Israel and the Church - a 3 part harmony?

Below is a summary of  my understanding of the relationship between Israel and the church.

It has been developed over a considerable period of time as I have sought to understand the Bible, the role of Israel and the place of Gentiles in God's plans.

While I have always rejected Replacement Theology, it has been a considerable struggle to determine how to read and interpret the many NT scriptures that are principally used to support this false and heinous doctrine.

The Jewish Annotated NT introduced me recently to a number of Jewish theologians such as Mark Nanos (check out at www.marknanos.com), Amy Jill-Levine and Pamela Eisenbaum (for example, 'IS PAUL THE FATHER OF MISOGYNY AND ANTISEMITISM?' - http://www.crosscurrents.org/eisenbaum.htm), who have an incredible amount of insight to offer on this challenging issue.

I am also, as always, most indebted to the brilliant scholarship of Frank Selch (his book 'Replacement Theology' should be required reading for this issue). Frank and other Gentile followers of Yeshua (including many Facebook 'friends') have helped me to recognize that Paul was a Torah observant Jew. 

The Family of God:

Paul, in recognizing that Yeshua was the Messiah, has recognized that the great Day of the Lord is about to dawn when ‘all Israel will be restored’ (Ezek 38,39).

We can see his appreciation that the Messianic Age has dawned, and that the Coming Age is imminent, by his comments in Romans 8:18-25:

¹⁸ For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. ¹⁹ For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. ²⁰ For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope
 ²¹ that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. ²² For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.
 ²³ And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. ²⁴ For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? ²⁵ But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Paul, who is already a member of Abraham’s family also understands that from Isaiah 49 and other prophecies that people from many nations (Gentiles) need to come into Abraham’s family if the Coming Age is to fully dawn, as God had told Abraham that he would be a father of many nations (Gen 17:4). Despite the fact that Abraham had had other children along with Isaac and was thus already the father of many nations, in the Second Temple Period; in Paul’s day, Abraham was considered that patriarch of the ‘Jews’ only (more correctly the 12 tribes, the children of Jacob).

So Paul saw the crucifixion and resurrection as somehow opening up the door so that Gentiles could enter into Abrahams family through Yeshua the Messiah. At the same time, he saw that they needed to remain people from many nations and not become Jewish for the prophecies to be fulfilled.

So how could these Gentiles come into the family of God; into the family of Abraham and yet not become Jewish. The brilliant answer is ‘grafting’. A graft of an orange onto a lemon tree means that orange can be supported and grow to maturity through the nutrients from the root of the tree but it remains an orange!

Paul therefore saw that Israel remains Israel and he believed that ‘all Israel’ would be saved (Romans 11:26 & Isaiah 59), and that many gentiles would also enter the Kingdom.

Clearly then the church is not Israel and cannot be Israel. The ‘church’ (believers in Yeshua) is part of the family of God but not the whole family. Also God is not just the God of the Jews but the Gentiles as well.

To be explicit, the family of God, are the children of Abraham through the 'promise' (through the Spirit), but this means both the natural sons and daughters of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as well as the Gentiles who enter via the ‘libation’ (Ps 2:6) of Yeshua. 

This family of saints is then made up of three groups;

1)      obedient/faithful Jews;

2)      obedient/faithful Jewish followers of Yeshua; and

3)      obedient/faithful Gentile followers of Yeshua.  

Groups 1 and 2 together are Israel; Groups 2 and 3 together are the 'Church'.

This is why in all of Paul’s writings he speaks in ‘family’ terms and describes the Gentiles he is witnessing to as brothers and sisters, as now members of the family of Abraham.

This is why he informs that Gentiles that they are not to become proselytized Jews, though clearly that are called to be obedient to the Torah of God as it relates to Gentiles (essentially, the 10 Words plus the Noahide Laws of Acts 15).

Paul may have been one of the first apostles to fully appreciate how Gentiles could, through Messiah, become full members of the family of God, just not guests of Israel, but full and equal members, though with some different expectations.

For example the natural sons of Jacob were to continue to undergo and observe circumcision, etc., but the new members of the family from the many nations did not need to, and in fact, for obvious reasons, should not get circumcised and become Jewish. In this way, even the food laws remain for Israel, that is for all Jews, but they are not always obligatory for gentile followers of Messiah Yeshua.

This was the dawning of a new relationship between Jew and Gentile. While this new relationship had been foretold in the Tanakh (OT), it was to most of Israel a mystery. It required considerable impetus from the Almighty to even be considered, such as the Cornelius House and the Damascus Road events.

When fully considered and thought through, this understanding removes most of the seeming contradictions apparently present in the NT, especially in the epistles of Paul.

If we also consider the Apostle Peter, the Apostle to the Jews and his(?) comments in 1 Peter 2 it makes sense that he is speaking primarily to Jewish followers of Yeshua. Could the Gentiles followers in these communities he addresses, also have been included and therefore considered priests? Yes, in the sense that all who put their trust in the Almighty are then ‘priests’ or mediators between man and God as they are to be ‘lights’ for God in the communities in which they live.

Certainly, as  Rev 5:10 makes clear, in the Coming Age (the Millennial Kingdom)  all of Abraham’s family will be part of the Kingdom of God and priests to the mortal world they are to witness to. 

I am sure that this understanding raises many different and varied questions for many readers. I believe I have heard most of these questions, and I believe I can satisfactorily answer them within this paradigm. 



Your questions are welcome.