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The Whosoever Study Bible
Whosoever will, may come.
Israel and the Church
Did the church replace Israel, continue it, or stand beside it?
Scroll the table sideways to compare all three
| DispensationalThis Bible holds this | Covenant / Replacement | Progressive Covenantal | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who the church is | A new body begun at Pentecost (Acts 2; Matt 16:18 "I will build"), Jew and Gentile in one new man, a "mystery... not made known" in other ages (Eph 3:5-6). Distinct from Israel.The answer → | The continuation of the one people of God; "the Israel of God" (Gal 6:16) is the church; the new covenant community replaces the old. | The church fulfills Israel's role in Christ, the true Israel; a new-covenant people in continuity with the old, with the distinction largely dissolved. |
| Rom 9:6“not all Israel, which are of Israel” | A distinction within physical Israel: believing Israel inside unbelieving Israel (Isaac not Ishmael, Jacob not Esau, all Abraham's blood). No Gentile in the verse.The answer → | A redefinition of Israel as the spiritual people of God, which includes Gentile believers. | Israel narrows to a believing remnant and widens to include believing Gentiles in Christ, the true Israel. |
| Rom 11:25-29“until the fulness of the Gentiles... all Israel shall be saved... the gifts and calling of God are without repentance” | A sequence (until) and a future: Gentiles come in, then national Israel is saved; Israel is "beloved for the fathers' sakes" while in unbelief, and her calling is irrevocable. The natural branches are grafted "in again" (11:23). | "All Israel" is the full number of the elect, Jew and Gentile; "until" marks the whole age; no distinct national future. | "All Israel" may include a future ingathering of ethnic Jews into the church, but not a restored national Israel with land and throne. |
| Gal 6:16“the Israel of God” | Two groups blessed: "as many as walk according to this rule" (Gentile believers), and (Greek kai) "the Israel of God" (believing Jews). KJV reads "and."The answer → | One group: kai read as "even," the church renamed Israel. The strongest replacement text. | Read as "even," the church as the true Israel of God. |
| Eph 2:12-19“aliens from the commonwealth of Israel... fellowcitizens with the saints” | Gentiles were outside Israel's commonwealth and are now citizens of a new household, "one new man" (2:15), fellow citizens "with the saints," not with Israel. A new body, not the old one renamed. | Gentiles are brought into Israel's commonwealth; the church is Israel enlarged. | Gentiles join the one people of God in Christ, Israel's promises now shared. |
| The land promise“(Gen 15:18, Ezek 47-48)” | Literal, unconditional to Abraham's seed through Jacob, fulfilled in the millennium with Ezekiel's borders and tribal allotments. Not transferred to the church. | Typological: the land points to the new creation or to rest in Christ; no future territorial fulfillment. | Fulfilled in Christ and the new creation; the land was always a type. |
| The olive tree“(Rom 11:17-24)” | One tree (the Abrahamic promise), natural branches (Israel) broken off for unbelief, wild branches (Gentiles) grafted in among them, natural branches to be grafted in again. Both remain distinct kinds of branch. | One tree, one people; the broken branches are unbelievers of any kind; no national regrafting. | One people of God in Christ; believing Jews are regrafted individually, not nationally. |
| Rev 21:12, 14“gates and foundations” | Twelve tribes on the gates, twelve apostles on the foundations: Israel and the church both named on one city, neither erased. Distinction kept in the eternal state. | Symbolic of the unified people of God, old and new, now one. | The one people of God, pictured in both its Old and New Testament forms. |
| Which patriarch Paul names | Gentile believers are Abraham's seed by faith (Gal 3:7, 29; Rom 4:11-16), likened to Isaac (Gal 4:28), never Jacob's. Jacob/Israel is used only of the nation (Rom 11:26, Luke 1:33). | Not a distinction the system draws; "Israel" and "Abraham's seed" both describe the church. | The church is Abraham's seed and the true Israel; the two are not separated. |
| Historical note | Israel's future restoration was held by many Puritans and 19th-century evangelicals; the systematic Israel/church distinction was clarified by Darby, Scofield, Chafer, Ryrie.The answer → | The majority view from Augustine through the Reformation; Luther and Calvin saw no future for national Israel. | A late-20th-century mediating position (Gentry, Wellum, 2012). |
Why this Bible reads it this way
The site reads the two as distinct because Paul attaches the church to Abraham and never to Jacob, keeps a sequence and a future for national Israel in Romans 11, and because the New Jerusalem carries both sets of names on one wall. The adopted do not replace the born. The other two columns are stated as their defenders would state them, and the Gal 6:16 *kai* is the one place the difference comes down to a single word.