Sheldon Emry-The Old Jerusalem Is Not The New Jerusalem

The Old Jerusalem is Not the New JerUSAlem

By Pastor Sheldon Emry

Historic Jerusalem
is not Prophetic Jerusalem

"For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the
Word of the Lord from Jerusalem" (Isaiah
2:3).

Jerusalem, Jerusalem — There is prohahly
more confused preaching in recent years on
"Jerusalem" than on any other name from
Scripture except perhaps "Jew."

Scripture, such as that quoted above, is used
hy a great many Christian ministers to mean
the literal city of Jerusalem in old Palestine.
They say that there God is going to restore
His Israel people and begin to set up His
earthly kingdom from which Jewish mission-
aries will go out to preach the gospel all over
the world! Other ministers claim this
Jerusalem is a "heavenly" city located some-
where other than on the earth.

One of the major sources of confusion in
today's preaching comes from ministers who
are unable to separate historic Biblical cities
from prophetic cities of the Bible. They do
fairly well on Babylon, since the actual city
has been destroyed and exits no more in the
earth. So when "Babylon" is used in prophe-
cy, they realize it must be something other
than the old city.

But with Jerusalem they are fooled. Because
the old city still exists and still carries its
ancient name, they assume prophetic
Jerusalem must have something to do with
the old city of Jerusalem.

It was Voltaire who is credited with saying,
"If you would speak with me, define your
terms." He realized that words must have an
understandable meaning to both parties to a

conversation, or one would be confused or
deceived. And so it is with "Jerusalem." I
want you to follow me in the Scriptures to
find God's true meaning of Jerusalem, when
He says, "For out of Zion shall go forth the
law, and the Word of the Lord from
Jerusalem."

In Matthew 23:37-39 we read the words of
Jesus Christ: "0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou
that killest the prophets, and stonest them
which are sent unto thee, how often would I
have gathered thy children together, even as
a hen gathereth her chickens under her
wings, and ye would not! Behold your house
is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you,
ye shall not see Me henceforth, till ye shall
say, blessed is he that cometh in the Name of
the Lord."

Here Christ was speaking to the city of
Jerusalem that He was standing and looking
at Jerusalem, the city that had killed Israel's
prophets down through the centuries; and He
said, Jerusalem, "your house is left unto you
desolate." He could not have been speaking
of prophetic Jerusalem, for that has a glori-
ous future!

The Lord Shall Yet Choose Jerusalem

I will quote some Scripture verses used by
those who insist that the old city of
Jerusalem will be the Jerusalem that will be
"chosen" and "blessed" of God. They are in the
first chapter of Zechariah. "I am jealous for
Jerusalem and for Zion with great jealousy ...
I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies: My
house shall be built in it ... and the Lord shall
yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose
Jerusalem." These are phrases from verses
14 through 17, and those who quote them say
they mean that God will set up the temple

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(His house) at some future time in the old city
of Jerusalem.

But there are other phrases in the same vers-
es which must he considered. I will add them
here in their context. "Thus saith the Lord of
Hosts; My cities through prosperity [good]
shall yet he spread abroad." Then comes "and
the Lord shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet
choose Jerusalem." Since the phrase, "spread
abroad," was spoken through Zechariah
while he was in old Palestine, it could mean
places other than old Palestine!

Christ also gave some indication that the
cities of Israel would be in great number and
cover much territory. In Matthew 10 are His
well known instructions to the twelve disci-
ples. In verse 6, He tells them to "go rather
to the lost sheep of the house of Israel," and
then in verse 23 He says, "For verily I say
unto you, ye shall not have gone over the
cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come."
The disciples could have gone over the towns
in old Palestine in a matter of weeks, and
missionaries still could do so today. But if the
cities of Israel were to be "spread abroad" and
to be a great number, it could not be done so
quickly.

We must also take into consideration that
Zechariah, as a prophet to Israel, spoke not
only to those in the Babylonian captivity, but
to the millions of Israelites who were at that
time in the Assyrian lands and never
returned to Jerusalem or Palestine. That
Zechariah's prophecy above was not fulfilled
by the return of less than 45,000 Jews from
Babylon under Ezra and Nehemiah will be
clear as we go on. Also, what the "Jerusalem"
is that the Lord "shall yet choose" is made
clearer by reading on in the next verses from
the same prophet.

An Angel Will Measure New Jerusalem
Read on in Zechariah 2:1-4, "I lifted up mine

eyes again, and looked and behold a man
with a measuring line in his hand. Then said
I, Whither goest thou? And he said to me. To
measure Jerusalem, to see what is the
breadth thereof, and what is the length
thereof. And, behold, the angel that talked
with me went forth, and another angel went
out to meet him. And said unto him. Run,
speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem
shall be inhabited as towns without walls for
the multitude of men and cattle therein."

That is quite a description. "Towns" (plural)
and many men and cattle were to be in it.
This is the Jerusalem of prophecy, and it is so
large it took an angel to measure it! Maybe
this was because it had been then "spread
abroad" as was prophesied in Zechariah
1:17.

In chapter 8 of Zechariah (and Zechariah
has much to say about prophetic Jerusalem)
we read in verse 2, "Thus saith the Lord of
hosts; I was jealous for Zion with great jeal-
ousy and I was jealous for her with great fury.
Thus saith the Lord; I am returned unto Zion,
and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem." So
God says He will be in both Zion and
Jerusalem. Zion is the seat of government;
Jerusalem is the whole nation.

"And Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth;
and the mountain of the Lord of hosts the
holy mountain." (vs. 3) This is similar to
what we have in Isaiah 2 and Micah 4, "the
mountain of the Lord." It will help you under-
stand prophecy, if you know that mountain
usually means nation. Micah, Isaiah,
Zechariah and others are actually saying that
prophetic Jerusalem will be the nation of the
Lord.

Then in verse 7 of Zechariah 8 we read,
"Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Behold I will
save My people from the east country, and
from the west country; and I will bring them,
and they shall dwell in the midst of

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Jerusalem: and they shall he My people, and
I will he their God, in truth and in righteous-
ness." God is saying that "My people" (Israel)
will he brought to this Jerusalem hy Him,
and they will he His people "in truth and in
righteousness." i.e. they will he Christians.

Preachers Confuse Old City
with New Jerusalem

Now if we take these prophecies and attempt
to put them in little old Palestine, we are in
trouble! It is just not big enough. As these
scriptures show, the Lord will dwell there,
Zion will be there, many from the east coun-
try and the west country, a multitude of men
and cattle, and it will spread abroad and be
so large that angels will have to measure it.

I have some statistics on the Jewish occupied
area of old Jerusalem and Palestine that will
show it is not the size for a "multitude of peo-
ple." Jerusalem, as it was set aside by the
United Nations, has 289 sq. miles. It is about
20 miles long and 15 miles wide. That would
be about the size of Phoenix, Arizona and its
suburbs or twice the size of Baltimore.

The entire country of Palestine, as estab-
lished by the U.N. mandate, was 7,993 sq.
miles. Since the so-called war in 1967, the
area controlled has increased substantially,
but even if they took control of several entire
Arab countries, it would still be smaller than
an average American state! That is hardly
fitting for Zechariah's prophecy, is it?

Temple at Old Jerusalem
to be Like Shiloh

The confusion among ministers is also caused
by their mistaken belief that God chose the
old city of Jerusalem perpetually as the place
where He would place His Name. But like
Shiloh, Jehovah's presence there was condi-
tional upon Israel obeying God. This is made
very plain in Jeremiah 7 where we read.

"The Word that came to Jeremiah from the
Lord, saying. Stand in the gate of the Lord's
house [the temple in Jerusalem], and pro-
claim there this word, and say. Hear the
Word of the Lord, all ye of Judah, that enter
in at these gates to worship the Lord."

So God gave Jeremiah a commandment to
speak to all those who worshiped at the tem-
ple. Verses 3 through 10 give a promise
that if they obeyed the Lord, they would then,
"dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to
your fathers, for ever and ever."

But then God accused them of disobeying and
said, "Is this house which is called by My
Name, become a den of robbers in your eyes?
Behold, even I have seen it, saith the Lord.
But go ye now unto My place which was in
Shiloh, where I set My Name at the first, and
see what I did to it for the wickedness of My
people Israel" (verses 11-12). Then God pro-
nounced the fate of the temple at Jerusalem,
"Therefore will I do unto this house [the tem-
ple], which is called by My Name, wherein ye
trust, and unto the place which I gave to you
and your fathers [Jerusalem and Judah], as I
have done to Shiloh."

So in order to see what God has done to
Jerusalem, we must see what he did to
Shiloh. Its history as the place where God
had set His name at the first starts in
Joshua 18:1, "And the whole congregation of
the children of Israel assembled together at
Shiloh, and set up the tabernacle of the con-
gregation there." The ark of the covenant was
there, and it was there that the high priests
sacrificed to the God of Israel.

This continued for many years for we read in
Judges 18:30-31, "And the children of Dan
set up the graven image: and Jonathan, the
son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, he and
his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan until
the day of the captivity of the land [Philistine
captivity]. And they set them up Micah's

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graven image, which he made, all the time
that the house of God [the tabernacle] was in
Shiloh."

God To Forsake Shiloh

Then in 1 Samuel we read the story of God's
leaving Shiloh, as He was later to leave
Jerusalem. This is quite lengthy and requires
the reading of all Chapters 2 through 7. We
will quote only a few verses because of space
limitations.

The story begins in 1 Samuel 2:12 with the
sons of Eli, "Now the sons of Eli were the sons
of Belial; they knew not the Lord." Because of
their abominations and the sins of Israel, the
Lord appeared to Eli and among other things
told him, "Behold the days come, that I will
cut off thine arm, and the arm of thy father's
house, that there shall not be an old man in
thine house. And thou shalt see an enemy in
My habitation [the tabernacle at Shiloh]. And
this shall be a sign unto thee, that shall come
upon thy two sons, on Hophni and Phinehas;
in one day they shall die both of them."

Then God tells Eli what will replace His habi-
tation. "And I will raise me up a faithful
priest, that shall do according to that which
is in mine heart and in My mind; and I will
build him a sure house..." This was a refer-
ence to Samuel.

Shiloh Forsaken

God then set about to carry out this promise
of punishment to Eli and removing Himself
from Shiloh. In Chapter 4, the Philistines
won a battle against the Israel armies, and
Israel made a decision (1 Samuel 4:3). "And
when the people were come into the camp,
the elders of Israel said. Wherefore hath the
Lord smitten us to day before the Philistines?
Let us fetch the ark of the covenant of the
Lord out of Shiloh unto us, that, when it
cometh among us, it may save us out of the

hand of our enemies." Instead of putting their
trust in God, they put their trust in the phys-
ical ark.

Verses 10 and 11 tell the results: "And the
Philistines fought, and Israel was smitten,
and they fled every man into his tent - and
there was a great slaughter; for there fell of
Israel thirty thousand footmen. And the ark
of God was taken, and the two sons of Eli,
Hophni and Phinehas, were slain." God's
promise that the enemy would be in His habi-
tation and that the sons of Eli would both be
slain in one day had come to pass.

Eli died when he heard the news, and
Phinehas' widow was so shocked by the
events that she was immediately delivered of
her child. That she recognized the terrible
disaster to Israel is shown in the name she
gave the baby. "And she named the child
Ichabod, saying. The glory is departed from
Israel: because the ark of God was taken"
(verse 21). The Lord had departed from
Shiloh.

Ramah — Then Jerusalem

Chapter 7 shows that God then gave Samuel
rule over Israel, but he did not worship at
Shiloh for we read in verses 15-17, "And
Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life.
And he went from year to year in circuit to
Bethel, and Gilgal, and Mizpeh, and judged
Israel in all those places. And his return was
to Ramah; for there was his house; and there
he judged Israel; and there he built an altar
unto the Lord."

Psalm 78:59-61 verifies this forsaking of
Shiloh in this manner: "When God heard this
[Israel's abomination] He was wroth, and
greatly abhorred Israel: So that He forsook
the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which He
placed among men; and delivered His
strength into captivity, and His glory into the
enemy's hand." Then verses 65-72 refer to

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the placing of His temple in Jerusalem under
David and Solomon. Most Bible students
know the story, so we will not recount it here.
But the Psalmist does verify that Shiloh was
forsaken. So, if Jerusalem was to be "as
Shiloh," and if God's Word is true, which it is,
then the old city of Jerusalem is forsaken and
deserted by the God of Israel forever!

Old Jerusalem to be a Curse
to All the Nations of the Earth

But just so the same Bible students under-
stand with perfect clarity that God has now
forsaken the old city of Jerusalem and will
never rebuild His temple there, turn to
Jeremiah 26:1-3. Again Jeremiah is ordered
by the Lord to stand in the entrance to the
temple in Jerusalem and say, "Thus saith the
Lord: If ye will not hearken to the words of
My servants the prophets, whom I sent unto
you, both rising up early, and sending them,
but ye have not hearkened; then I will make
this house like Shiloh, and will make this city
a curse to all the nations of the earth." This is
a double warning to the city and a promise of
what the old city of Jerusalem would be at
some time in the future.

Christ Confirmed These Promises

"Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister
of the circumcision for the truth of God, to
confirm the promises made unto the fathers"
(Romans 15:8). Now these fathers here were
the people of Israel, of course. And so we find
Christ confirming this end of the temple and
of old Jerusalem as the place where His
Name would be.

We read in Jeremiah 7:11, "Is this house,
which is called by My name, become a den of
robbers in your eyes?" This was followed by
the promise to make it as Shiloh. In
Matthew 21:12, 13 we read that Christ per-
sonally entered the temple at Jerusalem,
overthrew the tables of the money-changers.

and said, "It is written. My house shall be
called the house of prayer; but ye have made
it a den of thieves."

After spending some time teaching in the
temple, he then left the temple and later pro-
nounced on the city of Jerusalem, "Behold,
your house is left unto you desolate. For I say
unto you. Ye shall not see me henceforth, till
ye shall say. Blessed is he that cometh in the
name of the Lord" (Matt, 23:38-39) Two vers-
es later we read His sentence on the temple,
"Verily I say unto you, there shall not be left
here one stone upon another, that shall not be
thrown down."

Christ never went back to the temple, it was
destroyed and burned to the ground in 70
A.D. The temple became "as Shiloh," and
Jerusalem as "Ichabod." The promise of God,
through His prophet Jeremiah, was con-
firmed by Christ, and history verifies its ful-
fillment. Not only is the Lord's name (Christ)
not there any more, but with much of the
world's intrigue and tension centered in the
Jewish state called "Israeli," the old city is
now becoming "a curse to all the nations of
the earth" as God had prophesied! Ministers
who still insist the Jews will rebuild the tem-
ple (which they may) and that God will bless
it (which He will not) have "seen a vain
vision", and "spoken a lying Divination."

This Foolish Preaching

That the Jews are Israel

A great part of this absurd teaching about old
Palestine is caused by the erroneous belief by
ministers that the Jews are Israel and that
the Jewish state of Israeli is the regathering
of the tribes of Israel. I wonder how many
preachers have stopped to think that there
are about the same number of Jews now in
old Palestine as there were Israelites in the
Exodus from Egypt over 3,300 years ago (3
millenniums ago!). And if there was any one
thing God promised Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob, it was to multiply their seed!

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According to Genesis 48:4, God said to
Israel, the father of the twelve men who
became the twelve tribes of Israel, "Behold, I
will make thee fruitful, and multiply thee,
and I will make of thee a multitude of peo-
ple." And in verse 19, speaking of Ephraim,
one of Joseph's sons and Israel's grandson,
Israel prophesied of this one man alone that,
"his seed shall become a multitude of
nations." Ephriam's descendants alone were
to become many nations!

In Genesis 28:3 is God's prophecy to Jacob-
Israel, "And God Almighty bless thee, and
make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that
thou mayest be a multitude of people."
Moses, speaking to the two million or more
Israelites in the Exodus, said to them, "The
Lord God of your fathers make ye a thousand
times as many as ye are and bless you as He
hath promised you" (Dent. 1:11).

Solomon is estimated to have had more than
fifteen million Israelites in his kingdom over
2,500 years ago and yet preachers today
would have us believe that less than fifteen
million Jews in the world today constitute
this "multiplied" seed of Israel (14,334,195 is
the 1976 estimate from the Jewish Statistical
Bureau, Dr. H.S. Linfield, Exec. Secretary,
1976 World Almanac, page 214).

Ministers who teach that the two million or
so Jews in Palestine are fulfilling Bible
prophecy of the regathering of Israel are com-
pletely ignoring the promises God made to
Abraham of the immense numbers of descen-
dants who would be in that regathering.

Their teaching is actually an affront to God,
yet millions of church goers believe and sup-
port this foolish preaching. Jeremiah was
truly right when he said of our day, "The
prophets prophesy falsely .... and My people
love to have it so " (Jer. 5:30-31).

Gospel to be Preached
Beginning at Jerusalem

After His resurrection, Christ taught the dis-
ciples, and it says in Luke 24:45, "Then
opened He their understanding that they
might understand the Scriptures." Solomon
said, "Wisdom is the principal thing; there-
fore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get
understanding" (Pr. 4:7). Since we can see
how important understanding is, what was it
that Christ gave the disciples to understand?

In the verses after Luke 24:45 above, we
read, "And said unto them. Thus it is written,
and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to
rise from the dead the third day: and that
repentance and remission of sins should be
preached in His Name among all nations
beginning at Jerusalem." Not ending at
Jerusalem, but beginning at the city of
Jerusalem, and not beginning 2000 years
later when a people who call themselves
"Jews" occupy the city, but beginning right
then. "And ye are witnesses of these things.
And, behold, I send the promise of My father
upon you: but tarry ye in the city of
Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power
from on high."

This is verified by the account in Act 1:8,
"But ye shall receive power, after that the
Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be
witnesses unto Me, both in Jerusalem, and in
all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the
uttermost parts of the earth." In Acts 2 is
the great story of Pentecost, the pouring out
of the Holy Spirit on Israel, beginning at
Jerusalem. Peter called it, "this is that which
was spoken by the prophet Joel" (vs 16).
Then he quoted Joel 2:28, which of course
was a prophecy to Israel.

Feed My Sheep (The House of Israel)

Let us compare Christ's instructions after
His resurrection with instructions He gave

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His disciples during His ministry. After His
baptism, Jesus instructed the twelve disci-
ples to go "to the lost sheep of the house of
Israel " (Matt. 10:6). The word "lost" here is
translated from the Greek "apollumi," which
means: "apo" ("put away") and "ollumi" ("pun-
ished") .. It signifies a voluntary losing, which
of course is correct, since God deliberately
put Israel away into the Assyrian captivity as
a punishment (see 2 Kings 18 & Hosea).
"Apollumi" is used 13 times in the New
Testament, and every time it is used in con-
nection with the house of Israel. (See Strong's
Concordance #622).

Then after His resurrection, Christ told
Simon Peter three times, "feed My lambs ...
feed My sheep ... feed My sheep" (John 21).
Now if Peter and the others were to obey
Christ and feed the "sheep of the house of
Israel," they would have to go to where the
sheep of the house of Israel were, would they
not?

So, the question here is - and you cannot
understand the difference between the old
Jerusalem and the new Jerusalem unless you
have the correct answer to this question - did
the disciples obey Christ's explicit instruc-
tions to "go to the lost sheep of the house of
Israel" and "feed My sheep," first in
Jerusalem, then in Judea, then in Samaria,
and then to the uttermost parts of the earth,
or did they not? I say they did!

Christian History —

The Unfolding of Israel Prophecy

History and scripture verify that the disciples
preached the Gospel first in Jerusalem, then
in Judea, then in Samaria, and then to the
uttermost parts of the earth where the
Israelites had gone. British, Roman and
other European historical records show that
some of the disciples who had known Jesus in
the flesh went directly to the British Isles.
Paul preached in Spain, France and England.

Joseph of Arimathea established a church in
England within 5 years of Jesus's death.
Others who went to England were Mary
Magdalene, Mary (mother of Jesus),
Maximin, Trophimus, Lazarus, Simon
Zelotes, Clements, Martial, Sidonius,
Zacchaeus, and Mary (wife of Cleophas).

Timothy, who had been ordained by Paul,
baptized his own nephew, the British King
Lucius, on May 28, 137 A.D. That same king
then declared all England Christian in 156
A.D. at the National Council at Winchester!
(For a more complete study of this fascinating
subject see my "Paul and Joseph of
Arimathea, Missionaries to the 'Gentiles'").

Information such as that in the above para-
graph has been completely expunged from
our school, church, and seminary textbooks.
Christian's do not know their race's Christian
history! If they did, they would begin to real-
ize that they are Israel. Our race reacted just
as Christ said His Israel sheep would. We
heard His voice, and we followed Him. Our
race became known as the "Christian peo-
ples" and are now the great Christian nations
of the world, including our own United States
of America. We are the only race which has
reacted to Christ in this manner.

It was not until about 1500 A.D., after the
entire White Race had had the opportunity to
hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that the Lord
moved upon Israel, the Anglo-Saxon and kin-
dred peoples, to then carry it to the heathen,
as He had said they would. They obeyed.

Christ Said Jews are Not of God

Ministers who preach that the Jews are God's
chosen people defy the plain teachings of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Speaking to the Jews,
Christ said, "He that is of God heareth God's
Words; ye therefore hear them not, because
ye are not of God" (John 8:47). And to make it
very certain we understand the Jews are not

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His sheep, it is recorded in John 10:26 that
He said to the Jews, "But ye believe not,
because ye are not of My sheep."

Then after Jesus told the Jews they were not
His people, he described how His true Israel
sheep would react when they heard His
Word: "My sheep hear My voice, and I know
them, and they follow Me." What race has
followed Jesus to the exclusion of all other
gods? There is only one — God's true Israel,
the Anglo-Saxon race.

No, my friends, the disciples did not go to
some heathen race. They obeyed their Master
and went to the lost sheep of the house of
Israel. The New Testament calls us
"Gentiles," which means tribes or nations. We
were the Gentiles among the Gentiles, the
lost tribes of Israel after the dispersion.

Teaching Error is Very Serious

My Christian friends, there is another seri-
ous side to this unscriptural teaching that we
are not Israel. If your minister teaches that
the Jews are Israel, the chosen people of God,
and that the Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, Germanic,
and other European Caucasians are not, then
your minister is saying that all of the disci-
ples disobeyed their Lord Jesus Christ and
that the Gospel prospered in disobedience!
That is not Scriptural. In fact, it is a very
poor way to demonstrate obedience to Christ.

The Samaritan Woman

To continue our study on Jerusalem, turn to
John 4 for a very symbolic meeting between
Christ, the Redeemer of Israel, and a
Samaritan woman. They met at a well, iden-
tified as "Jacob's well" in verse 6, and the
woman identified herself as a descendant of
Jacob in verse 12 by asking Jesus, "Art thou
greater than our father Jacob, which gave us
the well?"

"Jesus answered and said unto her.
Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst
again: But whosoever drinketh of the water
that I shall give him shall never thirst; but
the water that I shall give him shall be in him
a well of water springing up into everlasting
life." She immediately answered, "Sir, give
me this water, that I thirst not, neither come
hither to draw." This is not the response of a
Jew to Christ; neither is it the response of a
heathen. It is the response of an Israelite.

Before we go on in John 4, 1 will quote what
the concordance in the back of my Bible says
about the Samaritans at the time of Christ:
"The Samaritans were a mixed race, com-
posed of imported colonists and the Israelites
who remained when the bulk of the ten tribes
were carried into captivity. They had a tem-
ple to Jehovah on Mount Gerizim, their
sacred mountain, they accepted Moses as
their lawgiver and the Pentateuch as their
law, but they rejected the traditions and rules
of the Pharisees. They observed the rite of
circumcision, the requirements of the
Sabbath, and refused to accept Jerusalem as
the one place where the temple of Jehovah
should stand."

So Israelites lived in Samaria, they wor-
shiped Jehovah, the God of Israel, but knew
enough about prophecy to refuse to accept the
Jewish priesthood with its traditions or wor-
ship at Jerusalem (Would to God ministers
knew that much today!). This woman was an
Israelite, and in this meeting she is symbolic
of all Israel meeting Christ, their Messiah.

Israel the Harlot

In verse 16, Jesus said to her, "Go, call thy
husband, and come hither. The woman
answered and said, I have no husband."
Jesus said unto her, "Thou hast well said, I
have no husband: For thou has had five hus-
bands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy
husband." She had no husband and she had

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many husbands. Who, in the Bible, had no
husband, and had many husbands? Israel, of
course, who left her first husband, her God,
and as Scripture says, "they have gone whor-
ing form under their God" (Hosea 4), and
"thou has played the harlot with many
lovers" (Jer. 3:1).

Worship to Cease at Jerusalem

Then she went on to ask Him to explain
something. "Our fathers worshiped in this
mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is
the place where men ought to worship (?)" He
answered, "Woman, believe Me, the hour
cometh, when ye shall neither in this moun-
tain nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the
Father." This is testimony by Christ Himself
that worship of God was to cease in old
Jerusalem and old Palestine!

Then Jesus explained how worship would be
from that time on. "But the hour cometh, and
now is, when the true worshippers shall wor-
ship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the
Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a
Spirit: and they that worship Him must wor-
ship Him in spirit and in truth."

Jesus said to her that this old Jerusalem was
not to be a place of worship. As we read these
Scriptures and look over at old Jerusalem, we
can see that that has come to pass. In fact, in
the Jewish state of Israeli a person cannot
even become a citizen if he is a professing
Christian! It is written in their laws. It was
tested by a "racial" Jew a few years ago. He
went to Israeli and applied for citizenship. He
proved his racial lineage, but stated he
believed in Jesus Christ as the son of God.
His case went through the courts, and his
request for citizenship was denied. Only
atheists or followers of Judaism are granted
Israeli citizenship. Recently, additional laws
and regulations have been passed in Israeli
restricting or ending most Christian mission-
ary work there. Jesus said worship of God

would cease in old Jerusalem and in
Samaria, and it has.

Jerusalem A Burdensome Stone

Let's turn to Zechariah 12:1, "The burden of
the Word of the Lord for Israel, saith the
Lord, which stretcheth forth the heavens and
layeth the foundation of the earth, and
formeth the spirit of man within him. Behold,
I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling
unto all the people round about, when they
shall be in the siege both against Judah and
against Jerusalem." This is Jerusalem in
prophecy, yet future, as we can see by the
next verse. "And in that day will I make
Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people:
all that burden themselves with it shall be
cut in pieces, though all the people of the
earth be gathered together against it." God
calls Jerusalem a "stone" and indicates it will
destroy its enemies.

In Matthew 21:43-44 Jesus Christ speaks to
the chief priests and Pharisees, and He says,
"therefore say I unto you. The kingdom of
God shall be taken from you, and given to a
nation (yes, a nation) bringing forth the fruits
thereof. And whosoever shall fall on this
stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it
shall fall, it will grind him to powder." The
same terminology - the same thing is going to
happen to the people who gather against
prophetic Jerusalem as will happen to those
who fight the nation to which Christ will give
the Kingdom. And both the nation and
Jerusalem are called a stone, God's Stone
Kingdom! Prophetic Jerusalem is the same as
the Kingdom.

People are Gathering
Against New Jerusalem

In Zechariah we read that "all the people of
the earth be gathered against it." What are
the people of the earth being gathered
against? Why prophetic Jerusalem, of

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course! That huge Jerusalem that is so hig it
takes an angel to measure it, that has a mul-
titude of people and cattle (Zechariah 2), the
one God dwells in, the one He calls "Zion."
That is what they are gathered together to
destroy.

And they are not all trying to destroy Jewish
occupied Jerusalem. In fact, all the nations of
the world (including Communist nations) got
together in the United Nations in 1947 and
created the present nation we know as
Israeli. And this idea that Russia is trying to
destroy Jewish Israeli does not stand on close
examination. It was Russian Communists
who tricked the Egyptians into moving all
their armies out into the Sinai desert in 1967
where they were completely at the mercy of
Israeli planes. And the Russians never raised
a hand to save the Arabs.

The only nation that all the world is being
gathered together to destroy is the United
States of America. Even our so-called allies
like the governments of Sweden, Erance, and
England (and the American government) are
helping the anti-God enemies of America. Yet
deluded Christian ministers look at old
Jerusalem and erroneously call its Jewish
occupants "Israel." No, my friends, "all the
people of the earth" are gathered against the
New Jerusalem, the United States of
America, God's Country, the land of the
regathering of the true descendants of the
twelve tribes of Israel.

New Jerusalem — In Palestine?

In Heaven? On Earth?

We have seen that Zechariah indicated that
"all the people of the earth" would be gath-
ered against prophetic Jerusalem. And we
also read that Christ told the Jews, "The
Kingdom of God shall be taken from you and
given to a nation ..." As we read some spe-
cific descriptions of New Jerusalem, let us
keep in mind that Jesus taught "the Gospel of

the Kingdom," not just a gospel of personal
salvation, as some think. All four Gospels
make that plain in the beginning of His min-
istry. Read Matthew 4:17, Mark 1:15, Luke
4:43, John 3:3 and others.

In John 3:3 Christ explains the connection
between personal salvation and the kingdom,
"Except a man be born again, he cannot see
the kingdom of God." The ultimate purpose of
Christ's finished work on the Cross was to
provide man with the means to enter the
kingdom.

Jesus Christ said, "But I say unto you. Swear
not at all; neither by Heaven; for it is God's
throne: Nor by the earth; for it is His foot-
stool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city
of the great King" (Matt. 5:34-35). The city of
the great King!

Turn to Revelation 3:12, which links the
born again believer with the city of God, New
Jerusalem. "Him that overcometh will I make
a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall
go no more out: and I will write upon him the
Name of my God, and the name of the city of
my God, which is New Jerusalem, which
cometh down out of heaven from my God: and
I will write upon him my new name."

God's new Name is Jesus Christ. The name to
be written on the inhabitant of New
Jerusalem is His new name, "Christ man," or
"Christian!" The "city of my God," New
Jerusalem, will be a Christian place, a place
of born again believers, where the Saviour
Jesus Christ is believed on and praised , not
an old city that has the same name, where
Christ is hated and denied.

New Jerusalem the Bride

Revelation 21: "And I saw a new heaven
and a new earth: for the first heaven and the
first earth were passed away; and there was
no more sea ["sea" in prophecy signifies
human turmoil]. And I John saw the holy city.

10

new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of
heaven ..." This is the same as Rev. 3:12. It
is very clear that New Jerusalem is not in
heaven, hut that it "comes from" heaven! As
can he seen, these Scriptures do not fit the
teaching that the New Jerusalem or the
Kingdom is somewhere other than on earth.

Let us read on . . . "prepared as a hride
adorned for her husband." The "hride" of
prophecy! These are the first 2 verses, hut
my Christian reader should continue through
verse 8 for the beautiful description of the
kingdom.

Then in verse 9 and 10 John says, "And
there came unto me one of the seven angels
which had the seven vials full of the seven
last plagues, and talked with me, saying.
Come up hither, I will shew thee The bride,
the Lamb's wife. And he carried me away in
the spirit to a great and high mountain, and
shewed me that great city, the holy
Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from
God." The angel showed John the bride. And
what was the bride? "The holy Jerusalem."
The Church is never called "New Jerusalem"
in the Bible, yet ministers teach the church is
the bride. If you have been taught the bride of
Christ is some sort of "gentile church," you
should read Revelation 21 over until you
see the truth.

Israel The Bride

John goes on to describe this New Jerusalem,
the bride of the Lamb, "Having the glory of
God: and her light was like unto a stone [here
is that stone again] most precious, even like a
jasper stone, clear as crystal; and had a wall
great and high, and had twelve gates, and at
the gates twelve angels, and names written
thereon ..." And what were the names that
were written on the gates to this New
Jerusalem? "Which are the names of the
twelve tribes of the children of Israel!"

Yes, Israel is the Bride, and she will be puri-
fied of sin and corruption, for she is washed
in the blood of her Redeemer, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Israel shall no longer be a harlot, the
divorced wife of the great Jehovah. Israel was
made a widow indeed with the death of her
Husband, who took her punishment upon
Himself on the Cross of Calvary (Isa. 53, 54).
Then she, upon receiving the Holy Spirit and
being baptized for remission of her sins,
becomes the new, cleansed, and made ready
virgin Bride of Christ. This is the Israel with
the law written in her heart, "For this is the
covenant that I will make with the house of
Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will
put My laws into their minds, and write them
in their hearts; and I will be to them a God,
and they shall be to Me a people" (Heb. 8
and Jer. 31:31). Yes, Israel is the Bride!

We will read a few more verses of
Revelation 21 before we turn to one of God's
prophets to complete this study of the New
Jerusalem. Verse 15, "And he that talked
with me had a golden reed to measure the
city and the gates thereof, and the wall there-
of." This is obviously the same angel referred
to in Zechariah 2 who was measuring
Jerusalem. The Scriptures are always consis-
tent; there is no discrepancy when the Word
is used to interpret the Word. And that the
New Jerusalem is on earth is verified by
many Scripture verses including verse 24 of
Revelation 21, "And the nations of them
which are saved shall walk in the light of it:
and the kings of the earth do bring their glory
and honour into it."

There Will Be a New Temple
in New Jerusalem

At the same time Christians must under-
stand the nature of the temple that will be
built in New Jerusalem (and which God will
bless!). Every Christian should know this
(but they do not), so that they will not be
deceived by ministers who preach "lying div-

11

inations" about old Jerusalem and the Jews.
The Holy Word makes it plain of what sub-
stance this new habitation of Christ will be
built. "Know ye not that ye are the temple of
God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? .

. . for the temple of God is holy, which temple
ye are. " (1 Cor. 3:16-17). " Know ye not that
your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost,
which is in you . . . for ye are bought with a
price" (1 Cor. 6:19-20).

That the temple (Christians) is not to be
defiled by associations with unbelievers is
made abundantly clear in 2 Corinthians
6:14-18, including the oft-quoted "be ye sepa-
rate," and God's promise, "And I will be a
father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and
daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."

That God's new habitation is to be made up of
all believers is disclosed by Paul in
Ephesians 2:19-22 "now therefore ye are no
more strangers and foreigners, but fellow cit-
izens with the saints, and of the household
(see "sons and daughters" above) of God; And
are built upon the foundation of the apostles
and prophets ("New Testament Christians,"
please note the inclusion of the "prophets," or
Old Scriptures!), Jesus Christ Himself being
the chief corner stone; in whom all the build-
ing fitly framed together growth unto an holy
temple in the Lord: in whom ye also are
builded together for an habitation of God
through the Spirit." Is the new temple to be
one of stone built in old Jerusalem? Hardly.

Jesus Christ verified the substance of the
new temple and its new location. "Him that
overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple
of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I
will write upon him the name of my God, and
the name of the city of my God, which is New
Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven
[not in heaven - but Coming down from heav-
en], and I will write upon him My new Name
[Christ]" (Rev. 3:12).

It is nothing more nor less than pure blasphe-
my to teach that the non-Christian Jews are
going to build a temple of stone in old
Jerusalem, and then God will bless it and
make that old city His New Jerusalem. In
fact, Christians died by the tens of thousands
during the 100 years of the Crusades in a
mistaken and vain attempt to return and pos-
sess the temple in Jerusalem. God prevented
it. Old Jerusalem was forsaken 1900 years
ago!

Where are We Today?

What we have just read is not yet complete,
however. It will not be finished until after the
return of our Lord Jesus Christ. So let us
turn to one of God's prophets to see where we
are in present world history. God gave all of
His prophets visions of His kingdom, but we
will finish this study with Micah 4.

"But in the last days it shall come to pass,
that the mountain of the house of the Lord
[and remember that "mountain" is prophetic
for nation, so Micah is speaking of the nation
of the house of the Lord] shall be established
in the top of the mountains [above all
nations], and it shall be exalted above the
hills [small nations]; and people shall flow
unto it. And many nations shall come, and
say. Come, and let us go up to the mountain
of the Lord."

What did Zechariah say New Jerusalem
would be called? "The mountain of the Lord
of Hosts." (Zech. 8:3).

The Nation of New Jerusalem

Reading on in Micah 4: 2, "Let us go up to
the mountain [nation] of the Lord, and to the
house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach
us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths:
for the law shall go forth of Zion and the word
of the Lord from Jerusalem." That is where
we started our study. And we are not in the

12

old city of Jerusalem! Then in verse 7, "And
I will make her that halted a remnant, and
her that was cast far off a strong nation . .
Who was cast off? Israel was cast off into the
Assyrian captivity, and then was driven
north and west into Europe to become the
great Christian nations of Europe.

Then representatives of all the tribes were
gathered into the great melting pot nation,
the greatest nation that has ever existed in
all recorded history, the only one founded by
those who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ
as the virgin born Son of God, the United
States of America!

God has made us a "strong nation: and the
Lord shall reign over them in mount Zion,
from henceforth, even for ever. And thou, 0
tower of the flock, the strong hold of the
daughter of Zion [not the old mother; the
daughter!], unto thee shall it come, even the
first dominion ..." And what will come? "The
kingdom shall come to the daughter of
Jerusalem!"

America — Not Israeli

Yes, the United States of America is that
great nation promised to the seed of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Gen. 18:18 and
others). It is that great nation spoken of by
Christ, when He said to the Jewish priests in
old Jerusalem, "The kingdom of God shall be
taken from you, and given to a nation bring-
ing forth the fruits thereof."

Let us review a few of the names and
Scriptural terms used to describe New
Jerusalem, or the Kingdom: the Bride of
Christ, the holy city, the city of the great God,
New Jerusalem, the burdensome stone, this
stone, a city that angels measure, the towns
without walls for the multitude of men and
cattle therein, the city of truth, the mountain
of the Lord of hosts, the great Zion, a nation
bringing forth the fruits thereof, and on and

on. Is that the old city of Jerusalem we see in
Palestine under the Jews? Is it that old city
at any future time? No! What you see in old
Canaanland, in old Palestine, is the city "that
killest the prophets," the city that is now "as
Shiloh!"

Even Our Troubles Testify
of Our Identity

With all we have read in mind, and consider-
ing the present situation of the United States
of America, surrounded by the nations under
the control of World Communism, out govern-
ment infiltrated by and under the control of
anti-Christ people, let us read the rest of
Micah 4. We will see this prophecy is now
America's current history.

Verse 9, "Now why dost thou cry aloud? Is
there no king in thee? Is thy counselor per-
ished?" We certainly seem to be without good
counsel in government! "Eor pangs have
taken thee as a woman in travail. Be in pain,
and labour to bring forth, 0 daughter of Zion,
like a woman in travail." Something is going
to be born out of all this trial and tribulation
we are going through. "Eor now shalt thou go
forth out of the city [forsake God's laws], and
thou shalt dwell in the field [in anarchy, civil
disorders, revolution, and violence], and thou
shalt go even to Babylon."

This always stumps those who do not know
the correct identity of the "daughter of Zion."
It simply means we will come under the con-
trol of the international money powers known
in the Scripture as "Mystery, Babylon The
Great, The Mother Of Harlots And
Abominations Of The Earth" (Rev. 17:5)
(That is a study in itself - see my "Billions $
for the Bankers$ and Debts to the People").

Deliverance Comes
at the Moment of Defeat!

But at the very time when the anti-Christ

13

international conspirators think they have us
in their grasp, we will he saved! "And thou
shalt go even to Babylon, there shalt thou he
delivered: there the Lord shall redeem thee
from the hands of thine enemies [see Luke 1:
68-71], Now also many nations are gathered
against thee [all prophets prophesied this],
that say Let her he defiled, and let our eye
look upon Zion." All the nations of the earth
are being gathered against the United States
of America, God's great Zion nation.

But God goes on through His prophet, "But
they know not the thoughts of The Lord, nei-
ther understand they His counsel: for He
shall gather them as sheaves into the floor."
Then we are ordered to battle, "Arise and
thresh, 0 daughter of Zion; for I will make
thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs
brass: and thou shalt beat in pieces many
people: and I will consecrate their gain unto
the Lord, and their substance unto the Lord
of the whole earth."

The Last Battle

We will close this study of the two Jerusalems
with that, for it is not my purpose here to
describe the battle in which God's Israel peo-
ple in New Jerusalem will be saved from
their enemies. I have done that in "The Bible
says: Russia Will Invade America." But most
Bible students know that all prophecy points
to a time when there will be fought between
Israel and Israel's enemies, between Christ
and anti-Christ, the great battle often called
"The Conflict of the Ages." That that battle
will be fought here on this great North
American continent is abundantly clear to
those who understand both history and
prophecy. For we, the White, Anglo-Saxon,
Celtic, Germanic, and kindred peoples, gath-
ered here in the United States and Canada,
are those Israel people.

The victorious conclusion of that battle under
the banner of Jesus Christ will usher in God's

great Kingdom on earth, the millennial reign
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And
His Kingdom is not limited to any one nation,
for when "out of Zion shall go forth the law,
and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem,"
then "The kingdoms of this world are become
the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ,
and He shall reign for ever and ever." (Rev.
11:15).

Why Christians Have Not Known This

I realize that this Bible study has uncovered
many things that some Christian readers
have never heard. So I must make it clear
that, while I do disagree with much of pres-
ent day preaching on Israel and the two
Jerusalems, I blame the erroneous teachings
more on the seminaries than on the preach-
ers. I have read or seen book after book used
by seminaries, and they are filled with thou-
sands of pages of treatises, themes, essays,
demands, arguments, studies and "proofs"
that the people known today as the Jews are
God's Chosen People Israel. It is simply not
so; but I cannot entirely blame a minister
who was brought up in a church that taught
this error, then went to a seminary that gave
him hundreds of hours of instruction in this
error, and then turned him out to associate
with other preachers who have also been
taught the same error.

Henry Ford, a great Christian layman, in his
monumental and almost forgotten book, "The
International Jew", wrote, "The reading of
the Scriptures which confuse the tribe of
Judah with Israel, and which interpret every
mention of Israel as signifying the Jews, is at
the root of more than one-half the confusion
and division traceable in Christian doctrinal
statements. The Jews are not the Chosen
People, though practically the entire Church
has succumbed to the propaganda which
declares them to be so." He wrote that in
1921. Our seminaries are the victims of "cer-
tain men who crept in unawares, who were
before of old ordained to this condemnation."
(Jude 4).

14

The Holy Spirit

Paul explained how we were to know the
things of God. "But the natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God:
for they are foolishness unto him: neither can
he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned" (1 Cor. 2:14). God makes His
Word plain to those who ask Him for under-
standing, and Jesus Christ explained to us
how we would understand future events
through the Spirit. "Howheit when he, the
Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into
all truth: for he shall not speak of himself:
hut whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he
speak: and he will shew you things to come."
Future! Future history will he shown hy the
Holy Spirit. How? By visions and signs and
wonders? No! God reveals Himself through
His Word - interpreted hy the Holy Spirit. So
please ask the Holy Spirit for guidance,
instead of asking a minister who repeats only
what he has been taught in the seminary.
And read your Bible!!

Israel Identity
the Key to Proving the Bihle

As Christians and parents, how can you con-
vince your children of the Truth of the Bible,
and the faithfulness of our God, unless you
teach them the truth of our Israel Identity?
Ministers tell millions of our young people
that the Jews are "God's Chosen People", that
there are supposedly fewer Israelites today
than there were over 2000 years ago, and
that the Old Testament is about other people,
the Jews. They are totally unable to show the
relevance of the Scripture to our race, our
nation, or our time, when the truth of the
matter is that the Scripture is primarily
about our race, our nation and our time!
"Hear, ye deaf; and look ye blind, that ye may
see. Who is blind, but My servant?"

Let's tell our children the truth about Israel,
that we the Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, Germanic,

and kindred peoples are the true descendants
of the twelve sons of Israel, and that our
great nation and the great Christian nations
of Europe are the nations promised to the
seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Let us
prove to them that we have a covenant keep-
ing God, that the Bible is the Word of God,
that it is true, and we have been Redeemed
by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. As a
minister, I can say that nothing will open up
the Bible, or prove its Truth, like the true
identity of Israel today!

Old Jerusalem to be Occupied by

the Enemy at the End of the Age

We have already seen that God was to make
Jerusalem as Shiloh. One of the things that
was to happen to Shiloh was, "and thou shalt
see an enemy in My habitation" (1 Sam.
2:32). This did happen to Shiloh, and if God's
Word is True, it must happen to the old city of
Jerusalem.

Ezekiel saw the same thing, for we read in
Ezekiel 36:12, "Also thou son of man, proph-
esy unto the mountains [nations] of Israel,
and say, ye mountains of Israel, hear the
Word of the Lord: Thus saith the Lord God:
Because the enemy hath said against you.
Aha, even the ancient high places are ours in
possession." Now, who possesses the places
of worship of ancient Israel? Not the true
Israel people, but the Jews. God goes on to
say, "Surely in the fire of My jealousy, have I
spoken against the residue of the heathen,
and against all Idumea [Edom], which have
appointed my land into their possession with
the joy of all their heart, with despiteful
minds, to cast it out for a prey."

The Jewish Encylopedia, Vol. 5, page 41,
1925, says, "Edom is in Modern Jewry."
Again, who has old Jerusalem, Palestine, and
the "ancient high places" in their possession?

15

by SHELDON EMRY