Conclusion Of the Parable Of Two Trains - Brian Hennessy ISRAEL TODAY

Conclusion Of the Parable Of Two Trains

Friday, June 02, 2017 |  Brian Hennessy  ISRAEL TODAY

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As I shared in the two previous articles, I see this “parable” unfolding right before our eyes today. I said the Scriptures revealed that God’s ultimate plan was to unite passengers from the two trains, the Jewish Train and the Gospel Train, when both pulled into the Jerusalem station after their centuries-long journey. Which I believe they have. And that Yeshua was about to get off here and we are to follow.

Sadly, Scripture also reveals that many on the Gospel Train won’t get off. They will remain seated and then suddenly find themselves heading off into the outer darkness… where “there’ll be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt 8:5). Which will show they never were his followers to begin with. Or if they were, they have been deceived.

How could this happen?

Over the centuries, conductors had arisen on the Gospel Train who began to spiritualize the train’s purpose. The passengers were not told of the Jewish roots of their faith. Nor encouraged to believe “they were Abraham’s seed, heirs according to promise” (Gal. 3:29). Nor told of the glorious reunion in the promised land at journey’s end. But instead were taught the train ride itself was a new religion for Gentile believers, and that our final destination was Heaven. Even the gospel message was altered. And soon many were allowed to board the train who did not even know Yeshua.

Yet God’s spirit was still drawing those who were His to Messiah in every generation. And the train traveled on.

Things on the Jewish Train, however, were quite different. Those passengers never lost sight of their identity or their train’s ultimate destination. They never stopped hoping that “next year” it would arrive again in their beloved Jerusalem. They just couldn’t see how it was possible. So when it miraculously arrived in 1948 they were as amazed as the rest of the world. But the idea they would one day merge with the passengers on the other train was inconceivable. They remembered all too well previous encounters with what had become called “the Christian Train.” And those memories were painful.

But this is a new day. God has been hard at work in the hearts of many of Yeshua’s true followers to love and support Israel. And to repent of the times we did not intercede to help those on the Jewish Train when we could have. As a result, this recent unsolicited outpouring of Christian love has caused many Jews to have a change of heart about the people on the Gospel Train. And a new foundation of trust and good will has been laid to prepare us all for the coming reunion.

Although many lovers of Zion on the Gospel Train are now ready to disembark, the doors haven’t officially opened. God is giving all his regathered sheep time to awaken and realize this is our last stop. And to “come out of her My people” (Rev. 18:4). So, until the doors open we must wait. When they do, I believe it will be a divinely orchestrated event (Isa. 52:10-12) that will leave no doubt in anyone’s mind who Messiah is. And who Israel is.

But until then we are instructed to “take up the full armor of God, so that we will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm” (Eph. 6:13). But above all, be ready!

The doors will open right on time.

Brian Hennessy is the author of Valley of the Steeples

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Are 'Gentile Believers' Still Gentiles? Monday, August 08, 2016 | Brian Hennessy ISRAEL TODAY

Are 'Gentile Believers' Still Gentiles?

Monday, August 08, 2016 |  Brian Hennessy  ISRAEL TODAY

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It was Yeshua’s greatest desire that all his followers, from both Jews and Gentiles, become one people. His impassioned plea to the Father before going to the cross was “that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know You sent me, and loved me before the foundation of the world” (John 17:23).

Well, it’s no surprise that the world still remains unconvinced of his Messiahship.  How could it be otherwise when his followers have separated into over 40,000 denominations and other unaffiliated groups.

 But even before our divisions metastasized there existed an issue of unity between the Jewish and non-Jewish followers of Yeshua.  It began on the day the Lord told Peter to witness to the family of Cornelius. Before then the Jewish nation was under the impression this salvation belonged exclusively to them. Now, suddenly, it was being offered to others.  Worse, these “others” were the former bane of their existence – the Gentiles. The very ones they’d been shunning for the past 1400 years, according to Moses' instructions.

But hadn’t Yeshua prepared his Jewish followers for this when he was with them in the flesh? Hadn’t he told them, “I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear my voice, and they will become one flock with one shepherd” (John 10:16)? Nevertheless, it was still a tough pill for Jewish Israel to swallow. And it was made harder, because along with this influx of unsavory outsiders, Israel was being asked to transition from their God-given covenant of Law to a new covenant of grace.  

The transition was so formidable, that to make it happen, God had to raise up a uniquely qualified man –Saul (later Paul) of Tarsus. To this former Pharisee was given the anointing to bring us all together under “the law of liberty” (James 1:25).  And even though the Roman Empire cut short his work, along with Jewish life in Jerusalem, God made sure Paul’s teachings were preserved as Scripture in the New Testament.  

Now for 2000 years, unity of Jewish and “Gentile” believers in Messiah has not been an issue. Mainly because after the first century there were almost no Jewish believers! And the non-Jewish believers had taken on another identity, calling themselves “Christians.” But after the physical rebirth of Israel, many Jews began experiencing a spiritual rebirth. And all of sudden the term “Gentile believer” was back. Along with the issue of us all becoming one again.

As I see it, the term “Gentile believer” is inherently discriminatory and creates an unhealthy division in the body of Messiah. If one is a “Gentile” it implies you are an unbeliever, outside the camp of God’s people. Although the word translated as “Gentile” just means “nations” in both the Hebrew (goyim) and Greek(ethnos), it carries centuries of baggage. Over half its usages in the Old Testament are negative. And so is a quarter of its usage in the New Testament, where it is occasionally translated as “heathen” or “pagan.”  It may not equate non-Jewish believers with being “uncircumcised Philistines,” but it doesn’t define them as “Snow White,” either.

But weren’t we all made “white as snow” in Yeshua? Weren’t we all circumcised with the circumcision made without hands?  Why then should we who are not Jewish be saddled with terminology that immediately creates a division in the body of Messiah? From God’s perspective we are no longer goyim. We are no longer Gentiles. We have come out of the nations and are now included with God’s people. We have been counted as part of the nation of Israel, co-inheritors with all Jewish believers in the promises made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. “For if you belong to Messiah, you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise” (Gal. 3:29). 

Paul had explained, just prior to that verse, that now “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, neither male nor female; for you are all one in Messiah Yeshua” (Gal.3:28). Did he mean Jews are no longer Jews, Greeks no longer Greeks, females no longer females? Of course not! Until the Lord returns and we are transfigured into our new bodies we remain who we are in this world. But_ in Messiah_, all racial, national, economic, gender – and other fleshly differences – disappear. In him we become one people!

It was Peter, the first Jew to witness to non-Jews, who later said to the entire body of Messiah, “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession” ( 1 Pet. 2:9). He had taken the very words Moses had spoken to all Israel and applied them to the New Covenant ecclesia _without distinction. _He was not saying the “church”had replaced the physical descendants of Abraham as God’s people, but that all who are in Messiah, both Jew and non-Jew, are the chosen remnant of Israel.

As God is restoring the nation to the land today, I believe it’s also time to strive for greater unity among Jewish and non-Jewish followers of Yeshua. So that, as he prayed to the Father, “the world may know You sent me.” 

A good place to begin is by retiring the unbiblical term “Gentile believer” once and for all.

Brian Hennessy is author of Valley of the Steeples

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COMMENTARY: Do Christians Only Have Half the Story? | Brian Hennessy ISRAEL TODAY

COMMENTARY: Do Christians Only Have Half the Story?

Wednesday, December 23, 2015 |  Brian Hennessy  ISRAEL TODAY

If someone started watching the Christmas classic, It’s a Wonderful Life, in the middle of the film, would they ever figure out the point of the story? Or appreciate the challenges Jimmy Stewart had to overcome? I doubt it. They would learn how the story ended, but remain largely ignorant of what was truly accomplished.

 

Well, that is what happens when Christians focus exclusively on the New Testament, believing the Old Testament is a completely different story unrelated to following Christ. As a result, we fail to see that the story of the “church,” God’s ecclesia, didn’t start in Matthew 1–but in Genesis 12. Or that the unifying theme of the Bible is found in the fulfillment of a promise made to an old man with a barren wife who believed God “he would be heir of the world” (Rom. 4:14).  

 Is it any wonder so many Christians say today, “I just don’t get Israel?”

Not only are many Christians unaware of the unfolding story of Israel, but we have failed to see how we ourselves are included. So few realize their faith in Yeshua has actually brought them into those covenant promises made exclusively to Abraham. And not into a new religion with different promises. “For if you belong to Messiah, you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise” (Gal. 3:29).

I have often said, for most Christians Jesus could have been born and died in Toledo, Ohio and it wouldn’t affect their understanding of the gospel one iota. We have been so focused on the theological benefits of our blood-bought salvation we’ve missed the importance of Yeshua’s historical context as a Jew in the land of Israel. We have not studied the still unfulfilled prophecies concerning his kingdom. Or seen that the NT is but the continuing story of Israel’s elect moving forward from the types and shadows of the Old Covenant into the blessings and realities of a New Covenant. 

On the other hand, Jews have the opposite problem. Having rejected the testimony of the NT they only read the first half of the Book and never learn how God is fulfilling the hopes and dreams of the fathers to save Israel through Yeshua, His Messiah. They never read the amazing words spoken by the angel Gabriel to the young Jewish girl, Miriam, that she would give birth to God’s savior. And that this child, who would miraculously form in her womb, “will be called the son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end” (Luke 1:32,33).

We could excuse the Jews who have been temporarily blinded by God from believing those words. But what about Christians who hear them read each year at Christmas, only to have them go in one ear and out the other? Why? Because Replacement Theology has rendered them incomprehensible. How can Jesus, who they see as the founder of their religion, occupy “the throne of his father David” in Jerusalem and “reign over the house of Jacob?” 

My heart breaks when I hear Christians talk about the Church and Israel as being two separate peoples with no common destiny. Does God have two Messiahs? One for the Church and one for the Jews? Does God have two olive trees? Two temples? Hasn’t God promised to show Jews the same mercy He showed us? And to do so precisely “because of the mercy shown to you?” (Rom. 11:30)  

Today, Christians and Jews are reaching out to each other in ways not seen since the first century.As believers we are commanded to put aside our historic animosities and prejudices and stand with them in their struggle for survival, looking forward to the day when we can  “…with one accord with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 15:6).

In other words, it’s time for us to step into the story.

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Brian Hennessy is the author of Valley of the Steeples, available at: ketchpublishing/BrianHennessyBooks.htm

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Love For His People Featured Book

Buy here - Paperback $5.95, Kindle $1.99

Click: Why Israel? By Steve Martin

Why Israel? Why not? This little booklet consists of messages previously written in my books, which of themselves contain many various themes. I wanted to devote one book to just Israel and the Jewish people, and so this small booklet was compiled.

As you read the following, consider the truth contained in Scriptures, from Genesis to Revelation, which spell out the commitment of God the Father to choose a people who will be a light to the nations. He chose the Jews, and gave them the Promised Land of Israel. It does not matter what other national governments try to say, do, or accomplish apart from the plans and purposes of the Lord. They will fail. His Word is true. It is eternal. He is the same, yesterday, today and forever, and thus His commitment in keeping His promises made to the Jewish people will be fulfilled.

I hope you stand with them in these last days.

Steve Martin
Founder
Love For His People, Inc.