Who Is a Jew and Who Is a Gentile?

Now, Religion in the News, a report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media. This week’s item is from SCP Journal, vol. 27, page 2-3, December 9, 2003, with the headline, “Most Jews Are Really Gentiles. Excerpts from The Two Jerusalems: A Biblical Look at the Modern State of Israel, Judaism, and the Church, by Alan Morrison. In 70 AD, the Emperor of Khazaria, in the steppes of Russia, declared his subjects ‘Jewish’ after his own conversion to Judaism.

“Genuine rabbis were summoned from Babylonia to teach pharisaic Judaism in the Khazar kingdom that flourished from the sixth to the tenth centuries. If one wonders about the ghettos of Warsaw, Budapest, Prague, and throughout Eastern Europe, being so far from Palestine, it is because their Jewish inhabitants never came from Palestine but were descendants from the mass conversion of the Khazar Empire.

“What does this imply? That most of the Jews returning to Palestine never came from Palestine in the first place, that they are not even of the lineage of Shem. They are Gentile converts. This throws a massive curve ball from an eschatological and theological standpoint at the prospect of Jews returning to the modern state of Israel under divine sanction.

“In reality, upwards of 85 percent of today’s Jews are descended from the Khazars.”

Tom: Dave, this is a curve ball, right here. But not in the sense that they’re saying it. This article, which, as we mentioned, comes from SCP Journal—Spiritual Counterfeits Project—and these guys are apologists, and they have a solid history of being conservative and biblical, and so on. But they’ve missed it big time here, I believe.

Dave: Well, they’re supposed to be pointing out spiritual counterfeits that are “out there.” In fact, they are giving us a counterfeit. There is so much wrong with this. Now you’re going to have to wipe out or somehow spiritualize away—not only Old Testament promises, but New Testament promises. Jesus said to his disciples, “You will sit on twelve thrones, ruling over the twelve tribes of Israel.” Now what are we going to do with that, if they’re just Khazars? In fact, they’re not Khazars. The Khazar kingdom was conquered. The Khazars pretty much disappeared. And there were not that many Jews living in Khazar land at that time anyway.

Tom: Yeah, compared to the rest of the world, whether it be Babylon, the Arab countries, whether it be Spain…

Dave: Right. It just doesn’t fit, Tom. It doesn’t work out. Furthermore, it pulls the rug out from under literally hundreds of promises that God made to Israel. You go to Jeremiah 31: 35: God said, “If the nation Israel ceases to exist, there’s no sun in the sky, there’s no stars up there.” The whole thing is finished. Two hundred and three times God is called “the God of Israel.” And now, we’ve said Israel doesn’t exist anymore? They’re Khazars? Was that just for a time back then?

He is called—12 times He calls Himself “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob,” and He says, “This is my name and this is my memorial to all generations,” okay? And now, they’ve wiped them out. God’s integrity is tied to the survival and the ultimate restoration and blessing of Israel. There are hundreds of promises in the Old Testament to this effect.

Tom: Dave, as I’ve read Replacement Theologists, and I’m not saying these guys are antichrists, or anything like that, or even anti-Semitic, although unwittingly they may be contributing to things like that. But for the most part, what they’re saying is that God could never give this land to those who weren’t His—those who were not of the faith of Abraham—regardless of their bloodline, and so on.

Dave: Tom, it is so clear in Scripture. The Angel Gabriel said to Mary, when he said, “You will give birth to the Messiah. He will sit on the throne of his father David. He will rule over his people for ever and ever.” The very promise of a Messiah in Isaiah:9:6-7 [6] For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. [7] Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.
See All..., “Of his kingdom and peace, there will be no end.” The Messiah that we were talking about earlier, promised to Israel.

God says in Genesis 12 to Abraham, “In you and in your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” His seed is Christ—the Messiah’s coming.

Now, a Jew has to believe in the Messiah as well as the Gentile. But Paul tells us in Romans 9, he talks about “my brethren after the flesh.” They are Jews, they’re not Gentiles. These are of the seed of Abraham after the flesh. Paul says, “I could wish myself accursed! I would go to hell for them forever if it could save them.” These people are still living. And he talks of the restoration of the Jews as a nation.

Now, we have the Messiah returning in the midst of Armageddon. Armageddon is a battle against the Jews. Ezekiel 38-39, the Old Testament tells us this. Furthermore, the New Testament tells us that God intervenes—Christ intervenes—and rescues Israel in the midst of Armageddon. Are they there in unbelief? Yes. Zechariah 12: When they see him… “when they look on me whom they have pierced…” that is when the Jews who are occupying this land will believe.

Furthermore, two-thirds of them will be killed. I mean, it’s all about Israel, Jerusalem, and Israel. Zechariah:12:13-14 [13] The family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart; [14] All the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart.
See All..., and the Messiah returning to rule on the throne of His father David.

Tom, they are trying to make out that all these promises are finished now. That the church is the new Israel, and that simply will not fly in the face of many Scriptures to the contrary.

Tom: Dave, we only have a minute left. One comment—or, comment upon this: They say that the New Covenant abrogates or abolishes the Old, and by falling back on the Jews and what’s going on in Israel, and applying that to…you know, from a biblical standpoint, that we have then—we have not been honest and true to the New Covenant.

Dave: Well, that’s Jeremiah:31:31Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
See All...: And notice what it says: “Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.” So this New Covenant is with Israel—not just with the church. And God explains it in detail in Ezekiel: “I’m going to write my law in their hearts and I’m going to restore them, and they will love me, and they will know me.” But it also talks about bringing them back into the land in the very same context. So all Israel will be saved. They will all come to faith in Christ. Those who do so before Christ appears physically are in the church. Those who do not do so until Christ intervenes in the midst of Armageddon will be in the earthly kingdom, over which Christ will rule and reign, and the Christians—Jews and Gentiles—will rule and reign in their resurrected, glorified bodies.