When the Bible talks about Israel prophetically do you think it refers to the actual nation ?

Question

Or could it be spiritual Israel and acutally be the Church?

Answer 1

One of the meanings of isreal n the Bible means the choosing people and in modern context that is the Church. Christinity has traditonaly followed replacment theology as the Old testement and coventnat forshadows the new.

Answer 2

do you have a reference?

Answer 3

No. Israel means Israel = the Land / the Jews.

In the end of days people from all nations will abandon their former beliefs and come to learn from the Jews...

"Thus saith HaShem of hosts: In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold, out of all the languages of the nations, shall even take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying: We will go with you, for we have heard that G-d is with you." (Zechariah 8)

Answer 4

Most of the prophecies talk very specifically about physical things, such as the borders of the nation of Israel, the size and location of the new temple, etc. They are very difficult to get a "spiritual Israel" interpretation out of.

Would have to know which prophecy (as there a few in the NT that are spiritual Israel), but most are the Jewish nation of Israel.

Answer 5

Sometimes it's referring to the descendants of Jacob, who was renamed Israel.

Sometimes it's referring to the House or Kingdom of Israel ( the northern Kingdom - Samaria ) .

Sometimes it's referring to the entire nation which included the southern kingdom or House of Judah.

Don't be hasty, be attentive to these differences if you want to remain accurate.

Answer 6

As others have said, the Hebrew word, Israel, has two meanings:

1. Eretz Yisrael -- the land
2. Am Yisrael -- the people (nation)

Am Yisrael Chai!

From "Judaism for Everyone" by Shmuley Boteach:

…Jews felt that, in Christianity, their core teachings had been perverted and abused. They read some of the New Testament’s insidious attacks against them and wondered how a book claiming divine authorship can be so blatantly anti-Semitic. Although Christianity stemmed from Jewish origin, it took the concept of the Jewish God and associated it with a man; took the concept of sacrifice and associated it with a human sacrifice. Christianity took their cherished Torah and said that it had been superseded by a new testament. And finally, it took the concept of the chosen nation itself, claimed that the Jews had been abandoned by God, and called themselves the new Israel. Jews reacted with outrage. The Jews withdrew from mainstream Christian society. Christians’ burning Jews at the stake as heretics would do little to make them draw closer.
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Answer 7

"Spiritual Israel" refer to the people of the eternal covenant of Israel in the Tanakh. The spiritual connection to God through faith in the eternal covenant is what has kept Klal Yisrael a nation despite thousands of years to do away with the us.


Klal Yisrael..(the community of Israel) is the term used to refer to all of the nation of Israel, (the Jewish people) both in the modern state of Israel and in the Diaspora.

Am Yisrael Chai!

( the people Israel live!)

Btw..the Hebrew Bible doesn't make any claim that the covenant people of Israel have exclusive connection to God. The righteous of all nations merit blessing and all can connect directly according to the Holy Scriptures of Tanakh.
Anyone can become a part of the covenant people if you want to take on the additional requirements it entails..or you can live under the covenant of all humanity in Torah called the Noahide covenant.

This is what the Jewish Bible teaches...I understand that the Christian Bible teaches very differently.

I am merely giving the perspective from one of Klal Yisrael :) Please read below about the Noahide covenant.

And last edit to note...L'Chaim is spot on! thumbs up to you :)
Sorry, must edit again to note the glaring error from cmw. It is impossible for me to read the New Testament and not clearly see the passages that demonize Judaism. From the very first appearance of the New Testament, this has been the case. Here is a page that collected them all for easy reference http://www.messiahtruth.com/anti.html

This one selection has been responsible for more Jewish deaths from crusade, inquisition, pogrom and holocaust than any other IMHO :
John 8:44,47(KJV) – (44) Ye [Jews] are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye [Jews] will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

(47) He that is of God heareth God's words: ye [Jews] therefore hear them not, because ye [Jews] are not of God.

I've also had that passage spit at me many times in Yahoo when I've given contextual references in the Tanakh to correct misconceptions about Judaism and asked people to read for themselves.

Answer 8

The Bible speaks of the Jewish people and God's promise to the Jewish people concerning the land of Israel. He did not say this was not to be taken in a literal way. Those that wish to say that God does not fulfill covenant and breaks promises are just not telling the truth! I do not subscribe to replacement theology nor will I ever! It is really twisting the word of God and making God out as One who breaks his promises. This is just a lie, because God ALWAYS honors His promises! The Bible says that All nations would be blessed because of the Jewish people....does this sound like God has abandoned His promise to the Jewish people? I do not think so!

Answer 9

At times it may refer to the Church. but most of the time it refers to the nation, and not that little country over in the Middle East, that is, in reality, Judah, and there are prophecies specific to that nation.

When the Bible talks about prophecies of Ephraim, Manasseh, Israel, Joseph and Jacob it is, for the most part, talking about the Anglo-Saxon nations.

Care to prove it for yourself?

First, some essential background information:

http://angelmessage.org/judahs_sceptre/i...

Now the additional proofs, please study them prayerfully!

http://www.britam.org/

http://www.giveshare.org/israel/losttrib...

http://www.cog21.org/abip.html

http://www.sabbatarian.com/Content/Proph...

http://www.ucg.org/booklets/US/

http://stevenmcollins.com/index.html

Answer 10

Depends on which verse and such, but the nation of Israel could be interpreted as Gods Chosen one's... The ones who remain after the apocalypse...