Why Is It Said All Israel Will Be Saved?
July 30th, 2011 | Eschatology | No Comment
Will All Israel Will Be Saved?
A major question in the minds of people today is whether all Israel will be saved? The name of Israel always suggests three things, community, confusion and conflict. By community, we mean who Israel is, biblically speaking. The attempt to answer that question creates confusion and often results in conflict.
Who is responsible for this confusion and conflict? Primarily, those who use the extend the future of Israel, i.e., all Israel will be saved beyond the historical context and setting of the Bible. We will briefly illustrate what we mean in the following words.
All Israel Will Be Saved
The above ...
Christ Is The End of the Law for Righteousness
July 21st, 2011 | Eschatology | No Comment
The Righteousness of the Law
In Romans 10, Paul speaks of his fellow Jews who sought to attain to righteousness through their own works, a course which left them far short of obtaining the glory of God.
"Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establishing their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God.
This lack of the true knowledge of God caused Paul ...
Baptism and Resurrection in Colossians 2
July 15th, 2011 | Eschatology | No Comment
Baptism and Resurrection
In our previous study, we focused on baptism and resurrection in Romans, pointing out the eschatological future of resurrection. Common church of Christ beliefs are that baptism was both a burial and resurrection. In many of their presentations, they cite the mode of baptism as the dying and rising with Christ using texts such as Romans 6:3-4 and Colossians 2 as proof.
However, as we've shown in the former study on baptism and eschatology, baptism and resurrection are not synonymous in Romans 6. Nor is it synonymous in Colossians 2. The distinction between baptism and resurrection is once again ...
Adoption, Election and Predestination
January 19th, 2011 | Eschatology | No Comment
Adoption Belonged to the Old Covenant People Israel
Concerning Israel's adoption, Paul wrote, "For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the services of God, and the promises; of whom are the fathers and from whom, according tot he flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen." (Rom. 9:3-5).
That the apostle is specifically speaking of Israel is evident from verse six. This point cannot be denied. Yet, in ...
Jacob and Esau and the Seed of Abraham
November 16th, 2010 | Eschatology | No Comment
The Seed of Abraham Part Two
God further clarified that the fleshly descendants of Abraham were not the seed of Abraham by choosing Jacob over Esau through whom the promise would be fulfilled? If all the fleshly descendants of Abraham were entitled to the promise God could not have chosen Jacob and rejected Esau. Yet, the text says of the twins, (for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls), it ...