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On Explicit Verse Wordings and Their Unquestionable Implications, John 3: 1-7 and Galatians 3: 3-29
Posted : 22 Nov, 2012 11:10 PM
On Explicit Verse Wordings and Their Unquestionable Implications, John 3: 1-7 and Galatians 3: 3-29
Those who are followers of Christian Zionism, the theology of John Darby, Edward Irving, C.I. Scofield and Lewis S. Chafer, will often cite some verses of Romans 11 to defend their theology against people who use scripture to interpret scripture.
"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:"
This is the verse in Romans 11 that requires more than just the use of Strong's Exhaustive Concordance to find relevant other texts to interpret a given verse.
"For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches." Romans 11: 16
Christian Zionists often claim that all physical Israel, national Israel, Old Covenant Israel, or the Jews are the root of Paul's metaphoric olive tree.
To interpret this verse by scripture look at the verses in the New Testament where firstfruit and holy are used. Its a who, not a house.
"...how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?" Romans 11: 24
The Christian Zionists, in defending their theology, may claim that in Romans 11: 24 the natural branches are all Physical Israel,or the Jews as a whole house.
Paul said in verses 20, 17, 19, 22 that those in unbelief were broken off the olive tree. How then can the branches of the olive tree, whose root is Jesus Christ, be all physical Israel, since all of physical Israel which rejected Christ are broken off? The answer is in Romans 11: 5. The natural branches are the small remnant of physical Israel who accepted Christ.
"As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the father's sakes." Romans 11: 28
The Christian Zionists have been taught in the churches that Romans 11: 28 means those of physical Israel who rejected Christ remain the chosen people because they are beloved by the Father, and/or for the sake of the Fathers.
Fathers refers to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, etc. By "touching" the translators mean concerning the election. Look up Paul's use of Election in Strong's and see what he means by it. The statement "as touching the election, they are beloved..." could have been made clearer by saying which group is the elect. But the group which is the elect cannot be those who rejected Christ. The elect is the remnant which accepted Christ.
And there is a big difference between those of physical Israel who accepted Christ and those who rejected him, even at the time when the only Christian group was that at Jerusalem, before Paul received his revelation and began his ministry to the non-Jews.
The interpretations of verses 16, 24 and 28 are determined to some extent by the theology of Darby, Scofield, and Chafer, et al. But the interpretation of verse 26 is even more dependent upon that theology's starting points - that God now has two different peoples, all physical Israel, and the church, and that all scripture must be literally interpreted. In other words, the theology demands that "all Israel shall be saved" mean all physical Israel shall be saved, not Israel born again in Christ, not the Israel of God of Galatians 6: 16, nor the spiritual house of I Peter 2: 5.
The classical dispensationalists can be quoted to show that the starting points of their theology are that God now has two separate peoples, all physical Israel and the church and that scripture should be literally interpreted which in the theology is that Israel in scripture must always be physical Israel, not something that is "spiritualized."
There is also the gist meanings of Galatians 3: 3-29, Romans 2: 28-29, Romans 9: 6-8, Galatians 4: 25-26 and Ephesians 2: 11-20 which would contradict the theology's insistence that all Israel in Romans 11: 26 must mean that all physical Israel shall be saved sometime because they remain the chosen people by virtue of their genetic.
Scripture does not usually provide us with explicit verse wordings for every implication that any particular verse as stated can have. This makes it necessary to use gist meaning understanding to know the specific implications of a verse. This gist meaning understanding is given by the Holy Spirit, though it does no defy logic. However, there are metaphoric statements which have gist meanings that are different from the literal explicit statements as verse wordings.
For example, in John 3: 1-7 the explicit verse wordings say " There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:
2. The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.
3. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God....... That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit........Ye must be born again."
These explicit verse wordings do not tell us exactly what changes are involved in being born again from above by the Holy Spirit. But what the explicit wordings do say is enormous.
Being born again means to be born by the Holy Spirit. To be born again is not to be born again of the flesh, but to become spirit by being born of the Spirit.
Nicodemus, a high ranking member of all Physical Israel, is told by Jesus Christ that he must be born again in order to enter into the Kingdom of God.
The gist meaning of these statements have some implications that are not stated in an explicit way, but yet the implications as meaning are certain, or unquestionable - for one with faith.
One implication is that to be born of the Holy Spirit is a spiritual birth. It is not of the flesh.
Another sure implication from these explicit statements and their gist meaning is that there is such a Body of Christ which can be called Israel born again in Christ.
Often the Christian Zionists will deny that there is such as Body of Christ as Israel born again in Christ, because scripture never says this as an explicit verse wording. But since the implication from John 3: 1-7 is a sure one that there is such as Body of Christ as Israel reborn in him, then denying such as thing is arguing against that which is of faith.
Since I Peter 2: 5 says Christians are a spiritual house, we can cite this verse as supporting the existence of a Body of Christ called Israel reborn in Christ.
Now look at Galatians 3: 3-29. To make this shorter I will cite only Galatians 3: 16, 26-29, "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.........For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. 27. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. 29. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."
The above are the explicit verse wordings. From the gist meaning of these verse wordings, there is a sure implication which can be stated in explicit language, without doing damage to the stated explicit verse wordings.
Since Christ is the seed of Abraham, and since all in Christ are the seed of Abraham, and are the children of God by faith in Christ, and there is no longer a difference between Jew and non-Jew (Greek), then a logical explicit statement as an implication is that entry into the kingdom of God is no longer by bloodline from Abraham.
The Christian Zionists will argue against this logic and this sure implication from the explicit verse wordings of Galatians 3 and say that Paul this does not teach that entry into the kingdom of God is no longer by bloodline or genetics. In doing so, they are again debating against that which is of faith. They will say there is no scripture which says entry into the kingdom of God is no longer by bloodline and no statement in the Bible saying that all physical Israel ceased being the chosen people at the time of the Cross and the Day of Pentecost. And they might also claim that there is no scripture in the Bible saying that what Christ gave as revelation to Paul after the Day Pentecost included the knowledge expressed by Paul in Galatians 3, Romans 2: 28-29, Romans 9: 6-8, Galatians 4: 25-26 and Ephesians 2: 11-18 became a part of the Gospel of Christ.
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