Acts
18:21
“But bade them farewell, saying, I must by all means keep
this feast that cometh in Jerusalem: but I will return again
unto you, if God will. And he sailed from Ephesus.”
I Remember reading the above scripture and never really
understanding why Paul said, “I must by all means keep
this feast that cometh in Jerusalem”; What was so
special about going to Jerusalem and keeping the feast, did he
know something that the 20th century Christian
overlooks or don’t understand?
If we really want to understand the Christian faith we must
remember our Jewish roots! Just as in the natural,
the trunk of a tree and it’s limbs are not from two separate
entities, but one! Neither are the roots of it for that
matter; they are of one! The Church of today has lost it’s
understanding of our Jewish roots, that we were a wild olive
tree, we were grafted in! So then the Church
is not something totally different from Hebrew culture.
We were grafted into being the real Jew, that of “faith”;
and even though we are, if we lose our understanding of how God
dealt with the Jews in culture or otherwise, then we will miss
out on a real clear understanding of what will happen in the near
future… The book of Revelation for example:
Many people find it confusing and hard to understand; but
one time I heard Brother Perry Stone preach the whole book of
Revelation from a “Hebrew” Perspective! And
everything made sense; The feasts, the symbolism, the patterns
and prophecies. Now I understood why Paul said, “I
must by all means keep this feast that cometh in Jerusalem”
The whole Bible is of Hebrew culture! Though the New
Testament was written in Greek, Jesus talked to Saul on the road
to Damascus in the “Hebrew” tongue! The
Church of today, particulary in America is liken unto what
Nebuchadnezzar did in changing Daniel’s name
to Belteshazzar; and Hananiah to Shadrach; and Mishael to Meshach
and Azariah to Abednego; it was for them to lose their
identity!!! When we think of the Church, we ought not
to think of America, the protégé, the pinnacle of what is
Christian. It is not the pure model of what Jesus
established and is establishing.
Onto the study of “The Rapture” I
just want to point out the fact that we need to see “The
Church” as how God defines it and lays it out in the Bible
& by understanding Hebrew events, we will see why
“The Church” will not go through Daniel’s 70th
week (The Tribulation) as we know it!
First,
because of the above statement, many of you may be saying if the
Church is Jewish then we are going to go through Daniel’s 70th
week?
God spoke to
Abraham in Genesis 22:15-18:
15
And the angel of the LORD called unto Abraham out of heaven the
second time,
16
And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because
thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine
only son:(type of Jesus)
17
That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will
multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the
sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall
possess the gate of his enemies;
18
And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth
be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.
There’s a spiritual side of the seed, (the
stars of the heaven) and there’s a natural side
of the seed, the sand which is upon the sea shore! New
Testament Christians, because of Christ are the spiritual seed of
faith which comes from “all the nations”(v18)
also known as the fullness of the Gentiles! “…that
blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the
fulness of the Gentiles be come in.” Romans 11:25
When the fulness of the Gentiles is come in, then the spiritual
seed “the Church” is taken out of the way, God turns
His attention BACK TOWARDS ISRAEL the natural seed! The
books of Daniel & Revelation are a reflection of the Jewish
people!
