bzel333 asks: “Is it helpful to use the Old Testament to figure out current events or should the Old Testament be understood in light of the New Testament?”
Link to “Open Letter” quoted in the video: The People of God, the Land of Israel, and the Impartiality of the Gospel
Related: John Piper, Issues Concerning the Middle-East
Sola Dei Gloria 
if think christians should treat Israel like other nations, support her based on what is morally right, don’t support Israel blindly.
Some christians don’t evangelise to Jews because they say Israel is under a different covenant, they ought to read Romans 9 and Acts 17:17, Jews need the gospel too.
we don’t know when is the rapture as His coming is like a thief, but the world’s focus on status of Jerusalem and middle east peace is a sign of the nearness of Christ’s coming.(1 thess 5:3, Zech 12:2-3) so we should seek opportunity to share the gospel with others.
Do pray for me and a few others who will be going for street evangelism this Sat, 7pm at Orchard road, Singapore. Pray for boldness to share the message, a christian couple was jailed last week by our government for giving gospel tracts to muslims, they were charged for violating religious harmony.
Lee, i’ll be praying.. i’ll also pray for the couple who were jailed.
May God give you and the others, boldness to speak of Jesus and boldness and wisdom, in presenting the Gospel.
God bless you Lee…
Excellent stuff, and well spoken. That document he quoted from is a “must read.”
PJ or anyone else,
Do you know of any good studies (online, if possible) showing the general pattern of how the New Testament authors interpreted the Old Testament, especially the many references to Israel?
Adam, i was glad he included the link to that document. I had saved it in a file a couple yrs ago, but when my computer crashed it was lost.
You’re right, its a must read. 🙂
Not off hand Adam. But i’ll look around and see if i can locate anything on-line.
I fully endorse the open letter.
Yemi, me too. 🙂
I’m in class and can’t watch this right now. However a friend of mine posted something yesterday that I believe is pertinent.
“To argue that we must use the New Testament to interpret the Old is to read the Bible backward and to participate in what is called eisegesis, that is, reading meaning into the text instead of using exegesis, leading the meaning out of the Scripture…” (Kaiser & Silva p. 71)
William, i don’t know if i totally agree with that.
For instance, there are many prophesies fulfilled in the new testament, which were veiled in the old. Even the writers of the new testament books, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, quoted from the old, applying it to being a fulfillment, through Christ.
So in many instances we are ‘looking back’ to the old test. and using the new to interpret it.
First the natural (old testament), then the spiritual (new testament).
Paul speaks of these accounts recorded [in the old] as, “examples”, saying “they are written for our admonition ” – 1 Cor. 10
I would counter the question with this one:::>
” How should the Elect of God view the Elect of God living in Israel today among all ethnicities living there?”
What the people of “Historical” Israel uncovered for “all” humanity as recorded in Scripture is the “nature of sin”, that it is not conquerable by means of human nature..
Paul, a Jew, makes a most amazing admission here:
Rom 8:6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
Rom 8:7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.
Notice there is no distinction about ethnicity of human mind or thought or familial priority.
What is the admission? “The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot”! God is not looking for any Ethnic victory, Jew or Gentile!
How does the Historical Jewish nation of the Bible help us see that? Simple. They are of the same flesh as Adam. The flesh of the nation of Israel has inherent in it the same problem the flesh of all ethnicities have, no ability to submit to the Laws of Righteousness.
It is the flesh that is put to death by the Spirit of Christ.
The very next verses should help you understand that the problem is a “human” problem worldwide and not just a Jewish problem that God is looking for the Jews of today or tomorrow to fix:::>
Rom 8:8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
Rom 8:9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
The promises of God work where the Spirit of Christ is found working to put to death the deeds of the flesh.
Is the Spirit of Christ working in Israel today? Yes, of course He is. He is equally working in the nation of Samoa too, and, in fact, His Spirit is working wherever the Gospel of the Kingdom is being preached! God’s Holy Spirit is not partial nor does He discriminate just because of your ethnicity.
It is the Sanctification work of the Spirit that brings about one’s adoption to be a son or daughter of God, as Peter writes:::>
1Pe 1:1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,
1Pe 1:2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you.
1Pe 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
1Pe 1:4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,
1Pe 1:5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
Take some time and notice “Who” “are” doing “what” in those verses by Peter. Why is one born again? There is nothing in those verses that teaches one must meet some Jewish criteria before God’s Holy Spirit causing you to be born again. God’s mercy is extended to Whom He will have mercy, to the Jew first and to the Gentile.
That distinction is not a criteria, it’s a “historical” fact seeing the Gospel came to the world, first through the Jewish Carpenter, Jesus Christ.
John said it best as too who is born again:::>
Joh 1:9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
Joh 1:10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.
Joh 1:11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.
Joh 1:12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,
Joh 1:13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
Are you of Spiritual Israel? Then you are not because of the will of man, but of God!
As our brothers and sisters in Christ Michael!
God has a remnant who have come to Christ within all nations, don’t you think?
PJ
yes, I think so, so, now what? 🙂