Ethnic Isreal

This research is to speak against the ideology that the Old Testament is about the Abrahamic covenant and that covenant shows that Jews are saved through their linage and the New Testament is a new covenant that involves Jesus and salvation.

1) I believe you stated that the word testament and covenant are interchangeable. This is not something that I would agree with. What Christians loosely call the Old Testament is actually the Tanakh (Torah, Nev’im and Ketuvim). The Tanakh is not actually one single covenant but is actually made up of many different covenants. For example, there is the covenant with Noah which was made with God and all of humanity and there is a covenant between God and Abraham and his descendants. The Noah covenant is for all humanity whereas the Abrahamic covenant is between God and Abraham (descendants). One person can be a party to both covenants if they are 1) part of humanity and 2) are Abraham or one of this descendants. Given that the Noahanic covenant was prior to the Abrahamic covenant was the Abrahamic covenant a “new covenant”.

2) God’s intention was always to have individual relationships with humans. Up to the point of the Abrahamic covenant the Lord had individual relationships with His people. {is this accurate}. It was in the wilderness that the Israelites asked for a king to be placed over them. They 1) were afraid of God, 2) they wanted to be like the others in humanity (1 Sam 8:5).

3) If Israelite’s are saved by lineage then all descendants of Abraham are part of the covenant. That means the Pharisees and the Sadducees, Judas, the sons of Samuel all have God’s blessing.

4) Roman 9:1-13 “ I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit— 2 I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, 4 the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption to sonship; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. 5 Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised![a] Amen.

God’s Sovereign Choice

6 It is not as though God’s word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. 7 Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children. On the contrary, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.”[b] 8 In other words, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring. 9 For this was how the promise was stated: “At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.”[c]

10 Not only that, but Rebekah’s children were conceived at the same time by our father Isaac. 11 Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: 12 not by works but by him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger.”[d] 13 Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”[e]

Sam Storms: https://www.samstorms.org/all-articles/post/it-is-all-because-of-him-who-calls-romans-96-13

· “If God’s word of promise and covenant is that all ethnic Israelites, i.e., all those who are physically descended from Israel, are to be saved, then clearly his purpose has failed and his word is void and not to be trusted. But Paul denies that God ever intended to save all ethnic Israelites. His purpose has always been to save a remnant within, but not the entirety of, ethnic Israel…Not every person who is a physically ethnic Israelite is a spiritually elect Israelite….Not every person who is a physically ethnic Israelite is a spiritually elect Israelite.” See Rom 9:27b

· If all of Israel is sons of Abraham parcel out Matt 3:9. That seems to say that God is able to make anyone a child of Abraham making it seem like being a descent of Abraham is not really set in stone. Then add John 8:39-40 and Jesus is “denying that this alone guarantees that one is a true, spiritual child of Abraham. Ethnicity alone is no guarantee of anything” Sam Storms

· Rom 2:29 “But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter” this seems to hint at the idea that being a descendant of Abraham is not what matters, whats in the heart is what matters. “The mark of being a citizen of the kingdom of God is not circumcision of the flesh, but of the heart. One’s ethnic heritage is not decisive in determining who is among the covenant people of God. One’s personal faith is.”

· Descendants of Abraham vs Children of the Promise. To be a physical descendant of Abraham does not guarantee that one will be a child of God. Jacob and Esau were the physical seed of Isaac (being twins), only Jacob was the spiritual seed whom God purposed to save. The line of the covenant will proceed through Isaac, not Ishmael, even though Ishmael is as much a physical descendant of Abraham as Isaac.

NT Wright: https://georgepwood.com/2006/07/31/grace-not-race-romans-96-13/

· What matters most, as N. T. Wright sharply puts it, is “grace, not race.

Dr. Baruch Senior Lecturer at Zara Avraham Institute

· How is Israel going to be reconciled to God? There is only one plan of reconciliation, that the gospel through faith in the work of the messiah

Dr. Wayne A Barber https://www.preceptaustin.org/romans_96-13

· “Paul, himself being a converted Jew, knew that the only way to salvation, the only way to be justified, was by faith alone in Christ alone. Now that will never change. That was the way of salvation in the Old Testament. That is the way of salvation in the New Testament. It will always been centered in Jesus Christ by our faith in Him and what He did for us on the cross… You see, God has not changed His way of salvation. He is not going to change it for the Jew, and He is not going to change it for the Gentile.”

· Jeremiah 31:31-34 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. 33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” This is reference to God brining them back to a time when God was their personal God and not one that is set up like an earthly king. This is a covenant to one that I believe God always intended (see point 3). One where each individual must have a personal and intimate relationship with God. I see this as speaking to the way God wanted it before man wanted requested an earthly system of rules and rulers so that they would not need to deal directly with God. The new covenant is one where all people will need to deal with God directly, as it was always intended.

· John 8:30-39 If you were descendants of Abraham you would do as Abraham did. To say that all Israelites are saved by linage would be to say that the Pharisees, Sadducees, al of the worthless kings and even Judas have the promises of Abraham. Vs 47 says that because you don’t listen to God you are not of His plan.

Marty Solomon- Bema Discipleship Episode 153

· Rom 9:1-5: Paul’s heart breaks over the struggle of the Jews are having over the Messiah.

· Rom 9:6- :”this is what the story has been about. Going to the very beginning of the patriarchs God has chosen to work through the promises.

Personal Bible study.

Covenant with Moses (wedding ceremony)- is where God gives the laws to the Israelites. However, Psalms 147:19 states “He declares his word to Jacob, his statutes and rules to Israel[1]“ Jacob was prior to Moses. Does this mean some kind of law was given to Jacob?

Genesis 15:6 “And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.” It says Abram, believed prior to the rules.

Isaiah 49:23 “Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. With their faces to the ground they shall bow down to you, and lick the dust of your feet. Then you will know that I am the Lord; those who wait for me shall not be put to shame.

Isaiah 56:6-7 “And the foreigners who join themselves to Adonai to serve him, to love the name of Adonai, and to be his workers, all who keep Shabbat and do not profane it, and hold fast to my covenant, 7 I will bring them to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”

Jeremiah 7:21-23: “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh. For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this command I gave them: ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.”

Habakkuk 2:4 ““Look at the proud: he is inwardly not upright; but the righteous (sad-dah) will attain life through trusting faithfulness.”

John 4:21-26

Romans 3:29-31 “Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30 since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. 31 Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law[2]”

Hebrews 11

● 4- “By faith he was commended as righteous”

● 6- “he was commended as one who pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him”

● 7- “By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith”

● 39-40 “These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, 40 since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.” Meaning that they received righteousness but would not receive the promises of righteousness until Jesus completed his task.

1 Peter 1:9 “obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

Romans 3:3 “…That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged.”

[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ps 147:19. [2] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ro 3:29–31.