Ancient hatred is the source

From a Bible study last week at my church:

In Iran, Persia, the motivation to hate Israel is theological. It’s not purely political, economic, social. There’s a thinking process behind it; there’s an ancient hatred. There’s a conflict over who gets to own the planet from God’s perspective.

So, when you think about Israel today, how are you to think about them? They’re fallen. In the dispensation of grace, God isn’t working through nations. He’s not working through the nation Israel. He’s not working through America. He’s working through the Body of Christ, explains Richard Jordan.

I said on the radio show just this morning, God puts His life in “the church the Body of Christ” and through our flesh and blood He lives on Planet Earth.

The Body of Christ is God’s dwelling; His working through the earth. And it’s our proclamation of the Word of God . . . the light that’s shed pushes the darkness back.

You don’t look at Israel and say, “God put them there.” You don’t know that. The only way you’ll know that is if the Rapture comes. They could be destroyed next week, wiped off the face of the earth and it wouldn’t have anything to do with whether Daniel is right or not.

When the Rapture takes place and the prophetic program starts again, then you can say, “Well, that was stage-setting.” So quit trying to say, “That’s prophecy being fulfilled.” You got no idea whether it is or not.

Habakkuk 2: [18] What profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof hath graven it; the molten image, and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work trusteth therein, to make dumb idols?
[19] Woe unto him that saith to the wood, Awake; to the dumb stone, Arise, it shall teach! Behold, it is laid over with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the midst of it.
[20] But the LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.

That’s the way the story ends. So when you think about Israel today, listen, they’re fallen; nationally they’re not an issue. They don’t need to be a nation (they can be). You can’t know until the Rapture.

What you can know is that ancient hatred is what it’s about and you can know the only answer is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Today, when you get saved, you’re put in the Body of Christ and there’s neither Jew nor Gentile. God doesn’t put you in the Body of Christ to make you a spiritual Jew; He puts you in the Body of Christ to make you one with Christ and there’s no Jewish or Gentile status. You’re a new man; a new creature.