The Church was mostly Jewish
in its makeup for many years.
It was (and a denomination still is) the Nazarene sect of Judaism, the faithful
remnant who followed Israel’s Messiah. The “church” is not something
separate from Israel, but rather is the remnant of the faithful within Israel
and includes every faithful Christian individual alive.
Isaiah pointed out that in times of Israel’s great apostasies, the faithful of
the nation were reduced to a tiny remnant of elect ones. Isaiah 1:8-9
So it was in the first century, where Paul
identifies himself as an example of the faithful remnant. Romans 11:1-5
The apostles continually say that Christians; born again believers, are the
true elect ones: 2 Timothy 2:10; Col.
3:12; Galatians 6:15-16; 1 Peter 1:2; 1 Peter 2:9-10
However, some people have a bizarre idea of who is Israel: counting the
disobedient sons of Abraham as Israel while discounting entirely the sons of
Abraham by faith.
Paul said that when the Jewish nation
rejected Christ, the true Israel was carried on not through the lineages of the
wicked sons but rather through the obedient few (called the
“remnant”), such as was true in Isaiah’s day, Romans 9:27-29 and Elijah’s day. Romans 11:3-5
Peter says the same thing at Acts 3:22-24, where it is clear that the wicked Jews who
refuse Christ were to be “cut off from among the People of Israel”
while the faithful Jews (John the Baptist, Joseph and Mary, the Twelve, the
Seventy, the three thousand on Pentecost day, and many other Jews) were the
True Faithful Israel.
The Israelite church was with Moses in the wilderness, Acts 7:37-38 And within a few years after Pentecost, the
faithful Israelites learned how to start accepting both Jewish and also
gentile followers from all over the empire to convert into their Nation. 1 Peter 2:9-10; Matthew 21:40-45 And so the remnant of true righteous
Christian Israel have maintained the faith through this age, while a large
portion of the established Church have lost the plot, to their eternal
discredit.
And so it was also in Moses’ day, when the many thousands of wicked sons of
Abraham were slain in the wilderness while the tested and tried sons of Abraham
survived and got to enter the Promised Land. We must NEVER count the
continuation of Israel through the wicked sons but rather always through the
faithful remnant!
The real Church is the faithful
Christians from every tribe, race, nation and language, Revelation
5:9-10; they are the Israelites of God.
Israelites = the Overcomers with God.