The Philadelphia Church

Israel in Prophecy - The Series


In The Philadelphia Church’s first decade, a series of articles titled, “Israel in Prophecy,” was begun. These articles have since been , with the updates replacing the original articles as they become available.

 Part 1  
In Paul's dual referent theology, endtime Israel is both the natural descendants of the patriarchs, seen in John's vision [post Second Passover] as the 144,000 of the twelve named tribes [Dan excluded] and the spiritual descendants seen as both the seven named churches and as the great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages (Rev 7:9). So for Paul, there is a natural Israel and a spiritual Israel and thus a two-track fulfillment of endtime prophecies concerning Israel.
 Part 2  
The Israel of prophecy includes the portion of the circumcised nation that was broken off, but will be grafted back onto the Righteous Root, with most of this grafting to occur after the fullness of the nations has come to God (Rom 11:25-26). Most of this grafting will occur during the first 1260 days of the seven, endtime years of tribulation; will occur after the Son of Man has been revealed (Luke 17:26-30), when the garment that is Christ's righteousness has been removed. The modern circumcised nation of Israel will now then be naked before God, its only covering being its obedience to God. When the Son of Man is revealed, the Church will be disrobed and will appear naked before God. It, though, will be empowered by the Holy Spirit, an empowerment that will be available to the circumcised nation upon acceptance of Jesus (Rom 10:9). All of Israel will live without sin during this period that is the reality of the Days of Unleavened Bread. Both the physically and the spiritually circumcised nation will be naked unless covered by their obedience by faith. Both will then be as the first and as the last Adam were.
 Part 3  
The fate of Israel hung on whether Solomon, the wisest man who has ever lived, kept the commandments and statutes set before him. Priests and prophets at Jerusalem did not teach and had not taught Israel to keep the commandments. Rather, they told the nation that it didn't matter what they did, the land was Israel's for the land was given as an everlasting inheritance to the descendants of Abraham. The prophets in this Jerusalem below taught to the physically circumcised nation a message that foreshadowed the message that is today taught to the spiritually circumcised holy nation; i.e., You who teach others to keep the Commandments, go far from here. Leave Christians alone; for the Lord gave Christians grace as an everlasting possession. Once saved, always saved. Have you, prophet, not heard the evangelistic core of the Christian message?
 Part 4  
This day, when the Jerusalem above relocates to the Jerusalem below, will come after the Thousand Years; will come a millennium after the resurrection of the saints. Yet the entirety of the passage pertains to the Church, beginning with when Christ Jesus returns as Lord of lords and King of kings. Until then there shall be enmity between the inhabitants of the Jerusalem above and the clans of Judah, for the bond of brotherhood has been broken—was broken at Calvary. The Jerusalem of prophecy is the Jerusalem above. The Israel of prophecy is, first, the Church, the inhabitants of the Jerusalem above. But the Israel of prophecy also includes the clans of Judah and Benjamin, that portion of Israel the Lord left as an inheritance to King David. The Apostle Paul was of these clans.
 Part 5  
The Israel of endtime prophesy is the holy nation of God, which, when the Son of Man is revealed (Luke 17:26-30), will be spiritually naked. This holy nation will not be today's greater Church, or even today's Christian Sabbatarian fellowships. It will not be the physically circumcised nation; i.e., Judaism. Rather, it will be all of humanity that hasn't taken the mark of death (the tattoo of the Cross — chi xi stigma) unto itself. For all who endure to the end shall be saved (Matt 24:13). Endtime Israel is the nation that shall be saved from sin (Egypt) and death (Assyria), with its recovery from the north country (death) being the remembered event that causes its recovery from sin to be forgotten.
 Part 6  
All of Daniel's visions are about what happens to his people [Israel] in the latter days; in the generic period identified as the time of the end, not about all that happens throughout the course of history but about what happens in the restricted referent of the time of the end.
 Part 7  
For as long as the temple stood, the way into the holy places was closed, with having two referents, Herod's temple and the Church. Thus, for as long as Herod's temple stood, no physical person other than the high priest once a year could enter the Holy of holies. Likewise, for as long as the spiritual Body of Christ lived—for as long as the spiritual temple stood—no person could come before God except by way of Christ Jesus, Israel's High Priest. However, when the Body of Christ, the spiritual temple, died (again, ca. 100–102 CE), the way to God was opened as it was when Daniel served the king in Babylon. And this becomes important; for a righteous person who professed that Jesus was Lord and believed that the Father raised Jesus from death could, with the Body of Christ dead, come before God without the person being of Israel.
 Part 8  

In Daniel's sealed vision, the angel tells Daniel the truth: "At the time of the end, the king of the south shall attack him, but the king of the north shall rush upon him like a whirlwind" (Dan 11:40). So the lesson of the fig tree is that the generic time of the end really didn't begin in darkness at Calvary even though this is so; nor did the time of the end begin in darkness in the centuries since. The time of the end will begin following when the good news that all who endure to the end shall be saved is preached to the world; when the derivative Greek king of the South attacks the derivative Greek king of the North, and the king of the North comes at him like a whirlwind. The author of Matthew's Gospel presented to all of Christendom the endtime gospel, all who endure to the end shall be saved (Matt 10:22; 24:13), but if ever good news has been ignored by a theology, it is the Christian Church universal ignoring the good news that must be proclaimed to all the world before the end comes.

 Part 9  

There has been within greater Christendom as well as in Islam the "need" to believe that every word of the Bible or of the Qur'an is divinely inspired and thus infallible. The tendency has been to take each book as literally true in its entirety, or to reject the book in its entirety. And the Adversary by getting a Greek novel included in the canon of the New Testament laid the basis for rejecting all of the Bible by reasoning humanity, as well as rejecting Christ Jesus as Israel's Savior. Therefore to negate the damage done by the Adversary to the collective faith of Israel, a monumental event has to occur to bring humankind back into belief of God—and this event will be the Second Passover liberation of a second Israel. Today, Philadelphia's delivery of the endtime good news that all who endure to the end shall be saved is no more than a groaning of spirit within the Body Politick, a groaning because the Body Politick doesn't know how to pray as it ought.

 Part 10  

The glorified Jesus restores all things, and turns the hearts of the children of God to their Father and His Father. He must restore all things; for the Church, the spiritual reality foreshadowed by circumcised Israel, no longer walks in the ways of God, but rather, profanes His Sabbaths while teaching sons of God to be lawless. Thus, with regret it must be said that God isn't in Evangelical television just as He wasn't in the strong wind that tore the mountain apart and broke rocks to pieces. It would seem that He ought to have been there; it would seem that much power must be of God. But it takes no faith to believe what the eyes see. It takes faith to hear God in thin silence. It took faith for Elijah to hear the Lord in thin silence, and then to cover his face so as not to perish.

 Part 11  

The Beloved of God creates, created all that physically exists. Sons of God should be creators, not satisfied with what is but exploring to see what can be; what is possible. And in both the Affliction and Endurance, the old ways of this world will fail humanity. New ways must be fashioned that are outside of today's transactional economy, new ways that do not require buying or selling, new ways that do not require fracking, strip mining, million dollars apiece windmills, acre after acre of solar panels … so-called green energy is expensive energy; so-called fossil energy is expensive.

 Part 12  

Question, why didn't the Lord prevent Israel from worshiping this idol while they were in Egypt … because Israel in Egypt forms the non time-linked (but spiritually linked) shadow of greater Christendom in the Affliction. If Christians were to be faithful in the Affliction, ancient Israel wouldn't have worshiped idols in this early nation's trek through the wilderness. If Christians, when filled with spirit, would believe God in the Affliction, the ancient nation of Israel that left Egypt would have entered the Promised Land. But because Christians will rebel against God en masse in the Affliction, their shadow in the days of Moses must necessarily have rebelled against the Lord in the wilderness. The shadow of greater Christendom isn't like a prophecy that can fail, but is the visible and faithful record of what will happen (and from the perspective of God, of what has already happened) in the heavenly realm.

 Part 13  

The coming of the lawless one is by the work of the Adversary, with the lawless one being an Arian Christian possessed by the Adversary … it is today a mistake to tar all Arian Christians with the brush of heresy although none are truly born of spirit. It is, again today, a mistake to label all Trinitarian Christians as idolaters; for it is the context that gives a symbol or a sign its meaning. And the context of _today_ is that of Christians being spiritually enslaved in Sin, its shadow being the land of Egypt. So unless born of spirit by God the Father drawing the person from this world and delivering the person to Christ Jesus to call, justify, and glorify, no person can _not_ be a servant of the Adversary. So if the servant of the Adversary professes that Jesus is Lord, this servant of the Adversary will feel compelled to preach Christ to the world, thereby inserting and emphasizing the omnipresence of deity and thus placing Christ Jesus _in the way_ of the lawless one, thereby preventing the lawless one from declaring himself god.

 Part 14  

The preaching of Christ to the world has effectively delayed the return of Christ; for the preaching of Christ, especially a false Christ, doesn't turns the hearts of humanity to Christ Jesus, to whom no person can come unless God the Father draws the person from this world (John 6:44). Rather, the preaching of Christ keeps the man of perdition from declaring himself _god_ in the temple of God, the Christian Church. For with the preaching of Christ, the deity of Christ as the _begotten Son of God_ elevates Christ Jesus to a mental status no human person can achieve; therefore, no Christian would believe the claim of a man who declares himself god … Christ stands in this man of perdition's way, and will continue to stand in this lawless one's way for as long as the preaching of Christ is culturally believed. So both Arian and Trinitarian ministries have kept the lawless one in a figurative closet where this crossdressing Christian bides his time.

 Part 15  

It takes no courage to continue in whatever ideology the person received from his or her parents. It takes courage to risk ideological _death_ by not believing the person is humanly born with an immortal soul; by not believing the comfort myths told by pastors, by rabbis, by imams. It takes courage to quietly believe that neither _religion_ nor science adequately addresses what you know to be true: you are more than your body, but you have no evidence other than your self-awareness that you have an indwelling _self_ [psuche]. Thus, to mentally walk away from the comfort myths told by pastors, rabbis, imams is truly a facing-down of permanent death.