James & Tess Arendt
Even after all these years, I was still under the delusion of that damnable doctrine of concision--part Works and part Grace--in the case of Israel!--Partly flesh, and partly spiritual, and part to the spiritual children the promises were going to be fulfilled. That damn doctrine had been so drilled into me by so many false prophets--among them the Scofield Bible--and my own fleshly desire to see a fleshly fulfillment--to satisfy the flesh! Being part-Jewish, my flesh still wanted to see the Jews partly saved by partly interpreted promises, partly because of their being Jews in the flesh! I wanted to see them saved spiritually, of course, and I knew they couldn't really be saved spiritually without accepting Jesus. But I still had that damnable doctrine of devils drilled into me by that damnable churchy Works religion--the Concision of the Scribes and Pharisees of Christianity--that the Jews were going to be saved in the flesh because they were flesh-and-blood Jews, because of the promises I thought God had made to flesh-and-blood Israel. Of course, I knew they could only be saved in the Spirit by the Spirit, but I still thought God was going to fulfill all those wonderful promises that he made to Israel--to a flesh-and-blood Israel--to the natural children of Abraham--the so-called Jews!--And that's not what he was talking about!
If you haven't got the truth, if you haven't got the right interpretation, but you sincerely desire to know the truth--you honestly want to know what is right--God sometimes has to take away from you what you think is right before He can show you the truth! He has to smash your idols!--And He's just smashing one of the biggest idols I ever had--The Jews! I almost worshipped them! I had idolized Israel--the LAND of Israel the carnal country! They were my own flesh and blood, and I was proud of them, and I bragged about them! And the Devil built me up for the biggest letdown I ever had! I had gotten so high on that misinterpretation, that false doctrine, that when the Lord just now yanked the rug out from underneath me, I was just left hanging in mid-air!--And I've just come crashing down--and I'm all broken up!--I'm absolutely shattered! The Lord had to let me land right here in Israel in pieces! I was whole when I landed here, but when I hit, God broke me! Thank God He did! For whosoever shall fall upon that rock shall be broken, but upon whom that rock shall fall, he shall be ground to powder. Thank God He didn't have to do that to me! He just let me land here and break, and He kept me here until I got a good dose of it! Otherwise, when I first discovered the horrible mistake we'd made, I would have turned tail and run, and gotten out of here as fast as I could, I was so sick of the situation--so sick of my own self and my own misunderstanding--my own mistake!--So sick of the so-called Jews--so sick of this carnal Israel!
They're more religiously system than the USA! I just wanted to get the Heaven out of here! I felt like I got landed in Hell, instead of the Heaven I was expecting! But the Lord just let the money dribble in--just barely enough to get by on, and never enough to leave the country. Then when we had enough money to leave, we didn't have the shots required by law in order to buy our ticket to leave, and when we got the shots, I still wanted to take a week or two to at least tour the country and see the sights!--And I got so sick I couldn't even get out of bed! Then yesterday, when the Lord healed me, and I felt so good and climbed the steps on Mount Carmel last night for a little exercise, and thought, "Wow! I'm feeling good enough now to get out and see Israel!"--And I promptly landed back in bed sick again! I don't even think the Lord wants me to go out and see the country. Maybe He knows the sight would make me even sicker! Sightseeing would make me even madder! It would be better to remember it as I've seen it in the Bible, or better to remember it even from the pictures I've seen of it when the Arabs had it, and the English had it, and when my grandfather visited here. It was more like the land of Jesus then, than it is now. It's more like the U.S. now--all these fancy new buildings and crowded highways and noisy vehicles and stinking, smoky, polluted air, and names changed, and the people changed, and the whole atmosphere and whole spirit changed! Feels horrible to me! I can hardly stand it! I just feel like I gotta get out of here--worse than I used to feel that I had to come! God gave me the desires of my heart, but sent leanness to my soul. He gave me what I wanted because I insisted. Now I can't stand the sight: It makes me sick to see what's happened to His land--not the rebuilding and the development and the blossoming as the rose--that's all beautiful, marvelous, wonderful!
There's no worse delusion than to discover you've been fooled--you've been had--you've been taken--that the great ten dollar bill you thought you had, turned out to be a phony, a fake, and a counterfeit!--That beautiful gold ring you bought in Mexico at such a bargain, or that gorgeous diamond, turned your finger green the next day! You thought you were getting a real bargain, and it fell apart by the time you got it home!
I had to come here (Israel) -- to be here -- I had to stick my nose in it to sense the spirit of it all--that it was phony, counterfeit--a gorgeous imitation of the real thing--that it was purely carnal, purely fleshly, purely self-righteous, pure works, with all glory to the arm of flesh! It has nothing to do with God or His Son Jesus, whom they don't even know! A fulfillment of prophecy? Yes! But a fulfillment of the promises to His Children? No! There's a tremendous difference that I never discerned before!
Prophecies are fulfilled about all kinds of people that god prophesies about--even the wicked--mere predictions of the future about what is going to happen, including what is happening here, and I'm now not too sure about some of those that we thought were being fulfilled here! I've got to study the Bible all over again to figure it out, now that the Lord has given us the key, which was there all the time--that Paul harped on all the time--but I really didn't want to hear it when it came to this particular situation: THE JEWS IN ISRAEL! But the promises of God are something else!--Promises of blessing and good and Salvation--these are made only to his real children--the spiritual children by Grace! Not of works, lest any man should boast, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord! I thought Paul was pretty rabid on the doctrine and kinda wore out the subject--that the Promises were not made to Abraham's children after the flesh--but the Children by Faith--after the Spirit--saved by Grace through Faith in Jesus Christ, God's Only Son…!
Sometimes i think even Paul weakened a little bit on the subject, because he himself was a flesh-and-blood Israelite of the Israelites, and because of his love for his Jewish brethren and his desire to see them saved--that somehow God was yet going to save them in spite of their sins!
He's not going to save them any more than anybody else! It's a lie! He doesn't love them any more than He does anybody else! For God is no respecter of persons--flesh-and-blood persons--flesh-and-blood Israel!
There's no such thing as a Jewish Christian, any more than there's such a thing as a Gentile Christian, or a black Christian, or a white Christian, or a male, or a female Christian. Neither is there any such thing as a bond Christian or a free Christian, for all are one in Christ Jesus! You are only a Christian--and that's all you are--and if you're a Christian, you're neither male nor female, bond nor free, Jew nor Gentile! YOU'RE ONLY A CHRISTIAN IN THE REALM OF THE SPIRIT! That's all you are in God's eyes--just a Christian! He doesn't see your color, your nationality, or your sex or any other damned fleshly characteristic! That's downright damnable devilish discrimination! God sees nothing but the blood of Jesus Christ and the blood-washed soul! I'm determined to see no man among you save Jesus only! It's only Jesus! That's the only difference God sees! You either belong to Jesus or you don't! To hell with all the rest of the differences, discriminations, and the prejudices! You're either saved or you're lost, either God's or the Devil's; you're either a Christian, or you're a Jew or any other damned unsaved person! You can't be both!
If you're a Christian, that's all God sees! He only sees Jesus! He only sees Jesus in you--that's all. It doesn't matter what color you are, or what sex you are or what social status you are, or what damned father you had!--He's your Father and you're His Son, and that's all that matters, because of Jesus! All glory be to Jesus!
And if you give the slightest bit, one infinitesimal, slight fraction of an iota of credit to the fact that you are Jew or anything else and that makes you little more Christian than somebody else, or a little more in line for God's blessing--you're deceived and a liar, because there is no such thing!
You're either a child of God or a child of the Devil! There's no kind of in-between class called Jews, that are just part-saved, and God's going to partly bless them and partly curse them just because they're Jews, so-called, the natural children of Abraham--Israel, so-called!
Just like some of these Jewish Christians I've met--just like I myself have felt for years, that somehow just because I'm a little bit Jewish after the flesh, somehow a little bit more Christian than other Christians--"I'm a very special kind of Christian. I'm a partly-Jewish Christian, so I'm bound to get the blessing of God one way or the other, a little bit more than you poor totally Gentiles!"
What a lie of the Devil! What is it the Scripture says anyhow? "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." Even the 29th verse--"And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." Oh, Wow!--Begin with the whole Bible! This subject is almost without beginning or end, it's so big! But look at the 26th verse of the same chapter--Galatians 3: "For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." Verse 27--"For as many of you as have been baptised into Christ have put on Christ." That doesn't mean water baptism, either. It means baptism by the Spirit--in His Spirit.
God has no flesh-and-blood children! There's no such thing! We Jews are not more special to God than any other child of God! He's not more partial to us--He's going to no more favour us than any other dear believer in Jesus! We haven't got the edge on anybody!
In fact, it would be easier to be a Jew and a Gentile at the same time than a Jew and a Christian. It's an absolute impossibility! Why even the Jews know that! They've been telling me that for years--the dear Jews I've been witnessing to for years. They couldn't understand how you could be both a Jew and a Christian! And they were right! Now I've got to go back and apologise to them!
And now that you're a Christian, you belong to Jesus! You are Jesus'!--A part of His Body! You're no longer Abraham's, Moses', or Elijah's--you're just Jesus', you're just His! You're just part of Him--nothing else! IT'S ALL JESUS!--NO JEW AT ALL--JUST JESUS! Neither Jew nor Greek--just Jesus! And if you still want to use that word "Jew," then be sure you apply it to all the saved in His Son--just those who love Jesus! They're the only Jews left! … Jesus is the only door and once you've gone through the door, boy, you're nothing but Jesus'. You might as well leave all the rest behind, because it doesn't mean a thing to God any more!
Up with Jesus!
Also see: Who's a Jew?My name is James Arendt. I was raised in the Hegewisch neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, served in the USAF from 1970 to 1974, and became a full-time missionary for Christ living 40 years in Japan, 3.5 years in Russia, and a few months in other countries such as Finland, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, South Korea, Taiwan and mainland China where I also served the King of Kings, Jesus, as an Ambassador for His Kingdom. My full bio.
If you like this website, you can show your appreciation by sending me a gift toward my support. My wife Tess and I moved from the island of Guam USA in June 2023 to the city of Allen in the province of Northern Samar, one of the poorer provinces in the Philippines. My only work is maintaining my websites, Deep Truths, and James Japan which costs me $300 per year now. And Tess is ministering to the local people giving them regular Bible Studies in three groups, children, teenagers and adults.
Since my wife and I moved to the Philippines, we sent up a new PayPal account to be able to link to our local bank. Unfortunately now all gifts to us must be specially marked, "Friends and Family or we will not receive it. My PayPal ID: james.arendt@jamesjpn.netRead my bio
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