jeremiah1five
Active Member
You're welcome. Your comment was worthy of an answer from me for although you hold to mostly textbook answers on these subjects, you have evidenced a "hearing ear" towards my own comments and replies that encourage further responses.
Saul misquotes Isaiah in his Roman letter. Here is Isaiah's statement:
22 For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea,
Yet a remnant of them shall return: Isaiah 10:22.
And Saul writes quoting Isaiah (but not exactly):
27 Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved: Romans 9:27.
Saul changed a word in the original prophecy from "return" to "saved" thus changing the meaning to suit his purpose, whatever that purpose that is. It can be Gentiles who made the change to further bolster their Gentile theology; or Saul simply misquoted, which I find impossible; or Saul himself is being deceptive to suit a particular deceptive purpose, whatever that purpose is. I find the last one to be more plausible. Saul intentionally changed the word from "return" to "saved" to use Isaiah's prophecy to make him say something he never said. No one can take an Old Testament statement or prophecy and change it in any way for any purpose. Saul is clearly being deceptive. And this is not the only place where Saul makes an unscriptural comment that has no true biblical support. It has to do with "righteousness. In one comment he says we cannot be made righteous by obeying the Law, and elsewhere he says we can. As for the integrity of Isaiah's statement that a remnant shall "return", this is truly what happen in Israel's past. Isaiah prophesied to the southern kingdom tribes (Judah) and after 200 years of their conquest, captivity, and exile into Babylon, king Cyrus in 522 BC gave Nehemiah, and later, Ezra, permission to return to Israel and rebuild their wall and their nation. Being "saved" (salvation) has nothing to do with "returning" at all. And the salvation that was later understood after Jesus' ascension and through study of the Hebrew Scripture (Old Testament) is completely different than God "saving" the nation in the sense of deliverance from their enemies. Nothing is said about being "saved" from sin and death, which is the meaning today of being "saved."
Since Gentiles were the ones to gather scrolls and create a "bible" (book), God makes no instruction or command this be done and a new bible (New Testament) be made - and one that has equal authority as the Old Testament - which it doesn't. Letters to people and to individuals in an informal way cannot be held up to the formal instruction and command God gave Israel to keep the writings of their prophets (including Moses) for their children and children's children.
There is no remnant that was called during the ministry of the Lord. Jesus taught ALL Israel, not just a remnant. Multitudes of Jews crowded Jesus to hear Him teach and what He taught was the Law, the Psalms, and the Prophets - the whole counsel of God.
The original twelve (eleven) disciples who were in Jerusalem in the upper room when the Holy Spirit arrived each had various callings, gifts, talents, and pounds, not to mention temperament and personalities that worked for them in their particular callings. Nothing has changed. The same things of the early Jewish Church are still occurring today. The word in English, "apostle" (Greek: "apostolos") merely means "commissioned." And every born-again believer is commissioned by Christ to some work or call. And each have at least one spiritual gift to accomplish their call. Some are called to an office (apostle, pastor, evangelist, pastor, and teacher) and some are not. But as Saul explains in 1st Corinthians 12, every believer does receive at least one spiritual gift. Timothy is an example. Through the laying on of hands Timothy was called to be a pastor, but Saul asks him to "do the work of an evangelist." This was because Timothy's fellowship/church lacked an evangelist. And he was not the only one to "do the work of an evangelist" for that particular office and spiritual gift merely means "to stir the people up" to a goal or function. If you were to listen carefully to pastor's who give sermons and teach on any Sunday morning they also try to "stir the people up" to move or do something as part of the sermon's message. The pastor may have plans to expand or build onto their church buildings, maybe build a nursery or classrooms, well, he would also need to "stir the people up" to contribute towards that goal by outreach in their cities for donations or to actually participate in its building. Every fellowship/church has members that have work they do "in the world" that God brings into a fellowship. In a fellowship of fifty or more there might be a plumber or an electrician, or carpenter, or a secular educator, among the brethren. God always provides whenever He gives a direction or purpose to a fellowship. All fellowships/churches have strong points and weak points, just as an individual does. Some churches might be strong in teaching and has classrooms and actual teachers, and these may be weak in evangelism and vice versa. I did a post called "The Hand of God" and I think I posted it in the "Doctrine" forum. Take a read. If someone is called to be a pastor they would also in a loose sense of the word by an apostle for pastors are commissioned ("apostolos") by God to shepherd. You follow?
When God made covenant promises to Abraham, Abe could never know that at some future time when his seed/descendants would be in the millions and God would make covenant promises to them (Mosaic Covenant) building on the Abrahamic promises, or that God would after that make a New Covenant with the House of Israel and Judah (Jeremiah 31.) Abraham and his descendants lived in the 'here and now' in their particular lives. Abraham asked for an heir and God promised him one. Isaac was born. But the promises God made to Abraham were not fulfilled in Abraham's life, so Isaac inherited those promises as God made other promises to Isaac specifically. Then when Isaac died without seeing the Abraham promises fulfilled (example: land marked off in Genesis 15), then Jacob inherited the Abrahamic promises, and God made more promises to Jacob at a personal level. This continued with each succeeding Hebrew generation and soon Israel that was once living in the desert in tents had their own city with walls/borders and clay/mortar homes with roofs and even a Temple. Two of them. They had their own kingdom. Two of them. In time they had new prophecy of a New Covenant, one that Jeremiah spoke of and wrote down. At the appointed time God sent His own Son in likeness of human flesh to Israel with a goal of fulfilling the Mosaic promises to a tee. The animals that were sacrificed under the Law yearly to atone the sins of the children of Israel, and whose blood was sprinkled on the Mercy Seat, in time God sent His own Son as His lamb to sacrifice in accordance with the Law (of Moses) but this sacrifice was one time and forever to atone finally and eternally the sins of the Hebrew people and through these covenants - three of them - Saul looks back and sees the past and how they got to what Jesus the Christ did in recent history (to him) and being a rabbi and Pharisee, after he was born-again he disappeared for 14-17 years to study the Old Testament under the illuminating Holy Spirit and he was able to discern the form of the New Covenant in Jesus blood through study. THIS is the revelation he says He received of Christ (Spirit) that "no man taught him" in his Galatian letter. We do the same thing. We study the OT, and the New Covenant writings (Matthew to Revelation) and God reveal His Word to us, and we develop doctrine - even doctrine that for a time is 'hidden', like the doctrine of salvation or the Trinity. It's there in its pages. All we have to do is ask, seek, and knock, and God opens our minds to His truth - like the truth I submit for example, the God saves through covenant and there is no covenant between God and non-Hebrew Gentiles. If there was one that was significance that brings salvation of the soul it would be recorded in the Old Testament, and we would know the name of the man with whom God made such a covenant. And since God controls how much a person and a generation receives not everything is known at one time. The doctrine of the Trinity did not find its fullest expression until the advent of the Son.
Amen.
