“Israel is used in many instances to typify the Christian Church. For instance, when they left Egyptian bondage, they were a type of God’s children who hear his call to come out from the world and engage in his worship.
The wilderness journey represented the tedious pilgrimage through which many pass, seeking the promised Canaan rest — ‘Come unto me, and I will give you rest.’ As in the type, so in reality, the promised Canaan of rest is not far off, if God’s children had faith enough to go up and at once enter in by faith. God has made abundant provision for them: yet they journey through the Wilderness of Sin, seeking rest and finding none, because they lack faith in God’s promises. Some wander thus a long time; and some never enter the Canaan rest because of unbelief.” T25
“Paul designates the Jewish Church ‘Israel after the flesh,’ and the Christian Church ‘The Israel of God.’ (1 Cor. 10:18; Gal. 6:16) We may therefore properly designate them Fleshly Israel and Spiritual Israel. The higher plane of the spiritual house is also pointed out by the Apostle when he describes Fleshly Israel as a house [family] of servants, and Spiritual Israel as a house of sons. (Heb. 3:5, 6; Rom. 8:14) The fleshly house was the honored servants of the spiritual house in various ways, but chiefly in that they unconsciously, under God’s arrangement, furnished pantomime illustrations of spiritual things, which, if studied and heeded, greatly bless and enlighten the house of sons.
The Tabernacle being one of the prime examples of this typifying not only the consecration of the real Priesthood, (the Church), but likewise the means by which entry into the heavenly phase of the kingdom is obtained, as well as foreshadowing the Great Antitypical Day of Atonement and the blessing of all the people.
“In both cases there have been a Nominal Israel and a Real Israel, in God’s estimation, though to men they have appeared as one; the nominal and the real not being clearly distinguishable until the end or harvest time of their respective ages, when the truth then due and brought to light accomplishes the separation, and makes manifest which are of the real and which of the merely nominal Israel.
Of the fleshly house Paul said, ‘They are not all Israel which are [nominally] of Israel’ (Rom. 9:6); and our Lord recognized the same fact when of Nathaniel he said, ‘Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile,’...in the end of the Gospel age...only the wheat — a comparatively small number, a ‘little flock’ — will be separated from the masses of nominal Spiritual Israel, while the great majority, being tares and not real wheat, will be rejected as unworthy of the chief favor to which they were called, and will not be counted among the Lord’s jewels. Rom. 9:27; 11:5; Luke 12:32; Matt. 3:12; 13:24-40
“The head of the fleshly house was Jacob, surnamed Israel (a prince); and through his twelve sons he founded the house which bore his name, the House of Jacob, the House of Israel.
So with the Spiritual House: its founder, Christ, established it through the twelve apostles; and this house also bears the name of its founder — The Church of Christ. In point of time, God called Fleshly Israel first; but in point of favor, and in time of realization, Spiritual Israel comes first. Thus the first becomes last, and the last first. (Luke 13:30) The Scriptures clearly mark these two houses of Israel as being the fleshly seed of Abraham and the spiritual seed of Jehovah — the Heavenly Father whom Abraham typified....” B205-207
“While thus noting Israel’s fall from favor and their consequent loss, and the cause of all this, let us not forget that in this also they foreshadowed nominal Spiritual Israel, and that the same prophets have foretold the stumbling and fall of BOTH the houses of Israel — ‘He shall be for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel.’ Isa. 8:14
“Just as truly as there was a casting off and fall of nominal Fleshly Israel, there is also to be a casting off and fall of nominal Spiritual Israel, the nominal Gospel Church, and for similar reasons. The casting off and fall of the one are just as vividly portrayed in the Scriptures as those of the other. And just as surely, also, as a remnant of Fleshly Israel was saved from the blindness and fall through meekness and faith, even so also a similar remnant of nominal Spiritual Israel shall be saved from the blindness and fall of the nominal mass in the ‘harvest’ or close of this age.
Thus the last members of the true Church, the body of Christ, are to be separated from the nominal church — to be joined to the Head, glorified. These (the remnant selected from Fleshly Israel at its fall, and the faithful few of the Gospel age, including the living remnant at its close) alone constitute THE TRUE ‘Israel of God.’
These are the Elect — justified by faith in Christ’s redemptive work, called to joint-sacrifice and joint-heirship with Christ, chosen through belief of the truth and sanctification by the spirit of truth, and faithful even unto death. With the completion of the selection of this company, in the harvest of this age, quite a commotion may be expected among the wheat and tares; for many divine favors, specially granted because of the faithful few, will be withdrawn from the nominal mass, when the little flock, for whose development they were granted, has been completed.
“We should expect that the order here would be, as in the typical Jewish harvest, a separating work, fulfilling the words of the Prophet, ‘Gather my saints together unto me, those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.’ (Psa. 50:5) And as A.D. 33 marked the giving over of the nominal Jewish house, as a system, to disfavor, disruption and overthrow, so the corresponding date, A.D. 1878, marked the beginning of the disfavor, disruption and overthrow of the nominal Spiritual house.” B228; 229
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The wilderness journey represented the tedious pilgrimage through which many pass, seeking the promised Canaan rest — ‘Come unto me, and I will give you rest.’ As in the type, so in reality, the promised Canaan of rest is not far off, if God’s children had faith enough to go up and at once enter in by faith. God has made abundant provision for them: yet they journey through the Wilderness of Sin, seeking rest and finding none, because they lack faith in God’s promises. Some wander thus a long time; and some never enter the Canaan rest because of unbelief.” T25
“Paul designates the Jewish Church ‘Israel after the flesh,’ and the Christian Church ‘The Israel of God.’ (1 Cor. 10:18; Gal. 6:16) We may therefore properly designate them Fleshly Israel and Spiritual Israel. The higher plane of the spiritual house is also pointed out by the Apostle when he describes Fleshly Israel as a house [family] of servants, and Spiritual Israel as a house of sons. (Heb. 3:5, 6; Rom. 8:14) The fleshly house was the honored servants of the spiritual house in various ways, but chiefly in that they unconsciously, under God’s arrangement, furnished pantomime illustrations of spiritual things, which, if studied and heeded, greatly bless and enlighten the house of sons.
The Tabernacle being one of the prime examples of this typifying not only the consecration of the real Priesthood, (the Church), but likewise the means by which entry into the heavenly phase of the kingdom is obtained, as well as foreshadowing the Great Antitypical Day of Atonement and the blessing of all the people.
“In both cases there have been a Nominal Israel and a Real Israel, in God’s estimation, though to men they have appeared as one; the nominal and the real not being clearly distinguishable until the end or harvest time of their respective ages, when the truth then due and brought to light accomplishes the separation, and makes manifest which are of the real and which of the merely nominal Israel.
Of the fleshly house Paul said, ‘They are not all Israel which are [nominally] of Israel’ (Rom. 9:6); and our Lord recognized the same fact when of Nathaniel he said, ‘Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile,’...in the end of the Gospel age...only the wheat — a comparatively small number, a ‘little flock’ — will be separated from the masses of nominal Spiritual Israel, while the great majority, being tares and not real wheat, will be rejected as unworthy of the chief favor to which they were called, and will not be counted among the Lord’s jewels. Rom. 9:27; 11:5; Luke 12:32; Matt. 3:12; 13:24-40
“The head of the fleshly house was Jacob, surnamed Israel (a prince); and through his twelve sons he founded the house which bore his name, the House of Jacob, the House of Israel.
So with the Spiritual House: its founder, Christ, established it through the twelve apostles; and this house also bears the name of its founder — The Church of Christ. In point of time, God called Fleshly Israel first; but in point of favor, and in time of realization, Spiritual Israel comes first. Thus the first becomes last, and the last first. (Luke 13:30) The Scriptures clearly mark these two houses of Israel as being the fleshly seed of Abraham and the spiritual seed of Jehovah — the Heavenly Father whom Abraham typified....” B205-207
“While thus noting Israel’s fall from favor and their consequent loss, and the cause of all this, let us not forget that in this also they foreshadowed nominal Spiritual Israel, and that the same prophets have foretold the stumbling and fall of BOTH the houses of Israel — ‘He shall be for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel.’ Isa. 8:14
“Just as truly as there was a casting off and fall of nominal Fleshly Israel, there is also to be a casting off and fall of nominal Spiritual Israel, the nominal Gospel Church, and for similar reasons. The casting off and fall of the one are just as vividly portrayed in the Scriptures as those of the other. And just as surely, also, as a remnant of Fleshly Israel was saved from the blindness and fall through meekness and faith, even so also a similar remnant of nominal Spiritual Israel shall be saved from the blindness and fall of the nominal mass in the ‘harvest’ or close of this age.
Thus the last members of the true Church, the body of Christ, are to be separated from the nominal church — to be joined to the Head, glorified. These (the remnant selected from Fleshly Israel at its fall, and the faithful few of the Gospel age, including the living remnant at its close) alone constitute THE TRUE ‘Israel of God.’
These are the Elect — justified by faith in Christ’s redemptive work, called to joint-sacrifice and joint-heirship with Christ, chosen through belief of the truth and sanctification by the spirit of truth, and faithful even unto death. With the completion of the selection of this company, in the harvest of this age, quite a commotion may be expected among the wheat and tares; for many divine favors, specially granted because of the faithful few, will be withdrawn from the nominal mass, when the little flock, for whose development they were granted, has been completed.
“We should expect that the order here would be, as in the typical Jewish harvest, a separating work, fulfilling the words of the Prophet, ‘Gather my saints together unto me, those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.’ (Psa. 50:5) And as A.D. 33 marked the giving over of the nominal Jewish house, as a system, to disfavor, disruption and overthrow, so the corresponding date, A.D. 1878, marked the beginning of the disfavor, disruption and overthrow of the nominal Spiritual house.” B228; 229
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