Is The Church A Substitute For Israel?
There is a widespread belief among Christians that Israel, the
nation which God brought into being to be the instrument of His Purpose, has
been replaced by the Christian Church. It is true that, as a result of disobedience
and sin, the Israel nation fell and that her people were carried away into
exile from which only a remnant returned (Ezra 3:8; 9:8; Neh. 1:3). It is also
true that the few who did return, called Jews, refused to accept the Son of
God and were consequently set aside by Him as the instrument of His Purpose
(Matt. 21:43; Jn. 1:11-12).
So with Israel “lost” (Jer. 50:6; Matt. 5:10; 15:24) and with the
Jews’ rejection, it has appeared to some that God’s Plan of using Israel as the
instrument of His Purpose has failed. Therefore they assume that He must have
substituted the Christian Church for the people of Israel.
However, before we charge God with having made a mistake, or say
that He has had to change His mind and substitute a church for a nation, let
us consider for a moment that purpose for which Israel was chosen.
When read as a whole, the Bible shows very clearly that God brought
the Israel people into being and formed them into a nation to demonstrate the
righteousness of His Kingdom—that perfect social order and government which He
designed for mankind; to show the benefits of obedience to His moral laws in
ALL things, religious, political, social and economic; and to extend His Kingdom
and the administration of His precepts throughout the earth.
A moment’s thought will show that this Purpose can never be accomplished
by the Christian Church. The Church could not function as a social order or even
as a government. Neither could it demonstrate the righteousness of God’s kingdom,
for it has no means of administering or enforcing His laws. Yet without doing
so, how can it replace Israel in the fulfillment of God’s Plan?
To quibble by saying that God has changed His Plan is to contradict
His own Words, for the Bible quotes Him as saying, “I am the Lord, I change not.”
(Mal. 3:6)
The folly of presuming that God’s plans have failed and that substitutes
are in order is shown in the Bible story of Abraham and his wife Sarah. When
Sarah passed the normal age of child-bearing without giving birth to the son
whom God had promised them, they lost faith and their attempt to provide a substitute
ended in tragic failure.
So also in this matter, we dare not attempt to substitute a Church
for the Divinely-ordained nation. Each serves its own purpose in God’s Plan.
The function of the Christian Church is to proclaim Christ and the gospel of
salvation to all people, whereas Israel was chosen to demonstrate the righteousness
of God’s kingdom and laws on a national basis and to extend and administer them
throughout the earth. Thus each has its part to play in God’s Great Purpose and
only evil can come of any attempt to substitute one for the other.
When Abraham and Sarah could see no possibility of having the son
whom God had promised, they ignored the promise and tried a substitute. Likewise
many Christians can see no possibility of Israel fulfilling the Abrahamic covenants,
so they ignore God’s promise and try to substitute the Church. Even as the other
attempt ended in tragedy, so also will this, for, “God is not a man that he should
lie; neither the son of Man that he should repent; hath he said, and shall he
not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” (Num. 23:19)
Repeatedly and in the most emphatic terms God has promised that as
long as the heavens and the earth remain, and as long as we continue to have
day and night, Israel will continue as the instrument of His Purpose (Jer. 31:31-37).
The heavens and the earth are still with us and we are still having day and night.
Therefore Israel will fulfill her Divinely-appointed commission, and the claim
that she has been replaced by the Church is false. For more information, see
our "Introduction To The British-Israel Evangel"
Our Movement And Its Mission:
This website is sponsored by the Canadian British-Israel Association, an organization
composed of Bible-believing Christians of many denominations who believe that
the moral decline in our nation can only be reversed by a knowledge of our
duties and responsibilities as God's Servant People. This will lead
to a return to faith in Christ and obedience to the Divine precepts outlined
in the Word of God. For more information about us, see our websites
listed on the links page...
Introduction: The Lost Sheep of the House of Israel
The Bible clearly states that God’s Purpose for mankind is to be achieved
through the instrumentality of a servant nation called Israel (Isa. 49:3).
Nevertheless, Israel of old proved unfaithful, was exiled from Canaan and disappeared
from the pages of history about 600 B.C. (2 Ki. 17), except for a small remnant
called Jews. As a result, many Christians assume that Israel no longer figures
in God’s Plan, and that the Divine Purpose is now to be fulfilled through the
Christian Church.
Yet this assumption ignores God’s solemn promises recorded in the
Old Testament, many of them made long after Israel disappeared. In addition,
it overlooks the significance of many of our Lords’s own statements. Thus, in
rebuking the woman of Canaan for asking His help in terms which falsely implied
that she was an Israelite, He said: “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep
of the house of Israel.” (Matt. 15:24)
This carries us back to the 34th chapter of Ezekiel where the prophet,
writing after Israel’s disappearance, likens them to a flock of sheep whose false
shepherds (political and religious leaders) have allowed them to become scattered
and lost. Here, too, he records God’s promise that He Himself would come to seek
and restore these lost sheep.
Obviously then, our Lord’s statement that He was “not sent but unto
the lost sheep of the house of Israel” not only proves that the Israel people
were still in existence in His day but further that He had come to restore them
to God’s favor and function. The prophecies clearly show that it is through Israel
that God’s Purposes will be accomplished.
Yet to say that He was referring to the Jews of Palestine is illogical,
for the Jews were not lost, they were all about Him. Further, they were not of
the House of Israel but of the House of Judah. Originally Israel had consisted
of twelve families or tribes, but following the death of King Solomon ten tribes
rebelled against the rule of Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, with the result that the
Israel people were split into TWO separate and distinct nations, the House and
Kingdom of ISRAEL (10 tribes), and the House and Kingdom of JUDAH (2 tribes).
This story is found in First Kings chapter 12.
Eventually both of these nations were conquered by enemies who carried
their people away into captivity in distant lands, from which only a small remnant
of the House of Judah returned (Ezra 3:8; 9:8; Neh. 1:3). It is from this remnant
of Judah that the Jews of our Lord’s day were descended. This returned remnant
of Judah was neither lost nor descended from the House of Israel, and could not
therefore have been the “lost sheep of the House of Israel” to which He referred.
It is important to understand that the generic term, “Israel,” or
“Israelite,” referred to any or all of the twelve tribes; however, the explicit
term, “House of Israel,” specifically referred to the separate kingdom of the
Ten Tribes. With that being clear, let us now look at our Saviour’s command to
His disciples when sending them forth to proclaim the Gospel of the Kingdom:
“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.” (Matt. 10:5-7)
Here again we have proof that the Israel people were still in existence
in our Lord’s day, for surely He would not have sent His disciples to a people
who no longer existed. Further, His Words clearly show that the ten-tribe “House
of Israel” still had a vital part to play in the fulfillment of God’s Purpose.
These twelve disciples were not sent to the House of Israel to proclaim that
the kingdom of God could not be restored to them!
Christ was pointedly reminding them that the responsibility for demonstrating
and extending the righteousness of that kingdom was theirs, and called upon them
to accept it. The fact that we still await the second coming of Christ to physically
take that ideal kingdom does not prove that Israel is non-existent but only that
by following false shepherds she has failed to heed and implement the call.
Thus those Christians who say that Israel no longer exists and that
God’s Purpose for mankind is to be fulfilled through the Christian Church, or
through unbelieving Jewry, not only deny their Lord’s own words but hinder the
coming of the kingdom.
Fellow-Workers With God
“Ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.”
–Exodus 19:6
As someone has previously remarked, no greater honor could be
conferred upon any portion of the human race than the privilege of being fellow-workers
with the Lord of all creation in establishing justice and truth, righteousness
and peace, upon the earth.
That God is working out a Great Purpose in human history and affairs designed
to bring into being a perfect social order in which there will be health, wealth,
peace, and happiness for all, and that this purpose is to be achieved through
the instrumentality of a servant people, is clearly tought in the Sacred Scriptures.
Thus, almost at the beginning of the Bible’s revelation of God’s Will and Purpose
for mankind, we read of a long process by which He brought into being a new
and distinct nation to whom He gave the name Israel and to whose progenitor,
Jacob, He said:
“In thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” –Gen.
28:14
It is certain, therefore, that God is planning some Good Thing for all mankind
which is to be accomplished in and through the seed or descendants of Jacob—the
Israel people. True, a great and important part of this blessing is already
available in a Spiritual sense through the atoning sacrifice of the One Seed
on the Cross of Calvary (Gal. 3:16), but another part only
relatively less important is to be achieved through the instrumentality of
Israel as a physical people. Consequently, they have a special relationship
to God, distinct from that of any other people.
This is definitely stated in Deuteronomy 7:6, where we read:
“Thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen
thee to be a special people unto Himself, above all people that are upon the
face of the earth.”
A further development of this special relationship came when God formed the
Israel people into a nation. Note His own declaration concerning it: “Ye shall
be unto me a kingdom of priests and an holy nation.” -Exodus 19:6
As used here, this word “holy,” in addition to its ordinary meaning, denotes
something dedicated exclusively to the service of God. A person so dedicated
is called a priest. Thus, among the nations of the earth, Israel was to be
God’s priest-nation or kingdom—a people and nation whose life and energies
were to be devoted exclusively to His service and to the fulfillment of His
Will and Purpose among men.
It is true that Israel of old spurned this great honor and became disobedient
and rebellious. She was expelled from her holy office; however, God’s Word
declares repeatedly and most emphatically that this expulsion is only temporary
and that after a long period of exile and correction she will be restored to
her former relationship.
Therefore, those who believe God are certain that Israel is still in existence
today. Once this fact is recognized, it takes but a moment’s thought to identify
God’s people in the world today. The Celto-Saxon peoples, and they alone, fit
the prophetic descriptions of what the House of Israel was to become. They
alone have developed into the “nation and company of nations” (Gen.
35:11) which God promised to Jacob. Numerous other prophecies have
seen fulfillment only in this people. (See the sample list of prophecies on
this website.)
In view of this identification, Israel’s special relationship to God becomes
of vital importance to us, for the long sentence of exile pronounced against
Israel has now come to an end and thus it is to us, in this generation, that
God is offering the great honor of being fellow-workers with Him in establishing
justice and truth, righteousness and peace, upon the earth.
Surely, therefore, in view of the appalling conditions in the world today,
the time has come for us to awaken to our calling and in humble repentance
return to God so that He, working through us, can establish and extend the
righteousness of His Kingdom and Rule over the earth.
Then indeed will His Words concerning us be fulfilled: “This people have I
formed for Myself; they shall show forth My Praise.” (Isaiah 43:21) Who
in the world today is doing that which the House of Israel was prophesied to
do?
Perhaps God has a place for YOU in the working out of His great Purpose?
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