Where does it say gentiles are Jews?
Much love!
Paul taught in Rom. 2:29 that all true Christians are Jews. Christ basically repeats this same doctrine in Rev. 2:9 and Rev. 3:9 where He speaks of the synagogue of Satan claiming they are Jews.
YOur first error here is that the prophets are speaking of the Assyrian captivity. Just off the top of my head, I believe all teh prophets (major and minor) all prophesied after the Assyrian captivity so that argument is moot.
And as for the Babylonian captivity all we have to do is compare the prophecy to events that tookplace afterwards. If the events fulfill 100% the prophecy then it is a fulfilled prophecy. But God does not deal with closde enough is good enough!
You are absolutely wrong. Jeremiah is primarily an end-time book. Jer. 23:20, 30:24, 1-9 makes this crystal clear. Jer. 30:1-9 undeniably makes it obvious that it is an end-time book that was only fulfilled in type because in verse 4, God says this prophecy concerning Jacob's trouble(the Tribulation) is addressed to both Israel and Judah. Israel was already enslaved by Assyria long before this prophecy was recorded, so the idea that it was only a prophecy concerning a past event is preposterous. It is clearly describing an event that hasn't happened yet. Verse 24 even wraps the chapter up with God repeating the phrase "
in the latter days, you will consider it".
Furthermore, verses 8-9 clearly mentions Israel and Judah experiencing national slavery in the time just before David is resurrected to rule over both groups. Again, this is describing a future event. Paul was inspired to quote Jer. 31 because it is primarily describing a future event. If it were only describing history, all of the national descendants of the northern 10 tribes(the house of Israel) and Jews would be practicing biblical Christianity right now. Anyone with 2 working eyes and some common sense can see that this is clearly not the case. Atheism is huge in these countries, and even the "Christianity" that is largely practiced in these countries consists of people rejecting God's laws.
While it might be true that Israel, in English, means "overcomer" and while Christians are overcomers in some sense, it doesn't follow therefore that Christians are Israel. When the New Testament employs the term "Israel", it refers to the State of Israel, located in Western Asia, and the people who live there.
You should take your own advice about making generalizations and establishing a proper meaning of the term. When the Bible refers to Israel prophetically speaking, it is not speaking of the Jewish nation. The Jewish nation is not prophetic Israel. It is prophetic Judah. Generalizations like this come from a failure to understand biblical history and the fact that not all Israelites are Jews. Prophetic Israel refers to the northern 10 Israelite tribes that rejected the rule of Solomon's son Rehoboam. There is a reason why OT prophecies consistently refers to these 2 kingdoms as being separate entities.
Study 1, Kings, 2 Kings, and 2 Chronicles. The northern kingdom had their own kings, their own capital city, their own religion, and their own history. It was an entirely separate and independent nation from Judah, even though both kingdoms were able to directly trace their ancestry to Jacob. When prophecies speak of the house of Israel, it is referring to the descendants of the northern 10 tribes because Ephraim and Manasseh were the tribes that were given the birthright promises. Read Gen. 48:16 for yourself. Jacob clearly says his name was to be placed on
their descendants, not the descendants of Joseph's brothers. Joseph is the one who inherited the birthright from Jacob, and it is
his descendants that have possessed it down to this very day.
When Ephraim and Manasseh made Solomon's prime minister king of their kingdom, the remaining tribes who supported Rehoboam essentially forfeited any right to the national name and became known by David's ancestor Judah instead, hence the term "Jew". The term is first used in 2 Kin. 16:5-6 where those passages clearly describe the king of Israel being allied with Syria in a war against Jews. The fact that a lot of professing Christians actually believe the term "Israel" prophetically refers to the Jewish nation in the Middle East inherently proves their religion is false.
For instance, the following sentence employs TWO different meanings of the word "Israel", neither of which refers to a Gentile:
Romans 9:6, But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel;
Paul isn't defining an "Israelite" in Ephesians.
Paul is defining "Israelite" in Ephesians, particularly because he describes the Gentiles as being strangers from the commonwealth before their conversion. The implication is automatically made clear that he is speaking of someone being in God's Church as opposed to someone who isn't. If they're in God's Church, they are an Israelite. If they haven't truly converted, then they're not an Israelite. The theology concerning this is pretty clear when you realize Paul is referencing how it worked under the former covenant.
Under that covenant, a Gentile who went embraced the theocracy that was established in the Law was to be considered an Israelite from that moment forward, regardless of their physical ethnicity. Spiritually speaking, it works the same way under the current covenant. Whoever truly converts to practicing biblical Christianity is to be considered an Israelite from that moment forward. This isn't complicated to understand or accept.
