List of Scripture:

Israel is Called the ‘ekklesia’ (the Greek word for ‘Church’):

• Acts 7:38 – Stephen refers to Israel as the ‘ekklesia’/ ‘church’ (see KJV)
• Hebrews 12:23 is another reference where OT believers are called the ‘ekklesia’ (I did not mention this one in my sermon but it is worth looking up!)
• Many passages in the Greek Septuagint translate the Hebrew noun for ‘assembly’ as ‘ekklesia’. It is the standard word in the Septuigint for the religious assemblies of Israel.

‘Great Cloud of Witnesses’ in Hebrews 12 strongly hints at the continuity of Israel and the Church as these Old Covenant believers sit in the bleechers and cheer on the New Covenant Christians

Examples of Pre-Israelites who gathered in families to worship God before Israel was formally constituted as a nation

• The righteous line of Seth began to call on the covenant name of Yahweh (Genesis 4:26)
• Noah and his family worshipped and offered sacrifice
• Job functioned as a family priest and offered sacrifices
• Melchizadek (Gen 14) is called a Priest (cf. Psalm 110)
• Abraham was not Hebrew properly speaking, and offered acceptable worship before the nation of Israel was founded.
• In Exodus 19 we read of Hebrew ‘priests’ at the mountain of God before the Levitical priesthood was ever put into place (see Exodus 19:22)

Jesus’ selection of 12 Disciples is an intentional patterning after Israel

• In Acts 1 a great deal of care is given to explain the replacement of Judas. The most likely reason for this is because the number 11 needed to be restored to 12 so that the New Covenant Church could move forward on the right symbolic basis
• The mention of 120 Christians in the upper room is based on Jewish regulation of the minimum number of people needed to form a religious community
• The book of Acts indicates clearly that early Christians were meeting in Synagogues, thus indicated that the Church developed out of the Synagogue, and was patterned intentionally after synagogue worship

The fact that Israel was never ethnically pure is a strong argument for continuity with the Church. Most arguments against continuity assume that Gentile inclusion is something that began in the New Covenant, but this is simply not the case.

• Ruth, Caleb, Rahab, Moses’ Cushite wife, and the mixed multitude from Egypt are all examples of ethnic Gentiles who were part of Israel
• God’s concern in the OT era was never for ethnic purity (ie. the prohibitions in the Law against intermarriage were not about ‘racial’ purity but about ‘purity of worship’). Jews could marry believing Gentiles and those Gentiles were part of the Covenant community. To say otherwise is to embrace a form of Old Testament ‘kinism’ (the morally abhorrent idea that God does not allow people of different skin colours or ethnicities to marry)

A Plethora of New Testament Verses describe the Church in terminology that indicates its continuity and close association with Old Testament Israel

• Ephesians 2:11-19 – explicitly states that Gentiles in the Church have been made citizens of the commonwealth of Israel
• Ephesians 5:25 describes the Church as the “Bride”. The OT calls Israel the ‘Bride’ in numerous places. Does God have one Bride or two?? This strongly suggests that believing Israel and the Church are together the Bride!
• Romans 2:28-29 – Paul says that a true Jew is not one circumcised physically, but one circumcised in the heart
• Romans 9:6-8 – Paul says that ‘not all Israel is Israel’. In other words, the righteous and regenerate Israelites of the Old Covenant were the true people of God. Same is true in the New Covenant – God’s people in the Church are those who have been regenerated by the Spirit
• Galatians 3:29 – Abraham’s true children are those of faith
• Galatians 6:16 – The Church is called the ‘Israel of God’. This interpretation is strongly contested by Dispensationalists who claim that Paul is only talking about Christians Jews. They use the same kind of arguments about the book of Hebrews, claiming that it was only written to Jewish Christians. To me this is an example of ‘special pleading’.
• Matthew 3:9 – John the Baptist calls the Jews to come to the wilderness and cross the Jordan a second time through repentance and Baptism. The symbolism was to show the Jews that they were not included in God’s Covenant by virtue of their physical birth. This is why John told them that God could make the rocks into children for Abraham
• Philippians 3:3 – Paul takes a common Jewish slur against Gentiles, and turns it around on the legalistic Jews who wanted to force their customs on the Gentiles. He warns Christians to watch out for these legalistic ‘dogs’, and tells the Christians in Philippi that they are the true circumcision
• 1 Peter 2:9 – look very carefully at the terms that Peter uses to describe Christians, and compare them with Exodus 19:5-6 and Deuteronomy 7:6. You will notice that Peter intentionally takes a number of phrases initially given to Israel and applies those phrases to Christians in the Church.
• Hebrews 8/ Jeremiah 31 – the author to the Hebrews quotes the prophecy of the New Covenant from Jeremiah 31 and applies it to Christians, even though Jeremiah 31 limits the prophecy to the ‘house of Israel’ and ‘house of Judah’ (look it up and verify for
  yourself). Jesus also clearly applied the New Covenant to the Church in the Upper Room when he said “This is the New Covenant in my blood. Do this in remembrance of me.” These references to the New Covenant have caused such difficulties for the Dispensational system of theology, that the early Dispensationalists taught that there were actually two different ‘New Covenants’ – one New Covenant for Israel spoken of in Jeremiah 31, and a different one for the Church spoken of by Christ!! That interpretation is so implausible that almost all modern Dispensationalists have abandoned it and tried to explain this in other ways. The easiest way to understand this, is to see the Church and believing Israel as belonging to the same body in both Covenants