(Clip) God's Dealings with Israel and His Theocratic Rule — Art Katz

Israel's Future Restoration and the Knowledge of the Lord

To recognize that what is being described is not something of Israel's past, but something of Israel's future. How do you know what? Because it says, and you shall know that I am the Lord. This is what is required for that knowing.

Judgment Revealing the Redeemed Who Return to Zion

Nothing less. It's not God being arbitrary, God being cruel. It's God being righteous and meeting out what is exactly necessary, knowing the condition of this people and judging them for their sin, and yet meeting them in the judgment and revealing himself to them that they might constitute the redeemed of the Lord that returned to Zion.

Zion's Theocratic Rule Over the Nations

I tell you, if the redeemed of the Lord do not return to Zion, the Lord himself will not be their king on the holy hill of Zion, and we will still have to contend with lousy human governments and warfare and vexation in the nations.

Israel as the Pivot of God's Government Over the Nations

They'll not study war no more until he rules. The issue of Israel's restoration is the issue of the theocratic rule of God. We're not talking only about the fate of an ethnic group. We're talking about the conclusion of God's redemptive cosmic plan for the nations, in which he insists that this one nation be the pivot and the locus of his government over all nations.

Purging Rebels and Preserving a Remnant

I will rule over you and over them. I will purge out the rebels from among you that transgress against me. By the way, are you hearing okay in the back? Is there enough volume? Yeah? I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel.

The Wilderness of the Nations and the Mercy of the Remnant

You should know that I am the Lord. I suspect that the rebels will constitute the greater part of world Jewry and will not survive the process of attrition of those last days. It will be a remnant that constitute the restored nation.

And here's the point for you, there'll be no remnant at all that could survive at all except for the mercy received through you in the wilderness of the nations. You say, what part of New Zealand are you talking about?

Some little known remote section? Well, as I said earlier today in my last visit to New Zealand, as I was speaking on this subject, the Lord impressed me to say to the hearers, the whole of New Zealand is a wilderness among the nations.

You're different.