Pic designed by John Planoen. Article mine.
Please ignore all spelling and punctuation errors due to the fact that my hands were paralyzed and I rely on poorly designed voice recognition software.God's church is now Jew and Gentile in one body
God divorced natural Israel. Under the law you could not divorce someone and truly be able to marry another unless they died. Natural Israel had committed adultery on Jesus by worshipping false Gods. Once the natural Israelites (Jews) crucified Jesus and he died, he was free to remarry. I was reading Ephesians chapter 2 where it teaches that Christ made Jew and Gentile one body. This reminded me of the pervasive dispensationalist heresy that separates between the nation of Israel and the church. This heresy has run rampant throughout the entire earth and so I wrote this short article in order to warn people about it. In terms of Biblical Scholarship, there can be no Biblical Scholarship if one is believing and teaching this heresy. It colors their whole outlook on the scriptures.Most of the end time teachings that are out there today stem from a false doctrine made popular starting in the 1830's by John Nelson Darby and then later on when the scholfied bible came out with its notes.
INTRODUCTION
Many church people today (some call themselves dispensationalists) believe that Israel and the church are two separate entities and that they must remain that way because God has not fulfilled all of his promises to the Jewish people. They say that God still has yet to give Israel the land promised to Abraham--BUT THE SCRIPTURES SAY THAT GOD GAVE ISRAEL EVERYTHING THAT HE PROMISED TO ABRAHAM. THE PROMISES WERE FULFILLED OVER 3,000 YEARS AGO IN THE DAYS OF JOSHUA.
REVIEW OF THE TWO PROMISES
In Genesis 12, God made two great promises to Abraham: click saith
to make of him a nation; and,
to give him the land of Canaan.
RECEIPT OF THE PROMISES
While in Egypt, the children of Israel grew to be a nation. When they came out of Egyptian slavery, there were about 600,000 men, beside children (Exodus 12:37).Promise number one fulfilled--they were a nation.
After the death of Moses, Joshua led Israel into the promised land where each man received his inheritance. Promise number two fulfilled--they received the land of Canaan. God gave Israel ALL the land that he sware unto their fathers-
Joshua 21:43-45, And the LORD gave unto Israel ALL the land which he sware to give unto their fathers; and they possessed it, and dwelt therein. And the LORD gave them rest round about, according to ALL that he sware unto their fathers: and there stood not a man of all their enemies before them; the LORD delivered ALL their enemies into their hand. There failed not ought of ANY good thing which the LORD had spoken unto the house of Israel; ALL CAME TO PASS.
Just before Joshua died, he explicitly said that Israel received EVERYTHING that God spake concerning Israel--
Joshua 23:14, And, behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth: and ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls, that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the LORD your God spake concerning you; ALL ARE COME TO PASS UNTO YOU, and NOT ONE THING HATH FAILED THEREOF.
King Solomon confirmed that God gave Israel everything that he said that he would--
1 Kings 8:56 Blessed be the LORD, that hath given rest unto his people Israel, according to ALL that he promised: there hath not failed ONE word of all his good promise, which he promised by the hand of Moses his servant.
MORE HERESY
This false dichotomy of Israel versus the church gives rise to all kinds of strange and divers end-times schemes. These people (dispensationalists) say that the church will live in heaven with Christ and that Israel will rule on the earth in fulfillment of the promises made to Abraham. Notice here that they even keep Israel and the church separate in the world to come. But do the scriptures keep Israel and the church separate? No. A thousand times, no. The scriptures say that Christ came to make Jew and Gentile ONE body. Let us go to the witness stand--
Witness #1: Ephesians 2:11-22, Jews and Gentiles are One in Christ
11 Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;
12 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
13 But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
14 For he is our peace, WHO HATH MADE BOTH ONE, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;[there is no separation]
15 Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain ONE new man, so making peace;
16 And that he might reconcile both unto God in ONE body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:
17 And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.
18 For through him we BOTH have access by one Spirit unto the Father.
19 Now therefore ye are NO MORE STRANGERS AND FOREIGNERS, BUT FELLOWCITIZENS with the saints, and of the household of God;
20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; [as a Gentile believer even the prophets are mine through the blood of Jesus--Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, all of them!]
21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:
22 In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. [All believers, Jew or Gentile, are ONE building.]
Witness #2: Ephesians 3:3, 5-6, We are the Same Body
3 ...by revelation he made known unto me the mystery...
5 Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit;
6 That the Gentiles should be FELLOWHEIRS, and of THE SAME BODY, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:
Witness #3: Romans 4:9-17, We have the SAME Father--Abraham
9 Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness.
10 How was it then reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision.
11 And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of ALL them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also:
12 And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised.
13 For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
14 For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect:
15 Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.
16 Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all,
17 (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. [Abraham is not just the father of the Jewish people. He is my father too. We are only ONE family in father Abraham.
The Bible says that ISRAEL WAS THE CHURCH IN THE WILDERNESS. In speaking of Moses, Stephen said this in Acts 8:37--
This is he, that was in the CHURCH in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us.
Israel is the Root of the New Testament Church
In Abraham, God called out a people and a church for his name. Israel is the root of the New Testament Church. The mystery hidden from the foundation of the world was that the Gentile should be graffed into that root. The Gentiles are not a separate tree.
Those Jews who abide in unbelief are broken off from their own tree through their unbelief. All they have to do is believe in Jesus Christ and they will be immediately graffed back into their own tree. In speaking of Israel, Paul says this is Romans 11--
I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.
12 Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness?
13 For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office:
14 If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them.
15 For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?
16 For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.
17 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;
18 Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.
19 Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in.
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.
22 Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.
23 And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in again. [We are all in ONE tree.]
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? [There is only ONE tree. We get in by faith in the blood of Jesus.]
25 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.
These scriptures clearly show that the gentiles and Jews who are saved under the new testament plan of salvation are now the true Israel of God.