Is Israel Still God’s Chosen People?

Are the Jews still God's chosen people? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Hi, this is Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. You can also post your question on one of our social media accounts.

You can watch us right now on YouTube and send us a message that way. And you can always email us your question at questions at corechristianity.com. First up today, let's go to Sally, who is in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Sally, what's your question for Pastor Adriel?

Well, Sally, thank you for that question. I mean, I guess the simple response would be, do these individuals believe the gospel? I mean, I guess we also have to define what we mean by politically correct or liberal or progressive. You know, sometimes in the church, we throw those words around. There is such a thing as liberal theology, if you will. And historically, that kind of theology has rejected the gospel.

It was born out of this sort of 20th century Protestant liberalism and a rejection of the miraculous, a rejection of the resurrection of Jesus, sort of a way of trying to make Christianity accessible and acceptable to the modern man. Well, that kind of Christianity with that kind of a gospel is not saving because if you reject the death, the vicarious atonement of Jesus Christ, we reject his resurrection from the dead, we have no hope. And that's what the Apostle Paul says in First Corinthians chapter 15. But if you're talking about Christians who maybe think about political issues a little bit differently than maybe you do or an individual might, I think we have to be really careful that we don't say, well, you're probably not going to make it to heaven because of the way you voted there, that kind of a thing.

The question is, do you know Jesus Christ and have you received him by faith? Now, of course, again, when you mentioned these sort of politically correct churches, are we talking about churches that just are afraid to preach the gospel? They're not preaching the truth of God's word.

Maybe they're getting too much into politics, in fact, and sort of shying away from calling sin, sin, that kind of a thing. Even there, we have to look at an individual and whether or not they genuinely believe in Jesus Christ. When you first began giving your question, Sally, I was thinking about a discussion we had yesterday on the broadcast, somebody asked us about the rich young ruler, where Jesus says how difficult it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. He was clinging to his riches, and the disciples are thinking, well, who then can be saved? Jesus' response is, with God, all things are possible.

With man, it's impossible, but with God, all things are possible. I think that's how we have to think about salvation for everybody. All of us, apart from the grace of God and the work of the Holy Spirit, regardless of our political affiliation, regardless of anything else like that, we wouldn't be saved apart from the work of the Lord. Again, I would be really cautious, as a minister of the gospel, painting with a broad brush and saying, oh, because you think differently than I do on political issues, you're probably going to have a hard time getting into heaven.

I think that's not a very helpful approach. Thank you for your question. Hope the Lord blesses your day. Thanks for calling us.

Thanks so much, Sally. We appreciate you being a regular listener of CORE Christianity. If you have a question for Pastor Adriel, now is the time to call. Our phone lines will be open for the next 20 minutes or so, and we'd love to get your questions on the Bible or the Christian life, life within the church, whatever you want to ask. Here's the number 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673. By the way, you can also leave a voicemail at that number 24 hours a day. And we go through those voicemails each day and choose some of them for the broadcast.

Here's one that we received from one of our listeners named James. I'm curious on your view or what you know about the Seventh Day Adventist Church and its belief. Do you believe that they are the church that they claim to be? Do you believe that they are a church, a body of believers, and a simile of believers? Or do you believe that the Seventh Day Adventist Church is actually a cult?

I need answers to these questions. Thank you, sir, and God bless you. Thanks for that question. I guess we should just really get to the heart of the matter and ask what is a church and what makes a church a church? Because there are all sorts of churches out there and institutions that claim that title, the Church of Jesus Christ, Latter-day Saints, that kind of a thing. But does that make you a church just because you say we're a church?

No, the answer is no. The church is everywhere where the Word of God is faithfully taught. That is, the gospel is being clearly proclaimed where the ordinances and the worship that Jesus left for the church is being observed as Jesus commanded. I'm thinking of things like baptism and the Lord's Supper.

Are those things taking place? This is what constitutes the visible covenant community, if you will, the visible church, the family of God here on earth. Is there discipline, that kind of structure that you see in the New Testament, encouragement, even church discipline as Jesus describes in the Gospel of Matthew? If you don't have those things, namely, if you don't have the pure preaching of God's Word, then you're not a church. You might be a social club. People might get dressed up in fancy robes and toss incense around and do all sorts of spiritual-looking things. But if the gospel is not there and if the gospel is not being proclaimed, it's a dead church.

That's just the reality. When it comes to something like the Seventh-day Adventist church, let me just say this. Even though I think we can distinguish between true churches and false churches, you also have, among true churches, a spectrum. That is, there are some churches that do preach the gospel but maybe don't order worship in a biblical way.

Maybe they're confused on some other issues, peripheral issues. They have some work to do, but the gospel is still there and Jesus is still working. I know that among Seventh-day Adventists, there's a spectrum of belief. There was this idea that they were the remnant, sometimes pointing to places like Revelation 7 where it talks about the 144,000. They also have some interesting views that I would reject that I think aren't scriptural related to Jesus, his identity related to the law of God and how it applies today.

I think that these are serious issues. If I was choosing a church in a city, I probably personally would not choose the Seventh-day Adventist church, but that's not to say that people who are Seventh-day Adventists can't be truly Christians, believers. There are other issues, as I said, related to the law of God, related to the identity of Jesus Christ that are really important for us to understand and to have a biblical perspective on. The marks of the church, how you can identify the true church is those things that I mentioned, the pure preaching of the gospel, the right administration of the sacraments or ordinances that Jesus gave to the church, and church discipline. If you have those things happening, even imperfectly, you have a church. Thanks for your question. By the way, we have a great core question available called, How Do I Choose a Church?

It really outlines some of the things that Adriel just mentioned. When you're looking for a church that is indeed biblical, that is indeed doing those things that we talked about there, this little core question would be really helpful to you. You can find it by going to corechristianity.com forward slash questions. Just look for, How Do I Choose a Church?

Well, let's go to a voicemail we received from one of our callers earlier this week. No, he does not take them to heaven if they don't have faith in Jesus Christ. There is one way to God. Jesus said in John 14 verse 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me. Whatever your ethnicity is, whatever your background is, however you were raised, that kind of a thing, that's not what gets you into heaven. You don't have a special status before God simply because you were born a Jew per se. I think that's really important because there are some people who seem to suggest that you have the Gentiles who are saved by faith and the Jews who are just God's chosen people regardless of whether or not they reject Christ.

I know that's kind of extreme, but I've heard people sort of suggest this. Paul gets into this discussion in the book of Romans chapters 9 through 11. One of the things he focuses on there in Romans 9 through 11 is this great tragedy that the Messiah had come and yet his own people rejected him.

He's reflecting on what can we say about the promises of God? Have God promises failed because it seems like his own people, Jesus' own people, rejected him? Paul's argument there in Romans 9 through 11 is he's telling us no, actually God's promises and purposes have not failed.

This is mysteriously the way in which God was bringing about salvation to the whole world, to Jews and Gentiles alike. The Jews rejected Christ and salvation came to the Gentiles. You have, I think, a helpful text in Romans chapter 11 where Paul begins and he says, I ask then, has God rejected his people?

In other words, is he totally done with them because they rejected him? He says, by no means, for I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham. In other words, he says, look, I'm a believer in Jesus. I'm evidence that God has not rejected the Jews, that he's not done with us, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.

Then he goes on to share a number of stories about the remnant. Look, we can only find salvation in and through Jesus, whether you're Jew or Gentile. Don't bank on that.

Don't bank on your nationality, your ethnicity. Bank on Jesus, on what he's done for you, on his crucifixion, his death on the cross, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the dead. If we don't have that, if we don't have faith in Jesus, then we can't properly call ourselves the children of God. Thank you for your question. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adrian Sanchez. If you are a parent or a grandparent, we have a new free resource that we'd like to make available to you today through our website. Yeah, Seven Things Children Teach Us, a neat new resource that we've just produced. As Bill said, it's free for you, and it explores essentially the things that we can learn from our children. I've mentioned this before as we've been offering this, but in the New Testament in particular, you see children so often set forth as examples, examples of faith. Jesus points to them and says, hey, you can learn from them, and we want to say the same thing.

So get a hold of this resource, Seven Things Children Teach Us. It's a PDF download. You can find it by going to corechristianity.com forward slash offers. Again, corechristianity.com forward slash offers and look for Seven Things Children Teach Us.

You can also call us for that resource or any one of our resources at 833-THE-CORE. Let's go to Rudy, who's calling in from Watts, California. Rudy, what's your question for Pastor Adrian?

Hey, Pastor Adrian, thanks for your ministry and for the show. I have a question for you. Many Christians nowadays don't appreciate the historic creeds and confessions. Do you think that they're still important and relevant to us today, and why?

Hey, Rudy. Thanks for that question, brother. Absolutely, I do. This is one of the things we talk about from time to time here at Core Christianity. What is Core Christianity? What are the fundamentals of the faith that determine whether or not someone is actually a Christian or not, what we believe? I think those creeds, creeds like the Nicene Creed, creeds like the Apostles Creed, help to summarize for us Core Christianity so that if an individual were to reject what was articulated in those creeds, essentially what they'd be rejecting is Core Christianity, the fundamentals of the faith. We can't reject those things and still call ourselves Christians. Now, sometimes people have an issue with creeds because they say, well, that's just not in the Bible. Give me the Bible alone, that kind of a thing.

That's all I need. In one sense, I agree. We rest on scripture alone, sola scriptura, as the Reformers said. But we have to understand what we mean when we talk about the teaching of the Bible. Everyone says, I believe in the Bible.

My teaching comes from the Bible. The Jehovah's Witnesses say that. The Mormons say that.

Everyone says that, and so we have to be more specific. What do we mean when we say we believe in the Bible? That's what these creeds help us to do. The fact of the matter is, is from the very earliest days of Christianity, you had this sort of creedal language that was used in the context of the worship of the church, even thinking back to the Old Testament. Deuteronomy 6, verse 4, hero Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. That was a sort of creedal confession that the Hebrews, faithful Hebrews, would confess every single day. It was a part of their piety, a part of their worship, reaffirming before God that right confession, the confession of the truth. Again, you see this in the New Testament. The apostle Paul said in 1 Timothy, chapter 3, verse 16, great indeed we confess is the mystery of godliness. Then he gives a sort of creedal language, this formula. He says, he was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory. This kind of creedal language, these kinds of statements, these authoritative statements were even used in the worship of the New Testament church, I would say.

There's examples of this all over the place. You have that verse I just read right there from 1 Timothy 3, even the passage in Philippians 2 that talks about Jesus emptying himself. Many people think that was an early Christian hymn or creed even. The church has always been very clear about articulating their faith in a way, the faith in a way that was helpful and that explained what we mean when we say we believe God's word, we believe the Bible. It's a huge safeguard.

The last thing I'll say is it's a safeguard for us. It's a safeguard for me as a minister of the gospel because it holds me accountable to what it is that I say I believe as a pastor teaching people I can't just go off the deep end and all of a sudden reject something like the doctrine of the Trinity and say, well, I think the Bible teaches something differently because I've already said, no, I confess that this is what the Bible teaches about the Holy Trinity. This is the scripture's teaching. It also protects the people in the church. It keeps them from wandering off into strange and obscure doctrines related to God, related to Jesus, his nature, his atoning work. Man, the creeds are vitally important, I think, for the church today and they really need to be recovered. There's all sorts of studies that are showing that these basics, the fundamentals of the faith, the ABCs have really been lost among many evangelicals. Part of our conviction even here at Core Christianity is to help you and help others recover those core doctrines because we know they're life-giving. Thank you for your question. God bless you, brother.

Great question, Rudy and Adriel. What you said is so true, especially when you're attending a church that maybe doesn't have any denominational connection. It's simply a community church or a startup and doesn't have any background. Boy, those creeds and confessions can really be helpful in keeping a church centered on the true gospel. Yeah, absolutely. I think if you're a church looking to figure out what are we going to do for our new members class, what are we going to teach people, get a copy of the Nicene Creed and just sort of go through that.

Here are the ABCs. Here's what we need to know and teach people about God, who he is, and what he's done for us. It's Core Christianity.

Amen. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Here's the phone number to call. By the way, if you listen to this program at a later time in the day, some radio stations air our show on a tape-delayed basis. If you're hearing it at a different time, here's the time we're on live where you can actually call in the studio. It's 1130 a.m. Pacific, which translates into 1230 Mountain, 130 Central, or 230 Eastern time. That's the time you can actually call in. If you're listening at a time outside of that window, you can always leave us a voicemail and we review our voicemails each day, and we'd love to hear from you. Again, it's 833-THE-CORE.

Let's go to Gene in Broken Bow, Nebraska. Gene, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Yes, thank you gentlemen for your services.

I love your program. My question is in reference to 1 Corinthians 11 verses 4-14. It makes reference about a woman's head being covered, a man's hair being long as a disgrace, and throughout those verses it just talks about old law or something, I believe, but my question is how does that came to today, and has that changed? This is, I think many would say, one of the most difficult passages of the New Testament where it talks about women wearing head coverings in the context, I would say, of worship. This is specifically related to what's taking place in the worship service. One of the things that I think helps us to recognize that is in verse 10, Paul says, that is why a wife ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, so this is what the head covering was, because of the angels. Because of the angels?

What are you talking about? Well, in the context of corporate worship, there was this sense that even the angels were present with us, or we are present with the angels. The author of the Hebrews, in Hebrews chapter 12, he paints a picture of worship, the gathering of the New Testament assembly, and he says we're coming before a myriad of saints and angels. So it's this gathering of God's kingdom, if you will, here on earth, and Paul here in particular is talking about doing things decently and in order, which he's going to further describe in 1 Corinthians chapter 14. I think this was something for that time, it was this symbol of authority, it was a way of being respectful, being modest in that context. One thing that a lot of people don't know, but this is just sort of a historical point, was there was conflict in Corinth, because Corinth was a Roman colony. And you had this sort of cultural clash between this sort of Roman culture, if you will, and the Corinthian culture, and some of them would wear head coverings, others would not, and it was this sort of sign of modesty or immodesty. And I think Paul is trying to deal with that issue there in the context of corporate worship so that there wouldn't be a stumbling block set before others, and so that's my take on 1 Corinthians chapter 11. It's the context of corporate worship, but I think it was specific for that time in that culture, that place. Thank you for your question.

Interesting. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, always important to understand the context of the scriptures that we read, both historical and of course what type of biblical literature it is as well. Let's go to Natalie, who's in Newton, Connecticut. Natalie, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Hi, Pastor Adriel, thank you for the ministry. Can you hear me?

Hey, Natalie, I can hear you now. Okay, there you go. Yes, I just wanted to emphasize that your show has been great and truly blessing. And I really, I'm really thankful for it. So the question is, I have been presented many times the question that it is odd that why would God place a tree that tempted Adam and Eve before they sinned? And so I was hoping I can get your feedback on that. Really good question, and you're certainly not the only one to have asked that question.

First, let me say this. James tells us very clearly that God does not tempt anyone. God is not tempted by sin himself, neither does he tempt anyone, but James says each one is tempted when they're drawn away by their own desires. And so the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden isn't like this banana peel that God is putting before Adam and Eve to get them to slip and fall. No, it was this tree of judgment, we might say. It was where Adam and Eve were to render right judgment. This is, I think, why you have the language of knowledge of good and evil. That's often associated with the kings, the monarchs, if you will, under the old covenant in Israel.

This idea of judging. You think of Solomon, for example, and Adam's job there was to render right judgment when he was confronted by the serpent. It was this test, if you will, this probationary period, but it wasn't God tempting them. It wasn't God trying to get them to fall. God gave them free will, a free choice, and God had commanded them not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, to really make the opposite choice, and yet they sinned, they fell, left to the freedom of their own wills, and that was not God's fault. Just like it isn't God's fault when we sin today, we're responsible for our own actions. What God does is he comes in with grace, the promise of redemption, the promise of forgiveness, and what I love is after the fall, what happens? They're naked, but God comes and he clothes them, and that's exactly what God does for us and his son Jesus. He clothes us by faith with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Join us next time as we explore the truth of God's Word together.