 All right, Alton, let's go ahead and pull you up. That's a better picture. How are you doing, my friend? I'm good. I'm good. How are you? How are you? I'm pretty good. I'm pretty sure you are. You are coming on to tell me where you agree with me. This is, uh, I wish I was, brother, but, uh, OK, OK. I can handle it. I can handle it. All right. So, uh, in the midst of the whole Israel Hamas thing that's happening right now, um, there's been a lot of talks about Israel being God's people. Dr. Michael Brown has made some comments about us as Christians of how we are to support Israel because it's in the Bible. Now, I know that one of your stances is that God still has some promises for the people of Israel. And I want to know, does God have two covenants or are we just kind of misunderstanding? Well, let's see how many covenants does God have? And and he is today he has obligated himself to them, but let's see. Obviously, he's got the no way covenant. So that's one. He's got the Abrahamic covenant. That's two. There was the old covenant, but that's done away with. He's got the Davidic covenant. So that's three and then the new covenant. That's that's four. So to which of those covenants applied to us as believers, as Gentile believers, the only one that specifically brings us in is the Abrahamic covenant. That's not a negative. That's not a knock against us. It doesn't mean that we're a second class citizens. As a matter of fact, the very first covenant that he makes, the very first unconditional covenant that he makes, that's us. He makes there are these other covenants with Israel, but they break them. And he's not making these covenants with him, as though that we are left out with some stepchild. Quite the contrary. And so it's not as though that there are two covenants or three covenants or four covenants that bring that bring us into Christ. No, that's not the point. He is still, as he said, through you, all the nations or all the families of the world will be blessed. And so he is going to do just that. That's not a knock against us. And so I think sometimes we get bothered by that. God has, and sometimes again, we tend to want to put ourselves in. He never did away with the, people say, I see someone says one covenant. Well, so does that mean that he did away with Abrahamic covenant? What do you think? You think he did away with the Abrahamic covenant? Now, and we're talking about the promises that was made to Abraham, right? Uh-huh. Do you, is there a passage that tells us that the Abrahamic covenant is done away with, that we no longer, that there is no such thing? Right. Now, I don't believe that the Abrahamic covenant is just for one specific group of people, which is the people of Israel. And the passage that I always refer to, and I mean, maybe you can break it down because you can study in that Greek. So I wanna know, how should me as a Christian view Galatians 3 and 16 when it says, now the promises were made to Abraham, and to us all spring. It does not say it to all springs, referring to many, but referring to one, and to you and your all spring. Uh-huh. Okay. As a matter of fact- So one of the other cow and his buddies brought this up, let's put it on the screen. He says, now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say seeds. Now this promise is the seed right here is a singular. So it's referring to Jesus. He does not say and seeds as referring to many, but rather one, and to your seed, that is Christ. So what was your question regarding that? Right. So those promises that was made to Abraham, because I do hear a lot of people, especially when they are in support of the Jews being God's chosen people today. I know a lot of people like to go back to the promises that were made to Abraham, but when I look at the text in Galatians three, especially that whole chapter in Galatians three, it seems like that it's alluding to the promises being in Christ alone, and those who are in Christ receive the promises. Just like Abraham received the promise by faith, not by bloodline or just being a person who was born in a certain land. So I wanna know if I'm incorrect on how I interpret that particular passage, I wanna know what promises specifically do the people of Israel have that us Gentile Christians don't have. Okay, that's a good question. Well, one, there's one big promise they have that we don't have, and that is a promise to afflict them, a promise to take them through trouble. Isaiah, I'm sorry, Isaiah. Jeremiah brings us up in Jeremiah 30, where it's clearly what we call this Jacob's trouble, where there is going to be a problem that's gonna be this affliction, we call it the tribulation that is going to happen to them. These 70 weeks, the first 69 of those 70 weeks, it's all Israel. The last seven is Israel. He talks about that this is decreed to your people. And for some reason, us as the more superior, the more outstanding, the awesome, the greatest people that ever lived, that is us Western people, especially here in America, we want to fit our way in. As though that when he said to Daniel, your people, he also meant you and I. Well, the problem with that is, how would if God meant that to be not just ethnic Israel, then what clue did he give the Jews, namely Isaiah, namely Jeremiah, namely Ezekiel, what clues did he give them to get them to understand that no, not you, but everybody, not you, but the Gentiles, how would they have learned, how would Isaiah, how would Jeremiah, how would Ezekiel, how would any of them, Nehemiah, Ezra, how would they, Zechariah, how would they have understood those prophecies? They would have understood it to mean Israel. Now, because God is making a promise for them, does not mean he's turned his back on everyone else. And so what he's doing is he's showing us examples through them, like Paul says, we can look at those and in the Old Testament Romans 15, we can look at what's happened in the Old Testament and learn from that. And so there are promises that he makes to Israel that are also going to accrue or be attributed to us as well. For example, his promise that he is going to circumcise their heart, he's promising them that. But does he also regenerate our hearts as well? He absolutely does. Jesus makes that point in John 1. As a matter of fact, John makes a point again in 1 John as well. So just because he's doing something with Israel and we would all have to agree that God has determined to do different things with different people all to meet up with one common goal. How do we know? None of us were born in Yemen. No one on this broadcast or in the chat were born in Yemen. None of us were born in Bangladesh. Well, who determines where we're born? Who determines when we're born? God does. Alton could have just as easily been instead of Alton Johnson, he could have been Ahmed Johnson in Yemen, but God didn't do that. Why? Well, because that was not his plan. Now, did he write that down that you were gonna be born here in America versus Yemen or Afghanistan? No, but we see it happening. So clearly that was his thought to do so. And so because we don't see ourselves in the Old Testament text because we're not actually Jews, now some of us may be, but because we're not, it's not a knot. We have taken this as though it is a knot. By the way, that began to happen towards the Middle Ages in the 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th century because there was no more Israel. And so it was easy to say, well, he must have meant us. He must have meant us, but he didn't have to say, he didn't have to mean us. He meant exactly what he said. And so some of the promises that we have that Israel doesn't have, I'm sorry, that we don't have that Israel has is a promise to make them jealous because of us. A partial harding was not given to the church. A partial harding was given to Israel. And so therefore we have to just say, okay, God is working with Israel and what nation, what nation by and large has turned her back on or rejected Jesus? That's Israel. You go to Muslim countries, they haven't by and large. Now, I'm not speaking of those that are Muslims, but those who are, you see Muslims coming to faith in Christ or different countries. I should say, I shouldn't say Muslims, not a particular faith, but a particular nation. He's made a promise to a particular nation. That particular nation is governed by a Jewish frame of mind, even a Jewish political frame of mind, but certainly a religious frame of mind as well. So does that help? Did that muddy the water a little bit more? I mean, it doesn't muddy it too much, but I know that, and I don't know, maybe you already answered it, but basically some of the things that I hear that you're saying, I'm wondering, is God not doing that to all peoples who have heart and their hearts against Christ the Messiah? Like what makes Israel so special to where God has to have a separate promise and covenant that he's working through the people of Israel today that he's not already working through with people who are born in, let's just say Muslim countries. So why should the focus be solely on Israel and not everyone else who has rejected Christ the same way that the Jews have him? Well, because he determined to be that way. He chose Israel, he didn't choose the Amalekites. He didn't choose the Hittites. He didn't choose the Canaanites or Jebusites and he didn't choose us English speaking people. Why? Because of his own prerogative. And so it's what we do know is that he has never said that he has hardened the hearts of anyone but Israel. And so that's something that is exclusive to them and them only. He has, the Bible doesn't teach that he's hardened the hearts of anyone in Bangladesh, anyone in Turkey, anyone in Syria, anyone in South America or North America. He only tells us, and if we're gonna be soul scripture, he only tells us that he is hardened the hearts of Israel until when? And then he, matter of fact, not only does he tell us that he's doing so, he even tells us why. Israel, as Paul tells us in Romans 11, it is to make them jealous. Well, where does that come from? The very same promise that God said that he's going to make Israel jealous even before they were building against him in Deuteronomy and Leviticus, before they entered the Promised Land. He tells them, you're gonna come out of the Promised I'm gonna take you out and scare you but I'm gonna bring you back. But what I'm going to do is because you went after other gods and made me jealous. Now I'm gonna make you jealous with another people. And so because of that, we see that happening and Paul verifies that in Romans 11 to tell us that it is to make Israel jealous. And so just as though branches have been broken off and then this unnatural branch has been grafted in, we weren't grafted into another branch. We weren't grafted into Israel. Israel's a branch or branches of Israel has been broken off and us being grafted and we're branched, we're being grafted into the vine, into the tree, into the root. And Israel also will be one day grafted back in. When, well, as Paul says, when the fullness of the Gentiles come, these words mean something. He didn't just throw them out there. And so if anyone that were to say, and I see some people saying so, which is fine, if you're going to say that Israel or the church is the new Israel, well then explain to me what's gonna happen when the fullness of the Gentiles comes in. What is Paul speaking of? What is his partial hardening? What is his stupor that's been given to Israel? As if the church is Israel, that means a partial hardening and a stupor has been given to the church. That makes absolutely no sense if taking the scriptures, if you want to spiritualize it, if you want to allegorize it or if you want to give a plain reading, that can make no sense to say that the church is Israel but the church has been given a partial hardening. And so I would ask for anyone to say what does that mean? When people say that the church is Israel, where the new Israel with the spiritual Israel, you gotta give a passage. You'd be looking for it. Matter of fact, you'd be better off writing your own Bible because you won't find it in the Bible. There is no such thing of Israel being, I mean, the church being spiritual Israel. He still does have a plan for Israel. That's why he's coming back to where? To Israel, not to America or to China, but to Israel. Right, and I want to let the other guys in too. So this is gonna kind of be my last question. So what is the special plan that God got for Israel that he doesn't have for like the church? Because I think that this is where people like myself. Go ahead. It's not that he has a special plan for them per se. He's just, they are going a different route. Just like all of us. There are eight billion people on planet. Let's just say for the sake of Arvin, just make it nice and clean. There's a million Christians, actual Shonuf, goodness sake, Christians on the planet. All one million of us came to Christ differently. Now we all come to salvation the exact same way. A Jew will be saved by doing the exact same thing that anyone else will do, placing their faith in Christ. So that part is the same, but how you got to Christ. And we would all have to agree that Israel's tract to coming to Christ is different than any Gentile. Israel can look back and see the Jewish patriarchs. This is what Paul is talking about in Romans to them, the commandments and so forth. I'm not commandments, the covenants and so forth. That was with Israel. We didn't have a day of atonement for the Chinese people. We didn't have offerings and sacrifices for people in South America. What we had was for Israel. And again, because it happened to them, this is, I'm not saying you, but this is the charismatic way of thinking. What do I mean by that? Well, they look at the apostles and prophets and want that same blessing, want the same thing. Just like those who aren't charismatic, who hold to Israel being replaced by the church or the new Israel want what Israel, they want the spotlight on them as though they feel like the spotlight was on Israel. They want what Israel had. Well, you're not Israel. Or if I can borrow a phrase from Matt Chandler, you're not David. You're not Israel. You are who you are. God loved you enough so much so. Think about this guys, where we don't have to have Israel envy. We really don't. Loved you so much so that Israel is put on the shelf to deal with Gentiles, to bring Gentiles in. So, does that help? I'm pretty sure. Well, I know that because that means you would have to, you would have to stop being reformed to agree with me. I mean, I got some more questions, but I'm gonna go ahead and let the other guys get in. They've been waiting. So, I appreciate you.