glorycloud's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- the future conversion of Israel It is 12:22 PM Thursday afternoon and I have something that I want to get off my mind. The other day I mentioned that a friend of mine had stopped by to chat. This old friend is 80 years old and has a small chapel here in town. The man is a teaching elder and is theologically Puritan, Baptistic and Dutch Reformed. Anyway while we were talking we got into the future of Israel in the plan of redemption. My friend is always telling me we need a revival like in the days of the Great Awakening here in america (George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards). What the old Puritans called �the Latter Glory of the Saints�. (check out the book �The Puritan Hope: Revival and the Interpretation of Prophecy� by Iain H. Murray-since I got this book out I will quote from it� �Recognizing this, another school of prophetic interpreters has argued that no Old Testament predictions respecting Israel await fulfillment. The fulfillment has already occurred in the Christian Church. But this claim goes too far, for it leaves out of account Paul�s use of the Prophets in the chapter of Romans now under consideration. Having opened, as we have seen, the divine mystery that the casting off of Israel was not final, he turns for confirmation to the inspired testimony of Scripture: �blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant with them, when I shall take away their sins� (v. 25b-27). This quotation, taken from Isaiah 59: 20 and Jeremiah 31:34, would be valueless in this context were it not that the words quoted collaborate what Paul has already affirmed respecting Israel. The way he employs these texts is proof that the full scope of Old Testament prophecy has not yet been realized in history. This is of major significance. We have already noted that predictions of Christ�s kingdom in Isaiah and in Jeremiah were considered applicable by the New Testament writers to the Church in the apostolic age. Paul�s use of the same prophets in Romans 11:26, 27 now shows that the fulfillment was only initial and by no means exhaustive. A larger fulfillment still awaits the Church, when the same covenant faithfulness of God which has already brought gospel blessings to the Gentile world will be the cause of the removal of Israel�s sins. Gentile and Jew are thus contained in the same Old Testament predictions, and because of these predictions admit of successive fulfillments and speak of the same salvation there is nothing to prevent what has already been referred to New Testament converts being applied to the future conversion of Israel. Jeremiah 31:34 has both been fulfilled (Heb. 8:8) and is yet to be fulfilled in a day of greater gospel blessing (Rom. 11:27).� pg. 74 Iain Murray) So my friend and I read from Romans 11 and both agreed there is a future conversion of Israel after the fulness of the Gentiles have come in the Church. �On that day there will be no light, no cold or frost. It will be a unique day, without daytime or nightime-a day known to the LORD. When evening comes, there will be light. On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half to the eastern sea and half to the western sea, in summer and in winter. The LORD will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one LORD, and his name the only name.� Zechariah 14:6-9. I told Carol last night as she was getting ready to go to work that after reading the Old Testament I can not see any more that God�s promises to Israel can all be spiritualized and applied to the Church. There is a future for national Israel �the remnant���So says Jehovah of hosts: If it is marvelous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in those days, will it also be marvelous in My eyes, says Jehovah of hosts? So says Jehovah of hosts: Behold, I will save My people from the east country, and from the land of the setting sun. And I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. And they shall be My people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness� Zech. 8:6-8. My friend Bernie and I both see around here in Dutch Reformed land how some people who claim to be Christians believe because they were baptized as infants became members of the new Israel. Years ago we were members of a small independent Dutch Reformed church Messiah Independent Reformed Church and they wanted to excommunicate our oldest son because he did not make a public confession when he became a teen-ager. This church did not believe a saving conversion made you member of the Body of Christ, but infant baptism. This church believe when an infant was baptized he or she was to be considered a member of the visible Church until he or she showed by outward life otherwise. The young people were encouraged to make public confession as telling the congregation they were now professing they would now take Communion and be an active church member-had become �true� church members-these young people were not professing they had had a radical conversion experience-exercised saving faith or repented of their sins but were accepting intellectually the responsibilities of being a member of the true Israel of God. One of the reasons we left Messiah Independent Reformed Church was their failure to see that a person had been regenerated �born again� to be a Christian or a church member. Church membership does not save anyone. Infant baptism does not save anyone. I believe a true Christian is known by his or her love for the Lord Jesus Christ revealed in the Bible. A true Christian wants to be like Christ. The Bible tells by their fruit you shall know them. It is now 12:37 PM and I am eating some food. It is a quiet day in my cell. I am down in the basement talking to myself as usual. I have a lot on my mind and I have to get out on paper. Writing is the way I unload. I have no one to talk to. My wife is too tired from work to listen to my rants. Also she gets upset by me being so critical about modern american religion christianity-the Dutch Reformed. My wife grew up in among the Dutch Reformed. My wife thinks sometimes I am being critical of her religious convictions. We must speak the truth in love. Also I mainly keeps my thoughts to myself. I write it all down and rarely share my spiritual beliefs with anyone in the spoken word world. I find writings therapeutic. Writing is how I worship the Lord. I am praying in writing words. I am before the throne of the Trinity right Now as I write these words. We can not hide from God who is All Knowing. �So do not be afraid of them. There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the housetops. Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell.� Matthew 10:26-28. My mind just went blank so I will close to rest. Carol is off from work the next four nights. (1 Peter 3:7). music: Grandaddy �The Sophtware Slump� 2:02 p.m. - 2009-10-29 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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