown down thy alters and slain the prophets...and I even I,only am left..."
But God answers in I Kings 19: 18, "Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed down unto Baal..." This is the remnant of Israel, and Paul's point is that at times when Israel was in apostasy, God preserved a remnant with which to begin all over again with his people Israel.
Then, in Romans 11: 5 Paul says "Even so at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace." Paul is stating the principle of the remnant, and clearly implying that Christ fulfilled his mission to redeem the lost sheep of the house of Israel in this remnant of Old Covenant Israel he chose to begin his people Israel all over again as those reborn in Christ.
There is a big difference spiritually between that remnant of Israel which accepted Christ and that multitude of Old Covenant Israel which rejected Christ and continued in that rejection as Talmudic Judaism. It is that multitude, and not the remnant, which the dominant evangelical church theology raises up as Israel.
In addition, by insisting that "all Israel" in Romans 11: 25-26 must mean the multitude of Old Covenant Israel who shall be saved, the dominant theology diminishes the work of Christ on the Cross - by not being able to save all of Old Covenant Israel. But Christ fulfilled his mission in saving the remnant of Old Covenant Israel he chose to save. Paul explains the remnant of Old Covenant Israel who were saved in Romans 11; 1-5.
John Darby said that the "Church has sought to settle itself here, but it has no place on the
earth... [Though] making a most constructive parenthesis, it forms no
part of the regular order of God's earthly plans, but is merely an
interruption of them to give a fuller character and meaning to
them..."
John. N. Darby, 'The Character of Office in The Present Dispensation'
Collected Writings., Eccl. I, Vol. I, p. 94.
"Them" are all physical Israel. The church, for Darby exists to "give
fuller character and meaning to all physical Israel." Darby thought that the purpose of the
Christian church, the ekklesia as a meeting, assembly or congregation
of Israel reborn in Christ, the Israel of God, made into The Body of
Christ like the Catholic capital C Church, was to honor all physical
Israel of the Old Covenant, which the New Testament says was done away with.
The evangelical Church, which Francis Schaeffer called "The Great Evangelical Disaster" in the title of his last book,is in this theology, a temporary people of God, a "pause," Darby called the "parenthesis" in God's "real" plan, which is for the people of Old Covenant Israel defined by their physical DNA, their blood line from Abraham.
The Capital C Church as the "parenthesis" people, who are not of Abraham's physical bloodline, in a way admits that within its theological system of doctrines that Christ failed in his mission to redeem the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matthew 15: 24). He had to put off salving all Israel, All Old Covenant Israel, the multitude, to some time later, maybe during the tribulation.
"Israel is an eternal nation, heir to an eternal land, with an eternal kingdom, on which David rules from an eternal throne so that in eternity, '...never the twain, Israel and church, shall meet." Lewis S. Chafer, Systematic Theology (Dallas, Dallas Seminary Press, 1975), Vol. 4. pp. 315-323.
Exodus 4: 22-23, Hosea 11: 1 and Matthew 2: 15 all point to Christ alone as being the one seed to whom the Abrahamic promises were made, which is confirmed in Galatians 3:16. Again, what is said in Exodus 4: 22-23 Hosea 11: 1, and Matthew 2: 15 is subtle, at one point Christ is Israel. "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ."
