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The Gospel Observer
"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations...teaching them
to observe all that I commanded you, and lo, I am with you always,
even to the end of the age" (Matt. 28:19,20).
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September 1, 2013
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Contents:
1) Whose Land Is It? (Connie Adams)
2) Isaiah Saw in the Temple Who to Trust (Rodney Miller)
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-1-
Whose Land Is It?
by Connie Adams
The foreign policy of the Unites States toward Israel ever since the
time of Woodrow Wilson has been Zionism -- the notion that Israel as
a nation is entitled to Palestine by divine right. This policy
has been furthered by dispensationalists and premillennialists who
believe that the land promises God made to Abraham have yet to be
fulfilled. They connect these promises with events associated
with the coming of the Lord and the establishment of an earthly
kingdom of Christ centered in Jerusalem. The popular press has
bought into the idea that the land is theirs by divine right.
The Promise to Abraham
God promised Abraham that he would make a great nation out of him
and that he would give to that nation the land of Canaan as their
possession "from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river
Euphrates" (Gen. 15:18). This promise was to be kept after
their bondage in Egypt when "the iniquity of the Amorite was full"
(Gen. 15:13-16). Moses delivered them from their bondage and
upon his death Joshua led the people into the land of promise.
Before he died he called the elders together and spoke of how the
land had been divided by lot to the different tribes and concluded
by saying, "There failed not aught of any good thing which the Lord
had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass" (Josh.
21:45). He warned them against intermarriage with the nations
and against idolatry and promised them that if they turned aside to
worship other gods they would "perish from off the good land which
the Lord your God hath given you" (Josh. 23:11-16).
Some have contended that while God in a sense gave them the land,
that the larger land promise (from the river of Egypt to the river
Euphrates) was never fulfilled. But Solomon reigned over land
with those very dimensions, land which had been subdued during the
reign of his father, David. "And Solomon reigned over all
kingdoms from the river unto the land of the Philistines, and unto
the border of Egypt" (1 Kings 4:21; 2 Chron. 9:26). The land
promise was fulfilled.
Keeping the Land Conditional
Joshua made clear that, by turning away from God, they would
"perish" or "be destroyed from off the land which God had given
them." The people promised to cleave to the Lord but soon
forgot. After the generation of Joshua, there arose a
generation which "knew not the Lord." They drifted toward the
gods of the nations around them. After Solomon died, the
kingdom divided with ten tribes going after Jeroboam and two tribes
loyal to Rehoboam. So then we had the kingdom of Israel (ten
tribes) and the kingdom of Judah (two tribes). Israel quickly
plunged into idolatry. God sent prophets to warn them and call
them to repentance. When all that failed, God allowed the
Assyrians to conquer Samaria and subjugate the people and scatter
them over the Assyrian Empire. A little over one hundred years
later, Judah was conquered by the Babylonians and the 70 years of
captivity prophesied by Jeremiah (25:11; 29:10) came to pass.
They did not meet the conditions and God scattered them from the
land as he had warned. That fulfilled the second land promise.
The Return of a Remnant
Jeremiah said, "For thus saith the Lord, That after seventy years be
accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word
toward you, in causing you to return to this place" (Jer.
29:10). There were other promises in Isaiah and Ezekiel of the
return of "a remnant." God never did promise to bring all the
people back, only a remnant. When the New Testament period
began and down to this day, Jews are scattered over the globe.
But after the 70 years ended of which Jeremiah wrote, God stirred up
the heart of Cyrus of Persia (which had by then conquered the
Babylonians) to let the people who wanted to do so, return to their
land and rebuild the temple. The books of Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai,
Zechariah, and Malachi all dealt with the remnant who returned to
the land. The Old Testament history ends with them in the
land. It is out of that remnant that Jesus was born to "bless
all nations" (Gen. 12:3).
Folks, that exhausts the land promises. Every one was
fulfilled and there are no more land promises to be fulfilled at
some future time. With the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D.
70, the divine judgment was pronounced upon the nation which
rejected its own Messiah and now the people of Israel have no more
claim to the land than anyone else. The peace and security of
the world would be greatly served if our leaders and other world
leaders would stop clinging to the mistaken idea that Israel is
still entitled to that land by divine decree and stop catering to
the dispensationalists. The world would be a more peaceful
place. No, I don't believe Palestinians should blow up
Israelis. Yes, I believe that they have a right to defend
themselves. But whatever happens in that land as to who
controls it, just remember that none of that has anything to do with
Bible prophesy. Every promise God made about the nation of
Israel and the land of Palestine, he has kept. The restoration
prophesies were fulfilled in the returns under Zerubbabel, Ezra, and
Nehemiah. In fact the first four verses of Ezra say,
"Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the
Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred
up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation
throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, Thus
saith Cyrus king of Persia, The Lord God of heaven hath given me all
the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an
house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you
of all his people? His God be with him, and let him go up to
Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord God of
Israel, (he is the God,) which is at Jerusalem. And whosoever
remaineth in any place where he sojourneth, let the men of his place
help him with silver, and with gold, and with goods, and with
beasts, beside the freewill offering for the house of God that is in
Jerusalem" (Ezra 1:1-4).
Jesus Christ is the hope of Israel. The gospel is "to the Jew
first and also to the Greek" (Rom. 1:16-17). Christ broke down
the middle wall of partition between Jews and Gentiles so that all
might have peace in him (Eph. 2:14-17). That is how nations
beat their swords into plow shares and their spears into pruning
hooks (Isa. 2:2-4). Until that is learned, violence will
continue.
-- Via Truth Magazine, Vol. XLVI, No. 15, August 1, 2002
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My Servants the Prophets
Isaiah Saw in the Temple Who to Trust
by Rodney Miller
"In the year of King Uzziah's death, I saw the Lord... with the
train of his robe filling the temple" (Isa. 6:1). When Isaiah
"saw the Lord" the stage was set for the entire book of Isaiah.
Within chapter 6 there are some of the most powerful lessons for
today that could be found anywhere. This was the turning point
in the life of Isaiah when he was called from his comfortable
surroundings of the palace to the white-hot heat of a spokesman for
the eternal God to a wicked and rebellious people.
Uzziah was, next to David and Solomon, the most powerful of the
Judean Kings. He had ruled for 52 years when he died, giving
the troubled nation a breath of security amidst turmoil. In
his 52 years he had been blessed as a successful warrior and been
given many victories. He had built a great war machine. He was
popular and well thought of by the nation. Yet, amidst his domestic
popularity and military strength, the lengthening shadow of Assyria
fell over this small Judaic nation. The mighty and dreadful
Assyrian giant was about to flex its muscles and overrun
Jerusalem. But, as long as the rulership of Uzziah kept Judah
at peace with herself and the Egyptians remained a faithful ally,
Assyria might be held off.
Yet now for Isaiah, a righteous young man, it was time for a call to
a deeper level of commitment than he held prior to Uzziah's
death. There were lessons to learn for Isaiah and for us as
well.
I. Isaiah had to learn who to trust.
It has often been said, "show who you put your trust in and you will
reveal the face of your God." V. 1, "I saw the Lord sitting on
the throne." God wanted Isaiah to see that even though his personal
friend and his object of national stability was dead, the THRONE WAS
NOT EMPTY. God is sitting on the throne... that God is still in
control! Isaiah had to have the foundation that if Jerusalem was to
survive the terrible cruelty of the Assyrians, that the real power
was in the king on the throne in Heaven and not in the king on the
throne in Jerusalem. Isaiah needed to see the correct object
of his trust.
Do not we of today's world need to see the Lord "high and lifted up"
or "lofty and exalted" in order to know that our own existence as
well as our own success comes from Him and not our own programs,
pep, and propaganda? The spiritual growth of individuals and
congregations does not come from OUR programs of training or gospel
meetings, or buildings, bulletins and budgets, but from the eternal
God.
Our feverish activities are NOT TO BE THE OBJECT of our trust!
If we think we can get the work off the ground by jumping high
enough, the only thing we will get is tired or burned out.
There was an entire political party in Jerusalem that said their
survival was found in the alliances with Egypt or Babylon.
30:1-2: "Woe to the rebellious children . . . who make alliances . .
. who proceed down to Egypt without consulting me, to take refuge in
the safety of Pharaoh and to seek shelter in the shadow of
Egypt." Again in 31:1: "Woe to those who go down to Egypt for
help and rely on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are
many in horsemen, because they are very strong, BUT THEY DO NOT LOOK
TO THE HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL NOR DO THEY SEEK THE LORD!" Isaiah
could feel what he preached: "On whom do you trust," because he had
learned his lesson as well. Both we and Isaiah need to remove
our eyes from WHAT WE CAN SEE, and focus on WHAT WE CAN'T SEE!
In II Cor. 4:18: ". . . we look not at the things which are seen,
but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen
are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal."
If we trust in the "seen world" we are in trouble. If we trust
in our husbands or wives, or in our children, and then marriage
problems occur or the children turn out to be unfaithful, we are
left with an empty throne. If we trust in our ability to teach
the class or preach the sermon and then everything doesn't turn out
successfully in our resources, be they talent or money, one day the
throne will be empty.
We must see the unseen throne of God and His greatness, "lofty and
exalted." Only then will we never have an empty throne but an
eternal, all powerful, loving, glorious God who is the object of our
total trust. There is no "back up plan" in case He isn't able to
take care of us. It is just HIS GLORY that we look upon.
-- Via Searching the Scriptures, Volume XXVII, Number 2, February
1986
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The Steps That Lead to Eternal Salvation
1) Hear the gospel, for that is how faith comes (Rom.
10:17; John 20:30,31).
2) Believe in the deity of Christ (John 8:24; John
3:18).
3) Repent of sins (Luke 13:5; Acts 17:30).
4) Confess faith in Christ (Rom. 10:9,10; Acts
8:36-38).
5) Be baptized in water for the remission of sins
(Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38; 22:16; Rom. 6:3,4; Gal. 3:26,27; 1 Pet.
3:21).
6) Continue in the faith; for, if not, salvation can
be lost (Heb. 10:36-39; Rev. 2:10; 2 Pet. 2:20-22).
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Park Forest
CHURCH OF CHRIST
9923 Sunny Cline Dr., Baton Rouge, LA 70817
Sunday services: 9:00 AM (Bible class); 10 AM & 6 PM (worship)
Tuesday: 7 PM (Bible class)
evangelist/editor: Tom Edwards (225) 667-4520
Tom@ThomasTEdwards.com
http://ThomasTEdwards.com/go
(Gospel Observer website)
http://ThomasTEdwards.com/audioser.html
(audio sermons)