Thread: Specific Accounts In the Gospels and the Transformation of Israel
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Specific Accounts In the Gospels and the Transformation of Israel
Posted : 6 Feb, 2013 09:17 AM
Specific Accounts In the Gospels and the Transformation of Israel
Matthew 12: 46-50 is just one of many Gospel accounts which, if interpreted by other scriptures, can be seen to show that Christ taught there were important changes from the doctrines and practices of physical Israel under the Old Covenant to the spiritual house of I Peter 2: 5 and the New Covenant. Luke 9: 52-56 is another account that can shows the transformation that Christ made from physical Israel to Israel reborn in him. There Christ taught that those in him do not kill people because they reject the Gospel and have doctrines different from one's own doctrines.
In Matthew 12: 46-50 Christ is teaching that physical genetics do not determine who are his brethren, but that doing the will of the Father determines who they are. He is not teaching that we should not love our brothers and sisters in the flesh, but is making a point that our spiritual brethren are spiritually determined under the New Covenant. Entry into the house of Israel reborn in Christ is no longer by genetics, no longer through that which is physical, but by faith.
The doctrines and practices of physical Israel dealt with that which is physical, and often with that which is of the flesh. But the spiritual house of I Peter 2: 5-9 deals with that which is spiritual, with faith, or ardent acceptance and belief in Christ and in the doctrines he teaches, with a love of the truth.. Many sayings and actions of Christ recorded in the Gospels show that Christ was leading his people out of that which was just physical and of the flesh to that which is spiritual. One must be born again to take part in that spiritual life of the New Covenant, and Paul in Romans 12: 2 affirms this in saying one should be transformed by the renewing of his mind to prove he is following the will of God.
Physical Israel operated in the flesh, in the physical. But in the change, transformation, metamorphosis, or translation of physical israel to Isreal reborn in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit develops a person's spirit so that he becomes a member of the Body of Christ, the elect. If one does not receive the Holy Spirit and has his spirit is not developed, then he is not a member of the elect, the Body of Christ, or of Israel reborn in Christ. Those of physical Israel not reborn in Christ are likewise not members of the Body of Christ or of Israel reborn in him.
The Gospel of Christ is about the change from the way physical Israel operated in the physical to that which is spiritual and of faith. Much of the Gospel is about the teachings of Christ and of his apostles on this transformation and of the actions of Christ and his apostles which also show how that change comes about. This transformation of physical Israel to the spiritual of the Gospel is what those still in physical Israel complained about in Acts 17: 6, that Paul and Silas were "These that have turned the world upside down and have come hither also."
Yet John Darby is said to have taught that "The Church has sought to settle itself here, but it has no place on the earth... [Though] making a most constructive parenthesis, it forms no part of the regular order of God's earthly plans, but is merely an interruption of them to give a fuller character and meaning to them..."
John. N. Darby, 'The Character of Office in The Present Dispensation' Collected Writings., Eccl. I, Vol. I, p. 94.
"Them" are all physical Israel. The church, for Darby exists to "give fuller character and meaning" to all physical Israel." Darby, known as the Father of dispensationalism, thought that the purpose of the Christian church, the ekklesia as a meeting, assembly or congregation was to honor all physical Israel. Darby's followers, like C.I. Scofield, Lewis S. Chafer and others, say that God's people the Jews are earthy. They are involved in physical and literal things, like the blood sacrifice of animals, a literal bloodline from Abraham, circumcision, and a physical temple building.
Under this theology - of Darby and others - the purpose of the church is to give fuller character and meaning to that which is of the physical, that is, of physical Israel. This is not the Gospel that Christ and his apostles taught that caused those of physical Israel to complain that Paul and Silas had turned the world upside down with their Gospel about the change from physical Israel to the spiritual house mentioned in I Peter 2.
Those who do not have the Holy Spirit and are born again (John 3: 1-7) and are transformed (Romans 12: 2) remain spiritually dead like those who rejected Christ and remain in physical Israel. Why then teach that the church exists as a "parenthesis" to"give fuller character and meaning" to that which is physical or earthy under physical Israel of the Old Covenant? John Darby, C.I. Scofield, Lewis S. Chafter and millions of their more recent followers are in another Gospel and believing in another Jesus.
Specific Accounts In the Gospels and the Transformation of Israel
Posted : 7 Feb, 2013 11:53 AM
In Romans 11, Paul tells us that because of unbelief some of those in physical Israel were broken off the good olive tree whose root is Jesus Christ (Romans 11: 16). Romans 11: 17, 19, 20 say that "because of unbelief they were broken off." "They" are those in physical Israel who rejected Christ and his doctrines, or Gospel. And in Romans 11: 5 Paul says at that time there was a remnant according to the election of grace. He means that only a small number in physical Israel accepted Christ. And that only a remnant accepted Christ means that more were broken off than were made members of the elect. However, Matthew 15: 24, "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel" was fulfilled in the remnant which accepted Christ in the First Century.
In Romans 9: 6-9, Galatians 4: 25-26 and in Romans 2: 28-29 Paul makes a distinction between the "children of the flesh" as physical Israel, and "the children of the promise" who are counted as the seed. He used seed again in Galatians 3: 29, saying that all who belong to Christ are Abraham's seed. But he does not mean Abraham's physical seed. Those in Christ are Abraham's spiritual seed, and are the seed of God.
In I Corinthians 10: 18 he writes also about "Israel after the flesh." Then in Galatians 4: 25-26 he distinguishes between the Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage from the Jerusalem which is above, is free and is the mother of us all. Jerusalem here is metaphoric for Israel, not the literal city of Jerusalem.
Romans 2: 28-29 presents two types of "Jews," one who is only an outward "Jew," and the other an inward "Jew," who has been "circumcised" in the heart and in his spirit. The "Jew" who is one inwardly and has been changed in his heart and in his spirit is not here only a person of physical Israel, but can be of any DNA, or genetics. Paul is using "Jew" to represent Israel, and here are two different Israels, as in Romans 9: 6-9 and Galatians 4: 25-26.
So, the issue of Romans 11: 26, "All Israel shall be saved," is which Israel is Paul taking about? He is not exaggerating and saying all Israel will be saved to make his point. We have to assume he means everyone of one of these Israels shall be saved. All who belong to the elect are of Israel reborn in Christ (John 3: 1-7), and all who are saved are of Israel. The theology of Darby and others. however, insists that when Israel appears in scripture, it must always mean physical Israel.
Romans 11: 25 says in the King James Version and in most other translations that "blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in." The key word here is "until." Until is translated from αχρις ου, or achris ou, Strong's Exhaustive Concordance number 891, which is said to mean "as far as, up to, until, during."
The Analytical Greek Lexicon Revised, by Harold K. Moulton,1978, on page 63 says αχρις to time, that is, as an indication of timing, means "until, during."
Thayer's Greek Definitions says αχρις can mean "as far as, for, in(-to), till, (even, un-)to, until, while."
αχρις can mean during in Romans 11: 25, which would change the meaning entirely.
