Before we conclude our study of what are generally referred to as the Abrahamic Covenants, I thought it necessary to look at the subject of what we might call “the substitute” fulfilment of the covenants made by God with our forefathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as generally taught in virtually all areas of modern theology.
 Many Christians will be surprised to find that there are four different points of view mainly held regarding the identity of the recipients of these covenants.

1. That literal Israel has been done away with by God - ostensively because they became too evil for Him to do anything about it.  As a result of this decision He gave all these wonderful promises to “the church”, thus creating a “spiritual Israel” in lieu of the literal nation and company of nations and Great People to whom, and about whom, He had made the promises. Thus, the “church” became a substitute for the nation. This unfortunately created somewhat of a problem in that some of the terms of these covenants and promises contained features which were not too complimentary to the “church’, so a compromise seems to have been reached in which all the ‘good’ parts apply to the “church”, whilst all the ‘bad’ parts apply to the Jews.  Two major factors appear to have been entirely disregarded by our modern theological “experts” of this persuasion.
Firstly, the Hebrew and Greek words for “church”, or its equivalent, are totally different from their respective words for “nation”.  It amazes me to find how easily and off-handedly Bible teachers can look their congregations in the eye and without the slightest embarrassment teach them that they can mean the same thing.  Of course, it’s quite possible that in their theological studies they have discovered something that has escaped God’s attention or knowledge.  Maybe!
 Secondly, if literal Israel has been replaced by a ‘spiritual’ Israel, how do we reconcile the following statement in Malachi 3:6;
 

“For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.”

“God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?”

3. The third alternative is that the Anglo-Saxon-Celtic people of the world form what has been referred to as “the lost ten- tribed House of Israel”, whilst the present-day Jews constitute the Southern House of Judah, and are still, some time in the future, to be re-joined to their brethren of the northern ten tribes.  This view was very extensively held early in the history of what we might call “the Identity awakening”.  And if we look at this position dispassionately, we must acknowledge that one hundred years ago, things were very different from what they are today.  That doesn’t mean that truth has changed, but simply that we have a great deal more knowledge than was available to our forebears. The revelation of our Israel identity was not generally known to the great bulk of Christians, God Himself having told us through the prophets that blindness in part would be upon His people until a specific time had arrived.  That time had not then arrived, and only a very few seemingly selected people -  mainly national leaders both in Church and State - had been given the vision as to who we really are.  So to break with the tradition and firmly held views of their day was not easy.  In those days, it was believed that the Jews were the chosen people, and when it gradually dawned on an ever increasing number of Anglo-Saxon-Celtic people that they themselves were in fact the true descendants of the Israel people of the Bible, the Jews continued to be a part of their thinking in that they were then taken to be the House of Judah.  This was the situation when I first heard of our Identity.  A lovely , fine, Christian lady  -  and I know she was, because I ended up marrying her daughter - started to tell me about who we were, and I well remember telling her that she was out of her brain.  Mind you, I was a brash young seventeen year old, and a good Baptist to boot.  But something inside me must have left such an impression on me that it wasn’t long before I realised the truth of what she was saying.  Like everyone else of that time, I accepted without question that the Jews were the two-tribed House of Judah, and that we were still waiting for their re-union with the ten lost tribes.  But time and study and developing circumstances slowly revealed that this belief was not entirely correct, at least in some aspects.  I suppose that the events of 1948 became a real turning point in the thinking of many Identity folk, although it has to be admitted that there were a number of them, thankfully including myself, who were ahead of the times, as it were, and had already realised that something was not right with this alternative.

4. Thus, the fourth alternative became increasingly accepted.  This was that the western Christian nations of the Anglo-Saxon-Celtic people constituted, in fact, the entire twelve tribes of Israel, conforming to the “twelve tribes scattered abroad” as referred to by the Apostle James.  We look back on those days with a certain amount of disbelief at the fact that we had not woken to this fact for so many years.  It now seems so obvious that we shake our collective heads and say, “how could we have missed seeing that?”  But God has a very wonderful habit of leading us slowly, yet with absolute certainty.  He never rushes things.  He knows exactly what is going to happen, and exactly when it is going to happen.  He is the ultimate in the exercise of Secret Service Procedure.  He reveals things to us on a “need to know” basis.  And it is only now, at the end of this age, that the blindness is being lifted because it is now time for His people to know.  Criticism of those of days gone by for what now appears to have been error, or at least partial truth, is in my opinion, totally unfair and unproductive.  If it had not been for these “trail blazers” we would not have the knowledge and wisdom which a very faithful Lord has given to us.  If we had been given all our present information at once, we’d all be suffering from a massive dose of spiritual indigestion. But apart from all this, we have now learned the full value of the understanding of the fulfilment of on-going prophecy.  Nothing happens before God’s Good and Perfect Timing.
But now, let us return to our study of the second of the above alternatives, that of the Jewish question.
Who are the people presently known as Jews?  What purpose do they play in God’s plans and purposes?  Indeed, do they play any part in these plans at all?  What connection or relationship do they have, if any, with the true Israel, the people of God’s promises?   In order to come to an informed conclusion to these questions, there must be an understanding of certain basic rules and principles.

1. There is no such word as “Jew” in either the original Hebrew or Greek texts from which we have our translations of the Old and the New Testaments.

That may come as quite a shock to most Christians. But a quick check of any reputable Concordance or Lexicon will show this to be true.  The original word used in the Hebrew Old Testament is pronounced “yeh-hoo-dee”, and means “a Judaite”. (see Strong’s #3064).  The very first time it appears in Scripture is in 2 Kings 16:6, where we read;
 

“At that time Rezin king of Syria recovered Elath to Syria, and drave the Jews from Elath: and the Syrians came to Elath, and dwelt there unto this day.”

 Prior to this, nobody, and I mean nobody, was referred to in the Bible by the name “Jew”.  They were referred to as ‘Judahites’, or ‘men of Judah'. Abraham was not a Jew.  Isaac was not a Jew.  Jacob was not a Jew.  There was no such person as a Jew.  Even present Jewish authorities testify to this fact.  Read the following from the 1980 Jewish Almanac, page 3, under the heading of “A brief history of the terms for Jew”;
 
 

 “Strictly speaking it is incorrect to call an ancient Israelite a ‘Jew’ or to call a contemporary Jew an Israelite or a Hebrew.”

 A similar situation exists in the Greek of the New Testament.  The Greek word used is “Judaean”, and is so used in every instance in the New Testament.

For instance, our Lord Jesus Christ is never, in the original Greek of the New Testament, referred to as a “Jew”.  He is called a “Judaean,” or “man of Judah”.  The inscription on the cross, in the original Greek, was “King of the Judaeans”, not “King of the Jews”.  This mis-translation, which is common to all Bible translations, gives an entirely false impression and understanding of the Scriptures.  Because of the fact that there is a collection of people in the world today called ”Jews”, it is automatically concluded that they must be the same people as those referred to by the same name in the Bible.  It may be an understandable conclusion in the eyes of most, but this doesn’t alter the fact that the conclusion is quite wrong and un-scriptural.  It is mainly on this basis that modern theology teaches that the “Jews” are God’s Israel people, and the recipients of the Heritage of Israel.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  One may as well say that because my initials are f.d. that I have claim to most of the earlier English currency purely on the grounds that every coin has the inscription f.d. on them.  A great thought, but I’m sure it won’t get me anywhere.  (For those who may be wondering, the f.d. on the English coinage stands for “Defender of the Faith”.)

2. We must keep in mind the fact that there are both “good” Jews - Judahites, and “bad” Jews - Judahites. Furthermore, there are those who call themselves Judahites and are, and those who call themselves Judahites but are not.

Let’s look at what God’s Word says about these “good” and “bad” Judahites.  In Jeremiah chapter 24 we read;
 

1  “The LORD showed me, and, behold, two baskets of figs were set before the temple of the LORD, after that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, with the carpenters and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon.
2  One basket had very good figs, even like the figs that are first ripe: and the other basket had very naughty figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad.
3  Then said the LORD unto me, What seest thou, Jeremiah? And I said, Figs; the good figs, very good; and the evil, very evil, that cannot be eaten, they are so evil.
4  Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
5  Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel; Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good.
6  For I will set mine eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land: and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up.
7  And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.
8  And as the evil figs, which cannot be eaten, they are so evil; surely thus saith the LORD, So will I give Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem, that remain in this land, and them that dwell in the land of Egypt:
9  And I will deliver them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth for their hurt, to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places whither I shall drive them.
10  And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, among them, till they be consumed from off the land that I gave unto them and to their fathers.”

 But what about those who claim to be Judahites and are telling the truth, and those who claim to be Judahites but are lying?   Remember, we are reading of those who are truthfully claiming Israelite descent, and those who are falsely claiming Israelite descent.  We read of this in the Book of the Revelation, chapters 2 and 3, and verse 9 in both references;
 

“I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.”

“Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.”                                                                                                                                (emphasis added).

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