The vast majority of Christians erroneously believe themselves to be the replacement for God's Chosen People, supplanting the Jews. This is known as Replacement Theology. The only way to hold to this heresy is to deny the Word of God, a dangerous prospect at best. Having accepted the Jewish Messiah, former Gentiles are grafted into the same root as the Jews, so they become Abraham's children and co-inheritors of God's covenants with His people. The International Christian Zionist Center supports the Biblical doctrine quite well:

30 December 2007

THE GOSPEL OF PAUL

If one thing is clear in the writings or epistles of the Apostle Paul concerning
the believing Gentiles, it is that through their new birth or regeneration they
have become an integral part of the tree or commonwealth of Israel. They have not
become part of a new tree called the "church" but branches, grafted into the tree
and people of Israel, with whom they have become one body.

... and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross,
thereby putting to death the enmity. (Ephesians 2:16)

This he writes in that same epistle to the Ephesians:

For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles-if indeed
you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for
you, how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written
already, by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery
of Christ), which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has
now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets: THAT THE GENTILES
SHOULD BE FELLOW HEIRS, OF THE SAME BODY, and partakers of His promise in Christ
through the gospel. (Ephesians 3:1-6).

This is all vitally important, for it goes against the conception and wrong notion
held by many gentile believers that God has two peoples: one the Church and the
other His people Israel. This is unbiblical. The Scriptures teach the opposite.
There is One Flock, One Tree, One commonwealth of Israel, ONE BODY and ONE STICK
- not two peoples but ONE!!!

Jesus said:

As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the
sheep. And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring,
and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd. (John
10:15-16)

Paul writes:

For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so
are the branches. And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a
wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of
the root and fatness of the olive tree, do not boast against the branches. But if
you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.
You will say then, "Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in." Well said.
Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty,
but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either.
Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity;
but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will
be cut off. And they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted
in, for God is able to graft them in again. For if you were cut out of the olive
tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated
olive tree, how much more will these, who are natural branches, be grafted into
their own olive tree? For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant
of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in
part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And
so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The Deliverer will come out of
Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob." (Romans 11:16-26)

And in Ephesians:

Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh-who are called Uncircumcision
by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands-that at that time
you 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. But
now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood
of Christ.

For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle
wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of
commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from
the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one
body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and preached
peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both
have access by one Spirit to the Father. (Ephesians 2:11-18)

Ezekiel 37:15-19:

Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, "As for you, son of man, take a stick
for yourself and write on it: 'For Judah and for the children of Israel, his
companions.'
Then take another stick and write on it, 'For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and
for all the house of Israel, his companions.' Then join them one to another for
yourself into one stick, and they will become one in your hand. "And when the children
of your people speak to you, saying, 'Will you not show us what you mean by these?'--
say to them, 'Thus says the Lord God: "Surely I will take the stick of Joseph, which
is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel, his companions; and I will
join them with it, with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they will
be one in My hand." '

Now this is all so important, because God shows that Gentile believers have truly
been accepted, by Him, into the body and flock of His people, not as second class
citizens, but fully as equals. Already through Hosea, God prophesied that the day
would come when He would call a people who were not called His people. His own people:

And it shall come to pass, in the place where it was said to them, 'You are not
My people,' There it shall be said to them, 'You are sons of the living God.' (Hosea
1:10)

As John, the Apostle, reiterates in his epistle to the Gentile believers:

Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called
children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
(1 John 3:1)

He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him,
to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His
name. (John 1:11-12)

It is therefore not a new tree which God has planted, called 'the church,' separate
from His ancient people. No! By the preaching of the Gospel He has welcomed us Gentiles
to become an integral part - branches - of the tree and commonwealth of Israel.
And inside that tree or ecclesia of God, there is henceforth NO MORE DISTINCTION
between believing Jews and Gentiles, as Paul so clearly writes in his epistle to
the Galatians:

For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as
were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there
is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one
in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs
according to the promise. (Galatians 3:26-29)

It should be noted that the word 'ecclesia' translated as 'church' in our bibles
is already found in the Old Testament. The Septuagint translates when it speaks
of the congregation of the people of Israel as ecclesia: The called out ones which
the people of Israel certainly also were.

The consequences of this all are far reaching. If there is only One people of God
and not two - the church on one side and Israel, the Jewish people, on the other
- then much of the currently held dispensationalist teaching is unscriptural.

When they return in faith, the Jewish people will not be grafted into a new tree
called the church, BUT IN THEIR OWN TREE, into which we Gentile believers have
already been grafted, writes Paul.

Therefore there will not be a separate rapture of the Church while the people of
Israel - according to some awkward teaching - are left on earth to go through yet
another tribulation. WE ARE TOGETHER IN THIS as Ruth prophetically once already
exclaimed: Your people are my people and your God is my God. And as John the Apostle
writes on Patmos when he sees the bride, the Lamb's wife, descending as that great
city, the holy Jerusalem, out of heaven from God, it is a city which includes as
gates the twelve tribes of the children of Israel!

"Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife." And he carried me away in the
Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem,
descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Her light was like a
most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal. Also she had a great
and high wall with twelve gates, and twelve angels at the gates, and names written
on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: three
gates on the east, three gates on the north, three gates on the south, and three
gates on the west. (Revelation 21:9b-13)

Therefore Israel is part of the bride, even as we Gentile believers are allowed
to be by the grace of our Lord!

Jan Willem van der Hoeven, Director

International Christian Zionist Center

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