Are there Two Brides of Christ? (An excerpt)

By Michael W. Adams. (go to http://lovebrokethru.com/?p=9#more-9 for full article)

…In my distant former years as a Dispensational Premillennialist (DP), I agreed with the theological system of DP in their view of the nation of Israel. In other words, I agreed with DP’s belief that there are two peoples of God. Reduced to its simplest terms, I unwittingly held the position that Christ indeed had two separate and distinct brides: Israel and the Church. As an adherent to DP, I would have never worded it that way, and I don’t mean to sound critical in any way, but at its very core, that's the way I viewed the relationship between Israel and the Church. Let me explain.

DP revolves around its view of Israel and the Church. Within DP, Israel holds the place of prominence (favored bride status), while the church is more of an after-thought in redemptive history. The way I was taught while a DP’er was that the nation of Israel was and is God’s true focal point in redemptive history and the church is a historical parenthesis.

The church came into being only because Israel first rejected her Messiah. God’s main interest continues to be the nation of Israel and one day, when the church is gone, Israel will once again occupy the place of favored bride status.

Historically, Israel now serves as historic bookends for the church. The church is a temporary phenomenon within DP while the nation of Israel continues to be God’s favored people, even in this age. Israel is God’s plan A. The church is God’s plan B. Israel thwarted God’s original intention of establishing his kingdom on earth by rejecting her Messiah, forcing God’s hand to institute plan B (the church), but plan B is temporary because God’s most favored bride is the nation of Israel and once he has finished doing what he’s doing with t he church and the church is gone, Israel will once more enjoy the privileges of being God’s favorite people.

The question we have to ask is will such a view of Israel and the church hold up in the light of Scripture? Is Israel really God’s favored people that will one day become is focus of attention and saving love? One way to answer these questions is take a look at how the New Testament evaluates Israel as a whole and every evaluation the New Testament gives us is the Israel as a whole is unbelieving. Let’s look at a couple.

See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. As has just been said: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.” Who were th ey who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert? And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief. Hebrews 3:12-19

Remember that the writer of Hebrews is writing to professed Jewish believers who were considering abandoning their profession of faith in Christ in favor of going back to the Old Covenant. Such a move is “sinful” and “unbelieving” (verse 12). Instead of enjoying the most favored people status, the writer of Hebrews evaluates Israel as a whole as unbelieving. We know that there was always a remnant of true believers within the nation (in this instance Joshua and Caleb come to mind), but as a whole, the writer of Hebrews evaluates the entire nation as unbelieving. As a whole, they were not able to enter into true rest because of unbelief (verse 19).

Not only are they unbelieving as a whole, but their purpose in redemptive history was to be a temporary physical picture or illustration of how God was going to fulfill his promise to Abraham to save a people and bring them into a land. The point of Hebrews 3:7-4:11 is that even though Israel took possession of the physical land of Palestine under Joshua’s leadership and enjoyed physical rest from their enemies (Joshua 21:43-45), they failed to experience the true spiritual rest that accompanies salvation. As a whole, they were unbelieving. Additionally, the ceremonial and priestly functions of the Tabernacle and later the Temple, were only a temporary illustration pointing to Christ’s once for all sacrifice in purchasing a true people of God, the church.

Here’s the writer of Hebrews’ take on this subject:
This is an illustration for the present time, indicating that the gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper. They are only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings, external regulations applying until the time of the new order. Hebrews 9:9-10
The various ceremonies of the Tabernacle/Temple were an “illustration” of Christ’s greater sacrifice and the “external regulations” were temporary until the coming of the “new order” - the New Covenant. These temporary illustrations were powerless to forgive sin. Old Covenant Israel was an unbelieving, temporary physical picture of the true people of God, the church, which is made up of both Jew and Gentile.

But what of Plan B, the church? Here’s Paul’s take:
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will– to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment–to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession–to the praise of his glory. Ephesians 3:3-14

I think my dear DP friends have it backwards. The church is God’s favored and only people. True believers in every era make up the true and only bride of Christ.

Excerpts from a couple of important responses…
Eschatology is not amenable to “thus sayeth the Lord” dogmatism; that said, our Lord has indeed unmistakably told us that ethnic/national Israel isn’t/never was Abraham’s seed (inter alia, Gal. 3:16, 29).

Non-system-driven exposition of Scripture, read in view of history, teaches us that ethnic/national Israel was judged (the Harlot was stoned) 70 A.D. Literalizing what our Lord spiritualizes via writers of New Covenant Scriptures is not merely erroneous — it’s audacious….

…As to the question of two brides, what could the Apostle say to make it any plainer that there is only ONE people of God, comprised of Jew and Gentile, than Ephesians 2?

“11 Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— 12 remember ?that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down ?in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to th ose who were near. 18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by? the Spirit. “