The Jewish acceptance of Christ and the end

by greendawn 12 Replies latest jw friends

  • greendawn
    greendawn

    In the book of Romans 11: 25-27 Paul makes the amazing claim that the Jews who were spiritually blinded so that the nations will also enter the kingdom, will at one time be shown mercy and saved, naturally by accepting Christ.

    26. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written:
    "The deliverer will come from Zion;
    he will turn godlessness away from Jacob."

    27. And this is my covenant with them
    when I take away their sins."

    Obviously this will be an astonishing event but above all it's a landmark for the end which will not come unless this Jewish return en mass happens first, not to Israel (Palestine) but to Christ.

    How did the JWs miss this?

  • lovelylil
    lovelylil

    greendawn,

    God is not done with Isreal yet as a nation. They were put into a spiritual blindness until the full number of gentile believers are converted and then their blindness, as a nation, will be healed. Unlike the WT who teach that we are awaiting the number of 144,000 being filled. We are awaiting a non-specific number of gentile believers. No one can really say who they are. They may feel they are filled with holy spirit but only God knows truly who they are, and Christ of course. They are in the convenant with him. Together with the believing Jews of Jesus day, they make up the new Holy Nation - New Jerusalem. This is the govermental or ruling class of Christ's kingdom.

    This knowledge of the future for Isreal is Paul said a "sacred secret". Many read that text but do not "see" it the way you did.

    I believe God has a plan for everyone. His arrangement is for those in the covenant with Jesus first, then the nation of Isreal because of the promise to their forefathers, (all nations will be blessed on account of Abraham), then the rest of mankind. The destruction of all not JW's or not Christian (as other groups teach) is not in harmony with the bible or this simple statement: God IS Love. Lilly

  • jaguarbass
    jaguarbass

    In the book of Romans 11: 25-27 Paul makes the amazing claim that the Jews who were spiritually blinded so that the nations will also enter the kingdom, will at one time be shown mercy and saved, naturally by accepting Christ.

    Scriptures like this go in my predestination file when I study or read the bible. And if were predistined it doesnt seem like we have free will. It seems like we are characters acting out parts in a play.

  • WTFBBQPWNT
    WTFBBQPWNT

    This thread delivers!

  • lovelylil
    lovelylil

    jaguar,

    even though as a nation the Jews have not accepted Christ, some have. They are not predestined as individuals to not accept him. As a nation, God knew that the majority would never accept his son until he comes to the earth again. Lilly

  • Narkissos
    Narkissos
    the Jews who were spiritually blinded so that the nations will also enter the kingdom, will at one time be shown mercy and saved, naturally by accepting Christ

    Unfortunately they are long dead.

    The text doesn't speak about some generation of their descendants, over 2,000 years later. Paul's "mystery" is his best guess in the general perspective of his relatively short-term expectation of the parousia (cf. 1 Thessalonians 4; 1 Corinthians 15). Which failed.

    So whether 21st-century Christians should build a new "prophecy" in a completely different context out of this passage (as some do with the "rapture" of 1 Thessalonians) is their responsibility.

  • moshe
    moshe

    even though as a nation the Jews have not accepted Christ, some have

    Yes, a few so-called Messianic Jewish groups exist. If you study with a Rabbi,like I have, you will learn some new stuff about the Bible's Messiah from the Jewish perspective. It's a beautiful story about Jesus that Christians have and for the most part today's Christians have made the world a better place. But, I can't say that Christians in times past have been very kind to anyone who refused to accept their beliefs.( 6 million dead halocaust victims) --Jews especially have suffered. So I hope you will try to understand why the Jews fail to embrace Jesus as God's Son or the Messiah.

    A Christian says--" If I have any doubts about Jesus, I will continue to believe until God tells me otherwise" A Jew says " I have doubts about Jesus and until God shows me otherwise, I choose not to believe". Freewill lets us choose our own religious belief system. Not that I take an Orthodox view of Judaism, hardly. For the most part I am very liberal/reform in my views.

    shalom,

    Moshe

    -converted to Judaism in 2001

  • lovelylil
    lovelylil

    I want to say for the record I do not believe that the Jews have to accept Christ "to be saved". God has a plan for all mankind.

    I only believe that God knew as a nation that the majority would not accept his son but that as individuals some would. The gospel was first preached to the Jewish nation exclusively and not the gentiles. It was not until after Christ's resurrection that he told the diciples to "go preach to the nations". At that time the majority of the Jewish nation was not accepting Jesus so no more effort was put to convert them - (spiritual darkness as a nation was allowed) the way was then open for the gentiles to accept the gospel of Christ.

    This does not mean that today there would be no Jews that would accept Christ because they are still all in a spiritual darkness. Like I think Narkissos is saying that spiritual darkness pertained to the Jewish nation at that time, not today. In fact, there are in fact many Jewish Christians today and more convert each day. I have a friend involved in preaching in Isreal. Whether all the Jews will convert - I don't know. But I don't believe this has anything to do with them being saved anyway.I don't perscribe to the narrow salvation view.

    As I do not believe the false teaching that Christ is coming back to destroy all who do not follow him now. He is coming back to restore all things to himself. If anyone wants to talk more, pm me as I don't want to steal this thread. Lilly

  • kid-A
    kid-A

    For the record greendawn, 67% (i.e. the vast majority) of the human beings on this planet do not accept Jesus as messiah or saviour of any kind. If you honestly believe that your god will annihilate (or send to hell) the majority of humanity who dont happen to share your minority opinion about "salvation", I dont see your belief construct as any morally or ethically superior to that of the typical JW.

  • moshe
    moshe

    Thanks for the chart Kid-A- it's a good one. You can see everyone has a different belief system. Some choose and some are born into it. Can we all get along now?--- seeing as how global climate change will require mankind to share resources, if we are to avoid massive hunger, disease and homelessness in the near future.

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