Who Belongs to Abraham’s Seed?

“And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called.”
(Gen. 21:12)

It is interesting and very important to note that here God chooses Isaac only, and elected him only, of the eight sons of Abraham, to represent the chosen bloodline from which in due time would flow all of Israel’s blood, a people that the Lord God would set aside to be a peculiar, servant people unto Himself. “For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.” (Deut. 7:6). And in Amos 3:2 God says, “You only have I known of all the families of the earth.” There are many more verses that I could quote to sustain this fact that God has set Israel apart for reasons only known to Himself but is all tied to the promises that God made to Father Abraham. Israel only was chosen by God, He sanctified them and ordained them to be His servant people on this earth, to be God’s witnesses to the world at large, God anointed them to this task when He formed them into a single nation, instead of twelve individual tribes, at Mt. Sinai.

With all this said, let us now take a look at Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians, chapter three and primarily the last few verses.  “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (Gal. 26-29) These verses have been the source of a lot of confusion and misconception in the church world for many a year. I was listening to a well-known Evangelist just recently and he expounded on the fact that regardless of race or origin all believers in Jesus Christ are spiritual Israelites, and thus regarded as the seed of Abraham. Now I personally have a hard time getting my head around the concept of spiritual Israelites. It makes no sense and has no Biblical ground. God chose a physical people of flesh and blood to be a peculiar people unto Himself, and even though sinful, God never said that He would replace them. As a matter of fact it states in His Word that they (Israel) would be a people unto Him forever, 2Sam. 7:24 plainly states, “For thou hast confirmed to thyself thy people, Israel, to be a people unto thee forever”. This fact is also confirmed in Jer. 31:35,36, where the prophet states that as long as the sun, the moon and the stars stay in their orbits, so long shall the people of Israel be a nation before the Lord forever, thus Israel will always be a physical entity and can never be spiritualized or spiritually added to.

Let us at this point return again to the verses in Gal. 3 quoted previously. When we look at these four verses we will find the word Christ used five times, twice in connection with Jesus, and three times by itself, and these are the ones we must focus on, for I believe that the misconception lies in how they are used. For many, many years ministers and pastors in the mainstream churches, and to some extent even Christian-Identity preachers, have used the word, Christ, as a second or surname for our Savior Jesus. Jesus is the name mandated by God, through the Angel Gabriel as stated in Matt. 1:21, Jesus, not Christ. Christ is not a name, Christ is an indication of what Jesus is, namely, set apart, anointed of God, very special. In the New Testament the word Christ is used 558 times, and according to Strong’s Concordance it is the Greek word Cristos, Strong 5547 meaning “anointed”. So, you can see the word Christ is not a name, but an indication of a person, or as in Gal. 3:29, a people, the seed of Abraham. At this point, using the Diaglott, which is a word for word translation into English of the original Greek text, and paraphrases the verses in Gal. 3, quoted earlier, 26 For ye are all sons of God by faith in Anointed [Cristos] Jesus. 27 For as many of you as have been baptized into the Anointed [Cristos] have been clothed in Anointing. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Anointed [Cristos] Jesus. 29 And if ye be Anointed [Cristos], then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” So, you can see that when we use the proper word Anointed instead of Christ, there can be no doubt as to who the seed of Abraham is, it is Israel, and cannot and should not be spiritualized. Now I know that there are hundreds of thousands of Christians all across the Globe and I am certain that in God’s Master plan, each and every one will have his or her place in God’s Kingdom, but none of either African or Asian origin, for instance, can ever be called an Israelite. A Christian, yes! Saved, yes! But Abraham’s seed, no! That distinction is only set aside for Abraham’s kin through the genetic line of Isaac. For in Isaac shall thy seed by called. AMEN!