Article · Israel and the ChurchBiblical exposition · Apologetics
Conditional blessing, irrevocable promise, and fulfilment in Christ
Has God Abandoned Israel? What Do the Covenants Say? Conditional blessing, irrevocable promise, and fulfilment in Christ Israel broke God's law, rejected the prophets, and nationally refused its Messiah. Jerusalem was judged, th…
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What 'yea and Amen' in Christ means for Israel and the covenants
…s Promises Transfer to the Church? What "yea and Amen" in Christ means for Israel and the covenants Paul makes one of the most comprehensive statements about the promises of God: "For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us." —2 Corint…
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Christ the promised Seed, Gentile inheritance, and Paul's final blessing
…l questions because Galatians gives Gentile believers the strongest possible place within Abrahamic blessing. They receive the Spirit, become sons of God, belong to Christ, and inherit according to promise. Any interpretation which leaves Gentiles outside the covenant blessings o…
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The olive tree, the natural branches, and the limits of the metaphor
…n either separation or replacement. Gentiles really do enter blessings rooted in Israel's covenant history. They do so by grace and faith, alongside the believing remnant of Israel. Yet Paul continues to distinguish wild branches from natural branches and describes Israel's event…
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The wicked husbandmen, the fruit-bearing nation, and what Jesus said afterwards
…f the kingdom is removed? Who is the fruit-bearing nation? Does the sentence revoke God's covenants with Israel, or does it pronounce judgement upon the unfaithful rulers and generation then entrusted with the vineyard? The immediate context identifies Jesus' targets. The parable…
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Why Israel's failure cannot make the word of God fail
…er responds differently when people repent. Scripture contains conditional announcements, covenant blessings, covenant curses, intercession, and mercy. Faithfulness means that God acts consistently with His character and with the terms He has actually spoken. The question is ther…
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What God's faithfulness to Israel means for everyone who trusts His promises
…aithfulness to Israel means for everyone who trusts His promises This series has examined covenants, prophecies, apostles, thrones, tribes, branches, seeds, kingdoms, and the difficult words upon which the debate turns. We have tried to hear the strongest opposing arguments, conc…
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Defining the position before testing it
…nise. Supersessionism is the view that the Church has permanently succeeded Israel as the covenant people of God, so that national Israel no longer possesses a distinct future in the fulfilment of the biblical covenants. The promises reach their final meaning in Christ and the Ch…
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Circumcision of the heart and the identity of Paul's inward Jew
…es to identify unbelieving people as Jews throughout Romans. His point is qualitative and covenantal: the outward Jew is not the Jew who receives God's praise merely by possessing the name and sign. Likewise, "he is a Jew, which is one inwardly" identifies the person in whom Jewi…
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A history of interpretation, polemic, and forgotten tension
…clusion which the apostles had not required—that national Israel had permanently lost its covenant future. Theological argument also hardened at times into collective accusation and degrading rhetoric against Jewish people. Other evidence complicates the story. Writers who spirit…
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One Messiah, one gospel, and God's continuing purpose for Israel
…identity and outstanding promises to disappear. After following the argument through the covenants, the prophets, the teaching of Jesus, Acts, Romans, Galatians, Hebrews, and the history of Christian interpretation, the cumulative answer is no. God has judged Israel severely. Th…
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Election within Abraham's family, the believing remnant, and the future of the nation
…the Israel within Israel, while unbelieving ethnic Israel no longer possesses a distinct covenant identity or future. Paul certainly denies that physical descent guarantees salvation. He distinguishes outward privilege from participation in God's saving purpose and traces that p…
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