TruthVid's 100 Proofs that the Israelites were White, Part 63: 83, The Adoption of Israel; 84, The Ministry of Reconciliation

TruthVid's 100 Proofs that the Israelites were White, Part 63

In our last few presentations here we have been discussing themes found in the ministry and epistles of Paul of Tarsus which help to establish that the nations to whom he had brought the gospel were indeed the same nations which had descended from the ancient children of Israel. So we have already discussed the substance of Paul’s Commission from Christ, how Paul himself had applied his commission, the subjects of Biblical redemption and what Paul had meant by the phrase strangers from the covenants. Now we shall continue with the subject of adoption, as that word, as it appears in English Bibles, is only found in Paul’s epistles, and it has a very specific application.

83) The Adoption of Israel

Just as the denominational churches try to extend the redemption which Yahweh had explictly promised to the children of Israel to other races and nations, they do that same thing with this concept of adoption. However the word only appears in Paul’s epistles, three times in Romans, and once each in Galatians and Ephesians, and Paul himself states explicitly that the adoption is for Israel, in relation to Israelites who are his own kinsmen “according to the flesh”. There is not a single statement in Scripture which suggests that the adoption of which Paul had spoken could possibly be attained by anyone who is not of his flesh, who could somehow imagine that he may magically become an Israelite.

So by the order of Paul’s epistles in the popular Bible versions, the first and second mentions of the word are found in Romans chapter 8. First Paul wrote, as the King James Version has it: “15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” Then a little further on in the chapter, Paul spoke in reference to the creature, or “whole creation”, and said “21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. 23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.” Here Paul explains what adoption is, and if redemption is only for the children of Israel, then clearly, adoption is only for the same children of Israel, as he explains there in Romans chapter 8.

Responding to both Paul’s statement and that translation, first where the King James Version has creature in Romans chapter 8 in verses 19 through 21, and then a little later creation in verse 22, in every case the Greek word is same word κτίσις. Then at the end of the chapter Paul contrasted that same word, creature or κτίσις, to other things which God had created, so we see that by its use he could only have meant to refer to a single aspect, a type or kind within the wider creation, and not every single thing which God had created. This is clear where he used the words “any other creature” in relation to angels, principalitites, powers, things present and things to come. Secondly, the creature being spoken of in Romans chapter 8 in verses 19 through 22 is the same people whom Paul intended where he used the phrase “spirit of adoption” earlier in verse 15, and the same people whom Paul had described as predestinated, called, justified and glorified in verses 29 and 30 of the chapter. The subjects of his discourse had not changed from one passage to another. Then just a few verses later, in Romans 9:4, Paul makes the explicit insistence that the adoption of which he spoke is for Israel, which he had defined as his “kinsmen according to the flesh”.

Yahweh had spoken of the redemption of Israel in captivity in Isaiah chapter 43: “1 But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.” So within the context of redemption we see that the children of Israel are the creation to which it applies. Therefore it is not relevant to anyone else.

Before further discussing that, however, we shall discuss this word adoption. The Greek word is υἱοθεσία and by itself it does not ever truly mean adoption in Greek writings, as we use the term adoption in English. The word simply means a placement or a position of a son. There were other words in Greek literature which were consistently used to describe the actual act of adoption, namely εἰσποίησις (a noun, a making into), εἰσποίέω (a verb), and εἰσποιητός (an adjective). While a son can be placed for adoption, where υἱοθεσία was used to describe the act of the placing, it does not describe the actual adoption, which is εἰσποίησις, to make someone who was placed for adoption into a son by carrying through with the act of adoption.

In other words, in ancient Greek the word υἱοθεσία as we use the term adoption only refers to the act of the natural father giving up a son, while εἰσποίησις describes the act of the adopting father who takes a child as a son, making him into his son. That is the meaning of εἰσποίησις, to make a person or thing into something which it otherwise is not. But in Scripture, we never see the term εἰσποίησις, and that is because the position of sons belongs only to those who had been put off for their sin, and lost their position. In Scripture, this is the parable of the prodigal son, as the children of Israel had squandered their inheritance and were cast off, but they are accepted back and restored to the υἱοθεσία, to the position of sons in Christ. 

The lost sheep of the house of Israel for whom Christ had come were already sons, and daughters, and that is found throughout the promises of reconciliation to those same sons and daughters in the words of the prophets. In that manner, the same word υἱοθεσία can also be used to describe other things, such as the placing of a son into a position within the household or as an heir. Since there is no other indication in the text that the act of adoption as we use the term in English is ever the context for the use of the word υἱοθεσία, in Romans chapter 8 the word υἱοθεσία should be rendered in verse 15 as the “spirit of the position of sons (or of a son)”. In verse 23, the phrase “waiting for the adoption” would be better translated as “awaiting the placement of sons”.

So then there is Romans 9:4, where the phrase ὧν ἡ υἱοθεσία should be “whose is the position of sons”. It is dishonest to translate υἱοθεσία as adoption, because the word has a much more general meaning, and the translators can only have presumed that the word was used by Paul to mean adoption, yet the overall context of Paul’s letters and of the New Testament refute that presumption. That is evident in Romans chapter 9 where Paul uses the same word a third time, where we cannot assume that he meant it in a different way, and where he and informs his readers that the adoption and other things which pertained to Israel are only for the children of Israel who are Paul’s kinsmen according to the flesh.

This is clearly the meaning where he wrote, as it is in the King James Version: “3 For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: 4 Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; 5 Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.” If the adoption is for Isrealites in Romans chapter 9, then it was also for Israelites in Romans chapter 8, but Paul knew, as he explained earlier in Romans, that it was for all Israelites, both those of Judaea and those of the nations which descended from Israel in ancient times.

Later in that same chapter, Romans chapter 9, Paul insisted that “the children of the promise are counted for the seed.” But having said that, he described the promise made to Sarah, and then the promise made to Rebecca concerning their children. So believers are not the “seed” of the promise, but only the descendants of those women, ultimately though Jacob Israel as Esau had forfeited his birthright, and then Jacob received the promises. The promises must be fulfilled according to the terms as they were understood by the recipients, and the churches cannot justly change the meanings of the terms. It is for that same reason that Paul was comparing the two in that same chapter, it is for that reason that Paul was only praying for his “kinsmen according to the flesh”, because many Judaeans of that time were Edomites and not true Israelites.

So we read in Isaiah chapter 43 a promise to the sons and daughters, to the children of Israel who were scattered abroad in the captivities: “3 For I am the LORD thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee. 4 Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life. 5 Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west; 6 I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth; 7 Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him. 8 Bring forth the blind people that have eyes, and the deaf that have ears.” There, as we have said many times, we see that Yahweh promises to keep His Word to Israel at the expense of other nations, even oter Adamic nations, and not to their benefit. This sets the context for the New Testament.

In Joel chapter 2 we see a promise to the same sons and daughters of the children of Israel, which the apostle Peter had related to the first Christian Pentecost, in Acts chapter 2: “ 27 And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed. 28 And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: 29 And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.” These words were spoken to “My people” and addressing them these promises were for their sons and their daughters. They are also the servants and handmaids, as we read in Isaiah chapters 41 through 44 repeated references to Jacob Israel as Yahweh’s servant, speaking collectively of the people. Therefore “all flesh” is a reference to all of the flesh of Israel, as it is Israel being addressed and the message is only for Israel in relation to Israel.

In Isaiah chapter 45 Yahweh refers to the disobedience of Israel where He said “9 Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands?” Then as the chapter progresses, in a further prophecy of Cyrus, King of Persia, who was mentioned at the end of chapter 44 and who was not yet even born when Isaiah wrote, we see a promise that the captivity would be released and the Word of Yahweh says: “11 Thus saith the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me. 12 I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded.” The New Testament fulfills one element of what Yahweh had promised to do with His sons and daughters, and it was promised for them alone. The redemption could not have happened as Yahweh had planned it unless the temple was rebuilt, and therefore, after prophesying what would be accomplished through Cyrus, we read: “17 But Israel shall be saved in the LORD with an everlasting salvation: ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end” and at the end of the chapter: “25 In the LORD shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory.” These promises are not done away with or transferred to some other people in the New Testament, but rather, it states the purpose of Christ which was to fulfill these promises.

In Galatians chapter 4 we see another occurrence of the word adoption in Paul’s epistles, and there also it is apparent that the adoption is only for the children of Israel. First, in Galatians 3, Paul told his readers that “24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.” So where in the very next verse he said “26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus”, he could only have been speaking of those same people who had been under the law, and the law was only ever given to the children of Israel. So in Galatians chapter 4, where the subject has not changed, he wrote that Christ came under the law: “5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.” Therefore, the adoption is only for those who had once been under the law.

So finally, in Ephesians chapter 1, we read one more occasion where Paul used the term adoption, and he wrote “4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: 5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will…” So the people to whom Paul was speaking must have been chosen “before the foundation of the world”, or society, and that can only describe the call of Abraham and the passing down of the blessings to Jacob-Israel, and they are once again the predestinated, so their calling must have been described in the law and the prophets. Nobody else was ever predestinated, and therefore the adoption is only for the ancient children of Israel and their descendants.

In our last presentation, in relation to the subjects of redemption, we had cited the words of Peter from chapter 2 of his first epistle, who wrote describing the Christians of Anatolia as a “holy nation” and a “peculiar people”, telling them that “9 … ye are a chosen generation [race], a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: 10 Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.”

The passage in that last verse is a direct reference to Hosea chapter 1, where we read an announcement relating to the children of Israel which says “ 9 … for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God.” However immediately after that, there is a promise of reconciliation and adoption, and it says: “10 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.” This promise was made only to those who were already sons, and there is no place in the words of the prophets where those who are not already sons could somehow become sons. Nobody else was ever predestinated, according to the words of the law and the prophets.

This leads us to discuss another aspect of Paul’s ministry, as he himself had called it the ministry of reconciliation.

84) The Ministry of Reconciliation

Sin offerings in ancient Israel were to make reconciliation on behalf of the people, for example, as we read in 2 Chronicles chapter 29: “22 So they killed the bullocks, and the priests received the blood, and sprinkled it on the altar: likewise, when they had killed the rams, they sprinkled the blood upon the altar: they killed also the lambs, and they sprinkled the blood upon the altar. 23 And they brought forth the he goats for the sin offering before the king and the congregation; and they laid their hands upon them: 24 And the priests killed them, and they made reconciliation with their blood upon the altar, to make an atonement for all Israel: for the king commanded that the burnt offering and the sin offering should be made for all Israel.”

So in Hebrews chapter 2, Paul of Tarsus described the sacrifice of Yahshua Christ in this same manner where he wrote, speaking of Christ: “16 For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham. 17 Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. 18 For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.” So where Paul wrote, for example, in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 that “3 … I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures”, we know what Scriptures it was that Christ had died according to, which are the scriptures explaining the sacrifices to make reconciliation on behalf of the people of Israel. There were never any sacrifices made on behalf of non-Israelites, as non-Israelites were never under the law, and therefore non-Israelites cannot be the subjects of any reconciliation.

This might be confounded where, in Romans chapter 5, Paul said: “10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” But the word enemies can describe one’s own people who are alienated, and does not necessarily describe non-Israelites. So we read in Micah chapter 7, a passage which evokes the words of Christ in the New Testament: “6 For the son dishonoureth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter in law against her mother in law; a man's enemies are the men of his own house.”

The fact that the enemies of which Paul spoke in that passage were Israelites is also clear where the context is set in the verses immediately prior, where Paul wrote “8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.” Then as he described later in that same chapter, just a few verses later, sin is not imputed where there is no law, so Christ died only for those who had been under the law, which are the children of Israel. But the vast majority of the Israelites of his own time were no longer keeping the law, as they were taken into captivity for having become pagans. That is why Paul explained in Romans chapter 4 that the promises were not to those of the law only, but also to those of the faith of Abraham, which describes what Abraham had believed, that the promise was certain to all of his seed, as it was written. So Paul’s statement, and the scope and purpose of the New Testament, is not directed at enemies who could somehow become Israelites, but at Israelties who through their disobedience to God had become enemies, and it is they who are offered reconciliation in Christ.

Another place where the reconciliation in Christ may be confounded is in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, where Paul described his ministry of reconciliation and wrote, according to the King James Version: “17 Therefore if any man be in Christ [note that first, a man must be ‘in Christ’], he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world [or society] unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them [so they must have been under the law, as they had tresspasses]; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. 20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. 21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”

The “new creature” of which Paul speaks is the man who follows the Spirit, as opposed to the man who follows the flesh. Paul explained the same concept at greater length in Romans chapters 6 and 7, and also more concisely in Galatians chapters 3 and 5 where he wrote: “16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. 18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.”

But as a necessary digression, this does not absolve a man from having to keep the commandments, as Paul further wrote in the next few verses: “19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”

So what Paul is describing as a “new creature” is the man who depends upon Yahshua Christ as his souce of righteousness, and not on the rituals of the law, which had formerly absolved the man of his sin. The rituals also being fleshly, they too are done away with in Christ, and the Spiritual man is not under any law because keeping the commandments and not committing such sins, he remains blameless and even if he sins, as the apostle John explained in chapter 2 of his first epistle, he has a propitiation in Christ.

That is the reconciling factor between God and the scattered, divorced children of Israel: the sacrifice which Christ had made to free them from the judgments of the law. But since Christ insisted they keep the commandments, they nevertheless have that obligation. That is how Christ had reconciled the world, or society, to Himself, as the society was already inherited by the seed of Abraham according to the promises. They are the world which He reconciled, as it says in chapter 18 of the Wisdom of Solomon: “24 For in the long garment was the whole world, and in the four rows of the stones was the glory of the fathers graven, and thy Majesty upon the diadem of his head.” This is verified in Isaiah chapter 27, where in spite of their sins and captivity the plan of Yahweh for Israel is revealed: “6 He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.”

The word translated as reconcile in the King James Version of Paul’s epistles is καταλλάσσω, except on two occasions in Colossians chapter 1 where it is ἀποκαταλλάσσω. Here in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 we see the noun form of the same word, καταλλαγή, is reconciliation. According to Liddell & Scott, καταλλάσσω is primarily “to exchange one thing for another” and then “to change a person from enmity to friendship, reconcile” or in the Passive Voice “to become reconciled”, citing Herodotus, the Tragic Poets Sophocles and Euripides, and the New Testament. The noun καταλλαγή is assigned the exact same meanings, citing the Tragic Poet Aeschylus, the 4th century BC orations of Demosthenes and the New Testament. The word ἀποκαταλλάσσω is given a stronger meaning, to reconcile again, where only the New Testament is cited, but the definition is in keeping with similar verbs written with the same prefix. For example δίδωμι is to give but ἀποδίδωμι is to give back or restore.

Thus we see words associated with reconciliation in both Romans and 2 Corinthians appear once again where Paul wrote in Colossians chapter 1: “21 And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled 22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight.” There is surrounding language in that chapter concerning “all things” and “every creature” which may cause confusion, but we would assert that “all things is a reference to all of the things between God and Israel, and the phrase “every creature” is the same exact Greek phrase translated as “whole creation” in Romans chapter 8, where it speaks of a peculiar kind or class of creation, as opposed to other things which God had created. The phrase refers not to all of every type, but to all of one type or kind.

But the key words in this verse, verse 21, are alienated and reconciled. The word translated as alienated is the verb ἀπαλλοτριόω which means to estrange, alienate, or in the Passive, to be alienated from someone or something. So to be alienated or estranged from God, one must have had a relationship with God in the first place, and according to the Scriptures only the children of Israel ever had such a relationship. So the word reconciled is from the verb ἀποκαταλλάσσω, to reconcile again, and here Paul used even stronger language indicating that these people had a pre-existing relationship than he had in his epistles to the Romans or in Corinthians, although in other ways in those epistles he also indicated such a pre-existing relationship, and in more ways than one.

The prophets inform us that the children of Israel would indeed be reconciled, in spite of their having been put off in punishment. Writing after most of the children of Israel and Judah were already taken into captivity, we read in Isaiah chapter 41: “8 But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend. 9 Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called thee from the chief men thereof, and said unto thee, Thou art my servant; I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away. 10 Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. 11 Behold, all they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded: they shall be as nothing; and they that strive with thee shall perish.”

Over a hundred years later, writing as the Babylonians were on the verge of destroying Jerusalem and bringing the remainder of Judah into captivity, we read in Jeremiah chapter 33: “23 Moreover the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying, 24 Considerest thou not what this people have spoken, saying, The two families which the LORD hath chosen, he hath even cast them off? thus they have despised my people, that they should be no more a nation before them. 25 Thus saith the LORD; If my covenant be not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth; 26 Then will I cast away the seed of Jacob, and David my servant, so that I will not take any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will cause their captivity to return, and have mercy on them.”

That also describes the reconciliation found in Christ, and as long as there are day and night, Yahweh God shall never cast away the seed of Israel, yet only the small percentage of Israelites who returned with Zerubabbel 70 years after Jeremiah had written those words were ever called Judaeans, but they were never called Jews. Then in Jeremiah chapter 3 we know that the children of Israel were in a place where there were not any Jews, as he was told to: “12 Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the LORD; and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the LORD, and I will not keep anger for ever.” Perhaps about six hundred and fifty years later, the apostles brought the gospel to the nations of the north, in Anatolia and in Europe.

These are the family of the faith, and that will be our next subject when we return to these themes from the letters of Paul of Tarsus.