Spir Dynamics 907 8/25/96; Special: Higher Purpose of Freedom 2-10, 7/16/95; Rom 3/20/77; Dav 6/30/77
A. Definition.
1. A client nation is a national entity under the patronage of God, assigned the responsibility for the formation, preservation, communication, and fulfillment of the canon of Scripture.
a. Before Israel became a nation, custodianship of the word of God involved divine revelation apart from Scripture. But since Israel has become a nation, it is involved in the authorship, custodianship and dissemination of the written Word.
b. Additional custodianship was assigned to Israel in the formation of the New Testament, since all except two writers were Jews.
c. During the time of the formation of the New Testament, the client nation changed from Judea to the Roman Empire, in 70 A.D.
2. In Ex 19:4-6, we have a reference to the client nation concept, “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself. Now therefore, if hearing, you will obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all peoples, for all the earth is Mine; then you shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation to Me. These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.”
a. Deut 7:6, “For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.”
b. Deut 26:18-19, “And the Lord has today declared you to be His people, a people for His own [a treasured] possession, as He promised you; therefore, you are to keep all His commandments; and that He will set you high above all nations which He made, for praise, fame, and honor; and that you shall be a holy people to the Lord your God, as He has spoken.”
3. There are two categories of client nations to God in human history: the five Jewish client nations of the Old Testament with a specialized priesthood and the Gentile client nations during the dispensation of the Church with a universal priesthood. No Gentile nation of the Old Testament was a client nation to God. The Gentile client nation category follows exactly the same pattern as Israel with some dramatic differences related to the uniqueness of the Church Age, both in grace provision and in spiritual life.
4. A client nation is a synonym for a priest nation. The name “priest nation” is used for Israel because it had a specialized priesthood. The term “client nation” is used for any Gentile nation that performs the same functions during the Church Age. In Roman history, a client was someone dependent on another family. Instead of calling a Gentile nation a priest nation as such, the believers in the Church Age are a holy priesthood and a royal family of God, 1 Pet 2:4-5, “And coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected by men, but elect and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up into a spiritual house [compare Heb 3:6] as a result of a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through the agency of Jesus Christ.”
a. Israel was always called a holy nation. The Church is called a holy priesthood. Why? Because in the Church Age, every believer is a priest.
b. Jesus Christ tested and proved the prototype spiritual life. We offer up spiritual sacrifice by the fulfillment of the three stages of the adult spiritual life. God does not want sacrifices and offerings; He wants the sacrifice of the spiritual life. The spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God are the four spiritual mechanics of the spiritual life.
c. 1 Pet 2:9, “But you are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out from darkness into His marvelous light.” The idea of an elect race comes from the Greek phrase in 2 Cor 5:17 KAINE KTISIS, which means, “a new spiritual species.” “Therefore, if anyone is in union with Christ, he is a new spiritual species; old things have lost their power, behold, new things have come to pass.” The new things that have come to pass are the four spiritual mechanics, the four spiritual objectives. In the privacy of your priesthood, you have the option or the option to fail as far as the spiritual life is concerned.
d. The royal priesthood is related to positional sanctification; for our Lord is a king-priest from the line of David. Believers in Christ are royal family of God, and this is the key to Gentile client nations in the Church Age.
5. A client nation to God is a nation under divine protection, because it has a large pivot of mature believers. These mature believers have blessing by association to those around them and historical blessing to their nation. A client nation is destroyed by the reversionistic believers who “spin-off” from the pivot of mature believers by their rejection of Bible doctrine. As the pivot shrinks, the nation loses its client nation status with God and undergoes the five cycles of discipline. Only a remnant of positive believers had impact through the spiritual life of Israel in the Old Testament.
6. The divine meanings of history has always been client nations.
B. The most important client nation and the key to all client nations is found in the history of Israel as a priest nation.
1. God directs and controls historical activity on the basis of client nations. A client nation is responsible to do five things.
a. It must evangelize its own population at home.
b. It must communicate Bible doctrine to the believers in the nation.
c. It is responsible for the custodianship of Bible doctrine.
d. It provides a haven for the Jews.
e. It is responsible to send out missionaries to evangelize other nations.
2. There were five Jewish client nations in the Old Testament.
a. The theocratic kingdom, B.C. 1441-1020, from the Exodus until the prophet Samuel. The theocratic kingdom ended when the Jews said, “We want to be like other nations.”
b. The United Kingdom from Saul to Rehoboam, B.C. 1020-926.
c. The Northern Kingdom from Jeroboam to Hoshea, B.C. 926-721. In 721 B.C. the fifth cycle of discipline was administered by the Assyrians under Sargon II.
d. The Southern Kingdom from Rehoboam to Zedekiah, B.C. 926-586. The fifth cycle of discipline was administered by the Chaldeans under Nebuchadnezzar.
e. After the Northern and Southern Kingdoms were destroyed, while no Jewish client nation was operational as such, Jews outside of the client nation filled in the gap to Gentile nations as they had been responsible before to do so. No Gentile client nation exists in the Old Testament, only Jewish client nations. Then Judah became a client nation again from B.C. 516 until 70 A.D. Chaldea and the Persian Empire were not client nations between B.C. 586-516.
(1) In 458 B.C., after the fifth Jewish client nation was operational, we have the return of Ezra. The entire Old Testament canon was discovered and Ezra led a great revival back to Bible doctrine
. (2) In 445 B.C., Nehemiah returned with a group of people to rebuild the walls and to organize the military to defend this client nation.
C. Negative Volition to Bible doctrine destroys a client nation.
1. There were periods of apostasy in Israel in the Old Testament. Apostasy in a client nation is always a cancer. If it grows long enough, that client nation dies under the fifth cycle of discipline. In every case of Jewish apostasy in a Jewish client nation status both the clergy and the politicians of Israel are indicted along with the negative volition of the people.
a. Jer 6:13-14, “For from the least of them even to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for profit, furthermore from the prophet even to the priest everyone manufactures lies. In fact they allege to solve problems of My people, saying, `Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.”
b. Ezek 13:10-16, “It is definitely because they have misled My people by saying, `Peace!’ when there is no peace. Now when anyone builds a wall [the political lies of politicians], behold, they cover it with whitewash [the false solution to the problems of the client nation]; so tell those who plaster it over with whitewash, that it will fall. A flooding rain will come, and you, O hailstones, will fall; and a violent wind [fifth cycle of discipline] will break out. Behold, when the wall has fallen, will you not be asked, `Where is the plaster with which you have plastered it?’ Therefore, thus says the Lord God, `I will cause a violent wind to break out in My wrath. There will also be in My anger a flooding rain and hailstones to consume it in wrath. So I shall tear down the wall [the political lies] which you plastered over with whitewash and bring it down to the ground, so that its foundation is laid bare; furthermore when it falls, you will be destroyed with it. Then you will know that I am the Lord. Therefore I will spend My wrath against the wall and against those who have plastered it with whitewash; then I will say to you, `The wall is gone along with its plasterers, along with the prophets of Israel who prophesy to Jerusalem, and saw visions of peace for her where there is no peace,’ declares the Lord God.”
c. Principles.
(1) Good decisions of national leadership result in greater options for greater decisions. Bad decisions destroy freedom options and enslave the nation, so that the client nation status is destroyed from within in the first three cycles of discipline. A nation that is not prepared for war is not prepared for peace.
(2) Mankind always has been and always will be the product of their own volition, not their environment. We blame environment, which is part of the arrogance skills.
(3) The doctrine of man’s sin nature and total depravity plus the function of Satan’s cosmic system requires that people in a client nation periodically will have to make great sacrifices for freedom.
(4) Political solutions are useless without spiritual solutions. What makes political solutions great is the invisible heroship of a pivot of mature believers. Political solutions are temporal; spiritual solutions are eternal. Political solutions relate to the power of man; spiritual solutions relate to the power of God. Political solutions are often erroneous and destructive to a nation, while spiritual solutions offer hope to a nation and eternal life to individuals in that nation. Political solutions are mortal and subject to corruption; spiritual solutions are eternal and compatible with the immortality of the soul. Political solutions grope in darkness of spiritual death, but spiritual solutions live in the light of eternity and the fantastic divine revelation in time. Political solutions are related to the first birth of mankind and his spiritual death; spiritual solutions are related to regeneration through faith in Christ—the second birth of mankind and his eternal relationship with God. Spiritual solutions never include violence or coercion, but a change in the soul through Bible doctrine.
2. People become self-righteous, arrogant legalistic, and reversionistic, Hos 4:1-7; 8:7, and are destroyed for lack of Bible doctrine. Rejection of Bible doctrine leads to destruction of the client nation. Everything depends on your attitude toward Bible doctrine.
3. The fifth cycle of discipline was administered to various Jewish nations, which discontinued their function as a priest nation. The Northern Kingdom fell to Assyria in 721 B.C. The Southern Kingdom fell to the Chaldean Empire in 586 B.C. Judea was conquered by Rome in 70 A.D. Israel will not be a priest nation again until the Second Advent.
4. When Israel was being disciplined as a client nation from 586-516 B.C., there was no Gentile client nation. The remnant according to the election of grace went to Gentile client nations as representatives of a non-operational client nation. The same thing happens during the Tribulation—there is no client nation. Individual Jews are used by God to evangelize the Gentiles from 586-516 B.C. and during the Tribulation. The Persian and Chaldean empires were not client nations to God.
5. When the Roman Empire fell in 476 A.D., God had already used the Goths as His client nation during the fourth century. Scotland and Ireland were client nations during the fifth and sixth centuries. The Franks were a client nation during the eighth and ninth centuries; the Vikings were during the tenth century. Germany under Luther, and Switzerland under Calvin were client nations during the sixteenth century. Sweden under Gustavus Adolphus, and the Huguenots during the seventeenth century were client nations. Brandenberg-Prussia under the Hohenzollerns were a client nation during the eighteenth century. England was the same during the reign of Victoria in the nineteenth century. And the United States of America has been a client nation from 1776 until the present. These are just a few examples. (See the Doctrine of the Pivot for the geopolitical advance of the pivot in the Church Age.)
6. Jesus Christ, who controls history, knows where positive volition will be in each generation. And He makes sure that the current client nation goes to that area of the world with missionary activity. This insures that Gentile nations will continue as client nations until the Rapture.
7. Ignorance of Bible doctrine destroyed the Jewish client nations, and the same ignorance of doctrine destroys the Gentile client nations, Eph 4:18-19. Scar tissue of soul has had the same effect, 2 Cor 13:5.
D. The restoration of Israel as a priest nation will occur at the second Advent and continue throughout the millennium, Isa 49:5-8. Israel today and in the tribulation is not a client nation. There is a testimony from 144,000 Jews during the tribulation exactly like the seventy years of the Babylonian captivity, but there is no client nation during these two periods.
E. The Pivot and the Client Nation.
1. The pivot is the remnant of mature believers who have reached maximum adjustment to the justice of God by their positive attitude toward Bible doctrine. If there is a large pivot, the nation is delivered from historical disaster. It there is a small pivot, then only the pivot is delivered, while the nation is destroyed.
2. The size of the pivot in historical disaster determines the outcome of that disaster.
3. The spinoff is the reversionistic believers. The larger the spinoff, the greater the disaster and destruction of the nation.
4. When judgment falls on a nation, the pivot is still secure because of their adjustment to the justice of God. If a mature believer dies during historical disaster, it was just his time to go home, not a matter of discipline.
5. The principle of deliverance depending upon the size of the pivot is derived from the fact that mature believers are a blessing by association and have historical impact.
6. While the pivot is secure, the spinoff is destroyed in the disaster.
7. Therefore historical disaster separates those adjusted to the justice of God from those who are maladjusted. Since the spinoff is always composed of those who are maladjusted, they are disciplined and destroyed by the historical disaster.
F. The principle of the client nation solves certain problem passages in Scripture.
1. 2 Sam 8:18, “And David’s sons were priests.” David was from the tribe of Judah, therefore not qualified to be a priest. But because Israel was a priest nation the verse is telling us that all David’s sons were believers, and therefore, priests, as in the sense of Ex 19:6. Believers are priests in a priest nation.
2. In Ex 19:5-6, the phrase “My special possession” is a synonym for client nation.
G. The Millennial Reference to Israel as a Priest Nation.
1. Isa 61:5-8a, “You will be called priests of Jehovah.”
2. Israel will be restored as the client nation to God at the Second Advent. Then it will function as His representative nation on the earth for the entire Millennium.
3. There is never a permanent Jewish client nation to God until Jesus Christ provides such a thing at the second Advent. Client nations are definitely an issue in the spiritual life.
H. The Present Role of the USA as a Client Nation in the Church Age.
1. In every generation of U.S. history, there has been the ingredients of the client nation: evangelism, Bible teaching, missionaries, and pro-semitism.
2. The USA as a client nation is reflected in our Constitution’s purpose, which limits the federal government’s authority.
3. We still have all the ingredients, but things are getting worse. We have a pivot of mature believers, but the spinoff is large and getting larger. Evangelism is a lot of lip service. Bible doctrine is rarely taught properly or accurately. Reversionism has destroyed most missionaries. 4. After the Rapture, there will be no client nation; therefore, there will be no nation for refuge for the Jews. The only thing we are doing right at the present is providing a haven for the Jews.
5. When the Church is taken out of the world at the Rapture, so is the ministry of the Holy Spirit in providing blessing by association and historical impact by restraining evil, 2 Thes 2.
I. The “Times of the Gentiles” and Client Nations, Lk 21:20-24. 1. Jesus Christ is warning the Jews of the removal of Judea as a client nation. Mature believers are to know from the intake of Bible doctrine that Judea will be destroyed. By practical application of this passage the pivot was delivered. Someone always gets hurt in historical disaster: 1,100,000 were killed, 97,000 taken captive.
2. The “times of the Gentiles” refers to the fact that from 70 A.D. until the Rapture, Tribulation and Second Advent, only Gentile nations will be client nations to God. In the Tribulation only individual Jews will be evangelists, there will be no Jewish client nation.
3. When the fifth cycle of discipline came in 70 A.D., it ended the function of any Jewish nation as a priest nation until the Second Advent of Christ. There will be no Gentile client nation during the Tribulation since all believers are taken to heaven before this period of great historical disaster.
4. Gentile client nations should have a maximum number of mature believers for a pivot, maximum evangelism within their own nation, maximum missionary activity to other nations, and they are to provide a haven for the Jews.
5. The client nation is characterized by being pro-semitic. No Gentile nation can be a client nation to God without providing a haven for the Jews during the “times of the Gentiles.” Anti-semitism automatically eliminates any nation from being a client nation to God.
6. During the tribulation, there will be a Jewish nation, but it will not be a client nation. There will be a great evangelistic thrust by 144,000 Jews and the return of Moses and Elijah. But Israel is not restored as a client nation until the Second Advent.
7. When the Rapture occurs, there is no pivot, no believers, and no client nation. That is why angels, Moses, and Elijah, in addition to the 144,000 Jews are used during the tribulation for the evangelization of the world.
8. In the meantime, we have the “times of the Gentiles,” which began in 70 A.D. and continues until the Second Advent.
J. The “Fullness of the Gentiles", Rom 11:25.
1. Rom 11:25, “For, brethren, I do not wish you to be ignorant of this mystery [Church Age doctrine], lest you become presumptuous [wise in your own estimation], that a partial hardening has occurred to Israel until the full measure of Gentile nations has come in.”
2. The word translated “Gentile nations” is the Greek word ETHNOS. This word means Gentiles and Gentile nations. The full measure of the Gentile nations is all the Gentile client nations from the fall of Israel in 70 A.D. until the end of the Church Age.
3. The full measure of Gentile nations refers to the times of the Gentiles with one slight difference. The times of the Gentiles goes from 70 A.D. until the second Advent. The full measure of the Gentiles has to do with the fact that there will always be Gentile client nations until the resurrection of the Church. The difference is the tribulation, during which there is no Gentile client nation and Israel is not yet restored as a client nation.
K. The Fading Glory of the Mosaic Law, Ex 34.
1. Moses made a prophet gesture in relationship to Israel as God’s covenant people. This gesture may be classified as the doctrine of the fading glory in contrast to the spiritual life of the Church Age which may be classified as the doctrine of the unfading glory.
2. Ex 34:29-35, “Now it came to pass when Moses was coming down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of testimony in his hands that Moses did not know that the skin of his face was shining because he had been talking with Him. So when Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him. So Moses called to them. Then Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned to him; then Moses spoke to them. And afterward all the sons of Israel came near, and he commanded them everything that the Lord had spoken to him on Mount Sinai. When Moses had finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face. Now whenever Moses went in face-to-face with the Lord to speak with Him, he took off the veil until he came out, and whenever he came out and spoke to the sons of Israel what had been commanded, the sons of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face was shining. So Moses would replace the veil over his face until he went in to speak with Him.”
a. Moses put on the veil after speaking God’s word to the people so that Israel could not see the fading glory of the Mosaic Law. Moses understood that Israel must hear the message and not associate the message with the fact that the Mosaic Law is a system of fading glory. Israel was not to understand at that time that all five of the Jewish client nations to God would sooner or later fail because of rejection of Bible doctrine. As soon as Moses entered the tabernacle he removed the veil and kept it off until he was finished listening to the Lord and speaking to the people of Israel.
b. The prophetic gesture of Moses provides the historical background and interpretation for the unfading glory of the unique spiritual life of the Church Age. The unique spiritual life of the Church Age believer is an unfading glory. There is no fading glory in the spiritual life of the Church Age. If the spiritual life is rejected, there is a veil over the soul called scar tissue of the soul. People do not do what the word of God says because there is a veil over their soul.
3. 2 Cor 3:13-18, “And not as Moses, who kept on putting a veil over his face to prevent the sons of Israel from gazing at his face while the radiance was fading away, but their thinking was hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is only removed by Christ. For until this very day whenever Moses is read, a veil covers their heart; but whenever it [the Jewish heart] has turned face-to-face with the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Spirit is the Lord [deity of the Holy Spirit]; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom [spiritual freedom]. But we all, with an unveiled face looking into a mirror to produce a reflection—the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory [the prototype spiritual life] to glory [the operational spiritual life], as it were from the Spirit of the Lord.”
a. When Moses pulled down the veil over his face, the Jews pulled a veil down over their hearts. The phrase “their thinking was hardened” means they rejected his teaching and had scar tissue of the soul. They were free to succeed or fail. They chose to fail. Is there a veil over your heart when you hear doctrine taught? To the extent that you neglect doctrine you are presumptuous. If you think that the learning of the world is more important than doctrine, you are presumptuous. The same thing that happened to the Jews in their client nation is happening to believers in client nation USA—their thinking is hardened.
b. There could be no Gentile client nations until the baptism of the Holy Spirit, so that any born again Jew could be part of a client nation that is not Israel. The full measure of the Gentiles does not exclude the Jew at all.
c. They had fading glory. You have unfading glory. You have greater responsibility than anyone in the five Jewish client nations to God. You have a spiritual life that has an unfading glory. If God severely disciplined the Jews who had a spiritual life with fading glory, what will he do to us if we reject a spiritual life with unfading glory?
d. We are face-to-face with the Lord when we hear the teaching of the word of God contained in the New Testament canon. The unveiled face belongs to the positive believer who is consistent in the function of the four spiritual mechanics.
e. Metabolized doctrine in your soul creates a mirror into which you can look and see what you are really like, Jam 1:23-25. This allows you to evaluate yourself without any help from anyone else. There is another reflection which is seen in the mirror of Bible doctrine—the reflection of the humanity of Christ in hypostatic union, the glory of the Lord. You have the opportunity of having the unveiled soul with all of its glory, becoming of member of the pivot of mature believers in the client nation, and so preserving the client nation.
L. Concluding Principles.
1. Mankind does not possess the power to perpetuate or guarantee peace on the earth. There will always be wars and rumors of wars until Jesus Christ returns, Mt 24:6-7. Therefore, beware of politicians who reject and diminish the military, Ezek 13:10-16. Beware of the liberal clergy, who manufacture lies about world peace, Jer 6:13-14.
2. The supreme court of heaven can punish Israel without any help. Anti-semitism is a guarantee for destroying a national entity. God does not need any help in His discipline of Israel. Anti-semitism is Satanic, Rev 12. Anti-semitism results in liability to personal and national discipline from the supreme court of heaven, Gen 12:3.
3. All failure of client nations to God includes both the spiritual and establishment principles, Hos 4:1-6. The failure of believers to execute God’s plan and purpose results in a shrinking pivot of mature believers and the rejection of establishment principles.
4. The Fantasy Notion. Politicians seeking power with utopian plans destroy a national entity. The utopian concept came into history in 1516, when Sir Thomas Moore wrote a book called Utopia, a state of political and social perfection. Utopianism involves the dreams and schemes of an imaginary, divorced from reality status of political and social perfection. Hence, utopianism is the Satanic concept of the millennium brought on by the work of mankind rather than by the work of God. This is the warning of Ezek 13:10-16. Utopianism not only rejects the biblical eschatology of the millennium but ignores the total depravity of mankind and the need for regeneration and establishment principles delineated in the Scripture.
5. God has ordained nationalism in the human race to protect it from self-destruction, Acts 17:24-27.
6. Utopian socialism is an economic system based on the premise that if capital voluntarily surrendered its ownership of means of production to the state and the workers, unemployment and poverty would be abolished. This is tantamount to redistribution of wealth and is totally disastrous. The Bible does not teach any such things. The word of God teaches that you must always have capitalism and free enterprize. Capitalism is the only economic system that creates prosperity.
7. Jesus Christ controls history.
a. He controls history through the function of His divine essence.
b. He controls history as a judge of the supreme court of heaven.
c. He controls history through the pivot of mature believers in the client nation.
d. He controls history through the utilization of the wrath of man to praise Him, Ps 76:10.
e. He controls history through the preservation of Israel against all anti-semitism functions both Satanic and sin nature conspiracy.
f. He controls history through the preservation of planet earth during the course of human history. He not only created the universe, Heb 1:10, but He holds the universe together by the word of His power, Heb 1:3. By the control of history, Jesus Christ provides freedom for the function of human volition.
g. He controls history through the second Advent, which terminates the last and greatest world war of history.
M. The Principles of Hope for a Client Nation.
1. You cannot buy hope. Hope is not for sale.
2. You cannot legislate hope; for hope is the monopoly of God and demands relationship with God.
3. Therefore, government cannot give you hope; for hope is a confident relationship with God.
4. Hence, hope is for Gentile client nations to God of the Church Age and that hope always depends on believers executing the unique spiritual life which has impact on the nation through blessing by association.
5. As goes the spiritual life of the believer so goes the blessing of God for the client nation.
6. In recognition of the doctrine, “as goes the believer, so goes the client nation,” hope becomes a technical monopoly of the royal priesthood.
7. Only those believers who execute the unique spiritual life of the dispensation of the Church constitute both blessing and deliverance to the client nation to God in any given generation.
8. Therefore, hope in the client nation is related to the pivot of mature believers who execute the spiritual life of the Church to become a vehicle of blessing by association.
9. Heb 13:20-21; 2 Cor 13:14; Eph 3:20-21.
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