Are the present-day people who identify themselves as “Jews” still special in some way in the New Covenant Era?
► [Jesus said] “Hear another parable: There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country. Now when vintage-time drew near, he sent his servants to the vinedressers, that they might receive its fruit. And the vinedressers took his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did likewise to them. Then last of all he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the vinedressers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’ So they took him and cast him out of the vineyard and killed him. Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vinedressers?”
They [the chief priests and the elders of the people] said to Him, “He will destroy those wicked men miserably, and lease his vineyard to other vinedressers who will render to him the fruits in their seasons….”
“Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it.” (Matthew 21.33-43)
► And Jesus answered and spoke to them again by parables and said: “The kingdom of Heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son, and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding; and they were not willing to come.
Again, he sent out other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and fatted cattle are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the wedding.”’ But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his business. And the rest seized his servants, treated them spitefully, and killed them. But when the king heard about it, he was furious. And he sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.
Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.’ So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests.” (Matthew 22.1-10)
► “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’
"Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers’ guilt. Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of Gehenna?
Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon THIS GENERATION.” (Matthew 23.29-36)
► Now as He [Jesus] drew near, He saw the city [Jerusalem] and wept over It, saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.
For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
(Luke 19:41-44)
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► For Moses truly said to the fathers, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear in all things, whatever He says to you. And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that Prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.’ (Acts 3.22-23)
► Harmonize the above verses with: Deuteronomy 28.15, 47-63 and Malachi 4:4-5
Comments: The Scriptures above make clear that Old Covenant Israel came to an end, and that the Lord passed His Covenant-Kingdom on to another people: Christ followers, both Gentile and Jew. Those wild, “unclean” Gentile people were being brought into God’s House (Eph.2:11-13, 19 / 2nd Cor.6:11-16 / 1st Cor.3:16-17, 6:19 / 1st Peter 2:4-10), and were being tamed, domesticated and cultivated (Isaiah 11:7 / Acts 10:9-35 / Romans 11.17-24).
In other words, presently the wolf (the Gentiles) is lying down with the lamb (the Jews):
“The wolf (Gentiles) also shall dwell with the lamb (Jews),
The leopard (Gentiles) shall lie down with the young goat (Jews),
The calf (Jews) and the young lion (Gentiles) and the fatling together;
And a little child shall lead them.
The cow (Jews) and the bear (Gentiles) shall graze;
Their young ones shall lie down together;
And the lion (Gentiles) shall eat straw like the ox (Jews).
The nursing child shall play by the cobra’s hole,
And the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper’s den.
They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,
For the Earth shall be full of the knowledge of YHWH
As the waters cover the sea.
And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse,
Who shall stand as a banner to the people;
For the Gentiles shall seek Him,
And His resting place shall be glorious.”
It shall come to pass in that day
That the Lord shall set His hand again the second time
To recover the remnant of His people who are left…
He will set up a banner for the nations,
And will assemble the outcasts of Israel.”
- Isaiah 11:1-12
Those people within O.C. Israel who had been given “ears to hear” and “eyes to see” continued to be part of the Covenant; these were the chosen “remnant” that Paul speaks of in Romans 10-11, and those Isaiah shows above.
In other words, they were still connected to The Vine (i.e. Jesus), which had always been standing with its roots firmly founded in promises/covenants to Adam, Noah, Abraham and David. Those Covenants were irrevocable promises (Galatians 3.15-18) that weren’t contingent on obedience, quite unlike the Mosaic Covenant to called-out Israel that was; and it was so by YHWH’s design.
In Deuteronomy 28 Moses spells out the curses of what would happen to the Mosaic Covenant and the people swearing to uphold it if they were unfaithful to YHWH. The upshot is that they would ultimately be “torn out of the land” (vs.63), and that unites with what Jesus says in the former verses above, and how Malachi ends the final Old Covenant Revelation with the warning to Israel to “remember the Law…with the statues and judgments” (i.e. Deuteronomy and specifically chapter 28) because the coming of the “great and dreadful day of YHWH” is coming when “Elijah” (John the Baptister) appears.
All of this comports with the destruction of the Temple spoken of in Matthew 24, and with all the NT phrases like "this generation", "the last days", the "time is short", "the end of the age", the “fullness of time”, and what we know historically happened to Jerusalem in 70 A.D. In other words, Mosaic Old Covenant Jews no longer exist and have been scattered to the wind (Psalm 1:4-5), but true, transcendent Israel still exists; it just has been remodeled / transformed / made new.
The widespread popular understanding of Romans 11 and modern Israel
Now, further down this tunnel, this brings us to the question of Romans 11:25-27 where it is popularly taught that Paul speaks there about Israel having some far-in-the-future collective blindness, but that they will one day come out of that fog, by God’s grace, and have some type of mass conversion, again, sometime soon or perhaps in the far future at the “end times”.
I hope you see that this popular rendering of what Paul is prophesying about is “out of place” and doesn’t harmonize whatsoever with the motifs and verses I’ve printed out above. Because, naturally, if the Mosaic Old Covenant is obsolete, which it is (Hebrews 8:7-13), and O.C. Israelites no longer exist, as Jesus said, and true Jews are now following Messiah in the New Covenant, then who exactly is this future “Israel” that Paul is (supposedly) talking about anyway?
So first, and most importantly, we need to turn our focus quickly to consider the current, present-day “Jews”.
Who defines who a Jew is?
To call yourself a Jew does not make you one, and to do so without the authorization nor definition of Yahweh only compounds ones sin. To be, or become a Jew was never based on a blood-line, it was always based on a covenant-line. Anyone could become a Jew, and anyone who was a Jew could cease being a Jew. Just as Christians in the New Covenant can. It was certainly much more difficult to stop being so in the OC than in the New, but it was possible.
So, these folks (wherever they live) who currently identify themselves “Jews” are not a people in ceremonial, covenant worship with YHWH (which, again, is what made someone “Israel” in the first place, not genetics or lineage) but sadly, these modern “Jews” are adherents to the Talmud – yes, even the “Orthodox” Jews – which is nothing more than esoteric commentaries on life and “Jewish” traditions and laws that were written down centuries after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, and have very little to do with the Torah of the Old Covenant Scripture. The idea that present-day “Jews” obey and study Old Testament Scripture is merely a Christian Dispensational myth that continues to live on, uninvestigated due to sentimental ideas of a “chosen” race and romanticized ideas of the end times connected to the city of Jerusalem. (Books to read on this: Jews and Christians: The Myth of a Common Tradition by Neusner, a Talmudist “Jew”, and The Judeo-Christian Tradition: A Guide for the Perplexed by North)
In other words, these modern, post 70AD "Jews" are imposters and posers that have commandeered the name that only God can give, and are using it, well, in high-handed sinfulness. This obviously poses some questions and problems, but more on that later.
1st Century Jewish Jealousy and Blindness
Next, for clarity, I think we need to consider what it was that Paul (and Moses) stated would be the reason to spark Israel’s conversion to Jesus in the first place. Moses (Deuteronomy 32:21; Romans 10:19) and Paul both say that the catalyst to start the mass conversion of Israel will be Israel’s jealousy of the conversion of Gentiles (Rom 10.19, 11.11).
Now, let’s be honest, that’s not a problem – nor will be – for the modern, Talmudic-Mishnah “Jew”, and has not been for 2000 years! But rather, what really gets a modern adherent to Judiasm (Talmudism) angry is when one of their own Talmudist “Jews” convert to Jesus; it’s certainly not when a “Gentile” does! They could care less!! But they would have cared during Paul's time. This shows strong internal evidence – meaning Scripture explaining Scripture – that the meaning of Romans 11:25-27 “future Jewish conversion” is set in Paul’s time, BUT it is in the near future to him.
Next, marry this idea to the fact that the Scriptures always connect the “blindness” of the Jews to the direct hearing, reading and studying of Scripture and never to a satanic book like the Talmud. Time and time again, Jesus and Paul refer to a blindness or deafness of the Israelites as they are listening and reading the expounding of the Scriptures and how they simply don’t “get it” and actually cannot (for a short time).
Just read Paul in Acts 13.13-48, 28.17-29, and Jesus (Matt.13.13-17, John 12.37-43). That period of time was characterized by Jewish blindness and deafness! Throughout Jesus’ ministry that’s all you read about: either physical or spiritual blindness. Blindness here, blindness there, blindness – say it with me – everywhere! You have blind “guides” leading blind people (Matthew 15:12-15), and blind hearts and eyes (John 12:35-40) all over the land of Israel.
Now, I ain’t no college professor, but I’m guessing here that God is dropping hints to direct us to some truth that He’s endeavoring to communicate to us, and it’s a bit more than just “Wow, look at all the miracles Jesus did! Cool! He sure is nice to them-there blind people!”
Nope. When taking Scripture expounding Scripture, what I’m convinced of is that Paul is speaking in Romans 11 about a unique blindness that had been brought upon the very keepers of the Oracles of God (Romans 3:2) of his day whereupon the vast majority of Israel had been rendered blind and unable to understand the very Treasure they had been given to guard and obey. I do not believe he is referring to some future Talmudist “Jews” who are, along with all people, fallen in mankind’s universal, dead-in-sin general blindness. Nor do I believe Paul is saying that the future, non-covenant, imposter, Talmudist “Jew” is blind in some other special way just because he states he is a “Jew”. This very idea of a unique blindness to first-century Israel is specifically stated by Paul in 2nd Corinthians 3.14-16 when he writes that his fellow Israelites living in that day are THE blind ones.
“For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart [children of Israel, vs13]. Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.”
And again, by Paul in Acts 28.24-28, showing a blaring, neon-sign, characteristic of the blind hearts of Israel during that period of time:
"And some [leaders of the Jews in Rome] were persuaded by the things which were spoken, and some disbelieved. So when they did not agree among themselves, they departed after Paul had said one word: “The Holy Spirit spoke rightly through Isaiah the prophet to our fathers, saying: ‘Go to this people and say: “Hearing you will hear, and shall not understand; and seeing you will see, and not perceive; for the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them.’ Therefore let it be known to you that the salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will hear it!”
This again shows strong internal Scriptural evidence that what Paul is talking about in Romans 11 is that the apostles and the unbelieving Jews at that time were in an unique situation after the resurrection of Christ, and until the Temple’s destruction (40 years, or The Last Days), when that symbol of the Mosaic Old Covenant would be destroyed and the New Covenant is ushered in.
So what determines who is a Jew?
To look at it from another angle, we can see that Paul could identify the “Israel” he was referring to in Romans 11 because those people observed the Torah laws of sacrifice and were circumcised, and that was the identifying “mark” of an Israelite so that everyone knew exactly who they were and who the Israel Paul was referring to.
Today there is no such mark for us to have the certainty that Paul did. Christians are the Israelites now (Galatians 3:7-9; Romans 2:28-29), so how are we to identify this “Israel” that Paul is (supposedly) referring to? What is the standard, the identifier, that God is using so we’ll all know, here in the future, who the “Israelites” he is speaking about are? How? Because they have a supposed “Jewish” last name? Or, that they paid for a DNA test that “proves” they are of Abraham’s blood? Or maybe because they live in Palestine? Or perhaps because they are a cultic practitioner of the Talmud? I’ve already spoken above how these marks don’t make you a Jew, so none of these are “Israel”, and besides, by some of these criteria even Ivanka Trump Kushner is Jewish, and so is Madonna! Do you see the problem?
“Well”, you may say, “only Christ knows who the Israelites are that will convert to Jesus.” But that only strengthens my point. Paul certainly has no doubts as to who they are and how to identify them, but we today have nothing, zip, zilch, nada. Doesn’t that raise some questions in your mind? If it does not, I believe it should.
This all circles back around to the Biblical, defining fact that the true Israelite is someone who has had a spiritual, heart conversion to new life following in the faith of Abraham that trusted in Messiah Jesus. There are no other Jews now than those who follow and obey the risen Galilean.
Therefore, I conclude that Paul, in Romans 11:25-27, must be speaking a prophetic word concerning his time before the End of the Age / Latter or Last Days (i.e. Old Covenant), and not some futuristic 3,000 or 7,000 years after him when some people calling themselves “Jews” will somehow be even more fantastically blind than they were in the first century!
Rather, we see in the New Testament writings, and historical documents, that priests and OC Israelites of all stripes – the Remnant – clamored in and signed-up to follow the Greater Moses into the new Promised Land along with the Gentiles and forsook “Egypt, and thus Romans 11 WAS fulfilled in that day.
The followers of the demonic Talmud need the King’s pardon and salvation just as equally as all the human race does, and Talmudists and/or persons with old “jewish” last names aren’t in a special, heavenly category here or in the future plans of Almighty God.
