Is Israel And The Church One Entity?

"For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ."

-- John 1:17 --

Did God intentionally blur the lines between Israel and the church or is this man’s doing? After many years of intensive study of the word of God coupled with prayer, I am firmly convinced that Scripture teaches that Israel and the church are distinct entities.

Those who teach that the church and Israel are one entity will point out that the church existed in the Old Testament. For example, they will point out that “your people” in Daniel 9:24 is the church. They appear to intentionally overlook the fact that Daniel was interceding for his people, the nation of Israel, who repeatedly transgressed against God’s law and were taken into captivity in Babylon for seventy-years as a result (Dan. 9:1-19).

God made two major promises in His word. The first major promise is contained in the covenant that the LORD made with Abram:

“On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land, From the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates: the Kenite and the Kenizzite and the Kadmonite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Rephaim and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Girgashite and the Jebusite” (Gen. 15:18-21). This is a large swath of land that extends from the Nile River in Egypt to the Euphrates River in Iraq, and from northern Syria to northern Saudi Arabia. Currently, Israel only occupies a small portion of the land that God promised to Abram and his descendants.

God changed Abram’s name to Abraham and told him that He will make him “the father of a multitude of nations… kings will come forth from him” (Gen. 17:5-6). God went on to promise, ““I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you. “I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojourning’s, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God” (Gen. 17:7-8).

Jacob is a physical descendant of Abraham through his son Isaac (Gen. 21:3; 25:26; Matt. 1:2). God changed Jacob’s name to Israel (Gen. 32:28). The twelve tribes of Israel are descendants of the twelve sons of Jacob (Gen. 35:23-26; 49:1-28). Jesus is a descendant of Judah, the fourth son born to Jacob (Matt. 1:3, 16).

Thus, the promise of land as an everlasting possession was made to a literal nation, Israel, comprised of the physical descendants of Abraham through his grandson Jacob. This promise was not made to the church unless you believe that the church and Israel are a single entity.

The second major promise is eternal life (John 3:16; 5:24; 10:28; 1 John 2:25) which God made to His church, the body of Christ (Eph. 5:23; Col. 1:18). Jesus said that He will (future tense) build His church “upon this rock,” not Peter but what the Father revealed to Peter about Jesus: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:13-18). The church consists of everyone, individual Jews and Gentiles alike, who believes that Jesus Christ died for their sins, was buried, and rose from the grave on the third day (Rom. 1:16, 10:9-10; 1 Cor. 15:1-4). Jesus said, “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:2-3). It is clear from this passage that His Father’s house is in heaven, not on this earth. “Our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil. 3:20), not on the land that God promised to Israel. God “raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6), not in Jerusalem. This promise was not made to the nation of Israel unless you believe that the church and Israel are a single entity.

God chose the nation of Israel, “a holy people” to the LORD their God who He brought out of Egypt after being enslaved there for four hundred years (Gen. 15:14; Ex. 12:40-41). He chose them “to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.” He did not set His love on them nor choose them because they were more in number than any of the peoples. He chose Israel because He loved them and kept the oath which He swore to their forefathers (Deut. 7:6-8). It is of vital importance to note that this passage is about an entire nation of people, not individual members of the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:12-14).

If the church and Israel are a single entity, then why didn’t Jesus, who is God, build His church on the foundation of Israel’s forefathers? Those in Christ Jesus, who are saved by grace through faith, “are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household (the church), having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit” (Eph. 2:8-9, 19-22). The context of this passage points to a single foundation with a single cornerstone. Since this foundation consist of the apostles, then it was laid during the infancy of the church in the first century A.D. If there was another foundation on which the household of God was being built upon, it is not found in Scripture.

Peter expressed a similar sentiment to believing Jews in 1 Peter 2:4-20. As living stones, they too “are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5). Drawing on several Old Testament passages, Peter reminds them that they “are a chosen race (Deut. 10:15), a royal priesthood (Isa. 61:6), a holy nation (Deut. 7:6), a people for God’s own possession (Deut. 7:6)” (1 Peter 2:9). This passage does not imply that the church is Israel. What it does teach is that the physical descendants of Israel, who were “under obligation to keep the whole Law” and were seeking to be justified by the Law (Gal. 5:3-4), may now proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called them out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9).

“For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17), who is the stone which the builders rejected who became the very cornerstone of the church (1 Peter 2:7). Israel operated under the Law of Moses. The church operates under grace, not under the Law (Rom. 6:14). If the church and Israel are one body which existed during the Old Testament and continues to exist today as one entity, then the law and grace must coexist within this one entity. However this is impossible because this would “nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly” (Gal. 2:21).

The apostle Paul, a physical descendant of Abraham through the tribe of Benjamin (Gen. 35:24; 49:27; Rom. 11:1), wished himself to be accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of his brethren, his “kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises.” (Rom. 9:3-4).

Paul, also known as Saul (Acts 13:9), was in agreement in putting Stephen to death (Acts 7:59; 8:1). “Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house, and dragging off men and women, he would put them in prison” (Acts 8:3). If the church and Israel are one body then why did Paul persecute the church which is Israel? Paul stated, “that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written” (Rom. 11:25-26). Doesn’t he mean that a partial hardening as happened to the church?

Some of the questions I asked may sound ridiculous but they must be asked if for no other reason than to show the absurdity of the church and Israel being a single entity, or that somehow the church, the new Israel, is a continuation of the old Israel as some who adhere to this view would claim.

The church's identity is rooted in Christ alone, not national Israel. A cornerstone is the first stone laid, marking the starting point for the foundation of a building. Christ Jesus is the cornerstone, the starting point from which the foundation of the church was laid (Eph. 2:20). “For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 3:11).

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations cited in this post are taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.