Articles
Is Israel God’s chosen nation now?
According to the Bible there was a time when Israel was God’s elect nation. This was so that the Lord could bring Christ into the world through a traceable lineage. In Exodus 20:2- the law was given to the nation that God brought up out of Egypt. In Genesis 12;2 God tells Abraham that he would make of him a “great nation.” The other two parts of His promise to Abraham were that He would bless all nations of the earth through his lineage (Messianic Promise of Jesus); He also promised in verse 1 that He would give the nation a land (Gen. 12:1-3). The nation promise was fulfilled in Deut. 26:5 after Israel left Egypt. In Joshua 21:43-45- we see the fulfillment of the land promise- “so the Lord gave to Israel all the land that He had sword to give their ancestors and they took possession and dwelt there…not one of the good promises God gave to Israel failed; all of them were fulfilled (except the coming of the Messiah through the seed of Abraham). In Leviticus 18:24-30 we find that if Israel disobeyed God, he would vomit out the inhabitants. Israel lost its special status with God finally in 70 AD when Titus of Rome, destroyed Jerusalem and destroyed all the ancestral records of the Jewish nation. National identity as a Hebrew is no longer anything special and knowing what tribe a Jew comes from is untraceable now. God prophesied that if Israel left Him that He would go to a people that were not a people 1 Peter 2:10. Jesus gave the great commission to His apostles in Mark 16:15,16- “go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, he that believes and is baptized shall be saved- he that believes not shall be condemned.” Earthly nationality has nothing to do with being more special to God. Galatians 3:28 says- “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave or free, male or female for you are all one in Christ.” Christ has a spiritual nation now, it is His kingdom, the church. He is king over His kingdom now. So, we do not need to be waiting for Jesus to set up His kingdom back in Palestine- He already has. It was established on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2. He told His apostles in John 18:36 He said- “my kingdom is not of this world. ‘If it were my servants would fight to prevent my arrest…. but My kingdom is not material or earthly.” If Jesus’ kingdom was physical and earthly the Pharisees and Jews would have accepted Him readily, but He refused repeatedly, to accept such a concept. It is sad but true that many today miss the point as they did while Jesus was on this earth. He purchased the church with His blood (Acts 20:28). His church (only one) is His kingdom (Matt. 16:18). The kingdom is here and Jesus reigns over it. In order to be pleasing to Him you must be a citizen of His one kingdom. That is done through faith, repentance, confession and baptism into Christ and He adds you to His church when you do these things. We submit to His laws and honor His will in all we do. When we do these things, the Lord has promised to grant unto us eternal life in heaven.
