An extraordinary and pervasive problem exists with many of the popular commentaries on the apostle Paul’s letter to the saints in Rome.  Just how pervasive is the problem?  By Amazon.com’s count, there are more than a thousand commentaries on Romans.  A random sample of those commentaries—combined with some of their extensive footnotes and bibliographies—indicates an amazing consistency of the problem.

    The following expositional and theological study on Romans will identify the problem, as well as offer explanatory comments that highlight the truth of Paul’s letter thereby hopefully eliminating the problem.

 THE PROBLEM

     The problem begins in Rom. 1:1 with Paul’s reference to the gospel.  Not a few commentators view the gospel through a myopic lens.  To wit: belief in God’s promise of forgiveness of sins through Jesus, with the individual being justified, will result in salvation from hell.  This short-sighted gospel perspective is accurate—as far as it goes.

    However, the devastating result of this myopic view is that the biblical words “gospel,” “justification,” and “salvation” are often thought to apply only to unbelievers.  Which raises the question, “Why was Paul so eager to preach the gospel to believers in Rome (Rom. 1:15)—saints who were already forgiven, justified, and destined for heaven?”

    The answer to this question reveals a three-dimensional problem, involving the biblical meanings of the gospel itself, justification, and salvation. 

The Gospel

    What exactly did Paul mean by, “the gospel of God?”  Paul’s most succinct and understandable statement of God’s gospel is found in Acts 13:38-39.  This passage is Luke’s quote of Paul’s Sabbath gospel message to both Jews and gentile God-fearers at the synagogue in Pisidian Antioch during his first missionary journey.

    Quoting the Acts passage: “. . . let it be known to you, brothers, that through this one [Jesus] forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by [or, in] this one [Jesus] everyone who believes is justified from everything from which the Law of Moses could not justify you” (New English Translation Bible, NETB).

    Clearly, Paul’s proclamation in Pisidian Antioch gives indication that God’s gospel consists of at least two identifiable parts: one, forgiveness of sins; and two, being justified.

    An NETB translator’s note on Acts 13:39 suggests the Greek word “justify” might be translated “is freed”—a translation that appears in the text of the New American Standard Bible, NASB (note: unless otherwise specified, all scripture quotes are from the NASB, 1995).

    Part one of God’s gospel, “forgiveness of sins,” is promised through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  The apostle Peter had made it clear on his visit to Cornelius in Caesarea that this promise of forgiveness could be received by anyone—including gentiles—simply through believing in Jesus (Acts 10:43).

    Believing God’s promise of forgiveness results in justification (Rom. 5:16, 18).

    This forgiveness relates to all sins committed in a person’s lifetime (both prior, and subsequent, to his belief in Jesus) so that he will not suffer the lake-of-fire judgment (cf. John 5:24; cf. Rev. 20:12-15 for the lake of fire).

    However, sins committed subsequent to belief in Jesus can rupture fellowship between the believer, and the Father and Son.  Repair of this rupture, by God’s forgiveness, is through the believer confessing his sins (1 John 1:9).

    Part two of God’s gospel highlights three things:

• a believer, not an unbeliever, in Jesus is subsequently justified (or, freed) by his belief in God’s second promise,
• the Law of Moses is completely unable to justify (or, free) the believer from all things, and
• “all things” likely include the curse of the Law (Gal. 3:10-13), judgment for sins (John 5:24), and the enslaving power of sin (cf. John 8:34 for sin’s enslavement).

    This enslaving evil power that causes sinning in all humanity (Rom. 5:12, author’s translation to follow), and from which the believer may be freed (Rom. 6:22), is inherited from one’s father, dwelling in each believer’s physical body throughout his life—labeled in this study as “indwelling sin.”

    God’s revelation of His forgiveness promise and freedom promise in His gospel was recorded in general terms by His prophet Ezekiel (36:25-27):

• the promise of forgiveness, termed ‘cleansing’ (v. 25; cf. Eph. 5:26), and
• the promise of a ‘heart transplant,’ (i.e., a new God-receptive heart replacing an unreceptive-to-God stone heart), a new spirit, and the indwelling of His Spirit resulting in obedience to God’s statutes and ordinances (vs. 26-27).

The specifics of that promised obedience would await Jesus’ death and resurrection.  Those specifics were revealed and explained by Paul in Rom. 6:3-14 and 8:13.

    Ezekiel’s prophecy was probably what Jesus had in mind in His night-time discussion with Nicodemus (John 3:1-10).  Jesus’ words to Nicodemus correlated a new birth (i.e., a new heart and new spirit created, and installed permanently, by God through His Spirit) with an accurate perception of, and entrance into, what would be (for a season) a spiritual kingdom following His death and resurrection (cf. Col. 1:13 for kingdom identification).

    The apostle Peter later noted the kingdom’s “entrance” could vary widely depending upon the believer’s diligence in acquiring, by faith in God’s promises, certain sin-free moral qualities (2 Pet. 1:11).

    Furthermore, during Jesus’ Sabbath ministry at His home synagogue in Nazareth, He stood and read Isaiah 61:1.  Emphatic in Isaiah’s prophecy is “release to the captives,” and freedom for “those who are oppressed” (Luke 4:18).  Jesus concluded His Isaianic reading with: “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled (emphasis mine) in your hearing” (Luke 4:21).  Before making this assertion, Jesus had claimed God’s Spirit was upon Him because God had anointed Him to preach the gospel.

    Keep in mind that, at the very moment of announced fulfillment, John the Baptist was held captive by Herod in prison.  Probably, word of Jesus’ Sabbath message reached John through some of his own disciples.

    John likely suspected Jesus was the Hebrew Prophet promised Moses by God (Deut. 18:18-22).  God’s test for authenticity of His Prophet was that everything the Prophet said in the name of the Lord would come true.  No doubt, John was aware of the test.

    In fact, early in the Baptist’s ministry, a delegation of Jerusalem priests and Levites had demanded of John himself, “Are you (emphasis mine) the Prophet?” (John 1:21).  John demurred.

    Now, confined to prison, John was conflicted.  The assumed Prophet, Jesus, had recently proclaimed release to the captives and he, John, was still captive.  Had some monumental mistake been made?  So from prison, John sent two of his disciples to inquire of Jesus, “Are You the Expected One, or do we look for someone else?” (Luke 7:20).

    Jesus response to the query was to recount all the visible signs, or miracles, He had performed validating His identity.  What is noteworthy is that Jesus omitted all reference to release and freedom for captives—an omission testifying this promise of freedom meant something beyond John’s immediate captivity.

    The point of recounting this story is to illustrate that God’s gospel of release and freedom that Jesus had proclaimed, and claimed fulfillment of, in His Sabbath message at Nazareth could not have been a physical release and freedom from prison—otherwise John would have been set free.  Rather, the release and freedom Jesus proclaimed in his listeners’ hearing was a spiritual freedom from indwelling sin manifested in godly behavior—a biblical liberation theology that would be consummated by His death and resurrection (cf. Eph. 4:8).  This freedom was very much a part of God’s gospel.

    Part one of the gospel, forgiveness of sins, becomes reality in the unbeliever’s life by belief in Jesus.  Part two of the gospel, freedom from enslavement to sin, becomes a subsequent reality in the believer’s life by confessing Jesus as his Lord (Rom. 10:9).

 Justification

    The problem becomes complicated because part two of God’s gospel is also referred to as justification—as noted above in Acts 13:39—a terminology reserved exclusively by most commentators for part one of God’s gospel.

    Paul explained justification as an individual’s belief in a specific promise from God to that individual, with that belief reckoned (or, credited) to the believer’s account as God’s righteousness (Rom. 4:1-15).

    It is noteworthy that Paul’s example of Abraham’s justification in Rom. 4:1-25 related to an additional promise from God (supplementing His land and myriad-descendants promises) that a barren Sarah would bear a male child within the next twelve months (Gen. 18:10-11).

    Already a believer, Abraham believed this quite specific additional promise from God.  His belief resulted in an additional justification in Abraham’s life as emphasized by Paul’s use of the word “also” to mark another justification event in Abraham’s experience (Rom. 4:22).

    Abraham’s former justification recorded explicitly by Moses in the Scriptures (Gen. 15:6) was based on Abraham believing God’s general promise of countless descendants—not the subsequent specific promise, years later, of a biological son’s birth within a year.

    More than likely, Abraham had also been justified when he believed God’s land promise and left his home in Mesopotamia for the land of Canaan (Gen. 12:1-5; cf. Heb. 11:8-9).

    To substantiate biblically multiple justifications in Abraham’s life, one needs only to recall that James—like Paul—cited another example of Abraham’s justifications “by [a faith that] works” (Jas. 2:21).  In obedience to God’s command to sacrifice a childless Isaac, and believing God’s promise that this heir would have descendants (Gen. 15:14), Abraham prepared the sacrifice—perhaps thinking God might resurrect Isaac shortly after his God-commanded sacrificial death (cf. Heb. 11:17-19).

    Herein lies the complication of the problem: God’s gospel obviously indicates believers can be justified on more than one occasion—a spiritual reality mostly unrecognized by both theologians and commentators.  For example, Paul’s words in Gal. 2:17 indicate an already justified Paul was seeking a further justification.  His ‘prayer’ in Phil. 3:9 confirms Paul’s hopeful anticipation of a justification following his own forgiveness of his sins.

    The justification Paul sought would not come through the Law of Moses with its total impotence to justify—something the believer Paul himself had quickly discovered (Rom. 7:7-25).  In fact, for any believer seeking to obey the Law for justification would experience the devastating spiritual results of severance from Christ and a fall from grace (Gal. 5:4).

    Since Paul identified his letter’s recipients as saints in Rome (Rom. 1:7), his readers had already believed in Jesus for forgiveness of their sins and were, therefore, justified.  Paul’s stated desire was to preach the gospel to the saints in Rome (Rom. 1:15) who were beloved of God—thus unquestionably believers.  Belief in God’s promise of freedom from indwelling sin would mean an additional justification, thus explaining Paul’s use of the word “justify” in Acts 13:39.

 Salvation

    What, then, would be the content of the apostle’s gospel message to the Roman believers?  The logical answer is that Paul intended to preach about the second promise of God’s gospel—clearly referred to in Acts 13:39 as being justified, or freed, through belief from the spiritually lethal enslavement to the sin that dwells in each believer’s physical body.  Paul referred to this gospel promise as salvation, not for unbelievers but for believers (Rom. 1:16; 5:10; also cf. 1 Tim. 4:16 for the salvation of believers).

 Summary

    To summarize the foregoing biblical evidence: not only does God’s gospel promise forgiveness of sins, God’s gospel also promises freedom from slavery to indwelling sin.

    Believing both promises means justification can take place more than once in an individual’s life.  In addition to salvation from hell, salvation can also mean freedom from control of indwelling sin in the believer’s life.

COMMENTARY, CHAPTER ONE

 Paul’s Introduction and Salutation, Rom. 1:1-7

    The apostle’s introduction and salutation cover six subjects:

• his apostolic credentials (vs. 1),
• God’s gospel (vs. 2),
• identification of God’s Messiah (vss. 3-4),
• the purpose of God’s gospel (vs. 5),
• the letter’s recipients (vss. 6-7), and
• God and Jesus’ salutation (vs. 7).

    1:1 Paul identified himself as a slave of the Messiah (“Messiah” denoting God’s Anointed) who had the God-assigned name, Jesus—which roughly translated means, ‘God saves’ (Matt. 1:21; cf. also Luke 1:31-33).

    As an obedient slave, Paul likely had resolved to do little on his own initiative, recognizing that he had been set apart for the purpose of communicating God’s gospel.  Paul’s own personal testimony of Jesus’ stated purpose for God’s two-part gospel was that both Jews and gentiles, “. . . may receive forgiveness of sins and (emphasis mine) an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me (Jesus)” (Acts 26:16-18).  Paul defined sanctification as being “. . . freed from [indwelling] sin and enslaved to God . . .” (Rom. 6:19, 22).

    Paul was also a “called” apostle.  No doubt, this acknowledged that Paul had not received his apostleship in the same manner as had Jesus’ twelve disciples.  His call as Jesus’ messenger to the nations (Jews and gentiles), by God’s grace through the Spirit, had come a few years after Jesus’ resurrection.

    ~Commentator’s note: an apostle was just a messenger; therefore, the messenger had no authority to edit or amend the message.  Since the gospel material and epistles had not yet been published when the apostles began their message deliveries, a few reassurances are in order to persuade believers of the message’s accuracy.

    God’s Spirit insured the accuracy and completeness of the message content.

• First, the Spirit would dwell within God’s messengers (John 14:17).
• Second, the Spirit would teach and guide the messengers into all the truth that God the Father intended to communicate (John 16:13).
• Third, the Spirit would bring to the apostles’ remembrance all that Jesus had said to them (John 14:26).  Although Jesus spoke these words in the upper room to His eleven disciples, the promise of remembrance likely applied to Jesus’ appearances to Paul (cf. Acts 26:15-18).
• Fourth, the Spirit would not improvise or expand on the truth—never communicating information on His own initiative—but teaching and guiding with precision and accuracy the message He heard from the Father about Jesus (John 16:13-15).
• Fifth, the message would include a prophetic component (John 16:13).

    Paul hadn’t enjoyed the benefit of personal contact with Jesus during the Lord’s teaching ministry.  Furthermore, Paul had not received the gospel of God from the twelve.  Instead, communication of the message content came directly from Jesus—probably during the three years soon after his conversion while the apostle was in Arabia (Acts 26:16; 2 Cor. 12:1; Gal. 1:16-17).

    Comparison of the twelve’s message with Paul’s message showed complete agreement of both messages (Gal. 2:2).  So Paul’s message was an independent witness, as well as confirmation, that both gospel messages were identical and accurate.

    Assembling and publication of the New Testament eliminated further need for the apostles’ personal foundational work.~

    1:2 God’s gospel was promised centuries before Jesus’ birth by God’s prophets, and recorded in the Hebrew Scriptures (e.g., Ezek. 36:25-27; Jer. 31:33-34).  From those Scriptures, one discovers that God’s gospel contains two promises: one, forgiveness of sins; and two, freedom from enslavement to indwelling sin.  Thus, God’s gospel was neither contrived by Jesus, nor by the apostle Paul.

    1:3 God’s Messiah, Jesus, was also promised in the Hebrew Scriptures (Gen. 49:10; Deut 18:18-19).  He could be recognized as the Messiah because of His human birth as a biological descendant of King David by the virgin birth from a woman whose genealogy was traced back to Nathan—one of David’s sons from the tribe of Judah (Luke 3:31).  Thus, Jesus was eligible genealogically to be King of the nation Israel according to God’s promise to David (2 Sam. 7:16).

    ~Commentator’s note: in Paul’s parlance, the phrase “according to the flesh” always meant a believer’s act induced by indwelling sin that resulted in separation from fellowship with God.

    David’s act with Bathsheba and his subsequent arrangement of her husband’s death were acts inspired by David’s indwelling sin.  Nathan was one of David’s offspring from Bathsheba resulting from his father’s nefarious actions.  Therefore, Jesus was David’s descendant “according to the flesh.”~

    1:4 Jesus’ Deity—the Son of God—could be recognized by His resurrection from the dead by the power of the Spirit of holiness (cf. Ps. 2:7).  Probably in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus’ had been made sin—yet without sinning—so that He would be able to voluntarily die physically (cf.  2 Cor. 5:21, and Heb. 12:44—“blood” likely referring to the Gethsemane experience recorded in Luke 22:44).  Jesus’ resurrection proved He was no longer under sin’s control (Rom. 6:9-10).  The Spirit of holiness was an epithet that meant the Spirit had separated Jesus from indwelling sin and its power of physical death.  Therefore, God was vindicated in declaring Jesus “the Son of God.”

    1:5 God’s purpose for His gospel for believers was revealed in general terms by His promise in Ezek. 36:27: “I [God] will put My Spirit within you and cause that you will obey My statutes and you will be careful to observe My ordinances” (author’s translation).  In all likelihood, Paul uniquely termed this promise of God as the “obedience of faith.”

    The apostle further pointed out God’s gospel extended to all the nations (not just Israel), and that God accomplished His plan for the sake of Jesus’ name—i.e., God saves.

    ~Commentator’s note: Abraham himself had an obedience of faith (Gen. 22:18; Heb. 11:8).  Based on Abraham’s obedience of faith, God had promised that in Abraham’s seed (i.e., the Messiah), all the nations on earth would be blessed (Gal. 3:16).  So Paul’s reference to “obedience of faith” and “all the nations” in Rom. 1:5 may well have been an allusion to God’s covenant with Abraham.

    The specific details of God’s mechanism for accomplishing the second part of His gospel in the lives of both Jew and gentile believers are Christ’s:

• indwelling the believer,
• own free-from-sin obedience controlling the believer’s members,
• obedience manifested by the Spirit’s power, in and through the believer’s life, and
• obedience accomplished simply by the believer’s faith in God’s promise to do so (Gal 2:20; cf. 2 Cor. 4:10-11).

    Elsewhere in Scripture this spiritually mature “obedience of faith” (a phrase used only in Romans) was known as “entering His (God’s) rest” (Heb. 4:1-11).  God’s rest does not mean inactivity.  It simply means the believer rests (or, ceases) from his own sin-produced activities, also known biblically as “dead works” (Heb. 6:1; 9:14), and believes God’s promise of freedom from indwelling sin, thereby allowing Jesus to accomplish His obedient activities through the believer’s members to bear fruit for God (cf. Rom. 7:4-5).~

     1:6-7 The recipients of Paul’s letter were called of Jesus from among all the nations—specifically Jew and gentile members of the local church in Rome.  The members were beloved of God and called “saints.”  Thus, they were believers.  The word “saints” meant that Rome’s believers were separated from their former sins, and potentially from the enslaving power of indwelling sin.  Their separation also meant that they were set apart to God.

    The salutation Paul delivered to the Roman believers was from God—who had now become their Father—and from Jesus the Messiah who ought to have been acknowledged as Lord of each believer’s life.  “Grace to you and peace” comprised the salutation.

    God’s grace is best expressed in Paul’s own words about Abraham: “. . . (who) grew strong in faith . . . [believing that] . . . what He (God) had promised, He was able also to perform” (Rom. 4:20-21).  God’s grace is God doing what God has promised or required.

    ~Commentator’s note: God performed His promise, and had not ‘enabled Abraham to perform His promise’ as has become the popular notion regarding God’s grace.  Of course, one might argue that it was God’s gift of faith that had enabled Abraham to believe God’s promises.  This is indisputably so.  However, using a human vessel, it was God’s sovereign and unilateral miraculous power that produced Isaac from a barren womb—a miracle that can only be credited to God alone.  In fact, that is precisely how God had worked through Jesus during His earthly ministry (Acts 2:22).~

    The salutation of “peace” likely conveyed the notion that a believer’s filial relationship with God was not at all tinged by enmity with God.

Faith of the Saints in Rome and Paul’s Intended Visit, Rom. 1:8-17

    1:8-9 Since a believer’s faith is critical and essential to realizing the “obedience of faith,” Paul took the opportunity to reassure the saints in Rome (irrespective of their spiritual state) that their faith was adequate.  In fact, their faith had become recognized throughout the believing world—probably through Paul’s mentioning their faith everywhere he travelled.

    1:10 The apostle’s travels had not yet taken him to Rome.  So he also reassured the church of his intended plans and consistent prayers to visit them in person.

    1:11-16 Paul’s motivation for his intended Rome visit was spiritual.  His motivation was not just unidirectional, but also reciprocal.  Because the saints at Rome were indwelt by God’s Spirit, Paul recognized that, during a visit, he would receive in reciprocity spiritual benefits from them because of their faith (e.g., Rom 12:3-13).  The Roman believers would also benefit unidirectionally, or directly, from the apostle’s own faith through his preaching.

    The spiritual “fruit” Paul hoped to obtain among them from his preaching likely consisted of some saints appropriating the obedience of faith—a critically important component of his apostolic message.

    Because of the scope of his call, the apostle could benefit from believers of all nations and backgrounds, from the wisest even to those bereft of wisdom—also known as fools.  Paul’s perspective on personal contact with any believer, wise or foolish, came from the gospel itself—not from self confidence (cf. 2 Cor. 3:5).  The gospel was God-fashioned and God-powered for Jews and gentiles alike.

    Next, Paul mentioned God’s power and the gospel.

    ~Commentator’s note: the scriptures rarely—if ever—relate God’s power directly to forgiveness of unbelievers.  True, His power was displayed in Jesus’ resurrection (Rom. 1:4).  But God’s power by the Spirit is essential to keep indwelling sin in believers from controlling their lives (Rom. 8:13; also cf. Eph. 1:19; 3:16; 6:10, wherein God’s power is directly related to believers).  Paul came to that conclusion about God’s power through his own personal experience as a believer (Rom. 7:23-24).

    He acknowledged that believers at Thessalonica were aware of the Spirit’s power in their own lives as the One who restrained lawlessness (2 Thess. 2:7).

    So God’s ever-present power is necessary to realize the obedience of faith in those believers who believe God’s promise of freedom from indwelling sin.  Probably God’s power—through His Spirit—was referred to by Paul in his letter to the Galatian churches: “So then, does He who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles in (emphasis mine, contra NASB, “among”) you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?” (Gal. 3:5).~

   Because the first-century Jewish believers had been raised under the Law, they were the first order of importance to the apostle because of the Law’s dramatic negative influence on the obedience of faith.

    In essence, practicing the Law to achieve obedience actually empowers sin, allowing it to control any believer who chooses to obey the Law himself (cf. 1 Cor. 15:56; Gal. 5:1-5).

    Since gentile believers were not raised under the Law, they were less likely to experience indwelling sin’s enslavement through the Law and were, therefore, of secondary concern to the apostle. 

    1:17 Next, a vital caveat was revealed by Paul.  Knowledge and comprehension of God’s righteousness promised in God’s gospel was communicated from those who had believed and experienced the promise to those who were able and willing to believe the same promise.  Believers ignorant of the obedience of faith were simply unable to comprehend and articulate its spiritual reality to other believers.

    Finally, Paul pointed out the obedience of faith was not unknown to believers before Christ’s coming by quoting the prophet Habakkuk, himself a believer: “ . . . the righteous [believer] shall live by his faith” (Hab. 2:4).  Of course, Habakkuk’s faith was in God himself since Jesus had yet to be born.

The Spiritual State of Some Roman Gentile Believers, Rom. 1:18-32

    Paul next addressed a pressing and perplexing issue.  Why hadn’t God’s promised obedience of faith produced saints that walked obediently?  The surprising answer involved God’s wrath.  God’s wrath didn’t generally terminate inappropriate behavior by gentile saints—in reality, His wrath actually exacerbated such behavior.

    ~Commentator’s note: Paul’s letter was written to the beloved of God in Rome, not to unbelievers.  And God disciplines those He loves (Prov. 3:11-12; Rev. 3:19).  That discipline can take the form of God turning a believer over to the control of indwelling sin.

    The beloved of God in Rome was an amalgam of five spiritual groups:

• biblically illiterate gentiles from a grossly pagan culture (Rom. 1:18-32),
• gentiles who had previously become proselytes to Judaism (Rom. 2:1-16; cf. Acts 2:10),
•  pious Jews (Rom. 2:17-22),
•  Jews who gloried and boasted in the Law of Moses (Rom. 2:23-29), as well as
•  Jews known as “weaker brothers” (Rom. 14:1-23).~

    1:18 The first group of Roman saints, although biblically illiterate and from a depraved culture, had knowledge of God’s truth.

    God’s judgment expressed in His wrath was revealed against these gentile saints whose ungodly and unrighteous behavior stemmed from suppression of the truth of God’s gospel.

    To suppress God’s truth meant those believers had possessed God’s truth, thus testifying to the reality that they were, in fact, believers who had received from the Holy Spirit a new heart and spirit, capable of possessing the truth (Ezek. 36:26)—unlike unbelievers who were spiritually dead in their own trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1-3).

    1:19 Further evidence that they had believed God’s promise of forgiveness of their sins was that God had made His promise evident both within, and to, them.  God’s promise could only become evident by the Spirit’s ministry within those who had been born again—that is, had received a new heart and spirit.

    1:20 Since these believers had come out of a grossly pagan gentile culture, they had not benefited from the truth about God’s revelation of Himself in the Hebrew Scriptures. 

    However, God’s creation testified clearly about His eternal power and divine nature, evidenced by the popular pantheon of gods in the Roman culture that erroneously featured Jupiter in God’s rightful position (cf. Acts 14:12-13 for the Greek pantheon that featured Zeus in God’s place, the Greek counterpart to Rome’s Jupiter).  The Romans knew of God’s power and divine nature—they simply assigned those qualities to other gods.

    The physical universe—sun, moon, stars, and seas—bore witness to God’s existence and power because these strictly ordered entities went far beyond human capabilities to influence or control.

    God’s creation included humanity—a humanity that displayed a full range of intellect, verbal communication, decision making, emotions, and a protracted life span.  The pagans had imputed these qualities to the gods.  Therefore, although from pagan origins, these believers could not plead ignorance about the gods’ inferred-from-creation-only powers and divine natures (highlighted in the Roman pantheon) as an excuse for suppressing God’s truth.

    By common belief, and the Roman priest/sacrificial rituals, the other-worldly gods were considered to possess the power to dramatically impact human lives for good or bad.

    1:21 These Roman gentile believers, who had come to know God, had failed to honor God or thank Him for His forgiveness of their sins.  Instead, they initiated futile speculations that resulted in their newly dispensed hearts from God being darkened.

    The new hearts were ‘organs of belief’ (Rom. 10:10).  A darkened heart meant a heart invaded and infected by unbelief.  Apart from God’s light of truth, some Roman saints had become subject to the promptings and deceptive influences from sin that dwells in all human bodies, both believers and unbelievers.

    1:22 Their sin-influenced reasoning falsely elevated their own self esteem so that they professed to be wise.  Perhaps they even reasoned: since their ultimate destination of heaven was assured, dabbling in old habits and lifestyles was of little importance.  God’s verdict on such reasoning was they had actually become fools.

    1:23 As fools, they exchanged God’s incorruptible glory that had made them saints for the images and icons of their pagan upbringing, thereby reverting to and reveling in a God-less behavior focused on corruptible man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles.

    1:24 As a result, the wrath of God was revealed in judgment.  Suspending the indwelling Spirit’s influence, God gave these saints over to the lusts, or intense feelings, that emanate from indwelling sin.

    This spiritual reality highlights two significant facts: one, God is intimately a part of a believer’s life—either in power, or in judgment.  And two, God’s wrath in Roman believers’ lives serves as a chilling warning to all believers who speculate apart from God’s revealed truth, allow feelings to influence their decisions, ignore the obedience of faith, and—under the power of indwelling sin—walk according to the flesh.

    ~Commentator’s note: Paul used the word “impurity” as a metonymy—a figure of speech, often used by the apostle, featuring word substitution in which the effect, impurity, was put in place of the cause, indwelling sin.  God’s wrath was revealed because of indwelling sin’s deceptive and vicious two-fold attack on believers, resulting in degrading passions (1:26) and depraved minds (1:28).~

    1:25 The saints exchanged God’s gospel truth for the lie: the creature can live independently from the Creator. The lie eventuated in their worshipping and serving the creature—perhaps Satan (cf. 2 Tim. 2:26)—rather than Creator God who eternally has been, and will be, recognized and acclaimed by all His creatures that esteem Him.

    ~Commentator’s note: God designated acultural roles for the male and female based on the roles in the triune God (Gen. 2:26-27).  For the male, God designated the role of decision maker, and for the female, the male’s helper (cf. 1 Cor. 11:3 for the decision-making role where the English translation “man” should probably read “husband,” and “woman,” “wife”).  The male’s role was on display in deciding names for the animals—names that were not adjusted by God in any way (Gen. 2:19).  In other words, God doesn’t directly contradict the male’s decisions.

    The respective roles had become subject to a potential reversal from the deception of indwelling sin (Gen. 3:16).  This explains why present secular society has erroneously judged that these God-designated roles should be identical or that they demean women.

    Understanding this background leads to Paul’s next observations.  As noted, God had created the woman as a helper (Gen. 2:18).  Thus, by God’s design, women are doers or activists, i.e., taking action based on their feelings and reasoning, sometimes encouraging their husbands to do the same without the husband first consulting God (e.g., Gen. 3:6, 17; 16:2—the correct protocol was later observed by Abraham in Gen. 21:12).

    Therefore, the first Roman saints to fall prey to deceptive human feelings and reasoning apart from God’s revelation—and to take action—were likely believing women (cf. 2 Tim. 2:26).~

    1:26 For this reason, God gave these deceived female saints over to degrading passions.  Probably, the women exchanged the natural function of helper or child-bearer for that which was against nature—perhaps decision making in marriage, divorce, abstinence or even lesbianism.  Shades of Aristophanes’ Lysistrata!

    1:27 Likewise, the men abandoned the natural function of their wives for the shameful act of homosexuality—a practice rife among Roman royalty—likely contracting sexual transmitted diseases.

    1:28 Since these pitiful saints no longer had God in their minds, God gave them over to their depraved thinking that led to improper (ungodly) behavior.

    1:29-31 Paul then cataloged a litany of twenty-one improper practices that characterized the lifestyles of these forlorn ungodly and unrighteous saints.

    1:32 The net results: despite the believers knowing God’s ordinance against such practices and His preferred penalty for same—death, meaning spiritual separation from Himself—they continued this ungodly and unrighteous behavior.

    To add insult to injury, these saints also gave hearty endorsement and approval to those who joined them in practicing the same behavior because in condemning such behavior, they would implicitly condemn their own behavior.

    For example, believers who have divorced and remarried often give support to those believers contemplating the same actions because failure to approve would eventuate in self condemnation.  This is probably why Church elders should be the husband of one wife (Tit. 1:6).

    ~Commentator’s note: many present-day believers find these behavioral characteristics unbelievable for saints.  However, believers have become culturally conditioned by today’s quasi-moral Judeo-Christian culture.  These Roman pagans had no such conditioning.

    Probably current believers would admit to practicing one, or more, of these behavioral characteristics at one time or another following their believing God’s promise of forgiveness of their sins through Jesus.

    Furthermore, ninety percent of these behavioral characteristics listed by Paul have been predicated of believers by biblical authors describing, or alluding to, the actions of saints.

    One example: as a believer, the apostle Paul himself practiced evil (Rom. 7:19).  Therefore, believers can, and do, engage in some or all of the twenty-one acts of ungodliness and unrighteousness.~

COMMENTARY, CHAPTER TWO

     Paul next addressed the second group of Roman saints that was likely comprised of gentiles who had previously become proselytes to Judaism.

    This likelihood is based on the fact that these saints had begun passing judgment on their pagan brothers and sisters who had suffered the wrath of God for suppressing the truth.  God’s judgment often arises due to a saint’s prideful adherence to a set of legal precepts—in this case derived from their former exposure to Judaism and the Law of Moses.  Rather than join the pagan believers, they judged them.

    2:1-3 Judging others morally is a practice that is popular among saints.  However, judging usurps the exclusive prerogative of God and is therefore inexcusable and self condemnatory. (Rom. 14:4).

    Furthermore, these saints actually practiced the same things practiced by those whom they judged—a possibility explained in the Commentator’s note following Rom. 1:32.

    Such judgmental attitudes by a Jew or gentile believer toward other believers run the horrible risk of incurring God’s present judgment upon the believer himself via God’s wrath being revealed from heaven (as contrasted with judgment in heaven).

    2:4-5 The reason this group of formerly proselytized saints had not yet tasted the wrath of God was that God waited—kindly, tolerantly, and patiently—for them to change their minds (i.e., repent) about the obedience of faith that would likely end in prayer for their wayward brothers and sisters (cf. Rom. 10:1).

    In the meanwhile, their stubbornness and non-repentance would result in a future spiritual catastrophe.  God’s righteous wrath would be displayed in heaven rather than from heaven.

    2:6 God’s heavenly judgment will be based on the earthly deeds of each saint.

    ~Commentator’s note: this heavenly judgment of saints will be based on “the secrets of men through Christ Jesus” (Rom. 2:16).  The word “secrets” makes it clear that what Paul had in mind was the “judgment seat of God” (Rom. 14:10), referred to elsewhere as the “judgment seat of Christ” (2 Cor. 5:10).

    This judgment will be based on deeds—good or bad.  Deeds of faith from the new heart will be judged good; those emanating from indwelling sin will be judged bad.  Such deeds, or works, are elsewhere referred to as “dead works” (Heb. 9:14).

    Since unbelievers do not possess a new heart, all their deeds flow from an evil heart (cf. Jer. 17:9 for a biblical heart diagnosis).  Deeds from evil hearts are bad deeds so no need exists to uncover “secrets”—there are no secrets for those without a new heart.  Thus, the judgment Paul referred to in v. 6 cannot refer to the judgment of unbelievers.~

    2:7-8 Here are the alternatives: good deeds are rewarded with “glory and honor and immortality, eternal life.”  Those who fail to demonstrate the obedience of faith, but obey unrighteousness (a metonymy for indwelling sin; cf. Rom. 6:13), are faced with God’s “wrath and tribulation” (cf. 1 Cor. 3:12-15 wherein God’s wrath and tribulation upon a saint are described as “fire,” yet “he himself will be saved [from hell];” and Heb. 10:26-31 wherein Jewish saints were addressed).

    2:9-11 Paul then explained that Jew and gentile saints will be judged on good or evil deeds independent of ethnicity.

    ~Commentator’s note: God established an intrinsic hierarchy (vis-à-vis Himself) within—and without—the nation Israel.  First and foremost, by grace God sovereignly chose the nation’s forefathers.  God’s choice had nothing to do with any individual’s intrinsic value or worth.  His choice was by grace alone.

    Next, God made the entire nation His chosen people.  This essentially set God’s hierarchy apart from nations outside His chosen people.  And He made His nation the priesthood to the world.

    Within the nation, God chose the first-born males as His own because He had protected them from death in Egypt.  Then He substituted the entire tribe of Levi as surrogates for His first-born elite.  And He gave the Levites to the priests who served Him (wearing distinctive God-designed attire) in the ministry of sacrifice and worship.

    From the layout of the temple’s environs, one may readily observe a certain ‘pecking order’ among people.  The court of the priests was immediately surrounding the temple wherein God’s presence dwelt.  Around that court was the court of the Israelites.  Surrounding the court of the Israelites was the court of women which, in turn, was surrounded by the court of gentiles.

    All this is to suggest that in some minds, it may have seemed that God accorded a certain hierarchy and spiritual partiality to Jews in general, and particularly within the Jewish community.  Paul made it clear that in God’s dealings with the Church, such partiality did not exist.~

    2:12 The apostle next elucidated the mechanism of judgment for gentile saints who had no exposure to the Law of Moses as well as for Jewish saints who had the Law.

    This verse requires a translation somewhat in contrast to that of the NASB: “For all who sin (NASB, “have sinned’) without the Law will also ruin themselves (emphasis mine, contra NASB, “perish”) without the Law, and all who sin (NASB, “have sinned”) under the Law will be judged by the Law” (author’s translation).

    ~Commentator’s note: Paul summarized the whole Law by the command, “love one another” (Rom. 13:8-9).  This summary is critical in understanding Romans.~

    2:13 Paul added a codicil: the Law must be done (through the obedience of faith) and not just listened to in the home or synagogue.  Justification should be understood as believing the second part of God’s gospel—the promise of freedom from enslavement to indwelling sin.

    2:14-15 Gentile saints who do not have the Law may “instinctively” do the things of the Law.

    The reason that gentile saints “instinctively” do the things of the Law is that they have “the Law written in their hearts”—a clear indication that they live under the new covenant (cf. Jer. 31:33; 2 Cor. 3:3).

    The “work of the Law” in a saint’s life produces personal knowledge of indwelling sin (Rom. 3:20; 7:7).

    Validation of the effectiveness of new covenant living for gentiles will be confirmed on the day of judgment personally by the conscience and thoughts of each gentile saint validating God’s judgment through the concurrence of their own consciences.

    2:16 God will judge the secrets of both Jewish and gentile saints to determine if their deeds, after believing God’s promise of forgiveness of sins, have been done by the obedience of faith, or in response to indwelling sin.

    2:17 The third group of Roman saints Paul addressed was pious Jews (i.e., they relied upon the Law, but boasted in God—not in the Law).

    2:18-22 About five or six years after writing the saints in Rome, Paul wrote his child in the faith, Timothy, that “. . . the Law is good, if one uses it lawfully . . .” (1 Tim. 1:8).  In this section of Romans, Paul highlighted five ways that the Law (the five books of Moses) may be used lawfully.  The Law:

1. designates recognizable spiritual essentials (v. 18).  The foremost essential for recognition and approval was likely God’s covenant with Abraham that, in his seed—Jesus, all the nations of the earth would be blessed (Gen. 22:18; cf. Gal. 3:16-18). The next essential probably was the Ten Commandments (Exod. 20:1-17—so essential that God repeated the same commandments in Deut. 5:2-21).  Less essential for new covenant Jewish saints were the animal sacrifices enumerated in Leviticus because Christ was God’s ultimate sacrifice for sins and for sin.
2. gives one confidence for guiding the (spiritually) blind who are in darkness (v. 19).  This likely meant the work of Jewish evangelism using the Law for guidance.
3. is a textbook for correcting the foolish—i.e., probably believing Jews with some maturity in the faith.  The Law is also a textbook for spiritual growth in baby believers (v. 20a).
4. embodies knowledge and truth provided by God through revelation (v. 20b).
5. is a source of spiritual enlightenment for oneself (v. 21a).  Using a series of three questions anticipating negative responses, Paul summarized the essentials of spiritual enlightenment about loving one’s neighbor through the commandments against stealing or committing adultery (v. 21b-22a—probably an allusion to the Ten Commandments; cf. Rom. 13:8-10).  Finally, the apostle captured the height of spiritual enlightenment (probably alluding to the great commandment: love God) by correlating loving God to abhorring idols (v. 22b).

    2:23 The fourth group of Roman saints Paul addressed was Jews who boasted in the Law.  The apostle labeled this group of believers as “the circumcision” (Rom. 15:8; Gal. 3:12; Col. 4:11; Tit. 1:10).

    The circumcision aggressively and unremittingly pressured for gentile believers to be circumcised and follow the Law of Moses (Acts 15:5).  In so doing, they broke the Law by regarding with contempt, and not loving, gentile saints (cf. Lev. 19:18).

    ~Commentator’s note: Circumcision was a God-given sign to Abraham of his righteousness of faith (Rom. 4:11).  Moreover, Moses had stated explicitly that God’s sign of circumcision actually pointed to a spiritual reality by God’s sovereign action upon the heart to bring spiritual life (Deut. 30:6).  All this, the circumcision party in the Church should have realized because of its devotion to the Law.  Yet, by insisting gentile believers be circumcised, the circumcision party in the Church was implicitly renouncing that they themselves had a righteousness of faith (cf. Rom. 4:11-12).~

     2:24 Paul applied God’s words, recorded by Ezekiel about unbelieving Jews in the Diaspora (Ezek. 36:23), to the circumcision party.  This was a stinging rebuke and indictment in that the apostle was basically accusing the circumcision of acting just like unbelieving Jews—Jews that were arrogant toward gentiles, sometimes even despising them.

    In turn, gentile saints would account God’s words as useless because of the circumcision’s behavior.

    2:25 Furthermore by their behavior, the new hearts of circumcision party members would be looked upon by God as uncircumcised because they transgressed God’s Law of loving gentile saints.  The dire results: spiritual separation from God and stunted spiritual growth.

    2:26 On the other hand, if gentile saints loved those of the circumcision party—thereby keeping the Law’s requirements—the gentiles physical uncircumcision would be rightly regarded by God as circumcision of their hearts.

    2:27 In addition, these gentile saints who love their brethren of the circumcision—thus keeping the Law—will concur with Christ’s accurate judgment when He judges the secrets of the circumcisions’ hearts, revealing their loveless behavior as emanating from indwelling sin.

    2:28-29 Paul concludes his address to Jewish believers—those who “bear the name ‘Jew’” (v. 17) by defining and contrasting a spiritual Jew under the new covenant in comparison to those Jewish believers who boast in the Law—an outward display of ritual conformity to the Law of Moses.

    Outward circumcision of the flesh, i.e., physical circumcision, is not the identifying factor of spiritual health.  Rather, a spiritually healthy Jewish believer is one enjoying the inward benefits of God’s work—circumcision of the heart by God’s Spirit—in contrast to those Jewish believers who boast in keeping the letter of the Law.

    Those of the circumcision keep the Law for the purpose of recognition and praise within their party—i.e., the praise of men—perhaps even those of the unbelieving Jewish community.  But at the judgment of God, His praise will be bestowed upon those Jewish saints who have lived by the Spirit and not by indwelling sin.

    Herein lies the strong suggestion that God does not hold to ethnic distinctions within the Church when spirituality is at issue (or to any social and gender distinctions either, cf. Gal. 3:28 and Col. 3:11). 

Because the word “flesh” has a range of lexical meanings, some English translations of the New Testament have wandered from a strict use of the phrase that Paul likely intended.

The following essay will show biblically that “according to the flesh” is indeed a technical phrase, and therefore should be translated as such irrespective of the particular context wherein it appears. Those Pauline passages that appear to present contextual problems by using the phrase narrowly will be addressed and explained.

Finally, the spiritual reality of this technical phrase will be applied to the Church (Church capitalized to differentiate the entire body of believers from those believers that where part of a local church).

A Definition of the Phrase
From Paul’s letter to the saints beloved of God in Rome, a clear and uncontested definition of the phrase may be formulated. First and foremost, Paul’s letter to the church in Rome was addressed to believers, not to unbelievers.

In Rom. 8:4, “according to the flesh” described a believer’s walk, or behavior. In context, Paul used the word “flesh” to mean sin that indwelt his, or one’s, body (Rom. 7:17-20). Combining these two thoughts, a proper definition of “according to the flesh” means a believer who acts under the control of indwelling sin.

Keep in mind that when Paul referred to those “in the flesh,” he was sometimes writing about unbelievers as determined by context (Rom. 8:9; Eph. 2:11). He never referred to believers’ spiritual status as being “in the flesh.”

Passages
Paul used the precise prepositional phrase “according to the flesh” in several passages. Some instances raise problems of understanding Paul’s intended meaning thereby giving rise to subsequent mistranslation by English translators. Passages critical to understanding Paul’s intended meaning will be reviewed seriatim.

Romans 1:3  Paul identified God’s Son, Jesus, as having been born of the seed of King David “according to the flesh.” No doubt, Paul wished to establish Jesus’ credentials as a legitimate heir to David’s throne as God had promised (2 Sam. 7:16). But why add the phrase, “according to the flesh?”

Paul likely had in mind David’s nefarious tryst with Bathsheba and his subsequent successful arrangement to rid her of her husband Uriah (2 Sam. 11:4-11, 15). This was certainly an act by David “according to the flesh” (cf. 2 Sam. 11:27). Recall, God testified of David that he was “. . . a man after My heart . . .” (cf. Acts 13:22) and was therefore, unquestionably, an Old Testament saint.

Thus, Jesus was a biological descendant of David through His mother Mary whose genealogy may be traced to Nathan—one of Bathsheba’s sons by David (Luke 3:31; cf. 2 Sam. 5:14). In addition, Joseph’s ancestry can be traced to Solomon, Bathsheba’s second son by David (Matt. 1:6). So Jesus’ Kingly credentials were impeccable.

And Paul verified right away that, while his phrase “according to the flesh” was novel to the Old Testament scriptures, the meaning of its reality in one of God’s chosen extended back in history more than a thousand years.

An aside: Jesus’ descendancy through Bathsheba’s son Solomon is somewhat problematic because God had declared one of Solomon’s descendants, Jechoiachin (aka, Coniah), would be childless and without a descendant sitting on the throne of David (Jer. 22:30).

For an interesting study on resolving this issue, see Custance, Arthur C. The Seed of the Woman. Brockville, Ontario: Doorway Publications, 1980, 491-494.

Romans 4:1  Paul next used the phrase “according to the flesh” with respect to Abraham.

In his first letter, Galatians, Paul had labeled Abraham’s procreative act with Hagar as “according to the flesh” (Gal. 4:22-24). This act occurred when Abraham—a believer—took matters into his own hands at his wife Sarah’s behest, and had a son (Ishmael) by Hargar (Gen. 16:2-4).

Impatient with God fulfilling His own promise of a biological descendant, and in view a his wife’s barrenness, Abraham took matters into his own hands, and by his own works rather than God’s, produced an offspring. Abraham’s act was accomplished under the control of sin that dwelt within, i.e., “according to the flesh.” So Abraham himself had “. . . something to boast about, but not toward God” (Rom. 4:2). Abraham could say, “I did it!” But sadly, he could not boast, “My God did it!”

Thus, a believer’s behavior according to the flesh may be dated back beyond King David to Israel’s forefather.

Romans 9:3-4  In this passage, Paul described his “. . . brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites . . .” Paul consistently used of the word “brethren” for church believers. So he used the additional and non-redundant qualifying phrase “my kinsmen” to specify Israelites.

Further, this group of Israelites walked “according to the flesh” rather than walking “according to the Spirit” (cf. Rom. 8:4). To summarize: those Paul is writing about is a group comprised of believing Jews, or Israelites, who likely “boast in the Law” (cf. Rom. 2:23) rather than “boast in God” (cf. Rom. 2:17).

In Gal. 6:16, the apostle referred to believing Jews who walked according to the Spirit as “the Israel of God.”

Romans 9:5  Here, Paul referred to the Christ as “. . . [the One who was] according to the flesh, who is over all . . .” Use of the Greek ‘substantiver’ article with a prepositional phrase, together with the appropriate translation, may be found in Wallace, Daniel B. Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996, 231 and 236 with an example from 1 John 2:13.

Most likely, Paul had in mind the reality he expressed in 2 Cor. 5:21, wherein he revealed, “He (God) made Him (Jesus) who knew no sin [to be] sin on our behalf . . .” A detailed study of this reality, “Jesus Was Made Sin,” may be found in an essay entitled as such (see www.mcclymont.org).

A brief quote from this study, contained therein under the heading of “God’s Solution,” will suffice here: “Summary: God made Jesus sin only so His Son could voluntarily die physically for the sins of others. God did not make Jesus sin so that Jesus would commit an act of sin—something Jesus never did.”

Therefore, Paul’s phrase “according to the flesh” with reference to the Christ had to do with Jesus temporarily being placed under sin’s control so that He could voluntarily die physically. The sequential qualifying clause in Rom 9:5, “who is (presently) over all,” substantiates that God’s Christ did not remain permanently under sin’s control in death (cf. Rom. 6:9-10).

1 Corinthians 1:26  Paul wrote the saints at Corinth “. . . that there were not many wise according to the flesh, . . .” implying some were wise who had walked according to the flesh. Perhaps Paul intended this implication as an encouragement to those he admonished in 1 Cor. 3:1 as “men of flesh.”

Recall from Rom. 2:23 above, that some Jewish believers boasted in the Law of Moses. Part of this group likely came from the Pharisaical sect of Judaism who had believed (cf. Acts 15:5 and also labeled biblically as “the circumcision”).

Because the power of sin in a believer’s life came from law (1 Cor. 15:56), those Pharisees who had believed ran the risk of walking according to the flesh. In fact, the Pharisee Paul was one such believer who was initially controlled by indwelling sin early in his walk as recorded in Rom. 7:23. But by God’s grace, he had become wise.

Another fascinating example (from the circumcision who became wise) was Barnabas’ cousin John—also known as Mark (Col. 4:10). John Mark’s identity is spelled out in an essay entitled, “Born Again—The Rich Young Ruler” (see www.mcclymont.org for the essay).

As a believing helper, John had accompanied Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey (Acts 13:5). However, John had become useless for the ministry on that trip, and returned prematurely to Jerusalem (Acts 13:13). In a sharp disagreement with Barnabas, Paul refused to take John along on his second missionary trip (Acts 15:37-39).

Perhaps in Jerusalem, the apostle Peter reviewed for his “son” Mark (1 Pet. 5:13) what the Lord had revealed to him in a vision just prior to Peter’s visit with Cornelius: to wit, believers were no longer under the Law (Acts 10). Or, Peter might have recounted his personal experience at the Antiochian church with Jewish believers from the circumcision (Gal. 2:11-14).

Tradition holds that John Mark became Peter’s recording secretary in Rome, later writing a portion of the New Testament—the Gospel According to Mark.
In any case, later in the relationship between Paul and Mark, Paul identified Mark as a fellow-worker from the circumcision (Col. 4:10-11) and gave Timothy instructions about Mark who was, “. . . useful to me (Paul) for service” (2 Tim. 4:11). Here, then, is another likely example of one who had walked according to the flesh, yet who had become wise indeed.

1 Corinthians 10:18  “Look at Israel according to the flesh; are not those who eat the sacrifices sharers in the altar?” (author’s translation).

We know that priests believed (Acts 6:7) and Pharisees believed (Acts 15: 5). We also know the temple services continued according to the Law of Moses until 70 AD (Heb. 9:9). If believing members from either the priesthood or the Pharisees ate the sacrifices (the priests and their respective households according to Lev. 22:11, and the Pharisees according to Deut. 12:18) they would become “sharers in the altar” through keeping the Law of Moses. Doing works of the Law had the gruesome potential to end in sin’s enslavement (Rom. 7:13).

Such behavior for Israelite believers could well be “according to the flesh,” so Paul labeled them “Israel according to the flesh.” Paul distinguished “Israel according to the flesh” and the “Israel of God” (cf. Gal 6:16). Hence, in Paul’s mind, all Israelites in the Church were divided into two groups: those who were under sin’s control, and those who were free from sin’s control (cf. Rom. 9:6b and 11:5).

2 Corinthians 5:16  Following his regeneration, Paul implied he had walked “according to the flesh.” The implication may be drawn from Paul’s confession that “. . . sin became alive and I died (emphasis mine) . . .” (Rom. 7:9), combined with his later warning, “. . . if you are living according to the flesh, you must die (emphasis mine) . . .” (Rom. 8:13).

The event causing the apostle’s “death”—separation from fellowship with God and Christ—was likely his early post-regeneration experience recorded autobiographically in Rom. 7:7-22. This experience probably took place in Damascus sometime after Jesus appeared to Paul (Acts 9:17), and terminated at the moment God revealed Jesus in Paul (Gal. 1:16). During this time period while under the control of sin, Paul only knew Jesus “according to the flesh.”

Recalling this event while writing the Corinthians, Paul reported “. . . even we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know [Him in this way] no longer” (2 Cor. 5:16). Knowing Jesus “according to the flesh” was only temporary.

Since Timothy had joined Paul in penning this Corinthian letter, Paul may have included Timothy in the “we” of this last sentence.

Ephesians 6:5 and Colossians 3:22  In both these passages, Paul gave instructions to believing slaves whose masters were likewise believers, but lived “according to the flesh.” That the slave-masters were believers is apparent because Paul identified their Master as impartial and resident in heaven (Eph. 6:9; Col. 4:1). That the slave-masters lived according to the flesh is also apparent because Paul admonished them to give up threatening their believing slaves, and treat them justly and fairly (Eph. 6:9; Col. 3:1).

One biblical example of a newly-believing slave with a believing master was Onesimus and Philemon.

Conclusion
The apostle Paul coined a phrase, “according to the flesh,” that referred to people in both Old and New Testaments. Such people were believers controlled by sin. Sin is permanently resident in all mankind and enslaves those who sin (cf. John 8:34 and Rom. 5:12). In Paul’s letters, believers controlled by indwelling sin were uniquely and consistently labeled as walking “according to the flesh.”

Such is also the case presently in local churches. God’s antidote to sin’s slavery is His Spirit who manifests Christ’s perfectly obedient life through the believer simply by the believer believing God’s promise to accomplish this freedom from sin.

One of sin’s most deceptive and powerful weapons is law. For the believer who wants freedom, he must resolve to refrain from obeying the law himself, allowing the Lord’s obedient life to be manifest in his own life simply by faith. The only alternative is to live “according to the flesh.”

Addressing those who had believed in Jesus for forgiveness of their sins, Paul said it best: “. . . if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord (of your life) and believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead (meaning sin is no longer master over Him), you shall be saved (from slavery to indwelling sin).”

Despite Paul’s crystal-clear assertion, the pastor’s reaction was a forceful rejection of the notion that Jesus was made sin.

Yet, Paul’s revelation of God’s action is foundational to a saint living a life pleasing to God.

The following essay will explore God’s plan, the historical context in which God carried out His plan, as well as how His plan can lead to a fruitful life for His saint.

God’s Problem
God planned for Jesus to voluntarily die without ever committing an act of sin so that He could be a suitable sacrifice for forgiveness of the sins of all God’s people. The aforementioned pastor would likely have strongly subscribed to, and rightly so, the validity of this assertion.

However, one might discover two things about sin and sinning from the apostle Paul’s letter to the saints in Rome: one, indwelling sin—passed on through one’s human father—infected every member of the human race; and two, indwelling sin compelled every human to eventually commit an act of sin, without exception (Rom. 5:12, author’s translation: “Therefore, just as through one man [indwelling] sin entered into the world, and [physical] death through sin, and so it [indwelling sin] spread to all men, on the basis of which all sin”).

Of course, babies, infants, and adolescents likely don’t sin until an age when they can understand what constitutes an act of sin—a personal act asserting one’s independence from God (cf. Deut. 1:39).

Herein lay God’s problem. Any human can be put to death. But God’s perfect sacrifice had to voluntarily die physically which could only happen by surrendering one’s life to indwelling sin inherited from one’s father.

And indwelling sin carries with it the concomitant feature of causing its host to commit an act of sin. Indwelling sin maintains a perfect record of infesting all the bodily members of all mankind, thereby compelling an act of sin that results in separation from God—a state known biblically as spiritual death.

God’s Solution
The initial step in God’s ingenious plan was to have Jesus born without the agency of a human father. Hence, the virgin birth prophesied of Jesus became reality (Matt. 1:18).

Throughout Jesus’ earthly life, He committed no act of sin because He had no indwelling sin in His human body that compelled Him to do so.

The next step in God’s plan was to make Jesus’ body a vessel for indwelling sin so that He could die physically as a voluntary sacrifice for the sins of others.

This event of making Jesus—who knew no sin—sin “on our behalf” likely took place in the garden at Gethsemane just moments before Jesus was arrested (cf. Luke 22:39-46; Heb. 12:4).

Now we know Jesus was tested in all things yet without sinning (Heb. 4:15). Part of Jesus’ testing took place between that moment in the garden and His voluntary death on the cross (cf. Luke 23:46).

Jesus was not killed by the cross as indicated in John’s gospel (John 19:33).

But, one might ask, “ how could indwelling sin fail in compelling Jesus to commit an act of sin?” Good question! The answer, of course, is that God’ Spirit also dwelled within Jesus’ human body, and it was the Spirit that gave Jesus victory over sin’s overwhelmingly powerful deception and temptation. The Spirit-empowered victory may be understood from Jesus’ words, “. . . not My will, but Yours be done” (Luke 22:42).

After all, one-hundred percent of God’s saints are tempted, yet do not have to sin (1 Cor. 10:13). And the same Spirit of God that dwelt in Jesus indwells all the saints providing the power (by faith) not to commit an act of sin at sin’s vicious promptings (cf. Gal 5:17).

The final step in God’s winning plan was Jesus’ resurrection, thereby freeing Him forever from the mastery of indwelling sin and physical death (Rom. 6:9-10).

Summary: God made Jesus sin only so His Son could voluntarily die physically for the sins of others. God did not make Jesus sin so that Jesus would commit an act of sin—something Jesus never did.

Benefits for the Saints
God gives His Spirit to all saints so none has to commit a sin. God’s Spirit manifests Jesus’ perfect obedience to the Father’s will through the one who rejects his own attempts at obedience, and simply believes God’s promise that Jesus—who dwells in the believer—will carry out His Father’s will under all circumstances, at all times, through the believer’s members that include the brain (as distinguished from the mind) and the mouth. Thus, the believer pleases God and bears fruit in every good work that Jesus does through him (cf. Rom. 7:4).

Appropriately and correctly so, God receives all the credit for His plan, its execution, and results.

In reality, saints do take matters into their own hands, independent from Jesus, resulting in acts of sin. Not to worry! God promised that when the saint confesses his act of sin, God will forgive the sin, restore fellowship with Himself and with Jesus—whose blood will cleanse the saint from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).

This is God’s magnificent “benefits package” for His saints who choose to live by faith.

The Israel of God was comprised of spiritual believers who lived life by faith in Jesus apart from works of the Law (cf. Gal. 2:20), while Israel according to the flesh was comprised of carnal believers who lived life by the works of the Law—including offering the prescribed temple sacrifices.

In addition to forgiveness of sins, the Israel of God had also been saved from enslavement to indwelling sin, while Israel according to the flesh had not yet been saved from enslavement to indwelling sin.

Some of those believing Jews of Israel according to the flesh were chosen by God to be saved from sin’s enslavement. Paul knew this truth; however, he did not know whom God had chosen to free among Israel according to the flesh. So Paul did everything he could throughout his ministry to teach accurately and comprehensively about being saved from enslavement to sin.

One example of Paul’s honor students was John Mark ( Acts 13:13; 15:37-39; Col. 4:10-11; 2 Tim. 4:11).

The Israel of God was God’s remnant within the Church. Israel according to the flesh was not a part of God’s remnant within the Church. Paul referred to the Israel of God combined with Israel according to the flesh as, “all Israel” within the Church (cf. Rom. 9:6).  The remaining Church members were gentiles.

Since Israel according to the flesh boasted in the Law, its membership probably was derived predominately from Pharisees who had believed in Jesus for forgiveness of their sins and thereby had, permanently and irreversibly, eternal life (cf. Acts 15:5).

At the outset of his spiritual journey, Paul—himself a Pharisee—had believed in Jesus for forgiveness of his sins. In spiritual infancy, the apostle had then attempted to obey the Law of Moses (Rom. 7:7-23). His complete failure to accomplish obedience taught Paul the relationship between the Law of Moses and indwelling sin. Paul discovered that indwelling sin—both deceptive and evil—was actually activated and empowered by the Law of Moses (cf. 1 Cor. 15:56).

The Law of Moses had become Paul’s “child-conductor” (cf. Gal. 3:23) to “the obedience of faith” (cf. Rom. 1:5). Obedience of faith is belief in God’s promise to free one from a law-ethic for behavior, and provide fulfillment of His law through Christ’s perfectly obedient life in the believer being manifested by the Spirit’s power (cf. Ezek. 36:27 for the promise, and 2 Cor. 4:10-11 for the promise’s fulfillment).

In contemporary believing Christianity, both Jews and gentiles are confronted with exhortations to obedience apart from believing God’s promise of being saved from the enslaving power of indwelling sin. The consequences of ignoring God’s promise can be devastating: acts of sin, separation from God’s fellowship, a fall from grace, a taste of God’s wrath from heaven, a spiritually fruitless life, and future humiliation at the judgment seat of God.

    However, if one consults an English concordance of the Bible, the term “Judaizers” can not be found.

    Thus, this observation is offered for Bible students consulting a concordance so that confusion about the often used term “Judaizers” may be clarified.

    Judaizers were Jewish believers in Jesus who aggressively advocated and relentlessly promoted circumcision, as well as following the Law of Moses, for gentiles who had believed in Jesus as their Savior.  Biblically, this group of Jewish believers were known as “the circumcision.”

IN ROMANS 11:5

Introduction

    In an expanded version of his theological PhD dissertation, Dr. Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum makes the accurate and noteworthy observation that the apostle Paul, in Rom. 11:5, used the Greek perfect tense in a comparative application of nation Israel’s history in the day of Elijah: “Even so then [at this present time also—omitted by Fruchtenbaum] there is (emphasis mine, highlighting the perfect tense) a remnant according to the election of grace” (Fruchtenbaum, Arnold G. Israelology: The Missing Link In Systematic Theology, rev. ed. Tustin, CA: Ariel Ministries, 1994, 741). 

    In his superb Greek grammar, Prof. Daniel B. Wallace explains, “The force of the perfect tense is simply that it describes an event that, completed in the past . . . has results existing in the present time . . .” (Wallace, Daniel B. Greek Grammar Beyond The Basics. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996, 573).  Thus, any theological inferences based upon use of the perfect tense should identify from the context the completed past event that accounts for the present results.

    Dr. Fruchtenbaum rightly notes “the seven thousand of Elijah’s day” are illustrative of, and correspond to, the present remnant in Rom. 11:5 (Fruchtenbaum, 741).  He also correctly equates the present results as that referred to by Paul in Gal. 6:16 as the “Israel of God” (ibid. 741).  As Fruchtenbaum concluded earlier in his study, the “Israel of God” most likely refers to the believing Jews within the Church (ibid. 619-699).  This believing remnant constitutes the results in the present time connoted by the Greek perfect tense Paul used in Rom. 11:5.

    However, what Dr. Fruchtenbaum fails to identify is the completed past event in the history of the Church that distinguished believing Jews in the Church—a remnant according to the election of grace—from those regenerate Jews in the Church pursuing a law of righteousness (cf. Rom. 9:31).  Surely, Dr. Fruchtenbaum is not suggesting that Elijah’s experience was the seminal event that marked the birth of the believing remnant of Israel within the Church!

    The following essay will identify the seminal event in the history of the Church that distinguished the believing remnant from those Jews in the Church that, out of ignorance, sought to establish their own righteousness (cf. Rom. 10:3).

Preliminary Matters

    A few items for understanding are necessary before identifying the event in the Church’s infant history that highlighted a believing remnant of Jews in the Church.

• The Church was a new creation, and not simply an improved or remade form of—or even an extension of—the nation Israel (Gal. 6:15).  The Church began around 33 AD on the Pentecost following Jesus’ resurrection (cf. Acts 2:1-47).  For example, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses were unquestionably not part of the Church.  On the other hand, Peter, Paul, Barnabas, and Titus were identifiably part of the Church.  Thus, the Church is not part of the nation Israel and the nation Israel is not part of the Church.
• Administration of God’s earthly kingdom was taken temporarily from the nation Israel and given to the Church (cf. Matt. 21:42-45; Acts 1:6; e.g., the Church ‘council’ in Acts 15:1-29 replaced the Sanhedrin of Acts 5:21-29).  The Levitical priesthood was also taken temporarily from the nation Israel and given to the Church meaning, among other things, that animal sacrifices were no longer efficacious for covering sins (Mark 11:16; Acts 6:7; Heb. 7:12; Rev. 1:6).
• A believing Jewish remnant existed in the nation Israel from the time of Jesus’ birth as exemplified by Mary, Joseph, Elizabeth, Zacharias, Simeon, Anna, and John the Baptist.
• Following Pentecost in 33 AD, a believing Jewish remnant did not exist in the nation Israel.
• The word “saved” in the New Testament was used to describe two kinds of regenerate people.  The first kind, to which all Church members belonged, was saved from God’s judgment of their respective sins by their belief in God’s forgiveness of their sins through the death and resurrection of Jesus.  The second kind of regenerate people—a portion of the first—was saved from slavery to indwelling sin by their belief that their Lord Jesus’ obedient life would be manifest through them by the Spirit’s power thereby removing them from the jurisdiction of the Law (e.g., the apostle Paul; cf. Rom. 6:14).
• The word “remnant” means a portion leftover from the whole.  To illustrate, a portion from a bolt of plaid linen material cannot be a remnant from a bolt of white canvas material.  Thus, a remnant from the nation Israel cannot be a remnant from the Church.
• God intended the Law of Moses to be kept in its entirety (cf. Gal. 5:3; Jas. 2:10).  If a single commandment of the Law were broken, the whole Law was broken.  The Law was like a window pane: if a ball sailed through the glass, the entire pane was broken—not just a part.

The Event Giving Birth To A Believing Jewish Remnant In The Church

    The apostle Paul had pointed to the prophet Elijah, and his 870 BC exchange with God, that exposed the existence of a believing remnant in Israel (Rom. 11:2-4).  Using this historical episode for an inferential comparison—“even so then”—Paul specifically applied the event to his own time: “. . . at the present time . . .” (Rom. 11:5).

    Quoting Paul’s words, Fruchtenbaum emphasizes the present remnant is “according to the election of grace” (Fruchtenbaum, 741).  He goes on to correctly conclude, “. . . Paul gave the standard according to which the remnant comes into existence.  It is not on the basis of the Law of Moses (10:4), but on the basis of grace” (ibid. 741).  But Elijah’s remnant would have lived according to the Law of Moses—a reality that needs to be addressed in Fruchtenbaum’s comparison.

    So when was there an event, early in Church history, where God made it clear that life was no longer to be lived according to the Law of Moses?  Such an event took place one noontime on the rooftop of a house by the sea in the city of Joppa (Acts 10:9-16, with quotes from NET Bible, 1996).

    The apostle Peter fell into a trance.  A king-size sheet holding animals, reptiles, and birds was lowered by its four corners from heaven to the ground.  And a voice commanded Peter to arise, kill some of the sheet’s contents, and eat thereof—because he had become hungry, being that it was midday.

    Peter’s response to the command was quite revealing: “Certainly not, Lord, for I have never eaten anything defiled and ritually unclean” (Acts 10:14).  Peter’s answer revealed that he had always been an observant Jew, keeping the dietary laws which were part of the Law of Moses (cf. Lev. 11).  Note: if Peter had broken any of the dietary restrictions of the Law, he would have been guilty of breaking the whole Law.  Furthermore, Peter recognized the voice as authoritative—responding with the epithet, “Lord.”

    The voice next announced a dramatic change: “What God has made clean, you must not consider ritually unclean” (10:15).  This announcement was tantamount to rendering the whole Law of Moses obsolete for Jewish believers that were Church members.  Church members would live according to grace—free from the Law.  This interchange between Peter and the voice giving him instructions was quite likely the past event Paul had in mind when he declared (using the Greek perfect tense) the existence of a remnant in the Church—“at the present time.”

    However, if those believing Jews in the Church—like Peter—were considered the believing remnant, then who are the ‘unbelievers’ in the Church?  The answer comes from some interesting details revealed in what transpired after Peter’s thrice-experienced event that gave birth to a believing remnant in the Church.

    Following the vision, the Spirit instructed Peter to go with the three men that a Roman centurion, the Gentile Cornelius, had sent to fetch him—and to go “without hesitation” (10:19-20).  The next day, Peter followed the Spirit’s instructions, accompanied by “some of the brothers (Jewish believers) from Joppa” (10:23).

    Fast-forwarding in the story’s unfolding, one discovers that some of the brothers accompanying Peter were “believers from the circumcision” (10:45).  This is a critically important fact because it suggested a division among Jews within the Church.

    Now back to Peter: his vision and instructions from the Spirit were intended to convey to Peter that Gentiles were no longer to be considered “ritually unclean.”  Nevertheless, when Peter entered Cornelius’ abode, he greeted everyone with the following: “You know that it is unlawful for a Jew to associate or visit a Gentile, yet God has shown me (emphasis mine) that I should call no person defiled or ritually unclean” (10:28).  Since God had recently revealed to Peter that the whole Law of Moses was obsolete for Jewish believers that were Church members, why did Peter feel it necessary to preface his greeting with, “. . . it is unlawful for a Jew to associate or visit a Gentile . . . ?”

    One reasonable explanation is that Peter intended to give a ‘heads-up’ to Cornelius et al. that while God had shown him it was OK to visit a Gentile home, some of the brothers with him had not been so informed personally by God.  So the Gentiles should mind their manners and not offer non-kosher food to their Jewish guests (cf. Acts 15:29).

    Another possibility for Peter’s greeting was that Peter wanted to remind those “believers from the circumcision” with him that he was not acting cavalierly regarding the Law, but rather was acting under God’s direct command.  Perhaps Peter wanted the circumcision to realize his respect and concern for them as believers despite their practice of living according to the Law of Moses.  Or maybe, Peter wanted to preempt any potential criticisms of his behavior from the circumcision.  Possibly Peter was simply intimidated by the presence of the circumcision (cf. Gal. 2:11-12).

    Whatever the reason, Peter’s greeting served to highlight a sect of Jewish believers within the Church that was seeking a righteousness of their own by Law, not knowing about God’s righteousness by faith (cf. Rom. 10:1-4).

    The circumcision’s unique reaction to God’s acceptance of Cornelius and his household was one of great astonishment (10:45).  The astonishment likely stemmed from the fact that Cornelius and the other Gentile males present had not been required to undergo circumcision before the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out upon them.

    This incident may have given rise to the label, ‘the circumcision,’ for the sect within the Church—i.e., those believing Jews who zealously lived by the Law of Moses, aggressively promoting circumcision for Church Gentiles (e.g., Acts 15:5).

    That such a sect of believing Jews known as ‘the circumcision’ existed within the Church was confirmed by Peter’s Jerusalem reception following his successful trip to Cornelius in Caesarea.  The circumcision took issue with Peter’s entering a Gentile abode and eating with Gentiles (Acts 11:2-3).

    Peter recounted in detail the background and results of his missionary endeavor (11:4-17).  After hearing Peter’s words, the circumcision became silent and glorified God—acknowledging God had indeed granted life (without circumcision) to the Gentiles (11:18).

Conclusion

    From the foregoing analysis, it may be concluded that the apostle Paul, in Rom. 11:5, was referring to that believing remnant in the Church—Peter being an excellent example—who were of the election of grace.  They were indeed the “Israel of God.”

    However, a sect of regenerate Jews in the Church known as the circumcision coexisted with the Israel of God.  The circumcision lived their lives according to the Law of Moses (cf. Acts 15:5; Gal. 2:11-12) and not by faith in God’s promise that the Lord Jesus’ lawful life would be manifested through them by the Spirit’s power (cf. Rom 8:1-4; 2 Cor. 4:10-11; Gal. 2:20).  The sect known as the circumcision was the object of Paul’s intense concern, teachings, behavioral adaptations (cf. Acts 21:20-26), and prayers for salvation from slavery to sin (Rom. 9:1-3; 10:1-4).

    It was to this sect of regenerate Jews in the Church that Paul made himself a slave so that he might save some from sin’s bondage (cf. 1 Cor. 9:20b, 22b).  Salvation was not from the lake of fire (cf. Rev. 20:15) but from a useless and unfruitful life lived in slavery to indwelling sin activated and empowered by the Law of Moses (cf. Rom. 7:9; 1 Cor. 15:56).

     Finally, Dr. Fruchtenbaum’s suggestion that the believing remnant came into existence in Elijah’s time may be accurate for the nation Israel, but not beyond Pentecost, 33 AD.  Within the Church, the birth of the believing remnant began in the pages of Church history as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles—Peter’s trance being the seminal event.

    Every believer faces a daunting dilemma.  The predicament arises from indwelling sin with its agenda and tactics that infests all human bodies from birth to physical death.  Of course, Jesus was not born with the dilemma because His birth was without a biological father from whom everyone else inherits indwelling sin.

    The biblical record features the personal testimony of a single believer who articulated the dilemma and was guided by God into His solution for the predicament.  The following essay recounts that believer’s struggle with indwelling sin, disclosing both sin’s power and methods.

A Biblical Problem

    All translations that disclose the origin of the dilemma are subject to a spurious error in the English text.  To set this study on the correct course, Paul’s words in Rom. 5:12 should read:

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, also thus it began to spread to all men on the basis of which all sin.

    The “one man” is Adam.  “Sin” is indwelling sin.  “Death” is physical death.  The antecedent of the pronoun “it” is indwelling sin.  The comparative conjunction and correlative adverb “just as . . . also thus” mean that the introduction, as well as the spreading, of indwelling sin have a common source that can be traced to the male—i.e., Adam.  “All men” means the entire human race—male and female—receive indwelling sin through each one’s respective father.  “All sin” means that at some point—probably during adolescence—every member of the human race is irresistibly beguiled by indwelling sin to commit an act which separates that person from God.

Life Following One’s First Act Of Sin

    The visible result from one’s indwelling sin leading to one’s first sin is eventual physical death.

    Furthermore, each human has a spirit and a soul integrated within a physical body—a body that also houses indwelling sin.  The spiritual effects of separation from God due to the first act of sin are threefold and devastating.

    The first effect is that God’s Spirit is separated from the person’s own spirit.  The person’s spirit then becomes a channel through which Satan and/or his minions can access the human body.  The second effect is that the person’s heart—the seat of one’s reason, emotions, and will—becomes immediately and completely unresponsive to God.  In biblical parlance, the person has a ‘heart of stone.’

    A third effect is that indwelling sin now effectively controls the person’s reasoning, feelings, and actions.

    Under the afore-described conditions, the human is now a sinner enslaved to indwelling sin, without any capability of accessing or pleasing God.  The sinner does what comes quite naturally—sins.  Those sins are credited to the sinner’s account for God’s adjudication and appropriate retribution following physical death.

God’s Solution To The Human Condition Following The First Sin

    First and foremost, God’s Spirit sovereignly dispenses new equipment to restore the sinner.  The Spirit effects a permanent ‘heart transplant,’ removing the heart of stone and replacing it with a heart that is both receptive and responsive to God.  Second, the Spirit provides a new human spirit that is permanently connected to God.  This new equipment, installed in a body and co-resident with indwelling sin, is protected by the Spirit (who also permanently indwells the body) from any corruption of the new equipment from indwelling sin’s presence.

    The biblical description for such a human with new equipment is that the person is ‘born again.’

    At some point in time following the new equipment installation, the person is confronted with a message from God that his/her own sins are forgiven through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  By the Spirit’s ministry, the new receptive and responsive heart swings into operation upon hearing the message, and believes God’s promise of forgiveness.

    Now the person is no longer a sinner by nature, but a saint—i.e., one separated from his/her former sins and separate also from the control of sin dwelling within the saint’s physical body.  The saint has eternal life, permanently and irreversibly, will not experience God’s judgment of sinners, and has passed out of spiritual death into spiritual life.  But the saint is still susceptible to the influence and passions of indwelling sin.  The saint sometimes sins.

The Dilemma Shows Itself

    All the world’s religions, except biblical Christianity, teach that a human must do things to please one’s god or gods, thereby hopefully receiving the deity’s blessings.  Failure to please the deity runs the risk of experiencing the deity’s displeasure.

    Judaism’s tenets around 35 AD were no exception to this form of teaching.  So when Saul of Tarsus became born again, his immediate religious reflex was to please God by doing something.  That ‘something’ was to obey God’s commandment.

    Saul’s experience—the law-keeping Pharisee who later became better known as the apostle Paul—recorded his personal testimony in his letter to Rome (7:7-25).  Paul’s experience reveals the dilemma all believers face throughout life after spiritual birth.

Details Of The Dilemma

    Paul decided that he must please God by obeying the tenth commandment: “You shall not covet.”  Paul, the newly minted saint, discovered he could not obey God’s commandment.  In fact, he discovered that deciding to obey the Law actually resulted in his committing lots of sins.

    This unanticipated behavior led to the realization that in his newly equipped body, indwelling sin was effectively at work deceiving him into thinking that his new equipment—including the Spirit of God—would promote and enable his own obligatory obedience to the Law.  Such was not the case.

    To summarize Paul’s dismal experience of failure: using God’s Law given to Moses—the Law which accurately described God’s will for His children—indwelling sin deceived Paul into thinking he had to obey the Law and would surely have the power to do so.

    Paul’s new heart was totally willing and committed to obeying God’s will, but in Paul’s body was another entity at work, i.e., indwelling sin, that powerfully and effectively made Paul powerless to execute his own will even though his will was perfectly aligned with God’s.

    Here, then, is the believer’s dilemma.  On the one hand, the believer desperately wants to, and  doggedly tries to, obey God’s Law.  On the other hand, those same wishes and attempts to obey God activate indwelling sin that renders the believer powerless to do so.  Furthermore, making the attempt to obey God actually promotes additional acts of sin because the believer has become enslaved to indwelling sin through trying to obey the Law.

God’s Solution Of The Believer’s Dilemma

    Simply put, God’s ingenious solution to the believer’s dilemma is to remove the believer from the Law, and let someone else—who can and does always obey God’s Law—do so within the believer.

    The solution was nothing less than to have Jesus dwell in the believer’s body.  Jesus, Himself, by the Spirit’s power overcoming indwelling sin’s power, would fulfill His Father’s will perfectly by operating the believer’s body in obedience to God’s Law.

    To illustrate: God’s Law for His child may be summarized biblically by the straightforward statement, “love one another.”  Dwelling in Paul by faith, Christ’s love for Paul’s brethren would successfully nullify any coveting.  Thus, the Law is fulfilled.

    What is the believer’s role in resolving his dilemma?  Simply to believe God’s promise that Jesus’ obedient life will be manifested by the Spirit’s power in His child.  God will accomplish this despite the counterclaims and pressures of indwelling sin, and other believers, to the contrary.

Conclusion

    The believer’s dilemma is solved by God doing what God requires.  God’s sovereign grace in this matter—as always—is made functional simply through the believer’s faith.

    Sin’s message is: ‘the believer, himself, must obey God’s will.’  In counterintuitive contradistinction, the Spirit’s message is: Jesus’ obedient, Law-fulfilling life, will be manifest by My power–under the Father’s direction–through the believer simply by the believer’s faith.

    At the conclusion of his marvelously thorough commentary on Galatians, F. F. Bruce explains, “The religious mind is too prone to subject itself to regulations; the liberating gospel of sovereign grace is too ‘dangerous’ to be allowed unrestrained course.  As Paul became less a figure of controversy, as his memory was venerated and his writings canonized, his teaching was overlaid with a new legalism.  When, from time to time, someone appeared who understood and proclaimed the genuine message . . . he was liable to be denounced as a subversive character—as, indeed, Paul was in his own day.”  However, Paul’s message, as Bruce continues, “. . . with its trumpet-call to Christian freedom, has time and again released the true gospel from the bonds in which well-meaning but misguided people have confined it so that it can once more exert its emancipating power in the life of mankind,”. . . and those who believe the message can, “. . . stand fast in the freedom with which Christ has set them free” (Bruce, F.F. The Epistle To The Galatians. A Commentary of the Greek Text. The New International Greek Testament Commentary, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982, 277-278).

    To which, one might add: ‘to God alone belongs the glory!’

Introduction

    In 1983, Dr. John Piper first introduced his inspiringly thorough exegetical and theological analysis of Romans 9:1-23 to a theologically diverse audience through his book, The Justification of God.  Ten years later, Baker Book House published the second edition of Piper’s book.

    Early in his analysis, Dr. Piper introduces a major presupposition that has been an integral part of Reformed Theology since the middle of the 17^th century (Ryrie, Charles Caldwell. Dispensationalism Today. Chicago: Moody Press, 1965, 179, citing the Westminster Confession).  Although relatively late in Church history, Reformed Theology has nevertheless profoundly influenced a wide spectrum of Protestant thought and beliefs.

    Quoting Piper’s presupposition: “If the Church enjoys divine sonship, it must remember that it does so by participating in the people of God which is historical Israel . . .” (Piper, John. The Justification of God, 2^nd ed. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1993, 32).

    Sadly, this presupposition colors Piper’s exegesis of Romans 9 causing an oversight of Paul’s intended argument in Romans 9-11.  The following essay will revisit Romans 9 based on the presupposition that the new covenant Church (capitalization designates the Church universal) does not participate in historical Israel.  The Church is, biblically, a new creation having a beginning and end quite separate and distinct from historical Israel (Gal. 6:15).  And because Paul was Jesus’ bond-servant and apostle to His Church, Romans 9 relates predominately to the Church—not to the nation Israel.

The Problem Behind Romans 9

    A major spiritual problem of immense proportions arose in the apostolic church.  The issue developed among Jewish believers who held that observing the Law of Moses was incumbent upon all Church members, both Jews and gentiles.

    The apostle Paul, personally, had discovered the problem’s spiritual dimension soon after his conversion experience on the road to Damascus.  Perhaps influenced by his Pharisaical training and subsequent lifestyle, Paul determined to obey the tenth commandment: “You (emphasis mine) shall not covet” (Rom. 7:7).

    Keep in mind that uppermost on sin’s agenda—sin that dwells in all human bodies—is to replace God with man, often through outright deception: ‘you, man, are responsible for doing God’s work.’  And regenerate people are not exempt from sin’s agenda or tactics.

    In his attempt at obedience, the apostle discovered the terrible fact that trying to obey the Law actually triggered the power and control of indwelling sin thereby, astonishingly, compelling him—a believer—to commit sins (Rom. 7:7-25).

    Ultimately, those sins severed Paul from Christ resulting in a fall from grace (cf. Gal. 5:4).  The apostle recognized his spiritual status, confessing he was a “wretched man” (Rom. 7:24).  God responded to Paul’s confession by revealing His Son in Paul (Gal. 1:16)—an experience quite distinct from Jesus revealing Himself to Paul on the Damascus road (Acts 9:5).

    A critically important reality to note from Paul’s testimony: God’s grace did not enable Paul, himself, to obey His commandment.  God actually let Paul fail because God intended to teach His child that only by His Spirit’s power through faith can a believer actually be counted on to fulfill His will expressed in the Law.

    Instead of helping Paul himself to obey, God’s grace provided that the requirement of the Law would be fulfilled by the Spirit’s power manifesting Christ’s life through him as Paul believed this new revelation from God (Rom. 8:4; cf. Col. 1:27, “Christ in you,”—a mystery, i.e., something not revealed in the Hebrew Scriptures; cf. also 2 Cor. 4:10-11).  Paul’s responsibility was to believe God’s new-covenant promises (cf. Ezek. 36:25-27, particularly God’s mechanism for obedience, i.e., Christ in the believer—not fully revealed, but partially alluded to by mention of the Spirit in verse 27).

    The problem reared its ugly head among regenerate people in Jerusalem (cf. Acts 11: 2-18; 15:1-21; Gal. 2:1-9) in Antioch (Gal. 2:11-14; Acts 15:22-30) as well as in the churches of Galatia (Gal. 1:6-9; 5:11-13).  The problem was manifested among those regenerate people by their attempts to establish their own righteousness by works of the Law.  However, some of the Law-keeping regenerate Jews became saved to a life of freedom from sin’s control, by faith (e.g., Col. 4:10-11).

    Living as a victim to the problem did not mean a believer lost salvation, or that the believer had never been saved in the first place (cf. John 5:24).  The condition did mean, however, that the believer became unfruitful, separated from fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ (Rom. 7:5; cf. 1 John 1:3-10).  This separation from fellowship was sometimes referred to biblically as “death” for the believer (Rom. 8:13; also cf. Rev. 3:1).

    The problem faced Paul in his missionary work among the gentiles.  Regenerate gentiles had been intimidated by Jewish believers who argued aggressively in the local churches that gentile members must be circumcised and follow the Law (Gal. 5:1-3).

    Subsequently, the problem was addressed in an unprecedented Jerusalem church meeting by the elders and apostles (Acts 15).  The decision taken in Jerusalem resolved the issue for the moment by declaring gentiles did not have to be circumcised and follow the Law.  But the decision—although purportedly unanimous—did not persuade those believing Jews who observed the Law, that their esteem for, devoted reliance upon, and obsession with the Law should also be abandoned (cf. Acts 21:20).

    This situation provides the background and context in which Paul dictated his letter to the Jews and gentiles beloved of God—the saints of the Roman church.

The Purpose Of Romans 9

    Paul’s purpose in writing the gospel to both regenerate Jews and gentiles in Rome was to reveal the specific details of how the righteous shall live by faith (Rom. 1:16-17).  The apostle’s purpose is pretty much uncontested among the commentators on the apostle’s epistle.

    One party that Paul warned specifically among the saints of Rome was comprised of those believing Jews who boasted in the Law (Rom. 2:23-25).  Those of this contingent were none other than Paul’s ecclesiastical brethren (Rom. 9:3).  Paul used this specific word, “brethren,” 13 times in this epistle referring always and exclusively to believers.  In the opening verses of Romans 9, the apostle also identified members of this party as his ethnic brethren—that is, Jews (Rom. 9:3).  Therefore, the subjects Paul discussed in Romans 9 were regenerate Jews.

    Confirming the fact that Romans 9 was about believing Jews, Paul listed among their belongings from God “the adoption (emphasis mine) as sons” (Rom. 9:4)—the precise description Paul had just used to refer unquestionably to regenerate people who had received the Spirit (Rom. 8:15).  The qualification of adoption is nowhere attached to the nation Israel, either in the Hebrew Scriptures, or the Septuagint.  Thus, the believing Jews discussed in Romans 9 were part of the Church.

    The regenerate Roman Jews that were keeping the Law (Rom. 9:3) were the very same group members Paul highlighted in Rom. 10:1-4.  In Chapter 10, Paul specifically defined the problem (Rom. 10:3, Law righteousness versus God’s righteousness) and its solution (Rom. 10:9, belief in Christ’s Lordship)—the solution that the apostle had briefly touched upon in Rom. 7:4, i.e., union with the resurrected Christ.  The solution was to confess personally Jesus as Lord of one’s life, realizing each one was dead to the Law and thus enabled to serve fruitfully the resurrected Christ by faith.

    In Romans 11, Paul again referred to regenerate Jews—this time with a metaphor of the “rich root of the olive tree” (Rom. 11:17).  The “root” portion of Paul’s metaphor likely referred to Jesus (cf. Eph. 3:14-17 wherein Paul prayed that Christ might dwell in the regenerate hearts of the Ephesian saints through faith, resulting in their being “rooted” and grounded in love—love being the Father).  The “olive tree” was biblical metaphor for a prophet (cf. Rev. 11:3-4), certainly an accepted title for Jesus (cf. Deut. 18:18-22 foretelling a Jewish prophet and recognized as that Prophet by His contemporaries in John 6:14).  The “branches” were regenerate Jews and gentiles (cf. John 15:1-6 for a similar metaphor of regenerate branches).

    Hence, the purpose of Romans 9 is comfortably cradled without contortion into the context of the Romans letter.

    Christ’s Lordship over each Law-practicing regenerate Jew was the second phase of Paul’s gospel initially recorded by Luke from Paul’s word of exhortation to the Diasporal Jews at Pisidian Antioch.  According to Paul, the first gospel phase was personal forgiveness of sins through belief in God’s promise of same by belief in the death and resurrection of Jesus.  The second phase was freedom from slavery to indwelling sin, which the Law could not provide, by confessing the resurrected Jesus as Lord of one’s already regenerated life (cf. Acts 13:38-39).  Thus, Paul’s purpose in Romans 9 was unwaveringly consistent throughout his ministry.

Exposition Of Romans 9

    The immediate reaction to the problem from regenerate Jews in Rome, who were living by faith under the Lordship of Christ, might well have been: “. . . the word of God has failed” (Rom. 9:6) with regard to our regenerate brethren—the Jews in Rome who boasted of living life by the Law of Moses.

    Paul’s response to such a reaction was immediate.  God’s word had not failed.  But a God-designed bifurcation did exist within the Church.  The apostle pointed out proverbially that they—the Church Jews who were boasting in the Law—were “not all Israel who are from (the nation) Israel” (Rom. 9:6).  To explain the Church division, Paul called attention to two of the Jewish fathers, Abraham and Jacob, as examples of God-designated divisions.

    Paul had argued earlier in his epistle that Abraham had been justified by believing God’s promise that Sarah, who was dead reproductively, would give birth to a son by Abraham within a year (Rom. 4:16-25).  As the apostle had made clear in this previous example of Abraham, God’s promise of life out of death (illustrated by Isaac’s birth from Sarah’s ‘dead’ womb) had functioned successfully in dividing Isaac’s line—those of faith in the promise—from that of Ishmael’s—those of the flesh (cf. also Gal. 4:21-23).

    Revisiting (in Rom. 9:7-9) his former example of Abraham, Paul observed God’s promise of life by faith in Jesus divided all (Jews and gentiles) from the unregenerate.  So it followed logically that the children of God’s promise of life—including those in the Church who were of the Law—were indeed regarded by God as His children (Rom. 9:8).

    However, Paul added an explosive qualifying caveat about the life of service for regenerate Jews under the Law.  The caveat was derived illustratively from God’s covenant with Rebecca regarding her twins—Jacob and Esau (Rom. 9:10-13).  Before either twin was born—and had done nothing good or bad—God chose Esau’s offspring to become servants to Jacob’s—another God-designated division.

    The chilling implication of this caveat was that some of the regenerate Church Jews who lived under Law may have been chosen by God to do so throughout life.

    Church Jews who lived by faith—the apostle Paul being a credible example—would react negatively to the implication, labeling God as unjust in making such a choice (Rom. 9:14).  His choice seems arbitrary and capricious.  In our day, we might say that God is just not fair.

    So the apostle responded to this spurious label by citing an Old Testament example of God’s nature from Moses and his experience with God’s favoring him (Rom. 9:15-18).  Paul quoted God’s revelation to Moses about Himself—namely, that God’s mercy and compassion stem from His own intrinsic nature and had nothing whatsoever to do with Moses’ own intrinsic nature, actions, or will.

   As an example of God’s will versus man’s will, Paul cited Pharaoh’s decision to refuse release of the Jews from bondage in his kingdom.  Fourteen times God hardened Pharaoh’s will against release so that God’s own nature might be universally revealed (Rom. 9:17).  God had mercy upon the Jews—quite independent of any Jewish actions or desires—while simultaneously hardening Pharaoh’s resolve to sustain his enslavement.  Paul’s conclusion: God’s mercy for the Jews in the Church who lived by faith stemmed from His own nature independent of man’s actions or desires, as does His choice and ability to control any man’s will (Rom. 9:18).

    But, what about the possibility of God controlling believers—even hardening their hearts?  Although Paul didn’t address this issue explicitly in Romans 9, he did so in Rom. 11:5-7 (cf. Phil. 2:13).  Perhaps an example of God hardening His own took place in the apostle Paul himself in his undeterred determination to go to Jerusalem despite what was awaiting him there (cf. Acts 20:22-23).

    The obvious question at this point: how, then, can God find fault with His creature under these conditions for which He Himself is responsible (Rom. 9:19)?  In modern parlance: “Man seems nothing more than a robot!”

    The apostle’s answer to this question took an interesting turn.  Paul argued from the example of a pot maker and his raw material, clay (Rom. 9:20-23).  The interesting turn: the example focused on vessels—the very figure Paul used elsewhere for regenerate people (e.g., 2 Tim. 2:20)—and the artisan’s absolute sovereignty over his raw material.  Of course, in Paul’s illustration the artisan pointed to God, and the vessels to all regenerate people.

    Regenerate people included gentiles (Rom. 9:24).  Church Jews had received an indication about gentiles being included in God’s “vessel” crafting from Hosea’s prophecy which Paul used by applying the prophet’s words to gentiles (Rom. 9:25-26).

    Regenerate Jews also got another indication through application of Isaiah’s prophecies (applied by Paul to the Church) that some of nation Israel’s vessels will, by God’s choice, be fashioned to honor Him—while at the same time, God will create other Israelites that would dishonor Him (Rom. 9:27-29).  Paul’s application of Isaiah’s prophecies about nation Israel meant that a Jewish remnant, living by faith and not by works, existed in the Church (cf. Rom. 11:5-6 wherein Paul qualified the remnant by the phrase, “at the present time,” referring to his experience within the Church, and not the nation Israel).

    An editorial aside: in the Church, God intended that Jesus inhabit some of His vessels (cf. 2 Cor. 4:7).

    Next, Paul summarized the twin realities of gentiles in the Church as well as God-dishonoring regenerate Jews (Rom. 9:30-31).  God gave already regenerate gentiles the righteousness of faith.  But some of the already regenerate Israelites did not receive the righteousness of faith because they lived by the works of the Law rather than the Lordship of Jesus.

    Here, then, is the confirmation of Paul’s earlier declaration: “For they are not all Israel who are from Israel” (Rom. 9:6).  The declared designation is among Israelites within the Church and not within the nation Israel.  Indeed, Paul had called some of those “from Israel” the “Israel of God” (cf. Gal. 6:16 wherein Paul made a distinction between regenerate Jews who kept the Law—the “circumcision”—and regenerate Jews who lived by faith—the “Israel of God”).

    Finally, Paul explained the reason why some regenerate Jews in the Church were “not all Israel.”  They had “stumbled” over Jesus by making the Law their lord (Rom. 9:32-33a).  But hope for regenerate Jews who were boasting in the Law still existed through a mind change (aka, repentance) from Law dependence to dependence on Jesus through faith (Rom. 9:33b).

The Biblical Aftermath Of Romans 9

    Paul did not know exactly the ones among the regenerate Israelites living under Law that God had chosen to receive the righteousness of faith.  But he did know some of these were eligible for being saved from the control by indwelling sin activated by the Law.  That is why he prayed to God for this group of regenerate Jews living under Law (Rom. 10:1) that he might be granted the privilege of being used by God to introduce some, in God’s time, to the Lordship of Christ and God’s promise of freedom from control by indwelling sin through faith.  This explains why Paul was eager to preach the second phase of the gospel to regenerate Jews and gentiles who comprised the church in Rome (cf. Rom. 1:15).  Paul desired the timely opportunity of presenting the gospel so that those with ears to hear (by God’s choice, of course) within the church would understand and respond.

    The apostle’s gospel for regenerate Jews’ salvation from control by indwelling sin—the subject of Paul’s prayer for them—was further elaborated upon in Rom. 10:2-13.  These were from the same category of believing Jews under the Law that Paul mentioned in 1 Cor. 9:20.

    It is worthy of note that the remnant Paul identified in Rom. 11:5 was within the Church, not the nation Israel as is the more popular present-day interpretation.

    As a final point, in Romans 11:25-32 Paul did reveal that, in the future, all of the nation Israel will be saved from their sins as well as from control of indwelling sin, recognizing God is Lord, and not the Law of Moses (cf. Jer. 31:34).  Therefore, God will be faithful to all His promises regarding the nation Israel as recorded in the Hebrew Scriptures.

Conclusion

    From the foregoing biblical analysis of Romans 9, it can be concluded that an individual’s spiritual status is made functional by both God’s promise and God’s choice.  God’s promise becomes reality by His sovereign work of regeneration.  Subsequently, the believer—who now enjoys God’s righteousness credited to his account by faith—is chosen by God to live out the remainder of his life by faith in Jesus’ Lordship, or to live by his own works.  In the Church, both the faith group and the works group coexist side-by-side.

    Salvation from the control of indwelling sin in a believer’s life is a legitimate object of prayer, even considering that such a prayer’s fulfillment relies upon both God’s choice and timing.  So insidious was the problem that Paul even ‘prayed’ for himself regarding the problem (Phil. 3:8-9).

    Romans 9 highlights a half-dozen examples from the historical record of the nation Israel (i.e., the Law and the Prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures) that relate to the nation’s spiritual experiences—past and future—with God.  Paul used the highlighted examples to illustrate similarities between Israel’s experiences and those of the Church, thereby validating and explaining the existence of Church Jews who live by works.  However, the similarity between God’s saving work with Israel is only an historical example for the Church (1 Cor. 10:11)—a distinction Piper fails to recognize.

    The similarities between historical Israel and the Church do not make the Church Israel, nor Israel the Church, consistent with the presupposition that the Church does not participate in historical Israel.

    Romans 9 also encourages Jew and gentile Church members who live by faith that they do so rightly in spite of opposition from those brethren who live by works.

COMPOSITE FROM THE GOSPELS OF MATTTHEW (24:39-26:1)MARK (13:2-37), AND LUKE (21:5-36)

PREAMBLE

LUKE 1:1 Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us,

LUKE 1:2 just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word have handed them down to us,

LUKE 1:3 it seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order, most excellent Theophilus;

LUKE 1:4 so that you might know the exact truth about the things you have been taught.

 JESUS’ TEACHING BEFORE THE OLIVET DISCOURSE

LUKE 17:22 ¶ And He said to the disciples, “The days shall come when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it.

LUKE 17:23 “And they will say to you, ‘Look there! Look here!’ Do not go away, and do not run after them.

LUKE 17:24 “For just as the lightning, when it flashes out of one part of the sky, shines to the other part of the sky, so will the Son of Man be in His day.

LUKE 17:25 “But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.

LUKE 17:26 “And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it shall be also in the days of the Son of Man:

LUKE 17:27 they were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marrriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.

LUKE 17:28 “It was the same as happened in the days of Lot: they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building;

LUKE 17:29 but on the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all.

LUKE 17:30 “It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed.

LUKE 17:31 “On that day, let not the one who is on the housetop and whose goods are in the house go down to take them away; and likewise let not the one who is in the field turn back.

LUKE 17:32 “Remember Lot’s wife.

LUKE 17:33 “Whoever seeks to keep his life shall lose it, and whoever loses his life shall preserve it (to be fulfilled by Jews fleeing Babylon, cf. Jeremiah 51:6).

LUKE 17:34 “I tell you, on that night there will be two men in one bed; one will be taken(removal of the Church), and the other will be left.

LUKE 17:35 “There will be two women grinding at the same place; one will be taken, and the other will be left.

LUKE 17:36 [ "Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other will be left."]

LUKE 17:37 And answering they said to Him, “Where, Lord?” And He said to them, “Where the body is, there also will the vultures be gathered ( probably in Babylon, cf. Jeremiah 50:40 and Revelation 18:2).”

 COMPOSITE OF DISCOURSE AND FURTHER INFORMATION

 A.  FULFILLMENT OF DANIEL 9:26

LUKE 21:5 ¶ And while some were talking about the temple, that it was adorned with beautiful stones and votive gifts, He said,

LUKE 21:6 “As for these things which you are looking at, the days will come in which there will not be left one stone upon another which will not be torn down.”

MARK 13:3 ¶ And as He was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew were questioning Him privately,

MATT 24:3 ¶ And as He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”

LUKE 21:8 And He said, “See to it that you be not misled; for many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am He,’ and, ‘The time is at hand’; do not go after them (e.g., Acts 15:5; cf. Paul’s response to the churches in 49 AD—Gal. 5:12; also cf. 2 Thess. 2:2, 51 AD).

LUKE 21:9 “And when you hear of wars and disturbances, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end does not follow immediately.”

LUKE 21:10 ¶ Then He continued by saying to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom,

LUKE 21:11 and there will be great earthquakes, and in various places plagues and famines; and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.

MARK 13:8 “For nation will arise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will also be famines. These things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.

LUKE 21:12 “But before all these things (i.e., Luke 21:10-11; Mark 13:8), they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for My name’s sake (e.g., Acts 9:1-2; 26:2).

LUKE 21:13 “It will lead to an opportunity for your testimony.

MARK 13:10 “And the gospel (of Jesus Christ, cf. Mark 1:1) must first be preached to all the nations (fulfilled by 57 AD, cf. Romans 16:26).

MARK 13:11 “And when they arrest you and deliver you up, do not be anxious beforehand about what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour; for it is not you who speak, but it is the Holy Spirit.

LUKE 21:16 “But you will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death,

LUKE 21:17 and you will be hated by all on account of My name.

LUKE 21:18 “Yet not a hair of your head will perish.

LUKE 21:19 “By your endurance you will gain your lives.

LUKE 21:20 ¶ “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies (answer to question 1 and fulfilled in 66 AD by the Roman general, Cestus Gallus), then recognize that her desolation is at hand.

LUKE 21:21 “Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are in the midst of the city depart, and let not those who are in the country enter the city;

LUKE 21:22 because these are days of vengeance, in order that all things which are written may be fulfilled.

LUKE 21:23 “Woe to those who are with child and to those who nurse babes in those days; for there will be great distress upon the land, and wrath to this people,

LUKE 21:24 and they will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.

MATT 24:9 “Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations on account of My name.

MATT 24:10 “And at that time many will fall away and will deliver up one another and hate one another.

MATT 24:11 “And many false prophets will arise, and will mislead many.

MATT 24:12 “And because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold.

MATT 24:13 “But the one who endures to the end, he shall be saved.

MATT 24:14 “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations, and then the end shall come (to be fulfilled in accordance with Matthew 28:18-20).

 B.  FULFILLMENT OF DANIEL 9:27

MATT 24:15 ¶ “Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place [let the reader understand],

MATT 24:16 then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains;

MATT 24:17 let him who is on the housetop not go down to get the things out that are in his house;

MATT 24:18 and let him who is in the field not turn back to get his cloak.

MATT 24:19 “But woe to those who are with child and to those who nurse babes in those days!

MATT 24:20 “But pray that your flight may not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath;

MATT 24:21 for then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever shall.

MATT 24:22 “And unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days shall be cut short.

MATT 24:23 “Then if anyone says to you, ‘Behold, here is the Christ,’ or ‘There He is,’ do not believe him.

MATT 24:24 “For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.

MATT 24:25 “Behold, I have told you in advance.

MATT 24:26 “If therefore they say to you, ‘Behold, He is in the wilderness,’ do not go forth, or, ‘Behold, He is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe them.

LUKE 21:25 ¶ “And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and upon the earth dismay among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves,

LUKE 21:26 men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

MATT 24:27 “For just as the lightning comes from the east, and flashes even to the west, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be.

MATT 24:28 “Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.

LUKE 21:28 “But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

MATT 24:29 ¶ “But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken,

MATT 24:30 and then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky (answer to question 2), and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory.

MATT 24:31 “And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.

MATT 24:31 “And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.

MATT 24:32 ¶ “Now learn the parable from the fig tree (and all the trees, Luke 21:29—answer to question 3): when its branch has already become tender, and puts forth its leaves (fulfilled in 1978 AD), you know that summer is near; (The fig tree is a symbol for the Levitical priesthood.  Priests began training at about 30 years old, cf. Ezekiel 1:1.  This would mean that the priests were born around 1948—the year of Israel’s Declaration of Independence.)

MATT 24:33 even so you too, when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door.

MATT 24:34 “Truly I say to you, this generation (a biblical generation is about 70 years long, Psalm 90:10) will not pass away until all these things take place.

MATT 24:35 “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words shall not pass away.

MATT 24:36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.

MATT 24:37 “For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah.

MATT 24:38 “For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, they were marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark,

MATT 24:39 and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so shall the coming of the Son of Man be.

MATT 24:40 “Then there shall be two men in the field; one will be taken, and one will be left.

MATT 24:41 “Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken, and one will be left.

MATT 24:42 “Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming.

MATT 24:43 “But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into.

MATT 24:44 “For this reason you be ready too; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will.

LUKE 21:34 ¶ “Be on guard, that your hearts may not be weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life, and that day come on you suddenly like a trap;

LUKE 21:35 for it will come upon all those who dwell on the face of all the earth.

LUKE 21:36 “But keep on the alert at all times, praying in order that you may have strength to escape all these things that are about to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

MARK 13:33 ¶ “Take heed, keep on the alert; for you do not know when the appointed time is.

MARK 13:34 “It is like a man, away on a journey, who upon leaving his house and putting his slaves in charge, assigning to each one his task, also commanded the doorkeeper to stay on the alert.

MARK 13:35 “Therefore, be on the alert– for you do not know when the master of the house is coming, whether in the evening, at midnight, at cockcrowing, or in the morning–

MARK 13:36 lest he come suddenly and find you asleep.

MARK 13:37 “And what I say to you I say to all, ‘Be on the alert!’” 

C. JESUS’ COMMENTS TO ISRAEL REGARDING HIS RETURN

MATT 24:45 ¶ “Who then is the faithful and sensible slave whom his master put in charge of his household to give them their food at the proper time?

MATT 24:46 “Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes.

MATT 24:47 “Truly I say to you, that he will put him in charge of all his possessions.

MATT 24:48 “But if that evil slave says in his heart, ‘My master is not coming for a long time,’

MATT 24:49 and shall begin to beat his fellow slaves and eat and drink with drunkards;

MATT 24:50 the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour which he does not know,

MATT 24:51 and shall cut him in pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites; weeping shall be there and the gnashing of teeth. 

D. JESUS’ PARABLES FOR ISRAEL AND HIS JUDGMENT OF GENTILES

 MATT 25:1 “Then the kingdom of heaven will be comparable to ten virgins, who took their lamps, and went out to meet the bridegroom.

MATT 25:2 “And five of them were foolish, and five were prudent.

MATT 25:3 “For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them,

MATT 25:4 but the prudent took oil in flasks along with their lamps.

MATT 25:5 “Now while the bridegroom was delaying, they all got drowsy and began to sleep.

MATT 25:6 “But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’

MATT 25:7 “Then all those virgins rose, and trimmed their lamps.

MATT 25:8 “And the foolish said to the prudent, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’

MATT 25:9 “But the prudent answered, saying, ‘No, there will not be enough for us and you too; go instead to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’

MATT 25:10 “And while they were going away to make the purchase, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast; and the door was shut.

MATT 25:11 “And later the other virgins also came, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open up for us.’

MATT 25:12 “But he answered and said, ‘Truly I say to you, I do not know you.’

MATT 25:13 “Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour.

MATT 25:14 ¶ “For it is just like a man about to go on a journey, who called his own slaves, and entrusted his possessions to them.

MATT 25:15 “And to one he gave five talents, to another, two, and to another, one, each according to his own ability; and he went on his journey.

MATT 25:16 “Immediately the one who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and gained five more talents.

MATT 25:17 “In the same manner the one who had received the two talents gained two more.

MATT 25:18 “But he who received the one talent went away and dug in the ground, and hid his master’s money.

MATT 25:19 “Now after a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them.

MATT 25:20 “And the one who had received the five talents came up and brought five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you entrusted five talents to me; see, I have gained five more talents.’

MATT 25:21 “His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave; you were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things, enter into the joy of your master.’

MATT 25:22 “The one also who had received the two talents came up and said, ‘Master, you entrusted to me two talents; see, I have gained two more talents.’

MATT 25:23 “His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave; you were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’

MATT 25:24 “And the one also who had received the one talent came up and said, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed.

MATT 25:25 ‘And I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the ground; see, you have what is yours.’

MATT 25:26 “But his master answered and said to him, ‘You wicked, lazy slave, you knew that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I scattered no seed.

MATT 25:27 ‘Then you ought to have put my money in the bank, and on my arrival I would have received my money back with interest.

MATT 25:28 ‘Therefore take away the talent from him, and give it to the one who has the ten talents.’

MATT 25:29 “For to everyone who has shall more be given, and he shall have an abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away.

MATT 25:30 “And cast out the worthless slave into the outer darkness; in that place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth (cf. Luke 12:35-48).

MATT 25:31 ¶ “But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne.

MATT 25:32 “And all the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats;

MATT 25:33 and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.

MATT 25:34 “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

MATT 25:35 ‘For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in;

MATT 25:36 naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’

MATT 25:37 “Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You drink?

MATT 25:38 ‘And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You?

MATT 25:39 ‘And when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’

MATT 25:40 “And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’

MATT 25:41 “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels;

MATT 25:42 for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink;

MATT 25:43 I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’

MATT 25:44 “Then they themselves also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’

MATT 25:45 “Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’

MATT 25:46 “And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

MATT 26:1 And it came about that when Jesus had finished all these words, He said to His disciples . . .

 (See also Luke 12:35-48.) 

E. COMMENTS ON THE COMPOSITE’S CONSTRUCTION AND SOURCE

1.  The Composite is taken from the New American Standard Bible, 1995.

2.  Major Composite Section Headings have been inserted for clarity.

3.  The foregoing composite relies heavily upon Luke’s ordered organization of the material in his gospel presentation.

4.  No Discourse subject material has been omitted; however, duplications of the same material have been eliminated.  For example, Jesus’ comments about the permanency of His words recorded in all three gospels have been reported only once in the composite.

5.  Bold type and underlining have been added to some words and phrases for emphasis.

6.  Parenthetical information has been inserted in the text as an aid to understanding the Discourse. 

F. THE CHURCH’S PREPARATION FOR THE RAPTURE

Galatians 2:20 

G. RESOURCES FOR FURTHER STUDY

1.  Fruchtenbaum, Arnold G. The Footsteps Of The Messiah, rev. ed. Tustin CA: Ariel Ministries, 2004.

2.  http://www.mcclymont.org

Dedicated to the Holy Trinity—to the Father for His plan for His elect, to the Son who makes the plan reality, and to the Spirit who teaches the plan to the elect.

PREFACE

For those of us living in a fast-paced generation, we like our news in succinct sound bytes. So wading through a 6,000-word essay is uninviting. Therefore, let me summarize the 6,000 words by the good news that we are living in a generation that will likely experience the rapture of the church—based on evidence from the scriptures and recent history. For those who enjoy digging into details, continue to read on—potentially a bit onerous, but nevertheless scripturally and factually sound.

Introduction
Mentioning the pending return of the Lord Jesus for His church sometimes causes believers to roll their eyes. Yet, the biblical record provides the framework, as well as encouragement, for an accurate chronological anticipation of His return. This essay will highlight the biblical evidence for the timeline leading to the Lord’s coming for His church. The timeline will be developed from the scriptures by pinpointing two pivotal generations in the history of modern Israel. In turn, believers will be reassured that eager anticipation of the church’s rapture is appropriate. Furthermore, some of the confusion will be dispelled that surrounds alternate end-times scenarios that have been offered for discovering the end of the age.

An Overview
Before becoming immersed in details, it might be helpful to provide an overview of Deut. 29:22-30:6 so one can grasp the outline into which all the details of this extraordinary passage fit.
Astounding as it may seem, this 3,400 year-old Bible verse—Deut. 29:22—is actually a hinge that links two generations of Jews in history the of modern Israel.
The first generation was a generation of Jewish unbelievers (in Jesus) both inside and outside the land of Palestine. God consigned this generation to make preparations for the repopulation and reclamation of what had become a desolate wasteland due to His curse. The second generation was that which God assigned to occupy the land and make preparations for the coming of His Messiah as King. The two generations are contiguous as will be shown later from Matthew’s Gospel.
History’s events from the outset to the end of God’s land curse were never recorded in the Old Testament because God kept them temporarily secret from the nation Israel. This period may be given the secular label of the “Church Age.” Although held secret from nation Israel by God, Jews and gentiles that are church members can interpret from the New Testament scriptures, and from historical events as well, the meanings of the prophetic details from Deut. 29:22-30:6 about what was happening in the land.
The following analysis from God’s word, as well as from the historical events He has and is orchestrating, reveal the secrets kept from the nation Israel until their pending spiritual revival.

Definitions For Biblical Generations
Writers of the Bible used the word generation in different ways. For our study, two of those ways are important. The first important use of generation was to designate a company of contemporary people by some common attitude, behavioral trait, or unusual event.
For example, the children of Israel that Moses led out of Egyptian bondage were actually comprised of people of all ages. That generation received God’s miraculous provisions for its escape, and His sustenance for both physical and spiritual needs. Yet that generation was characterized by a common attitude and behavioral trait that caused God to refer to them as a loathsome generation (Ps. 95:10).
A second example was recorded by Matthew in his gospel. A certain duplicitous group of Pharisees and Sadducees, likely comprised of men born in various years, challenged Jesus to show them a sign. And the Lord labeled that obdurate contingent of Israeli leaders as, “An evil and adulterous generation (emphasis mine) . . .” (Matt 16:4).
The second use of generation was to designate a portion of the population that had the same birth year. For example, upon Israel’s exodus from Egypt, God ordered an initial census of Israel’s warriors from twenty-years old and upward—meaning they would all have had the same birth year (Num. 1:1-3). Moses then referred to this same contingent of warriors as a generation—a generation that perished within a thirty-eight year stretch following the census, just as the Lord had sworn would happen (Deut. 2:14-16).
The length in years of a biblical generation varied depending upon one’s birth before, or immediately following, the flood. The flood may have caused significant atmospheric changes with resultant adjustments to conditions affecting life expectancy on earth, perhaps eventuating in the dramatic decrease of centuries from the pre-flood life expectancy. In any event, when life had normalized under post-flood conditions, Moses defined the number of years in an average generation as follows: “As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years (emphasis mine) . . .” (Ps. 90:10).
A seventy-year life expectancy explains conclusively God’s judgment upon the specific wilderness-wandering generation coming out of Egypt by the premature passing (at fifty-eight years old for the youngest) of Israel’s warriors. Had that generation of warriors lived to the ripe old age of seventy, their deaths would not have been recognized as God’s judgment. The warrior Joshua was, of course, an exception.
Some confusion has resulted from the psalmist’s reporting God’s words about Israel’s wilderness experience: “. . . For forty years I loathed [that] generation . . .” (Ps. 95:10). Some have taken this to mean that a biblical generation was forty years long. However, the forty-year period in the wilderness was God’s judgment for spying out the land—one year in the wilderness for every day of spying (Num. 14:33-34). The forty years did not refer to the generation’s life expectancy.
To summarize: one use of the biblical word generation was to refer to contemporaries by a noteworthy characterization. The second important use of generation was to identify a segment of any population as having the same birth year with a typical life expectancy of seventy years. Sometimes these two uses were combined. The biblical context in which the word generation is found assists in discovering which use the writer intended. This study will adopt these biblical protocols in using the word generation.

Definitions Of Generations Used In This Essay
Because of the several times the word generation appears in this essay with specificity, an epithet that characterizes a particular Jewish generation will be affixed each time the word is so used for the purpose of mitigating confusion. The epithets thus affixed are: the “wilderness” generation; the “Jesus” generation; the “homeland” generation; and the “rapture/tribulation” generation. The approximate time periods in which the generations lived: the wilderness generation, 1476 BC to 1406 BC; the Jesus generation, 5/4 BC to 66 AD (the date believers escaped the Roman ravage of Jerusalem); the homeland generation, 1878 AD to mid-1948 AD; and the rapture/tribulation, mid-1948 AD to 2018 AD.
A note of clarification: the split epithet “rapture/tribulation” refers to a single generation of Jews, part of which is raptured in the church and the other part that experiences the tribulation to become the Jewish-populating contingent in the Messianic Kingdom (aka the Millennium). Some of the rapture/tribulation generation originates from the Diaspora. Immigration to the land takes place in two phases: one, an initial gathering after statehood was established; and two, a final gathering for the Kingdom.

God’s Covenant With Israel In Moab: Predictions About The Homeland Generation
Having learned two biblical meanings for the word generation, we will next learn about two generations of modern-day Israel. The first generation, the homeland generation, is the generation of Jews who worked toward establishing a Jewish homeland starting in the 19th century. The second generation is the rapture/tribulation generation.
Ironically, the homeland generation was the subject of a prophecy God gave Moses only days before the children of Israel—the wilderness generation—entered the land for the first time in the 15th century BC. Therefore, keep in mind the homeland generation is not the same as the wilderness generation. However, the homeland generation is the first in a sequence of two consecutive generations that end with the Lord’s return at the end of the age.
Just before the sons of Israel entered the land under Joshua’s leadership, God commanded Moses to make a covenant that complemented the covenant He had made with Israel at Horeb. One of the remarkable aspects of this covenant made across the Jordan in Moab was God’s predictions recorded in Deut. 29:22-30:6. It might be helpful to keep in mind that the predictions were presented in the following sequence: an effect, the cause of that effect, and the resolution of that effect. The “effect” was utter desolation of the land of Israel. The “cause” was Israel’s unfaithfulness to God. The “resolution:” a Jewish generation from the Diaspora assigned by God to begin reclamation of the land.
Several features of God’s predictions help to identify accurately the six specific parties that He referred to in His prophecy. To simplify our study, we will label the six parties in order of their appearance in the prophecy: the homelanders; the foreigner; the inquirers; the commentators; the uprooter; and the re-gathered. Because of the novelty of this interpretation, the analysis leading to party identification will proceed verse-by-verse.
The prophecy began with an introduction to two parties who were on the verge of making a joint observation and subsequent announcement. God referred to the first party as “. . . the (emphasis mine) generation to come, your sons who rise up after you (the original wilderness Jews to enter the land) . . .” (Deut. 29:22). Five identifying first-party features included a generation that would be:
• unique, underscored by the article “the” attached to the common noun “generation,”
• a generation future to the wilderness generation,
• of Israeli origin,
• in the land when observing the land’s then-current desolate condition, and
• comprised of a contemporary company encompassing a population with various birth years, but having a significant characteristic that would recognizably mark that generation as unique in Israel’s history.
God referred to the second party as “. . . the foreigner who comes from a distant (emphasis mine) land . . .” (Deut: 29:22). Three identifying features of the second party were:
• a foreigner that would clearly be a co-resident with the first party in the land of Israel,
• a foreigner from a single country rather than a multi-national force, and
• a foreigner from a distant land rather than a land bordering on, or nearby to, the land of Israel.
The joint observation of parties one and two would focus on God’s past treatment of the land.
The joint communiqué from the two parties would give specific details of their land observations after all the land had experienced God’s wrath (Deut. 29:23).
Note: the plagues and diseases of the land, described as like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, resulted from every curse upon the land triggered by the anger of the Lord (Deut. 29:23, 27). Nowhere in the post-Moses historical or prophetical Old Testament writings is such a description ever applied to the land. Therefore, this description must apply to a period not covered by those biblical texts—a period during which, “The secret things belong to the Lord . . .” (Deut. 29:29).
A third party was next introduced in God’s prophecy. The third party was identified as “. . . all (emphasis mine) the nations . . .” (Deut 29:24). The third party would be readily discerned as the sum total of nations privy to the collaborative communiqué about the land evaluation. However, what is noteworthy is that all the nations would exist in a forum such that—with a single voice—they raise a single question: “Why has the Lord done thus to this land?” (Deut. 29:24).
A nondescript fourth party would provide the answer to this single question. Although unidentified, this fourth party would provide an answer reflecting scriptural literacy. The answer would provide the real reason for the land’s desolation: God assessed upon the land every curse written in the five books of Moses due to Israel forsaking the covenant, and because of its idolatry (Deut. 29:25-27).
In addition to this accurate answer to the question, the fourth party would also provide information allowing identification of yet another party.
This fifth party would:
• have uprooted a former Israeli generation from their land,
• have deported those sons of Israel into another land,
• this other land would not be the distant land from which the foreigner of Deut. 29:22 came, and
• results of the deportation would continue and exist on the very day the unidentified fourth party provided the accurate reason for God’s wrath that caused deportation from, and desolation of, the land (Deut. 29:28).
Subsequently, what amounts to a parenthetical comment answered the implied question, “What events will take place between the deportation, and the distant foreigner’s presence in the land?” The answer to the implied question: “. . . the secret things belong to the Lord our God . . .” (Deut. 29:29). Or, in other words, those things that will happen between the deportation from the land and partial restoration to the land will not be revealed in the Old Testament.
History has recorded more than 18 centuries elapsed between the deportation and initial restoration.
Ignoring the chapter division between Deut. 29:29 and 30:1, one observes that Moses noted a spiritual revival among Diasporal Jews followed by God’s re-gathering them to the land, and their possession of the land accompanied by prosperity and historic multiplication (Deut. 30:1-6). Here is the sixth group in the Moabitic predictions—the re-gathered.
Note: spiritual revival of Jews in the land likely follows God’s defeat of an invasion by a Russian coalition (cf. Ezek. 39:7). Therefore, context may well support the suggestion that the generation experiencing God’s re-gathering to the land would follow immediately the unique homeland generation referred to in Deut. 29:22. If this assumption is accurate, the homeland generation would be adjoined by the rapture/tribulation generation.

The Parties In God’s Moabitic Prophecy
At this point, it would be appropriate to identify (through the lens of fulfilled prophecy from an historical context) those parties God referred to in Deut. 29:22-30:6. Remember, the labels for the six parties are—in order—the homelanders, the foreigner, the inquirers, the commentators, the uprooter, and the re-gathered.
Unlocking the prophecy begins with the identity of the distant foreigner resident in the land. Recall the foreigner was from a distant land, and occupied the land together with the unique Israeli generation—the homeland generation. Recent history suggests the foreigner was most likely from the distant land of Britain. Some scripture students speculate Tarshish—Jonah’s intended flight haven—was part of the British Isles. If accurate, this could mean the distant land mentioned by God was not unfamiliar to Jews of later generations, but was known to them as Tarshish.
The British had authority over Palestine under the League of Nations’ Palestine Mandate of July 1922. British authority lasted for 28 years, until the Palestine Mandate was effectually terminated in May of 1948 under UN Resolution 181. Upon British withdrawal, the unique Israeli homeland generation of God’s Deuteronomic prophecy came to a recognizable and time-stamped end. Therefore, 1948 marked the birth year of a new generation of indigenous, native-born, Israeli citizens, many of whom were offspring of immigrant Jews from the unique homeland generation.
The Israeli generation was also unique because it reinvigorated reclamation of the land and witnessed Israel’s Declaration of Independence in May 1948. Using the 70-year lifespan of a biblical generation, this unique generation began around 1878. That was the year Benjamin Disraeli (aka Lord Beaconsfield), first and only Jewish prime minister of Britain, was head of Britain’s delegation to the Congress of Berlin.
One of the issues considered at the Congress was equal rights for Romanian Jews. In addition, Judah Leib Gordon, Jewish poet laureate from Vilna (Lithuania), prepared a memo proposing the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine for consideration by the Congress. This bold proposal was never incorporated into the resulting Treaty of Berlin. However, the Treaty of Berlin did become foundational for Jewish homeland arguments in succeeding decades.
In 1891, American restorationist (aka a Christian Zionist) William Blackstone used the Treaty of Berlin’s provisions as a backdrop to petition US President Benjamin Harrison to support restoration of Palestine to the Jews. What made that homeland generation unique was it had lived during the historically formative years leading up to the re-establishment of a national homeland for the Jews, had experienced a partial re-population of the land, and had initiated concerted efforts to reclaim the land from its centuries of waste conditions.
In 1917, the British government’s Balfour Declaration called outright for establishing a homeland for the Jews. The Balfour Declaration was presented by Britain’s Foreign Secretary (Arthur James Balfour) to Baron Rothschild, a leader of the Jewish community in Britain, for transmission to the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland—an organization started in 1899 to campaign for a Jewish homeland.
Disraeli, Gordon, and Rothschild were but a tiny sample from the “. . . the sons who rise up after you . . .” referred to by Moses at Moab (Deut. 29:22).
Another component of God’s prophecy—the “interrogators” as labeled in this analysis—was that “all the nations” would join in an inquiry about the Lord’s reason for causing the land’s desolation (Deut. 29:24). The League of Nations comprised a forum in which all the nations “would question” with a single voice about the land’s conditions as witnessed in the aforementioned Palestine Mandate—just as God had predicted (Deut. 29:24). And as a totally secular organization, the League would not recognize Israel’s culpability in rejecting God’s Messiah that led to His land curse.
The scripturally literate “commentators,” with the correct answers for the interrogators, might well have been Christian Zionists who, between 1878 and 1948, supported, petitioned, and worked unstintingly for a national homeland for the Jews in Palestine. This suggestion is based on the supposition that the Jewish inhabitants of the land were likely dead spiritually—unless they were Hebrew Christians. Spiritually dead Jews would not be aware—or wouldn’t admit—the reasons for the land’s condition. As noted, secularists in the League of Nations certainly wouldn’t know the reason; if they knew, no reason would exist for their question. But Christian Zionists would definitely know the answer to the question because they were biblicists who interpreted the scriptures literally—particularly Deut. 29:25-27.
The desolate condition of the land began in 70 AD when Titus took captive Jewish citizens of the Jesus generation, alluded to in His prophecy in Luke 13:1-5 (also see Dan. 9:26). Titus was “the uprooter” who took thousands of those Jewish citizens to Rome—“another land” (Deut. 29:28). God likely used the adjective, another, to distinguish the captives’ destination from the distant land of the foreigner’s origin. Titus effectively and forcibly dissolved the Jewish state—conditions that existed until May 1948.
Furthermore, the commentators’ answer regarding the land’s condition, as well as the Jews’ being uprooted, noted that God’s wrath continued until “today” (Deut. 29:28). After May 15, 1948, the state of Israel was reconstituted, thus marking the end of “the [Jewish homeland] generation” that God had highlighted at the outset of His predictions. After the establishment of a Jewish homeland through the May 15, 1948 Declaration of Independence, the situation described as “until today” ceased to exist.
A compelling current-day vignette ties the 1948 inhabitants of the land with their fathers uprooted to Rome by Titus in 70 AD. Titus’ younger brother, Domitian, had constructed a triumphal arch on the Via Sacra located just southeast of the Forum Romanum. For centuries, Jews living in Rome had refused to travel beneath that arch because it was constructed to commemorate the sacking of Jerusalem and the temple. However, in 1948 living Jewish descendants in Rome marched publicly under the arch in the direction toward Jerusalem—opposite to the direction their ancestors had sometimes been forced to march throughout the centuries.
To summarize:
• the homelanders were the last generation to inhabit the land as Jewish aliens, as well as Jews in the Diaspora that worked unremittingly to establish a Jewish homeland,
• the foreigner was the British administration operating under the Palestine Mandate (history testifies to the significant impact the British had in matters related to securing a homeland for the Jews),
• the land-condition interrogators were the League of Nations’ members,
• the commentators explaining the land’s desolation were Christian Zionists,
• the uprooter was Titus taking Jews captive to Rome in 70 AD, and
• the re-gathered were Diasporal Jews that would populate the Messianic Kingdom.

God’s Covenant With Israel In Moab: Prophecy About The Rapture/Tribulation Generation
The second generation to be addressed by Moses at Moab was introduced in Deut. 30:1-6. This second generation may be identified by its dual returns from the Diaspora, and be characterized as the rapture/tribulation generation. This generation’s first return was at the beginning of the nation’s reestablishment (cf. Ezek. 38:8, 12). The second return (Deut. 30:1-6) was at the end of this generation leading into the Messianic Kingdom (see Isa. 11:11 for confirmation of a second return to the land).
Several factors may be observed that relate to the second generation from this section in Deuteronomy. The generation
• experienced the final expressions of God’s blessings and cursings (likely including the tribulation and Jesus’ second coming),
• reflected upon God’s dealings with the nation,
• lived in the Diaspora and not in the land,
• underwent a spiritual revival that took place among Diasporal families,
• participated in a second restoration from captivity to the land of Israel (the first restoration this generation experienced was in unbelief when Israel declared independence), and
• began a life of unparalleled prosperity and reproduction under the New Covenant in the Messianic Kingdom.
From the above six items, the following deduction may be drawn. In the latter-years experience of this second generation, God’s curse on the land had been drawn to a close. This fact is confirmed by the prophet Ezekiel wherein Jews “. . . gathered from many nations . . .” inhabit “. . . the mountains of Israel which had been (emphasis mine) a continual waste . . .” (Ezek. 38:8, 12). The mountains of Israel had been reclaimed from the effects of God’s curse upon the land by the first contingent of this generation that had returned to the land in unbelief. As mentioned above, the twofold recovery of God’s people from the Diaspora is confirmed by the prophet Isaiah.
At this point, it is appropriate to remind the reader of the name characteristic of the second generation: the rapture/tribulation generation. The rapture/tribulation generation is suitable because the generation will have been exposed to the vicissitudes of life under the tribulation preceded by the rapture of the church.
The events of the tribulation may have put the Diasporal members of this generation in a reflective mood, comparing the devastating effects of the tribulation with the similar effects—in a more limited and local sense—of God’s curse upon the land of Israel referred to in Deut. 30:1.
Some of the first contingent of the rapture/tribulation generation, although originally in the land in unbelief, will likely undergo spiritual revival prior to, and during, the tribulation (see Ezek. 38:23; 39:7 for prediction of the onset of Israel’s spiritual revival in the land).
The second contingent of Diasporal Jews that remain outside the land until the end of the tribulation is likely comprised of those for whom Jesus dispatched disciples under the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20) when the kingdom gospel will be preached throughout the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, some of which would have Diasporal Jews as citizens (Matt. 24:14).
Finally, both Jewish components of the rapture/tribulation generation—those initially in the land that reclaimed the waste places and those spread throughout the nations in the Diaspora—will be combined in a single kingdom under the New Covenant (Deut. 30:6). Provisions of God’s New Covenant with the nation Israel are discussed by the prophets Jeremiah (Jer. 31:31-34) and Ezekiel (Ezek. 36:23-28).
Ignoring the chapter division between Deuteronomy 29 and 30, one discovers that “. . . when all these things have come upon you (the rapture/tribulation generation that succeeds the homeland generation) . . .” (Deut. 30:1), i.e., the curse of the Lord upon the land, and “. . . you call them to mind (emphasis mine) . . .” (Deut. 30:2) in the Diaspora (implying, of course the spiritual revival among Diasporal Jews), “. . . then the Lord will restore you from captivity . . . and gather you again (emphasis mine) from all the peoples . . .” (Deut. 30:3-6). This second gathering likely involves the generation succeeding the homeland generation and is that alluded to by the prophet Isaiah as inaugurating the Messianic Kingdom following restoration of the remnant (again, cf. Isa. 11:11 for a second re-gathering). God made the prediction of the Messianic Kingdom to Moses in Moab (Deut. 30:6, that refers to New-Covenant life of the Kingdom implying existence of the Kingdom).
Both the homeland generation and the rapture/tribulation generation had in common sharing the effects of God’s curse upon the land. The early settlers before Israel’s Declaration of Independence worked on land reclamation under the Palestine Mandate of 1922. The early settlers arriving just after the Declaration also began doing land reclamation projects that reached completion—ending the effects of God’s land curse—by the time of the invasion of the Russian coalition (see Ezek. 38:1-39:16 for an outline of the invasion preceded by an end to land reclamation). Revival among Diasporal Jews will likely be partially due to Jews from Israel fulfilling the Great Commission in accordance with Jesus prediction in His Olivet Discourse.

A Review
The crux of Deut. 29:22-28 is the condition of the land. As mentioned above, the land-desolation curse began in 70 AD (cf. Dan. 9:26).
God gave the Jews responsibility for reversing the curse’s effect upon the land. God used the homeland generation of the Jews, the British, two international organizations, and Christian Zionists to establish, once again, a homeland for the Jews in Palestine. One of the initial tasks of the new citizens was to reclaim the land from the effects of God’s curse.
As God’s curse ran its course, and as Israel’s national status became a reality, God began to return the rapture/tribulation generation from many nations to the land. The initial return of this generation from the Diaspora was in unbelief. Their first assignment: continue to restore the land’s productivity.
However, a second and more significant task: secure Jerusalem and begin preparations for temple worship. Near the end of the rapture/tribulation generation, spiritual revival will break out in Israel, followed by the spread of revival to the members of the rapture/tribulation generation still in the Diaspora.
A world-wide tribulation will ensue. And finally, God will again return people from the rapture/tribulation generation to the land from the Diaspora—this time in belief—to begin citizenship in the Messianic Kingdom.
The specific nature of God’s land curse was never addressed in Harton’s comprehensive review of all the biblical allusions and fulfillments of Deut. 28—30 (see End Note 2). In Deut 29:23, God’s curse was directed toward the land—not upon His people—and is never alluded to nor fulfilled in the scriptures.
The land curse was not universal in nature as was the general curse by God upon the planet after the Fall, and that curse will probably be lifted in the Messianic Kingdom. Harton assigned lifting of the land curse to the Messianic Kingdom (Harton, 245), whereas Ezekiel pointed to a pre-messianic period for the curse’s removal (cf. Ezek. 38:8, 12).
Citing Baron (a book originally published in 1905), Harton recorded the land’s occupants during the Jewish Diaspora as the “. . . Romans, Persians, Saracens, Crusaders, Mamelukes, Tartars, and Turks,” (Harton, 225). To that 1905 list must be added the British, following the Palestine Mandate from the League of Nations in 1922.

New Testament Confirmation: Generations Homeland And Rapture/Tribulation Are Contiguous
Clearly, Jesus tied a specific generation to the end of the age in His Olivet Discourse (Matt. 24:31).
Jesus was God’s prophet that He had promised Moses (Deut. 18:20, and validated in John 6:14). Therefore, the Lord was likely quite familiar with Deut. 30:1-6. Early in the Olivet Discourse (Matt. 24:14), Jesus certainly pointed to the end of the age: “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world (emphasis mine, whereby some Diasporal Jews would come to faith) for a witness to all the nations, and then the end shall come.” He then followed with the warning of great, world-wide tribulation (Matt. 24:21). Next, the Lord related that following His second coming, He would “. . . send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other” (Matt. 24:31). So Matt. 24:14, 31 referred to the exact same generation as Deut. 30:1-6. Let’s see if that generation Jesus pointed to in Matt. 24:14, 31 can be tied more specifically to the generation of Deut. 30:1-6.
After the tribulation and gathering-of-the-elect portions of His sermon that addressed Jews who would populate the Kingdom, Jesus addressed Hebrew Christians by alluding to the rapture of the church (Matt. 24:32-41). This gives credence to the epithet for this generation as the “rapture/tribulation generation.”
Remember, in His Olivet Discourse, Jesus gave a specific sign for the rapture/tribulation generation to determine the end of the age by referring to it as this generation (Matt. 24:34). He did so through His parable of the budding fig tree (Matt. 24:32-35). The symbol of the fig tree represented the Levitical priesthood (priests and Levites). The fig tree budding meant revival of the Levitical priesthood.
On Passover and Sukkot of 1978, seminars were held in Jerusalem for training priesthood candidates in the order of the priest’s services and associated rituals.
God had given the Levites—who belonged to God in place of Israel’s first-born males—to Aaron to help in the ministry of the tabernacle (Num. 3:12). God set the age at which the Levites would enter service at 30, and ordered a census of Levi’s descendants among the wilderness generation. The census meant that generation of Levites all had the same birth date.
Years later, King David reduced that age to 20. However, it appears that the priest Ezekiel observed God’s original directions by beginning his ministry at 30 years old (Ezek. 1:1, 3). Furthermore, John the Baptist (a priest by descent, and about 6 months older than Jesus, Luke 1:5, 36, 56) as well as Jesus (a priest according to the order of Melchizedek, Heb. 5:6) began their respective ministries at about 30 years old (Luke 3:23). The age of 30 years is significant.
The fig tree budded in 1978, suggesting the generation of the priests entering training at 30 years old would have been born around 1948—the year marking the end of the homeland generation and the beginning of the rapture/tribulation generation. The two generations adjoin. The fig tree had budded exactly 30 years after Israel’s reconstitution in a Jewish homeland. This would make the priests and Levites part of the succeeding generation. The succeeding generation of Jews inhabiting the land has been labeled the “rapture/tribulation generation” because they will experience both events—the rapture and tribulation—leading up to the end of the age.
This generation will likely be
• the first generation of Jews since 70 AD that have possession of the land,
• the one immediately following the homeland generation,
• would see the effects of God’s curse upon the land come to an end,
• the one experiencing the invasion of the land by the Russian coalition,
• would experience two gatherings to the land, one in unbelief and the other in belief bringing the Diaspora to an end,
• the one in which the rapture takes place,
• the one that would experience the tribulation, and
• the one witnessing Jesus’ second coming and the inauguration of the Messianic Kingdom.
So scripture and history show the rapture/tribulation generation is contiguous to the homeland generation.
Following Moses’ definition of a 70-year generation, the priests’ generation will terminate around 2018. This year is probably a good indicator of when gentile domination of Jerusalem will come to an end.

Rapture Of The Church
In a mid-seventies lecture to underclass students at Dallas Theological Seminary, then President John Walvoord announced reservedly his belief that the church’s rapture was likely to occur in his listeners’ lifetimes. Dr. Walvoord quickly followed up on his comments by suggesting that no one should visit the registrar’s office to initiate withdrawal from seminary in anticipation of the event.
About the same time as Walvoord’s lecture, Dorothy Miller began an “. . . eighteen-year struggle to adjust some of my prophetic beliefs to the Word of God.” In a reasoned, thoughtful analysis, Miller argued persuasively that God had the writers of Scripture record sufficient prophetic knowledge to discover the rapture’s approach at God’s appointed time.
From a recent essay detailing the interpretive meanings of the seven churches in The Revelation of Jesus Christ—Chapters two and three—it was proposed that the historic church in Sardis represented a Diasporal messianic-Jewish congregation of the rapture/tribulation generation. In that message to Sardis, Jesus warned the congregational leader that if he didn’t wake up, he wouldn’t know the time of the rapture (Rev. 3:3). By an unavoidable implication, if the Sardian leader were to awake from his spiritual stupor, he would know the time of the rapture. Therefore, Jesus fully expected believers living in the rapture/tribulation generation to know the timing of the rapture.
In fact, four of Jesus’ disciples asked Him—just days before His death and resurrection—to tell them the sign for the end of the age (Matt. 24:3). Jesus answered their request using a parable featuring a fig tree (Matt. 24:32; remember, the fig tree is a symbol for the Levitical priesthood).
Earlier in His ministry, Jesus had informed His disciples that parables were designed to fulfill an Isaianic prophecy predicting continued ignorance of God’s plans for Israeli unbelievers. However, God would grant discerning believers insight into His plans through diligent study of the parables (Matt. 13:10-17). Thus, the parable Jesus gave for the end-of-age sign was crafted to reveal to believers who would be raptured, and living in a generation with an unbelieving Israeli population, a signal for discovering God’s timing of the end of the age. The end would be preceded by rapture of the church (cf. Rev. 3:10 wherein Jesus promised protection, for a post-rapture Jewish believer living on earth, from the upcoming world-wide tribulation thereby confirming the rapture precedes the tribulation). Note: Jesus giving the end-of-age sign in a parable would only have meaning with unbelieving Jewish citizens resident in Israel. This scenario fits perfectly the nation Israel.
Jesus’ cloud-enveloping ascension was described by Luke in Acts 1:9, where the “cloud” may well describe the Shekinah glory rather than some atmospheric anomaly. Angels commented on Jesus’ ascension thusly: He “. . . will come [back] in just the same way (emphasis mine) as you [the disciples] have watched Him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). Jesus’ return for His church—the rapture—has the same cloud-enveloping feature that will replicate His ascension (1 Thess. 4:17).
Jesus’ appearance on a white horse followed by armies, described in Rev. 20:11-16, is in stark contrast to the scene at the rapture of the church. The horse and armies most probably describe the Lord’s “second-coming” event as King of the earth. Therefore, three decades after Jesus’ ascension, when the great apostle to the gentiles wrote his true child in the common faith that he, Titus, should look for the “. . . blessed hope and the [re]appearing of the glory (emphasis mine, reminiscent of the Shekinah glory at Jesus’ ascension) of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus” (Titus 2:13), Paul was referring specifically to the rapture (cf. 1 Thess. 4:17 connecting the rapture specifically with clouds).
Unreservedly, unabashedly, Paul encouraged his spiritual son to eagerly wait for the rapture—not shutter in skepticism bordering on disgust. Paul’s unapologetic directive to Titus becomes truly meaningful and appropriate today for our generation that is witnessing worldwide adjustments foreshadowing His [re]appearance.

Parallels Between The Jesus Generation And The Rapture/Tribulation Generation
A remarkable chronological similarity exists between believing Jews of the Jesus generation and of the rapture/tribulation generation as to God’s judgment of Jerusalem. Peter raised the issue in his sermon at Pentecost when he warned, “Be saved from this (emphasis mine) perverse generation!” (Acts 2:40).
The Jesus generation, rightly referred to by Peter as a perverse generation, began in the winter of 5/4 BC. The judgment Peter warned against began about 70 years later in 66 AD when the Roman army under the command of Cestus Gallus surrounded Jerusalem (Fruchtenbaum, 439). The believing Jews escaped Jerusalem’s judgment as reported by the 2nd century Jewish believer Hegisippus (ibid., 212). That escape occurred within that generation’s lifetime of 70 years.
In a strikingly similar parallel in timing, the rapture/tribulation generation was instructed to flee Jerusalem’s judgment about the year 2018—seventy years from its birth within the nation Israel in 1948. This similarity shows the consistency, over time, that a biblical generation is 70 years.

Summary And Conclusion
The homeland generation of Deut. 29:22 ended in 1948 with the declaration of a Palestinian homeland for the Jews when the British “foreigner” departed the desolated land. The historical record shows that the homeland generation was followed immediately by another generation—gathered from the nations—a generation that continued restoration of the land confirmed by Ezekiel’s prophecy (Ezek. 38:8, 12). This new generation (Deut. 30:1-6) was labeled the rapture/tribulation generation from which Diasporal Jews were again gathered to the land in the latter years to become citizens in the Messianic Kingdom (Deut: 30:1-6, as confirmed by Jesus’ prophecy in His Olivet Discourse, particularly the parable of the fig tree in Matt. 24:32). The fig tree symbolized the Levitical priesthood which was revived in Jerusalem in 1978 as the historical record has indicated.
Using the biblical seventy-year length of a generation, the Messianic Kingdom will be inaugurated around 2018 at the end of the rapture/tribulation generation.
Rapture of the church will precede the seven-year tribulation by about a year. The rapture portends being in the presence of the Lord, an event that should elicit great joy from many of His saints throughout the age.

END NOTES

[1]  All biblical citations and quotes are taken from the New American Standard Bible—NASB, 1995.

[1]  Harton, George M. Fulfillment of Deuteronomy in History and Eschatology 28—30. ThD Dissertation, Dallas, TX: Dallas Theological Seminary, 1981, 96-215, for suggested fulfillments in ancient Israel’s history.

[1]  Four ways are reported in Bauer, W., Danker, F. W., Arndt, W. F., and Gingrich, F. W. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature, 3^rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000, 191-192.

[1]  Ibid., 191.2.

[1]  Harton, 75-93, features a discussion on the hermeneutics of prophetic interpretation.  Particularly important is Harton’s position—with buttressing citations—that Deut. 28:68 is an example of a single-fulfillment prediction, 82-83.  In this context, Deut. 29:22 is very likely also a single-fulfillment prediction.

[1]  Waltke, Bruce K. and O’Connor, M. An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbraus, 1990, 242, provides biblical examples for a common noun (e.g., generation) combined with the definite article as designating a unique referent.  So “the generation” of Deut. 29:22 is a unique or particular generation.

[1]  Roughly estimated at 480,000 Jews before 1948 (from Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics).  http://www.cbs.gov.il/shnaton58/download/st04_04.xis.

[1] For an excellent discussion about the historical significance of the 1948 date, see “The Re-establishment of Israel:” Fruchtenbaum, Arnold G. The Footsteps of the Messiah. Tustin, CA: Ariel Ministries Press, 1983, 65.

[1] Considering the pivotal role the Levitical priesthood enjoys in this study, the following biographical sliver for Disraeli is most interesting.  Although his father had Benjamin baptized in the Church of England at 13, he was a proud Sephardic Jew of Italian descent who held that Christianity was “completed Judaism” (perhaps wise politically, but theologically foolish).  During a heated 1935 debate in Parliament with Irish MP Daniel O’Connell, Disraeli said, “Yes, I am a Jew and when the ancestors of the right honourable gentleman were brutal savages in an unknown island, mine were priests (emphasis mine) in the temple of Solomon.”  http://www.victorianweb.org/history/pms/dizzy.html

[1]  For a helpful thumbnail sketch highlighting this historic period of modern Israel’s birth, and the importance of the Treaty of Berlin, see: Gold, Dore. The Fight for Jerusalem. Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2007, 119-143.  Gold has served as Israel’s ambassador to the UN, and as an advisor to an Israeli prime minister.   

[1] See Fruchtenbaum, 436-437, for a details of this period, particularly from 1914-1917.

[1] The first gathering was roughly estimated at 2,900,000 from 1948 to 2006 by Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics.  http://www.cbs.gov.il/shnaton58/download/st04_04.xis

[1] Deut. 30:4 and Matt. 24:31 describe the same singular event in Israel’s history—as unmatched as was Moses leading the wilderness generation out of Egypt.  Matt. 24:31 refers to the rapture/tribulation generation.

[1] The intensive pronoun “this” singles out grammatically the noun “generation” in a demonstrative way. (cf. Dana, H.E. and Mantey, Julius R. A Manual Grammar of the Greek New Testament. Toronto, Ontario: The Macmillan Company, 1927, 130, § 138(2). It is thus translated as a demonstrative by all English translators.

[1] See Biblical Prophecy and the Rapture. McClymont, J. C. March 7, 2008. http://www.mcclymont.org/?cat=20 and The Rapture/Tribulation Generation. McClymont, J. C. July 6, 2007. http://www.mcclymont.org/?p=13   God had planted the priesthood (fig tree) in the “vineyard” of the nation Israel (Num. 1:47-4:49 and Luke 13:6-9).  Jesus’ symbolic cursing of the fig tree, coupled with His subsequent stoppage of temple sacrifices (Mark 11:12-21), reflected God’s judgment on the Levitical priesthood—a judgment that will be terminated in the Messianic Kingdom (cf. Jer. 33:18).  The judgment also set the stage for Jesus’ own Melchizedekian priesthood (cf. Heb. 5:10) when He would become both high priest and sacrifice on the cross.

[1] One example, among several, that covered this revival story and noted the 1978 date: Levine, Charley J. “Getting Ready, A Very Special Yeshiva,” Hadassah Magazine, December 1981, 19, 36.  Levine (by name, a descendant from the tribe of Levi) was Director of Zionist Affairs for Hadassah.

[1] Miller, D. A. Forbidden Knowledge, Or Is It? updated ed. Fountain Valley, CA: Joy Publishing, 1998, vii. 

[1] See Revelation, Chapters 2-3. McClymont, J. C. August 17, 2008. http://www.mcclymont.org/?cat=16  This is a novel historic-prophetic interpretation that proposed two modern Messianic congregations ( Thyatira in Rev. 2:25 and Sardis in Rev. 3:3) that would be witness to—by being part of—the rapture of the church.

[1] For a discussion about the theological doctrine of the rapture’s imminency, see Imminency, Parts I, II, and III.  McClymont, J. C. February 7 and 8, 2008. http://www.mcclymont.org/?cat=19

[1] Compare Wallace, Daniel B. Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996, 325.B.1 for a definition of the demonstrative pronoun “this” singling out the word “generation” in a special way. 

[1] For  the dates of Jesus’ chronology, see Hoehner, Harold W. Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1977, 27. 

[1]  All biblical citations and quotes are taken from the New American Standard Bible—NASB, 1995.

[1]  Harton, George M. Fulfillment of Deuteronomy in History and Eschatology 28—30. ThD Dissertation, Dallas, TX: Dallas Theological Seminary, 1981, 96-215, for suggested fulfillments in ancient Israel’s history.

[1]  Four ways are reported in Bauer, W., Danker, F. W., Arndt, W. F., and Gingrich, F. W. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature, 3^rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000, 191-192.

[1]  Ibid., 191.2.

[1]  Harton, 75-93, features a discussion on the hermeneutics of prophetic interpretation.  Particularly important is Harton’s position—with buttressing citations—that Deut. 28:68 is an example of a single-fulfillment prediction, 82-83.  In this context, Deut. 29:22 is very likely also a single-fulfillment prediction.

[1]  Waltke, Bruce K. and O’Connor, M. An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbraus, 1990, 242, provides biblical examples for a common noun (e.g., generation) combined with the definite article as designating a unique referent.  So “the generation” of Deut. 29:22 is a unique or particular generation.

[1]  Roughly estimated at 480,000 Jews before 1948 (from Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics).  http://www.cbs.gov.il/shnaton58/download/st04_04.xis.

[1] For an excellent discussion about the historical significance of the 1948 date, see “The Re-establishment of Israel:” Fruchtenbaum, Arnold G. The Footsteps of the Messiah. Tustin, CA: Ariel Ministries Press, 1983, 65.

[1] Considering the pivotal role the Levitical priesthood enjoys in this study, the following biographical sliver for Disraeli is most interesting.  Although his father had Benjamin baptized in the Church of England at 13, he was a proud Sephardic Jew of Italian descent who held that Christianity was “completed Judaism” (perhaps wise politically, but theologically foolish).  During a heated 1935 debate in Parliament with Irish MP Daniel O’Connell, Disraeli said, “Yes, I am a Jew and when the ancestors of the right honourable gentleman were brutal savages in an unknown island, mine were priests (emphasis mine) in the temple of Solomon.”  http://www.victorianweb.org/history/pms/dizzy.html

[1]  For a helpful thumbnail sketch highlighting this historic period of modern Israel’s birth, and the importance of the Treaty of Berlin, see: Gold, Dore. The Fight for Jerusalem. Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2007, 119-143.  Gold has served as Israel’s ambassador to the UN, and as an advisor to an Israeli prime minister.   

[1] See Fruchtenbaum, 436-437, for a details of this period, particularly from 1914-1917.

[1] The first gathering was roughly estimated at 2,900,000 from 1948 to 2006 by Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics.  http://www.cbs.gov.il/shnaton58/download/st04_04.xis

[1] Deut. 30:4 and Matt. 24:31 describe the same singular event in Israel’s history—as unmatched as was Moses leading the wilderness generation out of Egypt.  Matt. 24:31 refers to the rapture/tribulation generation.

[1] The intensive pronoun “this” singles out grammatically the noun “generation” in a demonstrative way. (cf. Dana, H.E. and Mantey, Julius R. A Manual Grammar of the Greek New Testament. Toronto, Ontario: The Macmillan Company, 1927, 130, § 138(2). It is thus translated as a demonstrative by all English translators.

[1] See Biblical Prophecy and the Rapture. McClymont, J. C. March 7, 2008. http://www.mcclymont.org/?cat=20 and The Rapture/Tribulation Generation. McClymont, J. C. July 6, 2007. http://www.mcclymont.org/?p=13   God had planted the priesthood (fig tree) in the “vineyard” of the nation Israel (Num. 1:47-4:49 and Luke 13:6-9).  Jesus’ symbolic cursing of the fig tree, coupled with His subsequent stoppage of temple sacrifices (Mark 11:12-21), reflected God’s judgment on the Levitical priesthood—a judgment that will be terminated in the Messianic Kingdom (cf. Jer. 33:18).  The judgment also set the stage for Jesus’ own Melchizedekian priesthood (cf. Heb. 5:10) when He would become both high priest and sacrifice on the cross.

[1] One example, among several, that covered this revival story and noted the 1978 date: Levine, Charley J. “Getting Ready, A Very Special Yeshiva,” Hadassah Magazine, December 1981, 19, 36.  Levine (by name, a descendant from the tribe of Levi) was Director of Zionist Affairs for Hadassah.

[1] Miller, D. A. Forbidden Knowledge, Or Is It? updated ed. Fountain Valley, CA: Joy Publishing, 1998, vii. 

[1] See Revelation, Chapters 2-3. McClymont, J. C. August 17, 2008. http://www.mcclymont.org/?cat=16  This is a novel historic-prophetic interpretation that proposed two modern Messianic congregations ( Thyatira in Rev. 2:25 and Sardis in Rev. 3:3) that would be witness to—by being part of—the rapture of the church.

[1] For a discussion about the theological doctrine of the rapture’s imminency, see Imminency, Parts I, II, and III.  McClymont, J. C. February 7 and 8, 2008. http://www.mcclymont.org/?cat=19

[1] Compare Wallace, Daniel B. Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996, 325.B.1 for a definition of the demonstrative pronoun “this” singling out the word “generation” in a special way. 

[1] For  the dates of Jesus’ chronology, see Hoehner, Harold W. Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1977, 27.