Part 6 – Israel’s End-time Remnant Will “Not forsake the assembling”

This Article is part of a multi-part Study Series called Must We Attend A Church?.

We are still studying as to whom the words of Hebrews 25 apply; Not forsaking the assembling.”

This “present evil world (Gk. aion, age)” (Gal. 1:4) will soon be ending. None of us will be in ‘this world system’ forever. Israel’s end-time believing remnant of the Tribulation will not to be fixated on the evil arrangement of the world of the Tribulation period, but rather “the world (of the Kingdom) to come” (Heb. 2:5). The Lord Jesus Christ will be returning at the close of the Tribulation to abolish Apostate Israel’s false, wicked, religious system, “the synagogue of Satan. “Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.” (Revelation 3:9) In the Millennium Israel’s Apostate religious system will be gone. Christ will bring the literal, physical, visible “kingdom of heaven” on “the new earth,” to the true believers Israel and they will co-reign by His authority (cf. Rev. 5:10, 20:6).

Israel’s “world (of the Kingdom) to come” will of course appear only after the Rapture of “the church… the body of Christ” and the 7-year Tribulation period have transpired.

John wrote here concerning Israel’s end-time believers and their relationship to the corrupted world arrangement of that time to come. That corrupt arrangement included the corrupted religious system.

 “Love not the world (Gk. kosmos, the current corrupted world arrangement), neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 17And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.” (1 John 2:15-17)

In Psalm 22:22 we see Jesus saying; “I (Jesus) will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise him.” One day, Christ will be one with His people Israel. Written by King David, this is really the Messiah Jesus speaking. He is the “Greater David” (1Kings 1:37). Psalm 22:1-21 was written some 1,000 years beforehand, describing Christ’s crucifixion and death, while Psalm 22:22 describes Him in His resurrection and reign as King among the “Israel of God,” confirming the words of Heb. 2:11-13 (below).

“For both He (Messiah) That Sanctifieth And They Who Are Sanctified Are All of One: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, 12Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church (Gk. ekklesia, the ‘called out’ and gathered assembly of Israel) will I sing praise unto thee. 13And again, I (Jesus) will put my trust in him (The Father). And again, Behold I and The Children Which God Hath Given Me.” (Heb. 2:11-13)

It is this believing congregation of Israel that is referred to in Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together in Heb. 10:25. This believing “remnant… according to the election of grace” (Rom. 11:5), is Jesus’ latter day “little flock” (cf. Luke 12:32). This believing Messianic remnant church (Matt. 16:18) is “the apple of my (His) eye” (Zech. 2:8), standing in stark contrast with the unbelieving Apostate Israel, who, as Psalm 26:5 says; “I (the Lord) have hated the congregation of evil doers; and will not sit with the wicked.”

Two thirds of Israel’s present population of ~6,000,000 people (as of 2017) will die before Christ’s returns to save His believing remnant of Israel from total annihilation.

“And it shall come to pass, that in all the land (of Israel), saith the LORD, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. 9 And I will bring the third part (of Israel’s population) through the fire (of the Tribulation), and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God. (Zech. 13:8-9)

Here Psalm 1 sheds light on Heb. 10:25, distinguishing between the believers of Israel and Apostate Israel.

1Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of (with) sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

2But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. 3And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. 4The ungodly are NOT so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. 5Therefore the ungodly shall NOT (be able to) stand in the judgment, NOR sinners in the congregation of the righteous. 6For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish (cease).”

Israel’s believing “remnant” during the future seven-year Tribulation is to behave like John the Baptist’s converts and those of Israel’s kingdom believers seen in early Acts, some 2,000 years ago. They are to separate themselves from the Apostate National Religious System of Israel, making themselves ready for Jesus’ to return to them and to set up His Millennial Kingdom on earth.

Just as a false Apostate religious system captivated Israel before and during Jesus’ day, the false religious system of the Antichrist will pollute Israel during the Tribulation period. Antichrist, Satan’s political leader, and his False Prophet, a religious leader, will arise not long after our “dispensation of the Grace of God” ends with the Rapture of His body to dwell “eternal in the heaven” (2Cor 5:1).

Our grace age is in place as a parenthesis in God’s timeline, since it exists only during the gap in Israel’s interrupted program. Israel of the “time past” and its “fall” preceded our age of grace of “the church which is His body,” and what follows our Rapture is… Israel’s program to be completed by Christ’s 2nd coming and His Kingdom on earth.

The prophetic program that God would have finished back in early Acts was postponed … until after our Gentile grace age program of “the mystery (secret plan of God)” ends. So, the verses from the time of John Baptist’s ministry and the early Acts periodnow carry over into the end-time portion of Israel’s prophetic program… John’ “baptism unto repentance” will be restored for the end-time believers of Israel’s “gospel of the Kingdom” … to clearly mark them out … from Apostate Israel.

The last nine (9) books in the Bible come after Paul’s thirteen epistles to “the church, the body of Christ,” beginning with Hebrews, and they all are to and for Israel. While “the body of Christ” can learn from Hebrews and the nine Bible books from ‘The Letter to the Hebrews’ through the book of “Revelation,” these nine books are distinctly ‘Jewish,’ being related to fulfilling prophecy concerning the judgement of Apostate Israel and the restoration of the believing remnant of Israel. These nine books will be useful in guiding and enlightening “the Israel of God” to the truth affecting them at that time, and then on into the Millennium wherein they will teach the converted Gentiles and the newborn physical offspring of that time.

By now we should better understand the place of Hebrews 10:25’s words, “Not forsaking the assembling” – as meaning Jesus’ latter time “little flock” who are called out to separate themselves from Antichrist’s Apostate Israel … and “assemble” together. The true “Israel of God” will be;

“Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day (of Christ’s soon 2nd coming) approaching.”

They will gather, exhort, and encourage one another in the truth of the Kingdom and its King during those days of Tribulation period and on into the Millennium.