I just finished reading the autobiography, Bibi: My Story. It is a look at the life of Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel. I enjoyed the book because it gave me some understanding of the government, politics, and scientific achievements of the tiny nation of Israel – past and present. Netanyahu says that Israel is at the top in defense and prevention of cyber-attacks. It also helped in my understanding of the geography of that tiny piece of land. Those who believe that God has never changed His plan for the Jews seemed to catch their breath when Israel was declared a nation in 1948. Zionism, which is the reestablishment of Israel as a nation, is a remarkable story. It may be one reason God raised up America since present day Israel may not have happened without the signature of President Harry Truman. As the old saying goes, God works in mysterious ways.
Many believers today fail to separate the Jews from the church and the age of law from the age of grace. I consider myself a historic, premillennial dispensationalist. I believe that we are living in the mystery age of the church, possibly Laodicea (Eph. 2:13-3:11). I also believe that we live in a spiritual parabolic form of the kingdom (Matt. 13:1-58). The Old Testament prophets did not speak of this church age. The only way that one can find the church in the Old Testament is to spiritualize or allegorize the Old Testament texts. If the view I hold is correct, then Christ is still in the process of building and equipping His church (Matt. 16:18). But He will one day remove the church, and His kingdom will come upon this earth (1 Thess. 4:16-18; 1 Cor. 15:51-58). The age of the kingdom (with Jews at the head of the table) and the age of the church are not interchangeable. This would be to wrongly divide the Word.
The requirements of Christ’s Sermon on the Mount can only be accomplished in this age through the power and ministry of the Holy Spirit. Yet the Holy Spirit is mentioned nowhere in the sermon because His coming to indwell all believers was yet future (John 14:16-17, 16:7-14). Jesus had announced that He was returning to the Father, but He promised not to leave His followers in spiritual bankruptcy.
“And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you” (John 14:16-17)
“A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” (John 14:20)
Jesus named three spiritual transactions that would happen on a special day, which I believe to be the Day of Pentecost. Jesus will be seated at the Father’s right hand. The believer will be spiritually immersed (baptized) into Christ (the church). And Christ will be spiritually placed into the believer, giving the power to live a Christ-like life in a hell-like world. This is indeed amazing truth.
Jesus concluded by saying, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him” (John 14:21). Said simply, the Holy Spirit would come at the time appointed by the Father when the Son in His glorified body departed this earth (Acts 1:1-11). There is no question that the Spirit has been with every believer in every generation of man but not in them.