What does it mean to truly be a Jew? Essentially, after the split into Israel and Judah, the Israel tribes, the ten tribes mainly in the North, forsook the Temple worship and their own worship of God, while the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin were more faithful to God, continuing to worship based around the Temple and not forsaking this Temple. The Israel tribes were consequently blinded spiritually by their neglect of God, His commands, His Temple worship, and were punished ever since. The Judah tribes were not invaded and conquered by Assyria but saved by God from this empire having kept their spiritual vitality and vision. Later they were judged but only temporarily and returned time after time to rebuild Temple building and worship system to keep God’s covenant. So therefore the meaning of Jew is really originally based on the faithfulness to God and His Temple and consequent preservation of spirituality, of spiritual life and vision. Of course, after rejection of Christ the Temple did not get rebuilt, and Judaism became quite different, along Talmud lines. It became faithfulness to traditional values as taught in Torah and Talmud. But Temple life was lost. Strict monotheism replaced it as a view of spiritual things being taught in schools along the lines of rejection of pagan gods while in exile in the diaspora after 70 AD. In other words, more conceptual, theoretical, theological, didactic. It was led by the Pharisee rabbis from 100 AD onwards. Jesus had rebuked their spiritual blindness. So arguably it became more like the tribes of Israel. In principle, it still remains that faithfulness to worship of God should preserve Jewish spiritual life. Jesus taught it is no longer so much about Temple worship but worship in spirit and truth. In a sense he redefined what it is to be a Jew by this teaching. To be spiritually alive by the Holy Spirit indwelling and upwelling, in worship of God in truth, wherever you are, even without a physical Temple building. It is the conversion of the body into a Temple indwelt by the Holy Spirit as a result of being a close disciple of Jesus Christ. It is a Temple which becomes corporate as more and more are brought together and each one does tasks given by God to build this corporate Temple up, giving out the upwelling Holy Spirit to share with others. God then addresses sin and sends correction, cleansing, application of Christ’s cleansing blood and the Holy Spirit’s cleansing power. It is distributed in much of the world, merging with Gentile believers who worship God likewise by the Holy Spirit: All adhering to the sayings of Jesus Christ. That is what it now means to be a true Jew according to the teachings of Jesus about worship, in any location:; acceptably, by the Holy Spirit, and by the truth of God, in the Christ anointing. Of those who remain like Israel, God says, “Israel has sinned”, and the eagle is overhead, a sign of this. Surveillance, troubles, threats of ongoing wars, these are the sign that those have sinned who forsake the Temple worship life of the Holy Spirit and the truth of God. These are the present signs. This trouble will greatly increase soon, Revelation tells us, and even the leaders will seek out bunkers to hide from the day of the wrath of God, perhaps just years, or even months away. Escalating troubles, then the setting apart of servants of God for protection, sealed by God, then the smiting of Planet Earth worldwide with burning vegetation on a massive scale. These are the coming signs.
