Season 2 Episode 18

How should the church view the promises given to the Nation of Israel and the Jewish people promised in scripture through prophecy?

Option 1: Supersessions/Replacement Theology.  The church has become the new spiritual Israel.  God has transferred His blessings to the church because 1st century Israel rejected its Messiah and had Him killed on a cross by the Romans.  God’s Old Testament spiritual/promises to National Israel in the Old Testament are now being  poured out upon the church today. 

Option 2: Dispensationalism. God has not abandon his promises to the Jewish people and the nation of Israel but rather they are in a state of postponement until God determines it is time to act.  God is working through the Church today, a spiritual body, not a physical nation. Prophecy is directed at new spiritual Israel that Christ will establish on the earth after the tribulation period for a literal 1,000 years.  From the time of the Mosaic Covenant until the day of Pentecost, National Israel was God’s witness of Himself upon the earth.  Today the Body of Christ/Church/Bride of Christ is God’s witness of Himself upon the earth. At the Rapture of the church, God will shift His focus back to Israel to accomplish all the unfulfilled promises to Israel outlined in scripture.  
 
3) God’s eye in scripture has always been upon Spiritual Israel. Gentiles were grafted into Israel through Jesus' finished work upon the cross. Old Testament believers and new Testament believers have never been released from adherence to the laws establish by God to the Nation of Israel. Jesus said he did not come to abolish the law or the prophets (Matthew 5:17). Through faith in Jesus Christ and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, it is now possible to be obedient to laws handed down by God to the nation of Israel. This means Torah observance: Sabbath keeping, celebrating Old Testament feast and festivals, kosher diet. God never released Israel from these regulations as Israel has always been God’s sole witness of Himself upon the earth. All the authors of the Bible were Torah observant, so was Jesus, and so should  we be … if we want to live a life of true obedience before God.

Unfilled prophecy concerning the nation of Israel and the coming kingdom. 
Deuteronomy: 30:1-10/Daniel 9:24-27/Isaiah 2:1-5/Zechariah 12:10/Ezekiel Chapters: 25-48/Jeremiah 31: 31-40).