I agree with you almost all the time. However, I disagree this time with you characterization of the Jews.
The Jews are God's people and will always be so. As with Christians, there are some who have lost their way. However, Paul (a Jew, as were all the authors of the Bible except for Luke), wrote in Romans 11 (with my emphases)...
I ask, then,
has God rejected his people? By no means! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin.
God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars; I alone am left, and they are seeking my life.” But what is the divine reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” So, too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace would no longer be grace.
What then? Israel has not achieved what it was pursuing. The elect have achieved it, but the rest were hardened, as it is written,
“God gave them a sluggish spirit,
eyes that would not see
and ears that would not hear,
down to this very day.”
And David says,
“Let their table become a snare and a trap,
a stumbling block and a retribution for them;
let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see,
and keep their backs forever bent.”
So I ask, have they stumbled so as to fall? By no means! But through their stumbling salvation has come to the gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. Now
if their stumbling means riches for the world and if their loss means riches for the gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!
Now I am speaking to you gentiles. Inasmuch as I am an apostle to the gentiles, I celebrate my ministry in order to make my own people jealous and thus save some of them. For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?
If the part of the dough offered as first fruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; and if the root is holy, then the branches also are holy.
But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted among the others to share the rich root[
f] of the olive tree,
do not boast over the branches. If you do boast, remember:
you do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” That is true. They were broken off on account of unbelief, but you stand on account of belief.
So do not become arrogant, but be afraid. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen but God’s kindness toward you,
if you continue in his kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off.
And even those of Israel, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. For if you have been cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree.
I want you to understand this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not claim to be wiser than you are: a hardening has come upon
part of Israel until the full number of the gentiles has come in. And in this way
all Israel will be saved, as it is written
“Out of Zion will come the Deliverer;
he will banish ungodliness from Jacob.”
“
And this is my covenant with them,
when I take away their sins.”
As regards the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but
as regards election they are beloved for the sake of their ancestors, for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. Just as you were once disobedient to God but have now received mercy because of their disobedience, so also they have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they also may now receive mercy.
For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all.
O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
“For who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?”
“Or who has given a gift to him,
to receive a gift in return?”
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your writing "Trouble is, they try to impose their law on others, which further separates them from the Creator, who has the key to eternal life with Him. Since they horribly and deliberately killed the prophets, the disciples, and the Messiah,
their only future is with the opposer. And they want everyone to follow them! Satan is continually active, even seeking to deceive Christians away from the Lord" is contrary to Scripture.
Their future is clearly with God,
not the opposer. There have been some Jews, especially during Jesus' time on earth and the time of the apostles, who clearly opposed both the Lord and His followers, but never forget that the first followers of Christ, a.k.a, the early church, were
all Jews. (Gentiles came in later). And the entire Bible, both Old
and New Testaments, was written by Jews (with the sole exception of Luke).
Anyway, may God's peace be with you. Pray for His people --
all of them, including the Jews.
