Opus 2024-340: Group or Individual

Something I wrestle with is the way in which the Old Testament seems to speak in terms of the nation of Israel, and the New Testament seems to speak of individual believers.

Currently, I’m thinking in terms of the end times.  I am reading Isaiah.  There are lots of prophecies involved here that can only be applied in the end times because they don’t seem to fit anything we know about history.  In those prophecies after large-scale extinctions of Israelites who have been rebellious, there is still going to be a group brought back under the covenant.  That seems to involve just people who are still alive, and yet such passages as the valley of bones being resurrected makes you think that perhaps God can raise them from the dead, or will raise them from the dead.

But then there are the references to the remnants like He told Elijah.  Is that a statement or prophecy?  Also, does that go down through history?  My thinking, is wondering if from the time when the rabbis started polluting the word of God and diverting it into their own personal opinions, has there always been a group of believing Jews who pretty much ignored with the rabbis said, read their Old Testament scriptures, and continued to believe in the God of Israel?  It is not impossible.  It is possible that in the end times when Israel is called back into covenant that these will be the ones who will fulfill that.

Some people focus on Israel’s return.  There’s the passage in Romans that talks about all Israel being saved.  There’s the 144,000 in revelation.  It could be that when all of this comes together that these statements regarding the faithful will be fulfilled.

Then we come to the church and the New Testament.  The New Testament emphasizes the individual and the individual choice.  It seems to emphasize the relationship between God and individual believers.  That is the emphasis.  While that is the emphasis, there are still statements about the church.  When it talks about the body of Christ and the church, being raptured, being resurrected, going through trials and tribulations, there is a group understanding, and yet there is also an individual understanding.

This may be part of the path to understanding that I need to find.

homo unius libri