Transcript of Derek Prince’s teaching titled ‘Israel In The End Times’ which is Part 4 of the series called Where Are We In Bible Prophecy?
Listen to the MP3 Audio here:
TRANSCRIPT:
Derek Prince – Bible Teacher
Psalm 33:8–12: ‘Let all the earth fear the LORD. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast. The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect. The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people whom He has chosen as His own inheritance.’ Amen.
So now we come to the message.
You may observe that I follow the example of Mahesh and I’m wearing a suit. I really respect Mahesh’s decision but it also happens to be the warmest thing I can find.
So we’re going to begin now with the theme: ISRAEL IN THE END TIME.
WHO IS ISRAEL?
And first of all we need to define and identify Israel which has been the source of endless confusion. Unbelievable confusion. Especially in the light of the fact that the Bible is so clear.
Let me say who Israel is or are. They are the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The nation that came to be known by the second name given to their forefather Jacob, that is Israel.
Now in bringing forth this nation God twice made a decision to set aside one person and choose another. Of the sons of Abraham, He set aside Ishmael and chose Isaac. Of the sons of Isaac, He set aside Esau, and chose Jacob. So we have to be very precise: Israel is the nation descended from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
God also made provision for people from other nations to be united with the people of Israel and to be reckoned as Israelites. And that is still true today. And you’ve just had one standing before you. My wife Ruth who was born a Gentile married a Jew and for that reason converted to Judaism and became legally Jewish. She did that, I may add, before she knew Jesus as Savior and Messiah. And in her Israeli identity card she is classified as Jewish.
A lot of people don’t realize this. There has always been a way for people of other nations to become legally and scripturally identified and accepted as part of Israel.
Now the thing that I want to say again, I’ve already said it once. According to the clear language of the Bible, the Church of Jesus Christ is NOT Israel. The phrase spiritual Israel is never used in the New Testament nor is the phrase the new Israel. That language goes back to church fathers such as Oregon and Augustine. And they were free to say what they had to say but we have to judge everything I believe by Scripture.
If you’ve ever studied Augustine’s view on sex, I think you’d agree that we don’t want to accept everything that Augustine said. I don’t know whether you know it but by his standards all sex was a sin. It was a pardonable sin if its sole purpose was to procreate children otherwise it was an unpardonable sin.
So I mean if you can accept that you may be able to accept what he says about Israel. I cannot accept either, but his name is greatly respected and I don’t want to detract from the good that he said and that he did.
As I said in this book, there are 77 examples of the word Israel or Israelite. Now since this book was published I have to acknowledge this with some embarrassment that I’ve discovered two more. So there are altogether that I know of 79. But never are they is the word Israel used as a name for the church never once in 79 time. In all but two of those occasions it’s used in exactly the same way as it is in the Old Testament. In fact nine passages are direct quotations from the Old Testament. And in every one of them the usage in the New Testament is the same as the usage in the Old.