Nomad wrote: ↑Mon Jul 17, 2023 10:56 pm
Josh wrote: ↑Mon Jul 17, 2023 10:02 pm
Who exactly are “Israel as a people”?
I would call them Jews today. Just like there are Native Americans, Chinese, Haitians...etc. They are the physical seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as they were defined as in the Bible quite a few times. They're the people group God brought out of Egypt and they are the only people group to ever live who were held to the standards of Mosaic Law given on Sinai.
If your implying that its impossible to detect a Jew based on their race due to their blood getting "watered-down" through the year's, I simply have faith that God knows how to define them just like He can define His church as a connected body including all Gentiles and all Jews who have faith in Him. Nor do I feel it appropriate for me as a Gentile to tell a Jew (or any race for that matter) they aren't a Jew because I think there linage is "tainted". But maybe I'm mistaken in what you are trying to say. If so, I apologize.
I don’t see where the New Testament defines a group of people, whose modern identity is essentially rejecting Christ and the New Testament, as being “Israel as a people” or really being a special people group at all. They are simply heathers who need to “repent and obey the gospel”, no different than any other people group.
Likewise, in the NT Jesus warned the Jews of his day that God no longer cared about or respected special lineage or descent from Abraham. In short, God was now opening himself up to all people, and no longer gave special treatment to certain ethnic groups.
Thus I would see a person who practices Judaism no different than a practicing Buddhist, Muslim, Mormon, etc.
Likewise I would see a person of some sort of Jewish ethnicity or ancestry as no different than a Banawha person or an Irishman or a Turk. Special promises to “Israel as a people” were fulfilled by Jesus, and then God extended that promise to the whole world.
I simply have faith that God knows how to define them just like He can define His church as a connected body including all Gentiles and all Jews who have faith in Him.
Much of the text of the NT is reminding its audience that in Christ, there are no longer meaningful spiritual distinctions between Jew nor Greek.
In short, “Israel as a people” has about as much relevance to biblical prophecy that has not yet been fulfilled as “Scotland as a people” or “Palestinians as a people”.