God accepts us as we are gathered into the promised land of the New Jerusalem. 

Ezekiel 20:41-42

Click for a description of the mark of the beast.
Click for a description of the image of the beast.

“I will accept you as a sweet aroma when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you have been scattered; and I will be hallowed in you before the Gentiles. Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when I bring you into the land of Israel, into the country for which I raised My hand in an oath to give to your fathers.” Ezekiel 20:41-42

God accepts the Jewish people as a sweet aroma to Himself when they are regathered to the land of Israel, the State of Israel. That’s because He is fulfilling His word for all the world to see of all He said He would do and will do for and to the Jewish people.

The land given to the Israelis in 1948, called the State of Israel, is the same land that God promised to give to their forefathers, the Israelites. From reading the Old Testament, the Jewish people should know better than anyone how God did what He promised He would do by gathering them from all around the world to the State of Israel. They should know that He is indeed the Lord.

The part the Jewish people seem to be ignoring is that the Holiness of God comes against sin and that is how He hallows Himself among them in front of the eyes of the world. The Jewish people are living in sin because they rebelled against the word of God and rejected Jesus Christ as their Savior. The Jewish people were gathered to the State of Israel where God unleashes the fury of His judgment on them, which is clearly said, “Therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Because you have all become dross, therefore behold, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem. As men gather silver, bronze, iron, lead, and tin into the midst of a furnace, to blow fire on it, to melt it; so I will gather you in My anger and in My fury, and I will leave you there and melt you.” Ezekiel 22:19-20. And also, in the previous verses of Ezekiel 20:34-36, and also in Ezekiel 36:22.

The land of the State of Israel is the same territory that Ezekiel describes in Chapter 48. The only difference is that the West Bank and the Gaza Strip has eaten into the original territory, which God said He would cause to happen. The picture to the left is the State of Israel, and to the right the earthly promised land in the day of Ezekiel.

There are no blessings mentioned in the New Testament for the Jewish people, not until they acknowledge Jesus Christ as their Messiah, as Jesus said, “See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’” Matthew 23:38-39 The blessings promised to the Jewish people in the Old Testament have been transferred to us who serve God through Jesus Christ and embrace the presence of the Holy Spirit.

God accepts as a sweet aroma everyone who believes Jesus Christ. When our Lord Jesus returns, all believers will be gathered from wherever we are and be brought to Him into eternal life. The dead who believed Jesus Christ will be resurrected from their graves just an instant before the believers who are still alive are lifted up to be with Jesus. The resurrected believers and those still alive will meet one another in the air to be with our Lord Jesus eternally in the New Jerusalem. The unbelievers {Gentiles) will witness that event, just before this world system is destroyed with them in it. We will be hallowed in the sight of those who rejected Jesus Christ. The eternal New Jerusalem is the promised land that God said he would give to everyone who believes Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ clearly said that those who have faith in Him will sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the New Jerusalem, but the Jewish people [sons of the kingdom] will be cast out into outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, “And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Matther 8:11-12

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“….to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets,“
‘I will not impose any other burden on you, except to hold on to what you have until I come.’”
“I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.”
Revelation 2:24-25, 3:11