Mount Druitt Village.
N.S.W. 2770. AUSTRALIA.
Phone: 02-9833-3925. Fax: 02-9833-4397.
E-Mail: fdowsett@idx.com.au
Senior Pastor and Co-Founder:
FRANK W. DOWSETT. J.P.
The
Heritage
of
Israel.
E-Mail: fdowsett@idx.com.au
Senior Pastor and Co-Founder:
FRANK W. DOWSETT. J.P.
The
Heritage
of
Israel.
Part One.
Introduction.
This is the commencement of a series of studies which will be essentially
an in-depth study of Romans chapter nine, verses one to five. Whilst
we will be referring to these verses quite often during the course of our
studies, we will quote them here in order to set the theme of these studies
in our minds.
“I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,
2 That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.
3 For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:
4 Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;
5 Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.”
But as an introduction, I want us to turn our attention right
back to a very special incident recorded in Genesis 15, verses 1 to 18,
because it is what I consider to be a vitally necessary lead into this
particular study of “The Heritage of Israel”.
“After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.Here we read of what must be arguably one of the most awesome events which we could read of in God’s Word. It would appear, by the lack of comment or teaching on this event, that most Christians seem to be blissfully unaware of, let alone have any understanding or comprehension of, what actually happened at this stage of Abram’s life. The promises made by The Lord God, Jehovah, to this man, form without any doubt, the basis and foundation of everything that transpired in the future to the people who descended from him. I would not hesitate in saying that without some degree of comprehension of what actually happened in this event, that our understanding of God’s Word from this point onward will be severely impaired. The major subject of this incident, as we read, was Abram’s concern as to who would inherit the almost unbelievable promise that God had previously made to him, in view of the fact that Abram, already in his nineties, had no child of his own to inherit these promises. It was because of this seemingly impossible situation that God proceeded to give Abram absolutely undeniable proof of His intentions to fulfil His Word exactly as He had promised. It would not be fulfilled through anyone else but by a direct descendant, and literal seed, of Abram himself. God evidenced this in two ways. Firstly, He gave His Word of encouragement and guarantee, by which Abram would know that God did not intend, under any circumstances, to go back on His promise;
And Abram said, Lord GOD, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?
And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir.
And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.
And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.
And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.
And he said unto him, I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.
And he said, Lord GOD, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?
And he said unto him, Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.
And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not.
And when the fowls came down upon the carcases, Abram drove them away.
And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him.
And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;
And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.
And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.
But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.
And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.
In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates.”
“Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.”But then, something occurred that shook Abram to the very depths of his being. God instructed Abram to set out an offering in a very special and distinctive way. How many folk would realise that this act formed the original basis for the two major symbols contained within both the Old and the New Covenants? In the dividing of the animals, their bodies were broken, and their blood was shed. This is one of the golden threads running throughout the whole of God’s Word, without which none of us would have any hope for the future. It was the broken bodies and the shed blood that formed the scenario for what was now to happen. The importance of this is surely evidenced by the fact that no sooner had Abram laid out this offering, than he had to immediately protect them from a deliberate attempt to destroy them. And don’t let us for an instant think that this attack stopped right then and there. The attack on these symbols of God’s everlasting Covenant has been going on ever since, as has the attack on the terms of the Covenants themselves. It was directly following his battle to protect these sacred symbols of our faith that we read;
“And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him.”The magnitude of what God was saying and doing quite clearly staggered the mind of Abram, and well it might have. It was in these circumstances that God gave Abram a very brief statement of what was to happen in the future to the seed which would come personally from him, and then put the seal upon this statement by personally passing between the pieces of the sacrifice, the broken bodies and the shed blood, in the form of fire. This was invariably the method used by God to indicate His acceptance and seal of that which had been offered. And on that basis, God reiterated His promise to Abram regarding His Covenant, especially as it related to the particular land which the Lord had promised him and his descendants. This formed the very basis of the heritage which was to be fulfilled in Abram’s seed, subsequently to became known as Israel. It’s interesting to note from our present position in time just how accurately the Lord’s Word has been fulfilled in regard to Israel’s occupation of the Promised Land. Within this century the true Israel people occupied it when it was delivered to us in 1917/18. Then in 1947/48 it was again taken from us by interlopers. Is it just a coincidence that the years of 1997/98 are the fiftieth years since this portion of our inheritance was taken from us? The 50th. year, being the first year of the succeeding 49 year Jubilee Cycle, is the Jubilee year when, in the terms of God’s Jubilee Law, Israel’s inheritance is required to be returned to them? As I write this, November/December 1997, the Middle East in again becoming a tinder box. So who knows what, if any, the consequences of the present position will be. We also especially note that the 1335 day/years from the deliverance of Jerusalem in 1917/18 brings us to 1992/93. This conclusion is based on the fact that this deliverance fulfilled the 1260 years of Daniel chapter 12, with the time factor of 1335 spoken of in the same chapter being 75 years later, leaving us with a further 7 years to 1999/2000, fulilling the 7 days warning God gave to Noah as one of the signs of the end of this age.
“The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand: . . . . .But let us not become complacent in our present position. One of the very worst factors in evil is that it is introduced into our minds and into our society in such a subtle way. We can become so used to it that we don’t realise that we have become supporters rather than opponents of the very evil which we so vehemently say we oppose. We just don’t realise that we have virtually joined forces with the enemy, even if unknowingly and unintentionally. There are forces in operation today that only for the grace of God, and the presence of God with us, would totally destroy us, as in fact they are designed to do. I can assure you that the various enemy agencies engaged in and promoting these Satanic forces are not joking in their fight against us. They have endless financial resources at their disposal by which they can do anything and everything, not only to destroy God’s Israel people, but to destroy the message of our identity. Isn’t it rather strange to note that we who know what’s going on, and do our best to disclose it, are accused - among many other things - of holding and supporting what they refer to contemptuously as “conspiracy theories”. Well, if we know about their conspiracy, then we are in very good company, because so does God. He makes this very plain in Psalm 83:1-5;
This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the na-tions.
For the LORD of hosts hath purposed, and who shall dis-annul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?”(Isa. 14: 24, 26-27).
“Keep not thou silence, O God: hold not thy peace, and be not still, O God.Now that’s what I call a conspiracy. It just happens to be tough luck for both our enemies and our detractors that we who know our Identity have the audacity to believe both the Old and the New Testaments, and more especially, we believe God.
For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head. They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones. They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee.”
“I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,This is what we call real commitment. And what was the basis for that commitment? It was that he had a great heaviness and continual sorrow in his heart for his own people. This feeling is echoed in Romans 10:1 where he says;
That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.
For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.”
“Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.”Surely Paul was not forgetful of the promise made to our Lord’s mother, Mary, when the angel said unto her, as recorded in Matthew 1:21;
“And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.”I think it is pretty safe to say that he was not speaking in the sense of modern church terminology associated with the word ‘saved’. He had no mental vision of people putting up their hands, or going down to the front to shake hands with the preacher. The word “saved” means ‘to be put into a place of safety’, a place, or position, where both as individuals and as a nation we would no longer experience the curse we have inher-ited as a result of sin. He longed - in fact ached - for that day when his brethren would be restored to that wonderful condition of perfect peace and prosperity. But more than that, he was distraught at the position of his people in light of the evils which had been allowed to come into their midst to destroy their relationship with their God. And he was not the first man to put his life on the line in this way. Moses was a classic example. We read of the episode in which he was involved in Exodus 32: verses 31 and 32;
“And Moses returned unto the LORD, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold.And what of Lot? In II Peter 2:7-8, (N.I.V.), we read of his commitment;
Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin--; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.”
“And if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men, for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard.”In the face of the recorded commitment of men such as these, men with the same human frailties as besets us all, how can we possibly excuse ourselves from following their examples as so many do today? What excuse do we plead before the Throne of Grace for being spiritual cowards? We need to really take to heart the reassurance of what Peter went on to say in verses 9 to 15;
“If this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment.As “Watchmen in Israel”, our responsibility is not to change the world, but to sound the warning. There are all too many Christians today, even in Identity circles, who seem to have nothing more on their minds but to be God’s appointed agents - or more sadly - self appointed agents, to be the instruments to correct everything before the Lord returns. I’m blessed if I can find anywhere in the Bible where we are told that when He returns He is going to be so relieved to find that everything has already been fixed up that He can sit back and relax, with His hands behind His head, and breathe a sigh of heart-felt relief.
This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority. Bold and arrogant, these men are not afraid to slander celestial beings;
yet even angels, although they are stronger and more powerful, do not bring slanderous accusations against such beings in the presence of the Lord.
But these men blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like brute beasts, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like beasts they too will perish.
They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, revelling in their pleasures while they feast with you.
With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed--an accursed brood!
They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness.”
The inheritance which God has ordained for His people is totally inviolate, and in subsequent articles in this series we will study, God willing, the extent of the future that lies before us.
Pleasefor quick link to next article in this Series.