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21 results for “Jewish identity”
Clear searchCircumcision of the heart and the identity of Paul's inward Jew
Does Romans 2:28-29 Make Christians "Spiritual Jews"? Circumcision of the heart and the identity of Paul's inward Jew Paul's description of the inward Jew is often treated as a decisive redefinition of Israel: "For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circum…
Read article →Israel's Messiah, Israel's Scriptures, and a gospel for the world
The New Testament Is a Very Jewish Story Israel's Messiah, Israel's Scriptures, and a gospel for the world To many Jewish people, Christianity appears thoroughly foreign. Its historic centres became Rome, Constantinopl…
Read article →A history of interpretation, polemic, and forgotten tension
…eologian. 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 Christ and the Church. The resultin…
Read article →Regathering, national rebirth, and the spiritual renewal still to come
…tual renewal still to come Israel's history contains both judgement and preservation. The Jewish people were conquered, exiled, dispersed across continents, denied sovereignty, and repeatedly persecuted. Yet they did not disappear into the nations among which they lived. Their Sc…
Read article →A forensic reading of Christ's Olivet Discourse
…day." —Matthew 24:20 The Sabbath reference does not prove that every person addressed is Jewish. It does show that the crisis is imagined within a society where Sabbath conditions materially affect flight. These are not generic instructions to Christians everywhere. They concern…
Read article →Unity in Christ and distinction in God's purpose
…ent teaches 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…
Read article →Christ the promised Seed, Gentile inheritance, and Paul's final blessing
…brahamic blessing, especially justification and the promised Spirit. Must Gentiles become Jewish proselytes and submit to the Mosaic covenant in order to inherit? Paul's answer is an emphatic no. They receive the blessing of Abraham through Jesus Christ by faith (Galatians 3:13-1…
Read article →The olive tree, the natural branches, and the limits of the metaphor
…s: there is one tree, believing Jews and Gentiles are branches within it, and unbelieving Jewish branches have been removed. Surely the tree is now the Church, the Church is Israel, and the distinction has disappeared. That argument gives the metaphor real weight, but it moves to…
Read article →Why the final seven is unfinished, future, and centred upon Israel and Jerusalem
…me in" (Romans 11:25). This present period is not evidence that God has abandoned Israel. Jewish people continue to be saved through faith in Christ, and the gospel goes to all nations. It means that Daniel's measured programme for Israel and Jerusalem awaits its final phase whil…
Read article →Responding to five common criticisms without defending what Scripture does not require
…an interruption that caught God unprepared. The real distinction concerns revelation and identity. In the present body, believing Jews and Gentiles are reconciled to God and to one another in one new man (Ephesians 2:11–18). They possess equal standing in Christ. That unity does…
Read article →What 'yea and Amen' in Christ means for Israel and the covenants
…n Himself because He alone can accomplish them faithfully. Their certainty rests upon His identity and work. That makes Him the guarantee that their particulars will stand, not the reason those particulars may disappear. There was no small print in God's covenants The claim that…
Read article →Matthew, the Hebrew word almah, and a sign whose meaning reaches beyond Ahaz
…isted before Matthew Matthew did not invent the Greek word parthenos for Isaiah 7:14. The Jewish Greek translation of Isaiah, produced before Christianity, already rendered almah with parthenos, the ordinary Greek term for a virgin or maiden. This point is sometimes overstated by…
Read article →The gathering of the elect, one taken and one left, and Paul's revealed mystery
…dwide gathering. Those are genuine points of contact. Similarity, however, does not prove identity. Trumpets can summon, announce, warn, and celebrate. Clouds accompany many divine manifestations. "Elect" is not an exclusive technical name for the Church; Israel is called God's e…
Read article →Fulfilment in Christ, the inclusion of the Gentiles, and Israel's future mercy
…r unbelief. Their privileges do not save them, but their unbelief has not rewritten their identity. Romans 9 then explains that physical descent alone never guaranteed individual salvation: "For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel" (Romans 9:6). God distinguished Isaac f…
Read article →Conditional blessing, irrevocable promise, and fulfilment in Christ
…d nationally refused its Messiah. Jerusalem was judged, the temple was destroyed, and the Jewish people were scattered among the nations. Does covenant unfaithfulness permit us to conclude that God has permanently abandoned the nation? The answer depends partly upon a distinction…
Read article →What God's faithfulness to Israel means for everyone who trusts His promises
…ater Son, the 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. Ever…
Read article →One Messiah, one gospel, and God's continuing purpose for Israel
…is whether fulfilment in Christ and the formation of the Church require Israel's national 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…
Read article →The wicked husbandmen, the fruit-bearing nation, and what Jesus said afterwards
…rd placed under faithful care. The judgement is not therefore an abstract denunciation of Jewish ethnicity. Nor is it a declaration that God's promises had always belonged spiritually to a different people. It is a polemic against identifiable rulers at a decisive moment in Israe…
Read article →Election within Abraham's family, the believing remnant, and the future of the nation
…True Israel 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 ph…
Read article →Defining the position before testing it
…The promises reach their final meaning in Christ and the Church; any future conversion of Jewish people is their entrance into the Church, not the restoration of Israel as a nation with a distinctive covenant role. That definition identifies the central claim without pretending t…
Read article →A sign of Israel's renewal, not Israel's disappearance
…it points towards renewal rather than erasure. Twelve means Israel Israel's twelve-tribe identity runs through the biblical story. Jacob's twelve sons became the heads of the tribes. Moses built an altar with twelve pillars "according to the twelve tribes of Israel" (Exodus 24:4…
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