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Israel: Where does she stand in the Dispensation of Grace?

This is for anyone who wants to read it, but particularly for folks who refer to themselves as “grace believers,” a community of Christians of which I am a part.

No doubt, I’ll be called a “hater” and accused of “sowing discord among the brethren” for saying what I’m about to say, but I am charged with speaking the truth, regardless of whose feathers it ruffles, so here it goes. For those who have ears, let them hear.

Like any other homogenous group, grace believers do not all agree on every point of doctrine. Anyone who follows discussions on social media knows this. But there are foundational doctrines to which all GBers are in lock step. One of these is the belief that the world now stands in what the apostle Paul refers to as “the dispensation of the grace of God.” (Eph. 3:1-3) We don’t all agree on the exact date it started, but everyone (I know of) agrees that it started at some point between A.D. 35 and A.D. 70, and that it is the program and gospel that God has ordained in the world ever since. (It is also referred to as “the revelation of the mystery” – Ref. Romans 16:25-27)

Another foundational doctrine of this spiritual economy is that God no longer makes any distinction between humans based on their gender, nationality, religious affiliation, or physical leanage. In other words, the ground is leveled in this dispensation, and no one comes to the Father except by the Son and the gospel. (John 14:6; 1 Tim. 2:5,6; 1 Cor. 15:1-4)

But this was not always the case, as God did, in time past, choose a people “unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.” (Duet. 7:6) All Bible students know who that was; the nation Israel, aka, the “twelve tribes of Israel.” (Gen. 49:28)

Part of God’s promise to the nation Israel was that he would give them a land, (Gen. 12:1,7; 13:5; 15:7;17:8), the parameters of which are described in the following passages in the old testament:

“In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates (Genesis 15:18)
Now after the death of Moses the servant of the LORD it came to pass, that the LORD spake unto Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ minister, saying, Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your coast.” (Joshua 1:1-4)

In that promise was the declaration that God would “bless them (nations) that bless thee (Israel), and curseth them that curse thee.” (Gen. 12:3) Furthermore, under the New Covenant, which belongs to Israel, (Ref Jer. 31:31-34) it says: “For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted.” (Isa 60:12)

But grace doctrine teaches that the favored position the nation Israel occupied in time past, and will assume in a future time, is not in effect in the present dispensation (grace), as no nation, in God’s eyes, takes precedence over any others. As the apostle Paul plainly says, speaking to the church of the present dispensation (the body of Christ – Ref. Rom. 7:4; 12:4,5; 1 Cor. 12:13.27; Eph. 1:22,23; 2:6; 3;6; 4:4,12; Col. 1:18; 2:17,19; 3:15), the nation Israel is now broken off and castaway (Hosea 1:9; Romans 11:15:17) –it is presently in a state of “Loammi.” (Hebrew for: “not my people”)

Therefore, in the present dispensation, any people or nation that forms or establishes a government (under the new covenant, Israel is a government. Ref. Isaiah 9:6,7) and calls it “Israel,” cannot be the one God promised he would establish on the original land grant promised to Abraham’s seed, Isaac. In other words, the government that was established on part of that land grant, through a series of wars (around 20, so far?), which drove the people from it who had occupied it for 12 centuries (the Palestinian Arabs, most of whom also claim to be descendants of Abraham through the son of the bondwoman, Ishmael), cannot be God’s Israel. Therefore, they are imposters whose goal is to convince the world that they are indeed something they are not. So far, they have succeeded in accomplishing this goal, particularly among the Evangelical Christian community.

My point is this: the Evangelical community’s belief about Israel notwithstanding, what in the world is anyone who calls himself/herself a “grace” believer doing lending their voice of support on social media to these imposters presently occupying a small portion of that land grant, all of which they acquired by brute force, with U.S. funding behind it? Do you really believe, as Evangelicals believe, that God’s hand was in the repatriation of Palestine with European Jews in the first half of the twentieth century? And as they also believe, that America is going to come under a curse if we don’t continue the handouts to them (now totaling in the hundreds of billions of $$), and fight proxy wars on their behalf?

The usual response to this is that Israel is a U.S. ally, and as American citizens, we need to support them. This response is spurious, as there are many things that the U.S. government supports and advocates that no true grace believer can say amen to, and the list is way too long to enumerate here. Folks who think they can separate their political persuasions from their core beliefs are just deceived.

Conclusion

After 76 years of occupation, the modern government of Israel has not even come close to occupying the promised Biblical land grant. But we can rest assured that they have every intention of doing so, and it seems obvious to unbiased observers that they intend to use the U.S. money and military to accomplish this goal. If this is now the case, then everyone must bless Israel to be blessed by God and avoid coming under a curse (see above sites). But if it’s the former, the grace dispensation, in which there is no chosen/favored nation/people of God, then by supporting Israel we are giving the lie to what we claim the truth to be about this, and standing in direct disobedience to God and his will for us in our lives, which is, that “all men be saved, and come unto the knowledge of the truth,” that is, “to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery.” (1 Tim. 2:3,4; Eph. 3:1-9)

All Scripture references are from the King James Bible. Please feel at liberty to distribute this or any other article on this site as you see fit.