John B (24 nov 2011) 'Re: Soon"
Soon,
As God knows every hair on your head he also
knows the lineage of every Jewish tribe from
their origins until the present time. The family
tree (so to speak) of all the twelve tribes from
their inception until the present. They have
specific DNA and God made a covenant with them
first and it appears He will harvest 12,000
virgins from every one of these twelve tribes to
be His first fruits and to be His personal
entourage with His name written on their
foreheads. In my opion He will choose the "cream
of the crop" from all of the recorded Jewish
history.
You asked if it was possible that the 144k
were composed of youth from both Jews and
gentiles. My answer would be no, in that God was
very specific in the description of these 144k
in Rev.7:5-8 as being specifically from the
twelve "Jewish" tribes and highlighted this by
listing all twelve by name. As I mentioned in my
prior article, considering the limited number of
Jews present today on the planet and the moral
climate we live in, it seems like a stretch that
we could find 12k virgins from all of the twelve
tribes listed in Revelation 7. That's why I
believe that at the rapture not only are the
Christ believing gentiles and messianic Jews
resurrected from their graves but also the non
messianic Jews (as per Ezek.37). And God will
have had centuries of Jews to pick His entourage
of 144k as His first fruits. No doubt some of
His picks will be from those who are alive
today.
You mentioned that we (gentiles) were grafted
into God's tree (so to speak) when we accepted
Jesus Christ and imply that somehow that makes
us Jews. I disagree. Just like you can graft
different varieties of apples onto a host tree
it doesn't mean they loose their individual
characteristics. They maintain their individual
attributes and both receive their sustenance
from the host tree and its roots. In like
manner, we as Gentiles in accepted Jesus Christ
were grafted into God's tree along with the Jews
that were already there. Now this gave (we) the
gentiles a path to salvation that we never had.
But again, we are separate and distinct from the
Jews.
Actually there are four distinct groups to
acknowledge (and three separate outcomes but
that's a story for another day)
1) The original and present Jews who had and
have a unique, special and separate covenant
relationship with God and as per Ezek.37 will be
resurrected and maintain said covenant
forevermore.
2) Messianic Jews. These include Paul and the
most of the apostles, many or most of the
original church (for centuries) and the
messianic Jewish converts of the latter years.
3) Gentiles (all non Jews) who have accepted
Jesus Christ as their personal savior
4) Gentiles who have not accepted Jesus
Christ
Hope this answers some of your
questions..........it's an abbreviated version
of a long and complex story
Blessings........John B