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Who Is Now Israel?
Posted : 22 May, 2012 07:20 PM
Who Is Now Israel?
In Romans 2: 28-29 Paul says "For he is
not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which
is outward in the flesh:
29. But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that
of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is
not of men, but of God. "
In Romans 9: 6-8 Paul says "Not as though the word of God hath taken
none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel:
7. Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all
children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called.
8. That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not
the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for
the seed."
And in Galatians 4: 25-26 he tells us that there are two Jerusalems,
one which now is and is in bondage with her children, and another
which is above, is free and is the mother of us all. Jerusalem, for
those following the literalist bent of dispensationalism is used as a
metaphor for Israel.
Then go on to Romans 11, where in verse 5 Paul points out that there
is a remnant according to the election of grace. That is, a small
number of those of physical Israel, the literal descendants of
Abraham, are elected to salvation. Those of physical Israel who
rejected Christ were
broken off. (Romans 11: 17,20)
Matthew 23: 38 says the house of physical Israel "...is left unto you
desolate." In this same chapter, Matthew 23, Jesus Christ says "Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess." And in verse 33, he said to the scribes and Pharisees, "Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?"
The Pharisees were the religious leaders of physical Israel at the time, and claimed to sit in the seat of Moses. Yet Christ is calling them serpents and vipers.
And Matthew 8: 11-12 says "And I say unto you, That many
shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham,
and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.
12. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer
darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
Following Romans 11: 5, that Israel which is the remnant is elected to
salvation, and Romans 11: 17, 20 says those who rejected Christ are
broken off, meaning they did not receive the election to salvation,
though individuals of Israel after the flesh could repent and be
transformed into Christians or Israel reborn in Christ. (Romans 11:
23)
Israel after the flesh as a house is desolate, and many are cast into
outer darkness. I Peter 2: 9 explains that "ye" are "...a chosen
generation, a holy nation, a peculiar people..." "Ye" are Christians,
not Israel after the flesh.
Now look at Romans 11: 25-26: "For I would not, brethren, that ye
should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own
conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the
fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
26. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall
come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from
Jacob: "
Since Paul in Romans 2; 28-29, Romans 9: 6-8 and Galatians 4: 25-26
has taught that there is an Israel of the flesh which is no longer the
people of God and another Israel which is the people of God, then
which Israel is he talking about in Romans 11: 26?
In a spiritual sense there is only one Israel of God, only one saved
Israel, made up of former Jews and former Gentiles (Galatians 3:
28-29)
Since that Israel which is the Israel of God (Galatians 6: 16) are all
saved, then "all Israel shall be saved."
If you are saved then you are part of "all Israel," the Israel of God.
In I Corinthians 15: 23 Christ is said to be the first fruits, meaning
he was the first one of Israel transformed from a physical people
operating in the physical - physical circumcision, a physical seed
line from Abraham, a physical temple of God, etc - to a spiritual
people. There is one fold,(John 10: 16) one people of God, which is
now Israel reborn in Jesus Christ.
Now look at Revelation 2: 9:
"I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich)
and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not,
but are the synagogue of Satan." Revelation 2: 9
"Thy" is the church at Smyrna.
A literalist, dispensationalist interpretation would say the Jews in
Revelation 2: 9 must be "All Israel," the Jews. But if we understand
what Paul taught in Romans 2: 28-29, especially, we can see that those
who say they are Jews and are not really Jews in a spiritual way are
those who stick to the chosen people teaching, as literal descendants
of Abraham. Since Jews are, after the Cross and after the Day of
Pentecost, no longer outward Jews, but the real spiritual Jews are now
inward Jews, "circumcised" in the heart and in the spirit, and not of
the letter.
Those who say they are Jews but are not really Jews any more are said
to practice blasphemy.
And "...he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born
after the Spirit,even so its is now." Galatians 4: 29
In addition, the proxies for those born after the flesh oppose those
born after the Spirit, the Remnant of Israel today.
The end time spititual conflict in which the Remnant will wrestle with those
in the churches who are following false doctrines looks now to be about this very
issue, "who is Israel," and who are the chosen people of God, "all Israel," meaning
all physical Israel, the children of the flesh, or the Christrians as I Peter 2: 9
teaches.
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