I Once Thought God Had One Plan For The Church And One Plan For Israel

One of the dominant teachings in churches and seminaries is God has one plan for the church and another plan for Israel.

Once the church age is complete, God will complete his plan for Israel.

Once God completes his plan for Israel, God will establish the eternal age.

The teaching goes like this:

- Prior to God completing his plan for Israel, he will first complete his plan for the church, ending the church age.

- God will then resume his plan for Israel.

- God's plan for Israel began with Abraham, continued under Moses and the law, but has been delayed until God completes his plan for the church.

- God’s plan for Israel was delayed when Israel rejected Jesus as the Christ and the new covenant established in his blood.

- The delay is the period of time between the 483 years in Daniel 9 and the final 7 years to occur after the rapture of the church.

- The church is a mystery according to Ephesians 3, and, therefore, was unknown until it was revealed to Paul.

- Once God's plan for the church is complete, it will be raptured, then God will complete his plan for Israel where millions will die in the great tribulation.

- Israel as a nation will believe in Jesus as the Christ, though many in Israel will die in the great tribulation.

- During this time, the Antichrist will appear and create a peace treaty allowing Israel to rebuld the temple in Jerusalem.

- The Antichrist will set himself up in the temple, claiming to be God.

- During this time, many people will receive the mark of the beast.

- The Battle of Armageddon is when the armies of the world surround Jerusalem, but Jesus returns and destroys the armies and the Antichrist.

- Jesus then reigns from the rebuilt temple and sets up a 1000 year reign on earth where believers with eternal, transformed bodies live among unbelievers and believers with physical, decaying bodies.

- The 1000 reign will culminate with the Great White Throne Judgment where believers will live on the new earth and unbelievers will burn in hell forever.

This is commonly taught in many churches and seminaries all over the world.

This is what I believed and taught for over 40 years until I learned from personal study of the Bible and the Greek language the word church is not in the Bible.

The accurate translation of the Greek is assembly not church.

The mystery in Ephesians 3 is not the mystery of the church but the mystery of the assembly.

The assembly is explained by Paul in Ephesians 2.

It is the assembly of believing Jews and Gentiles into one spiritual temple of grace where God lives by his Spirit.

The physical shadows of the old covenant of law, such as the temple, gave way to the spiritual realties of the new covenant of grace.

There is not one plan for the church and one plan for Israel.

There is no church age.

Having a spiritual assembly called the spiritual temple is God's one eternal plan from before time began to establish his presence in all nations.

This spiritual assembly has no end.

It only grows throughout the nations as more and more people hear the good news of God's grace and place their faith in Jesus.

Concerning the events mentioned above, they occurred from the time of Jesus' ascension until AD 70 when the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed.

There was no Battle of Armageddon.

Armageddon was a valley outside Jerusalem where the armies of the Roman Empire gathered to plan their attack on Jerusalem.

They executed their plan when Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed.

Jesus said this destruction would occur in the generation of those who heard him foretell of this destruction.

The Hebrew and Greek manuscripts do not have the word hell.

The Hebrew and Greek words are Sheol, Hades, and Gehenna, referring to death and the grave (Sheol/Hades) and the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple where many in Israel died when Jerusalem and the temple were burned to the ground in AD 70.

This burning is Gehenna.

There is so much more to the biblical narrative that clearly shows there is no temporal church age but an eternal age of grace.

God did end his plan for old covenant, physical Israel in AD 70.

His predetermined, eternal plan of his spiritual temple continues today.

To learn more about this, you may enjoy Brad’s book, Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream: The Statue, The Stone, and The Kingdom of Grace.

CLICK HERE to view all of Brad’s books.