Quote:
Originally Posted by good samaritan
Did God divorce spiritual Israel or Natural Israel? In Jeremiah 3:8, it also refers to Judah as Israel’s sister, therefore I personally believe the Lord is dealing with literal nation’s rather than the spiritual church. I don’t believe God has ever has divorced Israel “the church”. The divorcement was to the “earthly nation” of Israel and that is where most dispensationalist come up with the Lord returning to national Israel. I personally suspect there will be no return to national Israel, because that would be going in reverse. The gospel is now available for the whole Earth, no matter the nationality.
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Yes, God was married to "literal Israel", the descendants of Abraham Isaac, and Jacob. And He divorced most of them (the northern kingdom of Israel, consisting of the ten tribes that rebelled against Rehoboam and separated from Judah).
He promised He would restore THOSE PEOPLE back to Himself, that he would "remarry" them. It's all in the prophecies and promises I posted earlier. There simply is no denying that God promised to remarry and redeem the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That promise is what the establishing of the new covenant is about.
That restoration of Israel to God was being fulfilled in the first century via the spread of the Gospel. Paul stated it was being fulfilled in his day in
Romans 9. Peter likewise stated the new covenant church is the restoration of Israel's status as the people of God, referencing the very same prophecies that speak of Israel being remarried to God.
"Spiritual Israel" is in reality the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob restored to God through the new covenant in Christ. The church is not a wholly distinct entity from Israel. The idea that God's bride in the old testament is a wholly different group of people that His bride in the new testament is the SOURCE of dispensationalism's errors.