I might be wrong, but I thought I read on your web site that you don't believe God is working with Israel today. Doesn't the Bible say that Jews will come from all over the nations and make Israel a nation in the last days? It does seem like some Old Testament Bible prophesy is being fulfilled now.
What is your take? Do you believe the same as Les Feldick?
I not only know brother Les (and his wife Iris), but have been with him at a few conferences in the past couple of years both here in the Twin Cities and also in Wisconsin. If anyone contacts his ministry from our area, he and Iris will refer them to our assembly.
He is a good brother in the Lord Jesus who is used of the Lord to bring a lot of people to a knowledge of Law versus Grace, Israel versus the Body of Christ, etc., and even members of my own assembly have been blessed by his ministry.
With that said, there are some things that we see differently from scripture (like with ANY two bible teachers), and one of them is whether Israel's bible prophecy is being fulfilled today.
(I will discuss later in this response about why it looks like all those things going on in the middle east, and in the world, looks so much like what the bible says about the "last days" of prophecy as well. So please be patient and bear with me.)
Now, on to your questions…
Although I do believe that the things that our Apostle Paul says in 1 and 2 Timothy will come in the last days and latter times of our current dispensation, the Dispensation of the Grace of God, are being fulfilled today (i.e., some departing from the faith/perilous times. I do not believe that the "last days" of God's prophetic program with the Nation of Israel are being fulfilled today, as brother Les believes, and here's why:
When God came down and saved Saul of Tarsus/our Apostle Paul in Acts 9, He changed His prophetic program with the Nation of Israel. With that change in the program also came a change in the STATUS of that nation! God STOPPED dealing with that nation as according to prophecy, and started to deal with ALL men individually...both Jew and gentile alike, thru Christ according to the revelation of the Mystery.
In Romans chapters 9-11, Paul explains Israel's past (9), their present state (10), and their future (11).
In Romans 11:25 Paul writes...
For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
My understanding of this passage is that God does not want us to be ignorant of what He is doing today. He is doing something with us gentiles until He is finished, and then He will begin working His program with Israel again!
While God is operating this present dispensation of grace and this present program, He has put His prophetic program with the Nation of Israel on hold. He has blinded them for a season and for a reason—to form the Body of Christ. And He will NOT work Israel's program again UNTIL the fullness of the gentiles be come in. That will happen at the rapture of the Church, the Body of Christ (which I think is VERY soon...amen!
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What about all the things going on in the middle east and all the focus on Iraq, Iran and the battles over Jerusalem with Israel, etc.? Why does all the talk of nuclear war and all the problems with those nations like Iraq, Iran, Korea, China, etc., seem like the things that Israel's prophets said would happen in the "last days" of prophecy?
Well when God changed the program in Acts 9 by raising up the Apostle Paul, He did it at the time when He SHOULD have poured out His wrath instead (Psalm 2, Psalm 110, Acts 4:25-26). The time was right, according to prophecy, for Him to pour out His wrath because it was the "last days" of that program (Acts 2, Joel 2, Hebrews 1). But instead of pouring out His prophesied wrath, He instead did something that He had kept secret...poured out His Grace!
The "last days" of prophecy are different and distinct from the "last days” of the Mystery message that our Apostle Paul speaks about in his 13 books! The "last days" that Israel's prophets and apostles (Peter, James, John, etc.,) talk about are the "last days" of God's prophetic program with that nation. Those "last days" were during the time of John the Baptist, the Lord's earthly ministry, etc. They would have been fulfilled and completed had God not changed the program in Acts 9.
But because God did change their program in Acts 9, their "last days" have been ‘put off,’ and are on hold until after the rapture of the Church, the Body of Christ! Once God is finished with us, and takes us home to be with Him, He will then begin/continue Israel's "last days" again. But when he changed the program in Acts 9, and did not pour out His wrath, Israel's enemies were not destroyed like prophecy said, but instead, they remain until this day. God just allowed them to continue on and what we see today is just the continuation of the rebellion of Israel and their enemies that was going on when God changed the program nearly 2,000 years ago.
I will agree that the "stage is being set" as it were, for the "last days" of prophecy to begin. With all the nuclear proliferation (which I believe from scripture will play a part in Israel's "last days"), and the increased enmity of these nations against Israel, etc., this is just the natural result of God allowing things to ‘run its course’ over the last 2,000 years…
Ephesians 2:2
Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
…and not God making them happen like He will do after the rapture!
God is not CAUSING all these Jews to go back to their homeland (that's their OWN flesh doing it, and a misunderstanding of Christians who don't "rightly divide" the scriptures and who don't understand the apostleship, ministry and message of Paul). In the future, after the rapture, God Himself will cause the Jews to come back to Palestine and then punish the rebels thru the Anti-Christ! But that WON'T happen until He is finished with us first!
But although Paul makes it clear that God is not CAUSING all these things in the middle east, and thru-out the world today, it is clear from scripture that because of man's sinful actions, things are "lining up" and the stage is being set naturally for the "time to come" and the last days that will be on the earth after we are raptured out!
In essence, the "last days" of our current dispensation of grace, are setting the stage for the future "last days" of God's prophetic program for the Nation of Israel, which is to come.
Is the stage being set for the "last days" of prophecy? Yes!
But, is it God who is supernaturally causing it? No!
It is the NATURAL course of events as God's outworking grace and peace to mankind is being poured out these last 2,000 years, and God allowing His enemies to continue.
God, in His wisdom knew that just allowing man to keep rebelling over the last 2,000 years would set the stage automatically for Him to continue (begin again) the "last days" of prophecy, right after our rapture.
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