You mean I am gonna agree with you?? oh maannnn.........:o)
The concept of the Church as the "New Israel" which inherits "Old Israel's" position with God is a spiritual concept. That's what Paul is talking about - the church as a spiritual Israel. I doubt you would disagree with this - note the reference in the passage you quoted to circumcision of "the heart, in the spirit". Correct me if I'm wrong.
Yes, that is what I see. John 4:21-26
Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us." Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he."
I am struck by the fact that Jesus would tell a Samaritan woman that she would worship the Father.
I don't think Paul's teaching which you quoted in Galations "There is neither Jew nor Greek..." means that Christians are required to deny the continued legitimate existence in the flesh of Jews as Jews anymore than they have to deny the same about Greeks or male or female.
agreed.
To sum up, it is not necessary for Christians to deny, denigrate, oppose, or in any way have a problem with the continued physical existence in the world of "Old Israel" and/or "Old Israel's" physical descendents in order to assert their own status as spiritual descendents of Abraham.
Agreed.
dan
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