Your pattern in discussion (like many Premils) is simply to sidestep the biblical facts (as if they do not exist), reject the attached arguments, rubbish the reasoning, without actually addressing the plain straightforward text. Because the inspired text is so clear on this you avoid showing us what it actually means. All i am getting in your posts are evasive denials. The reader can look back and see the pattern. You have no answer for the wording of Scripture.
You have wrongly convinced yourself that there is only a natural Israel, a natural children of Abraham, natural Jews, natural circumcision and natural earthly Zion. But the NT spiritualizes all these terms and applies them to believing Jews and Gentiles. You skip around this clear NT reality. The NT shows that those who reject Christ are not chosen of God but are rather off their "father the devil" (John 8: 39-44). Jesus also exposed those who boast that they are Jews but who are not. He exposed them as those “which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan” (Revelation 2:9, 3:9).
It is important that believers recognize the difference between national Israel and true Israel in both testaments or they may become confused with the unfolding of God’s plan in the New Testament.
No one can dispute that the terms Jew and Gentile when used in a natural sense are always referring to ethnic race. For most of the old covenant period, circumcision meant being a Jew, being a Jew meant circumcision. Uncircumcision meant being a Gentile, being a Gentile meant circumcision. But this all changed under the new covenant. Physical circumcision lost its old covenant place of importance. It carries no spiritual benefit today because it has been superseded with spiritual circumcision of the heart. A true Jew today is not a man with the physical sign of the old covenant upon him but the spiritual sign of the new covenant – a circumcised heart.
The whole import of Paul’s teaching in Romans 2:17-29 revolves around defining what a real Jew is under the new covenant and what a true heathen is. Paul continues in Romans 2:25-29: “For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law: but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision. Therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision? And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfil the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law? For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit [Gr. pneuma].”
Paul basically spiritualizes the terms circumcision and Jew to mean believer, and uncircumcision or Gentile to mean unbeliever. He teaches, if a man accepts Christ (regardless of his ethnicity) he is a spiritual Jew (or true circumcision); if a man rejects Christ (regardless of his ethnicity) he is a spiritual heathen (or true uncircumcision). Essentially, he is showing: Gentiles can become true Jews through faith in Jesus, and Jews can forfeit their right to be considered true Jews if they reject Jesus.
Romans 2:25-29 speaks for itself. Just like the act of physical circumcision proved that a man was a true physical Jew in the Old Testament so the act of spiritual circumcision proves that a man was a true spiritual Jew in the New Testament. The whole thrust of Romans 2:25-29 surrounds Paul’s determining of who or what real circumcision (or Jewishness) relates to. Is it natural Jews or spiritual Jews? Is it the physically circumcised or spiritually circumcised? This was an obvious issue in the early Church with the move from the old to the new arrangement. A large body of natural Jews based their salvation and the favor of God upon their physical birthright and obedience to a set of religious rules, regulations and ordinances. One of the most prominent signs of esteem the Jew advanced was physical circumcision. Paul here – a Hebrew of the Hebrews – blows this fallacy apart and explains what a true Jew is today under the new covenant.
The natural ethnic title “uncircumcision” (normally used to describe a Gentile) is amazingly used to describe the unbelieving Jew. Also, the natural ethnic title “circumcision” (normally used to describe a natural Jew) is amazingly used to describe the believing Gentile. This would have been anathema to the unbelieving Jews of Paul’s day. After all, Paul is fundamentally teaching: to become an authentic child of Abraham does not require one to be a natural Jew or circumcision. This would have been the greatest insult to a Jew. After all, they considered they were the chosen race.
Paul further reinforces his argument in Philippians 3:3, speaking of the Church generally, “For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the Spirit [Gr. pneuma], and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.”
This verse is another that presents a major difficulty for the literalists. Their insistence that every reference to Israel, Jew, children of Abraham and circumcision must be strictly interpreted literally is exposed by passages like this.
All through the New Testament the term “the circumcision” is used as a natural synonym for the Jews. Anywhere it is found, it is seen to describe (and encompass) the physical ethnic Jewish people. The term “the circumcision” in its normal usage related exclusively to natural Israel. We see this illustrated in Ephesians 2:11 where natural Jews are identified as “Circumcision in the flesh made by hands.”
Several other references are found in Acts 10:45, 11:2, Romans 3:30 Romans 4:9, 12, 15:8, Galatians 2:7-12, Colossians 2:11, 4:11 and Titus 1:10. It must be added, the term did embody the stranger that joined themselves to Israel by faith in Yahweh. However, they too had to submit to all the customs pertaining to Israel in faith and practice, including physical circumcision.
