Posted by Ray Kidder on 10/2/2009, 10:51 am, in reply to "Re: I Corinthians 15"
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Searcher,
You wrote:
"There are no longer privileged groups. Israel has been set aside as a chosen nation, therefore the wild olive branch has been set aside. It no longer has any meaning because there is no Israel. These things are past.You are looking at a calling and a hope that has not been offered to anyone for nearly 2000 years. The kingdom on earth was the hope of Israel. (Acts 28:20) Gentiles could be partakers by being grafted in to that hope. Israel rejected both their Messiah and their promised kingdom. There is a new hope and calling today and it has nothing to do with Israel or promises made to Abraham or a kingdom on earth. The sphere of His calling for us today is NOT the restored kingdom on earth. The one hope today has NOTHING to do with the earth."
I do not know how you define a privledged group. I would think that many Christians (especially those who believe in predestination) would consider any nation with lots of Christians to be a privledged nation or group, for God has predestined many of its citizens to become Christians.
In mentioning the olive branch, I assume you were thinking of Romans 11, especially these verses (NKJV):
13 For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry,
14 if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them.
15 For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?
16 For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches.
17 And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree,
18 do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.
19 You will say then, “Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.”
20 Well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear.
21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either.
22 Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off.
23 And they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.
24 For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, who are natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?
25 For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.
What makes you think the situation is different today, as compared to when St. Paul wrote this epistle?
What evidence do you have that there is a new hope and calling for today that has nothing to do with the promises made to Abraham or a kingdom on earth. It is my belief that the promised kingdom of earth is in the world but not of the world. It is explained here in Luke 17 (NKJV):
20 Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation;
21 nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”
This means that the kingdom of God was not intended to be an earthly kingdom with a secular government; right? How is membership in the body of Christ not the equivalent to membership in this promised kingdom of God?
Ray Kidder
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