Israel - in prophecy & fulfilment.
Imagine if you promised that you're going to visit my house and give my household Christmas presents, and that you're going to bring us more than enough presents for us to give to our neighbours as well.
And you did exactly that - you visited me and gave us our presents and we enjoyed them first, then soon afterwards we went out and gave presents to all my neighbours as well.
If many members of my household didn't open their presents - that wouldn't mean you failed to keep your promise.
It wouldn't mean you've postponed your promise to the future.
Neither would it mean you're redefining my 'household'.
It wouldn't mean you visited my neighbours instead of me.
It wouldn't mean that the presents my neighbours are enjoying was something else you did unexpectedly.
It wouldn't mean that what you've got in mind is to come back in future and do something exclusively for me and my house.
No - you visited, I saw you, we're enjoying our presents - it just means some members of my house didn't open theirs!
And it doesn't mean you took their presents away: they can still open them anytime.
In fact you're hoping that when they see the neighbours enjoying their presents, it might provoke them to eagerly open theirs.
If a moment came when a bunch of my household did eventually open their presents together, that wouldn't mean your promise to me and my house was finally being fulfilled in the eyes of my neighbours.
No. It just meant those members of my house came to believe that you'd already visited, believed that the presents were theirs, and decided to open them.
Included with everyone's gift is a Christmas card, and in each card you've placed a promissory note - a note saying that one day you're coming back to our street, with Rolls Royce limos, to bring everyone to a brand new, secured complex where there are many mansions, a paradise - and everyone who has your promissory note can come.
Everyone is so excited about it, it doesn't matter any more that we once thought my house was so different to all my neighbours' houses. We're all in the same boat now - just enjoying and waiting!
Your plan was that your presents and ultimately the mansions are for our whole street without distinguishing between my household and theirs - but you did visit my house FIRST, as you said.
And that's one way we know you are the real gift-giver, not an imposter - because it all happened the way you said it would.
It also eliminates unfounded, distracting suppositions about what you might do in future.
The fact that you've already fulfilled your promise by visiting me and my house is history - and it's the very reason so many of us in our street are looking so happy.
No wonder we keep urging everyone who hasn't opened their present and card yet to do so - so they're ready when you come!
CHRIST did not build His CHURCH - His Body - the true House of God - without FULFILLING His PROMISES and PROPHECIES for ISRAEL FIRST - without failing, without postponement to a future Dispensation, without replacing Israel, and without redefining the meaning of 'Israel' by spiritualising it - but literally in Israel, and for Israel, in history.
Salvation was to the Jew FIRST, and also to the Gentiles - as the Scriptures foresaw.
Imagine if you promised that you're going to visit my house and give my household Christmas presents, and that you're going to bring us more than enough presents for us to give to our neighbours as well.
And you did exactly that - you visited me and gave us our presents and we enjoyed them first, then soon afterwards we went out and gave presents to all my neighbours as well.
If many members of my household didn't open their presents - that wouldn't mean you failed to keep your promise.
It wouldn't mean you've postponed your promise to the future.
Neither would it mean you're redefining my 'household'.
It wouldn't mean you visited my neighbours instead of me.
It wouldn't mean that the presents my neighbours are enjoying was something else you did unexpectedly.
It wouldn't mean that what you've got in mind is to come back in future and do something exclusively for me and my house.
No - you visited, I saw you, we're enjoying our presents - it just means some members of my house didn't open theirs!
And it doesn't mean you took their presents away: they can still open them anytime.
In fact you're hoping that when they see the neighbours enjoying their presents, it might provoke them to eagerly open theirs.
If a moment came when a bunch of my household did eventually open their presents together, that wouldn't mean your promise to me and my house was finally being fulfilled in the eyes of my neighbours.
No. It just meant those members of my house came to believe that you'd already visited, believed that the presents were theirs, and decided to open them.
Included with everyone's gift is a Christmas card, and in each card you've placed a promissory note - a note saying that one day you're coming back to our street, with Rolls Royce limos, to bring everyone to a brand new, secured complex where there are many mansions, a paradise - and everyone who has your promissory note can come.
Everyone is so excited about it, it doesn't matter any more that we once thought my house was so different to all my neighbours' houses. We're all in the same boat now - just enjoying and waiting!
Your plan was that your presents and ultimately the mansions are for our whole street without distinguishing between my household and theirs - but you did visit my house FIRST, as you said.
And that's one way we know you are the real gift-giver, not an imposter - because it all happened the way you said it would.
It also eliminates unfounded, distracting suppositions about what you might do in future.
The fact that you've already fulfilled your promise by visiting me and my house is history - and it's the very reason so many of us in our street are looking so happy.
No wonder we keep urging everyone who hasn't opened their present and card yet to do so - so they're ready when you come!
CHRIST did not build His CHURCH - His Body - the true House of God - without FULFILLING His PROMISES and PROPHECIES for ISRAEL FIRST - without failing, without postponement to a future Dispensation, without replacing Israel, and without redefining the meaning of 'Israel' by spiritualising it - but literally in Israel, and for Israel, in history.
Salvation was to the Jew FIRST, and also to the Gentiles - as the Scriptures foresaw.
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