His People?

“She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” (Matt. 1:21)

​This article is being written a week before Christmas and the above verse will be recited, read, remembered, and sadly, glossed over as Christmas draws closer.  I wonder if many, professing faith in the Savior, have actually contemplated what this verse is saying.  Even as a young teenager, this verse gave me problems and caused me to think.  You see, I was raised in the Southern Baptist denomination which believes that the Jewish people are God’s chosen people (“his people” by implication) and that due to their unbelief, stubbornness, and not getting with God’s program, will burn in eternal fire.   I always wondered why God would choose such a stupid people.  Then, I began to wonder what good it was to be God’s “chosen people” if the overwhelming majority will ultimately not be His people.  If so few of God’s “chosen people” will be saved; how could the announcement of the Savior’s birth, truly be a “message of great joy”?  Something was certainly amiss.

​Does anyone remember, President Obama recently remarking, “ISIS is not getting stronger; we have containedthem.”?  Now, I remember the incredulity (and rightfully so) that that comment was met with.  Was it just wishful thinking?  Was it an outright lie?  Was it the comment of an insane person?  Was it the comment of a person saying something he knew to be patently absurd but (knowing the ignorance of his audience) decided to make it anyway?  My question is, “how do mainstream Christians, who believe that the Jews are God’s chosen people and believe that God will ultimately lose the overwhelming majority of “His people”; not regard the declaration in Matthew 1:21 in the same way as the claim made by Obama on the state of ISIS?”

​As a percentage of the people of Israel, going back to the time of Abraham, through the years of Israel’s idolatry, stubbornness, rejection of the Messiah, and all the way to the present; how do we regard Matthew 1:21?  Who would be generous enough to say that as many as 5% of all the Jews of all time will ultimately be saved from their sins; given the mainstream teaching from evangelical pulpits?  

​It is my conviction that people simply gloss over this verse and ultimately do not give it any thought whatsoever.  The Christians who do think about it objectively (I think) have to be confused.  If eternal torment is real and salvation from sin can only be rectified by “accepting Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior” in this life, then God’s chosen people are in a hell of a predicament (forgive the pun)!

​What solution do mainstream Christians use to legitimize the prophecy of Matthew 1:21?  Most, simply ignore it, except as a part of the “Christmas story”.  Some ignore the immediatecontext and assume that “his people” refers to Christians.  This interpretation, however; is not possible given the immediate context, the context of Matthew’s gospel, or the context of the Hebrew scriptures.  This is simply the basest form of replacement theology.  This theological doctrine believes that God has chosen to renege on His promises to Israel, due to unbelief on their part, and that He has changed the definition of “His people” to be defined as “those people who make a wise decision to cooperate with Him in His plan”.  Replacement Theology completely ignores and disregards the Apostle Paul’s national scope of Romans 11.  Please take a look, below, at Romans 11:11-12:

“I say then, Have they (Israel) stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.12 Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness?”

​In addition, we are told by John (whose gospel was a history of the Lord’s earthly ministry) that Jesus was rejected by “His own”.  John, in John 1:11 defines “His own” as those Jesus was commissioned to and who “received Him not”.  This, by definition, negates Christians being the “His people” of Matthew 1:21).

Paul was commissioned by the risen and glorified Lord to carry the gospel of God’s grace to a different group of people; a people who God washed His hands of in Genesis 12.  Has God abandoned His chosen people?  Let’s see:

“And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: 27 For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.

28 As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the father's sakes. 29 For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. 30 For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: 31 Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. 32 For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.” (Rom.11:26-32)

​Christians who hold fervently to the doctrine of salvation via free will jump through all kinds of hoops and do linguistic gymnastics and outright twisting of the plain reading of the passage to fit their false paradigm.  How can you honestly read the above passage and reach the conclusion that:

a. Israel had an honest free will “opportunity” to accept their Messiah.

b. Israel’s rejection of their Messiah was due solely to their obstinence and unbelief

c. “they” (Israel) whose sins, God will take away; somehow become the “your” (Gentile believers) by God jumping ship and abandoning unbelieving Israel; only to save believers.

d. God being merciful to “all” somehow constitutes being merciful to a small remnant.

Words either mean things or they don’t.  This is especially true when it comes to the authority of scripture and whether or not we can believe God’s promises.  If God does not save all of His chosen people, what confidence can we have?

Christians, (who profess to believe scripture), are essentially,” religious agnostics” when it comes to what the scriptures actually say about not only unbelieving Israel, but unbelievers in general.  Those, like me, who hold to the theology that God, through His Son, will eventually reconcile all of creation to Himself, are condemned for “making a mockery of God’s word”; when in reality, we are the only people taking Him as His word.  This reconciliation has nothing to do with the actions of those being reconciled but was instead was the act of one which undid the act of another.  This undoing of the condition of condemnation is just as universal as the act which brought the condemnation in the first place.  

“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: 13 (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless deathreigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. 15 But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. 16 And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. 17 For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.) 18 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.” (Rom. 5:12-18)

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​So, what is the primary reason that Christians do not believe this?  The simple answer is that God has not given (Eph. 2:8-9) them the faith to believe it.  He will one day.  Again, this part of God’s plan in concluding the “all” in unbelief, so that He can be merciful to “all”.  Relatively speaking, the reason that most Christians do not believe that unbelieving Israel and unbelievers in general will be reconciled (notwithstanding God saying that He will reconcile them) is due to not studying diligently when it comes to the mistranslation of certain words in the Bible and Pagan concepts forced into the Bible and Christian doctrinal creeds.  

​The best example I can think of is how the Pagan concept of “hel!” has been adopted into the Christian religion via tradition and the acceptance of myth (2 Timothy 4:4) as fact.  What affect has this had?  The belief that all will not be reconciled back to the Father is a denial of the gospel.  Let me say that again.  The belief that all will not be reconciled back to the Father is a denial of the gospel.  By very subtle means, belief in eternal torment or the slightly less heinous belief in annihilation causes one to believe that man either must cooperate in his own saving; (making Jesus’ work necessary but not enough) or it causes one to believe that God did not send His Son to die for all but only for an elect group.

​Calvinism and Arminianism both disbelieve scripture and both disbelieve it because every doctrinal concept they view (judgment, predestination, salvation, justification, reconciliation, etc.) is seen through the lens of an unscriptural concept; “hel!”. However, the Western concept of “hel!” is completely foreign to scripture.  It takes work, but, an honest, contextual word study will show that this concept of “hel!” is unfounded and unscriptural.  Judgment, God’s judgment, is very much real but serves a practical purpose.  Unfortunately, people tend to mistake His purposes for His goal.

​As a friend of mine pointed out, “the Bible is a love letter, not a horror story.”  Beyond that, it is the account of how God will magnify and glorify Himself through His Son, Who He gave a task which will be (and already is in the foreknowledge of God) completely successful.  The good shepherd will not rest until all of the lost sheep are found and true to the work of a good Shepherd, will not depend on the lost sheep to find Him.