Commonwealth Theology-An Introduction-is about 2,000 years overdue. It is fashioned to highlight the RESTORATION of the Two Houses of Israel: Judah and Ephraim. It emphasizes the RECONCILIATION of this One Stick in the hand of YHWH and of the coming Messianic Age. In so doing it unravels the two primary theological systems of our day: Replacement/Rejection Theology and Dispensationalism. It calls for a radical and agonizing reappraisal of why Paul uses Ephraim in Hosea to explain the plan and purpose of the Almighty in ...
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Commonwealth Theology-An Introduction-is about 2,000 years overdue. It is fashioned to highlight the RESTORATION of the Two Houses of Israel: Judah and Ephraim. It emphasizes the RECONCILIATION of this One Stick in the hand of YHWH and of the coming Messianic Age. In so doing it unravels the two primary theological systems of our day: Replacement/Rejection Theology and Dispensationalism. It calls for a radical and agonizing reappraisal of why Paul uses Ephraim in Hosea to explain the plan and purpose of the Almighty in displaying His mercy on us ALL, whereby ALL ISRAEL shall be delivered by the DELIVERER Who shall roar out of Zion. This is not Identity theology. This is the Awakening! "In the latter days you will consider it" (Jeremiah 30:24b; Ezekiel 37:15-28).When we read Ephesians 2:11-22 we understand that the expressions "without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel" and "now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God" (vss. 12 and 19) suggests to us that our previous status as "aliens, strangers, and foreigners" had everything to do with this "Commonwealth of Israel." But now, we who once were "without Christ" no longer have those designations, but are now considered as "fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God" (vss. 12 and 19).To assert that the "blood of Christ" (vs. 13) had nothing to do with this inclusion into the Commonwealth of Israel is a jaded reading of the text. There is the pernicious and stultifying tendency in the minds of some to suggest that entry into the Commonwealth of Israel is not at stake here. The notion that the blood of Christ brings us into Christ Jesus Himself-into His "one body through the cross" (vs. 16) and that this is separate and apart from bringing us, as well, into the Commonwealth of Israel, is simply NOT justified by the plain reading of the text.The context is altogether too clear in that the reference after the mentioning of the "one body through the cross" we read: "Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God" (vss. 16 and 19). What Paul is emphasizing is abundantly clear: Through the "blood of Christ" - "through the cross" (vss. 13, 16) we have moved from our previous status as aliens, strangers, and foreigners to full-blown legal citizens of the Commonwealth of Israel and are now within a new polity (state, authority, jurisdiction, administration-the amplified meaning of the word "commonwealth").Once we were "strangers from the covenants of promise" - we had "no hope" and we were "without God in the world" - but now through His blood we "have been brought near." "Near" to what? To the Commonwealth of Israel-"with Christ" we are included in the Commonwealth of Israel . . . without Christ we once were aliens. NO MORE; through His blood we who once "were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ" (vs. 13). Many prickly theological issues concerning Israel, the Ekklesia (aka, the Church) and the Nations is carefully laid; however, the text is decidedly introductory to this most ambitious effort.We delve into the the "breaking of the Two Staffs" - Beauty and Bonds or Favor and Unity as found in Zechariah 11 and how these Staffs played out in the Early Church in her relationship with Judah-Israel.An exhaustive commentary is given concerning the Two Witnesses of Revelation 11 - for they are corporate witnesses: Israel (the Two Olives Trees) and the Ekklesia (the Church) as the Two Lampstands. Issues related to the 33-years of deportations of the 10 Northern Tribes and how they were swallowed up of the Nations, by Assyria, and NOT by Judah. Why, at the "last days" the Sticks of Judah and Ephraim shall once again, in the hand of the LORD, be brought together!
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