True Israel: “One Flock”
by Dr. Jay Worth Allen
Due to the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict, a lot of conversations have been stirring in Christian circles as to whether or not Christians have an obligation to support the secular state of Israel. Many well-meaning modern evangelicals, including pastors, politicians, and influencers believe it is their duty to defend the secular state of Israel. Some, unconditionally. This belief is based on their fallacious definition of Israel: “The heirs according to the promise made to Abraham in the book of Genesis”.
Let me explain.
The New Testament makes it clear that under the new covenant, God’s chosen people are no longer defined by physical lineage, but by faith in Jesus Christ.
God, creator of heaven and earth made a new covenant with the entire world that was put in place at the very moment Jesus became God’s own Christ — having laid down his life for ours; giving up the ghost; separated from God, His Father, on our behalf; paying that which we could not — completing, fulfilling every commandment, ordinance, every jot & tilde of the Mosaic law — He, Jesus Christ became the last sacrifice: “It Is Finished!” Thus, by His death on the cross, the previous testament given through Moses to the people of God, Israel, was null and void, revoked, and a new, unimpeachable testament was put in it its place: believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. At the time of His death, the veil (thick curtain) that separated the people of Israel from the Holy of Hollies (where the High Priest would once a year offer sacrifice to atone for the sins of Israel) — this sacred room, only to be entered into by the High Priest, was now wide open for all to see. At the time of His resurrection Christ Jesus became The Reigning King of Kings and Lord of Lords! And because of that fact, the New Testament redefines the concept of “God’s chosen people,” focusing on the promises made to Abraham, and, that those promises now extend to all who are in Christ, regardless of their ethnicity or national origin!
Throughout Christian New Covenant history, it has been most prominently understood that there is One Covenant People, True Israel, those who live by faith in Jesus Christ — regardless of physical descent. Again, this teaching redefines the concept of “God’s people”, focusing on the promises made to Abraham and how the promises now extend to all who are in Christ, regardless of their ethnicity or national origin, as Paul says in Galatians 3:26-29: “For now that you have faith in Christ you are all sons of God. All of you who were baptized ‘into’ Christ have put on Christ (i.e. the family likeness of Christ). Gone is the distinction between Jew and Greek, slave and free man, male and female — you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, you are true descendants of Abraham, you are true heirs of his promise.”
Paul reiterates this in his letter to the Ephesians 2:11-22: “Do not lose sight of the fact that you were born in the flesh ‘Gentiles’, known as ‘the uncircumcised’ by those whose physical bodies were circumcised by the hands of man. That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth (community) of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you, who once were far off are made near by the blood of Christ.”
“For He is our living peace, who has made both (Jew and Gentile) one, and has broken down the the wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity — the law of commandments in ordinances — to make in Himself of the two into one new man, so making peace; And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: And came and preached peace to you which were far off, and to them that were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore you are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together is built up unto a holy temple in the Lord; In whom you also are builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit.”
Wonderful! So what happened?
Some eighteen hundred years after Paul wrote his letters to the saints at Galatia and Ephesus, in the 1830s, a disillusioned Irish priest by the name of John Nelson Darby constructed what’s called premillennial dispensationalism, the theological framework popularized by the Scofield Reference Bible that introduced the idea that God has two distinct covenant people. One, being physical Israel, which Darby, and Scofield, define as the mere physical descendants of Abraham; and, the second being the Church, those in Christ. Christians. Darby and Scofield rejected the idea that Christians should be considered True Israel, but took no issue adopting the definition consistent with the Pharisees of the New Testament. Thankfully Christ Himself rebukes this definition when speaking directly to the Pharisees in John 8:39-59: ““Our father is Abraham!” they retorted. “If you were the children of Abraham, you would do the work of Abraham. But in fact, at this moment, you are looking for a way to kill me, simply because I am a man who has told you the truth, which I have heard from God. Abraham would never have done that. No, you are doing your father’s work.” “We are not illegitimate!” they retorted. “We have one Father — God.”
“If God were really your Father,” replied Jesus, “you would have loved me. For I came from God, and I am here. I did not come of my own accord — He sent me, and I am here. Why do you not understand my words? It is because you cannot hear what I am saying. Your father is the devil, and what you are wanting to do is what your father longs to do.”
If God has two covenant people, as Darby and Scofield assert, why does Jesus explain otherwise when speaking to the Jews in John 10: “I have other sheep who do not belong to this fold (Gentiles). I must lead these also, and they will hear my voice. So there will be One Flock and One Shepherd.” True Israel.
Those that hold to the traditional view that Christians are True Israel will often be accused of believing in “Replacement Theology” — a title meant to malign opposition. But what this fails to understand is that God’s people have always lived by faith from the Old Testament to the New. As it is said, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted t.o him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6, Romans 4:3). Although Abraham lived prior to Christ’s coming, prior to Christ’s sacrifice for the sins of the world, Abraham was saved by his belief, his faith that Christ Jesus would come. This means that Christians, who live by faith, in the same faith as Abraham, faith in the saving sacrifice of Christ Jesus, are Abraham’s true descendants. Jew and Gentile alike. These are True Israel.
So in conclusion, yes, Christians have an obligation to support Israel. True Israel. But not the secular state that calls itself Israel.
© dr. jay & miss diana ministries, inc
