F
Anyway, to the OP, I do apologize for that small rant.
There's a few basic things you can look at here when coming to a determination on whether to follow or not follow.
AND BEFORE I CONTINUE; ANYTHING I STATE IS JUST MY UNDERSTANDING AND I'M NOT TELLING OTHERS TO DO OR THEIR WAY IS WRONG (posting that just so other's don't start getting all bashy bashy).
We start from the beginning, well kind of the beginning, this is all found in Genisis-Deuteronomy.
You have Abraham, Issac, and Jacob.
God blesses Abraham.
Then Issac, receives the same blessing.
Jacob receives same blessing again and God changes his name to Israel.
Go a few generations later, you have Moses brings the children of Israel out of Egypt.
Now with that if you look at the scriputres, these were not just Hebrews, their were Egpytians with them as well, foreigners.
After this Moses goes up Mt. Sinai and God gives Moses His instructions for being the God of the Israelites.
It's a covenant between God and those who want to be His.
God gives His nation a name, and that is Israel.
Now we go years down the line to what I call Israel's fall. This is all found in the prophets
The kingdom of Israel is in a wreck and splits up.
The northern kingdom abandoned God's ways and broke His covenant and got scattered amongst the nations (as prophecied).
The southern kingdom kept God's ways, but eventually got very prideful and arogant with it and start twisting and adding to it.
Multiple times it's prophecied about the split and the aftermath, the one that sticks out the most as far as this topic is probably Ezekiel.
In Ezekiel 34, we see God speak through Ezekiel chastizing the leadership of Israel. God states basically they're not fit to lead Israel anymore, and they're just like a bad shepherd. God says ultimately He is the good shepherd and He will send Himself to gather His flock and restore.
Now an intersting thing on top of this, God states He's also going to bring gentiles into the mix, and not just the actual decendants of the whole house of Israel, but gentiles as well. Now when reading the ending passages of Ezekiel 34, when it's prophecied that God as the good shepherd will bring all these people together, God is still calling His people Israel. So there is no change in who God's people are; whether someones Jewish, Egyptian, Greek, German, Texan (had to put that one in there XD ), they're all the same and His people are called Israel.
Now we go way futher down the years and we get to Jesus.
In John 10 Jesus speaks of Him being the good shepherd coming to gather His sheep.
This is a reference to the prophecy in Ezekiel.
Jesus came back to make a way and gather Israel back together as a whole.
You can also look further where Paul talks about grafting.
So if one reads all these passages, and studies them. Then all you have to do is connect the dots.
And I'll leave it at that.
Pray for guidance from the Holy Spirit, and then go study.
If you want scripture/verse references private message me.
Blessings
There's a few basic things you can look at here when coming to a determination on whether to follow or not follow.
AND BEFORE I CONTINUE; ANYTHING I STATE IS JUST MY UNDERSTANDING AND I'M NOT TELLING OTHERS TO DO OR THEIR WAY IS WRONG (posting that just so other's don't start getting all bashy bashy).
We start from the beginning, well kind of the beginning, this is all found in Genisis-Deuteronomy.
You have Abraham, Issac, and Jacob.
God blesses Abraham.
Then Issac, receives the same blessing.
Jacob receives same blessing again and God changes his name to Israel.
Go a few generations later, you have Moses brings the children of Israel out of Egypt.
Now with that if you look at the scriputres, these were not just Hebrews, their were Egpytians with them as well, foreigners.
After this Moses goes up Mt. Sinai and God gives Moses His instructions for being the God of the Israelites.
It's a covenant between God and those who want to be His.
God gives His nation a name, and that is Israel.
Now we go years down the line to what I call Israel's fall. This is all found in the prophets
The kingdom of Israel is in a wreck and splits up.
The northern kingdom abandoned God's ways and broke His covenant and got scattered amongst the nations (as prophecied).
The southern kingdom kept God's ways, but eventually got very prideful and arogant with it and start twisting and adding to it.
Multiple times it's prophecied about the split and the aftermath, the one that sticks out the most as far as this topic is probably Ezekiel.
In Ezekiel 34, we see God speak through Ezekiel chastizing the leadership of Israel. God states basically they're not fit to lead Israel anymore, and they're just like a bad shepherd. God says ultimately He is the good shepherd and He will send Himself to gather His flock and restore.
Now an intersting thing on top of this, God states He's also going to bring gentiles into the mix, and not just the actual decendants of the whole house of Israel, but gentiles as well. Now when reading the ending passages of Ezekiel 34, when it's prophecied that God as the good shepherd will bring all these people together, God is still calling His people Israel. So there is no change in who God's people are; whether someones Jewish, Egyptian, Greek, German, Texan (had to put that one in there XD ), they're all the same and His people are called Israel.
Now we go way futher down the years and we get to Jesus.
In John 10 Jesus speaks of Him being the good shepherd coming to gather His sheep.
This is a reference to the prophecy in Ezekiel.
Jesus came back to make a way and gather Israel back together as a whole.
You can also look further where Paul talks about grafting.
So if one reads all these passages, and studies them. Then all you have to do is connect the dots.
And I'll leave it at that.
Pray for guidance from the Holy Spirit, and then go study.
If you want scripture/verse references private message me.
Blessings