THE HOPE OF ISRAEL - The Preterist Archive

The, Hope of Israel: What Is It? 199
the glorious things promised by them were all for
"Israel." Their error, as has now been plainly pointed
out in the N. T. Scriptures, was two-fold: first (as
already shown) they misunderstood the nature of the
promised blessings, for they supposed them to be natural
and earthly, instead of spiritual and heavenly ;
and
second, they did not understand that the promises were,
not for the natural seed of Abraham, but for his spiritual
seed; or in other words, that they who compose
the true "Israel of God" are not those who have merely
the outward "sign of circumcision," but those "who
also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham,
which he had being yet uncircumcised" (Rom.
4:11, 12).
And so to-day, the differences that have arisen between
those who study the prophetic Scriptures and
seek the meaning thereof, are not as to whether the
promises of God through the O. T. prophets were expressly
for Israel, for the Jews, for the circumcision,
for the seed of Abraham ;
but as to who are the "Israel"
of promise? Who is "a Jew?" Who are "the circumcision?"
and who "the seed of Abraham?" But how
comes it that there are differences as to those questions
between those who accept the New Testament as the
Word of God? seeing that the first is expressly answered
by Romans 9:6-8; the second by Romans 2:28,
29; the third by Philippians 3:3; and the fourth by
Galatians 3:7, 29?
"THE PROMISE"
But at this point some will say: "True, there is a
spiritual Israel as well as a natural Israel, an 'Israel