Hello Ken.
Still going, your post was complicated.
There is a difference between the earthly, physical kingdom of Israel, including the physical Sabbath day. And the heavenly kingdom that Christ rules. The old nation of Israel had an earthly king, this was a dull reflection of the heavenly kingdom. The heavenly kingdom has at its center the throne on which Christ sits.
The nation of Israel had an earthly temple, Christ is the heavenly temple. The old nation of Israel pursued a law of righteousness, we have the perfect righteousness of Christ. Old things have passed, all is new.
You are seated with Christ in the heavenly kingdom, already saved, and sealed with the Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 2
6 And raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
Ken, you are a new creation, a new creature in God's eyes. Your already sitting in the heavenly places, God has already done this for you. This is the work of God and we marvel and thank God for this.
2 Corinthians 5
17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
All is new, for us the present earth and all it contains has passed. We have an eternal rest, an eternal Sabbath in Christ. The Christ is the sole focus of all our attention now. Old things have passed away and especially the Old Covenant that God established with the nation of Israel.
A solid statement by you, and a very good question, Ken.
I don't believe I am a Gentile, I am a Gentile, fact.
The New Covenant mentioned in the text (Hebrews 8:8-11) replaced the Old Covenant. I am not a member of the Old Covenant or even the New Covenant.
The God of the Gentiles never made any covenant with the Gentiles, we were never the covenant people. So where do the Gentiles look for their salvation?
Romans 3
29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also.
Genesis 12
3 And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.
Psalm 22
All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will worship before You.
Isaiah 49
6 I will also make You a light of the nations so that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.
Isaiah 60
3 Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.
Acts 14
27 When they had arrived and gathered the church together, they began to report all things that God had done with them and how He had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.
Acts 15
7 After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brethren, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe."
Acts 28
28Therefore let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will also listen.
1 Peter 2
12 Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.
We Gentiles have been grafted into Christ.
After reading your position, and I thank you for taking the time to do it, I simply don't see things as you do. There are a couple of issues David...
1. The word gentile historically is a pagan. That is how the word was defined when it was used first in our bibles. We continued using that word but the definition has morphed. We are now using a modern definition for a word that when first used, meant something else entirely. We do this... we think being "Adopted sons of God" means we were spiritual orphans whom God brought in and made part of His family. Well, there is SOME measure of truth within that thought, but it is not a complete thought and does not recognize the use of the word throughout history. A father might be a tent maker and he sees in his son the ability to possibly become a great tent maker. He would then "adopt" his own son, bring him into the family business and in the process the son would take part in the profit and take in a greater inheritance. Even as late as the Justinian Codes, we see adopted defined in this manner. A grandfather might even adopt his grandson. So, when we become an adopted son of God it is because God has brought us into the family in order to do the WORK OF THE FAMILY. An adopted son of God is being raised up within His family to do His work. We miss this when we apply the modern definition of the word. We are doing the same with a gentile. The Hebrew goyim means any nation other than Israel or anyone who serves a god other than YHWH. The Greek ethnos means the exact same thing. It is translated more times as gentiles when it is better understandable as nations. Here is one of many examples I can share:
Acts 9:15 But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles,
and kings,
and the children of Israel:
First, ethnos can be translated as gentiles, pagans, heathens, or nations. I would choose
nations for this verse, you'll understand why in a moment. Second, we have two words translated as "and" in this verse, but it is two different Greek words. We see kai which is "and" and we see te which is "both" or "also." I think
both works best, again, you'll understand in a moment. So, if I re-translate this verse I would do so as:
Acts 9:15 But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Nations, and kings, both the children of Israel:
Now why would I do this. First of all Yeshua said, "I have not been sent BUT unto the lost sheep of the House of Israel." The most repeated prophesy David is the Northern Kingdom of Israel being called back from their exile. "In the place where I said unto them, you are not my people, there (the nations they were scattered into) you will be called Sons of the Living God." (Hosea 1:10) Salvation is for all, but Yeshua also said, "I have NO COME TO CALL THE RIGHTEOUS," I have come to call the sinners unto repentance." You need to get out a dictionary and define righteousness. Remember, Paul's "there is none righteous" is a quote from Psalms dealing with atheists. Anyway.... with this said, what is significant about Paul's commission? Simple... here is what Yeshua told the other disciples:
Matthew 10:5 These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not:
Matthew 10:6 But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Right Ken... but Paul was the Apostle to the Gentiles. No sir... his commission was Yeshua quoting Jacob's blessing. I will put both of them together...
Acts 9:15 But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Nations, and kings, both the children of Israel:
Genesis 35:11 And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins
Jacob's children, Israel, would become nations and kings and Paul was sent to the ethnos (nations) and kings. He was also sent to the lost sheep... Yeshua said he came for the lost sheep, he sent his disciples to the lost sheep, and Paul was doing the same.
There is another prophetic tie in but I lack the time to do it this morning. The famous phrase we use so much, 'times of the gentiles' when rolled back into Hebrew would be melo hagoyim, a 'multitude of nations' as it is translated over Ephraim when Jacob blesses him. In other words, the "times of the Gentiles" could and probably should be translated as "multitude (or fullness) of the nations" which ties the quote to Ephraim's blessing, and Ephraim, I can show you a couple of scores of times, is a poetic term for Israel in the nations, the lost sheep. There are HUNDREDS of verses I can share to make this point... literally hundreds... but the bottom line is simple.... Israel was scattered into the NATIONS (ethnos) and they became gentiles and pagans (ethnos) and they were being called OUT OF the nations which is why Paul said, "you WERE ethnos" and "you WERE aliens of the Commonwealth of Israel." And it is why he finished with, "But NOW through Christ you are no longer afar off" and "you are (NOW) fellow citizens with the saints." The context clearly tied to the word Commonwealth.
2. The "new" in "new covenant" is chadashah in Hebrew in Jeremiah 31. In Hebrews 8 it is kainos in Greek. When I look these up (starting in Hebrew) I see that chadashah means new, but that it is the adjective form of the verb that means "to renew." Since it is describing the covenant (a noun), then this adjective would mean, "renewed covenant." In the Greek the word kainos means "to make fresh, renew" and there is another word (nehos) which means "new in regards to age." In other words, while both kainos and nehos are translated as "new" in various places, kainos means "to renew" and nehos is "brand new." So, since kainos is used for "new covenant" in Hebrews 8 (where it is quoting Jer. 31) we see again the idea of "renewed covenant." There are differences, yes... like the Law taken from the stone and placed on the heart.... but this is the EVERLASTING COVENANT (see Psalm 105:8-10) that follows in a line that began with a promise first found in Genesis 3:15. Yeshua didn't come to create a new religion, or destroy everything that led to his arrival... that pointed to his arrival... he came to build upon it and fulfill the work. Now... everything is in place for the restoration of all things to happen... but it hasn't happened yet. We still age, decay and die (the wages of sin is death) and until the resurrection and perfecting of the saints... we can't say he has applied it all yet. So... much is left on the table.
Gotta run... sorry. I just don't have time this morning to finish the thoughts.