THE HOPE OF ISRAEL - The Preterist Archive

The Hope of Israel: What Is It? 141
that Gentiles were in the eternal purpose of God,
destined to be "joint-heirs" (with natural Israelites),
"and a joint-body, and joint-partakers of His promise
'in Christ, by means of the gospel" (literal rendering
of Eph. 3:6). And what is particularly pertinent to
our present inquiry is the previously hidden, "but
now" clearly revealed, fact, that the true "Israel of
God" (Gal. 6:16), the true "seed of Abraham" who
are the heirs of all the promises of God (Gal. 3:7, 29 ;
2 Cor. 1:20) are a body composed of all those
whether by nature they were Jews or Gentiles
who
are "of the faith of Abraham ;
who is the father of us
all" (Rom. 4:16).
Because of this "mystery of Christ" (Eph. 3:4)
which Paul was specially commissioned to explain, it
is most needful that we, in attempting the interpretation
of 0. T. prophecies concerning Israel, Zion, Jerusalem,
etc., should take pains to ascertain whether it
was the earthly and natural people (or locality) the
prophet had in view, or the heavenly and spiritual
counterpart thereof. Happily it is generally possible,
in the light of the explanations given in the New Testament,
to do this with some degree of certainty.
Moreover, it
aside first,
will be found that, when we have set
all the 0. T. prophecies and promises concerning
Israel that have been already fulfilled, second,
all that were conditional in character and hence have
become null and void for failure by the Jews to perform
the conditions on which they were based, and
third, those that belong to "the Israel of God," there
remains for the natural Israel no promise of blessing
except "the common salvation" (Jude 3) which is proclaimed
by the gospel of Christ, and which God bestows