Jews

The Jews and the Land

Beyond Ethnicity

Gorphilus DeJesus | Nov 1 2023

The Jew is an enigma both to the world at large and to the Christian man. The world has never known quite how to take or “what to do” with the Jew. But do something it has always felt it must. Throughout her history in Old Testament times, Israel found herself occasionally envied for her cultural and political attainments, but more often the brunt of alien military pounding as foreign powers swept back and forth between Mesopotamia and Egypt. The Northern Kingdom finally suffered defeat at the hand of Assyria in 722 B.C.; the Southern Kingdom fared little better, falling to the Neo-Babylonians in 586 B.C. After their captivity in Babylon, the returned remnant established the Second Commonwealth, only to know once again the ravages of war during the Hasmonean Period and subjugation to Imperial Rome. In A.D. 70, the center of Jewish worship since the time of King David, was razed to the ground by Roman armies under Titus.¹

Too many Christians have been deceived to believe that Old Testament Israel still exists today as an ethnoreligious group of so-called Jews supposedly descendent from the patriarch Abraham and thus originating from the ancient Hebrew Israelites.

But is ethnic relation even the determinant of membership in Israel? The New Testament records: Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him, and said of him, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit" (John 1:47). Note that it was the character of Nathanael that identified him as an Israelite.

Who is a Jew?

In the last days of the old covenant, the apostle Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit wrote: he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter… (Romans 8:28-29)

There was a particular sect of Jews identified in the New Testament as the rulers of Israel / the Jews to whom Jesus said: you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. (Matthew 23:27-28). They claimed to have Abraham as their father but were in fact of their father the devil.

Stereotype Shattered

The apostle Paul, lamenting Israel’s rejection of Christ, wrote: But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, "In Isaac your seed shall be called." That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed. (Romans 9:6-8).

It is clear that membership in Israel must be viewed not as a matter of ethnicity, but of faith, according to God’s sovereign election.

By no means are ALL persons of any particular ethnicity necessarily of the same character, mindset or spiritual disposition. In contrast to the Jewish Pharisees, the apostles were Jews who by faith embraced the Messiah who is Himself a Jew! Indeed, Jesus’ genealogy is most important so that the Scriptures would be fulfilled:

”Chances are, when you are meditating on the birth of Jesus this Christmas season, you are not spending a ton of time perusing the list of names in Matthew’s Gospel. But you should, for Matthew didn’t include these names at the opening of the New Testament simply because he needed a clever introduction. He’s making a point that Jesus of Nazareth is the long-awaited promised one, of whom the prophets spoke and to whom the symbolism and sacrificial structure of Israel pointed. Jesus is the rightful Son of David, the forever and true King of Israel.“ *

Even so, the lineage of the Savior of the world is not of “ethnic purity” as witnessed by the inclusion of non-Israelites Rahab, Tamar, Ruth and Bathsheba in His line of descent depicted in Matthew’s gospel. See the full article:

* What Jesus’ genealogy reveals about His character – Snapshots of Grace in the Christmas Story

Jews today

Jews control in the West generally and in America in particular, the lion’s share (and more) of the media and the entertainment media. They rank high in finance and in donations to political causes. In 2020, for example, the ten largest donors to the Democrats and the eight largest donors to the Republicans were Jewish billionaires. They are prominent in politics, academe, and courts in this country, and significant throughout the West. Media, money, and the force of law are a formidable combination, and Jewish groups (plus those supporting them) have used it to enact laws and to “persuade” politicians to favor their cause – or else.²

controllers

There is indeed a ruling elite that has risen way up the pyramid of power in this age, no doubt abetted by the influence of the cast down yet still active evil one, as since being bound from deceiving the nations, evil’s objective is global rule without national distinction, even as it should be noted that this class of power brokers is not uniformly Jewish, as evidenced by the Rockefeller dynasty.

“The daughter of David Rockefeller long has rejected the strictures of religion. But in her marriage to Paul Growald, she has “expanded to Judaism,” as she likes to say.”*

*See: Where Judaism and Rockefellerism Join: Meet the Rockefeller-growalds

Sammy Davis Jr. (1925 – 1990) was an American singer, actor, comedian and dancer who ‘became a Jew‘, which was understood to mean that he chose to join a Jewish religious sect which, surprisingly at the time, would accept someone who might be characterized as a “schvartze”. His biography gives the motive of his conversion as “finding commonalities between the oppression experienced by African-American and Jewish communities”.

The point being that there is no absolute consistency of personality in “Jewishness” or any other cultural identity. The only absolute, definitively distinguishing attributes amongst the one human race are the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman, as decreed in Genesis 3:15 (see Dead or Alive).

The Promised Land

Do any Israelis claim genealogical continuity back to even NT times? Most modern Jews are of Eastern European descent. … Judaism, both medieval and modern has nothing to do with the OT. It originated in Pharisaic/Talmudic teaching. Judaism never approaches the Bible except through the Talmud, and therefore Judaism today owes far more to Eastern Europe than ever it does to the Old Testament.³

Furthermore,

Being a member of Israel in the Old Testament was dependent upon faith and obedience to God. When the Israelites obeyed God, God loved them. But when the Israelites turned from Him, He hated them, stripping them of their Israelite status. After centuries of Israelite rebellion against God, culminating in their rejection of Jesus the Messiah, the titles, attributes and blessings of Israel were transferred to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and to no one else, regardless of Abrahamic descent.⁴

Jesus said to the "chief priests and elders of the [Jewish] people":

Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it. (Matt. 21:43)

And to His [Jewish] disciples: Do not fear, little flock, for it is the Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. (Luke 12:32)

Finally and conclusively, God’s word clearly indicates that the land promise was completely fulfilled:

So the LORD gave to Israel all the land of which He had sworn to give to their fathers, and they took possession of it and dwelt in it. The LORD gave them rest all around, according to all that He had sworn to their fathers. And not a man of all their enemies stood against them; the LORD delivered all their enemies into their hand. Not a word failed of any good thing which the LORD had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass. (Joshua 21:43-45)

This clear passage of old testament Scripture certainly overrides Zionists’ attempts to literalistically interpret the geographical boundaries of Genesis 15:18-21, expressed in spatial merisms⁵, to be translated into border lines on a modern map.

Who are the legitimate heirs of the Abrahamic covenant? The legitimate heir is Jesus Christ, the quintessential seed of Abraham. Israelite believers, Palestinian believers, and all other Gentile believers share in that inheritance through faith in Jesus Christ.⁶