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Are the Jews Elect? And... How do you define election in this situation?
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Thanks.Dear Truthseeker ... you may find this pdf study of interest to you.
God Bless
Steve
The Bible does not teach that Jews are elect, on the basis of being Jews. And none of the well taught Dispensationalists say that. In actual fact, the promise in the scriptures is not to "Jews" but to "Israel." The difference between these two terms being that the word "Jew" only means a descendant of the ancient kingdom of Judea, which was composed of only the two Israelite tribes of Judah and Benjamin, or a practitioner of their religion.
Please reconcile your statement against Deut. 7:6; 14:2.
The Hebrew word in Deut. 7:6 may be defined and used as:
"to choose, elect, decide for
Source
- (Qal) to choose
- (Niphal) to be chosen
- (Pual) to be chosen, selected"
It is also the same word used in Deut. 14:2.
And your right, they were never called "Jews" until the NT era. They were referred to as "Hebrews".
"The word “election” comes from the Hebrew word bahar (Hebrew בחר) which means “to choose,” “to elect.” However, although the word bahar does not appear in the call of Abraham, the concept of divine election pervades the whole Old Testament. The idea of divine election is emphasized in the book of Deuteronomy: “For you are a people holy to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on earth to be his people, his treasured possession” (Deuteronomy 7:6).
Although the basic concept of election is expressed by the word bahar, other words are also used to convey the idea that Israel was set apart as God’s special people. The terminology of election includes the word bahar “to choose,” qara’ “to call,” yada‘ “to know,” and bādal “to separate.”Amos uses the word yada‘ to express Israel’s election: “You only have I known of all the families of the earth” (Amos 3:2). The expressions “treasured possession” and “the people of the Lord” also convey the idea of election.
The second question, “why did God choose Israel?” is answered by Deuteronomy 7:7-8: “ It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love upon you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples; but it is because the LORD loves you, and is keeping the oath which he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”
The choice of Israel to be a special people, at its most basic meaning, testifies to the fact of unmerited grace. God did not choose Israel because they were worthy of being chosen. In fact, God chose a people who were slaves in Egypt, redeemed them and established a special relationship with them. The point that the writer of Deuteronomy was trying to convey to the new generation of Israelites was that it was because of God’s faithful love (hesed) and because of the promise he had made to Abraham that he, in his sovereignty, elected Israel to be his special people and his special possession. God told Israel on Mount Sinai: “Out of all the nations you will be my own special possession” (Exodus 19:5).
The basis for God’s promise to Israel was the covenant he had established with Abraham. At Sinai, Israel responded to what God had done in bringing them out of Egypt and to his revelation by establishing a covenant with him and by agreeing to be his people and live in accordance with his commandments.
Thus, it was at Sinai that Israel became God’s special people. God had established a covenant with Abraham, choosing him to be the father of a great and mighty nation. Now, as the people understood their mission in the world and their place in the redemptive work of God, the people accepted their call and destiny as the elected nation of God: “And all the people answered together and said, ‘All that the LORD has spoken we will do’” (Exodus 19:8). Israel became a special nation not because they were great and mighty, but because of the sovereign grace of the God who had delivered them from Egyptian bondage."
The Election of Israel, Dr. Claude Mariottini
God Bless
Till all are one
As I was taught to believe, here are 30 items Dispensationalism teaches:
"1.May be Arminian or modified Calvinist. Almost never 5-point Calvinist.
2. Stresses 'literal' interpretation of the Bible.
3. Usually does not accept the idea of the 'Analogy of Faith.'
4. 'Israel' always means only the literal, physical descendants of Jacob.
5. 'Israel of God' in Gal. 6:16 means physical Israel alone.
6. God has 2 peoples with 2 separate destinies: Israel (earthly) and the Church (heavenly).
7. The Church was born at Pentecost.
8. The Church was not prophesied as such in the O.T. but was a hidden mystery until the N.T.
9. All O.T. prophecies for 'Israel' are for literal Israel, not the Church.'
10. God's main purpose in history is literal Israel.
11. The Church is a parenthesis in God's program for the ages.
12. The main heir to Abraham's covenant was Isaac and literal Israel.
13. There was no eternal Covenant of Redemption within the Trinity.
14. There was no Covenant of Works with Adam in the Garden of Eden.
15. There was no Covenant of Grace concerning Adam.
16. Israel was rash to accept the Covenant at Mt. Sinai.
17. The 'New Covenant' of Jer. 31:31- 34 is only for literal Israel and is not the New Covenant of Lk.22:20.
18. God's program in history is mainly through separate dispensations.
19. Some Dispensationalists have said that O. T. sinners were saved by works.
20. Most Dispensationalists teach that men in the O.T. were saved by faith in a revelation peculiar to their dispensation, but this did not include faith in the Messiah as their sin-bearer.
21. The O.T. sacrifices were not recognized as the Gospel or types of the Messiah as sin-bearer, but only seen as such in retrospect.
22. The Holy Spirit indwells only believers in the dispensation of Grace, not O.T. and not after the Rapture.
23. Jesus made an offer of the literal Kingdom to Israel; since Israel rejected it, it is postponed.
24. O.T. believers were not in Christ, not part of the Body or Bride of Christ.
25. The Law has been abolished.
26. O. T. laws are no longer in effect unless repeated in the N.T.
27. The Millenium is the Kingdom of God. Dispensationalists are always Pre-Millenial and usually Pre-Tribulational.
28. The O.T. animal sacrifices will be restored in the Millenium.
29. The Millenium will fulfill the Covenant to Abraham. Israel has a future.
30. David will sit on the Millenial throne in Jerusalem.
Source
I come to believe in Dispensational theology, believe it or not, from my Reformed, Presbyterian Grandfather.
Now I will say however, of the above, I do not agree fully with everything.
God Bless
Till all are one.
Whoever wrote this had a fair idea of Dispensaional doctrine. But it is fraught with errors.
In my sixty years of studying and teaching Disoensational doctrine, and of interaction with other such teachers, I can not remember even one time when I heard even one of them say that God's main purpose in history is literal Israel. Nor have I ever heard even one of them say that the church is a parenthesis in God's program for the ages.
Dispensationalists teach, and insist, that the church was an essential part of God's plan from before creation. What we say is that the church is a parenthesis in God's plan for Israel. not in His plan for the ages.
And we both teach and insist that God's main purpose in history is to gather in one all things in Christ. (Ephesians 1:10)
And finally, although some Dispensational teachers erroneously say that the sacrifices as described in the law of Moses will be resumed., and that this law will be restored. But this is an error. The sacrifices that will be offered in the millennium are those given in the law of Ezekiel. These sacrifices are distinctly different from those specified by Moses. And the laws for tat time are also distinctly different from the law of Moses.
There are many other errors in this paper, but these are the most important ones.
But one thing it says is, sadly, true. There are indeed some very ignorant Dispensationalists who imagine themselves to be teachers, and who say that in the Old Testament people were saved by works.
The promises are indeed made to all Israel, and will indeed be fulfilled to all Israel. But at the time of their fulfillment, the physical nation of Israel will have been reduced (by death) to only that portion of that nation that trusts in the Lord.
The sacrifices detailed in Ezekiel 43-46
include every sacrifice specified as perpetual in the law of Moses, as well as most of the ordinances specified the same way.
These include a renewal of the command to keep the “Sabbath,” as given in Ezekiel 44:24, Ezekiel 45:17, and Ezekiel 46:1-5 and 12. This had been commanded as “a perpetual covenant” with “the children of Israel” in Exodus 31:16. Again, in Ezekiel 45:21-25 we find the keeping of the “Passover,” with its accompanying “unleavened bread.” This had been commanded as “an everlasting ordinance” in Exodus 12:14 and 17, and “forever” in Exodus 12:24. In addition to these, we find the keeping of “the appointed feasts” in Ezekiel 46:9-11. These are detailed in Leviticus 23:4-43, where they are commanded to be kept “forever” in verses 14, 21, 31, and 41.
The last of these “appointed feasts” was a command to “dwell in booths for seven days.” (Leviticus 23:42) This came to be called “the Feast of Tabernacles.” (John 7:2) This is not named in Ezekiel, but Zechariah 14:16-19 goes into some detail about it, saying that not only Israel, but all the surrounding nations, will come up to Jerusalem to keep it every year, and that every “family” that fails to come up to that feast will be severely punished, either by lack of rain or by plague, that is, by God himself.
We find the same thing in the renewed laws of the priesthood. Ezekiel 44:15 explicitly limits this to “the sons of Zadok,” because he was the only priest that remained faithful “when the children of Israel went astray from” the Lord. Zadok’s descent from Aaron through Phineas is traced in 1 Chronicles 6:3-8. This is significant because the priesthood was given to Aaron and his sons “for a perpetual statute” in Exodus 29:9, and with “an everlasting priesthood” in Exodus 40:15. Then Aaron’s son Phineas and “his descendants after him” were additionally given “a covenant of an everlasting priesthood” in Numbers 25:13. So a future appointment of “the sons of Zadok” as priests is a fulfillment of this eternal pledge.
Other perpetual laws about the priests are also repeated here. Their holy garments are mentioned in Ezekiel 42:14 and 44:17-19. These had been commanded to be worn “always” in Exodus 28:38 and as “a statute forever” in Exodus 28:43. Again, Ezekiel 44:21 says, “No priest shall drink wine when he enters the inner court.” This is the same as in Leviticus 10:9, where it is commanded as “a statute forever throughout your generations.” And Ezekiel 48:14 forbids them to sell their land. This might seem strange to us, but this was to preserve the land to them and their children for ever. This, again, is a repeat of what we find in Leviticus 25:32-34, where the priests could only sell their houses until “the Jubilee” (an equivalent of what we call a lease,) but they could not sell their land at all “for it is their perpetual possession.”
Likewise, “every sacrifice of any kind,” including “the best of all firstfruits of any kind” were reserved as food for the priests in Ezekiel 44:29-30. These had been reserved as food for the priests as “a statute forever” in Exodus 29:28, Leviticus 6:18, 7:34 and 36, and 10:15, “as an ordinance forever” in Numbers 18:11 and 19, and “by a perpetual statute” in Leviticus 24:9.
Thus we see that the commandments for this future worship repeat the perpetual ordinances originally given through Moses. But they are not a reinstitution of that law. For some of the laws here are different from those given through Moses. For instance, the daily “burnt offering” of a lamb every morning and every evening, with flour and oil, is commanded “continually” in Exodus 29:38 and 42, as well as “throughout your generations” in Exodus 29:42. This command is repeated in Ezekiel 46:13-15, but there it is only every morning, and the amount of flour and of oil is different.
Another radical difference between this future worship and that under the law of Moses can be seen by referring to 1 Samuel 13. In this chapter Saul, God’s anointed king over Israel, offered up a burnt offering. “And Samuel said to Saul, ‘You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the LORD your God, which He commanded you. For now the LORD would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue. The LORD has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the LORD has commanded him to be commander over His people, because you have not kept what the LORD commanded you.’” (1 Samuel 13:13-14) Under the law of Moses, offerings were not to be made by rulers, but by priests. Again, in 2 Chronicles 26:16-21, king Uzziah was struck with leprosy because he offered incense. But the law of this future temple will be different:
“Then it shall be the prince's part to give burnt offerings, grain offerings, and drink offerings, at the feasts, the New Moons, the Sabbaths, and at all the appointed seasons of the house of Israel. He shall prepare the sin offering, the grain offering, the burnt offering, and the peace offerings to make atonement for the house of Israel.” (Ezekiel 45:17)
As punishment for presuming to act as priests, Saul lost his kingdom and Uzziah was struck with leprosy. But as we noticed on page 214, this coming prince “shall be a priest on His throne.” (Zechariah 6:13)
These clear and well defined differences between this future law and the one given by Moses are absolute proof that this was never intended to apply to a time before Jesus came. For when Jesus was here, He said, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.” (Matthew 5:17-18) So, long after Ezekiel was given, Jesus himself said that not even the tiniest detail of the law would pass until He had fulfilled all of it.
A further and very marked difference between this future worship and that in the old system is clearly stated in Jeremiah 3:16.
“‘Then it shall come to pass, when you are multiplied and increased in the land in those days,’ says the LORD, ‘that they will say no more, “The ark of the covenant of the LORD.” It shall not come to mind, nor shall they remember it, nor shall they visit it, nor shall it be made anymore.’”