By Philippe R. Sterling

Believing Jewish individuals are “the Israel of God” in the Church age (Rom 9:6-8; 11:1-6; Gal 6:16). They are part of the Church and of ethnic Israel (Eph 2:11-22). Non-Jewish believers are part of the Church and of their respective ethnic groups and nations (Acts 17:26; Rom 13:1-7; 1 Cor 10:32). The Church is not a national entity. It is a multiethnic spiritual body bound to Christ, the Head (1 Cor 12:12-13; Col 1:18). The Church does not replace Israel.

Israel was prophesied to exist once again as a nation to enter into a covenant with the nations and to rebuild the temple (Dan 9:27; 12:11; 2 Thess 2:4). That signing of the covenant marks the start of Daniel’s seventieth week, the Tribulation (Dan 9:27). This suggests that a gathering of the nation in a state of unbelief would happen sometime before the beginning of the Tribulation. Ezekiel 37:7-10 and Zeph 2:1-3 may point to this. The return of Jews to the land of Israel since 1948 may be a part of the regathering. There will be another gathering of the Jewish people, this time of the surviving believing Jews of the Tribulation, before the blessings of the messianic kingdom (Isa 11:11-12; Mark 13:27).

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Philippe Sterling is the pastor of Vista Ridge Bible Fellowship in Lewisville, TX. He and his wife of 45 years, Brenda, live in Denton, TX, near their daughter, Sarah, son-in-law, Ben, and grandkids.