Jew, Gentile, Church of God: November 2025
Table of Contents
Jew, Gentile, The Church of God
In 1 Corinthians 10:32, the Apostle furnishes us with a classification of mankind which greatly helps not only to the understanding of prophecy but of the whole Word of God. “Give none offense, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God.” Here we have the three great spheres in which the glory of Christ is displayed. As it respects man’s condition before God in reference to eternity, there are but two classes, the saved and the unsaved ― those who have been really born again and those who are still in nature’s darkness and unbelief. But with regard to God’s government of the world, there are three classes―Jews, Gentiles and the church—and no one can rightly divide the Word of God who overlooks this division. To trace through Scripture God’s purpose concerning these three classes is the surest way to ascertain the order of God’s dispensations and the harmony of all portions of the Holy Scriptures with each other.
A. Miller
Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth
The title of this article is taken from 2 Timothy 2:15, where the Apostle Paul exhorts Timothy on the importance of being “approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed.” An important part of achieving this goal was for such a workman to be “rightly dividing the word of truth,” or as another excellent translation puts it, “Cutting in a straight line the word of truth” (JND trans.). An old brother under whose ministry I sat in my youth used to emphasize this exhortation to us constantly with the statement, “Keep Scripture in its place; it is so helpful!” As we view the confusion and error that pervades much of Christendom today, we can easily recognize that much of it stems from a failure to interpret the Word of God correctly. Sometimes this is done in ignorance, while at other times it is “that teaching which is in the sleight of men, in unprincipled cunning with a view to systematized error” (Eph. 4:14 JND). A sad result of this is that those who are young in the faith are often like “children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine” (Eph. 4:14).
Some years ago I was in conversation with a young woman who was a believer in the Lord Jesus, but who differed sharply with me on certain aspects of divine truth. When I referred to the Word of God to back up what I was saying, her response was, “But that is merely your interpretation of the Bible.” This led to my asking her, “Then did God write His Word in such a confusing way that honest Christians could not read it and be of one mind?” She grudgingly admitted that no, the problem was not with God’s Word, but rather with us. I pointed out to her that in this time of God’s grace, true believers are indwelt with the Spirit of God, and Scripture speaks of “the unity of the Spirit” (Eph. 4:3). There is therefore a unity into which the Spirit of God seeks to lead every Christian, according to the truth of God. More than this, God is willing to make His mind known, in order that we might “all come in the unity of the faith” (Eph. 4:13) and not be carried about with every wind of doctrine.
Dispensation
One of the reasons that believers do not understand the Word of God clearly is that they either reject or do not understand dispensational truth. The word “dispensation” literally means a “house law,” or the administration of a household. In Scripture it refers to the way God dealt with this world in various ways at different times in the world’s history. The title of this issue of The Christian shows us the three basic divisions of mankind today that are given to us in the Bible, and under the framework of these three divisions we may explore the different ways in which God dealt with each one.
The Old Testament is largely taken up with Israel and how God tested them under the law that He gave them. They were, and still are, God’s chosen people, to whom He gave everything that might have resulted in a proper response from them toward God. As we know, they failed miserably in their response to God’s goodness, and they were finally allowed, in God’s government, to be carried away into captivity. But God has not forgotten them, and the Old Testament Hebrew prophets show us that God will bring Israel back into earthly blessing in a coming day.
The Old Testament also tells us about the Gentiles, who represented all those who were not part of Israel. They were outside of God’s covenant with Israel, and any blessing they might enjoy had to flow to them through Israel, who had the knowledge of the true God. But then, after Israel had failed, God began what are termed “the times of the Gentiles” in 605 B.C., which go on to this day. At that time, God raised up the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar, who took Judah away into captivity. God ceased to use Israel to lay claim to this world, and He gave up the world to Gentile rule. Since the times of the Gentiles began, the Jews have largely been fugitives in this world, and they did not exist as a sovereign nation for more than 2500 years. It is amazing that after such an immense gap of time, Israel once again became a nation in 1948.
The Church of God
Then we have the church of God, which is never mentioned in the Old Testament, but is rather brought out in the New Testament after Israel rejected their Messiah — the Lord Jesus. This all comes to a head rather clearly in the gospel of Matthew, and we admit that differentiating scriptures that refer to “Jew and Gentile and the church of God” can sometimes be confusing. The gospel of Matthew requires careful study, but some of the more difficult chapters only serve to show us that going from the dispensation of law to the dispensation of grace was progressive, like the dawning of a day, rather than a sudden event that happened quickly.
Matthew is the kingdom gospel, and it thus begins with our Lord Jesus presenting Himself to Israel as their rightful King. He presented every credential that was needed to identify clearly who He was, yet the nation rejected Him, except for a small group of His followers. As a result, our Lord formally rejects Israel in chapter 12, referring to them as a “wicked generation” who would eventually fall into worse idolatry than they had been guilty of before the Lord allowed them to be taken into captivity.
Then, in Matthew 13, the Lord Jesus begins a new focus, bringing out through various parables (ten in total) the condition of things that would come about as a result of His rejection. Then in chapter 16, He speaks of something entirely new — the church. This was to be future, for He says, “I will build My church” (Matt. 16:18). The broad picture is given to us, but not the details; they were left for the Apostle Paul to bring out, as he was given that truth from a risen Christ in glory.
The church is unique in God’s purposes, with a heavenly calling, and thus is not mentioned or taken account of in prophecy. Prophecy concerns the earth, while the church is a heavenly company. For this reason, the church will be taken out of this world before the Lord begins His work with Israel, to restore them to earthly blessing. As Matthew is the kingdom gospel, the truth of the kingdom of heaven is brought out, which brings before us the sphere of Christian profession on earth. Baptism is brought out, as the means of entering into the kingdom.
Israel Is Not Forgotten
However, Israel is not forgotten, and in chapter 24 our Lord, responding to a question from some of His disciples, gives us a prophecy of what would happen to Israel before they were fully restored as a nation. All this cannot be properly understood without understanding the prophecies of Daniel and also the book of Revelation. What is instructive to notice is that our Lord leaves out any discussion of the church period, having already detailed much concerning that period in the ten parables of the kingdom of heaven.
Again, the church period is dovetailed into this without specific reference to it, in the three parables given at the end of chapter 24 and in chapter 25. These are the parables concerning the faithful steward (Matt. 24:45-51), the parable of the ten virgins (Matt. 25:1-13), and the parable of the talents (Matt. 25:14-30).
Is this confusing? Yes, we admit that it can be, and again, it requires careful reading and comparison with other scriptures, in order to arrive at a right interpretation. Is it worth it? Indeed it is. God has not always placed all His truth right on the surface, knowing that we value something more if we must put out some effort to search it out.
In summary, it is possible to be “cutting in a straight line the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15 JND) and to be confident that we have a right interpretation of the Word of God. God is willing to make His mind known and will reveal it to us by His Spirit.
W. J. Prost
Israel and the Church
A knowledge of “dispensational truth,” as it is often termed, is indispensable for the intelligent reading of the Bible. Yet many Christians seem to have hardly given it a thought. God has been pleased to deal with men at different times in various ways. Fresh revelations of Himself and of His will have ushered in new modes of dealing with men, new dispensations.
“Dispensational truth” teaches us rightly to distinguish these changes and to discern their nature, so that the important features of each may not be obscured. The importance of this for us Christians is that we thereby learn the true character of the calling wherewith we are called from on high and of the age in which we live.
Up to the time of Christ, a dispensation ran its course in which the prominent feature was Israel, the chosen nation of the stock of Abraham. The period in which we live, from Pentecost to the coming of the Lord, is marked by altogether different features. Not Israel, but the church is prominent in God’s thoughts today. Before dwelling on the important distinctions between the two, let us be quite sure that we understand exactly what we are speaking about.
By ISRAEL we do not mean the Jews, the scattered nation as they are today, nor as they were in the time of our Lord, a remnant still clinging to their ancient capital, Jerusalem. We do not allude to them as they actually existed at any time, but rather to what that nation was according to God’s original plan for them.
The Church
When we speak of THE CHURCH, we do not refer to any ecclesiastical building nor to any denomination, nor to any number of professed Christians banded together into what is called nowadays “a church.” We use the term in its scriptural sense. The Greek word rendered “church” simply means “called-out ones.” Those who are called out of the world by God during this period of Christ’s rejection are by this means and by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit banded together into God’s assembly, the church.
It may be helpful to notice that in Scripture the term “church” is used in three ways:
1. As denoting the aggregate number of the Christians in any given place (1 Cor. 1:2; Col. 4:15, etc.).
2. As the aggregate number of all Christians upon earth at any given time (1 Cor. 10:32; 1 Cor. 12:28; Eph. 1:22, etc.). In this aspect, the church is like a regiment which abides the same, though the units which compose it are constantly changing.
3. As the aggregate number of all Christians, called out and sealed with the Spirit between Pentecost and the coming of the Lord (Eph. 3:21; Eph. 5:25, etc.).
Of these, the last is the sense in which we use the word in this article, though if we speak of the church as it exists on earth today, we obviously allude to it in its second aspect. It must be remembered, however, that we refer, as in the case of Israel, not to what the church actually is or has at any time been, but to what it is according to the original design and thought of God.
A Few Necessary Distinctions
Having defined our terms, let us observe a few necessary distinctions.
1. With John, the forerunner of the Lord, God’s utterances under the old covenant reached their full stop. With Christ, the new utterances began. His appearance on earth heralded the dawn of a new day. When the Son of God had died and risen again, when He had ascended to heaven and sent down the Holy Spirit, then was inaugurated a dispensation that was utterly different from all that had gone before.
2. The characteristic feature of the old dispensation was law; that of the new is grace. In Christ, a power mightier than the law was present. Now God gives and man receives. The new dispensation is marked by grace reigning through righteousness, to eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom. 5:21).
3. The old dispensation centered around Israel as a nation; the new is connected with the church. There is nothing national about the church. God is now making an election from all nations, and those thus gathered out for His name compose “the church.”
Moreover, in connection with the church, God begins with the individual. It is composed of those who have personally been set in right relations with God. Only as forgiven and as having received the Spirit to indwell them do they become members of the one body and “living stones” in the spiritual house.
4. Connected with Israel was a ritualistic worship, the value of which lay in its typical significance. The church’s worship does not consist of sacrificial offerings, symbolic ceremonies, and the like, but is “worship in spirit and in truth.”
5. Israel’s blessings and privileges were largely of an earthly and material order; the church’s are heavenly and spiritual. When Paul wrote to the Ephesians as to the heavenly inheritance of Christians, far from speaking of material things, he said, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” (Eph. 1:3). How complete the contrast!
6. While Israel’s destiny is to be the channel of blessing to all nations, during the golden years of the millennial age, the church’s destiny is association with Christ in heaven.
Was there a definite time when God’s ways with Israel ended and when the church period began?
The death of Christ marked the close of God’s dealings with Israel as a nation, and His resurrection and the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost inaugurated the present dispensation. Compare Acts 2:41-47 with 1 Corinthians 12:13.
Two qualifying remarks must, however, be made.
First, though God’s ways with Israel reached their great climax in the cross, He, nevertheless, continued certain supplementary dealings with them until the death of Stephen, and perhaps even until the destruction of Jerusalem. Nor were the full designs of God as to the church made known in their entirety at the very outset of the present age. They were gradually revealed through the apostles, particularly through Paul, though the church itself began its corporate existence on the day of Pentecost.
Second, God’s ways with Israel have ended only for a time. Israel has been side-tracked, as it were, while the church occupies the rails. When the church has been transferred to heaven, Israel will again be brought out upon the main line of God’s dealings.
What was God’s object in calling out Israel into the special place they occupied?
They were called to take possession of the promised land for God, as a kind of pledge that the whole earth belonged to Him. When they entered Canaan, they crossed the Jordan as the people of “the Lord of all the earth” (Josh. 3:11-13). Further, they were to preserve in the world the stock “of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came” (Rom. 9:5). Incidentally also, in that nation as a sample and privileged beyond all others was made God’s last trial of the human race. If, as Romans 3:19 puts it, the law utterly condemns the sample nation of the Jews, who were under it, then every mouth is stopped, and all the world is “guilty before God.”
What is God’s object and purpose in connection with the church?
The church is Christ’s body (Eph. 1:23). Therefore in it He is to be expressed, just as our bodies are that in which we live and express ourselves.
It represents Him here during the time of His rejection and personal absence in heaven. Satan has got rid of Christ personally from the earth, but He is here as represented in His people. To touch the church, or any who belong to it, is to touch Him. His own words to Saul imply this: “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?” (Acts 9:4).
The church is God’s house, the only house He has upon earth at the present time. God will not be turned out of His own world! He dwells today in a house which none have been able to destroy. God’s ultimate purpose is to have a bride for Christ (Eph. 5:25-27), a people who, sharing now as heavenly strangers His rejection, find their eternal portion as sharers of His heavenly glory.
Shall we not thank God that our lot is cast on this side of the cross of Christ?
F. B. Hole (adapted)
Jews, Gentiles, and Church of God
Many Christians, on commencing the study of prophecy and seeing something of the judgments which attend the Lord’s coming at the close of the present dispensation, feel much difficulty as to who are to form the population of the millennial earth. If, say they, the church is caught up to be with the Lord and the wicked are destroyed, who are they that are left to inhabit the earth during the millennium?
In 1 Corinthians 10:32, the Apostle recognizes three different classes of persons: “Give none offense, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God.” Here we have the three classes of which mankind is composed. To trace through Scripture God’s purpose concerning each one is the surest way to ascertain the order of God’s dispensations and the harmony of all portions of prophetic testimony with each other. We will now look at some scriptural evidence of these things.
The Jews
To begin with, God’s purpose respecting “the Jews” we have in Genesis 12:2-3, where God says to Abram, “I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing; and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” Of this purpose we have a further development in Genesis 13:14-16: “The Lord said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward; for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth; so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered.” In Genesis 15:18 we have the boundaries of this land defined, and we have the earthly nature of the inheritance God designed for them still further exemplified in Deuteronomy 28. There we have the blessings promised to them in case of obedience and the curses denounced against them in case of disobedience. The blessings and curses were all of an earthly character, and how strictly and literally have they been fulfilled! Having enjoyed all the blessings Jehovah heaped upon them, the Jews proved themselves a disobedient and stiff-necked race.
God exercised great forbearance towards them, but after they had rejected and stoned the prophets, He sent His Son, the Heir of all things. Him they crucified and slew and thus sealed their doom. On this account, their city and temple were destroyed, their country pillaged, its population put to the sword, or else carried away captive. For nearly 2000 years, they have been monuments of God’s displeasure against sin, suffering the aggravated and complicated woes denounced against them.
The Gentiles
The instruments in inflicting all these woes on this guilty race have been “the Gentiles.” From the time that Abraham was called to be the father of God’s peculiar people, God did not deal directly with any nation upon the earth save the Jews. He did indeed occasionally use one or another of the nations to chastise His people, but still they — the Gentiles—remained under the awful sentence which we find in Romans 1:28: “Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient.”
About the time when the Jews were carried away captive into Babylon, however, a distinct grant of power was made to the Gentiles by the Almighty. Here begin the times of the Gentiles. The power which was thus bestowed on the Babylonish king Nebuchadnezzar descended to the Medes and Persians; from thence it passed into the hands of the Grecians, and the Grecian empire yielded to the power of Rome, the last kingdom, represented by the legs and feet of the image which Nebuchadnezzar saw (Dan. 2:31-45). The Roman empire was eventually broken up into a number of separate kingdoms, but its power continued in these kingdoms and will continue to exist till the coming of the Lord. It is by this power that the Jews have been so fearfully wasted and so heavily oppressed. The times of Gentile power began with the oppression of the Jews, and the Gentiles will continue to oppress the Jews as long as the times of Gentile dominion last.
The Covenant Made to Israel
But these times will not last forever. God “hath not cast away His people which He foreknew” (Rom. 11:2). He still intends to fulfill the covenant that He made with Abraham their father. He still intends them to be a great nation, to be at the head of all other nations, to possess all the earthly blessings which have been promised to them, and to be the center from which these blessings shall flow to all the other nations of the earth.
The Jews are to be under a sentence of judicial blindness till a certain time: “Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate” (Isa. 6:11).
After all this desolation in the land of Judea, the children of Israel are to return to it. “Lo, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will bring again the captivity of My people Israel and Judah, saith the Lord: and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it” (Jer. 30:3). “I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land” (Ezek. 36:24).
The Oppression of the Jews by the Gentiles
We need scarcely remind the reader that “the Gentiles” are those who reduce them to such extremities. Gentile power, which began at the very first to be exercised in oppressing the Jews, will, in a coming day, in a great, general confederacy of the nations, be employed in a determined effort to crush them and blot out the very remembrance of them from the earth. And they will be permitted so far to succeed in their plans as to cut off two-thirds of the Jews who have returned to their land, and even so far as to environ Jerusalem, capture it, and lead half of its inhabitants, half of the remaining third, into captivity.
It is when “the Jews,” pressed by “the Gentiles,” are in this extremity of distress that the Lord comes, and the scene changes immediately. The despairing remnant of “the Jews” are delivered, and “the Gentiles” are visited with tremendous judgments from the Lord. “Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when He fought in the day of battle” (Zech. 14:3).
It is upon the Gentiles that those terrible visitations of divine vengeance fall, which are uniformly represented as attending the coming of the Lord in judgment—first, upon those actually gathered together against the Lord at Jerusalem, and then upon the nations to which they belong. Many scriptures in both the Old and New Testaments attest to this, but space does not permit us to list them.
The Nations That Are Spared
We must not suppose, however, that the whole of the Gentiles are cut off by these judgments. One plain passage will be sufficient to show the contrary. “It shall come, that I will gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come and see My glory. And I will set a sign among them, and I will send those that escape of them [that is, the Gentiles] unto the nations of Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow, to Tubal, and Javan, to the isles afar off, that have not heard My fame, neither have seen My glory; and they shall declare My glory among the Gentiles” (Isa. 66:18-19). Thus we have clearly a remnant spared from the general destruction and employed after these judgments in two important enterprises: (1) “They declare God’s glory among the Gentiles.” (2) “They shall bring all your brethren [that portion of Israel which had not been restored to their own land before the coming of the Lord] for an offering unto the Lord out of all nations, upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to My holy mountain Jerusalem, saith the Lord, as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord” (Isa. 66:20).
When all the children of Israel are thus restored to their own land, the promises of earthly blessing will all be fulfilled to them. The Lord shall make them the head indeed, and not the tail. After the Lord’s return, the remnant of the Jews will be placed at the head of the nations and prosper as no nation ever prospered before. The remnant of the Gentiles and their posterity will submit to God’s appointment in this respect, and they will pour riches and honors on the once despised and afflicted Jews. This is what is presented to us, in various aspects, in almost every passage in the Old Testament which refers to the millennial state.
The Destiny of “the Church”
But it is really with the destiny of “the Church” that we have most to do. “The church” is something altogether distinct from both Jew and Gentile. Christ came to the Jews, but they procured the assistance of the Gentiles to put Him to death. Thus Jews and Gentiles united in the commission of the blackest crime that ever man committed. But this act of highest wickedness was at the same time overruled by God, so as to exhibit the richest display of His sovereign grace. Jesus, crucified by both Jew and Gentile, was raised from the dead and placed by His Father at the right hand of power, where He now waits till His enemies are made His footstool. As long as He sits waiting there, repentance and remission of sins are to be preached through His name in all nations. Whoever receives this message of mercy instantly becomes associated with Him — associated with Him in all the reproach and suffering which He endured on earth, associated with Him in all the glory which He has at present at God’s right hand, and all the glory in which He shall be revealed when He returns to earth. The Jew receives this message of mercy, and he ceases to be a Jew; the Gentile receives it, and he ceases to be a Gentile. All who receive it, whether Jew or Gentile, are dead to all their former liabilities and to all their former, cherished hopes. They have no prospect of an earthly inheritance like the Jews; they have, or ought to have, no share in the earthly power which, for a while, is lodged in Gentile hands. They are the bride of Christ Jesus, and that world which rejected the Bridegroom may be expected to reject the bride as well. They are but strangers and pilgrims here. But just as they share their Lord’s humiliation on the earth, they will share His glory when He returns.
The church is, at present, inferior both to Jews and Gentiles in respect to earthly things, for it has no place on earth at all. But in the state which succeeds the present, as far as the Jew will be above the Gentile, so far, and further, will the church be above them both. Before the judgments are inflicted on the guilty nations of the earth, the church is caught up to meet the Lord in the air. It is after this event — after the saints have thus met their long-expected Lord, and the marriage of the Lamb has taken place — it is after this that the saints are united with Jesus in His first act of kingly power, when He comes with all His saints to deliver Israel and scatter and destroy their adversaries. And after this, when Satan is bound, when the remnant of Jews and Gentiles submit to the peaceful sway of Jesus, it is then that the saints live and reign with Christ a thousand years. Jews and Gentiles on the earth are under the reign of Christ; the church is not under His reign, but reigns with Him as a Monarch’s bride and is partner of His throne.
Those who form the church were once, all of them, either Jews or Gentiles. They are neither now. They are “the church,” the bride of Christ. The world knew Him not — it knows them not. The world rejected Him — it rejects them likewise. But when earth rejected Jesus, heaven received Him, and they also are raised together with Christ to sit with Him in heavenly places.
“When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory” (Col. 3:4).
Bible Subjects for the Household of Faith, Vol. 1 (adapted)
The Three Spheres of Christ's Glory
To emphasize it, we repeat the theme of this issue. In 1 Corinthians 10:32, the Apostle furnishes us with a classification of mankind which greatly helps not only in the understanding of prophecy but the whole Word of God. “Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God.” Here we have the three great spheres in which the glory of Christ is displayed. As it respects man’s condition before God in reference to eternity, there are but two classes, the saved and the unsaved — those who have been really born again and those who are still in nature’s darkness and unbelief. But with regard to God’s government of the world, there are three classes — Jews, Gentiles, and the church. No one can rightly divide the Word of God who overlooks this division. To trace through Scripture God’s purpose concerning these three classes is the surest way to ascertain the order of God’s dispensations and the harmony of all portions of the holy Scriptures with each other. At present we can refer only to a few passages of Scripture by way of introducing the reader to this threefold purpose of God.
The Jews
In Genesis 12:1-3, “The Lord had said unto Abram ... I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” We have a further development of this purpose in chapter 13. “The Lord said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art, northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward; for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever” (vs. 14). In chapter 15 the boundaries of the land are defined. In Deuteronomy 28 we have the blessings promised them in case of obedience, and the curses denounced against them in case of disobedience. But, sadly! the highly favored people proved themselves a disobedient and stiff-necked race. God exercised great forbearance towards them, but after they had rejected and stoned the prophets whom He sent unto them, He sent His Son, the heir of all things. Him they crucified, and thus filled up the measure of their iniquities and sealed their doom. On this account, wrath came upon them to the uttermost; their city and temple were destroyed, their country pillaged, its population put to the sword, or else carried away captive. For nearly 2000 years they have been monuments of God’s displeasure against sin, suffering the aggravated and complicated woes denounced against sin.
The Gentiles
From the time that Abraham was called to be the father of God’s peculiar people, He did not deal directly with any nation upon the earth, save the Jews. Until Nebuchadnezzar’s time, God’s throne and presence were in the midst of Israel. But from the time that the Jews were carried away captive into Babylon, the sovereign power in the earth ceased to be immediately exercised by God, and it was confided to man, among those who were not His people, in the person of Nebuchadnezzar. This was a change of immense importance, in respect of both the government of the world and God’s judgment of His people. Both led the way to the great objects of prophecy developed at the close—the restoration, through tribulation, of a rebellious people and the judgment of an unfaithful and apostate Gentile head of power.
We have an account of this great change in the prophet Daniel 2:37-38: “Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven, hath He given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold.” The times of the Gentiles begin here. The power which was thus bestowed on the Babylonish king descended to the Medes and Persians; from thence it passed into the hands of the Greeks, and then to the Romans, the last kingdom represented by the image. The Roman empire, though eventually broken up into a number of separate kingdoms, continued its name in these kingdoms and will continue until the coming of the Lord. It is by these Gentile powers that the Jews have been so fearfully wasted and oppressed. At the end of their 70-years’ captivity, a portion of the Jews returned to Jerusalem, but they were mere tributaries of the Persian king; they never afterward had any independent government of their own. They were under the Roman yoke when Christ appeared among them, and they could not put their Messiah to death without the consent of the Roman governor. A second time their city and temple were destroyed by the Gentiles, and the Savior Himself declared that Jerusalem should be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled (Luke 21:24).
But these times will not last forever. God has not cast off His people whom He foreknew. He will fulfill, in due time, the covenant of grace that He made with Abraham their father. They will yet be a great nation and the head of all other nations and the center from which blessing shall flow out to all the nations of the earth.
The Church of God
The church, it will be seen, is something altogether distinct from both Jews and Gentiles. Christ came to the Jews—His own people—but they received Him not. He was despised and rejected of men. Jews and Gentiles united in accomplishing His death. By this act of crowning wickedness the condemnation of both was sealed. But God overruled all in richest, sovereign grace. The blessed Jesus, rejected by men, having accomplished the great work of redemption, was raised from the dead and placed at the right hand of power where He now waits till His enemies be made His footstool. So long as He is seated at God’s right hand, repentance and remission of sins are to be preached through His name in all nations. Whosoever of all these nations receives this message is pardoned, saved, and becomes associated with the rejected One of earth and the glorified One in heaven. The moment the Jew receives this message of mercy, he ceases to be a Jew, and the moment the Gentile receives it, he ceases to be a Gentile. This is a point of immense importance in the dispensational ways and dealings of God. The Jew, when he believes in Christ, dies to all his liabilities or privileges as a Jew and to all his fondly cherished hopes of an inheritance in the land. The Gentile dies to all share in the earthly power which, for a while, is lodged in Gentile hands..
What then, it may be asked, are they? They form part of the true church, and the world has no place for it. They are but strangers and pilgrims now in this world. Their home is on high. They are called to share their Lord’s humiliation on earth during His absence; they will share His glory when He returns.
Another truth of great practical importance now appears very plain—namely, that the church of God, the body of Christ, had no existence in fact till after the death, resurrection and glory of Christ in heaven. A popular doctrine today teaches that “the church of God consists of all saved persons from the beginning to the end of time.” The saints who compose the church, we readily admit, have many things in common with the Old Testament saints. Both groups are quickened by the same Holy Spirit, justified through the same precious blood, preserved by the same almighty grace, and destined in resurrection to be conformed to the image of God’s dear Son. But the wondrous distinction of being Christ’s body, His bride, baptized by the Holy Spirit, and thus one with Him as the exalted Man in the glory are blessings peculiar to the church. In place of the church consisting of all believers from the beginning to the end of time, it is limited in Scripture to the assembly of true believers from the day of Pentecost (when it was formed by the Holy Spirit come down from heaven) to the descent of the Lord Jesus into the air, to receive it to Himself in the Father’s house.
It was by the cross that the middle wall of partition was broken down, that Jews and Gentiles might be formed into one body. “Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in Himself of twain [Jews and Gentiles] one new man [not a continuation of the old, nor an improvement of the old, but ONE NEW MAN], so making peace” (Eph. 2:15).
A. Miller
The Times of the Gentiles
Let us read a verse from the gospel of Luke where we find the above term used.
“And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled” (Luke 21:24).
The word Gentile is used in Scripture to describe any and all nations who are not Jews. Before the days of Christianity, there were only Jews and Gentiles on earth, but now there is another body known in Scripture as the “church of God,” which is composed of those who are saved from among both Jews and Gentiles. All three are mentioned in one verse, “Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God.” (1 Cor. 10:32). Before marking out what is meant by the term, the “times of the Gentiles,” we shall have to look at the history of the Jews.
Israel’s and the Amorites
God chose the seed of Abraham for His special people on earth. They were further marked out in Isaac and Jacob; and when God gave to the nations their inheritance on earth, He marked out their bounds “according to the number of the children of Israel” (Deut. 32:8). They were His special possession on earth among mankind. He gave them His promises, and then His covenants. After their redemption from Egypt, He came down and dwelt in their midst.
God also gave them the land of Canaan for a possession and drove out the inhabitants of that land. He did not, however, drive them out without just and sufficient reason. The seven nations who inhabited that land were only tenants on it, as it all belonged to God. Through their great wickedness, these nations polluted the land wherein they dwelt. God said to Abraham that He would give his seed the land of Canaan, but not yet, because “the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full” (Gen. 15:16). This is a principle with God. He never acts in judgment until there is no other alternative. He waits long in patience, but when iniquity reaches its peak, He must act in judgment.
So when the iniquity of the heathen who occupied the land of Canaan reached the limit, God gave the land to the children of Israel. He brought them out of Egypt and planted them in the land whereon His eyes were “from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year” (Deut. 11:12).
We do not have space here to recount the multitude of blessings that were bestowed on the Israelites in their land, but we all know the sad history of failure which followed. While the heathen had polluted the land before, Israel did it afterward. In Psalm 106:38 we read that they polluted the land with blood. They learned the works of the heathen and worshiped their false gods. In fact, the condition in that land became as bad, or even worse, than it was when inhabited by the heathen whom God displaced because of their wickedness. Note this verse, “So Manasseh made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err, and to do worse than the heathen, whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel. And the Lord spake to Manasseh, and to his people: but they would not hearken” (2 Chron. 33:9-10).
No, they would not hearken. We read that God sent many messengers to them, but they despised the messengers and misused His prophets “till there was no remedy” (2 Chron. 36:14, 16). If God had not acted then, it would have shown Him to be as careless of His glory as they were. He must act! Their very nearness to God, and place of special favor, did not make them exempt from punishment — No! It increased it. God’s special favors increase our responsibility, as we read of Israel,” You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities” (Amos 3:2).
The Kingdom of Babylon
Finally, after every possible effort had been made on God’s part to recall His earthly people, He sent Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, to chastise that guilty nation. Note these words, “And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with part of the vessels of the house of God: which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his god” (Dan. 1:2). Yes, the Lord gave the children of Judah into the hands of this Gentile monarch. In fact, God gave this king a universal dominion, and withdrew His throne from the earth. Earlier (Joshua 3:11) God was called the “Lord of all the earth,” but in the book of Daniel, He is called the “God of heaven.” Israel who had been called “His people,” are then called “not My people” (Hos. 1:9). This great change that took place when God withdrew His throne from the earth, and turned His earthly people over to Gentile control, marked the beginning of the “times of the Gentiles.” This change took place about the year 606 B.C. While a remnant of Judah returned from captivity seventy years later, they only did so under the power and control of the Gentiles. So, the “times of the Gentiles” went on, and still continue today.
When our Lord spoke in Luke 21, He said that after His speaking, Jerusalem was to be “trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” This treading down of Jerusalem by the Gentiles came to pass about the year 70 A.D., and also continues to this day. While many Jews have gone back to their land since Israel once again became a sovereign nation in 1948, and the city of Jerusalem is under their military control, yet they dare not destroy the Mosque of Omar and rebuild the temple on that site. The Gentile presence is still felt very strongly in that city. The situation will remain so regardless of anything man can do, “until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” That word “until” does tell us that there will be definite termination of this period. In fact, we are getting towards the very end of it — how close we do not know. But it will end when Christ the Lord comes out of heaven with His saints to execute judgment on this Christ-rejecting earth.
The Image of a Man
“The times of the Gentiles” are pictured in Daniel 2 in the image of a man. The last part of this figure of the “man of the earth” is the feet and toes, which describe the last part and state of Gentile power before the end of this period of time. Then, as we see in that same chapter, the Lord shall come out of heaven to execute judgment as the “stone cut out of the mountain without hands.” He will strike the then-existent part of Gentile dominion (the feet and toes of the image—the revived Roman Empire) in His wrath, and break all things to pieces. After executing judgment, His kingdom will fill the whole earth, and Israel will again be brought into a place of blessing and prominence. However, it will be a new Israel — they will have a new heart in that day.
May the Lord give us all to see in what close proximity we are to the very end of this age. May we be looking for our Lord from heaven and holding the things of earth more lightly.
Young Christian, Vol. 35 (adapted)
Practical Considerations
During my lifetime I have met up with those who demeaned dispensational truth and the scriptural reference to the three categories — Jews, Gentiles and the church of God. Some subscribed to what is commonly known as covenant theology or reconstructionism, while others wanted to focus on preaching the gospel and openly did not care about the truth of the church. In this article I would like to take up some very practical effects of understanding dispensational truth, and particularly the advantages of seeing the difference between Jews, Gentiles and the church of God.
Intelligence
First of all, we read in John 15:15 that the Lord Jesus said to His disciples, “The servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of My Father I have made known unto you.” The Lord Jesus has taken us into His confidence, as His body and His bride, and He wants us to know all that He is doing. God the Father has purposes concerning His beloved Son and has communicated all these purposes to Him. He in turn wants us to be intelligent as to all that concerns Him, for we are one with Him. He wants us to be knowledgeable about what is going on in this world, as events begin to shape up for the accomplishment of those purposes concerning Him.
Second, and related to what we have said in the previous paragraph, the Lord wants us to be at peace in the middle of all the turmoil in this world. Those who do not know the Lord will one day find their hearts “failing them for fear” (Luke 21:26), and as world events begin to be more chaotic and confused, this attitude is overtaking many even now. Believers who do not understand God’s purposes may well be caught up in this fear too. Since we know how it all is going to end, we can be at peace, and our peace is our testimony to this world. When the world asks us how we can be at peace, we can use the opportunity to tell them how they too can come to know Christ as Savior and not succumb to the fear that is overwhelming others.
Confidence
Third, understanding how the “Jews, Gentiles, and the church of God” fit together in God’s purposes enables the believer today to display the paradox of being confident, yet concerned. We are confident as to our own future, yet concerned for the lost in this world who do not yet know the Savior. Our confidence does not take away our concern, but nor does our concern result in frantic and irrational activity. The believer’s feet are always “shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace” (Eph. 6:15).
Fourth, we are able to order our lives in the right way, according to God’s mind, for the day in which we live. Unless we see clearly God’s different ways of dealing with various groups of people in this world today, we become confused and perhaps begin to act as if we lived in Old Testament times. We will tend to misplace Scriptures and take them out of their context, thus creating a collection of beliefs that is nothing more than “systematized error” (Eph. 4:14 JND). God wants His children to be “rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15), and this is possible only when we understand God’s purposes.
The Honor and Glory of Christ
Finally, and most important, understanding God’s purposes brings before our hearts the final result of all those purposes — the honor and glory of His beloved Son. When we become taken up with man and all his purposes and plans, we are apt to lose sight of God’s purposes. From a past eternity, He has had before Him the glorification of His beloved Son, and He created both this world, and also time, in order to bring this about. Since the time that Cain “went out from the presence of the Lord,” man has been trying to dispose of this world as his own, without recognizing God’s claims as the Creator of it. But God’s purposes will be carried out, while the purposes and movements of man will fall to the ground, except as they accomplish God’s purposes. Truly “His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom is from generation to generation ... and He doeth according to His will ... among the inhabitants of the earth” (Dan. 4:34-35).
W. J. Prost
Prophetic Terms: the Fullness of the Gentiles
There is a period of time spoken of in the epistle to the Romans, which has a very special reference to the days in which we live, as showing that there will be an end to the present period of grace. It is called “the fullness of the Gentiles.”
“I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits, that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in” (Rom. 11:25).
There are several things indicated in this verse and in the whole 11th chapter of Romans.
First, that Israel has been partly blinded in the governmental dealings of God.
Second, that the Gentiles are at present brought into a special place of blessing and favor.
Third, that this present period of Gentile preference is to end, and Israel again become the center of God’s ways of blessing on earth.
We might then inquire, How did Israel obtain the special favored place in the past dispensation? We will have to go back into the Old Testament and there see that after the flood, men became idolaters and corrupted themselves in the worship of images, behind which were demons. From this condition God called Abraham (Gen. 12:1-3; Josh. 24:15), and made him promises as to his seed after him. God began in Abraham a line of special promise and blessing on the earth. This special privilege is spoken of figuratively in Romans, as an “olive tree” of which Abraham was the root. The Israelites were the natural branches of this “olive tree” (see Jer. 11:16).
Before the days of Christianity, it was a distinct advantage to be born a Jew. There were special promises conferred on them. This is well described in the words of Romans 3:1-2 — “What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.” They had the promises, the covenants, the law, the sacred Scriptures of the Old Testament and many other advantages.
Judicial Blindness
The next question that arises is, Why were these favored people blinded and cut off from the olive tree? Their blindness was brought about, first, through their own willful departure from God, and then by God’s just decree, when they rejected every means of recalling them to Himself. We find that God pronounced the decree of judicial blindness against the Jews back in the days of Isaiah. “And He said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed” (Isa. 6:9-10).
This sentence was issued against the Israelites over 750 years before the Lord Jesus came into the world. Another question might well be asked, When was this threat of blindness actually carried out? In the answer to this question we are impressed with the wondrous long-suffering of God. God waited long and patiently. He sent prophet after prophet to His erring people, and finally sent His Son, whom they rejected and cast out. Even during the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus, His own nation closed their eyes to the light. In Matthew 13 the Lord made mention of the sentence of blindness pronounced by the prophet Isaiah. It was being partially fulfilled because of their persistent willfulness.
But even then, God lingered in patience over His earthly people. After the death, resurrection, and ascension of the Lord Jesus, He sent them a message of free pardon and salvation through the testimony of the Spirit of God to the finished work of Christ. This is plainly shown in the defense of the martyr Stephen in Acts 7. After Stephen had charged them with the guilt of resisting the Holy Spirit, they stoned him, thus showing their rejection of God’s final offer of mercy before the carrying out of the sentence in full.
The Jews at Jerusalem thus sealed their own fate. Then as the gospel messengers went about preaching from city to city, they sought out the Jews first. When the Jews rejected the gospel, the blindness descended on them. It seems to have settled down gradually from place to place as they refused the last message of grace. It settled down somewhat in the same manner in which the glory left the temple in Ezekiel — little by little, as though loathe to do so. It is fairly easy to trace through the Acts the progress of the rejection of the gospel by the Jews, and the shift to the Gentiles. We might note some examples.
The Shift Toward the Gentiles
“Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles” (Acts 13:46). This was at Antioch in Pisidia. Next notice the same development at Corinth:
“Paul... testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ. And when they opposed themselves, and blasphemed, he shook his raiment, and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean: from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles” (Acts 18:5-6).
Finally, we see the Apostle Paul sent to Rome, the great capital city of the empire, the world metropolis, as a prisoner, because of Jewish hatred. When he arrived in Rome he “called the chief of the Jews together ... to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets ... And when they agreed not among themselves, they departed, after that Paul had spoken one word, Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the prophet unto our fathers” (Acts 28:17, 23, 25). Paul then quotes the sentence from Isaiah 6 as applying to the case, ending with, “Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it” (Acts 28:26-28).
Grafted Into the Olive Tree
Here, almost 800 years after its pronouncement, the sentence is fulfilled. Thus the gospel to the “Jew first” was closed, and the Gentiles became the center of God’s special favor upon the earth. They were brought into this through Israel’s fall. They were grafted into the “olive tree” on earth. It is a distinct advantage today to be born a Gentile. Yes, the Gentiles now have “much every way.”
But in Romans 11 God speaks, through the apostles, to the Gentiles. It is a solemn word of warning which He gives there. He says that if they do not continue in God’s goodness, they shall be cut off from the olive tree as Israel was; and then if the Gentiles are cut off, Israel shall be grafted in again.
We must remember that in all this it does not speak of a Christian who fails, being cut off, nor of a Christian being cut off at all. It is not “eternal life” in question, but the special favor of God to people on earth. The Gentiles now have this favor, and not the Jews. The Gentiles have the “salvation of God” preached to them freely, but as God suggests, Have they continued in His goodness? Has Christendom continued in the “faith once delivered to the saints”? NO! NO! NO! The answer is visible on every hand. Infidelity, modernism, evolution, false doctrines, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God! What a sad story and what gross ingratitude to God’s salvation prepared at such a great cost!
Reader, if you are not truly saved, be warned. The Lord Jesus is coming to take the real Christians home very soon, and then the “fullness of the Gentiles will be come in.” That is, it will be completed. The door of grace to the Gentiles will close and the mere professors be left behind for judicial blindness that “they all might be damned who believed not the truth” (2 Thess. 2:12). Such is the certain doom of fast decaying Christendom.
Paul Wilson
Contrast Between Israel and the Church
Ephesians 2 makes it impossible to mingle Jewish saints of the Old Testament with the church. The middle wall of partition separated them, but now in Christ it is broken down. The Jew as such was bound not to accept the foundation of the church; that is, he had to keep up the middle wall of partition and not let the Gentile in. But the principle of Christianity is that there is neither Jew nor Gentile, “for ye are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal.3:28). If the doctrine that Paul preached had been preached, say, in Hezekiah’s time, it would have broken down Judaism altogether. The mixture that exists today is really the refusal of the truth of the church; it practically denies that there is any.
J. N. Darby
God's Purposes
The Church
Father, oh how vast the blessing,
When Thy Son returns again!
Then the church, its rest possessing,
O’er the earth with Him shall reign.
Israel
For the fathers’ sake beloved,
Israel, in Thy grace restored,
Shall on earth, the curse removed,
Be the people of the Lord.
Then, too, countless myriads, wearing
Robes made white in Jesus’ blood,
Palms (like rested pilgrims) bearing,
Stand before the throne of God.
These, redeemed from every nation,
Shall in triumph bless Thy name;
Every voice shall cry, “Salvation
To our God and to the Lamb.”
Tregelles (Little Flock Hymnbook, #310)