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Who is the Root of the Olive Tree of Romans 11?
Posted : 13 Nov, 2012 07:36 AM
Who is the Root of the Olive Tree of Romans 11?
"Read Romans eleven. The root of the tree is Israel. The Gentiles are branches grafted into the root. If the root is not holy, then neither is the branches."
"Christians are drafted in to my WOUNDERFUL JEWISH BLOODLINE so you are His people too (equal we never lost our status) "
Probably "drafted" is a typo, and the word was meant to be "grafted," which fits Romans 11: 17
"For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches." Romans 11: 16
The root of Paul's metaphoric olive tree is the first fruit and the root is holy.
"But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.... But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming." I Corinthians 15: 20, 23
"Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures." James 1: 18
"And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." Romans 8: 23
" After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise." Numbers 14: 34 "Ye" refers back to verse 2, the children of Israel.
"Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the LORD!" Isaiah 31: 1 The Lord is holy, not Israel.
"I am the LORD, your Holy One, the creator of Israel, your King." Isaiah 43: 15
The Lord, who created Israel is holy, not his creation.
"And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also." Jeremiah 3: 8
"O LORD, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters." Jeremiah 17: 13
The Lord Jesus Christ is the hope of Israel. He is the hope of Israel reborn in him, the spiritual house of I Peter 2: 5.
"Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD." Jeremiah 31: 37
"And he said unto me, Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that hath rebelled against me: they and their fathers have transgressed against me, even unto this very day.
4. For they are impudent children and stiffhearted. I do send thee unto them; and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD.
5. And they, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, (for they are a rebellious house,) yet shall know that there hath been a prophet among them.
6. And thou, son of man, be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns be with thee, and thou dost dwell among scorpions: be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house." Ezekiel 2: 3-6
Lets look at Romans 11: 17, 20-21, 23-24, "And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;...20. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: 21. For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee...23. And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in again. 24.For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own olive tree?"
Paul says that those of physical Israel who were in unbelief, who rejected Christ, were broken off his metaphoric olive tree. But starting from a theology which teaches that all physical Israel remain the chosen people of God, and are a superior people to the "church," verse 24 must mean that this olive tree which is said to be their own is all physical Israel, which includes the majority who are in unbelief. But this is conradictory because Paul just said those of physical Israel who remain in unbelief are cut off the olivde tree. If all physical Isael who rejected Christ are cut off the tree, then how can the tree still be all physical Israel?
The answer is Romans 11: 4-5, "But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. 5. Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace."
"I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Matthew 15: 24 Yet only a remnant of the lost sheep of the house of Israel accepted Christ, a fact that Christian Zionism, Hebrew Roots, Messianic Judaism and the Sacred Namers appear not to fully accept, and/or they squirm out of it by their postulation of a postponement theology. The statement in Matthew 15: 24 indicates that the house of Israel was lost at the time Christ appeared.
Its the believing remnant (Romans 11: 4-5) which are the "natural branches" of "their own olive tree," in Romans 11: 24, not all physical Israel who rejected Christ.
The theology of Christian Zionism says God now has two different peoples, the Jews and the church. The theology does not discriminate between the remnant of physical Israel who accepted Christ and the majority who rejected him, in effect, saying that all physical Israel remain God's people, and even his chosen people. So, for Christian Zionism the root of Paul's olive tree could be Old Covenant Israel, and/or the religion of the Pharisees which is basically Talmudic Judaism.
Interpreting Romans 11: 16 by scripture, rather than by man leaning to his own understanding, who is the root of the olive tree of Romans 11?
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