Many of the Jews claimed to have Abraham “to their father,” but Jesus said they were “children of the devil.” Does it seem likely that our heavenly Father will exalt “children of the devil” just because they have Hebrew blood in their veins?
The Jewish Question
by Harry R. Miller

The greater part of the professing Christian Church has taken the unscriptural view that the natural descendants of Jacob (e.g., descendants from all of the twelve tribes of Israel) are God’s people; but the Jews (specifically, only those Israelites descended from the tribes of Levi, Judah, or Benjamin) are God’s “chosen people.” It is doctrine such as this that brings in much of the confusion concerning the truth of the second coming of our Lord.

Paul declares, “They are not all Israel, which are of Israel: Neither because they are of the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but in Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, they which are the children of the flesh, these ARE NOT THE CHILDREN OF GOD.” (Romans 9:6-8) This should settle once and for all the question of “holy Jewish FLESH!” A Jew of the flesh is no holier than a Gentile of the flesh. As a symbol, the word “Jew” is used in a mystical sense to indicate the ELECT: “I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews and are not,” (Rev. 2:9) and again in Romans 2:28-29, “For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, IN THE SPIRIT, and not in the letter.”

Many of the Jews claimed to have Abraham “to their father,” but Jesus said they were “children of the devil.” Does it seem likely that our heavenly Father will exalt “children of the devil” just because they have Hebrew blood in their veins? There are many other words and phrases used as symbols of divine mysteries. All of these have their temporal or natural side, which is used figuratively to show forth certain things that have their counterpart in the spiritual world. Consider the following: “The first Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.” (1 Corinthians 15:45) In verse 47, we are told that this “last Adam” is “the Lord from heaven.” Quite a difference between the glory of the one and the glory of the other; yet, both were the creation of God and both partook of all of the limitations of the body of flesh. “Israel after the flesh” had its day of representing the people of God, but when the Lord destroyed “the sinful kingdom,” that kingdom was taken from fleshly Israel “and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.” This new nation is now known as “THE ISRAEL OF GOD.” (Galatians 6:16)

The “old covenant” was also an earthly affair. It required ritual and sacrifice by priests of the flesh, but like all things material, it, too, passed away TO BE NO MORE. There is now a new covenant, and new divinely ordered customs; and also a new priesthood. Both this new covenant and this new priesthood are ETERNAL. The first were of an earthly nature, and only prefigured in a meager way the glories of the eternal. There was a tabernacle, an earthly affair, which was “a figure for the time then present” (Hebrews 9:9), which tabernacle PREFIGURED A FAR GREATER AND FAR MORE GLORIOUS TABERNACLE than that known by the Hebrews. The heavenly tabernacle “which the Lord pitched and not man,” (Heb. 8:1-2), is not a temporal affair, thank God. IT IS ETERNAL; and it is located in a place that “hath foundations.” Its “builder and maker is God” Himself. The first tabernacle shall never again be rebuilt. It has served its purpose of mute testimony, and its day of witness is ended. The one represented, the eternal, is NOW OPEN FOR PRIESTLY SERVICE.

David was a man subject to “like passions” of many other earthly creatures; yet it pleased God to use David as a symbol of Christ. David pleased the Father in that he was a defender of the true faith of God. Jesus came, as the son of David, to abide FOREVER. David is dead, but his Son continues to abide forever. The “throne of David” was an earthly affair. It was temporal. As a temporal thing, it ended over twenty-five hundred years ago, but David has a Son on the HEAVENLY THRONE, TODAY, and “OF HIS KINGDOM THERE SHALL BE NO END.” David, “being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn unto him that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to SIT ON HIS THRONE; he seeing this before spake of THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST ... this Jesus hath God raised up ... therefore being by the right hand of God exalted ... let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified both LORD (King) and Christ(Saviour).” (Acts 2:30-36)

Let no man dare to deny that JESUS CHRIST IS NOW KING. “Jesus Christ who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead and the prince of the kings of the earth.” (Revelation 1:5) David’s sons of the flesh are dead; so also is David’s temporal, or earthly, kingdom. But David’s Son, Jesus, is alive forevermore; and “There was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations and languages, should serve Him: His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.” (Daniel 7:14) Even as He told Pilate: “My kingdom IS NOT OF THIS WORLD.” Like the earth itself, all earthly things must have an end, but the things of that other world of the spirit shall abide forever. Paul stated as much, “While 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.” (2 Corinthians 4:18)

Another parallel, also much misunderstood, is that of the two Jerusalems: there is a “Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children, but Jerusalem, which is above, is free, which is the mother of us all.” (Galatians 4:25-26)

This earthly city is the “bondwoman” that has been “cast out.” She is not the “HOLY CITY” mentioned in all the promises of the future. In the book of Revelation, she has an extremely bad name: “The great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.” (Revelation 11:8) Notice that this city is not even named: it is only designated, so great has been the magnitude of her sins. The real Zion, the Holy City, is in heaven: “THE HEAVENLY JERUSALEM” (Hebrews 12:22), the city for which Abraham looked (Hebrews 11:10), the location being in “a BETTER COUNTRY, that is AN HEAVENLY.” (Heb. 11:16) This is also the city which John saw “coming down from God OUT OF HEAVEN.” (Revelation 21:2) The Scriptures set forth many other earthly types of HEAVENLY PLACES, THINGS, AND PEOPLE. To look for their fulfillment in this material world is but to make confusion of the Word of God. Man has been given an earthly body, but it will soon be dissolved, arid in its place (for the saints), will be “a house not made with hands, but a glorious ''celestial body''" (1 Cor. 15:40-49), which will abide forever, in the place He has gone to prepare for us.

WHAT, THEN, IS THE HOPE OF THE JEW, THE NATURAL SEED OF ISRAEL? Is his return to Palestine according to the plan of God? Is something very special about to happen to these natural sons of Abraham? The answer is YES, and a most emphatic YES: BUT ABSOLUTELY NOT WHAT THE SO-CALLED CHRISTIAN WORLD HAS PREDICTED. The Lord “cut off” these natural branches, and the curse of His blood has rested upon them for many centuries; but when “the times of the Gentiles” will come to an end, the curse shall be lifted, and then suddenly Judah shall see the LIGHT. Unlike the apostate Christians who claim to serve God, these new converts WILL SERVE HIM ACCORDING TO HIS EVERY COMMAND. It is then that the Spirit shall be poured out UPON THESE NEW CONVERTS TO CHRISTIANITY. They will set the perfect example, and shake the whole world by their awakening, but their restoration of the apostolic faith and practices will not be accepted by most of THE PROFESSING CHRISTIAN WORLD; and in great wrath shall these impostors from all nations come forth to destroy these true people. And “At that time Michael shall stand up ... and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that is found written in the book.” (Daniel 12:1)

(Reprinted from Number 368, July 1994 issue of “The Testimony of Truth” with permission from “People of the Living God”)

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