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“Spiritual Israel”
and the Tooth
Fairy
by
Brian Hennessy
“When I was a child, I used to speak as a child, think as a child,
reason as a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish
things”
(1 Cor. 13:11).
Just as we discarded our beliefs in the Tooth Fairy and Santa Clause
when we left childhood, so too there are many childish reasonings that
the Body of Christ must get rid of as we mature into Manhood. None
more so than the idea that the church is “spiritual Israel.” Belief in
this false concept has not only added to the division among God’s
people. It has also kept millions of believers from fully
appropriating their God-given heritage and blessings. And it has
seriously distorted the Church’s understanding of what must take place
in the last days.
So allow me to share some of the arguments I find in Scripture to help
us put away this childish notion. And to discover the marvelous truth
it has long obscured.
The Beginning of the Confusion
First, the term “spiritual Israel” is not found anywhere in the Bible.
Rather it is a theological term applied to the Church in order to
distinguish it from “physical Israel.” By “physical Israel” is meant
the Jewish people, whether they live in Israel or not.
The reason the theologians invented this term was because the New
Testament left no doubt that those who believe Jesus is the Messiah
are heirs to Israel’s promises and blessings. “For if you belong to
Messiah, you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.”
(Gal. 3.29). Yet the Church, having experienced near total
gentilization over the centuries, could no longer be described as
Jewish - or seen as part of the nation of Israel. This was a dilemma
for them. They solved it (they thought) by declaring that there were
two Israel’s: one physical and the other spiritual. The Scripture
often used to support this concept was God’s promise to Abraham that
He would greatly multiply his seed “as the stars of the heaven and
as the sand which is on the seashore.” (Gen. 22:17) The sand, we
were told, represents physical Israel. And the stars, spiritual
Israel.
But it didn’t stop there. Each Israel was ascribed a different end
time scenario and reward. Physical Israel, the Jews, after being
mauled by Antichrist and brought to repentance by divine intervention,
would inherit an earthly kingdom of God in the Promised Land.
Spiritual Israel in the meantime would be raptured out to enjoy a
heavenly venue, at least until the promised millennial reign of Christ
when the Church would return to earth again with Jesus. (After that
the” rapture” teaching is vague as to whether the Church would join
the re-born Jewish nation as one people or not.)
However, a quick look at this doctrine reveals how flawed it is. Start
with the apostles. All were Jewish. And all were followers of Christ.
So to which Israel do they belong? Do they get on the Church bus? Or
the Israel bus? And what of the Old Testament saints like Isaac,
Moses, David, etc.? All were Hebrews and all are counted as the holy,
faithful seed of Abraham who believed in Messiah via the types and
shadows (Hebrews 11). To which Israel should they be assigned? Or what
about today’s Messianic Jews?
Clearly the terms “spiritual” and “physical Israel” are unhelpful. For
all of God’s chosen people, Jew or non-Jew, are (or will be)
spiritually regenerated. Therefore all are “spiritual Israel.” As for
“physical Israel,” Scripture is clear. In Christ, “there is neither
Jew nor Greek…for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28) So
there can be no separation in the Church based on being Jewish or not.
Therefore, we must put away the divisive, unbiblical term “spiritual
Israel” and find another way to understand the Church’s inclusion into
the concept of Israel.
The Israel of God
In hindsight, the solution is so obvious you wonder how we didn’t see
it before. But for whatever reason the Holy Spirit allowed Satan to
blind us to the truth for so long, the time has come to understand it
now.
The simple truth, ironically, is found in the Sunday School song sung
by many Christians as children: “Father Abraham had many sons, many
sons had father Abraham, and you are one of them, and so am I, so
let’s get on with the show.” This truth of course reflects the
New Testament revelation that Abraham is the father of ALL those in
Messiah - whether Jew or non-Jew (see Rom. 4:1,9-17; Gal.3:29 ).
Unfortunately, for non-Jews and the Church in general, we just
couldn’t believe that the words meant we were literally his sons and
daughters. So we took them figuratively. We spiritualized our
understanding to only mean we had the same faith as Abraham.
One reason we accepted this spiritual explanation was
because we forgot our biblical history. We didn’t recall after the
reign of Solomon (1 Kings 12) that Israel had split into two nations,
the Kingdom of Judah and the Kingdom of Israel. We forgot that the
Jews were only the descendants of Judah. And that all the descendants
of the House of Israel were still unaccounted for. Cut off from the
olive tree for their idolatry, they had been exiled among the nations
and disappeared. But all the prophets said they would be found again
and re-united with Judah under Messiah. So the “wild olive
branches” (Rom 11: 17) Jesus grafted into Israel from among the
Gentiles are no doubt those lost offspring.
The truth is that all in Christ, both Jew and Gentile, are “like
Isaac, children of promise” (Gal. 4:28). We have been pre-chosen
by God from among the vast multitude of Abraham’s offspring to become
One New Man through faith in Jesus. This God-blessed family began with
Isaac and continues right down to today. There is only one Israel in
God’s sight - “the Israel of God “ (Gal. 6:16).
Which means there’s only one bus leaving the terminal. And it
will be going to the land promised to Abraham that has been recently
resettled by our soon-to-be-awakened brethren: ”In those days the
House of Judah will walk with the House of Israel, and they will come
together from the land of the north to the land I gave your fathers as
an inheritance” (Jer. 3:18).
We don’t want to miss that bus because we were waiting for the Tooth
Fairy.
2005
www.reunionministries.net
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