Yesterday’s post was one you likely did not read. I posted it for the public in general, because I’m redoing an older post, and building on it.  Making it hopefully clearer and easier to read and understand.  This entire subject seems so difficult to us.  I myself find it quite energizing and intriguing. It’s a search for Truth, and that’s what Jesus is all about. 

Today I was listening to Pastor Jack Hibbs and Amir Tsarfati concerning “What does God say about Israel?”  Israel is a big topic these days. The entire 1 hour & 13+ minute message was to make the point that there will be no Tribulation for the Church because the Church is not Israel.  His point that the Church has not replaced Israel, actually I do happen to agree with, but I do not agree that the Church is separate from Israel; that it does not include Israel. 

Why do I say this?  Well what do we say to the fact that the Church is fulfilling Israel’s New Covenant promise, not only to the world, but to her as well, and Israel’s Messiah has brought this covenant into existance?  In our last post we saw that Jesus first saved O.T. Israel, and the O.T. Saints, who were awaiting Him in the belly of the earth, and according to Paul in Romans 11, He will save as His last act of salvation the Israel of these last days after the very last Gentile is saved.  You may think me to have quite an imagination, but this is what Scripture tells us.  Read that post if you haven’t. The Church is the vehicle whereby Israel’s New Covenant Promise is delivered.  Without israel there is no new covenant there is no Messiah and thus no Church.  There would need to be an entirely  different religious plan by God.  A different Scripture likely would not change the confusion within the churches teachings of this day.

These particular men attempt to make the “church” a separate entity apart from Israel, which may be a greater error than that of Replacement Theology, which they see as false teaching.  For God has sent His Son to call out a people from among both Israel and the Gentiles to be His own. 

If Jesus’ intent was to leave out Israel from His New Covenant; then why was this covenant brought through them. Maybe the Dispensationalists can convince many that they are correct, but does that make it so?  Jesus (I believe) makes clear what He was doing with Israel’s faithful.  Listen:

John 10:8  “All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. (NASB1995)

Yes, there were false teachers even before first coming.  (pay attention)  for if Jesus is speaking here of what must be an entirely future new group of sheep (or people a Church separate from Israel) who are to be His people (His Church and if they are to be from only a future group, to exclude Israel’s faithful) then it would not have mattered, which Thieves and robbers the sheep that came before Him would (Not) have followed, because they then would not have been invited to remain in His sheepfold (His Church) to begin with; but these, whom He is commending for their discernment are preexisting sheep, who have been in the fold to which these now future sheep will be added.   These sheep (most of whom) are awaiting as He speaks their Messiah.  And they await Him from Abraham’s Bosom. They have stayed the course, as will those, who are to come after them in the future.  Again Listen:

John 10:14  “I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me,  15  even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.  16  “I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock [with] one shepherd. (NASB1995)

Notice that the “Other Sheep” to be added are future “outside additions”, for this flock is becoming “one”: for “they will hear My Voice”.  Whereas the sheep to whom these are added had already resisted thieves and robbers and remained faithful (never leaving).  And now there is one new flock.  One new man  from the two. Paul also calls us One. 

Dispensational Theology considers the Church to not need Israel in the flock as she is separated from the Church and thus from Christ. They see the Church as a new thing not needing the former flock, and not joining with it.  

Yet Paul also teaches with the Olive Tree example just the opposite of what they see.  Israelites, who refused Jesus’, who followed the thrives and robbers and the bringing of their own New Covenant Church; they were labeled as unbelievers and they were cut off from the flock, leaving only the believers from Israel’s past and a remnant from her present within the olive tree. A tree, which is rooted in Israel’s Messiah. 

Jack Hibbs and all who are of the Dispensational Theological movement like Calvary Chapel, do believe the Church to be a new religion, separate from Israel, when they remove the Church from Israel, rather than joining it to her.   With Hibbs the basic foundation for his understanding of Israel is based solely upon whether or not New Covenant people (the Church) will see the Tribulation or instead be Raptured?  You need only to listen to little more than the first 15 min of their message and you will get the focus of it.  Everything is about there being a separate Rapture for the Church and Israel must be kept separate otherwise that claim vanishes.  There is no existing sheepfold for Gentiles to enter. 

Thus we must ask how are they (Israel) then saved?  Can they be saved without coming to the personal relationship in Christ their Messiah. Can they be saved without the new birth  of which Jesus spoke?  Can they be saved without being in Christ?

https://youtu.be/2eFnSFAHEGs?si=sCtpbTOU2LbWnpOJ

Now if we are rightly understanding the one new man Church to be an Israelite Church joined by Gentiles; then we must be able to answer the questions that are created by having all of Jesus’ future Sheep  to go through the Great Tribulation.  This we will explore in our next post.