(beforHim;51748)
Always wondered this. Seems to me to be the same thing, but pretty much no one agrees with me. I want to study it a little, so some different views from different people will give me a starting point, a point of reference. My own view might be skewed all by itself.
beforeHim, I must congratulate you on your insight. The fleshly nation of Israel is, indeed, the Antitypical Christian Church, or Congregation of God. God chose the nation of Israel to be His favored people, and the nation said that all God had spoken to them, they would obey, Ex 24:7, 19:5,6, Deut 7:6. God made a covenant with the nation of Israel. The term covenant, means, BETWEENNESS. This means that ONLY the ones mentioned in the covenant are a part of it. Deut 5:1-4 states that only the Jews and God were a part of that covenant, The Mosaic Law Covenant. The Greek scriptures tell us that the entire Law Covenant was a forshadowing of the coming of the Messiah, Gal 3:23-25, Many places in the Hebrew Scriptures we are told about the Messiah that was to come, Gen 3:15, Isa 7:14, 9:6,7, 11:1-9, Isa chapter 53,61:1-3, Luke 4:18-21, Micah 5:2, Zech 9:9. Jesus, when talking to the Jews that did not put faith in him, said that the very scriptures they were searching, for salvation, were the very scriptures that were speaking about Jesus, the Messiah, John 5:39. God sent His Only Begotten son to earth to become the Great Ransom sacrifice that could lead to salvation for all those putting faith in Jesus, Matt 20:28, Acts 13:38,39, John 3:16. Jesus told the Jews, because they had rejected him as the Messiah, the Kingdom of God would be taken from them and given to a nation producing it's fruits, Matt 21:42-44. The scriptures tell us that God has given ONE name by which men MUST be saved, Acts 4:12. The nation REJECTED Jesus, Luke 9:22, so they were no longer God's favored people. The Christian Congregation became the ones He was favoring. Christians were the followers of Christ, who was plainly showen to be God's son, Acts 11:26, Acts 3:22-24, Acts 2:22-24. Notice how the scriptures explain that fleshly Israel is not really ISRAEL, that the children of the flesh are not the children of God, Rom 9:2-8. The entire chapter of Romans 11 tells about the rejection by the Jews of Jesus and about the way to getting back into God's favor, by being grafted again into the Garden Olive tree, the same way the people of the nations had to do to gain salvation by God. Any person who does not accept Jesus as the Messiah, Christ, and obey his commands are actually Antichrists, 1John 2:18-23, 4:2,3, 2John 7. It is not possible for any person who denys Jesus as the Christ, to be saved!!John 6:28,29, Acts 4:12.