This topic may have beat to death but I dont know. I have heard a lot of preachers say that the Jews are Gods chosen people. I dont understand what this means, Gods chosen people. As I see it, Jews that dont believe in Jesus as the Christ, or King of Kings or what ever they disbelieve about Jesus Christ makes them antichrist. What am I missing?
Your right .its pretty much summed up in john 3:16,36
16"For God loved the world so much that he gave his only-begotten Son, in order that everyone exercising faith in him might not be destroyed but have everlasting life.
36He that exercises faith in the Son has everlasting life; he that disobeys the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains upon him.
My husband, he's part Jewish, says that Jews have a joke about that. They say, if we're God's chosen people, how come we got the only piece of land in the Middle East without oil under it?
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Proud parents of our own "Daddy's Little Girls"
I heard Jesus He drank wine and I bet we'd get along just fine.
I recommend you read Romans Chapter 11 and you will see, why Jews rejected Yeshua, They did not do it out of their own but rather God Blinded them so you could be saved as a gentile, If the Jews Had accepted Yeshua as the Messiah promised you would not be here and certainly you would not be saved.
If Yeshua had established his kingdom at that moment, all gentiles would have to be removed from the earth and thrown in the lake of fire.
If you read carefully the Word ,you will see that is what will happen when He returns, it is not the Believers that will be taken out of the earth, but the wicked !
Romans 11 also says because the Jews were sacrificed in order that gentiles would be saved, they will receive the resurrection from the dead and "ALL OF ISRAEL WOULD BE SAVED" now all doesn't mean a few All means all.
In the Chapter about the dry bones the prophet sees all the bones begin to take flesh and finally resurrect, the angel explains, This is the entire house of Israel, so if it is the entire house of Israel resurrecting, tehn it has to be every seeed of Abraham that ever lived and died, this is the only way it can be , if God's covenant with Abraham is to be fulfilled , which it has not being fulfilled yet.
That is what the Kingdom is for and for whom it is for, not for the Jehova witnesses as they claim,LOL.
You as a gentile saved by grace, either resurrected or transformed , will not need "The Land", you will be a spiritual being having no needs, so teh kingdom on earth is not for you but For the Jews to whom God Promised the Land Through Abraham the "Eretz Yisrael ".
You and me will be part of the Celestial Land which is Zion and there we will live with him forever, but those who remain on earth are the Jews and those Gentiles who would still have a chance to repent, the evild doers are in the lake of fire.
The Jews have a unique status according to the Bible. They were chosen as the people who would hear and record the words of God, through His prophets, who were also Jewish. And the Jews have influenced the world with the scriptures. There are now about 2 billion Christians in the world. In one form or another, these scriptures have influenced more than half of the people in the world to abandon pagan worship. The Jews, in this regard, and in many others, have influenced the world more than any other group of people. The Bible declared that the Jews would be scattered throughout the world (Deuteronomy 28:64) and that they would be a blessing to the world (Genesis 12:2-3). Indeed, the Jews have been scattered to every country in the world, during the past 2500 years. And this scattering has enabled them to help reveal to the world the truth revealed in the scriptures, that there is one true God, and only one true God. God has revealed to us in the Bible that people who persecute the Jews will be punished. And indeed they have been. The great Assyrian Empire persecuted the Jews. The great neo-Babylonian Empire persecuted the Jews. The great Phoenician Empire persecuted the Jews. The great Roman Empire persecuted the Jews. The powerful Nazi empire persecuted the Jews. And the powerful Soviet Union persecuted the Jews. All of these empires have been destroyed. And yet, the Jews are still a nation. Why? Because God had made this promise to the Jews in Genesis 12:2-3 - "I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." God keeps His promises. And, the Jews are living proof that God keeps His promises. About 2000 years ago, Christianity was introduced to the world by a group of Jews who were followers of Jesus. One of every three people in the world today are identified as being Christian, according to various almanacs and encyclopedias. The Scriptures, largely through the spread of Christianity, have influenced governments and criminal justice systems throughout the world. The concepts that people are equal in the eyes of God, that individuals have rights that should be protected, trace all or some of their roots to the Bible. And these concepts can probably trace most and perhaps all of their modern-day popularity to the influence and popularity of the Bible. These are gifts of the Bible - gifts of the Jews - to the world. The Jews are living proof that we all can rely on the promises made by God in the Bible. After all, the Bible told us, for example, that:
[ul][*]Israel would be a nation (1400 BC, 1948).[*]Jerusalem and the Temple would be destroyed (70-135 AD).[*]The Jews would be exiled (70-135 AD).[*]Israel would become a wasteland (135-1900s).[*]The Jews would be scattered worldwide (135-1900s).[*]The Jews would be persecuted worldwide (135-1900s).[*]The Jews would have a worldwide impact (135-1900s).[*]Their identity as a group would be preserved (135-1900s).[*]The Jews would return to their homeland (1900s, etc).[*]The Jews would have Israel again as their own country (since 1948).[/ul] All of these things have happened. No matter how tightly you close your eyes, all of these things have happened. No matter how strenuously you attack the Bible, all of these things have happened. And the Bible said that all of these things would happen. And the Jews are living proof that the Bible keeps its promises. When the Jews declared independence for Israel in May 1948, it was the first time in about 2900 years that Israel was both united and independent. Who has ever heard of such a thing - that a country could be reborn after its people had been scattered worldwide for a few thousand years? And who has ever heard of such a thing - that a country could be reborn in a single day? Who? - you, me, and the Bible. The new Israel was born in a single day. After a worldwide movement called Zionism began in the 1800s, hundreds of thousands of Jews worldwide began to return to their ancient homeland. Then, in May 1948, the Jews declared independence. On that same day, the United States and other countries acknowledged the sovereignty of Israel. And, Israel's sovereignty was acknowledged in a very different way by the countries surrounding Israel. Within hours of the declaration of independence, Israel was attacked by the surrounding countries which had hoped to put an end to the newly reborn country. Those countries, combined, were at least 20 times larger than tiny Israel. And yet, tiny Israel prevailed in that war. Why? Because the Bible keeps its promises (see Isaiah 66:7-8 and Leviticus 26:3-8). And the Jews are living proof of this. Israel is living proof of this. And let us not forget that Jesus is a Jew. Jesus is a Jew. His first group of followers were Jewish. How can we hate Jews and call ourselves followers of Jesus? It is impossible. Jesus talked about love, not hatred. Should we hate Jews because they are not followers of Jesus? Of course not. Would we want Hindus to hate us because we are not Hindus? Would we want Moslems to hate us because we are not Moslems? Do we want Jews to hate us because we are not Jews? Of course not. If we are followers of Jesus, we should not hate anyone. Instead, we should treat others as we would have them treat us. That's what Jesus told us to do. How can we be followers of Jesus if we don't follow Jesus? How can we allow ourselves, or our friends, or anyone else, to hate Jews? They are the people who gave us the word of God. That was their job. God had chosen them, out of all the peoples on the face of the earth, to be His chosen people, to record His words, and to share His words with the world. And yet, too many times in the past 1900 years, we Christians have persecuted the Jews. We banned them from living in Spain, England, France, Belgium and Italy. We burned their villages and we burned them alive - their husbands, their wives, their parents and their children. We stood by quietly while some of our church leaders expressed their un-Christian hatred for Jews. And we didn't always stand up when some of our church leaders were defending the Jews. We must never allow ourselves to do this again. We must never allow ourselves to betray the teachings of the Bible. Instead we must embrace the teachings of the Bible, we must embrace the Biblical ideal of treating other people as we would have them treat us. And if we embrace the Bible, then we have no choice but to embrace our Jewish brothers and sisters. And we have no choice but to embrace our African brothers and sisters, our Asian brothers and sisters, our Australian, American, Oceanic and European brothers and sisters.
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The great day of the LORD is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the LORD: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. Zephaniah 1:14
פרץ
That "election" is limited to the Jews is contrary to the teaching of the Bible. In Holy Scripture we find:
Acts 13:48
"Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed."
And Romans 9:23-24
"and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?"
Consider also:
Romans 8:16
"The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,"
Gal. 4:5
"that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, 'Abba, Father!' "
Eph. 1:5
"having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,"
No one can choose to be born into a family. The choice in adoption rests with the person doing the adopting, not with the one being adopted.
Before we get carried away with a blood linage, we need to realize that there was a time when there was not a people called the "Jews". May be some of you scholars who are so versed on who is called, chosen, elected, predestinated, of the proper seed, ect. would like to present a detailed study of Abrahams pedigree. Sarah's ancestry could also stand a little review as Sarah was Abrahams sister, making the Jews an inbred cross of what people?
Was there ever a time when any race, color, strain, ect. of humanity could not be saved?
One can refuse to be adopted though. I didn't refuse.
That God has to draw man to the Gospel message is clearly evident. You will notice that inJohn 6:34 Jesus plainly states, the one that the Father draws, He will raise up. He reiterates this in several other verses of Holy Scripture: Notice how Jesus says ALL that the Father gives him. He does not say All that chose me, but rather we are given to him by the Father. All the choosing is done by the Father.
John 6:37
"All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out."
John 6:39
"This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day."
John 17:2
"Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: "Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him."
You will notice that nowhere does Jesus teach, or indicate, that the one "drawn", or "given", to Him by the Father has the capacity to accept or reject. There is no room in Jesus' overall teaching to interject, "if they choose to accept." In fact, Jesus has this to say in another section of the Bible:
John 10:27:
""My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand."
Joshua 24:15 Choose ye this day
Isaiah 56:4 choose the things that please me
Prov 1:28-29and did not choose the fear of the Lord
Heb 11:25 Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God
Judges 5:8 They chose new gods
Isaiah 66:4 and chose that in which I delight not
1 Kings 20:40 thyself hast decided it
Psalms 14:2
"The LORD looks down from heaven upon the children of men,
To see if there are any who understand, who seek God.
They have all turned aside,
They have together become corrupt;
There is none who does good, No, not one."
Psalms 53:2
"God looks down from heaven upon the children of men,
To see if there are any who understand, who seek God.
Every one of them has turned aside;
They have together become corrupt;
There is none who does good, No, not one."
Romans 3:10
As it is written:
"There is none righteous, no, not one;
There is none who understands;
There is none who seeks after God.
They have all turned aside;
They have together become unprofitable;
There is none who does good, no, not one."
John 1:12 " But as many as received Him, He gave to them authority to become the children of God, to those who believe on His name, who were born, not of bloods,
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but were born of God.
Jews
