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34 results for “Gentile believers”
Clear searchThe olive tree, the natural branches, and the limits of the metaphor
Are Gentile Believers Grafted into Israel? The olive tree, the natural branches, and the limits of the metaphor Romans 11 pictures Gentile believers as branches taken from a wild olive tree and…
Read article →Circumcision of the heart and the identity of Paul's inward Jew
…introduces words which Paul does not use. He does not mention Christians, the Church, or Gentile believers in verses 28-29. Neither does he use the expression "spiritual Jew." Before making the passage redefine Israel, we must identify the person being addressed, follow the argu…
Read article →Unity in Christ and distinction in God's purpose
…a unity so profound that it would have startled the ancient world. In Christ, Jewish and Gentile believers are reconciled to God in one body. Both possess the same Spirit, approach the same Father, and inherit salvation on the same basis. It also continues to speak of Israel, Ge…
Read article →A response to Michael Horton on the land promise, Amos 9, and the people of God
No Holy Land? Covenant Discipline, Gentile Blessing, and Israel's Future A response to Michael Horton on the land promise, Amos 9, and the people of God Michael Horton's essay, “No Holy Land: Does Israel Still Have a Biblical…
Read article →Israel's Messiah, Israel's Scriptures, and a gospel for the world
…ssiah, first proclaimed by Jewish witnesses in Jerusalem and then carried to the nations. Gentiles do not enter by replacing that story. We are welcomed into blessings which came through it. Recovering this setting does more than add cultural colour. It changes how we understand…
Read article →Christ the promised Seed, Gentile inheritance, and Paul's final blessing
Are Abraham's Seed and the Israel of God the Church? Christ the promised Seed, Gentile inheritance, and Paul's final blessing Galatians contains two of the strongest arguments for identifying the Church as Israel. First, Paul says that the promises were made to Abraham…
Read article →Fulfilment in Christ, the inclusion of the Gentiles, and Israel's future mercy
…the New Testament Reaffirm Israel's Promises? Fulfilment in Christ, the inclusion of the Gentiles, and Israel's future mercy The Old Testament repeatedly promises Israel preservation, regathering, cleansing, the kingdom of David's Son, and a restored relationship with God. A str…
Read article →What God's faithfulness to Israel means for everyone who trusts His promises
…he true temple, and mediator of the new covenant. The Church is united to Him. Jewish and Gentile believers therefore become one people, inherit the promises, and anticipate not merely one land but the renewed creation. On this reading, nothing has been cancelled. Everything has…
Read article →Defining the position before testing it
…ulates Israel's history, fulfils the law and the prophets, and gathers believing Jews and Gentiles into one body. The question is whether those truths entail the permanent cancellation of national promises. What supersessionism gets right A fair examination begins with genuine ag…
Read article →A sign of Israel's renewal, not Israel's disappearance
…ent the Twelve, their commission had the same national focus: "Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand." —Matthew…
Read article →Seth D. Postell, Eitan Bar & Erez Soref · Messianic biblical theology · 2017
…ience to readers without specialist training. The relationship between the Mosaic Law and believers in Christ is deeply disputed among Christians and Messianic Jews. The authors argue a definite position and do not represent every Messianic approach to Torah observance. Test thei…
View recommendation →A history of interpretation, polemic, and forgotten tension
…pear in one moment through one theologian. It developed as the Church became increasingly Gentile, separated socially from Jewish communities, interpreted the destruction of Jerusalem as lasting displacement, and read Israel's Scriptures principally through their fulfilment in Ch…
Read article →Eitan Bar · Biblical and historical polemic · 2019
…d be heard as an informed challenge from within the Jewish world rather than treated as a Gentile attack upon it. Rabbinic Judaism is nevertheless diverse, and not every rabbi advances every objection examined here. Check the quotations, test each interpretation from the Hebrew S…
View recommendation →How the Law reaches its goal and appointed end in Christ
…ousness of God; and faith does not make it void. Yet he also speaks of a decisive change: believers have died to the Law, are delivered from it, and are no longer under its guardianship. Romans 10:4 holds those truths together. Christ is not the termination of something evil or m…
Read article →Why the final seven is unfinished, future, and centred upon Israel and Jerusalem
…salem is left desolate after rejecting Messiah (Matthew 23:37-39); the mystery of Jew and Gentile united in one body is disclosed (Ephesians 3:3-6); and Israel experiences partial hardening "until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in" (Romans 11:25). This present period is not…
Read article →Responding to five common criticisms without defending what Scripture does not require
…ue. Christian theology repeatedly developed more precise vocabulary when questions forced believers to bring biblical truths into a coherent account. Later systematisation can clarify Scripture or distort it; its lateness alone proves neither. Ideas incorporated into dispensation…
Read article →What 'yea and Amen' in Christ means for Israel and the covenants
…iah, and mediator of the new covenant. The Church possesses a genuine inheritance in Him. Gentile believers are not spectators looking through the window at another people's blessings. But a vital step remains unproved. Does fulfilment through Christ mean reassignment to the Chur…
Read article →Why Israel's failure cannot make the word of God fail
…mcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers: And that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy; as it is written, For this cause I will confess to thee among the Gentiles, and sing unto thy name." —Romans 15:8-9 Confirmation can expand understa…
Read article →Conditional blessing, irrevocable promise, and fulfilment in Christ
…reasonable to say that the Mosaic covenant has become obsolete as the governing covenant. Believers are not placed under Sinai as the means of justification or covenant standing. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes (Romans 10:4). This must not…
Read article →The LORD, Zion, and the meaning of Beulah in Isaiah 62:4–5
…whose condition is about to be reversed. Her righteousness will be publicly revealed. The Gentiles will see her vindication, kings will behold her glory, and she will receive a new name from the mouth of the LORD. The geographical character of the prophecy is difficult to miss. I…
Read article →A response to Hank Hanegraaff on resurrection, Daniel’s final week, and the Tribulation
…oes not therefore require two gospels, two saviours or two methods of salvation. Jews and Gentiles are reconciled to God through the blood of Christ. The distinction concerns covenantal identity, historical vocation and prophetic promises—not whether one group is saved by Christ…
Read article →Testing Islam's evidence for divine revelation
…hin ten years—Allah's is the command in the former case and in the latter—and in that day believers will rejoice" (Surah 30:2–4, Pickthall). The Arabic expression rendered "within ten years" traditionally denotes a small number of years, commonly explained as three to nine. The s…
Read article →The covenant son and the sacrifice that points to Christ
…. It does not. Paul's opponents were seeking justification through the law and pressuring Gentile believers to accept circumcision. His argument is theological, not racial: children of promise are produced by God's grace rather than human ability or legal bondage. No Arab is cond…
Read article →The question reaches beyond prophecy to the faithfulness of God
…ing in Christ and now belong to the multinational Church. Others maintain that Jewish and Gentile believers are one in Christ while national Israel still has an appointed future under the covenants. This is not a contest over which group matters more. Jewish people have no separa…
Read article →An unrequited love for the historic Church
…explore the parables, the covenants, the purpose of the incarnation, the inclusion of the Gentiles, the resurrection of the body and the things to come. Theology may unfold the riches of revelation. Intelligence, eloquence and careful exposition are gifts to the Church. But expos…
Read article →Which Gospel does the Qur'an affirm?
…ent at Antioch was real. Paul opposed Peter publicly when Peter withdrew from eating with Gentile believers. But Paul does not accuse Peter of preaching a different death, resurrection or Saviour. He accuses him of failing to walk "uprightly according to the truth of the gospel"…
Read article →The near was real. The far is still coming.
…alem. There are genuine canonical grounds for those associations. Hebrews 12:22 speaks of believers having come to Mount Sion and the heavenly Jerusalem. Galatians 4:26 identifies Jerusalem above as the mother of believers. Revelation 21 portrays the holy city descending from God…
Read article →One Messiah, one gospel, and God's continuing purpose for Israel
…ing whether Christ fulfils the promises. He does. Nor can it be settled by asking whether Gentile believers inherit in Him. We do. The decisive question is whether fulfilment in Christ and the formation of the Church require Israel's national identity and outstanding promises to…
Read article →What Jesus promised the apostles about Israel's future
…s therefore not merely the apostles' present ministry or the inward renewal of individual believers. It belongs to the public reign of the Son of man and the wider restoration over which He presides. This agrees with the prophets. Isaiah anticipated the earth renewed under righte…
Read article →The wicked husbandmen, the fruit-bearing nation, and what Jesus said afterwards
…ish apostles deliberately corresponding to Israel's twelve tribes. Through their witness, Gentiles would be brought into the one body of Christ and taught to bear the fruit God required. This is a real transfer. The Church does not merely observe the kingdom from a distance. Beli…
Read article →Election within Abraham's family, the believing remnant, and the future of the nation
…l consists of the children of promise: everyone who believes in Christ, whether Jewish or Gentile. The Church is therefore the Israel within Israel, while unbelieving ethnic Israel no longer possesses a distinct covenant identity or future. Paul certainly denies that physical des…
Read article →Governmental restraint, the final ten kings, and the preparation of the temple
…the governmental explanation of the restraint. What Paul tells us Paul writes to reassure believers troubled about Christ’s coming and their gathering to Him. He reminds them of his previous teaching, then says: “And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his t…
Read article →A forensic reading of Christ's Olivet Discourse
…ing Servant God's elect (Isaiah 42:1), and the New Testament applies election language to believers in Christ. The point is narrower: a Jewish hearer did not need later Church doctrine in order to understand the term. Israel's Scriptures had already supplied a covenantal and remn…
Read article →The positive argument of the whole series, brought together
…licitly teaches the event. The Lord descends from heaven; the dead in Christ rise; living believers are changed; and together they are caught up to meet Him in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 1 Corinthians 15:50-54). The question is not whether Christians should believe in that…
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