- The Bible teaches that God's covenant with the
forefather of the Jews, Abraham, can never be annulled. His promised blessings,
including Jewish ownership and occupation of Palestine, could be granted
today--if Abraham's descendants obey God as Abraham did. Tragically, they
don't. Rebellious Jews have no right to covenant blessings, which are promised
only to the obedient. 1
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- But in contrast to the Bible, most contemporary
evangelicals say Christ-rejecting Jews enjoy unconditional status as "God's
chosen people." They believe such Jews can own and occupy Palestine-whether
they obey or not. Jews thus have the right to God's blessings not because
they obey like faithful Abraham but because of their genetics.
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- Similarly, most evangelicals believe
sin in the believer's life is covered because of a "born-again"
covenant they make with God--a covenant that now gives them unconditional
"eternal security" even as they continue to sin.
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- This brief article will examine the
ancient lie that God unconditionally blesses and approves of certain people--a
lie that wrecks havoc with His law.
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- History of Rebellion
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- As we retrace the long history of rebellion
to God, we notice striking similarities: rebels think they can sin without
losing their security. Lucifer was first to make this choice.
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- Described by Scripture as the most exalted
and favored angel, Lucifer thought his place of favor could not be threatened
by his rebellion. He probably thought that if he failed to kill or dethrone
God, he and his followers could occupy one part of heaven and God and His
angels the other. The Almighty showed what He thought of Satan's notion
of "unconditional security:" He threw Lucifer and the rebellious
angels out of heaven. Today, they are demons who infest and dominate earth.
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- Like Satan, Adam and Eve thought they
had unconditional privileges. After all, like Lucifer, they were "special"
- God's firstborn humans. Believing rebellion would not deprive them of
their place in the earthly paradise, Eden, they ate the forbidden fruit.
God also cast them out, cursing the earth because of them.
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- In the 16th century, Reformation leader
John Calvin developed an idea very much like that of Satan and Adam. Calvinism
says that if a person is once soundly converted then he can't be lost,
regardless of subsequent sin. Calvin's 18th and 19th century followers
said that when sinners repent and accept Christ's gift of salvation they
are unconditionally "adopted" as "heirs of God and fellow
heirs with Christ." (Rom. 8:17) As "God's elect," they
are "eternally secure" and cannot be lost. The great majority
of evangelicals believe this today.
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- Actually, the New Testament says repeatedly
that Christians can lose their salvation. Just as God expelled Satan from
heaven and Adam and Eve from paradise, so He will expel from His kingdom
those who become His children through faith and then fall away into sin.
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- 2 Peter 2:20-21 says:
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- For if after they have escaped the defilements of the
world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again
entangled in them, and are overcome, the last state has become worse for
them than the first. For it would be better for them not to have known
the way of righteousness than having known it, to turn away from the holy
commandment 2
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- Unfortunately, countless Calvinist Christians
who deeply love and trust the Lord believe that some manifestations of
their humanity (irritability, sexual thoughts, lack of Christian love or
good works, etc.) are sin. Such Christians find comfort in Calvinism's
assurance that even if they "sin" they cannot be lost.
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- The truth is that, "to one who
knows the right thing to do, and does not do it, to him it is sin."
(James 4:7) Sin is rebellion to the known, Biblically defined will of God.
It is a choice to defy God's authority. Such an act of spiritual lawlessness
is serious enough to confine us to hell forever. It is not just a thought,
human instinct or passing emotion, as many evangelicals unfortunately believe.
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- The Bible does teach eternal security.
But it's only on God's terms. Scripture says we must forsake all known
rebellion and daily look to Christ in simple childlike trust, obeying Him
to the best of our ability. As long as we live by faith, we are eternally
secure. Jesus promised, "The one who comes [in simple trust] to Me
I will certainly not cast out." (John 6:37) Galatians 5:16 says if
you "walk by the Spirityou will not carry out the desire of the flesh."
When we obediently trust Christ's mercy, we cannot displease God or be
lost. But we must continue in that obedient faith, or we will lose our
salvation. This is the simple gospel.
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- For millennia, such authentic Christianity
has been largely forgotten by a church whose theologians have invented
other assurances of God's favor -- assurances people like much more than
being told to trust and obey daily!
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- Israel Today: No Obedience Required
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- Evangelicals of the 20th century have
been steeped in Calvinist promises that they don't have to continuously
trust God to be saved. This belief led naturally to unconditional approval
of the Zionist movement and later of Israel. Most evangelicals believe
that the Jews, like themselves, are chosen by God regardless of how they
sin. Most believe the Jews inherited unconditional rights of blessing and
favor from God through the Abrahamic covenant. Nothing Jews do can abridge
those privileges.
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- But this idea is flatly contradicted
by the Old Testament's clearest warnings that God's covenant promise to
bless Israel is strictly conditioned on obedience. Deuteronomy 7:9,12 says
God "keeps His covenantwith those who love Him and keep His commandments."
Verse 12 says that only "because you listen to these judgments and
keep and do them" will "the Lord your God keep with you His Covenant
and His lovingkindness which He swore to your forefathers."
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- Jews who do not obey God are stripped
of covenant blessings, as were Satan, Adam and Eve, and backslidden Christians.
Such Jews are denied national occupation of the land of promise. (The Bible
prophesies a remnant of Jews will repent at Christ's second coming and
reoccupy the land under divine approval.) 3 (See, <http://truthtellers.org/alerts/prophecysimple.html>Bible
Prophecy Made Simple)
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- Today, the vast majority of evangelicals
and Christian Zionists repeat a primordial lie: that God makes unconditional
covenants with men. This lie says God blesses and rewards certain favored
people even when they openly disobey Him. There is no more diabolical lie
and heresy.
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- Do you wonder why there are so many
hypocrites in evangelical churches? Are you baffled about why unending
discord and terrorism has rent the Middle East since Jews reoccupied it
nearly a century ago?
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- There is no mystery.
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- Systems that beget hypocrisy and discord
are founded not on the level solid rock of truth, which brings freedom
and peace, but on the treacherous quicksand of a lie.
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- Endnotes:
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- 1. Scriptures teaching that God's covenant with Israel
is accessed only by obedience include: Gen. 18:1,9; Ex. 19:5; Deut. 7:9-15,
11:13-15, 15:4-5, 19:8-9, 28:1-68, 30:9-20; Josh. 24:19-20; I Sam. 2:30,
12:14-15, 12:20-25; I Chron. 28:9; II Chron 15:2; I Kings 6:12-13, 9:4-9,
11:38; II Kings 21:8; Is. 58:9-14, 65:11-12; Jer. 17:24-25, 18:7-10, 22:4-5,
26:3-6; Zech 3:7.
- 2. Scriptures teaching God's conditional terms of salvation
include: Rom. 11:20,22; 1 Cor. 6:9,10; 15:1,2; Heb. 6:4-8, 10:26,39; Gal.
5:21; 6:7; Eph. 5:5; I John 2:29; 3:6; 2 John 1:8, I Tim. 1:19; 4:16; II
Tim. 2:11; II Pet. 2:20,21; Rev. 3:5, 11, 21.
- 3. Scriptures teaching God's requirement of obedience
for Jews to occupy or reoccupy Palestine include: Lev. 26, Num. 32:15,
Deut. 1:37, 28:21, 25, 37,41, 58-64, 29:28; I Sam. 12:20-25; I Kings 8:46-53;
II Kings 18:11,12, 21:8; II Chron. 7:17-22, 30:9; Neh. 1:8-9; Jer. 4:1-4,
7:5-7, 12:16-17, 13:22, 15:19, 22:4-5, 29:13; Hosea 9:15; Amos 4:1-2; Zech.
7:11-14.
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