| Poster | Thread | HomeFree89
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Joined: 2007/1/21
Posts: 797
Indiana
| | Question about OT Prophecies | | Can we apply them to America today since most were specifically meant for Israel?
Jordan
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Jordan
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|  2007/9/2 15:54 | Profile |
| | Re: Question about OT Prophecies | | Which particular prophecy are you talking about? |
| | 2007/9/2 20:12 | | HomeFree89
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Joined: 2007/1/21
Posts: 797
Indiana
| | Re: | | Quote:
moe_mac wrote:
Which particular prophecy are you talking about?
I didn't have any in mind really.
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Jordan
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| | 2007/9/3 10:18 | Profile | IRONMAN
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Joined: 2004/6/15
Posts: 1924
IN HEAVENLY PLACES WITH JESUS
| | Re: | | Greetings in Jesus' Name by Whose Blood we are Saved.AMEN.
brethren, i read Lamentations 1 vs 1-3 and believe it to be applicable to us now.
Grace and Peace are ours in Jesus.AMEN.
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Farai Bamu
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| | 2007/9/6 19:37 | Profile |
| | Re: Question about OT Prophecies | | Quote:
HomeFree89 wrote:
Can we apply them to America today since most were specifically meant for Israel?
Jordan
Hi Bro. Jordan
I believe that the Word of God is applicable in every age and to all who are open to hear what He is saying through the words.
You are right that many or most of the original prophecies were first given to Israel, but that doesn't exhaust the meaning or application.
I believe that the Lord can use the same words that were originally for Israel only (although, as Paul said, "to the Jew FIRST") to speak concerning modern nations, (we're not all American - don't leave the rest of us out!) or individuals or the Church.
To give two personal examples, He spoke to me concerning both my parents through scriptures referring originally to Israel. I wouldn't have dared to apply them so out of context, and they certainly shouldn't normally be taken to apply to an individual, but I have no doubt at all that was His word to me at that time.
The first was concerning my father who was a backslider of many years, (although he was still rigidly moral and "upright", just had no real time for God in everyday life). The bolded words are what the Lord actually spoke into my mind.
Isaiah 57
[i][color=000099]17 ¶ For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth, and smote him: I hid me, and was wroth, and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart.
18 [b]I have seen his ways, and will heal him[/b]: I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners.
19 I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the LORD; and I will heal him.[/color][/i]
And when my mother was ill with a stroke(she was a true Christian, and her faith shone bright at the end of her life, even though she couldn't speak clearly any more) , He spoke to me, about her, from her favourite Psalm, 46
[i][color=000099]Ps 46:5 God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early.[/color][/i]
I believe the Lord also uses scriptural examples and illustrations and aplies them to present national and international situations.
One example (I didn't personally have this, and not all would agree that it was a true word from God) was during the first Gulf War. Apparently it might have been possible to deal with Saddam Hussein then, perhaps send special forces to assasinate him, but political influences allowed him to escape.
The Scripture was 1Kings 20:42
[i][color=003399]42 And he said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Because thou hast let go out of thy hand a man whom I appointed to utter destruction, therefore thy life shall go for his life, and thy people for his people.[/color][/i]
Blessings
Jeannette |
| | 2007/9/7 16:58 | | paula4jc
Member
Joined: 2005/1/8
Posts: 132
| | Re: Question about OT Prophecies | | The sight of Third World left my little daughter very distraught this summer. She said, she was told in a dream to read the book of Habakkuk. She explains many current events to me from the reading of this book, which I didnt glean in my own reading. I also didnt realize that God said it is for the end time, until she brought it to my attention.
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Paula
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| | 2007/9/7 19:05 | Profile | Rahman
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Joined: 2004/3/24
Posts: 1374
| | Re: Question about OT Prophecies | |
When i read OT prophecies of warning regarding a pending correction by God upon His people Israel, because of their indulgences into carnalities not sanctioned by Him, or the faith attached to Him, i know that these prophecies are pointedly directed at Israel, God's chosen people, the nation ... But the following explanation is also how i can (and do) see many of these sames prophecies as applicable to God's people today, in particular regarding America ...
First off in my reasoning Israel did not choose God, God chose them as His people thru which to bring forth His beloved Son, He who did fulfill God's promise to Abraham that One would come thru his lineage that would be the instrument of blessing to ALL mankind (Gentiles), so that upon Christ death at calvary all men would now have the ability to choose God via Jesus (and yes i technically understand Romans 9 but in OT Israel's time one was born into the chosen, wherein after the NT one isn't aware of choseness until after we chose Jesus) ...
Scripture says God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, meaning that His mandates, commandments, and His expectation of our following them to the letter, has not, and does not change regardless of whether He choose you (as in Israel's case) or we choose Him (as in the case of the Church) ... So how might OT warning to Israel (the nation) apply to Christian nations today, now particularly America?
i see it like this, a nation as a political kingdom/empire/government (which scripture says all belong to satan) may not technically be Christian, but a nation full of professing Christians may not only be seen as such by non-Christian nations, but is often times seen as so of itself, and even speak of itself as a Christian nation (tho this is no longer popular) ... History shows that this was much the case in Europe, beginning with Christ and Christianity being adopted as the official God and faith (Catholicism) of the Holy Roman Empire (the marriage of Church and State) - in effect man in form of nationhood choosing Jesus ... The same occured after the Protestant Reformation, with England eventually becoming the most prominent Western European power claiming not only Christ, but the mantle of being His new chosen nation (of which they've subsequently divorced) ... Now it's America as the last nation (tho with a war raging within for a complete and official divorce from Jesus also) ...
i think once a nation chooses to carry the name of Christ, and the faith, it puts itself into direct conflict with what God expects of it/us spiritually, and what it/we want to do in pusuits of our own selfish carnality, or "how to balance the laws of slow Providence with the desire for fast prosperity" ... It becomes "how can we have our cake (Jesus) and eat it too (prosperity)? ... The answer of course is it's an impossibility for one or the other has to win out ... Christ Himself said of this, "You cannot serve God and mammon, for you will either love the one and hate the other" ... i think this is particularly the dilema of all Japhethic nations bearing the name of Christ, Europe first & now America ... i think in regards Western Europe (EU) it's obvious which has won, and here in America i believe God's about to graciously implode the idol of our economy so as to give us a renewed chance of refocusing on true worship ... All people/nations are prone to wickedness and so have problems, but i think to sully Christ name in escalating blatantness makes the warnings of God to OT Israel aprapos to a still Christ professing majority in the U.S. - much in the way that bro Rookie was used (i believe of Him) to point out via Amos ...
[b]The Time of Japheth's Troubles ...[/b]
https://www.sermonindex.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=19397&forum=35&3
i too think of the prophecies in Ezekiel, that speak of what God thought of those priests back then (pastors, etc. today) who dealt shadily with the nation, and what He would do to them in correction, tumbling their false walls ... i see those same warnings as applicable today, as i don't find them to far off the mark of His warnings to His Church in Revelation chapters 2 & 3, particularly to Ephesus, and especially to Laodicea ...
The bottom line for me is i'm beginning to understand the spiritual blindness of so many saints here in America ... Few even see our deplorable spiritual condition as indication of our salt having lost its savor, or make the connection to our increasingly failing social and economic situation ... Most never connect that as supposed salt and light we're at the very core of the problem ... Many think the God of the OT is a different God than in the NT, and that the OT was strictly for THEM (the exception being Malachi and the tithe to get rich scheme) ... Many of us come down hard on Israel as a stiff necked people deserving of all they got, but are completely oblivious to our parallel behavior as the Church ... And worst of all the majority of us think that we're gonna escape all hardship, and faith testing, here in the States because we're America, or if we're truly living in the last days we'll be Raptured ... Few ever really concider just what it'll mean for the Church to become ready for Christ, that we'll have to be freed from all spot and blemish prior, all the while praying to God that we not be amongst the offences having to be expunged ...
For me nothing aligns NT blessings into proper spiritual perspective like the OT writings, particularly those of the prophets ...
Blessings in He who has raised us up sons and daughters in the benefit and admonition of His entire Testament ...
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| | 2007/9/9 11:26 | Profile |
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