The Proclaimer

PROCLAIMING THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST TO A LOST AND DYING WORLD

Edited and Published by Jack Critchfield

In This Issue:
The Hope Of Israel
A Letter from Satan
Growing Callused To Evil
Paul's "Natural Man"
The Secret Things Belong To The Lord

The Hope of Israel
Jack Critchfield

The apostle Paul, imprisoned for preaching Christ, told the Jews in Rome, "For this reason therefore I have called for you, to see you and speak with you, because for the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain" (Acts 28:20). Due to the Zionist movement, the false doctrine of premilennialism and the incessant errors of those who espouse it, we need to clarify the issue of the hope of Is-rael. Many good religious people are confused on this subject because they fail to rightly divide the Scriptures (2 Tim. 2:15). Thousands never study the Bible in con-text, nor do they allow the Bible to be "its own best commentary" by taking all that the Word of God says on a given subject. An additional factor that confuses many with regard to Israel and Jerusalem and their proper place is the misguided emphasis on "the battle of Arma-geddon" in the minds of millions. It is our hope that we may clear up several untruths on this captivating area of study. Perhaps the following points will shed light on the major topics involved in "the hope of Israel."

The Land Promise to Abraham
In Gen. 15:18-21 we have recorded the exact loca-tion and boundaries of the land that God promised to Abraham's seed. God mentioned in Gen. 12 the provi-sion of Canaan, but Gen. 15 delineates exactly where the promised acreage would be. This was such a beautiful hope for Abraham's posterity that Joseph made the chil-dren of Israel promise to take his bones back from Egypt to the land of Canaan (Gen. 50:22-26). It is very signifi-cant that Josh. 24:32 records this touching scene centu-ries later.

Some preachers today try to overlook the signifi-cance of the absolute fulfillment of the land promise to Abraham and to his seed, but it exceedingly clear. After leading Israel into Canaan, Joshua said: "So the LORD gave to Israel all the land of which He had sworn to give to their fathers, and they took possession of it and dwelt in it...Not a word failed of any good thing which the LORD had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass" (Josh. 21:43, 45). "…And you know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one thing has failed of all the good things which the LORD your God spoke concerning you. All have come to pass for you; not one word of them has failed" (Josh. 23:14). Israel later said, "You are the LORD God, Who chose Abram…And made a covenant with him To give the land of the Canaan-ites…To give it to his descendants. You have performed Your words, For You are righteous" (Neh. 9:7-8).

After Babylonian captivity, under the restoration of the Jewish nation in Israel, the book of Nehemiah in-forms us that the exact land area found in Gen. 15, and mentioned first in Gen. 12, had been given to Abraham's seed. This took place 500 years before Christ. It is not future tense, but past history! The "hope of Israel" had nothing to do with land in Palestine, Mecca, Salt Lake City or Independence, Missouri! Centuries before Jesus was born in Bethlehem, walked this earth, was crucified and raised from the dead, Neh. 9:8 recorded plainly that God had performed His word in regard to the land promise to Abraham.

Jesus made it clear, in His talk with the Samaritan woman at Sychar, that no earthly ground was holy any longer (John 4:23-24). Acceptability with our creator comes not by location but by devotion. Temporal prop-erty is an indifferent matter; spiritual commitment is now the key to inheritance. Stephen seconded the motion by bluntly telling ardent Jews, "…the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands…" (Acts 7:48-50). Historically, the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A. D., foretold graphically by Christ a generation earlier (Mark 13), echoed the same sentiment. Since this earth and works therein shall be dissolved (2 Peter 3) it is not only foolish, but also highly unscriptural to refer to the "Holy Land." In fact, such terminology plays right into the hands of religious error. Biblically, "the hope of Israel" Paul preached referred to the gospel plan of redemption (Acts 28:20-3 1). The blessing that came through Abra-ham's seed (Gen. 22:18) had nothing to do with real es-tate, but it had everything to do with our spiritual state (Gal. 3:16-29).

New Testament Meaning of "Israel"
Jacob wrestled with an angel at Penuel and God told him, "Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed" (Gen 32:28). According to a careful study of Hos. 12:1-4 we learn that "Israel" means "Prince of God" or "One who has power with God." It is clear from John 1:49-51 that the lesson has to do with one's relationship to the Lord Jesus as King of Israel. In other words, those who have power with God have contact with the Lord Jesus Christ (John 1:51). Perhaps this suggests that a prince of God today is an integral part of the royal priesthood! "But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God…" (1 Pet. 2:9-10).

Who is the Israel of today? God answers: "For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God" (Rom. 2:28-29). Again God speaks on this subject in Romans 9:1-7, showing emphatically that it is not outward, fleshly, physical ties with Abraham that makes one a part of "Israel," but it is the commitment to God through Jesus Christ.

The apostle Paul writes in Gal. 3 of Abraham's seed, and thus "Israel." He writes first of the promise to Abra-ham, "In you all the nations shall be blessed" (v. 8). He then shows "the just shall live by faith" (v. 11), "that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith" (v. 14). He then states, "the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith…For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ" (24-27). He then adds, "And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise" (v. 29). Truly, when we are scripturally baptized into Christ, we become Abra-ham's seed according to the promise of God!

What Was The Hope Of Israel?
No one who has studied the Bible of history denies that the Jews had a misconception of the Messiah (Christ). They wanted to be delivered from the rule of the Romans, instead of being freed from the bondage of sin. That is exactly why Jesus disappointed them. They were prepared for an earthly empire, but turned away from Jesus when He showed them His kingdom was to be spiritual (John 6). Before Pilate, Jesus said, "My king-dom is not from here" (John 18:36). The Jews desired temporal power, but Jesus established a spiritual reign in the hearts of men (Gal. 2:20). According to Old Testa-ment prophecy, and New Testament fulfillment, "the hope of Israel" was:

1. The Lord, our righteousness (Jer. 23:6)
2. A Redeemer, come out of Zion (Isa. 59:20)
3. A fountain for cleansing (Zech. 13:1)
4. A New Covenant (Jer. 31:31-34)
5. The suffering servant (Isa. 53:1-12)
6. An immovable kingdom (Dan. 2:44)
7. Precious corner stone (Isa. 28:16)
8. Prince of peace (Isa. 9:6)
9. Humble king (Zech. 6:12; 9:9).

Loyal children of God waited for Him (Isa. 25:9; Luke 2:23-32) and suddenly the Lord came to His temple (Mal. 3:1). In Luke 2 we find the aged Simeon who lived long enough to see Jesus, "the Consolation of Israel" (v. 25) and "a light to the Gentiles" (v. 32). In that same setting was the godly woman, Anna, who "gave thanks unto the Lord and spoke of him to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem" (v. 38).

Since there is "one hope" (Eph. 4:4) in Christianity, and because God "shows no partiality" (Acts 10:34; Rom. 2:11), it is unscriptural to accept the Zionist movement as God-approved. The gospel "is the power of salvation" (Rom. 1:16-17) to everyone. Therefore those who have power with the Father shall all be saved the same way - through the Redeemer that came out of Zion, by the gos-pel, in harmony with the New Covenant and its teaching (Rom. 11:26-29). Christians, as pilgrims and strangers in this life, look for a city "whose builder and maker is God" (Heb. 11:10), because "our citizenship is heaven" (Phil. 3:20). This place "not made with hands," is "eter-nal in the heavens" (2 Cor. 5:1). The "one hope" is real-ized on earth! It is in heaven.

Jesus Christ was, and is, "the hope of Israel." The consummation of the glorious longing is to walk the golden strand of bliss with Him forevermore! "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who ac-cording to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you," (1 Pet. 1:3-4).

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A Letter To You From Satan
(Selected)

I saw you yesterday as you began your daily chores. You awoke without kneeling to pray. As a matter of fact, you didn't even bless your meals, or pray before going to bed last night. You are so unthankful, I like that about you. I cannot tell you how glad I am that you have not changed your way of living, Fool, you are mine.

Remember, you and I have been going steady for years and I still don't love you yet. As a matter of fact, I hate you, because I hate God. I am only using you to get even with God. He kicked me out of heaven, and I'm going to use you as long as possible to pay Him back.

You see, Fool, GOD LOVES YOU and HE has great plans in store for you. But you have yielded your life to me, and I'm going to make your life a living hell. That way, we'll be together twice. This will really hurt God. Thanks to you, I'm really showing Him who's boss in your life with all of the good times we've had.

We have been; watching dirty movies, cursing peo-ple out, stealing, lying, being hypocritical, fornicating, overeating, telling dirty jokes, ,gossiping, backstabbing people, disrespecting adults and those in leadership posi-tion, no respect for the church and bad attitudes. SURELY you don't want to give all this up. Come on, Fool, let's burn together forever. I've got some hot plans for us.

This is just a letter of appreciation from me to you. I'd like to say "THANKS" for letting me use you for most of your foolish life. You are so gullible, I laugh at you. When you are tempted to sin, you give in HA HA HA, you make me sick.

Sin is beginning to take it's toll on your life. You look 20 years older, and now, I need new blood. So go ahead and teach some children how to sin. All you have to do is smoke, get drunk or drink while under-aged, cheat, gamble, gossip, fornicate, and live being as selfish as possible. Do all of this in the presence of children and they will do it too. Kids are like that.

Well, Fool, I have to let you go for now. I'll be back in a couple of seconds to tempt you again. If you were smart, you would run somewhere, confess you sins, and live for God with what little bit of life that you have left. It's not my nature to warn anyone, but to be your age and still sinning, it's becoming a bit ridiculous.

Don't get me wrong, I still hate you. IT'S JUST THAT YOU'D MAKE A BETTER FOOL FOR CHRIST.

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Growing Callused To Evil
Greg Gwin

It is easy to tell if someone is experienced with hard physical labor. A simple look at their hands will show it. Those who work at such tasks develop thick calluses from the repeated exposure to their work environment. The things that once irritated them and produced sore blisters now no longer hurt them. They have grown ac-customed to these abrasives, their bodies have adjusted to them, and there is no more adverse reaction.

Sadly, too many Christians have developed a kind of spiritual callousness to the wicked world we live in. We are constantly bombarded by evil of every kind. We see it in person, we read about it, we view it on television, we hear it on the radio. We have unlimited access to it via the Internet and other media. Our neighbors are involved in it. Officials in high office are engaged in it.

Initially all of this evil irritates us. We are upset and disgusted by it. But gradually, by long exposure to these things, we become hardened. We've grown accustomed to the evil, and it no longer bothers us. We have adjusted to it all and there is no more adverse reaction. We can view the immorality and not be shocked by it. We can hear of the perverted deeds and not be repulsed. We are "street-wise." We know about illicit sex, drug abuse, and every sort of wickedness. We talk about them with ease. We have become callused.

The Lord does not want us to be this way. He de-sires us to live "in holiness and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom" (2 Cor. 1:12). He urges us to "be wise in what is good, and innocent in what is evil" (Rom. 16:19). He commands us to think on things that are "pure, lovely, and of good report" (Phil 4:8).

Christian, are you keeping yourself "unspotted from the world?" (James 1:27)

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Paul's "Natural Man"
(1 Corinthians 2:14)

The apostle Paul begins a contrast between man's wisdom and God's wisdom -- between man's discoveries and God's revelation in the gospel. Worldly wisdom learns many things about the material universe, but it cannot find out God nor the things God prepared for those that love Him. Natural science and philosophy are useful, but have limitations.

The gospel -- God's wisdom -- is foolishness to the one who thinks nature reveals all that can be known. He is the natural man -- the man of nature --to him revelation by inspiration is foolishness. So long as he depends on nature as the only source of knowledge, he will not, he cannot, "receive the things of the Spirit, for they are foolishness to him." The ultra-modernist rejects all reve-lations as foolishness. The natural man rejects revelation, because to him, it is foolishness. Any man, therefore, that rejects revelation as foolishness is a natural man, for that is what the natural man does.

Can such a man be converted? Not so long as he holds that attitude toward the gospel as a revelation from God. He must realize his limitations, his poverty of spirit. "If any man thinketh that he knoweth anything, he knoweth not yet as he ought to know" (1 Cor. 8:2). "Let no man deceive himself. If any man thinketh that he is wise among you in this world, let him become a fool, that he may become wise" (1 Cor. 3:18). The one who re-ceives the gospel must realize that to seek God through any other way is to grope in darkness. The world by its wisdom does not know God, and cannot know Him. "For seeing that in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom knew not God, it was God's good pleasure through the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe" (1 Cor. 1:21). We must quit scoffing at the idea of revelation, realize the uselessness of trying to find God by our own wisdom, and come to the study of the Bible in the true spirit of honest inquiry, or we can never know the things "that are freely given to us by God."

R.L. Whiteside

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The Secret Things Belong To The Lord
Kent E. Heaton Sr.

Because of man's thirst for knowledge and the mys-teries of the unknown, new worlds were established and unimaginable journeys achieved. The European mind set to find out what was beyond the horizon and thus the colonization of the Americas began. Through the eye of curiosity the question of a man setting foot on the moon became a reality. Diseases have been conquered, oceans opened up and a vast world that once was hidden from man is revealed.

There are many things that man has yet to discover and unfold. The cure for the common cold eludes man's greatest efforts. The mysteries of the stars remain mil-lions of miles away. Man continues to inquire the an-swers to everything he can find and yet still will never be able to possess all knowledge. There are so many things that man wants to know and will never be able to under-stand. The first lesson man must learn in his search for truth is his own bounds of knowledge.

Moses reminded the children of Israel in Deuteron-omy 29:29 that man is limited to what God allows him to discover and to understand. "The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law." The context of these words is Moses giving the law to the nation of Israel again and reminding them of God's power and His infinite wisdom. As with the nature of man, some may ask, "When will these things take place" or "How will they be fulfilled"? Moses' reply is that there are things that belong to God and to Him alone.

The manner of God's revelation to man has only been to the measure of man's needs. There are many things that man has questions about that God does not reveal in His word. The spirit of the Athenians prevails in the mind of men to know what they cannot find out. "For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing." (Acts 17:21) There are many things that man will never know because God has not revealed them.

Paul wrote in Romans 11:33-34, "Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor?" God has reserved a myriad of things that man would seek to know. Why has he kept them from man? Peter answers in 2 Peter 1:3, "As His divine power has given to us all things that per-tain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue." What God has re-vealed to us is what we need to know about Him, His Son and His Spirit.

The Bible is not an encyclopedia filled with every tidbit of information that would pass the mind of man. The Bible is the story of Jesus Christ and the fulfillment of His statement in John 14:6, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." The Bible is the revealed pattern of truth to guide men to Jesus Christ. We can only know and understand what God has revealed and no more.

As Moses reminded the people of his day, our obli-gation and responsibility is to understand the words of God that are revealed. "And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name." (John 20:30,31) The secret things of God belong to Him. The revealed words of God belong to us - to obey!

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Though fear destroys faith, faith can destroy all fear. Perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18). Fear or Faith? You make the choice!

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"The LORD reigns, He is clothed with majesty; The LORD is clothed, He has girded Himself with strength. Surely the world is established, so that it cannot be moved."

Psa 93:1 NKJV

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Jack Critchfield, Editor & Publisher
403 Coit Way, Salinas, Ca. 93907
jcritch@jps.net