The Tower of Babel and Jewish Election

[@MariaGomez-fc8el]

I wish you'd post more of these teachings, Bill! This is fantastic teaching. A huge blessing.

[@michaelpalmer3540]

This is excellent Bill. Most bible teachers and most believers do NOT understand this is the over arching message we see in the bible. There is not two testaments, but God's Word is one and has declared it from the beginning to the end. God Bless you this teaching.

[@MariaGomez-fc8el]

I love the Apocalytic Gospel podcast, but I get so much from these simpler teachings you've posted in the past. I hope you continue!

[@BillScofield]

Thanks for the feedback. I intend to record another batch and release them soon, God willing.

[@lancehawley8886]

Thank you so much for this Bill. This is explained well and I can understand it.

[@BillScofield]

I’m glad it is edifying, Lance. Bless you, bro.

[@markklafter6469]

I appreciate you so much, Bill. I have so many questions. Are all the families of the earth always blessed by Jewish election/chosenness, no matter whether Israel and the Jewish people are faithful or unfaithful to God? What happened to the great Jewish calling and momentum in the first century to take the gospel to the Gentile nations? Why did it apparently lose steam and fade away? Did the curses and judgments of Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 catch up with them, or did anti-Jewish theology combined with the development of the Gentile Christian Church crush and suffocate Jewish believers to the point where they gave up? You spoke of Jewish stewardship of the Torah in the age to come for the sake of all the nations. What is happening to Jewish stewardship now, in this age in which "blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in?" Please don't be overwhelmed by all of my questions. These issues have been on my mind quite a bit lately. Just give a summary answer that is doable for you. Thanks!!

[@BillScofield]

These would be much better discussed over coffee, dear brother. I wish that were an option. God willing, another time. :-) In the meantime, I'll give these a stab on here. 1) Are all the families of the earth always blessed by Jewish election/chosenness, no matter whether Israel and the Jewish people are faithful or unfaithful to God? To some degree. The blessing intended to restore and reconcile the nations is to learn the ways of the Almighty. God entrusted the oracles and the instruction to the Holy nation, and to the degree that the families of the earth understand and walk in them then they are blessed in a sort of 'down-payment' sense. Certainly not the fullness, but clearly a distinction between those that do and those that do not. 2) What happened to the great Jewish calling and momentum in the first century to take the gospel to the Gentile nations? Why did it apparently lose steam and fade away? Did the curses and judgments of Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 catch up with them, or did anti-Jewish theology combined with the development of the Gentile Christian Church crush and suffocate Jewish believers to the point where they gave up? This one is obviously very complicated. Historically, 135AD seemed to play a significant role. The failed revolt with Bar Kokhba certainly drove a deep wedge between the non-Nazarene Jewish community and disciples of Yeshua - both the Jews and the Gentiles. Between the hostility of these Jewish leaders over time and the ultimate conversion of the movement to something of a Roman Imperial cult in the 4th century, the mainstream expression of being a disciple of the Messiah was largely (though still not entirely) severed from its Jewish roots. 3) What is happening to Jewish stewardship now, in this age in which "blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in?" My view is that the Jewish community is but an apprentice right now. As I mentioned above, there are ways in which the nations are being blessed, but these certainly fall short of the knowledge of the Lord's glory filling the whole earth. While there are some beautiful pictures of many Jewish people stewarding this knowledge of God to bring light to Gentile darkness/ignorance, ultimately, the aim of the oracles is to see the whole nation occupied with the dissemination of the oracles of God so that the nations might return to their Maker and be healed. Sometimes I read passages like Zechariah 8 and I cry in anticipation of it. May it happen in our day! Grace and peace to you, brother.

[@markklafter6469]

Thank you for your concise and cogent answers Bill. They help. Reading Zechariah 8 helps too.

[@chuckabean1]

The main point I got out of this was that Jewish choseness is not for them, it is for the nations. God has a covenant with Abraham's descendants but its ultimate purpose is the covenant and the choseness is for the nations. It makes so much sense because as Jewish people will testify this choseness has often felt more like a burden than a blessing. Receiving covenant discipline seems totally out of proportion to what the nations get, when you forget that the point of your calling is His glory among the nations. (Also as an aside and in conjunction with the answer to Mark Klafter's excellent questions in the comments, This view, this teaching, this understanding lines up perfectly with the Bible but it is a polar opposite to 1600 years of "church" teaching. That is why to even make one point feels like you are swimming upstream against a very strong current, only the by the grace and mercy of God are these truths revealed."

[@BillScofield]

Amen