Scripture’s Identification of Israel and the Church

Herman C. Hanko

[Source: We and Our Children: The Reformed Doctrine of Infant Baptism (RFPA, 2004),

pp. 27-31. Posted with kind permission from the Reformed Free Publishing Association]

Many of the texts in the prophets, which seem to refer specifically to the nation of Israel in its national identity and with material promises, actually refer to a church gathered in the new dispensation from every nation, tribe, and tongue and blessed with spiritual blessings:

Hosea 1:10, 11

Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God. Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land: for great shall be the day of Jezreel (Hos. 1:10, 11)

It would appear from a reading of the text that Hosea prophesies of something that God will do for the nation of Israel itself. Specific mention is made of “the children of Judah and the children of Israel.” In fact, there is even a specific mention of God’s promise to Abraham which, according to Reformed Baptists, is supposed to refer to the nation only: “The number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea” (see also Gen. 22:17; 32:12). Taking the text by itself, it would appear that the premillennialists are correct when they say that God made specific promises to the nation of Israel which can be fulfilled only when God deals with the nation in some special way. It would appear that Reformed Baptists are right in speaking of “national and material” characteristics of the promises of God.

However, Paul makes the names children of Judah and children of Israel in the Hosea passage refer to the New Testament church composed of Jews and Gentiles:

Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles[.] As he saith also in Osee [Hosea]. I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved. And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God (Rom. 9:24-26).

It is clear that Paul is speaking here of the salvation of the Gentiles. He emphatically states that God calls not Jews only, but also Gentiles. As proof of that contention, he calls attention to this prophecy of Hosea and quotes it. His argument is, therefore, that Scripture refers to the whole church in both the old and new dispensations as Israel and Judah. Thus, he establishes his argument by saying that Hosea was not referring to national Israel, but was referring to the church of Christ gathered from every nation under heaven: “I will call them my people, which were not my people” (see also 1 Peter 2:10). The apparent material blessings to which Hosea referred are actually spiritual blessings.

Jeremiah 31:33, 34

Another passage that teaches the unity of the church is Jeremiah 31:33, 34:

But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

Here, too, God speaks emphatically of a covenant which he makes with the house of Israel. One could conclude based on the passage alone that the reference is to the nation of Israel, for it speaks of a covenant made exclusively with the house of Israel. But in Hebrews 8:6-13, Scripture speaks of the work of Christ our High Priest who fulfilled this passage in Jeremiah for the entire church of the new dispensation:

But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord: I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: and they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.

Here, too, it is clear that “the house of Israel and the house of Judah” means the catholic church of the new dispensation and that the blessings promised to “the house of Israel and Judah” are perpetual.

Amos 9:11-15

Perhaps no passage shows this truth as clearly as Amos 9:11-15:

In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old: that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by my name, saith the LORD that doeth this. Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. And I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the LORD thy God.

How clearly the Amos reference seems to be to the nation of Israel. There are references to the old tabernacle that will be raised up, to Israel’s enemy Edom, to the land of Canaan and material prosperity in that land, and to continual life in earthly Canaan. If one takes the passage by itself, one can only conclude that God is making covenant promises to the nation that have a natural and national fulfilment at some future time.

Do the Scriptures themselves agree with that interpretation of Amos 9? They emphatically do not. Acts 15 is the record of the Jerusalem Council, which met to decide on the question of whether Gentiles could be saved as Gentiles. The question was not whether Gentiles could be saved. No one ever doubted this. During Old Testament times Gentiles were saved by becoming Jews, and they became Jews through the rite of circumcision. The council was called to decide whether it was still true in the New Testament that Gentiles could be saved only by becoming Jews. The first missionary journey of the apostle Paul brought about this question. Many Gentiles had been saved and had not been required to undergo circumcision, because it was the apostle’s contention that God was now gathering a church that was truly catholic; a church in which all racial, national, and personal characteristic were preserved for the benefit of the church. In the course of the argument at the council, “after they had held their peace,” James, the brother of the Lord and an elder in the Jerusalem church, spoke:

Men and brethren, hearken unto me: Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name. And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written, After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up: that the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things (Acts 15:13-17).

James quoted the prophecy of Amos, which seems to refer to the salvation of the Jews, as being fulfilled in the gathering of the Gentiles. The council listened to James’ advice, accepted his interpretation of Amos’ prophecy as correct, and formulated their decision based on it. The salvation of the Gentiles is the restoration of the tabernacle of David. The “material” blessings promised to “national Israel” are really spiritual blessings promised to the whole church.

One must take either of two positions: Either James made a serious mistake in his exegesis of the Old Testament, and the church erred in adopting his advice, or the Old Testament prophecies which speak of the material and national aspects of Israel’s life are prophecies fulfilled when the Gentile church is saved. The former would do violence to the principle of Scripture’s divine inspiration; therefore, the latter must be true.

It ought not to escape our attention that we have an implicit hermeneutical rule that must be applied to all similar passages. God’s word itself, by this New Testament interpretation of an Old Testament passage, tells us how to explain other passages. When prophecy speaks of future promises for the nation of Israel and refers to them in national and material terms, the language is clothed in the types and shadows of the Old Testament, and these passages much be interpreted in terms of their New Testament fulfilment.