THE FULLNESS OF THE GENTILES

THE FULNESS OF THE GENTILES

                “For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery, lest you be wise in your own estimation, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in and thus all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, “THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION. HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB” AND THIS IS MY COVENANT WITH THEM WHEN I TAKE AWAY THEIR SINS.” Romans 11:25-27

                There are some vastly important truths that most of Christianity has never understood. This truth is being revealed and restored to the church right now because the time for it to happen is upon us. The fullness of the Gentiles is about to be reached and when it is reached, the kingdom will be restored to the Jews. We may wonder what will bring one era to an end and another era into prominence, but Jesus gave us a clue He said, “As it was in the days of Noah and as it was in the days of Lot.”

                So we begin listing the sins of Noah’s day and the sins of Lots day and that is all well and good, but there was something else. In both cases there was no one left to repent. There were not even 10 righteous people left in Sodom and righteous Lot begged his family and probably his neighbors and friends to come out with him for judgment was coming, but in the end just he and his two daughters escaped.

                Noah preached for 120 years and yet in the end only 8 souls were saved, Noah and his wife, his sons and daughters-in-law. There was no one left who would repent and turn to the Lord. And is it not interesting that many modern church ministries are turning away from the idea of repentance and forgiveness through the blood of Jesus and salvation through the cross and denying self and taking up our cross and becoming disciples of Jesus? The Gospel message is quickly changing from a Christ centered message to a “me centered” message. But I digress.

                One of the fundamental flaws in the church’s understanding right now is causing us to make a fatal mistake. Today many evangelicals are preaching unity and they are seeking to restore unity to the church by Protestants giving up their protest and coming back to the Roman Catholic Church. This is why we see so many Protestant leaders beating a trail back to Rome to kiss the ring of the Pope; in spite of the fact that even the Catholics believe that this pope is a devil.

                Here is the fundamental flaw:  GOD DID NOT CALL US TO BE RECONCILED TO THE PAPACY. (In fact he is calling His people out of it.) GOD IS CALLING US TO BE RECONCILED TO THE JEWS. HE IS CALLING US TO BE GRAFTED INTO THE JEWISH OLIVE TREE SO THAT JEWS AND GENTILES CAN BECOME ONE NEW MAN IN CHRIST. Ephesians 2:14-22

                “But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. for HE HIMSELF is our peace who made both groups (Jews and Gentiles) into one, and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, that in Himself He might make the two (Jews and Gentiles) into one new man, thus establishing peace.”

                How could we have missed this, since it is one of the prime reasons that Jesus went to the cross? In other words, God chose a special nation (Israel) through whom He would bring to earth the Law, the Word and the Word made flesh Yeshua the Messiah. Only Israel had a covenant with the Lord until Jesus died on the cross. But from that time on, we who believe in Christ are grafted into that chosen people. (The olive tree)

                 And Paul goes on to explain in Romans 11 that some of the Jewish branches were broken off of the tree so that we (wild olive branches) could be grafted in. God did not call the church to replace the Jews. He called us to be grafted in so that we would become one family in Christ.

                Today we see many churches waking up to this fact and there is a renewed interest in the Jews and the Feast days of the Lord and our role in both protecting Israel and becoming one with them. Granted, we are doing it without understanding that there are evil Jews and Righteous Jews and that part of them will side with the Beast in the last days. This is something that Jews need to understand as well. There are righteous Christians and there are evil Christians and in fact, the antichrist system will look like a lamb (Christianity) but will speak like a dragon. ( Rev. 13:11 We(both Jews and Christians) need to be wise in our understanding and we need to have a biblically centered view of Israel  and a biblically centered  view of Christianity rather than the popular political view that many are falling for.     

                God is calling a remnant out of Israel and a remnant out of the church and it is this remnant of both groups that will find their unity in Christ rather than in some particular political covenant made with Israel by the antichrist.

                What is a completed Jew? One that has received Yeshua as his Messiah. What is a completed Gentile? One that has been grafted into the olive tree through Yeshua the Messiah. This is the remnant people of God who keep the commandments of God and who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Rev. 14:12

                But there is a problem: In the Law it is stated that you cannot sow two different kinds of seed in the same field. It is also stated that you cannot graft trees of different species together either. In other words, you can’t graft peach or pear or apple tree branches into an olive tree. We Gentiles may be wild, but we must be of the same species as Israel. Well, what does that mean? Ephesians 2 goes on to explain it.

                “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow-citizens with the saints and are of God’s household, HAVING BEEN BUILT UPON THE FOUNDATION OF THE APOSTLES AND PROPHETS, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone in whom the whole building being fitted together is growing into a holy temple of the Lord; in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.” Ephesians 2:19-22

                How have we missed this? What Paul is saying here is pictured in the vision of the New Jerusalem. It is built on the foundations of the 12 apostles and its gates are the 12 tribes of Israel. In other words the New Jerusalem is the picture of a city temple made up of united Jews and Gentiles who have been made one in Yeshua!

                May I submit that anti-Semitic Christians are not going to be happy in heaven? And may I also submit that we need some fundamental changes in our understanding of what God has actually planned in this great salvation?

                We are rapidly approaching the fullness of the Gentiles. It is a time when the kingdom will be restored to the Jews. Much of the church has missed it and that is why we don’t understand the coming millennial reign of Christ. During the millennial reign here on earth Jesus is going to do what the Jews wanted Him to do at His first coming. They didn’t want a suffering servant… they wanted a conquering Messiah that would deliver them from Roman rule and restore the kingdom.

                But Jesus had to become a suffering servant first because He” had many sheep that were not of this fold.” He wanted to graft a whole bunch of wild branches into the Jewish Olive tree. He wanted to include us Gentiles as well and so He used His chosen people to put Him to death so that salvation could come to the Gentiles as well and we Gentiles missed the point. In spite of the prophecies stating that He would come to His own and His own would not receive him… that He would be rejected and killed by His own kind…we blamed the Jews and slaughtered them by the millions. WE DON’T UNDERSTAND THE PLAN AND WE HAD BETTER COME TO UNDERSTAND THE PLAN BECAUSE OUR TIME IS ABOUT UP.

                Why do you think God has raised up the Messianic movement? He is reconciling Jews and Gentiles together and to do that He is helping wild branches to at least bear the right species of fruit. At a recent prophecy conference held by Perry Stone, of the five speakers, 2 of them were Messianic Jews    (Mark Biltz and Bill Cloud) And in case Christians think that the blood moons and solar eclipses falling on God’s Moedim have had no meaning, they have drawn the church’s attention back to the feast days of Israel and they have served to bring Messianic prophets to the fore and as far as that goes, they also ushered in the False Prophet who announced on the very last blood moon that he was now forming the global religion of the Beast… that is Pope Francis.

                So right there God gives the church two choices. Either become grafted into the olive tree, or be grafted into the global religion of the Beast

                And since those blood moons, phenomenal things have been happening in our world. All nature has gone berserk, Politics has gone wild, there is a great falling away taking place and the kingdom of the antichrist is being set up in Jerusalem. CAN WE REALLY SLEEP THROUGH ALL OF THIS? GOD HELP US!

                So the Pentecostals are embracing Israel along with many other Christian groups and we are trying to learn what it means to be grafted in. But this grafting in process is yet in its infancy, because not only Messianic Jews, but Christians seeking to learn Jewish ways, are thinking that the way to do it is to observe Jewish Feast days in such a way that we learn when to serve latkes, or hamantash cookies, or apples and honey or lamb and bitter herbs… but that is not really it.

                Many of those things are rabbinic traditions that have come down over time and we can think we are serving God when we observe these rituals, BUT WHAT GOD REALLY WANTS IS FOR US TO UNDERSTAND THE MESSAGES OF THE FEASTS AND HE WANTS US TO RIGHTLY UNDERSTAND END TIME PROPHECIES WHICH CAN ONLY BE RIGHTLY UNDERSTOOD WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE FEASTS.          

                As I have said before, these Feast Days are like self-correcting DNA by which we can make sure that our Gospel is still on track and our prophetic understanding is on track. For instance: Today’s hyper grace completely ignores our salvation through the blood and body of Christ.  Israel not only smeared the blood of the lamb on their doors, but they also ate the whole lamb… all of it. So, there is more to “getting saved” than making a onetime trip to the altar to smear the blood on our doors and then going out and to continue doing our own thing. We are being called out of the world to be conformed to the image of Christ and it is Christ dwelling in us that makes this possible.

                Paul calls this one of the mysteries that was hidden from ages past and he says that it was a mystery hidden from the Gentiles which is “Christ in you the hope of glory.” Then he goes on to say that he is admonishing every man with all wisdom that we may present every man complete in Christ. Col. 1:25-29

                We are in Christ and Christ is in us and as such we are grafted into the Olive tree, so that when it says in Romans 11 that all Israel will be saved, that includes all of us who are grafted in to Israel by faith in Yeshua. He is preparing to present us to God as one new man in Christ.

                So when in Revelation 14 the three angels call us out of Babylon, it is talking about the Gentile world system. We must come out of it and be grafted into God’s chosen people so that we can become one new man in Christ. This is the message of the hour.

And now for one final thought: Jesus didn’t come to save the Jews only, but us Gentiles as well

                In Acts 1:6, not five minutes before Jesus went back to heaven, His disciples asked Him: “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?”

                Like all Jews, they were expecting the Messiah to conquer Rome and to restore the kingdom to Israel … to rule and reign from Jerusalem until the entire world would serve the Lord and the Jews would rule and reign with Him. But Jesus, in essence said, “It is not for you to know times and epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority.” It was through the Jews that god was going to save the whole world. Then He told them to start in Judea and Samaria and then to go out into the entire world preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom to all nations and then He would return as conquering King to restore all things and to fulfill God’s eternal promises to the Jews.

                If we too want to rule and reign with Christ then we must be grafted into His family, His chosen people, His royal priesthood. When we understand these things we will understand the coming millennial reign of Yeshua the Messiah.

                Again this is one of those vast subjects that engulf the entire Bible and again I have only been able to skim the surface. We have much more to learn as the end draws near. Selah