Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

To: SeekAndFind

True Israel is the Christian church.


8 posted on 05/17/2018 9:30:59 AM PDT by circlecity
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies ]


To: circlecity

RE: True Israel is the Christian church.

Yes, that is the other view, it is called COVENANT THEOLOGY. This view states that the True Christian Church ( which of course includes people from Israel) is now God’s chosen people. Jews may still be saved on an individual basis by coming to Christ, but the nation of Israel and the Jews as a people no longer have any part to play in redemptive history.

The traditional dispensationalist view maintains that God has not replaced Israel with the church but that God has two programs in history, one for the church and one for Israel.

Traditional dispensationalism also maintains that the church consists only of believers saved between Pentecost and the rapture. The church as the body of Christ does not include Old Testament believers.

Progressive dispensationalism on the other hand, has modified some of these views, but the traditional dispensationalist view remains very popular.

Some COVENANT THEOLOGIANS have adopted a view that many dispensationalists describe as “replacement theology.” This is the idea that the church has completely replaced Israel.

In my humble opinion ( which I am open to correction), a careful study of the New Testament reveals that both of these interpretations of the relationship between Israel and the church are wanting. The relationship between the people of God in the Old Testament and the people of God in the New Testament is better described in terms of an organic development rather than either separation or replacement.

During most of the Old Testament era, there were essentially three groups of people: the Gentile nations, national Israel, and true Israel (the faithful remnant). Although the nation of Israel was often involved in idolatry, apostasy, and rebellion, God always kept for Himself a faithful remnant—those who trusted in Him and who would not bow the knee to Baal (1 Kings 19:18). This remnant, this true Israel, included men such as David, Joash, Isaiah, and Daniel, as well as women such as Sarah, Deborah, and Hannah. There were those who were circumcised in the flesh and a smaller number who had their hearts circumcised as well. So, even in the Old Testament, not all were Israel who were descended from Israel.

So, if we are talking about true Israel, there really is no distinction. The true Israel of the Old Testament became the nucleus of the true church on the day of Pentecost. Here the analogy of the olive tree that Paul uses in Romans 11 is instructive. The tree represents the covenant people of God—Israel. Paul compares unbelieving Israel to branches that have been broken off from the olive tree (v. 17a). Believing Gentiles are compared to branches from a wild olive tree that have been grafted in to the cultivated olive tree (vv. 17b–19). The important point to notice is that God does not cut the old tree down and plant a new one (replacement theology). Neither does God plant a second new tree alongside the old tree and then graft branches from the old tree into the new tree (traditional dispensationalism). Instead, the same tree exists across the divide between Old and New Testaments. That which remains after the dead branches are removed is the true Israel. Gentile believers are now grafted into this already existing old tree (true Israel/the true church). There is only one good olive tree, and the same olive tree exists across the covenantal divide.


9 posted on 05/17/2018 9:39:45 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies ]

To: circlecity

So, is God going to dump the church, and break His promises to the church, when the church has disappointed Him enough?

True, the church is recipient of the promises (”and through thee shall all the nations of the earth be blessed”); but that does not abrogate God’s intense, eternal promises to physical descendants of Abraham. It’s not either/or, but both, as I read the Word of God. Opinions vary, I know.


10 posted on 05/17/2018 9:40:37 AM PDT by Migraine ((A smartass who is right can be downright funny. A smartass who is wrong is just a smartass.))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies ]

To: circlecity

Replacement theology is the most heinous error the Roman Church has propagated on Christianity. The Church is the Bride, they are not Israel


16 posted on 05/17/2018 9:57:59 AM PDT by Mom MD ( .)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies ]

To: circlecity

True Israel is Israel, gentiles in the church get to be grafted in to Israel, increasing Israel, but the church is not Israel.


21 posted on 05/17/2018 10:21:56 AM PDT by lerker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson