Why they all claim to be Israel

Here is the continuation of the post from September 1 on Preterists:

"There are four times in the gospels where Christ says, 'Something's not going to happen until . . .' Here's another one.

"Matthew 10 is the Great Commission. This is Christ commissioning His apostles. Back in verses 1 and 2 He gives them the empowerment and they move from being disciples to apostles.

Matthew 10: [5] These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not:

[6] But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
[7] And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.

"This passage, as you go down through the chapter, takes them all the way to the Second Coming. This is the whole ball of wax, which is why I call it the Great Commission.

Verse 20: [20] For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you. That's Pentecost. Then there's the persecutions in verses 21 and 22.

[22] And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.
[23] But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.

"The Preterist says, 'Okay, when they've gone over the cities of Israel preaching, the Son of man's come.' When they finish preaching to Israel the kingdom's there. It didn't come literally, physically, so it had to be a spiritual kingdom that's coming in and winning the nations with the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom.'

"You say, 'Huh?' I mean, somebody had to fall out of the bed and hit their head real hard to come up with those kind of ideas. They rose up dizzy with a bunch of degrees after their name and thought they were smart.

"Just a common sense reading of your Bible says, 'Cuckoo, cuckoo, makes no sense.' They read the Book of Revelation and say, 'This is a picture of the early church and the persecution against it and the relief that comes from the setting up of the kingdom.' Difficulty with that is that relief never came. Hasn't come even yet.

"So, the idea of Preterism is exactly the opposite of the ideas of what these passages we've been reading here are talking about.

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"When you ask somebody why they think they're 'spiritual Israel,' there's a passage in Galatians that most of the time they turn to, and like any other passage similar to it, you have to ignore the context. 'A text without a context is a pretext.' So, they pull it out hoping you won't see the rest of it.

"I believe with all my heart that's one reason preachers put verses on the wall for you to watch. It's the most dangerous thing and I got friends that do it and I don't care; it's the most dangerous thing you do. 

"No. 1, you don't know the guy wrote it up there correct or not. He may have just made a typo. You do that unintentionally.

"A lot of folks change your Bible and you don't know it. But worse than that is you don't hold your Bible in your hand and look at the page of where that verse comes. It takes you out of the context and that's a sure way to have deception. 

Galatians 3:29: [29] And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

"See, they say, you're the seed of Abraham. You're spiritual Israel and an heir according to the promise God made to Abraham.

"Now, look at the verses right before it: [26] For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

[27] For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
[28] There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

"If in the Body of Christ there's no status of being a Jew or a Greek, how could you then be a spiritual Jew? There is no such status in the Body of Christ as being a spiritual Jew or a spiritual Israelite. Why? Because we're all one in Christ with no distinctions like that.

"When Paul says, 'And if ye be in Christ you're Abraham's seed and heirs,' what's he talking about? You notice that's verse 29? There are 28 verses before that have educated you about some of this stuff, that if you had read them and got there, you wouldn't be confused.

"When he says you're 'heirs according to the promise,' what promise are we talking about? Look at verses 13-14: [13] Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:

[14] That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

"So, you've been made heirs of the promise of the Spirit through faith. What did the Spirit do for you? Verses 26 and 27 tell you He put you into the Body of Christ.

"God justified Abraham in uncircumcision as an uncircumcised Gentile so that when the time came that He's going to justify Gentiles, you've got a pattern. Abraham is the pattern for being justified by faith without works.

Galatians 3:

[6] Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.
[7] Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.
[8] And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.
[9] So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.

"God, knowing that you were coming, knowing that the dispensation of grace was coming, what did He do? He preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying 'in thee shall all nations of the earth be blessed.'

"God justified Abraham in a very special way so that he would be the father of all them that believe, not just the circumcision, but the uncircumcision. Because God knew there was going to be a program coming where everybody's considered uncircumcised.

"If you don't understand some dispensational things in your Bible, and know how to study your Bible dispensationally, you're never going to understand anything.

"The majority of Christendom thinks God's through with Israel and has replaced them with us. It's called Replacement Theology. Every major Christian denomination believes they're Israel. That's Rome, the seven major Protestant denominations, the Orthodox branch--they all claim to be Israel.

"That's why Rome and the Orthodox have all those ceremonies and stuff. Where'd they get them? They got them out of Israel's rituals. That's why Protestantism has all these sacraments and ordinances. That's why the Bible-believing part of Protestantism hangs onto water baptism."