- As we approach Christmas, Holy Scripture reminds us that
Jesus was a Jew. The Christmas story, beginning in Matthew 1:1-17, chronicles
His descent from Judah, one of the twelve tribes of Israel.
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- All the great prophets, including Christ, reproved sinful
Israel. Yet, they never forgot that, despite Israel's sins, God has a long-term
destiny for His chosen people. These are that remnant out of Israel who
believe in Christ, both now, and at His second coming.
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- This article attempts to embody such Biblical balance
and perspective. -- Rev. Ted Pike
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- Thousands of years ago, storytellers discovered that
to most effectively keep the attention of their hearers, a story should
have the following elements: a hero; a villain; romance; and a happy ending.
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- God also wants to create high interest for his human
audience. If he loses their attention, how can he save them? Therefore,
he planned his whole story of redemption to include all the lively and
enduring elements listed above.
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- Let's consider, in its simplest form, God's fascinating
story of Redemption, particularly as it involves the Jews.
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- At the very beginning of God's great drama is the arch-hero,
Jesus Christ. Christ, the Son of God, is the creator of the universe and
of man in his image, for "All things were made by Him and for Him"
(Col. 1:16). Christ is also the creator of the nation Israel. She was chosen
as his unique bride among the nations (Ezek. 16), the first to have a spiritual
relationship with him. She was ordained as the special vehicle to make
his eventual incarnation possible, bringing redemption to all peoples.
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- Yet Christ's bride became a harlot, committing spiritual
fornication through idolatry. In fact, Israel, being the first to "marry"
Christ, became the "mother" of the principle of spiritual whoredom,
the "Mother of Harlots." Christ divorced her (Isa. 50:1; Jer.
3:8), but He yearned for the affection of their children, the children
of Israel. Finally, he came to earth in human form in a bold attempt to
become their friend. Yet, she violently prejudiced most of her children
against him. Together, they crucified him.
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- As a result, Christ vowed that she and her unbelieving
children would be spiritually desolate and would never see him again until
they call him blessed (Matt. 23:38-39). But before he ascended back to
his Father, he married a beautiful Gentile bride, clothed in a wedding
gown of spotless white linen.
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- Christ had given his harlot bride a glorious land and
jewel of a city, Jerusalem. But it came with conditions. Although the land
was to be held in trust for her obedient children forever, nevertheless,
if she did not respect and obey him, she would be cast out of her land.
She could never return until she or her children were chaste and obedient.
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- Consequently, after the crucifixion, Christ allowed the
Romans to smash the harlot's walls and exile her to the nations. For nearly
1900 years, the harlot, Israel, wandered with her children, which now included
a host of adopted children from the Khazar nation. (See, "<http://www.truthtellers.org/alerts/khazarsandgodsplan.html>The
Khazars: Do They Destroy God's Plan for the Jews?") She yearned for
the legitimacy and security of dwelling in her ancestral home and city.
She vowed to return someday to live in her native land, whether her former
husband liked it or not.
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- UNLAWFUL RETURN TO PALESTINE
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- During the twentieth century, the harlot persuaded the
nations to allow her and her children to re-occupy the land of Israel -
a land sacred to faith - reserved only for the obedient Jewish bride of
Christ in every age.
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- Since such a return was spiritually lawless, it naturally
produced every kind of friction and discord, inflaming its occupants, the
Palestinian Arabs. The Palestinians, like the ancient Samaritans in the
time of the Babylonian captivity under Nebuchadnezzar, were allowed by
Christ to occupy his holy land until the time when his children become
obedient. Then, and only then, will Christ authorize the peaceful removal
of foreign occupants and re-entry by its rightful owners, the believing
children of Israel.
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- But the harlot brazenly continued to occupy the promised
land, brutally mistreating its temporarily legitimate occupants. Eventually,
flaunting God's law, she dominated not only the Middle East, but the entire
world. The prophet Ezekiel describes her and her children in this period
as having been gathered from the nations and dwelling at peace, militarily
uncontested, "without walls and having no bars or gates" (Ezek.
38:11). They are in supreme control, for "there is no one able to
make them afraid" (Ezek. 39:26).
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- Yet such seeming millennial peace and safety is not a
result of divine blessing. Ezekiel also sees her as profaning God's name
(Ezek. 39:7), iniquitous and treacherous against God, transgressing and
unclean (Ezek. 39:23), and in disgrace (Ezek. 39:26). In fact, the harlot
and her children are so wicked that God is hiding his face from them! (Ezek.
39:23)
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- It is during this time of world dominion that the harlot
at last finds her long-anticipated, substitute husband, the "Beast"
or "Antichrist" to replace the one she crucified at least two
millennia earlier. No longer bearing the reproach of being a widow that
killed her husband, the harlot rides upon the Beast's broad shoulders,
proudly proclaiming, "I sit as a queen and I am not a widow, and will
never see mourning." (Rev. 18:7)
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- Yet she is ripe for judgment. Her garments are soaked
with the blood of Christ's Gentile bride, the saints and martyrs (Rev.
17:6). Soon, the Antichrist tires of his cruel, conceited lover. Suddenly,
he throws the harlot from his back, goring her with his seven heads and
ten horns. He burns her with fire, slaughtering two thirds of her children.
(Rev. 17:16, Ezek. 5:12)
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- Fulfilling God's timeless law, the children of Israel
are once again exiled from a land devoted to obedience. The Jewish remnant
is ruthlessly persecuted and hunted down among the nations. The Arab world
rises in bitter revenge, keen to destroy every last Jew from planet earth.
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- After about three an a half years of the greatest "holocaust"
of suffering that her children have ever known, and just as extinction
of the Jews is imminent, suddenly, like lightning flashing from one part
of the heavens to the other, Jesus Christ, the Great Harlot's first husband,
appears in the skies. (Matt. 24:21-28).
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- As Christ comes, he judges and destroys, in the Battle
of Armageddon, the armies of those nations that have tried to destroy his
people. He kills the Beast and casts Satan and all his demons into the
bottomless pit. There they will be unable to deceive the nations for one
thousand years. (Rev. 20:1-3)
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- Seeing his great judgment and deliverance from the heavens,
the harlot's surviving children look upon him, the holy Son of God, whom
their mother once pierced. They mourn bitterly, realizing the enormity
of their mother's sin. At last, they believe in their true Messiah, and
the Holy Spirit is poured out upon them (Ezek. 39:29). From that moment,
Christ becomes again Israel's spiritual husband (Ezek. 39:22).
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- NEW WORLD ORDER - JESUS STYLE
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- Imprisonment of the world's arch trouble-makers, Satan
and his demons in the bottomless pit, makes it possible for a radically
different order to be established on earth, one of international obedience.
Christ, the benevolent king, nevertheless rules the world by a "rod
of iron" - by law.
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- After polluting and being polluted by generations of
spiritual whoredom, both Jews and Gentiles are morally degraded and confused
to an extent probably unknown in human history. They will have to re-learn
the difference between the sacred and profane, clean and unclean. Christ
effects this through the same legal system he designed to enlighten his
people when they first came out of the defilement of Egypt - his mosaic
law.
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- Thus, the Gentile nations must send ambassadors to the
Feast of Booths annually - or go without rain (Zech. 14:17-19). Similarly,
the remnant Jews, only lately delivered from defilement in Sodom and Egypt,
are required to live by faith, but they must also observe the ancient mosaic
law with all its strictures (Ezek. 40-47; Zech. 14:16-21).
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- That law is charged with symbols that looked forward
to Christ; however, Christ's harlot wife had never allowed her children
to honor him through that law or its symbols. Now, the nation of Israel
must look backward to the law, keeping it perfectly for one thousand years,
celebrating all that the law says about the great hero and husband of the
true Israel.
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- After a thousand years of peace under Christ's kingship,
the devil and his demons are released for a short period. This is so that
man's free will can be honored. Most of humanity rebels against Christ,
but, in just judgment, he incinerates their bodies and casts their souls
into the lake of fire with the demonic hosts (Rev. 20:7-10).
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- Christ's great experiment called LIFE has been a resounding
success! It has been foretold through a prophetic story-line that keeps
us gasping until the final curtain begins to close.
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- Scripture gives us one last glimpse into the future.
It is of the New Jerusalem coming down from heaven (Rev. 21). In it dwells
Christ's precious treasure, no longer called Jewish or Gentile Christians,
but the Bride of Christ. They are united like diamonds in his crown, loving
their great hero and being loved by him forever.
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- For a complete exposition of God's prophetic plan for
Israel, consult Rev. Pike's 345-page book, Israel: Our DutySOur Dilemma
and his video documentary, "Zionism and Christianity: Unholy Alliance."
Both are available for $24.90 at www.truthtellers.org. "Unholy Alliance"
may be viewed free at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4452153918748081072.
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- Rev Pike is director of the National Prayer Network,
a Christian/conservative watchdog organization. For many more of his articles,
visit www.truthtellers.org.
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- For interviews with Rev. Pike or for phone orders call
(503) 631-3808.
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- NATIONAL PRAYER NETWORK, P.O. Box 828, Clackamas, OR
97015
- www.truthtellers.org
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