A NUGGET OF TRUTH.
WHO ARE THE TRUE PEOPLE OF GOD?
(A Lengthy Biblical And Historical Investigation).
In an age where rhetoric and emotions often determine people's beliefs, one of the most countercultural things that anyone can do is to objectively look at the evidence, regardless of how it makes them feel. It is also important to remember that things are not often what they seem, that history is not always what we have been told, and that the truth will always be hated by the world. Today, we must abandon political correctness and oversensitivity to learn the truth about one of the most consequential questions of our time: Who are God's chosen people?
Many believe that the Jews are God's chosen people and that God intends to bless the Jews and the state of Israel at some point in the future because He obligated Himself to do so with Abraham. One reason people think this makes sense is that they believe today's Jews are direct descendants of Abraham. Many Christians even believe that the Zionist state of Israel and anyone calling themselves a Jew today have a special place in God's heart, and therefore we as non-Jews need to bless and honor these people more than others, lest God curse us or withhold His blessings. These and many similar attitudes must be tested thoroughly with Scripture and with history. After all, when the devil tempted Christ in the desert, he did so by twisting God's word to suit his agenda. This is why we must exercise discernment and test all things.
To understand who God's chosen people truly are, we must begin with Abraham. The Jewish Almanac of 1980 makes a critical observation: strictly speaking, it is incorrect to call an ancient Israelite a Jew or to call a contemporary Jew an Israelite or a Hebrew. The word "Jew" originates from one of the tribes of Israel named Judah, and the term refers to people who lived in or were from Judah, the territory that the tribe of Judah received as their inheritance. This means that those before the territory of Judah was created were not Jews. Moses was not a Jew, nor was Jacob, Isaac, or Abraham. Abraham was a Hebrew, a descendant of Eber, and he was promised to be the father of many nations, not just one nation or group of people.
This distinction is vital because it reveals that God's covenant with Abraham was never intended to be limited to a single ethnic lineage. A careful examination of the biblical record shows that from the very beginning, God intended His covenant community to be inclusive, based on faith rather than bloodline. Abraham's household was large, numbering well over a thousand people, and he taught all within his household, regardless of their origin, to follow the Lord. The direct physical descendants of Jacob who entered Egypt numbered only seventy, yet at the Exodus, Israel numbered over two million people. This astonishing growth cannot be explained by biological reproduction alone. The Scriptures record that a "mixed multitude" went up with Israel out of Egypt, and these foreigners were fully integrated into the covenant community, partaking equally of God's promises.
Throughout Israel's history, this pattern continued. Joseph married an Egyptian, Moses married a Midianite, Caleb was a Kenizzite, Rahab was a Canaanite, Ruth was a Moabite, and Uriah was a Hittite. These individuals were not biological descendants of Abraham, yet they were counted among God's people because they joined themselves to the Lord in faith. King David himself was only partially Israelite by ancestry, being descended from Ruth the Moabite. In the time of Esther, we read that "many of the people of the land became Jews," indicating that conversion and incorporation into the covenant community was a regular occurrence.
This understanding transforms our perspective on what it meant to be part of Israel. In God's eyes, true membership in Israel depended not on ancestry but on faith. The Apostle Paul acknowledges this when he points out that out of the whole nation of Israel during the time of Ahab, only seven thousand had remained faithful to God, and it was they who constituted the true Israel. Biblically, Israel was a spiritual community to which people were added or removed with no consideration of ancestry or race.
As we move through biblical history, the term "Jew" becomes increasingly complex. After the Israelites entered the Promised Land, they eventually formed two kingdoms: Israel in the north, composed of ten tribes, and Judah in the south, composed of Benjamin and Judah. The people of the northern kingdom were Israelites, not Jews, and many of the most prominent figures in Scripture came from these non-Jewish tribes. Samson was from Dan, Deborah from Ephraim, Gideon from Manasseh, Elijah from Gad or Manasseh, Joshua and Samuel from Ephraim, and Moses and Aaron from Levi. All of these biblical heroes were Israelites, not Jews.
When the Assyrians conquered the northern kingdom in 722 BC, the ten tribes were dispersed and assimilated among the nations, effectively ceasing to exist as a distinct people. The southern kingdom of Judah survived for another century and a half before being conquered by the Babylonians. After the Babylonian exile, a remnant returned to the land, but by this time, the territory had been occupied by various pagan tribes, including the Edomites. The Edomites were descendants of Esau, Jacob's brother, and had a long history of hostility toward Israel. They had allied with Nebuchadnezzar during the Babylonian invasion and rejoiced at Jerusalem's destruction.
A critical development occurred in the second century BC when the Hasmonean dynasty, led by John Hyrcanus, forcibly converted the entire Edomite nation to Judaism. This was the only case of forced conversion in Jewish history, and it brought into the Jewish community a people who were not only not descended from Judah but who were traditionally enemies of Israel. The Edomites became fully integrated into Jewish society, and from them came the notorious Herodian dynasty that ruled Judea at the time of Christ.
By the time of Jesus, therefore, those who called themselves Jews were a complex mixture of genuine descendants of Judah, descendants of the other tribes who had survived, and large numbers of converts from various pagan nations, including the Edomites. This historical reality explains why the Gospel of John often distinguishes between "the Jews" who opposed Jesus and the faithful remnant who followed Him. It also explains why the Apostle Paul identifies himself as a Hebrew and an Israelite rather than simply as a Jew.
The complexity only increases when we consider developments after the destruction of the Second Temple in AD 70. Following the failed Jewish revolts against Rome, the Jewish population was scattered, and all records of genealogies were destroyed. Today, it is impossible to reliably trace ancestry back to the biblical Israelites or even to the tribe of Judah.
One of the most significant events in this regard was the conversion of the Khazar kingdom to Judaism in the eighth century AD. The Khazars were a Turkic people who ruled a large territory in what is now eastern Ukraine and southwestern Russia. Their conversion to Judaism was a political decision, and the entire ruling elite and many of their subjects adopted the Jewish religion. When the Khazar empire was destroyed, its people dispersed throughout Eastern Europe, and their descendants became a significant portion of what is now known as Ashkenazi Jewry.
While some scholars debate the extent of Khazar ancestry among modern Jews, the historical fact remains that a large-scale conversion of a non-Semitic people to Judaism occurred, and these converts and their descendants became part of the Jewish community. This means that many people who call themselves Jews today have no biological connection to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but are rather descendants of Turkic converts.
Many argue that the Jews are still God's chosen people because God owes them the land He promised thousands of years ago to Abraham. But careful study reveals two significant problems with this argument. First, Abraham was not a Jew, nor were Isaac or Jacob. God made the promise to the Hebrews who eventually became the Israelites, not to the Jews. Second, these land promises were fulfilled long ago.
The biblical record is explicit on this point. In Joshua 21:43-45, we read that "the Lord gave Israel all the land which He had sworn to give to their fathers, and they possessed it and lived in it. And the Lord gave them rest on every side, according to all that He had sworn to their fathers, and not one of all their enemies stood before them; the Lord gave all their enemies into their hand. Not one of the good promises which the Lord had made to the house of Israel failed; all came to pass". During the reign of Solomon, the boundaries of his empire matched exactly the area of land described by God to Abraham in Genesis 15:18-21. The land promise was fulfilled in its entirety.
The covenant of land was conditional upon obedience, as God had made clear from the beginning. Because the Israelites repeatedly rebelled, intermarried with pagans, and abandoned God's laws, they lost the land. God's judgment was just, but it did not nullify His promises. The greatest blessing God promised Abraham that through him all nations would be blessed, was fulfilled in Christ through the gospel, and this is why the Church, not any ethnic group, is the true body of chosen people.
The prophecy of Daniel 9 provides a clear timeline for when Israel's role as God's chosen nation was to be fulfilled. The prophecy states that "seventy weeks are determined upon thy people," referring to Israel, not Judah alone. These weeks represent years, giving a total of 490 years during which God's purposes for Israel as a nation would be accomplished.
Historical and archaeological evidence aligns this prophecy precisely with the coming of Jesus Christ. The starting point was the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, which is generally understood to be the decree of Artaxerxes in 445 BC authorizing Nehemiah to rebuild the city walls. From this date, the prophecy of sixty-nine weeks (483 years) leads directly to the time when the Messiah would appear.
The seventy weeks conclude with the cutting off of the Messiah and the subsequent destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. The critical turning point comes in AD 34, when Stephen was stoned and the apostles were dispersed from Jerusalem to spread the gospel to the nations. Shortly afterward, Paul was converted and Peter received his vision about the Gentiles. The time for the Old Testament system had passed, and with it, the special status of physical Israel as God's chosen nation had come to an end.
One of the most remarkable pieces of evidence that the Jews were not God's chosen people after the time of Christ comes from their own rabbinic literature. The Talmud records in Yoma 39b that for forty years before the destruction of the Temple, the signs that the Jews had relied upon for centuries to confirm God's forgiveness of their sins no longer occurred. The lot that should have come up in the High Priest's right hand did not, the crimson wool that should have turned white remained red, and the western lamp of the candelabrum would not stay lit.
Counting inclusively, forty years before the destruction of the Temple in AD 70 brings us to AD 31, the exact year that Jesus was crucified. For forty years, God was giving the Jews a clear message that their sacrifices were no longer accepted because the true Sacrifice had been offered. In the spirit of their fathers, most of the Jews remained stiff-necked and were judged in AD 70 when the Temple was destroyed. The Temple was not rebuilt because there was no more need for it. The time for physical Israel as an outward demonstration of God's electing purpose had come to an end.
Zionism, the political movement that led to the creation of the modern state of Israel, was not a religious movement but a secular, nationalist one. It emerged in Europe in the late nineteenth century, spearheaded by Theodor Herzl, an atheist or agnostic Jew. Herzl's vision was not for a religious state governed by biblical law, but for a secular Jewish state that would serve as a haven for Jews from persecution.
This secular origin is significant because it demonstrates that Zionism was not a fulfillment of biblical prophecy but a political project. Herzl himself had little interest in the religious aspects of Judaism and was primarily concerned with nationalism and state-building. The state that was eventually established in 1948 was similarly secular in character, with its founders being largely atheist or agnostic.
The creation of the state of Israel was not the result of divine intervention but of political maneuvering. The Balfour Declaration of 1917, the British Mandate, the support of the Rothschild banking family, and the geopolitical interests of Western powers all played crucial roles. The transfer of large numbers of Jews to Palestine was facilitated by agreements with Hitler's Germany, which sought to deport Jews from Europe rather than see them remain.
The New Testament reveals that the Old Testament system of physical Israel was a type and shadow of a greater spiritual reality. The tabernacle, the priesthood, the sacrifices, and the nation of Israel itself were all foreshadowing the coming of Christ and the establishment of His church. When Christ came, He fulfilled what these types had pointed toward, and the physical reality gave way to the spiritual.
This is why the Apostle Paul writes that not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and that the true children of God are the children of the promise. In Galatians 3:16, Paul explains that the promises made to Abraham were made to his offspring singular, who is Christ. If we are in Christ, then we are Abraham's offspring and heirs according to the promise. There is no promise to anyone who is outside of Christ.
In Romans 4:11-12, Paul writes that the covenant of circumcision with Abraham was made so that those in the future who would not be circumcised could be counted as righteous by faith as children of Abraham. This is the New Covenant announced in Jeremiah 31:31-34, where God promised to write His law on hearts rather than on tablets of stone. This covenant is not determined by fleshly lineage but exclusively by the work of God to give people a new heart.
The Apostle Peter appropriates the language of the chosen people when he writes to believers: "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people" (1 Peter 2:9). This language, originally used of Israel in Exodus 19:5-6, is now applied to the church, the body of believers from every tribe and nation. Paul calls this new spiritual reality "the Israel of God" in Galatians 6:16.
What then does it mean to be chosen by God? The New Testament reveals that God's electing purpose has always been sovereign and unconditional. Jesus said that no one can come to Him unless the Father draws them, and that all whom the Father gives to Him will come to Him. This electing purpose was established before the foundation of the world, based not on human merit or effort but on God's own will and pleasure.
The true people of God are not those who can trace their physical lineage to Abraham, but those who have been given new hearts and new spirits by God, who have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit, and who place their faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. This group includes people from every nation, tribe, and tongue, and it excludes anyone, regardless of their ancestry, who does not have faith in Christ.
This is not replacement theology, as it is often accused of being. The church did not replace Israel; rather, the church is the fulfillment of Israel. It is the spiritual reality that the physical Israel was designed to foreshadow. Just as Christ came not to abolish the law but to fulfill it, so the church is not a replacement for Israel but its fulfillment. Dispensationalism and Jewish-focused futurism are the true replacement theologies, for they replace the elect bride of Christ with a political state, replace the spiritual temple with a physical building, and replace the gospel of grace with identity politics based on ethnicity.
If the Jews of today are God's chosen people, one would expect them to exemplify the character that God desired for His set-apart people. Yet the evidence points in the opposite direction. Surveys indicate that Israel is among the least religious nations in the world, with a significant percentage of the population identifying as atheist. The founders of the Zionist movement and the early leaders of Israel were largely atheist or agnostic. David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir, Yitzhak Rabin, and many others who shaped the modern state had no interest in biblical religion.
The state of Israel has also become a center for cultural movements that are directly contrary to biblical values. Tel Aviv has been called the gay capital of the world, and the promotion of transgender ideology is prominent in Israeli society. The very symbol that the Zionist movement adopted to represent itself, the Star of David, is not of biblical origin but was a pagan occult symbol appropriated by Kabbalists in the sixteenth century. The biblical prophets condemned the Israelites for taking up the star of their pagan gods, yet this very symbol now represents the modern state.
If these are God's chosen people, they are a strange representation of His character. The true people of God, by contrast, are those who have been transformed by the Holy Spirit, who love God and keep His commandments, and who are being conformed to the image of Christ. They are not perfect, but they are being sanctified by the Spirit, and their lives bear witness to the power of the gospel.
Conclusion
The evidence from Scripture and history is clear. The people who live in the state of Israel today are not the biblical Jews, nor are they God's chosen people. The biblical Israelites were a covenant community defined by faith, not ethnicity, and they fulfilled their purpose when the Messiah was born and accomplished His work of redemption. The land promises to Abraham were fulfilled long ago, and the covenant with physical Israel ended with the coming of Christ and the establishment of the New Covenant.
The term "Jew" has undergone so many transformations over the centuries that it no longer refers to a people who can be reliably traced back to the tribe of Judah. Mass conversions, forced conversions, and the destruction of genealogical records have made it impossible to establish any certain connection between modern Jews and ancient Israelites. The Zionist movement was a secular political project, not a fulfillment of prophecy, and the state it created is a political entity like any other, with no special claim to divine favor.
God's chosen people today are those who have been chosen by Him before the foundation of the world and given to Christ, those who have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit and placed their faith in Jesus, those who are being conformed to His image and are awaiting His return. They come from every nation, including Israel, but they are defined not by their physical ancestry but by their spiritual rebirth. They are the true Israel, the Israel of God, and to them belong the promises of Abraham, fulfilled in Christ and applied by the Spirit.
We must therefore reject the false narrative that the modern state of Israel or the people who call themselves Jews today have any special place in God's plan. This narrative is not supported by Scripture, is contradicted by history, and leads people away from the true gospel of grace. Instead, we must embrace the biblical teaching that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, but all are one, and that the true children of Abraham are those who share his faith, not those who share his blood. This is the truth that sets us free, and it is the truth that we must proclaim without compromise.
Gospel Angels Broadcasting
A NUGGET OF TRUTH.
WHO ARE THE TRUE PEOPLE OF GOD?
(A Lengthy Biblical And Historical Investigation).
In an age where rhetoric and emotions often determine people's beliefs, one of the most countercultural things that anyone can do is to objectively look at the evidence, regardless of how it makes them feel. It is also important to remember that things are not often what they seem, that history is not always what we have been told, and that the truth will always be hated by the world. Today, we must abandon political correctness and oversensitivity to learn the truth about one of the most consequential questions of our time: Who are God's chosen people?
Many believe that the Jews are God's chosen people and that God intends to bless the Jews and the state of Israel at some point in the future because He obligated Himself to do so with Abraham. One reason people think this makes sense is that they believe today's Jews are direct descendants of Abraham. Many Christians even believe that the Zionist state of Israel and anyone calling themselves a Jew today have a special place in God's heart, and therefore we as non-Jews need to bless and honor these people more than others, lest God curse us or withhold His blessings. These and many similar attitudes must be tested thoroughly with Scripture and with history. After all, when the devil tempted Christ in the desert, he did so by twisting God's word to suit his agenda. This is why we must exercise discernment and test all things.
To understand who God's chosen people truly are, we must begin with Abraham. The Jewish Almanac of 1980 makes a critical observation: strictly speaking, it is incorrect to call an ancient Israelite a Jew or to call a contemporary Jew an Israelite or a Hebrew. The word "Jew" originates from one of the tribes of Israel named Judah, and the term refers to people who lived in or were from Judah, the territory that the tribe of Judah received as their inheritance. This means that those before the territory of Judah was created were not Jews. Moses was not a Jew, nor was Jacob, Isaac, or Abraham. Abraham was a Hebrew, a descendant of Eber, and he was promised to be the father of many nations, not just one nation or group of people.
This distinction is vital because it reveals that God's covenant with Abraham was never intended to be limited to a single ethnic lineage. A careful examination of the biblical record shows that from the very beginning, God intended His covenant community to be inclusive, based on faith rather than bloodline. Abraham's household was large, numbering well over a thousand people, and he taught all within his household, regardless of their origin, to follow the Lord. The direct physical descendants of Jacob who entered Egypt numbered only seventy, yet at the Exodus, Israel numbered over two million people. This astonishing growth cannot be explained by biological reproduction alone. The Scriptures record that a "mixed multitude" went up with Israel out of Egypt, and these foreigners were fully integrated into the covenant community, partaking equally of God's promises.
Throughout Israel's history, this pattern continued. Joseph married an Egyptian, Moses married a Midianite, Caleb was a Kenizzite, Rahab was a Canaanite, Ruth was a Moabite, and Uriah was a Hittite. These individuals were not biological descendants of Abraham, yet they were counted among God's people because they joined themselves to the Lord in faith. King David himself was only partially Israelite by ancestry, being descended from Ruth the Moabite. In the time of Esther, we read that "many of the people of the land became Jews," indicating that conversion and incorporation into the covenant community was a regular occurrence.
This understanding transforms our perspective on what it meant to be part of Israel. In God's eyes, true membership in Israel depended not on ancestry but on faith. The Apostle Paul acknowledges this when he points out that out of the whole nation of Israel during the time of Ahab, only seven thousand had remained faithful to God, and it was they who constituted the true Israel. Biblically, Israel was a spiritual community to which people were added or removed with no consideration of ancestry or race.
As we move through biblical history, the term "Jew" becomes increasingly complex. After the Israelites entered the Promised Land, they eventually formed two kingdoms: Israel in the north, composed of ten tribes, and Judah in the south, composed of Benjamin and Judah. The people of the northern kingdom were Israelites, not Jews, and many of the most prominent figures in Scripture came from these non-Jewish tribes. Samson was from Dan, Deborah from Ephraim, Gideon from Manasseh, Elijah from Gad or Manasseh, Joshua and Samuel from Ephraim, and Moses and Aaron from Levi. All of these biblical heroes were Israelites, not Jews.
When the Assyrians conquered the northern kingdom in 722 BC, the ten tribes were dispersed and assimilated among the nations, effectively ceasing to exist as a distinct people. The southern kingdom of Judah survived for another century and a half before being conquered by the Babylonians. After the Babylonian exile, a remnant returned to the land, but by this time, the territory had been occupied by various pagan tribes, including the Edomites. The Edomites were descendants of Esau, Jacob's brother, and had a long history of hostility toward Israel. They had allied with Nebuchadnezzar during the Babylonian invasion and rejoiced at Jerusalem's destruction.
A critical development occurred in the second century BC when the Hasmonean dynasty, led by John Hyrcanus, forcibly converted the entire Edomite nation to Judaism. This was the only case of forced conversion in Jewish history, and it brought into the Jewish community a people who were not only not descended from Judah but who were traditionally enemies of Israel. The Edomites became fully integrated into Jewish society, and from them came the notorious Herodian dynasty that ruled Judea at the time of Christ.
By the time of Jesus, therefore, those who called themselves Jews were a complex mixture of genuine descendants of Judah, descendants of the other tribes who had survived, and large numbers of converts from various pagan nations, including the Edomites. This historical reality explains why the Gospel of John often distinguishes between "the Jews" who opposed Jesus and the faithful remnant who followed Him. It also explains why the Apostle Paul identifies himself as a Hebrew and an Israelite rather than simply as a Jew.
The complexity only increases when we consider developments after the destruction of the Second Temple in AD 70. Following the failed Jewish revolts against Rome, the Jewish population was scattered, and all records of genealogies were destroyed. Today, it is impossible to reliably trace ancestry back to the biblical Israelites or even to the tribe of Judah.
One of the most significant events in this regard was the conversion of the Khazar kingdom to Judaism in the eighth century AD. The Khazars were a Turkic people who ruled a large territory in what is now eastern Ukraine and southwestern Russia. Their conversion to Judaism was a political decision, and the entire ruling elite and many of their subjects adopted the Jewish religion. When the Khazar empire was destroyed, its people dispersed throughout Eastern Europe, and their descendants became a significant portion of what is now known as Ashkenazi Jewry.
While some scholars debate the extent of Khazar ancestry among modern Jews, the historical fact remains that a large-scale conversion of a non-Semitic people to Judaism occurred, and these converts and their descendants became part of the Jewish community. This means that many people who call themselves Jews today have no biological connection to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but are rather descendants of Turkic converts.
Many argue that the Jews are still God's chosen people because God owes them the land He promised thousands of years ago to Abraham. But careful study reveals two significant problems with this argument. First, Abraham was not a Jew, nor were Isaac or Jacob. God made the promise to the Hebrews who eventually became the Israelites, not to the Jews. Second, these land promises were fulfilled long ago.
The biblical record is explicit on this point. In Joshua 21:43-45, we read that "the Lord gave Israel all the land which He had sworn to give to their fathers, and they possessed it and lived in it. And the Lord gave them rest on every side, according to all that He had sworn to their fathers, and not one of all their enemies stood before them; the Lord gave all their enemies into their hand. Not one of the good promises which the Lord had made to the house of Israel failed; all came to pass". During the reign of Solomon, the boundaries of his empire matched exactly the area of land described by God to Abraham in Genesis 15:18-21. The land promise was fulfilled in its entirety.
The covenant of land was conditional upon obedience, as God had made clear from the beginning. Because the Israelites repeatedly rebelled, intermarried with pagans, and abandoned God's laws, they lost the land. God's judgment was just, but it did not nullify His promises. The greatest blessing God promised Abraham that through him all nations would be blessed, was fulfilled in Christ through the gospel, and this is why the Church, not any ethnic group, is the true body of chosen people.
The prophecy of Daniel 9 provides a clear timeline for when Israel's role as God's chosen nation was to be fulfilled. The prophecy states that "seventy weeks are determined upon thy people," referring to Israel, not Judah alone. These weeks represent years, giving a total of 490 years during which God's purposes for Israel as a nation would be accomplished.
Historical and archaeological evidence aligns this prophecy precisely with the coming of Jesus Christ. The starting point was the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, which is generally understood to be the decree of Artaxerxes in 445 BC authorizing Nehemiah to rebuild the city walls. From this date, the prophecy of sixty-nine weeks (483 years) leads directly to the time when the Messiah would appear.
The seventy weeks conclude with the cutting off of the Messiah and the subsequent destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. The critical turning point comes in AD 34, when Stephen was stoned and the apostles were dispersed from Jerusalem to spread the gospel to the nations. Shortly afterward, Paul was converted and Peter received his vision about the Gentiles. The time for the Old Testament system had passed, and with it, the special status of physical Israel as God's chosen nation had come to an end.
One of the most remarkable pieces of evidence that the Jews were not God's chosen people after the time of Christ comes from their own rabbinic literature. The Talmud records in Yoma 39b that for forty years before the destruction of the Temple, the signs that the Jews had relied upon for centuries to confirm God's forgiveness of their sins no longer occurred. The lot that should have come up in the High Priest's right hand did not, the crimson wool that should have turned white remained red, and the western lamp of the candelabrum would not stay lit.
Counting inclusively, forty years before the destruction of the Temple in AD 70 brings us to AD 31, the exact year that Jesus was crucified. For forty years, God was giving the Jews a clear message that their sacrifices were no longer accepted because the true Sacrifice had been offered. In the spirit of their fathers, most of the Jews remained stiff-necked and were judged in AD 70 when the Temple was destroyed. The Temple was not rebuilt because there was no more need for it. The time for physical Israel as an outward demonstration of God's electing purpose had come to an end.
Zionism, the political movement that led to the creation of the modern state of Israel, was not a religious movement but a secular, nationalist one. It emerged in Europe in the late nineteenth century, spearheaded by Theodor Herzl, an atheist or agnostic Jew. Herzl's vision was not for a religious state governed by biblical law, but for a secular Jewish state that would serve as a haven for Jews from persecution.
This secular origin is significant because it demonstrates that Zionism was not a fulfillment of biblical prophecy but a political project. Herzl himself had little interest in the religious aspects of Judaism and was primarily concerned with nationalism and state-building. The state that was eventually established in 1948 was similarly secular in character, with its founders being largely atheist or agnostic.
The creation of the state of Israel was not the result of divine intervention but of political maneuvering. The Balfour Declaration of 1917, the British Mandate, the support of the Rothschild banking family, and the geopolitical interests of Western powers all played crucial roles. The transfer of large numbers of Jews to Palestine was facilitated by agreements with Hitler's Germany, which sought to deport Jews from Europe rather than see them remain.
The New Testament reveals that the Old Testament system of physical Israel was a type and shadow of a greater spiritual reality. The tabernacle, the priesthood, the sacrifices, and the nation of Israel itself were all foreshadowing the coming of Christ and the establishment of His church. When Christ came, He fulfilled what these types had pointed toward, and the physical reality gave way to the spiritual.
This is why the Apostle Paul writes that not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and that the true children of God are the children of the promise. In Galatians 3:16, Paul explains that the promises made to Abraham were made to his offspring singular, who is Christ. If we are in Christ, then we are Abraham's offspring and heirs according to the promise. There is no promise to anyone who is outside of Christ.
In Romans 4:11-12, Paul writes that the covenant of circumcision with Abraham was made so that those in the future who would not be circumcised could be counted as righteous by faith as children of Abraham. This is the New Covenant announced in Jeremiah 31:31-34, where God promised to write His law on hearts rather than on tablets of stone. This covenant is not determined by fleshly lineage but exclusively by the work of God to give people a new heart.
The Apostle Peter appropriates the language of the chosen people when he writes to believers: "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people" (1 Peter 2:9). This language, originally used of Israel in Exodus 19:5-6, is now applied to the church, the body of believers from every tribe and nation. Paul calls this new spiritual reality "the Israel of God" in Galatians 6:16.
What then does it mean to be chosen by God? The New Testament reveals that God's electing purpose has always been sovereign and unconditional. Jesus said that no one can come to Him unless the Father draws them, and that all whom the Father gives to Him will come to Him. This electing purpose was established before the foundation of the world, based not on human merit or effort but on God's own will and pleasure.
The true people of God are not those who can trace their physical lineage to Abraham, but those who have been given new hearts and new spirits by God, who have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit, and who place their faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. This group includes people from every nation, tribe, and tongue, and it excludes anyone, regardless of their ancestry, who does not have faith in Christ.
This is not replacement theology, as it is often accused of being. The church did not replace Israel; rather, the church is the fulfillment of Israel. It is the spiritual reality that the physical Israel was designed to foreshadow. Just as Christ came not to abolish the law but to fulfill it, so the church is not a replacement for Israel but its fulfillment. Dispensationalism and Jewish-focused futurism are the true replacement theologies, for they replace the elect bride of Christ with a political state, replace the spiritual temple with a physical building, and replace the gospel of grace with identity politics based on ethnicity.
If the Jews of today are God's chosen people, one would expect them to exemplify the character that God desired for His set-apart people. Yet the evidence points in the opposite direction. Surveys indicate that Israel is among the least religious nations in the world, with a significant percentage of the population identifying as atheist. The founders of the Zionist movement and the early leaders of Israel were largely atheist or agnostic. David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir, Yitzhak Rabin, and many others who shaped the modern state had no interest in biblical religion.
The state of Israel has also become a center for cultural movements that are directly contrary to biblical values. Tel Aviv has been called the gay capital of the world, and the promotion of transgender ideology is prominent in Israeli society. The very symbol that the Zionist movement adopted to represent itself, the Star of David, is not of biblical origin but was a pagan occult symbol appropriated by Kabbalists in the sixteenth century. The biblical prophets condemned the Israelites for taking up the star of their pagan gods, yet this very symbol now represents the modern state.
If these are God's chosen people, they are a strange representation of His character. The true people of God, by contrast, are those who have been transformed by the Holy Spirit, who love God and keep His commandments, and who are being conformed to the image of Christ. They are not perfect, but they are being sanctified by the Spirit, and their lives bear witness to the power of the gospel.
Conclusion
The evidence from Scripture and history is clear. The people who live in the state of Israel today are not the biblical Jews, nor are they God's chosen people. The biblical Israelites were a covenant community defined by faith, not ethnicity, and they fulfilled their purpose when the Messiah was born and accomplished His work of redemption. The land promises to Abraham were fulfilled long ago, and the covenant with physical Israel ended with the coming of Christ and the establishment of the New Covenant.
The term "Jew" has undergone so many transformations over the centuries that it no longer refers to a people who can be reliably traced back to the tribe of Judah. Mass conversions, forced conversions, and the destruction of genealogical records have made it impossible to establish any certain connection between modern Jews and ancient Israelites. The Zionist movement was a secular political project, not a fulfillment of prophecy, and the state it created is a political entity like any other, with no special claim to divine favor.
God's chosen people today are those who have been chosen by Him before the foundation of the world and given to Christ, those who have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit and placed their faith in Jesus, those who are being conformed to His image and are awaiting His return. They come from every nation, including Israel, but they are defined not by their physical ancestry but by their spiritual rebirth. They are the true Israel, the Israel of God, and to them belong the promises of Abraham, fulfilled in Christ and applied by the Spirit.
We must therefore reject the false narrative that the modern state of Israel or the people who call themselves Jews today have any special place in God's plan. This narrative is not supported by Scripture, is contradicted by history, and leads people away from the true gospel of grace. Instead, we must embrace the biblical teaching that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, but all are one, and that the true children of Abraham are those who share his faith, not those who share his blood. This is the truth that sets us free, and it is the truth that we must proclaim without compromise.
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